How to Survive as an Extra

Chapter 111

Early morning.

The training session at dawn ended quickly due to mana depletion.

I managed to make it back to the dormitory and collapsed onto the sofa, falling asleep as if I had been thrown there. Now that I had just woken up, my eyes were wide open, my mind was clear, and my body felt remarkably light.

“So draining mana really is the best way to get a good night’s sleep.”

Normally, mana depletion caused a person to lose consciousness for at least two days. However, because my mana capacity was absurdly low compared to my high intelligence, my recovery speed was abnormally fast.

It felt like trying to fill a paper cup with a crashing waterfall.

Moreover, perhaps because I had pushed myself to the brink of mana depletion, my mana had increased by 0.1, bringing it to 5.1.

With effects like this, it was honestly tempting to seriously consider draining my mana before going to sleep.

“Of course, only when I am in the dormitory.”

Mana depletion left one so defenseless that an ambush during sleep would go completely unnoticed.

I sat up on the sofa I had been lying on and habitually turned on the television.

The news was reporting on the Geumgorae Village incident, along with the events that had occurred overnight.

However, none of the topics particularly caught my interest, so I treated it as white noise and let my thoughts wander.

“Hmm… Should I get a sword?”

When we finished training at dawn, An Hwigom had told me to obtain a sword.

A sturdy one that would not break from sword strikes.

Until then, we had decided to temporarily suspend training in sword strikes and continue with the sparring we had already been doing.

Of course, there was a high probability that he would unleash sword strikes in the middle of our sparring anyway.

“He always said you have to get hit before you can learn how to hit.”

An Hwigom also told me to focus on training that increased my mana.

He warned that my unbalanced abilities would come back to bite me someday, and, as if the sun had risen in the west, he even praised my sword strikes as being excellent.

“For that eccentric old man to directly acknowledge my talent…”

If I thought about it calmly, my status was at the highest level among people my age.

Not to mention agility, which was directly tied to talent, my durability had surpassed the limits of the human species, and my intelligence had reached a level comparable to most mages.

Thus, as An Hwigom judged, sword strikes—which required the harmonious use of perception and mana—were an exceptionally suitable technique for me.

“With a bit more effort, I could probably even use magic bullets.”

Excluding stamina and mana, my stats were superior even to Cha Yeri, who could freely wield magic bullets.

In any case, the reason I needed a sword was for sword strikes.

The chronic flaw of sword strikes was that they steadily eroded the durability of the sword. Even when I had used An Hwigom’s sword at dawn, I had left an extremely minute amount of damage on the blade.

Of course, even if the same sword strike were used over a thousand times, a Goldinium blade would not develop so much as a faint crack. What mattered was the fact that damage accumulated.

It was only because it was Goldinium that sword strikes could be used freely. With common metals circulating on the market, the blade would snap like a training sword after fewer than ten uses.

“That is assuming I am the one using it.”

Either way, to train sword strikes, I needed a metal of at least a certain caliber.

Roughly speaking, the kind of metals A-rank Hunters typically sought after.

By setting, there were fewer than three hundred A-rank Hunters registered with the Hunter Association, and the metals they used commanded market prices of at least hundreds of millions.

In other words, at least one billion won by the standards of the previous world.

What must not be overlooked was that this was only the price of the metal itself.

Finding a blacksmith capable of working such metal was a challenge in itself, and even commissioning that person required a certain level of reputation.

On top of that, the cost of auxiliary materials used alongside the metal was no small matter, and if the end result turned out poorly, it meant losing hundreds of millions outright.

Some people said that a true master did not choose their tools, but…

“Well, would Hunters who risk their lives fighting monsters really want to wield equipment that does not suit them?”

It would be fortunate if the equipment could be sold afterward, but the chances of custom-made gear fitting another Hunter were extremely slim.

My dilemma was exactly this.

I needed to commission a sword based on the specifications of the Mist-Clearing Sword.

If I had plenty of money, I would have simply bought hundreds of usable swords and tested them.

However, due to an unprecedented stock crash, the money in my hands had completely dried up.

Once the gumiho’s corpse and mana stone were processed, a subjugation reward would be paid out, but even that would mostly go to the residents of Geumgorae Village.

“I can understand Choi Suhyuk’s feelings a little now.”

Because my face was known as a probationary investigator in the Special Affairs Division, my side income had also been almost completely cut off.

“Should I just go to a famous blacksmith guild in District 2 and ask them to support me with a weapon?”

I briefly entertained the thought of relying on luck, then shook my head.

In awakened society, connections were equivalent to restraints.

Given that I had already been receiving more attention than necessary, it would likely act as poison rather than help.

In truth, I did possess a sword made of a metal outside standardized specifications: Platium.

It was the Mist-Clearing Sword, a blade that severed all dark-attribute mana. Astonishingly, it could not be destroyed for physical reasons either.

In that sense, it possessed the optimal conditions for using sword strikes.

“If only I were not a dark-attribute awakened being.”

I briefly took out the Mist-Clearing Sword and attempted mana synchronization.

Mana light swirled around the blade.

More precisely, it filtered out the earth-attribute mana, which amounted to only 40 percent, while excluding the dark attribute, which accounted for as much as 90 percent.

Viewed positively, it meant I could conceal the dark attribute and use sword strikes. The problem was that this blade had already gained notoriety as the Phantom Thief’s sword.

It had been blatantly exposed during the battle with the Poisonous Golem in District 27.

I briefly considered hiding the mark on the hilt and using it as if it were a different sword, but concealing the pure white radiance unique to Platium was impossible.

“From the beginning until now, has this thing only ever been useful when dealing with Demonic Beings?”

Should I call it stubborn, or rigid?

In the end, there was no choice but to craft a new sword without relying on luck.

“For now, setting money aside, finding available metal comes first.”

If it were something that could be obtained with money alone, such astronomical prices would not have formed in the first place.

I opened my smartphone and accessed Mammoth Market.

The first thing I searched for was the metal Platium.

As expected, there were not only no registered listings, but no transaction records either.

Well, at this point in Seoul, there were only two places that possessed Platium.

The spearhead owned by the guild master of the Hunter guild Blackcastle, and the shield displayed inside the building of the blacksmith guild Ironflame.

“And besides those, there is the Mist-Clearing Sword I revealed while acting as the Phantom Thief, but since it has not been properly verified, that does not count.”

It was a shame that the original protagonist, Lee Eunho, did not use equipment, which meant fewer metals had been described.

“Should I search for other metals…?”

In this world, there were four top-tier metals that truly existed.

In order: Platium, Goldinium, Silvanium, and Brichalcon.

There were many other metals, but these were the only ones considered premium.

Among them, Platium and Goldinium had virtually never been traded as commodities throughout the entire history of superpowers. Silvanium did have transaction records, but because it was exceptionally effective against status effects, it was primarily used for accessories rather than weapons.

As a result, most Hunters regarded Brichalcon as the most realistic top-tier metal.

Brichalcon’s representative trait was flexibility.

Typically, the more equipment was repaired by hammering, the more the metal’s lifespan decreased.

Once a certain number of repairs was exceeded, the equipment would lose its original function.

However, Brichalcon possessed the flexibility to restore equipment to its original form at any time.

Of course, if the damage was severe, additional metal was required, but the fact that high-end equipment guaranteed not only performance but also lifespan was such a tremendous advantage that it nearly invalidated the existence of other metals.

“And its color was aesthetically pleasing too, with a faint reddish hue over basic steel gray.”

One could say it had all the qualities of what people called a social butterfly among metals.

In any case, due to these strengths, its price did not differ greatly from Silvanium, which was considered a tier above it.

At this point, the situation had essentially solidified as Brichalcon for weapons and armor, Silvanium for accessories.

Even among A-rank Hunters, fewer than a hundred used Brichalcon.

“Simply put, demand is going insane while supply is utterly miserable.”

Thus, for someone like me whose funds had dried up, it was a metal that felt like a dream.

And yet…

For a while now, I had been letting out a low hum while reading an online article.

About two weeks ago, at a public auction hosted by the Production Guild, Hyeonseong had successfully bid on a lump of Brichalcon.

What Hyeonseong acquired was the only unprocessed raw ore among the Brichalcon circulating on the market.

Because the previous Labyrinth exploration had ended in failure, there was practically no way to obtain raw ore, so for the next few months, it would be impossible to secure proper raw material aside from Hyeonseong’s Brichalcon.

“Hmm…”

If only briefly, shameless thoughts filled my mind.

The notion of trying to leverage my connection with Cha Yeri despite lacking the ability to pay.

“If Hyeonseong already owns Brichalcon, I would not even need to go through the trouble of finding a blacksmith.”

On top of that, their after-sales service ensured excellent quality control, so there would be no need to worry about repairs.

“……”

Before I knew it, my finger had pulled up Cha Yeri’s phone number on my smartphone.

Just as I was about to absentmindedly press the call button, I hurriedly hit the power button instead.

No matter how I thought about it, I had no justification.

Aside from the fact that Cha Yeri seemed to harbor some affection for me, I had nothing particularly appealing to offer to someone who called herself a businesswoman.

“Right. Restoring my stock portfolio comes first.”

It was almost time to head out for morning exercise.

As if shaking off my lingering regrets, I sprang up from the sofa.

Just then, my smartphone vibrated.

An incoming call.

***

Contrary to my expectations, the caller was Kim Seyeon from the Special Affairs Division.

She told me to prepare immediately for an investigative dispatch and to come to the front gate of Hero Prep.

Naturally, after eating breakfast.

A short while later, when I arrived at the front gate, Kim Seyeon’s vehicle was waiting. The moment I got into the front passenger seat, she pressed the accelerator and bluntly got straight to the point.

“It is a designated request. I regret that you are being assigned consecutive investigations, but the conditions were such that even the Chief could not reject it.”

A designated request meant that the investigation request had specifically named me.

Even so, it was hard to understand.

“Do investigators in the Special Affairs Division also receive designated requests?”

“According to regulations, since we are quasi–public servants, external collaboration is prohibited. However, this request is also tied to the Suwon administration, so it appears the Bureau accepted it at an organizational level.”

Connected to the administration?

Why would they specifically name someone like me, who had never even set foot in Suwon?

“You would be better off hearing the details directly from the requester.”

That made sense. If it was an urgent request, Kim Seyeon herself might not know the specifics.

“Where are we going?”

“District 2.”

“For that distance, you could have just summoned me…”

When I offered the remark casually, Kim Seyeon slammed on the brakes at a crosswalk.

Perfectly timed, the traffic signal was red.

She looked at me with an indifferent gaze and spoke.

“I will take this opportunity to tell you: you should refrain from using public transportation without a disguise. That is, if you are aware of why you are exposed. Especially on the day after an incident briefing.”

“……”

Her tone could have sounded cold.

However, Kim Seyeon was neither irritated nor angry.

She was simply a person with a fundamentally businesslike disposition.

Unless it was something she took a strong personal interest in, like Student Council President Yu Hyeonjeong, she did not waste energy unnecessarily.

Speaking of which, how was Yu Hyeonjeong doing now that Lee Eunho was gone?

Well, she was a character who could take care of herself, so there was no need to worry.

Soon after, the vehicle entered District 2.

We continued along the main road, and only when we reached Clock Tower Plaza—the landmark of District 2—did the engine shut off.

“This is it. Please get out.”

“Yes? Where are we going from the plaza…?”

Kim Seyeon pointed out the window.

“Over there. I will guide you to the meeting location. For now, please get out.”

Where she pointed stood a building more imposing than any other in District 2. Before I could even admire its exterior, my attention was seized by the words written at the entrance.

“……”

It was because this building was the headquarters of Hyeonseong Group.