Once dawn broke, Seo Jun-Ho got ready to leave. He went over his schedule for the day in his head.

‘I’ll meet with Noya and get him to check my equipment, and then I can meet with the others and create a plan for what’s to come.’

His faithful White Armor had been completely destroyed during the battle with Janabi. Because of that, he had to fight the Heavenly Demon while using only the Watchguard of Darkness to protect his body.

‘But I can’t keep fighting like that.’ 

Some people say that a master craftsman would never blame their tools, but only ignorant ones believe that. The more skilled someone was with a craft, the stricter and pickier they were with their equipment.

“I haven’t been here in a while.” Seo Jun-Ho was standing in a shabby alleyway near the Player Market. He glanced behind him.

“...If you’re gonna go in, let’s at least go in together,” he said.

“Hmph.” The Frost Queen crossed her arms and turned her head away in refusal. She had been acting like this since last night.

‘She’s still like that even though I bought her royal tteokbokki.’ 

By the looks of it, he would have to feed her something good today as well.

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head and knocked on the door of the workshop.

“Who is it?!” Someone called out. No matter how many times Seo Jun-Ho heard his voice, it was always thunderous.

He smiled. “It’s me, Jun-Ho.”

“Oh?!” There was a loud noise from inside, and the door soon opened.

“It’s been a while, Mr. Palmo.”

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Jun-Ho!” Kwon Noya’s grandson grinned brightly. Not only was Seo Jun-Ho a big customer of theirs, but Palmo was personally a fan of Seo Jun-Ho. “Come in.”

He quickly escorted Jun-Ho into a seat. “Grandpa! Grandpa!” he shouted.

“Geez, it’s still morning, and yet you’re already being so noisy…” Kwon Noya came down the stairs, clicking his tongue. His eyes went wide, but only for a moment. His face wrinkled when he saw Seo Jun-Ho giving a friendly wave. “Ugh, it’s another insufferable brat…”

“Hehe.”

“What are you laughing about?!” Noya was probably the only person in the world who would dare to scold Specter like this. He strode toward Seo Jun-Ho and walked around his body, inspecting him.

“I’m perfectly fine, Noya.”

“...How?” he asked. Kwon Noya had read the news. In particular, whenever he read articles about Seo Jun-Ho and Specter, he would always use his reading glasses. “You definitely…”

It had only been a week since it had been reported that he would need at least a year to recuperate. The news weighed heavily on his heart and was even interrupting his sleep, but to think that the person in question was standing right in front of him, unscathed…

“Ugh!”

Celebrities, politicians, and Specter were things you absolutely shouldn’t worry about. Kwon Noya recalled that expression and boorishly took a seat. “Palmo, please give us some space.”

“Yes, Grandpa.” Kwon Palmo hesitated, but he soon disappeared.

“...Why did you come here today?” Kwon Noya asked.

“Man, I’m hurt. Do I need to have a reason to come and see you?”

“No, you don’t. But you would always have a reason to come here.”

“A-ahem.” Seo Jun-Ho scratched his head and placed the pieces of his belt and sword one by one.

Kwon Noya instantly recognized them, and his eyebrows furrowed.

‘That belt is from White Armor, and those shards… Are from Black Dragon Fang.’

Seo Jun-Ho had only used the sword for a short amount of time, but now, it clattered onto the table in thousands of pieces. It was impossible to repair.

As if possessed, Kwon Noya abruptly grabbed the belt and fashioned it on a mannequin inside the workshop.

“Magic power,” he ordered to Jun-Ho.

“Um, Noya. Before you take a look, there’s something you should—”

“Just give me some magic!”

His scolding silenced Seo Jun-Ho, and the latter politely poured magic power into the belt. However, the armor that unfolded… was far from the pure white that it once been.

“Tsk tsk, this is crimson armor, not White Armor.”

The armor still had traces of the battle with Janabi. Seo Jun-Ho’s blood and Janabi’s sap had dried over the armor. Moreover, it barely even looked like an armor because of the broken parts.

“...”

Kwon Noya silently stroked White Armor with warm hands, as if to say that it had done well and to rest up. Afterward, he turned around.

“I won’t do it.”

“Come on, Noya. Don’t be like that…”

“Don’t make me say it twice. I won’t do it.” Kwon Noya firmly shook his head. He had made this decision after inspecting the armor more closely.

“...Is it because I’m too careless in using the armor you made for me?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“I’m too old to carry that kind of immature ego.” Kwon Noya bitterly smiled and shook his head. “I could instantly tell from the damage. It was destroyed with just one attack, was it not?”

“...”

White Armor had been unable to block a single strike from Janabi’s tail stinger. Of course, Seo Jun-Ho’s injuries would have been far worse without the armor. He might have even died instantly, without a chance to use Moon Eye.

“But White Armor still saved my life. It had been a very good—”

“Listen, Jun-Ho. Armor that can’t block attacks from the enemy is useless.”

Kwon Noya called him by his name this time, instead of ‘brat’ or ‘rascal.’ That was how strongly he had made his mind up.

Seo Jun-Ho bit down on his lip. “But—” He trailed off.

“But nothing.” Kwon Noya slowly closed his eyes. Seo Jun-Ho could see a mix of lingering feelings and relief in Kwon Noya’s wrinkled face. “My armor can no longer protect you. That’s all.”

Kwon Noya knew that this day would eventually come. Specter was the best Player, after all. In addition, the level of the enemies he fought was always rising.

Of course, Kwon Noya had no idea that day would be today.

‘It was a long time…’ 

Was it around thirty years? He wondered if he had gone through all those years with only this day in mind.

‘It’s about time I retire.’ 

He had decided a long time ago that he would retire once Specter—once Seo Jun-Ho no longer needed him.

Of course, he was also sad.

‘...You promised.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho should have somehow used it in a better way.

Kwon Noya quietly clicked his tongue in regret and slowly opened his eyes as he spoke, “You won’t be able to get it on Earth.”

Seo Jun-Ho wouldn’t be able to get the best armor to protect him here on Earth.

“But you might be able to get it on the upper floors.” An armor like that might exist in an empire built on magic instead of science.

Kwon Noya silently stood up and went to a room upstairs. A moment later, he brought down a wooden box.

“...What is that?” Seo Jun-Ho asked in a small voice. His chest was pounding. It wasn’t like Kwon Noya was dying or anything, but the fact that he had lost an old friend was weighing heavily on his shoulders.

“Take it. I made this decades ago so that today wouldn’t be remembered as a sad day.”

He carefully opened the box with a click. There was an ordinary iron sword inside.

But the moment Seo Jun-Ho saw it, his eyes became as wide as saucers.

“This is…?”

He remembered it. It was the first sword he had received from this workshop. When he broke it after a single hunt and came back for repairs, Kwon Noya had been furious. He had told Seo Jun-Ho that his weapon was wasted on a novice like him and to not even dream about getting it repaired.

“Do you remember what I did?”

“...Hmph.”

Seo Jun-Ho had gone down on his knees and apologized.[1] He had seen how much work Kwon Noya had put into crafting that ordinary sword.

“I apologized. I said I’d never recklessly break a sword again.”

“...”

That was the day when the rookie Player Seo Jun-Ho was imprinted deep in Kwon Noya’s memory. Since that day, they continued to work together until Kwon Noya became Seo Jun-Ho’s exclusive blacksmith.

“...I thought you had thrown it away a long time ago, but I suppose you didn’t.” Seo Jun-Ho ran his finger down the smooth blade. It was an ordinary iron sword without any kind of patterns or designs. But it was so perfectly crafted that it was comparable to even the greatest swords of the previous eras.

“Pffft.” Seo Jun-Ho chuckled when he saw the Chinese characters engraved on the blade. “What does this mean?”

“...On the day you knelt down and apologized, I saw it in you.”

Ambition.

Kwon Noya had been a middle-aged man who had spent his whole life hammering iron. Seo Jun-Ho had been a youth that hadn’t even lost all his baby fat just yet, but Kwon Noya had seen the blazing conviction in his eyes—it was the conviction to kill all the monsters and save the world. Perhaps, that was why he hadn’t been able to throw the sword away and put it in storage instead. Sometime after that, he had taken out the sword and forged it anew to create this Sword of Ambition.

“It’s an amazing sword.”

“It’ll be more useful than Black Dragon Fang.”

When Seo Jun-Ho held the sword and closed his eyes, he could strongly feel just how much Kwon Noya thought about him.

‘The knowledge he had gained after decades just for me.’ 

He could feel all that in this one sword.

Seo Jun-Ho put it away in his sheath. He hadn’t been able to get a good set of armor today, and he had even lost a friend.

However, he was smiling. “You’ve worked hard all these years. Rest up, Noya.”

“You make it sound like I’m gonna die, you rascal,” Kwon Noya grumbled. Still, he smiled as well. The best blacksmith in the world felt like a weight had been lifted off his back. “Ahem. So, are we gonna play another round of Go again?”

“You really suck at it, though.”

“Lies!”

Kwon Noya lost four more times.

***

“He’s retiring? Well, I suppose it’s about time.” Shim Deok-Gu nodded, looking a little disappointed. The retirement of a master craftsman like Kwon Noya was sad news. “I think it was the right decision to retire now, especially for his health.”

“If I manage to find a good health potion from the upper floors, I’m planning to give it to Noya.”

“Of course, you should. Just think about how much you owe him.”

After a brief chat, Seo Jun-Ho spoke again, “So, why did you call me out of the blue today?”

If he had followed his plans, he would have been sparring with his friends right now. Rahmadat had been in low spirits lately because his body still hadn’t fully recovered.

“A useful Quest came down from Moonlight,” Shim Deok-Gu replied.

“Moonlight…? Oh, my information network?” He had created the organization after taking over a bar in Maliva that had gone out of business. “Now that I think about it, I was planning to visit there.”

“You should go there this time when you have the chance.”

Shim Deok-Gu opened a hologram window. Seo Jun-Ho read it and tilted his head.

“What’s this?”

“Something weird has been going on in Maliva.”

“But isn’t this good news?” The document displayed a graph showing that Maliva’s businesses had been booming recently. “It means that the city is growing. Why is that weird?”

“...The reason for the sudden boom is what’s weird,” Shim Deok-Gu said.

“What is it?”

“Here.”

Seo Jun-Ho stared at the new document and squinted. “Yeah…This is pretty damn weird.” He flipped through a few more reports and nodded. “It says that the city has become sleepless. Is that possible?”

“Typically, no.”

“Yeah. There’s no way they could just keep going without any sleep.”

Apparently, it had been four days since this began. Typically, such nonsensical phenomena could only be caused by one thing. “It’s a skill.”

“Moonlight thinks that the Fiend Association might be connected to all this,” Shim Deok-Gu explained.

“The Fiend Association…They should be really busy right now, though.”

“Now that their management is looser, the fiends have been appearing in force.”

“Makes sense.” Right now, the main force of Players resided on the 3rd floor. It wasn’t surprising that a few fiends had escaped the control of the Fiend Association and were causing trouble. “It would be best to go there as soon as possible, right?”

“Of course,” Shim Deok-Gu responded.

“I should take Rahmadat with me, then. I’ll help him raise his level on the way,” Seo Jun-Ho said. With a completely new plan in tow, he stood up. “We should figure out the ranks later…”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Seo Jun-Ho checked his Vita. Rahmadat should be awake by now. And if he was awake, there was only one place he could be.

‘The gym.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho started toward the gym without hesitation.

1. This is the greatest form of apology, and it’s often seen as humiliating and/or disgraceful to do so. ☜