WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 91: Goblin Club
──────
Once we entered the workshop...
“Broooooo!”
Jin Mu-yeong came running at me with both arms spread wide.
“Hey, enough! Stop clinging to me.”
I shoved his face away with my palm and headed inside.
It had been months since I’d seen him, but he was still the same.
Like a giant dog, really.
“I came too. Has everyone been well?”
Ji-an followed us in, raising both hands full of convenience-store bags.
“Our ace, Yuha! It’s been ages.”
“Ah, hello...”
“Sorry, sorry. We’re a little late, right?”
“Not at all! I just got here, bro.”
“I was resting too.”
Once I pulled my mask down beneath my chin, I could finally breathe properly.
Sniff.
Between the fading scents of iron and soot was the faint fragrance of fabric softener.
The workshop was filled with Yuha’s scent.
That was right.
After I moved into No Corp’s headquarters, this workshop had remained as it was.
Yuha had continued living here.
The tools hanging on the wall.
The furnace.
The blackened splatters of molten metal that had stuck there long ago.
‘...It’s all the same.’
Of course, some things had changed.
There were two flowerpots I’d never seen before.
A blanket was folded neatly over the sofa, and towels were hung in perfect rows on the drying rack beside it.
“...”
This was strange.
My place at No Corp was a top-class suite.
And yet, for some reason, this felt like coming home.
“But bro, what’s that?”
Mu-yeong glanced at the bags in my hands.
Sniff sniff.
“This smell...!”
You brat.
Of course he recognized it right away.
“Hey, none of you have eaten dinner, right? How about chicken and beer for old times’ sake?”
“Sounds great!”
“That sounds perfect!!”
* * *
Piping hot. Crispy.
We spread newspapers across the workbench and sat around it together.
Crunch.
When I took a bite, the thin batter shattered and hot juices flowed out.
‘...As expected.’
It was the chicken place I always went to in the Goblin Market food court.
I had no idea how they fried it, but it was the best chicken I’d ever eaten.
Did sorcerers open chicken restaurants after retiring?
Pssht. Pssht.
The sounds of cans opening rang out one after another.
“Okay, then. To Yuha’s new beginning!”
“To Yuha!”
“To Yuha...”
Clink.
Gulp.
Gulp.
Ah, that hit the spot!
Clack.
As I set down my can, Jian asked, “Yuha, you’ve packed everything, right?”
“Ah, yes. Almost...”
Yuha had originally been a sorcerer contracted to Jian.
But when Jian and I entered No Corp’s affiliated workshop together, Yuha’s position had become awkwardly uncertain.
Jian had gone back and forth with headquarters countless times, and it had finally been sorted out.
Yuha would be moving into No Corp headquarters too.
“I had your room prepared beforehand. It gets plenty of sunlight.”
“...! Thank you.”
“Oh, and make sure you bring the flowerpots too. The headquarters has real windows, so the succulents will like it more.”
“Yes!”
Then Mu-yeong, who had been tearing into a drumstick, suddenly raised his hand.
“W-Wait. Then does that mean Yuha...”
Gulp.
“Will become No Corp’s second sorcerer?!”
“No, not exactly. The workshop affiliation will remain separate.”
In other words, Yuha would become a contracted sorcerer under me, the CEO of a venture company operating an affiliated No Corp workshop.
Ahem.
With Jian and Yuha joining us, did that mean I had two employees now?
Well, well. The weight on my shoulders was getting heavier.
Of course, Jian would handle all the actual work and management.
“Ah... Then it’ll become harder to come here and see you, bro.”
Honestly, I had considered bringing Mu-yeong along too.
We had been connected since my first commission, and he worked harder than expected.
But even if Mu-yeong had left his House, he was still part of the Jin House.
No Corp openly stood for an alliance of non-Houses, so there were concerns even if the workshop was operated separately.
“Haha. It’s not completely impossible.”
Jian hurriedly waved both hands.
“The committee decided that once the alliance is fully established, people from Houses can be recruited after a verification process, provided their ties have truly been severed...! But the alliance hasn’t settled in yet, so I suppose it’s too early.”
“Oh, no! It’s fine. Who am I, anyway? I’m grateful you even considered it...”
He said that, but Mu-yeong looked oddly dejected.
“Mu-yeong.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll make you that instead.”
“...That?”
“Your bat.”
* * *
That was right!
When I made Yuha a Protective Garment and tested it, Mu-yeong’s bat had ended up getting destroyed.
I’d promised to make him a new one, but I still hadn’t gotten around to it!
What? I’d been busy.
Besides, there was something I really wanted to make now.
My first Ritual Implement using talisman sorcery!
And I was going to make it a bat!
The Goblin Club series!
Heh heh heh.
Come on. The name itself was incredible.
“Mu-yeong. You need to be my test subject.”
“Pardon?”
It was my first time applying this technique.
And I wasn’t that good at talisman sorcery yet, was I?
I couldn’t just throw something up for auction when I wasn’t confident in my skills.
So I needed some practice.
And that meant I needed a test subject to use it, right?
“You mean that’s me?”
“You’ll probably like it too. Your bro will make you a bat.”
“...!!!”
* * *
The next day.
I went down to the workshop below and immediately started work.
First, I needed measurements.
Height, weight, arm length.
And most importantly, hand size and finger length.
To determine the grip thickness, I needed the circumference of his palm and even his finger joints. I also needed to measure his grip strength.
“Here, grip it.”
Creak.
Oh, not bad. His grip strength was considerable.
“Mu-yeong. Bring me the bat you’re using now.”
“Ah, yes!”
Checking where an existing weapon was most worn was essential for a custom build.
Areas that saw frequent contact became smooth and glossy.
The glossy spots showed his primary grip position, while the distance between them showed the spacing of his hands.
‘He uses two grips.’
One for one hand, and one for two hands.
The marks from his palms rubbing against the handle ran diagonally along it.
‘...That means the handle slips in his hands during swings.’
The grip was too thin for his strength.
“R-Right. That’s why I sometimes wrap it in bandages.”
Just as I thought.
Then I needed to make it one size thicker and lengthen the handle a little to give both hands more room.
Next were the scuff marks.
I studied their angles closely.
There were many scratches running from top to bottom, so he seemed to favor downward strikes.
Comparing them with the grip positions, he mainly used downward strikes with one hand and full swings with two.
Since this was a bat that carried Spiritual Power, there was one more thing to check.
“Go over there and swing as hard as you can.”
I pointed to a sandbag with a defensive Spell Formula engraved on it in the corner.
“Yes!”
I loosened the Suppression Talisman just slightly and coated my eyes in Spiritual Power.
Whoooosh.
Bang!
‘...Hmm.’
I could see it.
The timing of when he loaded in Spiritual Power.
He poured it into the bat all at once before swinging, then released it the instant the striking surface connected.
“Give it to me again.”
This time, I took the bat back and examined the traces left in its circuits, checking where and how Spiritual Power flowed in and spread.
Blackened stains of Spiritual Power were baked into the inside of the handle, while the circuits near the striking end had melted and warped around the edges.
They were traces of forcing more Spiritual Power into it than it could handle.
‘At this rate, this bat will break again in a month or two.’
‘That should be enough.’
I had a sense of the dimensions now.
“Mu-yeong, is there anything else that has bothered you while using it?”
“Um... The head is a little heavy because I wanted more impact. And... after using it for a while, the handle gets really hot.”
‘Okay. Estimate complete.’
* * *
Now it was time to choose the materials.
It needed to be light and hollow since he would carry it around.
It needed a high Spiritual Power transmission rate and resistance to heat.
Rather than being mindlessly hard, it was more important for it to have enough resilience to absorb impact smoothly.
I stood before the material shelves and ran my fingertips across each metal rod.
The texture of the material against my fingers.
Its density.
The speed at which Spiritual Power seeped into it.
‘...This is it.’
A chromium-molybdenum steel base alloyed with just a tiny amount of spirit silver, which transmitted Spiritual Power well.
It was resilient, heat-resistant, and highly compatible with Spiritual Power.
Fwoosh.
Once I had the material, I heated the furnace.
I didn’t need a thermometer. I could tell the temperature from the color of the steel.
Dark red was around 700°C. Orange was around 900°C.
Once it passed the color of a ripe tangerine and became bright yellow, it was around 1,100°C.
That was the perfect temperature for forging.
The alloy rod gradually reached the right color, changing from dark red to orange.
Then, just as the tangerine color faded into yellow...
‘Now...!’
I pulled the heated rod out and placed it on the anvil.
Then I set a punch in the center of one end and struck it with my hammer.
Thunk.
‘Heh heh...’
It made a soft, dull sound.
My timing had been perfect.
Every time the punch sank in, the hole grew deeper.
Thunk. Thud. Thud.
Once the hole formed, I inserted a longer mandrel and hammered again.
Insert, hammer, reheat.
Repeating the process, I pierced straight through the rod along its axis.
That gave me a hollow, tube-shaped bat.
With the mandrel still inserted, I rotated the outer surface as I hammered and drew the handle end thinner.
A thick striking end, a thin handle.
The change in thickness was important for a bat, because this was where the center of gravity was determined.
The more weight it carried toward the head, the stronger each strike became, but the slower the recovery.
Mu-yeong used both styles, but he definitely preferred committing to a full swing and pushing through in one blow.
‘...Then I’ll shift the center of gravity just slightly forward.’
Steel couldn’t be hammered once it cooled.
So I repeated heating, forging, and reheating.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Black forge scale fell away like flakes with every strike.
Ahh...
I’d been making Talismans nonstop lately.
I’d missed this feeling in my hands.
The thrill running through my wrists finally made me feel alive again.
‘Saedori, you like this too, right?’
I’d brought Saedori, my favorite hammer from No Corp, with me on purpose.
Now, heat treatment.
The key step in determining strength.
First, normalizing.
I heated the bat, then let it cool slowly in the air to release the internal stresses built up from hammering.
Then I heated it again and submerged it in oil.
Sizzle.
White smoke billowed up.
That made the steel extremely hard, but also fragile like glass.
So next came tempering.
I heated it again at a low temperature of 200 to 300°C, sacrificing some hardness to increase its toughness, the quality that let it withstand force without breaking, as well as its resilience.
Finally, filing and grinding.
Scrape. Scrape.
I smoothed the surface and polished it.
Then I applied oil and baked it in the furnace several times to form a black oxide layer and prevent rust.
The pitch-black body of the bat was complete.
‘Good. Now, then.’
Bzzzt.
Blue sparks flew from my fingertips as circuits began to be carved into the black surface.
As I’d seen earlier, Mu-yeong’s batting was divided into two styles.
A powerful strike with a two-handed grip.
A rapid barrage with a one-handed grip.
Then I just needed it to function differently depending on his grip.
First, the handle.
At the two spots that had been polished shiny, exactly where his hands rested, I engraved inputs that accepted Spiritual Power.
Then I installed a Switching Spell Formula so different circuits would open depending on whether he used a one-handed or two-handed grip.
First, power-strike mode.
As I’d seen earlier, he poured in Spiritual Power before swinging, then released it all at once at the striking surface.
The problem was that the Spiritual Power didn’t compact completely, and some of it leaked away.
The black stains baked inside the handle were proof.
So, a Power Storage Circuit.
I folded the circuit densely and stacked it in layers, engraving it so the maximum amount could fit in a narrow space.
Now Spiritual Power could be tightly stored near the head.
Next came the Trigger Circuit.
It released everything locked inside the storage area the instant impact reached the striking surface.
Ah, and it was important to let him know how full the Power Storage Circuit was too.
The handle would vibrate slightly as it filled.
Next was the one-handed rapid-strike mode.
For this one, what mattered was not the destructive power of each hit, but swinging quickly and recovering quickly.
In rapid strikes, speed was power.
First, I engraved a Weight-Reduction Circuit.
Then a Rebound Circuit.
Normally, the impact that returned to the wrist after a strike was just wasted force. At worst, it could injure the wrist.
Instead of wasting it, this circuit turned it into force that returned the bat to position.
With every hit, it would come back on its own.
‘...The more he hits, the faster he gets.’
Bzzzt. Bzzzzzt.
Blue sparks crossed the black surface again and again.
Finally, I engraved circular Connection Circuits all around the body.
They were spots for drawing Talismans.
I planned to make several versions of Mu-yeong’s bat in the future.
So, a bat with two grip forms.
And if danger came, he could activate a Spell Formula with Talismans drawn onto it?
Ah.
This design was insane.
The next things I would engrave were the two Talismans I’d learned from Ha-na noona recently.
The Fortitude Talisman, marked by the character for strength.
And the Destruction Talisman, marked by the character for breaking.
“Whew.”
This was the hardest part.
I activated the ink, lifted my brush, and drew onto each Connection Circuit I’d engraved earlier.
Five of each.
That meant he could use them five times each.
The Talismans would disappear after being used.
If he brought the bat back afterward, I could engrave them again.
Now for the finish.
I wrapped leather around the handle.
I adjusted the thickness to fit the measurements I’d taken earlier, making sure it wouldn’t slip.
One turn, two turns.
Tug.
Done!
* * *
“Mu-yeong.”
“Ugh... Bro, are you finished?”
Jin Mu-yeong, who had been dozing on the sofa, rubbed his eyes and sat up.
Then he absentmindedly accepted what was suddenly held out before him.
A pitch-black bat.
“...”
Wow... The grip fit perfectly in his hand.
And that deep, lustrous black color.
Whoosh.
It was light.
Yet the center of gravity was so well balanced that it felt incredible to swing.
This was fucking amazing...!
He sent Spiritual Power into it to test it, and it flowed in beautifully.
“...!”
He hadn’t noticed because the bat was black...!
Only then did he see the Chinese characters engraved around its body.
“Could this be...”
“Yeah. I made it by combining talisman sorcery and Spell Formula engraving.”
“...!!!”
But there was no Yellow Talisman Paper.
No paper at all, only the metal itself.
‘...So that means.’
This was the technique his bro had newly developed?
He knew it.
Then the technique Talisman Noona had used on the livestream, drawing a Talisman directly onto the shutter...
That brush-pen technique! It was his bro’s technique!!!
And the first Ritual Implement containing that technique in its entirety was now in his hands!
“...”
This was absurd.
Could he really accept something like this...?
“B-Bro... I, I can’t possibly...”
His throat closed up, and he couldn’t continue.
“I told you I’d make it for you. Give it a swing.”
Gulp.
Jin Mu-yeong stood before the training sandbag.
His bro had taken one look at it at Mr. Yujin’s training center and simply made one himself. It had a defensive Spell Formula engraved into it.
Mu-yeong knew exactly what kind of thing it was.
No matter how much he’d pounded on it over the last several months, it hadn’t received a single scratch.
“...Here I go.”
He adjusted his grip with both hands.
He twisted his waist and pulled his shoulder all the way back.
Then, as always, he pushed Spiritual Power in.
But then...
Hummmmmm.
“...Huh?”
The handle trembled.
There was no feeling of Spiritual Power leaking away. It was being drawn in with incredible smoothness.
The more he poured in, the stronger the vibration became.
And then, at some point...
Whiiiiine.
The vibration reached its peak.
It tingled all the way through his wrist.
‘...Now.’
Matching the timing, Mu-yeong swung the bat with the weight of his whole body behind it.
Whoooosh.
Baaang!
“This is crazy.”
It was power he’d never produced before.
Overwhelming power that made his heart pound.
“Now try holding it with one hand.”
At his bro’s words, Mu-yeong changed his grip as if entranced.
At the one-handed grip position.
The moment he did...
The bat became even lighter.
Mu-yeong reflexively brought it down.
Smack!
The recoil that should have returned to his wrist...
Instead, it bounced the bat back into position.
Smack! Smack!
‘What is this...?!’
The more he hit, the more the bat returned on its own.
Riding that returning force, his next strike became even faster.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
By the time he came to his senses, Mu-yeong was hammering the sandbag like a madman.
Damn, what was this incredible feeling?
This overwhelming thrill.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
This rhythm that kept getting faster.
This sense of complete absorption.
He couldn’t stop.
.
.
.
“Whew... Whew...”
Ssssss.
The sandbag’s surface had turned red-hot before he knew it.
“How is it?”
“Bro... Bro, you’re the best. Seriously.”
Mu-yeong sniffled and rubbed his cheek against the bat.
“I’ve never had anything like this before.”
“Now you need to try that too.”
“That...?”
What his bro pointed to were the two lines of dark lettering around the body.
Fortitude. And Destruction.
“Imprinted Intent is the activation key. Just give it a command in your head, like you would with a Talisman.”
A command.
Mu-yeong gripped the bat with both hands again and packed Spiritual Power into it.
Hummmmmm. Whiiiiine.
The vibration grew taut.
‘...But what should I say? Get stronger? Break? Explode?’
Ah, whatever!
‘Harden up and smash everything to pieces!’
Fwoosh!
The two lines of lettering shone bright red.
“Hah! Hyaaaah!”
KABOOOM!
Crack!
Rumble...
Sand poured out in a rush from the deeply ruptured front of the sandbag.
“...”
Mu-yeong stared blankly at the bat in his hands.
All-powerful.
That was the only phrase that could describe how he felt right then.
* * *
Mu-yeong wouldn’t stop making a fuss about how much he loved it.
He said he would pass it down as a family heirloom for generations.
He was grinning from ear to ear.
It really did make crafting for someone worthwhile.
Ahem.
The demonstration was done, then.
‘...I’d like to see it in real combat too.’
Was there anything?
“Mu-yeong. Do you have work today?”
“Ah, actually, I need to head out on a commission soon.”
I grinned.
Really?
“Then could you ask if one more person can come along?”
“Huh? They’d probably be thankful, but... Don’t tell me? You’re coming too, bro?”
“Of course I am. I need to check the performance of my baby.”
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
