The Returned Genius Blacksmith has Awakened as an all-Master - Chapter 56

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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 56
056. The Mage of Illusions
After the auction concluded, Dushar and Kalis approached Geumson.
Dushar made no effort to hide his excitement, slapping Geumson’s back enthusiastically as he spoke.
“Kra-ha-ha-ha! I knew it! The auction results weren’t bad at all!”
Dushar, beaming with unbridled warmth, handed over the crystal card containing the winning bid and the Iron Rod of Forgotten Ancient Ruins that Geumson had purchased.
“Here, the auction proceeds and your acquisition. I’ve waived the commission for you as a special courtesy.”
Geumson accepted the card with a bewildered expression.
After Geumson offered his thanks, the two men asked him about his plans going forward.
“Where do you intend to go now? Remaining in Krathum to build more Reputation would be a sound approach, but…”
Dushar made the suggestion first.
But Geumson shook his head.
“No. I think I need to leave for a time. There’s something I wish to learn.”
“Something to learn?”
“I’m thinking of studying magic.”
At his answer, Dushar’s eyes widened in surprise, but Kalis nodded as though he had already anticipated it.
“As I thought—a wise decision. You cannot overlook magic if you wish to craft items properly. Even if you cannot cast it yourself, it’s invaluable to master the theory.”
Kalis withdrew from his breast a letter sealed tightly with wax.
“This is my Letter of Introduction to the Grand Mage Astrid, who dwells in seclusion in the magic city of Aerthos. She has a difficult temperament and does not take just anyone as a student, but… presenting this letter will at least spare you from being turned away at the gate.”
[You have acquired the Letter of Introduction from ‘Collector’ Kalis.]
Geumson’s eyes widened at the name of the Grand Mage Astrid.
She did not take just anyone as a student, as Kalis had said.
She had accepted only a single disciple.
‘The Mage of Illusions, Jung Harin.’
That sole disciple had become one of the ten greatest mages of the Age of Collapse, earning a place among humanity’s final bulwark.
‘Is Astrid’s class quest something you receive through Kalis?’
Countless players had sought to become her student and failed.
Even Geumson, who now possessed Kalis’s letter, might fail.
Nothing could be certain until he met Astrid face to face.
But one thing was unquestionable.
If he could become Astrid’s disciple, his mastery of magic would rival that of any true mage.
So Geumson bowed his head in gratitude for Kalis’s kindness.
“Thank you. I will not forget this debt.”
“A debt? Hardly. Rather, it is my hopes that rest upon you.”
Kalis offered a meaningful smile and tapped his shoulder.
Geumson took his leave of the two men, departed Krathum with Iron Walker and Tia at his side.
His next destination was Aerthos.
But there was a place he had to visit before he could travel there.
‘The City of Forgotten Giants…’
Geumson moved with haste toward that place.
Yet suspicious shadows began to follow him in secret.
Leaving Krathum for the next destination, the magic city of Aerthos.
But first, the path leading toward the City of Forgotten Giants.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—
Tia! Tiii—
Along that path, Geumson rode upon Iron Walker’s back.
And perched upon Geumson’s shoulders was Tia besides.
Witnessing this peculiar sight, Geumson grew acutely aware of how much he needed proper transportation.
‘The sight of it… is not exactly flattering.’
They looked like creatures from a fairy tale, strangely layered upon one another, and despite himself, Geumson couldn’t help but laugh.
Yet amid that laughter, a memory surfaced unbidden.
‘Jung Harin… I never expected to meet her teacher, Astrid.’
Little was known of Astrid beyond the fact that she was Jung Harin’s mentor.
After all, she was not a well-known NPC in Lepion.
But among players, the Mage of Illusions Jung Harin was far more renowned than Grand Mage Astrid herself.
‘Jung Harin…’
Geumson’s thoughts turned to Jung Harin.
A deep sigh escaped him.
The Age of Collapse—the mage who shone most brilliantly at humanity’s final line of defense.
People called her the Mage of Illusions.
Her magic had always been so precise and beautiful that it was indistinguishable from reality itself.
But Geumson knew.
He knew why she had clung so desperately to Illusion Magic.
‘Will they call me the Mage of Illusions again this time? I wish they wouldn’t……’
Those days when everything was crumbling.
It was just before humanity’s underground shelter, Underground Tank 17, fell to the creatures’ total assault.
Crrrunch—!
Muddy water poured down from the ceiling like rain, and red warning lights blinked desperately across the walls.
The groans of the wounded and the wails of terrified children mixed together, painting a scene from hell itself.
At the center of it all, a woman with a pallid face chanting incantations.
Mage Jung Harin.
Her eyes were hollow, and her lips were cracked and parched.
After days and nights of maintaining defensive magic, her mana had long since run dry.
Yet she could not stop.
She knew that the moment she did, the thousands of lives sheltering here would all come to an end.
“Harin, here’s the item you requested. Will this help?”
Geumson handed her the item she had asked for and posed the question.
But she merely answered mechanically, her eyes vacant.
“Th—thank you. With this, yes, with this I can hold out until reinforcements arrive. Just a little longer, right? Geumson…… that’s right, isn’t it?”
Her voice trembled thin as thread.
Reinforcements would never come.
All communication with the outside had been severed long ago.
It was a lie she told herself, one she already knew was false.
That was when it happened.
A small boy, huddled among the refugees behind her, stumbled toward her.
He looked to be about ten years old, with eyes that resembled hers so closely.
“Sister…… are you hurting?”
At the boy’s worried question, a faint smile bloomed on Jung Harin’s dying face for the first time.
She reached out with trembling hands and stroked the boy’s hair.
“No, I’m fine, Hajun. Sister’s fine. Just wait a little longer. Father will be here to pick us up soon.”
Jung Hajun.
Her one and only sibling.
The one who had become her sole pillar of support after they lost both their parents on the day the Gate opened.
He was the only reason she could endure in this hellish world.
Craaaaaash—!
In that instant, the shelter’s last defensive wall shattered with a deafening roar.
Beyond the broken wall, hundreds of red eyes gleamed greedily from the pitch darkness.
– Shrieeeek!
A torrent of monsters and creatures poured in.
Jung Harin wrung out the last of her mana and threw herself between them and her brother.
“Stay back! Don’t come closer!”
But her magic no longer held any power.
The faint flame that left her fingertips extinguished pathetically before it could even touch the creature’s hard carapace.
One of the creatures raised its massive foreleg mockingly toward her.
Jung Harin squeezed her eyes shut.
But the pain she expected never came.
Instead, she heard a small cry from behind her.
“Sister!”
When Jung Harin spun around in horror.
What met her eyes was her brother collapsing, blood spilling from his mouth.
A chunk of debris from the ceiling had fallen, striking down the very brother she had been trying to protect.
“Hajun……?”
In that moment, her world stopped.
All sound around her vanished, and only the image of her fallen brother remained, burned into her vision like slow motion.
She staggered toward him.
She fell to her knees and pulled his small, rapidly cooling body into her embrace.
“Hajun…… Hajun, you’re joking, right? Right? Please? Open your eyes…… please? I’m sorry…… so please, open your eyes, okay? Please?”
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks.
But no answer came.
In that moment, something inside her snapped with a soft click.
The grip on that indefinable something shattered.
“Ah… ah… ahhhhhhhhh!”
A scream tore from her throat.
It was a curse hurled at the world, a bitter lamentation of her own powerlessness.
In that instant, a torrent of magical power erupted from her body—far beyond anything before it.
[Mage Jung Harin undergoes Awakening.]
She wept no longer.
Instead, her hollow eyes fixed upon her brother’s face, and she whispered softly.
“It’s all right, Hajun. It’s all right…. I’m here.”
Light bloomed from her fingertips, wrapping itself around her brother’s wounds.
But it was not the light of healing.
It was the light of Illusion Magic—beautiful beyond measure, overwhelming all it touched.
“You won’t hurt anymore. Look, the wounds are gone, aren’t they? Now get up and go find Father. He said he’d bought your favorite chicken.”
Through her magic, the blood-soaked body of her brother transformed into an unblemished form.
His tightly closed eyes slowly opened, and he smiled at her with a gummy grin.
“Sister… I’m hungry.”
“Of course you are, my Hajun. Come on, let’s go.”
Jung Harin took the hand of the Hajun before her and rose.
Her eyes no longer saw the flood of monsters pouring in, nor the collapsing shelter.
She saw only her brother’s form, his hand in hers, his smile.
And so she kept the illusion at her side—the illusion she herself had woven.
It was so flawless, so perfectly crafted, that it was indistinguishable from a living person.
Yet it remained a false happiness.
A sorrowful mirage—one that could only shatter in the end.
Still, Geumson could say nothing to Jung Harin that day.
That was the day the Mage of Illusions, Jung Harin, was born.

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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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