A Monster Who Levels Up

Chapter 22

‘I’m gonna go bat-sh*t crazy here.’

Kim Sae-Jin was in the midst of busy fondling a rock that had turned into mud clay after he synchronised it with his Mana, but then, his anger spiked up all of a sudden, causing him to angrily fling it away.

The gap between his imaginations and that of reality was just too damn wide to cross. The human Sae-Jin’s head definitely held an idea on what he wanted, and obviously he meant to do it well, but really, with the accursed clumsy hands of an Orc, it was simply The Mission: Impossible. It sure felt like he was back in the Art Class during his student days. The image was in his head, and if he drew it like this and that, then it’d work out alright; however, his villainous hands wouldn’t allow him to achieve success no matter what. (TL: this last line had to be revised, as the author simply said his hands were disabled. Quite literally.)

That alone would have made him rather irritated to no end, but the message window that popped up right afterwards made his blood pressure skyrocket, even if it was only for a short while.

[The Smithing Technique has been completed.]

[Hardness Level: F]

[Due to the absolute worst quality of the finished item, the Skill Proficiency Level has decreased.]

"….Euaaaaaaakkk!!!!"

In the end, Sae-Jin reverted back to the Human Form and screamed out at the top of his lungs while grabbing his head. He wanted to smash apart that stupid message window right now, that kept on telling him his Proficiency Level would fall when it was already at the rock bottom of F-.

It had been 20 times already. And during those 20 times, only the negative words like absolute worst, useless, disgusting appeared in the windows.

" Ha-ah…. "

Even though he couldn’t get anywhere remotely close to tasting success, his entire body felt lethargic and energy-less. It was a signal that his Mana supply was beginning to run dry. Sae-Jin sighed out roughly while laying down on the ground.

"….!!"

And precisely 90 seconds later, Sae-Jin suddenly shot back right up.

He felt like Archimedes sitting inside that famed bathtub of his. His eyes went round as he shouted out aloud.

"Goblin!!"

He’d activate the Smithing Technique skill in his Orc Form and infuse a rock with Mana, then change to the Goblin Form to reshape it. (This Skill could be activated only in the Orc Form but, once activated, it was possible to manipulate the shapes of objects in other Forms as the duration of the Skill only depended on the amount of Mana used up for the maintenance of the ability itself.) To combine the Orc’s Smithing Technique with the excellent Goblin’s Craftsmanship skill - wasn’t this the greatest combination like, ever? He quickly assumed the Orc Form and grabbed a nice-sized rock from the vicinity once more. (TL: that bracketed sentence in the middle of this paragraph is from the author.)

*

"I did it…"

A Goblin with a single line of tattoo on his forehead slowly sighed in satisfaction.

[The Smithing Technique has been completed.]

[Hardness Level: E]

[Due to the excellent quality of the finished item, the Skill Proficiency Level has increased.]

It was a feel-good message. A deep grin drew up on his lips.

What he managed to make this time was a type of a dagger. A small sword made out of stone and its blade fashioned into a crescent moon. As it was crafted from a rock, it couldn’t be

used as a proper weapon but still, he was rather pleased with this outcome, as this was the first time since the activation of the skill he did something right….