The Support Ate it All

Silence hung over the room.

Han Somi asked the question for everyone.

“Did it go up? It did, right? S-rank? In one shot?”

“Whew...”

Instead of answering, I let out a heavy sigh, and everyone’s expressions darkened with it.

The smile disappeared from Han Somi’s face too.

Then I said,

“Han Somi.”

“Yes?”

“You’ll need to be more careful with what you say from now on.”

“Gah! I’m sorry!”

Han Somi slapped both hands over her mouth.

Looks like she thought she’d jinxed it.

But the next moment, I broke into a wide grin.

“It went up in one shot!”

“Ooooh!”

[Greedy Choice(S)]

▷Exp: 4.93%

Maybe because I’d fed it a B+ mixture, it still had a decent chunk of experience left over even after hitting my target of S-rank.

If it had only been a B, it might’ve been cutting it close. Maybe it would’ve fallen just short.

Once I shared the item description, relief and joy spread across everyone’s faces.

Seo Ye-in, Dang Gyu-young, Go Hyeonwoo, and Hong Yeonhwa each threw in a comment in turn.

“...A one-shot success.”

“You seriously love throwing people around, don’t you?”

“Hahaha, Brother Kim, you do have a mischievous side.”

“Congratulations...!”

I answered them with a smile of my own.

“Thanks again, all of you. For helping. I’ll swap it out right now.”

Then I used the S-rank selection ticket.

A flood of materials poured down across my vision.

There were tons of things I wanted, but I exercised some self-control.

For now, it has to be a time-related item no matter what.

In terms of rarity and value, it was on a completely different level from everything else.

So I scanned down the list until I finally spotted exactly what I wanted and selected it immediately.

[You have obtained ‘Movement of Eternity(S)’.]

The next moment, what appeared in my hand was a small mechanical device.

It was made of incredibly fine, delicate parts.

Dang Gyu-ri noticed that too and let out an impressed sound.

“Guess that’s what S-rank looks like. So that means you’ve got everything now, right? For that pocket watch thing?”

“Counting the one in Hyeseong, yes.”

And if there was a watchmaker in New City skilled enough—

then I could even try making the pocket watch itself.

Dang Gyu-ri nodded and asked another question.

“Then you’re done getting ready to go?”

“There’s still one thing left.”

It hadn’t been part of the plan, but I’d suddenly picked it up in the entertainment district a little while ago.

Meteoric iron.

An item strongly tied to keywords like meteorites, outer space, and stars.

Same for Meteor Dragon.

I should take it with me and ask.

Ask for a [Consecration].

If it were infused with a dragon’s power, an already absurd material would become something even more ridiculous.

If things went well enough, it might even break through the wall of EX-rank.

Better not get my hopes up too much.

A consecration meant pouring in a massive amount of power. Even for a dragon, that wasn’t something easy to do.

No matter how friendly Meteor Dragon was with the Seo family and Hyeseong Group, there was a good chance it would refuse.

Still, there’s no downside to preparing ahead of time.

It was meteoric iron I’d be handling someday anyway.

If it said no, I could just toss it back into my inventory.

But if it said yes?

In that case, it would probably be better to combine the two separate pieces of meteoric iron into an alloy first rather than leave them split.

The problem is, nobody can combine them.

For an S+-rank metal, even the head of the Blacksmith Guild club wouldn’t be anywhere near enough.

Same deal for ordinary faculty-level people.

That said, it wasn’t completely impossible.

There wasn’t a person who could handle it, but—

there was a crow.

It was about time I went to see the dimensional crows again.

If I used the seamstress’s unique skill, [Weaving], then even S+-rank meteoric iron should be more than possible to fuse.

Of course, they won’t do it for free.

If I borrowed their power, I had to pay labor costs.

With something shiny, or something with high artistic value.

Lately I’d been using statues for that, and this time I planned to do the same.

This is probably going to cost a lot.

The seamstress’s labor fee scaled with both the quality and quantity of the item.

It was lucky there were only two pieces of meteoric iron, but they were S+-rank.

I’d probably have to scrape together every statue available just to barely cover it.

First things first, I should go pick them up.

So after disbanding the group, I headed toward the Sculptors Club room.

Dang Gyu-ri followed after me like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Senior~ Let’s go together~”

“Why don’t you go rest? You said your back hurt.”

“It’s a little better after the massage~ And...”

The next moment, Dang Gyu-ri’s eyes turned chilly.

“I’ve got a feeling, you know? Like this little punk is heading off to fill up the Kim Ho Bus again.”

“I told you, there’s nothing going on with that senior. It’s one hundred percent business.”

“Last time I checked, it had dropped to about eighty percent.”

“I didn’t feel that. Anyway, if it really bothers you that much, come along.”

From my point of view, there was no reason not to.

Because I was either shamelessly honest or honestly shameless.

Dang Gyu-ri must have picked up on that too, because they narrowed their eyes and reached out.

I felt both cheeks get stretched wide and asked,

“Whad id do t’day? Why’s id my cheeks?”

“I feel like all I’ve been doing lately is biting you. I need to balance things out.”

“Do you really need t’keep things balanced?”

“My choice. If you don’t like it, then look only at me.”

Dang Gyu-ri kept tugging my cheeks this way and that with a pouty look.

By the time that ended, we had already reached the Sculptors Club room.

She said knocking just gets in the way.

So I opened the door, stepped inside, and greeted the person there.

“Hello, Senior.”

“...”

Kang Byeol had apparently been completely absorbed in their work. They were standing in front of a huge block of stone with various carving knives in hand.

Then they slowly turned their head and looked this way.

“I told you to come by when you had time, and this is when you finally show up.”

“Sorry. I got held up.”

“You should at least show your face once in a while.”

“I’ll come by more often from now on.”

“Good. What I made is over there. Since you’re here, have a cup of tea before you go.”

Dang Gyu-ri’s eyes narrowed sharply at once.

Looks like the Kim Ho Bus sensor had gone off because Kang Byeol seemed more favorable than before.

I smoothly ignored the fierce stare and headed toward the place where the statues were displayed.

And inwardly, I couldn’t help letting out a note of admiration.

These are all works of art.

Every single one of them was finished to a high standard.

Even if they’d been made to repay the debt Kang Byeol felt toward me, it looked like they hadn’t approached any of it carelessly.

No wonder the dimensional crows assigned them such high value.

As I stored the statues in my inventory, I asked Kang Byeol a question.

“How much of the sponsored materials do you have left?”

As long as Kang Byeol kept volunteering as a carving slave, there was no separate labor fee—but materials weren’t infinite.

Especially not the kind shiny and artistically valuable enough for the crows to like.

Last year, several clubs had sponsored quite a lot, but even that had limits.

Kang Byeol handed a teacup each to me and Dang Gyu-ri, then answered,

“More than half is gone. Maybe a little more.”

“So there’s enough for maybe three or four more times?”

“Probably.”

That was either a lot or not much at all, depending on how you looked at it.

And if I had to spend heavily on crow labor costs, like with meteoric iron, that might drop to one or two.

“Once that happens, I’ll bring more materials.”

“I can do it for you at least one more time. I can use my own stuff.”

“I’d feel bad about that.”

But Kang Byeol answered like it was nothing.

“Then grant me one favor later.”

“Of course I will. You’ve already done this much for me.”

“It won’t be anything difficult. I’ll send you a message when the time comes.”

At the moment, I had no clue what kind of favor Kang Byeol was planning to ask for.

One thing was clear, though.

Kang Byeol seemed to be in a strangely good mood.

*****

After sitting across from each other and drinking tea for a while,

I left the club room after being told to keep in touch and to come hang out more often.

Then I asked Dang Gyu-ri,

“At this point, isn’t it a clean one hundred percent business relationship?”

“From where I’m standing, it’s seventy percent. No, lower than that.”

“Why did it go down?”

“It feels like I’m looking at the old me. Give it a little more time and they’ll start pulling the ‘Call me Noona’ move.”

Dang Gyu-ri reached out to grab my cheeks again, but I slipped away and answered,

“I don’t think it’s at that stage yet.”

“Yet?”

“I couldn’t think of any better way to put it. Anyway, I think it’ll probably keep going like this.”

“...You sure?”

“At least I don’t have any personal feelings.”

“I did, though?”

“Of course you did.”

At that, Dang Gyu-ri’s lips curled upward slightly, like they’d never been sulking in the first place.

“You should be grateful I’m easy. So where are we going now?”

“I’m going to see the principal.”

I’d made the appointment beforehand, before coming to pick up the statues.

“Really? I’ve got something to say too.”

“That works out perfectly. Let’s go together.”

Before long, we arrived at the principal’s office.

After a light knock, I opened the door and stepped inside, and the scene waiting there hadn’t changed in the slightest from last time.

A classic, neatly organized principal’s office.

The vice principal, dressed in a refined suit that matched it perfectly.

Meanwhile, the principal had only half-shaved his beard and was sprawled halfway back in his chair in a shabby tracksuit.

He waved one hand lazily through the air in greeting.

“Oh~ you’re here.”

“Hello.”

“Man, man. When you get older, just moving around...”

The principal put on a full-body show of groaning and whining, but after taking a glare from the vice principal, he had no choice but to get up and sit across from us.

“I heard from Teacher Sudok you’re heading to Hyeseong?”

“That’s right.”

“I hear the atmosphere over there is pretty bad. Be careful.”

“Did something happen?”

“Sounds like the Blood Cult and a dragon threw down nearby.”

The principal added that the exact result wasn’t known yet.

One of them might move toward Hyeseong.

If luck was bad, both might.

Maybe this was why Meteor Dragon had said it didn’t have much time.

So I nodded.

“I’ll be cautious.”

“You’re the type who handles yourself just fine anyway. So what did you want to see me for?”

At the principal’s question, I got to the point.

“I’m planning to enter another dungeon in the next few days.”

“Aren’t you already handling that fine on your own? You’ve been going in and out of the deep layers plenty. Do you need to ask me?”

“This case is a little different.”

“How is it different?”

“I’m planning to shut one down.”

“...!”

At that, not just the principal, but the vice principal and Dang Gyu-ri too went stiff.

Dungeons normally collapsed and regenerated after being cleared.

But if you cleared one while fulfilling certain specific conditions, then it wouldn’t regenerate anymore. It would vanish for good.

The principal spoke with a troubled look.

“That could be a problem.”

The academy side already knew how to shut down several dungeons.

Even so, they left them alone because it was more profitable in the long run.

They could supply items on a regular basis, and they were also useful for training and building real combat experience.

There was no reason to slaughter a goose that laid golden eggs.

“That’s why I’m asking for permission.”

“First tell me what you’re planning to do and where. What number?”

I paused for a moment, then answered.

“No. 833, .”