The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 155

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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 155
Episode 155.
A hammer is merely a tool.
A good tool greatly aids the process of crafting.
‘But if a hammer is absent…’
Can’t craft?
Then you’re no craftsman.
Hammering is merely an extension of technique.
Engraving, Sewing, the Harmonia Forging Technique—
All these countless skills are nothing but extensions of Hand Dexterity.
The core was the hands.
These hands were the beginning and end of everything.
‘What derives from Hand Dexterity.’
So a hammer is merely a tool.
With hands alone, Jin-woo could craft anything.
Bang!
Jin-woo clenched his fist and struck the soul.
He stretched out his hand to shape it, then struck it at a steady rhythm, carving away at the soul’s form.
Crack. Crack.
It was no ordinary punch.
Jin-woo’s hands right now were a hammer, and simultaneously an Engraving Knife, a strike imbued with the power of Sorcery, and a needle and thread as well.
‘Everything begins in these hands.’
It all started in them.
Whoosh—!
The Harmonia Forging Technique unfolded from Jin-woo’s hands.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Jin-woo refined the soul with his bare hands.
“Ahhh….”
It was a miraculous moment.
—The Guardian of Flame and Crafting marvels at your work!
—The Great Dwarf God applauds your Hand Dexterity!
—The God of Nature and Harmony is astounded by your harmony!
—The Green-Skinned God declares that your touch is sorcerous power! He is certain that you are a pure-blooded Orc!
The countless gods who had patronized Jin-woo sent admiration and patronage toward his miraculous Hand Dexterity.
—Your Focus Stat increases!
—Your Hand Dexterity Stat rises significantly!
He had quite literally shaped equipment with his bare hands.
—You have created equipment!
—You have created S-rank equipment!
What Jin-woo had created was a sword—one that felt remarkably similar to the blade that Rek, the commander of souls, had shown him.
[Soul Sword]
—Attack Power: 3,500
—Rank: S
—Durability: 5,500 / 5,500
[A great weapon forged by Jin-woo, who has achieved mastery as a blacksmith. A magnificent sword created by the hands alone.]
“S-rank.”
The completed sword’s rank was S.
It bore no special options and its rank was not the highest, but such things were not important to Jin-woo.
He had made this sword barehanded.
It was a weapon forged by his hands alone.
He had proven true the legendary axiom that a master blacksmith never blames his tools.
Of course, Jin-woo didn’t particularly love that axiom.
Good crafting tools play an enormous role in creating good equipment.
‘Still.’
This completed sword held deep symbolic meaning.
Jin-woo smiled with satisfaction and lifted the sword.
“I could do it. Even barehanded.”
Jin-woo gazed at the finished equipment and smiled deeply.
“This is fun.”
Even barehanded, he could create S-rank items as he pleased.
That reality brought Jin-woo considerable joy.
Ding—!
—You have achieved a First Achievement!
—You have achieved the Achievement [Divine Touch]!
—[Divine Touch] FIRST
Effect: You have crafted S-rank items with your bare hands. Surely it is only fitting to call this the touch of a god! At a fixed probability, special options will be added to items you create!
A First Achievement.
Like the [Lord of the Dead] achievement he had earned before, this too was a First Achievement.
“Crafting S-rank items barehanded isn’t easy work.”
Jin-woo himself had drawn upon everything he’d learned so far in creating this. Without all that experience, he could never have completed it.
‘The materials alone were a challenge. It wasn’t simply easy.’
Considering that, it was a fitting achievement.
‘It is surprising. I never thought no one had ever crafted equipment barehanded before.’
Perhaps someone had tried.
‘They simply never succeeded properly.’
“Well, who else would manage it but me.”
Jin-woo swung the completed sword once through the air.
Whoosh.
“Not bad.”
The souls watched the entire spectacle in amazement.
At first, they couldn’t understand the claim that it could be done with hands. Souls are material. Even if they felt soft and pliable, they were certainly proper material to be handled with crafting tools.
Because of this, they thought he might use a new method, borrowing the power of souls and the Abyss Lord.
But that wasn’t it.
It was literal.
Jin-woo had handled souls with his bare hands and created equipment.
“?”
“What exactly are these two eyes of mine witnessing right now…?”
Rek, the commander of souls, was bewildered. The other souls beside him wore equally perplexed expressions.
“But you don’t have eyes anymore.”
At Jin-woo’s remark, the souls couldn’t respond.
“In the Underworld, we have never seen such a thing.”
“It’s already astonishing that a living being touches souls, but to craft equipment from them…”
“You have just created a sword from a single soul… Our equipment is made by blending souls with Underworld Steel, which appears only in the Underworld. We did not make them from souls alone!”
There was something even more startling.
Rek’s sword was not made from a single soul alone.
It was crafted by blending souls with steel unique to the Underworld—Underworld Steel.
Yet Jin-woo had just made a sword from a single soul. Without any Underworld Steel whatsoever.
“There’s such a thing as Underworld Steel?”
Jin-woo licked his lips.
In that instant, a chill ran down Rek’s spine. It was fear.
The Underworld is fundamentally composed of things close to souls.
Essentially, everything is soul.
Rek too was fundamentally soul.
And so they felt fear at Jin-woo’s intent toward souls.
Had he not just demonstrated it?
The ability to handle souls and create anything whatsoever.
“Can you show me the way?”
“Y-yes, of course! Right away!”
“Don’t worry.”
Jin-woo flashed them a harmless smile.
“I won’t have any use for you as materials. At least not right now.”
“Y-yes, yes!”
What had been meant as reassurance became terror for them. The souls bolted forward in mad panic.
* * *
Kim Na-yoon had also narrated the second film.
“It wasn’t as much as the first, but my voice is woven throughout certain moments.”
Naturally, she too was at Netflix, waiting.
“Na-yoon, aren’t you working?”
“I’m working right now.”
Monitoring was her forte, wasn’t it.
“This is special user management.”
Everyone looked at Kim Na-yoon with envious eyes.
“Don’t envy me. You’ve all seen how much I normally work.”
“That’s true enough.”
And so Kim Na-yoon reviewed the entire two-hour and five-minute video.
“Whoa…”
Then she marveled.
“This is so fun.”
She is a GM. That’s why she had thoroughly studied all content related to NewGene and possessed a great deal of prior knowledge.
With so much event-related information stored in her mind, recently anything NewGene-related had begun to feel dull.
Boredom.
She had been feeling it strongly.
But right now she felt none of that.
“It’s the first time.”
Even she, a GM, was seeing so many things for the first time.
Jin-woo had followed through on not a single thing her mental database could predict.
Unpredictable.
“Nothing I expected actually happens.”
Watching Jin-woo’s video made her forget she was a GM.
It allowed her to fully enjoy NewGene.
“Beginners and masters alike…”
It was content anyone could enjoy.
“Wow, Na-yoon! You saw the video!?”
Her coworker GM came running over with an urgent expression.
“That’s work for me. But Ujin—isn’t this your salary robbery?”
“No, no, this isn’t the time for that. This is insane. The quality. It’s absolutely insane!”
Her coworker was in a highly excited state.
“Isn’t this an incredible achievement?”
“It’s just typical for Jin-woo.”
“…Typical?”
Ujin was taken aback.
“This is typical?”
The video she had just watched was overwhelmingly breathtaking.
He hunts dragons alone, crafts from them, and then clears a tower with the Bone Dragon he created?
And he’s a master blacksmith on top of that?
“Yes. That’s right.”
At Na-yoon’s words that this was Jin-woo’s typical performance, Ujin’s eyes blinked rapidly.
“Then…”
If this is what’s normal, what on earth could a truly remarkable achievement even be?
Then an alarm began to sound.
Ding—! Ding—! Ding—!
—User Jin-woo achieves second First Achievement.
Logical message: The first instance of achieving First Achievements in different fields is itself a first.
Kim Na-yoon exhaled softly at the notification displayed on her monitor.
It was perfect timing.
“This kind of thing.”
She gestured at the screen as if to show it to them.
“First… Achievement?”
Na-yoon smiled broadly.
“This is his second one.”
A First Achievement meant that among the countless players enjoying NewGene, only a single person had earned that particular achievement.
Yet Jin-woo had now earned a First Achievement three times in total.
Along with the quest for Lyuton’s Steel Colossus, which he had been the first to clear.
Lord of the Dead.
And now this Divine Touch he had just achieved.
One first-clear quest and two first-achievement achievements.
“What achievement did he achieve this time?”
At Ujin’s question, Na-yoon quickly checked the achievement details.
—[Achievement: Divine Touch]
“Divine Touch?”
“Divine Touch… I feel like I’ve heard this before.”
Kim Na-yoon furrowed her brow.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, the memory came back.
In NewGene’s early days, there had been times when players lamented how difficult the Crafting profession was. Internal company discussions had suggested that an emergency balance patch might be necessary.
But the representative had encouraged them. He said that soon users would emerge who would overcome that challenge and create good equipment.
And what he had mentioned then was precisely this [Divine Touch] achievement.
He said that someday someone would earn this difficult achievement too.
—There will certainly be someone. A user who crafts S-rank items without crafting equipment.
“Everyone laughed back then.”
Creating items is difficult even with crafting equipment, so to make items without any aid from crafting equipment?
“We dismissed it as a joke.”
And now it lay unfolding before her eyes.

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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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