The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 25

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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 25
Episode 25.
Now that Jin-woo had his own Summoning Workshop, he no longer needed to rent Hodz’s smithy.
“Thank you so much, Hodz.”
“If anything, I’m the one who should be grateful. Teaching you was quite enjoyable for me. It gave me a great deal of inspiration as well.”
Hodz smiled as he spoke.
“This is my final gift to you.”
Hodz handed something to Jin-woo.
What he offered was a mineral of pure white.
-Platinum [Grade: A+]
Description: A mineral white as snow. It contains formidable power.
It was Platinum, no less.
And A+ grade at that.
It was a grade Jin-woo had never worked with before.
“Are you certain you can part with something so precious?”
“It’s precious, which is exactly why I’m giving it to you. I believe you’ll know how to make excellent use of such rare material.”
Hodz smiled.
“You mentioned you’re going to obtain a Profession next? Once you do, be sure to work with that Platinum. Try making something you truly want to create.”
Jin-woo also possessed the Steel Claw he’d obtained from defeating the Steel Beast.
‘I should experiment with using it alongside the Steel Claw.’
“You’re welcome to take all the equipment you’ve made here.”
Though he’d crafted them using his own materials, as a master, Hodz couldn’t in good conscience sell items his student had created.
While teaching Jin-woo, Hodz came to fully understand why his own student Unde had sent Jin-woo to him.
“You were asking for my help, my disappointing student. But I’m afraid I must disappoint you.”
Hodz closed his eyes.
Then he shook his head slowly.
“I cannot manage it either, Unde. I too have no choice but to ask for help.”
From Unde to Hodz.
And from Hodz to his master.
A thread of purpose began to connect them all.
“Thank you, Hodz.”
“Would you have any interest in learning more of the Refining Technique?”
“Yes. I’d like to learn as much as I possibly can.”
“Hmm. Then.”
Ding!—
-Quest cleared!
-Reward obtained!
-Level increased!
-Chain quest acquired!
A chain quest had opened.
“To be frank, my Refining Technique is quite sound. That’s because my master was an exceptionally talented individual. The problem is that I myself have never perfected it. Since I’m incomplete, I cannot teach you further.”
Hodz spoke with a serious expression.
“Now that you’ve learned this technique, you too carry on our lineage. You must study it properly.”
Then he handed over a scroll of parchment.
The parchment bore an ornate seal impressed upon it.
“My master was a man called Allmaster. Thanks to him, he had countless students—I was one of them. If you seek him out, you’ll be able to learn the ultimate truth of the Refining Technique I studied. But there is a complication.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“He hasn’t passed on. It’s simply that he’s difficult to find. After training all his disciples, he withdrew into the Unlimited Mountain.”
‘That mountain sounds like it’s around 500 levels deep just from its name.’
The aura of a high-level hunting ground emanated from it.
“He created a map for when his disciples truly needed him and distributed it among us. But as you might guess…”
Hodz himself wasn’t particularly known for his temperament.
He’d simply become friendlier after Jin-woo had received a quest from Unde and proven his worth.
‘The other disciples probably have equally rough edges.’
In fact, that suited Jin-woo just fine.
‘They evaluate purely on merit.’
That allowed him to learn properly.
-Quest acquired!
* Quest: Find Allmaster
Grade: S
Objective: Hodz was once a student of Allmaster. Seek out his master and learn the ultimate truth of Refining.
Conditions: Prerequisite quests required
Reward: Allmaster Refining Technique
The grade was S, nothing less.
‘There must be prerequisite quests because of that.’
* Quest: Allmaster’s Disciples (Prerequisite)
Grade: A
Objective: Find Allmaster’s disciples and secure the map fragments.
Reward: Unlimited Mountain Map Fragments
-[Rodin, Hairun, Vexster, Mire]
The quest for Allmaster’s Disciples listed four disciples in total.
‘I need to find all four and complete the map.’
Like his name suggested, Allmaster was versatile in countless ways, and he had passed each of his varied talents on to his students individually.
“I inherited the Refining Technique. Each of the other disciples possesses a different ability. What we share in common is that they’re all works of the hand.”
‘That works perfectly.’
Jin-woo bowed deeply.
“I’m truly grateful. I’ve learned so much. By the way—among the people listed here, would any of them be capable of crafting a fine furnace?”
“A furnace?”
Jin-woo showed Hodz his Summoning Workshop.
“Summoned.”
“Ohhhhh.”
The moment the workshop materialized, Hodz gasped in wonder.
While it was considerably more modest than Hodz’s own smithy in many respects, the fact that it could be summoned at will held tremendous appeal.
“Did you craft this yourself?”
Hodz asked, his eyes gleaming with desire. Jin-woo shook his head.
“No. I received it as a gift through fortunate circumstances.”
“I see, then.”
Hodz licked his lips. He couldn’t very well ask to purchase something that had been given as a gift.
But it was an excellent idea.
“A workshop you can summon anywhere. I should try making one myself.”
Hodz spoke, then continued.
“So you’re looking for a furnace to install in that Summoning Workshop? In that case, seek out Rodin first. He’s an exceptionally talented artisan.”
Artisan Rodin.
“Rodin crafts flames.”
* * *
After logging out, Jin-woo checked the Sharknet community, New Gene’s primary forum.
“My name is all over this place?”
One thing occurred to him.
“It must be because I took first place in the Hall of Fame.”
Since the Tutorial, Jin-woo had been stirring up a storm in the crafting ranks.
How many times had he already updated the top position?
He’d shattered the existing records mercilessly and reached first place once again.
“I thought I was actually falling behind.”
The time gap he’d started with was a full year.
The disparity accumulated over a year should have been enormous.
“I figured I’d need to gain some footing before I could compete with the top players.”
Yet the gap seemed smaller than expected.
Or perhaps.
“Am I moving too fast?”
That, if anything, was fine by him.
“I don’t need to compete with other users. I just have to enjoy my own experience.”
What Jin-woo enjoyed was feeling that vivid tactile sensation in his hands.
That tangible craftsmanship he’d never felt in Eternal Sunshine.
“Let me decide on the next location.”
He’d logged back in to find a city to travel to.
“Beltré Forest. Hmm, there it is. Rodin lives closer to a major city than I expected.”
Jin-woo planned to pursue his legendary-grade Profession quest immediately.
Along with that, he intended to tackle the quest Hodz had given him as well, so he was mapping out his route.
The quest Hodz had given him had a fascinating structure.
“Unde’s master Hodz, and then finding Hodz’s master. Of course, it’ll require some backtracking…”
He sensed that this chain might eventually lead all the way to a master’s master’s master.
“But that means I’ll learn so much more. I’ll be able to understand just how remarkable Allmaster was by looking at his disciples.”
Moreover, Hodz had described his own master as an exceptional figure known as Allmaster.
“After all, even Hodz’s Refining Technique wasn’t half bad.”
Jin-woo checked his general route on Sharknet, then logged back in immediately.
“Summon.”
Jin-woo summoned his workshop at once.
-Jin-woo’s Workshop [LV 1]
[Furnace] [Anvil] [Workbench]

“First I’ll meet Rodin and upgrade the furnace. Then I’ll have to ask around for where to acquire better workshop equipment.”
Jin-woo added a Potion Flask to the workshop’s inventory.
-Potion Flask has been added to the workshop!
-Workshop experience increased!
“Oh.”
It seemed the workshop’s level would increase depending on how he decorated and equipped the furnace. As the level rose, he’d unlock various auxiliary functions for the workshop.
Jin-woo lit a fire in the furnace.
“The furnace is the top priority, that’s clear.”
It was a workshop with only the most basic functions, but this form was exactly what Jin-woo had envisioned.
Anytime.
Anywhere.
“A workshop unbounded by space—that’s what I wanted.”
Simply obtaining his own workshop at this level was already quite an extraordinary achievement.
“When I looked it up, workshop prices were outrageous.”
After checking the Sharknet community, Jin-woo learned that workshops held tremendous value.
“The baseline is fifty million gold, and in major cities, it’s over a hundred million.”
A workshop required space in the first place.
Owning personal land in New Gene was no simple task.
“You need the land itself, then you have to construct a building on it. Or you can buy an existing building or a small room, but those are incredibly expensive.”
And if you tried doing something like that in a town?
“The NPCs won’t sell.”
You couldn’t just build a workshop anywhere you pleased.
“That’s why crafting-class users have to reach such high levels just to afford a single workshop. And by then, other players have already claimed all the available land over the past year.”
So joining a guild was the priority for most.
Beyond that, a summoned workshop like the one Jin-woo had was virtually nonexistent. There might be portable workshops assembled from carried equipment, but nothing of this caliber existed.
“It’s nice that I don’t need to join a guild.”
Joining a guild would bring benefits, but it would also restrict his freedom.
“That wouldn’t be fun.”
Jin-woo gazed at the blazing furnace.
“Actually, it’s better that it’s modest. What fun would there be in starting with a perfect workshop?”
Jin-woo shifted his perspective.
“Besides, I was planning to make something like this myself anyway if it didn’t exist.”
This was his workshop, his alone.
“I can customize it however I see fit.”
The furnace, the anvil…
Even the flames inside the furnace could all be customized.
“So then.”
Jin-woo decided to secure his Profession properly.
“I was late in obtaining the A-grade one.”
But he intended to accelerate toward S-grade.
* * *
-Bid updated.
-Bid updated.
-Bid updated.
Bid after bid, new offers kept coming in.
The auction price for the Brass Steel Pickaxe that Jin-woo had listed was climbing without limit.
“No, really, it’s just a pickaxe.”
“Please stop bidding on the pickaxe I bid on!”
“I’m just a poor miner user. Please let me afford it.”
“Even wealthy miners can’t find one like that. Please yield.”
After the pickaxe’s price exceeded its fair value, a bloody battle among users with the Miner Profession began.
From five thousand gold.
Up to seven thousand gold.
-Are you serious? Seven thousand gold for a pickaxe?
-I can’t afford more. I’m out.
Some users dropped out, but among the Miner users, a few persistence buyers remained.
“Even if you have money, it’s hard to come by a pickaxe like that. Seven thousand gold is practically a steal.”
Yul had chosen to be a Miner from the very beginning.
Each time he swung the pickaxe, his mind found peace, and before long, he realized he’d climbed to the top ranks even among Miner users.
Of course, the number of Miner users wasn’t large, so in the overall rankings, his position was marginal, but he’d climbed high enough to be called a ranker, which meant he had accumulated considerable gold.
“While others bragged about their swords and armor and shields, I couldn’t boast about anything.”
There were craftspeople who sold items that were pickaxes in name only, or just axes that looked like pickaxes.
“Not a single crafter had ever taken me seriously before.”
That was precisely why this elegant pickaxe was something money alone could never purchase.
“I have to buy it.”
If he purchased it and the pickaxe truly functioned as a pickaxe should…
“I’ll buy more! I have plenty of money to burn!”
The Miner users bidding against him felt the same way.
But naturally, among them, Yul had the deepest pockets.
-One minute remaining in the auction.
One minute.
-Bid updated!
Final bid: twelve thousand gold.
Solo.
It was the highest price ever paid for a pickaxe in the auction house.

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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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