Chapter 6 (3)
Chapter 6 (3)
Kk-! Jackpot~
The weight of a pouch full of silver is just different, ain't it~
I managed to sell the leftover medicinal herbs from treating Ha-yeon at a high price after being a total jerk to a merchant who was desperately looking for them due to a contract issue.
If I use this money as a bribe, mere guards are just automatic doors with a free pass.
Truly a lucky day.
"Ha-yeon. I'm home."
I called out to Ha-yeon, who I expected to be waiting for me, as I opened the door.
However, the house was giving off a different vibe than usual.
A chilly atmosphere where the warmth of a person had vanished.
"Ha-yeon? Ha-yeon-ah?"
What the? Where on earth did she go?
Could it be a warrior from the Jeongmumae?
No, if that were the case, would Ha-yeon have just stayed put?
She would've fought back immediately, and it would've been a total mess.
Since evening had started, I lit a candle to brighten up the darkened house.
I waited a bit longer, thinking maybe something came up and she was just late.
But no matter how much time passed, there was no sign of her returning.
Damn it. Fuck. It can't be, right? She's just late, right?
Thinking that, I started checking the house belatedly and discovered a single coin placed in front of the bed.
Why is there a coin in a place like this... wait a second.
The floor is slightly raised only right here.
Plus, the coin is placed as if to emphasize a specific spot.
Something is here.
I tried pushing, pulling, and applying force here and there, and the floor slid in one direction, revealing an empty space.
Looking at it, it wasn't a space made in one go.
Maybe it was a secret space that was originally in this house?
For example, maybe a wife made it to hide money.
Anyway, when I checked inside, I found small wooden boxes with their seals broken.
I opened one, and a refreshing scent flowed through my nose and into my whole body, slightly stimulating my Dantian.
"Maryeonghwan?"
I've never seen the miraculous medicine called Maryeonghwan before, but unless it's the Maryeonghwan Ha-yeon talked about, there's no way a miraculous medicine would just suddenly appear here.
"9 of them......."
The number of wooden boxes was 9.
What kind of situation is this?
Ha-yeon said there were 10 Maryeonghwan.
But there are 9 here.
Then that means she went to the Demonic Cult's safe house and returned successfully.
"Ah, fuck!"
My head is spinning.
I feel anxious because Ha-yeon has disappeared.
Calm down, me.
First, let's deduce what happened here.
Let's gather the given information.
A coin placed as if pointing to the hidden space.
9 Maryeonghwan inside.
Im Ha-yeon has disappeared.
The fact that the coin was placed as if pointing to the secret space means she had some leeway.
And the existence of the Maryeonghwan means she went to the safe house and back without getting caught.
But Ha-yeon has disappeared.
She went to the safe house and came back, so there's no reason for her to go out again.
Then that means a situation arose where she had no choice but to leave.
What is it? How on earth could such a situation... Ah...!"
"Don't tell me!"
I remembered the content of the conversation we had around lunch today.
-It's time to escape, Jin-rang.-
-The Heavenly Demon Cult never forgives a traitor. Furthermore, they try to cruelly kill everyone around them. They don't fear a hundredfold loss just to kill one traitor.-
-Right now, the Heavenly Demon Cult doesn't know if I'm dead or alive. So now is the only chance to escape the hands of the Heavenly Demon Cult.-
Right. She was afraid that the Demonic Cult would find their whereabouts.
"Someone from the Demonic Cult found Ha-yeon. But Ha-yeon couldn't resist that guy, or those guys. Why? Why did she, who wanted to escape the Demonic Cult, give up on escaping? The reason for that is,"
I rolled my eyes and desperately racked my brain.
"Either they came in such large numbers that it couldn't be handled by individual strength, or a master stronger than her came. But the Demonic Cult was ambushed by the Jeongmumae. There wouldn't be many survivors."
Come to think of it, there was a time she told me about her past; when she came to obtain the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword, she came with Demonic Cult masters named Yeom-ma and Blood Flying Tiger.
She said Yeom-ma was a fat guy she didn't like, and Blood Flying Tiger was a Demonic Cult member stronger than her with a cruel nature.
"Blood Flying Tiger came......."
Ha-yeon was a Guardian of the Demonic Cult, and in terms of simple martial power, she was in the upper echelon even within the Demonic Cult.
If someone like her was dragged away obediently, it must be a master stronger than her.
And Ha-yeon lied about bringing one Maryeonghwan from the safe house, and.......
"Fuck!"
Bang!
When I regained my reason, I had already kicked and smashed the bed in front of me.
"How dare they... so they dragged my female away......!"
To be precise, Ha-yeon probably went back voluntarily because she was worried about me.
But if she's returning to a place she hates, what is it if not being dragged away!
It feels like shit.
I'm supposed to protect my female, but instead, I was protected.
Why did she make that choice?
"Because I'm weak."
Right. It's because I'm weak.
Because I'm weak, she worried about me and let herself be dragged away.
"Keu... keukeke... keukekekek!"
Laughter comes out of my mouth.
I don't even know why I'm laughing.
But this isn't because it's funny.
I think I'm temporarily broken because I'm so angry, so furious, and my head is boiling.
"Right. Honestly, I didn't have a sense of purpose that I 'must' get stronger."
This is a real wake-up call.
The existence of the guys who made me this angry.
I wrapped up all the wooden boxes of Maryeonghwan that Ha-yeon left behind into the bundle I had kept in one place.
This is no time to play the wandering warrior and live leisurely.
I must get stronger.
I must get stronger and take my female back.
The Demonic Cult, huh. Honestly, I don't care if you guys conquer the Central Plains or not.
Honestly, joining the Demonic Cult was one of my options rather than going to the stuffy righteous faction.
But isn't it too much to drag my female away?
"Wait for me, Demonic Cult."
I'll make you feel deep in your bones who you messed with and what you dared to do.
Just in case, I kept waiting, hoping all of this was my misunderstanding, but Ha-yeon didn't return until morning.
I packed my bags and stepped outside.
The goal is the Fire Artisan's hideout.
"I'll make you regret making me burn."
From now on, I'm entering training solely to get stronger.
I'll make the Demonic Cult guys piss themselves just by hearing the name Jincheon.
2 months later.
Deep in the Jinryeong Mountains, where there are no traces of humans.
"Uwaaaaaah! I finally found it! Wandering around without navigation or a map, I finally found the Fire Artisan's hideout, fuuuuck!"
Jincheon, a man who had become a total beggar, screamed at the empty air.
"When others dimension-shift into a game world, they get a mini-map! A status window! Even a level-up system! Why don't you guys give me even one of those common things, you sons of bitches!"
The Fire Artisan's hideout he found out about was just a satellite map obtained after searching the sea of the internet, and the approximate terrain features.
Naturally, Jincheon, who had to rely only on that faint memory without a map or navigation, was under all sorts of stress trying to find the Fire Artisan's hideout.
If he hadn't absorbed the 9 Maryeonghwan that Im Ha-yeon left behind and had his internal energy grow explosively, it would have taken 4 months, not 2.
Jincheon, who had been screaming inside a cave big enough for a person to enter, sat down haphazardly after confirming the traces of a person remaining in the cave.
"Hoo. Huuk. Let's rest for a bit. Let's see. Hu-haa."
2 months of wandering around the mountains all day using lightfoot techniques.
It's fortunate that I remembered roughly where it was in the Jinryeong Mountains through the internet; if I hadn't known, it wouldn't have been strange if it took years.
There were traces of people inside the cave, but since 200 years had passed since the Fire Artisan died, it was a mess with thick dust and objects scattered here and there.
After catching his breath through Qigong meditation, he immediately looked for the forge.
It was the natural order because to open the Fire Artisan's warehouse, one had to use a certain amount of internal energy while making weapons through the forge.
The problem is,
"...What is this. There isn't a single mineral."
The tools are there.
The tools that the Fire Artisan made by hand for his own use are in good enough condition to be used right away, even though 200 years have passed.
But there are no minerals at all.
There is no metal smelted from minerals either.
Jincheon checked the Fire Artisan's hideout a bit more.
Although it's a cave with a very large space for one person to use, most of that space was filled with space for a blacksmith.
"Is this the warehouse?"
Unlike other places, he discovered a wall that felt like a door.
Kung kung.
Just in case, he hit it a few times with his fist, and Jincheon made an absurd expression.
"Damn it. It only looks like a wall, but the inside is metal, right? And it's a really hard one too."
I don't know who would come all the way here, but according to the settings, the Fire Artisan extremely hated anyone stealing his things.
So, the way to open the warehouse is unique, and he also made the strength of the warehouse door very solid.
It's impossible to open it by force.
Having judged so, Jincheon checked another passage located inside the cave.
"Could it be?"
The Fire Artisan set up his hideout where there was a high-quality mineral vein.
Then that place must be where the mineral vein is.
Jincheon didn't know what was inside, so he gripped his sword and moved inside.
Since there were torches that could be lit at regular intervals, Jincheon made fire and transferred it to the torches, illuminating the inside brightly.
"They mined the hell out of this place."
Inside the mineral vein, where traces of mining here and there remained.
"When I played Mine-craft, I was like this."
Jincheon, who recalled the underground landscape where holes like rat-eaten ones appeared here and there because he only dug the ground where useful ores were, continued to explore the inside of the cave.
"Whew."
As he went deep inside like that, he discovered minerals that the Fire Artisan hadn't finished mining.
When creating the character, I had raised mining to max level, so I could instinctively feel it.
That the quality of the minerals here is excellent.
And there were even fictional minerals that only exist in this world, such as Baekcheolgwang, Heukcheolgwang, and Hongcheolgwang, which are harder than iron.
The Fire Artisan had been making divine weapons using the characteristics of these minerals.
"Huh?"
As he reached the end of the cave, Jincheon could find a human-shaped skeleton sprawled out powerlessly.
What stood out was the red pickaxe held in its hand.
'Is this guy the Fire Artisan?'
Jincheon was convinced that the Fire Artisan had come here, mined the mineral vein, and died when his lifespan ran out.
'To die while mining minerals until the very end, he's a natural-born blacksmith.'
He put away his sword and carefully lifted the skeleton.
Because he would have to do the mining himself from now on, and he felt like he would feel gross if he saw the skeleton every time.
Jincheon, who came out of the cave, threw the skeleton far away with all his might.
Dig the ground and make a grave?
He's a person I don't even know, so why would I do such a bothersome thing.
"I'll make good use of this."
Jincheon lifted the pickaxe made of Hongcheolgwang toward the skeleton that had flown far away, letting it know that the owner of this place had changed to him.
"Normally, I would just enjoy it moderately."
Im Ha-yeon's disappearance became a good stimulant for Jincheon.
This Murim is a place where if you are weak, you get taken from by the strong.
Having had his woman taken by the strong, the Demonic Cult, he had tasted the sorrow of the weak.
"I will definitely make you regret it. I'll make you feel deep in your bones what the price is for daring to take my female!"
Jincheon first headed inside the cave with the pickaxe on his shoulder to mine the basic material, minerals.
Unlike other martial arts masters, he thought of methods possible because he is a modern person, but the most important thing is to digest the Fire Artisan's research as his own.
You need a strong foundation to be able to apply things.
Jincheon gritted his teeth to obtain the foundation called the Fire Artisan's technique.