Healing After Sweeping Spirits with an Almighty Skill - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 18
18. What Is Your Treasure
Spirit Village, the Lighthouse.
Inside the lamp chamber.
A massive Salamander lay before the Fresnel Lens, blinking lazily.
Warm, warm.
Blink, blink.
[Siiiiigh~.]
After a long, languid yawn, the Salamander slowly turned its head toward the pile of wood scraps heaped to one side.
Slurp.
The Salamander’s tongue unfurled gradually, wrapping around one wood scrap and drawing it into its mouth.
Crunch, crunch.
Content, content.
The Salamander stretched out contentedly once more, its eyes drifting shut in drowsy satisfaction. It was just about to surrender to the gentle tide of sleep washing over it.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—.
[Huh?]
A sudden tremor jolted the Salamander’s head up. As the shaking subsided just as quickly, it thought ‘Must’ve imagined it’ and began to lower its head again.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
The Lighthouse lurched and swayed beneath a tremendous tremor.
[Wh-what—?!]
The Salamander was flung from its resting place and tumbled across the lamp chamber’s interior.
Bounce, bounce.
Its plump belly kept it from any real harm, but the Salamander nonetheless let out a cry thick with indignation.
[Shrieeeeek!]
Roughly translated: ‘What’s all this commotion now? Please, just let me sleep!’
But no one was there to hear that wail, so the Spirit Village remained peaceful as ever.
* * *
Skill Evolution has commenced.
The moment I selected an option based on the voting results, everything around me began to shake.
Unlike the previous Level Ups, which had only expanded the boundaries, this was different.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
Buildings shifted their positions, and fortress walls erupted from the ground itself—in gaming terms, it was nothing short of a massive patch deployment.
I had chosen the Spirit Castle.
A small stronghold for myself alone.
[Oh! Ohhhhh! Ohhh!]
[Ohhh!]
[Oh! Oh…!]
Toho-gi and the Gnomes watched the Spirit Village transform and voiced their disappointment, but the results of a fair vote could not be undone.
The voting results were as follows.
Option 1: Spirit Castle—six votes.
Option 2: Spirit Hill—three votes.
Option 3: Spirit Forest—one vote.
Option 4: Land Spirit Village—four votes.
With Option 1 receiving nearly fifty percent of all votes cast, it was certainly a fair and democratic voting process.
“Well done, well done.”
I pressed a Chocolate Milk to Undine’s lips—she had voted for Option 1 with me.
[Tee-hee.]
Undine contentedly sipped at it, her face full of joy. Suhogi watched with obvious envy.
[Whimper.]
But Suhogi had voted for Option 2—a traitor deserved no reward.
People might ask: it was supposed to be a secret ballot, so how did I know? Well, that’s the whole point of voting in the first place.
“I would have chosen Spirit Hill, too.”
Jeong Jin held Suhogi in his arms, comforting him as he spoke. Suhogi leaned into his embrace with pitiful eyes.
“Really?”
“A new spirit, though—that’d be nice, wouldn’t it?”
Truth be told, I’d deliberated quite a long time among all the options. Each one had its merits.
But precisely because of that, I had no choice but to choose the Spirit Castle.
‘Spirit Forest was a Special Zone optimized for herb and tree growth.’
If something was optimized for one type of Spirit Special Zone, it meant herbs and trees would grow in other forms of Spirit Special Zones as well—just as they had in the Spirit Village.
It’s specialized to a degree, so I could certainly increase both quantity and quality — but that doesn’t make the Spirit Forest exclusive to us anymore.
‘Spirit Hill is no different in that respect.’
It only raises the probability of meeting spirits of different elements, nothing more. We’ve got the Lighthouse, after all.
‘And honestly, it sounds fun.’
A Spirit Castle.
A castle that transcends a hideout.
And one that’s mine — built just for me!
‘Spirit Castle Lord.’
What a magnificent title! Boro’s owner is a great lord, and now I’m a Castle Lord!
The more I thought of that beautiful phrase, the harder it became to keep my lips from curling upward.
“Why do you keep grinning like that? It’s annoying.”
“How dare you speak that way to your Castle Lord.”
“Ugh.”
Jeong Jin shook his head in disapproval.
* * *
Ten minutes later.
Skill Evolution has been completed.
The Spirit Castle was finally complete.
A Spirit Special Zone has been formed.
Current Special Zone Level: Spirit Castle LV. 1
The most dramatic change was the towering Fortress Wall erected along the perimeter.
A ten-meter-high Fortress Wall curved around the boundary, standing in a perfect circle.
From inside, you could climb atop the wall and gaze out over the landscape, but from outside, all you could see was the wall itself and the boundary rising beyond it.
‘Since the Fortress Wall rises from the Wasteland, it must naturally be resistant to the Harsh Wind.’
Bothered by the feeling of being hemmed in by the Fortress Wall?
If anything, it felt less claustrophobic and more like being firmly protected.
Besides, honestly, there was nothing worth seeing beyond the boundary anyway — just the Wasteland thick with dust and sand.
Additionally, inside the Spirit Castle itself, a wall about five meters high had been erected to divide the Inner Castle and Outer Castle.
The Main Hall and the Nests were located in the Inner Castle, while all the other buildings stood in the Outer Castle.
[Ooh!]
[Wow!]
The spirits bounded excitedly, scampering and fluttering through every corner of the Spirit Castle, their excitement brimming over.
The Gnomes too, as if they’d never felt any regret, immediately scrambled up the Fortress Wall in delight.
I opened the Skill window to take a look.
Spirit Castle LV. 1
┼ Construction Completed
└ Main Hall LV. 2
└ Mine LV. 2
└ Herb Garden LV. 2
└ Water Source LV. 2
└ Nests LV. 2
└ Forge LV. 1
└ Lighthouse LV. 1
└ Storage LV. 1
└ Wind Turbine LV. 1
┼ Available for Construction
└ Forge LV. 2
└ Lighthouse LV. 2
└ Main Citadel LV. 1
└ Spire LV. 1
└ Smeltery LV. 1
┼ Requirements for LV. 2 Expansion (0/3)
└ Main Citadel LV. 1 (0/1)
└ Spire LV. 1 (0/1)
└ Village Population (10/15)
Again, new buildings had become available — and they were all distinctly unusual.
‘Main Citadel, Spire, Smeltery. So these three are the new buildings I can construct.’
The Main Citadel seemed to be an upgraded version of the Main Hall.
When your position changes, so does your home. Just as I couldn’t possibly live in the Main Hall where I once dwelled as a Village Chief, I couldn’t live there now that I was a Castle Lord.
‘The Smeltery will be what its name suggests.’
It would be like a vending machine that spits out ingots when you feed it Salamander and Mithril.
I turned my attention to the third and final new structure.
A spire. I had absolutely no idea what this building was for.
‘Is it some kind of turret that intercepts monsters when they come? Or does it read fortunes under the night sky?’
When in doubt, I’d just build it and find out. I expanded the Skill menu to check the materials required for Construction.
┼ Constructable Buildings
└ Kiln LV. 2
└ Material: Charcoal (0kg/5kg)
└ Material: Copper (2kg/2kg)
└ Requirement: Fire Spirit (1/2)
└ Lighthouse LV. 2
└ Material: Mana Stone (0g/100g)
└ Material: Fresnel Lens (0/1)
└ Requirement: Fire Spirit (1/1)
└ Inner Castle LV. 1
└ Material: Stone (50kg / 50kg)
└ Material: Family Heirloom (0/1)
└ Requirement: Main Hall (1/1)
└ Spire LV. 1
└ Material: Timber (10kg/10kg)
└ Material: Stone (20kg/20kg)
└ Material: Mana Stone (0g/500g)
└ Refinery LV. 1
└ Material: Safety Helmet (0/2)
└ Requirement: Fire Spirit (1/2)
└ Requirement: Earth Spirit (2/2)
└ Requirement: Kiln LV. 2 (0/2)
As Spirit Castle triggered a Skill Evolution, the Construction function underwent small changes as well.
Unlike the Spirit Village, which demanded stone and timber in bulk, Spirit Castle began requesting certain specialized materials.
‘Charcoal, Mana Stones, giant Fresnel Lenses… What’s this Family Heirloom business?’
I’d stockpiled the fundamental materials in my warehouse, but there was still no building I could actually construct.
‘I have to wait for the Fire Spirit until the Lighthouse is operational. To get Mana Stones, I’d need to venture at least as far as the Fortress. Even the Inner Castle, which seemed manageable, requires a Family Heirloom.’
A Family Heirloom, no less.
As an orphan who’d grown up in a state orphanage, there was no way I could possess such a thing.
I was told that when I was left at the orphanage, there wasn’t even a slip of paper with my name, and during my time there, I’d never owned anything I could truly call ‘mine.’
‘Come to think of it, a Family Heirloom is a clan’s treasure. But I don’t even know my own clan.’
My surname was Jeong, but that was a name shared by all of us who came from the orphanage—the director’s surname was Jeong, so the orphanage itself was called the “Jeong Family Orphanage.”
“Hmm.”
I rubbed my chin for a moment, gathering my thoughts.
“I think this isn’t asking me to bring an existing heirloom—it’s asking me to choose my own Family Heirloom right now.”
From all I’d experienced so far, the Spirit Special Zone was an exceptionally favorable Skill to me.
It was odd to describe my own Skill as favorable toward me, but that was the feeling I had nonetheless.
So the Spirit Special Zone would never ask me for something impossible—this had to mean I should designate some treasure that befitted the Spirit Castle.
‘A treasure of mine. Since it’s needed as a building material, I suppose living things would be out of the question.’
I went through the expensive items I owned, one by one in my mind.
My computer, refrigerator, and washing machine still sitting in my old place that I hadn’t organized yet; a smartphone and notebook at the Spirit Special Zone—that was roughly all I had.
‘Sigh. This is vague.’
An expensive item isn’t necessarily a treasure.
Besides, I’d become suddenly wealthy these past weeks. The things I’d owned before weren’t particularly expensive or valuable anymore.
So what did I possess that held genuine meaning to me? What kind of significant object could become this place’s treasure?
‘Ah.’
Something came back to me all at once.
I pulled out my smartphone and opened the gallery. There were a few photographs I’d taken yesterday saved there.
I gazed at that screen for a long moment, then murmured softly.
“This is my treasure.”
As if it had been waiting, a window appeared.
Construct Inner Castle LV. 1?

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