WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈

Chapter 25: I’m Going to Put My Hand on Your Chest (Added Ending)

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‘Anything, huh... That’s not how the world works.’

Do-hyeon glanced at Yu-ha, who was fretting a short distance away.

If something went out, something of equal value had to come back.

Well, Do-hyeon had already browsed the forums and the shops in the Goblin Market.

He had a rough idea of how prices worked in this world.

If he wanted, he could name his own price.

But.

This sort of thing wasn’t something he should say himself.

That was right!

Had anyone ever seen a doctor bring up money directly in front of a patient?

Branding was all about image.

Just as people would trust a doctor less if they talked about money before saving someone’s life.

From the perspective of saving a sword...

Wasn’t he much the same?

No matter how remarkable his work was, the moment he named his own price,

others might see it as nothing more than a way to squeeze that amount out of them.

That would make him an artisan obsessed with money.

But what if those roles were separated?

Haha... Even celebrities had their agencies negotiate their appearance fees.

This was only natural!

Of course, he had already texted Seo Ji-an everything about the sword’s condition and the work needed to repair it.

All that remained was for her to get as much as possible out of Yu-ha!

That was how he could keep his dignity too.

‘In short, negotiate with my manager.’

Do-hyeon deliberately stepped well back so the two could talk in comfort.

Yu-ha’s faint voice drifted over from afar as she repeatedly answered in surprise.

“Yes... Yes...”

“...L-Like that?!”

“...Ah, no. That’s true, but...”

“...Y-Yes...”

“Ah, no... I’ll do that, yes...”

She sounded utterly flustered.

After talking for quite a while, Yu-ha finally came over with slumped shoulders, apparently finished.

“...She wants to talk to you again.”

Do-hyeon took the phone back.

「Hehe! The negotiations are over, Do-hyeon! You can go ahead now! It’s a very, very satisfying result. You’ll never regret it. Hehe! So, here’s what we decided on...」

He listened to the terms she explained.

“Pardon?!”

For a moment,

“...”

Do-hyeon was speechless.

“...I-Is that even possible?!”

...She had gotten that much?

「Oh my, of course! If they want to entrust something to an artisan of your caliber, they should naturally pay this much.」

It was more than he’d expected.

A lot more.

No.

‘...She really was an incredibly capable broker.’

* * *

Do-hyeon led the way out into the mansion’s courtyard.

Yu-ha followed behind him in a daze.

‘...A percentage-of-earnings contract.’

The upfront repair fee alone was one hundred million won.

On top of that, in exchange for handling future aftercare, she had agreed to give him part of the income she earned as a sorcerer for the next ten years.

...A full thirty percent.

When she first heard the terms, she had doubted her own ears.

Thirty percent for ten years.

For a moment, memories of being exploited by a predatory Japanese agency nearly came rushing back.

Yet after hearing the broker’s explanation, it didn’t seem entirely unreasonable.

According to the broker, percentage contracts were common when someone commissioned a Ritual Implement of Eul-tier or higher from a workshop.

Unless they were a major figure who could casually pay several billion won all at once.

It was the first Yu-ha had heard of it.

She had never made a proper commission or contract before.

To begin with...

‘Eul-tier...?’

She didn’t even know exactly what rank this sword held.

She knew it was an extraordinary sword, but she had no way of judging how highly it was valued in the Occult World or what its market price might be.

Her mother hadn’t been a sorcerer, so her grandfather had never gone out of his way to tell her about this world.

‘You don’t need to know.’

Whenever it came to the Occult World, he had tried his best to keep his daughter away from it.

He had probably wanted to protect her from this world.

That was why Yu-ha had only truly understood her grandfather’s reputation as Sword Demon Ishihara after stepping into the Occult World herself.

...Honestly, it was still no small amount.

But when she thought it over, it wasn’t a contract where she stood to lose anything.

If she couldn’t repair this sword, she would surely fail to properly complete even a single commission here.

Besides.

It was a contract where he would only get his share if the sword came back to life.

In other words, this man

wouldn’t receive a single won beyond the hundred-million-won upfront repair fee if he couldn’t repair the sword.

‘...So he’s confident.’

Oddly enough, that made her trust him more.

What did a mere thirty percent matter?

If the sword came back to life,

then she, too, could surely become like her grandfather.

[Once you learn to wield this sword, you’ll surely become the greatest sorcerer, just like Grandpa.]

Those words had carried her this far.

She didn’t know much about sword ranks.

Still, she had never doubted it.

Sword Demon Ishihara.

No one in Japan’s Occult World failed to recognize that name.

And she was the sole successor to that great sorcerer’s bloodline.

So if this sword could awaken again, she could give him even more.

“I already received permission, so I’ll set things up.”

“Ah, yes...”

But.

‘...Is he really going to repair it here, right now?’

Yu-ha was puzzled.

This was only the garden of a villa, not a forge.

She had naturally assumed that once this commission was settled, she would have to visit his forge separately.

Yet he had suddenly told her to follow him because he would begin immediately.

Then she noticed the box strapped to Do-hyeon’s back.

It was a large, pitch-black wooden box bound in luxurious fabric.

She had been wondering what it was since he first entered the reception room...

Clunk.

Do-hyeon set the box down and opened the lid, taking things out and arranging them on the ground.

‘...What are those?’

A small furnace, a hammer, tongs, and unfamiliar tools all found their places one by one.

Yes, it was as if

he had moved an entire forge here.

* * *

‘As I thought, there would probably be times when I needed to make house calls.’

Just like today.

Do-hyeon looked down at the items in the case with satisfaction.

It had always been that way in the game too.

And even aside from that,

Do-hyeon was the sort of person who got restless if he didn’t swing a hammer every day.

So after receiving the payment for the TK Hotel commission, there was something he had wanted to make first.

This was it!

A Portable Forge Kit.

If he hadn’t had this during his gaming days,

it would have been impossible to roam such a vast continent, complete quests, receive secret techniques, and gather materials.

‘...Whoever made this really did a fine job. Just looking at it makes me happy.’

Ah, for the record.

I made it.

The most important part was this simple furnace.

“Oh? It’s a furnace. I didn’t know things like this existed.”

Yu-ha’s eyes widened in fascination.

There were portable furnaces on the market that used kerosene or charcoal.

But to Do-hyeon, carrying fuel around was heavy and inefficient from the start.

He had customized one to carry around in the game too,

so recreating that structure in reality was no problem.

‘First, I need to heat the furnace.’

Do-hyeon placed a hand against one side of it.

Then he poured in Spiritual Power.

Whoosh!

Fwoooooosh!

Blue flames swayed through the air as they surged upward.

That was another reason Do-hyeon avoided commercially available furnaces.

This furnace was filled with inscriptions he had carved into it for convenience.

And the most important among them was this!

[Spiritual Power Combustion].

It was a circuit that burned the Spiritual Power he fed into it as flame.

Thanks to that, he needed no firewood, charcoal, or oil.

This furnace had only one source of fuel.

Do-hyeon’s own Spiritual Power.

Controlling the fire was the heart of blacksmithing.

He could adjust the intensity through bellows and firewood, or turn a dial.

But those physical methods inevitably created tiny errors and delays.

That wasn’t enough for Do-hyeon.

Perfect control that allowed not even the slightest delay.

For that alone, he had engraved a circuit into the furnace that kindled fire with Spiritual Power.

After countless hours spent before a furnace, refining that control,

Do-hyeon had now reached the point where he could freely command a flame’s temperature and nature the instant he thought of it.

Once the fire burned steadily, he immediately brought the sword close to the furnace.

The first thing he had to do was remove the reinforcing materials those strange artisans had slapped all over it.

Different materials had different melting points.

He carefully adjusted the flames while examining their condition.

Sizzle.

Only the crude additions made later began to melt away bit by bit.

Yu-ha, watching beside the furnace, opened her eyes so wide they looked ready to split.

‘Is this... running on Spiritual Power?’

At first, she thought it was an ordinary portable furnace.

One that burned gas or oil.

But...

It wasn’t.

The flames moved as though alive, following the motion of his hand.

Their intensity shrank and swelled, and even their color subtly changed.

As if they could read his intentions exactly.

Only then did Yu-ha realize it.

The one who had raised those flames,

and the one controlling them so freely now,

wasn’t the furnace.

It was this man’s Spiritual Power.

And what those flames were melting

were the ugly marks covering the blade.

At every workshop she had dragged the sword to,

there had been people who said they would at least try to do something.

Some had poured in the wrong molten metal to fill the cracks.

Others had added unidentified alloys, claiming they would help Spiritual Power flow through it.

None of them had saved the sword. They had only added more scars.

Layer upon layer of failed attempts.

Do-hyeon’s flames gently melted only those away, as if picking them out.

They didn’t touch the original blade beneath them even by a hair.

If the flames had been even slightly stronger, the original blade would have melted with them.

‘...This is impossible.’

Yu-ha was a sorcerer.

That was why she understood it all the more clearly.

Turning Spiritual Power into flames was difficult enough.

But changing that fire’s intensity and nature every single moment?

Simply releasing Spiritual Power at a steady strength required extensive training.

Yet this man before her

was performing that insane level of Spiritual Power control as casually as breathing.

‘...Can a person really control Spiritual Power like this?’

Yu-ha watched the dancing blue flames without even breathing.

This time.

Really, truly.

This sword might come back to life.

* * *

Once all the foreign material had been cleared away, the sword’s original form hidden beneath it was revealed.

Still, ugly gouges and damage remained everywhere the additions had been removed.

Those empty spaces had to be filled again with metal close to the original material.

‘Good thing I brought some.’

Do-hyeon rummaged through the kit and opened a case full of small leather pouches.

‘It should be around here... Ah, there it is.’

He always carried several kinds of basic alloys and powdered steel in case of emergencies.

After carefully examining the damaged cross-section of the sword, Do-hyeon selected three leather pouches and began pouring their contents into a crucible.

He was going to mix metal that perfectly matched the sword’s original material.

Steel powder to serve as the base, wrought-iron powder to give it flexibility, and special alloy powder to help it retain Spiritual Power.

Do-hyeon mixed them with only his eye and the feel at his fingertips, matching even the most minute ratios.

‘This should be enough.’

He applied a flame of Spiritual Power to the small crucible resting beside the furnace.

The powdered steel mixture melted in an instant, bubbling into bright-red molten metal.

Do-hyeon lifted the crucible with tongs and carefully poured the molten metal over the scarred areas.

Sliiide.

The molten metal seeped flawlessly into every gap, smoothly filling the gouged sections of the sword like its original flesh.

Then he picked up the hammer he knew so well.

‘Hehe. It’s been a while, Steelie.’

Clang...! Clang...! Clang...!

The cheerful ring of steel echoed through the courtyard.

By repeating the process of hammering and cooling, he restored the sword’s shape perfectly.

That was enough reinforcement.

‘Now... Should I engrave it while it’s still nice and hot?’

When he had read the circuit earlier, there was one thing he had checked first.

The input circuit in the hilt that absorbed Spiritual Power.

Every other part repelled Spiritual Power.

Only through the pattern on this hilt could Spiritual Power be fed in.

Even then, the circuit had been designed to allow only particular Spiritual Power to pass through.

That was likely the main reason this sword had stopped working.

‘Hmm... Is it roughly this wavelength?’

The family that had maintained this sword through the generations had probably adjusted the circuit whenever a new owner inherited it.

‘Now that the family is gone, there was no one left to adjust it.’

And Yu-ha had said her mother didn’t work as a sorcerer and had left the sword to rot, so she couldn’t have known any of this.

‘Well, anyway.’

To use this sword again, he needed to modify the circuit to match that woman’s Spiritual Power.

For that, he first had to examine her Spiritual Power.

Do-hyeon raised his head.

‘All right, then.’

He lightly gestured to Yu-ha, who had been watching with bated breath from a short distance away.

“Could you come over here for a moment?”

“...Yes?”

Yu-ha hesitantly approached with a confused look on her face.

Do-hyeon silently studied her for a moment.

‘Hmm... Where should I touch to get the clearest sense of her Spiritual Power?’

After gauging the spot, Do-hyeon finally spoke.

“Just a moment.”

“...?”

“I’m going to put my hand on your chest for a moment.”

“...”

Yu-ha’s face instantly froze bright red.

“...Y-Yeees?!?”

Footnotes:

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