Chapter 3
A furnace worked by placing raw material inside, heating it with intense fire, removing the impurities, and extracting only what was useful.
Anything could enter the furnace.
But only useful material came out.
The same idea applied to a furnace that remade humans.
Back in the modern world, people sometimes described the military as a furnace that remade people.
It wasn't a place that turned everyone into a useful blade.
The useless impurities were filtered out.
Only useful raw material survived.
That was the true purpose of a furnace.
And that was exactly why the word made me uneasy.
I had a small trauma related to it.
No.
Surely not.
It couldn't be.
I had survived military intelligence.
PMCs.
Countless battlefields.
Even marriage.
I had earned the nickname King of Survival.
But there was still one place I absolutely never wanted to experience again.
Basic training.
Even if someone killed me, I didn't want to go through that again.
"The furnace that remakes people into Demonic Warriors...?"
"Yes. That is what everyone calls the Dark Demon Well."
"Uh... remind me exactly what the Dark Demon Well is again."
I carefully asked Jin Woon, desperately hoping my suspicion was wrong.
Fortunately, everyone believed my memories had been damaged by the explosion.
Jin Woon didn't find my question strange.
"You may truly have forgotten... You hated the idea of going there so much."
"..."
Apparently, the original Cheon Sowol hadn't wanted to go either.
Who would willingly visit a place with a name like that?
Especially someone like me who had already experienced something similar.
"To put it simply, the Dark Demon Well is where warriors of the Divine Cult are sent if they reach a certain age without joining an official organization."
"So if you've learned martial arts, you have to earn your keep?"
"Something like that."
"Then why call it the furnace that remakes people into Demonic Warriors?"
"Because most talented people have already found organizations willing to take them. Those who fail to find a place by a certain age usually..."
"Have a reason for it."
"Correct. People expelled from their previous organizations are also sent to the Dark Demon Well. The same applies to those who have committed crimes or are considered in need of reform."
"So basically, it's a gathering place for the Cult's trash?"
"...You could see it that way. However, it can also be a place where hidden talent is discovered or where someone's potential finally blooms. These days, some people even volunteer to enter the Dark Demon Well."
"Those people are insane."
The more I listened to Jin Woon, the less it sounded like ordinary basic training.
It reminded me more of another kind of correctional training facility.
A brutal government-run reeducation camp.
This is awkward.
Still, I couldn't completely erase the military feeling.
If they gathered people like that in one place, they would obviously work them to the point of collapse.
No.
This was the Demonic Cult.
They might actually work people until they died.
"You cannot judge everyone there so harshly. Without family connections or powerful relationships, it is difficult to obtain important positions in the Divine Cult. For people like that, the Dark Demon Well can become an opportunity."
"Do graduates get treated better?"
"Yes. It depends on how far they progress, but they are guaranteed an objective rank and position based on their abilities. They also receive opportunities to improve while inside. Of course... quite a few people who enter never return."
That sounded familiar.
Even in the modern world, the harsher a training course was, the greater the rewards for successfully finishing it.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult apparently followed a similar system.
The more I heard...
The more it sounded exactly like the military.
In that case...
Another question appeared.
If the Dark Demon Well was basically a mixture of correctional camp and military training...
"Why am I going there?"
That was the obvious question.
Cheon Sowol was the Cult Leader's third son.
His biological son.
This was practically a sacred bloodline.
Wherever humans lived, powerful families avoiding military service was practically a tradition.
Was the Cult Leader worried about accusations of corruption?
Was he trying to show that even his own son wasn't exempt?
But the Cult Leader's position seemed to be lifelong.
So why?
At my question...
"Are you truly asking because you do not remember?"
Jin Woon answered with a deep sigh.
I nodded.
"Alchemy...?"
"...The order came directly from the Cult Leader's Palace. The Third Young Master is to be sent to the Dark Demon Well."
"Haa. I knew it."
It was ultimately self-inflicted.
Falling into qi deviation wasn't his fault.
But everything after that had been disastrous.
He became obsessed with alchemy.
He burned through vast amounts of wealth.
Eventually, even the Cult Leader's Palace stopped supporting him.
When Cheon Sowol continued wasting his life on alchemy...
The final answer they chose was the Dark Demon Well.
The Dark Demon Well had two purposes.
Remove the impurities and discard them.
Or discover valuable raw material.
Which category would I fall into?
They were sending someone who had lost all his martial arts into a place like that.
The answer was obvious.
The first one.
They're telling me to die.
Someone who had lost his martial arts no longer had value.
Especially as the son of the Cult Leader.
This was a place where martial strength represented everything.
Enter the Dark Demon Well proudly.
Then die with honor.
The command from the Cult Leader's Palace was brutally simple.
My father really was impressive.
Even if he led one hundred thousand followers, how could someone be this cold toward his own child?
Then again...
Maybe that was exactly why he had reached such a position.
I was beginning to understand why Cheon Sowol had become so obsessed with recovering his martial arts.
That was the only thing giving him value.
When he lost it...
He had practically lost everything.
"Damn it. Would things change if they knew my body had recovered?"
"An order from the Cult Leader's Palace cannot be withdrawn for any reason."
So I had to survive in a place they were sending me to die.
And I only had one month to prepare.
Should I simply give up because this life was technically a bonus?
Obviously not.
Do you know how hard it was to get this bonus life?
I had to survive.
Again.
"Then there's no other choice. I'll have to break through from the front."
Tap.
The answer was the same as always.
Surviving in a place where people expected me to die was my specialty.
I would show them again.
I put down the towel I had been using to wipe away my sweat and renewed my resolve.
One month.
It could be short.
It could also be long.
The first priority was adapting all my old skills to this new body.
This was Murim.
And the Demonic Cult.
Physical ability would obviously matter most.
Then I needed to master my existing skills completely.
I needed to reach the same level I had possessed in my previous life.
After briefly testing my body, I was confident.
With this body...
One month was enough.
"You've made your decision."
"Yeah. It's not like I have another option."
"I, Jin Woon, will assist you with anything. Simply give the order."
"Let's see... What do I need first? Ah! Weapons. I should take a look at the armory."
"Are you dissatisfied with the sword you used before? I believe several suitable swords remain in your room."
"Well... my martial art changed, right? So I thought I'd change weapons too."
"Hmm. That makes sense. Then I shall go and bring some. What kind would you like?"
"Let's go together. I want to look around. It's been a while."
If I wanted to adapt all my skills to this body, I also needed to practice weapons.
Considering I might soon enter a place where people genuinely wanted me dead, I needed something to protect myself.
My bare hands were useful.
But this was Murim.
Swords and spears were everywhere.
I needed something too.
What kind of weapons will they have?
Apparently, the Divine Cult's armories contained practically every type of weapon imaginable.
Unlike the Central Plains, where swords, sabers, and spears were most common, the Demonic Cult was more open-minded.
Many followers came from foreign lands and regions beyond the Central Plains.
That meant more diverse martial arts and weapons existed here.
I wanted to find weapons that suited me.
If I'm lucky...
Maybe they would even have what I was imagining.
"Uh... perhaps you have forgotten..."
But Jin Woon's reaction suddenly became strange.
"What?"
"Young Master is also forbidden from entering the armory..."
"That too? What does the armory have to do with alchemy?"
"You sold weapons to buy ingredients."
"Ah."
Once again...
Cheon Sowol was sabotaging Cheon Sowol.
"This guy was a real bastard."
"Excuse me...?"
"Ah. Nothing."
Technically, I had cursed myself.
But Jin Woon looked shocked because any insult directed at Cheon Sowol could also sound like an insult toward the Cult Leader's son.
I waved it off and gave up on visiting personally.
"Haa. Fine. Then I'll have to trouble you instead."
"If that is all, leave it to me. What should I bring?"
"Daggers. As many different types as possible."
"Daggers... Hmm. They should work well with the martial art you showed earlier. Understood."
Jin Woon nodded and prepared to leave for the armory.
But once my curiosity about the place had been awakened, it refused to disappear.
I stopped him.
"Jin Woon?"
"Yes, Young Master. Is there anything else you require?"
"The Divine Cult has a lot of weapons, right?"
"Yes... although the areas people can enter depend on rank, so even I do not know everything. I can access the mid-level armory called the Demonic Armory. I have heard that the highest-level storage, the Moon Spirit Vault, contains legendary weapons. You could also commission a weapon directly from Moonfire Hall, which handles production."
"Custom-made weapons, huh. I can't do that right now, can I?"
"Not at present."
Despite the negative question, Jin Woon deliberately answered in a hopeful way.
Not at present.
In other words, if I survived the Dark Demon Well, such things might become possible again.
That was surprisingly motivating.
"Hmm. What kinds of weapons are there?"
"Are you searching for something specific?"
"Not really. I'm just curious."
"Even the Demonic Armory contains many unusual weapons. I have seen weapons from India and the Great Qin lands, as well as weapons from the Southern Barbarians and Luzon."
His answer pleased me.
Actually, I had been trying to ask something else.
I had simply approached the topic carefully.
Now it would sound natural.
"Really? That's pretty diverse. Then... do you have gunpowder weapons?"
"Gunpowder weapons?"
"You know. The black powder."
"Yes. I know of it. Are you speaking of things such as Thunderclap Bombs?"
"Exactly! Things like that."
"They exist."
"Really?"
That was what I had wanted to know from the beginning.
Weapons that used gunpowder.
In simple terms...
Bombs.
And guns.
That was what I truly wanted to ask about.
Explosions were the kind of art that drove men crazy.
Actually, almost anything with the word "explosion" in it had that effect.
Bombs.
Explosions.
Rampages.
Violence.
And certain other things.
A weapon that truly gave a man confidence wasn't always a sword or spear.
Sometimes it was something that went boom.
"Then have you ever heard of a weapon called a gun?"
"A gun? Hmm."
My carefully prepared line of questioning had finally reached the real objective.
Deep down, I wanted firearms.
Between fist arts and sword arts...
I preferred gun arts.
That had been my profession, after all.
I wasn't expecting modern firearms to exist.
I simply wanted to know how far this era's technology had progressed.
Depending on the answer...
I might be able to improve it myself.
During special operations, there were times when carrying a standard firearm was impossible.
In those situations, we sometimes assembled crude improvised guns using nearby materials.
People in intelligence units that specialized in covert operations were expected to memorize basic firearm designs and manufacturing methods.
"If you mean a hand cannon, I have seen one before. Not inside the Demonic Armory, though. Hunters outside the Cult used them."
"A hand cannon?"
"Yes. They were long objects, almost like spears."
"So hand cannons are the most advanced?"
"I have also seen cannons used during ceremonies. Should I check whether the Demonic Armory has those as well?"
"Would using something like that be allowed? Wouldn't the martial world declare me a public enemy? Or the government come after me?"
"...Young Master, the Divine Cult is already considered an enemy of the martial world. The government does not particularly welcome us either."
"Ah."
"Should I bring one?"
"No. Just get the daggers for now. Several kinds. That'll be enough."
"I shall obey."
Jin Woon finally left after patiently answering every annoying question I asked.
The conversation had been short, but I learned a lot.
Simply discovering that this era could manufacture hand cannons was incredibly valuable.
And gunpowder itself had originated in China, so that wasn't surprising.
Honestly, my biggest concern had been whether using such things was somehow forbidden.
In other martial arts stories, people sometimes acted like using gunpowder weapons was an unforgivable crime.
Jin Woon's answer destroyed that concern instantly.
The Demonic Cult was still the Demonic Cult.
It was already considered an enemy of the martial world.
The authorities already disliked it.
If basic hand cannons and gunpowder existed, then using my knowledge to improve them into better firearms wouldn't be impossible.
They would never match modern guns.
Still, even a crude emergency weapon could be useful.
Using an ordinary hand cannon right now wasn't realistic.
If people still called it a hand cannon, it probably required lighting a fuse and loading the projectile manually from the muzzle.
A matchlock.
The classic early firearm with a burning match.
That was already more advanced than a basic hand cannon.
But even that would be practically useless in Murim.
What good was lighting a fuse and loading a bullet while someone was throwing sword energy and blasting palm strikes at you?
I needed something that could already be loaded.
Then I needed to pull one finger.
Bang.
That was the minimum.
Unfortunately, reaching that level would take time.
For now...
It was disappointing that I couldn't bring a gun into the Dark Demon Well.
I could have become the first recruit in Divine Cult history to enter training with a firearm.
That dream would have to wait.
First...
I needed to survive the Dark Demon Well and regain all my rights.
Then...
Then I would definitely become a man who owned at least one gun.
If I was going to survive the dangerous world of Murim, I wanted proper communication equipment.
For now, I focused on adapting the skills I already possessed.
