Healing After Sweeping Spirits with an Almighty Skill - Chapter 64

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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 64
64. The Second Drawing Contest
The second drawing contest was held in the Spirit Village.
“This time, what you need to draw is a heraldry that symbolizes our Spirit Village!”
Roughly a hundred Mana Plastic Easels were set up in the square.
In front of the miniature easels, reproduced using the workshop’s blueprint storage function, spirits stood one by one with brushes in hand.
I displayed the heraldries of various noble houses and nations on a massive portable monitor while explaining.
“A heraldry is, in simple terms, just a symbol or logo. Unlike portraiture, it isn’t a detailed or delicate drawing—you could say that stylization that can be recognized at a glance is what matters.”
[This is perfect for sensible us sylphs!]
[Show off the sylphs’ playfulness!]
The sylphs who had missed winning last time’s drawing contest burned with enthusiasm.
[Hmph! I’ll win again this time!]
Suhogi, wearing a “last contest champion” badge on his chest, was also burning with passion.
“This contest’s prizes are the same as last time. The honor of your drawn symbol being used semi-permanently! This week’s employee of excellence badge! And mountains of snacks!”
[Waaaaaah!]
[Ooooooh!]
“Very well!”
I took a deep breath and gathered energy from my core, then shouted.
“Let the Spirit Village Heraldry Drawing Contest begin!”
With my cry, the spirits began moving their brushes eagerly.
The time limit for the heraldry drawing contest was one hour, and I couldn’t help but anticipate what kinds of works would emerge.
* * *
In the craftsmen’s district of the Waystation, Blacksmith Street.
Clang—. Clang—.
The sound of hammering that flowed endlessly, day and night, and the sight of muscular blacksmiths coming outside to cool themselves in sweat were as much a trademark as anything could be.
In the street aptly named Blacksmith Street, with its numerous forges and workshops, countless hunters and tourists were moving about.
Everything from tens of millions of won weapons for tower-climbing hunters to branded kitchen knives worth hundreds of thousands for non-Awakeners—Blacksmith Street was one of only a handful of thriving places in the Waystation.
In this very street, at the forge of the largest-scale guild, the Hammer and Anvil, craftsmen had stopped their work and clustered around one work table, touching and admiring something.
“Is this that Spirit Fiber we’ve heard about?”
A novice blacksmith marveled while handling the Spirit Fiber.
The palm-sized Spirit Fiber they’d received last time had circulated among the upper ranks before disappearing at some point, so the ordinary blacksmiths hadn’t even had a chance to touch it.
The guild had been thrown into upheaval over that matter, but ultimately the culprit was never found.
However, this time with the contract signed with the Tower Management Bureau, three pieces of Spirit Fiber had been properly delivered. They were spread out lengthily on the largest work table, so abundant that every blacksmith could handle them.
“Wow….”
“I can only manage exclamations.”
Indeed, there was reason for the guild’s upper ranks to be excited. The blacksmiths were simply amazed.
“Could we make something like this as well?”
“We could imitate it. Using polyester and Mithril. But….”
A senior blacksmith trailed off.
Spirit Fiber was an object created through extreme, grueling labor.
It was made by passing threads woven from Mithril through the tiny pores created by each single fiber resembling polyester.
In comparison, the labor of creating chain mail that takes a thousand hours to produce seemed almost cute.
“That Jeong Ryong, wasn’t it? Seems he worked his subordinate spirits terribly hard.”
Of course, the blacksmiths had skills, so they didn’t honestly spend a full thousand hours making chain mail.
Jeong Ryong was likely the same, but the fact remained that it was grueling labor at an extreme level.
“Moreover, this is closer to textile technology than blacksmith’s craft. Even this base fabric resembling polyester is actually something entirely different.”
The senior blacksmith drew up his mana and infused it into the Spirit Fiber. Everyone could feel the mana spreading throughout the entire fiber not just through the Mithril but also through the fabric itself.
“See? This is fabric that can conduct mana. There’s no such fabric anywhere else in the world.”
“Hah, mana-conducting fabric, you say.”
“Isn’t this a Nobel-class magical discovery?”
“The world is about to turn upside down again.”
It’s not without reason that hunters wear heavy metal armor into battle. Both weapons and armor had to be made from Mithril to conduct mana.
“Understand? If we casually tried to imitate this and make it, after just a few battles only the Mithril threads would remain, fluttering about. It’s far better to buy this Spirit Fiber and attach it to our work.”
The senior blacksmith, having poured out his words, smiled wickedly beneath his thick beard.
“And above all, with this, we can finally make ‘that.'”
That thing.
At those words, a gleam entered the blacksmiths’ eyes.
“That thing?”
“If it’s that thing, you mean that thing, right?”
“Of course it’s only that thing!”
The senior blacksmith raised his clenched fist and shouted.
“Yes! At last we can attach a cape!”
“Uooooooooh!”
A cape.
The symbol of romance, fantasy, and style.
Whether they fought in close quarters or from a distance, whether they ventured expeditions into the Wasteland—every hunter harbored the dream of a cape fluttering at their back.
And yet, until now, no defensive gear had ever come equipped with one. The simple truth was that capes had never been designed for combat in the first place.
“But if we infuse them with mana, everything changes!”
“With mana flowing through it, you can control it like part of your body—it won’t tangle or hinder you in battle!”
“Ohhhhh! The creative drive is surging through me!”
The guild members erupted, their enthusiasm kindled by the Spirit Fiber.
But the guild’s executives, gathered in their private conference room, were examining something entirely different.
The second item brought through the Spirit Domain: a Mithril Ingot. The guild master turned it over in his hands, tapped it, sent mana flowing through it, and nodded slowly.
‘Truthfully, we only signed this contract because of the Spirit Fiber—but we’ve stumbled upon a treasure beyond imagination.’
The Mithril Ingot before him was something else entirely. Its mana conductivity exceeded existing equipment by more than thirty percent, and its inherent durability was incomparable.
To put it in perspective: the difference between twenty-four karat gold and fourteen karat gold. On a battlefield where a single blow could mean life or death, a thirty percent difference was a number you couldn’t buy with money—it was absurdly powerful.
‘This Mithril Ingot nearly ended up in someone else’s hands.’
If it had slipped away to another guild or smithy, the Hammer and Anvil would have had to surrender its reputation as the Waystation’s finest blacksmith.
He felt like prostrating himself in gratitude to the Spirit Special District and Jeong Ryong for luring them in with the Spirit Fiber as bait.
‘With this, I can create a premium line.’
There was a product he’d been conceiving for years: a high-quality premium line sold exclusively to guild masters and S-rank hunters.
Until now, he’d hesitated because no material existed that could sufficiently differentiate such gear from other equipment—but with this Mithril Ingot, it was possible.
‘The name for the lineup… let me think…’
The corners of the guild master’s eyes softened in a smile.
‘Elemental. Yes, the Elemental Line sounds perfect.’
The guild master hurried to the workshop, unwilling to let the inspiration flooding his mind slip away.
* * *
An hour later, the drawing competition had concluded.
I reviewed all hundred or so heraldry submissions. True to their versatile nature, the spirits had produced nothing but solid work.
‘This one’s almost pictogram-level stylization—quite fresh, actually. And this one’s practically a mural style. That’s definitely Noum’s work, I’d wager.’
There were shields characteristic of the Western tradition, simple black-and-white designs of Japanese aesthetics, and heraldries centered on flowers native to our land, among countless others.
Many weren’t traditional forms at all, but new interpretations the spirits had created themselves.
Each one conveyed the identity of the spirit realm beautifully.
‘Any of these would deserve to win.’
I carefully shuffled the hundred drawings and arranged them in a broad circle along the plaza’s perimeter, each on its own easel.
“Now we’ll begin the judging!”
Today’s judges were every member of Spirit Village.
The spirits each received five stickers and placed them one by one on whichever drawings they preferred.
Why five? Because if I’d only given them one, they’d obviously just vote for their own.
[Hmm…!]
The spirits placed their first sticker easily, then fell into deep deliberation over the remaining four.
As time passed, the stickers in the spirits’ hands dwindled while the stickers on the drawings multiplied.
[Heh!]
One drawing had already accumulated dozens of stickers and emerged as a strong favorite to win. That meant, conversely, that many drawings were steadily being eliminated.
[Sigh.]
Some spirits had received only a single vote.
No matter how blind the voting was supposed to be, watching them loiter near their own drawing with such a gloomy expression made it impossible not to know which one was theirs.
“Oh, this is really good though? The artistry shines through.”
I found such pieces and spent a long time appreciating them before placing my stickers. Unlike the other spirits, mine were star-shaped.
[Ehehehehe!]
The spirits glowed with quiet joy, as if my vote mattered more than winning itself. I turned away, pretending not to notice, and quietly wiped my nose.
‘These guys, always so delighted.’
My precious single vote had been worth every bit.
* * *
After all the judging was complete.
One drawing was declared the winner, having received ninety-two votes—nearly twenty percent of the total vote count.
‘Yes, that was indeed an excellent heraldry.’
The heraldry’s border was a large circle with a rough, jagged edge—likely representing the fortification walls of the spirit realm.
Inside the circle, divided into four sections, symbols of stone, water, fire, and wind spiraled clockwise, with a single crown drawn at the center.
‘The black-and-white palette and overall circular form were drawn from Eastern heraldry, but filling the interior with symbols rather than simple lines or circles—that’s from the West.’
The harmony between East and West really appealed to me. It showed well how I, an Oriental, wielded a Western skill called Spirit Domain.
The one thing was the crown embedded in the middle, which felt a bit out of place at first, but it turned out to resonate perfectly with the spirits.
[Ah! I voted for that too!]
[You did as well?]
[Yep! Because it’s a crown!]
[Right! It’s a crown!]
For some reason, the spirits absolutely adored the crown. Well, the younger the mental age, the more they fixate on the word “king,” after all.
And so, just as I was about to award the champion, I realized something astonishing.
“Wait, this… oh dear.”
I had no choice but to press my forehead. The winner’s identity was entirely unexpected.

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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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