Even though a Magician’s staff provides the most magical attack power boosts, Magician robes were rare and therefore sold for more.
This was why the compensation for this statue quest was absurd.
“Sculptures can be compared as the flowers of true art!”
Weed lavishly praised the sculpture.
“Welcome, Art Hand!”
“Hello Esteemed Guards. Would it be okay if I entered the house for a bit?”
“If it’s you, you’re welcome here anytime!”
He even visited the Dwarven Guards’ house.
Weed had an affinity of using flattery which did not cost any money and this way, he was able to get familiar with the Guards. There was a sculpture inside the guardhouse.
There was a big difference between Humans and the taciturn Dwarves.
Because they loved sculptures and other works of art, such as paintings, there were always 1~2 sculptures in every house. There was a small number of sculptures that had no meaning and were made for display, but there were also plenty of sculptures that were requested to be made or symbolises something.
“This seems like an amazing sculpture.”
“Ah. It’s something my ancestors kept a hold of.”
“May I take a look at it close up?”
“If a sculptor as skilled as yourself would look at it, it would bring me great honor”
“Thank you. Identify!”
— There aren’t be a lot of Dwarves who knows the truth about the foul and evil being living in Kuruso.
‘Evil being…’
For some reason the quest seemed like it would get fairly troublesome.
— That evil being shapeshifts and roams around while tempting innocent Dwarves. Since the evil being changes his identity regularly, he cannot be found easily. However, the evil being usually has a form that resembles a sneering Dwarf.
If a capable Dwarf makes a good item, this evil being will approach them. It will always try to pass itself as an unskilled Dwarf, and will produce a better item after inspecting and mastering their skills.
A despicable act to the Dwarves who work hard to raise their skills!
Weed thought this was fairly extreme.
‘I wouldn’t be able to forgive him either’.
If, while one is making 1 Gold, their neighbor is making 2 or 3 Gold, it would cause irreparable mental trauma!
— You must take revenge on that evil being.
He had to make sure the evil being would never step foot on Dwarven soil again.
However, because the Dwarves defended the weak and powerless, he couldn’t just punish the evil being. If he did that, the pride of the race would not be restored.
It was better for him to identify the evil being and then openly challenge him to a competition of skill and defeat him.
Fortunately, the evil being was not proficient in every field, so there was a definite chance of success.
This time, the difficulty of the quest was rank C!
“I think it will yield a fairly good reward this time.”
Rather than fighting against the evil being and beating it, he had to defeat it in a feat of skill.
Weed immediately identified a Dwarf that was likely to be the evil being.
Whenever a Dwarf player produced an item, there was another Dwarf that was making a superior item next to him.
His name was Death Hand!
“Keulkeulkeul.”
Unlike a Stouthearted Dwarf, he would make noise and then create something.
He was a Dwarf that was famous in Kuruso for requesting random things.
‘If he won’t drink any ale, there won’t be any doubt.’
After following him around for a day, Weed was certain.
A Dwarf that wouldn’t drink any ale was abnormal!
He thought there was no doubt because, even though he stood next to him and drank as if inviting it to drink with him, he showed no interest.
“Geez, you couldn’t even cut a watermelon with this kind of sword.”
“Keueuk…”
There was another frustrated Dwarf in front of Death Hand.
He had spent his whole savings to obtain the highest grade of bone. A sword made from the bone of a monster!
After making a fairly decent sword from the femur of an Ogre, he let out a shout of joy.
“Alright! I finally completed the Ogre Sword!”
Before he could even share this happiness with the other Dwarves, Death Hand walked up.
“Heh, It seems pretty complicated. How did you make a sword out of the bone?”
He tried making a sword out of some Ogre bones he had, and after a few failures, he finally succeeded.
‘No way.’
The Dwarf that made the sword out of Ogre bones became focused entirely on Death Hand.
‘It can’t be. It won’t be like that this time.’
Iron is the easiest material to make a sword out of.
It was easy to change its shape after melting and beating it, and it is easy to complete the sword due to the strength of the materials. The completed sword’s durability will also increase after grinding it on a whetstone.
The inferior bone sword would not allow for mistakes during the entire process, and the material itself was especially sensitive.
Even if one was a Dwarf with high level Blacksmithing skill, they could not make the sword if they did not know how to work with the material. Death Hand had produced a few failures, but suddenly he pulled out an Ogre bone.
“That was in the treasury, it’s valuable…”
And then, after working on it for a short while, incredibly he made an Ogre Bone Sword!
It was a better sword, it also had an interesting shape.
Death Hand however, threw his sword on the ground and it smashed like pottery.
“Damn it, this is abomination! This sword won’t cut a watermelon. It won’t cut an apple. And it even won’t cut a banana!”
“Keuheuheuheug!”
Death Hand’s latest victim of the day was crying bitterly.
Without warning, Weed proudly walked up to Death Hand.
“Ahem, what should we make? Producing items must be hard for you given your lack of talent.”
His clothes gave off the smell of a novice Sculptor. With a beginner carving knife and skills that could take him over 10 hours to sculpt a squirrel.
Sculpting the tail took 4 hours, the head took 2 hours, even though he crudely made the torso, it still took a long time, and there was still the legs left to be carved.
It was a squirrel, but, without knowing where the cute feet went, it resembled a badger or weasel.
The size was about that of a wild boar and the quality would not be worth mentioning.
— As a result of a failed sculpture fame has decreased by 23.
“Keulkeulkeul.”
When it was completed, Death Hand laughed.
Anyone who saw could see the sculpture of the squirrel was a failure!
Weed once again grabbed his beginner’s carving knife with newfound motivation.
“Failure is okay because it is needed to in order to improve!”
This time, he planned on sculpting a cow.
A gentle, meek, and hard working cow.
Although he put forth more effort to sculpt the cow than the squirrel, it still turned out to be so ugly, it wasn’t worth a look.
The thickness and the length of the legs were of four different sizes and the tail was 1 cm wide!
Fortunately, the head turned out well even if the rest of the body was horrific.
There was no recognizable proof that it was a cow.
*Woodangtang!*
Even though it was a complete sculpture, it was destroyed because its meager legs could not support its weight.
It was a gruesome sight.
His sculpting skill was slowly decreasing!