The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 162

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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 162
162.
“Summon.”
Jin-woo summoned the smithy.
Whoooosh—
The roiling dragon’s flame and Balam’s blue fire.
‘If I were to blend them.’
That violet flame was quite tempting too.
‘For now, I focus on this material.’
Shhhhhhhh—!
He placed the frost material, which radiated an intense chill, on the workbench first.
Then he drew the furnace’s fire up to its maximum.
‘The frost first.’
Jin-woo aimed to suppress the frost as much as possible at the outset.
“Harmonia Refining Art.”
Shhhhhh—
The hammer imbued with the power of Harmonia Refining Art came down directly upon the frost-laden material.
Clang—!
‘Hmm.’
It felt similar to that dark red core he’d used before.
The difference was that this material had been deliberately refined to maximize the power of frost.
‘If the frost consumes it, it bursts.’
Shhhhhh—
Jin-woo wrapped the hammer in flames.
“Fire Build.”
At the same time, he concentrated every technique at his command into the hammer.
‘What I need now.’
The force of flawlessness.
‘Using the essence of flawless stitching.’
Frost is rough.
Very rough in a way that differed from flame. To master that roughness, he had to approach it differently.
‘Flow.’
Swift like surging waves. Unbroken, relentless strikes.
Clang—!
As he brought the hammer down, a tremendous frost surged through it and clawed into Jin-woo.
Crackle—. Crackle-crackle—!
From just a single swing, immense cold froze his entire hand solid.
Shhhh—
The hand gripping the hammer turned a pale, icy blue.
It had become a lump of ice itself.
“!”
“Jin-woo, sir!”
Lerankal and Lek were deeply alarmed. One strike with the hammer and already this? They hadn’t intended for him to work with that material.
Without the Maximized Refining Art and know-how of the Ice Elves, he would simply freeze solid.
Handling that material was an impossible task.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss says you should stop! He says it’s beyond you!
And the Ice Elves watching also furrowed their brow.
This was recklessness.
One cannot teach Maximized Refining Art to someone acting recklessly.
They had never intended for him to work with this at all.
Either he gives up.
Or he persuades them in another way—that was what had been thrown at him.
If Jin-woo had submitted to her, she would have taught him.
There was her connection to the old gods, and she also harbored a desire to pass on her Maximized Refining Art to someone.
“Stop, now……”
But then.
“Huuuuh.”
Jin-woo took a deep breath and gripped the hammer again.
Clang—!
It was no mere strike. He had concentrated everything he’d learned from that single blow moments ago.
Ring—!
The arm that had frozen solid returned to normal.
Whoooosh—!
Heat was pouring from Jin-woo’s entire body as if the frost would consume it all.
In that instant, the Ice Elves saw Jin-woo differently.
“A living……”
A living flame.
All blacksmiths, as they do, do not fear fire.
In jest, they even called themselves living flames.
But now Jin-woo was exactly that—a living flame itself, as the words claimed.
He was standing against a material that radiated intense frost.
Clang—!
“The Underworld Eternal Frost Light……”
The material the Ice Elves had given him was Underworld Eternal Frost Light.
“He’s overpowering it?”
UR+ Rank.
Without the Maximized Refining Art and overwhelming Dexterity, it was impossible to handle.
That material.
Clang—!
Jin-woo began to work with it.
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
Each time the hammer fell, the frost emanating from the Eternal Frost Light was powerless.
“There are no…… safety mechanisms at all. This is……”
One slip and he freezes solid.
He was quite literally risking his life working with this material.
“I……”
It was the Eternal Frost Light she’d thrown at him lightly.
“I could never do this.”
Now she was curious—how far could Jin-woo take this?
Shhhhhhhh—!
Behind the astonished onlookers, Jin-woo had entered complete immersion.
-Concentration Stat increases!
-Concentration Stat increases!
-Dexterity Stat increases!
-Harmonia Refining Art proficiency increases!
-Soul Forging proficiency increases!
Clang—!
Now Jin-woo was walking on a blade’s edge.
One mistake and his entire body would be engulfed in frost.
‘Simple flame alone won’t suffice.’
Dragon’s flame, Balam’s flame.
And the frost he could summon through Harmonia Refining Art as well—he needed to use all of them together.
Clang—! Clang—!
‘The resistance is considerable.’
While pushing back against the frost, he also had to preserve the essential charm of this material.
‘Simply resisting the material’s power is not enough.’
In other words, mere handling was meaningless.
“Soul Forging.”
Jin-woo pushed Soul Forging to its limit.
Shhhhhh—!
The soul was extracted from the material.
‘I must be able to forge proper equipment.’
To merely handle the material could only be seen as the blacksmith being consumed by a material too rich for him.
‘Now that I grip the hammer.’
The initiative in this crafting must belong to the blacksmith, not the material.
Clang—! Clang—!
Jin-woo picked up his pace.
“Jin: Curse Bestowal.”
Imparting enchantment.
Extracting and reinforcing the soul of Eternal Frost Light.
Shhhhhh—
Sweat began pouring from Jin-woo’s entire body.
To anyone watching, it was clear he was at the edge of his limit.
Yet Jin-woo himself felt very light.
No room for even the slightest error.
One mistake could end everything.
Fear.
Jin-woo was feeling fear now.
‘I already know this fear.’
This is the force that holds him here forever, that keeps him from moving forward.
So he must fear, but not retreat.
Clang—!
In that moment, the Eternal Frost Light sank inward.
“That’s it.”
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
Jin-woo struck the hammer in rapid succession.
The focal point aligned perfectly.
This was the moment he could suppress the Eternal Frost Light’s chill and forge the equipment as he desired.
Clang—! Clang—!
“!”
Shhhhhhhh—
From Jin-woo’s fingertips.
Shhhhhhhhhhhh—!
A sword bearing tremendous frost was born.
-Equipment created!
-UR+ Rank equipment created!
It was the first UR+ Rank equipment forged from Underworld materials.
“How is it?”
Jin-woo spoke, looking at the Ice Elves.
“Does this suffice?”
“……It was flawless.”
Ding—!
-Quest cleared!
-Receiving quest reward!
-Achievement unlocked!
* * *
SharkNet.
Those who had been cheering at Jin-woo’s Netflix video began rewatching it for the second and third time.
-Hnngh. Look here. The part that hits different.
-Dragon hunting, equipment crafting, and entering the tower—it flows so naturally.
-When he made the dragon from the dragon skeleton, that was genuinely so fun. I think that’s my favorite scene.
-For me, it was when he caught Balam in the tower.
Slayer also cleared the tower overwhelmingly, but there was no narrative to it.
-Guys, if you look at this carefully, there’s actually a story.
Those who had rewatched the video multiple times discovered narrative in Jin-woo’s content.
-It seems connected to Iron Helm?
-He hunts the dragon in the Desolate Land and makes a real dragon with its skeleton, then clears the tower—the reason is to get Iron Helm, right?
-Wow.
-That’s a total epic……??
The issue in the community began to grow larger.
If KBC and OBC had simply been focused on clearing the tower—the Main Scenario Quest—Jin-woo had embedded a valid reason for why he cleared it into his video.
-The quality really can’t be the same.
-You guys know what? That’s not even all of it.
Moreover, those who had actually been to Tower of Sulfur and Furnace began posting in the community.
-Tower of Sulfur and Furnace is a 4-Star Difficulty tower.
-???????
-????
-What are you talking about.
-Stop stirring the pot.
-Jin-woo went in alone. He cleared it pretty easily, you know? Well, it’s not easy overall, but Jin-woo and his familiars are just ridiculously strong.
-The equipment helped too!
-But is Tower of Sulfur and Furnace really 4-Star Difficulty?
-That makes no sense. How do you solo a 4-Star tower?
-Wait, so he cleared three dungeons and a 4-Star tower solo?
What Slayer had been touting was precisely soloing a 4-Star Difficulty tower.
If what Jin-woo had cleared was a 4-Star Difficulty tower, then Slayer’s competitive edge was essentially gone.
-You have proof??
Of course, people didn’t simply believe the posts on the community.
The moment they called for evidence—
-[Photo]
-[Photo]
-[Photo]
-Just took these. Feel free to verify.
Photos from those who had actually cleared Tower of Sulfur and Furnace were uploaded.
-Wow.
-Insane.
-It really is 4 stars????
The Tower of Sulfur and Furnace in the photo clearly showed 4 stars.
-Even check the Hall of Fame score.
-What is this??
The deeper people dug, the more apparent it became how absurd Jin-woo’s tower clear was.
-Why wasn’t this mentioned??
-Didn’t Slayer spend almost 3 minutes in the preview showing how difficult that tower is?
To build anticipation, Slayer had continuously emphasized the difficulty of the tower he would clear.
4 stars.
Extreme difficulty.
An impossible place to conquer.
He’d built that image and then cleared it exactly as promised.
That’s why his strength shone so brilliantly, and everyone could clearly see why Slayer was the top-ranked combat user.
-I don’t think he deliberately hid it.
-Looks like JBS didn’t know either.
-Jin-woo must have known.
-Or maybe Jin-woo didn’t know either?
-About it being 4 stars?
-No…… The difficulty itself.
A theory emerged that, since a 4-Star tower was manageable enough for Jin-woo, he simply didn’t note it as a special occurrence.
-That sounds plausible.
-In the video too, Jin-woo didn’t seem to find it that difficult.
-Insane.
-It’s Jin-woo’s own world. The tower difficulty is ridiculously high but I’m the only one who doesn’t know.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Meanwhile.
In the OBC editing room.
High-Tech was flustered.
“4 stars?”
The tower he’d cleared was 3.5 stars.
“Solo?”
Slayer had naturally cleared it solo.
High-Tech was a tank, so he’d cleared it with his team, but he still took pride in a 3.5-star clear.
What tank could perform such a role and clear a 3.5-star tower?
But Jin-woo had cleared a 4-star tower.
“Does this even make sense?”
“It doesn’t.”
The OBC PD said.
“But we verified. It’s 4 stars.”
“Hah.”
High-Tech felt relieved instead.
“The reason became clear.”
And thinking this way, he actually felt better.
They’d already lost this Netflix broadcaster war.
Even if a third installment came out, reversing it would be difficult.
But there was someone else whose blood was boiling more.
“Slayer’s in real trouble, isn’t he?”
“Yes. I heard KBC is quite flustered right now too. We’re done, but KBC hasn’t given up yet.”
Slayer and Doyen still had more cards to play.
Many towers remained, and they had another outstanding user—Kalantiir.
“Plus they have the Pendant too. They must have planned to pull off a proper reversal.”
What the viewers wanted was confirmed by this second video.
Originality.
So if they tailored the third installment to that, it would work. KBC’s user pool was far more robust than JBS’s.
But then the story changed entirely.
Because what Jin-woo had packed into this video was far greater than expected.
“I’m curious how KBC and Slayer will respond.”
High-Tech abandoned the competition.
“I’m sorry, PD. Showing you this helpless side—I shouldn’t. There’s still episode 3 left, so I’ll work harder.”
“No, it’s fine.”
The OBC PD shook his head at High-Tech’s words.
“Perhaps.”
“No, that’s not it.”
The OBC PD said.
“The upper management already decided. Natural disasters aren’t overcome—they’re avoided.”
Thanks to that, the OBC PD could also avoid censure.
In the eyes of upper management, this wasn’t a battle you could fight properly.
“Fits perfectly. A natural disaster.”

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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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