The Cursed Blacksmith Who Regressed - Chapter 19
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 19
He had reached the 4-star level in just one day.
There was no fatigue.
Rather, seeing the growth notification seemed to wash away all his accumulated tiredness.
‘With the Heavenly Martial Body, high-level basic stats, and even mental technique recovery, how could I be tired?’
Food?
Of course it was fine.
Choi Hyun’s stat level was already in the realm of the superhuman.
And at most, going without food for a day or two wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
As a bonus, he had even received bonus stats, so how could he have time to be tired?
Having acquired Enhanced Repair, Choi Hyun invested his bonus stats into Dexterity and immediately began performance testing.
The target was naturally the Tutorial Sword, classified as junk equipment.
Choi Hyun’s hammer swung toward the sword.
[ Enhanced Repair is activated. ]
[ Deft Hands is activated. ]
[ Hyper Focus is activated. ]
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
As the Enhanced Repair phase began, a faint blue light started to swirl around the weapon being hammered.
Choi Hyun diligently hammered the sword and was able to complete the repair quickly.
[ Repair has been completed. ]
[ Due to the effect of Enhanced Repair, the target has been completely repaired while some options have been improved. ]
The repair was finished.
And the notification he had seen before changed once again.
Choi Hyun grinned and checked the Tutorial Sword’s information.
[ Tutorial Sword ]
– Type: Item
– Restriction: None
– Durability: 110/110(100+10)
– Attack Power: 11(10+1)
– Options: None
# A sword supplied by the Tower of Tutorials.
# Used to its limit, some performance had declined, but it was perfectly repaired by a skilled blacksmith and some performance was enhanced.
# The enhanced performance will disappear if it falls below the original durability.
Seeing the information, Choi Hyun narrowed his eyes and nose bridge in excitement.
It was just a repair, yet both durability and attack power had improved by 10%.
Of course, the enhanced options weren’t permanent.
This was a kind of buff.
The kind of buff where weapons and armor temporarily had improved performance after being repaired by a blacksmith with 4-star repair traits.
‘The performance will decline as I use the weapon, but it’s still breaking even, right?’
Choi Hyun recalled the past.
Those days when his repairs would increase all basic options by at least several times.
Of course, the performance increase rate varied depending on the item, but the simpler the item’s structure, the greater the increase.
‘Now, I’ve finally reached 4-star.’
Only one stage remained.
Choi Hyun’s goal was to reach 5-star.
Because after 5-star, this kind of ordinary proficiency work would no longer provide trait experience.
But conversely, it was a method that worked up to 5-star, which is why he had set up this environment.
Choi Hyun took a long breath and picked up the repair hammer again.
‘Let’s begin.’
This would probably take the longest time among all the grinding work he had done so far.
But it was fine.
No matter how long it took, compared to his previous life, this was like the difference between running on two legs and taking an airplane.
[ Enhanced Repair is activated. ]
[ Deft Hands is activated. ]
[ Hyper Focus is activated. ]
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Clear metallic friction sounds echoed throughout the warehouse interior.
How much time had passed like that?
There were no longer any junk items left in the warehouse.
Most of the items that had been crudely repaired before were also re-repaired into enhanced versions.
It was around the time when the sun set and night came again.
[ Enhanced Repair is activated. ]
[ Deft Hands is activated. ]
[ Hyper Focus is activated. ]
Choi Hyun mechanically hammered the weapon once again.
At that moment.
Whoooosh-
Suddenly, a faint and murky light that he had never seen before began to appear on the weapon.
Seeing this, a gleam appeared in Choi Hyun’s eyes.
‘It’s begun.’
The sign of growth for the next stage.
It looked like mold just beginning to grow on spoiled food.
Choi Hyun knew what this was.
Choi Hyun called this impurities.
‘A work made with perfect design, perfect materials, and perfect process has no unnecessary parts.’
But how could all products in the world come out with all three of these elements?
The design might be flawed due to insufficient knowledge, different materials might be used for cost reduction due to tight budgets, or the process might be lacking due to insufficient skill.
And skilled blacksmiths begin to see such things at some point.
In other words, their eyes as blacksmiths awaken.
Choi Hyun had experienced this in the past.
But now that everything had returned to the starting point, Choi Hyun had to fill that sensation back into a body that was no different from a blank slate, and the System, judging that sufficient proficiency and experience had been accumulated, finally allowed Choi Hyun the awakening of eyes that could see those things.
‘To be precise, the eyes that were originally awakened were forcibly covered by the System.’
But now he had gained the qualifications and was beginning to awaken.
Choi Hyun gently tapped the spots that looked like mold with his hammer.
Then lines began to be drawn on the weapon he was hammering, and grid patterns started to be carved in various places.
The grid pattern that spread like ink soon covered the entire sword, carving grid patterns on every part.
Along with this, changes occurred in the display of impurities that had been glowing murkily like mold.
What had been spread out like contour lines was no longer in the form of contour lines but changed to match the grid pattern, transforming like dots, reminiscent of the square blocks from the once-popular game Minecraft.
Choi Hyun infused mana to change the size of his repair hammer to that of a small hammer.
‘Now it truly begins.’
His eyes were completely awakened.
So now it was truly beginning.
Choi Hyun’s hammering began again.
The hammering became much more delicate compared to the previous work.
Like carefully removing unnecessary parts in a dalgona candy game, he slowly tapped the impurity blocks.
Then several impurities successfully fell away.
But this wasn’t disassembly, it was repair.
‘To call this repair, I need to complete the product.’
Though called impurities, these were also part of the important materials that made up the overall completeness of the weapon.
So to turn the weapon that had become incomplete after removing impurities back into a finished product, what came next was crucial.
Choi Hyun changed the repair hammer back to its flat form.
Then he struck not the weapon’s block spaces where only white blocks remained, but the grid pattern solid lines themselves.
This was the signal that the impurity removal process was complete.
The grid pattern disappeared and the entire weapon began to glow pure white.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
He hammered vigorously.
Delicacy was no longer needed.
He pounded the sword as if his forearms would burst, and the more he hammered the sword, the more intense the light became.
Choi Hyun felt exhilaration during this process.
An exhilaration he hadn’t felt in truly a long time.
Though it was a technique he had already mastered once before, his heart raced at the thought of reuniting with it like this.
It felt like meeting an old hometown friend again after decades.
Eventually, when the light reached its peak, the Tutorial Sword began to emit light on its own, and that power slowly subsided before completely disappearing.
[ Repair completed. ]
[ New discovery. ]
[ Your repair skill has now reached a level that goes beyond enhancing the target’s performance to removing unnecessary parts from the target. ]
[ Conditions have been met. ]
[ You acquire the skill ‘Disassembly Repair’. ]
[ Your trait grows even further. ]
[ The skill ‘Repair Hammer’ has grown and some information has changed. ]
[ You acquire 5 Dexterity stat points. ]
[ New record achieved! ]
[ You have reached the fifth trait level faster than any Player in history. ]
[ For achieving an excellent Achievement, the System gifts you 2 bonus stat points. ]
A flood of System notifications.
Choi Hyun had finally reached the realm of the fifth repair skill, Disassembly Repair.
Choi Hyun unconsciously smiled with satisfaction.
‘Still, they definitely treat you well from 5-star onwards.’
The Achievement for record-breaking had changed from ‘outstanding’ to ‘excellent’, giving him 2 more bonus stat points.
Choi Hyun invested the 2 bonus stat points he acquired into Dexterity, then updated his status window.
[ Choi Hyun ]
– Lv : 1
– Class : Blacksmith
– Traits : <Demon’s Eye><Repair><Curse of Memory><Nameless Artisan><Heavenly Weaponless Body>
– Strength : 6
– Stamina : 6
– Mana : 6
– Sense : 6
– Dexterity : 31
– Unallocated Stat Points : 0
31 Dexterity stat points.
It was thrilling.
Frankly speaking, to get 30 Dexterity stat points through bonus stats alone, he would have had to raise his level by 30.
‘Is this really a spec possible at level 1?’
An Achievement that ordinary Players could never accomplish.
But as a regressor, he had made the impossible possible.
‘Of course, it’s not something to be purely happy about.’
This was all a result created through everyone’s sacrifice.
So rather than being happy about achieving this Achievement, he had to repay their sacrifice as quickly as possible, even if just a day sooner.
Choi Hyun then checked the information of the weapon that had made him 5-star grade.
[ Tutorial Sword ]
– Type : Item
– Restriction : None
– Durability : 180/180(150+30)
– Attack Power : 18(15+3)
– Options : None
# A sword supplied by the Tower of Tutorials.
# Unnecessary elements have been removed by an excellent blacksmith, reducing its size but improving its performance.
# The improved performance will disappear if it falls below the original durability.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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