The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 352

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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 352
352.
—You have taken critical damage!
—Noble Diamond Steel Wall has been shattered.
—You take recoil damage.
—You take recoil damage.
—Intense cold engulfs you.
—Flames burn you.
—Lightning pierces you!
—Wind tears at you.
A torrent of notifications. All of them screaming in blood-red text. His system was flooding him with warnings of countless debuffs and severe damage accumulating on his body.
It was Prudite who shattered in the collision of ultimate forces.
Through a crimson-tinged haze, Prudite scrambled to pull himself together.
But standing was all he could manage.
He swayed, fighting to regain his balance. His vision wavered, yet his eyes remained fixed on First and Pur.
First and Pur had not escaped that violent collision unscathed either. Though nowhere near as badly as Prudite.
“Ugh…”
This made no sense. None of this made sense.
Not about First and Pur. Both familiars possessed overwhelming strength, but what truly shook Prudite lay elsewhere.
“What in the…”
Their equipment was the problem.
The force of the sword and the Hammer colliding against him—it was devastatingly lethal.
The Shield he carried came with a special damage reduction attribute as standard.
Not just one.
He had five separate damage reduction attributes layered onto it, plus an option to lower critical hit probability.
Yet they broke through it.
They pierced through and dealt this much damage anyway.
“Is this… even real?”
MR Grade.
Jin-woo had definitely reached MR Grade. Even if he’d grown further, it could only be MR+ Grade at most.
“Power Scouter.”
He activated the special skill of the Noble Knight class.
“Ha.”
As expected. Both familiars’ equipment registered as MR+ Grade.
“MR+ equipment—and this power?”
Prudite had seen countless battles.
He’d certainly faced MR and MR+ Grade equipment before.
At the highest levels of combat, such gear was commonplace.
Prudite himself wore equipment rated higher than MR+.
His hands trembled.
Trembling hands.
Yet this power made no sense.
He couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be MR+ Grade equipment.
“What exactly did he create…!”
Beyond imagination.
Only now did Prudite understand. Everything he’d thought he grasped about Gorden had been nothing but arrogance.
He knew nothing. If he’d truly understood Gorden, he wouldn’t be fighting now—he would have stopped it.
He would have spoken up first.
But because he’d merely pretended to understand, he’d brought this disaster upon himself.
“Hah…”
Now he could finally feel it.
Facing Jin-woo’s equipment directly, it lay far beyond expectation. This wasn’t something you could anticipate. This wasn’t something you could predict.
If it’s MR Grade, there should be a standard for that tier, shouldn’t there? This had exceeded that standard entirely. The tier meant nothing here. This lay… outside everything he knew.
“…”
Prudite’s mind churned in chaos. Had he been ignorant, experienced nothing, he would have been less shocked.
But because he knew so much, his judgment became that much more clouded.
First and Pur sensed that confusion.
A sharp hiss.
First poured power anew into the Eternal Cycle Sword.
The Eternal Cycle Sword was a blade carrying three primary attributes, each containing multiple elemental properties.
Those attributes shook Prudite violently. He tore a Potion from his belt and drained it urgently.
In an instant, his health surged back.
“Noble Light. Noble Light. Noble…”
Alongside that, he activated his self-healing skill to counter First and Pur’s follow-up assault.
Since they’d never faced a foe like this, First and Pur began deploying attack patterns they’d never attempted before.
Without pause between volleys, they hammered down relentless strikes.
Normally, with the Proclamation of Thousand Names and the special skills that came with Jin-woo’s equipment, they could dispatch most enemies.
The tower’s archdemons had fallen this way. Boss-class monsters had fallen this way.
The two familiars remembered the Underworld.
They remembered the humiliation. The day they’d failed to properly aid their master, the day they’d failed to fulfill their duty.
So they consumed everything.
They synchronized themselves with Prudite’s movements. They watched how he moved, how he reasoned.
The familiars shed the thought that they were strong. The opponent’s combat experience vastly outweighed theirs. Then like their master Jin-woo, they would simply learn.
Blue eyes blazed with savage intensity.
At the same moment, real-time experience began flooding into both familiars.
They had to push themselves harder. Judge faster.
And act with greater boldness.
Crack!
Each strike from First and Pur shed excess motion.
Clean movements. Efficient, mirroring Prudite’s own style.
“!”
The distance closed rapidly. Prudite’s brow furrowed.
Those movements hadn’t existed in them before. This style resembled…
“You learned it?”
It mirrored his own fighting form.
Clang! Clang! Clang! First’s relentless barrage, paired with Pur’s heavy, perfectly-timed strikes filling the gaps, drained his full health pool with terrifying speed.
“Ngh!”
Learning his movements meant they could read his breathing. The timing after each attack. The timing of defense, the timing of evasion—they’d stolen it all and were reading it perfectly.
At this rate, Prudite felt he was losing his mind.
His equipment was already breaking down continuously.
Clang!
—Equipment durability decreases!
And with this relentless pressure mounting, he couldn’t think straight.
“You cunning…!”
In that moment, his body went rigid. It wasn’t just the equipment they carried that was Jin-woo’s creation.
These familiars themselves were Jin-woo’s creations. They themselves were Jin-woo’s equipment.
A piercing wail.
Of course their functions would be beyond prediction.
A deafening boom.
Prudite was hurled backward with tremendous force.
—Health drops sharply!
Even when blocked, it felt like no defense at all.
“Ungh—!”
The sub-Guild Leader grimaced, forcing his body to move and create space.
Thanks to the Potion he’d consumed earlier and the Noble Light skill, his health had recovered to above eighty percent.
But his mind held only one thought.
Retreat.
Retreat at any cost!
The sub-Guild Leader swung his Shield at First and Pur again.
A brilliant burst of light.
Vast radiance gathered within the Shield.
“Great Mountain.”
The Shield expanded massively, sweeping both First and Pur backward in one violent blast.
Pur was sent flying.
First, however, drove his feet firmly into the ground and held his position. Doing so meant his health would take a severe hit.
“You held fast…!”
And it had proven highly effective. The Great Mountain skill gave Prudite room to breathe—an unconditional knockback that created space, a kind of evasion and escape technique all in one.
But they’d just negated it.
Using Great Mountain left him momentarily stiffened.
First saw it.
That window of vulnerability.
“Eternal. Cycle.”
A piercing shriek.
Prudite raised his Shield in desperation. The Shield’s power was all he had left now.
Steam erupted violently, massively strengthening the Shield’s defensive capability.
Clang!
Crack!
Where the Eternal Cycle Sword thrust through, cracks spread from that focal point. Snap. Crackling deeper. Small fissures branched into larger ones, then shattered like sugar.
—Equipment durability drops greatly!
“The Shield…”
As cracks spiderwebbed across it, the impact transferred to Prudite. He didn’t resist.
To survive, he couldn’t hold the Shield. He had to abandon it.
He released the Shield and twisted his body away.
The shockwave erupted outward instead.
Behind him.
“…”
First slowly nodded, as if impressed he’d surrender the Shield.
“Such. Methods. Exist. Too.”
Another fragment of combat experience was logged.
He’d survived.
But there was no way out now.
“…”
The price of his early aggression was coming due.
Gulp. Gulp.
He drank another Potion.
—Potion Addiction!
—While addicted, you cannot consume additional Potions!
—Health recovery is limited.
He’d maxed out on Potions. No further healing or buffs could come from them.
His health and mana were both depleted.
Meanwhile, First and Pur remained unscathed.
Pur, who’d been sent flying, returned.
A sharp hiss.
Fury radiated from the War Hammer.
“Hah.”
In truth, Prudite had merely endured against First and Pur. He’d dealt no meaningful damage to either.
A heavy step.
The two familiars closed in at once. They had no intention of showing mercy to a strong opponent like Prudite.
Prudite could no longer move.
Watching the two approaching familiars, he let out a hollow laugh.
“I’m finished…”
A final deafening boom.
—You have died!
Prudite, the sub-Guild Leader of the Special Months, was dead.
It was a result no one had anticipated.
For some Guild members, it was the first time they’d ever seen Prudite fall in battle.
The shock was absolute.
“… This… this can’t…”
What in the world was happening?
The Vanguard Commander couldn’t believe it.
The sub-Guild Leader was dead.
The pillar of Special Months, their mightiest force, had just been ended by Jin-woo’s hand. The sub-Guild Leader couldn’t die here.
“If this happens…”
Who was supposed to stop Jin-woo now?
Jin-woo approached the Vanguard party slowly. First and Pur, having finished the sub-Guild Leader, drove their feet hard into the ground and charged forward.
“Ugh!”
Jin-woo extended his finger toward the Vanguard Commander.
“Stand aside.”

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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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