The Cursed Blacksmith Who Regressed - Chapter 34
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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 34
He carefully and diligently hammered away.
As time passed, the block on top gradually descended into the block below, taking on the form of entering into the lower block.
The lower block seemed to swell up, and once it completely merged with the upper block, it returned to a neat shape.
[ Processing has been completed. ]
[ Processing was successful. ]
Around that time, completion and success notifications appeared simultaneously.
The finished block was whiter than the impurity block but had a more cloudy color than the material block.
He immediately checked the information.
[ Something that fell off from Nemen’s Crimson Dagger. ]
– Type: Item
# A fragment that fell off from Nemen’s Crimson Dagger during the disassembly and repair process.
# It has been combined with a part of the Veteran Desert Hunter’s Survival Dagger.
The processing was successful.
But it was literally successful only in that it wasn’t destroyed and maintained its form – it was still in a useless state.
That made sense, because for an impurity to become a useful block, the name itself had to change.
From ‘something that fell off’ to ‘something that was extracted.’
‘One isn’t enough.’
Processing work is about combining useless things with useful things to make them useful.
So naturally, to make useless things useful again, more useful things were needed.
A simple example would be that diluting contaminated water requires a lot of clean water.
That’s fine.
There are still plenty of materials.
Choi Hyun placed the impurity at the bottom again and put a white block on top of it.
And he hammered.
Clang clang clang!
[ Basic Processing is activated. ]
[ Processing has been completed. ]
[ Processing was successful. ]
It’s not difficult work.
Just place what’s needed at the bottom, put the sacrifice on top, and hammer – that’s it.
This time the result is good.
The merged block was shining white like the white block.
He checked the information again.
[ Something extracted from Nemen’s Crimson Dagger. ]
– Type: Item
# A fragment that fell off from Nemen’s Crimson Dagger during the disassembly and repair process.
# It has been combined with a part of the Veteran Desert Hunter’s Survival Dagger.
The item description hadn’t changed.
But crucially, the name had changed.
The corners of his mouth turned up.
Right.
Your ratio is 1:2.
Now that he knew the formula, it was just repetitive work.
Choi Hyun moved aside the processed block and stacked impurities with other materials again.
And he hammered.
[ Basic Processing is activated. ]
Choi Hyun’s arm swung mechanically.
* * *
[ Skills with established basics. ]
[ Your processing skills are both fast and meticulous. ]
[ Conditions have been met. ]
[ You acquire the skill ‘Rapid Processing.’ ]
[ Your trait grows in earnest. ]
[ The skill ‘Material Hammer’ grows and some information changes. ]
[ You gain 2 Dexterity stat points. ]
Finally, he reached the realm of Rapid Processing, which was level 2 processing.
It didn’t take long.
It was only a 2-star skill at most.
So he didn’t celebrate much and immediately continued with the next task as if it were natural.
After continuing for quite a while longer.
[ More skilled and precise craftsmanship. ]
[ Your processing skills are fast, meticulous, and flawlessly excellent. ]
[ Conditions have been met. ]
[ You acquire the skill ‘Precision Processing.’ ]
[ Your trait grows even further. ]
[ The skill ‘Material Hammer’ grows and some information changes. ]
[ You gain 3 Dexterity stat points. ]
Rapid Processing became Precision Processing.
Whenever he ran short of impurities and white blocks to dilute them, he readily extracted new materials from other items.
As a result, there was nothing to throw away among the items spread across the workshop.
A festival of recycling upon recycling.
After spending quite a while like that, finally.
[ Perfect craftsmanship. ]
[ Your processing skills are now beginning to show a realm beyond simple processing. ]
[ Conditions have been met. ]
[ You acquire the skill ‘Enhanced Processing.’ ]
[ Your trait grows even further. ]
[ The skill ‘Material Hammer’ grows and some information changes. ]
[ You gain 4 Dexterity stat points. ]
Finally, he was able to reach the realm of Enhanced Processing, which was the fourth stage.
“Phew, finally Enhanced Processing.”
9 Dexterity stat points gained from processing skills alone.
After investing everything in Dexterity, he updated his status window.
[ Choi Hyun ]
– Lv: 30
– Class: Blacksmith
– Traits: ＜Demon’s Eye＞＜Repair＞＜Curse of Memory＞＜Nameless Craftsman＞＜Heavenly Martial Body＞＜Material＞＜Noble Spirit＞＜Qualification from Beyond＞
– Strength: 35
– Stamina: 35
– Mana: 35
– Sense: 35
– Dexterity: 96
– Unallocated Stat Points: 0
Choi Hyun’s gaze turned to his Dexterity stat.
96 Dexterity stat points.
Just looking at it made the corners of his mouth turn up.
‘Now if I raise my Dexterity stat by just 4 more points, I’ll finally qualify to unlock the seventh repair skill.’
Here the choices split into two.
Whether to raise the level of 4th-level Enhanced Extraction by one more stage, or raise the level of 4th-level Enhanced Processing by one more stage.
Of course, the answer was already decided.
‘Right now, it’s better to raise gathering first rather than processing.’
Now I had to abandon the mindless grinding method of skill development I used before.
That’s because from level 5 decomposition onwards, a different kind of sense was required.
And this was the same principle as when I upgraded Enhanced Repair to Decomposition Repair.
‘As a blacksmith, I need to open my eyes once again.’
Choi Hyun picked up one of the items lying on the floor.
What he picked up was a curse that had been gathered from numerous cursed items.
He checked the information of the curse he had picked up.
[ Gathered from the cleaver of the Underground Butcher Shop. ]
– Type: Item
# A curse gathered from the cleaver of the Underground Butcher Shop.
# The user experiences various withdrawal symptoms including anxiety about consuming human flesh.
# If the user consumes more than 10kg of human flesh, their Magic stat permanently decreases by 5.
# If the user consumes more than 100g of human flesh, a permanent state of madness manifests.
The curse he picked up was coincidentally the first curse he had properly gathered initially.
It wasn’t intentional, he had just grabbed it randomly.
Actually, the official term for distinguishing curses is runes.
But since curse runes were the curse options themselves, he just called them curses for convenience.
And this curse was exactly the material for this skill training work.
A very small-sized curse.
Since it was about the size of a nail, Choi Hyun also summoned a hammer as thin as a reed.
The type was naturally a Material Hammer.
Holding the curse in one hand, Choi Hyun began to tap it very carefully, like crafting a jewel.
Tap tap tap-
The sound was so small and pathetic that it was hard to think of it as hammering.
However, Choi Hyun didn’t mind and continued hammering.
[ Dexterity is activated. ]
[ Ultra Focus is activated. ]
[ Enhanced Gathering is activated. ]
As if understanding Choi Hyun’s will, gathering naturally activated.
Like that, Choi Hyun tapped the curse for quite a while.
No, rather than tapping, it was more like gently poking it.
Runes are sensitive.
Other blocks are sensitive too, but runes with special options like curses were even more sensitive in their hardness.
‘Most people taste despair at this stage.’
The ability of the fifth stage, Decomposition Gathering, which was his target, was to use gathering techniques once more on materials with multiple options to split the options apart.
This technique mainly shows great power on materials with multiple options.
That’s why he chose a curse.
Specifically, a curse with two or more curse options attached.
It sounds easy, but it’s by no means simple work.
In reality, countless blacksmiths couldn’t control the characteristic sensitivity of runes and broke countless runes.
Once a rune is broken, it’s over.
Of course, if you had repair skills at their peak, you could restore even this, but in his previous life, blacksmiths with peak repair skills could be counted on one hand.
Everyone gave up because they couldn’t break through this stage.
But Choi Hyun had done it.
Choi Hyun, who was called God Hand, was the Player who mastered all types of blacksmith characteristics including crafting, repair, and materials, and was the first to reach the position of 9-star blacksmith.
Was that why?
After tapping the curse for a while.
Finally, a faint and murky light began to appear in the curse.
Seeing that, a gleam appeared in Choi Hyun’s eyes.
‘It’s started.’
The sign of growth for the next stage, that is.
That sign was similar to just before mastering Decomposition Repair.
Lines appear in the curse.
Since there were three options, two lines appeared in the curse, dividing it into three parts.
From now on was important.
Choi Hyun concentrated even more and carefully tapped the curse.
There were no impurities.
All he had to do was split the pure rune.
There was no need to split it into three pieces at once.
The first goal was to separate just one option from one rune.
That’s when it happened.
The curse that had been showing a grayish light began to gradually turn white.
Between that, red boundary lines separating the options appeared.
Now it was ready.
There was no need to be careful anymore.
Choi Hyun began to strike it quickly and hard.
Exhilaration welled up.
At that moment.
Crack!
One boundary line split from the curse and a piece fell off.
Success.
The piece that fell off was still glowing.
Riding the momentum, he finished tapping the remaining curse.
Then, not long after, the remaining curse also made a crack! sound and split in two.
That’s when it happened.
[ Gathering has been completed. ]
[ You have succeeded in gathering. ]
[ New discovery. ]
[ Your gathering skill has now reached a level where you can go beyond simply gathering materials from targets to additionally gathering desired parts from gathered materials. ]
[ Conditions have been met. ]
[ You acquire the skill ‘Decomposition Gathering’. ]
[ Your characteristic grows to another level. ]
[ The skill ‘Material Hammer’ grows and some information changes. ]
[ You acquire 5 Dexterity stats. ]
Pouring System notifications.
Choi Hyun was finally able to obtain the fifth gathering skill, Decomposition Gathering.
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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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