Chapter : 10
To properly delve into the magic and mysteries of this world,
Ilhyang needed to learn its written language as quickly as possible.
And to do that, he absolutely needed a good writing teacher.
“So you need a writing teacher. Since the request fee is twenty-five silver coins, that should be enough for a generous two months’ salary. Even after including the brokerage fee.”
There were an enormous number of people who wanted to become writing teachers.
Honestly, there was such an excess of manpower that Ilhyang could probably have simply grabbed any of the pale-faced scholars sitting outside the Vagabond Association with gloomy expressions and easily found himself a teacher.
The reason was simple.
In this world, professions related to literature and the arts—poetry, calligraphy, painting, and music—
commonly known as the Four Arts (四藝, the four arts), were desperately poor unless the person possessed truly overwhelming talent.
Artists with only mediocre talent were all frantically searching for jobs.
‘He could probably find one without going through our Vagabond Association.’
For some reason, however, this boy had specifically chosen to make it a request.
Perhaps Mak Chung’s question had shown on his face.
Ilhyang smiled gently and said,
“I understand that placing requests also counts toward one’s record. Is that correct?”
“Ah! Ahh! That’s right. So that’s what you were thinking.”
The ranks of Vagabond plaques generally consisted of Wooden Plaque, Iron Plaque, Copper Plaque, Silver Plaque, and Gold Plaque.
To properly raise one’s rank, one needed a certain amount of recorded experience from both accepting requests and placing requests.
More precisely, there needed to be a record of commission payments.
‘Either that, or his martial arts must be extremely powerful.’
For reference, Pyeong Sobyeok, who had been a First-Class expert, possessed a Copper Plaque solely through his personal martial arts and his record of placing requests.
‘But this is interesting.’
Most Vagabonds only accepted requests in order to save on request fees.
They rarely thought about personally placing requests just to raise their rank.
They were stingy when it came to spending money.
Especially with easy requests like this, they had no desire to pay a commission fee on top of everything else.
“Anyway, I understand. This is a request that can be resolved immediately.”
Mak Chung, sitting at the reception desk, had one of the young brats sitting behind him—little children with runny noses—bring in a pale-faced scholar who had been waiting outside.
“This gentleman is Scholar Gong Chu, a graduate of a nearby literary academy. He is perfectly suited for the request Young Hero Ilhyang wants.”
“Nice to meet you, Gong Chu. My name is Ilhyang.”
“Ahem. Nice to meet you. I am Gong Chu.”
Scholar Gong Chu.
At a glance, the clothes he wore were shabby, and his build was small and thin.
He was so short that he was only about a head taller than Ilhyang, who was barely ten years old.
It was immediately obvious that his financial circumstances were not particularly comfortable.
But what did that matter?
All that mattered was whether he was capable of teaching writing.
“Would you be able to start today?”
“Of course.”
“Then let’s fill out the request form and head out.”
The two properly recorded the request at the reception desk and immediately headed to Manseok Inn.
“Let’s eat first. It’s difficult to do anything when you’re hungry.”
“Ahem. Thank you, Young Hero.”
After receiving an excellent meal at Manseok Inn while habitually stroking his worn-out hat,
Gong Chu took several books covered in fingerprints and signs of age out of the bundle he was carrying.
“I have the Thousand Character Classic and the Four Books and Three Classics. They’re old and worn, but there’s no problem at all with using these books for study.”
“Understood.”
“Then let’s start with the Thousand Character Classic.”
Gong Chu hoped that the calm-looking boy before him would be interested in learning.
That way, instead of merely receiving a short two-month request,
he could secure a long-term request and worry less about putting food on the table.
‘I should make the Thousand Character Classic as interesting as possible. Then I’ll persuade him to move on to the Four Books and Three Classics.’
This place—
In other words, the private writing-teacher market could practically be called hell.
Gong Chu had to pay half of the request fee he received as a commission, meaning that he could only take home a pitiful amount.
Yet even that was something he could not obtain without connections at the reception desk.
So he did not want to miss this opportunity that had finally come to him after such a long time.
Gong Chu sat in a private room on the second floor of Manseok Inn.
In the gentlest voice he could manage, he wrote the characters of the Thousand Character Classic one by one with charcoal on a wooden board, showing them to Ilhyang as he tried to instill an interest and passion for studying.
Although it was not particularly fitting for the dignity of a scholar,
he had even practiced telling stories aloud by himself for the sake of children because he was that serious about the private writing-teacher market.
Exactly half a shichen (1 hour) after Gong Chu firmly resolved himself and began teaching—
“Th-This…… what in the world……?”
Gong Chu stared at the boy before him with his mouth hanging wide open.
Then he swallowed nervously and cautiously asked,
“Young Hero, did you already know how to read?”
“No. I’m learning for the first time today. I knew about thirty-two characters before this, though. But this is interesting. The shapes of the characters are easy to remember.”
“……Really? If this is your first time, how can you learn the characters so easily?”
From Gong Chu’s common sense, it simply made no sense.
When someone encountered the Thousand Character Classic for the first time,
no matter how much of a genius they were, they would first struggle just to memorize the diverse and complicated forms.
Even writing them down correctly was difficult.
But this boy was different.
After hearing the meaning and pronunciation once or twice, he immediately understood them and continued progressing through the material at an astonishing speed.
As a result, he had learned half of the Thousand Character Classic in barely half a shichen.
‘And even that was only because writing and erasing the characters on the wooden board took time.’
Everything Gong Chu taught was perfectly memorized and understood immediately.
There was no need to explain anything twice.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘Could it be that he deliberately paid for the request just to help me?’
But even if that were the case, there was no connection between this boy and himself.
Gong Chu quickly sorted through his complicated thoughts and continued teaching the remaining Thousand Character Classic in the same manner as before.
“……To finish the entire Thousand Character Classic in a single day. By my understanding, that should be impossible.”
“The world is vast, so many things are possible. You worked hard today.”
After the lesson ended,
Ilhyang went down to the first floor of the inn, ordered some simple food separately, had it packed into a wooden bowl, and handed it to Gong Chu.
“……Hmm. Thank you for your consideration, Young Hero.”
“Not at all. Your teaching today was excellent.”
“I intend to hold lessons about three times every ten days. What do you think?”
“That sounds good. Then I’ll see you in three days.”
Ilhyang escorted his writing teacher, Gong Chu, all the way to the door,
then immediately returned to his room on the second floor.
“I suppose I’ve learned enough of the basics of writing for now.”
Still, the more characters he knew, the better.
Especially the artifact he had obtained by chance.
Inventory.
It seemed that in this world, they called it a [Storage Belt].
As expected, when he asked Pyeong Sobyeok about it, this item was not particularly common.
‘The writing engraved on this artifact was similar to runic language, but the structure was different.’
Therefore, the more familiar he became with the writing system of this world,
the greater the possibility that he would eventually be able to decipher the runic language written on the artifact.
Ilhyang already possessed a perfect understanding of the form of runic language he had used in the lower dimension.
So if he became familiar with the basic rules and construction of this world’s writing,
he thought it might even be worth trying to create artifacts himself.
‘Before that, though, I should try making elixirs or potions first.’
Based on the serious conversations he had with Pyeong Sobyeok over the past ten days,
this world was, as expected, a world of knights who revered something called martial arts.
A world where people learned internal energy and trained their bodies,
placing emphasis on transcending the limitations of the physical body.
‘And yet, at the same time, it had its own mysteries.’
The Mansi Sect and Thousand Blood Sect, the groups Ilhyang had encountered after first arriving in this world,
according to Pyeong Sobyeok, were mysterious sects hidden behind the veil of darkness.
They had even been designated as enemies of the Murim,
to the point that people avoided even mentioning them whenever possible.
Even Pyeong Sobyeok, who wielded considerable influence around these parts, had been terrified when Ilhyang brought up the Mansi Sect and Thousand Blood Sect.
Ah!
Of course, it went without saying that there was also a possibility Pyeong Sobyeok had lied.
But Ilhyang believed that possibility was extremely small.
‘There’s no way he would have had the chance to lie during a one-sided dinner date accompanied by ghouls.’
Perhaps it was because the ghouls had slightly excessive appetites.
After experiencing the magic of watching his own fingers and toes disappear before his eyes in real time,
Pyeong Sobyeok answered every question Ilhyang asked with remarkable sincerity and enthusiasm.
“I-It’s true, Hero! I don’t know much about the Mansi Sect or the Blood Cult either. In the first place, even mentioning cultivators is taboo. However, the people my father referred to as the elders from the neighboring area might be people from there. Our family occasionally kidnapped children and offered them as tribute to those elders from the neighboring area, so that’s how I happened to know about them!”
In addition,
Pyeong Sobyeok did not hesitate to talk about his numerous evil deeds that Ilhyang had not even asked about,
as well as various corrupt practices committed by the Pyeong Family he belonged to.
‘To sum it up, should I consider this place to be a world where two different worlds coexist?’
It was fascinating.
There was the world of ordinary people—the world of the martial artists known as the Murim, commonly called the Jianghu.
And there was the Immortal Realm, where cultivators lived and practiced what could be considered magic, known as Arcane Arts (奇幻術).
The Jianghu and the Immortal Realm.
It seemed to be a world where these two systems of order coexisted like yin and yang.
‘The Mansi Sect and Thousand Blood Sect certainly weren’t ordinary.’
The energy Ilhyang had sensed from the cultivators of the Mansi Sect and Blood Cult at that time had clearly been different from ordinary internal energy.
‘It was an energy far purer and cleaner than internal energy. Though by my standards, it was still impure.’
It was like mana that had been filtered through a sieve from the energy flowing through the atmosphere and then gathered within the dantian.
Comparing the martial artists Ilhyang had encountered while traveling around Giyang County with the experts of the Mansi Sect,
the people from the Mansi Sect were certainly overwhelmingly superior in terms of purity.
But from Ilhyang’s perspective, the difference was merely a matter of degree.
“Hmm. But what I still don’t understand is why everyone gathers their internal energy in the dantian.”
Even their friendly and honest friend Pyeong Sobyeok could not properly answer this question.
In fact, he did not seem to understand the question itself.
“O-Of course you have to gather your internal energy in the dantian, don’t you? G-Guaaah…… H-Hero! Please, not the thumb!”
‘How is that supposed to be obvious? That’s strange.’
The dantian was essentially a hypothetical space that did not naturally exist anywhere in the body.
Gathering internal energy in a nonexistent space and using it to create a dantian was extremely inefficient,
and its foundation was weak.
Even after the energy was completely formed, it was difficult to obtain any significant additional benefit from it afterward.
“Magicians gathered magical power in their hearts because the heart is where the life force of the human body is most concentrated.”
Among all the organs in the human body, the heart was unquestionably where life force was most concentrated.
It was also the most important organ among the Five Viscera and Six Bowels.
That was why magicians naturally gathered mana flowing through the air and used it to form a Circle, protecting the heart above all else.
“The same was true for knights.”
Knights did not create Circles.
But they, too, gathered mana in their hearts and practiced the Mana Heart method.
Anyway, even after that, Ilhyang had several more frank conversations with his friendly friend Pyeong Sobyeok.
And eventually—
Ilhyang ignored Pyeong Sobyeok’s claims and advice.
Just as he had from the beginning, he continued gathering energy in his heart.
Of course, his method was different from the ordinary internal energy cultivation methods of this world.
In some ways, it was similar to what cultivators did.
He was repeatedly filtering the energy outside his body until only energy that had become infinitely closer to nature remained, then gathering that energy in his heart.
‘Tch. The speed at which I’m gathering it is painfully slow because I have to forcibly filter the energy, but I can’t help it. This is simply how Circle magic works.’
At present, Ilhyang had gathered only enough energy in his heart to fill something roughly the size of a quail egg.
But even this amount was enough to attempt to barely reach the First Circle without the help of spirits or any external assistance.
‘I’ll try it today.’
There was still no response from the Spirit World.
So he decided to completely put that aside for the time being.
Right now, he needed to focus on creating his Circle.
Circle magic was the foundation of Ilhyang’s magic.
‘The greatest advantage of completing a Circle lies in its sustainability.’
Once he managed to create a Circle,
he would no longer need to consciously focus on his breathing every time he gathered energy as he did now.
Instead, energy would naturally accumulate through his breathing, gradually increasing like a snowball rolling downhill.
‘Of course, this also requires sufficient enlightenment to support it.’
Ilhyang was already someone who had been called the God of Magic in a lower dimension.
There was no chance that his lack of enlightenment or experience would cause the rate at which his mana accumulated to stop or decrease.
“Then, shall I give it a try?”
Ilhyang first went down to the first floor of Manseok Inn and paid the inn attendant a month’s lodging fee in advance.
After warning him never to come upstairs unless summoned, he settled onto the bed and sat down.
“Adopting the lotus position really does seem to help with gathering energy.”
This was one of the useful techniques Ilhyang had learned in this world.
He had accepted the advice of his ever-helpful friend Pyeong Sobyeok.
Ilhyang had conducted his own tests regarding the efficiency of the lotus position.
He could not understand the reason for it,
but he had to admit that this uncomfortable posture of sitting with his legs folded was surprisingly effective at absorbing internal energy.
Therefore, without much resistance, he continued sitting in the lotus position and entered meditation.
And so, on the fifteenth day since Ilhyang had crossed over into this world,
he finally decided to attempt creating the First Circle.
