Chapter 41
Creeeak.
“Over here.”
Click.
When the lights came on, the place we stepped into was a workshop in the research building.
Following Si-yun inside, I turned my gaze to the window.
It had already gone completely dark outside.
Looks like more time had passed than I'd thought.
“Will this much space be enough?”
“Yes, plenty.”
I set the portable blacksmith kit I had on my back down on the floor.
In fact, ever since I saw Si-yun's soul-extraction technique, I'd been drawing the circuit in my head nonstop.
My hands were itching to get to work.
“…But is that really okay?”
I stopped unpacking the kit and turned to look at Si-yun.
The dark circles under her eyes made her look exhausted from earlier.
“It's late, so if you just lend me the materials, I'll take care of it myself. If I have any questions, I'll ask you again tomorrow.”
Staying up all night to work was nothing new to me, but I had no intention of keeping her here too.
“A-ah, no.”
Si-yun hurriedly waved both hands.
“I-I wanted to see how you do it too. Would it be okay if I watched from the side?”
“Sure, if that's what you'd like.”
Well, if she wanted to watch, there was no need to stop her.
Besides, questions would probably come up while I was making it.
“Then.”
I opened the kit and took out the work sketch inside.
“Let's get started.”
*
I closed my eyes.
I recalled the flow of spiritual power from when Si-yun had just shown me the soul-extraction technique.
The image was vividly drawn in my mind.
Thump, thump.
And her pounding heart.
And the waves of spiritual power that spread from there throughout her body.
And even that distinctive ripple that rose inside her body the moment the spell activated.
The key was transferring that onto the blueprint.
But there was one problem.
Circuits artificially engraved into ritual implements or objects were easy to read.
But spiritual power flowing and pulsing within a person's body was tangled up with all sorts of other internal currents besides the one used to activate a spell.
What surged from the heart, what rose from the dantian, what spread to the limbs.
It wasn't easy to find and isolate only the flow of spiritual power meant for the spell amid that enormous, intertwined vortex.
But....
Shrrk.
I unfolded the materials Si-yun had handed me.
She had, in her own way, diagrammed the spell she'd developed and organized it with notes.
Of course, it was still pieced together based entirely on her own sense, so there were plenty of rough spots and missing parts here and there.
'Good, then first.'
Let's transfer this to my sketch first.
Swish, swish-swish.
As I began redrawing it by hand on the blueprint, each circuit started sorting itself out in my head one by one.
In the game, there had originally been a function that let you bring up circuits in a 3D status window and design them that way.
But that wasn't possible in reality, so I had no choice but to draw it out by hand and work it out in my head.
I lightly let spiritual power flow toward the starting point of the spell in my mind.
'As expected.'
I could see various missing sections throughout the blueprint she'd organized.
Since she'd arranged it based on feeling alone, it seemed even she hadn't fully grasped the mechanism behind activating the spell.
If I overlaid the real spiritual flow I had just seen inside her body onto this sketch.
'Now I can actually see what's going on.'
I pruned away the flows of spiritual power unrelated to the spell.
Then I erased and redrew the parts of the spell that differed from reality.
I also picked out the sections that did nothing even when spiritual power was poured into them.
At the same time, I neatly optimized the circuits that were needlessly tangled.
Swish, scratch, swish-swish.
Without hesitation, I kept erasing and redrawing the sketch, filling out the blueprint.
Flap, flap.
Turning page after page, I drew up a multi-layered, three-dimensional circuit diagram.
“Si-yun.”
“Y-yes!”
Startled, she came to her senses and lifted herself slightly from the chair.
“When you pull out the soul, where does that sensation of the cord loosening begin?”
“Ah... um, right in the center of the chest? Around there... it feels like a knot is coming undone.”
“And the direction? Does it loosen upward, or downward?”
“Hmm... upward. Like it's being pulled up.”
“...I see.”
As I listened to her answers, I gradually adjusted the direction.
I asked a few more questions, then redrew it again and again.
I filled in the parts that got stuck along the way, or the parts that required her unique sense, by asking Si-yun directly.
'...At this point, the soul-extraction circuit seems about complete.'
Swish.
I took the gourd from my bosom.
It was something I'd made better than I'd expected.
I didn't have time to carve a new gourd from scratch.
I was dying to engrave the spell I'd just finished as quickly as possible.
Now all I had to do was add Si-yun's soul-extraction circuit to the existing gourd spell.
'Good thing I emptied it out in advance.'
After the commotion of the Great Spirit Escape had more or less settled down.
I had taken the ones inside the gourds out with Professor Goo and moved them elsewhere one by one.
There were side effects to confining multiple of them in one place.
Inside, the stronger vengeful spirits had devoured the weaker ones.
A few practice spirits had already been absorbed and vanished into creatures like Heuksan-gwi.
'Well, I did say they should be grateful just for being caught again.'
Swish.
I spun the empty gourd around at my fingertips.
Once again, I brought the soul-extraction circuit to mind.
This was, after all, a circuit activated within the human body.
Engraving it onto a ritual implement was another matter. Every material had a different shape and grain on the inside.
In the end, a blacksmith's skill came down to how well they bridged that gap.
'Well, that's also the most interesting part.'
Grin.
Then let's start engraving it.
I scanned the circuit already engraved on the gourd and modified Si-yun's circuit in real time.
So they wouldn't interfere with each other.
The core mechanism of the existing gourd was to shoot out spiritual power, bind the vengeful spirit, and draw it in.
Now I would add one new property to that suction force: the principle of the soul-extraction technique I had just refined.
The spiritual power emitted from this gourd would now, as it captured the target, also locate the cord connecting body and soul.
The fundamental mechanism of cutting a cord and loosening it is the same.
It's simply a matter of releasing spiritual power in a short, powerful burst to sever it in an instant.
Then you just suck it in through that opening, and it's done.
Once the supply of spiritual power is cut off, the spirit body will crumble and disappear too.
'Heh-heh-heh....'
It was so fun I couldn't help laughing.
It feels like honey is dripping in my head.
Why am I so good at this?
As expected, making something new is the most fun.
*
Meanwhile, Si-yun was startled by the sight of the super-handsome younger guy... no, the master craftsman Do, hard at work.
He flipped through her hundred-plus pages of materials, opening only the parts he needed.
Then he began densely drawing something on the blank paper.
What is all that?
'No way, is all of that my spell?'
It was drawn in an instant, then erased again.
The spell was being assembled and refined, gradually optimized.
'What... is this guy?'
No, is he even human?
Every so often, he asked her something.
Each time, Si-yun did her best to explain the theories and sensations she knew.
Then.
Scritch, scritch—
Before she even finished speaking, another empty space was filled in.
Thunk.
Soon, the craftsman set down a sketchbook-like blueprint binder.
It was crammed with complex spell diagrams and small notes.
'No way... it's finished? Is that the real spell circuit diagram for the soul-extraction technique I devised?'
She couldn't help but be shocked.
There had been a reason her research never progressed no matter how hard she clung to it.
It was just too complicated.
It was a spell she had made by relying on instinct and her natural constitution alone.
So that was the shape of the internal structure needed to activate it.
How many years would it have taken if she'd tried to organize this alone?
No, could she even have finished it?
It was research she'd wanted to give up on dozens of times already.
'So that's... a genius like the rumors say?'
Is an E-rank that kind of thing?
She finally understood why artisans who engraved spells were treated as the most precious people in the occult world.
To, to be able to do something like that...
Do you have to be that much of a monster to be a real craftsman? (No.)
Swish.
Before she knew it, the craftsman had taken out a gourd.
He turned it this way and that, then rubbed his chin for a moment.
But only for a moment did he seem to be pondering it.
He gathered spiritual power at his fingertips.
Zzzzzzt.
Si-yun stared blankly at the sight.
What kind of spell is that?
Is he burning the surface of the gourd?
Why?
It was an action she couldn't understand at all.
But... soon she understood.
That the insane genius craftsman was engraving a spell right now.
He just organized the soul-extraction spell, and now he's engraving it right away?
Surely the diagram of a spell and the spell used for engraving it should be different.
And he's doing that... in real time?
Now Si-yun's heart swelled just knowing her spell would be placed into a ritual implement made by a genius like that.
By the time she had stared in a daze for a long while...
.
.
.
“Si-yun? Si-yun?”
Sssup....
It seemed she'd dozed off for a moment.
When she opened her eyes, it was still dark outside.
It was probably around five in the morning.
As she lifted her head, holding onto her foggy senses.
“It's finished.”
“...Pardon?”
“Thanks to your help, I was able to make a ritual implement. Thank you.”
“A-ah... really?”
So quickly?
Were ritual implements originally made that quickly?
The sun hadn't even risen yet.
“Here. Take it.”
“...?”
On the palm he held out was something like a necklace woven from a cord.
“This is a small token of thanks for sharing the spell you researched and allowing me to use it for a ritual implement.”
Si-yun took it in a daze.
Hanging from the center of the necklace was a deep blue piece.
It was a sculpture shaped like a turtle.
'It's adorable.'
Between working, he had even carved a sculpted necklace as a gift.
An E-rank craftsman.
And a keepsake personally carved by superstar Do-hwang himself.
'Is it really okay for me to accept something this precious?'
Just as she was freaking out inwardly, thinking, I have to pass this down for generations!
“It's a ritual implement.”
Unexpected words came out of his mouth.
This isn't a sculpture, but a ritual implement?
“It's a ritual implement that can complement your spell, Si-yun.”
For a moment, Si-yun couldn't make sense of the situation.
So right now...
In that short span of time, not only had he perfectly unraveled her incomplete spell and organized it into a diagram.
He had completed a ritual implement.
And that wasn't enough—he had even made a ritual implement to supplement the spell?
“How... how is that even possible...”
When Si-yun blurted out the question in a daze, Do-hyeon seemed to think she was curious about the detailed principle.
He started to explain, then hesitated.
Then a playful smile settled on his face.
“It wouldn't be fun if I just explained it.”
“...Huh?”
He can make that kind of face too?!
At the younger man's lethal smile.
Her heart thrashed once again.
“Would you try doing it again like before, right now?”
*
Soul extraction was definitely a spell that consumed enormous focus and spiritual power to control the extracted soul so it wouldn't scatter.
So she could only return safely by maintaining the same sensations as much as possible with a familiar place and familiar clothes.
'Is it really okay to do this here?'
The place and the clothes she was wearing were completely different from usual.
But that confident expression.
And when she thought of Do-hwang's reputation and his performance in the Great Spirit Escape incident.
She oddly found herself believing him.
Well... he was an E-rank craftsman.
Even if something was different, it would be on another level.
Just what she'd seen earlier had already gone far beyond common sense.
“You know a suppression talisman, right? Wear it around your neck like that. Make sure the turtle's belly faces your chest.”
Si-yun put on the necklace and lay still on the empty workbench.
'Would sitting... no, lying down be okay?'
It had worked when they saved the student last time too, but the situation had been so urgent then.
It had happened by accident.
It should be hard to do properly in a pose like this.
'I don't know. I'll just try it first.'
She let out a long breath and steadied her breathing.
Then she drew her consciousness down to the place deep in her chest where spiritual power gathered.
Slowly.
She focused on the feeling of the knot always tied there, and on the sensation of it slowly loosening.
Huh?
Compared to usual...
Even though she drew in less spiritual power than usual, it felt as if the knot was unraveling smoothly.
'Am I imagining it?'
Meanwhile, her fingertips tingled.
Her body grew feather-light from the tips of her toes upward.
Float.
Her body lifted off the ground.
But.
'How is this possible.'
Her mind was crystal clear.
Normally, when she pulled her soul out of her body with soul extraction, her mind would be hazy, like waking from a dream.
So she had to squeeze out every ounce of focus just to stay conscious.
But now, she felt just like normal.
No, her mind was even clearer, as if she were more awake than usual.
Even without concentrating hard, her soul didn't scatter.
And it seemed to use far less spiritual power too.
'W-what is this!'
Thrilled, Si-yun roamed all over the workshop.
It was something she wouldn't even dare dream of normally.
Going even a little far used up more focus and spiritual power.
Above all, there had always been the vague fear that she might not be able to return!
But... I can move!
Si-yun excitedly started darting around everywhere.
'Wow! This is no joke! It's awesome.'
And like a child again, she floated around as if dancing.
*
Meanwhile, Do-hyeon was also watching Si-yun.
'Looks like it's working well.'
The ritual implement was steadily shooting her spiritual power into her soul.
Si-yun probably thought her astral body wouldn't be very visible to others, but it was perfectly visible to Do-hyeon's eyes.
Her voice echoed in a hum, but she seemed incredibly excited.
Heh-heh-heh.
It couldn't be helped.
She said she'd been tormented by it since she was young, so she'd probably worried and suffered over it for a very long time.
But now she could control it however she wanted in one go.
No wonder she was so excited.
As expected, seeing someone else smile because of something I made made me feel good no matter what.
Well, it wasn't like I'd done anything extraordinary.
Since she needed a familiar sensation to return, I just made a ritual implement to serve as a reference point.
'Now she should be able to activate it without having to lie in bed at home in her pajamas.'
I also engraved a spiritual-power stabilization circuit into it, refining it so power would flow more stably and efficiently through the cord connected to the soul.
I optimized the amount of spiritual power consumed as well.
Now that there was a reference point, she wouldn't get lost even if she went far away.
*
Si-yun came to.
“How is it? I put in a stabilization circuit, so your astral projection shouldn’t kick in on its own anymore when you don’t want it to.”
“R-really?”
Her eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes. And as you noticed, you can now go much longer and much farther. I also engraved a safety mechanism so if your spiritual power runs low, you'll return to your body automatically.”
She couldn't believe it.
So it would be okay now?
After a lifetime of suffering.
To think everything would really be okay now.
'So I won't have to worry anymore about when my soul might slip out again?'
Sniff...
She barely suppressed the surge of emotion that rose up inside her.
Her nose tingled.
Whether or not the craftsman noticed, he continued his explanation.
Soon he smiled softly and looked at Si-yun.
“Thank you, Si-yun. Thanks to you, I was able to make another fun ritual implement...”
He cleared his throat lightly as his words trailed off.
“...No, no. I was able to make a ritual implement that can save residents in danger.”
That's not it.
I should be the one saying thank you.
Yet he was the one bowing his head and thanking her.
How much had she suffered all this time?
The dangerous moments caused by her soul slipping out at random, regardless of her will.
The ostracism around her.
The strange looks people gave her.
Research that never moved forward no matter how hard she clung to it, and days spent constantly sleep-deprived from practicing every night.
Professors and classmates who treated her research as pathetic.
The nights she had cried her eyes out, wanting to give up, flashed through her mind.
Through those long, lonely nights, Si-yun had always been alone.
No one had reached out a hand, and no one had truly looked into her.
But.
This man.
So casually.
He cut away the yoke that had bound her all her life in an instant.
He told her that research everyone called worthless had value.
He pulled her out of that long, dark night she had struggled so hard to escape.
'And yet... he's the one thanking me.'
It felt as if all the effort she had poured in without anyone noticing, all her struggling, was finally being rewarded.
No, maybe more than becoming ordinary like everyone else.
Maybe what she'd wanted all along was someone who would recognize her like this.
In the end, she couldn't hold back, and tears spilled out.
And so Si-yun cried for a long time.
“Hic... hic...”
Waaah....
“T-thank you... sniff, really... really, thank you...”
After she finally calmed herself down.
Once she regained some of her composure, she belatedly felt embarrassed for having bawled her eyes out.
Si-yun wiped the tears at the corners of her eyes.
“Um... Si-yun?”
She lifted her head at Do-hyeon's call.
Right then.
Beyond the large window of the research building, dawn began to break in a bluish glow.
Fiery morning sunlight poured through the window and spilled behind Do-hyeon.
It created a dazzling halo over his silhouette.
With tears still brimming in her eyes, Si-yun stared blankly up at him.
Do-hyeon lightly smiled and held out his hand toward her.
“Let's go test it now.”
“...Huh?”
“Thanks to you, the ritual implement is complete.”
He smiled faintly.
“Let's go see Professor Goo.”