The Returned Genius Blacksmith has Awakened as an all-Master - Chapter 74

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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 74
074. This is serious.
A faint turbulence in magical energy—imperceptible to NPCs or ordinary players—coiled around the entire city.
It was an ominous sensation, like invisible whirlpools churning beneath the surface of a clear lake.
‘Mage’s Insight.’
Geumson activated the skill, and his vision shifted.
Overlaying the beautiful cityscape, the Magical Circuits etched across the entire city appeared as blue lines.
But those lines flickered dimly in places, or had turned a sickly dark red.
“Hah…… This is serious?”
Geumson let out a hollow laugh.
The defensive system protecting the city was slowly rotting from within.
‘Airthos, Airthos…….’
Geumson tried to summon memories from his past.
If the Magical Circuits of the entire city were decaying like this, something catastrophic must have happened.
But Geumson had no memory of it.
‘Maybe it’s too early in the timeline…… Did it never become a topic of discussion?’
Geumson had no particular memories regarding Airthos.
In his previous life, he’d been absorbed in mastering blacksmithing and focusing on streaming, so he’d never been well-versed in Lepion news itself.
Much less a magical city.
For Geumson, who’d walked the path of a hammer warrior and blacksmith, it was simply outside his sphere of interest.
‘Well…… Since it’s a city of mages, they probably solved the problem themselves.’
Geumson deliberately ignored the visible Magical Circuits.
The faults in the Magical Circuits that composed the magical defense array.
He reasoned that if this was truly a city of mages, they couldn’t possibly be unaware of such a problem.
Besides, the city seemed so vibrant that he didn’t think any serious trouble would arise.
‘Am I just being paranoid?’
Geumson took in the lively streets of Airthos once more.
Young mages rode broomsticks or carpets, making deliveries through the streets.
The players themselves seemed to have even created their own market and were conducting business.
“Come, come! Pick one! Take a look! Fresh crab claws just pulled from the desert! Delicious grilled or steamed! Use them as enchantment materials and you’ll get that electric sting! Only 5,000 gold! The shop next door charges 6,000, but I’m being honest with you! They’re shameless!”
“These Mana Recovery Cookies my sister made herself—one bite and your mana refills, trust me! Go on, try one! You’re tired of potions anyway, right? This is a cookie! A cookie!”
“Psst! Everyone quiet down. Ever seen this? Powder ground from a Lich’s finger bones—for black mages, there’s no better voodoo material than this, I’m telling you. Only one bottle left. As for the price…… name your price, but since you’ve got such a nice face, I’ll give it to you special for 30,000 gold—deal?”
.
.
.
From haggling over prices to barking sales pitches.
Airthos in chaos.
A cityscape where players and NPCs mingled in confusion, yet radiated vibrant energy.
‘This isn’t the time for this…… but it bothers me.’
Geumson frowned.
Time was already tight just finding Astrid, wherever she was in the city.
But those damaged Magical Circuits kept catching his eye.
It might be called an occupational habit, but he couldn’t help it.
If he left it alone like this, the city could eventually lose function from magical depletion, or in the worst case, a catastrophic explosion could occur from magical backflow.
Geumson headed toward the nearest Magical Circuit relay tower.
The relay tower was cleverly hidden beneath the city’s Fountain.
“Say, say, look at this foreigner. Just walking right into the Fountain?”
“Let him be, he’s a foreigner. They’re always searching for something or other…… Might as well see what he finds.”
“These uneducated types are impossible. Last time, some foreigner wandered right into our neighbor Charles’s house and smashed every pot in sight, I tell you?”
“Why did he do that?”
“When the guards dragged him off, he claimed he was searching for some hidden item?”
“That’s just…… theft, isn’t it?”
“My point exactly! That’s what I mean by uneducated!”
The gazes of Airthos’s residents falling upon Geumson were far from friendly.
It seemed the hostile looks weren’t directed at Geumson alone—players in general weren’t viewed kindly here.
Since players approached Lepion as merely a game, they’d never developed good relations with the NPCs who inhabited this world.
So Geumson, mindful of his surroundings, approached carefully and opened the control panel cover.
“This is……!”
Geumson’s eyes widened.
The interior of the control panel was devastated.
The Mana Stabilization Rune had been scratched by something sharp, and the core circuit had been crudely severed before being reconnected in all the wrong places.
This was no mere deterioration or accident.
It was deliberate sabotage—the work of someone with a clear intention.
‘Who on earth would do such a thing, and why……?’
Geumson surveyed his surroundings with a grave expression.
Then a possibility flickered through his mind.
Only one person came to mind.
Moiran.
That exaggerated kindness when they’d first met in the desert.
The way she’d subtly observed him throughout the battle.
And most of all, a name that lingered faintly in the depths of his memory.
‘Moiran…… yes, that’s it! Moiran!’
In his past life, just before the Age of Ruin descended.
The infamous Arachne Guild, which had deliberately sown chaos throughout the cities of peaceful Lepion and brought down urban defense systems from within.
They had always moved with the stealth of spiders, dealing catastrophic damage to every city they touched.
And among that guild’s core operatives was one woman.
A master of disguise, infiltration, and sabotage—her codename was…….
“The Spider Moiran!”
A soft curse escaped Geumson’s lips.
The Spider Moiran, who had risen to become a top-ranked player in the latter half of Lepion.
Now everything fell into place.
Moiran and her guild were clearly conducting preparatory work to bring down Airthos.
‘Damn it, of all times!’
Geumson’s face hardened.
His current goal was to meet the Archmage Astrid and learn magic from her.
But if the city fell into chaos or came under threat of collapse, the whereabouts of someone living in seclusion would become even more elusive.
‘This city cannot fall before I find Astrid.’
Geumson wrestled with the dilemma.
The Spider Moiran had been infamous in Lepion, but not during the Age of Ruin itself.
He had never met her directly.
But he had known of her.
‘The Spider Moiran…….’
Fragments of memory—forgotten, or perhaps willfully suppressed—crashed over him like a tidal wave.
The tranquil landscape of the magical city of Airthos before his eyes suddenly bleached to ash, overlaying itself with the desolate despair of that time when everything had crumbled.
* * *
The Age of Ruin.
Underground City 08, humanity’s subterranean fortress—commonly known as Bastion.
The air in its Central Control Room was heavy.
Holographic screens displayed the overwhelming forces of the Abyss Legion, which had surrounded the fortress.
At its center, the crimson aura of the legion commander—Cractul, the Lord of the Void, the source of all despair—pulsed with sinister foreboding.
“……There is no way out.”
The Commander-in-Chief of the Survivor Alliance muttered with a bloodless face.
His voice was heavy with resignation and helplessness.
“Cractul has completed the Void Catalyst. In twelve hours, when it activates, Bastion and all the space in this region will vanish entirely into the void. We have no means of resistance…….”
Heavy silence settled over the control room.
Everyone knew.
That this was the moment of Bastion’s destruction.
Bastion, surrounded on all sides.
Their only path to survival was to destroy the Void Catalyst.
But destroying the Void Catalyst, hidden deep within the Obsidian Spire—the enemy’s stronghold—was nearly impossible.
“Reconnaissance is unfeasible. A ten-kilometer radius around the spire is blanketed in powerful detection barriers, and the interior is layered with Spatial Distortion Traps and Magical Circuit sensors……”
The analyst’s report was a bleak pronouncement that snuffed out even the last ember of hope.
Everyone had bowed their heads, helplessly awaiting Bastion’s impending doom, when…….
“……I’ll go.”
A quiet, hoarse voice.
All eyes turned toward her at the sound, worn and strained as it was.
A single woman, standing in the shadows at the edge of the control room.
Tattered battle-worn fatigues, and burn scars that ran across her face—a testament to some terrible suffering.
The Spider Moiran.
At her words, the Commander-in-Chief shook his head and spoke.
“Moiran, I understand your heart…… but that’s suicide. Better to slip away alone, alert the city to what’s happened, and prepare for Cractul. That would be more—”
The Commander-in-Chief was trying to persuade her.
But Moiran’s resolve was unshakeable.
“Run away alone? Leave the people of this city behind? I may be a wretch, but I’m not that much of one.”
Her rough-edged words.
Yet at the corner of her mouth hung a faint smile—bitter enough to sting.
She passed the Commander-in-Chief and reached for the radio set in the innermost corner of the control room.
She called out over the frequency.
Static crackled.
“Geumson.”
Geumson’s workshop was connected directly to the control room.
Geumson, tasked with repairing and modifying the soldiers’ weapons.
“I need to ask you for something.”
Her request was simple on its surface, yet impossibly difficult.
It was a brutal request: to make the impossible possible.
“I need equipment to infiltrate the Obsidian Spire. Something that evades all magical detection, that lets me dissolve completely into shadow…… something like a suit. Can you…… do it?”
Geumson lifted the radio.
He paused, considering.
Moiran’s words were few, but Geumson understood Bastion’s current plight better than anyone.

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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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