Everyone Else is a Returnee

Chapter 169: I am the Digger – 3

Breya was a world with a particularly large number of people worshipping recorded gods, influencing their civilization such that there were lots of technology and culture related to those gods. At the same time, a world where holy power belonging to priests and priestesses rivalled political power and influence.

With the same members that had journeyed to Lanpas, Yu IlHan arrived at the holy empire of Elforce, where the faction worshipping the goddess of beauty, Leytna, had the most say. Perhaps, as a sign of devotion to the goddess of beauty, there were a lot of pink-colored buildings.

“Lady maiden, hello!”

“Hi!”

“Holy empire, huh.....”

“Well, how is it!”

Yu IlHan was looking around when Na YuNa asked as she moved her face close to him. Yu IlHan pushed her forehead away and replied nonchalantly.

“It’s similar to Earth.”

“Ah, it’s the holy maiden!”

“Hello! ...... well~ look at this~.”

Yu IlHan listened to Na YuNa’s words and looked at the surroundings with widened eyes. However, he couldn’t comprehend what she meant.

“Lady maiden!”

“Hi!”

The people walking around didn’t have any special type of clothing either.... no, wait.

“Lady maiden!”

“It really is the holy maiden!”

“......You’re quite popular here.”

“Heheh, that’s it!”

With a proud face, Na YuNa pushed out her chest in a proud manner. It looks like she had wanted him to notice that from the beginning. Really, she was no different from an elementary schooler.

“I am treated like this here~! So please give me some love too in the future, Mr. IlHan~!”

“You don’t have to worry about me, so play tic tac toe with the guys here all you want.”

“Hiin~ that’s not it......”

Leaving aside the dejected Na YuNa, Yu IlHan walked the streets with Yumir. Even the food from the banquet in Lanpas had splendid food. Eating the local specialties was one of the true joys of travelling! He was planning to enjoy everything that he wouldn’t be able to back home.

[Looks like Na YuNa is quite dejected but..... well, you must be thinking about food.] (Erta)

[Even if IlHan falls into hell, he’ll look for tasty food and special metals first.] (Liera)

[I’d find it fortunate if he did not plan to enhance the flames in hell with the Eternal Flame.] (Spiera)

“You guys are too much!”

Leaving aside Liera, who had lived with him for the longest time, even Erta and Spiera knew him too well! While being shocked, Yu IlHan silently added hell tourism onto his bucket list.

“Give me two of these Kavur ice cream.”

“Two Kavurs, right up.”

Then, he ordered two ice cream from the store in front of him, in a pronunciation more fluent than the locals and shared the ice cream with Yumir.

“Dad, this is delicious!”

“That’s true.”

It looked like some kind of fruit or spices unique to this world was added into it. Yu IlHan thought that he had achieved his objective just by experiencing a new taste. Then, he bought two more ice creams before returning to Kang MiRae and Na YuNa.

“Cheer up with this. There are plenty of people in the world, other than me, who would be delighted to play with you.”

“I want to play with you though..... Ah, so nice.”

Even while grumbling, Na YuNa deliciously ate the icecream Yu IlHan gave her. Kang MiRae looked at the scene with dumbfounded eyes, but she too, fell silent as the ice cream was very good. Yu IlHan decided to take the ingredients of this Kavur ice cream or whatever it was called, back to Earth.

“So, what do I need to do here? What, do I need to fight a golem made of holy stones now or something?”

“And if I say yes?”

“Of course, I’d welcome it. Afterwards, the holy stones will all be mine.”

Now, Yu IlHan had the confidence to defeat golems with his eyes closed. The drill...... the Death Driver and the Pile Bunker were plenty strong – he had confirmed that! Moreover, he had some grenades that made use of the magic gunpowder and the Giant’s Rubber Band, so he had nothing to be afraid of.

“I don’t want to. It was the worst battle, with me unable to do anything.”

“Me too.”

Unintentionally, it looked like the battle with the Keshna Golem ended up as a sort of trauma for Kang MiRae and Yumir. Yu IlHan sought to change topics and urged Na YuNa.

“So, what is it?”

“You’ll know if you come with me!”

Na YuNa pulled on Yu IlHan’s sleeve. Yu IlHan couldn’t hide his worry, for now, he decided to follow her obediently. It should at least be better than his time in Lanpas, right?

There was a time, when he thought that was true.

“Tada!”

The place Na YuNa lead him to was a ruin.

“It’s here!”

“What’s here?”

Yu IlHan asked back as he looked around.

He estimated that there was something important, as they had entered deep into the forest guarded by numerous priests and priestesses along with paladins. And when they arrived, it was a ruin; one that looked like it used to have a slightly very tall building!

The building itself looked like it was built a considerable amount of time ago, but from the context of the request, he guessed that it wasn’t too long ago that it collapsed. While his questions grew bigger and bigger, Na YuNa opened her mouth.

“This place is a super high-tier sacred place that is said to be where the goddess of beauty, Leyta, had once descended upon. It is also the location where the original Leyta Temple was built as well as where the baptism ceremonies were carried out....... in any case, you can consider it the most important place in our church.”

“I have two questions.”

“If you kiss me, then I’ll ans...... ouchouchouchouchouch.”

Yu IlHan pinched on Na YuNa’s soft cheeks so it would leave a faint mark, and asked with a nonchalant face. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to ask how a recorded god descended on the land, but for now, he focused on the necessary information first.

“Why is such a place in a mess?”

“Not long ago, there was a grand battle with a super-sized 4th class monster over level 250. There were so many casualties that we decided to lure it to this place to fight it. This is because the the goddess’s holy power is amplified in this place~.”

A shocking reason was returned to him. He regretted pinching Na YuNa’s cheeks, and spoke in a slightly difficult voice.

“.......It’s fortunate that you’re safe, miss Na YuNa.”

“I’m alright. I’m a VVVIP, so I won’t die unless everyone else does. However......”

Unlike the usual her, she was making some frightening remarks with a dark expression. Yu IlHan could guess what came after that. He quickly spoke and prevented her from speaking.

“So, what do you want me to do here?”

“Building the Great Temple again.”

He didn’t know she would actually request that, even though he had guessed that it may be that from mid way the story!

“There are a lot of elements needed to build the Great Temple, and the only craftsman that satisfy all the conditions while enhancing the temple even further, is you, Mr. IlHan.”

“Well, that’s definitely an important request in the viewpoint of the Leytna Church.....”

Then they should call a professional construction worker, why did they call for him!

“If you made such a large mansion, then you can do it! I believe in you~!”

“Such a baseless belief always ruins everything!”

Yu IlHan sighed and looked around the place. Just from the size of the ruins, he could estimate the size of the structure. It looked like this wouldn’t end in just one or two days. Well, it would be within his personality to refuse, but......

‘I want the holy stones.’

Of course, this would be after he had deepened his knowledge on magic engineering, but he had the thought that he might be able to make an amazing item if he used the holy stones. Perhaps at the level of Bittersweet persona....... or perhaps, even better ones.

There was one other thing that was tugging on his mind, but Yu IlHan didn’t acknowledge that so that was nulled. He opened his mouth and spoke.

“Okay. I’ll do it. I have a few conditions though.”

“Yeah~!”

Yu IlHan first wanted to meet the overseer of the project. Only after he talked with that person and received some payment up front, was he willing to talk about working environments.

Or so he thought, but.

“I’m the overseer!”

“How!”

“Because I’m the holy maiden!”

Yu IlHan felt unpleasant with Na YuNa’s uselessly blinding smile. Although he did think that this world had quite a lot of loose screws, where Na YuNa was acknowledged and relied on, he.......

“Okay, then. Let’s negotiate now.”

He thought that if it was her, he would be able to rip her off more, so it wasn’t a bad thing!

“Hiik! Mr. IlHan, you have a scary expression! MiRae, help me!”

“Mr. IlHan, if it’s negotiation, then leave it to me. Ripping more off others is my specialty.”

“Traitor~~!”

The negotiation went smoothly. Yu IlHan faced the ruins again after negotiating with tens of sheets of blueprints of the temple, the human resources support, work times, as well as the quality of the holy stones for rewards.

Not to mention the debris around the place, there was also the flipped lands. He felt stifled just by watching.

“You’re not going to use these debris somewhere, right?”

“We aren’t, but what....”

Yu IlHan took a deep breath and lifted his hand. And with that, a portion of the debris on the site straight up disappeared. He had collected them into his inventory.

“Wow!”

“Dad is amazing!”

In fact, there was no need for Yu IlHan to raise his hand either. All the ruined parts within Yu IlHan’s range of remote collection all entered Yu IlHan’s inventory without a single speck of sand remaining. The history, the weight, the sadness, the resentment – disappeared as well.

The group dumbfoundedly watched as Yu IlHan proceeded forward while collecting everything into his inventory like a vacuum cleaner. They knew of Yu IlHan’s ability, but they were still surprised.

It didn’t end there, and at the same time Yu IlHan flattened the cracked lands and stitched them. Some things popped out from time to time while other things stomped on the ground and flattened them. Even though they were watching, they couldn’t believe it!

“I thought it would take several days to clean up the debris...”

“I’ll take the usable ones back out later.”

On one side, he picked out the relatively usable ones, and those that may become usable after some work. Although they looked like a mess when they entered, when they came back out, they were all cleaned of dust and piled up neatly, every piece looked so nice that they could be mistaken for new materials.

[Although I don’t want to admit it, remote collection may just be the most optimized ability for construction and manual labour.] (Liera)

[You didn’t have to say that out loud!] (Erta)

Yu IlHan worked on the materials there. The work ended not very long after.

“We still manage to make out 20% of them.”

“I thought we wouldn’t be able to use them again..... Thank you.”

Perhaps Na YuNa had a lot of emotional attachment to the compound. She made a bright smile while stroking on an intact pillar. A smile that left a deep impression on Yu IlHan’s mind.

Thinking that this location was indeed very strange, making Na YuNa look like a normal person, Yu IlHan spoke to her.

“And so? The rest of the materials?”

“Ah.”

She looked like she had thought up of something at Yu IlHan’s question, and made a proposal.

“We’re making them...... but if you help out they might finish faster!”

Like that, Yu IlHan and co swapped locations again. Yu IlHan found Na YuNa’s smile a little unpleasant, but decided to follow her for now. It would be better if work finished up quickly!

All of the materials used to build the Great Temple of the Leyta Church were the stones from the stone mountain that the church had managed for a long time.

They were extremely sturdy, with the goddess’s holy power contained in them; and when they were completed in the form of a temple, even 4th classes wouldn’t be able to break it easily.

“Errrrrrgh!”

“Carve a little more! If we carve a little more, the temple’s pillars...”

“Lady Leytna, please give me a little more power! Power to excavate this stone......!’

And so, they were trying ridiculously hard to excavate and process. Ordinary people weren’t even allowed to enter here, so it was the paladins and priests that were doing the work, and the scene of them calling out to the god they worship, while struggling, was quite a sight to see.

“I’ll do this. In the name of Lady Leytna......!”

“Eergh, is it half way out now!”

“......”

Yu IlHan became speechless with the scene of lunacy in front of him. He tried to retreat backwards, but Na YuNa grabbed onto him, her eyes full of stars.

“Mr. IlHan’s drill should work~!”

“.....Dammit.”

With that, Yu IlHan’s excavation resumed.

Author’s notes

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Translator’s notes