Chapter 42: Transcendent Shop (3)
“What?”
Seo-joon finally came to his senses at the sudden cry and slowly turned his head to the strange voice. In his view long reddish brown hair appeared…
“High school student?”
He saw a high school student. The young high school girl looked like she just became an adult.
undefined“How…?”
The problem was that the high school girl was looking at Seo-joon with her eyes wide open for some reason.
Seo-joon asked with a tilted head without realizing it.
“Who are you?”
“You! Where the hell did you get that!?”
However, Seo-joon couldn’t speak at her sudden question. He was slightly surprised and pulled himself back.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Where did you get that?”
But she didn’t care, so she came closer.
Seo-joon continued to step back, but it was just a repeat of the same thing.
At this point, Seo-joon was also embarrassed and slowly began to get angry.
“So what the hell…Why do you keep talking informally?”
“If it’s unfair, you can do it, too.”
“What?”
Seo-joon was stunned by her bold words because the woman in front of him looked like a high school girl at first glance. Of course, it was impossible to evaluate the age based on appearance alone.
However, regardless of age, it was not polite to speak informally at the first meeting.
When Seo-joon was going to say something.
“Hey! If you do that all of a sudden, Seo-joon will be surprised!”
Seo-yoon suddenly approached and separated Jimin, who stuck to Seo-joon.
“Let go! I need to know where that came from!”
“Hey!”
Then the two started bickering while Seo-joon watched the scene with ridiculous eyes.
After a while, Seo-yoon, who calmed down Jimin, approached Seo-joon.
“I’m sorry, you must’ve been surprised. She’s not normally like that, but if she’s curious, she won’t stop.”
“Who the hell is she?”
“That’s…”
Seo-yoon continued with an awkward smile.
“It’s Jimin.”
“Jimin?”
“Demon Star disciple I mentioned earlier.”
“…What?”
Seo-joon slowly turned his head and looked at Jimin, who was far away as she was muttering something with a sulky face about what he’s so dissatisfied with.
No matter how many times he looked at her, she looked like a sulky high school girl.
“Are you kidding?”
“It’s true.”
“How? As far as I know, Demon Star disciple in her 40s. More than anything, when I looked online…”
Seo-joon couldn’t speak, but Seo-yoon nodded and answered as if she understood everything.
“In normal times, she changes her appearance. To be exact, she’s maintaining her younger self.”
“Is that possible?”
“It’s not a complete transformation. I just tried image memorization based on the memories imprinted on the body.”
Jimin answered his question.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
However, contrary to what she said, she made it look insignificant then Jimin then pointed at Seo-joon with her finger and shouted.
“You! Where did you get that space pocket?”
“Are you talking about Kibissis?”
Seo-joon tilted his head and lifted Kibissis. Then Jimin ran toward Seo-joon with her eyes lit and began to carefully examine Kibissis like an archaeologist who discovered historical data.
“Oh, how is this possible? Then the circuit will get twisted and space will be distorted.”
Jimin started to say something mysterious while Seo-joon turned his head and asked Seo-yoon.
“Seo-yoon, what did she see?”
“If I hadn’t seen Seo-joon using it, I wouldn’t have known it was a space pocket. But is that so great?”
“It’s great, but… Actually, I don’t know the details either.”
“It’s not just great! It’s crazy!”
Jimin shouted loudly at Seo-joon and Seo-yoon as they could not recognize it.
“In this small pocket, as many as four mana circuits operate at the same time! Space expansion, weight reduction, image memorization, and lastly… Oh, my God! It’s a magic that can’t even be interpreted? How is this possible? What on earth is this pocket made of to withstand four mana circuits? Besides, this is…”
Seo-joon closed his ears when he heard just that much.
He couldn’t understand what she was saying, and it wasn’t something that he was particularly interested in.
But from the viewpoint of a magic scholar Jimin was talking enthusiastically about Kibissis like a scientist who discovered a substance that exceeded the speed of light.
As he watched it quietly, he wondered a little what would happen if he showed Longinus’ spear at the blacksmith of the workshop, which the Sword Saint uses.
Jimin’s passionate speech continued for a long time and eventually ended.
In the end the long heated argument could be summarized as follows.
“This! Sell it to me!”
“Uh, that’s a bit of a problem.”
Seo-joon shook his head with a bewildered expression and Jimin immediately continued.
“Don’t worry about the price. 50 billion? 60 billion? No, I’ll give you 100 billion!”
“What?”
Not only Seo-joon but also Seo-yoon looked surprised at Jimin’s unconventional proposal.
No matter what, 100 billion was an overstatement.
“Uh, sister?”
“Aren’t you shouting too much?”
“Oh, of course, I won’t buy it with my money, but I’m not saying I’ll give it to you right now. I have to get sponsorships from all over the place, but I can still get 100 billion won. Above all, that space pocket is worth more than 100 billion won!”
Seo-joon had nothing to say.
A subspace pocket, which has about 30 pyeong of space, was about 30 billion won so paying 100 billion won for Kibissis was not unreasonable.
Above all, if someone else said it, he would have been angry, saying, “Don’t say nonsense,” but it was possible for Jimin.
And if it’s 100 billion won, not only could he repurchase Kibissis, but he could also buy a lot of individual lectures. It was an amount that could solve Seo-joon’s concerns at once.
“This…is not for sale…”
Seo-joon shook his head with great difficulty.
“What…? You said you needed money, Seo-joon.”
“Why!? I think 100 billion won is enough!”
Then Seo-yoon and Jimin opened their eyes wide and shouted but Seo-joon felt more desperate than them.
In the first place, Seo-joon was thinking of selling Kibissis for just 10 billion won, not 100 billion won.
“Try it.”
When Seo-joon handed over Kibissis to Jimin, Jimin gently accepted it with trembling hands.
“Oh, my”.
As soon as Kibissis touched Jimin’s finger, a strong spark suddenly popped and Jimin missed Kibissis.
Seo-joon said, picking up Kibissis that fell to the ground.
“As you can see, no one can use it except me.”
Seo-joon naturally thought Jimin would give up quickly.
“It’s engraved?”
Jimin had an unusual expression.
“Then there were five mana circuits, not four? This artifact is crazier than I thought!”
Sure enough, Jimin started running wild looking at Kibissis and shouted.
“Where did you get it? No, who the hell did you buy it from? If you tell me that, I’ll give you a billion!”
“……”
Seo-joon saw that she was going crazy.
If he could, he wanted to sell it for 100 billion won right away and go to the Transcendent Store to buy it again. However, Seo-joon swallowed his tears and told Jimin the same thing he told Seo-yoon.
Of course Jimin didn’t believe it straight away. However, when Seo-joon avoided speaking until the end, Jimin no longer asked about it.
Compared to her reaction, she was surprisingly neat so Seo-joon modified his perception of Jimin.
If it was the Sword Saint, he’d show a completely different side of himself. Both first impressions were not very good, but it was something that people would know only after they experienced it.
Then Jimin shouted.
“Then let me research it!”
“Research?”
“Yes, research! Even if it’s engraved, I don’t have to use it. Let me experiment with this and that! Of course I’ll give you money but not 100 billion.”
Seo-joon had no choice but to pause this time.
‘What would happen in this case?’
It doesn’t matter because I’m the one who owns it?
Seo-joon was lost in thought for a moment.
Items bought from the Transcendent Shop can only be used by the one that bought them. If someone else tries to use them the item will reject them but what if it’s just helping someone else research it without handing over ownership and getting paid for it?
‘How does this apply to causality?’
Could it be accepted or it will not be recognized because it was an item bought from the Transcendent Shop?
“Well…”
It was an ambiguous question but if it would be accepted he would be able to make money.
“All right. If you give me money, I’ll help you with your research.”
It was worth a try.
“Yeah!”
With Seo-joon’s permission, Jimin jumped in place while Seo-joon shook his head.
“Then are you going to start right away?”
“Oh, not now. I don’t have any research equipment here. Um…I’ll invite you to the lab through Seo-yoon soon. I don’t have time because I have something else to do now.”
Jimin muttered with a look of great regret. Then suddenly, she made an expression of realizing something and opened her mouth again.
“Oh! Come to think of it, I came here for that, right?”
Seo-joon burst into laughter without realizing it.
“You’re talking about the dungeon distortion, right?”
Jimin nods her head then asked Seo-joon about what happened that day in detail, and Seo-joon answered honestly.
There was no reason to hide it in the first place, and Seo-joon was also quite curious about the distortion phenomenon.
“Hmm… Nerquila was already in the dungeon? But the mana meter didn’t detect it, and then it suddenly fluctuated…”
When Seo-joon’s story ended, Jimin was lost in thought. However, she shook her head as if she could not find a clear answer.
“But you. How did you kill Nerquila?”
Jimin asked and Seo-joon replied with a shrug.
“Well, I was lucky.”
“Luck? Did you catch a six-star monster because you were lucky?”
“That meant I was lucky.”
It was definitely impossible for him to deal with Nerquila only with Reverse Divergence.
Seo-joon wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for Merlin’s mana and the feeling he felt when he clashed with Nerquila.
“Well, Ms. Jimin.”
Seo-joon had an idea in his head.
“It’s not enough, but can I give you an opinion?”
“Opinion? What is it?”
Seo-joon organized his thoughts for a while and continued to talk.
“Magic and Aura are all derived from mana, aren’t they? It’s a matter of how you utilize mana, in other words, how you intervene with the laws of the world through your personal will.”
“So?”
“Then wouldn’t the dungeon’s distortion happen the same way?”
At that moment, Jimin’s eyes changed as she straightened her posture and said,
“Give me a little more details.”
Seo-joon continued.
“Uh— So, assuming that magic and Aura are ultimately ‘distortions’ created using mana, wouldn’t the dungeon’s distortions be the same way?”
Aura was a representative way to bend the laws of the world to one’s will. Literally, a ‘representative’ way.
This meant that there could be other ways besides Aura, so he wondered if the dungeon distortion might be one of them.
“Then the dungeon distortion could be a manifestation of someone’s will.”
In other words, the dungeon distortion might not be a naturally occurring phenomenon, but rather the result of someone’s will.
“Haha, this is just my opinion.”
Seo-joon smirked.
It was literally just his own idea but to begin with, he didn’t know much about the field.
But then.
“…..What are you?”
Jimin didn’t seem to think so.
“What?”
“Who are you? Are you a magic scholar?”
“No. As you can see, I’m an aspiring professional hunter.”
“But what was that explanation just now? Wait a minute. The laws of the world? You can tell the difference between magic and aura like that?”
“Oh, that’s…”
‘It’s Merlin’s idea, not mine’ but naturally, Seo-joon couldn’t say it.
If you think about it, Merlin was a great wizard and a transcendent.
Even though Jimin is a wizard who has surpassed the Demon Star, her knowledge is still far short of Merlin’s but Jimin didn’t know that.
“That subspace pocket… Did you make it?”
A strange misconception about Seo-joon sprouted in her head.
