The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 13

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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 13
Inside the Awakener Registration Office of the Republic of Korea.
Several people who had been loitering about the area every single day, changing their disguises without fail, gathered in a secluded corner.
They spoke to one another in low voices, turning their heads as if they were strangers.
“Anything yet? Has he shown up?”
“No. Another blank today. Damn it all.”
An agitated man let out a low curse.
Notably, the language they spoke was not Korean.
Their true identities were Awakeners from other countries.
But they were not challengers climbing towers—they were Scouters, specialized in persuading certain Awakeners to immigrate.
Since a powerful Awakener was the cornerstone of national security, Scouters were no longer unfamiliar figures.
They themselves knew the Korean Awaker Management Bureau was beginning to suspect their presence.
“Is it possible they’ve already found that Awakener and are just playing dumb to mess with us?”
“No. That won’t be it.”
One Scouter pointed with his finger toward the interior of the registration office.
Inside, Im A-yeong sat stressed nearly to the point of tearing her hair out from the endless stream of Tutorial-clear imposters.
The Scouters, who had felt her stress acutely during their time infiltrating, let out heavy sighs.
Never mind themselves—those people weren’t exactly having an easy time either!
“Perhaps we should pull out while we still can. Too much time has already passed.”
A Scouter ventured the suggestion, glancing to one side.
There, just as they had been for days, were people changing their appearances and loitering about the registration office.
Needless to say, they too were almost certainly Scouters from other countries or guilds.
When this many Scouters gathered, what happened when their target appeared was clear.
The strongest Scouter would crush them all under the name of the organization that employed him.
The Scouters currently speaking to one another were employed by major guilds, so their backing was far from weak.
Yet the world held countless guilds and nations more powerful than those who employed them.
Faced with an obvious retreat scenario, another Scouter bit his lip.
“Hell. If I could just bring in that Awakener, my life would bloom.”
The first Awakener to successfully clear the Tutorial.
His value was far higher than merely gaining fame.
The first value was information monopoly.
If they could hide the Tutorial-clear Awakener and monopolize high-floor Tutorial information?
They could prevent other Awakeners from clearing the Tutorial while producing clear-bearers for themselves alone.
The second value was the Awakener’s growth potential.
Until now, no country, no guild had ever fully succeeded in clearing the Tutorial.
But an Awakener who cleared such a Tutorial—how formidable would he become in the future?
The final value connected to this second one.
‘National security assured, national interests through Awakener support, personal publicity activities to boot. In essence, becoming a single mega-enterprise.’
The Scouter considering that value let out a hollow laugh.
It was so vast that he didn’t even feel envious.
The Scouter who had been hesitating over his colleague’s proposal shook his head.
“Let’s at least wait until today is done. Who knows? We might get lucky and meet him.”
Before the Scouter’s words could even finish, a message window materialized before their eyes.
It was an announcement sent by the tower to all Awakeners.
[The 11th Tower in the Republic of Korea has successfully cleared Floor 14, S-Rank.]
The Scouters who confirmed the tower’s announcement fell silent.
Other Scouters too seemed to show signs of panic upon checking the notice.
Then, commotion erupted inside the registration office.
“What did you just say? That you’re the Tutorial-clear Awakener?! Then what’s this announcement?! How did you get into the tower while talking to me?!!”
“G-gak, gak—!!”
“I-Im! Hold on! Words, use your words! Let go, let go!”
“Everyone, help restrain Im! She’s going to kill him at this rate!”
The Management Bureau personnel who had come to support the registration office rushed toward Im A-yeong, who was now strangling the impostor.
As if understanding her frustration, a Scouter turned away with an implicit nod.
“Let’s go. We’re done here.”
The other Scouters shared the sentiment, and people inside the registration office dispersed in small groups.
In the administrative office from which people fled like fugitives, only the angry screams of Im A-yeong echoed on.
* * *
Crack!
Shin Tae-ho lifted the Hammer buried in the body of an enormous centipede.
“The armor’s been scratched for the first time.”
Shin Tae-ho lifted the hammer and examined his chest.
Where the centipede’s sharp claws had struck, the armor bore thin gouges across its surface.
Of course, they were merely scratches—his body beneath remained unharmed.
Still, Shin Tae-ho refused to take the sign lightly.
‘No real damage yet, but I should gather materials now. That way, when I need it, I can forge new armor.’
What he wore now was made from common-grade items he’d dismantled in the Tutorial.
Though officially ranked as Elite, Shin Tae-ho harbored no intention of settling for it.
‘Back then, I had no Class, so I couldn’t use any abilities. But now that I’m a War Smith, I should be able to acquire Skills.’
Each Class came with a signature Skill that defined it.
The Skill Shin Tae-ho had wielded best in his former life as a blacksmith was Ability Bestowal.
Not the random unique effects he gained from items now.
Rather, setting clear intent and direction to grant specific, deliberate abilities.
There were two ways to acquire a Skill.
One was to accumulate Class experience through activities befitting your Class.
The other was to obtain one while climbing the Tower.
‘I remember the first Skill came at the twentieth floor. Six more floors, and I’ll have one.’
There was one thing that unsettled him.
His current Class was War Smith.
That is, a Special Class blending crafting and combat.
When he reached the twentieth floor and gained a Skill, there was no guarantee it would be crafting-related.
But Shin Tae-ho didn’t let it trouble him.
‘If I get a combat Skill, I’ll simply climb the Tower faster with that power.’
Shin Tae-ho’s goal was unambiguous.
To ascend the Tower that had crumbled in the future-turned-past, the Tower that had destroyed humanity’s world, and alter what was to come—
Whether the Skill he gained was for crafting or combat, either would serve his purpose on the Tower.
Having cleared the trial but remaining in the Tower, Shin Tae-ho filled his Circuit with Qi.
The higher the floor, the denser and richer the Qi—accumulating in his Circuit at several times the concentration of the first floor.
Yet even so, it was impossible to completely fill a Circuit as vast and towering as his seventh-level one.
[Remaining time has expired.]
[Transferring outside the Tower.]
Before Shin Tae-ho could even finish reading the message, he found himself back in his room.
Assessing the Qi that now filled his Circuit, Shin Tae-ho sighed with regret.
‘I gathered Qi the moment I cleared the trial, and still—I haven’t even managed ten percent.’
The Circuit’s Qi level determined its size, durability, and output.
Starting at seventh-level from the beginning, Shin Tae-ho’s Circuit was incomparably larger than any other Awakener at his floor.
But he wasn’t overly troubled.
Clearing the fourteenth floor this time had consumed roughly twenty percent of his Qi.
With what he had left, he could attempt four more floors.
Rumble—
Stepping out of the Tower, his stomach growled with hunger.
Noticing it was time to eat, Shin Tae-ho opened the refrigerator.
Unlike days past, it now brimmed with quality ingredients and delicious provisions.
‘A Korean lives on rice.’
His routine was monotonous: climb the Tower, then eat, sleep, and bathe—repeat.
All the more reason to make sure each meal was hearty and nourishing.
Shin Tae-ho prepared dinner from various meats and vegetables, then sat at the table.
Beside the table sat the egg, which he’d kept close ever since returning from the Awakener Registration Office.
‘When will this little thing finally hatch?’
Shin Tae-ho ate with one hand while stroking the egg with the other.
Ever since his instruction at the Management Bureau, he’d been caressing the egg whenever time allowed, following what he’d been taught.
Then, as he ate, a question suddenly occurred to him.
‘The education covered it—even while it’s an egg, emotional attunement is possible.’
If that were so, wouldn’t stroking it while infusing it with his own Qi prove more effective?
Curiosity stirred, Shin Tae-ho drew Qi from his Circuit and wrapped it around his hand.
He made it deliberately faint and weak, in case anything went wrong.
Stroke—
With heightened sensitivity from the Qi coating, he felt the egg’s smooth surface clearly.
Fortunately, infusing it with Qi seemed to cause no adverse effects.
Rather, the egg drank in his Qi slowly, like parched earth absorbing water.
‘Does it eat Qi?’
Intrigued by this strange phenomenon, Shin Tae-ho drew more Qi from his circuits.
His hands, now wrapped in denser Qi than before, caressed the egg.
Shhh—
Once again, the egg absorbed Shin Tae-ho’s Qi.
At the same moment, through Shin Tae-ho’s heightened sensitivity, he felt a minute tremor.
“What is this? Could it be…?”
Did the egg need Qi?
As the hypothesis took shape, the Qi enveloping Shin Tae-ho’s hand grew even more vivid.
Before long, Shin Tae-ho had forgotten all about eating and was completely absorbed in stroking the egg with Qi.
Once, twice, three times.
With each caress and feeding of Qi, the egg’s minute movements grew steadily more pronounced.
Then, at a certain moment—
Fine cracks suddenly spiderwebbed across the once-smooth surface, and the egg began to split open.
‘Is it hatching?’
Feeling his heart quicken, Shin Tae-ho fixed his gaze on the egg.
Now the egg rocked side to side like a pendulum in motion.
As the movements grew more violent, Shin Tae-ho stopped stroking it.
Yet the egg did not cease; it trembled on, the shell cracking open bit by bit.
When the fissure spreading across the surface at last circumscribed the equator—
Crack!!!
With one final mighty heave, a small foot burst through the shell.
Pop!!!
The moment the foot succeeded in breaking through, the shell shattered completely, and the summoned creature revealed itself.
Shin Tae-ho, who had been waiting eagerly for the hatching to finish, was utterly stunned.
“…What?”
Shin Tae-ho’s eyes went wide as saucers at the sight of the newborn life.
Large, luminous eyes; a slender body stretching to about the length of a forearm.
No fur or skin—instead, scales as fine and dense as those of a fish, covering the entire body.
And then the long horns, positioned like a deer’s antlers, and beneath them a pair of enormous eyes.
Though Shin Tae-ho had never seen this creature before, there was one animal he could recognize instantly from its likeness.
“A dragon…?”
Unaware of Shin Tae-ho’s stare, the newborn dragon rolled about on the dining table, trying to shed the remnants of the egg membrane clinging to its body.
At last succeeding in peeling away the membrane, the dragon shook itself in a drilling motion.
Having shaken itself clean, the dragon looked satisfied that its work was done—until it spotted Shin Tae-ho.
Its large eyes gleamed with light.
“Kyuu~!”
As if extending a greeting, the newborn dragon cried out powerfully.
Continued in the next chapter ▶
The Return of the Transcendent War Smith
Author
Seal Unbound
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
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※ Pentagram welcomes your precious manuscripts.

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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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