The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 110

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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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Transcendent Blacksmith’s Return — Episode 110
Thud! Crack!
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Blows whistled past and clashed, the sound reverberating across the Plain.
Tsukuyomi pressed his full strength into attacking the orcs one by one.
But the orcs were careful never to bunch more than five together, lest their attacks tangle.
The moment any of them took even a scratch or tired, they rotated out with another from the rear—a practiced discipline.
“Damn them!”
Hemmed in, Tsukuyomi compressed his Energy tighter through the Fan.
He searched desperately for a breakthrough, but the Wheel Formation of over fifty orcs left no opening.
That new Armor, wherever they’d procured it, bore only superficial scars even from attacks wrapped in Energy.
But the real problem was that they fought now on the Plain, where shadows barely existed.
‘How did they set this trap? And even if they did—why spread it across such open ground?’
As though they knew his very abilities.
[Activating Shadow Slip.]
As the overlapping shadows of the orcs deepened in the sunlight, Tsukuyomi seized the moment and triggered the skill.
He sank into shadow like water and emerged from the tree’s shadow where Amaterasu hid.
He’d wanted to move closer to Amaterasu, but the shadows there weren’t deep enough for Shadow Slip to function.
“There you are!”
“Tsukuyomi! Watch out!”
Amaterasu cried out, still locked in combat with the orcs using her Oodachi.
In that instant, Tsukuyomi’s battle-honed Energy Sensing detected a sickening pulse of power rushing toward him.
He whirled the Fan to block, but the tremendous force overwhelmed him, and his body flew backward across the ground.
“Ugh!”
Even as he was hurled through the air, Tsukuyomi regained his center and managed a rough landing.
He raised his head and saw a red-skinned orc standing directly across from him—the one who’d struck him down.
“Kruck. You wield your soul in curious ways.”
This orc’s Armor was far more ornate and heavy than the others’.
Its head alone seemed larger; its body far more honed than any around it.
Tsukuyomi groped through memory at a strange sense of déjà vu, then his eyes snapped wide.
‘That power… where have I felt it before? Ah—like the Ogre I faced at the Elf’s Tower.’
The towering orc wielded a Serrated Axe, stepping forward.
With a cruel smile, it raised the weapon toward Tsukuyomi.
“My name is Gakrak. I am a proud Blood Orc and captain of the scout platoon. I know you are strong. I wish to face you as your equal.”
“A Blood Orc?”
As Tsukuyomi asked in confusion, Gakrak’s body began to transform.
Blood-red Energy spread across its skin like liquid, and soon its entire form gleamed crimson as though drenched in gore.
But the change didn’t stop at the flesh.
The Energy that flowed from it—sticky and heavy as blood itself—made Tsukuyomi recoil in shock.
Yet his moment of alarm was brief.
When he saw an orc strike Amaterasu from behind, murderous intent blazed from Tsukuyomi’s eyes.
He bolted toward where she stood.
But before he’d gone far, Gakrak’s Axe came down beside him, cutting off his path.
“Out of my way!!”
Tsukuyomi threw his full force against Gakrak.
Despite his Assassin class, the Sword Slash he now wielded—longer and keener than anything Park Soo-hyuk had conjured—flowed through the Fan.
Yet even that could not draw blood from Gakrak’s form, wrapped in Energy-shielded Armor.
“Krrruck! Excellent! To think such solidity, such sharpness in a soul!!”
Tsukuyomi’s attacks rained down on Gakrak like a storm.
Every skill he possessed poured forth his Energy at maximum force.
Heedless of reserve, Tsukuyomi burned through his reserves; Gakrak’s once-solid Armor fractured, and wounds multiplied across his body.
Yet Gakrak weathered it like a sage, parrying only the fatal strikes.
While Tsukuyomi grew impatient, desperate to save Amaterasu, Gakrak withdrew into his shell like a turtle, waiting for his opening.
When Tsukuyomi’s Energy drained suddenly and exhaustion took hold—
Gakrak seized the moment with preternatural timing and began his counterattack.
Boom-crash-crack!
“Gaugh!”
Tsukuyomi gathered the last of his Energy and barely raised his Fan to block the Axe, which came down with the force to split him in two.
But the Fan shattered, and Tsukuyomi’s body soared helplessly skyward, like a kite with a severed string.
“Tsukuyomi!!”
Amaterasu faltered as she wielded the Oodachi, methodically dispationing the orcs.
Though not to Gakrak’s degree, the orcs’ keen combat instincts caught that moment of hesitation.
“Distracted in the midst of battle! Fool!”
“Krrrrck—! Kill her! Take her throat!”
“Hnngh—!”
As the orcs rushed from all sides, Amaterasu drew the great blade horizontally across her waist and pulled it back.
Energy surged powerfully, converging into a formidable spirit slash.
[Skill: Radiant Wheel Slash, Vortex Form activated.]
As the skill triggered, Amaterasu spun, the great blade clutched in her grip.
Rotating through a full circle as she slashed, the spirit energy clinging to the blade scattered outward.
Each shard of fractured light became a tiny blade, tearing through the bodies of the orcs that had rushed toward her.
“Krrrck! What—what is this!”
“It pierced the armor! Impossible!”
“Tsukuyomi—!”
Having scattered the orcs, Amaterasu rushed toward Tsukuyomi.
But just as Tsukuyomi had before, Gakrak’s Serrated Axe cut across her path.
Gakrak, wreathed entirely in a viscous and ominous aura, was delighted.
“Krrrgh. Your techniques are intriguing. Fighting a foreigner—most entertaining. You shall face me as well.”
The orc that Amaterasu had wounded slipped sideways, attempting to ambush her from behind.
But before Amaterasu could even raise her blade to guard, the orc’s skull split cleanly in two.
Amaterasu’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the axe that had cleaved the orc’s head.
Gakrak had carved open his own palm, smearing his blood across the blade’s edge.
Using that blood as a conduit, Gakrak released a spirit slash infused with his own energy, his eyes flaring wide.
“KRRRRCK!! This is MY prey! From this moment forward, anyone who meddles in this battle will not leave alive!!”
At Gakrak’s roar—like a beast guarding its kill—the orcs shrank back, flinching.
The wary orcs stirred, creeping sideways to encircle Gakrak, Amaterasu, and Tsukuyomi.
As hundreds of orcs formed a battle arena, Gakrak shifted his stance, clearing a path to Tsukuyomi.
Carefully skirting Gakrak’s reach, Amaterasu hurried to Tsukuyomi’s side and surveyed his condition.
“Tsukuyomi. Are you all right?”
“I am fine. But are you unharmed? Have you suffered any injury?”
“Of course I’m fine. Thank goodness we’re both unhurt, but what comes next troubles me.”
Amaterasu turned her gaze to Gakrak.
He was smearing the blood of the orc he’d killed across his axe blade.
The Serrated Axe, now soaked in the orc’s blood and cloaked in Gakrak’s own essence, looked like a shark opening its maw.
Amaterasu’s expression darkened.
“This is troublesome. From here on, I’ll need to fight with everything I have—wait. What’s this?”
As Amaterasu examined the shadows of the orcs, she spotted something strange and lifted her gaze to the sky.
At her motion, both Tsukuyomi and Gakrak followed her line of sight upward, eyes widening with confusion.
And there, floating in the empty air like a fish suspended in water, they saw the silhouette of a dragon gazing down at them—and for a moment, their minds simply stopped.
“Wh—what? Miss, that… do you see it? There, in the sky?”
“Y-yes? I’m not seeing things, am I?”
“Krrck. What is that?”
Yong-ryong-i, observing the orcs from above, nodded as if comprehension had dawned.
Then he suddenly opened his maw wide and bellowed toward one direction.
“Ryuu-ryuu! Ryoooong~!”
“…Huh?”
“That cry… it was ‘ryoong’?”
While Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi exchanged bewildered looks.
Gakrak’s eyes, fixed on Yong-ryong-i, narrowed. His grip on the axe tightened.
“Krrrgh. This is… bothersome. I’ll catch it and have a look.”
From Gakrak’s axe came an essence as red and viscous as blood, seeping through the blade.
Hefting the axe in a great arc, he released a crimson spirit slash that shot toward Yong-ryong-i like a bolt.
Amaterasu cried out in alarm.
“No! Get out of the way!”
“Ryou~.”
As if answering Amaterasu’s concern, Yong-ryong-i’s body rippled in response to her cry.
Moving smoothly and fluidly like a wave, Yong-ryong-i easily dodged the spirit slash.
“…Huh?”
Amaterasu was stunned.
She’d hoped he would escape—but with such effortless grace?!
Amaterasu was startled, but the one most shocked by the sight was Gakrak, who had unleashed the Spirit Slash.
‘How is this possible? My attack’s speed wasn’t slow. Yet he dodges with such ease?’
Gakrak ground his teeth together.
Pouring his soul into the axe once more, Gakrak swung it in rapid succession.
Spirit Slashes flew so densely that there seemed to be nowhere to escape—they descended on Yong-ryong-i again.
“Ryong-ryong~.”
Rather than weaving through the attacks as before, Yong-ryong-i simply darted away, evading entirely.
The missed Spirit Slashes faded uselessly into the distant sky.
“Krrrgh…! This bastard…!”
As tendons bulged across Gakrak’s brow and his eyes blazed crimson with rage,
an explosion rang out, and screams erupted from among the Orcs surrounding the three.
“Cruk?! What now?!”
All eyes snapped toward the rear.
There stood Shin Tae-ho, firing his Crossbow in rapid succession, ambushing the Orcs.
Bolts shot from the Crossbow struck true, finding the exposed necks of the Orcs between gaps in their Armor.
As the Orcs—who had given them such trouble—fell one after another, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“Who, who is that?”
“Cruk! An outsider! There was another outsider!”
“Not the ones carrying breastplates! These are new ones!”
“Attack! Attack them!”
The tightly clustered Orcs scattered and gave chase to Shin Tae-ho.
“Yoong!”
Seeing the Orcs pursue Shin Tae-ho, Yong-ryong-i began descending rapidly.
Like an airplane adjusting its wings, Yong-ryong-i’s sharply raised scales exuded venom, glowing a soft lavender hue.
Tink-tink-tink-tink-ting!
Yong-ryong-i’s scales struck against the Armor, scattering sparks.
For a moment the Orcs tensed, but when they felt no pain, they assumed the Armor had held—and relaxed.
That relief, however, quickly turned to terrible confusion.
“Cruk?! This—something’s wrong! My body! It hurts!”
“Krak! What are you talking about! The Armor is fine!”
“No—there’s still something—. Kugh! Kuweeee—!”
Unfamiliar agony as venom spread through them—utterly unlike a blade wound—sent the panicked Orcs into convulsions.
Crack-crack-boom!
As entrails twisted and skulls split with unbearable pain, the immobilized Orcs’ necks exploded as Bolts punched through.
Though they were Bolts forged from Middle-grade Qi Fragments, they possessed more than enough force to slay an Orc.
Shin Tae-ho examined the Armor the Orcs wore.
The finishing was rough and crude, but functionally, unlike before, it was properly equipped.
‘Certainly different from the tenth floor—these armored ones are troublesome to face. Without the Aion Relic’s accuracy effect, I’d be wasting far too many Bolts.’
The Orcs were strong enough to press even World Rankers like Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi.
Only the Aion Relic’s ability to strike true through every gap was absurdly overpowered.
The Orcs rushed at Shin Tae-ho but died with their necks burst open.
Shin Tae-ho broke through the encirclement with Guardian arts, the battle raging on.
Yet Amaterasu’s expression remained grim.
‘There are too many Orcs.’
Over a hundred Orcs had converged,
while only two—Shin Tae-ho and Yong-ryong-i—faced them.
If she and Tsukuyomi joined in, the tide would turn, but Gakrak wouldn’t release them.
As Amaterasu desperately weighed options to shift the stalemate,
she noticed the Orcs chasing Shin Tae-ho suddenly turned their gaze skyward, shouting.
‘What is it?’
Sensing something amiss, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi looked up.
There, traced in enormous mana, hung a colossal Magic Circle.
The instant they perceived it,
the activated Magic Circle began raining down countless fireballs like torrential rain.
To be continued ▶
The Transcendent Blacksmith’s Return
Author
Bong In Haejae
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publications
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and duplication are strictly prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes submissions from writers.

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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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