Chapter 64: Sunbae-nim?

“It’s a skill, but the way you’re talking makes it seem like there’s an actual thing?”

“There is.”

“……There is?”

It wasn’t like fire or ice bursting out, so what, a forge comes out? This was also the first time I’ve heard of such a skill.

“Specifically, it’s written that you can go into the subspace that the Gold Forge is in.”

“Wow……”

Wow. What was that. That was too different from the style of skills I knew.

‘Instead of a skill, it seems closer to an item.’

Like the S-Rank trap item Gingerbread House[1] or SS-Rank defense item Darkroom of Silence. They were special items that came out a long time later. But I hadn’t heard of or seen a skill that could make something like a building. Skills were fundamentally intangible abilities. It pulled in and gathered energy or elements to make simple forms, but to think it was a forge. Did it have everything like a brazier and an anvil? Did that make any sense?

“How do you go in?”

I asked, rising from my seat.

“Just.”

Myeongwoo held his hand out towards me. To go in, did you just go in? First, I put Peace in his pen, and lowered Chirpie to the sofa.

I was a little suspicious about the safety, but that was why I wanted more and more to follow in at least once. There was still a little left in the application time for the Last Repayment.

“You can take anybody inside?”

“If I want.”

“Then you could use it as a hiding place. Could you store something like emergency food supplies?”

I said, grabbing the held out hand. If the subspace that the Forge was in was safe, it would become an excellent refuge in possible scenarios.

The feeling of going through a dungeon gate suddenly came over me, and in front of my eyes, the scenery changed.

It was indoors where sunlight was shining through a large window. The very first thing I saw was a wavering fire inside of a large kiln. The fire with a tint of gold was, far from burning on firewood, burning by itself without a single straw.

Unsuited to its name, the walls were entangled with tree trunks and roots. The thick smell of wood and fire hung in the air. I saw a place where a hammer, large tongs, and other tools I didn’t know the names of, were hung.

It was an old, old-style forge. In the middle, on top of a large anvil, there was a bouquet of flowers and one memo sheet. Out of the blue.

“…Exactly what could that bouquet be.”

“I wonder.”

Myeongwoo went toward the anvil and picked up the memo. I wondered what it said, but it wasn’t Korean letters, and it wasn’t hanja[2] or the roman alphabet[3] either. They were letters I had never seen before in my life.

“I think this was sent to me.”

“To you, Myeongwoo? You can read it?”

“Yeah… Welcome, successor. May there be the blessing of molten iron and flames in your future. Is what is says.”

As expected, it was an item, not a skill. Seeing how it said successor or whatever, it seemed like some unknown sunbae-nim had prepared it for him.

“It seems like it’s saying I’m the successor, but then does that mean there was someone who had gotten the Gold Forge’s Owner skill before me?”

Myeongwoo asked, tilting his head.

“Maybe. It’s only been barely 3 years since Awakened People appeared, so instead of simple sunbae-hoobae, saying successor and such should be hard. And there hasn’t been any produced equipment in the meantime. At the least, you should be the first in the world we live in.”

As I spoke, the system administrators came to mind. Would the person who had the past Gold Forge’s Owner skill be among them? And they had prepared various items for the next generation skill holder, like this? Was something like that possible?

‘Who exactly are those people? The things to ask keep on increasing.’

Just then, Myeongwoo turned the memo over to the backside.

“There’s something written here too… Ismual[4]?”

Whoosh!

“Step back!”

The kiln’s fire abruptly shot up. I quickly tried to stand in front of Myeongwoo, but that Myeongwoo, far from stepping back, stood in front instead.

“Yoojin, you stand back! Right now your stat rank is lower.”

…Well, it was still in the middle of the Last Repayment application. But I couldn’t say that.

“……I have a shielding skill item. The one the Seseong Guild Leader gave me.”

Though I was thinking of using it for Myeongwoo-.

“You were going to use that on me anyways.”

…When did he get so sharp. But right now, my stats were over B-Rank and I didn’t exactly need B-Rank shielding……

“No, it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t not like that either… Before that, look at that!”

I changed the subject and pointed to the towering fire. While we weren’t looking, it had formed into a shape similar to a person. It shifted between a round child’s and a tall adult’s height several times, before settling in a middle appearance.

Then it completely turned into an appearance like a human.

It was an appearance produced by fire, so it wasn’t a real human no matter how you looked at it. Was that also an item?

“I greet you, owner.”[5]

…It talked?!

“It talks?!”

Myeongwoo was also surprised. It was my first time seeing a different species? that talked. Excluding the system people. Since I hadn’t personally seen those people.

“I am the elemental[6] born from the creator’s last breath, Ismual.”

“……There are things like elementals?”

“……I don’t know either.”

At Myeongwoo’s question, I shook my head from side to side. Did elementals really exist? Elementals like salamanders and sylphs appeared in things like games and novels, and I had never heard of them existing in reality. And of course, there weren’t Awakened People who had things like elemental summoning skills.

But suddenly, an elemental. What was that.

While we were taken aback, the self-styled elemental Ismual looked down at us with emotionless gold eyes. Was it a living being?

‘Would the Seed-Leaf skill work?’

In order to check, I used the skill. But… the status window didn’t appear. Instead, the information popped up in my mind.

‘…Fire elemental, super strong, and handles flames. It’s in a state where it’s done growing. The contractor is the person next to me. What is this?’

The words weren’t written on a rectangular window, and I directly felt the information. And compared to the written ones, it was ambiguous. If it was this strong of a feeling, then what was the rank? It seemed like it would be A at least. The sensitivity for the skills wasn’t good. I couldn’t tell, outside of that it could freely handle fire. And, force didn’t seem to work on it.

What was it? Did a system error occur?

Taken aback, I tried to open my status window. But nothing appeared this time too. On top of that, I couldn’t feel what my state was, and the information didn’t come to mind. Neither the rank, level, skill, or title. I didn’t know anything.

It felt like I had suddenly been thrown into a closed room with the lights off.

“……Myeongwoo, can you open your status window?”

“Status window?”

Myeongwoo stopped for a moment, before his eyes widened shortly.

“I-it’s not popping up? Awakening cancellation can happen too?!”

“No, it doesn’t work for me either. But it seems like skills work. And the stats are probably the same. Just… the system windows don’t pop up, I think. The inventory…… checking the contents is impossible, but I can take out and put things back in.”

I took out the magic stone powder bottle and then put it back in. Originally, you could also see the contents list, but right now, that didn’t pop up either.

“If it’s not that our skills disappeared, it’s a relief. Is it that this space weird?”

“It seems so.”

Was it free of the system’s influence because it was a subspace? …But wasn’t Awakening itself a part of the system? If things like the window didn’t come up but abilities were the same, then, did that mean it was different from a game-like system and Awakening?

……My thoughts were getting complicated.

“Please tell me your name, owner.”

Ismual, who was quietly floating in the air, opened its mouth. No, its mouth was shut and just the voice came out.

“Is it talking about my name? Yoo Myeongwoo.”

“Yoo Myeongwoo-nim. Will you receive the basics training prepared by the creator?”

“Basics training?”

“Yes. If you have already prepared enough proficiency as a blacksmith through basic practice, then it is not necessary. But if you have just entered the road of production, fast growth is possible.”

I didn’t know who it was, but they seemed like a kind person who considered a lot about their successor. Did I not have a sunbae like that?

“Then I’ll definitely receive it.”

At Myeongwoo’s reply, Ismual’s gaze moved to me.

“My flames are safe only for the contractor. If your resistance to heat is not high, there is the danger of burns or death.”

Was the workroom okay? It was made of wood.

“I’ll go out.”

“Okay. Ah, take this too.”

Myeonwoo lifted the bouquet and held it out. If it was left here, it would probably get burned. Shortly after, I returned to my original location, the living room.

-Chirp!

Chirpie, who was quietly sitting on the sofa, flapped and stood up, noticing me[7]. Across the glass wall, Peace also waved his tail. Seeing the kids’ reaction, it seemed like time in the subspace and here flowed similarly.

‘…I want to go into a dungeon right away and interrogate them.’

If I went now, an emoticon saying that they couldn’t talk would probably be sent. Still, there weren’t a lot of days left.

‘Before that, I have to make Yoohyun stop sulking.’

After yesterday, he didn’t even pick up the phone. It could’ve been because he was busy, but it was probably because he was mad at me. Should I give him flowers or something?

“What flowers are these?”

I looked down at the bouquet I was holding in my hands. It consisted of five big flowers, more than ten mid-sized flowers, and small flowers too. They were all flowers I had never seen before.

I didn’t know flower kinds well, but they didn’t seem to be flowers from this world. Especially the big flowers were faintly sparkling. Among the small flowers, the gold ones felt hard and cold like metal. When I tore off a petal, it wasn’t real metal either. From time to time, the flowers, which were similar to orchids[8], on their own… moved.

They were clearly not normal flowers, but an explanation window didn’t pop up like with dungeon byproducts.

They were really pretty, though.

“Is it okay to mix it with ice?”

After getting some frappe and coming over, Yerim looked at the cup in front of me and asked. The cup with ice had a mana potion poured into it.

“Wouldn’t it not matter?”

“Looking at the color, it looks like orange flavor. Isn’t it about time you got sick of it?”

“I am sick of it.”

Was there any way I could not be sick of it? Originally it was okay enough to eat, not tasty, and since I was trying to drink it like water, it was slowly getting harder.

I held back a sigh and looked around the surroundings.

In order to look for B-Rank and higher special initial skill holders, I had borrowed an entire 1-story cafe by a street that had a lot of people coming and going. Besides Yerim, there were one A-Rank Hunter and three B-Rank Hunters. One of the B-Rank Hunters said they had had a part-time job at a cafe before, and was making all sorts of beverages.

“……Should I try mixing a mana potion into coffee?”

“It seems like it would taste super bad. Instead, pour real orange juice into it. To make it thick.”

“I’m sick of the flavor of orange… Apple, too.”

“Then what about asking for a custom mana potion?”

“That’s a good idea.”

It would be expensive, but like this, even if I drank only two to three days more, past being sick of it, I felt like I would throw it up.

“Should I plaster on equipment prioritizing Mana[9]? I have too little mana itself, so I have to drink it too often.”

But doing something like that was also annoying. On top of that, it was summer. Grumbling, I turned my gaze back to the window. I saw passersby coming and going, passing the street. The goal was B-Rank and higher special skill holders. Of course, I couldn’t miss A-Rank and higher stat holders either.

But I couldn’t discover even one yet.

“C-Rank again. Nice to Hear Eloquence.”

“Ah, it’s that person, right? They’re a teacher at EVS Middle; they’re famous. Their lectures are definitely easy to listen to. Apparently a ton of cram schools sought after them.”

It seemed like they had found their aptitude.

“Surprisingly, there’s quite a lot of people up to C-Rank. Aren’t there more D-Ranks?”

“Yeah. E-Rank and higher is almost half the people.”

At my words, Yerim tilted her head.

“If the skills are E-Rank and higher, they would get Hunter licenses, but it’s said that the ratio of Hunters among Awakened People is about 1%.”

“That’s…… because the Awakened People until now mostly have combat related skills?”

I couldn’t be sure with what I briefly looked around at in the morning, but people’s aptitudes were mostly not combat. All this while, I had just passed by lower than C-Ranks without much thought, so I hadn’t purposely calculated the ratio, but when I thought about it, it was actually a reasonable result.

It might have been different if it was about a hundred years ago, but currently, how many people would there be with a talent for fighting? And it wasn’t like our country was still continuing the civil war, and was on the peaceful side for over fifty years. And there was no reason to handle a proper weapon outside of the army. Unless they were athletes that did archery, kendo, shooting, etc., it ended with hobbies. And they weren’t common hobbies either.

“If more than half of people had talents that were higher than normal, how much would the ratio for talents related to combat be among them? I think it wouldn’t be a lot.”

“Then again, just looking at jobs, it’s the minority.”

Yerim nodded her head.

“Since they were forcefully Awakened as combat-related, there was no choice for most to be FF. For stat F, it’s well known that modern people’s exercise is lacking.”

If F-Ranks were subdivided into plus/minus, there would have been numerous F minuses.

“I’m realizing it anew, but there really were a lot of people in the world who totally didn’t know their own worth and buried it.”

If the C-Rank initial skill holder who just passed, had just gone to the Awakening Center, something like an F~E-Rank combat assistance skill probably would have come out.

“That office worker over there, it seems like a skill related to singing, but it’s C-Rank. Last time when we went to the broadcasting station, I saw a few singers who are said to have good singing abilities, and one of them had an initial skill that was the same as that one.”

“Really?”

Yerim excitedly looked at the man I was pointing to.

“Shouldn’t we go over there and tell him? To debut!”

“Isn’t it hard for celebrities with just being good at singing?”

“Still, it would be better than living without knowing.”

Yerim gulped down the frappe and stared at me with a suddenly worried gleam in her eyes.

“But. If there are this many E-Ranks and higher, wouldn’t it be harder for ahjussi? You’ll have to help 50 out of a hundred people.”

“Ah… That’s true.”

I also hadn’t thought of that.

[1] lit. ‘snack/cookie’s house’ or ‘house of cookies/snacks’ but I think this is what it’s referencing

[2] he says ‘hanja’ instead of ‘Chinese’. Hanja is chn characters, but specifically those borrowed from chn and incorporated into krn with krn pronunciation, though they are p much exactly the same as trad chn, unlike jpn kanji. It’s probably to contrast the fact that he said it wasn’t 한글 (hangul, aka krn alphabet), which wasn’t created until the 15th c and widespread until after that, so before that, hanja was used for writing. I think the nuance here is that the note might have been in ‘krn’ (speech-wise) but if it was, it wasn’t written in either hangul, hanja, or ‘alphabet’ (see footnote [3]). Either that, or he simply meant that it wasn’t written in chn characters, not that it wasn’t in the chn language itself.

[3] here he says the eng word ‘alphabet’ transliterated into krn, so I’m assuming he means roman letters

[4] idk, it’s ‘ee-seu-moo-ah-reu’

[5] speaking w extremely respectful honorifics (obviously, since it’s talking to its owner-nim, but I took out the -nim), and it’s more ‘[this is] the first time meeting you’ but I thought this sounded more respectful(?)/formal in eng

[6] this word literally means ‘spirit’. According to namu wiki, it’s rarely used normally, and is used when tl-ing from other languages; it’s the word for ‘elemental’ in 4-elements media (air, fire, earth, water), and spirits in animism, and things like jinn and fairies, and in modern krn, the first two def mixed are generally what comes to mind to readers. I didn’t know which to tl it as, ‘elemental’ or ‘spirit’, bc idk anything abt ‘elementals’, but I googled it and wiki mentioned sylphs and salamanders so I guess it’s ‘elemental’.

[7] he actually says ‘pretending to notice me’ but in this context, that’s a cute/cheeky way of saying chirpie ‘noticed’ bc chirpie is a chick and a baby besides so who knows if it knows anything at all, but it’s acting like it noticed yj

[8] the krn dict and the krn-eng dict gave me different def? All the krn-eng dict said was that it’s a Phaelenopsis, but the krn dict said it was a dialect word for ‘the perennials of orchids’ but then listed just Oberonia japonica, but the pic in the dict looked completely different to the pics of Oberonia japonica on google. And then when I googled the name, one of the sites said it was Galearis cyclochila. So I’m confused. Anyways!! It’s a flower. It’s a type of orchid.

[9] fyi the word for the stat is actually ‘magic power/strength’, and the ‘mana’ in the next sent is the eng(?) word transliterated into krn. When it’s talking abt the stat, I usually capitalize it to differentiate