The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 141

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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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Chapter 141
141.
Balam expected Jin-woo to charge at him immediately.
But Jin-woo remained utterly composed.
‘Close combat is too risky.’
Jin-woo knew his own strengths.
The craft of making equipment.
The ability to understand equipment.
These two things he yielded to no one.
‘Combat isn’t my domain.’
Combat belonged entirely to his familiars.
‘And besides.’
The true power of this Dragon Stone Chain Sickle lay at range.
‘Distance, not proximity.’
Jin-woo was a Necromaster.
‘This equipment wasn’t made for a direct confrontation.’
Jin-woo fell back a considerable distance.
“First, Pur.”
Then he sent his familiars forward.
Jin-woo’s one-two punch had finally come out swinging.
“I’ve… been… waiting… for… this.”
“Shall I go first, senior?”
Pur asked politely.
But First showed her with action.
Whoooosh—
The hellfire of the netherworld and the infernal flames born from evil incarnate.
He wanted to test that power.
“Let… the… flames… clash.”
“Understood!”
Pur stepped back slightly.
Whoooosh—
Blue flames bloomed along the Orichalcon Greatsword.
Blue flames dancing across the pink-hued blade made the greatsword’s color shine all the brighter.
“Cowering behind your subordinates, are you?”
Jin-woo nodded at Balam’s taunt.
“We’re a team.”
Jin-woo wasn’t alone. With his familiars, they formed one entity—Team Jin-woo.
So with that team in motion, what did it matter who led and who followed?
Jin-woo brushed off the provocation lightly, and Balam stopped taunting.
“You’ve forged fine flames.”
“These… flames… were… given… by… my… Lord.”
Bang—!
First stomped the ground hard and swung the greatsword diagonally.
Balam, in turn, conjured flames in his hand and shaped them into a sword form.
“Then I’ll meet you blade to blade.”
Crash—!
The two flames collided head-on.
Balam’s crimson fire and First’s blue fire began a fierce struggle for dominance.
Zing—!
Shockwaves rippled outward.
First had become skilled with the Orichalcon Greatsword.
‘No—she’s gone beyond skilled.’
Crack! Bang—!
First’s blade technique had already reached the realm of true understanding.
Her movements showed she knew exactly how to draw out the full power of the Orichalcon Greatsword.
‘The blade’s limits.’
Its potential.
She was drawing it all out and using it. Jin-woo smiled.
“Yes. That’s how you wield the Orichalcon Greatsword.”
At the same time, Jin-woo could hear the dissonance in the Orichalcon Greatsword he’d crafted—and he’d thought it quite fine.
‘If she hadn’t pushed it to its limits, I’d never have heard that discord.’
He always wanted to make equipment perfectly, but perfection was too distant a goal.
So there were always shortcomings.
‘And the only way to detect those invisible flaws is like this.’
Jin-woo observed. He understood the deficiency simultaneously.
‘When moving at high speed. An imbalance occurs.’
A momentary drop in durability.
Power, speed.
Not simply because the user lacked strength.
‘It’s the equipment’s fault.’
A craftsman tends to be deeply attached to what they create.
Because of that, sometimes they turn a blind eye even to problems.
But Jin-woo had affection without blindness.
His affection lay in improvement.
He believed that a craftsman’s calling was to make ever-better equipment by addressing its shortcomings.
Bang—!
“Whose blade is that?”
Balam, locked in combat with First, asked in admiration. He naturally assumed it was forged by the greatest master craftsman on the continent.
“Did the absorbed Great Dwarf God forge it? You seem to be his successor, judging by what I see.”
“My… Lord… forged… this… blade… himself.”
“……Forged it himself?”
“My… armor… too.”
Both the blade and the armor.
“Were… made… for… me… by… my… Lord.”
First pushed hard off the ground and surged forward.
Then she activated the special skill of the Skystone Basago Armor.
—Basago’s power spreads throughout your body!
—Basago’s essence permeates your entire being!
In an instant, all her stats rose by 5,000, and her health surged dramatically as well.
Stats, health, and.
Defense pushed to the extreme.
First unleashed the Orichalcon Greatsword with all her might.
“Tch!”
Balam was taken aback by an attack that showed no intention of defense whatsoever. There were far too many openings.
Was it an invitation?
A trap?
In that confusion, Balam felt it.
The demonic power radiating from First.
“……Basago!”
That power was unmistakably Basago’s.
“That means this bastard defeated Basago!”
And then made equipment from that power.
Crash—!
Balam swung his flame sword straight at First. Whether it was a trap or not didn’t matter. At this level, even if it were a trap, First would take heavy damage.
Kaboom—!
Balam’s attack reached its target faster than First’s.
“Rushing Flame Spark.”
Boom—!
Massive flames engulfed First. The force was incredible. The shockwave was so violent that even Pur, watching from the side, unconsciously took three steps forward in surprise.
Balam smiled.
“That’s not how you spring a trap…….”
But from within the smoke of the explosion.
Something drew near.
It was blue flames.
A blade wrapped in blue fire.
First’s stroke of conviction.
With this strike, Balam understood.
This was no trap at all. It was simply a strike of faith, trusting purely in the armor’s power.
“It’s… worthless.”
The defense of the Skystone Basago Armor exceeded 15,000 by a great margin, including special options.
“!”
A startled Balam urgently erected a defensive barrier of flame.
“Sixfold Barrier.”
Six layers of flame defense.
Crash—!
The Orichalcon Greatsword shattered the flame barriers instantly. All six layers tore like paper.
Shriieeeek—!
The blade found its mark.
“Gaaaahhh—!”
Balam staggered backward from the full-power strike.
“What… what is this.”
Balam reeled at the wisps of smoke rising from his body.
As his health drained, his strength was being siphoned away.
“My power… it’s draining…….”
His own strength was being transferred to that undead.
“You’re absorbing my life force?”
Balam looked at Jin-woo.
“What on earth have you made? What in the—”
In terms of raw power, Balam had the advantage over First. That much was certain.
But the equipment made up for it.
Especially that armor.
It rendered his attack pathetic. By all rights, First should have been dying.
Yet she stood. Utterly composed, no less.
“How is she even standing…….”
Balam gnashed his teeth.
Of course she was standing, but she wasn’t unscathed. When she unleashed that full-power strike, she’d abandoned all thought of defense, so she’d taken some damage.
Balam swayed as he tried to regroup.
“You’re certainly strong.”
Jin-woo didn’t miss that moment.
“Pur.”
“Yes!”
The moment Jin-woo called her, he hurled the chain sickle.
Shriieeeek—!
Balam, who’d seemed exhausted, suddenly reacted to Jin-woo’s chain sickle.
‘As I thought.’
The color of his flames shifted in that instant.
Balam was controlling his strength.
‘He didn’t pour everything into First.’
Meanwhile, First had given it everything.
‘He was holding back for this.’
Though First landed an unexpected blow, Balam still had reserve strength.
‘Those flames.’
They were not Balam’s full power.
‘I need to draw out his true strength.’
“This sickle…….”
Balam’s brow furrowed. Like the Orichalcon Greatsword before it, the quality of the equipment was formidable.
“I sense the power of a dragon. And it’s… very familiar.”
“It’s made from Dragon Stone.”
Jin-woo pulled the chain. Balam’s body suddenly began sliding backward.
“You’re no ordinary… Necromancer……!”
What First had said was true. This power could never come from a normal Necromancer.
“Doesn’t it seem that way?”
With those words, Pur burst forward.
Thud—!
She stomped hard and scattered the chill of the netherworld.
“Judgment.”
Pur’s power was bound to be weak against Balam’s fire.
Moreover, the World Tree’s Judgment was a wooden weapon.
In terms of matchup, it was the worst possible.
Yet Pur trusted the World Tree’s Judgment.
It was made by Jin-woo.
Matchups didn’t matter.
“Ha! A wooden cudgel with all that chilly mist fluttering about.”
Balam looked at Pur as if it were ridiculous.
“How far do you mock me!”
He then unleashed flames like a breath attack.
Shaaaah—!
It was firepower enough to incinerate everything in its path.
“Burn in those flames.”
Whoooosh—!
Pur was engulfed in the inferno. But from the very heart of those flames, enormous clouds of smoke billowed up.
Pur, who had pushed the netherworld’s chill to its absolute limit, burst free from the flames.
“!”
“What are you even saying? This is a weapon made by my Lord.”
Pur spoke as if it were utterly incomprehensible.
“It can’t possibly burn! This chill doesn’t even melt in flames.”
“……Only the Lord makes sense. These insane familiars!”
Suddenly, blue flames began to rise from Balam’s body.
It felt similar to the blue fire from First, but the raw power was far greater.
This was hellfire itself.
“I can’t hold back any longer.”
Balam revealed his true form.
—The Hellfire Warlord, Evil Incarnate Balam, reveals his true form!
Phase 2 had begun.
“Infernal Flame Circle.”
He lashed out both arms like whips, and the surrounding area became a sea of flame. Spears of fire shot toward Jin-woo.
Thud—! Jin-woo didn’t even need to swing the Dragon Stone Chain Sickle. Bone simply flicked his tail and halted the flame spears.
Jin-woo’s eyes widened as he stared at Balam.
More precisely, at his flames.
“There it is.”
Beautiful blue flames.
“I need to put Balam in the forge.”
Conviction settled in his heart.
‘But something feels off.’
Those blue flames.
There was something subtly sacred about them.
‘Could it be.’
The scene he’d witnessed upon entering the tower flashed before him.
That image of two opposing forces joined together.
‘The Great Dwarf God’s power is embedded within him.’
Surely Balam had consumed the temple outright.
‘Then why?’
Jin-woo observed the blue flames. The sacred power woven into them.
‘They shouldn’t coexist at all.’
Like darkness and light.
Like heat and cold.
‘Unless they were absorbed.’
Suddenly Jin-woo grasped it. Balam didn’t absorb it.
The Great Dwarf God’s power was absorbed.
Deliberately.
‘That’s a magnanimous power.’
It even generously embraced Balam’s own strength.
That’s why it permeated him so seamlessly.
‘As if those opposing forces merged naturally.’
Then why?
The Great Dwarf God’s power surely could have resisted Balam’s strength.
“It flows.”
Jin-woo smiled.
Two forces merging naturally and flowing as one.
‘That’s the nature of this power.’
—The Great Dwarf God applauds your enlightenment!
—You have understood the Great Dwarf God’s power.
But Jin-woo didn’t stop there.
“Summon.”
He summoned his forge in the most critical moment.
And immediately after, First, Pur, Moltus, and Bone stepped forward. Fin hovered near Jin-woo, defending against attacks.
“What are you—”
Balam stared at Jin-woo in disbelief.
“Are you crafting right now?”
Jin-woo didn’t answer.
His mind was filled only with the knowledge he’d just gained.
He gripped the Reserve Hammer and began using the Ice-Flame Forging Technique.
Whoooosh—.
Shaaaah—.
Chill and heat.
“Let it flow.”
Jin-woo brought the hammer down.
Bang—!
—Ice-Flame Forging Technique is enhanced!
The Ice-Flame Forging Technique itself was rooted in the original forging art the Great Dwarf God had granted to his dwarves.
As the essence clicked into place, the power of that origin flowed into Jin-woo’s hands.
—You have learned the Forging Technique of Harmony and Balance.
—The name of Ice-Flame Forging Technique is changing!
—Ice-Flame Forging Technique —>> Harmonia Forging Technique.
Harmony and balance.
The harmony that binds them together.
The Ice-Flame Forging Technique had reclaimed its true form.
‘Now I can do it without effort. In perfect harmony.’
“Now I understand. And now I see.”
Jin-woo’s eyes blazed with light.
“That sacred power dwelling within you.”
The power of the Great Dwarf God inside Balam’s body.
He could see the source of that power.
“You swallowed a hammer.”
Jin-woo gripped the Dragon Stone Chain Sickle.
“Give it back.”
Shaaaah—. Jin-woo stomped hard against the earth.
“That’s mine.”

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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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