I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 6

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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 6
Chapter 6
The pickaxe was complete.
With it finished, the stockpile of iron ore that had been piling up in the Blacksmith was entirely depleted.
If I failed at Mining with this pickaxe now, crafting anything further would become terribly difficult.
So I had to succeed at Mining no matter what.
“Let’s go!”
With a more serious expression than before, I headed toward the Mine.
To the left of the Crossroads—an entrance built from stacked stones.
I stepped inside.
“Right, this is the Mine.”
Dark stone walls, packed tight on all sides.
It appeared to be an undeveloped Mine; from entrance to interior, the open space was no more than three meters across.
The ceiling was just high enough to swing a pickaxe.
Looking at this, I gripped the freshly made pickaxe firmly.
[ Standard Pickaxe ]
Type: Pickaxe
Grade: S
Requirement: Level 1 or higher
Description: A Mining pickaxe crafted from suitable wood and iron ingots.
Attack Power: 27
Abilities: Mining Lv 1, Vitality Lv 1
An S-grade pickaxe.
It came with the Mining skill, and Vitality—which boosted stamina—as well.
I’d never swung a pickaxe a single time in my life, but I trusted the item I’d made.
Still, I wondered where exactly I should strike.
– Using the Mining skill will allow you to locate Points.
“Points?”
The moment I activated the Mining skill, just as Ember had said.
“Oh, there they are!”
I could spot the Points that Ember had mentioned.
Faint lights flickered across various spots on the Mine’s interior walls.
Without hesitation, I swung.
Crack!
The pickaxe came down hard against a Point.
But then—
“Huh?”
The pickaxe sank right through.
I’d recalled the struggles of logging, how I’d had to strike trees dozens of times.
Yet this solid wall crumbled like tofu under the pick.
After swinging the pickaxe a few more times—
Rumble.
[ Lowest-Grade Iron Ore ]
“…Really? That’s all there is?”
A single piece of iron ore rolled out from the hollowed wall.
I picked it up and confirmed—it was genuine iron ore, all right.
The ease of it all felt almost anticlimactic.
This must be the power of an S-grade pickaxe.
With a newly crafted S-grade axe in hand, Logging would surely yield the same rapid results—trees falling away like cordwood.
“This is perfect for me!”
Energized, I swung the pickaxe even faster.
Each swing carved chunks from the wall.
Each swing sent ore tumbling down.
Every iron ore I collected could be turned into items worth hundreds of thousands in profit.
So with each piece of ore that rolled free, it felt as though hundreds of thousands were rolling in.
“Hrah!”
Tumble, tumble.
How could I not be thrilled?
The Vitality ability on the pickaxe kept my energy up, letting me swing as much as I wanted.
The Mine passage, which had only been three meters across, doubled in length before I knew it.
Thanks to that, I was able to mine dozens of Lowest-Grade Iron Ore in a flash.
The problem was.
Growwwl.
“What? Why am I so hungry?”
My stomach growled insistently.
I hadn’t even finished that pig’s feet set long ago.
And already my belly was demanding food again.
I’d heard that when you become an Awakener, your calorie expenditure increases, and your food intake rises along with it.
Guess it wasn’t idle talk after all.
Though I still wasn’t sure if this was normal.
“Maybe I should stop here for now?”
Hunger aside, my body had already been drained of strength.
If not for the Vitality enchantment on the Standard Pickaxe, I wouldn’t have managed even this much.
Without it, I couldn’t have done any of this.
Still, looking at the dozens of Lowest-Grade Iron Ore stacked beside me.
“Hehehehe.”
A smile spread across my face unbidden.
“Alright, shall we start crafting right away?”
Time for the exciting crafting session again.
Well, unfortunately, before that.
Growwwwl.
I’d better eat something first.
* * *
Clang, clang, clang!
My hammer swinging without pause.
[ Crafting complete. ]
[ Crafting evaluation: A ]
[ You have obtained a Standard Short Sword. ]
An item created with each strike.
No matter how many times I repeated this crafting process, it never got old.
That’s probably how I managed to claim the top blacksmith position in the Final Gate.
Doing this made me feel like I was starting from scratch.
Like I was running the Final Gate all over again.
I couldn’t stop hammering even if I tried.
Of course, what excited me most was always.
[ Standard Short Sword has sold. ]
[ Standard Spear has sold. ]
…….
“Hehehehe.”
The sale notifications from the Exchange.
Seven hundred thousand won per piece.
The fair market price I’d discovered by listing the standard series on the Exchange.
I could sell them higher if I wanted, but then sales took considerably longer.
Since a few swings of the hammer knocked out another one anyway, I’d set the standard series at seven hundred thousand won to keep the flow moving fast.
Clang, clang, clang!
Though my concentration was slipping and quality wasn’t quite hitting the mark, if I managed to craft an S-rank item, I could fetch a much higher price.
So there I was, swinging the hammer in a frenzy.
“The iron bars are already gone?”
All the Lowest-Grade Iron Ore I’d brought back from the Mine was exhausted.
It felt like a waste to stop here, so I stood up from my workbench.
I was about to grab the Standard Pickaxe leaning against the wall and head back to the Mine when.
“Hngh?”
I couldn’t grip the pickaxe.
There was no strength in my palm.
Lifting my hand, I could see it trembling against my will.
My forearm was the same.
Come to think of it, my whole body felt so drained that even standing was becoming difficult.
– You have overexerted yourself.
– Rest is recommended.
The crafting in reality had been so engrossing that I’d forgotten my body was suffering and thrown myself entirely into the work.
As Ember had said, pushing further in this state was impossible.
Besides, the night had grown late, so I decided to rest for now.
“Wow, what a long day.”
The effect of the Forge of Time is truly remarkable.
It felt like I’d been swinging a hammer all dawn long.
But when I stepped out, it was barely ten o’clock.
Still, I felt satisfied knowing I’d crafted so many items.
Thump.
The moment I lay down on the bed—
“Mmm…”
—I fell into sweet sleep.
Usually I’d lie in bed scrolling through my phone for another hour or two before drifting off.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept so soundly.
“Wow, I really slept well.”
When I woke, the sun was already up.
Even without insomnia, I’d rarely felt this refreshed upon waking.
I’d never imagined that rest after hard labor could feel this revitalizing.
“Alright, let’s make some items with vigor today!”
To an outsider, it sounded like “Alright, let’s head to work with vigor today!”—ridiculous really.
But I meant every word.
Crafting was endlessly fun.
Even if someone told me to make the same item all day, I’d swing the hammer with joy.
Thinking this, the moment I tried to get up—
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!”
A terrible pain shot through my entire body.
It felt like hundreds of needles were piercing me everywhere.
Or like someone was wringing me out like a wet rag from both ends.
Or like my whole body was on fire.
“What the hell!”
Getting up was out of the question.
I fell back onto the bed without meaning to.
But the pain didn’t stop.
Lying still, I was able to figure out what this was pretty quickly.
“This is muscle soreness?”
An intense muscle soreness unlike anything I’d felt in my entire life.
My arms, shoulders, and neck felt like they were being twisted even now.
It must have been from swinging the hammer without rest.
I’d heard that you should stretch carefully in situations like this, so I tried to gently move my neck—
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”
Even sharper pain lanced through me.
This wouldn’t work.
Stretching or anything else—I couldn’t move.
“Should I just sleep more?”
Rest would eventually help me recover.
But how much rest would it take to get rid of muscle soreness this severe?
I needed to strike while the iron was hot—get those items listed on the Exchange right now!
“Oh, the Exchange!”
A good idea came to mind.
I immediately opened the Awakener Exchange.
The Exchange could be controlled by hand, but I could also operate it by voice.
“Potion! Muscle soreness potion!”
I desperately searched for what I needed.
There was no such thing as a muscle soreness potion, but fortunately the Exchange’s algorithm suggested alternatives based on my needs.
[ Phoenix Regeneration Feather ]
[ Troll Blood Potion ]
[ Blood Demon Serum ]
…….
The problem was the price.
The Phoenix Regeneration Feather at the top was priced in the billions, easily.
The potions below were cheaper, but still absurdly expensive by my standards.
I tried switching to the lowest price filter, but something like the Soft Slime Viscous Liquid didn’t inspire confidence.
Even a slight bump upward sent prices into the absurd.
I could read my own condition clearly enough.
‘This isn’t ordinary muscle soreness!’
The worst muscle soreness I’d ever felt in my life—and I’d never felt anything like it before.
Left unchecked, I genuinely worried my muscles might tear.
‘But I made over ten million won yesterday alone!’
I decided to splurge on a proper potion.
[ You have purchased Orc Warrior’s Elixir. ]
The moment I bought the item, a bottle of green potion materialized in my palm.
Believe it or not, this was a one-million-won potion.
A million won for a single bottle of potion.
Unimaginable for someone like me, but it was an investment.
I’m an Awakener making ten million a day, after all.
If I lay bedridden for days like this, I’d lose all that income.
Thinking of it that way, a million won seemed like a bargain.
Anyway.
“Nngh—”
Fighting through the twisted agony in my arms, I brought the Orc Warrior’s Elixir to my lips and drank it down.
What could a one-million-won elixir possibly taste like?
With that thought, I drank it.
“Ugh.”
They say good medicine tastes bitter.
So how much more bitter would an even more expensive potion be?
It tasted desperately foul—that was my honest assessment.
Still, befitting a one-million-won elixir,
“Nngh… it’s getting better.”
The muscle soreness began to ease gradually.
The twisted knots loosened, and the burning heat drained from my muscles.
Of course, this was the elixir that muscular Orc Warriors drank, so it ought to work this well.
I’ll say it again—it was a one-million-won elixir.
“Has it fully healed, though?”
Wary that the unbearable muscle soreness might return, I rose from my seat with utmost caution.
Fortunately, the soreness was gone, but my body still felt the echo of it.
If there was good news in all this,
[ Through extreme hammering, your Strength has increased by 1. ]
[ Through extreme hammering, your Stamina has increased by 1. ]
it was this.
The typical way an Awakener raises stats is through “Level Up.”
When you level up, you generate bonus Points that you can invest into whatever stats you want.
There are other methods too, but the most notable is—
‘Training.’
Cultivation.
They say that undergoing extreme training can nudge your stats upward.
But despite knowing this, few Awakeners actually pursued stat gains through cultivation.
The odds of gaining stats through cultivation were abysmally low, and even when they did rise, it was only one or two points at most.
So the fact that my stats had gone up unintentionally,
was genuinely good news.
But.
“This won’t work.”
Even if my stats climb, I can’t fall into this kind of muscle soreness every single day.
The soreness would compound daily, and each time I’d need to buy an elixir. What then?
What if I built a tolerance to the elixir and had to buy something even more expensive?
This won’t do.
This isn’t it.
I need a solution.
With that thought,
my stomach growled.
“…Maybe I should eat first.”
I quickly pulled up the delivery app.

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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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