The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 337

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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 337
Episode 337.
As Jin-woo’s ongoing Quest to become All Master’s disciple refreshed, he received a new Quest simultaneously.
-To progress with the Quest, listen to the words of the Quest NPC!
Boom!
The moment the door shut, the NPCs who had followed Baxter let out ragged breaths.
Despite looking considerably exhausted, they kept blinking at Baxter with both eyes.
“Are you really Baxter?”
“I’m not having a hallucination right now, am I?”
“I thought it was a trap. But I figured even if it was a trap, I had nothing to lose.”
Mate, the mechanical engineer whose name Baxter had just spoken, addressed him.
“It’s me. Really me. I only just returned to Sacra.”
“You’ve returned then. It’s really true.”
“Yes. I came to restore my honor. I’ve taken a disciple.”
Baxter gestured toward Jin-woo.
“Pleased to meet you…….”
Mate smiled at Jin-woo. But the situation was far from good.
“What in the world has happened here? Tell me the full story.”
At Baxter’s words, Mate seemed uncertain where to even begin.
A moment later, he opened his mouth.
“It seems…… everything was planned from the very beginning. Both before you were exiled and after.”
His name was Mate.
Once, he had been a partner working alongside Baxter in the same Workshop.
He was a mechanical engineer who had researched Magic Core Theory together with Baxter.
“This all began with Councilor Hamud.”
“……Hamud? That Hamud? Isn’t he a moderate councilor? The closest…… friend of the dead councilor?”
Hamud had been the closest friend of the one who died in the councilor explosion incident, the event in which Baxter’s theory came under the heaviest suspicion.
Yet this entire conspiracy bore Hamud’s fingerprints.
“He killed his own friend? The one who had been covering for a councilor from a declining house?”
“……Yes. That’s right.”
Baxter’s hands trembled with shock. Mate, understanding those emotions, bit his lip and continued.
“Councilor Hamud had long researched Ether Core Theory. He distorted the theory passed down through his house and converted it into his own Ether Core Theory.”
Originally, this Ether Core Theory had been attributed to another engineer’s name by the Council.
Once, many theories had flourished throughout Sacra, and Ether Core Theory was among them.
It was only because of Baxter that Mechanical Engineering became the dominant paradigm. In the past, there had truly been countless theories that originated from Mechanical Engineering and formed an ecosystem.
“But since Magic Core Theory had taken such a firm hold, there was nothing he could do. All he could do was watch his house continue its decline.”
He needed results.
All the glory his house had once possessed lay in the past, and he maintained his councilor position only because of that long-dead glory.
“There were rumors that Councilor Hamud would lose his position. I think that was his biggest trigger.”
Cornered by circumstance, Hamud made a choice with enormous risk.
“When the foreign Guild sought out Sacra. That’s when Councilor Hamud found them.”
And Hamud made them an offer: if they lent him their strength, he would allow them to seize Sacra and add the city’s power to their own.
“So they joined hands, and the first thing they did was exile you.”
“……Why me?”
Baxter seemed deeply bewildered.
Why had they singled him out for exile?
“Because Magic Core Theory was dangerous. Not dangerous like an explosion, but dangerous because it possessed enough power to push back Ether Core Theory and strike a counterattack against them.”
Ether Core Theory had only one advantage over Magic Core Theory: stability. It had no superiority otherwise.
Therefore, if such a rebellion were to occur, the only theory that could reverse the situation was Magic Core Theory.
In other words, without Baxter, the rebellion would succeed quite easily.
“Hah.”
Baxter’s hands trembled.
“What of the Council now?”
“The Council…….”
His expression grew dark.
“Hamud became Council leader, and the foreign Guild protects him. The councilors and their houses fought back with combined force……but they lost. Currently, Sacra has effectively fallen into the hands of Hamud and the foreign Guild.”
While Baxter was gone, Sacra had already fallen into Hamud’s grasp.
“We’ve been resisting, trying to reverse everything. Many in Sacra still don’t know the truth. But…….”
Countless comrades had already died.
“Councilor Hamud, working with the foreign Guild, has killed or imprisoned all mechanical engineers who resist.”
Few remained.
“Only we’re left now, and……we truly believed hope was gone.”
Baxter exhaled a long breath.
“Is the city currently occupied by P-7?”
“Yes.”
The combat mechanic P-7, once a source of pride for Baxter, had now become an enemy turned against him and his companions.
“Right, something felt off from the start. Disputes over theory happened all the time. But that explosion was truly strange. How could such a massive explosion, one that killed councilors, possibly occur?”
Now that he understood it had all been Hamud’s work, everything made sense.
“Besides the councilor who died then, all his followers perished as well.”
Those who had supported Magic Core Theory and blocked the Ether Core Theory faction all died at that time.
“All of this……was that scheming bastard Hamud’s plan.”
“Sacra now has only Ether Core Theory.”
Mate spoke.
“With Ether Core Theory, we cannot handle the mechanics that have rebelled.”
In a stable state like this, they cannot defeat those fast-calculating mechanics.
Even deploying the same Mechanical Engineering, they would only lose to the mechanics.
That’s why they removed Baxter, the master of Magic Core Theory, first.
“Damn it.”
They had been completely played.
Once Jin-woo heard the entire situation, the Quest window appeared formally before him.
* Quest: Master of Sacra
Grade: MR
Content: The engineering city of Sacra has been occupied by machines. You must make a choice. Through your choice, firmly decide who will be the master of Sacra. Choose the master and completely restore Sacra.
Constraint: X
Reward: User’s discretion
An MR Grade Quest—Master of Sacra.
‘Master of Sacra, I see.’
It was a Quest to determine the master of Sacra, now divided between humans and machines by the machines’ rebellion.
‘It’s flexible.’
Jin-woo could make Sacra a city of machines, or he could suppress all the machines and return the city to the humans.
‘The machines look quite difficult.’
The mechanical engineering equipment the humans had also appeared quite powerful.
‘Either side will be challenging.’
The difficulty was set at nothing less than MR.
‘Hmm.’
One thing was certain.
‘In my current state, either side won’t be easily suppressed.’
Jin-woo had just entered into a new contract with Rizni.
It was a contract for three parts total, and the first part had already been decided as the Elementia arc.
‘So then.’
He had no choice but to approach this in his own way.
“First of all.”
Having heard the full story, Jin-woo spoke to Baxter.
“Let’s take it one step at a time.”
‘Originally I came to Sacra to restore Baxter’s honor.’
But arriving, he found there was no honor left to restore.
Sacra itself had fallen into the hands of a single mechanical engineer.
‘And with a foreign Guild on top of it.’
“What Guild is it?”
“They call themselves Special Moons.”
Special Moons.
Naturally, he’d never heard of them.
‘From what I saw earlier, they seem quite high-ranking.’
Judging from the Users’ gear and the Aura they emanated, they were at least Level 800 or higher.
“So we need to deal with two combined forces: Councilor Hamud and the Special Moons Guild.”
Jin-woo summarized simply.
But the situation was anything but simple.
Mate looked at Baxter.
“You didn’t know any of this. You really just came by perfect timing, didn’t you?”
Baxter too had arrived here knowing nothing.
So there were no reinforcements to speak of.
“You said you’ve been resisting until now. So what’s our fighting strength?”
“We’re six now, including me.”
Mate gritted his teeth as he spoke. Then he covered his face with both hands and splashed some water on it.
“That’s all. The mechanics are all destroyed—we have none.”
He then looked at his fellow mechanical engineers.
They had nothing of real value either.
Baxter exhaled heavily.
He had never imagined the situation would unfold like this.
His plan had been to return, study Magic Core Theory anew, then request a reconsideration of his exile.
Since he now had a disciple, he had wanted to show him Sacra’s mechanical engineering and sample its many materials.
But now that things had gone this way, there was absolutely no returning to the Central City in the current situation.
Nor could he force them out.
How could they possibly win against full strength enemies with such meager forces?
It was the worst possible scenario.
It would have been better to simply flee Sacra with these remaining people.
“Jin-woo.”
Baxter spoke.
In this warehouse, he still had various things he used to work with.
It would’ve been better to flee Sacra with these.
“We don’t have absolutely nothing.”
It was then that Mate spoke.
“That’s right. We have a bit more material.”
“How much?”
At Baxter’s question, Mate answered while biting his lip.
“Enough to build ten mechanics.”
“We have a considerable amount of Runestones, but their quality isn’t good…….”
It might as well have been meaningless. Baxter was now certain of it.
There was no point in staying in Sacra under these circumstances.
However.
Jin-woo smiled at those words.
“It’s enough.”
“Jin-woo!”
Baxter called out to him in alarm. Jin-woo headed toward the materials gathered inside Baxter’s warehouse.
‘It will be enough.’
“Let’s turn this around.”

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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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