Transferred to an SSS-rank Production Class

“Tch, you’re too soft.”

Kallos, with a displeased expression, tapped the armrest with his index finger. Irritation oozed from his fingertips.

“Isn’t this… isn’t this good enough?”

“Getting scared by a guy like that. You still have a long way to go, a long way.”

Calling one of the top-ranked hunters in South Korea ‘a guy like that’? Isn’t your standard too high? I protested, but Kallos didn’t even pretend to listen.

“Now that we seem to have reached an agreement, let’s get back to talking about the sword. To create legendary-rank equipment, you need at least five top-rank materials.”

“Five? If it’s top-rank, that means at least S-rank or higher…”

“That’s the minimum for me. Ah, and all the materials must be obtained from different floors.”

The thought alone was dizzying. Five top-rank materials, each from a different floor. We barely managed to clear the 19th floor after all that chaos.

My breath caught in my throat.

“We’ll find them if we look around enough.”

Choi Kwon-young muttered nonchalantly, oblivious to my anxiety about having to go to the site. From what I saw during the processing talk, Choi Kwon-young doesn’t seem to know much either. Why is he so relaxed?

“How are we supposed to get five materials of that caliber!”

“It would be difficult through conventional methods.”

Kallos spoke casually, as if it wasn’t his problem. This guy seems to know something.

I clung to Kallos’s sleeve, whining for him to help his pitiful disciple. Kallos shook his hand vigorously to dislodge me.

“You’ll stretch out the sleeve.”

“Master! Is the sleeve important right now? Please help your poor disciple.”

“Why should I? Tch, this is why players are…”

“Just a hint, just give me a hint.”

Kallos didn’t hide his annoyed expression. But the fact that he’s not being completely ruthless suggests he doesn’t really dislike it.

Choi Kwon-young just watched us with an interested gaze, without saying anything.

‘He’s not the one who’ll be doing the grunt work, after all.’

The busy Guild Master certainly won’t be procuring the material items himself. Choi Kwon-young showed no intention of helping me.

“You’re all I have, Master. Do you want to see your pitiful disciple wandering around the World Tower?”

“Can’t you let go? You’re heavy!”

“You know how fragile I am! If I die a violent death, I’ll haunt your dreams forever!”

If it doesn’t work, I’ll just have to cling on until it does. As I suddenly latched onto him, Kallos recoiled in disgust.

This person, no, this NPC has a soft spot somewhere, and that’s what I need to target. It’s taking advantage of his kindness, but there’s no other way if I want to avoid the hard work.

After a long struggle, Kallos reluctantly nodded.

“You really… Fine. I’ll tell you.”

“Master!”

“Whoa, get away. Go sit next to that guy over there.”

Success! I knew he had a kind side.

Kallos’s complexion had turned pale, clearly annoyed. I sat next to Choi Kwon-young, politely clasping my hands.

Glancing to the side, I saw Choi Kwon-young grinning. How irritating. If only our ranks were similar, I’d hit him.

Kallos, clearly reluctant, finally opened his mouth after a long pause.

“The back side of the World Tower. What you’re looking for will be there.”

Kallos continued:

“The easiest way is to defeat a strong magical beast. The probability isn’t high, but it’s relatively simple. But that would be too much for you, Gaho.”

“…Don’t poke at my weak spots.”

“So, find the back side of the World Tower. That’s all I can tell you, Gaho.”

The back side of the World Tower?

Unlike me, who couldn’t grasp anything, Choi Kwon-young seemed to have an idea. Instead of keeping it to yourself, why don’t you explain? I tapped his arm.

“He’s talking about hidden quests.”

“You mean we should aim for hidden pieces?”

Hidden pieces that transcend the system’s walls can only be obtained through hidden quests. My gaze naturally turned to Kallos.

It made sense.

The rank of hidden pieces isn’t related to the floor or quest difficulty. It was the same for me. It was worth a try.

By the way, seeing how he answered as if he’d been waiting, it seems he already knew roughly. There was a reason he watched me struggle with Kallos.

Seeing my expression, Choi Kwon-young shrugged.

“You two seem to have a good master-disciple relationship.”

“Not with that personality. Even five hidden quests won’t be easy. There’s no guarantee of getting the desired reward, and they’re not easy to find. People say it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, don’t they?”

“I have some ideas of where to look. Coincidentally, I’ve been scouring the tower recently.”

Choi Kwon-young continued, ignoring my sarcasm.

While searching for clues to the 76th floor, Choi Kwon-young says he felt something off in several places. Peculiarities he hadn’t noticed when he was desperate to conquer the floor as quickly as possible.

So while searching for the L-rank sword, he also gathered rumors from within the World Tower. And while analyzing these, he intuitively realized that this sense of incongruity might be related to hidden quests.

Even though he must have been busy with conquering the 76th floor, he still investigated separately. I knew he wasn’t just good at fighting, but experiencing it firsthand gave me a different appreciation.

‘He’s like a protagonist loaded with all sorts of settings.’

A handsome exterior, overwhelming power, and intelligence to boot. He had everything except for a decent personality. What an enviable life.

“It’s not certain, but it’s better than having no leads. I’ll narrow it down to places Hunter Yun Gaho can access.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“I’ll keep Gaho with me for the time being.”

Hey, aren’t you going to ask for my opinion?

Although there’s a lot to learn from Kallos, I didn’t intend to be cooped up here.

When I mentioned that I had to return because I had no vacation days left, Choi Kwon-young patted my shoulder, telling me not to worry.

“I’ll speak to the guild separately. Stay comfortably and learn from Kallos.”

My situation was decided just like that.

Choi Kwon-young said he had a few more things to look into and would contact me when everything was sorted out, then disappeared in a flash.

“Um, Master…”

Only after Choi Kwon-young left could I tell Kallos the reason I had sought him out.

When Kallos heard that I hadn’t succeeded with the skill even once except for the first time, he went ballistic.

“What are you saying?”

“I tried my best in my own way… I even folded paper cranes.”

“Paper cranes?”

Kallos rubbed his forehead. His gaze, as if looking at the world’s biggest idiot, made me lower my head involuntarily.

I guess paper cranes weren’t the answer after all.

“I overestimated you. Sigh, where should I even start…”

“No, you didn’t teach me anything to begin with. You just showed me your work.”

“I let you observe me closely the whole time, even personally created a quest for you, and what? I didn’t teach you anything?”

“Ah, I’m grateful for that. I would have died without that tutorial.”

“Tch, and in the meantime, you’ve picked up something strange.”

Frowning, Kallos grabbed my wrist.

Ah, right. This too. I brightened up and held out the Chimera Egg.

“Master, can’t you do something about this?”

Kallos’s expression grew increasingly distorted as he examined the Chimera Egg.

“What a crude thing…”

Kallos, who had instantly disparaged the item that was supposedly the dark mage’s greatest masterpiece, shook his head.

“Even I can’t touch a magical formula that’s already been imprinted. What were you thinking when you messed with this?”

“I was just trying to examine what it was.”

“You don’t just put mana into anything. And the name, don’t you know names have power? You shouldn’t give them carelessly. It’s too late. It’s already completely entangled.”

I tensed up for a moment, realizing it was more serious than I thought, but I relaxed when he said he’d fix it so it wouldn’t be dangerous. He really does have a soft spot after all.

Just as I thought I could breathe easy thanks to my heavenly master, Kallos struck the crown of my head with the side of his hand.

“Ouch!”

“Ignorance is a sin. It’s going to take a long time to teach you.”

After assessing my pitiful skills, Kallos explained the basic concepts of magical engineering on the first day and then confined me to the library.

“Gaho, you’re failing because your implementation of magical formulas is a mess. Even if you have good mana sensitivity, it’s meaningless if your drawing of magical formulas is sloppy. Look here. There’s a slight gap between the lines. If you do it like this, the mana circuit won’t work properly.”

Kallos pointed to a corner of the magical formula I had drawn.

“The connection method is also amateurish. For example, here. The formula for the ice attribute and the physical defense formula don’t go well together. You shouldn’t place them so close. It seems you didn’t understand why I had you observe. I didn’t realize your basic knowledge of magical engineering was this lacking.”

“I’d never even heard the term ‘magical engineering’ before. I can roughly interpret it thanks to the skill, though.”

◆◇◆◇◆

Yes, that’s when it started.

Kallos, frowning in disbelief, piled books as high as a mountain in front of me. Glancing through them, I saw they were all related to magical engineering. Titles like “Introduction to Mana Studies Even a Child Can Understand” were everywhere.

Not satisfied with burying me in a mountain of books, Kallos came in and out of the library several times a day, giving me assignments.

“Don’t even think about coming out before you’ve read all of this.”

At first, my head was spinning. The books filled with terms I’d never seen in my life were impossible to read, and I couldn’t even figure out where to start drawing the magical formulas he’d given me to copy.

How could someone who had only used their body since awakening adapt quickly to being confined in a library?

Still, my efforts to input magical engineering theory paid off as my terrible skills gradually improved. Even my dexterity stat, which hadn’t budged when folding paper cranes, increased slightly.

On the fifth day, today, I succeeded in drawing a perfect magical formula for the first time.

[Dexterity has increased by 1.]

Finally, Dexterity 10!

It was just slightly better than F-rank level.

“Player, look at this!”

At that moment, Charlotte, who had been scribbling something next to me, threw herself into my arms.