I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 69

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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 69
Chapter 69
The repair requests came in a staggering variety.
Weapons, armor, accessories — everything imaginable.
Many items I’d never even glimpsed at the Exchange before.
Then again, the truly rare pieces don’t get posted to the Exchange at all — they’re auctioned off in person, or so I’d heard.
“Now this is what I’m talking about.”
These were exactly the kinds of requests I wanted.
If I’d simply posted to the Awakener Community on my own, I never would’ve drawn commissions of this caliber.
The Association Chairman’s endorsement had done the trick.
No wonder the big corporations throw celebrity endorsements at their ads.
One word from the Chairman, and the quality of incoming requests shoots straight up like this.
Still.
“Let’s take this slow.”
I had no intention of jumping straight to the best items available.
I’d managed to repair a Level 24 item without trouble.
But honestly, the repair difficulty on those Gloves of Faded Saint had been brutal, hadn’t it?
The materials required weren’t ordinary either.
So I’d be careful.
‘Steady progress. Only jobs that look manageable.’
I’d climb the ladder gradually.
With that in mind, my first choice was.
[ Dark Goblin’s Assassination Dagger ]
Form: Dagger
Grade: S
Restriction: Level 30 or higher
Description: A dagger of shadow, once wielded by the Dark Goblin — a creature born with an inheritance of deep darkness and known among goblinkind as the ultimate assassin.
Attack Power: 169
Abilities: Ambush Lv 3, Lethal Lv 2, Stealth Lv 1
That was the one.
I had two reasons for choosing this item.
First: the item level.
I’d just confirmed my ability on a Level 24 piece, so I planned to gradually work my way up.
A Level 30 dagger seemed like the perfect next step.
And second.
[ Ambush Lv 3 ]
Significantly increases damage dealt when attacking an enemy in darkness.
The item ability itself.
“Ambush, huh. So abilities like that exist.”
I’d never encountered this one in all my item crafting.
It struck me freshly how much wider the range of item abilities was than I’d imagined.
And as I wondered how I might eventually create an ability like this myself.
[ Initiating Repair Skill. ]
I began the repair.
Unfortunately, this dagger couldn’t be repaired with ordinary iron.
True to its description as a ‘dagger of shadow’ and its jet-black blade, it required Blacksteel to repair.
Blacksteel was a rare ore that Toran had only recently begun sourcing.
‘That’s manageable though.’
The amount required was surprisingly minimal.
After all, I wasn’t forging the dagger from scratch — just patching it up.
[ Beginning repair. ]
I fed in a small measure of Blacksteel and got to work.
A low hum resonated through the air.
Black points materialized above the dagger.
The moment I struck the first point.
Clang!
I could feel it immediately.
‘Yeah, this is definitely harder.’
Compared to the Level 24 item I’d repaired moments ago, the difficulty had plainly increased.
Being a Level 30 item, and Grade S no less, the challenge felt noticeably steeper.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before my Repair level hit a ceiling.
But still.
Clang!
This much is manageable.
Each time I struck the point, a black mist-like substance rose up and clouded my vision.
Clang!
Trusting my instinct to predict the center of the point, I swung the hammer.
Crack!
The black point shattered helplessly.
[ Repair complete. ]
I managed to finish the repair.
As a result, not only was the durability completely restored, but the attack power also rose ever so slightly.
From there on.
[ Using Repair Skill. ]
[ Using Repair Skill. ]
[ Using Repair Skill. ]
……
Requests began pouring in one after another.
As I continued accepting repair commissions and gradually raising the level restrictions on those items.
[ Ogre’s Bone Hammer ]
Type: Blunt Weapon
Grade: S
Restriction: Level 54 or higher
I was repairing an item with a level restriction of 54 when.
“Oof, this is tough…….”
I started to feel the strain.
Even repairing level 50 items had felt taxing.
But this was worse.
[ Repair complete. ]
I barely managed to finish the repair, but this single item consumed a considerable amount of my stamina.
More than a Special Crafting would have.
And that wasn’t all.
It took a long time too.
The points were so hard that breaking even one consumed quite a bit of time.
So this seems to be my limit.
If an item has a level restriction of 60 or higher, the difficulty might become so great that repair itself becomes impossible.
It’s somewhat odd when I think of the Association Chairman’s item.
‘The Gloves of Faded Saint didn’t have a level restriction.’
So I’ll count that as an exception.
In any case, now that I’d learned my limits.
“Should I start in earnest?”
I began accepting repair commissions for items below level 60.
As I continued with item repair requests, I was able to gain two major advantages.
First.
‘There are abilities like this too?’
Discovery of diverse Item Abilities.
Abilities I’d never managed to create despite crafting so many different items until now.
Looking at those abilities and repairing them.
I came to understand these new abilities and pondered how I might create them myself.
The second advantage was.
‘The money’s not bad, is it?’
Money, of course.
The materials needed for repairs were less than half what crafting required.
With those meager materials, I could earn quite substantial commission fees.
And meanwhile, Noom beside me kept churning out mass-produced items.
At this rate, it seemed I’d be able to raise the Blacksmith’s level again before long.
Well.
“How much was it again…… Oh man, unbelievable.”
Now I needed roughly 8 billion Won.
To be precise, 8 billion 190 million Won.
Honestly, my sense of money is already broken—real currency doesn’t feel real anymore.
It’s more like game currency to me.
These days I don’t even convert to cash; I just keep money in my system account and buy Mana Stones directly, so it’s natural that my sense of reality has dulled.
While taking on commissions like that, I opened the Exchange for a moment.
“Huh?”
I saw new items in the Exchange that I’d never noticed before.
They were—
“Broken items?”
Items with zero durability left.
Normally, once durability runs out, there’s no way to fix them, so people leave them alone or throw them away—you don’t list them on the Exchange.
Obviously they wouldn’t sell anyway.
But now? That’s changed.
“Is this because of me?”
Now that it’s known I can repair items.
Even items with zero durability—items that are broken—suddenly have “possibility” again.
Of course, low-grade items don’t matter.
It’s only worth considering for high-grade items.
“This isn’t bad at all.”
If I want repair commissions, I’d have to answer notes one by one and worry about how much to charge.
But with this method?
Buy the broken items listed on the Exchange, fix them all at once, and resell them on the Exchange?
That solves the whole hassle of checking notes and accepting individual commissions.
And filtering items under level 60 that suit my conditions will be so much easier.
I paused for a moment to think.
“Alright.”
I made my decision.
Rather than taking commissions, I’d buy broken items from the Exchange, repair them, and resell them.
This seems much more convenient.
First, I filtered items to under level 60.
Then I sorted by lowest durability first.
“Perfect.”
The items I wanted appeared right in front of me.
Definitely much easier than checking notes.
From here, I sorted by highest item grade.
[ You have purchased ‘Bloodstained Basilisk’s Fang’. ]
[ You have purchased ‘Roughly Carved Troll Bone Chunk Axe’. ]
[ You have purchased ‘Hellhound’s Violent Flame Sword’. ]
I began buying items.
Thanks to Noom’s item sales and my commissions, money had accumulated quite a lot.
Plus, since these were broken items, the prices were low.
If an asking price seemed high, I simply didn’t buy it.
After all, not many people would buy broken items unless they could be repaired—and I was the only one who could do that.
The sellers knew this too.
Now that item repair was possible, they’d listed broken items on the Exchange.
But honestly, they understood—that submitting a commission to me was difficult, and considering the wait time and repair fees, selling at a loss was the better deal.
After I’d bought up all the broken items listed on the Exchange.
[ Using Repair Skill. ]
I began repairing them all.
It wasn’t perfect, though.
Among the broken items were some I couldn’t repair with the materials I had on hand.
But that was fine.
I could store those items in my spacious warehouse and wait for the right materials to come along later.
Or otherwise.
[ Successfully decomposed ‘Bloodstained Basilisk’s Fang’. ]
[ ‘Basilisk Fang Fragment’ has been created. ]
I could obtain materials through decomposition.
Even if they were broken, all these items were at least A-grade or higher.
When decomposed, they yielded quite decent materials.
I listed the items I’d crafted at reasonable prices.
[ ‘Roughly Carved Troll Bone Chunk Axe’ has been sold. ]
[ ‘Hellhound’s Violent Flame Sword’ has been sold. ]
…….
Items were moving quickly off the shelves.
And as this continued, other Awakeners were beginning to notice.
That instead of taking repair requests, I was buying broken items, fixing them, and reselling them.
Evidence? Just look at the Awakener Community alone.
[ What are all these items popping up now? ]
The broken items that sold before are being fixed and resold?
– Wait, seriously?
– If they’re fixed, there’s only one answer, right?
– Is Kang Cheol-mangchi buying them and reselling them after repairs?
[ No wonder he wouldn’t take my repair request ]
He was buying broken gear instead!
– Honestly, he probably wouldn’t have bought your items anyway
– I know exactly what you mean!
– Yeah, wouldn’t have bought them either
– ㅠㅠ
[ Kang Cheol-mangchi’s strategy has shifted! ]
Alert! Red alert!
– Though honestly, it’s easier than dealing with repair requests ㅋㅋ
[ I guess I should just sell mine too ]
If Kang Cheol-mangchi won’t take repair requests, there’s no point. I was planning to sell them after fixing them anyway.
– Looking at the market rates, it’s pretty clear. He buys anything listed at a cheap enough price in bulk
– Looks like the baseline is Grade A or higher under Level 60?
– Does he not buy Level 65 items? ㅠㅠ
And they were catching on this quickly.
The fortunate thing was, thanks to the posts on the Awakener Community.
‘If anything, it’s good.’
More broken items were being posted to the Exchange.
As I continued repairing items like this.
I found myself realizing something unexpected.
‘As the level requirement rises, it’s not just attack and defense stats that increase.’
The higher the required level for equipping.
The more abilities attached to an item, and the higher those ability levels became.
Which made sense, really.
Item performance increased with level in games too, after all.
And one more thing.
‘Accessories work the same way.’
Accessories had no level requirement for equipping.
But accessories from stronger monsters had more abilities and higher ability levels.
Out of curiosity, once I repaired some.
‘Regardless of level, the more abilities attached and the higher those ability levels, the more the Repair Difficulty was determined by that.’
Just because accessories had no level restriction didn’t mean their Repair Difficulty was uniform.
Better accessories varied wildly in their difficulty.
As I continued grasping these insights about repair work.
“Huh?”
At the Exchange.
“I could fix this and actually use it myself?”
I found one broken item that stood out distinctly.

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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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