Healing After Sweeping Spirits with an Almighty Skill - Chapter 36

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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 36
Chapter 36. Outstanding Employee of the Week
The portrait that the Undine Team had painted looked like it really was drawn by a master artist. As expected from spirits that command water, it was genuinely masterful work.
Particularly the sharp V-line of my jaw and the gleam of excellence in my eyes seemed like a photograph reproduced exactly.
“Isn’t it a bit too flattering?”
“Flattery is what completes a portrait. Who takes a selfie without editing it?”
“Ah, I see.”
I lightly ignored the chatter from Jeong Jin and the Management Bureau staff behind me.
Jang Dae-in, the Bureau director, studied the painting carefully before asking the guardian spirit a question.
“Undine, would you mind if I asked a question?”
[I’m the guardian spirit…!]
“Hmm? Ah, right, guardian spirit. That’s a lovely name. What was your intention with this blur effect?”
Just as Jang Dae-in’s question suggested, the second most striking feature of the Undine Team’s painting was the blur filling the background. The rounded blur, like what you see when looking at streetlights at night, was a technique rarely used in portraiture.
[That, that was….]
The guardian spirit hesitated, glancing between the other Undine and Agamander. Then she closed her eyes tight and spoke.
[It was actually a mistake that got blurred…!]
“A mistake? Just that?”
[I repeated the accidental blur to cover it up…!]
With those words, the guardian spirit pouted her lips as if feeling sorry for herself.
I chuckled softly and patted the guardian spirit’s head before moving on to the next work. It was Sylph’s piece.
“This is…. Whoa….”
“Quite powerful, isn’t it?”
One unexpected thing was that the spirits’ paintings were also quite excellent.
“It seems spirits’ painting styles follow their own elements too. You could say it’s stormy. The overall feeling is rough and sharp.”
[That’s because we painted while blowing wind the whole time!]
With nothing but a brush and wind, they achieved this level of skill. Perhaps these creatures truly had artist’s blood running through their veins. And there was another major characteristic besides.
[We tried to capture the feeling of the ultimate and the overwhelming in this painting!]
[We embodied the spirit of our Spirit Special Zone soaring ever higher and reaching ever further!]
It was extremely heavy and macho.
Where Undine’s portrait was somewhat soft and delicate, this one was quite heavy and dark.
Even my face, the subject of the portrait, was half-submerged in shadow, conveying both resolve and anguish.
“This is a Dark Lord portrait, not a Castle Lord portrait, is it?”
Jeong Jin laughed with a snicker, but I found it quite appealing. It was powerful.
Finally, the Gnome team.
Rather than touching canvas and paint, they had carved my sculpture from rock.
“Wow, it’s incredibly lifelike.”
“If you just painted the colors, you could set it up in a wax museum.”
Regardless of the subject matter, the quality itself was the highest among today’s works.
[Ooo, oooo, oooooo]
“Hmm. I see.”
[Huh?]
“Naturally you can’t understand. Pung-ho-ki! Translate for them!”
[They say that even if it strays from the theme, they wanted to honor you in the way they do best!]
“I see. I shall certainly remember that gracious sentiment.”
After seeing all three works, we proceeded to vote.
There was no need for a secret ballot, so I simply asked everyone directly which one they liked. The vote was overwhelmingly decisive.
“Now then, I shall announce the winner of the Castle Lord portrait drawing contest.”
The spirits’ reactions varied as the announcement approached.
The guardian spirit hugged tight with the other Undines, looking up at me anxiously with an uncertain expression.
The Sylphs seemed ready to welcome whatever name was called, watching my face closely, while the Gnomes appeared indifferent, as though the result hardly mattered.
“The winner of this contest is… the Undine Team!”
[Yay!]
The guardian spirit, who had been praying with her eyes shut tight, jumped up from her seat. Then, as if she couldn’t believe it, she looked around bewildered before jumping again.
[Really? Us?]
“Yes. Your team won.”
[Yaaay!]
The guardian spirit threw both arms up in joy, but then grew downcast and began tapping her fingers together nervously before asking.
[But, I made a mistake….]
“You mean the blur?”
[Yeah….]
“If you repeated it intentionally, then it’s not a mistake—it’s technique.”
[Technique?]
“Yes. In fact, I voted for you because I liked that technique so much.”
[You voted for me? Really?]
Undine’s face brightened noticeably—she seemed more delighted that I’d voted for her than that the team had won.
Moved by her pure joy, I found myself reaching out to stroke her head as I spoke.
“It had a fantastic quality you don’t see in the other portraits. That’s what drew me.”
The way she’d captured the Spirit Castle—this space that was fantastical yet somehow grounded in reality—felt masterfully rendered on canvas.
And admittedly, I looked quite handsome in it myself.
As I withdrew my hand from her head, Undine placed her own small hand where mine had been, a shy smile crossing her face.
[Hehe….]
“All the other works were excellent too. I simply chose this one out of personal preference, so don’t be too disappointed.”
Sylph’s painting was superb, but it seemed better suited to the Spirit Empire than the Spirit Castle—the kind of thing where you’d expect someone to grow a mustache, stretch out their hand, and salute.
As for Gnome’s sculpture, there was no question it was magnificent, though unfortunately it strayed from the theme.
So—time to open the snacks storehouse.
“As a reward, everyone gets one kilogram of snacks!”
[Ohhhhh!]
[I knew you would!]
[Yeaaaah!]
Buildable Structures List
┼ Main Castle LV. 2
└ Material: Stone (10kg/10kg)
└ Material: Cement (10kg/10kg)
└ Material: Portrait of the Castle Lord (1/1)
Will you construct Main Castle LV. 2?
With this, the conditions to upgrade the Main Castle were met.
* * *
Once the spirits had finished their snack time and Jang Dae-in and the Management Bureau staff had departed the Spirit Castle, the expansion reached completion.
The timing was perfect—the construction finished just as they left.
Main Castle LV. 3 construction complete.
Main Castle LV. 3 construction has been enhanced through the use of materials crafted by the spirits themselves.
Main Castle LV. 3 construction is being strengthened.
Main Castle LV. 3 construction complete.
And the long-awaited Construction Enhancement notification on top of that!
‘Absolutely perfect.’
Where the Level 1 Main Castle had been merely a manor in name, the Level 3 version was now truly small enough to warrant being called an actual castle.
First, an additional story had been added, making it a three-story building, and the solitary tower had become four—one standing at each corner of the structure.
Upon entering through the doors, I was greeted by a breathtakingly spacious lobby. It was a medieval aristocratic-style entrance hall straight out of the movies, complete with a grand staircase that descended directly to the second and third floors.
[Oh! That’s the picture we drew!]
At the far end of the staircase, on the wall, hung the portrait the Undine Team had so carefully painted of me—enlarged to roughly ten times its original size.
To the left of the portrait hung equally enlarged photographs of the founding contributors who had served as materials during the Level 1 construction.
“Wow. It really did expand a lot, didn’t it?”
Jeong Jin remarked with genuine amazement.
“I don’t even know where the room I used to sleep in is anymore.”
His comment wasn’t an exaggeration—the number of rooms had more than doubled.
The single bathroom that had served the entire building now appeared once per floor, and the kitchen had even separated out into its own parlor.
‘At this point, it’d be hard to even assign purposes to every room.’
Even if I designated a dressing room and shoe room—those hallmarks of the truly wealthy—there would still be rooms left over.
“Good. Very good.”
Once again satisfied with the building upgrade, I opened my skill window with considerably improved spirits.
Spirit Castle LV. 3
┼ Construction Completed List
└ Main Castle LV. 3
└ Mine LV. 3
└ Herb Garden LV. 3
└ Water Source LV. 3
└ Nest LV. 3
└ Furnace LV. 2
└ Smelter LV. 1
└ Workshop LV. 2
└ Warehouse LV. 2
└ Lighthouse LV. 3
└ Spire LV. 1
└ Plaza LV. 2
└ Wind Turbine LV. 2
┼ Construction List
┼ LV. 4 Expansion Condition (3/3)
└ Main Castle LV. 2 (1/1)
└ Plaza LV. 1 (1/1)
└ Aesthetics Score (100/100)
I’d built every structure on the construction list.
Now all that remained was to fill the final expansion condition—the Aesthetics Score—and I could upgrade Spirit Castle to the next level.
‘…Huh?’
Something looked odd. I checked the skill window again.
┼ LV. 4 Expansion Condition (3/3)
└ Main Castle LV. 2 (1/1)
└ Plaza LV. 1 (1/1)
└ Aesthetics Score (100/100)
Every expansion condition had already been met.
‘What? When did the Aesthetics Score hit 100?’
Was it the aftereffect of constructing the Level 3 Main Castle? It was spacious, certainly, but it truly was beautiful to look at.
As I pondered the cause, I suddenly became aware of the Gnomes gathered in the Plaza doing something. It was thanks to the power granted by the Spire’s influence—Spirit Sense.
When I stepped out into the Plaza, I saw the Gnomes setting up a sculpture they’d created at the competition in front of the clock tower.
[Oh!]
Toho-ki spotted me and waved brightly.
“What is this?”
[Ohhh!]
Toho-ki and the Gnomes puffed out their chests proudly, looking up at me. They were clearly quite pleased with their work.
‘It certainly does look good.’
The Plaza had a rounded arrangement of paving stones with benches and flowerbeds positioned in a circle, and the clock tower stood at the center.
A space that felt simple, yet all the more spacious for it. With a sculpture placed right before the clock tower at the heart of that Plaza, the whole area had taken on a refined quality.
‘Every proper plaza or park needs at least one sculpture to look good.’
It seemed the Gnomes’ sculpture was what had filled in the final Aesthetics Score. Even by my eye, it was quite lovely.
Jeong Jin spoke softly as he watched me nod.
“What a narcissist.”
“Oh, right—the words of someone who has neither a portrait nor a sculpture gifted by the spirits fall on deaf ears, don’t they?”
Jeong Jin’s fists clenched, trembling with indignation.
Either way, with this, all preparations to expand Spirit Castle were complete.
* * *
That night.
In the Main Castle of Spirit Castle.
A castle of my own, cozy with a magnificent portrait, grand halls and lobbies, and even a fireplace in the bedroom.
Whether I gazed from the Study or the Bedroom out the windows at the Spirit Castle’s landscape, I felt as though I’d truly become a Castle Lord.
[We’ve come to prepare your sleeping quarters.]
And on top of it all, there were butlers and maids.
The butlers and maids threw themselves into fluffing and spreading out my bedding with vigorous pats, then bowed deeply.
[Then, please rest well.]
“Yes. Sleep well yourselves.”
I climbed into bed and settled in comfortably.
This ten-million-won bed was worth every penny. Sleep came pouring down effortlessly.
“…….”
Gently….
“……?”
I bolted upright in bed.
Servants I’d never hired were roaming through my castle.

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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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