The Cursed Blacksmith Who Regressed - Chapter 4

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 4

Thud!

The Gatekeeper falls.

As it collapsed, its entire body shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions.

[ You have completed all tutorial processes. ]

[ The Tower of Tutorials is ending. ]

[ You have earned an Achievement for completing the Tower of Tutorials without dying and obtained the ‘Blue Seal of the Tutorial Tower’. ]

[ New record achieved! ]

[ You have completed the tutorial process fastest in Tutorial Tower history without dying. ]

[ For achieving a remarkable Achievement, the System gifts you 3 bonus stats. ]

An additional 3 bonus stats were given.

Along with that, an exit portal leading to the real world appeared before his eyes.

There was nothing left to do here.

Choi Hyun looked at the notification and smiled bitterly as he leisurely headed toward the exit portal.

Whoosh!

Light scattered and his vision flickered.

Soon his vision returned to normal, and what he saw again was the familiar gosiwon.

Having returned home, Choi Hyun immediately checked his status window.

[ Choi Hyun ]

– Lv : 1

– Class : Blacksmith

– Traits : ＜Demon’s Eye＞＜Repair＞

– Strength : 1

– Stamina : 1

– Mana : 1

– Perception : 1

– Unallocated Stat Points : 10

Looking at his status window, Choi Hyun smiled without realizing it.

10 bonus stats.

Converted to levels, that was a whopping 10 levels.

In other words, Choi Hyun’s current abilities were equivalent to those of average level 10 players.

However, it was far too early to be satisfied with just this much.

Choi Hyun’s goal was to become an unparalleled existence and save humanity.

Therefore, he couldn’t be satisfied with just this much.

Time was money.

Choi Hyun immediately prepared to go out, grabbed his wallet and phone, and headed outside.

* * *

Ding dong!

A bell sound.

It was a notification indicating the waiting number order posted above the counter.

Seeing the electronic board notification, Choi Hyun got up from his seat and sat down at the counter.

“Yes, what brings you here today?”

“I came to apply for a new awakener loan.”

“Ah, a new awakener loan.”

The place Choi Hyun visited as soon as he left the gosiwon was none other than a bank.

Specifically, the loan department.

What Choi Hyun requested as soon as he sat down was a new awakener loan.

The new awakener loan was a small loan product that any awakener could receive.

‘First, I’ll secure basic funds.’

Choi Hyun’s early plan after regression was relatively simple.

Naturally, rapid growth should be prioritized, but he judged that economic freedom and social protection were needed to accelerate that growth.

So he first visited a bank that would serve as the foundation for those things.

The loan department employee asked.

“An awakener loan, right? Not a hunter loan?”

“Yes, a new awakener loan.”

“Then I’ll guide you through the new awakener loan product. The new awakener loan is a product created for those who have completed the tutorial, and after checking identity and credit score…”

“I came here with precise knowledge of the product details. And.”

A blue, sparkling V-shaped seal of victory appeared above Choi Hyun’s head.

“I officially completed the tutorial and received the blue seal.”

“Ah! Then I’ll help you prepare the documents right away after checking your identity and credit score. Could you give me your ID?”

“Here it is.”

The employee who recognized the blue seal immediately prepared the loan documents.

The blue seal was a seal that only players who officially completed the Tower of Tutorials without dying could receive, while players who couldn’t officially complete it through death received a red seal.

‘That’s why people called those with blue seals prodigies or elites, while those with red seals were called ordinary people.’

The blue seal was a rather rare seal that only about 10% of all awakeners could barely obtain.

Additionally, seals were a kind of ‘certification mark’ provided by the System, serving as a means to prove Achievements in various situations.

‘Seals are part of the System, so they can never be faked.’

The loan process went smoothly.

This was because Choi Hyun had a clear identity and no history of defaults or financial delinquencies.

Soon, confirming that 5 million won had been deposited into his account, Choi Hyun immediately got up and moved to the next location.

The next location was a moneylender located near the bank.

The name was ‘Goremilsu’.

Seeing the sign, Choi Hyun furrowed his brow.

‘What a brutally named place.’

Surely it wasn’t named with the meaning that they’d squeeze out even pus if you couldn’t repay?

Thinking that, he opened the door and entered to find three people who looked like gangster lackeys sitting together eating jjajangmyeon.

Among them, the youngest chubby one with a buzz cut asked.

“What brings you here?”

“I came to borrow money.”

“Ah, I see.”

Hearing that he came to borrow money, Chubby immediately wiped his mouth and guided him to a seat.

Then Bang Deok-su, the boss of Goremilsu who was sitting in the head seat, also wiped his mouth and sat in front of Choi Hyun.

Choi Hyun handed over his ID and said.

“I need about 5 million.”

“Have you used loan sharks before?”

“I understand it proceeds with advance interest deduction and a certain percentage interest rate. What’s the interest rate here?”

“We charge 5% interest. We naturally deduct advance interest too.”

5% interest.

This meant they charged 5% monthly interest, so since Choi Hyun came to borrow 5 million won, the monthly interest would be 5% of 5 million, which is 250,000 won.

‘And deducting advance interest means they deduct 250,000 won first and give 4.75 million.’

They were scary people.

While they called it 5% monthly interest, annually it was 60% annual interest, and what was even scarier was that if you couldn’t repay the money, they applied compound interest calculations, adding the interest to the principal and calculating interest again.

In other words, if you couldn’t repay, hell would unfold from that point.

But Choi Hyun didn’t care.

No matter how much the interest was, he planned to repay it quickly.

“I’ll borrow 5 million.”

“But you’re only twenty years old, and 5 million is…”

Instead of answering, Choi Hyun displayed his blue seal.

“Oh my, you’re not just any twenty-year-old but an elite. Then we should lend it to you right away.”

Bang Deok-su smiled broadly and immediately brought over a promissory note, filled it out, and handed it over.

Choi Hyun also filled in the blanks without complaint and stamped his seal.

Once the promissory note was completed, Bang Deok-su nodded to Baldy, who immediately brought a bundle of money from the safe.

“Count it.”

“It should be correct.”

Choi Hyun didn’t even count the money, took the promissory note as well, and immediately stood up from his seat.

“Well then, good work.”

After Choi Hyun disappeared, Chubby sat back down and picked up his jjajangmyeon bowl.

“Boss, even though he showed a blue seal, aren’t you lending money too quickly?”

“Actually, it’s a thank you. Didn’t you see his eyes earlier? That arrogant expression after showing the blue seal? Those types are seal addicts who don’t know anything about the world.”

“Ah? As expected of you, boss.”

“Just wait until he defaults, then he’ll experience hell.”

Bang Deok-su giggled as he finished eating his jjajangmyeon.

* * *

Less than two hours had passed, and he had ten million won in cash.

Combined with his original balance, it was a little over ten million won.

Having secured the money, Choi Hyun took a taxi and headed straight to his next destination.

The place Choi Hyun headed to was none other than a summoner guild, specifically ‘Nephilim’, which boasted the largest scale among the few summoner guilds in the country.

“We’ve arrived.”

When the taxi driver stopped the car in front of Nephilim headquarters, Choi Hyun paid and immediately entered the headquarters building, heading to the information desk on the first floor.

“This is Nephilim. What brings you here today?”

“I came to use the proxy summoning service. I want to use it right now and I need a 5-star demon summoner.”

“A 5-star demon summoner… If you wait about 30 minutes, it will be available immediately. The fee is 8 million won, with a separate 10% VAT.”

“I’ll pay in cash. Oh, and I’d also like to buy a one-time blank summoning scroll. Grade 5-star, and I plan to write the summoning scroll right now.”

“A 5-star grade one-time blank summoning scroll costs 1 million won, also with a separate 10% VAT.”

“I’ll pay for both together.”

“Then please fill out the procedure documents for both the summoner order and the summoning scroll order.”

He spent 9.9 million won in an instant.

But Choi Hyun didn’t bat an eye despite spending such a large sum.

The staff member guided Choi Hyun to a quiet Private Room.

“Shall I prepare something to drink?”

“That’s fine. Should I use this dedicated pen?”

“Yes, that’s correct. As you well know, one-time blank summoning scrolls become unusable and lose their activation effect if even a drop of ink, water, sweat, etc. gets on them, so please be careful.”

“Understood.”

The staff member bowed politely and closed the door.

As soon as the staff left, Choi Hyun picked up the dedicated pen.

Then he closed his eyes, muttered some phrases, and slowly began writing sentences on the summoning scroll.

It took quite a while.

The large summoning scroll was filled completely without any blank space.

“Phew.”

Choi Hyun exhaled deeply after finishing the writing.

He had written very carefully, worried that even a drop of sweat might fall.

Checking the content, it was exactly as he had memorized.

‘This is almost as good as finished.’

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

“Excuse me. The summoner you requested is ready, so would it be alright if we guide you right away?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Please bring the summoning scroll along too.”

“Yes, understood.”

The timing was good.

Soon, following the staff’s guidance, they moved to a room much more spacious than the previous one.

Inside, a summoner was waiting, and when Choi Hyun entered, she stood up and greeted him.

“I’m Kim Su-in. I’m a 5-star demon summoner.”

Kim Su-in was a female summoner.

Choi Hyun also greeted her in return.

“Please take care of me. I prepared the summoning scroll myself, so please use that for the preparation.”

“What? You prepared the summoning scroll yourself?”

Just as Kim Su-in was making a bewildered expression, another staff member appeared carrying the summoning scroll Choi Hyun had written.

Kim Su-in received it with a dazed expression and slowly began examining it.

And before long, her eyes became the widest they had been all year.

After reading the summoning scroll completely, she looked at Choi Hyun with widened eyes.

“You… wrote this yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Are you perhaps a summoner?”

“No. Is there any problem with the summoning scroll?”

“Oh, no. The summoning scroll itself has no problems, but this is really…”

As she said, the summoning scroll itself had no problems.

The content written on the summoning scroll was an intermediate demon summoning formula that Kim Su-in was also familiar with.

However, the reason she was still surprised was that someone who wasn’t even a summoner had written this vast amount of summoning formulas in one flowing stroke.

‘Writing summoning scrolls is difficult even normally, but he wrote this vast amount, even a 5-star demon summoning formula, by himself just now?’

At a level where success would be questionable even if copied from somewhere?

Wondering if he had prepared it beforehand, she checked the receipt and tag, but it was indeed a Nephilim Guild item purchased just moments ago.

Seeing her reaction, Choi Hyun spoke.

“I understand well what aspect you’re surprised about. But please don’t ask further questions and proceed with what I’ve requested.”

At Choi Hyun’s polite request, she pondered for a moment before answering.

“…Yes, understood.”

Kim Su-in, having answered, immediately began preparing the summoning.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————