The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 32

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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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The Transcendent Blacksmith’s Return — Episode 32
The clamor that had filled the air moments before gave way to a heavy silence, as if someone had simply switched it off.
But it lasted only a moment.
People jolted awake from the shock, crying out as they surged toward Shin Tae-ho.
“Wait, wait just a moment! Are you saying you’re the Tutorial Conqueror?!”
“How are you going to prove that?!”
“Why are you here all of a sudden?! Are you planning to participate in the Gate conquest?!”
“Now, just hold on—!”
Police and soldiers who had only just regained their composure moved in to hold back the pressing crowd.
But the excited people would not stop; they kept advancing toward Shin Tae-ho.
Most were driven by curiosity and astonishment, but not all.
Whoosh.
A lone Awakener hidden within the crowd pulled a small Electronic Chip from their waistband.
It was an electronic device equipped with GPS tracking and eavesdropping capabilities.
An Awakener who had strengthened their body through Ki was attempting to plant the Electronic Chip on Shin Tae-ho’s Armor without being noticed.
But Shin Tae-ho, as though he had been waiting for precisely this moment, seized the Awakener’s wrist as they reached toward his Armor.
“Do you have a death wish?”
“Gasp—!”
Ki poured from Shin Tae-ho’s body.
Awakeners who could sense Ki, and ordinary people who could not, alike froze as the crushing weight of that presence bore down on them.
Im A-young’s eyes snapped wide when she saw the chip clutched in the hand of the person Shin Tae-ho had grabbed, and she cried out.
“What are you doing?! Protect that person at once!”
“Yes, yes!”
When staff from the Management Bureau rushed forward to cordon off the crowd, the people could no longer approach.
Shin Tae-ho wrested the chip from his target and handed it to Im A-young.
“This is getting tedious. I’m going in.”
“Wait, please. You just arrived suddenly, so even if you say you’re going in—”
As Im A-young moved to block Shin Tae-ho’s path,
a hand suddenly appeared from behind and cut across her line of sight.
She turned in alarm and saw Park Soo-hyuk shaking his head.
“Captain Im. I think it might be best to let this person go into the Gate as he says, right now.”
“But—!”
“Otherwise you’re planning to detain him here? I don’t think that’s the wisest course of action.”
Lee Ye-seul backed him up, gesturing with her chin toward the back.
Behind them, a sea of people was pressing forward like the shambling undead, desperate to reach Shin Tae-ho.
Seeing that foreign Awakeners tracked by the Management Bureau were now stirring into motion as well, Im A-young bit her lip.
“Very well. But you must find me as soon as you exit the Gate!”
At Im A-young’s cry, Shin Tae-ho turned his head.
Observing the desperate look in her eyes—the way she was struggling to hold onto him—Shin Tae-ho felt a quiet satisfaction bloom in his chest.
‘Good. She doesn’t recognize me.’
Whatever others might think, Im A-young had met Shin Tae-ho before.
But he had inscribed his items with a seal beforehand,
and the low-grade distortion rune etched into his Armor was doing its work—she had no inkling of his true identity.
‘She’ll be waiting for me when I exit. Once I clear the Gate, I’ll need to slip away using the route I scouted earlier.’
Turning his mind to what would come after he emerged, Shin Tae-ho stepped into the Gate.
* * *
“Hello. I’ve heard much about you. My name is Park Soo-hyuk. May I ask your name?”
Park Soo-hyuk introduced himself while probing delicately for information about who this person was.
But Shin Tae-ho did not answer his question.
“Now look here. I’m talking to you—”
“Be quiet. Did you come here for a picnic?”
“…What did you just say?”
Lee Ye-seul, who had stepped in to defend the slighted Park Soo-hyuk, widened her eyes at the unexpected rudeness.
She heard Cha I-hyun beside her let out a small laugh, and the tendons in Lee Ye-seul’s brow stood out.
“Wow. I have no idea how you earned an S-Grade all the way to the 60th floor. You clearly lack any sense of place—you make even Rankers look reasonable.”
“And you’re one to talk about reading the room. Making introductions inside a Gate, no less.”
“This… you—!”
Lee Ye-seul clenched her teeth in frustration.
But Shin Tae-ho paid it no mind.
Part of it was an act—a performance to hide his identity, to appear as someone else.
Mixed in with it all was a genuine surge of fury toward the situation itself.
‘I can’t believe I’d meet them here of all places.’
Shin Tae-ho clenched his teeth.
And for good reason—contained in this space was a being Shin Tae-ho despised with every fiber of his being.
A traitor who worshipped the Tower and had abandoned humanity to its fate.
‘So they were a Ranker back then. I didn’t know they’d participated in a Gate conquest.’
Shin Tae-ho’s fists clenched hard.
Part of him wanted to kill them on the spot, but Shin Tae-ho was a novice when it came to Gates himself.
Besides, with so many people watching from outside, he couldn’t afford to act on emotion.
“Hey! You done talking?! Just because you get a little attention online, you’ve lost your mind—”
Lee Ye-seul’s sharp rebuke aimed at Shin Tae-ho cut off abruptly.
In that same instant, every eye in the Gate snapped toward a single point.
Shin Tae-ho exhaled a weary sigh and opened his Inventory.
“Well done. Now the monsters know exactly where we are.”
“What?! This is all because of you!”
“Both of you, stop! We need to deal with those things first!”
Park Soo-hyuk shouted at the two of them and drew a sword from his Inventory.
Lee Ye-seul, still bristling with anger, gripped a Lance, while Cha I-hyun unsheathed a Dagger.
Confirming that Han Ji-hyun had drawn a Staff, Park Soo-hyuk raised his voice.
“Bagheest Riders! Their claws carry venom, so when Ye-seul and I hold the front line—”
A Throwing Hammer flew from behind Park Soo-hyuk as he barked orders.
The hammer streaked through the air like a bolt, struck the Bagheest, and the Forest Hopgoblin riding atop it tumbled to the ground.
“Wh-what was that?!”
Lee Ye-seul gasped in shock.
The Forest Hopgoblin and the Bagheest were each formidable opponents on their own.
A Bagheest Rider—a Hopgoblin mounted on a Bagheest—combined incredible mobility with raw power, making it one of the most difficult adversaries to face.
Yet a single blow had knocked the Hopgoblin clean off its mount?
Before the startled Rankers could gather their wits,
Shin Tae-ho rushed forward and brought the Combat Hammer from his shoulder crashing down onto the Hopgoblin’s skull.
The creature’s head caved in beneath its helm, and it expired without so much as a scream.
“I’ll handle my own fights. You all do the same.”
“W-wait!”
Han Ji-hyun called out, but Shin Tae-ho was already moving, catching the returning Throwing Hammer mid-flight and charging ahead.
Cha I-hyun, dagger in hand, stood slack-jawed.
“What was that? Were Bagheest Riders always that fragile? Or are they weaker inside a Gate?”
“I’ve never heard of monsters being weaker in Gates. Guess we’ll find out now.”
Having witnessed Shin Tae-ho’s combat prowess, Lee Ye-seul lowered her stance and aimed her Lance at the approaching Bagheest.
The exceptional S-Grade Lance that had elevated Lee Ye-seul to Ranker status thrust forward, targeting the beast.
But the Bagheest didn’t accept the obvious strike.
As the creature ducked sideways, the Hopgoblin atop it swung an iron club down at Lee Ye-seul’s Lance.
“Ugh?!”
The heavy impact sent a jolt through Lee Ye-seul’s wrist, and her Lance dropped.
Seizing the opening, the Hopgoblin drew an axe from its belt.
Hurling the axe with its monstrous strength, the blade cleaved through the air toward Lee Ye-seul’s head—until Park Soo-hyuk threw himself in front and knocked it aside with his sword.
“Kugh!”
The shock that traveled through his blade drew a pained breath from Park Soo-hyuk.
“Be careful! They’re not weakened in the Gate! They’re just as strong as in the Tower!”
‘Same as the Tower? Then how did that guy solo this thing?’
Swallowing his confusion, Cha I-hyun seized the moment and charged at the Hopgoblin, dagger raised.
The Bagheest sensed the danger and thrashed, trying to bolt away,
But Han Ji-hyun, having completed the paralysis magic, stretched out her hand, and the Bagheest’s body went rigid.
“Now!”
“Got it! Die—!!”
Qi blazed along the length of Cha I-hyun’s Dagger.
The blade found its mark precisely, severing the Hopgoblin’s head from its shoulders.
Rolling backward to put distance between himself and the corpse, Cha I-hyun called out.
“Ye-seul! Finish it!”
“I know! Don’t tell me what to do!”
Snapping back at Cha I-hyun, Lee Ye-seul drove her full weight into her Lance, piercing the Bagheest’s forehead.
As the creature convulsed, its body went limp, and Lee Ye-seul withdrew her Lance.
“Damn it! How many Bagheest Riders does that madman think are out there?!”
Lee Ye-seul watched the direction Shin Tae-ho had run.
The battle had lasted barely three minutes.
The figure of Shin Tae-ho who had charged ahead had already vanished.
Park Soo-hyuk, having quickly finished repairs, reassured the group.
“Let’s go after him. At this rate, he’ll die.”
“He looks like someone who’s obsessed with dying. Why do we have to risk ourselves too?”
“But we can’t just leave him.”
Park Soo-hyuk met Lee Ye-seul’s gaze with a stern expression.
At that resolute look, Lee Ye-seul’s bristling attitude deflated somewhat.
“Fine, I’ll go, but if things get dangerous, I’m not pushing myself! He’s probably already dead anyway!”
“No.”
Han Ji-hyun, who had been standing with her Staff planted in the ground and eyes closed, shook her head.
When the usually quiet Han Ji-hyun refuted her statement, Lee Ye-seul asked with confusion.
“No what? You mean he’s alive?”
“Yes. To be precise, he’s definitely alive.”
“I’ve heard of that. You’re using detection magic, aren’t you?”
Han Ji-hyun nodded at Cha I-hyun’s words.
“Fine. Whatever. Let’s go then.”
At Park Soo-hyuk’s words, the Rankers moved toward the direction Shin Tae-ho had run.
Since enemies could appear at any moment, their movements were extremely cautious.
The moment they crested the hill that had been blocking their view.
Everyone fell silent at the sight spread out below them.
“…Am I seeing things right now?”
Cha I-hyun rubbed his eyes hard.
But rubbing his eyes didn’t change reality.
“…That’s impossible. Those were the kind of creatures that even in the tower, we had to clear one by one with help from the Elves. And here, not even in a forest but in this open field… and all by himself…?”
In Lee Ye-seul’s wide, disbelieving eyes,
the impossible scene was reflected like a mirror—more than ten Bagheest Riders dead in less than three minutes.
* * *
Shin Tae-ho, who had been running with his physical abilities heightened by Qi, stopped.
Looking back, the hill where he had parted ways with the Rankers was no longer visible.
Confirming he had distanced himself from the Rankers, Shin Tae-ho touched near his neck.
“You did well holding back. You can speak now, Yongryong-i.”
“Chirrup!”
Only then did Yongryong-i, who had been holding still to maintain concealment, cry out with relief.
Shin Tae-ho stroked the squirming Yongryong-i and surveyed the surroundings.
‘I’ve cleared every monster I encountered on the way here. At this rate, the Rankers won’t die so pathetically.’
As Shin Tae-ho walked while assessing the situation, he examined the surroundings carefully.
There was something nagging at him ever since he first entered the Gate.
‘This looks familiar. Where have I seen this before?’
Sinterhon, the city of Elves where Pure Elves and Dark Elves had come to coexist as a result of what he had achieved in the tower.
Even accounting for the disappearance of the forest, this wasn’t where Sinterhon had been.
Yet something here carried an oddly familiar feeling.
As Shin Tae-ho continued to search his memory, a scene surfaced in his mind.
‘Could it be.’
With a hypothesis forming, Shin Tae-ho ran again.
Several monsters blocked his path in the meantime, but Shin Tae-ho didn’t stop—he cut them down as he went.
Running while retracing his memory this way for quite some time.
Finally arriving at his destination, Shin Tae-ho narrowed his eyes.
‘It’s certain.’
Shin Tae-ho walked over ground littered with white bones.
A Quest he had gained unexpectedly after clearing the 15th floor’s trial.
The massive monster corpse of a Stone Skin Ogre that he had killed while rescuing Yephiel, and
the skeletal remains of its subordinate Ogres filled the ground.
To be continued ▶
Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith
Author
Bonginhaejae
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publisher
Grae Publishing
Contact
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are strictly prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram eagerly awaits 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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