Murim Login - Chapter 290

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 290
Skill Window
[Secret Manual Creation]
Grade
: None
Restriction
: Martial Arts at Master Level
Description
: The caster can create secret manuals only for martial arts that have reached master level. The deeper your understanding of the martial art, the better the result might be?
Special Notes
: Materials are required to create a secret manual.
I studied the Skill Information window thoughtfully.
Wait, when did I receive this?
‘Was it when I mastered the Jin Family Palm Technique? Or the Jin Family Sword Technique?’
It’s been over a year, so my memory is hazy.
Somehow I’d acquired the skill, but since there was no practical use for it, I’d never activated it even once.
‘Actually, to be precise, it wasn’t that there was no use for it—it was that I had no intention of using it.’
Every time I encountered members of the Peace Guild after returning to the modern world, I occasionally felt that temptation. But each time, my final conclusion was always ‘no’.
‘Why would I expose martial arts and invite such trouble?’
Imagine one person fighting with bronze weapons while another shows up with a steel sword and cuts down everything in sight.
Everyone would envy him, and they’d swarm like a pack of dogs to seize that steel sword.
It’s not that I distrust the Peace Guild members, but at least back then, it was the right call.
‘But now there’s no reason to hesitate.’
Through direct confrontation with Lee Jung-yong and those under his command—Park Ji-hoon and Seok Go-jun—I realized something: there are secrets in the modern world that I don’t know about.
Their movements and mana manipulation were unmistakably similar to those of Murim practitioners. If the enemy is armed with steel swords, we need similar equipment too.
“Phew….”
As I took a deep breath, a foul stench was drawn into my nostrils.
I was currently crouching in a bathroom stall.
The environment was abysmal, but it was perfect for avoiding attention and creating a martial arts secret manual.
‘Well then, let me give this a try.’
I spread out the A4 paper and pen I’d bought from the convenience store inside the hospital.
And I muttered under my breath.
‘Secret Manual Creation skill, activate.’
Ding.
– All materials have been prepared.
–
[Secret Manual Creation]
skill is activated. You can create secret manuals for martial arts that have reached master level.
–
Current list of creatable manuals
: Jin Family Heart Technique, Jin Family Movement Technique, Jin Family Sword Technique.
– Please select the martial art you desire.
Among the martial arts I’ve learned from the Yeolhwa Sect, none have reached mastery.
In contrast, the family martial arts of the Taewon Jin Family are stable, and their power is quite adequate.
From among them, I selected the most fundamental one.
‘Jin Family Heart Technique selected.’
Ding.
[Jin Family Heart Technique]
Will you create this as a secret manual?
Y / N
‘Yes.’
Beep! Beep!
– Insufficient intelligence! Insufficient wisdom!
– Teaching is several times more difficult than learning!
–
[Perfection]
grade martial arts require a minimum of 100 intelligence to create as a secret manual!
“…Damn it. Seriously.”
I opened my status window, tears of blood streaming down my face.
As I invested my precious points into intelligence, my hand gripping the pen moved across the A4 paper like lightning.
Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch!
“Gasp!”
I was shocked twice over.
Once by that incredible speed, and again by the fact that every character being written was in Chinese.
“….”
Damn, this won’t work.
I began searching for the language settings.
* * *
I slid the door open.
I entered the hospital room where the Peace Guild members were gathered. The people huddled together in conversation turned their heads toward me.
“Where did you go that you’re so late… Did you just come back from the bathroom?”
At Song Song-i’s words, pinching her nose, I answered darkly.
“How did you know?”
“The stench was overwhelming.”
“That bad?”
“Yeah. I thought a giant pile of excrement was walking toward us.”
“Thanks for the kind words. I feel so encouraged.”
After spending over an hour in that foul-smelling bathroom stall, my sense of smell had gone numb.
I answered in a voice drained of energy and handed over a bundle of A4 papers stapled together.
“Here.”
“What is this?”
“A love letter for you. I wrote it while having diarrhea.”
“Ugh, bleeegh!”
“Look at that expressive reaction.”
“Bleeegh!”
“….”
That wasn’t a reaction—it was the real thing.
I thought I’d already seen everything, but there was no helping the ache that bloomed in one corner of my heart.
“I loved you….”
“Bleeeeegh!”
“Song Song-i, are you alright?”
Kim Butler, standing closest to the intensifying retching, rushed over as if propelled and patted her back.
In that moment, the A4 paper that Song Song-i had been waving like a flag passed into someone’s hands.
Choi Team Leader, having read the title on the first page, looked at me and let out a soft laugh.
“Jin Family Heart Method? That’s an unusual title for a love letter.”
“The contents inside will be even more unusual.”
“…What?”
“Keep reading.”
Choi Team Leader was quick on the uptake. He immediately straightened his posture and turned the pages with a serious expression.
A pair of eyes moved frantically across handwriting so mechanical it seemed impossible I’d written it myself.
Flip. Flip. Flip….
The speed accelerated, and hot breath poured from between Choi Team Leader’s lips.
Having devoured some ten pages in an instant, he suddenly jerked his head up. His eyes, fixed on me, had swollen like saucers.
“This is…!”
I was quite startled by that reaction.
‘He knows what this is?’
It was called a secret technique, but once I’d actually created it, the Jin Family Heart Method’s secrets were so detailed that someone unfamiliar with it might mistake it for a Chinese medicine text.
It contained the locations of countless meridian points throughout the human body, their functions, and even the pathways for circulating inner force.
Song Song-i would have closed it after a few pages, but Choi Team Leader’s reaction exceeded my expectations.
“Do you recognize what this is?”
“Yes, of course.”
Then, from between his lips, came a designation I’d never heard before in my life.
“This is… a Mana Cultivation Method.”
“Mana, what?”
“A Mana Cultivation Method!”
A Mana Cultivation Method (Mana-練功法)?
Whoever came up with that name certainly had an odd taste.
At that moment, Kim Butler, hearing Choi Team Leader’s raised voice, hurried over.
“Did you just say Mana Cultivation Method?”
“Yes, right here.”
Kim Butler hurriedly flipped through the pages after receiving the secret manual from Choi Team Leader.
It wasn’t long before a similar reaction burst forth.
“Gasp.”
“What is your assessment, Kim Butler?”
“I’m certain of it. It’s unmistakably a mana cultivation technique. But where on earth did you obtain this?”
I brought it from the bathroom.
Choi Team Leader pointed his finger at me.
“Jin Tae-kyung, he….”
“Hunter Jin Tae-kyung?”
Whoosh! Crack!
Before Choi Team Leader could even finish speaking, Kim Butler’s head snapped toward me with a violent sound.
“How does Hunter Jin Tae-kyung possess a mana cultivation technique?”
I answered calmly.
“First of all, I have no idea what a mana cultivation technique is. Naturally, I’m hearing about it for the first time as well. By the way, is your neck alright? I could have sworn I heard the sound of bones breaking just now….”
“Is that what matters right now? This neck—it can break for all I care.”
“…It seems to matter quite a lot, actually.”
What do you mean it doesn’t matter? This old man seems to be getting tougher by the day.
Of course, that only meant this problem was that much more important.
‘So it’s a mana cultivation technique. That’s what Lee Jung-yong learned.’
Being a compound word of sorts, it sounded strange at first, but after muttering it a few times, it rolled off the tongue naturally.
It wasn’t difficult to infer from the meaning embedded in the words that it was an inner cultivation technique used by hunters.
And what Lee Jung-yong and his subordinates had learned was precisely this mana cultivation technique.
“May I ask you to answer my question?”
“Tae-kyung, this is a very serious matter.”
The eyes of both Kim Butler and Choi Team Leader were more grave and solemn than ever.
I rolled my eyes as if genuinely flustered, then delivered the answer I had prepared in advance.
“Well, it’s something my father taught me when I was young….”
“If I may ask, are you referring to your late father?”
“Yes.”
Choi Team Leader furrowed his brow.
“I understand your father was an ordinary person.”
“That’s right.”
“Then how could he possibly know a mana cultivation technique…?”
“He probably didn’t know either. When he taught it to me, he simply said it was a health regimen passed down through our family for generations.”
“What? A health regimen?”
“A mana cultivation technique passed down through the family for generations.”
I pointed to the cover of the manual toward the two men who wore expressions of disbelief.
Four characters written in neat handwriting, like the font of an office document.
[Jin Family Heart Method]
The name alone was perfect.
If Taewon Jin Family exists in Shanxi Province, then the Goyang Jin Family exists in Gyeonggi Province. That’s what I mean.
If we call it a family heirloom passed down through generations, they won’t have much to say about it.
Watching the two of them fall silent, exactly as I’d anticipated, I continued.
“It’s a type of breathing technique. They taught me from childhood that it improves your health. They even made me memorize the oral formulas.”
“It’s similar to mana cultivation methods, but….”
“Could we see the original?”
“After Father passed away, I was too busy to look for it… I searched after moving, but it had disappeared.”
“Ah….”
“How unfortunate.”
“It’s a shame, really. Fortunately, I’ve memorized every single character without omitting a word.”
It’s true that something disappeared. I simply inserted the secret techniques of the Jin Family Heart Method into the mix, even though they never existed.
Perfect destruction of evidence. At the mention that even the original was lost, I could see both their shoulders droop.
‘If they knew this was the original, their expressions would be priceless.’
Everyone imagines martial arts secret manuals in similar ways.
Half-rotted bamboo strips. Ancient books reeking of rat urine.
Forget all that nonsense. I had none of it.
I stacked crisp A4 paper neatly and drove a stapler through it with a satisfying click. Martial artists would be appalled, but for a 21st-century martial arts secret manual, this was exactly what it should be.
“Remarkable, nonetheless. I never imagined something like a heart method would exist.”
“I’ve seen it mentioned a few times in novels and movies. I think they called things like this martial arts.”
“Young Master is correct. Mana cultivation methods are, in a sense, a form of martial arts as well. If you look at this section, doesn’t it say that through circulating vital energy, one accumulates and circulates qi? This is in the same vein as mana cultivation methods….”
Yeah, that’s definitely martial arts.
While I was suppressing the urge to speak, Choi Team Leader asked.
“Then Jin Tae-kyung, you’ve been continuously training in mana cultivation methods—or rather, the Jin Family Heart Method—since childhood?”
“Yes.”
“I apologize for asking, but the results have been less than expected….”
Translated directly, it meant ‘Why did someone like you live as an F-rank Hunter for seven years?’ A sharp question. One I’d anticipated, too.
I opened my mouth with a composed expression.
“As you know, for an F-rank Hunter, I was quite skilled. I graduated top of my class from the Training Facility and received a commendation.”
“Ah, I’ve heard about that. I also know you served as a sub-team leader at your previous guild.”
Even if it was just a small-time guild, F-rank Hunters were treated like punching bags and street garbage everywhere.
It was extremely rare for an F-rank Hunter to serve as a sub-team leader unless they had blood relations with the guild leadership. That’s why my appointment as sub-team leader had been a topic of conversation within the guild for quite some time.
“There was a lot of talk because of it. People complained about seniority, higher-ranked and more experienced Hunters grumbled about cultivation hierarchy… but I proved myself through ability. The reason I could do that was because of the Jin Family Heart Method.”
“Hmm.”
“Looking at it that way, it does seem to have some effect.”
I knew this much wasn’t enough to convince them of my past and the effectiveness of the Jin Family Heart Method.
I smiled faintly and looked at everyone. Song Song-i, who had stopped retching by now, and Lim Hyuk-jun were both watching my mouth with eyes full of curiosity.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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