The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 63

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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 Rank Blacksmith’s Regression — Chapter 63
Shin Tae-ho, who had secretly slipped a letter written at a PC Room outside the Management Bureau into his pocket, boarded the bus heading to the Blacksmith Workshop.
When he got off the bus, Shin Tae-ho’s destination was not the workshop itself, but the shop in front of it.
The shop employee recognized Shin Tae-ho, as he always visited whenever he came to the workshop.
“Welcome! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. I’ve been focused on tower climbing and haven’t been able to visit.”
“Ha, I thought so! There’s been quite the commotion with the tower lately.”
The shop employee laughed good-naturedly.
Shin Tae-ho, who had purchased hundreds of millions of won worth of slow-moving inventory like Literium without knowing where it would be used, was essentially a blessing in disguise for the shop.
“Are you here to buy that metal again? Unfortunately, we haven’t received any stock yet.”
“I’ll browse other items. Do you have anything new?”
“Let me see. One moment.”
The shop employee laid out all the merchandise they had purchased.
Items the employee thought would sell reasonably well and had stocked.
But nothing caught Shin Tae-ho’s eye.
‘Nothing suitable again today. Well, it’s not as if truly rare items appear easily.’
Finding Literium at a shop like this in the first place had been an extraordinary stroke of luck.
And since its absence today didn’t mean it would never arrive, he needed to keep searching diligently.
Shin Tae-ho selected just a few items for use at the workshop and handed them to the employee.
“I’ll take only these today.”
“Understood. Are you perhaps looking for something you bought last time? If you give me a number, I can call you right away when we get inventory.”
“No. I’ll be stopping by often in the future, so there’s no need for that.”
Shin Tae-ho politely declined the employee’s offer.
What he sought wasn’t limited to Literium alone, and he preferred not to leave a number.
Leaving the disappointed employee behind, Shin Tae-ho arrived at the Blacksmith Workshop.
Kim Jong-soo, who had received word of his arrival, was waiting there.
Upon seeing Shin Tae-ho, Kim Jong-soo ran toward him with a bright face.
“Master! It’s truly been such a long time!”
“It has been a while, Kim Jong-soo. Have you been well?”
“Of course! I’ve been practicing the Metallurgy you taught me steadily!”
“Excellent. Let me go inside and see how much you’ve improved.”
“Thank you! But who is this child who came with you?”
“I am Yong-ryong-i the dragon!”
“This is a child I brought along. It shouldn’t cause any disruption, so would it be alright if we went in together?”
“Of course! You came with the master, so naturally it’s fine.”
Kim Jong-soo eagerly led the way and guided Shin Tae-ho inside.
“Ah, good day to you.”
The blacksmiths who recognized Shin Tae-ho greeted him awkwardly.
Though they didn’t know who he was, they sensed from his regular visits to find Master Kim Jong-soo that he was no ordinary person.
It was a far cry from the initial reaction, but Shin Tae-ho, who understood how the workshop operated, paid it no mind.
“Yes, good day.”
Shin Tae-ho returned the greeting and entered Kim Jong-soo’s private workshop room.
Broken ore and ingots cooling in molds suggested he had been practicing just moments before.
Kim Jong-soo, who had brought beverages for Shin Tae-ho and Yong-ryong-i, spoke with eager enthusiasm.
“Shall we start right away?”
“Of course.”
As soon as Shin Tae-ho answered, Kim Jong-soo began breaking apart the ore.
Unlike before, when he had relied solely on brute force, he now used a pointed chisel like a nail and broke the ore apart skillfully—a sight that drew an approving nod from Shin Tae-ho.
‘He’s isolating only the portions that contain iron with precision. That’s worthy of showing off.’
From Hammering to the melting process.
Every single action of Kim Jong-soo bore the marks of his earnest effort over time.
The process of filtering impurities from the crushed iron ore and melting it in the furnace proceeded smoothly.
Finally, Kim Jong-soo poured the molten iron into the mold and took on a tense expression.
“So, how was it?”
“Truly worthy of a Master Craftsman. I never imagined, despite all your training, that you could execute it quite so flawlessly.”
It was no exaggeration.
As one called a Transcendent Rank blacksmith, Shin Tae-ho had numerous craftsmen under him.
They had all learned the craft of blacksmithing with sincere hearts.
Yet fewer than five percent of them could match what Kim Jong-soo was doing now.
At Shin Tae-ho’s acknowledgment, Kim Jong-soo’s previously tense face brightened immediately.
“Thank you so much! I truly can’t thank you enough!”
“It’s I who should be grateful. Honestly, I know full well how difficult it must have been for you to start practicing Metallurgy after reaching the rank of Master Craftsman.”
“I… I’m sorry. Truthfully, at first I harbored such presumptuous thoughts.”
Kim Jong-soo answered honestly, shame coloring his voice.
Shin Tae-ho smiled gently at his response.
“Of course you did. Now, allow me to explain why I had you do such work.”
“Now, sir?”
“Yes. I’d considered not showing you this, but you’ve demonstrated your sincerity through direct action.”
Shin Tae-ho withdrew two ingots of metal from his Inventory.
One was the 3 kilograms of Literium left over from purchasing it at the Shop and crafting a Throwing Hammer.
The other was 1 kilogram of Aerosteel obtained from a Superior Gate Clear Reward Chest.
Whoosh!
Shin Tae-ho adjusted the flame, controlling the temperature.
Built with the latest design, the furnace temperature surpassed two thousand degrees in an instant.
“Metallurgy is not merely a process for extracting metal properly. It is the foundation upon which materials are conditioned and worked according to the maker’s intent before they become finished pieces.”
Shin Tae-ho placed the Literium into the heated furnace.
Exactly 1 kilogram divided from the 3 kilograms of Literium began to heat, gradually melting away.
“And every metal has its own melting temperature and process. Only by understanding those properties can a true craftsman create what he envisions.”
Shin Tae-ho scraped away only the liquefied portion from the surface of the Literium.
As the boiling Literium writhed and rippled slightly,
Shin Tae-ho’s Hammering began.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
“What?!”
Kim Jong-soo started in surprise.
He had seen Shin Tae-ho hammer many times before.
But this Hammering—this was the first time since meeting Shin Tae-ho that he had witnessed anything like it.
Delivering dozens of hammer strikes per second, Shin Tae-ho continued his explanation.
“This metal is Literium. It has a strong tendency to revert to its original shape, so the moment you pause, the form collapses.”
Kim Jong-soo listened to the explanation, transfixed, watching the Literium.
True to his words, the Literium sprang back like a spring the instant the hammer touched it, reverting to its original form.
Yet it flattened again under the blow, only to repeat the cycle.
But Shin Tae-ho’s corded forearms would not permit such resistance.
He hammered it down while simultaneously removing it from and returning it to the furnace, maintaining its temperature.
The rhythm of the hammer remained steady, yet its force and direction shifted with each moment according to the situation.
While Kim Jong-soo watched, transfixed, unable to tear his gaze away,
Four hours had already passed.
The Literium, which had been a solid ingot, had grown thin as chopsticks.
Lost in concentration, Shin Tae-ho had forgotten to explain. Now he switched to a smaller hammer for more delicate work.
The Hammering was no longer a downward strike but a scraping motion, pushing the Literium’s surface forward.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!
The hammer’s sound transformed into a clear, high pitch.
Now the Literium had stretched so thin and long it could hardly be called chopsticks anymore.
With each pass, Shin Tae-ho worked with such precision that he seemed to be striking not an anvil but a gossamer thread suspended in air.
From ingot to wire, and from wire to something no thicker than coarse thread,
Shin Tae-ho activated the Portable Spinning Wheel he had purchased from the Shop.
His left hand regulated the wheel while his right hand hammered without pause, and the Literium wavered and rippled in the heat.
‘Metal… has become thread…!’
Heat poured from the heart of the furnace, distorting the very air before him.
Through those shimmering waves, Shin Tae-ho’s figure transcended what Kim Jong-soo had ever imagined a Master Craftsman to be.
In that space filled with heat, Shin Tae-ho’s work continued.
When the dark night had passed and the rising sun cast its first light through the window,
At last, all 1 kilogram of Literium had been completed as a spool of thread.
Seventeen hours of unbroken labor.
Yet neither Kim Jong-soo, who watched the work,
Nor Shin Tae-ho, who performed it, allowed their concentration to waver for even a moment.
As Shin Tae-ho gazed upon the completed Literium thread spool, he suddenly came to himself.
Yong-ryong-i lay on the sofa with chocolate smeared across his mouth, snoring softly, fast asleep.
Before him stood Kim Jong-soo, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at Shin Tae-ho.
Shin Tae-ho lowered his head in apology.
“I’m sorry. I should have continued explaining, but I lost myself in the work.”
“No, truly… I’ve learned so much from you. Master.”
Kim Jong-soo’s eyes reddened.
The respect he thought had reached its ceiling seemed to soar several times higher in that moment.
“May I examine it for a moment?”
“Of course.”
Shin Tae-ho handed over the spool of Literium thread.
Kim Jong-soo studied it with wonder.
Thread bearing a faint, cool blue luminescence.
When Kim Jong-soo exhaled with trembling breath, the metallic threads chimed softly through the air.
In that instant, Kim Jong-soo grasped the true importance of Metallurgy.
‘My master monitored the temperature in real time while hammering continuously. That was only possible because he understood metal’s nature completely—through countless refinements.’
Kim Jong-soo trembled with revelation, his fists clenching tight.
As he saw the value in all the steady Metallurgy training he’d done, what had seemed a dark vista suddenly opened before him.
Shin Tae-ho, watching Kim Jong-soo’s emotion, rubbed his trembling forearm.
‘Now I should work on Aerosteel.’
The item Shin Tae-ho intended to craft required both Aerosteel and Literium simultaneously.
With nine days still remaining until the promised date, time was ample.
‘In the meantime, I should prepare something for Yong-ryong-i to do.’
Shin Tae-ho gazed at the sleeping Yong-ryong-i.
It pained him to see her confined in the cramped workshop because of him, playing restlessly before falling asleep.
The truth was she’d eaten chocolate enthusiastically and watched his work with great interest before drifting off—but Shin Tae-ho had no way of knowing that.
“We should eat something. Is delivery still available at this hour?”
“It’s still rather early, so we’ll need to wait a bit. There should be ramen in the Blacksmith Workshop though—would you like to have some as a quick bite?”
“That sounds good.”
Shin Tae-ho and Kim Jong-soo left the private workspace and went to prepare ramen.
Since it was early dawn, the Blacksmith Workshop—now that the blacksmiths had left—was quiet.
Yet for some reason, a faint snoring sound echoed softly through the workshop.
Kim Jong-soo’s expression froze instantly upon hearing it.
“My apologies, Master. Would you wait a moment?”
“Of course.”
Kim Jong-soo strode off briskly.
But he headed not deeper into the workshop—toward the exit door.
When Kim Jong-soo yanked the door open irritably, a loud crash sounded and the snoring stopped abruptly.
“Hack—? Ah, Master Craftsman! You’ve finally come out!”
“You infuriating wretch! You’re still lurking around here?”
“Ha ha ha… But tell me—you haven’t had a change of heart, have you? Like I mentioned before—”
“No! I said no, you bastard!”
“Please, just hear me out for a moment! Master Craftsman Kim Jong-soo!”
“What’s this?! You won’t let go?!”
Kim Jong-soo raised his arm menacingly, and the man flinched, shielding his face with both arms that had been gripping Kim Jong-soo.
‘That man… could it be…?’
Shin Tae-ho’s eyes widened in surprise as he watched the man fumbling nervously before Kim Jong-soo.
To be continued ▶
The Transcendent Rank Blacksmith’s Regression
Author
Seal Breaker
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Grae Publishing
Inquiry Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil legal 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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