The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith - Chapter 6

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈

Chapter 6: That Sword. May I Take a Look?

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The items spread across every stall were bizarre beyond belief.

Yellowed fragments of animal bone.

Bundles of yellow Talismans densely covered in unknown symbols painted in red dye.

Shriveled black roots and bottles filled with unidentified powders.

Even the clothes worn by the people passing through and the units they used to bargain with each other felt unreal.

'So... this is all real?'

Any suspicion of human trafficking or an employment-agency scam had long since vanished from my mind.

How could it not?

I'd seen the brick wall at the dead end scatter apart and turn into a massive gate with my own eyes.

And then there was this impossibly vast underground space.

Shops stretched so far I couldn't see the end, and crowds packed the streets.

There was no way all of this had been staged just to swindle one broke, unemployed guy like me.

It simply wouldn't be worth building the set and hiring all these extras just to fool me.

"The Goblin Market is the hottest place in the Occult World these days."

Seo Ji-an, walking beside me, began explaining as she watched my reaction.

"Merchants affiliated with the various Houses, freelance sorcerers, even exorcists who came over from abroad, they all trade here. A lot of rare items from underground channels get sold here too."

"Ah... right."

I was still dazed as I walked when someone called out to us.

"Hey! You handsome young man and pretty miss! Need a Talisman?"

A wrinkled old man sitting in the middle of the path spoke to us out of nowhere.

"Looks like you're headed somewhere dangerous. I've got everything except what I don't have! Take a look. I'll make sure most minor spirits can't come anywhere near you!"

Seo Ji-an gave him a casual nod as if she was used to this, then gently tugged on my sleeve.

The farther we went into the market, the stranger the scenery became.

At one stall, a jar rattled faintly on its own. The shop next to it displayed ores that gave off a soft blue glow even in the dim interior.

A little farther on, I spotted a stall lined with unsettling tools whose handles were tightly wrapped in animal hide.

After walking around in a daze and taking everything in for a while, we seemed to have reached the center of the market.

The cluttered stalls disappeared, replaced by enormous buildings on both sides of a broad paved street.

'Wow...'

The building in front of me looked at least three or four stories tall.

Its upper half resembled a traditional hanok with a grand tiled roof, but its front was made of modern floor-to-ceiling glass, making the interior clearly visible.

The sight of a building like this constructed underground was overwhelming on its own.

"What's this place?"

Seo Ji-an smiled at my question.

"Oh, this is Cheonhwa Hall. You've heard of it, right?"

"...Cheonhwa Hall?"

When I trailed off, Seo Ji-an eagerly continued the explanation herself.

"You could call them the top name in ritual instrument craftsmanship. It's a workshop directly under House Hyeonmu, one of the Four Great Houses. The main store is elsewhere, and this is a branch they opened in the Goblin Market not long ago."

She casually pointed through the glass at the display cases.

"Everything here comes through the main store, so the quality is guaranteed. The prices are terrifying, though."

Seo Ji-an gave a playful shrug.

"Want to go in?"

I followed her inside.

An elegant gold-lettered sign reading [Cheonhwa Hall] hung above the entrance.

Ding―

Soft lighting and gentle classical music greeted us.

The items in the display cases were distinctly different from what I'd seen outside.

Inside reinforced-glass cases atop black granite pedestals sat swords engraved with elegant patterns, jade beads with a luminous sheen, and belts woven from the finest silk.

Even the Talismans were neatly stored in luxurious matte paulownia boxes.

A small brass plaque was attached to every item on display.

The creator's name, tier, and materials used were inscribed in neat brushwork.

Anyone would have thought they had walked into a luxury boutique or museum.

As we entered, an employee in a crisp black tailored suit approached us.

"Welcome to Cheonhwa Hall. Is there something you're looking for?"

Seo Ji-an handed over a business card with the ease of someone familiar with the place.

"Could we see some worthwhile Byeong-tier ritual instruments? A jade flute would be even better."

The employee accepted the card, glanced it over, and politely bowed.

"Ah, Ms. Seo Ji-an. Please wait a moment. We happen to have received an item just yesterday."

The employee headed behind the counter.

'A jade flute.'

A moment later, the employee returned carrying a long velvet-lined case.

Click―

When the case opened, it revealed a blue-tinged jade flute.

"This is a ritual instrument carved from Nephrite mined in the Baekdu Mountain Range. It receives the practitioner's Spiritual Power and amplifies it through sound. Among the Byeong-tier musical instruments you requested, it is one of our finest pieces."

Seo Ji-an inspected the flute from several angles.

She ran her fingers across the surface and held it up to the light before nodding.

Then she held it out to me.

"Do-hyeon, would you take a look?"

"..."

I froze for a moment.

What would I know just by looking at it?

My body might remember forge work, but an instrument made of jade was a completely different kind of craft.

'Should I just nod and move on?'

That was what I thought as I absentmindedly took the jade flute.

Bzzzz―

The moment my fingertips touched it, a faint vibration traveled across the smooth jade surface and softly spread into my palm.

'...Huh?'

At almost the same time, something seemed to flow instinctively from my fingertips.

Was it warmth? A tingling sensation? Something hot was moving through my fingers and into the jade flute.

It was a feeling I'd experienced countless times in the game.

The skill I used when I obtained a new mineral or material, or when I examined the structure of an item made by someone else.

Sending a trace of mana through my hand, then reading the waves that bounced back as that mana traveled through gaps in the material or along its circuits.

[Mana Wave]

'No way.'

This was reality. Mana couldn't possibly exist here.

Yet, just as it had when I held Shrine Grandmother's brass bell, an invisible energy beginning at my fingertips naturally seeped through the jade flute's surface and into its interior.

Flash―

The flute's internal structure formed clearly in my mind.

The finish of the passage running through it, the minute engravings carved to amplify sound, and the paths along which energy was meant to flow.

The Mana Circuits I'd seen in the game began to reveal themselves.

'This is insane. It works?'

Holding my breath, I examined every inch of the flute's structure.

The circuits engraved inside were as clear as day.

Well, since this was reality, they probably weren't Mana Circuits like they were called in the game.

There was no mana here, after all.

What had they called it in this world? Spiritual Power? It was probably the path that energy like that traveled through.

Still, whatever it was called, I could grasp the structure at a glance.

'Hm... It receives energy at the entrance, wraps it upward in a spiral, then amplifies it through resonance at each stage.'

A double helix wound intricately along the jade flute's inner wall, with resonance chambers carved at regular intervals.

It was a circuit designed to increase the amplitude each time energy made a full circuit.

Clean work.

The fundamentals were solid. Whoever had laid out the main circuit was clearly skilled.

But...

'...Did someone else do the finishing?'

The details were a mess compared to the main structure. It was as if the person who designed it and the person who finished it were different.

"Hm..."

A mutter slipped out before I realized it.

"This has a structure that increases resonance step by step with a double helix inside. The design is clean, but..."

I lightly pointed to the middle of the jade flute.

"Here, the entrance to the third resonance chamber is slightly misaligned, so energy leaks a little every time it makes a circuit. It won't be a major problem right away, but the moment the practitioner puts in a stronger burst of mana... I mean, Spiritual Power, the sound will crack or mix with popping noises..."

I held the flute to the light and peered inside once more.

"The jade itself has a good grain, too, but there are marks where it was carved against the grain during finishing. If you use it like this, I think its durability will be cut in half..."

"...Excuse me?"

The employee, who had been wearing a polite smile, stiffened.

"H-Hahaha! Do-hyeon, you're really serious even when you're joking! Haha..."

Seo Ji-an gave the employee an awkward smile, tugged on my arm, and whispered.

"Um, Do-hyeon! Let's go over there, okay? There are lots of interesting things over there!"

"No, what I mean is, the inside finishing really is..."

Seo Ji-an practically pinched my arm, lowering her voice even further.

"Shh! Do-hyeon, just... just come this way for now. Please?"

"...?"

"Please."

I had no idea why, but her face had gone so pale that I had no choice but to follow her lead.

Seo Ji-an pulled me forcefully to the other side of the display cases.

She wiped away cold sweat and let out a sigh of relief.

'...What was that?'

She'd told me to examine it, so I'd only said what I saw. This industry seemed unusually sensitive to feedback.

I was looking around Cheonhwa Hall a little more when it happened.

"You bastards! Get the person in charge out here right now!!"

Bang―!

Something shattered near the store entrance, followed by an angry shout.

Every customer and employee in the store turned toward it.

"S-Sir. This is troubling..."

"Trouble? Want me to show you what real trouble looks like?!"

The man standing at the entrance was a mess.

A blood-stained bandage was wrapped around his head, and one arm was in a thick cast. He had a rough, intimidating face.

His face was mottled with anger and fear.

"You sold this piece of garbage for fifty million won?! I trusted this thing and went out there, and I nearly died!"

The man pulled something from inside his coat with his uninjured hand and violently threw it onto the glass display counter.

Crash―!

"Sir! Please calm down..."

"Does this look like a situation where I can calm down?! You said it was made by a Byeong-tier artisan! You said this alone could exorcise a Grade-3 Vengeful spirit in one shot!"

A Grade-3 Vengeful spirit? A Byeong-tier artisan?

I remembered the descriptions on the website Seo Ji-an had shown me at the cafe.

This world apparently classified and managed monsters and ghosts by grade, and the artisans who made items had ranks as well.

The man shouted, veins bulging in his neck.

"Look at this! It's already cracked! No matter how much Spiritual Power I poured into it, nothing happened, not even a flame! What kind of Karmafire Sword is this supposed to be?!"

Apparently, he had bought that sword for a huge sum, only for it to fail in actual combat. He must have barely escaped with his life after getting badly hurt.

As the commotion grew, a clean-cut man who looked like the manager came out from the back with a frown.

"What's going on?"

The flustered employee approached and briefly explained the situation.

After listening, the manager slowly stepped forward.

"Sir."

His voice was soft, and he wore a smile.

For some reason, though, the air around us seemed to grow heavy at that single word.

"Please refrain from behavior that inconveniences our other customers."

The moment he finished speaking, several employees from deeper in the store began moving toward the entrance.

The atmosphere turned hostile in an instant.

"D-Don't come any closer, you bastards!"

The man stumbled backward and flung open his coat.