The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

Chapter 6 : The Loots' Shadow

Weed finished the MT and re-entered Royal Road.

But he didn't feel very good. It was entirely due to Seoyoon.

'I was too careless.'

Weed had face several people.

The malicious humans.

At the core, all humans are parasites leeching off on others.

The weak align themselves with the strong, while being subservient to those who are stronger than them.

Those who fail to be careful and aren't hesitant to hold back their trust are only susceptible to being exploited in the world.

The usual seeds of discord are sown once the family members can not receive much from the given salary.

The first salary he was going to receive for working was 600,000 Won; of course, that doesn't even come close to the minimum cost of living.

But at that time, he greatly thrilled.

It was the first time he could be paid in full for cost of labor.

And with the money, he planned on going on a shopping spree to buy his sister and grandmother clothing.

He was purely delighted.

But even at that low wage, the president did not give the full amount to him.

Using the terms of condition, the 'unemployment insurance' or whatever, to take from him.

Saying 'few fellow colleagues left the factory last month so being their unemployed self, each will reap 30,000 Won from you.'

At the end of all the 'difficult calculations' in order to pull few a few bucks back into the factory, he received a total of 450,000 Won.

They removed a whopping 150,000 Won.

The month after, the same thing happened.

By claiming it was for the ridiculous 'the employment insurance of employing illegal minors;' of course he did not know, so all that was left was to believe.

Only to find out later through other colleagues that he shivered from the feeling of betrayal!

The anger wasn't just placed on the president.

It was also toward his fellow colleagues, whom kept on spitting speeches about him being the youngest and through cumbersome and hard work that he could make something of himself.

Knowing he had suffered the injustice from the president was one thing, but finding out that the people he worked with used these spiel to tease him was another thing entirely.

Weed well knew he was at the bottom.

Just like those gamblers, drunkards, and debtors, not a single hope to living life!

Then having fallen down the pit a second time, it was difficult having to climb up once again.

So he did not believe in anyone easily.

Lee Hyun was confident that through his own suffering, he had already seen the many sides of people. But contrastively, Seoyoon was the first being unique from those he saw.

The completed sculpture was in fact, not pretty.

Its level could be counted as a souvenir; although there was a bit of resemblance, it was difficult to capture the feel of Seoyoon in the real.

The lack of time, tools, materials, and the many thing weighted in his mind weren't at all encouraging.

Filled with his sincerest intention, he placed it secretly in her pocket.

'I'm repaying some of the debt I owe to you.'

As in the many sculptures he made of her candidly.

No secret could be kept forever; this was simply a gesture of concession on his part to show he conceded first if it someday will be discovered.

He wanted to make sure that at least in real life he wasn't going to get beaten to death!

For dark gamers, a death within Royal Road directly correlated to the financial loss; but comparatively, it was comforting to the mind if it was just simply that out in the real world too.

By the way, the awoken Seoyoon wasn't angry.

She remained silent just like from the events to the meals preparations. Sometimes while watching Lee Hyun her face blushed as well!

'She's still drunk huh? Nah, those look as if she's angry.'

Lee Hyun was making speculation, but the reason was actually a simple one as for the why of Seoyoon's face.

'I let him see me sleeping.'

Seoyoon was just a girl.

She was embarrassed to let him see her sleeping face. And the coloring of his knee meant that she had done that for quite a long time too.

'Was my head heavy?'

She had all sorts of imagination running. Even her nose corrugated from the concerns.

So every time she turned to see Lee Hyun's face, it lit up a pinkish dye of embarrassment.

But an incident occurred when they returned to the MT group.

The chicken Lee Hyun brought. Half Sauce Half Fried.

They still had a lot of foods left over before returning safely to the mainland. It seemed as if they didn't eat as much during the MT as he thought they would.

Lee Hyun often made food for the Dojang practitioners whenever they went on training, so he bought the ingredients this time based loosely on their input.

However, the usual students' appetite weren't like them, plus this second day was just a lap around the island via boats, so the hunger built up wasn't as much as before.

So, there was a considerable amount of food ingredients still remained.

It happened during the distribution of leftover food ingredients, when Min Sura suddenly asked.

"What are we going to do about the chicken?"

"I brought him from home to eat. You want to take him?"

Lee Hyun calmly replied. It was too much of an obvious question.

If Min Sura was to get Half Sauce Half Fried, it would be more beneficial than dividing for him portions of different meat or other food ingredients.

But, the fact was that Min Sura would have difficulties carrying Half Sauce Half Fried home.

Lee Hyun added a side note.

"If you want, I can twist the neck now to make it..."

He was offering a favor.

But suddenly, Seoyoon revealed a shocked expression.

With face seemingly about to tear up, she grabbed hold of Half Sauce Half Fried with no intention of letting go.

Lee Hyun, at this impass, did not know the seriousness of the situation.

"Give me that."

"......"

"Don't mess around when it comes to food."

"......"

Yet she was still stubbornly holding onto Half Sauce Half Fried.

Lee Hyun thought perhaps Seoyoon wanted Half Sauce Half Fried to eat.

"If you insist on it, then take it. So instead, you won't get the other food materials, okay? Then please give it to me for a minute. I'll just quickly twist its neck."

Lee Hyun thoughtlessly stretched his hand out. But suddenly, tears flowed from Seoyoon's eyes.

"......"

In matter of seconds, criticism and looks of resentment gravitated toward Lee Hyun!

The Seoyoon with Half Sauce Half Fried was too cute.

No one could imagine how many hours she put into feeding grains of rice to it during the MT, and thus she developed feelings of affection towards it. She caught him with the intention to protect.

"What's going on?"

"Why's she crying?"

"Who was it!"

"Look like it was because of that chicken..."

"Seems like he forcefully tried to take the chicken and made senior Seoyoon cried?"

"How could he do something like that..."

The demonstrative power of a beauty's tears was unspeakably powerful.

The image he built during that MT trip collapsed all at once.

It was as if he was driven to an execution without a single reason given.

'Damnit!'

Lee Hyun wanted to punch himself.

Why was it he didn't have his defenses up against Seoyoon at this point.

He had anticipated her hiding her evilness all this while, and it was reprimended for lowering his guard.

This was due to him obtaining finer details about Seoyoon.

She had the presence and can imprint in people's mind of a good woman who loves life.

On the other hand, Lee Hyun received glares as if he was a savage and cruel being.

Lee Hyun was naturally victimized.

'I was diligently diving up the meat here and all of the sudden the subject switched to animal protection.'

At this point, Lee Hyun sharply observed Seoyoon.

She was weeping without a sound while gazing at Half Sauce Half Fried affectionately.

'You want to eat him as well.'

Lee Hyun was offering his service of wringing its neck, but to him it didn't seem like that was something required in her case.

'So you want to feel it while using your hands, aint it. I bet as soon as you come home you'll twist his neck on your own.'

It was hazardous for him to continue down this way, so he took a step back.

He wanted to win against the Seoyoon at least once.

"Wait of a minute. There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding, it was just a little joke...you thought I actually wanted to eat that chicken?"

Firstly, Lee Hyun decided to take an ethical attitude. Its purpose was to deceive the public.

"Please return Half Sauce Half Fried to me. I brought him up from when he was just a chick. And in fact, his entire family is living at home. So if he does not come back, Mother Hen will be very sad."

Justification and legitimacy!

It was just a short while, but Seoyoon could not rebuke against that logic.

Even if Seoyoon could open her mouth to express her intentions, she could not win against Lee Hyun in this situation.

"Give me him."

Lee Hyun confidently reached his hand toward Half Sauce Half Fried again.

It was then.

Kkokkodek!

The Half Sauce Half Fried who was on standby pecked at him!

The chicken once belongs to Lee Hyun refused to go back to him.

* * *

Weed along with the Geomchis and together with other colleagues were retargeting the Todeum castles.

32 castles remaining!

"From now on, we'll be targeting castles with maybe 40 Unicorns and Pegasus minimum, so don't be too lax."

At the moment, they were already too used to battle within the Todeum castles, that Weed didn't want to lose too much tension.

But the resulting effect was very little.

"Encircle him!"

"Get him!"

Since the beginning, the Geomchis were already used to risking their lives fighting while wounded.

Despite not having experiences, weapon, and armor necessary to go forward, they already surrounded many enemies and were busy attacking their limbs.

As for Weed, as the battle raged on, did not keep an eye out for them.

"Pale nim, Maylon nim! The Pegasus is attempting to use magic! Romuna nim, try to intercept the Unicorns' elemental summonings!"

"Yes!"

Whenever they start using magic, the level of difficulty increases tremendously. Therefore, the party had to use whatever they could in order to halt the Unicorns and Pegasus from doing so.

In the first place, if there was a distance between the two forces, the fight would turn into defeat in an instant for Weed's.

If all 40 or so of these divine creatures were to use elemental summoning and magic, it was bound to have catastrophic consequences on the opposing force.

However, fortunately, they typically like to charge in head first at the beginning.

"No way buddy!"

Geomchi felt an interest for the first time after a long while.

Nothing in Royal Road could fill him with enough tension to run a sweat down his spine.

In the real world, he had encounter several hundreds of battles, each and every time he walked away with his life.

To overcome the worries of life and death was his way of getting stronger.

Though there had been those whom were hopelessly aggressive against him, his position as the strongest was never really challenged.

Though he had been reprimanded numerous of times due to fighting; for some reason, fighting was his reason to be excited about being alive.

In the midst of the fierce battle, Geomchi briefly looked around.

The Unicorns and Pegasus were rampaging about, while the practitioners struggled in order to stop them.

Their battle buddies as well as colleagues also brandished their weapons in order to win.

Each and every one of them struggled on desperately as they fought.

It felt as if this was the real urgency of a war.

The encirclement tactic, while seeming dangerous, pretty much held up against the unruly movement of the creatures.

"Let me have a go!"

"Unicorn meat tonight!"

The units under Geomchi2 and Geomchi3 shouted.

Geomchi and the instructors were pleased while fighting, which also lit the fighting spirit of the practitioners.

They continued deploying this fighting method while not backing down in the slightest.

"Our sword is invincible!"

"Our sword is invincible!"

The Geomchis shouted their slogan in unison. Even during this seeming war situation, they did not care a single bit.

Hwaryeong had put seven creatures to sleep.

Even with that, there were still 34 of the beasts left, and the circumstance was overwhelming.

While holding back just two of these divine creatures, five of the Geomchis had already lost their lives.

While the rotten armors made from the dragon's bone they wore increased their primary defenses; but if they were struck with an excruciatingly damaging piercing blow, the damage would directly result onto their bodies.

The reason why many were able to barely hang on was because of the organization of the encirclement tactic they practiced.

As the situation grew increasingly precarious due to the accumulated damages dealt by the Unicorns and Pegasus, Weed scored a yell.

"Tori!"

Tori in his black cape while majestically played around with the Pegasus, replied.

"Why you call?"

"We have to change tactics now. You do not focus on just one single beast, agro as many of their attention as possible and kite them."

In short, put up with being pummeled!

Weed also gave the similar order to the Death Knight.

"Van Hawk! Focus on defense rather than attack."

"As the owner's command."

The Death Knight showed his loyalty.

But Tori did not cooperate.

If he was able to kill one his own, his growth would be substantial.

But he did not want to bear all of their oncoming attacks alone.

"I'm sorry but I will not do as you asked."

Tori simply refused.

The subordinate relationship he had with Weed had ended. So there was no reason to comply to Weed request this time around.

Furthermore, he was now engaged in an all-out battle to do anything else!

Weed cried out.

"I will give Mapan nim!"

Tori could not understand what was said and blinked his eyes.

"Why?"

"So you can drink heartily!"

"If under that condition then OK!"

Got a deal!

Weed had sold Mapan willingly for the deal.

"Weed nim."

Mapan built a frown, but Weed remained cool.

"This is your battle to obtain more loot."

"LOOT! Gulp!"

Mapan swallowed his built up saliva.

Not all the loot obtained at the same.

Let propose that the most expensive parts from wolves or foxes are the claws and fangs if they're obtainable.

But any drops from the Unicorns and Pegasus would be on a different dimension altogether from those.

For any piece of loot, one can receive more than 10 Gold per!

Mapan shouted.

"Please leave it to me!"

* * *

Bread, cake, beverages.

Movie tickets, concert tickets, figures, games, CD, etc... whenever he wanted any of these, he'd go and sell his blood.

So given since childhood, he had been funding himself through selling his blood; doing so now wouldn't have been a big deal.

Tori with Mapan at his side were fending off attacks from Unicorns and Pegasus left and right.

Whenever his health declines, he would plug his fangs into Mapan's nape and take how blood supplements!

"Tornado Blade!"

Tori used his skill without a hint of hesitation.

From then on, the watching from side line Mapan that wasn't suited for fighting also had several tense moments.

Thanks to Tori's guerilla assault of hit and kite, the practitioners could take turn for a breather.

Since then, Weed began focusing on one at a time and knocking them down.

Due to not being able to focus the intensity of the attacks, the battle dragged on nearly twice as long as before, and was victorious afterward.

A time for a bit of rest and relaxation!

They had come out victorious after a lot of difficult battles, but there are still more than 30 castles remained.

"Something like this is an A grade difficulty quest, eh."

Geomchi2 let out a prideful smile.

"It's interesting as well. It really sends shivers down my spine!"

Geomchi was already getting prepared to putting an end to resting and go back to fighting.

"C'mon, let's go. It's unfortunate that we only have 30 more of these interesting battles."

For those that enjoy battle, it was something not to get excited about.

Pale and the party mustered up some energy.

The battles were hard but even more rewarding. The focus during the fight was just the battle at hand without a single pause.

The divine beasts they had to battle at this point always numbered above 60. Each and every battle, everybody fulfilled their role without a single one slacking off.

During the battle in the 19th castle against these beasts, Geomchi, the instructors, and all the practitioners crossed the threshold of 293.

The growth rate was incredible.

Aside from receiving the basic experience points from the Unicorns and Pegasus, the additional combat experience was the greatest gain.

After having looked at his level, Geomchi9 said.

"Leveling is easy."

Geomchi11 agrees.

"I know huh. When we hunted on our own here and there, it was really slow in comparison to how easy it is to level when we hunt with Weed."

As soon as he heard, Pale's head began to spin.

Usually when people hear these words, they would jump up to yell.

"Leveling this way is by no mean easier!"

Leveling beyond level 200 was something similar to having stuck in traffic.

As the required experience point to reach the next level increases exponentially, even killing similarly level monsters give little to nothing EXP.

However, the Geomchis do not know the meaning of mental fatigue along with the excessive movements of the body.

18 hours of hunting a day and even more so when having the pleasure of hunting in groups.

Here, Weed is unusually fast.

By simply belong to the party he leads, they are forced to be immerse in the battle he makes.

Ridiculous hunting speed!

Eating and hunting, he pushes them to their limits.

Weed's level was at 347 at a sudden speed.

But that was just the level not mentioning his other growth.

Fencing, Archery, Magic, and other kinds of combat skills! Attacking skills' development also had their growth.

To get beyond the Intermediate levels and reaching the Advanced levels of skills, through conventional means was difficult due to having numerous skills; however, it was easier here thanks to the strength of the monsters he battled against.

Precision attacks to increase hit rates against the monsters that are higher level than you are, you can obtain a healthier amount than the usual.

Through this method, the proficiency of his skills, too, rose significantly.

Then, Maylon asked as if it suddenly struck her.

"Oh, Weed nim."

"Yes?"

"Why haven't you sculpt a sculpture by now?"

Sewing, Blacksmithing, Bandage, Herbs, Cooking, and combat skills!

Weed had raise the proficiency of all other skill but not sculpting. She was quite curious about the reason why.

To Weed, there were circumstances.

Until now he had been shearing wood to making wooden sculptures in his spare time whenever possible.

But he did not try to create something in the earnest.

'A large sculpture. There's no space to make such a thing.'

To create one of ten meters or more meant having to stick close to the sculpture and working on it for weeks.

Procuring the material was also a problem.

So besides having to create a huge sculpture, he would need to find something fitting the size along with the difficulty of it being a worthy material.

Then again, Todeum was a place filled many perfected compositions and a considerable number of sculptures.

They have not discovered Classic or Magnum pieces as of yet, but there are decent sculptures and pictures to gain proficiency through viewing so he did not feel the need to make a piece.

Weed explained it simply.

"The inspiration to create a piece has not hit me as of yet. And in Todeum vampires' castles, there are a lot of paintings and sculptures yet to be discover."

"Ah, so that's it."

Quickly convinced, Maylon pulled away from going deeper. Hwaryeong seemingly brooded over something, asked.

"Does it need to be some specific tree or stone for you to sculpt something?"

"Huh?"

"That is, I figured if it's something you'd want to express, such things wouldn't matter much anyway."

In the vampire's castles, the majority of the sculptures founded were carved into the walls or ceilings.

Though some are simply too plain and nothing like the grandly crafted statues to attract much attention.

Hwaryeong wondered.

"Why does it need to be something physical to make the statues?"

Weed recalled the light tower he made in Morata.

Rather than the beauty of the Light Tower itself, the harmony of lights refracted shown an even greater beauty.

He even obtained 'The sculptor that governs light' as a nickname!

Due to it being so amazingly creative and expressive!

For a Sculptor, there's no better praise than that.

In reality, Weed was unaware he was dubbed as such since it surfaced from the forums.

If it was something outside money unlike something as the fox he sculpted and sold for 3 Silvers; rumors and such things was nothing for him to be concerned about.

Hwaryeong was overestimating Weed.

The Light Tower was not something he was susceptible to create at any point in time.

"You made the Light Tower from light, why not do the same with a statue?"

Weed considered seriously.

'It's true that I've been neglecting sculpture.'

Todeum itself was a very good hunting ground. Because of so, he excessively obsessed with hunting and sculpting remained on the sideline forgotten.

'Light based sculpture.'

There was some sort of potential seen in sculpting the moonlight. Although it was a bit awkward for him to find his footing, the Moonlight Sculptor has yet to disappoint.

Weed pondered about what to create because he still did not have an idea after all had said.

"Hmmmm."

"What kind of sculpture will be good?"

"What was made and still have words going around?"

"It has to fit into the limited ability of light being able to take shape."

Everybody pondered.

Having fought in the castles, they would ponder over this in the middle of break time and still had trouble coming up with something.

'So this is the pain of creativity.'

'Art takes more time anguishing over what to make than actually making it huh.'

Even a vague concept as to how to create the sculpture had not been suggested.

After all the contemplations, Sureuka spoke.

"Well, how about this? Conversely of light, how about demonstrating the shadow's?"

Showing an expression of not being able to get what Sureuka was talking about, Romuna looked at her.

"Shadow what?"

"The shadows of things. Using the shadow as a piece of created artwork."

"What do you mean by making an artwork through shadows?"

"If there an object, then there's a shadow. We can create some form by means of shadows like shadow puppeteer, y'know."

"I think that's not a bad idea, but is it feasible to create something through shadows and is it worth doing so?"

Romuna was dubious. To use an object and expresses it through its shadow didn't appear to be tasteful.

But Weed regarded as a very good idea.

The usual Sculptor with common sense wouldn't have easily attempted this idea, but he saw the advantage that could be found from this.

'Instead of light, express it with shadows huh. Though this mean, I can make it as big as I can try.'

Composition!

Weed's desired formation!

There was no need to get the materials also.

There are tons of materials that create shadows!

Weed made the decision in matter of seconds.

"The loot. Ima use the loots to create the sculpture."

This expensive piece's materials will come from the items obtained through the hunt so this was an ambitious plan of creating a sculpture!

"Good."

"Wherever you see."

Believed in Weed's ability, Geomchi and the instructors readily pulled out their mats.

Everybody's loots gathered in one place.

The gathered mats obtained from the land of vampires were a tremendous amount settled all in one place!

Given the fact that the loots were simple ingredient materials, the price of all these gathered here could amount to hundreds of thousands of Gold.

"I think this amount should be sufficient."

Weed went to a hill located near Todeum to create a tower of loot that was about five meters high.

Ttiring!

It didn't even match normal works.

With the current Weed's carving skills, his smaller animal sculptures also have Artistic Values.

But compare to those completed pieces.

"It's still not done yet."

Weed did not stop there.

The amount used was not even 1/10th of the amount gathered.

"It's a start."

Weed continued stacking the loots as its size and height unrelentingly grew.

Ttiring!

Weed did not stop building the tower there. It was still smaller than he had originally envisioned it to be.

'Gotta lay the basic foundation or else it'll fall in the future.'

He continued to strengthen its foundation as the tower constantly rises.

Carefully lain where the mats would be placed.

Including empty space intentionally left bare was also considered.

'Three moons. The brightest light should be... I should take into the changes and the path of each moon.'

Though seemingly easy to start; at this point, it was never easy.

Two days spent building the tower.

The loot's tower size was overwhelming.

The topmost of the thing was at a staggering 50 meters!

He completely used up all the materials gathered.

"We need more mats. Let's hunt again."

He began hunting Unicorns and Pegasus in Todeum's castles once again.

Every time they did so, the loots obtained made the tower to continually grow bigger and bigger.

Feathers, pieces of broken glass, metal fragments, arrowhead and roots; along with other forms of ingredient materials, the tower was in a state of beauty that was difficult to comprehend.

It was then, the tower exceeded 55 meters.

Ttiring!

Finally a Classic!

Even if it was just a few percentage increase in the drop rate of an item, that in itself was a great effect.

At this point of the hunt, the tower was a desperate necessity.

Weed continues to put in the effort by piling up the loot whenever he could.

With the consistent endeavor in doing so, the tower reached the height of 60 meters. And with that, the purpose of the tower was achieved.

"Fufufu."

Weed sat on top of the result and smiled.

Today was the last.

'The trouble was rewarding.'

Building the loot's tower was rather easier than sculpting a piece.

With just one wrong move while carving, an irreversible scar will remain on the piece for all time.

Still, the tower had to be completed within the certain time so he had to work on it on an hourly basis.

"But still, it's safely completed."

Weed just sat and waited for the time which watching the finished product.

Balun, Gorun, and Seyirun.

The three moons peaked through the fog and were approaching the center of the sky.

The moons shine brightly.

Todeum's unusually bright moonlights shone and everything seems as if it was out in daytime.

The tower bathes in the moonlights' glow.

Gold and silver, jewels and swords, along with armors were glistening in the moonlights.

Having swept all of Todeum's artwork and viewing them, the completed loot's tower was many more times beautiful in the moonlights.

Weed's breathing became a slight pant.

"Heoeok. So beautiful!"

He was more ecstatic about this piece more so than any thus far.

Who you think he is! This was a towering pile of cash of loots that he could sit on.

A dark gamer's dream!

Weed was thrilled.

'All this money. I'm sitting on money.'

The accumulated sea of loot he could swim in, the mountain of loot he could sit on, and even able to take a nap on; Weed happiness was peaked such as the sunrise at the highest point in the sky.

'Have the relish the money made from this as well.'

Still continuing, the shadow of the tower loomed toward Todeum.

The tower's changing shadow.

He depended on the positions of the three moons for the transformation of the shadow.

The tower shadow's shape was becoming more and more evidently specific.

Ttiring!

Non-physical sculpture through shadow!

The compensation for the completion of the first ever attempt was tremendous.

"A piece with no regret. A well done work!"

Weed also felt very relieved.

His work still seemed to be deemed within the law of sensibility of the artists!

If he did not mention the meaning of the piece, then the degree of understanding and fulfillment was hard to feel.

But anyone can easily recognize the implication of the piece through the shadow of the tower.

The shadow of the tower shows just one figure.

A man.

Twisting the neck of a chicken.

He still did not let go of the grudge!

The sadness of not being able to eat Half Sauce Half Fried was evident through the shadow of the tower.