“Hmmm.”
Sinhyeok, standing at the workbench, imitated what the dwarf had shown him.
‘First, the senses.’
He recalled the sensation and feeling from that time and focused.
His mind grew clearer.
His five senses felt as though they were opening in every direction.
Everything was detailed, and it felt like his brain was being overclocked.
“Whew. Now the wave, like this.”
He projected his mana. The key was to use as little mana as possible, allowing the material’s inherent mana to flow out.
Thinking of the trick, he executed it.
Sinhyeok’s aura blurred, and the greatsword’s unique wave flowed out.
“Feel it well. The unique texture, color, and even the nature and feel of the aura.”
Sinhyeok inserted his hand into the flowing wave, truly trying to feel it, literally.
He even closed his eyes and savored it.
When he opened his eyes, Aureomseuton asked with an expectant face.
“Can you feel it?”
“As if I could feel anything. I only sense an aura with a texture like earth.”
“Then look for it based on what you feel. Search through the warehouse over there.”
Sinhyeok headed into the warehouse the dwarf had entered.
Inside, there were far more materials than he had thought.
“Wow, there’s no end to it.”
The shelves were endless. He looked around, craning his neck, and scanned the materials.
‘No name tags, no descriptions.’
There was no indication of what kind of minerals they were.
“Why don’t these have name tags?!”
“What would knowing do for you! Can’t you tell by looking?”
He obviously didn’t know, but Sinhyeok asked back in disbelief.
“Hey, there are so many materials here, and you didn’t put a single name tag on them? How am I supposed to find anything?!”
He replied calmly.
“No need. You can tell the properties and hardness by listening to the echoes, so why bother sticking anything on them?”
“…….”
Sinhyeok was left speechless by the excessively calm answer.
“Then how do I find them?”
“How else? If you listened to the greatsword’s echo, this time you have to listen to the echoes of the materials on the shelves.”
At those words, Sinhyeok turned around to look at the tens of thousands of endless materials.
“…….”
With an absurd expression, he pointed at the materials on the shelves.
“All of those?”
“Yeah, all of those.”
Sinhyeok let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the unusually calm dwarf.
“We’re not finishing those today, are we?”
Aureomseuton flopped down onto a field cot with a calm expression.
“If you find them, won’t it be finished~”
Sinhyeok was left speechless by the shameless buck-passing.
“Wow, I really want to knock you upside the head.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. If you don’t finish that, you guys will get scolded. Do you think I’ll get scolded~ *yaaawn*.”
Sinhyeok’s fist trembled at the perfect pass-the-buck and shifting of responsibility.
“I can feel the toil of the quartermaster chief.”
“Keke. What toil.”
Sinhyeok shook his head and headed deeper into the warehouse.
“At least tell me some tricks for finding them!”
“Follow the feeling. What did you feel from that greatsword?”
At those words, Sinhyeok thoughtfully recalled.
‘Rough-textured earth felt from the aura, but the texture of the wave was smooth. The color also resembled earth.’
Thinking of the wave, he walked toward the shelves.
Sinhyeok slowly moved along, brushing over the materials on the shelves with a small amount of mana.
‘This one is just cold.’
He touched another.
‘This one feels more like stone than earth.’
This wasn’t the one either.
Sinhyeok, turned into a seeker, continued searching for a long while.
After an hour passed, and as he neared two hours, he couldn’t take it anymore and shouted.
“Can’t I just use something else?! Why do we have to use the same material?! Just use anything!”
He yelled in a fit of anger.
Aureomseuton slowly opened his eyes from the cot and spoke.
“You could. But then you wouldn’t know how to use the echoes. So search well. *Yawn.*”
He closed his eyes again.
“Wow, hiss.”
Sinhyeok suddenly wanted to check his blood pressure at his stiffening neck.
“Okay. I’ll look since I’m the chump.”
He strode back toward the warehouse.
As he headed for the warehouse, Aureomseuton opened his eyes and watched him.
“Fast. It takes the children of our clan several years.”
Aureomseuton quietly watched him.
“A genius is a genius, no doubt. Following that ignorant mage’s words, that guy might really be an ‘Alchemist.’”
Sinhyeok was huffing and puffing as he rummaged, then suddenly yelled in anger.
“Aaaaah! I can’t find it!”
The dwarf chuckled at the lion’s roar echoing from the warehouse.
Sinhyeok came out of the warehouse and silently stared at the dwarf.
Seeing his bloodshot eyes, the dwarf spoke with a smile.
“Need a tip?”
Nod nod.
“Overlap them. Why define the wave you feel from that greatsword as one? It was made with various materials. So of course you have to judge the materials by overlapping them too.”
Sinhyeok immediately realized at the dwarf’s advice.
“Ah!”
‘I was an idiot!’
It was such an obvious thing.
Sinhyeok immediately ran to the materials on the shelves.
“Overlap them. If I gather the similar ones and look at them comprehensively.”
He pulled out several materials, gathered them all together, and checked the wave.
‘Similar. But subtly, one is different.’
He removed one and brought another material.
And when he overlapped the total wave, he found what he wanted.
“Got it.”
He placed the perfectly found pile of materials all onto the workbench.
Soon after, Sinhyeok leaned against the workbench and turned around proudly.
“Hmph! Found ’em!”
Aureomseuton rose at the word that he had found them and stretched.
“*Yawn*. I was bored waiting. Thanks to you, I got a good nap.”
“Hah, a good nap my foot. Come and check it. It’s per! Fect.”
He checked the materials on the workbench and nodded his head.
“Perfect. You found them well.”
A smile formed on Sinhyeok’s lips.
“This is how you find them. You can’t possibly experiment and test every substance in the vast universe one by one.”
“So you classify them like this in advance?”
“Yes. The texture of the wave indicates the material’s strength and durability, and the feel of its visible aura is the material’s attribute. There are various other things besides that.”
Sinhyeok listened carefully to the dwarf’s words.
“What’s important is that you’ll know once you start making things. If you keep listening, you’ll hear the echoes the iron tells you well.”
Aureomseuton gathered the collected materials.
“Bring those two greatswords over there.”
Sinhyeok stared intently at the greatswords that looked incredibly heavy at a glance.
“These?”
“Yeah. Of course they’re damn heavy.”
Sinhyeok’s face scrunched up at his matter-of-fact manner.
When he lifted one, his arm trembled.
“Damn. It’s really heavy.”
“Told you they were heavy.”
The dwarf sent mana flowing to the other one, floating it in the air.
Sinhyeok grunted and strained as he headed to the forge the dwarf was heading toward. He placed it down with difficulty.
“Is that telekinesis magic?”
“Nah, it’s a grappling technique I learned from some martial artist a long time ago.”
“I should learn it later too.”
“Pfft.”
The dwarf scoffed shortly and threw the materials into the forge.
“Why are you laughing? It doesn’t look that hard.”
“It took me ten years to perfect this, you punk.”
“Are you unexpectedly untalented?”
Aureomseuton, who had thrown the materials into the forge, looked at Sinhyeok with a dumbfounded expression at those words.
“Me? The greatest genius of the Aureomseuton clan, me?”
“Pfft, calling yourself a genius.”
“Hehe. You overgrown beanpole.”
“Master. The materials in the forge are melting.”
Aureomseuton inserted his hand into the forge with a nonchalant expression.
“Eeek!”
But his hand that went into the fire was perfectly fine.
His hand, imbued with a golden hue, stirred the materials swiftly.
“If you’ve appraised the materials and found them, you have to remove the impurities to some degree. That’s what this process is for. Removing impurities and melting them so they’re easy to mix—a real two-birds-with-one-stone situation.”
Sinhyeok asked in disbelief at his calm stirring.
“Isn’t it hot?”
“I wonder? It’s warm.”
He was stirring the materials in the forge with a calm expression.
After stirring for a long while with his hand, something black and murky disappeared in the fire.
“Hmm?”
Sinhyeok asked the dwarf at that sight.
“Is this really fire? It feels a bit strange.”
Aureomseuton grinned widely and grabbed Sinhyeok’s hand.
“Then it must be fake!”
“Eek! Hey!”
His hand was shoved into the forge.
“It’s hot! …It’s not?”
The flames containing a faint golden hue were not hot.
“It’s the unique aura of the Aureomseuton clan. Our clan’s aura can directly interfere with matter. It can stretch things softly and tighten them firmly.”
Sinhyeok felt a slight, pointless surge of anger seeing his smiling face.
“Keke, did you think it was real fire?”
“I really want to knock you one.”
“Kekeke. I diluted my aura. I mixed it with a mana stone and a fire spirit’s aura. It’s excellent for removing impurities.”
He calmly continued to stir the materials with swift motions.
“Burn away all the turbid things that mar the material’s texture.”
The dwarf withdrew his hand and dusted it off.
“The materials are all ready.”
Aureomseuton glanced at Sinhyeok with a meaningful gaze.
“What? What’s with that weird look?”
“The highlight. It’s our clan’s secret art: Synthesis.”
He held the greatsword in his left hand and a handful of melted minerals and materials in his right.
“Hmm?”
He poured it directly into a split seam and struck the middle of the greatsword with his hand.
Klang!
“Huh?”
Kkaang!
Sinhyeok made an incredulous expression at the metallic sound that rang out again.
“The punching was a joke; actually, you just need to rub it on like this.”
Aureomseuton gently stroked and wove the melted materials and the greatsword into one.
The greatsword’s blade gradually softened and naturally fused with the melted materials.
“Uh, uhm?”
The greatsword, imbued with a golden aura, hardened after a moment.
“Done. You saw that?”
Sinhyeok was slightly dumbfounded by the dwarf’s question asked so calmly.
“What do you mean, did I see? I just saw a magic show.”
“That’s all. Now it’s your turn. Just make it well like this.”
Sinhyeok stared blankly at the dwarf’s hand that was naturally extended to him.
“What? I told you to try since you watched well.”
“How am I supposed to do this? These hands of mine are just ordinary clumsy hands.”
Aureomseuton burst into laughter at the words that his own hands were ordinary.
“What? Puhahaha!”
Sinhyeok felt somewhat upset at his explosive laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“Keke, saying those hands are ordinary! Keke.”
Aureomseuton stared at Sinhyeok’s hands and spoke.
“Your hands already know how. You just haven’t realized it.”
There was firmness in his eyes as he looked up at Sinhyeok.
“Do you know what the greatest talent, no, the essential talent for an alchemist is?”
“Hmm, the wealth to buy materials as much as you want?”
“Keuk, that’s somewhat correct, but I mean something else.”
“Luck?”
It was a thought that came to him recalling the other alchemist he had seen during the Gunsan Gate Break.
‘Even when making the same thing, the results were different.’
“Keheuk, yes, most call it luck. But our clan, which has held onto alchemy for over ten thousand years, calls it interference. The so-called Alchemist’s Hand.”
He grabbed Sinhyeok’s hand and covered it with the Aureomseuton clan’s unique golden aura.
“A talent, no, a privilege to directly interfere with the mana inside matter.”
He then headed toward the melted materials in the forge.
He had Sinhyeok grab a handful, then headed toward the one remaining greatsword.
Sizzle.
Pouring it on directly, he had Sinhyeok knead the greatsword with his hand.
“In the word ‘luck’ lies whether the result of the process that interferes with the fusion and merging of two substances succeeds or fails.”
As Sinhyeok kneaded the greatsword with his hand, the blade became soft and pliable.
“Kneading mana with your fingertips. A true alchemist must be able to do that.”
Aureomseuton removed his hand.
“Feel it. Do not judge, do not think. We are artists who carve sculptures and paint pictures. Mold it with your fingertips.”
Sinhyeok kneaded as if entranced by the dwarf’s words.
[You are experiencing the secret art of ancient alchemy.]
The melted materials and the blade mixed together.
As the euphoria subsided and he came to his senses, a restored greatsword lay on the floor.
“That is synthesis. The core of alchemy that our clan protects.”