Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 

If he wanted to properly delve into the magic and mysteries of this world.

He had to learn its characters as quickly as possible.

To do that, he absolutely needed a good letters teacher.

“You need a letters teacher, then. Since the request fee is twenty-five taels of silver, it should be more than enough for two months’ wages, even including the brokerage fee.”

There were an enormous number of people who wanted to become letters teachers.

To be honest, there was such an oversupply of manpower that if he simply grabbed any one of the gloomy, pale-faced scholars squatting outside the Vagabond Association right now and spoke to him.

He would easily be able to find a letters teacher.

Naturally so.

In this world, professions in the literary and artistic fields, generally poetry, calligraphy, painting, and the zither.

The fields commonly called the Four Arts, all lived in poverty unless one was an overwhelmingly skilled master.

Artists of middling talent were each desperate to find work.

‘In truth, he should be able to find one without going through our Vagabond Association.’

For some reason, this boy had deliberately commissioned it as a request.

Perhaps because that doubt had shown on Mak Chung’s face.

Il-hyang smiled softly and said.

“I understand that commissioning a request is also included in one’s record. Is that correct?”

“Ah! Ah, yes! That is correct. You had that in mind.”

The grades of Wanderer Plaques generally went from Wooden Plaque, Iron Plaque, Bronze Plaque, Silver Plaque, and all the way to Gold Plaque.

To raise one’s grade normally, both accepting requests and commissioning requests required a recorded history above a certain monetary amount.

To be more precise, one needed a record of fee payments.

‘Unless one’s martial arts are extremely profound.’

For reference, Pyeong So-byeok, who had been a First-Rate Expert, had possessed a Bronze Plaque Wanderer Plaque based only on his personal martial arts and his history of commissioning requests.

‘But this is curious.’

Most wanderers only accepted requests in order to save request fees.

They rarely thought of applying for requests themselves to raise their grade.

Because they were stingy when it came to spending money.

Especially for an easy request like this, they would not go out of their way to pay a fee.

“In any case, understood. This is a request that can be resolved immediately.”

Mak Chung at the reception desk ordered one of the snot-nosed little kids sitting behind him.

And had him bring in one of the scrawny, pale-faced scholars who had been outside.

“This gentleman is Scholar Gong Chu, who comes from a nearby Literary Arts Academy. He is perfectly suited to the request Young Hero Il-hyang wants.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Gong Chu. I am Il-hyang.”

“Ahem, a pleasure. I am called Gong Chu.”

Scholar Gong Chu.

At a glance, the clothes he wore were shabby, and his physique was small and thin.

He was so short that he was barely a head taller than Il-hyang, who was only around ten years old.

One could tell at a glance that his circumstances were not especially comfortable.

But what did that matter?

As long as he had the ability to teach letters, that was enough.

“Can you begin today?”

“Of course.”

“Then let us fill out the request form and leave.”

The two left a proper record at the reception desk and went straight to Manseok Inn.

“Let us eat first. It is difficult to do anything when one is hungry.”

“Ahem, thank you, Young Hero.”

Gong Chu, who habitually toyed with his old official cap, received an excellent meal at Manseok Inn.

Then he took out books covered in the grime of long handling from the bundle he carried.

“I have the Thousand Character Classic and the Four Books and Three Classics with me. They are old and worn, but they are books with no issue whatsoever when it comes to carrying out study.”

“Understood.”

“Then let us begin with the Thousand Character Classic first.”

Gong Chu hoped that the composed-looking boy before him would please be interested in scholarship.

Only then would he be able to receive a long-term request instead of a short two-month request and stop worrying about scraping by.

‘I must teach the Thousand Character Classic as entertainingly as possible. Then I should entice him into learning the next stage, the Four Books and Three Classics.’

This side of things.

That is, the private letters teacher market, was no exaggeration to call hell itself.

Since Gong Chu had to pay no less than half of the request fee he would receive as a commission, he truly could only receive a trifling sum.

But even that was something he could not receive without connections to the reception desk.

So he did not want to miss this opportunity that had come after so long.

Gong Chu sat in a second-floor room of Manseok Inn.

In the gentlest voice he could manage, he showed and wrote each character of the Thousand Character Classic with charcoal on a wooden board.

And he tried to instill interest and passion for study.

It was not particularly suited to a scholar’s dignity.

But he was so serious about the private letters teacher market that he had even practiced storytelling alone for children.

And exactly one hour  after Gong Chu steeled himself and began teaching.

“W-what in the world is this…….”

Gong Chu stared at the boy before him with his mouth hanging wide open.

Then he swallowed dryly and carefully asked a question.

“Young Hero, did you already know how to read?”

“No. I am learning for the first time today. I only knew about thirty-two characters before this. But this is interesting. The shapes of the characters quickly become familiar to my eyes.”

“……Truly? How can you grasp characters so easily when this is your first time?”

By Gong Chu’s common sense, it was truly incomprehensible.

When one first encountered the Thousand Character Classic.

No matter how much of a genius one was, its varied and complex forms made it difficult even to copy down, let alone memorize.

But this boy was different.

After hearing the meaning and sound once or twice, he immediately understood and pulled the lesson forward at a rapid pace.

As a result, in only one hour , he had learned half of the Thousand Character Classic.

‘And even that is only because the speed of writing and erasing on the wooden board is slow.’

Since he perfectly memorized and mastered everything as soon as it was taught.

There was no need to explain anything twice.

Then, a thought suddenly came to him.

‘Could he have deliberately paid the request fee in order to help me?’

But for him to think so, there was no connection between this boy and himself.

Gong Chu organized the complexity in his mind as quickly as possible.

And for now, taught the remaining portion of the Thousand Character Classic in the same way as before.

“……To think you could finish learning the Thousand Character Classic in a single day. By my common sense, this is impossible.”

“The world is vast, so all manner of things may happen. Thank you for your hard work today.”

After the lesson ended.

Il-hyang went down to the first floor of the inn, ordered some simple food separately.

Then he packed it in a wooden bowl and handed it to Gong Chu.

“……Mm. Thank you for your consideration, Young Hero.”

“Not at all. Your teaching today was excellent.”

“I am thinking of holding lessons about three times every ten days. How would that be?”

“That is good. Then I will see you in three days.”

Il-hyang saw Letters Teacher Gong Chu off as far as the door.

Then he immediately returned to his lodging on the second floor.

“I suppose this is enough for learning the basic characters.”

Still, the more characters one knew, the better.

Especially the artifact he had obtained by chance. The Inventory.

In this world, it seemed they separately called this a [Storage Bag].

As expected, when he had asked Pyeong So-byeok, this item was not especially common.

‘The characters written on this artifact were similar to runic script, yet different in texture.’

So the more he learned the character system of this world.

The greater the possibility of interpreting the runic script written on the artifact would become.

Il-hyang had perfectly mastered the form of runic script used in the lower dimension.

So if the structure or basic rules of this world’s characters also became familiar to his eyes.

He thought it would be worth trying to create artifacts himself.

‘Before that, though, I should try making secret medicines or Elixirs first.’

Over the past ten days.

Based on what he had inferred from his serious conversations with Pyeong So-byeok.

As expected, this world was a world of knights that revered something called martial arts.

A world that focused on learning inner arts, training the body.

And transcending the flesh.

‘At the same time, it also had its own kind of mystery.’

The groups called the Mansi Sect and the Thousand Blood Sect, which he had encountered after first crossing into this world.

According to Pyeong So-byeok’s advice, were mystical sects hidden behind a black veil in this world.

They were even designated as public enemies of Murim.

Secret groups that people tried to avoid mentioning whenever possible.

Even Pyeong So-byeok, who carried some weight in this area, had been horrified when speaking of the Mansi Sect and the Thousand Blood Sect.

Ah!

Of course, it went without saying that there was also the possibility that Pyeong So-byeok had lied.

But Il-hyang thought that possibility was extremely low.

‘In a one-sided dinner date with a Ghoul, it’s fair to say there’s no chance he would lie.’

Perhaps because the Ghoul’s appetite was a little high.

Pyeong So-byeok, who experienced in real time the magic of his fingers and toes vanishing before his eyes.

Answered every question Il-hyang asked very kindly and actively.

“It’s t-true. Great Hero! Even I don’t know the Mansi Sect and the Blood Cult accurately. To begin with, even mentioning immortal cultivators is taboo. However, the neighboring-town elders my father mentioned may be people from that side. Our family sometimes kidnapped children and offered them to those neighboring-town elders, so I only knew about them!”

Aside from that.

Pyeong So-byeok did not hesitate to speak of the countless evil deeds he had committed without even being asked.

And the various forms of corruption committed by the Pyeong Family to which he belonged.

‘To organize this, should I see this place as two worlds coexisting?’

It was interesting.

There was the martial world, a realm of mortals where martial masters lived.

And the Immortal Domain where immortal cultivators lived, handling Wondrous Illusion Arts that he guessed to be magic.

Thus, the martial world and the Immortal Domain.

It seemed to be a world where two orders coexisted as yin and yang.

‘Certainly, the bastards from the Mansi Sect and the Thousand Blood Sect were not exactly ordinary.’

The energy he had felt then from the immortal cultivators of the Mansi Sect and the Blood Cult was clearly somewhat different from ordinary inner arts.

‘It was energy far purer and cleaner than inner arts. Of course, by my standards, it was still turbid.’

Mana in a form that seemed to have filtered the energy flowing through the atmosphere through a sieve and gathered it in the qi center.

If he compared the martial artists he had encountered coming and going in Giyang County with the masters of the Mansi Sect.

The Mansi Sect bastards were certainly overwhelmingly superior in purity, but from Il-hyang’s point of view, it was the difference between fifty steps and a hundred.

“Ugh. But what I still don’t understand is why everyone gathers inner arts in the qi center.”

Their kind and honest friend Pyeong So-byeok could not properly answer that question either. To begin with, he did not seem to understand the question itself.

“Is-isn’t it only natural to gather inner force in the qi center? G-gghaaa…… G-Great Hero! Please, anything but my thumb!”

‘How is that natural? It’s strange.’

An imaginary space that did not originally exist anywhere in the body.

That was precisely the qi center.

The work of gathering inner force in a nonexistent space to create a qi center was extremely inefficient.

And its roots were weak.

Even after the energy was fully completed, it was difficult to gain any particular benefit afterward.

“The reason mages gathered mana in the heart was because the heart is the place where the body’s life force is densest.”

Among the organs of the human body, the place with the densest life force was, without question, the heart.

And among the internal organs of the human body, the place of greatest importance was also the heart.

That was why mages naturally gathered mana flowing in the air and used it to create Circles, protecting the heart as their highest priority.

“This was the same for knights as well.”

Knights did not create Circles.

But they too gathered mana in the heart and operated the Mana Heart training method.

In any case, even after that, Il-hyang had several more frank conversations with their kind friend Pyeong So-byeok.

And ultimately.

Il-hyang ignored Pyeong So-byeok’s claims and advice. Just as he had from the beginning, he continued gathering energy in his heart.

Of course, the method was different from this world’s general inner arts cultivation methods.

In a sense, it was similar to what immortal cultivators did.

Because he was filtering the external energy several times until it became pure, gathering only energy infinitely close to nature in his heart.

‘Tsk. Since I’m forcibly filtering the energy, the speed at which it gathers is far too slow. But it can’t be helped. Circle Magic was originally a method like this.’

At present, Il-hyang had only gathered energy about the size of a quail egg in his heart.

But with this much.

Without the help of a spirit or outside assistance, it was also a size with which he could barely attempt the 1st Circle.

‘I’ll try today.’

There was still no response from the Spirit Realm.

So he decided to leave that side entirely alone for the time being.

Because now was the time to concentrate on creating a Circle.

Circle Magic was the magic that formed Il-hyang’s foundation.

‘The greatest advantage when a Circle is completed lies in its endurance.’

Once he somehow created a Circle.

Even if he did not pay attention to his breathing every time in order to gather energy as he was doing now.

Energy would gradually swell like a snowball through breathing naturally.

‘Of course, all of this must be supported by enlightenment.’

Il-hyang was someone who had once been called a god of magic in the lower dimension.

There would be no situation in which the speed of mana gathering stopped or decreased because he lacked enlightenment or experience.

“Then, shall I try?”

Il-hyang first went down to the first floor of Manseok Inn and paid the Server a month’s lodging fee in advance.

After warning him never to come upstairs before being called, he took a seat on the bed.

“It’s definitely true that sitting cross-legged is good for gathering energy.”

This was a decent bit of know-how Il-hyang had learned in this world.

He had accepted the advice of his ever-kind friend Pyeong So-byeok.

Il-hyang had tested the efficiency of sitting cross-legged on his own.

And although the reason did not make sense to him, he admitted that this uncomfortable posture of sitting with his legs folded was surprisingly quite effective for absorbing inner arts.

Thus, without much resistance, he continued sitting cross-legged and fell into meditation.

And so, on the fifteenth day since Il-hyang had crossed into this world.

He finally made up his mind to attempt creating the 1st Circle.