I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Chapter 185 185: POINTY POLE.

Han flinched hard.

The rune collapsed mid word and the pressure in the air snapped apart all at once, making the rooftop wind rush back in around them.

"S-sorry—" Han looked genuinely panicked now, gripping the ruined pole with both hands. "I messed it up…"

Then the bent section suddenly cracked off entirely and clanged against the rooftop.

Suha gasped so dramatically both hands flew up to her cheeks. "(,,꒪⌓꒪,,) AHHHH!!! It broke!!! Han broke the stick!!!"

"I KNOW I BROKE IT," Han said immediately, already spiraling harder. "I FELT IT BREAK."

Meanwhile beside them, Mihu stared at the twisted remains of the pole for a solid second before looking down at her own hands like she was checking whether hidden powers had secretly appeared there while nobody was paying attention.

"I just realized I'm useless •́⁠ ⁠ _⁠ ⁠,⁠•̀…"

Si Hon glanced at her.

Mihu pointed weakly at herself while the rooftop exploded somewhere in the background from another ice impact.

"Like… genuinely." She sounded weirdly calm about the realization. "Aeloria has magic. Seong has weird threads. That weird girl there can apparently grab time by the throat and beat it into submission. Han can turn metal into nightmare objects using ancient whatever language it is…"

She brushed her eyes lightly. "And I have… good eyesight."

A second passed. "Which I got from reading a book."

Suha immediately turned toward her with full seriousness. "Good eyesight is important."

Mihu looked emotionally unconvinced.

Han still looked crushed though, staring down at the broken metal like the failure had physically hurt his feelings. His fingers tightened around the pole slightly before he looked up at Si Hon again, visibly expecting disappointment even if he was trying not to show it.

But Si Hon just crouched back down in front of him.

"Again," he said simply.

Han blinked. "What?"

"You almost got it."

"I destroyed it…"

"And now we know what not to do." Si Hon held the remaining half of the pole out toward him again. Calm. Casual. Like failure hadn't changed anything important. "Try again."

Han hesitated.

The rooftop trembled again from another clash overhead, dragon scales grinding against ice while Aeloria shouted something in the distance and Seong's threads snapped across the air, but for a moment none of that seemed to matter inside the small space around the ventilation unit.

Han looked down at the pole.

Then slowly nodded.

"O-okay…"

This time when he closed his eyes, the hesitation stayed there longer. His breathing came uneven at first, shoulders slightly tense, fingers gripping the metal too hard like he was afraid of ruining it again. But Si Hon stayed crouched in front of him the entire time, steady and unmoving, and eventually Han's breathing started matching the rhythm of the wind instead of fighting it.

Then the runes came again.

"ᚠᚤᚱ… ᚱᛟᚲ… ᛋᛈᛁᚲ…"

The pressure returned immediately.

Not explosive. Not violent. Just… strange. Like the rooftop itself had tilted slightly out of alignment with reality. Thin ripples crawled across the surface of the metal while heat shimmered faintly around Han's hands, and this time the pole didn't bend.

It resisted.

The metal groaned instead.

Compressed inward.

The front edge slowly pulled itself thinner and thinner while dark jagged lines spread beneath the surface like cracks filled with faint orange light. The shape forming wasn't smooth or refined or anything close to professionally made. It looked rough. Uneven. Brutal in a very direct way.

Like the concept of sharpness had been forced into steel without caring whether the result looked pretty afterward.

Han's voice shook harder near the end of the rune.

The pressure spiked once—

Then stopped.

Silence.

The pole slipped from Han's hands and clattered onto the rooftop.

Except now it wasn't really a pole anymore.

One end had transformed into a long uneven spike of blackened metal, jagged near the base and narrowing into a vicious sharpened point at the tip. Thin lines glowed faintly beneath the surface before fading out entirely, leaving behind something that looked less forged and more declared into existence.

Suha's eyes widened so much Si Hon briefly wondered if they were about to fall out completely.

"(,,꒪⌓꒪,,) WOAHHHHHHH."

She grabbed both sides of her face again dramatically and started bouncing in place. "Han made scary stab thing!!!"

Han stared at the weapon breathing hard like he couldn't believe it either.

Then his body swayed.

The exhaustion hit him all at once.

His knees buckled slightly and he started tipping sideways before he even realized it himself, but Si Hon moved immediately, catching him first before the sharpened weapon even finished clattering against the rooftop.

Han made a small confused noise as Si Hon steadied him against his chest.

"Easy," Si Hon said quietly.

Han blinked slowly. "I feel… weird…"

"Yeah. Magic'll probably do that."

Mihu hurried over immediately after finally escaping her ongoing existential crisis about usefulness and carefully took Han from Si Hon's arms while still looking deeply concerned.

"Why does everyone here casually say terrifying things…"

Han leaned against her shoulder half conscious already, eyes heavy from whatever the rune had drained out of him.

Si Hon reached over and patted the top of his head once.

"You did good," he said.

Han's expression immediately melted into sleepy happiness despite how exhausted he looked. "Eeally?"

"Really."

Beside him, Suha froze.

Then very slowly looked between Han… and Si Hon's hand.

Her mouth opened.

"Ah." She pointed dramatically. "(,,꒪⌓꒪,,)… Why Han get pat and not Suha?"

Si Hon stared at her for one second.

Then laughed softly before reaching over and patting her head too.

Immediately Suha lit up like someone had activated a hidden power source inside her body. Both hands shot upward triumphantly while she bounced once in place with maximum emotional recovery speed.

"(≧▽≦) YAYYYYY."

Mihu looked at her. "Your mood swings are horrifying."

"Suha is powerful."

"Sure."

Si Hon smiled despite himself.

Then he stood up.

Picked up the sharpened pole from the rooftop floor and tested the weight once in his hand. The metal still felt warm from the runework pulsing through it, faint heat lingering beneath the surface like the weapon was still deciding what it wanted to become.

Across the rooftop, Jisoo was still holding the dragon inside Temporal Lock.

But now Si Hon could see the strain.

Tiny tremors in her fingers.

The slowed distortion around the dragon flickering slightly near the edges.

And the dragon itself was beginning to force movement back into its own body little by little.

The lock was weakening.

Jisoo glanced toward him again just in time to see him walking over carrying the jagged spear shaped weapon.

Her eyes lowered toward it.

Then slowly lifted back to his face.

"Did you seriously go craft a weapon mid boss fight."

Si Hon rolled the pole once in his hand.

"Improvisation."

"Cool… what is that even supposed to do?"

"Kill it?."

"Fair enough."

Then the dragon moved again… a second, just barely to roar.

And the rooftop shook.