Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Metallurgy (3)
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The truth hidden in the process of forging steel swords, flexible swords, flame swords, demon swords, and holy swords.
The moment he realized that the wavelength of a weapon was actually the forcibly amplified flow of mana.
Yuri felt his mind go completely blank.
At the same time, his body seemed to float up, as if kissed by a cool breeze, filling him with refreshment.
"Ah...."
It felt like his flesh and soul had separated.
Yet his consciousness, now sharper than ever, clearly recognized his current state.
"This is... enlightenment?"
The awakening state that followed enlightenment.
He had wondered what it felt like when he saw Greta go through it last time, but to think he'd get this chance himself.
Yuri's impression of his first enlightenment was simple.
"This feeling... it's incredible!"
Yuri now understood why Greta's pupils had dilated during her enlightenment.
Supreme mental liberation.
His mind was crystal clear, beyond compare, and the realm of his consciousness stretched out endlessly.
No amount of rest on the finest bed could match this clarity and refreshment.
"In this state, I could memorize a book of hundreds of pages in one go."
But that sense of liberation didn't last long.
A massive ceiling appeared above Yuri's freely soaring mind.
It blocked the endlessly expanding realm of his consciousness, casting a deep shadow over his mind from the ceiling.
"Ah...."
Restricted, Yuri felt regret.
At the same time, as his departed soul returned to his body, the separation of his consciousness came to an end.
Huuuk-.
A deep breath escaped Yuri's lips, and life returned to his eyes.
Yuri fully opened his half-closed eyes.
The first thing that entered his vision was Sekyung's bewildered expression.
"...What was that?"
Sekyung had lived long enough to recognize at a glance that Yuri had just entered a state of enlightenment.
However, even he had never heard of someone licking a lump of metal and falling into enlightenment.
From Sekyung's perspective, unaware of the details, it was an absurd situation.
Yuri shrugged his shoulders.
"I heard somewhere that true enlightenment comes from the smallest things. Like how I gained enlightenment just by looking at this lump of metal."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Teresa's mutter came from the side: "You didn't look at it, you licked it."
Of course, Yuri easily ignored it.
"Want to know what the real enlightenment I got from this lump of metal is?"
"Do I need to?"
"You might."
"Not curious."
"You should be curious."
"Nah."
Yuri chuckled at Sekyung, who waved him off like he had no interest.
Then he reached out to the iron ingot in front of him.
With that, he could read the unique mana wavelengths each ingot emitted.
Ingot with a steady wavelength.
Ingot with an irregular wavelength.
Or ones where the wavelength was weak in size or oddly shaped, and so on.
The ingots' wavelengths varied wildly.
A glint flashed in Yuri's eyes as he examined them.
"This old man's played tricks here too, huh?"
If you were told to line up twelve ingots in order, you'd naturally assume all twelve were different.
Yet among the twelve wavelengths Yuri read, some matched.
In other words, ingots of identical quality had been mixed in.
Srrk-.
Yuri picked up one ingot.
The one emitting the smoothest, most even wavelength.
He placed it at the very front.
Thud-.
He soon picked up a second ingot and set it behind the first.
That was the start.
Thud- thud- thud-.
Yuri's hand quickly danced over the ingots, arranging them.
At first, Sekyung watched Yuri's antics with indifference.
But when Yuri stacked two ingots for the fourth position...
"...Huh?"
A crack formed in the calm on his face.
Sekyung's pupils shook violently.
'No... way?'
Then Yuri stacked two ingots for the sixth position as well.
And for the eighth, he stacked two more.
The earthquake that started in his eyes spread across his face.
'No way... It can't be. This is just... just coincidence.'
Sekyung denied what was happening before his eyes, insisting it couldn't be, that the kid just got lucky.
Yet the anxiety rooted in his heart was impossible to hide—his hands trembled visibly.
Yuri glanced at Sekyung and picked up the last ingot, slamming it down atop the two already stacked at the eighth spot.
Thung-!
The clash of metal rang out loudly.
A sharp sound, like something shattering.
"......?!'
What shattered was Sekyung's confidence and composure.
Yuri beamed brightly at the frozen Sekyung.
"This lump of metal told me: smashing the head of the guy who cheated in a sacred bet is guilt-free."
"......"
"See, from the left—these are the highest quality. Check 'em. You staked the Bone Clan's honor, so... you won't tamper with the results, right? Go ahead, try it. If you can handle the consequences."
Yuri slammed down another ingot with a menacing glare.
Tung- tung-.
The clash of the two ingots echoed loudly.
But Yuri's threats weren't particularly intimidating to Sekyung.
No—more accurately, he didn't have the mental bandwidth to register the threats.
Sekyung just stared blankly at the arranged ingots.
Neatly lined up in counts of 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3.
He picked up the leftmost one as if entranced and glared at it for a long time.
Tok tok-.
Not satisfied with just staring, he tapped it lightly with his fingertip.
Sniff sniff-.
Sniffed it.
Even pressed his ear to the ingot.
With each action, his face grew stiffer.
'It's... it's a match. Descartes-grade No. 1 pure iron!'
It was certain.
The ingot Yuri had placed farthest left was the highest-quality one among those he owned.
Confirming that, Sekyung hastily grabbed the two next to it.
Examining the ingot carefully once more, shock bloomed on his face.
'This matches too?!'
Descartes pure iron, though slightly lower purity than the first.
But the purity difference was so minute that even experts would struggle to distinguish it easily.
Yet Yuri had precisely separated the two, ranking them second and third.
"This... this can't be!"
Sekyung, unable to deny reality.
His hands moved faster as he checked the remaining ingots' qualities.
Time passed.
The more he compared them one by one, the more he realized Yuri's rankings were spot-on, and his face grew paler.
Finally.
"This is......"
Confirming the last three ingots were exactly the same quality, Sekyung's soul seemed to flee his body.
"...This doesn't... make sense. How could this......"
"Sometimes the world throws curveballs that don't make sense."
"No way...... This can't... happen in one day... No way it could... There's no way something like this could happen?"
"Judging by your face, I don't need to ask. I win this round?"
"Something like this... can't be possible... No way... It shouldn't be......"
"What, getting so shocked over something this minor? It's no big deal. Heh heh."
Normally, Sekyung would snap back at Yuri's grinning taunt.
But right now, with his 42 years of life denied, he wasn't in his right mind.
His half-dazed eyes turned to Yuri.
"Do it... again."
"Huh? This?"
"Y-Yeah! Do it again!"
"Why should I?"
"I-It could be luck! You might've just gotten lucky!"
"Well, could be."
"Right? So do it one more time......"
"Nope."
"......"
"Why should I? Luck or not, I got it right, so that's that, isn't it?"
Seeing Yuri snicker nonstop, Sekyung uttered words he shouldn't have.
"Next... next bet will be this too!"
"Huh?"
"If you do it again and get it right... the second bet's your win too!"
Yuri's eyes lit up at that.
'This old man's lost it? Is this really that shocking?'
It was something no sane person would say.
But for Yuri, it was nothing but a gift.
No reason to refuse.
He nodded quickly before Sekyung could backtrack.
"Sure!"
"W-Wait!"
As Yuri nodded, Sekyung frantically scooped the scattered ingots back into the sack.
He shook the sack vigorously.
Clang clatter-.
Anyone could see he was mixing them up.
Yuri watched with a look that said, "Trying hard, aren't you?"
Misreading the gaze, Sekyung hurriedly turned away.
Face full of fury, as if refusing to let Yuri see him mix them.
"I don't know what trick you pulled, but it won't work this time!"
Shouting that, Sekyung mixed the ingots in the sack with all his fervor.
How much time passed?
By the time Yuri yawned boredly.
"Done!"
Clang-.
Sekyung dumped the ingots in front of Yuri.
Yuri gave him a listless look.
"All mixed?"
"Do it already!"
"Man."
Yuri scratched his ear at Sekyung's bellow and squatted before the pile of ingots.
He began lightly sorting them with his hands.
Thud thud thud-.
Once more, the ingots separated rapidly, lining up in a row.
Finally, just like before: lined up in counts of 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3.
"Done."
Yuri dusted off his hands and stood.
Faster than before, thanks to having done it once already.
Sekyung rushed to the ingots and inspected them even more thoroughly than last time.
Praying desperately that the previous result had been luck.
Hoping Yuri was wrong.
But......
Thud-.
Having checked every ingot, Sekyung collapsed weakly to the floor.
With a soulless face and voice, he muttered.
"This can't happen......"
"Yeah, yeah, sure."
"No way... It took me 42 years to distinguish these... And you did it in one day......"
"42 years?"
Only then did Yuri realize why Sekyung was so out of it.
He widened his eyes.
"Whoa, it took you 42 years just for this? Old man, you must've had zero talent in metallurgy, huh?"
Yuri stabbed a dagger into Sekyung's chest with a smiling face.
Sekyung's face grew even more despondent.
"Even for the Bone Clan... this is impossible in one day... No one's ever succeeded in a single day......"
"Oh, really? I had high hopes for Bone Clan metallurgy, but it's just okay? Nothing special? This round was kinda meh."
"This can't... be like this......"
"If you can't believe it, wanna go again? Or bring something else. Let's do the same type for the next round too. That'll make it crystal clear."
"R-Right! If we do the next round the same way, it'll be clearer... Next round?"
Light returned to Sekyung's dazed eyes.
Muttering "next round," he snapped to attention.
"Wha—hold on?!"
Only then did he realize what he'd done.
'I already handed this damn kid two wins!'
If he lost the next round too, the bet would be a total defeat.
He'd lose everything, no doubt.
Seeing Sekyung regain his senses, his pupils quaking, Yuri clicked his tongue.
"Tch, coulda ended it easy."
Sekyung's eyes blazed with fury at Yuri's pouty disappointment.
'That... that insolent brat!'
Yuri's earlier words echoed belatedly in his mind.
'What did he say? Bone Clan metallurgy is just okay?'
His fists clenched with a crunch.
'This isn't just about me and that kid anymore!'
Now it was a matter of the Bone Clan's honor.
Sekyung swept the ingots into the sack and glared at Yuri.
"...For the third round... I'll prepare and contact you."
"Do whatever."
Yuri replied indifferently, as if to say, "Bring it if you dare."
Sekyung ground his teeth at the response.
Crunch-.
'You want something special?'
Fine, I'll show you—the special technique you crave so much!
Crunch crunch-.
Grinding his teeth, Sekyung shouldered the sack and stormed off, glaring at Yuri.
A thick smile played on Yuri's lips as he watched his retreating back.
The leisure of a victor who had easily claimed two wins.
But that smile soon turned to faint anxiety.
'Right now... I think I can do it.'
The reason Yuri hadn't pushed back when Sekyung postponed the third round.
He wanted to send him off quickly and check the results of this enlightenment.
Before the sensations from it faded.
Sring-.
Yuri drew his white sword.