WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 79: Walking Across the Sea
──────
“Do I... do I really have to do this in this position?”
Su-a lay sprawled on my bed with her knees up as she asked.
I sat at the foot of the bed and held out one hand.
It was a gesture for her to give me her foot.
“Yeah. I need to make your shoes.”
“No, why do you need the sole of my foot to measure my shoe size...?”
“I need the Spiritual Power circuit in your sole.”
“R-Really?”
Su-a looked down at me suspiciously.
“Do you think everyone’s out to fool you? Hurry up.”
“Ugh...”
After hesitating for a while and eyeing me doubtfully, Su-a slowly held out her foot.
‘Wow, her feet are tiny.’
I pressed my palm against her little sole.
“Eek...!”
Sliiide.
I closed my eyes and let my Spiritual Power flow into her.
‘Good. I can see it.’
The Spiritual Power circuit in Su-a’s sole began taking shape in my mind.
It twisted and intertwined from the sole of her foot all the way to her lower dantian.
I planned to engrave a trigger into the soles that would deploy the boards when Spiritual Power was poured into them.
To do that, I had to engrave it to perfectly match Su-a’s sole circuit.
I might as well add a Binding Spell Formula while I was at it.
I poured in a little more Spiritual Power to inspect the tiny branches splitting off from the circuit.
“U-Urgh...!”
“...”
“Ugh... Pfft, hahaha! Ah, it tickles!”
Flap flap!
Unable to bear it any longer, Su-a began kicking her legs.
“Hey, stay still. Don’t move.”
“But it tickles! Hahaha! Hey, stop!”
Holding her flailing foot in place, I continued checking every corner of the circuit.
Scratch, scratch.
Once I had mapped out enough of it...
‘I already measured her foot length, width, and everything else.’
Had I figured out most of it by now?
“Good, I think we’re almost done...”
Hmm. But.
“Ugh... Ughhh... Ngh.”
Su-a bit down on her lip and trembled as she struggled not to laugh.
Hmmm.
Take this!
Rub rub!
“Kyahaha! Hey! Hahaha! You said you were done! Don’t do that! Kyahaha!”
“Hey now, I told you not to move.”
I lightly tickled her, and Su-a burst into breathless laughter as she rolled around on the bed.
“You’re done! You’re done, kyahaha!”
Kyahaha, kyahaha.
After another round of playing around with Su-a, I finished measuring her feet and mapping out her circuits.
* * *
All right, time to get serious.
This time, I was making a pair of Aqua Shoes with slightly thicker soles.
Given Su-a’s abilities, she would probably spend a lot of time around water.
They needed to drain well, and more importantly, they had to keep her from slipping on wet surfaces.
The first thing you needed when making shoes was a wooden last shaped like the wearer’s foot.
Following the measurements and shape of Su-a’s foot that I had taken earlier...
Scrape, scrape.
I carved away at the wood with a carving knife.
‘Man, this feels like it’s clearing my head.’
Come to think of it, it had been a while since I’d carved any keychains.
‘I should set aside a day and carve a whole bunch at once.’
Hmm. Though that might be annoying.
Repetitive work really wasn’t my thing.
It didn’t give me enough dopamine.
Before I knew it, a wooden last shaped like Su-a’s foot was complete.
Next came the upper that would cover the top of her foot.
I chose thinly tanned Giant Ink Squid leather.
After checking it, I found it was tough, light, and incredibly flexible.
I covered the entire upper with a [Drainage Spell Formula] so any water that got inside would flow right out instead of pooling.
Next was the sole.
Slip resistance was absolutely essential for Aqua Shoes.
‘Luckily, I’ve got just the thing.’
The leftover Giant Ink Squid legs I had casually gotten from Taegong after they had been cleaned.
Those huge suction cups packed all over them!
After removing the Suppression Talisman and taking a closer look, I found a tiny [Adhesion Circuit] naturally engraved into every single suction cup.
I copied that circuit exactly and engraved it densely across the bottom of the soles.
Crackle, crackle.
This should keep her from slipping even on moss-covered rocks!
And now for the main course.
Inside the thick soles was a space for the folded boards.
Click. Click. Click.
I folded two boards, including the extra one I had made last night, down to about the size of a notebook and slid one into each sole.
That way, even if one side failed in an emergency, she would still have the other.
Then, where her soles would touch, I engraved an input section matched to the sole circuit I had copied from Su-a earlier.
I deliberately made the trigger insensitive, so it wouldn’t react to the amount of Spiritual Power that leaked out while she was normally walking or running.
Only when Su-a consciously gathered Spiritual Power in the soles of her feet and poured it in would the soles release with a snap.
Then the folded boards would unfurl.
I also adjusted the input sections I had engraved on the boards so they would connect with the circuits in the soles.
The moment she stepped onto the deployed board, the shoes and board would link together.
With only the Spiritual Power flowing from her toes, she would be able to use the buoyancy Spell Formula and accelerated propulsion at will.
I tried pouring Spiritual Power into the completed sole.
Fwoooosh!
‘Okay. Launch angle, deployment speed. Perfect.’
Folding it back in worked without a hitch, too.
Crackle.
Lastly, I engraved a Binding Spell Formula into the input section to finish it off.
Now all that remained was the design!
I dyed them a refreshing sky blue and attached a small ribbon to the top of each shoe.
Once they were done, they looked less like Aqua Shoes and more like a neat pair she could wear every day.
The size was perfect, so they wouldn’t come off or chafe her feet no matter how much she ran around.
‘All right, done!’
* * *
“Here, your pres...”
I stopped myself just before calling them a present.
‘Is it really a present?’
CEO Noh had said it before.
He told me I could make whatever I wanted for the Seed and report it afterward.
He said he would pay generously as always, so I shouldn’t worry about that sort of thing.
Strictly speaking, that meant it wasn’t really a gift.
“...?”
Su-a tilted her head as she looked up at me.
Well, what did it matter? No harm in it, right?
“You’ve been training hard, so I made you some special shoes. Here, try them on.”
“Whoa! Really?!”
Su-a snatched them up, plopped down on the spot, and hurriedly put them on.
Then she stretched out her legs, twisting her ankles this way and that as she inspected every part of them.
“They’re pretty...”
The sky-blue body and the little ribbons on top.
Su-a poked at the ribbons with her fingertips.
Seeing her smile softly, she seemed to like them a lot.
“Try jumping.”
Hop. Hop hop.
Su-a jumped in place a couple of times, and her eyes went wide.
“They’re super soft! Whoa!”
Hop hop hop hop hop.
“You like them?”
“Yeah! I love them.”
She turned her feet this way and that to look at them, then excitedly jumped in place again.
She was completely beside herself.
‘This feels like buying a birthday present for my niece.’
Watching her enjoy them that much made me feel warm inside too.
Grin.
It was too soon to be surprised.
“Su-a.”
“Yeah!”
“Go over there and pour some Spiritual Power into the soles of your feet.”
.
.
.
“Wahahaha!”
Fwoooosh!
Su-a was racing across the sea.
The moment she sprinted across the white-sand beach and leaped into the water, the boards shot out from her soles and unfurled beneath her feet.
Man, it looked incredible.
The material was semi-transparent, so at a glance, the boards were invisible and it looked as if she were simply racing across the sea.
Whenever Su-a swung her trident, she rode the rolling waves upward and carved perfect turns.
Splaash!
She kicked up a spray of water, soared into the air, landed on the sea, and glided smoothly onward.
“Wooooow!! Do Emperor!! This is absolutely amazing!!!”
A girl firing water cannons with her trident, controlling the waves and racing across them.
‘Man... I made it, but this is seriously the coolest thing ever.’
* * *
Rumble, crack!
A small fishing boat rocked dangerously atop the raging waves in a storm-battered stretch of Cheonghae sea.
“Hey! Min-cheol! This isn’t going to work! Forget the ink squid, let’s just go back!”
The man at the helm shouted at the top of his lungs through the pouring rain.
“...”
Ignoring him, Min-cheol stood at the bow with a tight grip on the fishing rod, staring only at the black sea.
“Didn’t you hear me?! I said stop and let’s go back!”
“...”
“Hey! Kang Min-cheol!”
“Fuck! Just...! Just wait a little longer! We’ve been waiting for weeks!”
The two were newbies who had come from far away to get in on the recently booming Giant Ink Squid rush.
They had expected to catch Giant Ink Squid and make a tidy profit.
Instead, with people pouring in from all over the country, boat rental fees had soared through the roof, and even paying those prices didn’t guarantee they could find an available boat.
The waiting list to rent a Jolt Jolt Lure was already impossibly long as well.
After all that waiting...
They had finally gotten their hands on a lure today, paid extra to rent a boat, and headed out to sea.
Then this happened.
The sky had been clear when they set sail, but it gradually darkened.
The wind picked up, and the waves grew higher.
Now, it was hard to stay standing on both feet.
Ding. Ding.
―――――――――――
[Safety Alert]
A storm warning is in effect. All vessels must immediately halt operations and return to port.
―――――――――――
“...”
“...”
Normally, they should have turned the boat around immediately. But if they returned now, there was no telling when they would get another chance to rent a lure.
More than anything, they had not caught a single one yet.
“J-Just thirty minutes! Let’s try for thirty more minutes, then go!”
That was when it happened.
Craaaash!
A huge wave slammed into the boat.
The vessel tilted sharply, and seawater poured down onto the deck like a waterfall.
The man at the helm barely held on.
‘Whoa... That was close.’
This was bad. They were really going to die like this.
“Ah, forget it. I’m turning the boat around...!”
“...”
“...Huh?! Min-cheol? Min-cheol?!”
Min-cheol was gone from the bow.
The fishing rod rolled across the deck.
“Min-cheol!! Kang Min-cheol!!!”
* * *
Gurgle.
‘Air... I can’t breathe...’
In the black water, Min-cheol was tossed around by the violently swirling current.
They could not tell which way was up or down.
The more they struggled, the more salt water flooded into their throat.
‘Help... Help me...!’
The moment Min-cheol barely raised their head above the surface...
“—cheol!! —Min-cheol!!”
They saw their friend shouting in the distance.
The boat was already incredibly far away.
And Min-cheol knew.
This was the end.
They should have gone back when their friend told them to.
‘Fuck... I got tempted because I heard people were making a killing.’
‘Ah... So this is how it ends...’
Sliiide.
Just as their eyes began to close...
Splaash!
Something came into view beyond their fading vision, cutting through the water toward them.
* * *
“Min-cheol!!! Kang Min-cheol!!!”
The man clung to the side of the boat, screaming like he had lost his mind.
Between the surging waves, he could catch glimpses of Min-cheol struggling in the water.
He hurriedly turned the helm and tried to steer the boat closer.
But the raging waves kept crashing in, and the distance would not close.
‘What do I do? What do I do...?!’
That was when he saw something far away beyond the curtain of rain.
‘...A person?’
It was the shape of a person.
Someone was cutting through the water in the middle of this stormy sea, racing toward them at terrifying speed.
A figure wearing a gray hood pulled low.
The figure passed the stunned man’s boat and vanished like an arrow toward the spot where Min-cheol had sunk.
* * *
“Guaaagh! Cough! Cough!”
Min-cheol lay sprawled on the deck, coughing up the seawater they had swallowed.
“Hey! Are you okay?!”
“Gasp... Gasp...”
Their lungs, brought back from the brink of death, desperately sucked in air.
They were alive.
They had survived.
“What the hell happened...?”
The moment Min-cheol lifted their head with their friend’s help...
They saw it.
A small figure in a gray hood stood silently on the railing, drenched in the pouring rain.
They could feel the figure’s gaze quietly watching them from beneath the hood.
“E-Excuse me...”
They needed to at least say thank you, but their throat was still too raw for the words to come out.
Then.
The figure slowly turned around.
Fwoosh!
White mist suddenly billowed up beyond the railing.
And then.
Step. Step.
The figure climbed over the railing and walked into the mist.
Walking across the sea.
The mist cleared.
No one was there.
Footnotes:
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