The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 10

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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 10
10.
“Jin-woo, did you perhaps start without knowing much about NewGen?”
Ha-ram was quite flustered by Jin-woo’s words.
“Yes. Do I need to study the game while playing it?”
Though NewGen had only been open for a year, countless strategy guides had already been posted online.
Koreans, who favored efficiency, read guides so frequently that it was almost considered essential.
Everyone wanted to play in a way that approached the established meta.
So everyone knew the general information.
What was difficult and what was easy.
“You do know that blacksmith is difficult, don’t you……?”
“So I’ve heard. That’s why I chose it.”
“Hah.”
So he’d taken up blacksmithing for that very reason.
Ha-ram shook his head in disbelief.
“The reason it’s so difficult is precisely because crafting is hard without skills. On top of that, the most essential thing for crafting is Hand Skill, and this stat is difficult to raise through leveling alone.”
What crafting needed was Hand Skill.
This Hand Skill stat could only be raised through crafting, not leveling. Of course, if this Hand Skill stat was generated differently, it could be raised through those actions as well.
But the most fundamental method was this very crafting.
Because of this irony, crafting became exponentially more difficult.
Yet Jin-woo had compressed and completed that difficult process in an instant.
Immediately after starting, his Hand Skill stat had been created, and his Hand Skill numbers were climbing rapidly.
It was nonsensical.
“Wait, then, what about the crafting skill?”
“I haven’t thought about learning it yet.”
“You’re not going to learn it at all? That? No, wait. Then, those, those things.”
Ha-ram, unable to believe his ears, asked again urgently.
“How did you make them without a skill?”
At that, Jin-woo smiled and raised his hand.
“With my hands.”
“…….”
After a moment of silence, Ha-ram opened his mouth hurriedly.
“Um, sorry for the trouble, but could I take a look at the equipment you made?”
“By all means. It’s no trouble when you’re giving me such valuable information.”
No skill learned.
Only level three.
Yet what on earth was this?
“Wow…….”
The equipment Jin-woo had made was breathtaking.
The quality was unimaginable for a beginner’s work—so much so that Ha-ram’s sense of reality crumbled at the thought that more than a dozen pieces of equipment at this level could be made in a single day.
“I, I’ll be back.”
Ha-ram’s eyes sharpened as if he’d received tremendous motivation from Jin-woo.
‘Looks like he found some drive.’
Jin-woo watched Ha-ram leave.
This kind of reaction had become quite familiar.
‘Still, the fact that he’s driven means there’s potential.’
After seeing Jin-woo’s crafting, other blacksmiths showed two distinct reactions.
Some, like Ha-ram, were spurred on—while others fell into despair, insisting talent was everything.
Most of the latter group switched professions.
Saying it was all about natural ability anyway.
“There’s no such thing as talent being everything.”
Of course, talent was important.
But in what field was talent not important?
“Despairing because ‘only the talented survive’ is really just spitting on effort.”
That sense of inevitability.
The thought that effort itself wouldn’t work against the naturally gifted.
It was nauseating.
“So many people thought I got this far purely because of talent.”
But Jin-woo wanted to ask them in return.
“Have you ever spent a full day doing nothing but crafting?”
Jin-woo had.
Every day, in fact.
“You keep going until you can do it.”
Jin-woo let out a quiet laugh.
“Practice is done for now.”
Glimmer.
What Jin-woo pulled out was the fine material he’d received from Ro-drum—the Shining Stone.
“I’ve been wanting to use it right away.”
Since he’d be working with superior material, he wanted more practice first.
And the results of that practice had been quite satisfying.
“My sense is improving.”
Ha-ram had said that skills were essential to crafting.
“Of course, they’re nice to have.”
Jin-woo wasn’t entirely opposed to learning skills.
“If you let skills take the lead, you hit a ceiling on what you can make.”
The foundation had to be basic Hand Skill.
If he prioritized that while letting skills play a supporting role, he could make far superior equipment.
But first, he needed to grasp something fundamental.
“The feel of crafting without skills.”
And more than anything.
“I want to understand the touch of the work.”
He’d master the fundamentals first, then learn skills.
Creak.
The door opened.
“Jin-woo.”
It was Ro-drum. Ro-drum looked pleased to see Jin-woo holding the Shining Stone.
“Good timing.”
“Ro-drum.”
“Are you thinking of using that Shining Stone?”
“Yes.”
“What are you planning to make?”
“I’m thinking of forging a sword.”
“That Shining Stone has quite high hardness. So it’ll be difficult to work with. Hmm, even with your strength, it’ll take several days of hammering to change its shape, I’d wager.”
“It will be difficult, but I’d like to try.”
“Is that so? Any proper blacksmith must experience working with a hammer to understand everything. Go ahead then.”
Ro-drum sat down in a nearby chair quite naturally, wanting to watch Jin-woo’s hammering technique.
“If you have any questions along the way, ask freely. I’ll explain whatever you need.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Jin-woo first touched the Shining Stone.
Examining it from all angles, he quickly grasped what kind of mineral the Shining Stone was.
‘My senses are sharp here—assessing is much easier than it was in Eternal Sunshine.’
In Eternal Sunshine, he’d had to rely on skills absolutely.
It made sense, given that semi-immersive VR dulled sensation.
But even then, Jin-woo had rarely depended on skills.
He’d pushed himself to concentrate and do what he could directly.
That was how he maintained sharp senses and crafted proper equipment.
If he’d managed assessment with those dulled senses, NewGen would be trivial by comparison.
“He really did hand me something he’d been hiding away.”
The Shining Stone wasn’t a material obtainable in Ryuten, the beginner village.
Like the apprentice had said with longing, it was certainly a material everyone wished to work with.
‘Short swords and long swords are similar yet different.’
And as Ro-drum had said, this was quite hard.
“Light and hard. I’ll make use of those properties.”
Jin-woo immediately began the forging work.
‘Normally, the Smelting Technique seems to cover this domain.’
He’d realized this while making the short sword.
Jin-woo could perform this process smoothly because he’d done it in reality as well.
But among NewGen players, how many understood that process?
So the Smelting Technique dramatically cut down those steps.
‘And even though it shortens the work…’
Jin-woo gripped the hammer.
The real challenge lay in the hammering—deforming this material and shaping it to his vision.
The refinement.
‘This refinement is what makes it hard.’
“Huh.”
Taking a deep breath, Jin-woo brought the hammer down.
The heated Shining Stone answered to the blow.
Clang!
Uniform force control.
It wasn’t merely about swinging the hammer down.
-Your Hand Skill stat increases!
Jin-woo began to concentrate utterly.
Clang! Clang!
With each hammer strike, moments of misalignment alternated with moments of perfect striking.
‘That was right.’
A unity between the descending hammer and his body.
In that fleeting moment when he felt that unity, Jin-woo felt satisfaction.
And simultaneously, his Hand Skill rose.
‘That was off.’
Yet even Jin-woo couldn’t bring the hammer down at a perfect angle one hundred percent of the time.
‘There’s definitely a limit. As Ro-drum said, for a normal player, reshaping this material wouldn’t be easy.’
He could stop midway and instead pursue growth by raising stats and level, which would be much faster.
In NewGen, level was one of the vital elements, as were stats.
‘But so what?’
Jin-woo simply felt grateful and joyful.
‘Being able to craft again is enjoyable. And this is a limit the game set.’
Not a limit he himself had decided upon.
“I’ll do it my way.”
Everything he’d attempted so far was merely the story of other players—not himself.
They had failed.
Just because they failed didn’t mean he had to.
Clang!
That much was enough.
“!”
Suddenly Ro-drum’s expression shifted in shock.
He’d assumed Jin-woo would spend the entire day hammering, working the Shining Stone.
Since direct experience was more valuable, Ro-drum hadn’t suggested Jin-woo take a break to grow elsewhere or practice more with other materials.
But the situation unfolded unexpectedly.
A few hammer strikes.
And the Shining Stone’s shape had transformed.
“Your strength should be insufficient…”
Clang!
Jin-woo brought the hammer down once more.
“His movements got bigger than yesterday.”
Ro-drum’s brow furrowed.
Body and hammer.
For a moment they felt as one.
“It’s changing.”
The Shining Stone began to alter its form.
Clang.
Each time the hammer fell, that hard Shining Stone moved as if it had never resisted at all.
Clang!
In moments, the form took shape and an elongated blade was complete.
“Phew.”
Jin-woo’s vision blurred for an instant as pain flooded his arms.
He was drawing on every limit in his body.
Yet simultaneously, his concentration was so total that he couldn’t stop hammering.
If he stopped even slightly now, he’d lack the stamina to lift the hammer at all.
-Transcendent Movement!
-Your stamina is declining!
A dry rasp escaped his teeth.
Jin-woo gritted his teeth.
Crafting was a solitary battle.
No one else could help.
Only he himself could aid himself.
Sinking deeper, Jin-woo kept tapping with the hammer, clearing his mind of stray thoughts.
In this moment, he didn’t think of this place as reality or as a game.
His mind held only one thing.
Tap the hammer.
Complete the equipment.
Clang!
-You have completed a sword!
-You have created equipment that surpasses your level!
-Your level increases!
-Your level increases!
His level jumped up twice in an instant.
Jin-woo, who had been level three, reached level five.
And along with it.
-Your Immersion stat has been created!
-Your Immersion rises sharply!
-You have gained an additional skill.
“Immersion.”
Amid countless notifications, Jin-woo focused on the newly created stat.
Immersion.
“Not bad.”
At the sword he’d made, Jin-woo felt a smile bloom across his face unbidden.
-You have achieved a condition!
“A condition?”
Along with the level up, a new quest appeared before Jin-woo.

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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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