The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 77

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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 77
Tsukuyomi did not believe rumors she had not personally verified.
Of course, she had no choice but to believe that Mystery had climbed the tower to its peak, given that the tower system announcement had been made.
But how could she know whether he had truly accomplished it through his own power?
Perhaps he had discovered a gap in the trial and resorted to foul play.
Or, even if that weren’t the case, the Korean government might have provided him with secret weapons to elevate his reputation.
For this reason, Tsukuyomi secretly hoped that Mystery would struggle this time and fail to properly handle the monsters.
But.
“What… what exactly is that person…?”
Tsukuyomi watched Mystery’s combat in bewilderment.
Mystery stood alone against the monsters pouring down like clouds, just as he had arrogantly claimed.
Yet the sheer destructive force was something no single challenger should have been able to wield.
With each throw among the monsters, flames and ice erupted.
Each time these two opposing forces detonated simultaneously, they created a backlash that swept through enemies with even greater and wider devastation.
Ice crystals formed like spikes, and the flames that followed shot forth like bullets, driving the spikes outward.
Tsukuyomi fell into deep confusion.
‘Mystery was a mage?’
The combat technique he was using now was unmistakably a mage’s skill.
High-grade weapons could wrap fire around a blade or coat arrows with freezing energy.
But such vast, powerful destructive force could only be achieved through a mage’s skill.
At that moment, Amaterasu, who had been standing beside Tsukuyomi and observing Mystery intently, shook her head.
“It’s confusing, but… that isn’t Magic.”
“It isn’t Magic?”
“No. What Mystery is using doesn’t feel like Mana. It’s pure Energy.”
Amaterasu answered Tsukuyomi’s question with certainty.
Amaterasu possessed an ability, a characteristic of her class, that allowed her to sense the source of power with fine and delicate sensitivity.
And what Amaterasu felt emanating from Mystery was not something complex and viscous like Mana.
It was unmistakably pure Energy—untainted, like clear water.
“Then… if that’s the case, what in the world is Mystery’s class?”
Marcus, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, studied Amaterasu.
‘The informants mentioned there was an undisclosed Ranker in Japan. Could this be that person?’
ITRO members openly revealed their identities to the world and proclaimed themselves Rankers.
In Japan’s case, Tsukuyomi played that role, but ITRO’s intelligence network had picked up on some of the secrets Japan was hiding.
At minimum, Amaterasu was on equal footing with Tsukuyomi.
Or perhaps a mysterious Ranker even stronger than that.
As Marcus observed Amaterasu while recalling the information, Tsukuyomi, sensing his gaze, stepped forward to block his view of her.
“Marcus. What’s with that look? It hardly befits the demeanor of a British gentleman.”
“Ah, my apologies. Seeing the young lady you call that, I found myself captivated without realizing it.”
Marcus replied smoothly with a disarming smile.
But upon hearing Marcus’s words, Tsukuyomi’s eyes widened like a hunter spotting prey, her pupils narrowing.
“You brazenly admit to eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation? This is Japan, not Britain.”
“Ha. I understand. Should I apologize as ITRO’s Secretary-General?”
Tsukuyomi’s subtle threat—’do anything untoward on Japanese soil and I’ll kill you without a trace’—hung in the air.
Marcus countered with his own threat: ‘If you touch me, ITRO as a whole becomes your enemy. Can you afford that?’
Whoosh—
The Energy emanating from both of them caused the air to plummet into an icy chill in an instant.
While Marcus and Tsukuyomi kept their gazes locked on each other,
a Throwing Hammer came streaking down like a comet near where they stood, striking the ground with tremendous force.
Both of them startled and turned their heads to find Mystery had already approached.
“You two have it easy. Here on a sightseeing trip?”
“What?! You…!”
At Mystery’s sarcasm, Tsukuyomi bristled, her eyes widening in indignation.
Unlike Tsukuyomi, however, Marcus, having grasped something of Mystery’s temperament, immediately bowed respectfully.
“Forgive us for the unseemly display. It seems the lady Tsukuyomi took issue with me.”
“Skip the pleasantries. I’m going to finish off the remaining monsters. In the meantime, get those dumbfounded people over there to search for the missing persons.”
Mystery gestured with his chin toward the Investigation Team, who stood slack-jawed in front of the Gate.
The Investigation Team members, who normally would have fled outside the Gate, had frozen in place after witnessing Mystery’s combat.
Once Mystery left, Tsukuyomi, who had been bristling, turned her head sharply.
“Investigation Team Leader. What are you doing? How long are you going to stand there dazed? Move quickly and start searching for the missing!”
“Y-yes! Understood, Tsukuyomi!”
“Getting scolded in one place and then taking it out on someone else? Lady Tsukuyomi. I didn’t have you pegged for the type, but your character seems rather nasty, doesn’t it?”
“Say one more word. Even if you leave ITRO, I’ll teach you what manners are.”
Stung by Marcus’s provocation and lectured by Mystery besides, Tsukuyomi released a wave of killing intent.
Marcus, sensing that further provocation would spell real trouble, raised both hands and backed away.
“I had no intention of arguing from the start, so please calm yourself. But, lady beside me—might we have a private word once we exit the Gate?”
Crack-crack-crack! Boom!
A long groove tore open in the ground before where Marcus stood.
Seeing Tsukuyomi glare at him with Mana infused into her fan, Marcus laughed softly and withdrew.
Once Marcus had left the Gate, Tsukuyomi bowed toward Amaterasu.
“My apologies, Miss. I let my tongue run away and caused you trouble.”
“No, Tsukuyomi. It was bound to come out eventually. And that Marcus fellow was quite perceptive.”
Amaterasu soothed the self-reproaching Tsukuyomi.
She turned her gaze to the distance, watching Mystery sweep through monsters in a display of Fire and Ice.
“That one—watching Mystery fight, he battles with such fury. The way flames scatter about is almost like waves.”
At this oddly specific observation, Tsukuyomi’s body went rigid.
When Tsukuyomi lifted her bowed head slightly to look, she saw Amaterasu’s profile—her expression dreamy and unfocused.
The sight triggered something in Tsukuyomi’s mind, and she was taken aback.
‘Could it be…? No, surely not? Mystery isn’t even Japanese. There’s nothing that would match—’
Tsukuyomi’s eyes widened as her thoughts continued.
There was one being whose story bore a striking resemblance to what Amaterasu had just murmured.
A being banished from the world of the gods who crossed into Japan from another land.
More than that—the name of a god once called her brother or sister, someone connected to both herself and Amaterasu.
“How amusing. Perhaps I shall have a younger brother after all.”
“Ah, Miss…?”
Tsukuyomi called out to Amaterasu, a note of unease in her voice.
But Amaterasu, already lost in her own thoughts, said nothing—only watched Mystery sweep through the monsters with distant, dreamy eyes.
* * *
Separated from the others, Shin Tae-ho hunted down the monsters lurking in the depths.
At first, the monsters rushed at him.
But once hundreds of them fell, they realized they were outmatched and began fleeing in panic.
Shin Tae-ho deployed his Energy Sensing and hunted the hidden creatures.
The process was tedious, like a game of hide-and-seek, but it did yield unexpected information.
[You are detained in an isolated dimension.]
[Cross-dimensional connection is impossible. The World Tree Leaf cannot be used.]
‘That’s unexpected. So I won’t be able to use it inside Gates from now on.’
He had tried using the World Tree Leaf inside a Gate once before.
That time, he’d moved to a place where the World Tree was dying, and had met Epiel, whom he hadn’t known about back then.
But now, for some reason, only the message about being in an isolated dimension appeared—travel to where the World Tree was located remained impossible.
Even for Shin Tae-ho, it would be impossible to sweep through a Gate that had expanded over a hundred kilometers ahead after layering in a single day.
And since he couldn’t use the World Tree Leaf either, he had no choice but to camp inside the Gate.
Though he couldn’t remove his armor or escape, Shin Tae-ho found himself oddly pleased with the situation.
‘If I finish the raiding too quickly, the value of clearing the Gate might seem diminished.’
All Japan had demanded of Mystery was this: clear the nested Gate and rescue the missing persons.
But if he accomplished that in a day, they might start thinking, ‘Did we ask him to do something too easy?’
Since monsters were conveniently hiding and missing persons needed to be accounted for, Shin Tae-ho thoroughly scoured the Gate’s interior.
“Hie, hieee! Don’t come near! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!”
“It’s not a monster. Snap out of it.”
Shin Tae-ho found a missing person hiding deep in the Gate and pulled them out.
But they’d been isolated in the Gate for so long,
and the terror of the monsters prowling around their hiding place had consumed them so thoroughly that they couldn’t easily regain their senses.
Still, Shin Tae-ho had no intention of being patient with them for their sake.
Thwack!
“Cough!!”
The person who’d been struck on the head with the hammer stared in shock, unable to believe what was happening to them.
Seeing their reaction, Mystery sighed and raised the hammer again.
“Maybe I didn’t hit hard enough because I was afraid of killing them. I’ll need more force to snap them awake.”
“Wait, please! I’m awake! My mind is perfectly sound!”
The missing person hastily stopped Mystery.
Only then did Mystery lower the hammer, handing over water he’d prepared and pointing in one direction.
“That way is where the Gate is. There are no monsters—run.”
“Yes, yes? But—but didn’t you come to rescue me? Of course you have to take me with you—”
“You still haven’t come to your senses, I see.”
“I’m going! Right now, I’m going to find the Gate!”
The moment Mystery picked up his hammer, the timid missing person who’d been requesting an escort suddenly found his courage and broke into a run.
So it went for five days—extracting the faint-hearted missing persons and sweeping through the Gate.
At last, having completed his investigation of every location, Shin Tae-ho turned back toward where the Gate lay.
The Gate hadn’t vanished yet, which suggested a few creatures remained, but the Investigation Team should have been more than capable of mopping them up.
‘Yong-ryong-i must have waited long enough.’
Thinking he’d use a World Tree Leaf the moment he stepped outside, Shin Tae-ho arrived at the Gate’s location.
But the Investigation Team that had been positioned around the Gate was nowhere to be found—only Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu remained, waiting for him.
“What’s this? Why are only you two here?”
“The Investigation Team escorted all the missing persons out. Since we’ve recovered everyone, there’s no one left inside the Gate but us.”
Tsukuyomi gestured with his fan toward one side.
There stood five Forest Goblins, kept alive to maintain the Gate.
Shin Tae-ho, observing the situation, sensed something amiss and fixed his gaze on Tsukuyomi.
“You have something to say.”
“I do.”
Tsukuyomi answered quietly and stepped back.
Then Amaterasu stepped forward, her gaze warm as she smiled at Mystery.
“Mystery. I’ve watched your extraordinary feats with great interest. So I’d like to ask a favor.”
As Amaterasu extended her hand, Tsukuyomi immediately passed her the object he’d been holding.
“Would you consent to a duel with me?”
Gripping a nodachi longer than her own height, Amaterasu looked at Mystery and smiled brightly.
Continued in the next episode ▶
The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith
Author
Unlock the Seal
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
※ This e-book is protected by 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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