Regression of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 01

========== REGRESSION OF THE TRANSCENDENT BLACKSMITH CHAPTER 1 ==========

A pine caterpillar should stick to pine needles, and if a bush warbler tries to keep up with a stork, it’ll tear its crotch.

The two proverbs are different, but they meant the same thing.

Don’t stick your neck out unnecessarily; know your place and act accordingly.

This teaching had been the guiding principle of Shin Tae-ho’s life up until now.

The class Shin Tae-ho awakened as was Blacksmith.

Although it wasn’t the class he wanted, Shin Tae-ho silently dedicated his life to the role of a blacksmith.

Always stuck in the forge, his body was soaked in sweat, and metal dust fell off him every time he moved.

With endless work, he couldn’t even climb the Tower.

However, every time Shin Tae-ho crafted a weapon, the floor level the challengers reached in the Tower rose.

And every time he crafted armor, the casualty rate of the challengers decreased.

At some point, after hammering away endlessly like that,

Shin Tae-ho earned the title of Transcendental Blacksmith, a title filled with respect from the people.

Even though his body was weary and it wasn’t the path he originally wanted, Shin Tae-ho had no regrets or doubts about that life.

…Until the world became like this.

“…F*ck.”

A curse escaped Shin Tae-ho’s lips.

But there was no one left to hear that curse.

Shin Tae-ho, battered and broken, looked around with hollow eyes.

Under a sky rippling with black and purple.

Countless corpses were strewn about.

Shin Tae-ho’s eyes scanned between the corpses.

He saw a sharp, sturdy sword capable of cutting through dragon scales.

He also saw a shield that could block a railgun without a scratch.

He saw a suit made to be as sturdy as a shield while enhancing physical strength several times over.

…All of them were weapons and gear that Shin Tae-ho himself had crafted.

“Why on earth… how could this…!”

Shin Tae-ho covered his face.

Humanity ultimately failed to climb the Tower.

But it wasn’t because they lacked power.

Human Traitors.

Madmen who were overwhelmed by the existence of the Tower, abandoned humanity, and voluntarily worshipped the Tower.

The reason the Tower collapsed was because of those madmen who stabbed the challengers—who were climbing the Tower to protect humanity—in the back.

But they, too, were once human.

And because of that, they used the weapons Shin Tae-ho had made for humanity to their heart’s content.

Thanks to there being Human Traitors in the high ranks of the World Government, they even used better weapons.

And with those weapons, they slaughtered the noble challengers who were risking their lives to climb the Tower.

“Damn it…! Damn it!”

Shin Tae-ho struck the ground.

The thick concrete turned to powder.

“Just for an ending like this… I worked so-!”

Crouched down, Shin Tae-ho howled like a beast.

The countless weapons he had desperately crafted for the world.

The reality that they had instead become the power for those destroying the world made him feel like his head would burst with rage.

Rumble-

The sky rippled.

Every time it did, Qi, which originally shouldn’t have been on Earth, surged like a wave.

The Tower’s Qi, which they once believed was humanity’s power to conquer the Tower.

But the Qi that poured out when the Tower collapsed was scattered across Earth.

And now, it was encroaching on Earth like poison.

However, the Qi was only poison to humanity.

To the invaders who were liberated from the Tower and descended to Earth, it was oxygen and a source of power.

Kuu-woooo-oh!!

A roar that seemed to flip the sky and earth vibrated the air.

Gritting his teeth, Shin Tae-ho lifted his head.

Into the burning purple sky.

A being so massive that its distance couldn’t be gauged revealed itself.

Shin Tae-ho stared at the being with bloodshot eyes.

“Arcanus…!”

The first dragon.

The most powerful dragon.

And the Dragon Lord who rules over all dragons.

Arcanus was flying toward them, looking down on the world with eyes burning like the sun.

It was so incredibly far away that he couldn’t see its pupils properly.

But he could feel it.

Right now, Arcanus was staring only at Shin Tae-ho.

Grrrind!!

Shin Tae-ho, gritting his teeth until they nearly broke, barely managed to stand up.

Clack-clack-clack!

The suit that had been rolling on the ground instantly wrapped around Shin Tae-ho’s body.

As it was something he had made himself, he knew how to use it better than anyone else.

There was only one thing he had made, yet couldn’t identify.

“I’m counting on you.”

Shin Tae-ho opened his inventory and took out the item at the very top.

An item Shin Tae-ho had made himself, but whose usage he couldn’t figure out.

At the same time, it was the item that provided the decisive reason for Shin Tae-ho to receive the title of Transcendental-grade.

[Unknown Core]

-Grade: Transcendental

-Description: A core that has transcended the meaning of grade. Charging is required to use its original abilities.

-Remaining: 0.0001%

-Unique Ability: ⌜Charging⌟, ⌜Unknown⌟, ⌜Unknown⌟

-Creator: Shin Tae-ho

Information where nothing could be known except for Charging, one of the unique abilities.

But this was the only thing Shin Tae-ho could trust right now.

“I don’t know what you are.”

As he brought the core to his chest, a space opened up within the suit.

Shin Tae-ho, having equipped the core to his chest, gripped his sword and shield properly.

“Just for this last moment, help me in a way befitting the Transcendental grade.”

-Krr-ra-rak!

The dragons flew in like arrows.

In their mouths, a destructive concentration of Qi was condensing.

Kwar-r-r-rung!!

A roar like thunder striking right next to his ears erupted.

The breaths poured out by the dragons flew toward Shin Tae-ho.

A breath with a range of at least several kilometers was not something he could dodge.

Knowing that, Shin Tae-ho pressed his shield against his body and lowered his stance as much as possible.

Kwar-r-r-r-ruk!

The remnants of broken concrete melted instantly.

But as another breath poured down right after, the ground that had been boiling like lava froze instantly.

Lightning shattered the ice to pieces.

A tremendous wind blew away the shattered ice.

Dragon breaths that could flip the entire country of Korea with a single attack.

Those breaths poured down in succession, targeting only Shin Tae-ho.

Eventually, the breaths stopped.

The dragons, knowing their own power, were certain of Shin Tae-ho’s death.

However.

“Are you done? You lizard bastards.”

Inside the crater where countless breaths had been poured,

Shin Tae-ho, having endured all those attacks, was glaring with eyes wide open like a beast.

Before the surprised dragons could even react properly,

Condensed Qi was fired from Shin Tae-ho’s hand, which was spread out aiming at the dragons.

Pew!

Boom!!

-Ke-ra-rak!

The dragon hit by the Qi fired from the suit fell.

The dragons’ eyes widened.

They couldn’t understand this situation at all.

As the dragons, in anger, gathered Qi to breathe again,

From far away, a massive roar, on a different dimension from theirs, was heard.

Krr-r-rung!!

The dragons were startled by Arcanus’s roar and scattered.

Behind the vanished dragons, Arcanus’s massive body came into Shin Tae-ho’s sight.

Despair welled up in Shin Tae-ho’s eyes.

Shin Tae-ho looked at Arcanus’s mouth.

He could tell.

That breath is on a different dimension from the breaths of the dragons here.

100 times? No, 1,000 times?

He couldn’t even gauge it.

He even thought that maybe the Earth would be pierced through.

“Is this the end?”

His heart was breaking.

No, actually, it had been broken from the start.

The Tower had already collapsed.

That wouldn’t change even if he somehow killed all those dragons.

Even so, what is the reason for struggling like this?

If he just gave up on everything like this,

With that breath, painlessly and comfortably-

“What foolish talk.”

Crunch!

Shin Tae-ho bit the flesh inside his mouth with all his might.

His mind, which had been fading from the pain that felt like being electrocuted, snapped awake.

Give up?

End the path that had been continued by the desperate struggles and sacrifices of so many Awakened with giving up?

“Absolutely not.”

Click-clack!

The suit wrapping his body changed its form.

The parts protecting his chest and abdomen disappeared.

Instead, the suit, concentrated on his arms and legs, pushed his physical strength and attack power to the limit.

When Shin Tae-ho looked at the core, the remaining amount was displayed.

-Remaining: 0.93%

“Weak lizard bastards. You fired all those breaths, and this is all you managed?”

Shin Tae-ho cursed the dragons as if they were pathetic.

But that wasn’t sincere.

No, it was rather a loathing for the dragons’ power.

To think that it filled up this much, when he couldn’t even get it past 0.0001% despite using all means until now.

…And to think that even after getting hit by that much dragon breath to charge it, it didn’t even reach 1%.

What on earth is this core?

“This is actually better. I’ll absorb all your breaths with this core and annihilate them. And with that power, I’ll kill you!”

The Qi contained in the core flowed into the suit, lifting Shin Tae-ho’s body.

Shin Tae-ho, who flew up in an instant, headed toward Arcanus.

Arcanus, who had been quietly staring at that sight, opened its mouth even wider.

Kwaaaa-!!

The sound was erased.

His eardrums had burst from the overwhelmingly massive roar.

Arcanus’s form was obscured from his view by the overwhelmingly massive breath.

But Shin Tae-ho did not give up.

“Kaaaaah!!”

He let out a shout that he couldn’t tell was a scream or a battle cry.

Simultaneously absorbing the breath with the core, he converted all the charged Qi into an attack.

The remaining amount number on the core repeated stretching and shrinking like a rubber band.

But the superiority in power was clear.

“Kuuuugh!”

His body was burning up.

No, had it already burned up completely?

He had no sensation in his body.

He couldn’t even tell if he was alive or dead right now.

In the silence where nothing could be heard, he only repeated charging and attacking while feeling endless pain.

‘If only. If I had known they were Human Traitors.’

Is it because death is near?

Suddenly, past regrets came to Shin Tae-ho’s mind.

‘No, if only I had restricted it so that only chosen people could use the weapons.’

‘If only I hadn’t made the weapons.’

‘No….’

Rather.

If I had rejected all requests and climbed the Tower myself, believing in my own potential.

Wouldn’t I have been able to create a different ending than now?

At some moment, the pain disappeared.

He couldn’t hear or see anything.

He couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive.

Since he was at least thinking, did that mean he wasn’t dead?

A dry laugh escaped him at the absurd thought.

Still, he had done everything he could.

Even if he failed and was broken, he didn’t give up.

Just like that, when he was about to let go of even the consciousness he was clinging to like a lingering attachment,

Something familiar appeared in his vision, where he could see nothing.

What is that?

The moment he had that question,

Suddenly, the sound of a second hand ticking was heard from somewhere.

Tick, tick, tick

The ticking sound of the second hand sounded as loud as the dragon breath.

What is this all of a sudden.

It’s noisy.

Everything is over now, so why am I hearing a clock sound out of nowhere?

When his irritation began to rise,

Tick-!

The ticking sound of the Regression Orb, which had been ringing endlessly like a heartbeat, stopped.

“What the f*ck!! What is this annoying clock sound… huh?”

Shin Tae-ho, realizing he could hear his own voice, opened his eyes wide.

Shin Tae-ho, who had sat up, looked around with a body frozen in surprise.

A narrow room, an old desk.

And even the certification-related books packed on that desk.

A scene he hadn’t seen since becoming a blacksmith.

But it was a scene Shin Tae-ho knew all too well.

“This is… before I awakened….”

Before Shin Tae-ho could even finish his sentence.

Ding!

[Congratulations. You have been chosen as an Awakened.]

[Proceed with the tutorial to awaken your latent class.]

Along with the notification, the message window that had completely changed his life a long time ago appeared again.

To be continued in the next chapter ▶