The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 272

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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 272
Episode 272.
“Damn it. Damn it all.”
“We can’t escape.”
“The Spirit Kings see every move we make.”
Tap-tap. Crack.
The spirits were fleeing.
Those in flight were in terrible condition. One clutched its shoulder as it ran; another dragged a leg, pain shooting through it with each step; and still another was already being carried by a companion.
It was a stark portrait of how dire their circumstances had become.
“Gasp. Gasp.”
Behind them, their ragged breath heaving, came the transformed Spirit Kings.
“Grrrrr.”
The maddened Spirit Kings continued their relentless assault on the fleeing spirits.
Having walked alongside these creatures for so long, they knew precisely how the spirits would move. Desperation had driven the spirits to weave countless illusion spells to mask their escape, yet every deception had been seen through.
“At this rate… everything really will come to an end, won’t it?”
“We don’t even know if Your Highness Nordin is still alive.”
“He’s alive. He has to be alive.”
The Spirit Knights spoke with certainty.
The situation was spiraling toward absolute ruin.
Yet even so, they could not abandon hope.
“We must be strength for His Highness Nordin. We couldn’t manage it ourselves, but if it’s him, he must have a way.”
They all knew that Nordin had retreated.
But they had chosen to call it a tactical withdrawal. They had to believe that, or they would break.
If they did not cling to hope, there would be no way to turn this tide.
“So we… must survive and return.”
“Yes!”
“Greater Demons are coming from behind the Spirit Kings!”
“The demons are coming!”
Just as the escaped Spirit Knights had said, the Western Region was a hellscape.
Burning earth. Bleeding members of the Spirit Tribe.
Buildings lay in rubble, their remnants scattered across the ground, and the sky burned red and black.
Boom! Boom!
The Spirit Kings walked across the trembling ground as if they had become the undead.
There was no trace of reason in their eyes.
They were monsters pure and simple—intelligence erased, hunger for destruction their only drive.
“Krrgh. Krrrrgh.”
The Spirit Kings’ eyes were bloodshot, their hands brimming with intense Spirit Power. They hurled that power at the fleeing spirits.
Crash!
The mad Spirit King’s strike came down to hit one of the spirits—or nearly did.
The blast narrowly missed, instead shattering the ground itself. The Spirit King gathered Spirit Power once more.
“Agh!”
The startled spirits cried out and fled in panic.
But their pace was too slow. The two maddened Spirit Kings had found their opening—they could finish this now.
Then the Spirit Kings stopped short.
Their bodies trembled violently, their movements growing strange and uncoordinated.
The Greater Demons following behind clicked their tongues.
“Deliberately missing?”
“Their wills are rather impressive.”
“By now they could crush these spirits with their own hands.”
“Yet they keep resisting.”
“Even their attacks are hesitant.”
Behind these maddened Spirit Kings stood the demons.
The power radiating from their forms marked them as Supreme Demons—far beyond the rank of Upper-Level Demons.
All this time, the Spirit Kings had been unable to land a true strike on the fleeing spirits.
“We shattered their minds, yet still they refuse to slay their own kind. The stubbornness of it.”
The Supreme Demons laughed cruelly as they struck down the Spirit Kings.
Smack!
“Useless.”
It was utter humiliation. A Spirit King—a regional lord—treated like this by demons.
Seeing this degradation, the Spirit Knights gnashed their teeth and fled. This was not the moment to resist such treatment.
“The Greater Demons are tearing through Elementia.”
“Three demons are absorbing all of Elementia’s power, so you have no hope whatsoever.”
“Keep running. How far will you get in this small land? How entertaining!”
They laughed down at the fleeing spirits.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
“Hmm?”
Then, suddenly, the trembling ground went still.
“What?”
It should have kept shaking. Elementia’s objects had all been destroyed, annihilation was at hand.
“This shouldn’t be happening.”
“That weakling Nordin couldn’t have done anything. Or did Grendan fail to finish the job properly?”
Even if that were true, the acceleration toward annihilation should not stop.
“The objects should all be in ruins.”
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
“…A summons?”
The Greater Demons were calling the Supreme Demons.
“What exactly is happening here?”
The Supreme Demons frowned and moved toward the Northern Region.
“Keep watch. If anyone enters the Western Region, eliminate them without mercy.”
“Yes!”
* * *
The path to the Western Region was gruesome.
Where the southern reaches met the northern border along the route to the west, the bodies lay thick—fallen kin bearing terrible wounds.
Nordin clenched his jaw.
Each fallen companion bore massive injuries.
“We pushed the Spirit Kings to their limits, trying to restore them to their original state.”
“Ordinary spirits still remain in the Western Region. We sacrificed ourselves so they could be moved to safety as much as possible.”
“The northern spirits did the same.”
They ground their teeth in sorrow.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
-Time Limit: 44:02:02
Forty-four hours remained.
The number of Spirit Knights had grown considerably, too many to fit on the flying mounts.
Fortunately, many spirits could fly on their own.
Whoooosh!
The flying mounts and Spirit Knights launched into the air, speeding toward the Western Region.
Jin-woo saw the piled Thunder Cloud Stones.
Hunting Amorb, the monster of Infinite Proliferation, had yielded considerable quantities of Thunder Cloud Stones dropped by its subordinates.
‘This much material… it’d be wasteful not to use it.’
Jin-woo opened his Summoned Workshop.
‘Spirit Knights. I’ve never seen armor like theirs.’
When he’d crafted equipment for the small spirit earlier, Jin-woo had found it quite an interesting experience.
‘I already move my hands with precision, but making gear for spirits required even deeper concentration.’
In short: crafting equipment for spirits was no simple matter for a human.
‘Well, I’ll have to try anyway.’
The Spirit Knights looked bewildered as Jin-woo suddenly produced a Workshop.
What was he doing?
But the spirits who had traveled with him since the Southern Region watched with gleaming eyes.
They knew precisely what Jin-woo was about to do.
Whoosh.
He kindled the forge flames and immediately began Crafting.
Clang!
He pulled the Thunder Cloud Stone from the forge and brought his Hammer down.
“!”
“!”
“Are you… Crafting…?”
“In the sky…?”
The Spirit Knights who witnessed this for the first time went pale.
Doing something difficult even on solid ground—in the sky?!
They understood the situation was far from leisurely.
Yet it was still an astonishing sight.
Clang! Clang!
What he’d shown before was stonework.
Stonework was considerably easier than Hammering—he didn’t need fire, relying instead on the skills he possessed.
But now Jin-woo was using the forge’s flames as well.
Whoosh.
The back of the swaying mount steady beneath him.
He struck and refined the materials on his workbench with perfect precision.
‘Is this thanks to Glass Crafting?’
When making objects, Jin-woo had pushed concentration to its absolute limit.
He had prioritized speed to preserve the beauty of the three-minute window.
Jin-woo’s hands, already swift, had become even faster.
‘Glass Crafting isn’t merely about speed.’
Speed was the foundation.
But it also demanded delicate precision and controlled force.
‘All things I’ve always pursued in my crafting.’
Glass Crafting had united them, trained them into a coherent whole.
‘My physical condition has risen significantly.’
His hands felt light.
Jin-woo brought the Hammer down.
Clang!
The Thunder Cloud Stone burst outward, scattering lightning in all directions.
Normally his hands would have been pushed back—instead, they dominated the stone.
Clang! Clang!
In this moment, Jin-woo had transcended the realm he’d previously reached.
Only one thing occupied his mind.
The spirits of this place.
Jin-woo saw them clearly.
‘All the spirits, including Nordin, feel hope blooming within them—but at the same time, they’re drowning in powerlessness.’
Hope had been kindled by his arrival, yet alongside it came the despair of having to entrust everything to him.
‘Powerlessness.’
Nordin in particular carried tremendous weight of responsibility.
Though Jin-woo stood before them as a savior, the spirits would want to reclaim this themselves.

‘Not to rely on me alone.’
To accept aid, yes—but to face this trial through their own strength.
‘Then I must concentrate on that.’
The Quest’s name was the Savior of the Spirit Tribe.
‘But what kind of salvation is true salvation?’
Salvation could be interpreted many ways.
‘Is merely overpowering the demons through brute force really salvation?’
Perhaps it could be called that.
But Jin-woo didn’t believe it was true salvation.
‘The small spirit.’
He thought of the young spirit who had rescued her younger sibling—the one he’d seen with his own eyes.
He could have simply rescued the small one himself.
But he hadn’t done so.
‘Because she wanted to do it herself.’
Jin-woo was a Craftsperson.
‘My role is to forge the equipment they desire.’
Then what he should choose here was not to take their revenge for them.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
‘To give them the means to avenge themselves.’
To craft them equipment for that purpose.
That was Jin-woo’s salvation—the salvation only a Craftsperson could give.
“Nordin.”
Jin-woo called out.
“Yes, Jin-woo.”
“What kind of equipment do you favor?”
“…Pardon?”
“What I’m making now is for you and your people.”
“…Equipment… for us…?”
Clang!
“Don’t you want to take your revenge?”
Jin-woo said.
“Don’t you want to defeat the demons through your own strength and save Elementia?”
“…Yes. But…”
Your strength was lacking. So I’m doing it for you instead, wasn’t he going to say?
“Then I’ll make it so you can.”
Clang!
“With the equipment I forge.”

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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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