I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 18

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

Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Serin, the monster hunter of the Ikaya Mountain Range.
She gazed at the bow her new Master had crafted for her, marveling at its beauty.
[Tracker of Snowy Chill, Ikaya]
Made from white birchwood, the bow’s limbs gleamed pale, wrapped with Ssang-du-rang leather, its string fashioned from the sinews of the same creature.
The sight of it reminded her of something.
‘Ikaya……’
The bow she had once wielded, back when she was called a monster hunter.
Named after the mountain range itself, this new bow looked strikingly familiar to that old Ikaya.
It wasn’t merely the appearance that matched.
The tension she felt when drawing the string—
the grip of the leather-wrapped handle—
everything about it echoed her former weapon, the original Ikaya.
Though she had consulted on the design from the start, she hadn’t expected a weapon this perfect to emerge.
And that was far from all.
‘Even the short sword resembles the one I used to carry.’
The only difference lay in this blade’s material—Ssang-du-rang fangs, sharp and white.
Her old short sword had been forged from a far mightier beast.
But that was unavoidable, given the circumstances.
Apart from that one constraint, this blade was identical to her former weapon.
Not only the weapons—he had crafted her armor to match what she once wore as closely as possible.
Watching him forge the weapons, she had glimpsed something of his skill.
But this was something else entirely.
There had been no reason for him to pay such attention to design, just for her sake.
And yet he had, shaping every detail to match her wishes.
‘Is he showing me consideration?’
Was this kindness toward her, a girl summoned to a strange world and tasked with a mission?
A recurve bow, compact and swift. A short sword carved from monster fangs.
Armor tailored like winter robes, exactly as she had requested.
Everything was flawless.
It was as though she had stepped back in time—
to her glory days, when she hunted in the Ikaya Mountain Range.
The moment that thought took hold,
“I’ll begin the mission at once.”
Determination flooded through her.
Her Master had done all this for her; she couldn’t simply sit idle.
Ignoring his gentle warnings, she dashed toward the Hunting Ground.
The instant she arrived,
Whoosh!
She began firing arrows, clearing the monsters around her.
Though on second thought, using arrows on creatures so weak seemed wasteful.
She couldn’t afford to squander them recklessly and then ask her Master to make more.
Slash!
She drew her short sword instead.
The blade was so formidable that merely brushing against it sent the monsters shrieking and toppling.
Within moments, she had cleared every monster from the hunting ground.
[Your Level has increased.]
The level-up notification appeared.
When her level rose, it meant her Master’s level rose as well.
“I’ve cleared them all, Master.”
She hoped this much, at least, would be of help to him.
Her hunting continued unabated.
Each time monsters respawned in the grounds, she returned and struck them down relentlessly, never pausing to rest.
Then, in the midst of it all,
her Master called out to her.
“Serin, could you come back for a moment?”
“Yes, Master.”
What could it be?
Had something displeased him?
Worried, she went to find the Master.
“This.”
“What is it, Master?”
The Master held something out to her.
Its identity was—
“A scarf.”
“A scarf…?”
“You said you’d been in a cold place, and it happened that the Three-Tailed Fox Leather you brought back seemed perfect for it, so I made you one.”
“But…”
“I made it more as a decoration, so it doesn’t have any defense rating, but it should still be nice enough. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to wear it.”
It was a scarf.
A scarf made from Three-Tailed Fox Leather.
The Three-Tailed Fox.
Despite its grand name, it was essentially the lowest-tier monster—one that knew only a little bit of magic.
For that reason, the scarf’s performance wasn’t particularly high.
“…Thank you, Master.”
The moment she wrapped the scarf around herself.
She felt a warmth she hadn’t experienced in far too long.
Not physical warmth, but emotional warmth.
A genuine warmth she had rarely felt even when she was alive seemed to emanate from this scarf.
In that moment.
She made a vow.
“I’ll do my very best, Master!”
“Ah, there’s no need to go that far. You must be hungry—let’s go eat.”
This time, she would give it her all.
No, she would stake her life and do her absolute best for the Master.
No matter what happened, she would protect him.
* * *
Thanks to Serin, my Level was rising rapidly.
So quickly, in fact, that her hunting speed outpaced the respawn rate of the Hunting Ground.
In other words, the speed at which monsters respawned couldn’t keep up.
And that wasn’t all.
[ Goblin Saliva ]
[ Kobold Claw ]
……
With so many monsters defeated,
Serin had brought back an enormous quantity of monster materials.
“It’s literally automatic hunting.”
My Level rises and materials accumulate even when I do nothing.
Mining and logging were tolerable enough, but hunting was something I generally disliked doing.
That problem had been completely solved.
On this pleasant day, wondering what to craft first,
[ Three-Tailed Fox Leather ]
one of the materials she’d brought caught my eye.
It wasn’t included in any armor sets, so I hadn’t crafted it yet.
But she had mentioned wearing a scarf in the past.
Since she’d been active on the cold Snowy Mountain, it was only natural.
And so—
“Should I make her one?”
The thought crossed my mind.
It wasn’t particularly difficult anyway.
I started crafting right away.
Naturally, since my item encyclopedia contained nothing like a scarf,
[ Using Special Crafting Skill. ]
[ Please create a design for the Special Crafting item. ]
I initiated Special Crafting immediately.
Drawing up the design wasn’t particularly difficult.
With weapons or armor, I’d need to carefully consider weight distribution and human anatomy when designing,
but a scarf didn’t require such precision.
I simply sketched out a design by recalling scarves I’d researched online,
[Blueprint Creation Failed]
A message appeared that I’d never seen before.
Blueprint creation failed? That was unexpected.
“What are the standards here? I basically copied an existing design directly, so why is the completion rate this low?”
Puzzled, I asked Ember.
Your Wisdom and Intelligence stats are far too low, she replied.
Additionally, as you mentioned, using an existing product design as-is also affects the outcome.
“……So it just won’t work?”
Special Crafting is, by definition, special crafting.
If you attempt mass-production methods like that, you’ll deviate from the purpose and are bound to fail.
That was her answer.
So this time, I began working on the blueprint with much greater care.
Recalling the original form that Serin had shown me, I revised the scarf’s design to suit her even better.
And then.
[Blueprint Creation Complete]
Fortunately, this time I was able to finish the blueprint without issue.
Next, I selected Three-Tailed Fox Leather as the material.
[Beginning crafting.]
Clang!
I started crafting at once.
The difficulty wasn’t particularly high, so I was able to finish quickly.
[Crafting complete.]
[Crafting Rating: A]
[You have obtained ‘Three-Tailed Fox Fur Scarf’.]
I had made the item.
However.
“A rank… that feels a bit unsatisfying.”
Since this was going to be a gift for Serin, I felt it was a shame to give her something only A rank, so I started crafting again.
This time, with extra special care.
And thankfully.
[Crafting complete.]
[Crafting Rating: S]
[You have obtained ‘Three-Tailed Fox Fur Scarf’.]
I had made an S-rank scarf.
Checking the item information, since it was neither a weapon nor armor, it had no attack or defense stats attached, but.
[Three-Tailed Fox Fur Scarf]
Type: Necklace
Rank: S
Restriction: For Serin, Monster Hunter of the Ikaya Mountain Range
Description: A warm fur scarf made from Three-Tailed Fox leather.
Ability: Evasion Lv 2
“Oh?”
It still had an ability attached to it.
Evasion.
Level 2 Evasion, at that.
This seemed quite practical for actual use, so I was quite satisfied.
Now the scarf I’d made earlier felt awkward.
Although it was A rank, it too was an item with ‘Evasion Lv 1’ attached to it.
It felt wasteful to just discard it, so.
“Maybe I should try selling it?”
I listed it on the Awakener Trading Exchange.
Since there were no scarves on the exchange, the market price was ambiguous.
But since the item type was classified as a necklace even though it was called a scarf, I priced it similarly to other necklaces with Level 2 abilities.
After that, the moment Serin arrived.
“……Thank you, Master.”
I handed her the scarf.
But.
“I’ll do my very best, Master!”
Her reaction was more enthusiastic than I’d expected.
I never thought she’d be this pleased.
Seeing how much she enjoyed it, Serin suddenly seemed pitiable to me.
I didn’t know the Assistant System in detail, but from what I’d heard, it seemed to be a system where the souls of those possessing extraordinary power from different dimensions were summoned.
How disorienting it must be to be summoned into a completely different environment, not the one she’d lived in, and assigned tasks.
At least I’d crafted equipment similar to what she’d been wearing, and I hoped it would help her recover even a little psychological stability.
In that sense.
“You must be hungry. Let’s go get a proper meal.”
I decided to prepare a decent meal for her, who’d suddenly found herself in a situation not unlike that of a foreign migrant worker.
“Is there anything you’d like to eat?”
“Anything is fine. On the Snowy Mountain, it was difficult to build fires, so I often tore into frozen meat.”
“Not that kind of thing. A proper meal. I need to eat anyway.”
“Then… might I trouble you for a warm meat stew?”
“Stew?”
A Western soup dish—stew.
As I puzzled over what to order that might resemble stew.
“Oh, this looks good.”
I found just the right menu item on the delivery app.
Not long after, the doorbell rang.
“Come on, let’s get set up!”
“Master, what is this…?”
“Ah, seeing it for the first time? It’s called braised short ribs, and though it’s a bit different from stew, it’ll be delicious!”
The menu I’d ordered.
Braised short ribs had arrived.
My appetite had grown, and since I didn’t know what she’d prefer, I ordered as much variety as possible.
Soy-braised pork short ribs, gochujang-braised pork short ribs, and since the broth-style short ribs looked similar to stew with their abundant broth, I’d even ordered beef short ribs as well.
“Let’s eat well!”
With that, we began eating in earnest.
The savory pork short ribs paired perfectly with plain rice.
Braised pork short ribs were something I’d never been able to afford to order alone before.
I’d wondered who’d even bother having something like that delivered, but I never thought I’d end up ordering it myself.
As I was eating heartily, I noticed Serin hesitate for a moment before carefully picking up her spoon.
What she’d chosen was, unsurprisingly, the broth-style short ribs.
Probably because it resembled a meat stew.
Then she carefully sipped a spoonful of the broth first.
“…!”
Her cold expression gave way to wide eyes as she marveled.
Immediately after, she picked up a rib and ate it, then.
“Master, is this really meat stew? The meat is so tender. Moreover, the deep seasoning has soaked all the way through every part of the meat!”
“It’s delicious, isn’t it? Try the others too.”
“Bon appétit, Master!”
Marveling at the taste of the braised ribs, she began sampling not just the broth-style short ribs but other varieties as well.
Fortunately, she seemed to have used chopsticks before—her technique was smooth.
She marveled at the soy-braised short ribs.
She found the gochujang-braised ones spicy.
Watching her savor the braised ribs brought me considerable satisfaction.
But then.
‘…She’s eating more than I expected?’
She’d said she didn’t really need to eat.
Yet her chopsticks never ceased moving.
Worried there’d be nothing left for me, I focused on eating as well.
“Phew, that was delicious.”
“Thank you for the meal, Master!”
We finished eating quickly.
Looking at her then, Serin’s expression seemed noticeably brighter.
I’d only thought of her as a cold, aloof beauty, but I never expected her to love food this much.
Still, who could resist thick braised short ribs?
After finishing our meal.
Without thinking, I habitually checked the Awakener Community.
[ Breaking news! Breaking news! Breaking news! ]
[ That scarf Steelhammer is wearing lol ]
[ Wait, Steelhammer can make accessories now? ]
[ Wait, is Steelhammer actually selling this? ]
[ No way, seriously? ]
“……What?”
On the Awakener Community.
A frenzy had erupted the moment I listed the Three-Tailed Fox Fur Scarf for sale.

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