Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: Metallurgy (2)
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Yuri's brow furrowed mercilessly.
'What the hell is this nonsense?'
He had expected metallurgy to involve firing up a furnace, drawing out molten metal, swinging a hammer, and so on—direct manufacturing techniques.
So Yuri couldn't help but be thrown off by the sudden demand to pick out iron ingots.
A reluctant voice slipped from his mouth.
"Old man Kongsul, looks like you've got something mixed up. This bet is about me learning metallurgy from you and you checking if I've mastered it properly."
"I know that. That's why I'm telling you right now, aren't I?"
"Telling me what?"
"What did you think I said? I told you that selecting materials is a basic skill in metallurgy. Of course that's what I'm teaching you!"
"Oh, really? Then hurry up and teach me that special technique for distinguishing high-quality materials."
"Where's any such thing?"
"……?"
"If there was, I wouldn't have told you it takes a lifetime of training."
As the incomprehensible talk kept dragging on, a vein bulged at Yuri's temple.
"What kind of bullshit trick is this?"
"What bullshit? What do you take me for?"
Sakyung snorted.
"Let me say it again: the eye for appraising materials is the most fundamental skill emphasized by the Walker School. And it can't be learned through theory."
"Then how do you learn and master it?"
"Simple."
"What?"
"You touch a lot, you tap a lot, you melt a lot, and you figure it out."
"……."
"After spending long years with minerals, your eye naturally opens up, and you'll develop the discernment to tell quality at a glance."
"…Is that really a basic skill?"
"It is."
"How long does it usually take for that eye to open?"
"By Bone Clan standards? About ten years?"
"…And to discern quality at a glance?"
"You'd have to live sucking on iron lumps for at least thirty or forty years."
"No, that's not a basic skill! That's the realm of masters that only a handful could reach!"
"Kehkeh, that's exactly the first basic skill Bone Clan kids learn."
"You're scamming me, aren't you?"
"Go check with the Bone Clan later."
"……."
"Heh heh heh, pissed? Doesn't matter if you are. It's all true."
Seeing his confident face, it didn't seem like a lie.
Yuri glared at Sakyung in utter disbelief.
"Hah? This old coot's messing around from the first round?"
The eye for materials that Sakyung mentioned.
It was a metallurgy technique, as he said, but also not.
Not a skill learned through theory, but one naturally embodied through accumulating countless experiences over long years.
A foundation, yet one that must be endlessly grown without fixed limits.
'And he wants me to do that now?'
If there's theory, you can follow and learn it.
But how could he demonstrate a skill that only time could resolve?
Especially something that takes the Bone Clan a minimum of ten years.
Yuri asked just in case.
"How long do I have?"
"Finish it by today. I'm busy."
"Number of attempts?"
"I have some conscience, so I'll give you three chances."
"…Fuck, I'm so grateful tears are welling up. Line up 12 ingots by quality? In just three tries? They'd need to give me 12 chances and it'd still be short!"
"If you're pissed, just forfeit. Don't waste my time—if you can't do it, give up quick."
Yuri's lips twisted at Sakyung's taunt.
'Damnable old coot.'
He didn't know about anything else, but this old coot and Johan were top-tier at getting under people's skin.
Sakyung might deny it, but he took after Johan.
Yuri picked up a few ingots rolling on the floor with an irritated face.
Curses burst out immediately.
"Motherfucker……."
His swearing was fully justified.
The two ingots in his hands were far too identical.
Color, luster, size, shape—even weight.
Wondering if they were all like this, he lined up all 12 and checked, but they were indistinguishable.
Yuri shot Sakyung a sullen glare.
"These are all different, right? You're not scamming me with identical ones?"
"What do you take me for, you punk! I stake the Bone Clan's honor—absolutely not!"
"Hmm……."
Yuri let out a low groan upon hearing him invoke his clan's honor.
Then he plopped down in front of the 12 ingots and crossed his arms.
'How the hell do you tell these apart?'
Yuri stared piercingly at the ingots with his mouth firmly shut.
A faint smirk played on Sakyung's lips as he watched him.
'Heh heh heh, kid, it took me exactly forty-two years to distinguish those. Go ahead if you think you can.'
That kid would never pass this gate.
Sakyung was firmly convinced.
* * *
"He won't make it, right?"
Munch munch.
"Probably not."
Munch munch.
"I'm hungry."
Crunch crunch.
Teresa, Arin, and Poppi gathered in order and sat munching on rations like snacks.
They assessed Yuri's arm-crossed glare at the ingots that way.
They had ears too, so they'd heard everything Yuri and Sakyung said.
No wonder they were skeptical.
"Even Yuri can't do anything about that."
Munch munch.
If it were a simple technique, they could pin hopes on Yuri's talent.
But what Sakyung demanded was the essence of a skill bloomed through time, not talent.
If Yuri had decades, maybe.
But distinguishing those 12 ingots in one day was absolutely impossible now.
'If attempts were unlimited, he could guess randomly…….'
But only three chances.
'That Bone Clan geezer's something else.'
How badly did he not want to lose this bet to prepare such a dirty trick?
Arin clicked her tongue inwardly and reached into the ration pouch, wondering how Yuri would respond.
* * *
"You think staring tells you anything? Just do it roughly and finish quick."
Even at Sakyung's taunting urging, Yuri didn't uncross his arms.
'Is there really no way?'
The metallurgy he was to learn from Sakyung totaled five kinds.
Since this was the first, he could give up and aim for the next.
But……
'No guarantee the next bet won't be just as shitty.'
No, that old man had surely prepared something equally dirty.
He couldn't waste even a single chance carelessly.
'I have to try everything possible.'
Resolving himself, Yuri picked up, set down, tapped, and clashed the 12 ingots together.
But no matter how he looked, listened, or even smelled, no differences emerged.
Right then.
A thought flashed through Yuri's mind.
[You'd have to live sucking on iron lumps for at least thirty or forty years.]
'That's it!'
Yuri seized the clue from Sakyung's earlier words.
He flicked his tongue toward an ingot.
Lick-.
The three spectators grimaced in shock at the sight, while Sakyung smirked in ridicule.
Meanwhile, Yuri……
Lick lick-.
He licked the 12 ingots in sequence.
Lick lick-.
His face was more serious than ever, and only after the twelfth did he recross his arms and close his eyes.
"Hmm……."
Yuri's small groan looked like he was savoring a taste.
But inside, it was different.
'Uh, hmm… no clue.'
He'd thought maybe sucking on them would reveal something, but it was pointless.
Just a bitter iron taste irritating his tongue.
'How the hell do you tell? What senses the difference?'
Touch, sight, smell, hearing—even taste.
He'd used every sense available, but no way to distinguish the ingots.
Not even a hunch.
Yuri kept his eyes closed, sinking deeper into thought.
Five minutes, ten, fifteen.
He expanded his thinking.
Not just what he saw, but analyzing the issue from various angles.
After about thirty minutes lost in thought.
A small question arose in Yuri's mind.
'The eye that distinguishes materials… maybe it's not a normal sensory skill, but something in the spiritual realm?'
His thoughts latched onto that.
'What if it's an opened spiritual sense that perceives what others can't? And they call that the "eye for discerning materials"?'
Then what does that sense perceive?
'Something special that only spiritual sense can feel… something others can't know… what could it be?'
The pondering was long, but realization struck in an instant.
'Ah! Mana… it's mana!'
Like brothers from the same parents look similar yet differ in appearance.
Even minerals of the same type from the same mine.
Each harbors slightly different mana properties.
'Hard to find those differences in all things… but delving into minerals alone for decades might naturally attune you to those subtle mana variances.'
With that thought, Yuri naturally spread his mana sense.
'If there's a subtle mana difference, it should connect to flows.'
Yuri felt the unique mana flows within the ingots.
At first, no differences.
The flows seemed identical, making him doubt his guess.
But the more so, the more Yuri concentrated.
'There must be a difference.'
He analyzed the flows meticulously.
And finally.
'Found it!'
He succeeded.
The subtle differences in flows emanating from each ingot.
'The flow shapes look the same, but their rhythmic patterns differ!'
One ingot's flow pulsed at regular intervals and speed, while another's was irregular.
Delighted at discovering the subtle difference, Yuri tilted his head.
'Wait, this?'
A familiar feeling.
The flow characteristics he'd grasped from the ingots were something he'd felt before.
None other than……
'Wavelengths?!'
The sword's wavelength essential for wielding Strong Sword or Soft Sword.
If you drew the mana flow's rhythm and changes as a graph, it'd be exactly that wavelength.
Another realization followed.
'Ah, infusing mana into weapons… that's it?!'
To wield Strong Sword, Soft Sword, etc., people infuse their mana into the weapon.
That must amplify the material's inherent mana wavelength greatly.
'To read the wavelength more easily!'
But the problem was that the process distorts the wavelength.
A natural outcome.
'Forcibly stretching and enlarging subtle wavelengths—if they stayed identical to the original, that'd be weirder.'
That's why matching weapon and mana core wavelengths takes so long.
And inducing resonance becomes extremely difficult.
Not just matching wavelengths, but finding the original ones.
However.
'I don't need to do that?'
Yuri had a way to feel the undistorted original wavelength without forcibly amplifying mana.
Just sense the ingot's flow with mana sense like now.
'And I had this method but just mimicked others blindly… what an idiot I was?'
Was there ever a dumber waste of time?
The moment Yuri smiled self-deprecatingly.
Tzzzz-!
A soft light emanated from his entire body.
And.
Plop- plop- plop-.
At Yuri's sudden self-illumination, the three rations dropped neatly to the floor.
Teresa, Arin, and Poppi froze mid-snack.
Rub rub-.
Arin rubbed her eyes repeatedly, unable to believe the sight before her.
Staring at the still-glowing Yuri, she murmured entranced.
"Don-o……?"
Half-lidded eyes with relaxed pupils.
A body softly emitting light.
It was unmistakably the don-o state of sudden enlightenment, just like Greta's before.
"That's… don-o, right? Yeah?"
"I'm hungry."
When Arin asked again for confirmation, Poppi nodded beside her.
"……."
"……."
"……."
Stunned by Yuri's abrupt enlightenment, they were speechless.
Finally, a dumbfounded voice slipped from Teresa.
"…Why's he standing still when fighting for his life, but licks iron lumps and gets enlightened?"
Arin and Poppi nodded slightly in agreement with Teresa's words.