The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 127

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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 Grade Blacksmith’s Return Chapter 127
“Good. Then shall we begin the transaction right away?”
Before Kogarum could finish speaking, a message window materialized before Shin Tae-ho’s eyes.
[A Quest has occurred.]
[Kogarum’s Trade Request]
Description: Kogarum wishes to trade his information in exchange for a specific price.
Once a trade is made, it cannot be undone. Upon accepting the Quest, you must proceed with the trade unconditionally.
[Do you accept the Quest?]
“I accept.”
Shin Tae-ho answered without hesitation.
Kogarum, pleased by his decisiveness, let out a laugh and sat down nearby.
“Good. Then, starting with the hammer’s origins—”
“Skip that. All I want is the hammer’s location. I don’t care how it ended up in the North, or what history surrounds it.”
“Is that so? Then this becomes easier.”
Kogarum shrugged lightly and gave a brief reply.
“The Holy Hammer is in Collapsed Mountain, our first city.”
“Your first city?”
“Yes. It was the first city we built when we migrated from south to north.”
Left abandoned in a city that had already crumbled—of all places?
Shin Tae-ho’s brow furrowed at the unexpected answer.
“I need to revise my questions. I should hear an explanation of why the hammer is there, and what condition it’s in now.”
“Ha ha ha! Yes, that’s something you ought to know. Then shall I explain our history, skipping the mythology?”
“Do that.”
“Good. Then I should start by explaining why we divided into north and south.”
Kogarum closed his mouth briefly to gather his thoughts, and his eyes grew distant with recollection.
“We dwarves have valued three things throughout our lineage as essential to life: ability, tradition, and spirit.”
Dwarves born as blacksmiths from birth.
For such dwarves, treasuring those three principles was entirely natural.
But the world did not stand still.
As time flowed and the world changed, that foundation began to shake.
“It was the depletion of resources. It was inevitable. At some point, the mountains yielded no more ore, no matter how we mined them. We could no longer craft.”
Still, the depletion of ore was something we might endure.
But when the ore ran out, what followed was—for a dwarf—like losing the very oxygen to breathe.
“The sharp decline of Karnix, which we had always needed as an essential material in processing all our ores. That was the cruelest blow.”
The crystallized essence of a powerful firearm that Shin Tae-ho had sought in a Trial alongside Bianca, Choi Yu-hwa, and Orum.
Karnix, already precious beyond measure, began to dwindle rapidly from that moment onward.
“That’s when the fracture began.”
Resources were dwindling, yet the young dwarves still needed constant practice to grow stronger.
Eventually, the younger dwarves began to prioritize the efficient use of materials.
Though this alone drew disapproval from the elders, they soon took another step beyond.
“For that, they had to break our rigid tradition—the rule that finished works must never be touched.”
Naturally, the elders who valued tradition resisted fiercely.
But unlike the age in which they had grown, the young dwarves raised amid resource scarcity prioritized efficiency and results.
Eventually, this escalated into generational conflict.
Knowing their time would never come, the desperate young dwarves gathered those of like mind and departed for the North.
“So that’s how the Northern Dwarves began.”
“Just so. And quite a tale it is. My beard was still stiff and springy then.”
Kogarum stroked his beard, now soft with age, as he continued his explanation.
Among those dwarves who journeyed north was a child from a clan that had guarded the Holy Hammer for generations.
And having steeled himself to leave his family behind, the hot-blooded young dwarf committed an act his kinsmen never knew of.
“He took the Holy Hammer his clan had protected for generations, along with all its records.”
‘So that’s how it happened.’
Shin Tae-ho, comparing Kogarum’s words with what Zetaum had told him, made peace with this hidden history.
As Shin Tae-ho accepted the explanation readily, Kogarum continued at once.
“Our rage was immense. It soon turned into a backlash against the Three Principles the old ones of the South so revered.”
Ability, tradition, and spirit—the things the southern dwarves prized so deeply.
But they were born into an age of scarcity and had no time or chance to develop their abilities.
They thrashed about seeking a breakthrough, only to be blocked by tradition and denied.
And instead, they were condemned for lacking the spirit to build strength more carefully.
“Consider this: trembling with rage and betrayal, would we who left to make a life of our own have cared about restraint?”
Shin Tae-ho shook his head.
Kogarum smiled broadly and nodded at how he grasped every word immediately, absorbing information like a sponge.
“That’s right. We were blinded by ambition. So we thought—what if we tried to use it? The legendary hammer, forged by the god of all blacksmiths?”
“So that’s how it came to pass.”
Shin Tae-ho, having learned the hammer’s origin, found it easy enough to predict the consequences.
Kogarum chuckled and nodded.
“The Holy Hammer was a weapon and tool that Vulcastos permitted only to his Champion. We simply treated that warning as an instruction not to touch it.”
Violation of the taboo brought swift retribution.
The Holy Hammer, as if channeling Vulcastos’s wrath, began to rampage.
It destroyed not only the city—the very first settlement the Northern Dwarves had built—but the mountain itself.
“We fled, but we were able to witness firsthand that the hammer’s power was real. Of course, we tried to recover it afterward. But….”
Kogarum trailed off.
Shin Tae-ho felt no particular need to press him further.
“I understand. The hammer was meant to lay the foundation for your people. Instead, it became a curse, and life grew even more desolate.”
“No. That’s not quite it.”
“It’s not?”
Shin Tae-ho looked at Kogarum with curious eyes.
But Kogarum merely smiled and shook his head.
“That matter has nothing to do with the hammer, so I won’t speak of it. Honestly, you don’t need to know anyway.”
“Now you’ve made me even more curious. Will you sell that information too?”
“A tempting offer indeed. But that one’s not for sale.”
To be precise, speaking of it would mean certain death, which made it impossible to sell.
But Kogarum revealed nothing of these thoughts, cleanly cutting off the conversation.
At his resolute tone, Shin Tae-ho abandoned any intention of pressing further.
“Understood. Then I should receive the most important thing. Where is the hammer now?”
“Of course I’ll tell you. But I’m curious myself. Why do you want to know its location?”
As he’d said, the Northern Dwarves harbored no desire to relinquish the hammer that had been passed down through generations as sacred.
They were simply giving up because they had no way to approach it themselves.
Yet watching Shin Tae-ho now, it seemed as though he knew exactly how to reclaim it.
‘If that’s the case….’
An unusual gleam flickered in Kogarum’s eyes.
But Shin Tae-ho, who had weathered countless trials, did not miss that gleam.
“Of course I’m telling the South. They’ve treated the hammer as sacred through the generations, and they desperately want to know what became of it.”
“Just telling them? Not trying to find the hammer yourself?”
“What nonsense are you talking? I’m not the one who uses hammers.”
Shin Tae-ho held up the crossbow strapped to his left wrist.
Only then did Kogarum’s eyes widen in realization, and he grimaced.
‘I was confused by that sturdy build. Come to think of it, even when he fought the orcs, he never wielded a hammer or a stone-thrower.’
He simply adjusted distance with movements light as wind and fired bolts.
Shin Tae-ho had never displayed the use of any weapon besides the crossbow.
Kogarum’s energy suddenly deflated, and he snorted.
“Going so far for those old-timers from the South. Remarkable. Then let’s end this transaction by telling you where the hammer is.”
Kogarum raised a finger and pointed in one direction.
“Northeast from here. Keep going and before you reach the Snowy Mountain, there’s a Collapsed Mountain. That’s where the Holy Hammer is buried.”
“You still call it the Holy Hammer, yet there must be a reason you haven’t gone to retrieve it?”
Shin Tae-ho probed carefully.
Without knowing what dangers lay ahead, any information would be useful.
But as Shin Tae-ho continued to press for details, Kogarum’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re not going to get it anyway—why are you fishing for that kind of information?”
“Because you’re receiving payment for it, I’m asking for information that matches the value. What? Is the price too low?”
Shin Tae-ho genuinely wondered if three thousand National Points was insufficient.
Since it was a matter of life and death, he was prepared to sell more points if needed to obtain the information.
But at the mention of three thousand National Points, Kogarum’s attitude shifted immediately.
“My apologies. You’re right. I should deliver information worth what I’ve been paid.”
‘Three thousand points far exceeds what they demanded of me. I should certainly do this much in return.’
Kogarum, thinking to himself, began his explanation with a serious expression.
“You understand, but the hammer was created for Vulcastos’s Champion.”
Now, with the tradition faded and memory unclear, the figure was simply called Vulcastos’s Champion in vague terms.
But Shin Tae-ho knew it referred to his own class—War Smith.
“Yet we were not Champions, and still we coveted that power. As payment, the hammer destroyed the city and went beyond that—it brought down the mountain itself.”
“Yes, that’s what they said—that he unleashed such power back then. But surely that anger must have subsided by now, don’t you think? After all this time—”
“It hasn’t subsided.”
“…What?”
Shin Tae-ho blinked, caught off guard by the unexpected answer.
Kogarum, who seemed to have anticipated this reaction, let out a soft laugh.
“If one unleashes such power, it should naturally exhaust itself and leave you drained—that much, I understand. But that hammer was honed by Vulcastos himself. It’s not something to be measured by our ordinary understanding.”
“What you’re saying is—”
“Yes.”
Kogarum nodded.
“That hammer has never stopped raging. It continues to release power in intermittent bursts. From that day until now.”
‘…Is that even possible?’
Shin Tae-ho’s eyes widened.
Having finished his explanation, Kogarum rose to his feet and brushed dust from his trousers.
“Time’s worn thin. Shall we call this trade complete? Do you agree?”
“…Yes. I understand.”
[Quest completed.]
[National Points used in transaction: 3,000.]
[Current National Points held: 26,700]
The moment the transaction concluded, messages flashed across the screen.
As Shin Tae-ho confirmed his remaining points, Kogarum turned to leave.
“I hope you’ll build credibility with the old ones using what you’ve learned. I’m already looking forward to our next trade.”
A faint aura flickered around him, and Kogarum vanished swiftly into the distance.
Yong-ryong-i, who had been keeping vigil over Shin Tae-ho in case any fight broke out above, descended rapidly.
“Yong?”
Wrapped around Shin Tae-ho’s neck, Yong-ryong-i let out a short, questioning cry.
Shin Tae-ho smiled, stroking Yong-ryong-i’s head gently.
“That’s right, Yong-ryong. We did it.”
As he spoke, Shin Tae-ho’s gaze remained fixed ahead.
There, a notification for a Class-Exclusive Quest shimmered, beckoning him forward.
Continued in the next chapter ▶
The Transcendent Grade Blacksmith’s Return
Author
Seal Breaker
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Gerae Publishing
Inquiry Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited, and violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram awaits your precious manuscript.

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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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