Chapter 66

“Done.”

After deliberating for a long while, Jaeha settled on all the names.

“Number 23 is Cheonryeong Corpse Puppet, 24 is Gwiryeong, and the last one, 25, is Cheonnyeon Corpse Puppet.”

“Cheonryeong (天伶 (Cheollyeong)), is it. Meaning a spirit of the heavens. Gwiryeong (鬼怜 (Gwiryeong)) means a clever spirit, and Cheonnyeon seems to literally mean a thousand years.”

“Right. I named Cheonnyeon Jiangshi that because it feels like it’ll last a thousand years. Anyway, they all already have their own names.”

“That’s true.”

Having finished organizing everything, Jaeha stood up from his seat and spoke.

“Now I need to swap them out.”

With that, he gathered the existing jiangshi and began the process of replacing them.

“First, you all heard everything so far, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then I’ll give you a choice. Tell me what you want. I’ll make it happen.”

At Jaeha’s words, they began speaking to him one by one.

“So Chrise wants Cheonnyeon?”

“Yes.”

“Why? If you’re going to do it anyway, wouldn’t Cheonryeong be better?”

“My swordsmanship has already reached the heavens. I don’t think I need more talent here. And I’m still bothered by how my body melted last time. I’d rather not have to worry about my body breaking apart.”

“Well, I did say I’d do as you wish. Fine. And Amy is Gwiryeong.”

“Yes.”

“Seirin is Cheonryeong, Beat-in is also Cheonryeong, Denny is Cheonnyeon, and lastly, Bedy is Cheonryeong. Right?”

“That is correct.”

“Good.”

Nodding, Jaeha immediately began crafting the jiangshi. The process wasn’t particularly difficult. All he had to do was dissolve the new poison he’d created—Heavenly Poison—into water, submerge the jiangshi in it, and use his skill.

Of course, it took time, but the process itself was simple. After soaking the jiangshi in the poisonous solution, Jaeha had the three newly joined jiangshi clean up and then retrieved all the poison.

* * *

After that, Jaeha went up to his room. He lay down on the bed. And quietly reflected on the past few days. He’d learned the Blazing Art, then the Ice Art, and while those were evolving, he’d also picked up the Poison Art.

Then the Corpse Puppetry evolved, and when he tried to create jiangshi, he needed poison, so he made a new one, and with that new poison, he created the new jiangshi—and somehow, the schedule had worked itself out.

Things like the Blazing Art and the Ice Art were necessary because of his own shortcomings, but it was true that the learning process had been a bit complicated. Of course, in terms of time, it had all happened within a week, so it wasn’t that long.

“Ugh, that feels good.”

Knock, knock.

Just as he was lying on the bed stretching out, someone knocked on Jaeha’s door.

“Come in.”

Jaeha asked who it was, but he already knew who was knocking. Seungho and Sia didn’t knock when they entered his room. So the one knocking on his door right now could only be Gersia.

“Got time?”

“No. I’m enjoying a rare moment of peace and leisure.”

“Isn’t it a waste of a life that isn’t even that long?”

“And you’re here wasting your long life doing the pointless task of acquiring knowledge from another dimension?”

“Pointless, you say. Knowledge is what makes us gold dragons gold dragons. And this is knowledge about another dimension that no one has ever known before.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re so great. So why did you come?”

At that, he let out a small “ahem” and began to speak.

“Personally, I don’t think very highly of humans. Of course, I mean the humans in our world.”

As Gersia opened with that, Jaeha felt a wave of annoyance, but he decided to hear him out for now.

“And?”

“However, right after arriving in this world, I was surprised by something called the System. As I mentioned before, the System is the kind of thing that cannot exist unless a god created it. So I thought the god of this dimension cared greatly for humans.”

“So?”

“Up until then, I had a tendency to somewhat look down on humans. The reason, to put it simply, was that while human learning ability, knowledge preservation, and the will to preserve their species were remarkable, I thought their ability to create something on their own was lacking.”

“Hmm……”

At that, Jaeha began to feel that the conversation was veering off in a strange direction.

“But coming to this world and gaining its knowledge changed my mind. The humans of this world created something incredible with their own strength—martial arts. If I were a god, I think I would have created this system to honor the achievements of humans who made such things.”

“……”

He considered cutting her off, but decided to hear her out a little longer.

“In the end, my perception of the human species changed considerably. The humans here and the humans in the dimension I lived in are biologically almost identical. That means the humans in my dimension could have created such things too, if given the opportunity.”

“Haah. So what’s the conclusion?”

At Jaeha’s words, Gersia smacked her lips, thought for a moment, then spoke.

“Ahem. I want to learn martial arts as well.”

“Martial arts?”

“Indeed. From what I’ve researched, martial arts has already been proven in practical application.”

“That’s right.”

“And I’ve heard that you possess such martial arts as a skill, and have developed it to a level unrivaled anywhere in the world.”

“Yeah. That’s true too.”

“So I concluded that you are the only human in this world who can teach martial arts.”

“Just toss the preamble. Bottom line, you want to learn martial arts.”

“Ahem…… Yes, that’s correct.”

“Martial arts, huh……”

Honestly speaking, he didn’t mind teaching it.

“Of course, I’m not asking you to teach me without any compensation.”

“Oh? Then what are you offering?”

At Jaeha’s question, she looked at him and spoke.

“To be honest, I don’t think there’s much among what I can offer that would be of use to you. It would be better for you to tell me what you want. For both your sake and mine.”

At that, Jaeha began to think.

‘Is there anything I need?’

Jaeha thought quietly, but no matter how much he considered it, there was nothing he wanted from her. Material wealth was already overflowing, and he had no particular need for talented people either.

And he didn’t really need anything to boost his combat power. Anything he needed, he could just find and learn on MuTube himself.

“I don’t really want anything from you.”

Gersia gave no particular response to that.

“Truly nothing at all?”

“Nope.”

“How resolute.”

“Is there nothing you think would be useful to me?”

“Let me list what I have.”

Then Gersia spoke slowly.

“First, the vast library of books from my world.”

“I’m not the type to enjoy studying like you. I don’t even know my own world’s history properly—I don’t want to know about yours either.”

“Then there are things like jewels.”

“No need to even mention that.”

“And I have artifacts as well.”

“Artifacts?”

“Indeed. You could call them weapons enchanted with magic.”

“Ew. What? That’s lame.”

“……”

Jaeha openly disparaged them, but knowing Jaeha’s Metallurgy and enchanting abilities, Gersia had nothing to say.

“And……”

They discussed a few more things after that, but Jaeha didn’t want any of it. After thinking for a moment, Jaeha spoke.

“Come back when you think of something worth trading.”

At that, Gersia nodded and left the room. Once she was out, Jaeha thought for a moment.

‘Should I ask her to teach me 8th and 9th circle magic……? Learning it sounds like a hassle though.’

After pondering briefly, Jaeha’s eyes suddenly widened.

“Wait, hold on. I don’t need to learn it at all.”

His ability was ultimately obtaining Skills through MuTube.

‘I could just film a video of her and watch it myself.’

With that thought, Jaeha mulled it over for a moment.

“But there’s no need for me to bring it up first, and I don’t need it that badly right now anyway. I’ll do it next time.”

He’d brushed things off out of laziness before and regretted it, but the truth was that the magic he already had was more than enough. After all, the only way Jaeha used magic was to enchant bullets and fire them from a gun.

With that, Jaeha set the thought aside and sprawled out on his bed.

* * *

Knock, knock, knock.

As someone knocked on his door, Jaeha spoke.

“Come in.”

At that, the door opened and Gersia appeared.

“So, did you come up with something worth giving me?”

“I did.”

“Yeah? What is it.”

“It’s nothing all that impressive, but I thought it would be something you’d need.”

“I asked what it is.”

“I kept mulling it over and ran through various hypotheses.”

“Do you have any intention of just saying it outright?”

“Your nature as a human—that was what gave me the most pause. There are many things I can give humans. Not necessarily money, either. One of them would be time.”

“…….”

“Most of the humans I’ve observed lamented the time allotted to them. A hundred years at most. For humans with power and authority, that’s a short span.”

“……So you’re not planning to say it, are you?”

“But you’re a bit different. In this world where kings have vanished into the distant past, you possess enough ability to overturn this world and rule as a king. Yet despite having that ability, you live such a modest, quiet life. On that point, I thought you had a disposition similar to the Spirit Masters in our world. But you’re a bit different. You don’t dislike enjoying wealth and glory, but you don’t desperately want it either.”

“Is that so?”

“So I deliberated a great deal. And after all that deliberation, I arrived at exactly one conclusion.”

“…….”

“You want power. I don’t know why, but you already have more than enough strength, yet you’re not satisfied with it—you want to grow even stronger. So I decided.”

“Are you finally going to say it?”

“For the record, I received help from your Homunculus in the process of making that decision.”

Hearing that Sia had helped, Jaeha felt a flicker of unease.

“I’ll give you power.”

“Power?”

“No, to be precise—I’ll use the source of your power to help you obtain more varied and stronger abilities.”

“…….”

“I heard from the Homunculus. You gain power by watching videos uploaded on a site called MuTube, correct?”

“Yeah.”

There was no point in hiding it now that he already knew. Besides, Gersia was in a position where he had to deal with Jaeha, and Jaeha held the upper hand. So there was no way he’d tell anyone else.

“I’ll record everything in our world and upload it.”

At those words, Jaeha’s eyes lit up.