Rental

Two days had passed since returning from the Administration Bureau. Ian spent that time shuttling between his workshop and home, living an ordinary life.

He hadn't really handled any commissions. He hadn't lied when he said he'd be taking a vacation for the time being, so at minimum, he planned to keep this lifestyle going until after Lunar New Year.

Of course, there was no need for him to go home for the holidays. What homecoming was there when he had no parents or relatives to visit?

His situation was completely different from that of a premium orphan like Lee Seo-ah. Unlike her, who at least had parents when she was born, Ian had been a lone orphan since he was one year old. Far from receiving parental love, he didn't even know what his parents looked like, let alone whether he had any relatives.

Back then, he had been terribly ashamed of it, but now it didn't bother him at all.

After all, if you live as an orphan for more than twenty years, you become adept at anything.

“Mm.”

It was late lunchtime.

Ian quickly ordered a meal through a delivery app, tossed his phone onto the bed, and collapsed into a chair.

Looking toward the wall, he spotted a fish tank with fish swimming in it. There weren't many fish, but the tropical fish, each with distinct colors, were freely gliding through the massive tank.

It wasn't as though he had suddenly taken up fish-tank care as a hobby.

He had simply changed the workshop's environment by following the advice given to him by the deep-sea anglerfish, or rather, Kim Yul.

'Even if it's the sea of outer space, it still falls under the category of water. It should help at least a little.'

Most of the magic recorded in Abyssal Sea Chronicle was summoning magic, and the rest was mostly attack spells. There wasn't really any delicate work that required using the workshop.

Even so, the reason he had brought a fish tank into the workshop wasn't anything major. He just thought that if he was setting things up anyway, he might as well match it all at once.

The biggest reason Ian made the workshop was, of course, the Hand of Re-Creation. To create high-grade items, a workshop was absolutely necessary, so having one wasn't a choice but a requirement. So he built one, and he succeeded.

However, it was still lacking to be considered fully complete. Only after filling it with tools suited to the nature of his magic would it truly become the workshop of a skilled magician.

So he took the time to place a fairly wide variety of items in the right spots. He set a brewing machine he had no intention of ever using in the corner of the table, neatly shelved books related to alchemy, and even put a few pieces of gold in a drawer.

He knew his alchemy wasn't ordinary alchemy. But this was the best he could do. In any case, it was magic classified as alchemy, so this should be enough.

Otherwise, he'd just spend the money again and redo the workshop.

He had plenty of money, so there was no need to save it. He earned money to spend when needed, and for something like this, it was right to be generous.

With that thought settled, Ian put on his glasses and picked up the grimoire on the table.

The Hand of Re-Creation.

Letters engraved across the pure white cover like silver embroidery.

After tracing the letters with a finger, letters that weren't Korean yet somehow read as Korean, he slowly opened the cover and read the contents inside. The Hand of Re-Creation turned its pages by itself, following his will.

'It's about time I tried a new alchemy method.'

The last item Ian had made was the 'Knowledge-Eating Paper.' It was an alchemical item that could only be made in a workshop, and among the things he'd made so far, its effect was among the better ones.

Since the workshop requirement was attached to it, the other items would probably have power similar to the paper.

If the materials weren't too complicated, there'd be no harm in trying right away.

Thinking that, Ian slowly turned the pages. He checked whether there were any items that were fine without going through the workshop.

After about ten pages like that.

Ian found one item that caught his eye.

[Soul-Holding Goblet]

[It is a goblet that extracts the soul from a corpse that has been dead only a short while. The extracted soul can be used as a material, or some of its memories can be viewed. A total of three souls can be stored in this goblet, and if they are mixed and drunk, the self expands.]

[Materials: 1 metal goblet, 300 g salt, 50 ml horse blood, 20 g bone powder, 50 ml holy water, 100 ml owner's blood.]

It was a pretty decent item. The materials were a little complicated, but not to the point where they couldn't be obtained, and the effect was fairly good as well. More than anything, the ability to view memories caught his interest.

'If I'd had this on the cruise, I could've killed the captain and dug through his memories. No need for interrogation, and no reason to hold back.'

A tight-lipped enemy was always a headache, no matter where you met them. If there was a lot to learn, you'd have to interrogate or torture them, and that took up far too much time.

There were spells that amplified pain. It wasn't hard to make someone foam at the mouth just by making a light cut with a knife. The problem was that, before any torture could happen, the process of capturing them was inconvenient in all kinds of ways. He had to keep them from dying, which meant the Re-Creation magic was effectively sealed away. Summoning spells were the same.

With his two main magics sealed away, it would be extremely difficult to turn a fight in his favor. In that sense, the goblet, which made it unnecessary to care whether the other side lived or died, was very appealing.

'Let's make just one as a trial.'

Thinking that, Ian checked off the 'Soul-Holding Goblet' and kept reading the grimoire.

After devouring it until just before the food arrived, he had narrowed it down to about three items, including the Soul-Holding Goblet.

They were the [Blood-Chasing Compass] and [Veil of the Mortal World].

The Blood-Chasing Compass was exactly what its name suggested: a compass. If you stained it with the blood of a specific target, it would show that person's location until they died, and it would also allow other mystic beings to track them. Even if you didn't stain it with blood, the compass would react as long as it sensed the smell of blood within a certain radius.

As a side effect, while the compass was in use, its owner would also attract the attention of aberrations, but that wasn't really a major drawback.

Well, there were quite a few ways to deal with aberrations.

The Veil of the Mortal World was a kind of cloak. If you draped it over yourself, you could move into the gap between reality and the world behind it for a set time, escaping the gaze of both sides. In simple terms, you could think of it as an invisibility cloak.

Its duration was only five minutes, and it was one-use only, so its efficiency wasn't that great, but its performance was still quite impressive. It was a superior version of the coat's magic, which could only hide you from those without reason.

He decided that the first thing he'd make was the compass.

The materials were just an ordinary compass, blood, a few leeches, and a few pieces of aberration flesh, so making it itself was easy enough. And since he didn't have any proper tracking method at the moment, making one in advance didn't seem like a bad idea.

'I'll just buy a decent compass and get the leeches from the cartel.'

An unusual item? If he dug through the cartel, he'd find one. It was expensive, but he had a steady income, so there was no need to worry about it too much.

Anyway, he had to spend more than 5 million won every month. Since alchemy itself was a money-guzzling little monster, he didn't need to be overly stingy here either.

“Ughhh......”

After sorting out his thoughts, Ian stretched, picked up the lunchbox that had arrived at the door, and took care of a light meal. He usually preferred to cook for himself if he could, but sometimes ordering in like this wasn't bad either.

After finishing his meal, he immediately bought the items needed for alchemy. The other two, besides the compass, would eventually have to be made too, so he bought the materials needed for those in advance.

The materials ordered through the regular shopping service would arrive tomorrow or the day after at the earliest, and the things he'd paid for through the cartel would be flown to his house in twelve hours.

Until then, there wasn't much to do, so Ian spent some time idly before going back home.

Lying down on the bed, he picked up his phone. He logged onto the community and casually skimmed through the familiar hot posts. One of them mentioned Ian.

[Saw a newbie today.]

[Deep-Sea Anglerfish]

He actually looked a lot more normal than I'd expected. But his real-life manner of speaking was way too different from his online persona, so that was a little weird.

Ah, where we met is a secret.

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[Comments]

-Why do you get to be the only one who meets him?

ㄴDeep-Sea Anglerfish: He says he doesn't want to see a guy who stinks like you.

ㄴFuck off.

-TamingMaster: Was he a eunuch?

ㄴDeep-Sea Anglerfish: He was a guy who smelled good.

ㄴTamingMaster: (wizard punch emoticon)

ㄴDeep-Sea Anglerfish: Your inferiority complex is ugly.

ㄴTamingMaster: What inferiority complex? I have three wives.

ㄴBugInYourEar: Three wives (the Eight-Foot Ghost and Kongkong Ghost, while turning the banshee into a dismembered doll)

-UnicornLoverDog: Was he a virgin?

ㄴDeep-Sea Anglerfish: Get lost.

ㄴUnicornLoverDog: lol

It was a post written a few days earlier. Ian considered leaving a comment, but decided to just pass it by. He hadn't said anything about meeting at the Administration Bureau, so there wasn't anything particularly bothersome about it.

'Come to think of it, we didn't even exchange contact info.'

Well, there would be another chance, so he didn't dwell on it too much. Ian thoroughly read the rest of the hot posts and loosened his stiff wrist.

Just then, the phone he was holding suddenly vibrated briefly, and a call came in.

The caller was Han Yuna. They had exchanged numbers, but this was the first time she had called him like this. They hadn't even exchanged the usual text messages, so it was a little sudden.

'What is it?'

Ian answered without much thought and brought the phone to his ear.

“Hello—”

“Mr. Shin Ian!”

Before he could finish speaking, Han Yuna's voice rang out loudly. Ian frowned at the ear-splitting volume, and she hurriedly kept talking.

“Could you pretend to be my boyfriend for a moment?!”

“……?”

Ian's face twisted slightly.