The Blacksmith's First Flame
Burn. The man didn't even manage a proper resistance before he was slammed face-first into the floor. "Ugh... Let go, let go of me, you bastards...!" The man, finally coming to his senses, tried to struggle, but it was far too late. The Cheonhwadang employees swiftly fastened black, rosary-like objects around his wrists and ankles. As they did, the bundle of talismans that had been fluttering like mad just a moment ago went eerily silent.
'...So they have things like that.'
I didn't know what they were exactly, but they seemed to be tools designed to seal the flow of energy. I withdrew the energy I had been channeling into the sword in my hand. Whirrr... The vibration of the blade, which had been humming against my palm, gradually subsided, and the blue flames flickering on the edge scattered into the air and vanished. I quietly placed the cooled sword back onto the display shelf.
'Talk about a nightmare customer.'
He was the one at fault, yet he came here to commit terrorism while strapped with a bomb vest. The more I thought about it, the more absurd it was. I mean, logically speaking—it was a fire-attribute sword designed to spew flames, and he had poured water-attribute mana—'...No, wait. In this place, they called it spiritual power.' Regardless, pouring water-attribute spiritual power into a fire-attribute weapon and then throwing a tantrum because it didn't ignite? Was that even sound logic?
"Ugh..." The man on the floor groaned in agony, his joints twisted at unnatural angles.
'Tsk.' I clicked my tongue lightly and looked down at the sword on the display once more. '...Well, it’s not like this place, Cheonhwadang, is entirely blameless for designing the circuits that way.'
If it were me, it would have been different. I would have designed the circuits to account for the possibility of a user stupidly pouring in spiritual power of the wrong attribute. The structural diagram of the circuit I had glimpsed earlier naturally re-emerged in my mind. The entrance of the circuit leading from the hilt to the blade. I would have carved an additional bypass there. If the injected energy wasn't pure spiritual power, I would have engraved the circuit so it wouldn't even enter the main line. That way, the energy that couldn't enter the main circuit would naturally flow out of the sword through the bypass. Since it wouldn't enter in the first place, there would be no risk of the internal circuits being contaminated or colliding with energy of a different attribute.
'...Or, I could have engraved a purification circuit inside the entrance to cleanse the incoming spiritual power.'
That would have required a more complex engraving, which would have made the hilt a bit longer. If that happened, the overall center of gravity of the sword would shift backward, so I would have had to adjust the thickness or length of the blade to rebalance it. In the smithy of my mind, a new blueprint for this sword was already being rapidly refined and perfected.
'...Well, that’s neither here nor there.'
Regardless of all that, the user's negligence was a fact. Furthermore, threatening people’s lives was an act that was hard to justify under any circumstances.
"Dohyun-nim... are you alright?" Seo Jian, who had retreated to a safe distance, approached me cautiously. Her face was still deathly pale.
"Yes. Well, as you can see."
Just as I answered lightly, the manager, who had been looking down at the subdued man with cold eyes, gave a short nod to his staff. It seemed to be an order to finish cleaning up the situation. He then immediately turned and walked toward me. The menacing atmosphere from before was gone, replaced by a clean, professional smile.
"I am Cheong-hyeon, the General Manager of the Cheonhwadang Goblin Market branch. Thank you. Thanks to your quick response, we were able to resolve this unfortunate incident safely." He bowed politely to me.
"What will happen to that man now?"
"The Geumri (Prohibition Officers) from the Spiritual Management Bureau will arrive shortly to take him into custody."
What the hell is a Geumri? Judging by the nuance, they sounded like police or constables.
"More importantly... if I may ask, which organization are you affiliated with?"
"That is—"
"Ah! One moment!" Before I could even open my mouth, Seo Jian quickly intervened and thrust a business card forward. "I am Seo Jian, this gentleman's representative."
General Manager Cheong-hyeon took the card and looked back and forth between Seo Jian and me. "Hahaha... Our client currently has, well, some personal circumstances. It’s a bit difficult for him to reveal his identity openly." Seo Jian lied smoothly, flashing a crafty smile.
After watching me for a moment following her words, Cheong-hyeon didn't press further and nodded. "I see. I apologize for my rudeness."
"..."
I looked around. All the customers had already fled the store, and the staff were busy cleaning up the broken display cases and scattered talismans. Hmm. Well, the bad guy was caught. It didn't seem like the right atmosphere to browse anymore.
"...Then, we’ll be going now." I said, turning to leave.
"Please, wait a moment." Cheong-hyeon stopped us. He gave a brief instruction to a nearby staff member and stepped away into the back of the store.
'...What is he up to now?'
While he was gone, I scanned the chaotic store interior and asked Seo Jian quietly, "Jian-ssi, that 'Fire-Scale Sword' over there—what level is it considered in this market?"
"Pardon? That sword?"
"I think I heard that man mentioning something about a 'Byeong-rank' craftsman."
"Ah...!" Seo Jian clapped her hands as if she finally understood. "You said you weren't familiar with the system here, right?"
To summarize her explanation: spiritual tools were graded using Chinese characters. Gap (1st), Eul (2nd), Byeong (3rd), Jeong (4th), Mu (5th), Gi (6th), Gyeong (7th), Sin (8th), Im (9th), Gye (10th). It was indeed the sequence from the sexagenary cycle. However, for convenience, these days they only counted up to Byeong and Jeong as formal grades, and everything below that was just lumped together and called 'low-grade spiritual tools.'
"So, a Byeong-rank item is considered a high-end luxury product. It’s a grade that most freelance sorcerers might not even touch once in their entire lives."
I couldn't help but let a smirk tug at the corner of my mouth. 'Is that so?' A world where an item like that is considered a luxury product.
"Thank you for waiting." Cheong-hyeon, who had just walked out from the back, smiled and handed me a thick envelope. "This is a small token of appreciation from Cheonhwadang."
"Pardon...?" When I instinctively took the envelope, I felt a heavy weight. He pulled something else out of his pocket. It was a small black silk pouch with a string attached.
"This is...?"
"This is a Eokjebu (Suppression Talisman) we recently developed. It’s still a prototype, but I thought you might need it..." Cheong-hyeon politely placed the pouch in my hand.
'...A Suppression Talisman.' I didn't know what it was supposed to suppress just by the name, but I decided to accept it for now. While I was tucking away the envelope and the pouch, I caught a glimpse of the store interior. The staff were almost finished clearing away the broken display cases. The store, which had been completely turned upside down because of one customer, looked quite tidy already.
'They’re fast at handling things.'
Just then, clink— the sound of a bell rang briefly at the entrance. Several men in black suits walked in, one after another. Judging by their attire, they looked like secretaries from a major corporation, but the man leading them pulled out something unexpected: a thick, wooden plaque that looked like a Hopae (ID tag).
"I am Kang Mujin, a 5th-rank Dosa from the 1st Investigation Division of the Spiritual Management Bureau. ...Where is the suspect?"
"Right this way. Ah, sir. I have some business to attend to, so I will take my leave now. Please feel free to visit our Cheonhwadang anytime." He bowed politely once more and headed toward the Bureau officials.
***
We exited Cheonhwadang and stepped back into the bustling market alley. As soon as we turned a corner, Seo Jian, who had been walking beside me, let out a sigh of relief and crouched down as if her legs were about to give out.
"Whew... I thought I was going to die. Were you really not bothered at all, Dohyun-nim?"
"...?"
As I stared at her, Seo Jian let out a pained moan as if her strength had drained from her legs and shook her head. "Oh, no, it was nothing."
According to her, the terrorist strapped with 'Fire-Scale Talismans' was scary, but what was even more suffocating was the sheer pressure radiating from the Cheonhwadang staff who had swarmed in afterward. Especially the General Manager, Cheong-hyeon, with his narrow eyes; his energy had been so intense that she had gotten goosebumps all over and could barely stand it.
Energy? Pressure? What kind of energy was she talking about?
'Ah...' It was true that when the General Manager first opened his mouth, I had felt the air touching my skin become momentarily heavy. I had just assumed it was my imagination.
'Huh...' Well, come to think of it, a terrorist with a bomb vest that could go off at any second had been standing right in front of me. Yet, I had acted so completely unfazed. It was a bit strange.
'Was I always this bold?' Thinking about it, in the game, I had hammered away calmly even in the nests of dragons breathing fire or amidst the legions of the Demon King trying to destroy the continent. ...But that was a game, and this was reality.
"...Well, I suppose that situation might not have felt like such a big threat to you, Dohyun-nim." Seo Jian, having stood up, scanned my attire from head to toe with a curious expression. "I didn't notice at all at the cafe. Now that I see, you were keeping it very well hidden, weren't you?"
What kind of misunderstanding was this? What was I hiding? I just blinked, wondering what she was talking about, and Seo Jian continued.
"I felt some spiritual power leaking out when you touched the jade flute earlier. But when you grabbed the Fire-Scale Sword... it became noticeably stronger."
'...I, I did?'
It was true; the energy that used to leak out only temporarily when I held a hammer or repaired an object now seemed to be flowing naturally through my body without me even having to force it up. Was this my spiritual power?
'...Is there no way to check?'
I wanted to see how far my abilities, my spiritual power, would hold up against the yardstick of reality's sorcery. Just then, the blank talismans scattered on a roadside stall caught my eye.
"Jian-ssi. Where can I buy the blank paper used to make talismans?"
"You mean Goehwangji? They sell them at that stall over there, but... why?"
So it was called Goehwangji.
"I have something I want to verify."
"...Pardon?"
Instead of answering, I approached the old man sitting at the stall. When I picked out a few sheets of Goehwangji, Seo Jian, who had followed me, naturally took out her wallet and paid. "Then, we should buy some cinnabar ink and a brush, too. Let's see..."
"I don't sell things like that." The old man replied gruffly.
Seo Jian looked around for another stall with a troubled expression, but I shook my head. "It's fine."
Instinctively, I had a hunch. I didn't need a brush or ink. I placed one of the Goehwangji sheets I had just bought on my palm and slowly closed my eyes. Then, I extended my right index finger and lightly brushed it across the surface of the paper.
Rustle.
The rough texture of the traditional paper. And the gaps between the fibers, minutely intertwined, flowed into my mind as if being X-rayed through my spiritual power.
'The texture is soft... and it's a material that absorbs mana easily.' It seemed like it could store a certain amount of mana. 'So this is how it works.'
"Do, Dohyun-nim...?"
Instead of answering, I focused my energy on the tip of my index finger, which was pressed against the paper. I channeled my spiritual power from my fingertip and began drawing a circuit. The same structure I had seen on the Fire-Scale Sword earlier. I established the main trunk and branched out the paths for the energy to flow. A structure that narrowed as the passage went on, pushing the pressure to its limit. And at the end, I engraved a vortex-shaped circuit to swirl the energy and amplify the explosive power. It was just a disposable piece of paper anyway. I discarded delicate durability. I poured everything into a single release.
I refined the blueprint in my head and carved it with my fingertip.
Ssssss—!
"Oh, oh my?!" Seo Jian's jaw dropped.
Following the path of my finger, geometric patterns began to be engraved onto the yellow Goehwangji as if it were being scorched black. "Ho, how are you doing this..."
I lifted the completed talisman. The black patterns were emitting a faint smoke and glowing with a reddish light before subsiding.
"So... shall we try it?"
"Try, try what—!" Seo Jian followed me hurriedly, her face clearly showing her bewilderment. I looked around. I spotted an empty, fenced-off vacant lot with few people around.
"What about that place?"
"Ah, that's... a place where they were going to build a shopping center but stopped. No one uses it now..."
It was a vacant lot, messy and with only dirt dug up, as if construction had been abandoned halfway through. 'Let's see.' I flicked the talisman into the middle of the lot. Flutter, flutter. And I injected mana into the thread of spiritual power connected to the talisman, as if striking a small spark.
'Burn.'
That was the moment.
Whoooooosh—!
BOOM!!
A massive pillar of fire erupted in all directions.