Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Rental
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Two days had passed since returning from the Management Bureau. During that time, Ian had spent his days ordinarily shuttling between the workshop and home.
He hadn't taken on any requests. His declaration of taking a break for the time being hadn't been a lie, so he planned to continue this lifestyle at least until after the Lunar New Year holidays.
Of course, there was no need for him to go visit family. With no parents or relatives to meet, what kind of family visit would that be?
It was a completely different situation from premium orphans like Lee Seo-ah. Unlike her, who had parents when she was born, Ian had been a complete orphan since the age of one. He had never received parental love, nor did he even know what his parents looked like or if he had any relatives.
Back then, he had been quite ashamed of it, but now it didn't bother him at all.
Well, after living as an orphan for over twenty years, one masters anything.
"Hmm."
Late lunchtime.
Ian roughly ordered food through a delivery app, tossed his phone onto the bed, and plopped down into a chair.
Shifting his gaze to the wall, he spotted the aquarium where fish were swimming. Not a huge number of fish, but vividly colored tropical fish freely navigated the large tank.
It wasn't like he had suddenly taken up aquarium hobbying now.
He had simply followed the advice from the Deep Sea Angler—Kim Yul—and altered the workshop's environment once.
'The outer universe's sea still falls under the category of water, at least. It should provide minimal help.'
Most of the spells in the Deep Sea Chronicles were summons, with the rest mainly attack magic. There weren't any tasks requiring such fine precision that he needed the workshop.
Even so, the reason for installing the tank in the workshop wasn't anything major. He just thought it would be good to match it while he was at it.
The biggest reason Ian had created the workshop was, naturally, the Hand of Recreation. Creating high-grade items absolutely required the workshop's existence, so it wasn't a choice but a necessity. That's why he made it, and succeeded.
However, it still fell short of being fully complete. To make it a proper mage's workshop, he needed to fill it with tools suited to magic's nature.
That's why he had taken the time to place various items in appropriate spots. He put a brewer in the corner of the table even though he had no intention of using it, neatly shelved alchemy-related books, and even tucked a few pieces of gold in a drawer.
He knew his alchemy wasn't ordinary. But this was the best he could do. Since it was magic classified as alchemy, this should suffice.
Otherwise, he could just spend more money to refit the workshop.
He had plenty of money, so there was no need to skimp. Earning it to spend when needed meant he should be generous with expenses like this.
Ian organized his thoughts like that, put on his glasses, and picked up the grimoire from the table.
Hand of Recreation.
Silver embroidery-like letters on the pure white cover.
Not Korean, yet somehow reading as Korean, he traced the letters with his finger once before slowly opening the cover to read the contents inside. The Hand of Recreation turned the pages on its own according to his will.
'It's about time to try some new alchemy.'
The last item Ian had made was the Knowledge-Eating Paper. An alchemy item that absolutely required a workshop, and its effect ranked quite high among what he'd made so far.
Given the workshop condition, the other items probably had similar potency to the paper.
As long as the materials weren't too complicated, trying one right away wouldn't be bad.
Thinking that, Ian slowly turned the pages. He checked if there were any decent items that didn't require the workshop.
Around ten pages in.
Ian spotted one item that caught his eye.
[Soul-Containing Chalice]
[A chalice that extracts souls from corpses that haven't been dead long. The extracted soul can be used as material or partially perused for memories. It can hold up to 3 souls total; drinking them mixed increases egos.]
[Materials: 1 metal chalice, 300g salt, 50ml horse blood, 20g bone dust, 50ml holy water, 100ml owner's blood.]
It was a fairly decent item. The materials were a bit complex, but not unobtainable, and the effect was reasonably good. Above all, the memory perusal intrigued him.
'If I had this on the cruise, I could've killed the captain and rifled through his memories. No need for interrogation means no reason to hold back in a fight.'
Tight-lipped enemies were always a headache, anytime, anywhere. If there was a lot of info to extract, it meant interrogation or torture, which consumed too much time.
There were spells to amplify pain. Making them foam at the mouth with just a light cut wasn't hard. But before torturing, the capture process was inconvenient in many ways. He had to keep them alive, which practically sealed his main recreation magic. Summoning too.
With two main spells sealed, leading battles favorably would be very difficult. In that regard, a chalice that let him ignore the opponent's survival was quite appealing.
'Let's make one as a test for now.'
Ian marked the Soul-Containing Chalice and continued reading down the grimoire.
By the time the food arrived, he had narrowed it down to about three items, including the chalice.
The other two were named [Blood-Seeking Compass] and [Curtain of the Mortal World].
The Blood-Seeking Compass was literally a compass. Smear it with a specific target's blood, and it shows their location until death, even allowing other anomalies to sense their position. Even without blood, it reacts to blood scent within a certain radius.
The drawback was that the owner drew anomalies' attention while using it, but it wasn't a big flaw.
Well, he had plenty of ways to deal with anomalies.
The Curtain of the Mortal World was a type of cloak. Wearing it allowed slipping into the rift between reality and the back world for a set time, escaping notice from both sides. Simply put, an invisibility cloak.
With only 5 minutes duration and single-use, efficiency wasn't great, but performance was solid. Far superior to the coat magic that only evaded mindless ones' sight.
He decided to make the compass first among the three.
Materials were just a plain compass, blood, a few leeches, and some anomaly flesh—easy to make, and handy to have preemptively without a proper tracking method yet.
'I'll buy a decent compass, and get leeches from the Cartel.'
Unusual items? Dig through the Cartel. Pricey, but with steady income, no big worry.
He had to spend over 5 million won monthly anyway. Alchemy was a money pit, so no need to obsess.
"Ugh......"
Ian stretched after organizing his thoughts, fetched the lunchbox at the door, and had a light meal. He preferred cooking himself, but ordering occasionally wasn't bad.
After eating, he immediately bought materials needed for alchemy. Besides the compass, he'd eventually make the other two, so he pre-purchased those too.
Regular shopping deliveries would arrive tomorrow or the day after; Cartel ones in 12 hours, flying home.
With nothing to do until then, Ian killed time appropriately and returned home.
Lying on the bed, he pulled out his phone. Logging into the community, he skimmed familiar shitposts. One even mentioned him.
[Met a newbie today.]
[Deep Sea Angler]
Surprisingly normal-looking. But real speech totally different from community tone, kinda off-putting.
Ah, where we met is secret.
[Recommendations 15][Disrecommendations 0]
[Comments]
-Why only you meet them.
ㄴDeep Sea Angler: They said smelly old guys like you are gross.
ㄴFuck.
-Taming Master: Was it Koja?
ㄴDeep Sea Angler: Good-smelling guy.
ㄴTaming Master: (Mage Punch Con)
ㄴDeep Sea Angler: Inferiority complex ugly.
ㄴTaming Master: What inferiority? I got three wives.
ㄴEar Bug: Three wives (turning Eight-Foot Ghost, Kongkong Ghost, Banshee into limbless dolls)
-Unicorn Lover Dog: Virgin?
ㄴDeep Sea Angler: Piss off.
ㄴUnicorn Lover Dog: lol
A post from a few days ago. Ian debated commenting but passed. No mention of Management Bureau, so nothing grating.
'Come to think, we didn't exchange contacts.'
Eh, next chance would come, no big attachment. Ian thoroughly read the rest, then loosened his stiff wrist.
Then, his phone buzzed shortly with an incoming call.
Caller: Han Yuna. They'd exchanged numbers, but first call. Not even texts before—sudden.
'What's up.'
Ian answered casually, bringing it to his ear on speaker.
"Hello—"
"Shin Ian-ssi!"
Before he finished, Han Yuna's booming voice rang out. Ears ringing from the volume, Ian frowned as she pressed on.
"Can you pretend to be my boyfriend for a bit?!"
"......?"
Ian's face twisted subtly.