The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 361

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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 361
361.
A tower rising from the ground.
That was unmistakably the tower from the Main Quest.
“A tower?”
The Guild Members of Special Months who heard Jin-woo’s words stared at the towering spire.
Their faces twisted into expressions of considerable alarm.
“A, a tower……?”
“A Main Quest tower……?”
“Why. Why now.”
Sacra was a place that had nothing whatsoever to do with Main Quests.
If it had, Special Months would have already cleared it quickly.
“…….”
While they stood aghast.
Jin-woo’s mind was racing at full speed.
‘So Hamus did have connections with Demons after all.’
Having grasped the rough situation, Jin-woo smiled.
‘This is getting interesting.’
Hamus knew the danger of dragging Special Months into this.
‘So that’s why he made a contract with a Demon deliberately?’
He couldn’t know the details. But there was one thing he was certain of.
Now was not the time for him and Special Months to be fighting.
Jin-woo immediately unsummoned his Familiars.
Then he approached the Guild Members of Special Months casually.
“Who’s the one in charge here?”
“……That would be me. I’m Timple.”
The user who introduced himself as Timple stepped forward at Jin-woo’s words.
“Right. Timple. It doesn’t seem like now’s the time for us to be fighting each other, does it? Either way, we both know how this would end.”
“…….”
He couldn’t deny it. Even with the Guild Master present, the outcome would have been obvious—let alone now that he was gone. And Timple, the supposed person in charge, was only a Squad Leader-level user.
He was woefully inadequate to handle Jin-woo.
“Wouldn’t it be much better to gather up everything Special Months has left in Sacra instead?”
“……But wouldn’t that make us deserters?”
“I’m not saying you should run. I’m saying you should assess the situation properly. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Timple nodded at Jin-woo’s words. When he looked at the other Guild Members, they too were nodding.
It was sound reasoning.
There was no need for them to fight now. More than that—this was Jin-woo’s mercy.
“……Thank you for your consideration.”
However, Jin-woo wasn’t offering charity without ulterior motive.
‘I need information to give weight to my suspicions.’
Jin-woo needed an informant who knew this place well.
“The rest of you should gather your things. But you—the person in charge—you’ll come with me. We need to deal with that, after all. And while we’re at it, I’d like you to explain the situation to me.”
Timple deliberated briefly at Jin-woo’s words. There was nothing wrong with what he was saying.
He was simply grateful to Jin-woo for letting him preserve what dignity he could.
“Understood. Let’s go then. Thank you.”
* * *
Timple quickly issued orders to his Guild Members.
“Grab everything we can carry. And check the Death Penalties—brief any Squad Leader-rank members who respawn on the situation.”
“Yes, understood!”
“We’ll do that.”
Timple headed toward the tower with Jin-woo.
As they ran toward the suddenly risen tower, Jin-woo spoke.
“Give me a quick rundown of the situation first. Why hasn’t Hamus been seen?”
“Well…….”
“From the beginning, in detail, please.”
Timple explained the situation.
After driving out Baxter and making use of the Magic Core Theory he left behind, Special Months and Hamus had come to occupy Sacra.
After occupying Sacra.
The Guild Master Gordan and Council Member Hamus had discussed how to manage Sacra going forward.
“They discussed changing the Magic Core Theory to be permitted only to the powerful figures within the castle.”
The Magic Core Theory was too valuable to discard.
Although Baxter had left, abandoning the Magic Core Theory would actually be a loss.
“It was risky, but there was potential. If we controlled that risk properly, the Guild Master naturally wanted to make the Magic Core Theory the centerpiece.”
But Council Member Hamus, who had been pushing the Ether Core Theory, grew angry.
“Council Member Hamus was furious. He said it absolutely could not be done. He insisted the Magic Core Theory be completely abandoned and Sacra be covered entirely with the Ether Core Theory.”
A conflict arose there.
“But they kept working together anyway. We still had Council Members remaining, and there were powerful families involved.”
But Hamus began acting strange. He stopped coming to the daily meetings, his face disappeared from sight, and most tellingly, smoke no longer rose from his Workshop.
“He didn’t come to meetings, didn’t appear in official settings. He just barricaded himself in his room. The Guild Master kept trying to communicate, but he said he wouldn’t show his face.”
Hamus had shut himself away and stopped appearing.
“Actually, we were fine with it. Once Hamus withdrew his hand, we steadily secured Sacra.”
From Special Months’ perspective, who had been planning to make Hamus a figurehead and run things directly, it was rather convenient.
“That was everything up until just recently.”
That was the full account of everything before Jin-woo and Baxter returned to Sacra.
‘Apart from suddenly barricading himself in his room, it all sounds routine.’
The relationship between the two wasn’t as smooth as it seemed.
‘Clearly Special Months had the advantage.’
That made sense—Hamus’s supporting faction was Special Months itself. The Ether Core Theory he advocated for had its limits, and the mechanics built with it could only be limited as well.
And then Baxter returned.
With a monster.
“So that explosion just now was……”
“I genuinely don’t know either.”
Timple was merely a Squad Leader.
He only knew the general situation, so even if he wanted to share more detailed information, he couldn’t. The information available to him was limited.
‘But this is enough.’
He’d confirmed that the explosion just now wasn’t deliberate.
And he’d also figured out why Hamus hadn’t been seen.
‘Hmm.’
“Right before you arrived, the Guild Master went to Hamus and said he’d bring reinforcements. He told Council Member Hamus that he too had to help resolve this situation now.”
This part was most crucial.
Gordan had sought out Hamus. He hoped he would stop barricading himself.
‘But he probably still wouldn’t open the door.’
In this urgent situation, Gordan wouldn’t have indulged him as before.
‘He would have forced it open.’
Gordan was utterly defeated by Jin-woo. If Hamus didn’t come out now, Gordan would realize he had to surrender Sacra itself.
Hamus’s strength was necessary to stand against Jin-woo.
‘Gordan probably thought Hamus must have hidden forces stashed away. He probably meant to make a final defensive line with those forces.’
But there was no response, so he forced the door open.
‘And then the explosion. The tower appeared after that.’
Jin-woo wove the pieces of information together, assembling them into a picture.
‘That’s where it gets strange.’
How exactly had Hamus done what, and by what method, to make this tower appear?
‘Hamus was a weak Council Member.’
He came from a once-renowned family and had struggled to maintain his position as Council Member out of obligation to his family’s honor.
‘But then overnight he changed, made contact with Special Months, and turned everything on its head. Starting with driving out Baxter.’
Though he’d been cornered, such a drastic shift in personality couldn’t happen in an instant.
‘And in that process, he even killed someone close to him—a fellow Council Member—disguised as an accidental death.’
Could a weak Hamus, just trying to maintain his position and save his family, truly kill another Council Member and frame it as an accident?
‘If anything, he should have felt resentment toward the family that was pressuring him. The arrow should have been aimed at them.’
That meant there was something else at the root of all this.
‘I feel like I’m missing something.’
There seemed to be something more fundamental behind it all.
Lost in speculation about various scenarios, he suddenly found himself at the tower.
Whoooosh—
“This is… there’s really a tower here……”
Timple was shocked.
It was an enormously massive tower.
Where there had originally been a Spire, this tower loomed far larger.
Whoooosh—
Especially from the entrance poured forth an overwhelming Aura.
Dark and shadowed Aura.
The surrounding air was already thick and viscous with it.
-The tower’s Darkness Power tempts you.
-The tower’s Darkness Power tempts you.
-The Weakness Aura oppresses you!
The Weakness Aura flowing from the entrance engulfed Jin-woo. He brushed it off with a flick of his hand.
-Job Effect activates!
-Debuff is dispelled!
But Timple was trembling from head to toe from the Weakness Aura.
He could see his health declining in real time.
But he soon pulled something out and consumed it, recovering immediately.
“First time seeing a tower like this. It’s not a joke. Is it always this intense before you even enter?”
He was merely weaker than Jin-woo. He was an elite Guild Member of Special Months. This degree of pressure was something he could overcome easily.
“This place is pretty brutal.”
‘It looks like multiple towers combined.’
What he’d seen earlier seemed to be only part of this tower.
“It’s not just the building the Guild Master used…… there are towers rising throughout the entire castle. For such a colossal tower to appear like this. I honestly can’t tell what’s happening or how.”
Timple’s brow furrowed.
“Is this usually this size?”
“No. It’s larger than anything I’ve seen.”
“Then this is…… dangerous. Quite dangerous.”
Timple found himself stepping backward involuntarily.
It was a size that rivaled three towers combined—like three of the towers he’d seen in Elementia.
Grrrrrrr—
Something began flowing out from the entrance of the tower.
Three wings.
A Demon with a single massive horn on its head.
Sliiiiide—
This powerful-looking Demon was not alone.
Several more Demons emerged behind it.
“Come to greet us already? You humans have such fine manners.”
“Did you come seeking the power of malice?”
“The scent of this place is peculiar indeed.”
The Demon snickered and stepped free of the tower, then snapped its fingers.
Darkness rippled outward, and lesser Demons and monsters were summoned into being.
“You should know why you’re about to die. Humans.”
The Demon spoke thus and gestured.
“A human who summoned this tower made a Wish. That Wish was so great that all humans in Sacra became necessary as Sacrifice. This tower was created as the price.”
“So from this moment on, every living thing that treads upon Sacra shall become Sacrifice!”
Booooom—!
Jin-woo looked down at his feet.
A Magic Circle spread beneath him.
‘A vast Magic Circle.’
A Magic Circle that sprawled across all of Sacra.
“A Wish was made? What Wish?”
“That much……”
The Demon suddenly lunged at Jin-woo.
Its face spread in a wide grin.
“……you need not know.”
Shrieeek—!
In the instant the Demon’s claws were about to tear Jin-woo apart, his fingers snapped.
Whoooosh—
“Then you have no reason to live either.”
First shot out from the darkness, smoothly cleaving the Demon asunder.

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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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