The Returned Hunter Has Awakened to a Hidden Class - Chapter 21
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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21
Chapter 21
Enhancement.
Equipment enhancement.
An essential condition for surviving in the Tower.
No matter how high one’s level or how good their stats, there were limits on the upper floors without proper equipment backing them up.
Conversely, it also meant that with good equipment alone, one could defeat opponents much stronger than themselves.
That’s why Tebe Craftsman Street was always bustling.
Filled with Hunters aiming for that one chance to change their fate.
Success meant Heaven, failure meant Hell.
At that stark crossroads, countless Hunters were gambling again today.
Clang!
“Ah, it didn’t break yet?”
A D-rank Hunter looked at his sword with trembling hands. He was attempting a +4 enhancement.
Clang!
“Please, please! Just this once!”
Clang!
A flash of light erupted.
“It worked! It worked!”
+4 enhancement success. The surrounding Hunters cast envious glances.
But right next to him.
Clang!
“God, Allah, Buddha, please…”
A Hunter clasped his hands together and prayed desperately.
Clang!
“Pleeeease! Let’s gooooo!!”
Crack-
“Ah. Damn game.”
“Kekekeke. That’s why I told you to stop. You’ll be mining for another week now.”
“Pfft! Just slap it on a shirt and it’ll be restored~”
“Are you a genius?”
One Hunter fell into despair as he touched the shattered fragments.
He had tried to go from +6 to +7 and it was completely destroyed.
The failed Hunter’s face contorted.
Then he glared at the blacksmith who had been enhancing his equipment for no reason.
“What! Are you saying this is my fault?”
“Th-that’s not it, but…”
“Then why are you looking at me with those eyes?”
“If you’d just do it more carefully, handle it gently like a baby…”
“I warned you!”
The blacksmith made an aggrieved expression.
He had just hammered as instructed.
In the alley, cheers and screams alternated and burst out continuously.
“It worked! +5 success!”
“Ahhh! My armor!”
“Should I enhance it just one more time?”
“I have a feeling about this one…”
The uniquely frenzied atmosphere of Craftsman Street.
Perhaps a place more intense than the gambling dens at Black Jo’s tavern.
Even amid such commotion, there was one particularly quiet blacksmith’s forge.
Ding-
“Who… oh!”
The blacksmith looked up and his eyes widened.
“Kim Jun! My hero!”
The dwarf blacksmith Aaron threw down his hammer and ran to Kim Jun.
“Wahahahaha! Good to see you, so good to see you!”
“You’ve been well, right?”
Tears welled up in Aaron’s eyes.
After the Lunarium hammer passed down through generations of his family broke, he had fallen into complete despair.
Customers left one by one, and the forge’s fire was dying out.
But after receiving 「Vallerion’s Hammer」 that Kim Jun gave him, everything changed.
Looking around the forge now, it was worlds apart from before.
The furnace was blazing brightly again, and the dusty anvil was gleaming with polish.
The tools hanging on the walls were all organized and tidy.
“So, what brings you here today? Enhancement? Crafting?”
“There’s nothing more to craft. What you made for me is already excellent.”
“Uwahahaha! Of course it is! Then you came for enhancement?”
“Yes… but the price…?”
Kim Jun was surprised looking at the price list hanging on the wall.
Compared to other forges, it was almost 50 times more expensive.
“Ah, that. That’s the price I set to send away the riffraff. For you and your companions, it’s naturally free! Wahahahaha!”
Aaron was sincere.
The benefactor who rekindled the dying furnace.
The person who restored his pride as a blacksmith.
How could he repay that kindness?
For Aaron, this was the only way to show his gratitude.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Bah!!! What do you take me for! Just being able to hammer again makes me die without regrets! Well then, shall we begin?”
Kim Jun began taking out numerous Lunariums from his spatial pouch.
Clatter-
Glittering silver ores began piling up on the workbench.
“N-no! Why are there so many…! Just how many are there!”
“Haha…”
Because Kim Jun had swept through ‘all’ the monsters and bosses from the 11th to 15th Floors in his rampage, Lunarium was piled up like a mountain.
Aaron counted them one by one and was shocked.
“A-a thousand?!”
“That’s about right.”
Kim Jun said calmly.
“W-with this much…”
Aaron’s eyes flashed. Calculations raced through his mind.
With this amount and 「Vallerion’s Hammer」’s 2x enhancement rate and destruction prevention properties…
“+15 per piece should be possible, right?”
+15.
An insane number.
“And these are all high-purity Lunarium?”
Aaron picked up the Lunariums one by one, holding them up to the light and exclaiming in admiration.
They were completely different from the Lunarium mined from ordinary mines.
Even the coloring was clearer, and the streams of magical light flowing within the grain were visible to the naked eye.
Usually, even if Hunters mined all day, they’d be lucky to get one or two ‘ordinary’ Lunariums if fortune smiled upon them.
But now.
Before Aaron’s eyes, such gem-like high-purity Lunarium was piled up like a mountain, a whopping ‘thousand’ pieces.
He was momentarily speechless.
“With materials this good, even +20 would be possible.”
Clench-
Aaron gripped his hammer and began enthusiastically upgrading Kim Jun’s equipment.
“There’s technique to this hammering, technique. It’s not just simple probability.”
Naturally, Kim Jun already knew this.
That was why he had given Aaron 「Vallerion’s Hammer」 in the first place.
Good materials and tools were important, but the blacksmith’s skill was the real key.
“I trust you.”
“Of course! Just trust me!”
Aaron rolled up his sleeves and raised his hammer.
“Huuuuu.”
With a deep breath, Aaron’s expression changed. The playful look in his eyes disappeared, revealing the serious demeanor of a craftsman.
His gaze toward the 「Dragon Eater」 on the workbench contained an artist’s concentration.
He picked up a piece of Lunarium and held it up to the light. He slowly rotated it as he observed, as if reading the flow of mana.
“Good, this one has the strongest energy.”
He placed the selected Lunarium next to the 「Dragon Eater」.
The dragon’s aura emanating from the sword and the Lunarium’s mana began reacting to each other.
Fine electricity flowed through the air.
Aaron slowly raised Vallerion’s hammer. Decades of accumulated experience were embedded in his wrists and shoulders.
“Now.”
In that split second, the Lunarium’s mana and Dragon Eater’s aura resonated perfectly.
Clang-!
The hammer came down.
It wasn’t a simple strike.
A perfect blow that only a craftsman with decades of experience could deliver, one that didn’t go against the flow of mana while precisely penetrating the core.
Brilliant light burst forth.
[「Dragon Eater」 +2 enhancement successful!]
Kim Jun watched the scene and thought to himself.
‘Plus 2 in one go? As expected, my choice wasn’t wrong.’
Aaron’s skill was art itself.
It wasn’t simply relying on probability, but the true technique of a master craftsman who could see through the essence of materials and equipment.
“Oho, this one has good energy!”
Aaron examined the 「Dragon Eater」 that had become +2 with satisfaction.
A more intense dragon aura than before was emanating from the blade.
“Next!”
Aaron began selecting Lunarium again. This time more carefully, more precisely.
From +3 enhancement onward, more care was needed.
Simple mana alone wasn’t enough, and the equipment’s own resistance also grew stronger.
Aaron slowly rotated Vallerion’s hammer to check its center of gravity.
He took out two pieces of Lunarium and carefully placed them on both sides of the Dragon Eater. It was to maintain balance.
“Huuu…”
With an even deeper breath, Aaron’s concentration reached its peak.
Clang! Clang!
This time, two consecutive strikes followed in succession.
It was an advanced technique where the first opened the flow of mana, and the second fixed that flow.
Click!
With a sound of something falling into place.
[「Dragon Eater」 +3 enhancement successful!]
“Good!”
Aaron clenched his fist.
“Now it’s really starting. Let’s keep going!”
After that, Aaron’s hammering didn’t stop.
Clang-! Clang-! Clang-!
[「Dragon Eater」 +7 enhancement successful!]
[「Dragon Skin」 +5 enhancement successful!]
[「Dragon Claw」 +6 enhancement successful!]
*
As time passed and night deepened, all enhancements were finally completed.
“Phew! It’s done!”
Aaron wiped his sweat and looked at the equipment on the workbench.
Incomparably more powerful energy than before was emanating from them.
“Amazing.”
Kim Jun admired as he checked the enhanced equipment.
Of the thousand pieces of Lunarium, only about 400 materials had been used so far.
The current enhancement levels were.
[「Dragon Eater」 +15 enhancement successful!]
[「Dragon Skin」 +13 enhancement successful!]
[「Dragon Claw」 +12 enhancement successful!]
“Are you really not going to enhance more? It’s such a shame?”
“No, I can’t use them all for myself.”
Of course, if he used all the remaining materials, he could easily reach +15. Maybe even +20.
But his companions came to mind.
The ones he was most worried about were Ryu Ji-a and Han Su-in.
Lee Seo-yeon was safe with her own regenerative power as a healer, and Park Min-soo as a tank had good durability so there was no worry.
But Ryu Ji-a was an extreme damage dealer who invested nothing in health stats. Even at high levels, one hit could be dangerous.
And Han Su-in was…
‘Not this time, absolutely not.’
Kim Jun’s chest felt heavy.
The first person to die before his regression.
It was still vivid. The warmth growing cold, eyes that had hardened while gazing at the sky.
Han Su-in was an S-rank assassin. She was fast and agile, able to dodge most attacks.
But she was also a profession that fought in closer proximity than anyone else.
‘I need to make her even a little safer.’
Kim Jun looked at the remaining Lunarium and made a resolution.
He didn’t want to see that scene again in this life.
Jingle-
“Is this the place?”
Park Min-soo’s head poked through the door first.
Behind him, Ryu Ji-a, Lee Seo-yeon, and Han Su-in appeared in turn.
“This is the right place!”
“Oppa!”
“Guild leader~.”
“….”
When Kim Jun got up from his seat, all four showed slightly relieved expressions.
“How’s your body?”
“Manageable. Thanks to you.”
If it hadn’t been for Lee Seo-yeon’s heal, Kim Jun would still be lying in bed right now.
“Still annoying….”
“Ha, hahaha. Anyway….”
Kim Jun turned his gaze and quickly changed the subject.
“Let’s all work on armor first. Weapons are sufficiently covered by our current levels.”
For some unknown reason, the four of them had leveled up just from subduing Kim Jun.
Each of them had gained a whopping +2.
Being close to level 20, they could easily cut down the monsters on the next floor without weapon enhancement.
What they needed most right now was armor.
You have to survive to deal damage, after all.
“Alright, me first.”
Park Min-soo placed his heavy plate armor down with a thunk.
Lee Seo-yeon took out her sturdy robe, and Han Su-in handed Aaron lightweight armor instead of a dagger.
Clang!
Clang!
As the armor was enhanced one by one, everyone wore satisfied expressions.
But then.
“I want this one!”
Ryu Ji-a smiled brightly as she held up her wand high.
The 「Branch of Sorcery」 that Kim Jun had given her after clearing the 6th Floor.
—-
[「Branch of Sorcery」]
[Grade] : C
[Trait] : Grade increases proportionally to user’s mana
[Effect] : Magic attack power +20%, Mana consumption 15%
—-
Park Min-soo narrowed his eyes.
“Hey! Don’t do weapons! Hyung said to do armor!”
“Ah, no way! I said no!”
“Look at this extreme DPS addict!”
“Ah ah, can’t hear you, can’t hear you~.”
Ryu Ji-a brushed off Park Min-soo’s nagging with a wave of her hand and even hummed a tune.
“If weapons are strong, mobs die quickly, and if mobs die quickly, we’re all safe~.”
“Hey! I’m always getting hit instead of you!”
“That’s your role! So, won’t you protect me?”
Park Min-soo was left speechless.
“Th, this…!”
Ryu Ji-a tilted her head slightly and approached with mischievous eyes.
“I asked if you won’t protect me. Hm?”
“….”
“Hm? Hm?”
“I… I will protect you….”
“Then that’s settled! Dwarf uncle! This one!”
Ryu Ji-a smiled brightly as she handed it to Aaron.
Park Min-soo turned his head away for no reason, but his ear tips were tinged red.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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