The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 222

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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 222
222.
-You have learned a skill!
-[Mark of the Underworld]
Effect: Select one familiar and grant them tremendous power! The stats of the chosen familiar increase dramatically!
The skill sponsored by Yama was called the Mark of the Underworld.
‘A familiar enhancement skill.’
Jin-woo’s essence lay in his familiars. Any skill that could influence them was always welcome.
“Thank you, Yama.”
The god Yama seemed quite pleased with Jin-woo’s bone craftsmanship.
-The Twin Deities of Fire and Soul carefully praise you!
-The Twin Deities of Fire and Soul sponsor you.
-Permanently increase your Strength stat by 30.
The Twin Deities of Fire and Soul also praised and sponsored Jin-woo.
Though it seemed they’d grown somewhat cautious after hearing what the guardian deities of flame and craftsmanship had said.
‘Even gods have their political squabbles, after all.’
Jin-woo immediately checked Pree’s information.
“Familiar information.”
9.
Name: Pree
—–
Grade: Heroic LV1
Type: Undead, Melee
Traits: Exceptional Dexterity, Command Comprehension [Supreme]
Skill: Strength Enhancement
Pree’s traits and skills were specialized for craftsmanship.
Exceptional dexterity and supreme command comprehension.
And on top of that, the Strength Enhancement skill.
“A fitting match for a Heroic-tier undead.”
Jin-woo smiled.
“Then let’s begin.”
He then gestured to Pree.
“Stand, Pree.”
“Yes, Master.”
It was time to prove why he’d created Pree.
“Here.”
Jin-woo handed Pree a spare hammer.
Then he positioned her in front of an anvil.
“Just follow what I do.”
The Attendant and Unit 2.
Both possessed enough dexterity to learn special techniques from their respective masters.
But teaching them Jin-woo’s craftsmanship directly would have been beyond them.
‘When I created the Attendant and Unit 2, my technique was still lacking.’
But now it was different.
Combined with the Bone Craft he’d learned in the Underworld, and fortified by his job awakening, Jin-woo’s dexterity was now an entirely different beast than it had been then.
‘Though there’s no knowing for sure.’
Until he actually saw it happen, there was no way to confirm whether Pree truly possessed such dexterity.
Clang!
Jin-woo struck the hammer lightly.
And Pree mimicked the strike exactly.
Clang!
A hammer descending in a clean, straight line.
“Oh.”
Jin-woo marveled at the sight.
Not because the strike was flawless.
The hammer strike was decidedly lacking. Strikingly so, in fact.
But.
‘There was clear potential.’
And beyond that.
“It’s embedded.”
The individual craftsmanship of the craftspeople he’d interacted with in Chanran was embedded within Pree.
Jin-woo continued striking the hammer.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
He hammered the Flower Steel into the form of a greatsword in moments, and Pree, rapidly learning from his strikes, soon produced a greatsword remarkably similar to his own.
‘It’s obviously impossible to match my technique on the first try.’
But even emulating it satisfied him.
Emulation is the foundation of all things.
The moment originality springs from emulation, it ceases to be mere imitation and becomes the original itself.
Clang!
-You have crafted a Flower Steel Greatsword!
-Your familiar, Pree, has crafted a Flower Steel Greatsword!
As Jin-woo finished his Flower Steel Greatsword, Pree simultaneously created an identical one.
Though the grade was lower.
“SR Grade.”
It was a grade he hadn’t seen in quite some time.
But Jin-woo was extremely satisfied.
‘She’s making it for the first time. Not A or S Grade, but SR Grade.’
This was overwhelmingly high.
“I am still far too inadequate. Please teach me more. I will strive to show you something worthy of your satisfaction.”
Pree was undead.
Which meant she had no physical limit to her stamina.
“Is that so?”
Jin-woo grinned at Pree.
If he taught her this, he was confident proper progress would show itself.
“For now, let’s just take it easy for a day.”
Jin-woo grinned.
“Twenty-four hours of crafting. Let’s go.”
* * *
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Pree watched Jin-woo.
His hammer strikes looked so simple. Just a straight, downward motion.
But when she tried it herself.
Stagger!
She couldn’t even strike it correctly.
She kept feeling as though her body was being dragged along by the hammer.
But she adapted quickly.
Clang!
Once Jin-woo showed her the correct form, Pree could move according to it.
“Not bad. The advantage of not getting tired.”
Jin-woo smiled at Pree.
Twenty-four hours passed. Then thirty.
“I am undead. I do not tire. But……”
Wasn’t Jin-woo a living human?
“Are you…… perhaps exhausted?”
Pree looked at Jin-woo with concern.
“I’m fine.”
“Normally……. can a living person swing a hammer for days without tiring?”
Pree, freshly created, didn’t know much about humans.
Undead naturally didn’t tire, but humans certainly did.
So how long did it take for a human to tire?
“Well, you could swing a hammer for several days without tiring.”
“Is that so!”
False information was being planted in Pree’s mind.
Humans do tire.
It was just that Jin-woo didn’t.
Clang!
‘Hmm.’
Jin-woo watched Pree’s hammer strikes.
‘She doesn’t know how to exert her strength properly.’
This was a problem stemming from Pree’s lack of skill.
‘More precisely, she lacks experience.’
Without experience using strength, her control was clumsy.
‘Then.’
Jin-woo immediately used the skill he’d learned from Yama.
“Pree.”
Jin-woo activated the skill.
-Mark of the Underworld is activated.
-Mark of the Underworld is inscribed upon your familiar, Pree.
Screech!
Black aura suddenly erupted from Pree’s body.
“!”
Brilliant blue flames ignited in Pree’s eyes.
That wasn’t all.
Jin-woo activated another skill.
“Declaration of Destiny.”
He used the Declaration of Destiny along with it.
Screeeech!
“M-Master.”
Pree looked down at her own body in astonishment.
“Power is overflowing!”
“Ride that momentum. You have enough strength now. Control it. For starters, strike with your full force.”
Clang!
“And now seventy percent.”
Bang!
“Fifty.”
Following Jin-woo’s commands, Pree began controlling her power output.
If experience was lacking, you supplied it.
“Good.”
Jin-woo smiled with satisfaction and demonstrated once more.
“Control feels like this.”
Clang!
At first, she’d thought it was simply an impressive hammer strike.
But as Pree accumulated experience, Jin-woo’s strikes began to reveal themselves in a different light.
“Hah.”
Pree came to realize just how absurd her master’s hammer strikes were.
Overwhelming.
No other word suited those strikes.
Overwhelming strikes that consumed everything.
They consumed the gaze, consumed awe, consumed even the awareness of what she herself was doing.
But she couldn’t afford to marvel at them alone.
“I will try again.”
Jin-woo grinned.
‘She’s well-made.’
It was possible that this was a trait from Andras’s soul, which he’d poured into the bone frame.
‘Yes. That degree of ferocity is necessary.’
Jin-woo opened the materials storage. Inside were Crystal Platinum reserves.
Besides that, there were quite a few leftover materials brought from the Realize Guild.
Gems and Crystal Platinum.
And a bit of Flower Steel.
“No, think a bit more. Consider your hand as an extension of the hammer’s line……”
Jin-woo thought of Pree as an apprentice.
‘Normally, I wouldn’t be able to teach my core techniques directly.’
Even to an apprentice, that was difficult to pass on.
But Pree was his familiar.
Someone who would never betray him, always at his side.
‘So I can be at ease.’
Jin-woo transferred his techniques to Pree.
Clang! Clang!
Pree began rapidly absorbing Jin-woo’s techniques.
Her trait of supreme command comprehension shone brilliantly.
-This is a difficult command to comprehend!
-The trait’s effect activates.
-Your familiar, Pree, comprehends the command.
Jin-woo’s philosophy began to take root in Pree’s hammer strikes.
The strikes began to appear mundane.
Clang!
Mundane strikes were the essential nature of Jin-woo’s hammering technique.
-You have crafted a Flower Steel Spear!
The spear was completed following the greatsword.
She’d crafted numerous equipment pieces in between, but this was her first to exceed SR Grade.
-You have crafted SSR Rank equipment!
Exactly two days.
Pree had succeeded in crafting SSR Rank equipment.
‘This is where it all begins.’
It was explosive growth made possible because Pree was undead. But from here on, greater depth was necessary.
And depth didn’t emerge simply from repetition and increased speed.
“What I’ve shown you is all there is, Pree.”
Guidance ended here.
“Now you must forge your own path.”
“My own……. path……”
Jin-woo grinned.
“You’ll be running the Mansan Workshop for a while.”
Though it was Jin-woo’s workshop, it would now also become Pree’s.
‘Unit 2 and the Attendant should be returning soon anyway.’
It seemed they could stay at the workshop and support Pree.
‘A self-sustaining workshop. Of course, Unit 2 and the Attendant can’t always be at the workshop, but at least during the time they’re here, they can help Pree.’
And since the workshop was now open, commissions would come Jin-woo’s way, which he could handle separately.
“I will try. I will create things of my own.”
Pree gripped the hammer once more.
‘Undead really is perfect for this.’
An undead that never tired was ideal for a blacksmith.
* * *
Ding!
-Auction will end!
-Auction will end!
Exactly five minutes remained until the auction of Jin-woo’s USSR+ Pickaxe ended.
-This is insane.
-Isn’t this a record?
-It is. This is the record. We’ve had items break 100 million Gold before, but never 200 million.
-200 million Gold exceeded.
-I thought it might exceed 200 million, but not by this much.
The current bid for the USSR+ Pickaxe had completely shattered the auction house’s history.
-Current bid: 250 million Gold.
250 million.
-Wait, is there really someone who has 250 million Gold?
-Those are the Windy Guild folks.
A famous American guild, and the chairman of the massive American corporation Front was the guild master of this very Windy Guild.
-If that’s Aaron Task, then spending 250 million Gold on a pickaxe makes sense.
-Buying it for advertising maybe?
-He’s been posting on social media a lot lately. Seems really interested in Jin-woo.
-Damn. A corporate chairman spending that much money means there’s definitely a reason.
This bid became an ongoing issue on SharkNet.
Not only had equipment sold for over 200 million Gold at the auction house—a corporate chairman purchasing it directly was also a first.
-But he doesn’t open a workshop himself?
-By this point, he should already be running a workshop.
-Right. Buying land is nearly impossible, so there should be a workshop one way or another. It’s strange.
Some joined guilds or established workshops through stall arrangements, or rented workshop space.
-He should have enough to pay workshop rent.
-No, with this much, he’d have enough to buy land too.
-It’s time he made one.
Everyone was waiting for Jin-woo’s workshop to open.
-When it does, purchasing should be easier than now.
-It’ll be expensive, but not impossible like now.
-I can go up to 30 million Gold myself.
Those with gold in the hundreds of millions were rare, but those with tens of millions existed in numbers.
-I’ve set a life goal. To use Jin-woo’s equipment just once.
-I’m here to give you money.
-Please take some money. If it’s not too rude, could I commission a single piece of equipment?
Everyone was waiting.
For Jin-woo to open a workshop. Of course, no one knew it had actually already opened.
The Realize Guild was keeping its mouth firmly shut.
Through this transaction, the Casino had come to understand Jin-woo clearly.
That he would turn away without hesitation if there was even a small mistake or impropriety.
And understanding that once he turned away, he would never reverse that decision, they refrained from speaking carelessly about Jin-woo.
So the people still didn’t know.
About Jin-woo’s workshop.
Ding!
-Auction completed!
-Bid amount received!
“Wow, this is……”
Jin-woo whistled.
“Even I’m surprised.”

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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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