WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 35: I’m Someone Who Makes Things Like This.
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“Phew... Should I take a break?”
I perched on the stool by my workbench and took a gulp of water.
As usual, I’d been hammering away.
“...”
Still, I’d picked up a new habit over the past few days.
Click.
I turned on my phone.
Then, almost out of habit, I opened my banking app and checked my balance.
“...”
I stared at it for a long time.
“...How many zeroes are there?”
At first, I couldn’t believe it.
I’d started all this knowing it would happen, but now that the money had actually landed in my account, it still didn’t feel real.
It was definitely my account, yet I felt like I was looking at someone else’s balance.
I turned the screen off and back on, but the number remained the same.
I’d always been the kind of person who stayed home and hammered metal.
I’d lived like that for ten years.
Of course, in the game, I’d poured everything except my living expenses into buying materials and acquiring new manuals.
Still, I didn’t feel as though I’d changed much, so seeing a number like that in my account felt surreal.
One dagger, one bow, and one necklace.
I’d only made and sold three things, yet this was the result.
“Well... this is nice.”
It was nice.
For the first few days, I’d grin every time I checked my balance.
After a while, though, I started to feel strangely empty.
I sat there wondering why having money would leave me feeling empty, then quickly realized why.
I’d been making the same things for days.
The Karmafire Dagger, the Lightning Bow, and the Canghai Necklace.
Every one of them was something I’d made in the game.
That was why it felt dull.
It was like solving the same worn-out workbook again.
I wasn’t good at putting up with boredom.
You might wonder what a guy who’d spent ten years hammering metal was talking about, but when you got down to it, I hadn’t been doing the same thing all that time.
Every day had been new.
I’d learn a new manual and put it into practice, or tweak the same item little by little to suit a client’s needs.
There were even times when I stayed up for several nights straight, trying to make something new with techniques I’d already mastered.
That was how I lasted ten years.
Now, I had money and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.
The answer was obvious.
Just like I had in the game.
Make something new.
The Occult World was an entirely new world spread out before me.
And it came with a new kind of technique called sorcery.
There was no telling how many things I could make from now on.
“Good... So, what should I make first?”
My fingertips were starting to itch.
“Mm-hm~”
Just then, I heard a familiar sound in front of me.
Jin Mu-yeong had once again claimed a spot in the corner of the workshop, tearing into fried chicken.
He’d clocked in again today, huh?
“Hey, Mu-yeong. Don’t you have work these days? I feel like I see you every day.”
After seeing him day after day, he was starting to feel like part of the workshop’s inventory.
“Come on, that’s a hurtful thing to say.”
Mu-yeong waved a drumstick as he protested.
“I’m popular too. Of course, I can’t compare to you, bro, but I’m still a Grade-3 sorcerer. People know who I am wherever I go.”
That Grade-3 sorcerer thing again.
Come to think of it, something occurred to me.
Didn’t every family have manuals passed down through the generations?
Could he use something like that too?
“Hey. Why did you say you left your family again?”
“...”
Mu-yeong slowly lowered the drumstick he’d been eating.
His expression stiffened for a moment.
Hmm. Maybe I’d asked the wrong question.
Just as I wondered whether I should apologize out of guilt...
“Bro!!”
Mu-yeong suddenly approached with sparkling eyes.
“I-I’m touched! You’re finally taking an interest in me...!”
“Hey, what are you doing? D-don’t get so close. Back off.”
Watching him make such a fuss drained away any desire I had to listen.
“Forget it. I don’t want to hear it.”
Go away. Go.
“Tch...”
Mu-yeong dejectedly picked up his drumstick again.
Whatever.
Why should I care how he ended up leaving his family?
“Do-hyeon!”
Just then, Seo Ji-an walked out from the back with a tablet in hand.
“I finished sorting through the commission list. Would you like to take a look?”
My hand stopped as I scrolled through the screen.
“...Are all of these commissions?”
“Yes. These are the ones I narrowed down.”
No matter how far I scrolled, the list didn’t end.
The amounts offered were on a completely different scale from before.
There were countless major commissions from overseas alone.
Egypt. Dubai.
There was even an official commission from the Occult Management Bureau.
“These ones came from the U.K., and this is...”
“...Huh.”
I must’ve put on one hell of a showcase.
Or was it because of that Noh Jin-hyeok guy?
They’d said he wasn’t only famous in Korea, so word must have spread overseas too.
“Wow... You really are on another level, bro.”
Mu-yeong muttered as he looked over the screen beside me.
That was when I spotted something while casually scrolling through the list.
[Korea Sorcery University / Commission to Produce a Special Sealing Implement]
“...Ji-an. There’s a sorcery university too?”
When I pointed at the listing, Ji-an leaned over to take a look.
“Of course! It’s a school that trains sorcerers. Let’s see... It’s a commission for a sealing implement.”
“Apparently, an Isolation Zone was created recently, and they need a sealing implement to contain whatever appeared there.”
Ji-an pursed her lips.
“But compared to the other commissions, the pay is a little low. Korea Sorcery University is pretty remote too. Honestly, considering all the trouble you’d have to go through... Why not take a different commission instead?”
I’d heard of sealing implements before.
They were Ritual Implements that sealed Cursed spirits, like a gourd bottle or a painting.
I’d never made one before.
More than that, I wanted to see what a place that trained sorcerers actually looked like.
“This one. I’ll take it.”
“Huh? Ah... Really? There are plenty of better ones. Ah.”
Ji-an’s eyes widened.
Then, as if she’d realized something, she nodded.
“...Right. Of course, Do-hyeon.”
Ji-an looked up at me with a strangely touched expression.
“No matter how valuable your time becomes, you can’t just walk past somewhere that needs help, can you? If a vicious Cursed spirit gets loose, innocent citizens could get hurt. ...Right?”
...No.
I just wanted to look around the school.
* * *
After a long taxi ride, I arrived in a small provincial city.
Mountains stretched behind it, while empty fields spread out in front.
Right in the middle of it all stood a massive university campus.
A large sign hung over the main gate.
Taeheo University.
“...Was there a university with a name like this?”
I’d never heard of it before.
Paint peeled from parts of the main gate, and weeds had overgrown the flower beds.
The campus was completely empty, without so much as a shadow in sight.
At a glance, it looked like a provincial private university on the verge of closing down.
What kind of sorcery could they possibly teach in a place like this?
As I looked around the desolate campus and approached the gate...
“Ah, you’re here!”
Someone hurried out from inside.
He was a young man in a neat suit.
It seemed the university had sent someone to wait for me.
“You must have had a difficult journey. I’ll show you the way.”
“Ah, okay.”
As I followed him, a small sign planted in the flower bed beside the gate caught my eye.
「Taeheo Spiritual Cultivation Center - Outsiders Strictly Prohibited」
Cultivation center? Spiritual?
What was that supposed to mean?
It sounded like something a local cult would put up.
Was it really okay to write something that blatant?
“Haha, that?”
The man noticed where I was looking and gave an awkward smile.
“Among ordinary people, we’re rumored to be... a school founded by a cult. Of course, we spread those rumors ourselves. It keeps people from taking an interest in us.”
The man stopped in front of the gate.
After briefly looking around, he raised a hand and drew something in the air.
Hummm.
The scenery before my eyes rippled as though submerged in water.
“Please, come in.”
The moment I crossed that boundary after him, my vision lurched and the entire world changed.
Modern buildings that looked carved from stone stood beneath wide, old-fashioned roofs covered in black tiles.
Traditional wooden houses were scattered between them.
The tacky Taeheo University sign had also changed into a different plaque.
[Korea Sorcery University]
It had looked empty from outside.
Yet once I crossed the boundary, there were people everywhere.
People in white robes, people wearing traditional black hats, people with strange Talismans hanging all over them.
They all hurried about in unusual outfits.
The campus itself looked several times larger than it had from outside.
“This way. Feel free to look around as we go.”
As I followed the man deeper into the campus, I kept glancing around.
It was fascinating.
Students wearing outfits that could have been school uniforms or martial robes gathered in small groups between the old-style buildings, chatting away.
The way they laughed, talked, and played around was no different from students at any other university.
But with everyone dressed like that, I felt as though I’d been dropped into another world.
I’d been walking around and looking at everything for quite some time when...
“...Huh?”
Something strange caught my eye among the students.
One person walked with a monkey on their shoulder, while another led a yellow cow along.
Someone else had a chicken perched on their wrist and was casually talking to it.
What were those things?
“Ah, those are students who handle spirit beasts.”
The man noticed where I was looking and explained.
“They’re allowed to bring them around without hiding them while they’re on campus.”
“...I see.”
Spirit beasts.
Come to think of it, I’d seen something about them while browsing Goblin Fire.
Just as humans could be born with Spiritual Power, animals could occasionally be born with special abilities too.
Those individuals were incredibly rare, so owners usually spent years feeding them Spiritual Power as they raised them.
It seemed everyone here kept one around like a pet.
They had everything here.
Though leading around a cow was a little much.
“Ah, by the way.”
The man walking ahead turned around as if he’d just remembered something.
“Did you hear about the commission before coming?”
“Ah, yes. More or less.”
“Haha...”
The man scratched the back of his head, looking oddly embarrassed.
“Honestly, I didn’t think you would really come. It was quite a surprise.”
“...Is that so?”
“Yes. I think it would be best if you heard the details directly from Professor Gu. He teaches Sealing Studies, and he’s one of the foremost experts in the field.”
Sealing Studies.
“He should be teaching a class right now... Let’s greet him briefly, then have some tea while we wait.”
The man stopped in front of a large old-style building.
It looked like an auditorium.
When he gestured at the air once more...
Swoosh.
A faint Barrier opened over the tightly closed doors.
“Please, come in.”
* * *
To be honest, the guide had been quite surprised for some time.
The rumor that Master Do was only around twenty years old had actually been true.
‘...How did someone that young become an Eul-tier artisan?’
The young man’s face, which the guide had been stealing glances at, looked youthful no matter how many times he saw it.
He looked young enough to be an ordinary university freshman.
Yet he was Do Emperor, the man who had turned the entire Occult World upside down.
It didn’t feel real.
The young man simply followed behind him in silence, without showing much reaction.
Then, just as the guide led the young man into the auditorium...
The atmosphere inside was strangely chaotic.
In the middle of the auditorium, several students were pulling on thick ropes.
White Talisman cloth strips were tied along each rope, fluttering in the air.
At the end of them, a black mass was bound in place, thrashing wildly.
It seemed they were in the middle of a sealing exercise.
But then...
“...Where did the professor go?”
The guide tilted his head.
He’d definitely heard that class was in session, but Professor Gu was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a young woman stood at one side of the auditorium.
She looked like a teaching assistant.
When the assistant noticed the two people standing at the doorway...
“Huh?”
She cried out in alarm.
“You can’t come in there!”
“Ah, well.”
The guide politely bowed his head.
“I brought a guest to see Professor Gu.”
“...The professor isn’t here right now. More importantly, this person is...”
That was when it happened.
Creak!
With a dull snap, one of the taut ropes suddenly broke.
“Uh, uh...!”
“No!”
The balance collapsed.
The students holding the ropes tumbled backward.
The black mass that had been bound broke free and shot into the air.
Whoosh!
The moment a sinister aura spread through the auditorium, the guide’s expression hardened.
‘...That’s.’
At least a Grade-2 Cursed spirit.
‘...This is bad.’
The guide quickly loosened the tie around his neck.
It looked like an ordinary tie, but it was actually a Suppression Talisman that had restrained his Spiritual Power.
The power he’d kept sealed was released.
He immediately pulled prayer beads from his pocket and wrapped them firmly around his hand.
‘Until the professor arrives... I have to hold it off somehow.’
A Grade-2 Cursed spirit was too much for him to completely subdue.
Still, if all he needed to do was buy time, he could manage somehow.
Just as he began gathering his power...
The black mass sweeping across the ceiling suddenly changed direction.
Straight toward the young man standing beside him.
“...!”
The guide’s face went pale.
Eul-tier or not, an artisan’s role was to make Ritual Implements.
It was an entirely different matter from fighting Cursed spirits directly.
There was no way an artisan who had probably never properly fought a Cursed spirit in his life could handle something like that.
“M-Master! Get away!!!”
But...
The young man didn’t flinch.
He slowly reached into his clothes and took something out.
‘...A gourd bottle?’
Then he removed its stopper and lightly pointed its opening at the charging black mass.
And then...
Whoooooosh!
The pitch-black Cursed spirit was sucked whole into the narrow mouth of the gourd bottle.
Brrrrr. Brrrrr.
The gourd bottle shook wildly in his hand.
As though it were nothing, the young man pressed the stopper back into place.
He took out a string, wrapped it once around the gourd bottle’s neck, and tied it.
Tap.
The moment the knot was tied, the violently shaking gourd bottle fell silent as if nothing had happened.
“...It’s pretty useful.”
The young man lightly shook the gourd bottle and muttered.
“...”
The guide froze where he stood, prayer beads still wrapped around his hand.
‘...What did I just see?’
That had clearly been a Grade-2 Cursed spirit or higher.
The students who had fallen over and the teaching assistant who had been shouting all stared blankly between the young man and the gourd bottle in his hand.
The assistant finally managed to speak in a trembling voice.
“W-Who are you...?”
The young man lifted the gourd bottle slightly as he answered.
“Ah, I’m just someone who makes things like this.”
Footnotes:
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