Kim Saje, the Gold Hoarder — Part 2
“Gold?”
Kim Saje furrowed his brow.
“That’s just… inefficient.”
What the hell is he talking about?
In the game, didn’t he go crazy for gold anytime he saw it?
I stared at him blankly, and he repeated his point with emphasis.
“A long time ago, there was a similar argument within our church. Since our god is the God of Wealth, they suggested we should offer gold as a sacrifice instead of cash, just like in the old days.”
“And then?”
“It was found to be too inefficient. Sure, the god would grant divine power, but burning money was much more effective. If you compared the amount of divine power gained, burning cash yielded way better results. After that, all the priests who pushed for offering gold were declared heretics and excommunicated.”
This is strange.
In the game, it was definitely gold…
I wrinkled my brow, trying to recall more details.
Arcane Seoul is a mobile game, and the finer points like this often weren’t well-explained.
You’d only figure things out if you carefully read all the dialogue and character descriptions.
‘Back then…’
I remembered Kim Saje’s personal quest was about his reinstatement into the church.
I vividly recalled the argument over heresy within the church, with accusations flying between factions.
And Kim Saje had explicitly mentioned something.
He said that gold had to be offered.
It had to be burned… but there was something more after that…
‘Ah!’
I finally remembered.
“You can’t just burn it.”
“What?”
“Burning gold doesn’t do anything. If you really want to do it right, you have to melt it and turn it into a gas.”
“Melt it into a gas? But we’ve done that before.”
They vaporized it?
Gold’s boiling point is nearly 3,000 degrees Celsius, isn’t it?
These fanatics… once they get obsessed with something, there’s no stopping them.
Now it all made sense.
Of course they would think it’s inefficient.
Generating heat beyond 3,000 degrees is no small feat.
Even in modern times, you’d need something like a rocket engine to reach that kind of temperature.
To do it on a smaller scale, it would take enormous magical energy and resources.
A classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.
But from what I knew, there was no need to vaporize gold.
“Burning it is the mistake. As you said, it’s too inefficient. From what I’ve heard, you don’t need to boil it—you need to melt it, mix it into tea, and drink it.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’ve never heard of that.”
“I’m sure. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“Who did that?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“That sounds like something a heretic would say…”
“Heretic? If that were true, would that person still have divine power?”
I was confident.
In the game, this is how you resurrected your god!
Kim Saje kept muttering about how it sounded like heresy.
Heresy, my ass. You’re practically a cult at this point.
I almost said it aloud, but bit my tongue.
Kim Saje was one of the few genuinely kind and straightforward characters in Arcane Seoul.
There was no need to antagonize him. Helping him out wouldn’t hurt me.
“Maybe your method is wrong.”
“Don’t talk nonsense! Our church has spent thousands of years refining this method! Do you know how much effort it took to develop it? You think it’s wrong?”
“Think about it. I respect the effort your church has put in. It’s no small feat that your religion survived for over 3,000 years even after your god’s death. That’s impressive. But don’t you think there might be a reason why your god hasn’t been resurrected yet? Why he hasn’t even regained his name?”
A calm but direct strike of facts.
“Grrr!”
Kim Saje’s face flushed with anger, and he stomped his foot.
But he couldn’t refute what I’d said.
His god wasn’t just dead; even his name had been forgotten.
That was the greatest weakness of Kim Saje’s church.
“And think about it—why would a god accept fiat currency as a sacrifice? A god of wealth should accept tangible goods, like gold.”
“Eating and offering are two different things.”
“No, they’re not. A priest’s digestive system functions as an altar. Just like how burning sacrifices erases their physical presence, gold would be digested, vaporized, and sent directly to your god.”
“That’s absurd. How could you digest gold?”
“Oh, come on. If you don’t believe me, just try it once.”
I slapped my chest in frustration.
I couldn’t blame him for being skeptical.
His god was killed, his church fell into disarray, and inquisitors began hunting down his followers, all while their knowledge was lost.
If the god were still alive, even in a weakened state, divine power and miracles might have been enough to keep the church afloat. But with the god dead, the cycle of failure repeated itself, until even the god’s name was forgotten.
The church wasn’t a tenacious religion that thrived on persecution; it was just another minor deity cult that shrank rapidly in the face of adversity.
The fact that it survived this long was a miracle in itself.
Kim Saje scratched his head furiously.
I could tell he was trying to process the idea of consuming gold.
It looked like he had connected it to something else he’d heard or read before.
“Just hearing it sounds blasphemous.”
“Well, that’s how your god died, isn’t it?”
“…You really know a lot.”
“If you keep doing things the same way, nothing will change. Do you even have any 4th-level superhumans in your church?”
“Well…”
“Think about it. Your church has been around for over 3,000 years. How can the highest-ranking member be stuck at level 3? You don’t even have archbishops or patriarchs, do you?”
“Ugh…”
“Even the tiniest, most obscure sects—hell, even some cults—have at least one 5th-level superhuman. Even dead gods and forgotten gods can produce that much power. What about your church?”
“Hah… I can’t argue with that.”
“I’ll tell you this with complete confidence. The reason your church hasn’t produced any high-level superhumans is that the training method—the prayer method itself—is wrong.”
“But before we started burning money, we didn’t even have level 2 superhumans.”
“I’ll give you that. It’s clear that vaporizing gold is highly inefficient. But if you found a more efficient method by switching to burning money, don’t you think it’s possible to find an even better method by consuming gold?”
“Oh…”
Kim Saje looked like he was finally coming around.
Good, he was on board.
It wasn’t easy getting him to this point, but once this succeeds, he’ll be a great ally for the future.
Kim Saje’s church has a ton of quests tied to it in Arcane Seoul.
I stood up for a moment.
“I’ll go grab a small gold bar. Let’s test it.”
“W-wait! What if you’re wrong?”
“What’s the big deal? If you and I keep quiet, no one will know.”
“Y-yeah, but… hold on!”
Ignoring him, I left the villa.
I went down the hill and stopped by a gold shop.
I bought a 1-don gold bar. (TL Note: About 3.75 grams)
The price of living essentials is cheap in this world, but gold is three times more expensive than in the real world. It cost me 1.3 million won. As I walked back, I kicked at a cracked sidewalk block.
‘This is an investment.’
Just gold alone wouldn’t be enough.
I also stopped by Shinwon Market to buy a special cauldron.
A cauldron typically used by wizards for brewing potions.
It could supposedly withstand up to 2,000 degrees Celsius.
‘A gas range can go up to 1,500 degrees, so that should be more than enough.’
The melting point of gold is around 1,000 degrees.
Ideally, I would use a magical furnace with the cauldron, but magical furnaces were way too expensive.
This would have to do.
When I returned to the Qi Clinic, Kim Saje was pacing around nervously like a puppy about to have an accident.
“U-uh, Superhuman?”
Kim Saje gave me an awkward look as soon as he saw me.
“I’ve been thinking, and I really don’t think this is right.”
“Why not?”
“Well, what if we get caught? I could really be excommunicated. How about I ask the priest who baptized me and the bishop above me for advice? We could hold a council and decide the best course of action.”
That would be the proper way to handle it, yes.
But how long do you think it would take for a secretive, cult-like organization to gather their scattered members and hold a council?
Five years? Ten?
More likely, by the time Arcane Seoul’s Episode 1 began.
That’s the starting point of the game.
I don’t have the luxury to wait until then.
I couldn’t leave Kim Saje stuck at level 1.
“You’re disappointing me.”
I shook the gold bar and the cauldron in front of him.
“I spent 1.3 million won of my own money on this gold bar and 1 million on this cauldron.”
“One point three million? And what kind of cauldron costs a million won?”
“This is a special cauldron for wizards. It conducts heat perfectly and can handle extreme temperatures without a problem. If I return these, I’ll lose money on the refund fees. Do you want to pay me back for that?”
“I never asked you to buy them…”
“Exactly. So let’s just give it a shot. There’s no harm in trying. If it works, great. If not, I’ll take the loss.”
Kim Saje hesitated but finally nodded.
“Phew… alright. But you have to promise to keep this a secret.”
“Of course. And if it works, don’t forget the part I played in it.”
“I still feel like this is a bad idea… but fine.”
Now, it was up to Kim Saje.
After fidgeting for a bit, he finally started moving.
First, he took the gold bar I handed him and placed it in the cauldron in front of the idol.
He recited a prayer and blessed the gold with divine power before putting the cauldron on the gas stove.
Ssssss!
The stove was cranked to its maximum output.
It took a long time, but eventually, the cauldron heated up, and the gold began to melt.
The 1-don gold bar, just 3.75 grams, turned into a small pool of molten gold at the bottom of the cauldron.
Once it cooled a bit, he scraped it into fine gold dust with a spoon.
The final step was mixing the gold dust into the tea that had been prepared earlier.
Kim Saje sighed as he watched the process.
“I still don’t know about this…”
“Just trust me.”
“Will this really work?”
“If I’m right, your divine power will surge the moment you drink it. Focus carefully to see if your god responds.”
Kim Saje stared at the cup for a long time.
Finally, he brought it to his lips.
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he drank.
The tea had long since cooled, so it went down smoothly.
After drinking the entire cup of gold-infused tea, Kim Saje froze in place.
His eyes went wide, staring into empty space.
His body stiffened, turning as rigid as a plank of wood, or a dried lump of clay, completely still.
See? Told you it’d work.
I watched him calmly as I sipped my own tea.
His hair, which had always shimmered with a metallic sheen, now began to glow faintly, like the soft glimmer of raindrops.
A faint aura of light spread around him, only to suddenly disappear.
At the same time, Kim Saje slowly collapsed.
“Guh! Grrr…!”
It only lasted a moment.
Soon enough, Kim Saje regained his senses and sat up, his face glowing with clarity.
“See? I was right, wasn’t I?”
“Haha…”
Kim Saje let out a hollow laugh as he stared at me.
“You were right. I can’t believe we went through all that trouble when this method was right in front of us… What did you say? One point three million won?”
“Two point three million, including the cauldron.”
“That two point three million was worth more than all the money I’ve burned so far.”
He looked completely dazed.
He’d probably entered what you’d call post-enlightenment fatigue.
I couldn’t blame him.
The amount of money they must have burned up until now was probably enormous.
And across the entire church? It must have been staggering.
“Oh, and here.”
Kim Saje handed me the bundle of Shin Saimdang bills he’d doused in gasoline, along with the untouched 100 million won.
“What’s this for?”
“How could I take your money after you’ve shown me something this valuable?”
“It’s fine. It’s already yours.”
“No, really, I can’t take it. If I do, my god will punish me.”
When a priest-class superhuman is this adamant, refusing isn’t the right thing to do.
Reluctantly, I stuffed the money back into my golf bag.
Well, the gasoline-soaked bundle went into a separate pocket, of course.
But that wasn’t the end.
Kim Saje started rummaging around his clothes and pulled out a small necklace.
It was just an old medieval silver coin with a hole drilled through it, hung on a string of tough magical thread.
“Take this.”
“Wait, this is a holy relic, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I think you deserve at least this much.”
“No, no, that’s too much…”
“It’s fine, really. I’d feel bad if I didn’t give you something.”
He forced the necklace into my hand.
I hesitated for a moment.
In the game, this holy relic—or more like an accessory—had appeared already broken.
Still, I remembered it had decent stats and lasted me quite a while.
Truth be told, this would be more useful for Kim Saje than for me.
‘Oh, to hell with it.’
I’m greedy.
And I’m a realist.
I helped him out because I calculated it would benefit me, after all.
No need to act coy now.
I decided to stay true to my nature.
“Thank you. I’ll make good use of it.”
“Yes. My god will be pleased.”
Kim Saje smiled innocently as he placed the necklace in my hand, completely unaware of my ulterior motives.
Under our clasped hands, the necklace glimmered faintly.
Carrying the trait [Healing] within it.
–TL Notes–
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/MattReading
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt