The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 180

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 180
Episode 180.
Crack!
Snap—
Such a realm existed.
A realm that naturally seemed impossible.
Ice Elz and Skull King had thought of that vague realm as the realm of Impossibility.
Impossibility is only impossibility. It is called impossible because it is difficult to realize in reality.
Yet now Jin-woo was making that impossibility real.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
He was doing exactly what he had declared—making the impossible possible.
“It’s impossible.”
Yet when those words tumbled from Jin-woo’s lips, for some reason they sounded possible.
A shake of the head.
No.
Ice Elz and Skull King came to their senses.
This was Jin-woo who had crafted skeletons for them.
Who had hunted Boros.
Who had even reached the USSR Grade, that lofty realm.
They knew firsthand how extraordinary he was.
Yet even for Jin-woo, this seemed truly impossible.
Creating them was already difficult—but now he was saying he’d craft customized skeletons for each individual soul?
All of them?
“Successor, even now if you—”
Snap—
Jin-woo was already immersed.
-Your Concentration Stat is rising!
The Ultra Vibration Carving Blade scraped away bone.
‘Whether it works or not, I don’t know.’
There was no certainty.
But not trying because of that would be foolish.
‘Who starts something assuming failure?’
You believe in success from the beginning.
Scrape—
The Phantom Blade, the Frost Bone Crescent Blade.
Through crafting the USSR Grade equipment he’d made before, Jin-woo had discovered a new sensation in bone-carving.
And once he’d perfected the skeleton, it had seeped into his hands.
‘Achieving maximum results with minimum effort.’
This wasn’t mere efficiency.
It was paring away the unnecessary to reach a higher plane.
‘The Realm of Artisan.’
Jin-woo recalled the achievement he’d obtained: First Step of Artisan.
‘Here, I’m still just a novice.’
He’d only just begun to walk. Beyond lay countless masters.
‘Those names I always saw in the Hall of Fame. People who already reached far ahead of me.’
Jin-woo thought of them.
‘Did you all feel this thrill?’
A slight smile crossed his face as he nodded to himself.
They must have.
If a blacksmith didn’t feel their heart race at work this thrilling, they weren’t a true artisan.
Scrape. Scrape.
-Your Bone Craftsmanship Proficiency is rising.
-A skeleton has been created!
Jin-woo had completed his first skeleton.
“Leran Kal!”
-A UR Grade skeleton has been created!
What he’d made was a UR Grade skeleton.
The tiger skeleton he’d crafted just before was UR+ Rank, and both Underworld blacksmiths—Ice Elz and Skull King’s skeletons—were UR Grade.
This skeleton’s owner was Leran Kal, and it was filled with every preference he’d requested.
“It’s done.”
Leran Kal hurried over to examine the skeleton Jin-woo had created.
“Wow…”
Everything was here.
“Just as you told me—”
And he’d made it quickly too.
Rush the speed and quality suffers.
Focus on quality and speed falls.
You can’t have both.
Yet Jin-woo was achieving both.
“I was greedy and added a few extra conveniences.”
“!”
Jin-woo gave Leran Kal a knowing look.
“Try it on.”
Whoooosh—!
-A Skeleton Contract has been formed!
Leran Kal’s form seeped instantly into flesh.
“This… what is this?”
Was this what a body felt like?
“I thought I’d forgotten it all.”
Leran Kal had once possessed a body.
It was so long ago that the sensation had grown dim; he’d believed he’d forgotten it completely.
But he was wrong.
With flesh restored, memory surged back vividly.
-Leran Kal’s Loyalty has reached MAX!
“Thank you. Thank you so very much.”
-A Quest has been updated.
-Underworld Souls: 3 / 484
‘484.’
That was the number of souls in this Underworld who desired bodies.
‘Creating bodies is actually far easier than crafting equipment.’
Having made Leran Kal’s customized skeleton, he felt certain of it.
‘I can do this.’
Not just filling numbers.
‘While maintaining quality. I can do this.’
Jin-woo intended to craft every skeleton while maintaining UR Grade quality.
‘Rather than emphasize strengths—’
he’d carved away weaknesses.
‘My Bone Craftsmanship still carries plenty of excess.’
Places that needed only one scrape, he’d work two or three times.
Skull King watched every move Jin-woo made from beside him.
His breath caught without his volition.
With each skeleton completed, Jin-woo’s Bone Craftsmanship deepened.
-A skeleton has been created!
-A skeleton has been created!
-A skeleton has been created!
Jin-woo’s pace quickened.
“A section that required three scrapes became two… and now just one…”
It was the same Bone Craftsmanship skill, yet the method itself was different.
Was it a difference in talent?
No. No.
“The depth of thought…”
He didn’t take the obvious for granted.
Without realizing it, Skull King’s hands moved in mimicry.
That was it.
That was what he’d wanted to gain from competing with blacksmiths outside the Underworld.
A method he would never have conceived of himself.
Scrape. Scrape.
He was learning it now from Jin-woo.
-A skeleton has been created!
One, two, three, four.
The pace of skeleton completion began to accelerate.
“Haaah.”
A deep breath.
Then carve.
In this moment, Jin-woo’s mind held but one thought: pare down.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
Unnecessary movements vanished.
-Your Bone Craftsmanship Proficiency is rising.
-Your Synchronization Rate is rising!
-Your Synchronization Rate has risen by 0.3%!
In this very moment.
Jin-woo was making the impossible possible.
“It might… actually work.”
The thought came to him seriously: he might grant every soul in the Underworld a body before the new god’s Successor arrived.
* * *
The lower Carving Cities.
A massive migration of souls was underway.
“The old god’s Successor is giving us new bodies, they say!”
“You mean that body the new god’s Successor promised?”
“Promised? That was just a false promise to make him stay in the Underworld. You can’t even call that a promise.”
“But hasn’t the old god’s Successor only promised to grant bodies too?”
The souls were murmuring uncertainly when suddenly Ice Elz burst through from the side.
“What nonsense is this?”
It was Ice Elz who led these dozens of souls.
From Carving City 1 through City 12, souls from every city were gathering in Carving City 15.
“Look at me. Do I look like a mere soul?”
“Ah, where did I see you before… aren’t you Ice Elz?”
“That’s right. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“This form… surely not—”
“Yes, it’s the body the old god’s Successor created for me. The new god’s Successor kept saying he’d give new bodies, but the old god’s Successor already made them real.”
“But…”
“Is he only creating bodies for strong souls like you?”
“The Master of Soul and Abyss didn’t take so long choosing a Successor for nothing.”
Ice Elz waved her hand dismissively.
“He said he’d create them for everyone.”
The souls regarded her with skepticism.
“Everyone in this Underworld… you mean?”
“We’ve heard creating bodies isn’t easy. If it were, the new god’s Successor would have done it already.”
“That’s true. Isn’t he just going to make bodies for strong souls like you and sway us to his side?”
“I thought the same thing.”
When Ice Elz admitted this straightforwardly, the souls were taken aback.
“I still don’t quite believe it.”
Ice Elz herself didn’t fully believe it either.
The scale was enormous.
Bodies for every soul in the Underworld.
And undertaking this while the new god’s Successor was still present?
But that very enormity was the old god’s Successor, Jin-woo’s boldness itself.
“But you’ll see when we arrive. If it’s a lie, we can always leave. There will be no constraints.”
Ice Elz said this.
“Truly…”
“You’re really making them for us?”
“He’s a man who keeps every word he speaks.”
Carving City 15.
Thuum—
The Ultra Vibration Carving Blade hummed powerfully.
“Skull King!”
“Yes!”
Skull King swiftly moved bones toward the work table.
It was already a hundred.
A hundred souls had gained bodies.
“You should rest—”
“Not much left.”
“Then shouldn’t you rest even more?”
Skull King’s expression grew worried.
But Jin-woo waved dismissively.
‘Stamina isn’t really an issue.’
Whoosh—
His workshop already held items for stamina recovery.
-Your Stamina Recovery Speed is increasing due to the Core of Earth!
And there were also runes.
-By the Rune of Eternal Earth effect, your Strength and Stamina Stats increase!
-By the Rune of Shining Nature effect, your Stamina Recovery Speed increases!
Thanks to the two runes and the Core of Earth, Jin-woo felt no fatigue.
The more he crafted, the more energy surged through him.
Jin-woo smiled to himself.
‘No excuses now. This is purely my realm.’
He’d done large-scale crafting many times before.
‘If I were just going to make them carelessly and push through, there’d be no reason to do large-scale work in the first place. Quality is non-negotiable.’
With precision.
And with speed.
The large-scale crafting Jin-woo envisioned wasn’t about winning through volume.
‘The ability to produce good quality equipment uniformly.’
That was what large-scale crafting was for him—practice.
‘Training.’
Training to raise the average quality of his crafting.
Scrape. Scrape.
Crack—!
“Souls are arriving!”
The souls Ice Elz had brought entered Carving City 15.
“!”
“My goodness.”
“It’s really true!”
They saw it.
Countless souls of the Underworld merging into skeletons crafted by Jin-woo.
Brand new bodies indeed.
“You’re late.”
“Get in line quickly!”
Skull King and Leran Kal efficiently organized the arriving souls.
“Come here and form a line, then tell us what form of body you desire!”
“The… form I desire?”
“That’s right.”
Leran Kal nodded.
“The Successor doesn’t craft identical bodies for everyone! He’s crafting a body unique to each of you!”
“!”
The souls trembled at his words.
A body of one’s own.
That single phrase shook them to their core.
Jin-woo understood that yearning very well.
Snap—!
-A Skeleton Contract has been formed!
Every soul in the Underworld was soon both a soul of the Master of Soul and Abyss—and
a soul bound by contract to Jin-woo.
“Souls are arriving!”
Ice Elz brought more souls again.
“These are all of them!”
Ice Elz had fulfilled her duty. There were no more souls left to bring.
“Soon… it should all be—”
He counted the souls who had received bodies.
“…Huh?”
He’d expected perhaps a hundred or so.
But they were already past the halfway point.
“Has it really been that long?”
“Ice Elz!”
Skull King called out to Ice Elz loudly.
“Help me here if you’re done bringing souls!”
“Help?”
“We need to move bones! The Successor’s… pace has gotten even faster!”
Ice Elz hurried to Skull King’s side and joined in moving the bones.
Snap. Scrape.
Movement perfectly optimized.
“There’s not a wasted motion…!”
-A skeleton has been created.
-A skeleton has been created.
-A skeleton has been created—
Before long, the number of skeletons created had surpassed the hundreds.
-Underworld Souls: 484 / 484
-You have created bodies for all souls.
-A Quest has been updated!
-Quest “Reclamation of the Underworld” has been cleared!
Having granted bodies to every soul, Jin-woo simultaneously cleared the quest.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss marvels at your quest-clearing method!
-A Clear Score is being calculated!
Zing—
-Clear Score: 310 Points
-You have cleared the quest through an unconventional approach!
Though the method differed from the original quest design, the direction remained true.
For this, a substantial score was awarded—and more than that—
-Your Rewards are being upgraded!
Jin-woo grinned at the notification.
-The Master of Soul and Abyss’s Treasure is being prepared in the temple!
“Now I just need to finish this up.”
-The Loyalty of all Underworld souls has reached MAX!
-You can summon them through Skeleton Contracts.
Jin-woo dusted off his hands.
“The timing worked out perfectly.”
Boom—! Boom-boom-boom—!
A tremendous power was approaching swiftly from far away.
“I thought it would take about a day.”
But he was moving faster than expected.
“Arrived right on cue.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————