100 Floors All Master - Chapter 312

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

All Master of 100 Floors, Chapter 312
71st Floor. The Foolish Blacksmith (3)
The Foolish Blacksmith’s face crumples in displeasure.
“Even after all this time, you’re just as rude and insufferable as ever. Get out! This is my territory. You have no business being here!”
The rejection was sharp and unmistakable. Anyone could see they didn’t get along. The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith winces.
“I didn’t want to come here either. I have no desire to see your withered, shabby form. But I have no choice. Someone of your caliber cannot strengthen him.”
“You’re talking nonsense!”
The Foolish Blacksmith let out a sneer. But Manbyeonggi spoke calmly.
[His words are not mistaken.]
At the resonant voice, the Foolish Blacksmith’s body shudders.
“……That voice. Is it you, sir?”
[It has been a long time.]
“So you truly have entered the Tower. In such a state, no less. How lamentable.”
The Foolish Blacksmith’s demeanor toward Manbyeonggi shifted dramatically—reverent, like a believer standing before a saint.
Manbyeonggi continued.
[If you strike him yourself, you’ll understand what I mean.]
“If he is one you have chosen, then surely he can withstand my hammer strikes. I’ve anticipated as much.”
The Foolish Blacksmith grumbled as he lifted his hammer. Manbyeonggi spoke softly.
[That won’t be the issue.]
The hammer swung toward Kang Jun-hyeok.
In the past, Dang Jung-ryeong would not have survived even one such strike—he would have suffered grave internal injuries.
But what unfolded now was the opposite.
Crash!
The hammer shattered into fragments against Kang Jun-hyeok. A violent repulsion engulfed the Foolish Blacksmith, sending him staggering backward. He covered his mouth with his hand.
“Cough!”
Blood dripped from between his fingers.
The Foolish Blacksmith stared at Kang Jun-hyeok, shock etched across his face.
“What in the world is…….”
“I told you. It’s impossible with your strength.”
The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith spoke calmly.
* * *
“The Foolish Blacksmith. This one is a blacksmith who refines life itself.”
The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith began his explanation.
“He strengthens the human spirit, the body, all manner of power a person possesses. A fool who felt his limits when it came to refining metal and ran away.”
“Say what you like. This is my path.”
The Foolish Blacksmith sneered. The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith’s brow twitched.
“Those hammer strikes are akin to his Divine Authority. But there is a limit—he cannot refine those who exceed his own strength and status.”
The Foolish Blacksmith’s role was to elevate the weak.
Strengthening the strong was impossible.
And Kang Jun-hyeok now was far from weak enough for the Foolish Blacksmith to refine.
“That is your limit. In the end, you can only lift up the powerless. You are of no use to the strong.”
“Shut your mouth.”
The Foolish Blacksmith’s face twisted.
“So what? Did you come here to mock me?”
“No. I came to help.”
“……What did you say?”
“You are one who refines life. And I am one who refines metal.”
The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith spoke with conviction.
“I will forge for you a hammer capable of strengthening him.”
“Ha. You think you can do something for me? How amusing!”
The Foolish Blacksmith sneered. His expression showed no sign of acceptance.
But at the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith’s next words, his eyes widened.
“I have no choice. Whether you face utter failure is not my concern, but this man serves me. I cannot allow him to gain nothing from this.”
“……You serve someone? You, who refused even the Gods themselves?”
“He showed me something fascinating.”
The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith offered a cryptic smile.
The Foolish Blacksmith seemed to deliberate, then spoke.
“There is one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Follow me.”
The Foolish Blacksmith walked across the Withered Ground.
How far had they traveled? Minutes later, a colossal mirror appeared before them.
“That is a mirror that reflects the self. It shows you the realm you aspire to reach—the furthest seat that your existence can touch. If you lack the qualification, you’ll be swallowed by the mirror and plunged into a state of panic.”
Facing that mirror and overcoming it. That was the clear condition for the 71st Floor.
It was never easy. There were many Players trapped here for years on end.
But there was no problem for Kang Jun-hyeok. Manbyeonggi asked as though puzzled.
[You know he could overcome this without difficulty.]
“That’s true. I simply wanted to see it.”
The reflection of Kang Jun-hyeok in the mirror.
Kang Jun-hyeok stepped forward toward the mirror instead of answering.
The mirror was enormous. It was ten times the size of the mirror that other Players faced.
The form of Kang Jun-hyeok reflected in it began to shift.
[Interesting.]
Manbyeonggi’s tone changed.
[I didn’t expect such a form.]
“Huh… what?”
The Foolish Blacksmith was taken aback.
The mirror revealed the ideal realm of its subject.
It allowed one to dimly judge how far one could reach.
As such, what appeared in the mirror was fundamentally similar to the present form. Dragons might become Ancient Dragons, or martial masters might become more refined versions of themselves—most cases followed such patterns.
But what now appeared in the mirror was entirely different.
Something vast, something inexpressible, was reflected in the glass.
It was not the form of a human.
Not the form of a dragon, not of a vampire, not of a martial master.
And it was not the form of the Victors either.
It was something.
Something entirely separate and distinct.
At first glance, one might say that everything was tangled together and broken.
Yet its essence was unmistakably present.
It could be felt clearly even in the twisted and distorted form. As though form were mere appearance, the essence remained unchanged.
The form grew ever larger. The mirror could no longer bear it, cracks beginning to spread. And finally, the mirror shattered.
Crash!
It broke apart into hundreds of fragments, raining down.
Toward the Foolish Blacksmith, who stood dumbfounded staring at what he’d witnessed, Kang Jun-hyeok opened his mouth.
“That should suffice.”
“…Yes. Enough.”
The Blacksmith nodded with a hollow laugh.
* * *
After that, Kang Jun-hyeok had nothing else to do.
After all, they needed to forge a hammer to train him. That fell to the Foolish Blacksmith and the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith.
The two of them set up a Blacksmith Shop and remained there all day.
Inside, quiet voices sometimes rang out as though exchanging opinions, and at other times, fierce voices rose.
“What’s the relationship between those two? It doesn’t look like simple hostility.”
The emotions between them held a mixture of love and hate. Manbyeonggi offered an explanation.
[In the distant past, the old hunchbacked man was the finest blacksmith in the Universe. All the strong ones of the cosmos entrusted their weapons to him. But when a Giant was born, everything changed.]
The appeared Giant surpassed the hunchbacked old man in every way.
[The Giant came to be called the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith. And the old man, outmatched by the Giant, called himself the Foolish Blacksmith. He also abandoned the refinement of metal and heat.]
The hunchbacked old man turned his efforts toward enhancing life itself. Kang Jun-hyeok’s expression grew puzzled.
“If that’s the background, I understand why the Foolish Blacksmith would be hostile to the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith. But what I see is the opposite.”
The emotion the Foolish Blacksmith showed toward the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith was annoyance and irritation. By contrast, the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith’s feelings held clear anger, disdain, and regret.
Manbyeonggi answered lightly.
[Simple enough. The Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith was raised by the Foolish Blacksmith.]
“…What?”
[The hunchbacked old man took pity on an orphan of the Giant race, brought him in, and raised him. As the orphan grew, he showed prodigious talent in blacksmithing. The hunchbacked old man passed on all his techniques and then set out to find a new path. That is the relationship between those two.]
“Wait a minute.”
Kang Jun-hyeok’s face twisted in confusion.
“Then there’s no reason for the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith to be angry, is there?”
[That one grew watching the back of the Foolish Blacksmith. He would feel as one does watching a parent who raised him and then abandoned him. It’s something like a child’s resentment.]
“Just a family quarrel, then.”
Kang Jun-hyeok let out a quiet laugh.
Time passed after that.
Several months drifted by in this way.
The other Players defeated their reflections in the mirror one by one, received enhancement from the Foolish Blacksmith, and departed.
But Kang Jun-hyeok remained bound to this Floor. The hammer that could enhance him was no simple matter, even for the Heaven-Gifted Blacksmith.
He waited while training his own strength. There was no virtue in clearing a Floor quickly—what mattered was what you gained in the process.
And at last, the hammer was complete.
The Foolish Blacksmith came to find Kang Jun-hyeok with a pleased expression.
“It’s ready.”
Kang Jun-hyeok followed the Foolish Blacksmith as though he had been waiting for exactly this moment.
What lay before them was an Altar. The aura contained within the Altar resonated in synchronization with the Foolish Blacksmith and the hammer he held.
“With this hammer and this Altar, I can enhance you. But before that, there is one warning I must give.”
“Please, speak.”
“I am a Blacksmith who enhances life itself. I will hammer your soul, your body, your spirit, all the strength you possess—directly. And it is no easy thing.”
Kang Jun-hyeok’s soul and spirit posed no problem.
But his body was another matter.
He had tempered his Health Points, his Mana, his body, his Internal Energy—all his strength. It was like forging steel. For a body made of flesh and blood to endure was nearly impossible.
“Of course, you are Players. Your bodies are special. But even so, the limit is one or two strikes at most.”
In fact, the stronger one was—like a Dragon or a True Ancestor—the harder it became. Solid matter received proportionally violent shock. In truth, on the 71st Floor, no Player had ever endured more than three Hammer Strikes.
So Kang Jun-hyeok asked.
“What is the maximum number of times you can do this?”
“Hmm…… it won’t be easy, but with that cursed hammer he crafted and the Altar lending its support…… I think I could manage seven strikes.”
“Then I request that of you.”
“What?”
The Foolish Blacksmith’s pupils trembled. Kang Jun-hyeok spoke calmly.
“All seven strikes. I request them all.”

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