The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 32

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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 32
Episode 32.
Hephaestus watched Jin-woo.
Undeniably, the newcomer was audacious.
All the materials here were Grade A.
But just as the old craftsman had said, many of them were merely Grade A in designation.
Countless materials had already been consumed through many rounds of conflict.
Because of this, the precious materials were exhausted, and both the Lower-Tier and Upper-Tier Smithies had been forced to use similar-grade materials.
Normally, there should have been a difference in materials between the Lower-Tier and Upper-Tier Smithies.
But why did upper-tier craftsmen earn their rank?
For lower-tier craftsmen, materials were paramount; but upper-tier craftsmen were those who overcame even the material’s limitations through sheer skill.
So the materials had been distributed this way.
In Hephaestus’s judgment, Jin-woo was right.
All the upper-tier craftsmen here were weak.
Any true artisan should never blame the materials.
Of course, he wasn’t asking them to forge S-Grade from garbage.
But weren’t these Grade A materials?
Materials that couldn’t be called inferior in any way.
‘If you can’t forge S-Grade from Grade A,’
there was no point in hoping for further growth.
In that respect, this audacious newcomer rather pleased him.
But words were easy for anyone.
This was an unfamiliar place.
No exceptional materials.
He had to prove himself through skill, not words.
“Go on, then.”
Hephaestus gestured to Jin-woo.
Jin-woo took the materials and began in earnest.
The material gleamed with a blue hue.
-Black Stone Steel [Grade: A]
It was similar to the steel he’d worked with before, but considerably harder.
Jin-woo placed the Black Stone Steel into the furnace without hesitation.
Then, with tongs, he retrieved it in a flash.
The furnace was intensely hot.
Even a craftsman who had spent years swinging a hammer would find that heat terrifying.
But Jin-woo focused only on the material.
The Black Stone Steel glowed like flame itself—crimson, brilliant—as he brought the hammer down.
Clang!
A clean strike.
Clang! Clang!
Perfectly uniform, powerful.
“!”
“……!”
The skeptical upper-tier craftsmen, who had been watching with a sneer, suddenly changed expression.
Clang! Clang!
Mere hammer strikes.
Yet those hammer strikes dictated everything in the crafting process.
“Mm…….”
“Hhh…….”
There was no wasted motion in Jin-woo’s strikes.
Clang!
He applied force where force was needed, and withdrew it where withdrawal was needed.
In theory, it was simple.
But in practice, it was difficult even for those who’d held a hammer their whole lives.
Yet Jin-woo was doing it.
He shaped the form in moments.
With ease, no less.
That the work appeared easy to craftsmen who understood its difficulty was itself a clear demonstration of Jin-woo’s skill.
“Hephaestus, I should report: this new craftsman is the one who produced twenty A-Grade items in just eight hours at the Lower-Tier Smithy…….”
“Silence.”
Hephaestus had already received that report.
“There wouldn’t be two audacious craftsmen.”
The possibility crossed his mind that the one who’d displayed overwhelming skill at the Lower-Tier Smithy might be Jin-woo before his eyes.
Clang!
“Finding my rhythm.”
Jin-woo began to accelerate.
“Hah.”
He was in high spirits.
And, somewhat, he was angry.
‘Black Stone Steel, is it.’
-Black Stone Steel [Grade: A]
‘Can’t make S-Grade from this?’
Blaming the materials.
No true craftsman should ever do that.
Any material, in any hand, could take on different form.
One’s own hands alone could provide excuses—not the materials.
Yet those so-called upper-tier craftsmen were making exactly those pathetic excuses.
‘Hephaestus must have had his hands full.’
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A moment of perfect focus.
Jin-woo’s eyes saw clearly.
This Grade A material—
‘could soar far higher.’
To give materials wings.
‘No.’
His job was to give them a booster.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Jin-woo brought the hammer down.
A rounded form.
A Shield took shape in his hands.
His heightened craftsmanship supported his precise control.
-Synchronization Rate is increasing!
Clang!
The heightened Synchronization Rate made his craftsmanship even sharper.
Clang!
“Already taking form…….”
Work that normally would demand hours was completed in twenty minutes.
And then came the quenching.
Cold and scalding.
“It’s…… getting faster?”
Jin-woo spun the hammer and moved into the detailed work.
Any craftsman here could simply work faster.
But what they needed to create were tools to stand against those terrifying beasts.
Such equipment could not be forged at mere speed.
“Isn’t that overreaching?”
“Speed isn’t what matters.”
At the concerned words of the upper-tier craftsmen, the old craftsman clicked his tongue.
“That isn’t speed.”
That was Jin-woo’s natural pace.
“When you prioritize speed, there are things you must sacrifice…….”
But Jin-woo’s strikes bore no such compromise.
Clang!
Shhhhaaaaa—!
The Shield was complete.
“Phew………….”
Jin-woo drew a deep breath.
Exactly one hour.
“My hands are tingling.”
Ding!
-Equipment created!
-Craftsmanship stat increased!
-Focus stat increased!
-Achievement unlocked!
-Special Achievement obtained!
-Registered in the Hall of Fame!
-Achievement [Jobless Legend] obtained!
Jin-woo rolled his shoulders.
Level 45.
No Job Class.
-S-Grade equipment created!
S-Grade creation complete.
* * *
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Kim Na-yoon checked the urgent alerts rapidly.
“What! Did you finally get a Job Class?”
The timing would have been right.
“I hear you left Shins.”
Jin-woo was quite hot on the Auction House right now.
Moreover, with the Legend’s Beginning Achievement, he’d also updated the Hall of Fame to first place, so many people were looking for him.
“No wonder no one could find him.”
Of course he couldn’t be found if he was clearing a legendary Job Class quest.
“So the class change…….”
Kim Na-yoon checked the alerts.
“……?”
And froze.
“Not a class change……?”
It wasn’t a class change alert.
“What…… is this…….”
She blinked repeatedly, unsure of what she was seeing.
The result was unbelievable.
“Special Achievement unlocked……?”
Special Achievement.
A straightforward one: craft any S-Grade item, and you get it.
“But he still has no Job Class?”
Kim Na-yoon rushed to check additional achievements.
“What…… Jobless Legend Achievement…… is also unlocked!”
Which meant no Job Class at all.
“Level 45?”
Level 45.
And he’d made S-Grade in that state.
“These three don’t add up at all.”
No Job Class, Level 45, S-Grade.
“It’s impossible.”
These numbers surpassed every craftsperson in the Hall of Fame.
So naturally, Jin-woo had claimed first place.
First place in both the Legend’s Beginning Achievement and the Special Achievement.
It broke every convention.
“The Legend’s Beginning Achievement—sure, that was possible. Grade A could happen.”
It had been fast, certainly, but not impossible.
Some people crafted A-Grade quickly, and if Jin-woo was faster than them, it was reasonable.
But S-Grade was different.
It shouldn’t be this fast.
Hadn’t the existing craftspeople already proven this?
That the gap between A-Grade and S-Grade wasn’t just one rank.
That reaching there required genuine talent.
“There are shortcuts…… aren’t there.”
Of course shortcuts existed. But they required conditions.
“You have to be an Alchemist.”
But Jin-woo had no Job Class.
“It’s not a shortcut.”
Which meant it was the legitimate path.
“……Hmph.”
She opened Word to begin the report.
Then, watching the cursor blink, she took a breath.
“Now I’m certain.”
This confirmed it. Now she could be sure.
How could she not know when it was laid out so plainly?
“It’s Jin.”
This was Jin.
Kim Na-yoon submitted the report immediately.
And one hour later.
“What!?”
The Vice President burst into the monitoring room.
“S-Grade without a Job Class?”
“No user has ever reached that point before, sir.”
No one had ever achieved it until now.
“S-Grade without a class…… and at Level 45…… good grief.”
Early in New Genesis’s launch, the most common complaint had been crafting difficulty.
“Even with a Job Class, it’s tough.”
How on earth had he made S-Grade without one?
“Is he doing this intentionally?”
“I’m not certain. It appears he was running a legendary Job Class quest.”
“So…… he just happened to reach S-Grade while doing that?”
“That appears to be the case.”
“Hmm. Just in case, just in case—”
Without direct footage, he could only speculate.
But this was unprecedented, so speculation was difficult.
“He’s not some exploit user, is he?”
Since New Genesis’s launch a year ago—
in that year, there had been plenty. Exploit users, AI users.
Many attempts to break the game.
So he had to be cautious.
And Jin-woo’s feat was genuinely shocking.
The Vice President had to think carefully.
“I don’t believe so, sir.”
“You’re certain? Even with this?”
“The reason is—”
Kim Na-yoon continued.
“As I reported before, this user is very likely Jin.”
Really, she wanted to say it was definitely Jin, but committing to certainty and being wrong would be a disaster.
“But Kim, how incredible is this Jin that this stops being suspicious?”
The Vice President frowned.
“If he’s Jin, even S-Grade without a class stops seeming odd?”
“Yes.”
Kim Na-yoon nodded firmly.
“S-Grade without a Job Class?”
“For him, it’s routine.”
“……Hmph.”
The Vice President sighed.
“Call every GM who knows Jin.”
“Yes, understood.”
They had to verify.
* * *
The conference room.
GM veterans who had immersed themselves in Eternal Sunshine gathered there.
Five in total, including Kim Na-yoon, though there were more, but they filtered by seniority.
“This is a play by a user named Jin-woo, right?”
The Vice President first explained Jin-woo’s feat.
“!”
“What is this?”
“A user like this exists?”
The GMs were visibly shocked.
It was that remarkable an achievement.
“No Job Class and he makes S-Grade?”
“Is this an AI?”
“Sounds like a rival company planted an AI.”
“Wasn’t this the user who killed the Iron Beast? But already S-Grade?”
The Vice President, seeing their reaction, continued.
“This person is Jin, we’re told.”
“……?”
“…….”
“…….”
Suddenly, everyone fell silent. Then they looked at each other and nodded.
“Ah, then—”
“That makes sense.”
“Wow. Has he returned? Is this his official return?”
The very people who had just said it was impossible, or asked if it was AI, suddenly accepted it.
The Vice President was dumbfounded.
He had simply stated that the user who produced such overwhelming results was Jin.
And they immediately accepted it?
“Wait, what kind of user is Jin? Weren’t you all just saying this was impossible!?”
The Vice President stared at the GMs in disbelief.
“But sir.”
“It’s Jin, sir. Jin.”
“Surely you know who Jin is, sir.”
“I know, of course I know. Anyone in this industry knows Jin. But it doesn’t hit home, that’s all.”
The Vice President knew only by reputation.
Truthfully, he only knew the name; he had little real interest. He was a pure operations man who evaluated only spreadsheets.
So he only felt that this user was great.
But wasn’t this already beyond “great”?
“Look at the top craftspeople in Korea right now. Including Craftsmanship Han-wool. Probably quite a few are Eternal Sunshine veterans, and Craftsmanship Han-wool herself is a top player who came over from Eternal Sunshine.”
“I see.”
“When Jin was around, they could barely breathe. All of them. They couldn’t even challenge him.”
The Eternal Sunshine veterans among New Genesis’s top craftspeople had never challenged Jin. The gap in specs was too wide.
“The equipment specs were just too different.”
“Especially Craftsmanship Han-wool—she was famous for saying she’d have been first if not for Jin.”
“Of course, in New Genesis without Jin, she still hasn’t placed first.”
“Anyone from Eternal Sunshine knows: you only made the rankings if you had Jin’s equipment. You needed Jin to sell you gear to rank at all.”
The king of Eternal Sunshine.
“There’s one clear example.”
As the Vice President’s eyes grew wider, understanding dawning, Kim Na-yoon delivered the final point.
“Other users had aliases. Craftsmanship Han-wool, for instance, was called Fortress—because she made armor and shields so well. So when someone said Fortress, everyone knew who they meant.”
“You mean they used nicknames instead of actual names?”
“Yes. But Jin was just Jin.”
“…….”
Kim Na-yoon finished.
“There was no one who didn’t know that name.”

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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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