I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 21

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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 21
Episode 21
After waking in the morning.
I have breakfast with Serin and Ember, then head straight to the Blacksmith Shop.
After that, Serin makes for the Hunting Ground.
I use the monster materials she’s brought back to craft equipment.
These days, this has become my routine.
Thanks to Serin, my Level rises on its own, and with the materials she gathers, I can make equipment to my heart’s content.
It couldn’t be better.
But today is different.
To clear my head, I craft a few items and post them to the Trading Post.
“Ember, to your room.”
– Are you stopping already?
“I have other plans today.”
I head back to my One-room Apartment.
There, I prepare to go out for the first time in a while.
I grab my ID Card and my Bankbook.
Just as I’m doing so.
“Master, are you heading out?”
Serin’s voice reaches me.
I’ve recently learned something interesting.
Serin can move between the Blacksmith Shop and reality without me opening or closing the shop.
Or rather, is it a bit different?
It’s not that she moves freely in reality — more that she can appear instantly wherever I am.
Just now, after finishing her hunt, she must have returned to the shop, found me missing, and tracked me down here to the One-room Apartment.
“Yes, I have somewhere to be. Now that I think about it, this is my first proper outing since Serin arrived.”
I’ve been ordering food for delivery.
Water and household supplies too — all shipped in.
The only time I leave is to dash downstairs and toss out the trash, so by any measure, it’s been ages since I’ve gone out.
And yet.
“I’ll come with you.”
Serin says something I hadn’t expected.
“You’re coming too?”
“I may take on the role of a hunter, but beyond that, I bear the responsibility to protect the Master. I cannot allow you to go out alone.”
Come along with me, she says.
It’s not a bad thing.
As she says, if Serin comes with me, I’ll be safe no matter what happens out there.
Though I doubt anything dangerous could happen on a quick trip out.
Only.
“Hmm, you don’t have clothes, do you?”
Clothes are the problem.
The Armor I made for her is practical, but her outfit doesn’t match ordinary street clothes at all.
Unless she’s a cosplayer, nobody walks around in Northern hunter garb.
I consider dressing her in my own clothes, but that feels awkward too.
While I’m mulling this over.
“You needn’t worry about that.”
The figure standing plainly before me.
Whoosh.
“What?”
Suddenly vanishes.
Or more precisely, sinks downward.
I glance around in surprise, startled that she’s no longer visible.
“Master, it’s a shadow.”
“A shadow?”
She’s telling the truth.
Her voice is coming from my own shadow on the ground.
“It’s one of the abilities I’ve regained as my Level rises. I can hide in shadows using the Shadow Concealment technique, which allows me to protect you without being seen.”
“Oh, you can do that too?”
“It’s all thanks to you, Master.”
“Thanks to me? How so?”
“If you hadn’t made that equipment for me, I wouldn’t have recovered my abilities this quickly.”
“Ha, I’m glad you like it.”
Shadow Concealment, then.
As I’d suspected, her stats and skills I’d confirmed were weakened to match her level.
Her actual abilities must exceed what I’d imagined.
No wonder she received an S-rank evaluation.
With her problem solved, that was that.
“Let’s go check it out!”
I opened the door and stepped outside.
Though I’d made it downstairs to the first floor, it’d been quite some time since I’d ventured out like this in earnest.
The destination wasn’t far, so I decided to walk.
As I was doing so.
“Master, where are we headed?”
Serin’s question reached me.
Since it was past rush hour, there were few people around, so I could answer her without worrying about being overheard.
“To the bank!”
“The bank?”
“It’s a place where you deposit or borrow money.”
“Why are we going there?”
“To pay back a loan!”
“A loan? You borrowed money?”
“Yes, a jeonse loan. I borrowed money to rent an apartment. ……Saying it like this sounds strange. Borrowed to borrow.”
That was right.
Today’s outing was precisely to repay my jeonse loan.
The result of diligently crafting and selling items until now.
I’d finally become able to pay back my loan!
Honestly, there’s no urgent need to pay it back right now, but a loan tends to weigh on the mind, so I figured I’d just repay it straight away.
Truth be told, I didn’t even need to visit the bank in person.
What era are we living in, after all?
A little smartphone manipulation and paying off debt is trivial.
But precisely because of that, the reason I chose to visit the bank was!
……There’s not much to it, really.
It’s just.
‘It would feel like a letdown to do it online.’
The jeonse loan I’d mustered the courage to take.
Now I was about to repay it with money I’d earned hard as a Blacksmith after my Awakening.
If it all ended with a mere ‘beep’ on my smartphone, it’d feel too hollow.
That’s why I’m making the trip to the bank in person.
The bank, visited after so long.
I took a number and not much time passed before.
“What brings you in today?”
The bank clerk asked.
“I’ve come to repay my loan!”
I answered confidently.
Well, of course.
It was a big deal for me, but routine business for the clerk.
“Do you happen to have our bank’s app? Using the app would be faster. May I help guide you through it?”
She naturally suggested using the app.
“I haven’t downloaded the app, so could you just do it directly?”
“Of course. I’ll take care of it right away. That said, if you download the app, it has many convenient features…….”
I asked her to handle it in person.
I felt a bit bad for the trouble, but this moment held real meaning for me.
I wanted to hear it said aloud.
“Your full balance has been repaid. Thank you for your business, valued customer.”
These words, specifically.
“Thank you!”
I’d paid it back.
My first loan in life.
The jeonse loan whose repayment timeline I’d had no idea about — I’d repaid it in full.
And just one week after my Awakening as a Blacksmith, no less.
And even after all that, my bankbook still had room to spare.
I couldn’t have been prouder.
While I was at it.
“Serin, let’s grab something to eat—”
I’d thought we might eat out before heading back.
“—but that won’t work.”
For Serin to eat out, she’d have to emerge from my shadow.
In her current state of dress, I couldn’t think of anywhere appropriate where she could dine without drawing stares.
So instead of eating out.
“Grandmother, could I get some tteokbokki?”
“How much should I give you?”
“For one person? No, make it three portions. And three portions of blood sausage with the offal mixed in, two pieces of each type of fried food, and some fish cake too.”
“My goodness, that’s going to be quite a lot, isn’t it? Let’s start with a little of each. I’ll give you plenty.”
“I eat quite a lot, actually.”
I stopped by a street food stall.
Fortunately, there weren’t many people around.
I thought this much might be manageable for her to eat, and as it turned out.
“Serin, will you be able to eat?”
“If you drop it down, I’ll catch it and eat it myself.”
“…Catch and eat it? I feel terrible doing that.”
“It’s more convenient this way.”
“Understood then.”
It seemed Serin could eat even while hidden in shadow form.
To be safe, I carefully lowered a plate of blood sausage, keeping out of the grandmother’s line of sight.
Whoosh—
The blood sausage vanished into the shadow.
A curious sight indeed.
Before long.
Whoosh—
An empty plate emerged.
“How is it?”
“Delicious…! The flavor of this offal in particular resembles the taste of dishes I made from monsters I hunted long ago.”
“Try the tteokbokki and the fried food too. Oh, and you can dip the blood sausage and fried pieces in the tteokbokki broth—it’s really good that way.”
“S-so spicy…!”
“Tteokbokki’s not really that spicy.”
“To eat something this fiery so easily! You’re incredible, Master!”
It was a modest affair, but we managed a fairly satisfying meal nonetheless.
As I ate with obvious relish, the grandmother seemed so pleased by my appetite that she even threw in some extras.
When the fried food ran out, she even fried a fresh batch for us.
Dipping the freshly fried pieces in the tteokbokki broth, my eyes went wide with delight.
The kimbap fries in particular were impossibly delicious.
As the meal was winding down.
The grandmother, who had been smiling warmly.
“Oh my!”
Suddenly gasped, looking past me.
Wondering what was wrong, I turned to look.
Crack!
Just beyond us, in the small Children’s Park.
Something extraordinary was unfolding right beside the playground.
A rift opened in empty space, spreading wider by the second.
I’d never seen one in person before, but any modern person would recognize the phenomenon.
“A Gate?”
A disaster that had suddenly descended upon the world.
Growing wider as time passed, a doorway to another world that spawned monsters if left unsealed.
It was definitely a Gate.
“Young man, get inside quick! It’s dangerous! Wait, what am I saying—we shouldn’t try to close it, we need to run! Should I have said to escape to the nearest subway?”
The grandmother’s alarm was understandable.
Gates didn’t spawn monsters instantly, of course.
But it was certainly a dangerous phenomenon, there was no denying that.
In situations like this, the standard procedure was either to flee to a shelter depending on how close the Gate was, or lock the doors and hide inside.
My eyes were drawn to the Gate manifesting for the first time, even as I tried to follow the evacuation protocol and flee with the old woman.
“Master, would it be acceptable if I handled this?”
“You think you can manage it?”
“It poses a risk factor that could endanger you. If you will permit it, I can dispose of it immediately and return. The threat level doesn’t appear to be particularly high.”
Serin’s voice reached me.
She was offering to clear the Gate herself.
I felt some unease, but truthfully, given everything I’d witnessed from her so far, I couldn’t imagine her failing at a Gate clearance.
Besides, the old woman at the street food stall seemed to have trouble with her knees and looked as though evacuation would be difficult for her.
“All right, I’ll count on you. But don’t overextend yourself.”
“Yes, Master.”
I nodded at Serin’s reply.
That very instant.
Whoosh!
Serin burst from the shadows and dashed toward the park with the speed of a flash.
The moment the Gate formed, she entered it.
Her speed and Shadow Concealment were so extraordinary that no one around would have detected her presence.
“Ah, young man. These old legs won’t carry me. I’ll lock the door here, so you run too.”
“It’ll be resolved soon. Let’s lock up together and wait inside for just a moment.”
“Ah, there’s no guild in this area either, so the Awakened Ones will be late arriving…….”
“Don’t worry, grandmother.”
And so I waited inside the street food stall with the anxious old woman.
Normally, fleeing would be the right call, but I trust Serin.
Given what she showed me at the Hunting Ground, no ordinary Gate would stand against her.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before.
Thoom—
A heavy sound echoed from the Gate.
Fwoosh—
[ The E-rank Gate, “Jeobol Maengjin,” has been cleared. ]
[ The Gate’s entrance is closing. ]
Along with the system message, the Gate began to fade gradually.
Moreover, the Gate itself was crumbling bit by bit.
And moments later.
“Master.”
“It’s over already?”
Serin’s voice came from the shadows.
I’d been keeping watch on the Gate the whole time, of course.
But I hadn’t even noticed her emerge.
“Yes.”
To think she cleared the Gate this quickly.
As if to prove her word, the Gate collapsed rapidly.
And then.
“Master, what should I do with the spoils?”
“Spoils?”
“I was able to obtain a small amount of items, materials from butchering the boss monster, and some Mana Stones.”
An unexpected moment for settling loot had arrived.

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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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