Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Finding the Lost Piece 2
The glass case seemed to go on forever that Jaehwang started to wonder if all the people’s mementos had been stored down here. That was when GwanJae noticed his curiosity.
“There are exactly 3251 points left. That’s still not even as much as it was in the beginning. We had a ten-kilometer deep tunnel filled with items but it’s still not enough to hold everything. Time had passed and there are still many that need to be found. There are still things out there that would remind us about the hero that we had but there was no one left to find it. I wanted to take ahold of those items but I had to stay here and protect this place.”
GwanJae continued to talk as he continued to walk forward and sweep the dust off of the items one by one. Jaehwang followed his back and thought that mementos were a piece of humanity’s tragedy caused by the generation mashup.
-I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this. It feels like this place is full of dead people.
The spirit said in a calm voice.
There was a visible blood stain covered by a bandage and an empty cartridge. They passed through a big cross section where they saw two pieces of a broken sword and behind that lies an arrow.
“Do you know why they made this place like this?”
“Yes.”
Jaehwang gave him a nod and answered. He knew that those mementos were here for people to see. They were displayed in this tunnel so that its visitors would have a way to remember their heroes.
They started from the lowest floor and made their way up in a spiral through the place. They kept their eyes in remembrance of all the heroes that fought for their safety until they reached their destination.
GwanJae’s stopped his footsteps.He turned around and looked at one of the glass cases, from there he took a handwritten black sign that was about 90 centimeters and was held up by a brass yellow stick.
Click…
GwanJae then stepped back but then, he walked forward and grabbed the sign which felt strange but familiar. It had the same shape as the ancestral tablet that he had inside the cabin.
“Show us Jeon Jaehwang’s grandfather who is 79 years of age.”
The sign showed his name on its front in Chinese and on its back, it showed the number 77. They looked at the sign to deduce what it could mean but Jaehwang then got bored.
He had something like this on the shrine in the cabin. In fact, it was the only thing that filled the place. Their family had a special tradition. It was instructed that the direct successor would then be taught with martial arts and their teacher would then be put on the shrine as an ancestral tablet when they die. His father often taught him his skills and with the tradition being fulfilled, the sign of his father was then stored and everything in the shrine turned out to be perfect.
‘He would have really liked his father if he didn’t struggle that much.’
He did resent his grandfather but on the inside, he actually misses him. He had always avoided talking about his grandfather and talked about his father instead since all the memory that he had was his grandfather crying, cursing as well as drowning himself in alcohol. The thought of meeting them again made him a bit happy, it felt like he would get his long cherished wish.
He had his eyes closed and he now felt more at east. He then noticed and opened the box beside him.
‘The set artifact successor finding has started.’
Jaehwang was surprised as soon as it started to burn. He dropped the box but then a gold light started to come out of it.
Swoosh..
“Huh?…”
The box grew hotter as there was a strange sound that came out of it. He kept his focus, the energy that flowed out of it faced him and started to move.
-Should I stop it?
The spirit asked as the energy continued to get stronger.
-It’s fine.
Jaehwang answered back. He thought that it was better than seeing the generations of his family stepping down. He couldn’t believe that the energy meant to cause him harm but he still decided to look past it. Then energy then stood in front of him for a moment until he started to absorb it until it completely disappeared.
‘Set artifact inheritance complete.’
After that the gold colored Aietiem options window showed up in front of him.
Set Artifact Ranking
Inheritance: Jeon Jaehwang
Restraintment: Brass
Arrow distance increased 30 percent
Arrow speed increased by 50 percent
Active Skill
Silent arrow
Set effects:???
Jaehwang looked over at GwanJae who looked surprised for the same reason.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an artifact inheritance.”
“This is an inheritance?”
“Yes, it is.”
Jaehwang looked at the box as the golden glow slowly died down. Using the artifact’s skill was to help fight other hunters but this was the first time that someone had become a true inheritant.
Rodes had almost disappeared in the past. They had overused the pure artifacts at their fights against the monsters and most of the things that they used ended up being old and dull. The desire of the artifact was then destroyed so the ones they used were different from their predecessors who would then later became the inheritance.
The limit of its quantity were astronomical, however that memento that he had had the most of the traditional powers one could get. Those artifacts were naturally given to the hunters but custom or mass produced equipment were not more popular compared to the ones made by Rodoes.
“No one showed up to help him, that’s why you were able to get it”
GwanJae said as he shook his head. There were three ways to own artifacts. The first method was to protect the artifact from a different inheritance, the second method was to give up on it and the last method was to wait until the artifact inheritance died.
His grandfather had the same power before and others wanted it as well. Jaehwang did become its next successor for the items that lie dormant until know and he himself seemed to already had known that.
“These were my ancestors.”
Even though the one he recovered between the two family heirlooms was enough, he still needs his arrows to utilize it.
“Your ancestors… Jeon ByeongJae… hmm… Finally, I know more about him.”
GwanJae said with a carefree expression on his face. He was happy that the artifact finally found an heir of its power and he was glad that the memory of that hero continue to live in his memory.
‘Do you think you could teach me that?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘That amazing thing you did. How do you make it fly like that? It goes so far”
‘Well, I could show you how.’
‘Really?! I can’t go home anyway and my blood pressure is dangerously high.’
‘Is that it or, you really can’t go home?”
‘Ugh! My son is home alone! This kind of thing is going to ruin my hands!’
‘Where’s the good season? Why isn’t anything sprouting here!! I’ll even have to gather arrows at the gym until there are none left. He needs help, he’s having another seizure.’
‘Let go, let go!!’
He seemed to have a good character.
“Hue…”
GwanJae lifted his head after being buried and his thoughts and spoke to Jaehwang.
“Let’s go. That person’s grandson can’t be neglected. Everytime I find an inherent of those items, I go on a drink, what do you say?”
“Sure.”
They both then began to talk silence and they continued to talk about the artifacts till left unfound.
Swoosh…
A vehicle that weighed thirty tons stopped and summoned a white cloud of dust behind it. It was designed by a colorful painting but it had scratches here and there.
The armed truck opened on the gloved side and a soldier came out. His face was soaked in sweat and covered in dust. He could barely keep his eyes open as he walked. He had lots of assembly items that were also painted.
“Park Joonghwi! Weren’t you told not to park over here?”
He kept his strong stern face as he brushed the dust out of his eyes before he answered back.
“The parking ramp was a little close. Besides, I just came back from a deadly mission…Give me a break…”
“What?!? Come here!”
“Yes, sir. Everything went well, I received my badge of rank in one round.”
He glared at Joonghwi and didn’t ask him anymore questions. There wasn’t usually anyone who could receive a badge of rank so quickly but he did and he led his own platoon and improved it. Before, he was their troop’s strongest but when he got to lead, his group had made an improvement with their abilities.
That’s why he won’t hold back at saying what needs to be said despite him being nervous.
Joonghwi walked towards the door and went inside of the room. The cold air helped to cool him off.
“Loyalty…”
Joonghwi stood in front of the desk and gave a light bow. The girl on the other side of the desk lifted her head away from a book and smiled.
“You did a great job, Park Joonghwi. Did you run into the oak search party?”
“Yes. But luckily we discovered it on our side first.”
She shook her head.
“Seems like everything went smoothly. Take a seat. Let’s see… What was the result of the scouting? Did the visiting team cause any trouble?”
Joonghwi froze at her question. He then said no as he swayed his head.
“Someone interrupted so we weren’t able to do as much as we wanted to.”
“But you still did as much as you could, right?”
Joonghwi then took a deep breath and then answered.
“If possible, I don’t want to recommend it. The oaks had just finished their breeding season these days so it was tough. The visiting team took care of what was left behind and they would just usually find some wrecked drones in the area. Although, I’m confident that we could go on a different country in the next military expedition.”
“Clans?”
“”Is there any good news of bad news for them? Is there any news at all?…”
“Were there any villains?”
“It was calm and quiet.”
“Really? That’s a relief. Were there any traces of natives?”
Her facial expression became more serious after he asked about the natives.
“Do you have any information about the natives including Des Lacs?”
“No, he’s still at the World Hunter Secretariat but even Des Lacs has a high rate of being captured by monsters like the oaks. They could still get captured even though they’re natives.”
Joonghwi then shook his head.
“And we still couldn’t find the prisoners, we’ve looked everywhere. We found some people on the northeast side meadow and the swampy terrain.”
“Hmm… Okay. I see. You can go now.”
“Yes, ma’am. But, Sooreong?”
“What is it?”
She answered in return.
“Sooreong… there won’t be any newcomers? Would you let me know in advance if there was someone being allocated to my side?”
Finding the Lost Piece 2, The end.