WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 10: I Need Basic Knowledge
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“...A foreign identity?”
I had just witnessed one surreal sight after another in the Occult World, along with this grand underground workshop.
By this point, I thought nothing could surprise me anymore.
Yet what Seo Ji-an said felt strangely out of place.
“What, are we talking about laundering my identity like in the movies?”
When I asked outright, Ji-an waved her hands and laughed.
“Oh, no. Nothing like that. I’m not saying we should forge you a passport. You need a shield that even the Four Great Houses can’t touch legally. That’s what I mean.”
She shifted slightly in her seat and tapped the table with her fingertips.
Then she lowered her voice and smiled meaningfully.
“How about posing as a sorcerer affiliated with the Chinese Tianshan Sect?”
The Tianshan Sect.
It sounded like something straight out of a martial arts novel.
“I don’t even speak Chinese. There’s no way that’ll work...”
“It will! The Korean Four Great Houses and the Tianshan Sect have an unspoken nonaggression pact. Besides, there’s a rumor that Tianshan Sect members rarely venture outside in order to maintain secrecy, so it’s perfect for a cover identity.”
She added with a smile.
“I happen to have a few connections there. We’ll just disguise your identity as one of theirs while you operate out of this workshop. The Korean houses can’t recklessly lay a hand on someone from the Tianshan Sect, so from your perspective, Do-hyeon, you can just keep working as usual...”
I didn’t fully understand all the details of the Occult World, but the more I listened, the more convincing it sounded.
More than anything, there was Ji-an’s expression.
She looked genuinely invested in this.
The faster she spoke, the broader her gestures became. Her eyes held something close to certainty.
I didn’t know why.
Still, my instincts told me she wasn’t the kind of person who’d lie to me or betray me.
“...Ji-an.”
“Yes, Do-hyeon?”
“May I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
I took a moment to choose my words.
“If it’s this dangerous, why do you want to work with me?”
Putting everything together, she didn’t belong to one of the Houses either.
Wasn’t she taking on the risk of becoming a target of the Four Great Houses herself?
Ji-an hesitated at my question.
One finger on the table twitched lightly.
Then the corner of her mouth lifted.
“Life is high risk, high return.”
“...”
“And... I don’t have many other options left either.”
A shadow fell over her sparkling eyes.
Despite the smile she tried to force, her gaze suggested there was a deeper story behind it.
Should I ask, or not?
Before I could decide, she shook off the mood and returned to her usual bright tone.
“Anyway! You don’t need to take it so seriously! I’ll take care of all the dangerous and troublesome things!”
Her smile was so natural that I wondered if that strange look from a moment ago had just been my imagination.
Well, there was no need to dig into her private circumstances.
What was clear was that she was staking a great deal on me too.
‘Right. That’s how it is...’
I was starting to make up my mind.
I didn’t know even the most basic things about this world, and I had no way to sell anything I made.
And a facility like this?
Would I be able to find another workshop this good anywhere else?
I had always hated being tied down to anyone.
That was why I had played the game alone without joining a guild.
There was nothing more to think about.
“Hehe. Don’t feel pressured, Do-hyeon. Take your time and think it over before you tell me. Though with your level of skill, I’m sure plenty of places would love to have you...”
“I’ll do it.”
“...Pardon? Do what?”
“I’ll hire Seo Ji-an as my exclusive broker.”
“Really?!”
Ji-an shot to her feet.
“So soon? Really?! You mean it?!”
Her eyes sparkled.
She must have been incredibly happy.
In a hurry, she took a ring of keys from her suit pocket and pressed it into my hand.
“Here, these are the workshop keys! Oh, you can use the room at the very end of the second floor. I’ve set up a bedroom and shower room for you too.”
Oh.
If I wanted to, it felt like I could handle everything here.
“Th-then, may I leave for a bit? I have something I need to take care of quickly. I’ll contact you right away if anything comes up!”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
She bowed at the waist, then hurried outside.
Creeeak, clunk.
The heavy iron door shut.
Then, immediately after, a shriek rang out.
“Ahhh! This is amazing! This is insane!!”
Seo Ji-an’s muffled cheers and the sound of her jumping up and down came through the iron door loud and clear.
Maybe my Spiritual Power had grown stronger, sharpening my senses.
“Ahem.”
If she was a veteran broker, this couldn’t have been her first contract.
She was really excited.
With a quiet laugh, I got to my feet.
I swept my gaze over the tools neatly arranged on the new workbench.
I wanted to inspect every single one of them.
...But that could wait until tomorrow.
Fatigue rushed over me all at once.
It made sense.
Too much had happened today.
‘She said the room at the very end of the second floor.’
I climbed the narrow stairs along one wall and found a long hallway.
Doors lined both sides in neat rows.
“...This doesn’t look like a place built for one person to live in.”
Well, I could think about that later.
I walked to the end of the hall and turned the doorknob.
A room far cleaner than I expected came into view.
Soft indirect lighting, neatly made bedding, and even a small closet against one wall.
Without taking time to look around, I flopped straight onto the bed.
Plop.
“...”
It was so soft. So plush.
It felt like my entire body was sinking into it.
“So this is what an expensive bed feels like.”
I had work to do tomorrow too.
With that, I closed my eyes.
* * *
At some point, dawn began breaking through the gap in the window.
Looking outside, I saw Goblin Market’s streets beginning to come alive again.
A faint, dawn-like light spread through the underground space. There were no lights anywhere on the ceiling.
It seemed to be some kind of sorcerous design that drew in natural sunlight from outside. Despite being underground, it was bright and pleasant, like a morning above ground.
“Time to get up.”
After a quick shower, I pulled a loose black T-shirt from the new clothes hanging in the closet.
I had things to do.
Heading down to the first floor, I looked around the workshop again.
Even seeing it a second time.
‘Just looking at this setup makes me happy.’
The gleaming furnace and anvil, the highest-grade tools filling the walls. There wasn’t a single thing to complain about.
I also cracked open the materials room, which I hadn’t had time to inspect yesterday.
“...Wow.”
My mouth fell open.
Special alloy ingots were stacked by grade, while unfamiliar animal hides and bones, along with tough fabrics of unknown origin, were packed tightly beside them.
Just looking at it made me feel full.
I cut a piece of tough black fabric to a suitable size.
Then I tied it into something that could loosely cover my face.
“This should do.”
I muttered at my reflection, half my face hidden.
If I was going to use a false identity, walking around with my bare face exposed didn’t seem like a good idea.
“I should head out soon.”
I started to turn, then stopped.
“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”
I put the Suppression Talisman, the black silk pouch Ji-an had tied around me, back around my neck.
Only after confirming that my presence had smoothly settled down did I step through the iron door.
* * *
The streets of Goblin Market were just as crowded when I returned.
The roads were too confusing.
I had never been good with directions, but internet maps didn’t work here, so I had to rely entirely on memory.
After circling through similar-looking alleys several times, I finally managed to find the main street lined with shops.
“...Ah, there it is.”
Among the bizarre stalls, a state-of-the-art machine stood out plainly.
I had only glanced at it yesterday because my mind was elsewhere.
But this was seriously an ATM?
Come to think of it, this place called the Occult World probably ran on money too, so it wasn’t strange for something like this to exist.
I examined the small plaque attached to the top of the machine.
[Goblin ATM - Goblin Market Branch]
‘...That name’s pretty straightforward.’
Goblin ATM.
And if it even had branches, there had to be a headquarters somewhere, with branches in other places too.
This hidden world might have put down roots all across the country more deeply than I thought.
I opened my wallet and took out the envelope containing the payment I had received from Cheonhwa Hall’s General Manager yesterday.
Come to think of it, I had asked Ji-an earlier whether I could really use this money freely.
I took out my phone and checked our messages.
―Hehe, I’ll handle all the financial processing, so feel free to use it!
―There’s something called a Goblin ATM inside Goblin Market, right? Put it in there, and it’ll go through nice and cleanly.
―It’s better if I handle large sums separately, but this is much more convenient for smaller amounts! (Sticker of a rabbit going “ahem” and snorting.)
‘...Convenient, my ass.’
I stood before the machine and looked at the screen.
Currency options were neatly lined up at the top.
Korean won, dollars, yuan, yen.
There were even currencies written in letters I had never seen before.
I could choose mysterious units like [Silver Ingots] and [Spirit Stone] as well.
‘Let’s see... Ah, there it is.’
[Korean Won (KRW) Transfer]
I took half of the payment from the envelope.
My hand trembled slightly.
‘...This really works, right?’
I couldn’t help worrying that something would go wrong.
It wasn’t like an alarm would suddenly go off, warning about an abnormal transaction, and employees would come rushing out, right?
Even pointless thoughts like that crossed my mind.
Well, what could I do?
I had to try it at least once.
Carefully, I slid the stack of bills into the cash slot.
Whirr.
[Counting cash.]
The machine swallowed the bills for a while, then displayed a perfectly normal screen.
‘...It works?’
It was the familiar bank-transfer screen.
The instant I entered my account number and completed the deposit, the phone in my pocket buzzed briefly.
Bzzz.
[KC Bank deposit. 2,500,000 won. (Sender: Manmul Trading Company)]
“...”
I stared blankly at the screen for a moment.
Two and a half million won.
That was only half of the payment I had received yesterday.
Which meant I had received the huge sum of five million won for a single job.
Where did these people get all this money?
My hands had trembled when I opened the envelope this morning.
‘...Well, good is good.’
Before turning off the screen, I opened my transfer app.
After sending money home, I immediately opened my messaging app.
Tap. Tap.
[Me: I sent this month’s living expenses.]
A reply from my twenty-year-old sister, who was studying to retake the college entrance exam, came right away.
What? Isn’t she supposed to be studying?
[Ji-yeon: Oh, thx thx. But didn’t you say it might be hard for a while because you were looking for a new part-time job?]
[Me: Things worked out somehow. How’s Mom doing?]
[Ji-yeon: Same as always. I keep telling her to take it easy when she’s sick, but she won’t listen.]
[Me: Okay. I got it. Contact me right away if anything happens.]
I looked at the chat for a moment, then moved my fingers again.
[Lee Do-hyeon has sent 500,000 won.]
[Ji-yeon: ?????]
[Ji-yeon: Huh??]
[Ji-yeon: What is this??]
[Me: This is your allowance. You said you need to buy workbooks and sign up for new online lectures.]
[Ji-yeon: Whoa? Are you joining an ocean-going fishing boat, Oppa? You didn’t sell an organ or anything, did you?]
[Me: Don’t take it if you don’t want it. Wait, I’ll cancel the transfer.]
[Ji-yeon has received 500,000 won.]
Look how quickly she accepted it.
[Ji-yeon: Love you, Oppa. Mwah mwah mwah.]
[Me: Get lost. -_-]
I snorted.
Then I put my phone back into my pocket.
All right, I had done my duty as an older brother. Now I had something else to take care of.
There was a place I had noticed while passing through this market alley yesterday.
* * *
‘Ah, found it.’
An old wooden building.
An aged signboard above the entrance read [Mansang Book Pavilion] in brush calligraphy.
As I stepped inside, the thick scent of ink, old mold, and faint incense stung my nose.
Bookshelves packed tightly enough to reach the ceiling held every kind of book, from hardcovers to ancient volumes, all gathering dust.
At the counter, a gaunt old man wearing reading glasses was dozing with a long-stemmed pipe in his mouth.
I quietly began looking through the shelves.
What I needed now was basic knowledge about this world.
No matter how much skill I had built up in the game, I was only half-finished if I didn’t even know the names of the materials used here or the theories behind their properties.
But the more I looked through the shelves, the stranger things felt.
Books that looked newly printed and books bound in yellowed paper were crammed together without any order.
‘...He doesn’t organize the books at all. No wonder this place is empty.’
Still, there was a wide selection.
I slowly walked between the shelves and picked out books as they caught my eye.
[Understanding Yin-Yang and the Five Elements]
[Introduction to Basic Sorcery]
[Practical Spell Formula Engraving Theory: Fundamentals]
[You Can Make Them Too! Starting Today, I’m a Talisman King.]
“Hmm, this should be enough to sort out the terminology.”
The last book I picked up looked untrustworthy from the cover alone, but sometimes that sort of thing was more helpful for beginners.
I tucked the books under my arm and was about to head to the counter.
‘Huh?’
In a corner of the store.
I spotted a pile of discounted books carelessly tossed aside beneath a thick layer of dust.
A heap of old books and miscellaneous junk, stacked as if someone had thrown them away.
Yet something in that pile drew my attention.
No, it was more than that...
It felt like thirst.
A primal urge that made it impossible not to reach out immediately.
‘...What is this?’
My feet moved toward it on their own.
I crouched down and looked through the pile.
Most of it was junk reading with tattered covers.
[Introduction to Triad-style Formations], [100 Talismans That Don’t Sell], [Exorcist Certification Past Exam Collection]...
Every book looked at least thirty years old, yellowed and covered in dust.
But right in the middle.
One book was buried deep beneath the others.
I knew instinctively.
That was it.
This pull was definitely coming from that book.
As I removed the books piled on top one by one, a finger-width gap appeared in the stack.
I reached my hand through it.
Scrape.
Dust particles scratched across the back of my hand.
The cover beneath my fingertips felt different from the other books.
It was old, yet strangely smooth.
Leather.
For some reason, it felt as though it had been waiting for someone’s touch for a very long time.
Without hesitation, I pulled it out.
And at that moment.
Fwaaaash!
My vision turned completely white.
Footnotes:
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