Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 250
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 250
Laying down flat, solid stones and applying clay on top.
Then laying flat stones on top of that again.
A wide and long foundation was built.
Then walls were erected on top, a roof was made, and everything was sealed with clay without gaps.
After two days of effort to build it and a full 8 days of drying, perfectly dried bricks go into that kiln.
“Careful!”
“If even one breaks, you’re dead! I’ll crack your skull!”
“Shut up and just carry them! My back hurts!”
They stack them one by one carefully. Piling them up like a tower with slight gaps so fire and air can flow through.
‘At first, they simply fired them in flames.’
Kilns that would burst and collapse at the slightest provocation. It took a long time to reach the idea of making bricks to fire.
‘But the defect rate was too high.’
Even after firing, they would dissolve in water or crumble.
If they fired 10, only 1 or 2 would barely be salvageable.
But they couldn’t give up.
When they built kilns with those few salvaged bricks, the kilns didn’t burst as easily. Previously, if they built 10 and 6 would burst, with brick-built ones only 2 or 3 would burst or collapse.
They also lasted longer.
This was it.
The Kiln Workers thought again. How could they reduce the defect rate further?
Then their attention turned to the kilns they had been building all their lives.
Right, let’s try firing them in a kiln.
‘They thought firing pottery and firing bricks were the same thing anyway.’
The defect rate improved noticeably.
If they fired 10, they could salvage 7 or 8 of them.
They were even harder.
When they built kilns with those salvaged bricks, maybe only one would burst occasionally.
‘Let’s reduce even this.’
From then on, the Kiln Workers devoted all their energy to making bricks.
‘And…’
“Eventually they changed the form of the kiln itself.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“I’m talking about the development of traditional ceramic kilns. Kilns weren’t developed to fire pottery well, you see.”
Stop!
Inside the kiln, everyone who was carrying and stacking bricks stops and looks at Johann, who is stacking bricks in the innermost area.
Someone asks in a trembling voice.
“Is this like which came first, the chicken or the egg…?”
“The facts are in the Kiln Workers’ diary that Professor Evelyn and the others have.”
Whether it’s true or not is unknown.
The ‘Kiln Worker’ had simply heard it that way.
‘There’s no time to read through everything one by one.’
The real facts could be verified later by taking the time.
“Anyway, the Kiln Workers changed the form of kilns to fire bricks well, to make better bricks.”
They changed the clay and changed the stones too.
They found and changed everything needed for kilns.
For them, the problem wasn’t whether pottery fired well, but whether kilns wouldn’t burst.
“If it burst once, heads would roll, people would become crippled, or fortunes would disappear – would pottery be the problem?”
Some Kiln Workers would stay by the kiln controlling fire and air until all the pottery was fired.
In other words, if it burst, he would be the first to die.
For Kiln Workers, it was a matter of survival.
“So, so they made kilns to fire bricks well… but when they tried firing pottery, masterpieces came out?”
“That’s right.”
As this was repeated, eventually this Ascending Kiln was created.
An Ascending Kiln with multiple chambers connected in steps along a diagonal slope.
“Of course, when firing in the very first chamber, it’s not a form for thin pottery but a form where fire shoots up along the slope.”
Because stronger heat was needed to fire thick bricks.
“Wow…”
“This is the last one!”
“Oh, we’ve stacked them all.”
They crawl out of the kiln, bending their backs.
After blocking half the entrance with well-dried firewood, Professor Evelyn holds out a torch.
“How many do you think we can salvage?”
“Well… we’ll have to leave that to heaven.”
Even salvaging just half would be enough to make a pottery kiln.
‘The Kiln Workers used to hold ceremonies praying for good results…’
Do we really need to hold a ceremony?
Isn’t there an alternative method?
As Johann was thinking whether to do it or not, something Mason had said once came to his mind.
“Anyone want to eat meat grilled over wood fire?”
The so-called fire kiln 3-second pork belly.
“It’s Korean, they say it’s grilled quickly over wood.”
Along with alcohol.
‘Couldn’t that count as a ceremony?’
Swoosh swoosh!
At the people raising their hands, Johann giggled and shoved the torch into the pile of firewood.
Crackle, snap! Whoosh!
The fire began to reveal its blazing red body.
* * *
All the ceramics students watch the kiln spewing hot heat. They spread out notebooks, laptops, tablet PCs, etc. to record the timing of opening and closing air holes.
One by one, they learn the sensation of temperature and timing with their whole bodies.
A full four days like that.
Drizzle!
Just as the drizzle that fell takes away the remaining heat from the kiln, the kiln entrance collapses.
Crash! Bang! Rumble!
“Puff!”
Ash powder and hot heat billowing up.
“Huh?”
The students following Johann stop in shock, but Johann waves his hand as if it’s nothing and goes inside, picking up the two closest bricks.
The hardness felt at his fingertips, the weight felt at his wrists.
The color and smell brushing past his nose.
A bright smile blooms on Johann’s face.
The ‘Kiln Worker’ gets excited.
‘They fired properly!’
If the first kiln, where the fire is strongest and defect rate highest, turned out this well, there’s really reason to be hopeful.
As Johann quickly comes out to report this result, everyone stares intently at the bricks.
“Watch carefully.”
These are properly made bricks.
Johann struck the two bricks together in mid-air.
Clang clang! Thud thud!
“…Oh, shit!”
“Wow!”
At the sound like thick hollow metals colliding, everyone feels their hair stand on end with thrills as they stare intently at Johann.
Johann grins.
“Remove all the bricks. Now let’s build a ceramic kiln.”
By removing the bricks, they would imprint the feel of properly fired refractory bricks into their bodies.
“Yes sir!”
“Let’s go in!”
As the students rush inside in a crowd, Johann stops Professor Evelyn who’s trying to follow them in.
“Has the kaolin arrived?”
The kaolin sent from Korea.
“Yes! It arrived earlier! So let’s talk about that later! Kids! Shouldn’t the professor get to touch it first-!”
“…I wonder if they put it in the studio.”
Since the kiln was as good as completed, now it was time to make ceramics.
* * *
The Boy loved touching clay.
Clay that could become anything when water was added.
People, animals, houses, even royal palaces could be made from clay.
It could be said that the Boy becoming a potter was destiny.
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
“How dare a young brat touch the potter’s wheel!”
The Boy felt wronged by the kick that struck his entire body.
‘You bastards! I’m also an 8-year veteran!’
Three years carrying water.
Three years scooping and drying clay.
Two years kneading and shaping clay.
A full 8 years of rolling around like a dog doing menial tasks.
The 6-year-old kid had become 14 years old.
Still, since the Pottery Workshop Leader wouldn’t give permission, he secretly made a few plates and slipped them among the plates made by other potters, and that became his downfall.
“If you secretly touch the potter’s wheel one more time, I’ll break your wrists! Hawk, ptui!”
As the potters who had been beating him left, the Boy gritted his teeth.
“Bastards. If your skills are lacking, you should work harder!”
The potters who caused this mess when their eyes rolled back at the leader’s question about who made these plates.
It was unfair. Guys who were nothing in terms of skill were pushing him around with age and seniority.
Stomp stomp!
“You’re really useless.”
“Master Potter!”
Master Potter, the term meaning the head of the pottery workshop.
The approaching Master Potter throws the plate the Boy made.
“That should cover the wages for your work so far. Take it and get lost.”
Clatter!
“Why, why are you doing this! You know when you see the pottery I made!”
It was better pottery than any made by the potters in this workshop.
“If it were me, I could make this pottery workshop better…”
“That’s your problem.”
“…Pardon?”
The Boy couldn’t understand the Master Potter’s words.
That’s when a Man poked his head over the wall of the pottery workshop.
“A student surpassing his teacher, yet a teacher too small-minded to see beyond his nose… Listen here, Master Potter. If you’re going to kick out that child, give him to me.”
That was the meeting between the Boy and his Teacher.
“Earthenware and porcelain have the same foundation but aim in different directions, so you must learn how to find water all over again.”
He had to carry water again for another year.
Saying earthenware and porcelain use different clay, he had to handle clay for 2 years.
“You’re still far off. Knead the clay again.”
“Why!”
The Boy who had become a Young Man couldn’t understand.
“How different are mine and yours, Teacher!”
The Young Man pointing at white porcelain that looked exactly like what his Teacher made couldn’t understand.
What exactly was so different that he had to do that again? If this was how it would be, why did he bring him here in the first place?
At such resentment from the Young Man, the Teacher made a pitying expression.
“Gyeong, porcelain is like a mirror, just like your name.”
A mirror that reflects the inner self completely.
“When your heart is this chaotic, how could good porcelain emerge? Touch the clay again and discipline your mind.”
“…Ha! You’re just the same, Teacher!”
Just like the Master Potter of the pottery workshop who tried to kick him out because he feared his skills.
He shouldn’t have followed such a narrow-minded person. He shouldn’t have suffered like a dog for another 3 years.
The Teacher pitied the trembling Young Man even more.
“Go and shape some clay.”
Creak! Thud!
Seeing the closing door, the Young Man gritted his teeth.
‘Now I’m done.’
Anyway, he had learned everything he needed to learn by watching over shoulders.
How to build and handle kilns, how to distinguish good glazes.
He had memorized how to make not just white porcelain but all types of ceramics.
“I’ll make you beat the ground in regret someday, Teacher.”
The Young Man with eyes full of venom left the house the next day when his Teacher was out, taking everything he could carry.
But…
“Kyaah!”
“Ahhh!”
“せ! え!(Kill them! Take everything!)”
‘Why, Japanese Invaders?!’
“をまえろ!(Catch that guy!)”
The Japanese Invaders who spotted the Young Man trying to flee in terror rushed at him, and the Young Man fell before getting far.
A Man in armor stands before him, raising his sword and saying.
“You, do you have any skills?”
Flinch!
Though it was shocking that a Japanese Invader spoke Joseon language, the Young Man desperately shouted to survive.
“Por, porcelain! I can make porcelain!”
“Oh? You can make ceramics?”
“Yes, yes!”
“だ. をつけてえ.(He’s an artisan. Handle him carefully.)”
“はい!(Yes!)”
The outbreak of the Imjin War, the Young Man was captured by the Japanese and headed to Japan.
Five years passed like that.
“Ohhh! As expected of Master Kagami!”
The young genius potter who made all of Japan buzz with excitement.
One artwork he made was worth nearly the price of a decent house.
“Such beautiful colors!”
“I hope it pleases you.”
The Young Man who withdrew carrying chests full of money twisted his lips as he watched the lord’s servants bow to him.
‘Wealth and honor are so easy to obtain, so why did my teacher live in that shitty Joseon without receiving proper treatment?’
Thus the young man became arrogant.
He shouldn’t have.
10 years, 20 years, 30 years.
As time passed, the young man became middle-aged, then elderly.
The young genius potter became an old, faded has-been.
The palace-like house became a dilapidated home where even collapsed mountain walls couldn’t be repaired.
The luxuries within arm’s reach had ruined him completely.
Then one day came.
“Teacher! How is what I made!”
A young girl who caught his eye as he came out in good spirits from winning at gambling. The moment he saw the dark brown bowl made by the girl he had brought as a servant, lightning struck his mind.
“…So this is what you meant, Teacher.”
“What?”
“Now I think I understand what you meant by those words.”
‘When did I become like this?’
He wept bitterly, looking at his hands trembling from alcohol.
As his teacher had said, ceramics truly were a mirror of the heart.
* * *
Squish! Squish!
The water-soaked kaolin clay crumbles in Johann’s hands.
‘To avoid going to gambling dens, he cut his Achilles tendon.’
He cut his tongue to quit drinking.
Even so, to erase from his mind the arrogance he still held, the past glory, he carried water.
Limp, limp.
‘Brushing away his disciple’s helping hand, he carried water every day.’
To restore his trembling hands to their original state, he kneaded clay with that water daily, then threw the clay away.
Even knowing his disciple secretly took that clay to make pottery, he turned a blind eye. He taught everything about ceramics.
‘For 10 years like that.’
Even as such a long time passed that his disciple eventually possessed skills surpassing his own youth, he didn’t make a single piece of pottery.
Then on a snowy day, finally realizing that the anguish had disappeared from his heart, he began making pottery at last.
‘The first was for his teachers.’
The master potter of the pottery workshop and his teacher who was a potter.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
He shapes the form while turning the wheel.
‘He made it with feelings of respect, regret, and farewell.’
Next was for his arrogant young self.
‘He made it with feelings of reproach, self-blame, and regret. Then he broke it.’
Crack! Smash!
He breaks the pottery pieces with fine cracks, not even bisque-fired.
‘Next he made it for the realization that came too late and for the farewell of his disciple who wouldn’t become independent despite surpassing his teacher’s skills.’
Whoooooosh!
He blocks the opening of the kiln spewing lava-hot flames.
‘And he broke it.’
For his disciple’s independence.
To set an example as a teacher.
Clang! Crack!
He makes a thousand pieces of pottery, bisque-fires them, then breaks 950 of them.
‘Only after pouring out all his lingering attachments did he finally mix the glaze.’
His long-forgotten name, only after his heart became as clear as a mirror did he mix the glaze and apply it to the pottery.
Hoping it would become as clean as his heart, even forgetting such hopes.
Like a clear breeze wiping sweat from the forehead on a bright sunny day, like the pine wind moistening the chest on an autumn day, like touching the full moon floating high in the sky looking down.
He applied the glaze and put it in the kiln.
Thus he poured in his life’s final flame, his soul.
Days later, everyone looks at the kiln where not even warm heat can be felt.
Crash!
The entrance of the pottery kiln revealed as it crumbles.
Students wearing masks and white gloves enter inside.
Without opening their mouths, they reverently line up and carefully pass the pottery with remaining warmth one by one outside the kiln.
Their eyes tremble.
Did they truly make this themselves?
Tears flow. The past month flashes through their minds.
Then their breath stops.
Everyone trembles at the pottery shining more brilliantly in the sunlight, the white moon jar porcelain with no patterns drawn on it.
“Crazy.”
“Oh my God.”
They restored it.
It has returned.
The beauty of the past that was lost long ago, that couldn’t be fully passed down due to various reasons and distortions.
The artwork born from imperfection.
The goal they had been striving for.
It exists in their hands, emanating warm heat and fully revealing its presence.
“Jo, Johann. Wh, what’s this called?”
“Mirror.”
The final work created by the ‘Potter’ in his lifetime.
The treasure that the ‘Potter’s’ disciple presented to Tokugawa Ieyasu, shaking all of Japan, but was later lost due to subsequent wars, with only its name remaining.
Mirror, Kagami, Gyeong .
‘Ha, it really took a long time.’
This is why he didn’t want to make pottery, but he ended up making it anyway.
‘But now that I’ve made it like this…’
Now it seems there would be no hesitation in starting photography.
Johann’s eyes lit up as he looked at the white porcelain pieces that followed.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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