The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 23

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Transcendent Blacksmith’s Return — Chapter 23
Crack!
Shin Tae-ho yanked the hammer free from the giant poisonous centipede’s skull and pressed it against the corpse of the dead Forest Goblin.
Though already dead, the goblin’s flesh blackened where the poison clinging to the hammer’s head made contact.
“Yong-ryong. I told you not to use fire recklessly. Save it until I give the word.”
“Ryoong…”
At Shin Tae-ho’s rebuke, Yong-ryong’s spirits sank.
He’d tried so hard to help, only to receive this casual criticism in return.
Reading the creature’s wounded pride, Shin Tae-ho stroked its head and offered an explanation.
“Of course I found it much easier to fight thanks to your help. But breathing fire drains my energy far too quickly.”
Ever since Yong-ryong had assisted him at the Blacksmith’s Workshop.
The World Tree energy that had filled Yong-ryong to the brim had now depleted to barely half.
In other words, using fire required that much energy expenditure.
Since Yong-ryong consumed energy at a staggering rate, there was no way to know when they could replenish it to that level again.
“I should have explained this sooner. If I hurt your feelings, I’m sorry, Yong-ryong.”
“Ryong-ryong!”
Yong-ryong shook its head.
Hearing that Shin Tae-ho wasn’t truly angry, the sense of injustice melted away instantly.
With a small smile, Shin Tae-ho swung his hammer to the right.
A Forest Goblin that had been waiting for an opening to ambush him took the blow full in the head and shrieked as it fell.
“You’ve worked hard enough already. Get some rest. I’ll call if I need you.”
“Ryong!”
Yong-ryong chirped in acknowledgment and slipped inside the armor, coiling snugly around Shin Tae-ho’s neck.
Though he hadn’t let it show, the relentless fighting had left him genuinely exhausted.
Hammer in hand, Shin Tae-ho surveyed his surroundings.
Having only just arrived, enemies still stretched before him in seemingly endless waves.
‘Time’s running short.’
Shin Tae-ho checked his remaining Time Limit.
The 16th Floor allotted ten hours.
That span had been measured on the assumption of rescuing only a single faction.
Before coming to rescue the Dark Elves, Shin Tae-ho had already spent time saving the Pure Elves who arrived first.
Then, more time had been consumed traveling to the far reaches of the realm where the Dark Elf tribe made their home.
As a result, he had barely an hour remaining to rescue the Dark Elves.
Even rescuing the Pure Elves had cost him roughly three hours.
The enemies here were of identical caliber to those he’d faced among the Pure Elf tribe.
At this rate, he would fail to clear the stage.
Yet instead of urgency, Shin Tae-ho’s eyes gleamed with strange anticipation.
‘So this is the time to use it.’
The items Shin Tae-ho had crafted in the Tutorial were a hammer and armor.
He had used the hammer’s unique ability, Destructive Strike, countless times.
But he had never once activated the armor’s unique ability, Steel Pulse.
The reason was simple.
Unlike Destructive Strike, Steel Pulse carried a significant penalty, making it impossible to use freely.
Until now, he had never faced a situation dire enough to warrant its use.
In that sense, the elves were aiding him.
And this moment—pressed for time and fighting against the clock—was the perfect occasion to deploy Steel Pulse.
As Shin Tae-ho recalled Steel Pulse, the skill’s description materialized before his eyes.
[Steel Pulse]
Description: Upon activation, the armor draws in the user’s energy and converts it to vibrational force.
The vibrational energy permeates the body, enhancing physical abilities, and every attack becomes imbued with the armor’s vibrations, releasing shockwaves across a certain radius.
Effect: Energy output directly correlates to shockwave intensity and can even stun enemies.
Every second the skill remains active, the armor’s Durability decreases at a fixed rate. Taking a hit increases the rate of Durability loss.
An ability that quite literally borrowed power at the cost of Durability.
He had preserved it for a truly desperate hour.
But Shin Tae-ho now understood: this was that moment.
‘Let’s do it.’
Shin Tae-ho activated Steel Pulse, the armor’s unique ability.
Energy was forcibly pulled from his meridians, surging through the armor like blood coursing through veins.
And several seconds later.
Shin Tae-ho’s armor began to emit an otherworldly hum and trembled to life.
Zing! Zing!
“Creak?”
Though they could not penetrate it, the Forest Goblins that had been firing arrows at Shin Tae-ho’s armor grew flustered.
The sound resonating from the armor seemed to them like a strange cry they had never heard before.
Sensing the ominous vibration, the enemies began to form a circular encirclement around Shin Tae-ho to concentrate their attack.
But Shin Tae-ho, wielding the Steel Pulse, had no intention of wasting even a fraction of a second.
Crack!!
“Screeeee!”
“Kyaaaah!”
As Shin Tae-ho brought his hammer down upon the earth, a shockwave rippled outward in all directions, engulfing the enemies.
The light-bodied goblins tumbled and rolled across the ground.
The larger and heavier beasts—giant centipedes and massive worms—found their muscles seized and paralyzed by the tremor.
Bang!
Whoosh!!
A thrown hammer tore through the air and crashed against the head of the giant poisonous centipede.
The vibration created by the Steel Pulse clung to the hammer that Shin Tae-ho had hurled.
As it struck the head, a burst of flame erupted and spread far wider, engulfing the surroundings.
“Ugh! What, what is that?”
The Dark Elf commander cradled his head and turned to the Pure Elf commander in alarm.
For elves with their keen hearing, the vibrations of the Steel Pulse resonated far louder and more vividly.
Yet the Pure Elf commander was equally pained and bewildered.
“I, I have no idea! When he fought in our camp before, he never used such power…!”
Crack!!
Frost erupted in rapid succession before the flames had even died.
The Elf warriors who had been blocking the enemies with their bodies in the forward line were caught in the frost’s blast.
Seeing exposed skin begin to freeze instantly, the commander cried out.
“Fall back! Do not engage the enemy directly!”
“Fire bows and spears from a distance! Do not approach the enemy!”
The elves’ defensive line retreated sharply backward.
As they withdrew, the enemies that rushed forward to close the distance were again halted, their bodies paralyzed by the vibration spreading across the earth.
Flame and frost poured down upon the motionless enemies’ heads.
As the vision cleared from the haze, only corpses—burned and frozen—remained.
“That, that person is truly….”
The elves gazed upon Shin Tae-ho with expressions of shock and awe.
Even with support paused momentarily, the enemies continued to fall without ever reaching near the defensive line.
The earth trembled, and flame and frost poured from the sky.
The elves, who in their long lives had never imagined such a sight, stood transfixed, witnessing this impossible battle.
* * *
Crunch!
The skull of the last remaining Forest Goblin was crushed beneath the hammer.
Confirming that no enemies remained, Shin Tae-ho immediately deactivated the Steel Pulse.
Checking the armor’s condition, he found its Durability had been reduced by more than half.
‘I see. I cannot use this recklessly.’
Shin Tae-ho felt a pang of regret.
The effect was better than expected, but as always, great power came with great cost.
As Shin Tae-ho stopped moving, Yong-ryong emerged from within, moving unsteadily.
He appeared dizzy, as if intoxicated.
“Bleegh—.”
‘Ah. Of course—Yong-ryong experienced the full brunt of those vibrations.’
Realizing what he had overlooked, Shin Tae-ho apologized and gently patted Yong-ryong’s back as the creature retched.
Feeling Yong-ryong settle down, Shin Tae-ho checked the message window.
[16th Floor Trial cleared.]
[Clear Grade: Immeasurable.]
‘Immeasurable? In a Tower, not the Tutorial?’
With only five minutes of Time Limit remaining, Shin Tae-ho was startled—this was the first time he had missed an S rank.
Back when he fought the Knightly Armor Undead on the final floor of the Tutorial.
Shin Tae-ho had defeated the Knightly Armor despite being unable to use Qi, clearing the Tutorial.
That was when he first learned that a grade called Immeasurable existed.
But for such a grade to exist in the Tower and not just the Tutorial?
As Shin Tae-ho marveled, the message window continued to rise without pause.
[Pure Elf encampment Durability has fallen below 5%.]
[‘Savior of the Pure Elves’ Achievement acquired!]
[Dark Elf encampment Durability has fallen below 5%.]
[‘Savior of the Dark Elves’ Achievement acquired!]
[Fame increases significantly!]
[Due to Achievement effects, Affinity toward you from the Elves increases greatly!]
[Due to Fame effects, Trust from the resident races toward you increases greatly!]
‘Affinity and Trust.’
Shin Tae-ho smiled as he watched Yong-ryong, having read through the cascade of message windows.
This tremendous outcome was possible only because Yong-ryong had shown him a third option he himself hadn’t conceived of.
“Thank you, Yong-ryong.”
“Yong-heek!”
Yong-ryong, barely composing himself, tilted his head in confusion.
Then the Elves, who had been hesitating inside, began approaching Shin Tae-ho one by one.
“H-hero. Is it truly finished…?”
“As you can see, there appear to be no enemies left.”
The Elves trembled anew at Shin Tae-ho’s reply.
Easily over a thousand Forest Goblins had attacked the forest.
Add to that the massive centipedes and giant venomous centipedes they’d brought with them.
Even for warriors such as themselves, defeat seemed inevitable.
Yet somehow their tribe had been defended against such overwhelming numbers?
More than that—Shin Tae-ho had not merely saved one faction; he had saved both the Pure Elf and Dark Elf encampments.
The Dark Elf commander, swallowing hard, carefully stepped forward.
“H-hero, might I be so bold as to ask your name?”
“My name is Shin Tae-ho. And this child is Yong-ryong.”
“Yong-ryong~.”
Yong-ryong responded, raising his short front legs.
The Elves repeated the names to themselves, determined not to forget them.
“We shall remember. Then, please, come inside—”
“No. I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
Seeing that less than a minute of Time Limit remained, Shin Tae-ho shook his head.
As the Elves stood bewildered, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘They’ll forget when the next floor begins. But just in case, perhaps I should leave them something to remember, the way Epiel did.’
As Shin Tae-ho pondered what would be best, the perfect item came to mind.
When Shin Tae-ho withdrew the item from his inventory, the Elves’ eyes widened in unison.
Some of the older Elves, whose knowledge ran deep, gasped so sharply they could barely breathe.
Shin Tae-ho held the World Tree Leaf out for all to see and opened his mouth.
“If we meet again—”
[Time Limit has expired.]
[Transferring outside the Tower.]
Before Shin Tae-ho could respond to the message windows, his body vanished from the Tower.
Yet the Elves could not tear their gaze from where he had disappeared.
The moment Shin Tae-ho had shown them the World Tree Leaf.
The Elves, beings harmonized with nature, could sense that it had come from the World Tree itself—their very faith incarnate.
“The hero sent by the World Tree…!”
The World Tree, whom the Elves revered as divine.
In their eyes, Shin Tae-ho, holding the World Tree Leaf, had already become both a hero and the World Tree’s avatar.
“The World Tree has sent a hero to save us—!!”
One Elf, unable to contain his exultation, cried out.
The fervor spread among the Elves like fire across dry grassland.
Pure Elves and Dark Elves who, across countless ages, had never once stood united.
Yet in this moment.
All the Elves wept tears of joy, calling out the names of the World Tree, Shin Tae-ho, and Yong-ryong.
Continued in Next Episode ▶
The Transcendent Blacksmith’s Return
Author
Seal Breaker
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing Company
Published by Graeche Publications
Inquiries
[email protected]
Date of Publication
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes your precious manuscripts.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————