Healing After Sweeping Spirits with an Almighty Skill - Chapter 57
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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 57
57. The Lord’s Sword
Construction Possibilities
┼ Herb Garden LV.5
└ Material: Pavilion (0/1)
└ Material: Intermediate Water Spirit (1/3)
└ Condition: Vassal Assignment (0/1)
┼ Mine LV.5
└ Material: Air Conditioner (0/1)
└ Condition: Intermediate Earth Spirit (2/3)
└ Condition: Vassal Assignment (0/1)
┼ Nest LV.4
└ Material: Doll (0/1)
└ Material: Fairy Tale Book (0/5)
└ Condition: A Spirit-Cherishing Heart (1/1)
┼ Sledding Rink LV.2 (Pre-completed)
Vassal Assignment.
That phrase made me lower my gaze further, scanning the bottom of the skill window.
┼ ??? Condition (1/3)
└ Territory Declaration (1/1)
└ Lord Inauguration Ceremony (0/1)
└ Investiture Sword Crafting (0/1)
It seemed clear that Vassal Assignment was deeply connected to the mysterious condition of “Investiture Sword.”
‘A Lord and Vassals. So this is real territory management.’
Lessons from my school days came drifting back to me.
Lords and Vassals were bound by reciprocal contract relations, or so the textbook had said. I quite liked the businesslike ring of it.
‘Essentially, I’m assigning supervisors to each production facility, aren’t I?’
To place a Vassal, I first needed to craft an Investiture Sword. To obtain a proper blade, I’d normally have to visit the blacksmith district at the Waystation, but…
“Hmm.”
I gazed at the Spirit Blacksmith Workshop, newly built not long ago.
Swords could certainly be forged there as well.
Of course, compared to blades crafted by master smiths of deep experience, it would be little more than a toy. Yet for a ceremonial sword of investiture, wasn’t a toy more or less the same thing?
Besides, as the Lord of this Spirit Territory, any sword I used ought to be forged by the Spirits within this very domain.
‘The Herb Garden and the Mine. Who should I assign as Vassal to each?’
Suhogi and Tohhogi came to mind first, but I shook my head at once. I didn’t want to assign those two to Vassal posts anywhere. They were special just by existing.
‘No matter—I’ll decide starting tomorrow.’
It was time to send the Undines home from work.
The day’s labor in the Spirit Territory was drawing to a close.
* * *
~ Spirit Special Zone Vlog #12 ~
[Whoooosh!]
The camera soared upward into the blue sky. It moved freely through the air as if mounted on a bird’s back.
Truth be told, aerial footage like this had become commonplace—so much so that it was oversaturated. YouTubers with Flight Skills were a dime a dozen.
But the location was the problem.
[Ha-hee!]
Spread below the camera was a small manor. Quaint and compact, it held everything necessary—and then some peculiar things besides—all wonderfully out of place.
─ Wow, it’s really beautiful.
└ Fr fr looks like it dropped straight out of medieval times.
─ A single flower blooming in the Wasteland, truly.
─ Do you do visitor events? ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
The camera glided near the Snowy Mountain.
Undines who were building snowmen waved their hands.
The camera swept past the Lighthouse.
Inside the Lighthouse, a massive Salamander yawned languidly.
As it passed near the Main Castle, someone’s face glimpsed through a window was pixelated out.
‘← Editor. Currently not presentable.’
When the camera moved toward the Windmill, the Sylphs who were turning its blades showed interest and approached.
[Huh? Who’s the cameraman today, Poonghogi?]
[That’s right, that’s right. You need flight skills like mine to handle a camera properly!]
[Oh! So that’s what they call a camera? I never realized the device that records the videos we see on TV and the internet could be so small! Might I examine it more closely?]
Soon Sylph’s lower jaw filled the entire camera frame.
“No, no, no. You can’t just mash every button.”
“So I just don’t press the buttons? Got it!”
Before the sentence even finished, the camera display shifted to black and white. A second later, sepia tones washed across it, then the image zoomed to five times its size, and the whole screen began spinning dizzily.
─ I’m getting dizzy
─ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
─ That’s just like our youngest when she was little haha such a troublemaker back then
It was truly a modest vlog.
The vlog was gaining considerable popularity thanks to the distinctive backdrop of the Spirit Territory and the novel subject matter of spirits themselves.
Crunch, crunch.
Someone was biting her nails while watching the footage.
“This is unbelievable, just unbelievable!”
The nail-biter was none other than the Holy Maiden.
One of the Holy Guild’s sacred twins, who had only just returned from a hundred-day expedition.
“This is so unfair!”
The hardship of the past three months was nearly impossible to put into words.
A hundred days of austerity where nothing—not food, not clothing, not sleep—offered even a moment of comfort.
The Holy Guild’s expeditions were called “deep-sea fishing vessels that walk the land,” so there was little need to elaborate further on the suffering involved.
Yet before her eyes lay a skill that produced items from the earth without any hardship, any ordeal, any trial whatsoever.
“What an unfair paradise this is!”
The Holy Maiden’s eyes grew wide with indignation.
* * *
The next day.
I reviewed my skill menu and selected today’s DIY project list.
‘A Pavilion for the herb garden. An Air Conditioner for the mine. A Bear Doll and Fairy Tale Book for the nest.’
The Pavilion could be built using timber from the Spirit Forest.
The Air Conditioner had to be purchased—there was no other way around it.
The Bear Doll and Fairy Tale Book.
‘A Bear Doll and Fairy Tale Book.’
These were items I could certainly make, though the process was rather intricate.
The soft texture of a doll was impossible to achieve with Mana Plastic alone, so I’d need to buy most of the materials from the Waystation. And making a Fairy Tale Book would require a bindery, which didn’t exist at the Waystation.
‘Besides, the nest isn’t even used much. Is it really worth the effort?’
While the nest’s original purpose was to serve as a rest and sleeping space for spirits, the number of times the spirits had actually slept there could be counted on one hand.
After a brief moment of deliberation, I made my decision.
“Okay. Let’s keep this simple. I’ll just buy decent dolls and books from the Waystation.”
Construction Reinforcement was a marvelous and excellent system, but choosing priorities and focusing on what mattered most was necessary everywhere.
“First, the Pavilion.”
I gathered Sylph and some skilled Noums at the Workshop. Since the Pavilion was far more complex and larger than the Dock, I planned to make a miniature version first.
What we learned through that process was the beauty of subtraction.
“I have no idea how to even stack this roof!”
“Ohhh!”
“Okay! Let’s just throw some logs down and call it done!”
“Yeah, that’s right! It doesn’t even rain in our territory—why do we need a roof anyway!”
“And the floor—I don’t even understand how these pieces fit together!”
“Okay! We’re just laying logs for the floor too!”
“Should we carve the pillars into squares?”
“The interior design needs consistency! Let’s make the pillars out of logs too!”
A proper wooden building was in a completely different class from something like the Dock.
By the time I completed the miniature Pavilion and then the full-scale version based on it, it was time for Undine Laundry to open.
“Time to clock in!”
“Let’s go! Thump-thump! Working! Thump-thump!”
I perched the Undines—who were singing some tuneless song—on my shoulders and arms as I headed toward the laundry. Originally I’d carried them in a basket, but due to their persistent demands, I now transported them directly like this.
“Do your best today. See you in a bit.”
“Yep! I’ll be waiting!”
“See you soon!”
After parting with the Undines, I purchased the dolls and Fairy Tale Books, then returned to the territory. I’d requested delivery for the Air Conditioner.
“Huh? What’s that?”
Suhogi, who’d been watering wildflowers in front of the City Gate, suddenly dangled from the Bear Doll in my hand.
“It’s a Bear Doll.”
“A bear doll? Your brother?”
“No, a Bear Doll.”
[Whoomp?]
Suhogi didn’t seem to understand what a doll was.
[Hehe! So soft!]
Even so, delighted by the texture, the spirit dangled from it and laughed with unbridled joy.
I praised my past self for the foresight of buying dolls by type, and began constructing the nest with a different doll instead of the bear one.
Beginning construction of LV.4 Nest.
Unlike the nest, upgrading the herb garden and mine required one additional special condition.
Vassal Assignment. That was it.
Which meant it was time to forge a blade.
‘Noum, gather.’
Let’s make the Spirit Territory’s first weapon.
* * *
Of all the things I’d made in the Blacksmith Workshop until now, there had been no weapons—only the armor worn by the guard Noums at the laundry, and the iron door used in storage.
“Today we’re making a sword.”
[Oh!]
[Ooh!]
Still, the Noums brimmed with confidence.
Perhaps they were simply excited at the prospect of making something new.
[Hisss!]
Today’s fire handler was Agamander.
“I’ll be the one designing the sword! Make the blade as long as my arm, and the grip as wide as my two fists!”
[Ooooh!]
[Hissss!]
The Noums gripped their hammers.
A Mithril Ingot was laid upon the anvil, and Agamander’s flames poured down upon it.
Whoooosh—!
The Noums brought their hammers down on the glowing ingot.
Clang-clang! Clang-clang!
Sparks flew upward with a rhythmic and reassuring sound.
[Spread your arms a bit!]
Poonghogi appeared and measured the length of my arm with a measuring tape. Poonghogi took the tape directly and held it near the anvil, then spoke.
[It needs to be much longer! Noums, fighting!]
[Ooh!]
[H-here, I brought water…!]
Suhogi and the Undines filled a quenching tub in one corner of the Blacksmith Workshop with water.
I left the Blacksmith Workshop for a moment and headed to the Workshop. It was to craft the grip of the sword.
In the Workshop, the supervisor Noum and skilled Noums had gathered and were watching a video I’d set up—one about the structure of the sword, particularly the grip section.
[Ooooh….]
[Ooh!]
Noums earnestly discussing something among themselves.
In their hands were already what looked like prototypes of the sword’s grip, produced as if by a 3D printer.
‘They don’t need me here.’
I watched the scene for a moment, then backed out of the Workshop. I felt deeply satisfied.
‘Is this what they call auto-hunting?’
Indeed, the Spirit Territory.
A lord’s utopia, where vassals handled work of their own accord.
* * *
Hours passed.
The Spirit Territory’s masterpiece was complete.
[Ooooh!]
The blade forged in the Blacksmith Workshop and the grip made in the Workshop came together into a single finished sword.
The blade stretched elegantly long and graceful, and the grip adorned with decorative elements symbolizing the four elements of the spirits was deeply impressive.
But that wasn’t the end.
Materials created in two different locations within the Spirit Special Zone have been combined into a single piece of equipment.
The essence and potential of the Spirit Special Zone are now imbued in this equipment.
All element spirits within the Spirit Special Zone participated in its creation.
The spirits’ affection and effort are now imbued in this equipment.
Notification windows cascaded endlessly.
As I finished reading them all, the sword blazed with brilliant light.
The equipment, the Investiture Sword, undergoes a dramatic enhancement.
After a silence like a loading screen fades away, an information window materializes above the blade.
It was far longer than I’d anticipated.
Sword of the Spirit Lord
SS-Grade Equipment Item – Exclusive Equipment for Jeong Ryong
A blade forged through the united strength of the territory’s people.
This is no mere sword, but rather a tribute and gift for the Lord who governs his territory with love, always.
Combat power increases 100% during battles within the Special Zone.
Combat power increases 100% when fighting alongside Spirits.
When binding a Lower-grade Spirit as a Vassal with this sword…….
I couldn’t help but widen my eyes from the very first line of the information window.
‘SS-Grade Equipment?!’
Past the strangely embarrassing equipment description, the effects listed below were equally astounding. But what caught my eye most was the final one—the third effect.
‘It grants such power just from bestowing a rank?’
Indeed, an SS-Grade designation was not something earned through cheap tricks.
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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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