Chapter 15. Dream Awakening (15)
Once more, the Great Axe Yaksha couldn't even see Woo-Moon's wooden sword move. As he received yet another injury, his hair stood on end, and his body stiffened in fear. However, his ignorant subordinates swiftly surrounded Woo-Moon and rushed at the same time.
"Bastard! How dare you attack our leader!"
Riiiiiiiip!
At the same time, Woo-Moon's sword drew five arcs across the air. Blood splattered everywhere, accompanied by the sound of something being ripped apart
"Huck!"
"Argh!"
Surprised, the bandits retreated. All of them had been cut.
Woo-Moon had arrived at the training site an hour before and immediately started to practice the Divine Phantasm Step. As a result, it had become much easier to move than before. It wasn't perfect, but he could now perform the full technique from beginning to end, at the very least.
Woo-Moon, excited, thought of a new challenge.
"I should practice my sword techniques and footwork at the same time."
Working on both swordsmanship and footwork at the same time was far more efficient than doing them individually. With this optimistic mindset, Woo-Moon started training.
He found it a little difficult at first—he couldn't strike in the direction he intended because he kept moving around. However, he already had a good grasp of the required balance, as he had practiced his footwork while carrying buckets of water. That also played a role in comprehending the truth behind the Gentle Celestial Sword, which contained all the principles of the universe.
His footwork and swordsmanship felt awkward for a while, as he couldn't fully synchronize his steps with his sword. As he kept practicing, however, he adjusted the movements of the Gentle Celestial Sword to those of the Divine Phantasm Step, and the two slowly intertwined.
The joy he felt was incomparable to when he practiced his swordsmanship and footwork individually. The exaltation of reaching a new realm took over Woo-Moon's spirit, and he entered a state of extreme concentration as he kept practicing.
However, after a while, he felt an intruder on his training ground.
'Who dares?!'
With fury, his sword flew toward the intruder. That wasn't the end of it, however. More intruders appeared. After repelling their attacks, Woo-Moon left his regrets behind and finished his training.
"Whew." Woo-Moon exhaled, finally coming to his senses. He stared coldly at Great Axe Yaksha, who was standing in front of him with a puzzled expression.
"What are you?" Woo-Moon spat.
The Great Axe Yaksha's expression suddenly changed, now smiling brightly.
"Oh, gosh, little brother. You're so cool and handsome... You also seem like a chivalrous person, so I just played a bit of a prank because I wanted to get close to you. So don't worry about us, just keep doing what you're doing. Hahahaha!"
Great Axe Yaksha bowed deeply and put his palms together as he spoke, as if begging Woo-Moon for forgiveness. As soon as he finished speaking, he rushed back and shouted at his subordinates, "Hey, run!"
"Got it! We'll follow you, leader!"
Woo-Moon watched Great Axe Yaksha and his men flee, then let out a low sigh. He then pointed at the bush Yim Choo was hiding in with his wooden sword.
"Hey! Yim Choo, do you also love me?"
The bush rustled, but Yim Choo didn't move, instead pretending to be dead.
"Come out. I know everything."
Woo-Moon went to the bush and aimed his wooden sword exactly where Yim Choo was hiding.
"Well, if there's really no one here, then I can just practice some cuts and chop this bush up."
Hearing his words, Yim Choo hurriedly stood up and stuck his head out of the bush.
"I-I'm sorry, Woo-Moon! It's my fault!"
Yim Choo looked very nervous, perhaps because Woo-Moon had knocked some sense into the Great Axe Yaksha and his subordinates all too easily.
"Do you want to die?" asked Woo-Moon with his brows furrowed. The tip of his wooden sword dug straight into Yim Choo's belly.
"Oh, n-n-no!"
"No?"
"Nope!"
It was currently late at night, and Woo-Moon wanted to resume his training quickly. In other words, he had no intention of wasting his precious time on Yim Choo.
"This is your final warning. If you bother me one more time, you're dead. Got it?"
"Yes, yes!"
"Scram."
Yim Choo walked away looking as if he had just escaped death.
Seeing Yim Choo retreat, Woo-Moon thought he made a mistake.
Just like when they were younger, Yim Choo needed to be severely beaten before he'd come to his senses. Indeed, when Yim Choo bullied other children, Woo-Moon had to beat him to a pulp before Yim Choo would listen to his words.
"Hey, wait a minute."
As instructed, Yim Choo stopped in his steps, trembling.
"W-what... Haha, what is it?"
"Come here."
Yim Choo walked back slowly, then Woo-Moon punched him in the face.
Smack!
"Argh!"
Woo-Moon smiled coldly at Yim Choo, who screamed exaggeratedly as he fell.
"That's just the beginning, so clench your jaws. If not, you're going to lose your teeth."
As if his childhood personality had revived to some extent, Woo-Moon hit Yim Choo with both fists and feet.
"You're the kind of person who doesn't get it until you beat it into their thick head. Given the way you treated my father, I now realize I've been way too lenient with you."
"Argh! Arrrrgh, arrrrgh!"
After being beaten up for quite some time, Yim Choo was almost on the verge of fainting. Just then, Woo-Moon shook him, then grabbed his wooden sword.
"Hey, wake up," Woo-Moon ordered, but Yim Choo didn't answer, only letting out a low moan.
"Did I hit you so much you've already lost your mind? Get up right now or I'll crack your head open with this stick right here."
Struggling, Yim Choo stood up despite the intense pain coursing through his body.
"I won't be as forgiving next time, so you better be careful. Scram."
Yim Choo staggered away.
"Whew. Shall I start again?"
Woo-Moon calmed down and resumed his training.
* * *
Woo-Moon woke up fresh and immediately fetched two buckets of water, despite only getting an hour of sleep. The inn needed more water than usual due to the guests staying overnight. As he tended to his chores, he practiced footwork as usual.
'I'm doing much better than last time. Is it because I gained some kind of enlightenment yesterday while practicing my swordsmanship and footwork at the same time?'
Working on his movement techniques while carrying water buckets suspended on a yoke had actually become easier. On his first few attempts, the water from the buckets kept splashing and spilling, but by his tenth trip, he no longer spilled even a single drop of water.
'Great!'
He felt good. By the time he had returned and cleaned the inn, the group of women that stayed the night had woken up.
"Waiter! Waiter!"
A noise that irritated Woo-Moon worse than the screech of a pig being killed resounded from the second floor.
"What's wrong with you?" Woo-Moon asked without opening the door of the small room the North Sea Palace's disciples were staying in.
"Water! I'm thirsty. Bring me some water."
Woo-Moon sighed. "Look at the bedside."
"Ah, found it. But I want something more than just water. Bring me a cup of tea."
Holding back the desire to curse, Woo-Moon went downstairs and brought them tea. They had their tea while chatting for a while, then also headed downstairs. Meanwhile, Yeo-Seol drank tea alone on the first floor.
"Where did you sleep, Yeo-Seol? I didn't see you," asked Jeong-Gyeong, who was supposed to share a room with Yeo-Seol.
Before Ha Yeo-Seol could speak, Woo-Moon hurriedly replied, "One of the smaller rooms became available, so I gave it to her to avoid disturbing your sleep. You don't have to pay for it, it's on the house."
"Hmph!" Hearing Woo-Moon's answer, Jeong-Gyeong and her sisters snorted and went out of the inn.
Woo-Moon winked at Yeo-Seol, signaling to her not to let them know. If she told the truth—that she had stayed alone in a very nice room—it would only cause her trouble.
Yeo-Seol subtly smiled and bowed her head in gratitude.
Once they were out of sight, Woo-Moon stretched his arms a little and headed to the blacksmith shop.
* * *
After greeting Mr. Choo, Woo-Moon made preparations in his heart while repeatedly blowing the bellows.
'I have to make a sword I can use today.' Just thinking about it made him excited.
It wasn't that Mr. Choo didn't teach him anything. One of the things the blacksmith had taught Woo-Moon was that once the temperature of the forge was high enough, he had to soften the cast iron and pig iron quickly in order to make sure that the final product was as durable as possible.
Woo-Moon heated up the forge as best as he could. Mr. Choo and Choo Min-Sang watched the forge, startled by how intense the heat was.
After heating up the cast iron and pig iron, Woo-Moon took the metal billet out of the forge and started hammering. The durability of a metal tool was determined by the way the metal was drawn out by hammering and the timing of the forging process.
Clank! Clank!
The clear sound of metal striking metal echoed from the shop.
Thinking of the Divine Frost Sword, he hammered the metal according to its shape. However, after some time had passed, the Divine Frost Sword disappeared from his mind, replaced by the image of a sword that followed his own desires.
When he was done making the blade, he hurriedly submerged it in water.
Tssssssssssss!
Steam rose, and Woo-Moon pulled out his sword with a pounding heart.
'Why does it look so weak?'
He didn't feel the same way he did when he saw the Divine Frost Sword. It didn't seem durable, strong, or even capable of cutting anything. Perhaps it was because he had started hammering too early, but the blade seemed soft and completely unable to hold an edge.
At that moment, Mr. Choo spoke from behind him. "You're not going to stop with just a single refinement, are you?"
"Yes?"
"What you've done now is the first refinement. If you heat it up again and hammer it, that's the second refinement. The more you repeat it, the stronger it gets. However, if you forge something past its capacity, it will break, so be careful. That's all the advice I can give you."
Even though Mr. Choo didn't like making swords, Woo-Moon was very passionate when it came to his work at the blacksmith shop, and Mr. Choo thought it was great watching Woo-Moon discover his talents, so he decided to help him a little. Mr. Choo went to his own workbench and started sharpening a sickle after that, ending his conversation with Woo-Moon.
Woo-Moon bowed his head to Mr. Choo in gratitude, then looked down at his low-quality sword.
"Okay, let's try again."
He worked the bellows to raise the temperature inside the forge once more and put the sword he had made into it. After a while, he began hammering it again.
Clank!
Even after the third, fourth, and fifth refinement, Woo-Moon continued to work without any signs of exhaustion. As a result, his hammering skill also kept improving. He could now create a fairly sharp blade.
'Great. I just need to keep going at this rate!'
He was more and more excited, and the blade he was working on got progressively tougher.
Crack!
At some point, it broke in the middle.
"Uh?"
How many times had he reforged it? It was probably a little over twenty. He remembered Mr. Choo's words earlier—the sword would break if he worked it too many times.
"Let's start again."
Everything had been going well, but then the metal had cracked, rendering all his efforts useless. However, Woo-Moon didn't even think twice about throwing the broken pieces back into the forge. Hour after hour passed by as he hammered away, completely disregarding the time. The blade broke a few more times, but he never gave up.
Interestingly, as Woo-Moon's ability to melt and hammer iron became better, the number of times he could refine his weapon also increased. Perhaps the nature of the metal wasn't the only factor that determined its limit.
Even at noon, when Mr. Choo and Choo Min-Sang went to eat lunch, Woo-Moon focused on forging. He never even thought of stopping at all.
Seeing that his son wasn't coming back at all, Dae-Woong went to look for Woo-Moon at the blacksmith shop.
"What is he doing now?"
However, Mr. Choo quickly grabbed Dae-Woong's hand and insistently begged him not to disturb Woo-Moon. Of course, the more Mr. Choo insisted that he should let Woo-Moon to his own devices, the more dissatisfied Dae-Woong felt.
'He just recovered from being a fool, yet he's already out doing weird things. He's an adult. He shouldn't stay in the inn. He has to go out and find another job to gain experience in society.'