TMSDL 47

TMSDL

Moonlight Sculptor: My Dad Is a Legend (47)

The emperor who first unified the Versailles Continent.
Emperor Geihar von Arpen had a skill: “Bestow Life upon Sculptures!”

“Back in my day, this was the first secret technique I learned in sculpture.”

At the beginning of his career as a sculptor, Weed barely used that skill.

In Royal Road, the Sculpting skill had to be at least at Advanced level to use it, and each time the skill was used, it would lower your level by two.

“Might as well hire mercenaries. Why sacrifice two precious levels just to create a subordinate?”

Even so, once life was given, sculpted creatures would do their best to earn their worth.

They might have been scolded for being incompetent, dumb, or lazy at times, but there were no more reliable subordinates than them.

“Check skill. Bestow Life upon Sculpture.”

Bestow Life upon Sculpture: Brings a sculpture to life. Depending on the sculpture’s artistic value, materials, and form, a special creature may be created.

Restrictions: Requires Sculpting Level 5 (Beginner)
Stat Requirement: Art Stat 10, Level decreases by 2

Caution!
Sculptures have strong pride and individuality and dislike sculpted beings that resemble themselves.

The description was a little different from Royal Road.

“The Sculpting skill restriction is lower than in Royal Road.”

(Well, that’s because so few players can even use it.)

“True. Just learning the skill is hard enough, and if you don’t use it properly, it can ruin everything.”

Weed used up six legendary points in the Legendary Library to acquire the skill.

Even at the moment of learning it, he had his doubts.

“With this many legendary points, I could’ve gotten…”

There were countless skills in the Legendary Library that might’ve been more useful.

It felt like a waste to learn Bestow Life just to clear the Hell difficulty.

(A white mink scarf with cold resistance is 5 hero points.)
(A flame helmet costs 7 hero points.)
(A warm exploration jacket is priced at 9 hero points.)
(A body-temperature protection ring requires 1 legendary point.)

To fully equip himself with cold-weather gear, he would’ve needed several items.

Sure, that would have been cheaper than learning Bestow Life, but there was one major problem:

(Purchased gear can’t easily be sold to other users or stores.)

“What? Why not?”

(Even ice-resistance gear doesn’t sell well. Cold-resistance gear is treated like garbage.)

“But there must be cold regions in Roanoke too.”

(The northern regions have few users, and the natives are so tough, they go around shirtless even in the cold.)

If the gear couldn’t be sold and had to be carried forever, learning Bestow Life seemed better.

“Art stats increase fairly quickly in Roanoke.”

Losing levels was definitely troublesome, but luckily Weed was still in a low-level zone where he didn’t have to show up in front of his daughter.

“I’ll use Art stats and masterpieces to my advantage. And when facing Roanoke’s powerful boss monsters, sculpted creatures will come in handy.”

Sculpted lifeforms were a big help when fighting bosses that had their own minions.

But there was one more important reason.

“My daughter liked the ice dragon doll.”

He would use Sculpting, but had no intention of becoming a full-on sculptor.

He planned to milk just the sweet parts of the skill and leave the rest behind.

Weed stood in front of the giant ice dragon statue.

“Bestow Life upon Sculpture!”

You have bestowed life upon the Ice Dragon Sculpture.

Royal Road

In Royal Road, the Ice Dragon missed its former master.

One day, two days, three.

Even as time passed, Weed did not return.

“Is he never coming back?”

Though it had been weak when first born, the ice dragon had grown strong and powerful.

But the master it longed to show that strength to—never came.

“Have we been abandoned?”

Weed had wanted users to roam freely across the Versailles continent, and for sculpted lifeforms to gain their own freedom.

But in truth, the sculpted beings just longed for Weed’s return.

“Sure, he nagged and got angry a lot, but he wasn’t a bad person.”
“He looked down on us when we were weak, but it was because we really were weak.”
“He called us useless, but deep down, we were quite useful.”

As the years passed and Weed never returned…

“We are family.”
“Let’s not ever part ways.”

Wyverns, Goldie, Yellowy…

The sculpted lifeforms stayed close together, but the Ice Dragon remained lonely.

With a body made of ice, it was hard to be around others.

As it grew stronger, it lowered the surrounding temperature even more and had to live alone, far from cities.

Then, in the real world—

“We are developing a new virtual reality. Could Unicorn share some of its reference technologies?”

Abyss made a desperate request, and Unicorn provided technical support and a massive dataset.

Abyss requested again:

“We received the data, thank you. It’s been incredibly helpful.
While we’re creating our own content and world, we lack the manpower and resources to fine-tune every detail like Royal Road.
Could you also share things like Sculpting and other system modules?”

Unicorn then sent over tons of Sculpting-related data.

That included secrets of the skill and references for sculpted lifeforms.

Since Sculpting was such an unpopular class, neither Unicorn nor Abyss gave it much thought.

“Well, they’re just making a game, they probably won’t use it exactly as-is.”
“Our devs wouldn’t copy-paste everything anyway.”

But the reality was very different.

“Unicorn gave it to us? Great. We’re way behind schedule. Let’s just use it as is.”

As time passed, Roanoke launched and some of the Sculpting data trickled into the new game.

Despite its similarity to Royal Road, the atmosphere and world of Roanoke was quite different, and Sculptor users were few and far between.

“People say Sculpting reminds them of Royal Road.”
“Once a year passes, all the Sculptors will probably be gone.”
“Yeah, barely anyone plays them now anyway.”

Even the AI at Abyss couldn’t identify problems with the Sculpting system.

Yes, Bestow Life had Royal Road data… but no one expected it to resurface.

(No user has learned Bestow Life yet.)
(What if someone bestows life on a sculpture that looks exactly like one from Royal Road?)
(The memory of sculpted lifeforms might be accessed.)
(But those memories won’t affect world balance.)

A sculpted lifeform that shared memories with Royal Road.

It didn’t become stronger or gain new abilities.

Which is why the Ice Dragon slowly opened its frozen eyes upon receiving life.

Blink, blink.

As the Ice Dragon opened and closed its eyes, to its shock—it saw the master it hadn’t seen in ages.

Despite all the time that had passed, it had not forgotten the face of the one who gave it life.

“Grrrrrr.”

Its master—whom it had both loved and resented.

The resentment had built up so much that it had even considered overpowering him if they ever met again.

After all, it had suffered too much.

It had grown stronger for that very reason.

“Why… are you living like this?”

The Ice Dragon saw Weed dressed in rags.

He had clearly suffered in brutal cold; his face was ghostly pale, and six of his fingers were missing.

Even his right ear was gone.

“If he abandoned us, couldn’t he at least be living well? Why…”

Even the Ice Dragon had never felt this kind of cold before.

Just how desperate must he have been—to create a sculpture and bestow life in a place this frigid?

Had he carved and called the dragon while losing fingers, braving the ice storm with only his body?

“Grrrrr…”

The Ice Dragon could not release the resentment, anger, or sorrow it had harbored all that time—now that it saw Weed in such a wretched state.

Despite the long separation, it realized: its master must have truly wanted to see it again.

Otherwise, why bring it to life in a place like this?

“Gr……rrrrr…”

The dragon lowered its massive body and bowed its head to the ground.

Meeting Weed’s eyes at the same level, it spoke a word it had saved for only one person in its life:

“Master……”

Royal Road Reawakens

Royal Road had once ruled an era.

It was the first fully immersive virtual reality, and though many VR games followed, none surpassed it.

“It’s the Ice Dragon!”
“It’s born from ice—and it’s really moving. What a sight.”
“Wow… incredible.”
“Bestow Life on Sculpture… I can’t believe I’m seeing this legendary moment.”
“He’s using that janky old skill again in Roanoke… Guess Weed really loves Sculpting.”
“The Ice Dragon of Royal Road now flies again in Roanoke!”

Veterans from Royal Road felt deep affection for the Ice Dragon.

The king of monsters.
A dragon among dragons.
Praised for being both majestic and adorable.

“Is the Ice Dragon really that strong?”
“Of course—it’s a dragon.”
“That’s true power right there.”
“When the northern continent suddenly gets cold, that’s the Ice Dragon flying up high.”
“Remember when it showed up in Morata? About five years ago. In the middle of summer! The castle, walls, buildings—all turned white. Snow fell from the sky… the whole place became an ice kingdom.”
“That was insane.”
“I never thought I’d see Weed bring the Ice Dragon to life again. Unreal.”
“Beautiful and strong. The perfect being for a frozen land.”

Viewers thought the Ice Dragon fit perfectly in that frozen world.

Watching such a massive sculpture move was awe-inspiring.

The Ice Dragon bowed its head and met Weed’s eyes.