Chapter 137

“Ggoming!”

A firm, crisp voice rang out from within the light.

It’s coming.

This time, for sure.

Something was emerging.

Lloyd braced himself.

He strained to see the silhouette forming inside the light.

And then—

“Ggomiming!”

‘Patzjik!’

A small figure burst out of the dazzling light.

It flew straight toward him—

and leaped into his arms.

“Ggoming!”

“…Huh?”

The first thing he noticed was the soft, fluffy white down.

‘Feathers? No… fluff?’

A plump, two-head-tall body covered in pure white feathers.

A tiny pair of wings flapping energetically.

A round head nearly as big as its body.

But the beak was tiny, and its eyes were black.

So that meant…

“A sparrow?”

“Ggoming!”

A sparrow no bigger than his fist looked up at him and chirped brightly—like a baby bird begging its mother for food.

Lloyd swallowed hard.

“Uh, hey there.”

“Ggoming?”

“Your name’s Ggoming, right?”

“Ggoming!”

“Then… why are you a sparrow?”

“Ggoming?”

“No, um, I don’t mean that as an insult, but… see, I actually set a condition like, ‘I want a fantasy creature that can produce strong, durable, and non-deforming wire or rope.’”

It was a Premium Random Draw, where he could set specific conditions.

Naturally, he’d expected a creature matching those conditions.

‘I was thinking of something like a spider.’

A strong spider web could easily substitute for wire or mesh.

He’d honestly hoped for something like that.

But what he got was…

‘A sparrow?’

Had the Premium Random Draw failed too?

There didn’t seem to be any connection to spider silk at all.

His heart sank.

Thinking about the 800 RP he’d just spent made him feel like he’d come down with acid reflux.

‘Ugh, my RP… I worked so hard for that 800.’

He’d earned 700 RP from constructing the continent’s very first apartment building—a historic achievement.

Which meant he’d just spent the equivalent of that entire accomplishment in one draw.

‘No, calm down. There’s gotta be something useful about this one.’

Lloyd shook his head.

He steadied his mind.

It was too soon to judge.

Hamang had seemed useless at first too, but ended up being a jackpot.

He needed to confirm what this creature could actually do.

“So, you have a note too, right? The one with your description on it.”

“Ggomiming? Ggoming!”

“You do? Can I see it?”

“Ggoming!”

The little sparrow, Ggoming, tucked its beak into its chest—then pulled out a tiny, folded note the size of a postage stamp from its soft chest feathers.

Lloyd unfolded it.

As expected, it was filled with tiny handwriting.

He focused his eyes and began to read.

[Ggoming User Manual]

[Ggoming is a cute sparrow. Please care for it with love.]

[Ggoming will show absolute loyalty to its summoner. A fantasy creature is a lifelong companion and another member of your family. Do not abandon it.]

[Ggoming can change its size by eating two types of sunflower seeds.]

[Red Sunflower Seed: Enlarges Ggoming. Max duration: 12 hours.]

[Blue Sunflower Seed: Shrinks Ggoming back. If not fed within 12 hours after enlarging, Ggoming will fall into exhaustion. Once exhausted, it automatically returns to normal size but cannot enlarge again for 24 hours.]

[Cost of a dual-color sunflower seed set: 1 RP.]

[Ggoming can use various skills while enlarged.]

<Ggoming’s Skill List>
[Web Spinning (Lv.1)]
[Web Spraying (Lv.1)]
[Nest Weaving (Lv.1)]
[Poop Bombing (Lv.1)]

‘What the…?’

After reading, Lloyd tilted his head.

Two of those skills were completely unexpected.

‘Nest Weaving and Poop Bombing—fine, those make sense for a bird. But Web Spinning? Web Spraying? Why would those be there?’

It was strange.

Did it mean it actually shot spider webs instead of droppings?

Lloyd looked at the tiny Ggoming in his palm.

“Hey, Ggoming?”

“Ggoming!”

“I wanna ask you something.”

“Ggomiming!”

“How exactly do you make webs?”

“Ggoming? Ggomiming! Ggoming!”

Ggoming proudly turned around to show him.

Only then did Lloyd notice the small backpack strapped to its back—

a bag shaped like a spider.

Lloyd’s eyebrow twitched upward.

“Wait. Don’t tell me…”

“Ggoming!”

“You’re saying the web comes out of that spider-shaped bag?”

“Ggoming!”

“You’re kidding.”

“Ggoming!”

“You’re not saying the bag is the real you, are you?”

“Ggomiming!”

“……”

Ggoming shook its head vigorously.

Lloyd felt a ray of hope.

‘Anyway, that’s a relief. It can spin webs. This draw wasn’t a total disaster!’

Spider silk—

it was exactly the ability he’d been hoping for.

To build gabion retaining walls, he needed something rustproof yet strong—like wire or mesh.

Lloyd struggled to suppress the grin threatening to split his face.

“Hmph! Alright then, let’s run a little test.”

“Ggoming?”

“I’m talking about those webs from your bag. We need to test how strong they are.”

Naturally.

They were going to be a key material in the retaining wall.

He had to test how much weight they could bear, how they behaved in heat, cold, or moisture—

everything.

“We need to know exactly how strong it is to design the structure properly. Otherwise, it could lead to a serious accident. And when it comes to retaining walls, accidents can be catastrophic.”

Indeed.

Retaining walls were built on slopes and excavated land.

And below those, there were often roads or homes.

If a retaining wall collapsed?

Tens or hundreds of tons of soil would pour down onto them.

Basically, a landslide.

“It’s the same here. I’m planning to use those webs to build walls supporting the farmlands where people will live and work. If the wall collapses? If a landslide happens? It’d be a disaster. Don’t you agree?”

After explaining, Lloyd held out a red sunflower seed.

But Ggoming reacted unexpectedly.

“Ggoming…”

It didn’t eat the seed.

It glanced back and forth between Lloyd and the seed, looking faintly displeased.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“Ggomiming…”

“You don’t like sunflower seeds?”

“Ggoming, Ggomiming.”

“So you’re just… too lazy?”

“Ggomiming! Ggoming! Ggomimiming! Ggoming!”

“Let me get this straight— you don’t want to work, you find everything bothersome, you don’t want to fly, don’t want to get big, and would rather just lie around since you’ve already been summoned?”

“Ggoming!”

Ggoming flapped its tiny wings and nodded proudly.

Lloyd felt a headache coming on.

‘What is this, some kind of jobless freeloader?’

He’d summoned a fantasy creature to help him work—

and it didn’t want to work.

It wanted to laze around all day.

Beneath that cute appearance was an extreme slacker.

‘Tsk. This is bad. Very bad.’

A shameless freeloader in an age of economic hardship and job instability.

It hadn’t done a single thing yet and already wanted to do nothing forever.

‘I’m not letting that happen.’

Even Lloyd himself worked tirelessly every day.

He couldn’t even dip a finger into the honey jar he longed for.

And this one wanted to just flop over and rest?

The audacity!

‘Besides, do you have any idea how much RP I spent on you?!’

He’d used 800 RP for the Premium Random Draw—

and if he added the three consecutive failures before that…

That was a whopping 1,513 RP poured in total.

And now it wanted to loaf around?

‘This is like signing the most expensive athlete in team history, only for him to refuse to train and go on strike right after the signing ceremony.’

Unacceptable.

Not before he got to enjoy a life of leisure himself.

In his rulebook, there was no such thing as a freeloading fantasy creature.

Resolute, Lloyd lifted his head and called out to the others watching.

“Guys?”

“Ppo! Bang! Ha?”

“Let’s teach some discipline.”

“Ppo! Bang! Ha!”

The three fantasy creatures answered enthusiastically.

They’d been watching the entire exchange.

They, too, had been appalled by the newcomer’s attitude.

Back in their day, it was only proper to beg their master for work as soon as they were summoned.

To sparkle with devotion and shout, “Please leave everything to me, Master!”

Clicking their tongues at the decline of standards among modern fantasy creatures, Ppodong, Bangul, and Hamang approached Ggoming.

Ppodong slung an arm over Ggoming’s tiny shoulder.

“Ppododong? Ppodong?”

“Ggoming?”

“Ppodong?”

Let’s have a little chat, shall we?

At Ppodong’s gentle tone, Ggoming nodded.

Unaware of what was coming, the newcomer followed the three seniors to a quiet corner of the training ground.

Meanwhile, Lloyd gazed up at the bright moon.

“Ah, what a fine night for discipline.”

‘Crack! Whack! Peep! Clang!’

Faint sounds drifted through the air.

A moment later, Ggoming came running back, feathers missing in patches.

It hopped onto Lloyd’s palm and chirped with sparkling eyes.

“Ggoming!”

“Hm? You’re begging to work now? Dying to eat a red sunflower seed?”

“Ggomiming! Ggoming!”

“Good. Your seniors taught you how the world works, huh?”

“Ggoming!”

Ggoming nodded vigorously, beak open wide.

Lloyd grinned proudly and held out the sunflower seed.

♣

The test was a complete success.

No—“success” didn’t even begin to cover it.

The webs Ggoming produced were an absolute masterpiece.

‘This isn’t just spider silk—it’s better!’

Even though they came from a bag, there was nothing “fake” about them.

They were far tougher and more elastic than expected.

Lloyd grabbed the web with both hands and pulled hard.

It neither broke nor stretched.

He focused his inner technique, the [Asrahan Heart Technique].

He expanded his mana circles one by one, rotating them.

Then, channeling the amplified mana, he pulled with even greater force.

He activated his Asrahan skill’s special option—[Potential Burst (Modified)].

‘Kiieeeeeng!’

For 30 seconds, his mana output increased fivefold.

“Grrrrraahhh!”

He poured all his strength into it.

Only then did the web ‘slightly’ stretch.

It held firm without snapping.

‘This is more than enough. Better than I imagined.’

In nature, spider silk was already the strongest thin material known—three times stronger and more elastic than steel of the same thickness.

Its durability was legendary; even after 20 or 30 years, it barely lost any strength.

‘And it’s highly resistant to moisture. It doesn’t deform and keeps its toughness even under sunlight.’

But Ggoming’s silk?

It was clearly superior.

And it had another huge advantage for retaining wall construction—

‘It’s sticky!’

It took him ages to peel the web off his hands after testing it.

He couldn’t remove it by force.

Even scraping it with a knife barely worked.

In the end, he had to smear vegetable oil all over his hands to get it off.

That incredible stickiness—

was a massive benefit.

‘Of course. If I use this to make gabion cages, it’ll not only hold the stones tightly in place but also reinforce the soil behind the wall perfectly.’

Inside the retaining wall—

the gap between the excavated slope and the wall itself—

that’s where the backfill soil went.

Ensuring its stability was crucial in construction.

And with this web’s immense adhesiveness?

It could stay intact for a thousand years.

‘We’ll layer web nets inside the wall—one layer of web, one layer of soil, and repeat. Like stacking pancakes.’

He planned to apply the same principles as the modern Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) method—

using geogrid reinforcement—combined with the gabion system.

‘If I merge geogrid techniques with gabion construction, and use this web to connect it all—this wall will last not just a thousand years, but ten thousand.’

‘Crack!’

Lloyd flexed his fingers.

He could do this.

His design skills.

The power and abilities of his fantasy creatures.

The addition of Ggoming’s webs.

Plus the manpower of Javier, Sir Bayern, the engineers, and the refugees—

All combined, this terraced farmland project would yield something monumental.

A masterpiece worthy of being passed down for generations—

a world heritage-level creation.

With that conviction, Lloyd plunged into his design work.

And as soon as the design was complete, construction began.

Soon after, rumors spread among the refugees working on the site—that the young lord of the estate commanded mysterious fantasy creatures to aid in the work, and that he must surely be a genius of summoning magic.

Praise and admiration for Lloyd soared ever higher.