Chapter 34
When asked what he spent his astronomical amounts of money on, Noh Jin-hyeok always gave the same answer.
―Buying good things.
Morning sunlight poured long into a living room the size of a swimming pool. In the middle of it, Noh Jin-hyeok finished his final set and set down the barbell.
"Hoo."
A fluffy towel was tossed at his sweat-soaked nape.
"The old man specifically told you not to overdo it. You only just got back a few days ago."
The one who had thrown the towel was his secretary.
She was shooting him a sharp sideways glance, tablet in hand.
"Please work out in moderation. You’re not a bear or anything."
"Oh, my secretary. Worrying about me now?"
"I’m saying the schedule is getting pushed back."
"Aw, so cold."
Noh Jin-hyeok stepped closer and casually pulled her by the waist.
"……Weren’t you lonely, working alone?"
"……."
The secretary tapped his hand away.
It was a pushing-away motion, but she didn’t really seem to dislike it.
"You smell like sweat. Go wash up."
"Want to shower together?"
The secretary lightly blocked his chest with the tablet she was holding.
"……The schedule’s getting pushed back."
When the secretary narrowed her eyes and glared at him, Noh Jin-hyeok snorted and held up both hands.
This was always the extent of their push and pull.
He knew that if he pushed any further, the tablet really would fly.
After showering, Noh Jin-hyeok flopped onto the sofa.
Then he picked up the small box sitting on the side table.
Inside was a necklace.
Set in its center was a blue spirit stone like a full moon.
"Kya…… I really bought a good one."
Noh Jin-hyeok stroked it with satisfaction.
This time, it had been pure luck.
It had been not long ago, when he was holed up in ancient ruins in the middle of the desert on a commission from Dubai royalty.
A place wrapped in layer upon layer of barriers that bounced off even communication using sorcery, let alone radio waves.
One of those so-called 'quarantine zones' commonly seen in this line of work—places completely cut off from the world.
Once you stepped inside, there was no way to send even a single line of news outside until the job was done.
So before leaving the country, he had handed his secretary a blank check and instructed her firmly.
―While I’m gone, if something truly good pops up, buy it first without asking questions.
It was an emperor-like order, one that said he would take full responsibility for everything afterward.
His secretary, whose Spirit Eye and uncanny instincts were both exceptional, faithfully carried out that command.
And when he finally returned from beyond the barrier.
This absurd treasure had ended up in his hands.
"……It’d be a shame not to show this off."
Still sprawled on the sofa, Noh Jin-hyeok lifted his phone.
"Hey, secretary. Come here and take a picture of this."
"……What are you trying to do now?"
The secretary sighed but obediently came over and took the phone.
When she opened the camera app, Noh Jin-hyeok held up the necklace and grinned at the lens.
***
[Breaking] Noh Jin-hyeok really did buy that necklace
It just got posted on his account.
└ Wow, it really is Noh Jin-hyeok.
└ If Noh Jin-hyeok bought it…… isn’t that game over? The guy isn’t a sucker.
└ Nah, but he’s famous for collecting weird things. Didn’t he just buy it because it looked interesting?
└ For real, still don’t know.
Still skeptical.
Even though they were buzzing over the fact that Noh Jin-hyeok had bought it, people still couldn’t bring themselves to be sure.
That was because the atmosphere of calling it fake and a scam just a few days ago hadn’t faded yet.
Then, all of a sudden.
Another video was uploaded to Noh Jin-hyeok’s account.
This one was fairly long.
―Now, look. Here’s why this is so damn awesome.
Noh Jin-hyeok in the video held up the necklace.
The spirit stone he held was dull and sunk in darkness, with not a trace of light.
―To this spirit stone. Like this.
He placed his hand on the spirit stone.
Then the dull stone slowly began to gather blue light.
The palm-sized stone gradually filled with deeper, clearer light.
―Now, fill it up like this.
Noh Jin-hyeok stood up from his seat and slowly reached toward the wide yard beyond the floor-to-ceiling window.
―In one shot.
He pressed his thumb and middle finger together.
Then, as if flicking someone lightly on the forehead, he casually snapped his fingers.
Snap―!
At the same time as that light clicking sound.
KWAHHHHHHHHHH―!
The screen exploded into blinding white light.
With a deafening roar that tore at the ears, the camera lurched violently.
Soon, the light faded and the pale cloud of dust cleared.
There, in the middle of the yard, stood a towering old tree.
It had turned into a black lump of charcoal, roots and all, and was crumbling away.
―See? This is how you dump it all in one go. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Noh Jin-hyeok’s playful face suddenly popped into the frame.
The spirit stone in the necklace he held had lost the light from a moment ago and was now empty, without a trace of glow.
―How’s that? Pretty awesome, right?
The video ended there.
[Gasp………!]
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[What the hell was that, insane;;]
[Didn’t a whole tree just evaporate??]
The moment the video went up, the reaction on Goblinfire was explosive.
└ Kya, as expected, the Emperor’s class is on another level.
└ Wow, one forehead flick and the tree turns to charcoal ㄷㄷㄷ Does that even make sense?
└ This guy seems even stronger than before. Did he go and drink some elixir or something?
└ This guy? Call him the Emperor.
At first, posts just poured in admiring the absurd destructive power.
└ Even for a special-grade item, does that make any sense? You can tell that’s all from the spirit stone.
└ Wow, it’s that strong??? What kind of spirit stone did he put in to get that level of output?
└ Was that really E-rank??? No wonder it was expensive.
└ That spirit stone alone sounds like it’d cost a billion won, and he just burns it away. Class, lol.
└ What a waste of a spirit stone ㄷㄷ If it put out that much, it should’ve shattered.
Spirit stones normally crumbled into a handful of dust after puking out everything inside them.
And even more so for something that had produced power on that level.
So everyone thought the same.
That one-billion-won item was useless now until the spirit stone was replaced.
But in the middle of the chaos, someone suddenly noticed something odd.
└ Hey, fuck, the power isn’t the important part right now!!! Watch the video again, you tactless bastards!!
└ ???
└ The spirit stone didn’t break at the end. And didn’t he say it got filled earlier? It lit up when he put his hand on it.
└ ……Huh?
└ Holy shit, wait. So he used that by recharging it??? Spirit stones aren’t one-time use??? Insane???
The public opinion that had been screaming fake and scam for days flipped in an instant.
The Emperor himself had proven it with his own hands.
That the item was the real deal, no matter how absurd.
And before people could even fully digest the shock.
[Breaking] lol the other two were put up for auction too
The Dagger of Blaze.
The Thunderbolt Bow.
The remaining two cursed tools were put up for bidding at once on the same auction site.
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ The Emperor’s master plan is insane lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Come on, let’s go~
└ Leeeet’s gooooo I’m throwing in my whole fortune!!!
***
An emergency meeting was hastily arranged.
The mood was completely different from the leisurely monthly meeting last time.
The leaders of the Four Great Houses gathered one by one with hard expressions.
"……That bastard is already back?"
The old man in the seat of honor asked back in disbelief.
"Didn’t they say he’d be stuck in that isolated zone in Dubai until the end of the year! How the hell did a guy completely cut off from the outside world buy this!"
"That is……."
The retainer who had gathered the information lowered his head, sweating buckets.
"We honestly have no idea……."
"……Hah."
Of all people, it was Noh Jin-hyeok.
One of the few uncontrollable beings in this world beyond the family’s reach.
And that kind of man had suddenly bought the item, then proved its power before the whole world; there was no way to clean this up.
"Hey! So what are we supposed to do now! Didn’t you say we’d just wait until he wore himself out and then pick it up cheap!"
"How was I supposed to know! Of all people, he’d snatch it first!"
"I told you, we should’ve made a move earlier!"
Shouts flew back and forth.
Then.
"……Wait. Wait. That’s not the problem right now. Did everyone actually watch the video properly?"
One elder cut in with a trembling voice.
"I’m talking about that blue spirit stone embedded in the cursed tool. What in the world does it mean that it can be recharged?"
At those words, the room fell silent for a moment.
Spirit stones embedded in cursed tools had existed before.
But those were.
Tools that had high-grade spirit stones inserted to boost spiritual power output for a moment or add a certain effect.
Things you used by swapping out spent spirit stones as needed.
Spirit stones were, from the start, something you bought charged, used, and threw away.
"That…… is that truly possible?"
The elders’ gazes all turned to one side at once.
Han Ye-rin, the head of Cheonhwadang.
The person here most knowledgeable about the structure and formulas of cursed tools.
"……."
Han Ye-rin couldn’t answer right away.
If asked whether it was theoretically possible, it wasn’t completely impossible.
The moment a spirit stone breaks, all the spiritual power inside leaks out.
So if you could leave the vessel completely unharmed.
Without disturbing the countless strands of spiritual power reaching only outward.
And only if you could carve a reverse passage that reached the core directly.
Yes, it wasn’t an impossible technique.
That was why Cheonhwadang had tried it countless times.
But every single attempt had ended in failure.
The spiritual power needed to inscribe a formula on a spirit stone had to be thinner than a spider’s thread.
And yet that one thread had to carry precisely the right density to resist the pressure pushing out from within.
The force pushing out and the force drilling in.
The moment that delicate balance slipped even by the width of a single hair, the spirit stone couldn’t endure the pressure inside and crumbled.
Maintaining that minute concentration of spiritual power without a single tremor.
That alone was already beyond the reach of ordinary human concentration.
'……Who in the world would make something like this.'
The moment her thoughts reached that far.
Something flashed through Han Ye-rin’s mind.
'……Wait.'
She slowly raised her head.
"……The other two pieces that that author put up at Baekhwaje."
"……?"
"Those too were definitely…… said to have spirit stones embedded in them, weren’t they."
The room froze for a moment.
"……N-no way."
"Those too, all of them……?"
Han Ye-rin quietly closed her eyes.
They might already be past the point where it could be stopped.
That those items were real.
The Emperor had proven it to the whole world.
Now people would throw themselves at them in a frenzy just to get their hands on them.
If that was the case.
There was only one answer.
Han Ye-rin slowly opened her mouth.
"……We have to buy them first."
"……W-what?"
"Even now. At least the remaining two. Before they fall into their hands and Cheonhwadang…… no, before the Four Great Houses become a laughingstock."
"……."
"It’d be better to buy them and bury this quietly."
Silence flowed through the room.
It was humiliating, but she wasn’t wrong.
The water had already been spilled.
They had to stop it before it spread further.
Just then.
Bang!
The meeting room door flew open.
"S-something terrible has happened!"
"……No, what now!"
A retainer who had rushed in shouted with a face turned deathly pale.
"J-just now…… the Dagger of Blaze was auctioned off!"
"……What?"
"At the buy-it-now price…… someone just snatched it up!"
"Damn it……!"
***
Meanwhile, on Goblinfire.
Another spectacle was unfolding.
[Anonymous] I can’t say where, but I’m from one of the Four Great Houses’ workshops.
Right now, the old bastards up top are all secretly placing bids one after another to buy that thing.
They squeeze us day and night while giving us pocket change because we’re not from the main family, yet they burn tens of billions on stuff like this. Fuck, this is really disgusting.
└ hahahahahahahahahaha really?
└ No way, seriously?? Weren’t they the ones saying not to buy it?
└ Ahㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I was just stopping you from buying it so I could buy it myself~
└ hahaha the clan bastards are pathetic, so pathetic!
Maybe the insider’s leak was the fuse.
[Honestly, to be blunt]
Author: Exorcism Is All About Gear
The higher-ups keep telling us not to buy it, not to buy it.
I’m buying it anyway.
It’s a normal auction. If I buy it secretly, how would anyone know who I am?
└ Huh, this nickname looks familiar. Aren’t you a Grade 1 sorcerer?
└ Same here. I’m from one of the Four Great Houses, so I feel a little guilty, but I can’t resist this one either.
└ hahaha if you get caught, wouldn’t that be a huge problem?
└ The guys telling us not to buy it are the first ones secretly placing bids, so why should we care about appearances lolㅋㅋㅋㅋ
And so, once control broke down.
No one even bothered pretending to be discreet anymore.
That was because it had all been exposed that the people up top who said not to buy it were the very ones leading the effort to acquire it.
The bids soared even higher.
As they kept raising the price on one another, that enormous capital and greed tangled together.
In the end, the auction server couldn’t take it again and crashed.
***
"What do you mean, you couldn’t get it!"
The response meeting was opened again.
The elder’s rebuke rang out thunderously.
"Didn’t I tell you to bring in at least the last one no matter what! Why the hell not!"
"Well…… the auction site kept crashing for days from an overload of traffic……."
The retainer continued his report while sweating profusely.
"So many people swarmed in, clan and non-clan alike…… the traffic was basically at DDoS-attack levels, and our people couldn’t even log in properly."
"……."
"We even sent people directly to the auction house to try contacting them offline……."
The retainer moistened his dry lips.
"By the time we checked, even the bow was already sold."
"……As for who it went to."
"Gyeongseong Auction said they could never tell us that, even if they died……."
"How pathetic……!"
Bang!
Someone slammed the table.
"First of all! How did it leak outside that we were trying to buy them! Which mouth spilled it!"
At the fact that they couldn’t even keep their own people in line and had become a laughingstock before the whole world.
The old men’s faces turned red.
"……."
Han Ye-rin only watched the scene in silence.
What good would finding the culprit do now?
By the time they tried to act, everything was already over.
Over the few days the site kept crashing again and again.
The items had long since been sold out in that chaos.
Right in the middle of it all.
Han Ye-rin was silently biting her thumbnail.
A habit from childhood, one that came out whenever she faced a problem she simply couldn’t solve.
The habit she had thought she’d already broken had flared up again without her noticing.
***
"Kwahahaha! Everyone’s in an uproar, in an uproar~"
Seated on the sofa with his legs crossed, Noh Jin-hyeok laughed heartily while flicking through his phone.
It had already been several years since she started working as his secretary.
She had seen all sorts of bizarre antics in that time, but today was especially strange.
"……You seem to be enjoying yourself."
"Of course I am. Teasing those clan bastards is the most fun thing in the world."
Still chuckling, Noh Jin-hyeok suddenly snapped his fingers as if he’d just remembered something.
"Ah, right. Secretary. Make sure that necklace gets delivered over there like we said."
"……Understood."
Just as the secretary was about to pack up the case.
"Ah, wait. Before you deliver it."
Noh Jin-hyeok picked up the necklace again.
"……?"
He stepped closer and put the necklace around the secretary’s neck.
"I tried filling it with spiritual power yesterday. No matter how much I poured in, it kept taking more and more. Took me ages to fill it completely."
He adjusted her collar lightly and grinned.
"You, try using this once."
"……Pardon? Me?"
The secretary looked down at the necklace around her neck with a doubtful expression.
"My secretary, you see, is amazing at her job."
Noh Jin-hyeok smiled slyly.
"But your spiritual power is tiny as hell. You’re barely hanging on to Grade 4, aren’t you?"
"……Boss."
The secretary gave him a sharp side-eye.
He had gone and pointed out the very thing she was already sensitive about.
She knew better than anyone that her innate capacity was small.
No matter how much she trained, it just wouldn’t increase.
"What’s the point of feeling wronged? You’re just born that way. Well, thanks to that, I get to keep someone like you by my side and boss you around."
Noh Jin-hyeok pointed at the necklace.
"Treat it like taking off a limiter and just draw out what’s inside."
"……What exactly am I supposed to do with this?"
"Start a goblinfire in that empty patch of the yard. Ah, you can do it by that pond over there."
The secretary let out a long sigh.
Goblinfire was one of the most basic fire-element spells.
With her own spiritual power, even producing a candle flame the size of her palm was a struggle.
Even with a spirit stone, she didn’t think things would be much different.
The energy that came from a spirit stone was just like a firework that went off once and that was it.
Its flow was wild, and its output couldn’t be controlled.
If it could be controlled that easily, everyone would be carrying spirit stones by the handful.
Spirit stones were, at the end of the day, just an emergency measure.
So at best.
That rough energy would almost certainly scatter from her fingertips in a hiss before it could even form a spell.
At most, what had been a candle might become a campfire.
Seriously, what was he making her do this for, just to tease her again.
But it was her boss’s order.
The secretary reached toward the pond with an indifferent look.
Like taking off a limiter, she drew up a very light thread of spiritual power as usual.
Fwoosh―!
A tiny spark formed at her fingertips.
No bigger than a candle flame.
'I knew it.'
The very instant the secretary was thinking that.
"……Huh?"
That tiny spark.
Suddenly swelled beyond control.
KWAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH―!
It became a gigantic pillar of fire that seemed ready to tear the sky apart and swallowed the entire space around it.
"……W-whaaat?!"
The secretary couldn’t believe her eyes.
It was a flame she had never even imagined she might be able to handle even once in her life.
And yet the rough, immense spiritual power that had burst from her fingertips.
Was being controlled with astonishing perfection.
As if it had been spiritual power forged within her from the very beginning.
Sssssssss―!
When the massive steam cleared.
The huge artificial pond rippling in the middle of the yard had dried up completely without leaving a single drop, revealing the pond’s ugly basin floor.
"……."
The secretary looked back and forth between her hand and the necklace around her neck.
Her fingertips were still trembling.
She had only drawn it out and poured it once.
And with just that, she had crossed a wall she thought she’d never reach no matter how hard she struggled in her entire life.
"……Heh."
Behind the dazed secretary, Noh Jin-hyeok let out a dry laugh and picked up his outer coat.
"Secretary. Make sure you deliver that properly."
"……Pardon? Boss, where are you going?"
"I need to head out for a bit."
"At this hour? Where on earth are you going……!"
Noh Jin-hyeok grinned.
"To meet someone."