I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 24

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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 24
Chapter 24
Toran Stonebreaker.
He was, to put it mildly, a heretic among his dwarven kind.
Eldest son of the clan chief of the Black Rock Tribe, once called a master smith of the age.
Yet Toran had no interest in the blacksmith’s craft.
What he chose was not a hammer, but a pickaxe.
He staked his entire life on mining, not making.
So much so that—
‘No, wait! Toran, hold back! Anything but Celestial Mountain!’
‘I can sense a massive Orichalcum vein there!’
‘You can’t! If you disturb Celestial Mountain, then—’
‘Ha-ha-hahahaha! Wait for me, Orichalcum! Here comes Toran!’
He’d rush not only to Celestial Mountain, designated as forbidden, but to any ore vein
swarming with monsters—smashing every creature in his path with a single pickaxe before mining the minerals. That was Toran.
And right now—
“Ha-ha-hahahaha! Yes, this is ore! This is it! Veins everywhere, absolutely everywhere!”
he was utterly delighted.
The blacksmith’s mine.
It held far greater potential than any mine Toran had ever laid eyes on.
True, at this very moment it yielded only the basest iron ore, worthless really.
But his eyes saw differently.
Through his Ore Vein Detection at Level 4, he sensed it faintly.
Deep within the mine.
Far below.
Ore superior to the Orichalcum he’d mined from Celestial Mountain.
Superior to the Mithril from the deepest reaches of Rothos Mine, known as the deepest passage of all.
Superior even to the Adamantium he’d extracted from beneath Dekron, called a demon realm for its swarming monsters.
He wanted to dig for that ore so badly.
Seized by this desire, he was swinging his pickaxe with gusto when—
“Hmm, this is fine.”
Toran.
He spoke with genuine admiration.
This pickaxe.
It was hard to believe it was made by a human hand.
It was built for a beginner, which was a shame, but his own strength was currently suppressed in this human body anyway.
So in fact, it fit his hand perfectly.
A human body matching dwarven skill.
Clearly it was no accident that he’d become the master of the Forge of Time.
Which is why—
“Listen, boy. After swinging it a few times, I’d say this pickaxe is perfectly serviceable. There’s no real need for you to make me a new one… eh?”
Toran turned back toward his master,
Jang Ganghyeol, who’d been set on crafting him a new pickaxe.
He’d meant to say this would be enough for now.
But there—
Clang!
Toran saw it.
Not the flustered, clumsy figure he’d first observed,
but Jang Ganghyeol wielding his hammer like a seasoned artisan, more skilled than anyone.
Clang!
Just as Toran himself swung his pickaxe—
the smile never leaving his lips as he repeatedly brought down that heavy hammer.
Clang!
Just as Toran himself mined ore—
he struck the glowing point flawlessly, again and again, with that massive weight.
Though Toran had devoted his life to mining rather than making,
he was still a born craftsman of his race.
A dwarf.
Besides, even if he’d never swung a hammer himself, he’d always watched the dwarves around him do so.
So he could tell.
“Haha! Magnificent! This time I’ve truly found a proper master!”
His master.
Jang Ganghyeol’s skill.
Jang Ganghyeol’s sincerity.
And so Toran forgot all about heading out to mine, instead finding himself standing in the forge, watching his master swing the hammer.
And for some reason—
watching Jang Ganghyeol, a familiar silhouette came to mind.
The only one who never harsh with Toran, even as he wielded a pickaxe instead of inheriting his legacy, always offering earnest encouragement: “You can do this.”
The chieftain of the Black Rock Tribe.
His father’s back.
* * *
Clang, clang, clang!
How many times had he swung the hammer?
Each strike point was harder than the last.
His muscles trembled violently, and with the thought that his arms might tear clean off, he gritted his teeth and brought all his strength down on the final point with one last blow.
Crack!
With the satisfying burst of the point shattering—
[ Crafting is complete. ]
[ Crafting Evaluation: SS ]
[ You have obtained Mountain-Destroyer Savage Fang. ]
The item was finished.
And the result was magnificent.
“Double S rank!”
Since making Serin’s bow, he hadn’t been able to craft another SS-rank item.
Yet he’d just succeeded in creating one.
As he stood there, a thought began to take shape.
The Crafting Evaluation wasn’t determined solely by his hammering skill, was it?
It wasn’t recorded in the system, but—
didn’t it require an “Understanding” of the item itself, or of whoever would use it?
With skill alone, the highest grade an item could reach was S rank.
To go higher, one needed to know why the item was being made, who it was for, how intimately one understood its intended bearer.
Perhaps that kind of Understanding was what made the difference.
That’s what he thought.
In any case, having earned an SS-rank evaluation—
[ A Masterpiece has been born. ]
[ A masterpiece worthy of announcing your name to the world has been completed, and through it you gain inspiration, raising your abilities. ]
[ Health increases by 3. ]
The system message announcing the Masterpiece appeared.
In truth, it seemed that an SS rank didn’t automatically trigger a Masterpiece message every time.
But it felt good that the system recognized his work as a Masterpiece.
Eagerly, he pulled up the item information—
[ Mountain-Destroyer Savage Fang ]
Form: Pickaxe
Grade: SS
Requirement: Level 8 or higher
Description: A pickaxe crafted by blacksmith Jang Ganghyeol of Lumina Celestial Mountain for Toran Stonebreaker, the Collapse-Bringer.
Attack Power: 80
Abilities: Mining Lv 4, Penetration Lv 3, Savage Strike Lv 3
“Hmm.”
As expected, SS rank.
The attack power was extraordinary.
Even a Level 8 SS-rank weapon with 71 attack power would be quite high, but this surpassed that.
Likely thanks to using the boss-tier material Ferocious Boar’s Tusk.
And that wasn’t all.
“A Level 4 ability—this is my first.”
The highest-level ability on any item he’d crafted before was Level 3.
Yet this one possessed a Level 4 ability.
The bow he’d made for Serin, Tracker of the Cold Snow, Ikaya, had far more abilities in total, but in exchange, each individual ability was lower rank than these.
The abilities attached to this pickaxe were all geared toward mining, including Mining itself, and—
satisfied with how the appearance had turned out as well, he prepared to head back to the Ore Mine to present the pickaxe to Toran.
“Ooooh…!”
“Toran?”
Toran’s voice reached me.
I turned to see him standing near the entrance, his mouth falling open as he approached.
I hadn’t even noticed him arrive while I was absorbed in crafting the pickaxe.
As he drew closer.
“Remarkable! To forge a pickaxe of this caliber! Even our tribe’s smiths struggled to match this quality!”
He gazed at the pickaxe I’d just completed, marveling aloud without pause.
“This substantial weight! The cool touch and primal edge!”
The pickaxe was extraordinarily heavy since I’d crafted the handle from steel as well.
Heavy enough that I’d have difficulty wielding it myself.
And yet.
Toran lifted the massive pickaxe effortlessly with a single hand, his admiration undiminished.
There was good reason I’d insisted on a steel handle.
‘Satisfying.’
This custom crafting had felt especially taxing.
But watching Toran’s reaction washed away all that fatigue in an instant.
“A hundred days of looking won’t match one moment of using it! Come on, let’s test it right now!”
“Me too?”
“Don’t you want to see it? Your masterpiece in action?”
“Of course I do!”
“Ha-ha-haha! That’s the way of a true smith! Let’s go!”
I followed Toran toward the mine.
Not long after Toran had begun swinging the pickaxe, the mine had already been excavated considerably.
He’d even constructed simple support structures near the entrance.
All in this short time.
Venturing into the deepest section, Toran examined the wall as though using Ore Vein Detection Level 4, then.
“Here it is! Hup, cha!”
Crack!
Without hesitation, he swung the pickaxe.
The instant the tool struck the wall with a tremendous sound of tearing air.
Crash-crackle!
A far larger fissure erupted than anything I’d witnessed before.
“Ha-ha-haha! This is it! This weighty feel! This sturdy head! I’m delighted!”
With those words, Toran swung the pickaxe again, and.
Rumble—
The wall collapsed in a thunderous cascade.
Even at a glance, the force was unmistakably different from when he wielded the standard-issue pickaxe.
Yet throughout, he seemed to be carefully controlling the size and thickness of the fractures to prevent the mine from collapsing.
Truly the work of an S-Rank miner.
And Toran wasn’t simply mining ore wherever he found it.
Indeed, there were places where he’d brought down the wall only to find no iron ore there at all.
“Why’d you break that section?”
When I asked.
“Mining just the ore is fine, but this isn’t a day’s work! Since we need to keep going deeper, we have to create paths!”
“Ah.”
“Supports aren’t built from timber alone. The walls we leave behind serve as supports too, and sometimes the ore veins themselves become the structural framework.”
Honest as he seemed, Toran’s answer carried genuine wisdom.
“The deeper we go, the harder it becomes to traverse, so we’ll need to lay rails and build carts. I’m carving the path with all that in mind.”
“I see.”
“Ha-ha-haha! Don’t worry—just watch and enjoy! I’ve got this handled!”
Even without those words, he seemed more than trustworthy.
Like the hunting grounds, it seemed I’d rarely need to visit the mine myself from now on.
“Ha-ha-haha! This is the life! Ore tumbling with each swing! Absolutely exhilarating!”
As tired as the custom crafting had left me.
I settled back and watched Toran work for a long while.
There was fire-gazing and water-gazing, so perhaps this should be called earth-gazing?
When the satisfying sound of the pickaxe had grown familiar to me, as had Toran’s hearty laughter.
Roll—
A single piece of ore caught my eye.
Each time Toran swung his pickaxe, a handful of low-grade iron ore tumbled down.
But there was one reason why that particular ore had caught my eye.
“Huh? Toran, this is…….”
“Oho, finally one showed up! Wahaha! Quick, pick it up! It’s different from all the low-grade iron ore we’ve seen so far!”
It wasn’t low-grade iron ore.
An item that looked more like a jewel than ore.
I picked up that item, which seemed to emit a faint reddish glow, and checked it.
[ Power Ore Stone ]
Form: Ore
Grade: A
Description: A raw stone that, having absorbed the power of ore veins over a long time amid abundant mineral seams, now carries the essence of strength.
Ability: Strength Lv 1
“A Power Ore Stone?”
As expected.
An item of entirely different form from iron ore had emerged.
This was the first time anything other than low-grade iron ore had come from the mine.
I hadn’t even imagined that something else might appear, so I couldn’t help but be stunned.
“It’s a rare stone that only appears once or twice even among the veins! If you use it in crafting, you’ll be able to harness the power it contains!”
A Power Ore Stone.
The ability attached to it was ‘Strength Lv 1’.
Which meant that an item forged from this would gain an ability related to strength.
The moment I heard those words.
A brilliant idea flashed through my mind.
I’d been thinking lately that my strength was lacking.
If I crafted a proper item from this.
Wouldn’t I be able to fill the gap in my strength right away, without having to level up further?
The instant that thought struck me.
“Toran, thank you!”
“Wahaha! Of course — truly a blacksmith through and through! Your eyes light up at fine ore just like us dwarves!”
I clutched the Power Ore Stone tight in my fist.
Forgetting the exhaustion of special crafting, I ran toward the forge.

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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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