The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 9

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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 9
Episode 9.
Tutorial Hall of Honor: 200 points.
It was surprising that a user had finally broken through 200 points, but there was something even more surprising.
A Legendary Job Quest.
He’d received a Legendary Job Quest — something only two users had ever obtained before.
And he’d obtained it far more quickly than either of them.
“Even if he is a Suited Person, how on earth did he get this? The Self-Defense Corps captain in the tutorial gave him a Legendary Quest? Was that ever even supposed to happen?”
The Self-Defense Corps captain was a famous tutorial NPC.
He was the NPC who first handed out quests to users, and also one of the stingiest in terms of rewards.
Since he was the NPC who let players experience various approaches and demonstrated that NewGen quests had flexibility, he’d given out many different rewards — but those rewards had always been remarkably mundane.
Even when players cleared quests that seemed like they should yield better loot, he would hand out mediocre rewards.
“What? He got a Crafting Hammer?”
“Blacksmith users so far have gotten at most a few materials, haven’t they?”
Of course, those materials were also considered quite good rewards.
The tutorial zone had quite a few hidden rewards scattered throughout.
There were many rewards even the management didn’t know about, and top-tier users had dug up every single one.
But until now, every blacksmith user had received essentially the same rewards.
Materials of slightly higher grade.
Materials that were a bit difficult for beginners to obtain.
Starlight, who was currently competing for first place in the crafting rankings, had received quite good rewards too, but had never gotten a hammer.
“What did Craft Hanwool get?”
Craft Hanwool was also a famous user in the crafting community.
“They received Amethyst Dust.”
“Amethyst Dust is specialized material for Alchemy, isn’t it? It’s good material, but that was about the extent of it.”
Craft Hanwool, who had shown promise in the Hall of Honor with high scores, had received only Amethyst Dust from the Self-Defense Corps captain.
“What about InClassic?”
“InClassic didn’t start with crafting early on. I believe they received a sword.”
The current crafting scene was intensely competitive.
There was no overwhelming number-one position; users were competing with each other to claim the top spot.
InClassic and Starlight were at the very top, while Craft Hanwool was positioned in the top ten.
“Hmm.”
Jin-woo had received a Crafting Hammer that even these top users hadn’t been able to get.
The Vice President quickly read further in Kim Na-yoon’s report.
The report’s contents were full of surprises.
“I never would have thought he’d create headline news this quickly.”
She had certainly expected that Jin-woo, being a Suited Person, would do interesting things.
But she hadn’t anticipated that he’d accomplish these things so rapidly, or do things entirely without precedent.
Tens of millions of users had received quests from the Self-Defense Corps captain, yet none of them had ever earned this level of reward.
“And on top of that, a Legendary Quest. This is the most absurd part. This is the first time anyone’s received a Legendary-grade job in the tutorial.”
“Yes, that’s correct. There are currently two users in the crafting field who obtained Legendary jobs, but both of them received the quest well over level 200, and they’ve since undergone second and third job advancement.”
When those users were grinding away and eventually obtained their Legendary jobs,
Jin-woo received his Legendary Job Quest right there in the tutorial.
The difference was overwhelming.
“Was being a Suited Person the condition for receiving a Legendary Quest in the tutorial? Unlike other jobs, the blacksmith job particularly depends on Synchronization Rate.”
“That does seem likely. But we can’t be certain without more information.”
One of the staff members answered the Vice President.
“Keep monitoring him. Report to me immediately! Mark him as a Special User right now!”
Special Users were users whom NewGen monitored with special care.
NewGen obviously couldn’t monitor all 100 million users.
So they designated Special Users and focused their monitoring on them.
The majority were users in the rankings, but being designated a Special User right from the tutorial — Jin-woo was the first.
These users were always at the forefront of NewGen’s main quests and various other quests, so any issues would be flagged immediately.
Furthermore, tracking their progress allowed NewGen to set the direction of updates and patches, making it highly beneficial for NewGen to monitor their status.
“Understood. I’ll register him as a Special User immediately.”
“This is a first, isn’t it? A user getting designated as Special User so quickly?”
The Vice President left, and
Kim Na-yoon’s coworker spoke.
“Yes. But somehow I feel like there’s just going to be more surprises from now on.”
First. Firsts.
For some reason, it felt like these words would become Jin-woo’s defining characteristics.
“I think I should stock up on Clarity Pills in advance.”
* * *
After earning Rodrum’s approval and obtaining unlimited access to his forge, Jin-woo practically lived at the smithy from that day onward.
Clang! Clang!
“I can use as much material as I want!”
Rodrum’s smithy had quite a lot of materials.
Of course, they weren’t remarkable materials.
They were materials you could find anywhere, materials befitting one of the beginner villages, Ritten.
It was only natural. There were always limits to what you could do in a beginner village.
And besides, users didn’t stay long in beginner villages anyway.
Meeting other players and interacting with them was important for progressing in NewGen.
Forming a party was especially important.
You needed to join a party to grow quickly.
That way you could receive EXP Acquisition Bonuses, and it was the method recommended even in NewGen walkthroughs posted on community forums.
But for Jin-woo, none of that mattered. If anything, he was delighted to have access to diverse materials.
‘Making good equipment from good materials is easy.’
But making good equipment from ordinary materials required real skill.
‘That’s what makes it fun.’
“Then I’ll use whatever I need.”
For Jin-woo, the grade of the materials that caught his eye didn’t matter.
What mattered most was simply that he could now make whatever he wanted.
“Let’s do this.”
Whoosh—
Clang!
Jin-woo began hammering.
The work was demanding and difficult. But he’d already grasped the rhythm.
“I’m starting to feel it.”
Ordinary materials began transforming into good equipment under Jin-woo’s hands.
-Equipment crafted!
-C-Grade equipment crafted!
-C+-Grade equipment crafted!
“I think I can shave off some more time here.”
Jin-woo began adjusting his technique with increasing precision.
-Dexterity has increased!
Dexterity climbing steadily, equipment accumulating by his side.
Clang! Clang!
After making five pieces of equipment in a single day,
-Level up!
From level 1 to level 2.
Jin-woo’s level rose.
“There’s no need to hunt. I can level up just fine through crafting.”
But Jin-woo didn’t know.
He didn’t know how extraordinarily difficult it was to level up from five pieces of equipment.
The next day.
The Apprentice, who’d been given homework by his master Rodrum, was bleary-eyed after spending the night forging a single sword.
“I worked all night and still couldn’t finish even one.”
Making a single piece of equipment took considerable time. Moreover, it was grueling work that left you exhausted, so you couldn’t craft continuously.
Whoosh—
“What—?”
It was early morning, so his master Rodrum would still be asleep at this hour.
But he felt heat.
As he stepped inside, warmth greeted him.
“You’re certainly dedicated from the crack of dawn, Jin-woo… wait. What? Huh?”
The Apprentice’s expression shifted to shock.
“What in the—”
Equipment was stacked high beside Jin-woo.
“Wait, it’s not just this morning, it’s… this…”
The sheer number of pieces was beyond reason.
“Did you… did you make all of this yourself? Today? All day long?”
“Yes. Unfortunately I had to stop because I ran out of materials. Do you happen to have any left over in the storage?”
The Apprentice was astounded.
There must have been quite a lot of materials.
And he’d used it all up making these pieces.
And he must have been utterly exhausted too.
“You really used up all those materials…?”
But that wasn’t even the most shocking part.
“Wait, the quality… how is this even possible?”
These were made with materials the Apprentice recognized perfectly well.
The Apprentice knew every single material in the smithy, which made this even harder to comprehend.
How could these materials possibly yield results like this?
“How did you do this?”
The Apprentice had no choice but to ask.
“This isn’t Crafting anymore—it’s Alchemy-level work.”
At those words, Jin-woo laughed.
“I’d like to learn Alchemy too.”
The Apprentice’s jaw dropped.
If a man who crafts like an Alchemist started learning actual Alchemy, how incredible would he become?
“I’m joking.”
It really didn’t sound like a joke at all.
* * *
“Phew.”
The user Ha-ram found himself gripping a hammer and crafting every day, much against his intentions.
“Even after crafting all day, I can barely make a single piece of equipment.”
Short swords he could manage with effort.
But other types of equipment required crafting skills. You needed the stat bonuses from skills to make them work.
“I have to make things to improve, but…”
He still felt dizzy from those shocking scenes he’d witnessed at the smithy.
So before he knew it, his feet were carrying him back toward Rodrum’s smithy.
“Let me hit the forge hard. If I show genuine effort, maybe they’ll teach me the skill.”
Clang!
Jin-woo was still there.
Upon spotting Ha-ram, Jin-woo waved in his direction.
“Hello.”
“Oh, hello.”
He hadn’t expected to be greeted back.
“!”
As he was about to check out Jin-woo’s work, he noticed something stacked nearby.
“Don’t tell me you made all that just now?”
It had been a little over four days.
Over twenty pieces of equipment made in just four days?
Even Ha-ram, currently level 5, found it hard to make one per day.
“If I may ask, what’s your level?”
“I just turned 3 today.”
“3? You’re level 3?”
Ha-ram was level 5. Two levels higher than this person.
“So you’ve been leveling up purely through crafting, then?”
Crafting does grant experience.
But since crafting itself was so difficult, you’d need to dedicate a lot of time to it for crafting to be your primary source of leveling.
Hunting was far more efficient in comparison.
From what Ha-ram understood, among blacksmith users, most did some crafting, but kept up with hunting to maintain pace.
Your stats improved as your level rose, and better stats let you make better equipment.
But Jin-woo hadn’t hunted.
Only crafting.
“Yes.”
He’d reached level 3.
And despite being only level 3, he’d made this many pieces of equipment.
“So you made all this in four days—”
“No. I made all of this today.”
“Pardon?”
But Ha-ram received an answer that defied his expectations.
“You’re saying you made all of these in just one day?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t made over four days.
Just one day.
All of this was made in a single day.
How could that be?
How was it even possible?
“That doesn’t make sense. You don’t have eight hands. You’ve got the same two as everyone else. Did you learn a skill or something?”
“Not yet.”
“…You haven’t? You haven’t learned a skill yet?”
“I was told someone would teach me, but I thought things might become easier then, so…”
“…”
Ha-ram had nothing to say.
He’d been complaining that he couldn’t craft without Crafting skills, yet this person had declined to learn skills because it would make things too easy.
“Sorry to bother you, but could I ask a few questions?”
This wasn’t something you could reach through just making good items.
That’s why he was curious.
“Did you happen to acquire a Dexterity stat?”
“Yes. Do stats usually generate this easily?”
“…What? No! Dexterity is a really rare stat to generate!”
“I see.”
Jin-woo nodded matter-of-factly.
“Since I’ve just started, I understand that NewGen doesn’t generate stats easily. But then, do stats rise easily once they exist?”
“No! That’s not it either! They don’t generate easily AND they don’t rise easily!”
Ha-ram shook his hands in panic.
“Stats increase when you repeat certain actions or perform actions that demonstrate mastery! But that’s not easy. It’s much more efficient to get level-up points and allocate them to stats!”
“I see.”
That seemed similar to Eternal Sunshine in that regard.
Back then, Jin-woo had been able to raise stats quite easily too.
“Especially Generated Stats — stats like Dexterity that didn’t exist from the start — those are hard to generate AND even harder to accumulate.”
Stats like Dexterity that didn’t exist initially were called Generated Stats.
“In summary, they’re difficult to generate AND difficult to raise!”
“Ah, I see.”
Jin-woo said,
“It seemed much easier than the game I played before, so I thought it wasn’t difficult.”
“…”
Ha-ram fell silent.

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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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