The Cursed Blacksmith Who Regressed - Chapter 2

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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 2

The Shelter was almost completely destroyed.

Most of the personnel deployed in the final battle had died as well.

The time his fallen comrades had bought him was 40 hours, far exceeding Noah’s predictions.

Compared to the initially calculated 16 hours, they had earned him a full extra day.

Now only two people remained.

Choi Hyun, who had been called Godhand and would now become a regressor.

And Yang Hui, the Chinese player known as the Martial God, who possessed unprecedented military power in player history and was called humanity’s strongest.

“Kiiiiaaahhh!!”

The monsters came rushing in.

Seeing this, Yang Hui spoke.

“Now it’s my turn.”

Yang Hui activated the skills he possessed.

Then, turning to look at Choi Hyun one last time, he said:

“Choi Hyun, watch carefully. This will be the last moment I can demonstrate the Paechen Divine Art.”

Paechen Divine Art.

It was Martial God Yang Hui’s signature technique and truly the strongest martial arts skill in history, which he had created by reinterpreting the Heaven-Destroying Divine Art he had previously learned and upgrading it to the next level.

This was why Yang Hui had remained by Choi Hyun’s side until the very end.

If nothing else, if Choi Hyun could master the Paechen Divine Art, his power would become at least several times stronger than it was now.

“Please.”

Choi Hyun cupped his hands in a respectful bow, his eyes shining.

This was both a gesture of gratitude for being taught the Paechen Divine Art, which had never been revealed to anyone else, and a sign of respect showing he would regard Yang Hui as his master.

Yang Hui nodded his head.

Soon, an enormous amount of internal energy began radiating from his body.

“Kiiiiaaahhhhh!!”

The monsters that sensed Yang Hui’s killing intent didn’t cower in fear but instead began charging toward him.

Yang Hui, as if pleased, raised his sword toward the monsters rushing at him and began unleashing the Paechen Divine Art.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Thunderous roars erupted.

Monsters exploded.

Yang Hui’s movements were worthy of being called the pinnacle of artistry.

Choi Hyun held his breath as he captured each and every one of those movements with his eyes.

Yang Hui moved ceaselessly.

Even as enemy claws pierced his body and chunks of flesh were torn away, he continued to demonstrate only the Paechen Divine Art, showing as much of it as possible.

It was a desperate sacrifice.

Watching Yang Hui perform the Paechen Divine Art for his sake until the very last moment, Choi Hyun clenched his fists tightly.

He wanted to rush in right now and kill those creatures, but he held back.

He endured and endured, struggling to memorize even a little more of the Paechen Divine Art.

And finally, the moment Yang Hui collapsed, the monsters rushed toward his corpse to devour it, and only then did Choi Hyun activate the Devil’s Clockwork.

“Everyone, just trust me. I will definitely change the future somehow.”

He wouldn’t say he lacked confidence.

The lives of comrades sacrificed to reach this point were as vast as the ocean.

Soon the Devil’s Clockwork began to operate.

[ The Devil’s Clockwork is activating. ]

[ Rewinding time. ]

Tick, tick, tick, tick…

Time rewound.

Simultaneously, light burst forth and engulfed the monsters that had been charging toward Choi Hyun.

Flash!

His vision went dark.

* * *

The world turned black.

At the same time, the whisper of the great demon who had given him the clockwork echoed in his mind.

“I wish you luck.”

A thick, eerie voice.

It was the voice of that demon who had handed the clockwork to Daniel.

However, Choi Hyun didn’t even blink as he recalled the five conditions Daniel had entrusted to him.

Conditions he had memorized until worn out, as much as everyone’s teachings.

Actually, he only needed to remember the last clause, but he engraved all clauses in his heart to strengthen his resolve.

Soon his vision returned.

A familiar room.

He could immediately recognize where this narrow, stuffy place was.

‘Before awakening, the first room I got right after becoming an adult and leaving the orphanage.’

To be precise, it was a gosiwon.

It had to be.

The world these days didn’t provide abundant self-reliance support funds like in the old days before the Great Catastrophe, during the age of peace.

‘I really did come back to the past.’

The world had suddenly changed like a game one day.

A system appeared, people awakened as players, and dungeons, gates, and monsters poured out everywhere.

People fought to survive, and about 10 years after the first Great Catastrophe, a period that could finally be called stable had arrived.

In that process, many people died, many countries fell, and quite a lot of land was occupied by monsters.

Fortunately, Korea was among the nations that survived, and even more fortunately, it was in relatively better condition compared to other countries.

‘But while the country’s situation is better compared to other nations, people’s lives are still hellish.’

In the gosiwon without even a single window, Choi Hyun searched around and found his phone to check the date.

Looking at the date, it was as expected – not long after he had left the orphanage.

That’s when it happened.

[ Login is starting. ]

[ Connection successful! ]

[ Player Choi Hyun’s system synchronization has been completed. ]

A system notification appeared before his eyes.

It was a notification that Choi Hyun had awakened.

Choi Hyun narrowed his eyes.

‘This is way too early compared to my original awakening time?’

If his memory was correct, Choi Hyun should have awakened about two months from now, suddenly awakening at a construction site where he had gone for part-time work.

But suddenly awakening now?

It was strange.

According to Daniel, no matter how far back he was sent to the past, the timeline he would experience after regression would share the same timeline as the present.

[ Welcome, Mr. Choi Hyun! ]

[ A tutorial for beginners will start in 5 seconds. ]

However, the awakening itself seemed to be proper.

Since this notice that wasn’t quite a notice had appeared.

And 5 seconds later.

Whoosh!

Like a television screen turning off, Choi Hyun’s figure disappeared.

* * *

His vision completely changed.

Instead of the narrow, stuffy gosiwon room, a place with green fields and an impressive blue sky appeared.

It was the Tower of Tutorials.

[ Welcome to the Tower of Tutorials. ]

[ This is where basic education for novice players takes place. ]

[ However, survival cannot be guaranteed, so please be especially careful. ]

[ We will now begin the first tutorial. ]

[ First, let me explain the basic system guidance. ]

The Tower of Tutorials was literally a place for tutorials, with a structure consisting of six floors.

System notifications kept appearing, but Choi Hyun ignored them all and first checked his status window.

[ Choi Hyun ]

– Lv : 1

– Class : None

– Strength : 1

– Stamina : 1

– Mana : 1

– Perception : 1

– Unallocated Stat Points : 1

A plain and bland status window.

But something was strange.

Didn’t they say classes would remain fixed even after regression?

But the class field visible to his eyes was blank.

What could this be?

Could there be some kind of error?

That’s when it happened.

[ We will now begin class selection. ]

[ The class you select may have its name and information changed based on future choices. ]

[ Warrior ] [ Archer ] [ Mage ] [ Priest ] [ Assassin ] [ Summoner ] …

A class selection window appeared before his eyes.

But looking closely, it was slightly different from the existing class selection window.

[ Warrior ] [ Archer ] [ Mage ] [ Priest ] [ Assassin ] [ Summoner ] …

Every class had a line struck through it.

Seeing how the names were slightly grayed out and whitish, it was clearly a sign that they couldn’t be selected.

‘So that’s how it was.’

Then what he could choose from these must also be predetermined.

He was right.

After going through the long list of classes, at the very corner, the only class Choi Hyun could select was standing alone.

[ Blacksmith ]

So this was why they said classes were fixed.

There was no choice.

He immediately clicked on the selection window.

[ You have selected the Blacksmith class. ]

[ The selected class can never be changed. ]

[ Traits have been added to your player information. ]

[ You have acquired the trait ‘Crafting’. ]

[ You have acquired the trait ‘Repair’. ]

The system seemed kind yet unkind.

You’d think it would give at least one warning when choosing a class, but it immediately fixed it saying it could never be changed.

‘Just telling me to go screw myself.’

After living for so long on the system’s playground, he had realized only one thing.

The system somehow wanted to see players suffer.

Choi Hyun checked his status window again.

[ Choi Hyun ]

– Lv : 1

– Class : Blacksmith

– Traits : ＜Demon’s Eye＞＜Repair＞

– Strength : 1

– Stamina : 1

– Mana : 1

– Perception : 1

– Unallocated Stat Points : 1

“Ah.”

A sigh burst from Choi Hyun’s mouth as he saw the updated status window.

As expected, the demon had taken away what he thought would be the largest and main weapon among his arsenal.

Namely, the crafting trait that could be called the essence of a blacksmith.

Though he had already expected this, facing reality still made him frown involuntarily.

‘It’s okay. I prepared a backup plan knowing this would happen, right?’

All that remained was to act according to the backup plan.

Choi Hyun was about to close the status window when he checked the information for the ‘Demon’s Eye’ trait that had just appeared.

[ Demon’s Eye ]

– Type : Exclusive Trait

# The demon’s eye watching over you.

# If conditions are violated, the player dies.

# This trait can never be discovered nor removed.

Short and simple content.

But it said it couldn’t be discovered or removed.

This wasn’t a trait but a curse disguised as a trait.

A vicious curse meant only for Choi Hyun.

‘I need to be careful.’

It felt like having a time bomb attached.

But this wouldn’t activate until he died of natural causes.

Thinking so, Choi Hyun also checked the information for the repair trait.

[ Repair ]

– Type : Trait

# A 1st tier job-exclusive trait for the Blacksmith class.

# Grants repair abilities to Blacksmith players.

# Skill ‘Repair Hammer’ available for use.

# Skill ‘Basic Repair’ available for use.

The most basic derivative skills of the repair trait were two: Repair Hammer and Basic Repair.

‘If it had been the crafting trait, there would have been Crafting Hammer and Basic Crafting.’

But this time, there would never be a day when he could see those, even if he lived forever.

Choi Hyun checked the information for each of the two skills.

[ Repair Hammer ]

– Type : Trait Skill

# A job-exclusive skill derived from the repair trait of the Blacksmith class.

# Consumes mana to summon a hammer of desired form.

# The summoned hammer requires different amounts of mana depending on its form and can be regenerated using mana.

# When used together with repair skills, effects of reduced mana consumption for both skills, increased repair speed, and increased repair success rate occur.

[ Basic Repair ]

– Type : Trait Skill

# A job-exclusive skill derived from the repair trait of the Blacksmith class.

# Consumes mana to perform basic repair on a target.

# The amount of mana consumed varies depending on the target’s condition, and repair may fail depending on conditions.

All familiar information.

So that was fortunate.

Because it really was a world that shared the same spacetime continuum I knew.

‘I guess I’ll just need to focus on leveling up repair tech from now on.’

I’d have to give up on the crafting side I’d always worked on, but that was fine.

Because there was another way.

Having finished confirming what he needed, Choi Hyun shifted his gaze to look at the system notifications.

The system notifications were various explanations befitting a tutorial.

All unnecessary things.

He planned to skip and omit them.

However, it wasn’t just because they were bothersome that he was skipping the explanations.

‘There’s supposed to be a hidden Achievement starting from here.’

Choi Hyun said.

“I’ll skip all explanations and start the first tutorial right away.”

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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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