The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 343

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 343
343.
“So basically, I hit him—bang, bang—with that staff I made earlier. You saw it, right? I just swung it at him. Elima must have been shocked and in pain.”
Elima had done nothing but take the blow squarely—a blow worthy of the word “swung.”
“Thank you so much, Jin-woo!”
“I feel completely satisfied now!”
“It’s a shame about that Twin Axe. It looked like a really well-made weapon. It seems the Foreigner Guild has a professional craftsperson trained in Mechanical Engineering.”
The Mechanical Engineers were very pleased with their proper revenge.
“That’s right. The equipment currently being used by the foreigners and combat mechanics is likely being made by that Foreigner craftsperson.”
“Not only that, but I heard they’re gradually making combat mechanics too.”
“Hmm.”
‘That’s interesting.’
Jin-woo had found him intriguing from the start.
The well-crafted, polished equipment carried a distinctive presence.
‘This isn’t something you can make easily.’
It would be good to collaborate with him sometime.
Of course, this time it couldn’t be a peaceful collaboration, but if two craftspeople fought over whose equipment was better, wouldn’t that be a fine collaboration in its own way?
‘There are many forms of collaboration, after all.’
Jin-woo was in a very good mood as he looked at the equipment he’d made, especially the Twin Axe.
‘Well-made equipment feels good just to look at.’
“I’d really like to meet that craftsperson sometime.”
An opportunity would likely arise soon.
Jin-woo gestured quickly.
‘Now’s not the time for that.’
“Let’s quickly occupy District D first.”
Jin-woo said.
“Occupy?”
“Shouldn’t we be retreating again?”
Mate and the Mechanical Engineers looked confused at Jin-woo’s words.
Since their numbers were naturally smaller, they had to keep using hit-and-run tactics.
But occupy? That was unexpected.
“We’ve occupied this area.”
Everyone looked surprised at Jin-woo’s statement.
In fact, he was right. District D, which Elima and the combat mechanics had been defending, now had no one guarding it.
In other words, the victor had every right to claim everything.
“!”
“!”
“We won, after all!”
“You’re absolutely right! We’ve been thinking like losers.”
At those words, the eyes of Mate and the other Mechanical Engineers grew moist.
After Baxter’s exile.
The years of resistance had been long. Victories in that time were few and far between, and after all their comrades were captured, they suffered nothing but defeats day after day.
Hope shattered, and they were on the verge of abandoning everything in despair.
“You’ve saved us, Jin-woo.”
“No.”
Jin-woo spoke firmly.
“This small victory today exists only because you all have endured this long.”
They couldn’t hold back their tears at those words.
“You held on well. You really held on.”
Baxter approached them.
“You held it together. Now go. Release all the sorrow you’ve carried.”
* * *
Bang!
District D had few people. Originally, this district was where the Mechanical Engineers currently fighting had lived.
That’s why there were quite a lot of Mechanical Engineering Workshops here.
Of course, they were all empty now, but that actually worked in their favor right now.
Bang!
They broke down workshop doors and searched inside for materials.
“There are lots of old materials here!”
“This should be usable!”
Bang!
“We found good materials here! And there’s an abandoned mechanic!”
“If we dismantle the mechanic, we should be able to get Magic Cores, screws, and various alloys!”
Right now, Jin-woo needed materials.
‘I should be able to get everything I need here.’
-You have obtained an Intermediate Runestone!
-You have obtained a Broken Runestone!
-You have obtained a Lava Stone.
-You have obtained a Lava Stone Fragment.
Jin-woo examined the materials he’d collected.
‘UR+ and USSR. There’s USSR+ too.’
A few were even Grade M.
Of course, the Grade M items were extremely rare.
‘Just two, then.’
He’d obtained dozens of materials, but most were of lower grade.
Still, it was far better than nothing.
Moreover, there were quite a lot of references.
“There are mechanics here!”
“There are quite a few Mechanical Engineering tools that have deteriorated, and crafting tools as well!”
Equipment and tools.
Looking at them, Jin-woo could expand the variety of his Mechanical Engineering equipment.
‘Oh, interesting.’
Mechanized arrows.
He remembered the arrows he’d once made from obsidian.
“I can recover the arrows. And I could drive them in deeper too.”
-Old Reinforced Goggles [UR+]
There were also Reinforced Goggles here.
“Vision expansion?”
Each pair of goggles had different abilities, and these Reinforced Goggles were for vision enhancement.
When Jin-woo put them on, his vision suddenly expanded.
‘It’s a similar function to Eagle Eye.’
Of course, it was inferior to Eagle Eye.
Jin-woo kept the goggles carefully.
“We found blueprints here!”
At the Mechanical Engineer’s words, Jin-woo immediately examined the blueprints.
“Oh.”
The blueprints he examined were mechanic blueprints.
“Blueprints for various mechanics.”
“They’ll be very helpful when you create new mechanics, Jin-woo.”
“There are also detailed explanations of combat mechanic circuits.”
Jin-woo read through the blueprints right there.
‘This is good.’
Things Jin-woo had glossed over with intuition so far were now explained in detail with words and pictures.
Whoosh.
Jin-woo read quickly and stored the blueprints in his mind.
‘There are quite a few varieties of combat mechanics.’
“This doesn’t seem to be a mechanic made from Magic Core theory.”
The Mechanical Engineers who saw the blueprint nodded.
“Yes, that’s right. These are combat mechanics made from Aether Core theory.”
“Officially, Magic Core theory was banned in Sakra, so they probably destroyed the Magic Core blueprints or hid them somewhere deep.”
“There’s more.”
Saying so, the Mechanical Engineer pointed backward.
There was a quite large workshop there.
“This is the largest workshop.”
“A Mechanical Engineer that Baxter knew ran it, but they haven’t been seen for a while.”
“I’m not sure what happened.”
The Mechanical Engineers broke down the workshop door first.
Bang! Bang! Crash!
The workshop was cold.
“It seems it hasn’t been operational for a long time.”
“There should be quite a few materials. I’ll collect them quickly.”
Materials were the most important thing.
Jin-woo walked around the workshop looking at the crafting tools.
“Hmm.”
A massive furnace.
An anvil.
‘The anvil is excellent too.’
But unfortunately, the workbench was broken.
“Hmm.”
Then Jin-woo heard a sound.
‘Is that a human voice?’
When Jin-woo went toward the sound, there was a wall.
‘Not just a wall, though.’
He touched the wall lightly and tapped it with his finger. He felt a sense of space beyond it.
“Hmm!”
At the same time, he heard the sound again.
Jin-woo grabbed a Hammer without hesitation and smashed through the wall.
Crash!
“Just as I thought.”
There was a person bound inside.
“There’s a person here.”
At Jin-woo’s words, the Mechanical Engineers and Baxter approached quickly.
“!”
They looked shocked.
“This person is…”
Mate spoke as he looked at him.
“The owner of this workshop. The Mechanical Engineer we mentioned who disappeared.”
When Jin-woo removed the Mechanical Engineering equipment that covered his mouth, the man gasped desperately.
He was terribly thin.
He looked like he hadn’t eaten anything in a long time.
“Thank you… for helping me.”
There was no vitality at all in his eyes.
“How long have you been like this?”
“For… about a month…”
“So you haven’t eaten anything and have been in this state for a whole month?”
“For a month they kept me bound and fed me, but then three days ago, they suddenly put this Mechanical Engineering equipment in my mouth and left me here.”
He continued speaking painfully.
He tried to get up, but couldn’t.
Jingle.
A metal-ball-shaped Mechanical Engineering device was attached to his leg, and a chain connected it to the workshop wall.
He washed his face with trembling hands and examined those who had saved him.
“!”
Then his gaze stopped on Baxter.
“Baxter?”
“It’s me. Tabuk. I never dreamed we’d meet like this.”
“Oh… Baxter. I never thought I’d see you again!”
The Mechanical Engineer called Tabuk wept.
“Tabuk. What on earth is all this?”
Tabuk.
He was a Mechanical Engineer who had clashed with Baxter many times in the past.
Though possessing great potential and promise, the perilous Magic Core theory met with much opposition as it developed.
Tabuk was one of those who opposed it.
Tabuk had always said that dangerous Magic Core theory needed a brake.
Baxter agreed with that assessment, and as he accepted such objections, he continued developing Magic Core theory.
Tabuk and Baxter were the kind of pair who watched each other, pushing themselves to greater advancement.
Seeing Tabuk now—bound and dying—made Baxter’s heart ache.
They may have disagreed on direction, but the bond between them was good.
“What happened?”
At Baxter’s question, Tabuk slowly opened his mouth.
“After you left, I began researching Aether Core theory. I thought my views aligned with Council Member Hamus.”
Baxter looked at Mate. Mate nodded.
“Council Member Hamus’s Aether Core theory certainly removed many of the weaknesses of the existing Aether Core theory. With greater stability and higher output than before.”
Tabuk admired it, thinking that with this Aether Core theory, he could achieve greater synergy by mixing it with Magic Core theory.
“I discussed this further with Council Member Hamus, but for some reason, he showed no interest.”
Rather, he looked disgusted.
“He said Aether Core theory was complete on its own.”
Tabuk trembled as he recalled that mad expression.
Jingle.
The metal ball on his ankle made a sound.
Jin-woo examined the metal ball closely.
Click.
Some sound was heard, and waves began scattering around it.
-Eagle Eye activates!
Jin-woo examined the metal ball more closely with Eagle Eye.
Tsk.
And he clicked his tongue.
“It reacts to voices. It’s going to explode soon.”
At Jin-woo’s words, Baxter and the Mechanical Engineers urgently examined the metal ball.
“What the hell—!”
“How vicious—!”
There wasn’t much time left.
This would explode while being dismantled.
“One minute…!”
And Tabuk, realizing this, closed his eyes.
“Run! And please stop Hamus! Something is going very wrong. This isn’t the path for Sakra…!”
Tabuk gestured urgently for them to leave.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful…”
Then he shook his head.
Grit.
Baxter ground his teeth. Helpless. So utterly helpless. All he could do was run.
Mate looked at Baxter. They had to go. If they didn’t, they might all die.
Jin-woo gripped the Universal Spanner.
Then he immediately began disassembling it.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
After cutting away the outer layer with lightning, he saw the mechanism.
Jin-woo’s eyes moved rapidly.
Without hesitation, he cut the wires of the connected circuits and brought the Wave Carving Knife to the Magic Core at the center.
“Exhale.”
He breathed once, then immediately deployed the Wave Carving technique.
If the Wave Carving was off or insufficient, it would simply explode.
They would all die. Jin-woo would be revived, but NPCs don’t revive. The quest would fail.
A quest he’d been pursuing for so long. If he failed, he couldn’t meet the All Master waiting at the end.
But such thoughts didn’t exist in Jin-woo’s mind.
He focused on the problem before his eyes.
If there’s a problem, solve it.
If something is assembled, disassemble it.
Jin-woo, maximizing his Wave Carving, immediately disassembled the Magic Core.
Work backwards.
Erase the Runewords engraved on it.
Cleanly.
As if it never existed.
Click.
Click. Click. Click.
The Magic Core was preparing to explode.
Click!
At the moment it was about to detonate.
Snap!
With the sound, the Runewords engraved on the Magic Core vanished.
The explosion disappeared entirely.
Whoooosh.
For a moment, the Prison fell silent.
“Gasp… gasp… gasp…”
The Mechanical Engineers breathed heavily. Like Jin-woo in extreme focus, they too were caught in the extreme concentration, unable even to breathe.
It was a brush with death. They had survived that brush with death.
Yet Jin-woo alone stood unaffected.
Instead of tension, he’d been immersed.
That’s why he took several deep breaths to come out of that immersion.
“Ahhhh.”
Having disassembled the bomb perfectly, Jin-woo smiled as he looked at the disassembled parts.
“A Magical Engineering Bomb. Interesting thing they used.”
Jin-woo marveled at the powder made by crushing the Magic Core finely.
“Is that normally how it’s used?”
“Well, yes…”
“But I never knew it could be disassembled like this.”
“… I thought we were dying.”
Tabuk, who had survived, was bewildered.
He’d naturally assumed they would die.
Yet they survived. And in a way that defied all logic.
“It’s no simple task.”
As long as Jin-woo was here, death could not be easily permitted.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————