He Became the Genius Blacksmith of the Namgung Family - Chapter 4
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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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Chapter 4
Episode 4
The Namgung Family’s finest blacksmith forge, Cheongeumjeong.
Starting today, it would become exceptionally busy.
“Orders have come down from the family head to forge 100 swords for the newly organized martial unit of the Namgung Family! They’re launching in a month, so deliver them within at least 3 weeks!”
A time-limited task personally assigned by the master of the Namgung Family to his workers.
The total number of swords to be made within that deadline was 100.
If they were ordinary swords, they could finish them all within 3 weeks and dance merrily on top of them.
However, the one giving the production orders was none other than the ‘family head.’
Moreover, there was the prerequisite that these were for the new martial unit’s launch ceremony.
Ordinary swords?
Impossible!
At minimum, they had to be superior grade!
Medium grade?
Cheongeumjeong has its reputation!
How could they decorate a launch ceremony with medium-grade products?
Only superior-grade products would be sent out!
“Damn it, we’ll have to work ourselves to death making these!”
“Call in everyone who’s resting!”
“Starting today, we work all night!”
“Divide the tasks! Split up smelting, casting, and crafting stages! That’s the only way we’ll barely meet the deadline!!”
Thus, all the master-level blacksmiths of Cheongeumjeong threw themselves into the work.
The forge’s furnaces spewed flames daily, and the hammer sounds echoing everywhere along with the masters’ shouts became like thunder.
Having a sword break cleanly in half while demonstrating martial arts at the first launch ceremony?
There would be no greater humiliation than such disgrace.
So to make proper superior-grade swords within 3 weeks, even grinding their souls wouldn’t be enough!
Namgung Cheon-gang was no exception.
“Let’s see, my assigned task was to make about 30 steel ingots within one week, right? Phew. I’ve slept enough.”
It was an absurd workload.
But it was a number vaguely possible for a master of Cheongeumjeong who possessed internal energy.
Well, he’d probably have to lie down for several days after completing the work.
It was fortunate he had awakened.
“Otherwise, those few days could have become several weeks…”
Groaning with a pained sound, Namgung Cheon-gang moved to start smelting wrought iron.
As soon as the task assignment to make steel ingots came down, his forge’s furnace was already prepared to melt pig iron chunks.
Pig iron was hard but had the property of breaking easily.
Naturally, weapon crafting was difficult with it.
This stage was originally the process of making wrought iron to create steel.
Whoosh, whoosh!
He blew air with the foot bellows to raise the flame temperature to maximum.
Roar!
Soon the heat reached its peak.
The pig iron in the crucible began melting over time.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Swish, swish.
Namgung Cheon-gang continued working the bellows with his foot while stirring the pig iron in the crucible with a stirring rod.
He had long since removed his upper garment due to the forge’s heat.
His bronze skin and distinct chocolate abs exposed to the world became drenched in sweat.
Still, without stopping, he silently moved the stirring rod.
This was the decarburization process.
He had to concentrate since most of the carbon had to disappear through this.
Pop, pop.
Whenever the molten metal stirred by the rod met air, bubbles rose up and burst.
A phenomenon indicating carbon was being removed.
‘Only when the bubbles disappear and it changes into a sticky, thick mass will pure iron components remain.’
Truly tediously boring and arduous work.
However, it was essential work that had to be done to make a proper sword.
A long time passed.
When the molten pig iron he’d been stirring visibly changed into a sticky, thick mass.
“Good, wrought iron bloom has been made.”
This meant only pure iron components remained.
But it wasn’t over yet.
It was still insufficient to call it wrought iron.
The wrought iron bloom still contained slag.
Slag was non-metallic waste created when impurities contained in ore combined with flux during the iron-making process.
Simply put, it was the byproduct mass left after extracting pure iron from iron ore.
Only after removing this slag would it become true wrought iron.
The problem was that this process was also considerably tedious and arduous.
How nice it would be if steel smelting were easy?
Well, since the blast furnace was crude, it was natural.
How could this era’s blast furnaces match modern technological blast furnaces?
“It’s like telling a third-rate martial artist to fight and win a one-on-one duel against a supreme master.”
Since the current technology was different, there was no choice but to grind in labor power.
“Even if I grumble, I have no choice but to do it.”
Namgung Cheon-gang used fire tongs to grab the wrought iron bloom mass and placed it on the anvil.
Then he lifted his hammer and struck down forcefully.
Clang! Clang!
The bloom that had rapidly hardened upon meeting air made metallic sounds with each hammer strike as black chunks flew out.
This was the ‘refining’ stage where slag disappeared and iron purity increased.
The hammer fell dozens of times toward the bloom.
Like a sword master who had reached enlightenment striking down, there wasn’t a single error.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Ding! Ding!
Status window notification sounds mixed in with the hammer sounds striking the bloom.
However, Namgung Cheon-gang paid no attention.
He only stared at the bloom beyond the translucent status window, focusing solely on slag removal.
It was intense concentration.
Complex actions of working the bellows while stirring with the rod.
The patience to stir molten metal for hours and the insight to check the metal’s consistency.
Plus incredible concentration on top of that.
The reason he became a master-level blacksmith at age 12 included his 21st-century past life experience, but also because he had the ‘true blacksmith’s talent’ to encompass it all.
From his past life to his present life, he was a born blacksmith.
As time passed and he hammered not just dozens but thousands of times.
Thud.
Namgung Cheon-gang’s hammering ended.
“Whew.”
Only then did he catch his breath.
Afterward, he looked at the completed wrought iron.
The wrought iron mass with impurities completely removed and even its grain structure intact sparkled like a jewel.
No, it’s actually sparkling like a real jewel?
“It’s not usually like this?”
Even freshly made wrought iron requires a series of processes to shine, but this surpassed all that.
What’s this? Did I get a skill?
Suddenly, he remembered a message window that had appeared and disappeared.
Namgung Cheon-gang hurriedly checked the message that had passed by.
“…??”
Uh, so.
“Uh— what?”
At first, he couldn’t understand it.
“My internal energy increased because of iron breathing?”
A puzzling sentence.
He didn’t know what this meant.
“So, the act of working with iron is refining, and giving it breath means increasing internal energy?”
Conclusion.
Doing blacksmith work increases internal energy.
“What?”
What kind of crazy ability is this?!
So, do I dislike it?
No, I love it!
“I can gain internal energy without eating elixirs or circulating internal energy cultivation methods, who would hate this?!”
When he checked the amount of internal energy that increased, it was only about 0.1, but where else could you get this?
The more internal energy, the better.
I can make better weapons, improve my stamina, become more vigorous at night, and then my descendants will prosper for generations!
Anyway, everything’s good!
Moreover, it’s not just internal energy that increases.
Look at that lump of wrought iron sparkling like a jewel.
“So that’s what ‘giving breath to iron’ means.”
Internal energy has been infused into it.
Purer internal energy than usual when making things.
Of course, it requires complete unity.
That is, forgetting ‘myself’ and becoming one with the object, a state of advanced concentration—
Even considering that, it’s a sufficiently overpowered ability.
What would happen if I made hundred-fold refined steel with this?
I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling something incredible would be created.
He was left speechless.
Saliva naturally went down his throat.
The soul of a blacksmith who wanted to try making it right away was burning.
He immediately picked up his hammer and started refining.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Namgung Cheon-gang again showed tremendous concentration, striking with his hammer without rest.
His flawless hammering ended at exactly one hundred strikes.
A hundred-fold refinement of wrought iron with impurities removed.
Hundred-fold refined steel made with hammering that had not a single error, the kind only skilled blacksmiths could perform.
That steel was now completed before Namgung Cheon-gang’s eyes, revealing its form.
A silver luster that would shine alone even in darkness.
Namgung Cheon-gang, who had been standing still as if entranced, suddenly raised his hammer high and struck down.
Claaang!
A very loud and solid resonance spread throughout the forge.
At the end of the sound, Namgung Cheon-gang slowly lifted his hammer.
He saw the hundred-fold refined steel, completely intact without a single scratch.
“Even though I infused internal energy and struck with all my might, it’s like this?”
No matter how weak his internal energy was, when he struck with all his might, even hundred-fold refined steel should have left scars.
‘It seems I…’
I think I’ve made something incredible.
* * *
Hundred-fold refined steel inevitably takes a lot of time even for skilled blacksmiths.
Of course, the blacksmiths of Cheongeumjeong are different.
Five pieces of hundred-fold refined steel in a day, easy.
Would Namgung Cheon-gang be an exception?
“But somehow, I feel like I could compress it by about half more?”
Enhanced physical abilities and skill efficiency from awakening.
The internal energy gained by activating iron breathing gave vitality to the dry well.
So he thought it was possible, and when he tried it directly, it really shortened by half a day.
After doing it a few more times, he even managed to reduce it by another meal period (30 minutes)!
“Oh my! How exciting!”
To be able to make incredible hundred-fold refined steel in such a short time!
And my body and mind don’t get very tired!
And my internal energy increases too!
How could I not be excited?
“Ting ting ting ting, frying pan, no, hammering play!”
Clang! Clang!
He swung his hammer like that, forgetting even sleep.
“Hehehehe! Ehehehehe!”
With even a touch of madness, the result of swinging like that.
Namgung Cheon-gang finished all the homework given to him in just two days.
Thirty completed pieces of hundred-fold refined steel.
He delivered them directly to his master, Jin Hancheol.
“Master! I’ve completed thirty pieces of hundred-fold refined steel!”
“What, already?!”
Only two days have passed, and you completed thirty pieces of hundred-fold refined steel?
Ah.
Did my disciple do shoddy work!
“To make hundred-fold refined steel this early. I trust you, but just in case you did shoddy work— Huuuuck! This can’t be!”
Jin Hancheol, who was worried that his disciple might have done shoddy refining.
As soon as he saw the hundred-fold refined steel his disciple brought, he cried out in surprise.
‘How can hundred-fold refined steel be this beautiful!’
Perhaps it only looks decent on the surface.
Or maybe it’s silver ingots.
Suspicious, he carefully touched it.
“…!?”
That day, Jin Hancheol confirmed that gods dwelt in the hundred-fold refined steel.
“You have truly surpassed me!”
It wasn’t just Jin Hancheol who was amazed.
“Such a thing in this world!”
“There’s a god! There’s a god in here!”
“The god of refining has appeared!!”
Even the other craftsmen of Cheongeumjeong cried out in emotion seeing the hundred-fold refined steel Namgung Cheon-gang had made.
“The iron prodigy has made hundred-fold refined steel with gods dwelling in it!”
“As craftsmen of Cheongeumjeong, we can’t just sit still with this!”
“Make it! A sword worthy of this hundred-fold refined steel!”
“Put your souls into making sure the sword made from that hundred-fold refined steel becomes a famous blade!!”
“Pick up the hammer!”
Can you hear it!
The cry of this hammer!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
This song for the divine White Lotus Steel!
“Create it!”
“A legendary sword!!”
“Uooooooh!”
“….”
Namgung Cheon-gang was starting to find the Cheongeumjeong craftsmen a bit frightening.
* * *
One month later.
The training hall prepared at the Namgung Family.
Today, 100 warriors stood there in orderly formation.
Namgung Jeonggeomdan .
The Namgung Family’s new martial arts order that was about to be launched.
Each one had a sharp aura.
Standing alone before these 100 warriors.
His name was Namgung Cheonggi, wearing blue martial robes with the Namgung emblem embroidered on the back.
He had a sturdy build and good proportions.
His appearance was as neat as if there were a model student of swordsmanship.
His mountain-like aura indicated he had reached the peak.
“Today, to commemorate the launch of our Namgung Jeonggeomdan, the family head has bestowed new swords upon us! Everyone come forward and receive your swords!”
At his command, all the warriors belonging to Namgung Jeonggeomdan responded with a resounding “Yes!!”
Then they lined up in front of Namgung Cheonggi in order.
Namgung Cheonggi took out swords one by one from the weapon rack prepared behind him, swords infused with the blood and sweat of Cheongeumjeong, and distributed them.
Only after all 100 warriors had received their swords did Namgung Cheonggi shout once more.
“Everyone! Draw swords!”
“Draw swords!”
Drawing swords at the launch ceremony was a long tradition of expressing pride as warriors of the Namgung Family.
All 100 warriors, including Namgung Cheonggi, drew their swords simultaneously.
Shing.
A smooth sound of sword drawing, as if from a single person.
The drawn swords pierced the sky.
Everyone’s eyes widened at the sight of the swords.
Sharp.
The blade’s energy cut through light.
The silver gleaming blade surface even reflected their faces.
The will of Namgung, which would never bend, dwelling in the swords that captured the heavens.
‘Th-this is an, an incredible legendary sword! The family head must have enormous expectations for us!’
Namgung Cheonggi misunderstood.
“It’s, it’s an incredible legendary sword!”
“My goodness!”
“Th-this is the first time in my life I’ve seen such a legendary sword!”
“The family head truly has great expectations for us!”
Everyone misunderstood.
“Uaaaah! Long live Namgung Jeonggeomdan!”
Someone shouted.
“Long live Namgung Jeonggeomdan!”
The cry became contagious.
“Long live Namgung Jeonggeomdan!”
Namgung Cheonggi’s voice was the loudest.
Afterwards, Namgung Jeonggeomdan showed tremendous results, successfully subjugating bandits 3 times and bandit groups 2 times, with no one dying.
* * *
A few days after the Namgung Jeonggeomdan launch ceremony.
Today too, Namgung Cheon-gang was working diligently with hammer in hand.
Ting ting ting.
An enormous number of status messages appeared before his eyes.
Each one about learning martial arts.
“….”
He was too tired to even be surprised anymore.
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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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