Chapter 256

Chapter 256
## Chapter 256

### The Zhuge Clan (2)

“Hmm.”

As I combed through useful data across the internet, I extended my limbs in a relaxed stretch and exhaled a brief breath.

“The progression is going quite well, which is reassuring… but his demeanor has turned far too bellicose.”

Harris, the High Elf currently causing an uproar throughout Ganghwange.

He had at long last secured an official bid from the Zhuge Clan and stepped past the threshold of their fortress.

Their initial meeting had been rather tense, but he was now being accommodated with a decent degree of hospitality.

‘…To be more accurate, they lack the option to treat him with anything less than deference.’

The Zhuge Clan had ascended to their current status by relying on their distinctive, potent sorcery and strategic arrays, rather than through sheer martial dominance. Not a single member among them had achieved the Mysterious Realm, let alone scaled the heights of the Transcendent Realm.

It was commonly said that their combined tactical arrays and mystical arts could bring even a Mysterious Realm master to heel, so…

‘…Naturally, if their adversary is a true expert of the Mysterious Realm, they would require the assistance of their carefully pre-arranged formations. Even in that scenario, it would strictly serve a defensive purpose.’

This explained why they stood completely defenseless against Harris, whose capabilities far outstripped their own limits.

Of course, in a domain where raw power dictated everything, a certain degree of reverence was always extended to a formidable combatant who had already demonstrated his prowess.

Even so, as the mastermind orchestrating everything from behind the scenes, I found it difficult to completely overlook this shift in Harris’s conduct.

“Hmm, could it be a reaction to the local climate?”

Harris was a creature profoundly attuned to his environment, a trait driven either by his fundamental nature or his developed competencies.

Consequently, it was entirely logical for him to exhibit a strong response to a realm where Ki, the very bedrock of local power, was steadily evaporating.

‘Still, it does not pose a critical dilemma. My plan was always to recall him to Auterica before long.’

Exactly five days had slipped by since Harris was relocated to Ganghwange.

Half of his permitted duration had already run its course.

He had performed few actions beyond instigating chaos, but the outcomes remained highly favorable, making this an effective opening phase.

‘On that note.’

I detected an intriguing development while scanning the system interface.

A modification that appeared to materialize right after Harris successfully penetrated the Zhuge Clan’s domain.

『Item Purchase – View Details』

└Auterica

└Ganghwange

The capability to procure merchandise from individual realms by exchanging Karma.

The secondary directory, which had previously displayed only Auterica, now featured Ganghwange as well.

‘So the mechanics extend in this direction too.’

I offered a shallow nod of understanding.

I had harbored concerns that the feature might remain exclusive to Auterica, his designated home reality, but the framework proved to be far more adaptive than I anticipated.

Without delay, I accessed the ‘Ganghwange’ section and scanned through the cataloged merchandise.

‘Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, Yin-Yang Fruit, Sky Blue Stone Oil… The titles alone carry immense weight.’

The initial items to capture my attention were the diverse medicinal supplements.

Scarcely found, highly valued treasures possessing varied attributes and applications.

If the martial practitioners of Ganghwange were to lay eyes on this inventory, they would be utterly consumed by joy…

‘…Yet I have no reason to obsess over that. I command Harris, the ultimate gatherer of rare botanicals.’

I could already pinpoint the locations of multiple rare herbs even within Yungjung Mountain, where he was presently stationed.

Furthermore, Mount Wudang, a location celebrated for its concentrated Ki and uncommon flora, sat a short distance away.

‘It is an area blessed with incredibly potent Ki, standout even among major Dragon Veins. I am curious about the variety of elixirs that flourish there.’

I envisioned the sacred peak I had briefly observed during the trek toward the Zhuge Clan and wet my lips in anticipation.

Amassing those valuables down the line promised to be an entertaining endeavor.

The storefront also featured several legendary medicines, such as the Great Revolving Elixir and the Purple Haze Divine Elixir.

Additionally, secret martial texts from various orthodox and unorthodox factions were available, along with mystical weaponry that essentially functioned as the magical artifacts of this martial world.

A handful of pieces even demanded astronomical sums.

『Ten Thousand Children’s Blood Jade (1,190,000)』

『Eternal Glacier’s Thousand-Year Ice Essence (780,000)』

『Incomplete Dragon Orb of a 999-Year-Old Imugi (1,530,000)』

『… 』

My familiarity with Ganghwange remained limited, but the designations themselves sounded deeply threatening.

The costs attached to them undeniably mirrored their worth.

‘Imugi actually exist. I wonder if authentic dragons inhabit this realm as well?’

Regardless, those options weren’t my primary focus for the moment.

My attention was fixed on alternative targets.

I input my specific parameters into the 『Item Purchase』 interface and filtered the options.

Following a thorough review of the shortened list—

A contented smirk graced my face, and I commenced the acquisition of the chosen objects, rerouting them directly into the “Avatar Cloud”.

—

Clang—! Clang—! Clang!

‘Hmm? What is generating that racket?’

Zaonic knitted his brows, halting his movements just as he stepped into his personal forge.

He easily identified the distinctive melody of a hammer striking metal, yet… something about it felt entirely irregular.

“What…?”

Unable to make sense of the sensation despite narrowing his concentration, he walked toward the origin of the noise.

Clang—! Sizzle—!

The steady cadence of metal shaping and rapid cooling persisted without interruption.

Howard, bare from the waist up, was drenched in sweat as he labored with absolute dedication.

It was an undeniably respectable and motivating sight to behold.

“What… What on earth is that material?”

Yet Zaonic’s attention was completely captured by a different object entirely.

His mouth fell open, and a sharp intake of breath escaped him.

“Wh-what kind of alloy is that? By what method? How…?”

The Dwarf craftsman stood entirely stunned, tripping over his words in sheer bewilderment.

Never throughout his existence had he encountered anything resembling this substance—a metal so completely foreign that he struggled to process its reality.

“Ah, you’ve arrived?”

Howard, pausing to conclude his immediate task, spun around to offer a greeting, but Zaonic remained too paralyzed by astonishment to reply.

He had been relatively unperturbed when Howard previously returned with uncommon ores extracted from the Northern Mountains, figuring Hubert’s Trading Company had merely leveraged its expansive logistical network to secure them via standard commerce.

‘…But this exists on an entirely different plane. Totally unprecedented. Could such a substance truly exist in our world?’

The specific metal Howard was manipulating at this very moment.

It was a material that he, a Dwarf who prided himself on his deep comprehension of all existing ores, blessed by the elements of flame and forge, could not decipher in the slightest.

It fundamentally shattered his established knowledge of smithing.

Yet it remained undeniably tangible, sitting right before his eyes.

“Ahem! Hubert forwarded it to me. He mentioned discovering it within the Northern Mountains. Care to examine it up close?”

Howard cleared his throat softly and, noticing Zaonic’s paralyzed state, extended a fragment of the raw material he had just pulled from his dimensional storage.

‘There is more of it?’

Despite the chaos swirling in his mind, Zaonic reached forward purely on instinct and grasped the object.

‘Ah!’

The exact instant the substance met his palm, understanding washed over him.

His preliminary suspicion had been entirely accurate.

“What… What exactly is this? How can an alloy like this even exist?”

He whispered under his breath, his hands translating his awe into motion without conscious thought.

He inspected the metal with intense focus, running his fingers across its contours. He tapped it sharply with his fingernail, assessing the resulting frequency and catching its deep, echoing ring. He brought it close, drawing its scent into his lungs.

He went so far as to press his tongue against it to test its flavor, and then, completely mastered by curiosity, he popped the fragment into his mouth and began to bite down on it.

‘…Is he going to be fine?’

Howard observed the display with a trace of anxiety written on his face.

Even so, he could empathize with the elderly Dwarf’s intense state of fascination.

The material currently being subjected to such scrutiny was ‘Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron’, a highly sought-after and priceless resource native to Ganghwange, a reality governed by an entirely distinct metaphysical system.

‘He picked up on its uniqueness instantly. Truly a master Dwarf.’

Howard let out a gentle smile. He had expected nothing less from a smith of his caliber.

‘Magical instruments derived from separate dimensions fail to operate when brought into a world utilizing a different energy framework.’

That was an established reality understood by all individuals who had experienced the return. The enchanted devices they had gone to great lengths to amass turned into useless trinkets in foreign realms.

However, that did not imply the base components themselves forfeited their natural, structural attributes.

‘It cannot be infused with supplemental arcane enchantments… but Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron remains an unparalleled material purely on its physical merits.’

Its innate quality of pushing away foreign supernatural forces could actually be leveraged as a massive benefit.

As an illustration, one could forge an incredibly resilient set of armor that completely disregarded all magical assaults.

‘It doesn’t even require the garment to be forged entirely from Cold Iron. Coating it in a meager layer would be more than sufficient.’

Granted, manipulating it would present a massive hurdle owing to its volatile nature, and integrating it with the manufacturing capabilities of this world would be a grueling process… but overcoming such obstacles was the entire purpose of the endeavor.

He was a Dwarf, a legendary artisan endowed with an innate genius for fabrication.

“By the heavens! This item… This was extracted from the Northern Mountains? What bizarre phenomena are unfolding in that region? Could it be… the Immortal King? What kind of madness has he unleashed?”

Zaonic finally broke free from his state of shock and whispered in absolute skepticism.

There were still alternative metals awaiting disclosure, including Black Iron and Meteoric Iron…

‘…I will introduce those at a gradual pace.’

He still required Zaonic’s cooperation. It would serve no purpose if the old smith suffered a total breakdown from sensory overload by witnessing too many miracles simultaneously.

—

Five complete days had transpired since Harris set foot in Ganghwange. The calendar had now turned to the sixth day.

He exited the boundaries of the Zhuge Clan’s estate for a brief window and retraced his steps shortly afterward.

“Harris, to what destination did you suddenly depart? And… who accompanies you?”

He had not returned unaccompanied.

The Second Elder, tasked with monitoring the perimeter, twisted his features into a scowl upon spotting the unfamiliar entity walking alongside the High Elf.

He was already thoroughly fatigued by Harris’s insolent behavior, and now the traveler had guided an uninvited stranger into their private sanctum without securing prior clearance.

“Ah, does it turn out you haven’t been granted the update yet? I sent word that I would be arriving with a companion.”

“…Is that the case? There must have been a lapse in communication.”

Harris had done nothing more than announce his intent before walking away, yet he offered this explanation with a completely straight face, behaving as though his actions were entirely routine. His audacity had grown significantly.

“In that case, are we permitted to enter? I am eager to introduce my acquaintance.”

“Hmm, hold your ground for a brief moment. I must relay… Ah! You are cleared to proceed.”

The Second Elder, his expression plagued by discomfort, inclined his head after receiving verbal authorization from the interior of the compound.

He possessed zero desire to interact with the pair any further, prompting him to step aside immediately, silently wishing for them to hurry indoors.

He simply wanted them to vanish from his sight.

Yet their movements deviated from his expectations.

The youthful man who had journeyed alongside Harris stepped directly toward him.

Then, lowering his posture in a deeply respectful gesture, he offered a greeting to the startled Second Elder.

“I express my deepest regrets for this unannounced arrival. I am truly sorry for creating an obstruction, master martial artist.”

“…Think nothing of it. I am merely executing my assigned tasks.”

The Second Elder mirrored the gesture, offering a bow of his own in response to the courteous address.

He had operated under the assumption that the newcomer would mirror Harris’s abrasive demeanor… but this individual appeared considerably more… refined.

“Please accept my apologies for delaying my introduction. It is a genuine honor to make your acquaintance. My name is…”

At that moment, the youth, clad in high-quality martial arts garments with a blade suspended from his hip, flashed a radiant grin and finished his sentence.

“…Ha Seung-hoon.”

Ha Seung-hoon, the identical pseudonym that Hesperon had previously adopted.

The fresh identity assumed by ‘Hugo’, the avatar who had trailed Harris directly into the heart of Ganghwange.