I Became an SSS-Grade Time-Transcending Almighty Blacksmith - Chapter 71

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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 71
Episode 71
I’d successfully repaired and remodeled the level 60 gloves.
And the first thing that caught my eye was, naturally, the item’s name.
‘Mountain King’s Grip?’
The gloves’ original name had been ‘Mountain King’s Tendon Gloves.’
But after repair and remodeling, the item name had changed to ‘Mountain King’s Grip.’
Even more than that.
[ A masterpiece has been born. ]
[ A masterpiece worthy of bearing your name to the world has been completed, and through it you gain inspiration, raising your stats. ]
[ Strength increases by 3. ]
I’d even received a masterpiece rating.
I’d never before obtained a masterpiece rating through repair and remodeling alone—let alone when I hadn’t even crafted the item from scratch.
‘The fact that I received a masterpiece rating…’
It made me hopeful.
Because every item I’d earned a masterpiece rating on so far had been SS-grade.
So I opened the item information with SS-grade in mind, and—
[ Mountain King’s Grip ]
Form: Gloves
Grade: SS
Requirements: Level 20 or higher, Strength 50 or higher
Description: Sinews from the chieftain Ogre, which toppled all Ogres across a vast mountain range and claimed its peak, were woven into these gloves, into which the very essence of power has seeped.
Defense: 135
Abilities:
Ogre’s Brutal Strength
, Strength Lv 5
“Excellent!”
As expected.
SS-grade it was.
So it was possible to raise item grades through repair and remodeling.
Actually, now that I thought about it, I’d seen this before.
‘The Faded Saint’s Gloves.’
When I’d repaired the Association Head’s gloves, their grade had risen from S to SS.
So now I knew for certain: repair and remodeling could indeed raise item grades.
But that wasn’t what mattered most right now.
The item ability!
“Perfect.”
This was the reason I’d repaired and remodeled these gloves in the first place.
The gloves’ special ability, ‘Ogre’s Brutal Strength,’ had remained intact.
And that wasn’t all.
The ability that had originally been ‘Strength Lv 2’ had become ‘Strength Lv 5.’
That made it equal to the ‘Beast’s Grip Gloves’ I used to wear, but now with an additional special ability—’Ogre’s Brutal Strength.’
Satisfied with this, I glanced to the side.
“I’m so sleepy……”
Noum was dozing off.
Since I’d kept working without pause, he must have tried to keep pace with me until he couldn’t hold out any longer and fell asleep.
More time had passed than I’d realized.
So I first carried Noum out of the Blacksmith’s Workshop and laid him down on his bed.
On the Dwarf Small Bed I’d recently made for him.
Since it was getting late, I thought about getting some rest myself—
“Let me make just one more thing.”
Surely I had to test out the performance of a newly crafted item, didn’t I?
So I headed straight back into the Blacksmith’s Workshop, equipped the Mountain King’s Grip,
and retrieved some damaged items I’d been stockpiling.
[ Activating Repair Skill. ]
I began swinging the hammer.
The moment I swung it for the first time—
Clang!
“Oh!”
I could feel it immediately.
A power vastly different from what it had felt like with merely ‘Strength Level 5’.
This must be the effect of the special ability called ‘Ogre’s Brutal Strength’.
Yet.
The effect of ‘Ogre’s Brutal Strength’ doesn’t end there.
Wearing the gloves, I could sense it.
This wasn’t merely a passive effect.
So I called to mind the gloves’ power and squeezed my grip with force.
In that instant.
“Hagh!”
Tremendous strength flooded through my arm, and simultaneously.
Crash!!
The anchor point shattered in a single blow.
Since it was an item with quite a high level requirement, it normally would have taken many strikes.
But that anchor point had crumbled under one attack.
“Is this the effect of ‘Ogre’s Brutal Strength’?”
‘Ogre’s Brutal Strength’ didn’t merely heighten my everyday strength.
It also granted a temporary surge in power.
True, once used, it seemed I couldn’t use it again for some time.
Still, it promised to be an enormous help when crafting items.
“This is incredible.”
An effect so thoroughly satisfying.
Savoring it.
Clang, clang, clang!!
I forgot my promise to do just one more piece and ended up swinging the hammer deep into the night.
* * *
The next morning.
The moment I opened my eyes.
[ Through extreme hammering, your Strength has increased by 1. ]
[ Through extreme hammering, your Dexterity has increased by 1. ]
[ Through extreme hammering, your Vitality has increased by 1. ]
I could see these system messages.
I must have overworked myself yesterday.
Before, the strain would have brought crushing soreness and a throbbing headache.
“Ahh, good morning!”
“Master, you’ve awakened?”
“What time did you go to bed, runt? You slept in quite a bit.”
“Chirp!”
“Master! I’m so sorry—Noum fell asleep first!”
But not today.
Thanks to the effect of my bed, ‘Big Slime’s Embrace’, I felt remarkably refreshed instead.
“You all haven’t eaten breakfast yet, have you?”
“Of course not, Master.”
“Let’s eat first thing and get to work!”
My mood was excellent.
All thanks to the Mountain King’s Grip still on my hands.
From what I’d confirmed yesterday.
The effect of ‘Ogre’s Brutal Strength’ attached to the Mountain King’s Grip had exceeded my every expectation.
Not only did it strengthen my power as a passive effect, but it could also unleash greater force like an active skill at set intervals.
Thanks to that, I could immediately elevate my capabilities.
As I finished eating.
I opened the Trading Post.
[ You have purchased ‘Beast’s Cleaving Sword’. ]
[ You have purchased ‘Mud Man’s Clay Armor’. ]
[ You have purchased ‘Squelching Shadow Boots’. ]
…….
I began purchasing items indiscriminately.
Naturally, all of them were items with durability completely depleted and broken.
The difference from yesterday, however.
[ Beast’s Cleaving Sword ]
Type: Sword
Grade: A
Requirement: Level 62 or above
The thing is, all the items I bought today have level requirements exceeding 60.
Though I’m not quite ready for gear up to level 70.
I stuck to items around level 65 at most.
Yesterday I barely managed to repair the Mountain King’s Tendon Gloves at level 60, so under normal circumstances repairing items like these would’ve been nearly impossible.
“Well then, shall we get started on today’s work?”
[Beginning repairs.]
Clang!
Things are different now.
I understood that last night, after swinging my hammer late into the evening to examine the Mountain King’s Grip.
I could now—
[Repairs complete.]
—repair weapons with level requirements exceeding 60.
It was all thanks to the Mountain King’s Grip.
Though I’ll admit it still wasn’t easy, and the work took considerable time.
So I continued smoothly repairing various weapons and armor.
“Accessories are still a bit vague as a category.”
Accessories were proving ambiguous.
Unlike weapons and armor, accessories had no level requirement—instead, their repair difficulty fluctuated based on how many abilities were attached and to what level they reached.
Determining this from the item description alone was quite difficult.
But that’s fine, really.
I’ll figure it out as I repair various accessories.
The real problem is—
“There’s no inventory.”
Inventory, that is.
Accessories rarely appeared in commissions, and broken items scarcely surfaced on the Trading Post.
A search through the Awakener Community quickly explained why.
“Right, accessories don’t really break that often.”
Accessories did have durability.
But what would cause an accessory’s durability to degrade—something that’s neither weapon nor armor?
Without extraordinary circumstances, an accessory’s durability rarely drops.
And yet, if an accessory does break—
“Ah, I see.”
Most of the time, it shatters completely, making recovery impossible.
Think about it.
If a necklace is damaged badly enough to break, the wearer’s neck is in danger—who’s going to worry about a broken piece of jewelry?
If a bracelet is damaged, it means the wrist is about to be severed.
If a ring is damaged, the wearer might have just lost a finger to a monster’s bite.
Besides, accessories are small, aren’t they?
When they shatter, it’s to a degree far beyond other items—recovery is difficult, and even if recovered, no one expects them to be repaired.
So when an accessory breaks, most people abandon it and exit the Gate.
There’s no inventory to speak of.
[You have purchased the Lizardman Scale Bracelet.]
[You have purchased the Harpy Feather Necklace.]
…
I’d already bought all the few items that were listed.
But it wasn’t enough.
I wanted to repair higher-tier accessories.
That experience would prove invaluable when I eventually crafted new accessories myself.
“I suppose there’s no help for it.”
No more items appeared on the Trading Post.
Still, just to be sure, I was checking my commission notes for any accessory requests when—
“!”
The moment I spotted a single note—
“That’s it!”
I sent a swift reply to the requester.
* * *
Do Ga-ram, the Awakener ranked 22nd in Korea.
His job was Mage, yet his combat style differed entirely from every other Awakener’s.
“Duel!”
The moment he called out the activation word before combat.
A deck of various cards materialized in his hand.
“Draw!”
He drew a card.
“Ice. Perfect!”
The ice illustrated on the card.
That ice, marked with an S in the corner of the card, manifested into reality.
Crack-crack-crack!
It froze the monsters in front of him solid.
Then he drew another card.
“Sword!”
The blade that materialized from the card cleaved the frozen monsters cleanly in half.
That’s right.
His profession was no ordinary mage.
A Card Magician.
A mage who manipulated cards to bring phenomena into being.
Though truth be told, he preferred to think of himself as a magician rather than a mage.
“Just one more tier to go!”
In reality, he wasn’t a particularly strong Awakener—not one ranked in the high twenties.
He had skill, certainly, but not enough to crack the top hundred.
Card Magician was a formidable profession, and Do Ga-ram had good instincts for it.
But Card Magician combat relied heavily on ‘luck’—that was the nature of the job.
High peaks meant deep valleys; without fortune’s favor, he became deadweight in a fight.
Yet he’d still climbed to rank twenty-two.
He’d even earned epithets like “the Gambler” or “the Risk-Taker.”
All because of this bracelet.
The Four-Leaf Clover Bracelet.
To look at it, the bracelet seemed unremarkable.
But the ability attached to it was nothing short of extraordinary.
Four-Leaf Clover Bracelet
Type: Bracelet
Grade: S
Restriction: None
Description: Born when a mutated colony of four-leaf clovers was defeated, their concentrated essence forged into a bracelet of fortune.
Ability:
Four-Leaf Clover’s Luck
Pure luck.
A unique ability that didn’t exist among ordinary powers—one of a kind in the world.
The moment he’d obtained this bracelet, his life had transformed.
Thanks to Four-Leaf Clover’s Luck, whenever he drew, the perfect card for the situation manifested.
The average grade of the cards—determined by the letter markings at the bottom—had risen as well.
His combat power surged. He’d reached rank twenty-two in what felt like moments.
And now, just a little further.
A bit more advancement.
The position Awakeners dreamed of.
Breaking into the top ten rankings.
He was thinking just that.
“Explosion!”
Boom!!
He was clearing the Gate.
But then a variable appeared.
“Screech!”
A monster hiding in the ceiling ambushed him.
It had concealed itself so perfectly that none of the other Awakeners clearing the Gate had noticed it.
The monster raked its sharp claws toward him.
He flinched and barely dodged the attack.
Slash!
But it tore his bracelet apart.
It didn’t just snap the cord—it severed the four-leaf clover itself.
“No, no, no!”
That was the moment.
His smooth ascent came to an abrupt end.
Without the Four-Leaf Clover’s Luck to prop him up.
“Why the hell is ‘Water’ showing up here?!”
A Water card appeared before a plant-type monster.
“What kind of damage is this supposed to be?!”
Cards that had never once appeared when the Four-Leaf Clover’s Luck was active.
The lowest-tier F-grade cards he’d forgotten even existed began to surface.
A single Special Ability—that was all it took to crater his combat effectiveness.
Naturally, his ranking plummeted just as fast.
[ This is Kang Cheol-mangchi. ]
I am offering my services to repair items.
If you have items in need of repair, please submit a commission request.
He found a post from Kang Cheol-mangchi.
A post about repairing items.
And so.
“Please…….”
Do Ga-ram sent a repair commission to Kang Cheol-mangchi, betting his entire life as an Awakener on this one request.

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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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