I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 121

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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 121
Chapter 121
Zone 4 of the forest was indeed brimming with excellent materials.
But that wasn’t all.
“N-no, it’s not true that only good materials yield good results. What matters is how appropriately you use the right reagents!”
El didn’t simply collect materials from Zone 4 just because they were good—she examined materials from the zones she’d passed through earlier as well.
Zones 1, 2, and 3, which she’d skirted past.
She’d studied the materials there too and collected what she needed.
The more she collected, the more materials accumulated—far more than she’d anticipated.
“Hmm…….”
This was exactly when a Blacksmith’s Bag came in handy.
With a subspace bag, no matter how many materials she gathered, she could carry them all without burden.
But upgrading the bag’s level now would require collecting 262 billion gold.
Since she’d already spent all the money she’d gathered, it would take quite a while to save up again.
And besides, upgrading the bag seemed wasteful compared to other priorities.
Just as she was wondering what to do—
“D-don’t worry about that!”
“Really? With this much, it’ll be inconvenient though.”
“I’m an alchemist and a mage! There’s a way!”
El began muttering something under her breath.
As she did, an intangible aura shimmered from her body.
That aura converged in one spot, responding to her murmurs.
Then the intangible aura swirled, forming something like a small hole.
El picked up the materials she’d collected and—
Whoosh.
dropped them into the small opening.
Not just one.
She fed all the materials piled on the ground into the hole that way.
Watching this, one thing immediately came to mind.
“A subspace?”
A Blacksmith’s Bag.
Or rather, a subspace bag.
This looked almost identical to that.
To my words—
“Y-yes, exactly. It’s a spell called Dimension Pocket.”
“Dimension Pocket?”
“It’s magic that creates a pocket of space. Unfortunately, all the things I’d collected over time have disappeared…….”
El answered sincerely.
A pocket of space, no less.
If that worked, there’d be no need for a Blacksmith’s Bag at all.
“B-but… as the size and weight of items inside increase, mana consumption grows exponentially, so I can’t store too much in it.”
It seemed to have clear limitations.
A lower-tier version of the Blacksmith’s Bag, one might say?
Still, though.
“I’ll give you a bag later. Until then, use this to carry things around.”
“Yes!”
It didn’t seem bad as a temporary solution.
That done, we finished collecting all the materials worth gathering from the forest, sorted by type.
Next came—
“This is the Mine.”
“Wow!”
We’d arrived at the Mine.
“Would there be anything here? It’s just a place full of stone.”
Surely even a mine wouldn’t have nothing at all.
That’s what I’d thought—
“D-damp caves actually nurture some rather rare materials!”
Not long after we began exploring the Mine—
Once again—
“I-it really was here!”
El had found something.
I found something useful.
[ Oblivion Mushroom ]
[ Luminous Moss ]
…….
Most of them were mushrooms and mosses.
Materials unique to the mine, things I’d never seen in the forest.
I couldn’t believe such materials were hidden even in the mine.
It was beyond anything I’d imagined.
After collecting the mine materials by type,
“Are you sure this is okay?”
“Um, I’m fairly confident in combat too!”
we headed toward the hunting ground.
I was worried, naturally—monsters did appear in the hunting ground.
But the Zone 1 monsters were manageable; the Volcanic Revolver alone was enough to bring them down.
So I decided to start by exploring Zone 1.
“But what could be here? Serin’s always wandering around, and she said she’s never found any materials other than monsters.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure.
The Blacksmith’s Hunting Ground—a place both Serin and I passed through occasionally.
There was plenty of grass growing, befitting a grassland, but I hadn’t seen any particularly special grass that could be called a material.
Especially in a place where monsters were constantly trampling and collapsing, I doubted proper materials would grow.
“W-well, in an area where monsters keep falling, things like Toxic Grass and Blood Grass that absorb their blood and grow are bound to appear.”
She spoke with even more conviction than when investigating the mine.
And sure enough, not long after,
“J-just as I thought! I found it!”
“What is it?”
“Toxic Grass!”
Elle pulled something up sharply.
It looked similar to other weeds, but once uprooted, the grass’s surface had a faint bluish tint.
I checked the item information.
[ Toxic Grass ]
Form : Material
Grade : F
Description : A plant that developed mild toxicity to protect itself from monsters.
It really was Toxic Grass.
The grade was low, but genuine alchemic materials were finally appearing in the hunting ground.
After searching a bit more, I discovered the “Blood Grass” she’d mentioned as well.
Moving on to Zones 2 and 3,
[ Blood Flower Grass ]
[ Red Blood Root ]
[ Hallucination Grass ]
…….
As expected.
Far better materials were found than in Zone 1.
Like in the Blacksmith’s Forest, many materials of grass and flowers appeared.
The difference was,
“Poison, hallucination, hemorrhage… they’re all dangerous things.”
“Yes, well, they grew absorbing monster blood while under threat from monsters.”
Where the Blacksmith’s Forest yielded materials with beneficial effects—restoring vitality or curing ailments—
the materials here were the opposite.
They carried harmful effects: poisoning, hallucinations, bleeding, and worse.
“W-with these, I can craft deadly poisons! Not only that, they’re used in antidote compounds, and with the right application, they can actually enhance combat strength!”
“Hmm.”
Elle gathered the materials quickly as she spoke.
After identifying most of Zone 3’s materials,
we moved on to Zone 4.
The moment we arrived in Zone 4,
“Grraaaaaagh!”
A troll appeared.
It was as if it served as the gatekeeper of Zone 4.
Last time too, and this time again, that creature had come out to greet us.
“El, it’s dangerous—why don’t you head down to Zone 3 for now?”
I could probably bring the troll down with my Volcanic Cannon.
But the Volcanic Cannon burns through resources with every shot.
The material cost per shell is substantial.
Standard ammunition wouldn’t be enough to fell a troll.
And calling for emergency backup seemed like it would interfere with Serin’s hunt, so I’d planned to hold my ground.
“Oh, it’s fine!”
El began chanting again.
It looked like she was about to cast an offensive spell, the same way she’d used the Dimension Pocket magic.
Still, she was an alchemist.
I worried whether she could really handle a troll.
Then her spell completed.
“Copper Blaze.”
A burst of flame.
Teal-colored fire erupted across the troll’s body.
The flames reeked of acrid smoke as they began consuming the creature’s form.
“Uuuhhhhhhh?”
The panicked troll shrieked in agony and thrashed against the ground.
But the flames didn’t extinguish.
As the troll writhed, the fire burned hotter still.
A shrill hiss.
Only when the flames had completely consumed the troll did they finally die down.
“Wow, that’s incredible!”
The exclamation escaped me.
A single troll—felled in one blow.
Yet El’s expression didn’t look pleased.
Something was wrong: copper-like residue was disintegrating in her palm, scattering away.
It looked like material she’d hastily crafted and grabbed from the Blacksmith Shop.
The reason was—
“To be honest, it’s not my preferred method. Using it in combat wastes far too much catalyst.”
“Catalyst?”
“I need a catalyst when I cast spells. What I use isn’t ordinary magic—it’s Alchemic Magic, a form of alchemical sorcery.”
“Ah…”
“And because I can’t control the firepower precisely, it’s difficult to harvest monster materials properly. Though it looks like I can still collect the troll’s heart!”
The magic she used wasn’t ordinary magic at all.
Alchemic Magic.
I didn’t know what it was exactly, but that’s why the copper had disintegrated.
Perhaps it was similar to my Volcanic Cannon.
In any case, with the troll gone, El could continue collecting in Zone 4.
“Master, you’ve arrived!”
With Serin here, we could now harvest without interference from monsters, progressing smoothly.
That finished the gathering at the Hunting Ground.
Next was—
The sound of crashing waves.
The Sea.
She wasn’t just strolling along the beach—she intended to dive underwater.
This time, too, she was about to use that alchemical magic for diving.
“Hold on a moment.”
I went straight into the Blacksmith Shop and retrieved an item I’d made earlier.
It was—
“Would you like to try this? Then you won’t need to use that alchemical magic.”
“Wow! An Underwater Breathing Artifact? You’ve already made something like this—you’re amazing!”
“Artifact… well, something along those lines.”
“Thank you so much! I was worried that using underwater breathing magic would make it hard to cast other spells, so this is perfect!”
An item I crafted and sold whenever I had spare materials.
An underwater breathing device.
I was curious what El would gather from the Sea and how she’d do it.
Since I’d never actually used one of these myself, driven by curiosity, I equipped one and followed her into the water.
‘Will it actually work?’
Now that I was in the water, doubt crept in.
If I kept breathing like this and the artifact malfunctioned, I’d have no choice but to swallow seawater.
That thought did cross my mind.
‘But I made this artifact myself—if I don’t trust it, who will?’
I trust it.
I trust the effect of what I’ve created.
With that resolve,
“Huh!”
I plunged my face into the seawater.
And then, carefully, I tried to breathe.
“Oh!”
It actually works.
I can breathe.
While I’m still marveling at it, Serin dives into the water without hesitation and begins breathing as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The fact that she trusts my artifact that completely—
I’m simply grateful.
In any case, we descended into the sea.
As for equipment, I’d outfitted her with defensive gear imbued with the Swimming skill, just as I had done for Drake.
More importantly, because she was wearing a swimming suit, she moved naturally through the water without needing any actual swimming ability.
“Wow, Wave Grass! It’s a rare seaweed, and there’s so much of it growing here!”
And it wasn’t long before we discovered precious materials.
Not just Wave Grass.
As we explored the surrounding area, we found Crimson Flame Coral, Clear Blue Seaweed, and more.
A stunning variety of materials was within reach.
Along the way, a few monsters appeared and attacked us.
“You can—you can do this with Wave Grass as a catalyst!”
When she used Alchemic Magic with Wave Grass as the catalyst,
Whoooosh!
A massive surge swept through the water, pushing back the approaching monster.
It seemed the creature had taken a severe impact and lost consciousness.
Alchemic Magic.
It appeared to be a spell that drew out the full power of its catalyst to an extreme degree.
It wasn’t so different from the concept behind the Volcanic Cannon shells I used.
Once we reached the dangerous Zone 4, I was able to explore the seafloor under Drake’s protection.
And it was then—
‘So this is what Drake is like in the sea.’
For the first time, I could see Drake underwater.
On land, he’d always seemed sluggish and lethargic.
But underwater, he was completely different.
Vibrant, swift,
and with a smile playing across his face.
But anyway,
“Th-thank you so much! Thanks to you, I found so many wonderful materials!”
“I was just watching from the back.”
Through this expedition with Serin, I’d managed to gather an enormous quantity of materials needed for Alchemy.
But that wasn’t all.
Through her collection, I’d discovered one more new possibility.
And that was—
[ Root of Life ]
[ Hardened Mushroom ]
[ Mixed Serum ]
[ Transparent Foam Pearl ]
……
These items.
A portion of Serin’s collection.
While these could certainly be used when she performed Alchemy,
‘I could use these too, couldn’t I?’
They looked more than suitable as materials for my own crafting.
Serin, the Alchemist.
This meant she was truly a Blacksmith’s assistant as well.
After we returned to the Blacksmith Shop,
The moment El approached the alchemy workbench that had been prepared for her,
“I-I’ll give it a try!”
she threw herself into the serious work of alchemy.

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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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