Chapter 10

Special Clause 7

The registration went through at eleven on Tuesday morning. The clerk at the registry office window tilted her head for a moment as she checked the documents. A purchase price of 140 million with no record of cash payment. When we showed her the set-off agreement, she read it twice and then, without a word, stamped it.

Sillim 9-4. Owners: Na Cheolho, 49/100 share; Han Soyeong, 36/100 share; Bong Mansu, 15/100 share.

"Boss, why do I get more?"

"Take out the fifteen and split the other eighty-five by deposit. You put in eighty million, Ms. Han put in sixty. Rounded to whole numbers."

"Oh, right."

Cheolho came out of the registry office holding the certificate of title in both hands. Han Soyeong put a copy in her clear file. One more index tab.

From there, we went straight to the foot of the hill in 9-dong.

The water in the factory basement still came up to the ankles. This time we wore rubber boots. I bought three pairs at a hardware store. Han Soyeong was in rubber boots and work clothes, and somehow it suited her.

"Is this really a B-rank?"

Han Soyeong asked, shining her phone flashlight on the blue light under the water. It was the same question Cheolho had asked at the office yesterday, but her voice shook a little more. This was Han Soyeong's land now. Land bought with her first-home money.

"I don't know where the vein is either. It only says undiscovered."

"...It says?"

"My gut says, I mean."

I changed my wording. Han Soyeong didn't ask any more. Instead, she started running her flashlight along the walls. Water streamed down every crack in the concrete.

"You said the water gets pulled toward the vein. Then can't we just find where it's leaking the most?"

I looked at Han Soyeong. She was right. The bookkeeper was quicker than the dungeon guy.

The three of us walked along the walls looking for the thickest stream. The east wall and the south wall had thin streams, but on the north wall, in the corner opposite the stairs, the water poured down hardest. The crack in the concrete was open wide enough to fit a finger.

"Here."

While Han Soyeong lit up the crack with her flashlight, I stood in front of it. The listing window hadn't changed; the vein line still just said undiscovered. My eyes would show me the grade and what the resources were, but not where in the wall they were buried.

"Do we have to break through this wall?"

"Won't it collapse if we do?"

"It might."

Just then, Cheolho spoke up from behind us.

"Boss, hold on. Let me take a look."

Cheolho came splashing over in his rubber boots, and two steps from the north wall, he caught his foot on something under the water.

Cheolho fell forward.

Into the wall, to be precise. Both arms stretched out in front, face first. Cheolho's palms hit the open crack in the concrete first. Then his whole weight came down on those palms.

The wall caved in.

A chunk of concrete broke away through the wall along with Cheolho's hands. Cheolho's upper body got half sucked into the hole. While Cheolho screamed, I grabbed his belt and Han Soyeong grabbed his legs, and we hauled.

When he came out of the hole, Cheolho's face was smeared with dirt and water, and his nose was bleeding a little.

"...Sorry. I fell again."

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Just my nose. I fall a lot. It's my skill."

"Your skill?"

"[Luck F]. But instead of luck, all I ever do is fall. I got fired from bag-carrying gigs for falling all the time."

Cheolho wiped the nosebleed with the back of his hand and smiled. An embarrassed smile.

Han Soyeong shone her flashlight into the hole behind Cheolho and caught her breath. Beyond the wall was a small room.

It looked like a space that had been walled off when the dye storeroom was built. Barely big enough for one person to stand in. Water was welling up from the floor and walls of that room. And under the water, in the walls, blue light was embedded.

Blue stones the size of fists were set in rows in the earth of the wall. Each time she moved the flashlight, one more came into view, and the water flowed toward the stones as if being sucked in.

The vein.

Standing in front of it, I looked at the listing window again. The letters in the deposits line had changed. Mid-grade mana stone, vein, discovered.

Undiscovered had become discovered.

Han Soyeong lowered the hand holding the flashlight without a word, and Cheolho, halfway through wiping his nose, peered into the hole.

"...What's that?"

"Mana stones. Mid-grade."

"How much is one?"

"About 3 million won."

Cheolho counted the stones in the hole on his fingers and stopped at five. Deeper in, where the flashlight couldn't reach, faint blue light kept going.

"...Boss."

"Yes."

"Did I find that by falling?"

"Yes."

Cheolho stood still for a long time, then suddenly plopped down into the water. There was the sound of water pouring into his boots, but Cheolho didn't care.

"Boss, I'll work for you!"

"...What?"

"I got fired from carrying bags and I've got nowhere to go. But you can read dungeons, right? And when I fall, I find stuff. We could do it together!"

I looked down at the twenty-three-year-old sitting in the water. His nose still hadn't quite stopped bleeding. Hiring staff was beyond me. I'd only paid half my rent.

But fifteen percent of this dungeon was mine. And the vein had been found.

"...I'll pay you once the mana stones sell."

"Yes!"

On Thursday afternoon, Gap-dol kicked our office door open and came in.

Instead of the checkered jacket, a wrinkled T-shirt and slippers, and on the phone in his hand was a purchase notice from an agency-designated buyer. Five mid-grade mana stones from Sillim 9-4, purchase completed at 15 million won.

"Boss. What is this."

"Mana stones."

"It says they came out of 9-4."

"Yes. Cheolho found them when he fell."

Gap-dol's face went white, then red, then white again. The gentle face was nowhere to be seen.

"Was it a B-rank? You knew, didn't you? You knew and bought it off me for 140 million, didn't you? This is fraud. I'm canceling the contract."

I took a copy of the contract from the binder on my desk. Opened it to page 3. And tapped it with my finger.

"Special clause 7, page 3 of the contract. Did you read it?"

Gap-dol looked down at the contract. The subject property shall be delivered in its condition as of the contract date, and even if subsequent appraisal results or deposited resources are found to differ, neither the seller nor the buyers may, on that ground, demand rescission, cancellation, or any increase or decrease of the purchase price.

"You said you liked it. A clause to protect you."

Gap-dol's mouth fell open. No sound came out.

"And sir. That land was originally an F. It said F on the certified appraisal. The appraisal you brought. We bought it knowing it as an F too. It's written right there in clause 7. The buyers have confirmed the grade (F) stated in the certified appraisal."

Gap-dol crushed the contract in his fist and the paper crumpled. It was a copy. The original was in Han Soyeong's clear file, along with an index tab.

Gap-dol stood there for a long time, then threw the copy on the floor and left. The bell on the door rang violently. This time there was no humming.

I picked up the crumpled copy from the floor, smoothed it out, set it on my desk, and made my fourth coffee mix of the day.

Through the window, I could see Gap-dol walking down the alley. He was calling someone on his phone as he walked, with big gestures. Probably the man up top who fronts the money.

I tapped the copy on my desk once more. Page 3, special clause 7. The contract for that shop in front of Sillim Station ten years ago had no clause like this.

Five mana stones, 15 million won; my fifteen percent came to 2.25 million. I wrote Landlord Kim a text. I used just one period.

Sir, I'll bring the remaining 1.8 million tomorrow morning.

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