The Returned Genius Blacksmith has Awakened as an all-Master - Chapter 116

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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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Chapter 116
116. The Hidden Ones
Crunch, crunch.
The snow-covered streets of Prelia.
The city held nothing but the sound of Geumson’s footsteps crushing snow and the wails of the dead.
Fortunately, they had eyes only for the ice barrier Ma Jin-chul had raised.
So focused that they didn’t even notice when Geumson passed within arm’s reach.
The occasional blind creature crossed his path, but none of them posed a challenge.
Grrrrr…….
A ghoul lunged from around the corner of an alley.
Geumson didn’t break stride as he swung the Hammer.
Crack—!
[Critical point strike successful.]
[Critical hit confirmed.]
[Ghoul defeated.]
One blow.
The ghoul’s skull shattered against the Hammer and scattered into ash.
Geumson didn’t spare the corpse a glance, checking his map instead.
“This should be about it…….”
Geumson stopped walking.
The location marked by the first blue dot on the system map.
But what lay before him was only snow-blanketed ruins.
Shattered buildings and skeletal trees.
Not a trace of human presence anywhere.
‘Did I misread it?’
Unlikely.
The system doesn’t lie.
Then a message appeared before his eyes.
[Iron Walker has defeated a Skeleton Soldier.]
[Experience points gained.]
[Iron Walker has defeated a Tattered Ghoul.]
[Experience points gained.]
.
.
.
[Level increased! Lv. 82]
Geumson caught sight of the message.
A small smile played at his lips.
‘This is basically automatic hunting, isn’t it?’
Iron Walker, stationed at a distance, seemed to be doing his part splendidly.
Originally, Iron Walker had been created to compensate for Geumson’s lack of combat power.
But until now, the construct had been mostly occupied with crafting assistance and carrying supplies rather than actual fighting.
Now, however, Iron Walker seemed to be fulfilling his true purpose.
‘Still, staying separated too long could be a problem, couldn’t it?’
Geumson trusted Iron Walker.
But there were system limitations he didn’t yet understand.
So separating for too long seemed inadvisable.
‘I’d like to run some experiments, but…… now’s not the time.’
The fate of Ma Jin-chul and the entire city of Prelia hung in the balance.
There was no room for leisurely testing Iron Walker’s limits.
Setting aside the pleasant notifications, Geumson refocused on the ruins before him.
Someone was definitely here.
That’s what the system was telling him.
If so, there was only one answer.
“Resolute Intuition. Insight of Veins.”
As he activated the skills, his perception shifted.
Within that altered sight, his gaze locked onto a single point.
The corner of a collapsed building wall, obscured by snow and shadow.
The mana flow there twisted subtly, concealing itself from ordinary senses.
And that flow descended underground.
‘People tend to think alike…… all of it much the same.’
A memory from the past surfaced without warning.
The Age of Ruin.
People had fled deep underground to survive—into the bowels of the earth, sewers, abandoned subway stations.
But that waiting didn’t always lead to salvation.
When rescue teams arrived, the refugees were often already cold corpses.
Or they’d burrowed so deep that the rescue teams passed right over them, never knowing they were there.
Those were the days of the Age of Ruin.
The memory left a bitter taste in his mouth.
‘I won’t make that mistake again.’
Geumson picked up the Hammer without hesitation.
There was no time to leisurely search for hidden mechanisms or persuade the people inside to open the door.
The Undead were multiplying endlessly even as he stood here.
“Sorry, but I don’t think we need to knock, do we?”
Crack!
The iron door crumpled and tore free with a dull, violent snap.
Geumson squeezed his body through the jagged opening.
A gust of foul air.
The stench hit his nose the moment he stepped inside.
Geumson’s face contorted involuntarily.
Blood, sweat, and excrement—a nauseating cocktail of odors.
A dark, damp underground space.
Hundreds of people huddled in that cramped shelter.
“P-please! Save us!”
“Don’t come closer! Don’t come closer!”
“Undead! An Undead has breached the shelter!”
“Oh, God in Heaven! What sin have we committed to deserve such a cruel trial……?”
Startled by the sudden intrusion, the refugees screamed and stumbled backward.
Most were women, children, and the elderly.
Among them were wounded men groaning in pain.
Survivors in wretched condition.
Malnourished to the point of skeletal thinness, their eyes hollow with fear and despair.
‘The situation is worse than I thought.’
Especially the wounded lying in the corner.
Wounds from the Undead don’t simply bleed.
The damaged flesh rots black, spreading Corpse Poison throughout the body.
Without prompt treatment, they would transform into monsters identical to the Undead, consumed by agony.
‘If this goes on…… this place will descend into chaos.’
If the wounded transformed into Undead in this sealed space, the outcome was obvious.
This shelter would become a living hell.
As Geumson furrowed his brow, taking in the situation,
someone staggered forward from among the wounded.
“Everyone, step back. It’s a Player…… no, a stranger.”
The voice was firm yet gentle.
A woman in white armor stood before them.
The armor was dented in places and stained with blood, but at a glance, it was unmistakable.
She was a Player as well.
And undoubtedly a Holy Knight class.
Geumson knew of exactly one such person.
‘Could it be…… Baek Jin-ju?’
Her—the one called Humanity’s Last Holy Knight during the Age of Ruin.
Always standing at the most dangerous front, shield raised to protect the weakest among them.
The very same Baek Jin-ju who had hinted to Geumson that he should use the God’s Whistle Scroll on himself.
She was here.
In this hellish underground shelter of Prelia, she stood guarding people still—just as she had during the Age of Ruin.
“I thought all the Players had abandoned Prelia long ago…… Did you side with the witch? Have you taken a quest?”
Baek Jin-ju asked with a sharp expression, on guard.
Her hands trembled slightly, but her eyes remained steady and unshaken.
Geumson offered a wry smile and lowered the collar of his Shadow Robe as he spoke.
“The witch? No…… for now, let’s just call me a rescue team.”
At Geumson’s words, Baek Jin-ju seemed to relax, sinking onto her haunches.
She appeared to recognize him at a glance.
She was letting down her guard thanks to Geumson’s fame.
A celebrity like Geumson wouldn’t be acting recklessly in a place like this, after all.
“A rescue team? What are you talking about—you came alone anyway. Just help the injured, would you? We’re short-handed.”
Baek Jin-ju pushed herself wearily to her feet and approached the wounded, pressing her hand against the gangrenous wound.
She was squeezing out her Holy Power to contain the spread of Corpse Poison.
Exhausted though she was, she willingly sacrificed for others.
She was just as Geumson remembered her.
‘God, she really is stubborn. Do people never change?’
She was a Player.
She didn’t need to exhaust herself this way for NPCs.
But that was precisely why she was Baek Jin-ju.
Why she was called the last Holy Knight of mankind.
‘This goes against protocol.’
In the Age of Ruin, Protocol Rule Number One of the rescue manual.
– Mobile survivors take priority.
It was cold, but a necessary choice to save as many as possible.
Lingering over the wounded could endanger both the rescue team and other survivors.
Geumson reflexively recalled that principle.
But the moment he saw Baek Jin-ju act, he erased the thought.
Her stubborn foolishness had moved his heart instead.
‘Well, it’s not the Age of Ruin anymore anyway.’
Geumson let out a soft laugh.
Then he opened his inventory.
“Yes, I’m part of a rescue team. And don’t worry. I’ll take everyone with us.”
What Geumson pulled out were glass bottles with a blue luminescence.
The Supreme Universal Potion he’d crafted while training at Astrid’s cabin.
“Have them drink this. Spray it on the wounds too.”
“Potions don’t work. These are injuries from the Undead, so…….”
“Try it first. You’ll see.”
Geumson handed the potions to Baek Jin-ju.
Baek Jin-ju accepted them with a puzzled expression.
The moment she uncorked one, her eyes widened.
“This is……!”
Just from the fragrance wafting up, her weary body felt reinvigorated.
More than that, the energy within was extraordinary.
‘Holy Power? There’s Holy Power infused in a potion?’
As a Holy Knight, she could tell at once.
This was no ordinary healing draught.
It contained a sacred energy—as if a high priest’s healing miracle had been condensed within.
But Geumson’s treatment didn’t end there.
“Hand of the Moon.”
From Geumson’s left hand as he murmured the words, frigid energy poured forth.
That cold swept into the wound in an instant, purifying the toxin and staunching the blood.
It was only emergency treatment, but at the very least, the injured would no longer become Undead.
“Wait—weren’t you a blacksmith? I was sure that’s what I heard…….”
Baek Jin-ju, a Holy Knight who wielded Holy Power, could sense it.
The frigid energy Geumson commanded carried a purifying force so potent that even high priests could rarely muster it.
And within it, she could feel the weaving of powerful Holy Power.
“What is your true identity?”
Holy Power could only be wielded by Holy Knights or priests.
Just as mages wielded magical energy.
That was the common knowledge of Lepion that she knew.
But her knowledge crumbled to dust before Geumson all too easily.
Far too easily.

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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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