I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 3

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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 3
Chapter 3
My first weapon as a Blacksmith Awakener.
The crafting process turned out to be far more engaging than I’d expected—I lost all track of time.
Though it does seem like it finished rather quickly, all things considered.
I examined the item information for the Basic Short Sword with careful anticipation.
[ Basic Short Sword ]
Type: Short Sword
Grade: A
Requirement: Level 1 or higher
Description: A basic short sword forged from refined Lowest-tier Iron Ore.
Attack Power: 21
Abilities: Sharpness Lv 1, Piercing Lv 1
An A-grade short sword.
Honestly, I wasn’t satisfied.
A-grade is certainly a high classification, but I was once the finest Blacksmith Awakener in Final Gate, wasn’t I?
To receive an A-grade rating on something as fundamental as basic short sword crafting felt underwhelming.
There was no getting around my disappointment.
Well, this isn’t a game anymore anyway.
Even though it felt natural, considering my clumsy first strike with the hammer and my low stats, I suppose it’s inevitable.
But.
– That is quite remarkable, if I may say so.
Ember clearly saw it differently.
“Was it decent?”
– More than decent, sir.
– No matter how potent the Time Smithy may be, a crafted item’s quality ultimately depends on the Blacksmith Awakener’s skill.
– You only just became the master of this smithy, and this was surely your first creation.
– Yet you forged an A-grade weapon.
“Still, there are three grades above it, aren’t there?”
– For ordinary people, a first attempt would yield F to E-grade items at best. Even someone with considerable talent would struggle beyond D to C-grade.
– For you to craft an A-grade weapon under these circumstances speaks to nothing short of exceptional talent.
Honestly, his words didn’t quite land with me.
Wasn’t it only natural to receive an A-grade for a basic short sword like this?
When I made my first item in Final Gate, it exceeded A-grade anyway.
Regardless, that’s beside the point.
“How much do you think this will sell for?”
That’s the real question.
The heart of being a blacksmith is crafting equipment and selling it.
To do that, I needed to know the weapon’s price.
But I had no way of finding out.
I ventured to ask Ember anyway.
– I apologize, sir.
– Crafted items’ prices fluctuate considerably, making it difficult for me to estimate.
Even Ember couldn’t answer that.
Instead.
– However, if you intend to sell your creations, I would recommend the Awakener Exchange.
“Right. The Awakener Exchange!”
He offered me a solution.
The Awakener Exchange.
I’d heard of it before.
It was a function exclusively available to Awakeners—a marketplace where we could buy and sell items.
Sure enough, the moment I called out the name of the exchange.
[ Welcome to the Exchange. ]
A system window materialized before my eyes.
But before the full interface loaded.
First.
[ Please set a nickname to use in the Exchange. ]
It was time to create a username.
Well, I’d anticipated this beforehand anyway.
Without further deliberation.
“Steel Hammer.”
[ You have entered the Awakener Exchange under the nickname ‘Steel Hammer’. ]
I used the same nickname I’d had at Final Gate.
Along with it came a flood of items into view.
[ Lich’s Staff ]
[ Demon’s Trident ]
[ Giant’s Club ]
[ Manticore Tail Belt ]
…….
“Wow…….”
I could only find it miraculous.
When I tapped an entry with my finger, the item’s information and price appeared.
But those prices exceeded my imagination entirely.
Take just the Lich’s Staff at the very top.
“Insane—a billion won?”
A billion.
That’s enough to buy not just my studio apartment, but the entire building itself, I’d think.
And it’s just a single weapon at that price.
The real problem is that this isn’t even the most expensive item.
A quick search revealed items easily topping ten billion won.
“Is this my future!”
I let myself fantasize for a moment.
But right now, I needed to focus on something else.
Using the Exchange’s filter function, I narrowed the results to Basic Short Swords usable at Level 1, and the price range dropped dramatically.
Even within Level 1 short swords, there were quite a few options, but the most common and reliable one was.
[ Goblin Blade ]
Form: Short Sword
Grade: C
Requirement: Level 1 or higher
Description: A blade once wielded by goblins. How it was made is beyond me, but the craftsmanship was poor to begin with, and it’s been handled so roughly that it barely deserves to be called a short sword anymore.
Attack Power: 12
Ability: Paralysis Lv 1
That was it.
A Grade C short sword.
Finding decent items among Level 1 weapons was nearly impossible to start with.
And when I narrowed it down to short swords specifically, this Goblin Blade was the best weapon available right now.
Looking at this Goblin Blade.
“The attack power is almost twice the difference.”
It’s half the strength of the weapon I’d made.
The word “cheap” came to mind unbidden.
But the problem was.
“This thing costs a hundred thousand won?”
The Goblin Blade.
A weapon that looked like it would snap if you thrust too hard—and it cost a hundred thousand won.
By contrast, my weapon was Grade A.
Even if it was basic-grade, mine looked far superior.
Not just in appearance—the attack power was twice as high.
“So I could list mine for two hundred thousand, right?”
Twice the attack power means twice the price.
Wait, actually, that’s not quite right.
The Goblin Blade has only one meager ability—Paralysis.
While my short sword has both Sharpness and Piercing—two quality abilities.
So.
“I don’t know. Let me just list it and see.”
[ You have registered a Basic Short Sword (Grade A) on the Awakener Exchange. ]
Three times the price of the Goblin Blade.
I listed it for three hundred thousand won.
Honestly, even that feels cheap, but since it’s my first creation.
And to get used to the Awakener Exchange’s pricing, I went with this for now.
“How long did it take to make this? Couldn’t have been more than an hour. If this sells, that’s seriously sweet money.”
If it didn’t sell, I could always drop the price to 200,000 won.
That alone would be a decent sum.
And if it sold well, I could raise the price next time.
Grinning at the thought, I was about to move on to the next piece when—
[ The Basic Short Sword (A) has been sold. ]
“……What?”
A system message flashed before my eyes: the Basic Short Sword I’d posted to the Awakener Exchange less than a minute ago had sold.
* * *
“Broken again?”
Kim Minsu—a novice Awakener who’d only had his abilities awaken a week ago—stared at the Goblin Blade in his hands, shattered beyond repair.
Despair washed over him.
“They say the hardest part about becoming an Awakener is finding decent equipment. Now I know it’s true.”
He’d been thrilled when he first awakened.
But everything that came after was a nightmare.
Once awakened, he had to hunt monsters and gather Magic Stones.
To hunt monsters, he needed equipment.
But browsing the Awakener Exchange, there was almost nothing usable on the market.
“The good stuff costs a fortune.”
Level-1 gear that went for several million won was completely out of reach.
But picking up another Goblin Blade meant settling for mediocre attack power and durability.
What else could he do?
He needed a weapon to hunt.
“Sigh……”
[ Welcome to the Awakener Exchange. ]
He exhaled and entered the Exchange.
He filtered the results to Level-1 short swords.
One weapon caught his eye—something he’d never seen before.
“Basic Short Sword?”
The name was painfully ordinary.
But when he pulled up the details, the item description was far from trivial.
“Attack power of 21?”
Double the Goblin Blade’s output.
And that wasn’t all.
Instead of a useless ability like Paralysis—which had less than a 10% proc rate and rarely helped in hunts—this was a Grade A weapon with proper effects: Sharpness and Piercing.
And the price?
“300,000!”
Only three times what the Goblin Blade cost.
“I can’t pass this up!”
[ You have purchased the Basic Short Sword (A). ]
He bought it without hesitation.
The payment processed instantly through the system, and the weapon materialized before him.
“Yes!”
The Basic Short Sword.
To be honest, it looked utterly unremarkable.
True to its name, it appeared as nothing more than an ordinary short sword—nothing that stood out at first glance.
But that didn’t matter.
The weapons he’d been using until now looked ready to snap at any moment.
In fact, the Goblin Blade had literally shattered mere moments ago.
“Let me test it right now!”
He set out hunting with newfound enthusiasm.
His destination: the Goblin Forest.
Though it had already been cleared, the government had left the Gate intact for new Awakeners to practice.
It didn’t take long after entering before he encountered a goblin.
Usually he’d need two or three direct hits to bring one down.
Thunk!
“Kiek!”
But this goblin—
“It went down in one hit!?”
Under Kim Minsu’s blade,
the goblin fell to the Basic Short Sword’s single, decisive strike.
“This is it! Goblins, here I come! I’m going to slaughter every last one of you today! From now on, I’m the Goblin Slayer! Hahahaha!”
With that, Kim Minsu raised the Basic Short Sword in his hand like a trophy.
[ Your level has increased. ]
And he began his massacre in earnest.
* * *
“Already sold?”
How long had it been since I listed the Basic Short Sword?
There was no need to think hard about it.
Not even a minute had passed, let alone an hour.
“Did I price it too low?”
Judging by the attack power, that didn’t seem to be the case.
I couldn’t make sense of it.
“Maybe I should list the next batch at a higher price?”
The only way to find out was to put more items up for sale.
I quickly gathered a few pieces of Iron Ore from the corner of the smithy, placed them on the anvil, and began work.
[ You have successfully decomposed the Iron Ore. ]
[ Lowest-tier Iron Ore has been created. ]
This time I extracted several chunks.
While I was at it, I decided to hone my hammering technique.
And to preserve what I remembered from the Final Gate.
I set about crafting a variety of items I could make.
Of course, since I could only forge basic-grade weapons from the standard catalog, the only thing that changed was the weapon type behind the “Basic” name.
And so.
[ Crafting is complete. ]
[ Craftsmanship rating: A ]
[ You have obtained a Basic Long Sword. ]
I forged a long sword.
[ Crafting is complete. ]
[ Craftsmanship rating: A ]
[ You have obtained a Basic Spear. ]
Then a spear.
In this way, I began crafting the weapons listed in my catalog one by one.
Each weapon I made went straight to the Awakener Exchange.
I kept raising the prices incrementally.
If something didn’t sell, I could always lower the price and relist—so I wasn’t too worried when I posted them.
[ A Basic Long Sword (A) has been sold. ]
Something was wrong.
I had definitely raised the price.
[ A Basic Spear (A) has been sold. ]
Even with a higher price.
[ A Basic Bow (A) has been sold. ]
Even with a much higher price.
[ A Basic Short Sword (A) has been sold. ]
The items kept selling.

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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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