Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 95

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (95)

Together with me

The place he had arranged to meet Song Chae-ah was at a nearby cafe.

As he entered, he spotted her figure.

A secluded window seat.

The short-haired woman was leaning her head against the window while sipping her coffee. Her gaze was fixed on her smartphone.

Lee Si-hyeok quietly approached and sat across from her.

“It’s been a while, Chae-ah.”

When he offered a quiet greeting, Song Chae-ah flinched and trembled her shoulders. Unlike their text conversations, she showed a considerably timid attitude.

“Oh, you came faster than I expected.”

“Traffic wasn’t bad.”

“Ah…”

Probably because all the nearby crowds had moved toward Infomatrix.

Thanks to that, even though they were meeting openly at this cafe, there weren’t many people who recognized them.

“And here’s your coffee, Si-hyeok…”

“Oh. Thank you.”

The coffee was a caramel macchiato, which seemed to reflect Song Chae-ah’s taste. Though Lee Si-hyeok usually only drank americanos, it was better than expected.

After taking a few sips, he broke the silence.

“If it’s alright with you, Chae-ah, I’d like to get straight to the point. Would that be okay?”

“Ah, yes yes! You said you wanted to hear about workshops, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then, um, what should I start with.”

After thinking for a moment, she continued her explanation.

First, Song Chae-ah said that visiting such workshops had been her hobby for quite a long time. When she dreamed of becoming a magical engineer but hit the wall of reality.

Whenever that happened, encountering other people’s finished works in various spaces like galleries and museums somehow gave her a feeling of stress relief.

“That part is similar to me.”

“Really? Wow, amazing.”

Of course, he had never been to places like galleries as she had. Most such places had outrageous entrance fees and strict admission standards.

When he was working as a transport driver, he couldn’t even dream of it. He only vaguely knew that such spaces existed through TV.

Instead, being a transport driver had its own advantages.

Namely, being able to indirectly encounter other people’s artifacts in underground warehouses.

Instead of the brilliant display cases of galleries, in dark and silent underground warehouses.

While others might consider it unfortunate, that time was Lee Si-hyeok’s only happiness and advantage.

In that sense, he thought they were alike.

‘When I first met her, I couldn’t even imagine this.’

It seemed like he was learning many new things today.

From hobbies to similarities.

Song Chae-ah kept grinning to herself at the mention of being similar, then came to her senses and continued speaking.

“Anyway! Among the list I texted you earlier, there’s a place I’d especially like to recommend. A place where I was personally very satisfied.”

With those words, she showed him her smartphone.

The screen displayed about 50 workshops listed.

“First, if we narrow it down primarily from these…”

As she touched the screen, X marks appeared one by one, crossing them out.

Byeoljae Workshop, Root Engine, Branch Lab, and 38 others.

Only 9 remained.

She pursed her lips and pondered.

“I should probably eliminate these too. This one also seems like it won’t meet Si-hyeok’s standards, and this one too. Hmm, what about this one.”

Instead of adding anything, Lee Si-hyeok quietly observed.

Her standards were stricter than expected. While she seemed to lack clear criteria, she had surprisingly firm principles. It actually matched quite well with the list of workshops Lee Si-hyeok had narrowed down in the truck.

After a few minutes passed, finally only one workshop remained.

“…Cheongyeon Workshop.”

Earlier, when researching information, it was a place Lee Si-hyeok had also looked at carefully.

Located in a small village below Daegwallyeong Pass in Gangwon Province.

At first, he was going to skip it because there was little information.

But when he found a few reviews from people who had visited, it immediately became naturally imprinted in his mind.

Because the quality was better than expected.

Usually rural workshops inevitably had much lower quality.

But Cheongyeon Workshop was different.

“Among the workshops I’ve visited, it had the most high-performance crafting equipment. The variety was enough to rival Seoul.”

“From the photos, it looked small in scale. Is there some hidden space?”

“Did you see it on the blog that comes up first when you search?”

“Yes.”

“That only showed part of it. I should have photos I took last time… ah, here it is.”

She searched through her gallery and showed him a photo.

A three-story building built among pastures on a vast plateau.

In front of it, Song Chae-ah was making a V sign while smiling shyly.

“Ah… I, I only have this photo.”

“Well, you came out cute. More importantly, it’s definitely much bigger than what I saw on the blog. How many types of crafting equipment are there?”

Lee Si-hyeok had confirmed four types.

A mana reaction test chamber and small core stabilizer.

And a magic clean room and mana circuit arc engraver.

Certainly these alone were quite impressive, but was she saying there were even more?

‘That’s really amazing.’

How was such a thing possible?

If someone operated a workshop with this level of skill, it should definitely be a huge success. Even if the workshop owner didn’t want it, word of mouth would inevitably spread.

As he looked at Song Chae-ah with such questions, her face had somehow turned red.

“…What’s wrong?”

“Oh, no. Suddenly saying cute, no. That’s not it. It’s hot. Why am I, why am I like this.”

Hot? Lee Si-hyeok looked up.

The ceiling air conditioner. Running at full power at 21 degrees.

It couldn’t be hot, could it?

But instead of saying anything more, she grabbed her coffee and frantically gulped it down. Slurp! She drank so fast that the large amount disappeared in an instant.

“Ugh, urgh. My head.”

Then she suddenly grabbed her head and frowned.

“Hey, what are you doing drinking something cold so suddenly like that?”

“S-sorry… hic.”

“Geez.”

Finally, Lee Si-hyeok, who had been watching, went to the counter and ordered a cup of warm tea.

A moment later, he smoothly handed it to the drooping Song Chae-ah.

“Wh-what’s this?”

“Chamomile tea. It’s supposed to be good for headache relief. Well, even though it’s just a brief headache, it’s better than just sitting there.”

“Oh, wow…”

More than anything, he wanted to hear the story quickly, and it would be troublesome if this continued.

Song Chae-ah began swallowing the tea with an even redder face.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

“Ah, ahh, hot hot!”

“Let’s drink it slowly.”

“…”

When he spoke dryly, she quietly averted her gaze.

After a while, having regained her composure, she spoke again.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m acting like this today….”

“It’s fine. But about what we were discussing earlier.”

“Ah, right. Anyway, Cheongyeon Workshop. According to people who’ve been there, the crafting equipment is supposedly even better than what’s at Eterion Magical Engineering Institute. I actually felt that way too.”

“Are you also from Eterion, Miss Chae-ah?”

“Ah…no. That’s not it, but it felt that way to me. But my younger sibling who went with me last time really felt that way. Said it was even better than the Eterion laboratory they used to use.”

“Oh ho.”

Interest sparked in Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes. This would definitely be a great help when constructing the research lab.

Samples and references.

Lee Si-hyeok, who had worked on countless reproductions, knew that the quality of these two things was also important for good results.

However, Song Chae-ah suddenly looked around quickly and added in a quiet voice.

“But you know, Si-hyeok. There’s actually a secret about that workshop, did you know?”

“A secret?”

“Yes. Except for me and my sibling, no one else would know.”

She raised her index finger as if asking him to wait a moment.

Soon she tapped on her smartphone and showed him the search window.

There, the name ‘Hyeon Eul-cheong’ was written.

“Hyeon Eul-cheong….”

He had heard of her before.

In the past, she had become one of the Association’s Selected 11 Researchers along with Pyo Jae-hwan and Yoon Seo-jin, a rising star in the magical engineering field.

She was selected around the same time as Yoon Seo-jin, but he remembered there was quite an age difference between them.

Was she selected at age 11?

She was that young. An age when other children wouldn’t have even graduated elementary school, perhaps closer to early childhood than adolescence.

But at some point, she suddenly disappeared without a trace.

She vanished from the public eye without leaving any trace.

But to mention that name now….

“Don’t tell me, is Hyeon Eul-cheong the owner of Cheongyeon Workshop?”

Song Chae-ah smiled brightly.

“That’s right. Hyeon Eul-cheong. She’s the one running it.”

“Wow.”

It was quite shocking. Lee Si-hyeok had also wondered about her whereabouts for a while after Hyeon Eul-cheong disappeared.

Since Lee Si-hyeok was someone who looked up news about the magical engineering field every day, this tendency was even stronger.

As he stood there with his mouth open for a moment, Song Chae-ah explained.

“I found out by chance too. My sibling and I were touring workshops when we happened to visit, and since we were around the same age, we seemed to get along quite well.”

“So you’re friends.”

“That’s right. Probably no one except us siblings knows that she’s Hyeon Eul-cheong. Ah, now you know too, Si-hyeok.”

“Mm.”

“She must have opened the workshop right after disappearing for a few years. I don’t know why she set it up in that remote place, but she’s definitely been working continuously.”

That would make sense. The quality of the crafting equipment Lee Si-hyeok had seen in photos was at a considerable level. Plus there would be her natural talent.

“How about it, Si-hyeok? Don’t you want to go see it once?”

“Honestly, it is tempting.”

Just having that Hyeon Eul-cheong there was enough to pass.

As he was inwardly deciding on his destination, Song Chae-ah suddenly asked hesitantly.

“Um, Si-hyeok.”

“Yes?”

“How about… going together with me this time?”

“To the workshop?”

“Yes. Since it’s your first time, you’ll need guidance, and it would be boring to go alone, and since I’m close with Eul-cheong it would be convenient to have me there, and, and um….”

She tried hard to continue speaking hesitantly. But as if she couldn’t think of any more reasons to add, she just moved her lips wordlessly.

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been watching this, chuckled.

“Miss Chae-ah.”

“…Y-yes?”

“Do you really want to go together with me?”

“Of course…. Since two is better than one….”

“I see.”

Song Chae-ah glanced at Lee Si-hyeok repeatedly. He wasn’t rejecting her as firmly as she expected. Could this mean she might have a chance to go to that quiet rural workshop alone with Lee Si-hyeok….

“That won’t work.”

“….”

Ah, yes.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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