I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 111

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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 111
Chapter 111
Among Awakeners, mages were remarkably rare.
It made sense—when you looked at the overall proportions, mages constituted a relatively small fraction of all Awakeners.
Though they could be somewhat weak at first.
As they grew stronger, mages produced firepower greater than anyone else.
It was only natural that mages were in high demand.
Or so it had been.
“I’m applying as a mage!”
“A mage? Hmm… what’s your equipment situation?”
“What? But I’m a mage…….”
“We still need to check your gear.”
“I’m wearing a C-Tier staff with standard defense armor…….”
“That’s far too thin. I don’t think our party is right for you.”
“But—but I’m a mage?!”
Everything had changed now.
Just as mages were scarce, mage equipment was equally scarce.
As a result, mages had no choice but to wear lower-tier gear.
Meanwhile, melee-class Awakeners clad in Kang Cheol-mangchi-brand A to S-Tier equipment were rising to prominence.
“These days, melee-class Awakeners with good equipment are getting preferential treatment over most mages.”
“B-but still!”
“I apologize.”
The status of mages could only decline.
And fairly so.
Even if mages were powerful, when the equipment gap was this wide, comparison became inevitable.
The difference in gear alone created a massive disparity in raw damage output.
Once this situation began in earnest.
[ Please, Kang Cheol-mangchi, make mage equipment too ㅠㅠ ]
[ Why aren’t Kang Cheol-mangchi staves coming out? ]
[ Holding my breath until Kang Cheol-mangchi staves arrive ]
Gasp!
– Apparently they died
– RIP
Mages had no choice but to desperately seek out Kang Cheol-mangchi.
If Kang Cheol-mangchi would just make mage equipment, all of this could be solved.
But why, exactly?
Kang Cheol-mangchi didn’t make mage equipment.
Moreover.
[ Serves the mages right ㅋㅋ ]
Acting all high and mighty when they were nothing ㅋㅋ
– For real ㅋㅋ
– Honestly, if they’d been competent, would they be getting disrespected like this?
– Karma
[ What, mages? ]
Mages shut up and wrap bandages.
– Wasn’t it originally rogues shut up and wrap bandages? ㅋㅋ
– These days rogue-class Awakeners are popular. With Kang Cheol-mangchi shortswords, the damage is insane
– Yeah, it’s mages shut up now ㅋㅋ
– I never thought I’d live to hear that phrase in my lifetime ㅋㅋ
– Mages are judged by the level requirements on Kang Cheol-mangchi items
[ If things stay like this, mages are in real trouble ]
Upper-tier Awakeners still held mages in decent regard.
But if Kang Cheol-mangchi kept churning out high-level equipment like this, nobody knew what would become of mages?
– For real ㅋㅋ
Mages were already a small population to begin with.
Was it because mages had received such favorable treatment up until now?
Even the Awakener community’s response wasn’t particularly warm.
Watching all this, one might have thought Kang Cheol-mangchi disliked mages too.
Then one day.
[ A Kang Cheol-mangchi staff just dropped!!! ]
[ Whew! I can breathe again! ]
[ All hail Kang Cheol-mangchi!! ]
In the Awakener community.
Mages among the Awakeners suddenly began singing Kang Cheol-mangchi’s praises.
The reason was simple.
[ Blue Staff ]
[ Blue Wand ]
…….
Magical equipment had begun flooding onto the Marketplace.
Starting from Level 1 gear all the way up to Level 39—the highest tier Kang Cheol-mangchi could currently craft.
Staffs were pouring in at a remarkable pace.
It was only natural that the mages were crying out in jubilation.
At last.
At last, they too could use equipment made by Kang Cheol-mangchi.
It was impossible not to be thrilled.
Though if the supply ran short, they’d hit a ceiling soon enough.
[ Blue Staff ]
[ Blue Wand ]
…….
…….
Blue Staffs and Blue Wands.
Two kinds of staves appeared on the Marketplace in endless succession.
Word spread, and mages rushed to buy them without exception.
But that wasn’t all.
Up to this point, it was merely basic-tier gear with staffs added to the lineup.
Then, shortly after.
New staves began appearing on the Marketplace.
They were.
[ Blue Flame Staff ]
[ Blue Ice Staff ]
[ Blue Earth Staff ]
[ Blue Wind Staff ]
…….
“This is—!”
Attribute staves.
Fire, ice, earth, wind, water, lightning, and more.
Staves imbued with diverse attributes.
True to their names, each staff came equipped with attribute-enhancing abilities—Flame Level 2, Chill Level 2, and so forth.
The mages had no choice but to erupt in excitement.
“I have to buy one!!”
To be fair, not all mages wielded every attribute.
In fact, mages of that caliber were rare as gems.
The reason was straightforward.
Magic was no trivial power—delving into even a single attribute to its depths proved difficult enough.
Attempting to master all attributes would only dilute one’s strength.
Moreover, most mages had special abilities tied to a specific attribute.
In such cases, they had no choice but to concentrate on just one or two attributes.
For those mages, these attribute staves were treasures beyond price.
Though attribute staves were rarer still and correspondingly far more expensive.
“This is absolutely something I need to get!”
For any mage who specialized in a single attribute.
These attribute staves were impossible to ignore.
They knew that with such a staff, their magic would grow far more formidable.
And so.
Even mage Awakeners who had harbored no particular affection for Kang Cheol-mangchi.
[ I’m holding my breath until a Level 50 Kang Cheol-mangchi staff comes out! Inhale! ]
– Hey, seriously, stop holding your breath lol
– Why is everyone holding their breath lol lol
– Kang Cheol-mangchi’s growth does seem fast, but isn’t Level 50 crossing a line? lol
– At this rate they’ll just spend a whole year holding their breath and pass away
– I don’t think it’s possible, but I really hope it is ㅠㅠ I want to use a Kang Cheol-mangchi staff too ㅠㅠㅠ
[ We praise Kang Cheol-mangchi! ]
I didn’t realize how much time I’d spent wrestling with how to craft better mage equipment, and in my impatience, I’d begun to doubt Kang Cheol-mangchi.
But.
To atone for my lack of faith in Kang Cheol-mangchi until now, I vow to praise him every single day from this moment forward.
I will become his first devoted follower among mages.
I praise him.
Kang Cheol-mangchi
– Actually, wasn’t Yeom Je the first mage follower?
– Oh, that’s right
– Though she didn’t get a staff, Kang Cheol-mangchi did make her accessories, so ㅋㅋ
And so they began to follow Kang Cheol-mangchi with fervent devotion.
* * *
There seemed to be far more of this Blue Wood in Forest Zone 4 than I’d anticipated.
And that made sense.
“Chee-ik, I’ve brought them!”
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
“Oh, thank you, Grom. Please keep bringing them for a while.”
“Chee-ik, easy-peasy!”
Grom had been continuously logging Blue Wood for us.
Thanks to that supply, Noum and I were able to keep crafting staves without interruption.
Then.
“Wahahaha! Elemental Stones are dropping way more than I expected! The veins are everywhere! This really is Zone 4!”
The volume of Elemental Stones that Toran brought back began to grow steadily.
I decided to try adding one of these Elemental Stones to the Blue Wood I was crafting.
And then.
[ Crafting is complete. ]
[ Craft Evaluation: S ]
[ You have obtained ‘Blue Flame Staff’. ]
A staff infused with an attribute had been created.
And.
[ We praise Kang Cheol-mangchi ㅠㅠㅠ ]
Attribute staves are so good ㅠㅠㅠ
– This is genuinely a milestone for the mage community;
– Originally, they only dropped from special monsters—extremely rare—but now they’re mass-produced ㅋㅋ
– This is the power of Kang Cheol-mangchi
– Wow
The Awakeners’ response exceeded my expectations.
So I continued crafting both standard staves and attribute staves for some time.
Usually Noum handled the standard staves while I focused on the attribute ones.
Especially.
Clang, clang, clangg!
The sound of Noum’s hammer work was particularly striking.
Thump-thump-tap, thump-thump-tap.
The rhythm of a famous old sports chant.
Noum swung the hammer with a cadence so familiar it seemed the lyrics themselves might drift into hearing.
The moment I noticed what rhythm this was.
[ Three Root Consecutive Strike ]
Embedded in the Three Root Tree Hammer.
Every third swing of the hammer channels the power of ‘Three Root Stump’, delivering a formidable strike.
It was because of the weapon I’d crafted for Noum.
The special ability of that weapon strengthened the force of every third strike.
To make use of it, Noum had developed this particular rhythm to coordinate his hammer swings.
Because of that.
“Noum, you’ve gotten fast.”
“It’s all thanks to the tree hammer Master crafted for me! Noum is so happy!”
Noum’s crafting speed.
And the quality of her work had both improved further.
Of course, I hadn’t stopped with just that.
Though I would have liked to.
Even if Grom harvested Blue Wood at a rapid pace, he alone couldn’t keep up with Noum’s staggering production speed.
With the ‘Blue Iron Ore’ that Toran brought back, I crafted equipment of better quality than usual.
I had to teach Noum recipes that utilized Blue Iron Ore as well.
The monster materials that Serin had brought from Hilarus were also piling up.
‘I’ll handle those all at once later.’
For now, I had plenty on my hands.
I decided to set the monster materials aside.
In any case, the items I’d crafted
“This really is convenient.”
—I sent them all to Lee Seo-yun.
She’d then assess the prices herself and post them to the Marketplace.
She did this using an account called ‘Kang Cheol-mangchi – Sales,’ operated through an Awakener I’d hired specifically to sell my items.
This way, I didn’t have to bother opening the Marketplace myself, which was convenient.
And because she set the prices well, the money I earned only grew.
Meanwhile, I could dedicate myself entirely to crafting.
It couldn’t be more convenient than this.
So there I was,
when Lee Seo-yun contacted me first.
“Yes?”
I answered her call.
When I asked what it was about,
she said, “About those staves you’ve started selling—I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries from people wanting to import them in bulk.”
“Import? From abroad?”
“Yes. Especially from countries with many Mages among their Awakeners—England, France, and so on. The demand is particularly high there, and they’re offering generous prices.”
“Hmm…”
“Will we have enough stock?”
“No, our material supply is fine. We’ve only just started selling them in Korea.”
It was an export inquiry.
We’d only just begun selling staves,
yet they’d already discovered them and were contacting me about importing them.
The staves I could make had a level requirement cap of 39,
and while material supply was sufficient, there were still many people in Korea looking for them, which gave me pause.
“The price they’re offering is roughly this much. Even accounting for tariffs and miscellaneous costs, it’s significantly higher than what we get domestically…”
“I’ll give it a try!”
“You think it’s possible?”
“Let’s do our best. Noum, we can do this, right?”
“Noum will work even harder!”
“Grom, what about the Blue Wood?”
“Squeak, overflowing!”
The moment I saw the numbers,
I was convinced.
Even after cutting every unnecessary expense, the profit would be far greater than what I made selling domestically.
It was too lucrative an offer to refuse.
Besides, didn’t I need Mana Stones to enhance the Time Smithy?
The payment I received through exports came in Mana Stones.
I had to consistently export like this and accumulate Mana Stones from other countries.
The next enhancement required a staggering amount—65.5 billion won worth of Mana Stones.
While I was busily crafting items,
“Master…”
“Drake! Is it a boss monster?”
“Yes… I can’t handle it alone…”
Finally,
at the only uncleared zone remaining in Forest Zone 4,
a boss monster had appeared in the Blacksmith’s Sea.

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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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