Volume 12 Chapter 9

Volumer 12, Chapter 9: "Elemental Sculpturing Skill"

Elemental Sculpturing Skill
Volume:	12
Chapter:	9
Chapter Chronology
← Previous	Volume 12 Chapter 8
Next →	Volume 12 Chapter 10

Short Summary

After sending Kolderim's soul back to the Versailles Continent, Weed and his companions search around the Todeum Treasury for their 1 item reward from completing the A-Rank Quest. Amongst the level-400 unique items, Hwaryeong is seen picking out a Celine's Fan weapon that provides her Dancer class the Fan Dance item skill, and the Geomchis are all seen picking out level-400 unique swords that they can't use just yet due to their low level. Meanwhile, Weed's treasury search eventually brings him across Paskran's Lance, which is a unique item that is being sought after by a user on the Dark Gamers Union website. However, Weed chooses to ignore it for now since he desires a weapon that he can use right away.

Continuing the search, Weed eventually stumbles across an old level-440 unique sword. He identifies it, and it turns out to be Kolderim's Old Sword, which has been left in a heavily damaged state having been through countless battles wielded by Kolderim. Knowing a sword with the ability to cut demons has huge potential, Weed is left alone in the treasury to repair the sword to the best of his current capability using a new batch of Mithril. After a day's worth of repair work, Weed's unable to forge the sword back to its true original state due to his Repair skill only being at the Intermediate level, but he still manages to transform it into a worthy Kolderim Daemon Sword. Satisfied with the sword, Weed chooses it as his 1 item reward, and then exits the treasury to return to his companions. Meanwhile, a level-520 unique weapon known as the Ego Sword that went unnoticed in the back of the treasury is left questioning if anyone is truly worthy of wielding it.

On the real life side of things, KMC Media's broadcast of their "Weed" program has dropped to the bottom of the ratings due to the beginning of Weed's adventure in the vampire's village of Seirun coming off more like a comedy sitcom rather than a grand adventure. However, the ratings pick up when viewers begin to see Weed and company in action completing the Seirun quests. Director Kang and his colleagues continue to hold out hope that the ratings will continue to increase since the upcoming broadcasts will be starting the footage of Weed's party taking on Todeum's A-Rank Quest.

Back to Royal Road, Todeum city has transformed itself into a major quest hub now that the vampires can set up shop and roam the streets that were once controlled by the Unicorns and Pegasus. Mapan takes advantage of this as the first Merchant to trade items with the vampires while Weed and company explore around for potential quests. One such quest-giver they come across is a vampire named Metson, who provides them a quest to explore problems going on east of the city. However, Metson refuses to give it to Weed right away. The vampire explains that the battle against the Unicorns and Pegasus resulted in many sculptures becoming damaged, and since they know that Weed is a Sculptor, he offers Weed an F-Rank Quest to sculpt repair his damaged "Child Holding an Apple Figure" sculpture. Despite wanting to take on quests with his companions, Weed comes to realize that he's been put on the spot, and is forced to bring himself to accept taking on the repair quest.

After a couple hours of repair work, Weed eventually completes the F-Rank Quest to repair Metson's sculpture. Before he could return to questing with his companions however, Weed is met by 100s of more of Todeum's vampires that desire to have their sculptures repaired. Overall, Weed ends up stuck to Todeum city as he takes on 100s of sculpture repair quests ranging from ranks F to B. After 2 and a half months of work, Weed completes all the Todeum sculpture repair quests. Along with receiving many repair payments, Weed receives a lot of experience gain for his Advanced Sculpture Mastery and Handicraft skills, which brings the two skills close to a full level-up. In addition, his Sculptural Comprehension skill gains many level-ups due to the amount of sculptures that needed repair, and is now close to breaking into the Advanced stage.

While working on the sculpture repairs, Weed had begun to hear voices asking him to sculpt them since he's proven himself to be an advanced enough Sculptor that can pull it off. He sculpts a couple human statues to try to appease to the voices, but they are left disappointed at the result. Despite said disappointment however, the voices continue to pop up in Weed's head asking to sculpt them.

Following one of their quest adventures, Weed's companions return to Todeum city, and see that Weed has completed his sculpture repair work. Weed gets excited knowing that he can finally rejoin them to take some normal quests around Todeum, but Pale provides him the bad news that other than being unable to push further on a couple B-Rank Quests, the party has already completed all the quests ranging from ranks D to B during the time that Weed was working on sculpture repairs for the past 2 and a half months. Weed also notices that while Geomchis 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are still alive, only 97 practitioners remain due to many dying while questing around Todeum. 

Despite wanting to continue on, Weed concludes that their numbers have dwindled too much to try to take on the remaining high-ranked Todeum quests, and comes to the decision that their adventure in the land of vampires is pretty much over at this point. However, Weed notes that he still wishes to do one last thing before returning to the Versailles Continent. The one thing being to take on the Unranked Quest of clearing the Intermediate Training Hall within Todeum city's Hero's Tower. Before heading off to the Hero's Tower, Weed takes a moment to return to his Mysterious Shadow Tower so that he can dismantle it for all his loot back.

Characters

• Real Life
  • Director Kang
  • KMC Media's Manager of Operations
• Royal Road
  • Weed's Todeum Party
    • Weed
      • Karichwi (mentioned)
    • Mapan
    • Pale's Party
      • Pale
      • Surka (dead, ousted from Todeum)
      • Romuna
      • Irene
      • Hwaryeong
      • Zephyr
      • Maylon
      • Seechwi
      • Yurin (logged out)
    • The Geomchis
      • Geomchi
      • Geomchi 2
      • Geomchi 3
      • Geomchi 4
      • Geomchi 5
      • Geomchi 6-505 (403 dead practitioners in total ousted from Todeum)
  • Kolderim (mentioned
  • Paskran (mentioned)
  • Metson (Todeum quest-giver)
  • Seoyoon (mentioned)
  • Dain (mentioned)

Quests

• A-Rank Quest: "The Request from an Unknown Vampire" (After sending Kolderim's soul back to the Versailles Continent, Weed and company wrap up the quest by each picking out their 1 item reward from the Todeum Treasury.)
• Unranked Quest: "Built by Ancient People, The Hero's Tower" (Weed decides that it's finally time to take on the Intermediate Training Center of the Hero's Tower.)
• (Metson offers Weed and company an unnamed quest to investigate problems that have popped up east of Todeum City. He refues to give it to Weed until the Sculptor fixes his "Child Holding an Apple Figure" sculpture.)
• F-Rank Quest: "The Broken Child Holding an Apple Figure" (Weed accepts, and completes.)
• (Along with Metson's F-Rank repair quest, Weed ends up receiving hundreds of more sculpture repair quests from Todeum's vampires ranging from F to B-Rank, which takes him 2 and a half months to finally complete them all.)
• (For 2 and a half months, Weed's companions take on many of Todeum city's  D, C, and B-Rank quests while Weed is left alone to complete all of Todeum's sculpture repair quests. One of the Todeum quests has Weed's companions locating a safe area for oppressed vampire ethnic groups. Another of Todeum quests has Mapan providing supplies to a vampire ethnic group. Some other quests included hunting dangerous monsters, locating necessities, and finding lost children.)

Items

• Todeum Treasury
  • Cleric Gowns
  • Wizard Robes
  • Gloves With Boosted Strength
  • Celine's Fan (Hwaryeong picks as her reward choice)
  • Level 400 Unique Swords (Each Geomchi picks as their reward choice)
  • Paskran's Lance
  • Kolderim's Old Sword (Weed repairs it, which transforms into Kolderim Daemon Sword)
    • Kolderim Daemon Sword (Weed picks as his reward choice)
  • Ego Sword
• Weed's Items
  • Mithril (Weed uses to repair Kolderim's Old Sword)
  • Blacksmith Hammer
  • Blacksmith Furnace
  • Sweet Potato
  • Stone Bonding Agent
  • Paint
• Todeum Vampire Stores
  • Broken Unicorn Wings
  • Pegasus Horns
  • Freshly Received Blood
  • Todeum Arts
  • Todeum Handicrafts
  • Jewels
• Mapan's Items
  • Carpets
  • Furs
  • Jewels
• "Child Holding an Apple Figure" Sculpture (Weed repairs for Metson)
• Male and Female Human Being Statues (Weed sculpts to try to appease to the voices he's been hearing)
• 100s of Todeum Sculptures (Weed repairs)
• Weed's Sculpture Repair Rewards
  • 3 Unicorn Feathers
  • Knight Swords
  • Gloves
  • Armor
• The Mysterious Shadow Tower (Weed decides to dismantle it to get all his loot back.)

Stats and Skills

• Weed
  • Item Identification Skill
  • Repair Intermediate Skill
  • Sculpture Mastery Advanced Skill
  • Handicraft Advanced Skill
  • Sculptural Comprehension Intermediate Skill (levels up to 9)
• Hwaryeong
  • Dance (mentioned)
• Celine's Fan
  • Fan Dance (item skill)
• Vampires
  • Stealth (mentioned)

Trivia

1. After sending Kolderim's soul back to the Versailles Continent, Weed's begin searching around the Todeum Treasury for their 1 item reward for completing the A-Rank Quest. There are over 450 items to choose from all at the unique level of 400 or more. Amongst the items are Cleric Gowns, Wizard Robes, and Gloves With Boosted Strength.
2. Hwaryeong picks out an unknown fan weapon as her item choice. Weed identifies it, which it turns out to be a level 400 Celine's Fan with 55 durability and 12-21 damage. It's an eastern style bamboo folding fan with 12 different kinds of colorful silk. It has quick flick ability, has small grains of gems embedded in it, and can be seen in the dark due to its beauty. Dancers are usually seen wielding this fan due to its seduction allure it gives off. Class restrictions include needing to be a Bard or Dancer, being at least level 400, and at least 620 Attractiveness. However, restrictions are reduced by 25% if a Dancer is famous or has at least 700 Attractiveness. Equip bonuses include +60 Attractiveness and Charisma, +30 Stamina, +20 Agility, Bard skills have 20% more effectiveness, and Dancer skills have 40% more effectiveness. Dancers who use Celine's Fan will also be able to use the Fan Dance skill.
3. The Fan Dance is an Advanced level very elegant easter style item skill from using Celine's fan. Monsters with Intelligence will fall in shame and suffer damage. Using on teammates lifts their morale, applies status recovery, and increased combat capacity by 15%. Favor with royal family and noble members can increase if the dance is used before them during times of peace. Finally, Attractiveness and Charisma is increased by 80% while doing the dance.
4. Hwaryeong decides on the Celine's Fan as her quest reward simply because its beautiful. Meanwhile, the Geomchis all pick out level 400 unique swords as their 1 item rewards despite being low leveled. The reason being that knowing they will eventually be able to use the sword gives them a motivation to continue getting stronger.
5. Weed searches around the Todeum Treasury for his 1 quest item reward. He comes a lance weapon, and identifies it. Said weapon turns out to be Paskran's Lance, which has 60 durability and deals 79-97 damage. The lance is said to have been used by Knight Paskran during the Reign of Chaos, but all other info is unknown. Restrictions include needing to be a Knight, Spearman or Paladin. Equip bonuses include 3 times as much damage when riding on horseback, and +65% critical strike chance when penetrating the enemies shield or armor.
6. Weed remembers how a user on the Dark Gamers Union website was searching for Paskran's Lance paying as much as 2,000,000 won to get it, but he ignores it for the time being since he desires to receive a weapon that he can use right away.
7. Weed comes across an old level 440 sword in the Todeum Treasury and identifies it. Said sword turns out to be Kolderim's Old Sword with 12 out of 27 remaining durability and deals 16-37 damage. The sword is said to have been used by the famous Knight of Kallamore Kingdom, and was crafted for Kallamore by one of the best Blacksmiths for 3 months, pouring his heart and soul into creating the weapon. The Blacksmith created the sword with more graceful elegance and is splendidly ornate compared to all previous works. Due to countless battles, the sword is now rugged, and the decorations have fallen off. The sword's current damaged form is a result of battles against the vampires, but it still retains some power from a lesser Ice Daemon. Restrictions include needing to be a Knight, and to be at least level 440. Equip bonuses include being able to cut demons, +2 Strength, +3 Dexterity, and +25 Fame.
8. Believing that there's more to an old and damaged level 440 unique sword, Weed pulls out some Mithril, and sets up his Blacksmith furnace ready to repair it. After 2 hours of hammering off the rust, the gold parts of the sword start to show. After another 7 hours of hammering, Weed's companions decide to head off, and leave Weed alone in the treasury. Another another 6 hours of work (for a total of 15), Weed eventually completes repairs on Kolderim's Old Sword.
9. Weed eats a Sweet Potato while working on repairing Kolderim's Old Sword. This is due to his Satiation dropping below 20% through continuous work.
10. Weed reidentifies the sword, and is now revealed to have become the Kolderim Daemon Sword with 160 durability and now deals 103-121 damage. The information is the same as what was said on Kolderim's Old Sword other than it being a weapon that has gone through major repair. However, said repairs couldn't fully return the sword to its original state due to the repairer being nowhere as skilled as the original creator. Restrictions include needing to be a Knight, at least level 440, 500 or more stats in Strength, Agility, Charisma, Leadership, Fighting Spirit and Faith, and at least 12,000 Fame. Equip bonuses include being able to cut demons, the ability to inflict up to 7 different curses with each attack, weak monsters withering at the sight of the sword's owner, +20 Strength, +36 Agility, 150% increased Leadership on Human wielders, +3% attack speed, +46% magic resistance, and +2,500 Fame.
11. Satisfied with the Kolderim Daemon Sword, Weed chooses it as his 1 quest reward. He then departs from the Todeum Treasury to return to his companions while also thinking that he will remember to pick up his reward from Kallamore Kingdom for freeing Kolderim when the time comes.
12. Amongst the Todeum Treasury is a level 520 unique weapon known as an Ego Sword that went completely unnoticed in the obscure darkness. Having a mind of its own, the Ego Sword wonders if anyone is truly worthy of wielding it having deemed Weed as someone unworthy.
13. For KMC Media, ratings for their "Weed" program are low due to the comedic tone of the series where viewers watch the Geomchis acting like idiots when Weed's party were adventuring and questing in the Seirun vampire village. Ratings are only between 2-4% compared to other broadcasts showing off footage of the newly opened frontier of the Northern Continent, which brings in up to 16% ratings.
14. KMC Media's Manager of Operations sends a letter to Director Kang basically begging Kang for better footage to show. In return, Kang trolls the manager with a reply letter stating that he sent roses to his wife, and hopes that they can play golf again some time.
15. Ratings for the "Weed" program eventually increases up to 5.5% once Weed's party have wrapped up the Seirun quests. This is due to viewers being impressed by the Geomchis' combat skills, and Weed showing off Cooking, Sewing, and Blacksmithing all at once. In addition, viewers are becoming more interested in seeing the vampire Todeum Kingdom.
16. The "Weed" program having a 5.5% viewership puts them at the bottom of the ratings compared to other broadcast companies. As a result, they're unable to sell advertising space, and are now only allowed to run 1 "Weed" episode each week compared to 2. However, Kang and company are still hoping the ratings will rise since the next broadcast is the start of Weed's party taking on the Todeum A-Rank Quest.
17. Todeum city is now a bustling place of vampires having set up shop. Some of the items they're selling include Broken Unicorn Wings, Pegasus Horns, Freshly Received Blood, Arts, Handicrafts, and Jewels. Other places of interest include a black magic school, underground relic dealers, and locations where vampires can drink fresh blood. In addition, Todeum city has become a major quest hub where vampires offer quests ranging from rank F to B.
18. As a Merchant, Mapan takes advantage of being the first to sell to the Todeum vampires. He uses the Carpets, Furs, and Jewels that he had in stock.
19. Weed and company come across a quest-giver in the city named Metson, who offers them a quest to investigate problems that have popped up in the east. Weed's companions accept the quest, but Metson ends up refusing to give it to Weed. Metson explains that many sculptures were destroyed as a result of the battle against the Unicorns and Pegasus, and since they know that Weed is a Sculptor, he wishes for Weed to fix his "Child Holding an Apple Figure" sculpture.
20. Metson offers Weed an F-Rank Quest to fix the broken "Child Holding an Apple Figure" sculpture. The sculpture is said to have been purchased by Metson 36 years ago for 120 gold coins. Due to recent damage, the sculpture can only be repaired by an exceptional Sculptor with keen eyes. Repair payment is 3 Unicorn Feathers, one needs to be a Sculptor to take on the quest, and refusing to take the quest will result in Metson's trust falling.
21. Weed tries to refuse the quest claiming that he's only interested in creating new things, which results in Metson's trust dropping. Weed then tries to return the focus to the investigation quest that his companions but, but Metson refuses once more claiming that a human who won't repair a sculpture doesn't deserve it.
22. Despite not being happy about it, Weed realizes that he has no choice but to take on the repair quest. He gets back on Metson's good side claiming that while new creations are important to him, he's interested in seeing the sculpture that holds Metson's interest. Weed also claims that he's only interested in the beauty and noble value of sculptures, and not what price he can fetch for it. Shortly after, Metson gives him the quest.
23. Weed's party heads off to do Metson's investigation quest while Weed is left alone in the city to do the "Child Holding an Apple Figure" repairs. The damage to the sculpture includes the boy's neck being broken off, the apple having holes, and minor inconsistencies to the torso and legs. Weed figures that it will take him at least 3 hours to fix it.
24. A construction item known as Stone Bonding Agent can be bought from item and sculpture shops. Buying it can cost up to 2 silver coins per barrel.
25. Weed is someone who blushes at the thought of remembering that to sculpt Seoyoon, he had to sculpt out her breasts and buttocks.
26. Using some Stone Bonding Agent, Weed begins repairs on the "Child Holding an Apple Figure." He nails the head back onto the neck, and carved a new apple for the boy to hold. Finally, he smoothed out the minor damages of the torso and legs. Overall, Metson is satisfied with the repairs, which completes the F-Rank Quest.
27. Weed receives Metson's investigation quest that his companions are already on, but before he could leave, hundreds of vampires are now before Weed hoping for sculpture repairs as well. Some of which are paying as much as 15 gold coins for repairs.
28. On the 1st day of sculpture repairs, Weed repairs 8 F-Rank sculptures that weren't that difficult to repair.
29. On the 2nd day of sculpture repairs, Weed starts having to do E-Rank sculpture repairs. Some vampires ask for more than 1 sculpture repair, and some were damaged wood sculptures. Damage was also more severe to the point that he had to recreate various sculpture parts.
30. On the 3rd day of sculpture repairs, Weed had fixed up to 29 E-Rank sculptures by this point. Due to only being rank E or F quests, the Fame and rewards are still pretty low.
31. Weed's stat increases are shown after one of the sculpture repairs to show what he's usually rewarded with. Sculpture Mastery gains some experience, and he receives +2 Fame and +1 Art stat. Sculptural Comprehension also eventually gains a level due to the many sculpture repairs.
32. 1 month passes of Weed continuously repairing Todeum sculptures. Sometimes, he had to apply new paint, or had to sculpt a new duplicate due to the damage being to severe to the point of being impossible to fix. Making duplicates turned out to be a great way to gain some experience in Handicraft.
33. Some of the Todeum sculptures that Weed carved were beautiful women that resembled the land, sky, and sun.
34. After many sculpture repairs, Weed's Sculpture Mastery remains at Advanced level 4, but now sits at 54% completion to the next level. Handicraft also remains at Advanced level 4, but now sits at 42% completion to the next level. Weed comes to realize that in order to achieve mastery in Handicraft, being a simple combat class is not going to get it done.
35. It's said that when Knights or Warriors are about ready to advance their class, they will obtain increased stamina, and their damage output will increase.
36. Weed spends a moment comparing himself to the Geomchis. Overall, Weed knows that while his increases stat points give him a slight edge, his melee ability doesn't compare to the Geomchis since Weed has to rely on his unique Sculptor combat abilities in order to keep up. Weed figures that his odd optimization makes it difficult to judge how he compares to someone else.
37. Due to repairing sculptures for a month, Sculptural Comprehension ends up gaining many levels having increased all the way up to Intermediate level 7. Happy by the results, Weed gives off a vulgar laugh similar to how he laughs as Orc Karichwi.
38. 2 and a half months have now passed since Weed began to repair Todeum city sculptures. Completing as high as B-Rank repair quests, all the sculptures are about done being repaired at this point, which shocks Weed's companions whenever they return to the city seeing all the work that Weed has done.
39. Weed's Sculpture Mastery and Handicraft skills are now both close to reaching Advanced level 5 after doing 2 and a half months of sculpture repairs. In addition, Sculptural Comprehension has gone up to Intermediate level 9, and is now close to breaking into the Advanced stage.
40. It turns out that while repairing, Weed has begun to hear voices in his head after his level 4 Advanced Sculpture Mastery skill passed 50% experience towards level 5. These voices beg Weed to sculpt them knowing that Weed has become capable of doing so. The voices would sometimes yell angrily at Weed with threats if they don't get sculpted.
41. Weed figures that the voices might just be a vampire joke. The reason being that the vampires come with a Stealth skill where they can roam around completely concealed, especially at night.
42. To try to appease the voices, Weed carves male and female human being statues. However, the voices state their disappointment, which leaves Weed confused as to what he's supposed to do. Even after stating their disappointment, the voices still keep trying to convince Weed to sculpt them.
43. Upon completing the Todeum sculpture repairs, Weed looks over the quest rewards he received. Amongst the loot, some of it includes Knight Swords, and different types of gloves and armors. Weed's companions all remain in amazement at all the work he did, even giving him nicknames, such as "Emperor of Physical Labor," or "Fallen God of Hard Work."
44. Weed gets excited knowing that he can finally go back to questing with his companions. However, Pale is the one to provide him the bad news that while they ignored the F and E-Rank quests, they've already completed a majority of Todeum's D to B-Rank quests. Pale notes that there's a few B-Rank quests left, but due to other circumstances and risks, they were denied from being allowed to take them on.
45. Weed's companions questing for 2 months in Todeum greatly increased their trust with the vampires to the point of the vampires being able to establish a New Order, and being able to negotiate with small ethnic groups. Some of the quests included finding new locations for oppressed vampires to live, or Mapan obtaining a trade quest to provide supply for the ethnic groups.
46. Todeum's small ethnic groups are said to live in peace within caves of forests. The quests they provided Weed's companions include hunting dangerous monsters, finding necessities, and locating lost children.
47. By completing Todeum's repair quests, Weed was able to regain two-thirds of the Fame he lost for hunting Unicorns and Pegasus. However, he still remains disappointed that he has yet to receive a good reward payment ever since Todeum city was cleared out.
48. Weed notices that the Geomchis lost a bunch more Geomchis while they were out questing. They had a total of 174 remaining after the battle against the Unicorns and Pegasus, but the numbers have now dropped to 102. Geomchis 1-5 were still alive. 
49. Due to the low amount of remaining Geomchis, Weed comes to the decision that their Todeum questing has come to an end. However, they still have one last Todeum location to deal with, which is to take on the Unknown Quest for the Hero's Tower Intermediate Training Center.
50. It's said that information about the Beginner Training Center in the City of Heaven's Lavias has been made public nowadays.
51. Before taking on the Hero's Tower, Weed decides that his first course of action should be to dismantle his Loot Tower sculpture in order to get all his items back.