The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 161

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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 161
Episode 161.
Iceelz recoiled sharply.
Jin-woo was the Successor to the Master of Soul and Abyss.
He could hardly harbor warm feelings toward Iceelz, who once ruled the Underworld but now served a new god.
So naturally, Jin-woo would attack—or so he’d thought.
Thud!
Watching Iceelz stumble backward, Jin-woo let out a low chuckle.
“So you mean to annihilate me? If you can manage it, be my guest.
Iceelz’s body unleashed a torrent of freezing cold.
“Because I’ve received new strength from the new god.”
But Jin-woo simply opened his clenched fist slowly, as if to say he’d misunderstood.
“I’m a blacksmith.”
Jin-woo said it plainly.
“A blacksmith speaks through his crafting. That’s what I mean by setting everything right.”
Jin-woo had never intended to attack in the first place.
“……”
A blacksmith?
Now that he looked closely, the musculature was indeed exceptional.
And the energy radiating from him was precisely what one would expect from a blacksmith.
Iceelz hadn’t known that the old god’s Successor worked as a blacksmith.
“Are you not a… Necromancer?”
Yet the Dark Energy was overwhelming—so potent that one couldn’t tell whether to call him a blacksmith or something else entirely.
“Blacksmithing is my main trade.”
The Master of Soul and Abyss was a god of darkness and simultaneously a deity who granted immense power to necromancers.
“The Successor’s… side profession, you mean?”
“Something like that.”
Bewildered, Iceelz found himself glancing toward the Master of Soul and Abyss instead of Jin-woo.
He could definitely feel the presence of the Master of Soul and Abyss’s power.
Yet he spoke as if it were merely a side pursuit?
But.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss is grateful to you for choosing blacksmithing as your side profession!
Rather, the Master of Soul and Abyss expressed gratitude toward Jin-woo.
He already knew Jin-woo’s skill well, so he took no offense at the remark. If anything, he only regretted not being able to grant additional Necromaster abilities.
“A blacksmith proves himself through his crafting.”
Jin-woo immediately gripped a Hammer.
Iceelz watched him.
“So you mean to set everything right with that Hammer? The new wave spreading throughout the Underworld?”
“Yes. It’s late, but I mean to set things right—decisively.”
“It is too late. The new wave has already spread across the entire Underworld. This is no longer the Underworld of old.”
-The Master of Soul and Abyss apologizes to his long-time follower, Iceelz.
“The Master of Soul and Abyss is apologizing to you.”
“Now that it comes to this… it is already far too late.”
Iceelz shook his head slowly.
Whoosh—
At the same moment, his green soul began to glow more intensely.
“You said you’ve received incredible power from the new god.”
“Yes, I have. And thanks to it, I’ve come far closer to what I desired.”
A Hammer appeared in Iceelz’s hand.
Clang! Clang-clang—
Freezing cold erupted from him as his center.
A workbench, an anvil.
And a furnace.
But instead of flames, the furnace roiled with cold.
‘Not underworld cold. Not underworld flame.’
Jin-woo’s eyes narrowed in an instant.
‘Purple.’
A flame and cold unique to Iceelz alone.
“You wield a curious flame.”
“You perceived it?”
At Jin-woo’s insight, Iceelz’s expression shifted to genuine intrigue. The man’s claim of being a blacksmith seemed genuine after all.
“I never imagined the old god’s Successor would be a blacksmith. But now the old god’s aid is unnecessary.”
Whoosh—
He drew something out.
A Blood-Red Core.
He swirled the Purple Flame around the Core—brimming with energy—and brought his Hammer down upon it.
The cold erupted with a sharp crack. Iceelz continued to strike, his Hammer falling again and again.
Clang! Clang!
The Hammering was brutally intense.
At first glance, each strike seemed raw power, but they were executed with perfect, calculated precision.
Each time his Hammer came down, the Blood-Red Core deformed, and in mere moments, it took the shape of a blade.
Whoosh—
Iceelz plunged the Blood-Red Core into the furnace.
The Purple Flame erupted outward.
Whoosh—
‘He’s compressing the cold to refine it.’
The method deviated sharply from conventional refining, yet there was a clear logic to it.
Jin-woo continued to observe his crafting.
Clang!
Crunch-crack!
Clang! Crunch-crunch-crunch-crack!
With each strike of the Hammer, the cold burst forth and seeped into the Blood-Red Core.
‘That’s it.’
Jin-woo’s eyes blazed with recognition.
The equipment he’d seen in the hands of those in Fragment City 7.
And the profound cold he’d felt emanating from every piece of gear worn by Lerankal, who had guided him here—that was the source.
‘It’s not something you achieve by simply striking with a Hammer.’
One had to transcend merely controlling the cold in an instant.
‘You draw the cold to its absolute limit and then infuse it. But how?’
Clang! Crunch-crack!
Jin-woo continued to watch the Hammering.
‘By maximizing it instantaneously.’
And then pushing it in.
Harmony, balance—these were absent from that Hammering.
He thought only of drawing out his characteristic properties to their absolute peak.
One point. A single goal. That was all the Hammer sought, falling with singular purpose. Jin-woo took it all in.
Clang!
From Iceelz’s hands emerged a blade saturated with cold.
“Wow…”
Lerankal, Lek, and the souls gasped in admiration.
“His skill… has grown beyond what it was.”
He was no longer the Iceelz of old.
“It was already at a high level then.”
Now it had become nearly untouchable. It was proof of how formidable the new god’s power truly was.
Whoosh—
Tremendous cold radiated from the blade he’d forged. Holding the cold-saturated sword, he stepped forward.
“There is little more I need say.”
Iceelz recognized that Jin-woo possessed considerable discernment.
So words were no longer necessary.
By showing him this blade of cold, the explanation was complete.
‘The old god’s power is unnecessary. That is what this means.’
It certainly seemed so.
Yet Jin-woo still asked with precision.
“What do you want?”
“A body.”
He answered simply.
“A new body that can shatter the limits of my skill. That is what I need. The new god has granted me the power to obtain such a body.”
Whoosh—
His translucent form grew even more transparent.
“So that’s why you use the special Refining Technique?”
“Simply observing, and you grasp it already. Yes, that is correct. This soul, without substance—to replenish its power, I employ such a technique.”
Iceelz was impressed by Jin-woo’s skill.
He understood now that it was no accident the Master of Soul and Abyss had made this man his Successor.
“It is called the Maximization Refining Technique.”
‘Maximization Refining Technique. That’s a fitting name.’
It was not merely about infusing cold to its maximum.
‘What Iceelz used was cold alone.’
One could infuse any number of other things to their maximum into equipment.
‘There are similarities.’
“Did the Master of Soul and Abyss teach you this Maximization Refining Technique?”
Iceelz’s body went rigid.
“Did the old god tell you of it?”
“No.”
Jin-woo suspected that this Maximization Refining Technique resembled the Extreme Defense that Hephaestus had wielded.
‘And the Master of Soul and Abyss wanted to sponsor Hephaestus.’
So the inference came naturally.
“You figure it out simply by watching.”
“…Yes, that is true. But the Maximization Refining Technique I first learned and the one I’ve strengthened through power granted by the new god are now completely different techniques.”
‘I thought he’d been forced to change.’
Jin-woo had assumed the new god had violently seized the Underworld.
But watching Iceelz now, he felt certainty wash over him.
‘No. The new god simply filled the void left behind completely.’
The new god, the King of the Dead.
‘A true deity.’
Jin-woo revised his plan.
He had intended to drive out the King of the Dead and restore the Underworld to the Master of Soul and Abyss.
But now he saw there was no need for that.
‘I don’t need to take sides with anyone.’
If he were to take a side,
it would be only his own.
‘And it is the gods who sponsor me.’
He did not sponsor the gods.
“I have no desire to switch sides.”
“I didn’t come to ask you to switch sides.”
At those words, Iceelz’s face registered confusion.
“I came to learn from you, Iceelz.”
“…What?”
Iceelz stared at Jin-woo as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
“What are you saying?”
“The Maximization Refining Technique.”
And beyond that.
“And I thought perhaps I should also receive sponsorship from the Underworld’s new god.”
“?”
Iceelz was completely stunned.
And at that unprecedented proposal, the Master of Soul and Abyss was equally taken aback.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss asks if you mean to serve the new god!
“Serve?”
Jin-woo turned the question back.
“I have no intention of that. I simply accept gratefully the sponsorship the gods offer me.”
From the start, Jin-woo had no intention of being a puppet Successor, obliged to fulfill the gods’ every whim.
‘I’m already receiving sponsorship from several gods.’
Multiple deities connected to crafting had already extended their sponsorship to him.
‘As for the God of Bone and Death—well, if they offer good sponsorship and technique, that’s all that matters.’
He could receive sponsorship from as many as he wished.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss ponders.
-He says your words ring true!
-The God of Bone and Death offers his applause!
Observing Jin-woo converse with the Master of Soul and Abyss, Iceelz couldn’t make sense of the situation at all.
“Are you not angry?”
“Why would I be angry?”
Jin-woo posed the question back to Iceelz.
“I don’t intend to stop reclaiming the entire Underworld.”
Nor did he plan to abandon the Quest.
“…Then what exactly—”
Iceelz regarded Jin-woo closely.
In that moment, Jin-woo seemed to grow larger.
The self that had been confined to factional logic now felt infinitely small by comparison.
“Do you truly wish to learn the Maximization Refining Technique from me?”
“Is it difficult?”
Gulp.
The old god’s Successor who had come seeking him was far too strange.
But if he wished to learn from Iceelz…
“I could teach you, though perhaps it is not wise.”
Yet he couldn’t simply hand over the knowledge.
Thunk—
Iceelz withdrew something from his garment.
Whoosh—
A material radiating Extreme Cold.
“You will not be able to handle it. To learn my technique, you must first master suppressing this cold.”
Iceelz shook his head.
In truth, this was excessive.
Even he hadn’t been able to handle Extreme Cold of this magnitude from the beginning.
He had gradually built his skill, starting with weaker cold.
Yet he threw this concentration of Extreme Cold because he wanted to tell Jin-woo to give up.
He had no intention of teaching lightly.
And there was also a desire to reclaim initiative in this peculiar situation unfolding before him.
Ding!
-Quest received!
* Quest: Iceelz’s Refining Art
Grade: UR
Description: Iceelz has no intention of teaching you his Maximization Refining Technique easily. Persuade him!
Reward: Maximization Refining Technique
Jin-woo had received a Quest from Iceelz.
The difficulty was extraordinary.
As it should be.
Handling this cold-saturated material was nearly impossible.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss says the difficulty is unreasonable!
-Iceelz is implicitly rejecting you, it says!
-There must be another way to persuade him, it suggests!
The Master of Soul and Abyss told him this Quest was unreasonable.
‘Of course it is.’
It was plain to see.
Iceelz himself must use the Maximization Refining Technique to handle this Extreme Cold Material.
‘I should refuse.’
Yet Jin-woo nodded in assent.
-Quest accepted!
“!”
“J-Jin-woo!”
-The Master of Soul and Abyss is flustered!
“Cold.”
Flame ignited in Jin-woo’s hand.
“I wield a living flame.”

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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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