I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 126

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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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Episode 126
Episode 126
“Hello……?”
“Greetings, Kang Cheol-mangchi. I’m Gung Si-hyun. We’ve corresponded a few times regarding commissions.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“It’s an honor to meet you in person. And, well. Thank you.”
“Thank you?”
“The arrows you crafted for me have made hunting far easier.”
The master archer who stood before me in the flesh cut an impressively genteel figure.
Hair swept back neatly, crisp casual suit.
Glasses that suited him perfectly to boot.
A man whose bearing was the exact opposite of Gang Hyuk’s.
Yet one thing was unmistakably clear between them both.
They’d both benefited from items I’d crafted, and recalling those benefits, they’d come seeking membership in the Steel Guild.
“You really mean to join the Steel Guild? Surely you could get into somewhere better.”
“There’s no merit in joining anywhere else, is there?”
“Merit?”
“Of course, I could form a fixed party with compatible members elsewhere. But that would invite constraints beyond that. The Steel Guild, though—that’s different.”
No.
Hearing him out, he was a touch different from Gang Hyuk.
Where Gang Hyuk had come beneath me driven by something pure of heart—
“With the Steel Guild, wouldn’t you craft arrows for me without limit? Accessories like Blood Lions, potions, and the like?”
Gung Si-hyun was the product of cold calculation rather than any such purity.
He needed arrows.
He’d been buying arrows through commissions from me, but truthfully, I’d never crafted them to a standard that fully satisfied him.
If he joined the Steel Guild, I’d be bound by my promised benefits to craft arrows for him.
And I’d craft accessories and potions besides.
Compared to operating alone, compared to joining another guild—
Joining the Steel Guild would be advantageous.
That was the arithmetic behind his coming.
Certainly, as an archer, he’d extract more benefit from the Steel Guild than most Awakeners would.
‘Hmm……’
This gave me pause.
With Gang Hyuk, I’d accepted him because even at high Level, his sincerity moved me.
But with Gung Si-hyun, that wasn’t the case.
I’d worried what if he brought negative influence into the Steel Guild—
But thinking it through.
‘Actually, it seems fine?’
Gung Si-hyun had come seeking only what benefited himself.
So then, if I simply provided sufficient benefit, there’d be no problems at all, would there?
If I could bring a Ranker of Gung Si-hyun’s caliber into my fold by securing appropriate benefits—
There was no gain greater than that.
Even accounting for expenses, a Ranker of his stature clearing Gates and taking his cut of the proceeds would yield revenue exceeding my investment.
I’d also acquire high-grade Mana Stones from the high-level Gates he’d conquer.
And more than that.
“I will supply items, but they’ll all come with a restriction: ‘Steel Guild Affiliation Only.’ Are you comfortable with that?”
The items I distributed were not the sort anyone could abscond with.
Items equippable only while affiliated with the Steel Guild.
Should he betray or flee the Steel Guild—
The moment I expelled him from the organization, those items would become unwearable, locked permanently out of his reach.
If another blacksmith existed, they might unlock such restrictions.
But in this world, I am the sole blacksmith.
There was nothing to worry about.
So.
“Isn’t that only natural?”
Gung Si-hyun nodded as though the matter was settled, and I extended my hand to him.
“Looking forward to working with you, Gung Si-hyun.”
“The pleasure is mine. Kang Cheol-mangchi. Or rather, Guild Master.”
We shook.
The Steel Guild had just gained its second Ranker.
* * *
Gung Si-hyun.
Unlike Gang Hyuk, he didn’t slip quietly into the Steel Guild and wait for his video to surface on its own.
Instead, he gathered reporters boldly in front of the Steel Guild’s headquarters.
He held a press conference.
And then he said:
“As of today, I have officially joined the Steel Guild. Going forward, I will dedicate myself to greater achievements as a member of the Steel Guild. Thank you.”
He announced his recruitment into the Steel Guild with complete confidence.
Predictably enough.
[ Steel Guild’s Fourth Member: Divine Archer Gung Si-hyun ]
[ Steel Guild Welcomes Both Blood Lion and Divine Archer ]
[ Steel Guild Now Houses Two Rankers — Where Are Its Limits? ]
[ What Lies Ahead for the Steel Guild? ]
[ King Maker Kang Cheol-mangchi: Can He Make the Divine Archer a ‘King’ as Well? ]
[ The Potential of a Guild Where Half Its Members Are Rankers ]
……
The reporters spread the news with fervor.
Word of Gung Si-hyun’s recruitment spread quickly among Awakeners.
[ Steel Guild’s lost it lol ]
The fourth guild member is Divine Archer Gung Si-hyun?
Does that even make sense?
– A guild where half the members are Rankers lol
– Did Si-hyun lose his rank 3 spot to Hyuk and immediately join Steel Guild as a consolation prize? lol
– Nah, that can’t be it
– But I was thinking the same thing lol
[ Wow, Divine Archer’s actually joining Steel Guild ]
Wasn’t he not joining any guild after leaving Seo Hae Guild?
It seemed like he didn’t feel the necessity of being in a guild at all.
And of all guilds, Steel Guild lol
– But it makes sense. Steel Guild is worth joining
– What do you mean?
– Steel Guild supplies all the necessary items
– But they can’t make weapons and armor though
– Si-hyun’s an archer though. Besides Accessories Sets and exclusive Potions, Kang Cheol-mangchi can craft arrows for him. That’s way more valuable
– Oh yeah, that’s true
– That’s some big picture thinking lol
– For an archer like Si-hyun, the Steel Guild benefits would be massive
– For real lol
As expected.
The Awakeners’ reaction was overwhelming.
And for good reason.
Two Rankers had already joined the Steel Guild, just as people were saying.
This being the case.
[ Doesn’t this mean Steel Guild becomes the Sixth Great Guild? ]
For real lol
– lolololol
– But seriously, it’s possible. Two Rankers alone would already surpass the military might of most mid-sized guilds
– And if you think about Kim Tae-san and Han Hyun-ah’s potential, they’ll be huge soon
– What if they keep recruiting more Rankers going forward?
– Nah, that’s not happening lol
– If they keep growing like that, catching up to the Five Great Guilds won’t take long
– Yeah
– Then we’d have to kick one of the Five Great Guilds out lol
– Nah, they’d have to rise on their own merits, not replace anyone
Expectations for the Steel Guild continued to climb higher and higher.
So much so that it became a burden even for me, reading through the community posts.
Still, though.
The important thing was that Divine Archer had joined the Steel Guild.
“I need to start crafting items for him.”
The heart of the Steel Guild.
I decided to craft items suited to the Divine Archer.
First.
“What potions do you need?”
“I’ve heard the Blood Lion’s exclusive potion is one imbued with a blood-draining ability.”
“That’s right.”
“What I need is…… an Agility Potion.”
“An Agility Potion? That’s simpler than I expected?”
“Ha, there’s a good reason for it. The higher one’s Dexterity, the faster one’s attack speed and movement become. For an archer like myself, such a fundamental potion yields the highest efficiency.”
A potion.
A basic Agility Potion.
I’d honestly thought it would be easy to make, so I’d asked Elle for an Agility Potion.
“A-an Agility Potion?”
“Is it difficult?”
“It’s not simple. If it were a potion that drastically increased movement speed, that would be one thing. But an A-Agility Potion has too broad a spectrum.”
It seemed the potion was harder to make than I’d anticipated.
Still, well.
Elle—the supreme alchemist bearing the epithet “She Who Touched the Sage’s Stone.”
Elle did not disappoint me.
“H-here it is!”
“Thank you for the hard work. Is the quantity adequate?”
“The primary ingredient, Windgrass, is plentiful enough. Wingflower, used as a secondary ingredient, is rare, but Drake brought Silver Fin in generous amounts, so I tried using that, and…….”
……I didn’t quite follow the details.
But it seemed there was enough for Gung Si-hyun to use one potion per Gate.
With the potion settled,
the next matter was arrows.
First.
[ Using Repair Skill. ]
[ ‘Death Sentence’ has been repaired. ]
[ ‘Swift Wind Arrow’ has been repaired. ]
…….
The arrows I’d sold to Gung Si-hyun.
I repaired all of them.
Thanks to using Modification to raise the required level of the arrows, I was able to increase their attack power as well.
But that wasn’t all.
Even with repairs, arrows remain a consumable resource.
They cannot be endlessly reused.
So I needed to craft new arrows,
but making arrows only for Gung Si-hyun would consume too much of my time.
“Noum, I’m counting on you.”
“Noum is confident!”
So I entrusted this task to Noum.
Regularly supplying the Divine Archer with necessary arrows.
Of course, I had to teach Noum the new recipes myself.
Using materials in the Warehouse with sufficient stock.
Materials we could steadily obtain going forward—recipes that would allow consistent arrow production.
The first thing I taught was basic supply arrows for Gung Si-hyun,
but I also shared several other basic arrow recipes.
Those were precisely.
[ Crafting complete. ]
[ Craft Evaluation: S ]
[ ‘Sharp Lightning Arrow’ obtained. ]
Elemental arrows.
First, Lightning Arrows crafted using Thunderstones.
Not as powerful as the Piercing Lightning, but they could be recovered and reused,
and they didn’t consume many Thunderstones at all.
Recently, the amount of Elemental Stones Toran had been mining had increased as well, so this grade could be distributed as supply arrows.
In this manner.
[ Crafting complete. ]
[ Craft Evaluation: S ]
[ ‘Sharp Flame Arrow’ obtained. ]
[ You have obtained the Sharp Wind Arrow. ]
[ You have obtained the Sharp Ice Arrow. ]
……
Fire, wind, ice, and more.
I’d crafted arrows imbued with each element.
With arrows like these, I could exploit an enemy’s elemental weaknesses and strike where it mattered most.
And that would make clearing Gates considerably easier.
Take, for instance, a Gate where the enemy is composed entirely of water—something that resists physical attacks.
With this Sharp Lightning Arrow, I’d have more than enough to deal real damage.
After teaching Noum the recipes for these elemental arrows,
“Well then, I suppose it’s my turn now.”
My work had truly begun.
Unfortunately, just as with Gang Hyuk, my current skill level wasn’t sufficient to craft a bow or armor worthy of Gung Si-hyun.
But still.
“What I can make are arrows and Accessories, at the very least.”
I had plenty of items within my ability to craft.
The moment I decided this,
I began creating items for the archer,
[ Using Special Crafting Skill. ]
[ Please provide a Blueprint for the Special Crafted item. ]
and started drafting a new Blueprint.

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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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