The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 5

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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 Legendary Blacksmith’s Regression — Chapter 5
Arimeer, watching the interior of the Tutorial Tower, dropped his jaw in astonishment.
Though he had spent an eternity as its administrator, this was the first time Arimeer had been this shocked.
No — in his entire existence, there were few moments when surprise had struck him so thoroughly.
The scene before him now was that extraordinary.
“What in the name of—?!”
Even as countless Awakeners struggled and failed climbing the Tutorial Tower’s floors at this very moment,
Shin Tae-ho, who had started far later than they, was clearing each level in succession.
No — calling it merely “fast” would be a gross understatement.
[Floor 20 conquered.]
[Floor 21 conquered.]
[Floor 22 conquered.]
Shin Tae-ho’s advance was relentless.
Countless traps and monsters assailed him from all sides.
Yet none could breach the armor Shin Tae-ho had forged.
And the hammer he wielded was no ordinary weapon either.
With each swing of that hammer, monsters were sent flying and bones shattered as if by divine punishment.
“This boy should be weakened from prolonged starvation. Yet he passes through so effortlessly…?”
Had he only recently arrived with strength still burning inside him, it might make sense.
But Arimeer knew perfectly well that Shin Tae-ho was in a state of near-total depletion from hunger.
Which left only one remaining explanation.
“Just what did that boy forge…?”
While Arimeer stood frozen in horror, Shin Tae-ho methodically continued his ascent through the Tutorial Tower.
The Awakener who had begun with him was now attempting the fifth floor.
Shin Tae-ho had already climbed to the twenty-eighth floor and now stood face to face with an Ogre.
Arimeer’s eyes glinted as he witnessed this.
The twenty-eighth floor was a level so brutally difficult it hardly deserved the name “Tutorial.”
Weakened though they were by the Tutorial system, an Ogre remained an Ogre.
A creature born solely for violence and destruction.
The twenty-eighth floor, guarded by this monstrosity, had never been conquered by any challenger.
To charge in recklessly was merely to invite senseless death.
How, then, would Shin Tae-ho fare?
Arimeer’s curiosity was answered in moments.
Crack! Crash!
—Grrrraaaagh!!
As Shin Tae-ho swung his hammer, the Ogre struck by it crumpled.
Its thick, hardened bones fractured, joints twisted at grotesque angles.
But the Ogre did not remain passive.
Even as it writhed in agony, it swung its club with primal instinct, connecting brutally with Shin Tae-ho’s body.
Crunch!!
Struck by the tree-trunk-sized cudgel, Shin Tae-ho flew backward.
A blow that should have pulverized his organs and killed him outright—armor notwithstanding.
Arimeer held his breath, fingers clenching tight.
Yet, remarkably, Shin Tae-ho rose without hesitation, brushing dust from his frame.
“…Ha, hah.”line>
The fists Arimeer had clenched so tightly went slack.

Shin Tae-ho, hammer in hand, brought it down upon the thrashing Ogre’s head.
Once. Twice. Three times.
With the third strike of the hammer, the Ogre’s convulsing body went still, as if the life itself had been electrocuted from it.
[Floor 28 conquered.]
Shin Tae-ho hoisted the hammer onto his shoulder.
As he climbed toward the twenty-ninth floor, he appeared merely fatigued.
Yet his movements betrayed no injury whatsoever.
Arimeer stared, utterly transfixed.
“He created something of that caliber from items given on the first floor…? How is such a thing even possible?”
All items distributed in the Tutorial Tower were of common grade.
From the first floor, a challenger could take only a single weapon and a single piece of armor.
Any challenger who heard this instruction understood it to mean choosing only one weapon and one piece of armor total.
And indeed, that was the correct interpretation.
Yet Shin Tae-ho had suddenly posed a question no one had ever asked before, catching the system completely off guard.
He’d pieced together scraps of this and that to fashion a crude makeshift forge, and there he’d crafted such an items that defied the rules.
It was a method even Arimeer had never imagined.
And while Arimeer, as administrator, thought it was meaningless, foolish even—
Shin Tae-ho had hammered on in silence, through loneliness and suffering, until he’d finally brought such an item into being.
It wasn’t the thoughtless following of the tower’s rules and systems.
It was the act of carving his own path within them.
Had there ever been a single being who had even attempted such a thing?
No. Not one.
Arimeer stared at Shin Tae-ho, his expression suddenly alive.
He wanted nothing more than to entrust his long patience and lingering attachment to him now, in this very moment.
But there remained a mountain Shin Tae-ho had yet to climb.
“Overcome it. And reach the summit. If you can endure through that ordeal—truly, if you can do that—”
I will entrust you with the faded hope I’ve held close all this time.
It was less a command or a suggestion than a plea, a prayer.
Arimeer’s trembling eyes bore down on Shin Tae-ho.
Unaware of that gaze, Shin Tae-ho had already climbed past the twenty-ninth floor and was ascending the stairs to the thirtieth.
* * *
Shin Tae-ho stopped as he climbed the stairs toward the thirtieth floor.
All strength had drained from his limbs, and his head felt heavy.
‘This is rough.’
Even before challenging the first floor, his stomach had growled with hunger; now it felt wrung dry.
Moving violently for this long in such a state, his belly seemed ready to cleave to his spine.
Fighting on an empty stomach, his head spun and nausea crept in.
While his physical condition was draining, what made Shin Tae-ho’s feet heaviest was the unpredictable uncertainty.
‘The challenger who’d climbed the Tutorial Tower highest before had reached the twenty-eighth floor.’
By contrast, the floor Shin Tae-ho was challenging now was the thirtieth.
This was a floor no challenger in history had ever reached.
In other words, he had no way of knowing how many more floors lay ahead.
If he kept pushing like this, he might collapse before he even properly fought.
‘Should I just leave?’
Inside the Tutorial Tower there were no windows, no clocks.
Absorbed in crafting the armor and hammer, Shin Tae-ho hadn’t realized that half a year had already passed.
He’d only thought that quite a long time had gone by.
He could still get his Class even if he left now.
Rather than keep challenging this endless tutorial,
wouldn’t it be better to exit sooner and use that time for something else?
“…No. That’s just an excuse.”
Shin Tae-ho shook his head and moved forward again.
The purpose of his Regression was not to see the end of the Tutorial Tower.
But if he couldn’t even clear the Tutorial Tower,
how could he possibly climb the real tower outside, which was far harder and more dangerous?
To climb the tower later, he had to give his all in this moment.
Thump!
Shin Tae-ho arrived at the thirtieth floor, his face twisted with strain.
A message appeared before his eyes.
[You have entered the thirtieth floor.
[This is the final floor of the Tutorial Tower.]
“The final floor?”
Shin Tae-ho was shocked.
He’d been considering giving up just moments ago—was the thirtieth floor really the end of the Tutorial Tower?
If he’d learned this after quitting, he would have spent the rest of his life pounding the ground in regret.
‘Thank goodness. I won’t die here pathetically.’
Light kindled in Shin Tae-ho’s weary eyes.
Knowing the end was near, vigor seemed to course through his body.
‘Since it’s come to this, I’ll be the first to clear the Tutorial Tower.’
Shin Tae-ho stepped into the thirtieth floor.
Perhaps it was the weight of knowing this was the final chamber.
The air on the thirtieth floor felt colder and sharper than any other floor.
As he moved deeper inside, Shin Tae-ho saw something.
It was the armor of an ancient knight, standing alone as if on display.
The moment Shin Tae-ho recognized the armor, a message window materialized before him.
[Floor 30 Clear Condition: Neutralize Bedilaem, the Elf Knight whose soul is trapped within the armor.]
“What? Undead?”
Shin Tae-ho’s eyes widened.
Trapping a soul within something as inorganic as armor was the ability of a Class that dealt with the Undead, like a Necromancer.
Shin Tae-ho naturally knew that much.
What shocked him was the nature of Undead itself.
To contend with the Undead, one needed the Holy Attribute—the ultimate counter.
Or, alternatively, Qi, the foundation of all Attributes.
But since Qi could only be wielded after obtaining a Class, Shin Tae-ho couldn’t use it.
‘What kind of design is this? Making an Awakener who can’t handle Qi fight the Undead?’
The structure of Floor 30, seemingly designed to be unclimbable from the start, twisted Shin Tae-ho’s face.
Shin Tae-ho’s eyes suddenly widened as he mulled over the possibility of a riddle.
‘Could it be… that only those capable of using Qi from the beginning have the qualifications?’
Qi—the transcendent power that elevated physical capabilities and could manifest Supernatural Abilities impossible in the real world.
Normally, it could only be wielded after awakening, after constructing the channels of Qi.
But very rarely, there existed an infinitesimal number of Awakeners capable of handling Qi before obtaining a Class or skills.
And most of them would later become formidable challengers, bearing one pillar of strength.
‘So only those with such qualifications are meant to challenge this…!’
Having deduced the meaning behind Floor 30’s clear condition, Shin Tae-ho ground his teeth.
If that truly was the case, he couldn’t clear this Floor 30.
Creak—
While Shin Tae-ho wrestled with the thought.
A sharp, scraping sound echoed, and the knight’s armor began moving with creaking groans.
It meant the ordeal of Floor 30 had begun.
Thump!
The armor kicked off the ground and rushed at Shin Tae-ho in an instant.
Leaping backward to create distance, Shin Tae-ho swung the hammer he carried on his shoulder with composure.
Clang!
The hammer and sword collided, sparks flying.
Even as this happened, Shin Tae-ho’s mind raced.
‘This is ridiculous. Come all this way only to be told I don’t have the qualifications?’
The hammer swung again.
But the armored knight dodged by lowering its head and countered with a kick.
Bang!
The kick connected squarely with Shin Tae-ho.
And the knight’s armor flew backward from the recoil.
-?!
The overturned armor creaked as if bewildered.
But only for a moment.
Like the machine it was in death, the armored knight rose and swung its Longsword at Shin Tae-ho again.
Slash! Clang! Clang!
The Longsword struck repeatedly.
As fast and brutal attacks poured down, dust billowed up and obscured his vision.
While the armored knight searched for Shin Tae-ho in the haze of dust.
A war hammer burst through the cloud and smashed into the knight’s helmet.
Crash!
The armored knight’s stance wavered.
But that was all.
The hammer, swung with full force, didn’t even scratch the helmet before bouncing off.
Shin Tae-ho drew breath in labored gasps.
“So without Qi, attacks don’t land. But your attacks don’t work on me either—the same stalemate.”
If his opponent had been an Ogre, he might not have taken damage, but he’d have flown through the air with each blow.
But the armored knight lacked the absurd brute strength of an Ogre.
And the knight’s Longsword couldn’t pierce Shin Tae-ho’s armor.
Having grasped the situation, Shin Tae-ho nodded.
“Wait a moment. Let me think about this.”
Speaking to the armored knight, Shin Tae-ho lowered himself to the ground at ease.
Toward Shin Tae-ho, chin resting on his hand, deep in thought.
The knight’s armor unleashed a dazzling, desperate barrage of attacks.
To be continued in the next episode ▶
The Transcendent Blacksmith’s Regression
Author
Bonginehaejae
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited, and violations may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ 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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