The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 192

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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 192
192.
Tower of Sulfur and Furnace.
“I’m going alone.”
Slayer said.
“Why would you go by yourself?”
At Usliss’s words, Slayer frowned.
The video battle that had played out on Netflix.
It had ended without any twist whatsoever—a clear victory for Jin-woo.
He’d been preparing for a counterattack in the third installment, but before that could happen, Jin-woo had climbed far too high.
The competition wasn’t confined to Korea anymore; rankings were climbing and contested worldwide now, making it impossible to catch up.
That’s why he’d come to this Tower of Sulfur and Furnace.
To prove himself.
And to orchestrate a reversal, no matter what it took.
“Going alone would be a bit risky, wouldn’t it?”
“This is a 4-star tower.”
“So it really is a 4-star one.”
That scraped Slayer’s pride raw.
Incredible as it seemed, he simply hadn’t noticed.
Jin-woo had conquered it so casually, so effortlessly, that Slayer had never realized this place was a 4-star tower.
“Now I understand why I’ve been falling behind.”
He had essentially conquered a 4-star tower alongside his guild members, while Jin-woo had done it alone.
That difference showed up in the view counts.
“I will go alone.”
“Jin-woo also climbed that tower with his familiars.”
“But that’s his skill, isn’t it?”
Slayer said.
“In the end, he climbed it alone.”
A familiar was nothing more than a skill itself. You couldn’t say he’d climbed with someone else.
“So I’ll go alone. Don’t worry, Sub-Guild Master.”
Usliss, the sub-guild master of Leap Guild, furrowed his brow.
“I’m not worried. You’ll clear it, of course. Besides, this tower—Jin-woo cleared it alone too. Even if they’re both 4-star towers, the difficulty tier is different.”
The Tower of Trial was truly a tower of exceptional difficulty.
Usliss himself had attempted it, so he knew.
“You just need to prove it. You can reverse the situation anytime.”
Usliss said.
“Show me how different 4-star towers can be.”
“Understood.”
Slayer gripped his sword tightly.
Shring—.
The legendary blade forged by the Pendant gleamed.
“I’ll record this and upload it to our Leap MiTube channel.”
-Entering the Tower of Sulfur and Furnace!
Slayer entered the Tower of Sulfur and Furnace.
Immediately, the Hall of Fame rankings appeared before him.
1. Jin-woo [1,150 points]
With the overwhelmingly dominant Jin-woo in first place, the 2nd and 3rd rankers were listed with far lower scores.
“The gap is massive?”
The disparity was staggering.
“1,150 points. And the highest score below that is 400 points.”
It was nearly a threefold difference.
“Eureka?”
Second place was held by Eureka Team.
Eureka Team weren’t guild-affiliated. They were an expedition that had specialized in high-difficulty dungeons from the start, and they had the feel of a mercenary unit composed of aces from various guilds.
Slayer had watched several of Eureka Team’s conquests before.
They were composed of quite skilled players, and it was a team of such exceptional caliber that Slayer had learned several techniques from them.
Yet that team’s score was 400 points.
“And they haven’t even completed the conquest yet.”
As it stood, no one had conquered the Tower of Sulfur and Furnace after Jin-woo.
Until you clear it yourself, you can’t know how high that score truly is.
“Phew.”
Since Slayer had never conquered a 4-star tower alone before, he felt considerable tension.
But there was no thought of failure in his mind.
“Let’s go.”
Slayer immediately began ascending the Tower of Sulfur and Furnace.
Whoosh—. Whoosh—!
Fundamentally, this tower was extraordinarily hot.
-The heat is suffocating!
But who was Slayer?
-Flame Nullification!
-Damage from heat is negated.
Beyond having exceptional base specs, Slayer possessed numerous high-tier pieces of equipment.
He could easily nullify elemental attacks.
Moreover, since Slayer was also an Awakened user, he could easily resist the constraints imposed by the tower.
Crack—. Crack—!
But the real problem was the monsters.
“These are the ones I saw in the video.”
Slayer clicked his tongue.
“Damn.”
Slayer suddenly withdrew and swung his blade.
The monsters’ caliber was exceptional.
“The difficulty…”
He was startled even as he spoke.
“This level of difficulty?”
Of course, it wasn’t a difficulty that would genuinely trouble Slayer. If he went all out, a tower of this caliber could be conquered solo without issue.
But there was something important.
“That guy is a blacksmith!”
Necromancer was only a secondary class. His primary profession was blacksmith.
If a blacksmith and himself were comparable, didn’t that make no sense at all?
Slayer furrowed his brow.
Maybe it was because they were in the early stages. Once he got used to it at mid-tower, the difficulty might drop.
It was an absurd thought, but Slayer couldn’t think any other way.
But the middle section was even harder.
Slayer reached the summit of the tower in a state of confusion.
And then.
-You have defeated the tower’s boss!
In a conquered tower, a dummy monster holding Balam’s Shell takes residence.
Having hunted down the dummy boss, Slayer gave his sword one final swing to clean it.
“Insane.”
It was now certain.
“That guy is absolutely not a blacksmith. How could a blacksmith have… how could he even…”
-Calculating your conquest reward!
-Conquest Score: 880 points
-Registered in the Hall of Fame!
-Congratulations!
“Damn it.”
A curse erupted unbidden from Slayer’s lips.
880 points. It displaced the previous 2nd place’s 400-point range score and was registered as the highest score yet.
A message appeared congratulating him on achieving 2nd place, but Slayer felt only humiliation.
“How in the world did he do it?”
1,150 points.
How had he possibly achieved that?
“Again.”
In the Hall of Fame rankings, Slayer’s name was now clearly recorded in 2nd place.
850 points.
The score gap between him and Jin-woo, in 1st, was enormous.
“This is shameful.”
Slayer gritted his teeth.
At minimum, 1,000 points.
Without reaching four digits, he would remain trapped in the prison of humiliation.
-Slayer. We need to do a raid. Where are you?
-Slayer. The Guild Master is looking for you.
-Slayer!
-Slayer!
Whispers kept coming from those searching for Slayer, though considerable time had been invested in the conquest, but Slayer ignored them all.
“Absolutely not!”
Until he broke 1,000 points, the Tower of Sulfur and Furnace would be his home.
* * *
Major City, the entrance to Avalon.
Jin-woo did not enter Avalon immediately.
“I watched some videos.”
Near Avalon, there was one tower.
Its name was the Tower of Trial.
It was the tower that Slayer had conquered.
“Watching it, I noticed he rushed through the conquest without properly clearing it.”
Jin-woo had watched the ending of that video.
“The Avatar of Evil said something rather meaningful before it fell, you know?”
From that dialogue, he could be certain.
“It wasn’t just dead.”
Of course, that didn’t mean it was alive either.
“There’s a high probability the tower wasn’t properly conquered.”
So far, Jin-woo had achieved 100% conquest on every tower he’d attempted. Those experiences built the conviction he felt now.
Tower of Trial.
This was not a tower that had been properly conquered.
“If it’s not a 100% conquest, then it’s not a conquest at all.”
Jin-woo smiled faintly.
“Can’t let that slide. Let me give it a proper taste.”
While watching that video, Jin-woo had actually been coveting the materials that dropped from the Tower of Trial’s monsters.
‘And.’
“I need to test things properly.”
First and Pur had been elevated in tier through Soul Engraving.
Not only that, but he also needed to test his new weapon, the Ego Sword.
“Get materials and verify things at the same time.”
Moreover, Jin-woo wanted to use his Judgment Scythe more.
“And content like this isn’t bad.”
“Titanium monsters.”
Titanium.
One of the major minerals Jin-woo hadn’t yet worked with.
The monsters appearing in this Tower of Trial were all quite durable, and that durability stemmed from this Titanium.
They wore Titanium like armor, making them quite hard, and every monster dropped Titanium.
“Let’s see what we’ve got.”
The moment Jin-woo appeared, expeditions gathered near the Tower of Trial turned to look at him.
“Is that Jin-woo?”
“It is Jin-woo!”
“That’s Jin-woo…”
“Wow… but.”
People recognized him.
Jin-woo, who had become quite famous through Netflix and JinTube, had such distinctive build and features that unless he disguised himself, he was bound to be recognized.
Everyone’s eyes sparkled as they looked at him.
But something seemed off.
“He’s awfully plain, isn’t he?”
Jin-woo was quite ordinary. Remarkably so.
This was the same Jin-woo who’d crafted incredible equipment in the videos, yet the gear he actually wore looked unremarkable.
Especially his armor—he wore none. Just cloth.
“His equipment… it’s really plain?”
“What’s going on? Did he sell it all?”
“Did he give it all to his familiars?”
People had genuinely been expecting something.
What was shown in the videos was only a fraction of his equipment.
Surely Jin-woo’s actual gear, what he carried with him, would be incredible.
Through Netflix and JinTube alone, everything Jin-woo made was UR+ Rank.
So he should have at least UR+ Rank equipment or something even more impressive.
Yet Jin-woo’s equipment now was ordinary.
“Could it be!”
“A stat challenge?”
“So that’s his playstyle.”
In New Gene, there were actually more concept-play users than one might expect.
“Or maybe.”
“Could he have come to this Tower of Trial on purpose?”
“This is where Slayer conquered, right!”
“Is it because of that!?”
The Tower of Trial was where Slayer had conquered.
By now, the competition on Netflix had effectively ended with an overwhelming victory for Jin-woo, but until recently they’d been in direct contention.
“It seems Slayer’s conquest didn’t satisfy him?”
“Insane.”
“He’s really going to show us how it’s done.”
“He came to show what a perfect conquest looks like!”
Everyone was brimming with immense anticipation for Jin-woo.
And Jin-woo himself was thinking something completely different.
‘What should I make with Titanium?’
He was filled with excitement about the new material.
-Entering the Tower of Trial!
-Hall of Fame Rankings.
1. Slayer [1,002 points]
2. Raktatum [790 points]
3. …….
4. …….
“Good score.”
Jin-woo smiled faintly.
“Should I update it?”
Then he slowly drew out his scythe.
“First, Pur, Moltus, Bon.”
Swoosh—. Swoosh—. Swoooosh—!
Jin-woo deliberately didn’t summon his new familiar, the tiger, mindful of the onlookers.
‘That one.’
He was planning to reveal it in the third video installment.
“Let’s go.”
With darkness as his companion, Jin-woo entered the Tower of Trial.

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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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