The Returned Genius Blacksmith has Awakened as an all-Master - Chapter 12

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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 12
012. A Conversation Between Bodies
Geumsohn left the village and ventured deep into the forest, into the Forest Keeper’s Nest.
It was a region where low-level monsters—goblins and kobolds—predominantly spawned.
Eek-eek-eek!
The moment he stepped into the forest, seven goblins wielding rusted daggers rushed at him.
Thud!
Swat!
[-1]
[-1]
[MISS]
[-1]
But their attacks posed no threat to Geumsohn whatsoever.
Against his overwhelming defense, the goblins’ strikes were nothing more than a tickle.
“Let’s see how this performs.”
Geumsohn adjusted his grip on the Hammer and charged straight into the midst of the goblin pack.
Crack!
As the Hammer crushed a goblin’s skull, the surrounding goblins panicked and tried to flee.
But Geumsohn had no intention of letting them escape.
“Invulnerability!”
[You become invincible for 15 seconds.]
A surge of power exploded from Geumsohn’s body.
He ignored every attack raining down upon him and began swinging the Hammer, slaughtering the goblins.
Fifteen seconds later, silence settled over the forest.
More than fifty goblin corpses now lay at Geumsohn’s feet.
.
.
.
[Level increased! Lv. 6]
“Definitely effective.”
Geumsohn smiled with satisfaction and ventured deeper into the forest.
Goblins were not his real target, after all.
After walking for a considerable distance, he reached the deepest part of the forest.
There stood the entrance to a massive cavern.
From within came the sound of heavy breathing and the stench of rotting flesh.
‘Found it.’
Geumsohn adjusted his grip on the Hammer and entered the cavern.
The interior was vaster than he’d anticipated.
And in its center lay a troll of enormous proportions, sleeping.
[Forest Keeper, Raging Troll Lv. 25]
A Boss Monster.
Normally, it would take a party of five or more hunters working together to stand any chance against such a formidable creature.
Grooahhh….
Sensing Geumsohn’s presence, the troll stretched and slowly opened its eyes.
Its gaze gleamed with pure murderous intent.
Roooaaarrr!
The massive troll, easily five meters tall, roared as it hefted a club the size of a log onto its shoulder.
That pressure alone would have frozen an ordinary player in place.
But Geumsohn did not.
“Come on, you overgrown bastard. Let’s dance.”
He stood his ground, meeting it head-on.
He had reason to.
He trusted in the performance of his own creation.
The troll’s club came down with a sound like the earth splitting, crashing against Geumsohn’s body.
Boom-crack!
The impact was tremendous, but Geumsohn merely staggered back a few steps, otherwise unharmed.
His Armor had absorbed most of the blow.
‘I can handle this.’
In turn, Geumsohn’s Hammer struck the troll’s thigh.
Thud!
The troll shrieked in agony, staggering backward.
But steam rose from the wound almost instantly, and the flesh began to regenerate with alarming speed.
‘A regeneration ability. I saw that coming, but it’s infuriatingly stubborn.’
The moment of awe was short-lived.
Hammer and club collided, and a tremendous shockwave reverberated through the cavern.
‘Damn it—this thing’s got some serious strength.’
Geumsohn was driven back several steps.
But he did not yield further.
Instead, he gritted his teeth and pressed forward once more.
What followed was a dialogue of bodies alone.
Pure strength and durability pitted against each other.
When the troll swung its club, Geumsohn blocked with his armor and countered with his hammer. Again and again.
The troll’s hide was tough and dense, yet it proved helpless before the destructive force of a Legendary-grade hammer.
Added to this was Geumsohn’s relentlessness.
His stubborn movements fixed solely on the troll’s head.
Crack!
Crunch!
“Kwaaaaagh!”
Destruction outpaced regeneration.
The Head Hunter’s effect added an extra ten percent damage, making Geumsohn’s hammer strikes even more devastating.
And then there was the newly unlocked Precision Stat.
The Precision Stat allowed him to strike the troll’s skull with perfect accuracy.
As a result, the troll’s head began to turn to pulp.
As time wore on, the balance of the fight tipped decisively.
Geumsohn’s Legendary-grade equipment still had reserves to expend, but the troll’s regenerative capacity was finite.
The speed at which Geumsohn’s hammer shattered its skull far exceeded the speed at which its wounds could close.
Grrr… graaagh….
The troll stumbled backward, its footing uncertain.
For the first time, fear flickered in its eyes.
“It’s over.”
Geumsohn did not miss his opening.
He poured every ounce of strength into one final, decisive blow.
Craaaack!
The troll’s head burst like a watermelon, and its massive body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
After hundreds of hammer strikes, only one thing remained standing in the cavern.
Geumsohn.
.
.
.
[Level increased! Lv. 9]
[Level increased! Lv. 10]
[Achievement: Troll Slayer]
[You have become the first to solo hunt a Troll Boss Monster!]
[The System stands in awe of your immense strength and relentless determination.]
[Effect 1: Damage dealt to large monsters increases by 15%.]
[Effect 2: Acquire passive skill ‘Lower Regeneration’.]
[Lower Regeneration Lv.1]
– HP recovers by 0.5% per second.
He read the messages floating before his eyes and exhaled in relief—but only for a moment.
Geumsohn began to search through the troll’s nest.
Among the scattered refuse and bone fragments, a single skull stood out—smooth and distinctly pale—catching his attention.
‘Found it.’
Geumsohn carefully placed the skull in his Inventory.
This ordinary skull was the ‘key’ that would move the old man’s heart.
* * *
With the battle finished, Geumsohn made his way back to the secluded Hut on the outskirts of Neman Village.
The old man still sat motionless, his gaze fixed on something distant.
Geumsohn approached him and, without a word, took out the skull and set it down before him.
“…….”
The old man’s eyes began to shift slowly.
He approached the skull very slowly.
In that instant, the old man’s body—which had not stirred until now—convulsed violently for the first time.
The old man’s withered, wrinkled hands moved slowly, trembling as they traced the contours of the skull.
The forehead, the nose, the jawline…….
“This scar…… the one he got falling from a tree when he was small…… my son…… it’s my son, Rian…….”
For the first time in years.
A cracked voice spilled from the old man’s lips.
His rough hands trembled as they cradled the skull.
“He went into the forest to gather medicinal herbs…… and never came back……. Everyone said he was dead…… but I never believed it……. Someday he would return, I thought……. And now…… now he has come back to me, even like this, my son!”
Hot tears streamed down the old man’s face.
He drew the skull to his chest and sobbed uncontrollably for a long while.
Geumsohn simply watched in silence.
After a long time had passed, the old man’s sobs finally subsided.
He looked toward Geumsohn, his face wet with tears.
“Thank you, young one…… thanks to you…… I was able to lay my son to rest at last.”
[Hidden Quest: The Old Man’s Sorrow – Complete]
[The old man Yeom’s Affinity has risen to Maximum.]
“This was something I meant to pass down to my son…… but there is no need for it now.”
[You have lifted the old man Yeom’s long-held sorrow.]
[The old man Yeom expresses his deep gratitude and bestows upon you a treasure of his house.]
A message appeared at the same moment.
Even before he could finish reading it, the old man Yeom continued his explanation of the weathered Parchment Scroll.
“This is an item that has been passed down through our family for generations. It is said that with the blessing of divinity, one may transform the mundane into the sacred…… I have no need for it now, so I shall give it to you. I pray it serves you well on your journey.”
[You have obtained the Divine Whistle Scroll (Ancient).]
[Upon use, you may grant a powerful divine blessing to a single target of your choice. (Single use)]
[The blessed target’s rarity increases by one grade, and its unique latent potential awakens.]
The rough texture in his fingertips bore the clear marks of countless years.
Geumsohn’s hands trembled as he received the Parchment Scroll.
And then the old man Yeom vanished somewhere.
Left alone, Geumsohn gazed down at the scroll in his hands.
‘The Divine Whistle Scroll…….’
An Ancient grade item—a full step above even Legendary grade.
By grade alone, it seemed unremarkable.
After all, Geumsohn could craft Ancient-grade items at the final moment.
But the Divine Whistle Scroll possessed a power that could not be explained by grade alone.
For Geumsohn, who had only just reached level ten, it was an item almost too precious to deserve.
His heart began to race wildly as he held it.
‘Wow, they’re really giving me this?’
The quest he had undertaken following the words of the Hollow Ghost, Yeom Tae-hun.
But he never expected he would actually obtain this reward.
He had thought it possible that only the quest would be solved and the reward changed.
Otherwise, he had assumed the quest chain would be extended with a follow-up.
Lepion was a game where rewards shifted drastically depending on NPC relationships and a character’s circumstances.
The Yeom Tae-hun of the past had been over level two hundred, whereas Geumsohn now was only level ten.
So he had worried.
Perhaps they would offer him a different reward instead.
But the same reward had come through.
Exactly as the Hollow Ghost Yeom Tae-hun had spoken it.
Now that it rested in his hands, he could not help but hesitate to use it.
He knew its value better than anyone.
‘Should I…… use this?’
In his past life, this scroll had been among the ten rarest items in all of Lepion.
It dropped with impossibly low probability even from the War of Gods raid—the ultimate level-four-hundred content.
On the rare occasions it appeared at the Auction House, it fetched prices in the tens or hundreds of billions of won in real currency, stirring worldwide media attention for Lepion and beyond.
And when the Age of Apocalypse arrived, it became an absolute item that could not be purchased with money at all.
‘The common wisdom is to save it until you obtain your final item, then use it then.’
A broken item that forcibly raised a designated target’s grade and awakened its potential.
So it was standard not to use this scroll immediately upon acquiring it.
Most of the rankers kept this scroll in the deepest corner of their Inventory.
Waiting for that one day when they would obtain the single End-game Item they would use for the rest of their lives.
‘If it had been just that… none of this chaos would have erupted.’
The Whistle Contention War—the conflict that had hastened the Age of Apocalypse itself.
And the catalyst for that war had been set in motion by a single man.
Ryushin the Sword Specter.
A man who had ascended to the ranks of humanity’s strongest with a blade alone.
When the Age of Apocalypse arrived, that Ryushin had used two of these scrolls—two of them—on his sword Moonlight to craft a Mythic Grade weapon.
The image of him cutting down an entire legion of monsters that had consumed a city with a single stroke remained vivid in Geumsohn’s mind even now.
The truth that became known in that moment.
The Divine Whistle Scroll could be used multiple times.
And then came the Whistle Contention War.
National leaders and rankers alike.
It became only natural that all would scramble to secure the Divine Whistle Scroll.
Even if innocent blood had to be spilled—their own nation’s security came first.
And such an item now rested in the hands of Geumsohn, a mere Level 10.
So he hesitated.
His level was still too low, and besides, he had no pressing need for it.
Most equipment, after all, he could simply craft himself.
But Geumsohn tore the Divine Whistle Scroll open.
Without a moment’s hesitation.
Rip—
[Would you like to use the Divine Whistle Scroll?]
[This choice cannot be undone.]
A message materialized before Geumsohn’s eyes.
But he showed no sign of reconsidering that decision.
“I use it.”
With Geumsohn’s firm reply, the scroll began to blaze with a brilliant golden light.

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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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