Regression of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 03

========== REGRESSION OF THE TRANSCENDENT BLACKSMITH CHAPTER 3 ==========

A breathless silence descended.

Arimir had fallen face-first onto the ground.

It had already been 20 seconds, but Arimir didn’t move a muscle while face-down.

‘Is she dead?’

Just as Shin Tae-ho was entertaining the absurd thought of an administrator dying from a fall.

Arimir, who had been face-down, awkwardly got up and straightened her clothes.

Arimir, having tried her best to calmly sweep her hair back, curled up the corners of her lips.

“…That’s impressive. To lay a trap like this before the Tutorial even begins. Even I was completely fooled.”

“?”

Shin Tae-ho gave a strange look at Arimir’s nonsense.

However, Shin Tae-ho held his tongue.

She was pretending to be nonchalant, but Arimir’s face was flushed bright red like a ripe persimmon.

He felt that if he said the wrong thing right now, he would really end up on her bad side.

‘I’m pissed that she took the Core on her own whim, but… she is an administrator by name. Even if she can’t directly harm me, I could still face disadvantages.’

If he knew Arimir well, maybe, but…

Since this was his first time meeting a Tutorial Administrator, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.

Ignoring Arimir, who was rambling to herself, Shin Tae-ho retrieved the Core.

Arimir glared at him with hawk eyes, but soon let out a sigh.

“It’s truly fascinating. To think it wouldn’t burst even after containing that much of my Qi.”

A Core’s capacity and output were proportional to its size.

The Core Shin Tae-ho brought was the size of a pear.

It belonged to the smaller side compared to other Cores in the Tower.

In contrast, the amount and density of Arimir’s Qi were ridiculously magnificent.

Yet, not only did it suck up her Qi in one go, but it was containing it without any issue?

‘Even if I made a Core the size of a castle, that would be impossible. What on earth is that…?’

“Are you done checking?”

Shin Tae-ho asked after carefully wiping the Core that had been dropped on the ground and putting it away.

Arimir, who had been about to answer Shin Tae-ho’s question, noticed something strange and shut her mouth.

“Your speech has become short, hasn’t it?”

“That’s right. Is there a problem?”

It wasn’t just his words; a cold aura flowed from Shin Tae-ho’s expression.

Arimir looked dumbfounded.

“To act like that toward me, an administrator. You’ve got some nerve.”

“It’s only ending at this because you’re an administrator. You snatched someone else’s item without permission to check it, then threw it on the ground to return it.”

“Uh….”

At Shin Tae-ho’s words, Arimir reflected on her actions.

Honestly, even she thought she had gone a bit too far.

‘Was I a bit too much…?’

As Arimir hesitated.

Shin Tae-ho, frowning, asked again.

“Since you’re an administrator, aren’t you also serving as a guide? If there’s no problem with the Core, I’m going in.”

Shin Tae-ho looked at Arimir.

Arimir, who had been staring at the Core, nodded.

“It is a Core that can truly be called a divine object. However, it is not something that cannot be allowed in the Tower.”

Arimir, who had stealthily rubbed her still-tingling nose, put on a serious expression.

At first, Arimir hadn’t wanted to come here either.

Arimir was the Tower’s administrator.

Therefore, if an abnormal phenomenon was observed inside the Tower, she was forcibly summoned.

And she simply had the duty to observe and judge that phenomenon directly.

What if the Core was a prohibited item brought from outside the Tower?

It wouldn’t be a matter of permission; with that classification alone, the Core could not be brought into the Tutorial, let alone the Tower.

However, as a result of checking.

The Core, whatever technology it was made with, just had an abnormally immense power and capacity to absorb Qi.

It was definitely an allowed item made with the Tower’s materials and technology, unrelated to any Tower errors.

‘But it’s still strange. How does a child who just awakened have a Core like that…?’

Arimir scanned Shin Tae-ho with suspicious eyes.

Shin Tae-ho merely received that gaze with annoyed eyes.

She didn’t like that attitude, but Arimir held it in.

As the Tower’s administrator, she couldn’t recklessly harm an Awakened.

On top of that, it was true that her hands had been rough when she was forcibly transported here.

Having made her decision, Arimir nodded.

“Yes. I’ve checked. I will allow you to take the Core.”

As Arimir raised her hand, the tightly closed door of the Tower slid open.

Shin Tae-ho walked past Arimir and into the Tutorial Tower.

She was dumbfounded by his behavior of expressing his anger until the very end, but…

Arimir stared intently at Shin Tae-ho’s back with strange eyes.

“Ha. No matter how much of a greenhorn he is, it’s natural to be scared if you feel my Qi. He’s got guts.”

Arimir’s eyes deepened.

Saying he has guts is putting it nicely.

Treating her like this was no ordinary feat.

That was harder than a human not fearing a dragon.

‘Is he fearless, or just thoughtless? But… he’s a strangely likable child.’

The vast, endless time she had spent in the Tower as the Tutorial Administrator.

During that time, there were almost no instances where Arimir was summoned.

Among the beings she met during those few summons.

Even excluding the Core, she felt a different, indescribable sensation from Shin Tae-ho.

“Perhaps… this child coming at this time might be fate.”

A secret everyone has, one that can’t be told to anyone.

Arimir also had such a secret.

But the veil of that secret was now reaching its end.

If Shin Tae-ho left, even Arimir herself couldn’t guarantee when she would be summoned again.

“Let’s see if you have the qualifications. I will watch.”

Arimir, the Dragonkin whose emotions had almost dried up, worn down by being crushed under the duty of an administrator for an endless amount of time.

Such eyes of Arimir, for the first time in a very long time, sparkled with interest and hope.

Kwaang!

Shin Tae-ho, having entered the Tutorial Tower, slammed his fist into the door.

He had succeeded in bringing the Core in.

Despite meeting the existence known as the Tower’s administrator for the first time, he had entered the Tutorial Tower without any issues.

Even so, only one scene kept playing in Shin Tae-ho’s head.

‘Dammit…! To be unable to do anything while it was snatched right in front of my eyes…!’

When Arimir snatched the Core away so nonchalantly.

Shin Tae-ho couldn’t do anything even while watching it with his own two eyes.

At the same time, the image of the traitors using the items he had created as if they were their own flashed through his mind.

‘Power…! I need power! Power to not have my things stolen. Power to prevent them from being misused against my intentions!!’

Shin Tae-ho raised his head.

The inside was a vast, empty wasteland.

But Shin Tae-ho already had the experience of having been here.

And since he had even obtained information from other Awakened.

He actually knew more about the Tutorial than back then.

“Start Tutorial.”

It was a voice just loud enough to be a mutter.

But since the system reacts to Shin Tae-ho’s will, that was enough.

[Class-unclassified Awakened confirmed. Starting the Tutorial.]

[Please select a weapon to use for the Tutorial.]

The empty space was instantly filled with countless weapons.

Shin Tae-ho walked among the weapons and moved his eyes.

Shin Tae-ho’s face darkened as he scanned and checked the condition of the weapons.

“Damn it. They’re all scrap metal.”

The items displayed in the Tutorial were all General grade.

It was only natural, as they were items prepared for the weak enemies in the Tutorial.

Shin Tae-ho knew that too.

But still.

‘Was the level of General grade items this pathetic?’

Shin Tae-ho, who had crafted items himself and was called a Transcendental Blacksmith.

In the eyes of such a Shin Tae-ho, General grade items were no different from rags.

‘This won’t do. It’s certain I’ll reach my limit even just by the 10th floor.’

Shin Tae-ho pondered.

In fact, there was the option of not climbing the Tutorial.

The Tutorial is called a tutorial, but the difficulty was so high that no Awakened had ever cleared it to the end.

But even so, Shin Tae-ho couldn’t give up on climbing the Tutorial.

‘I could get a class even if I give up on the Tutorial. But then, a Blacksmith class would definitely come out.’

No, perhaps he might not even get a Blacksmith class.

Because when he first climbed the Tutorial, he had at least made it to the 5th floor.

However, he couldn’t be satisfied with just the 5th floor now.

‘Expecting a different result while trying the same method as the past is a thought only someone with early-stage mental illness would have.’

Retain the Blacksmith’s memories and obtain a class specialized for combat.

Maximize that synergy and climb the Tower himself.

To change the damn future he had already experienced once.

Shin Tae-ho fell into deep thought while examining the endlessly spread-out items.

Shin Tae-ho’s eyes flashed for a moment as he pondered a variable to overcome this situation.

Shin Tae-ho didn’t hesitate and checked the possibility he had thought of.

“System. How many items can I take from here?”

[You are limited to taking 1 weapon and 1 piece of armor.]

“What if I take more than that?”

[In that case, only two randomly selected items from what you were holding will remain, and the rest will vanish.]

‘I can’t use the method of carrying a bunch of items.’

Shin Tae-ho pondered again.

A weapon of a familiar shape caught Shin Tae-ho’s eye as he looked around as if searching for an answer.

It was a one-handed hammer.

‘A hammer. A hammer, huh.’

The hammer was familiar to his hands since it was an item he had handled until his regression.

Of course, he had no intention of choosing the hammer.

He already lacked combat ability, and using only a one-handed hammer with an extremely short range was too risky for someone unskilled in combat like him.

Instead, a thought that was completely different but much more confident and promising came to mind.

“You said earlier that I can only take one weapon up. If so, can I use the weapons here as much as I want before going up?”

[…….]

The system, which always answered immediately, couldn’t answer.

It had received countless questions until now, but this was the first time for the system as well.

The system, having finally found an answer, replied.

[There are no restrictions on the number of items you can use in the item selection space.]

‘Got it.’

Shin Tae-ho, having finally obtained the answer he wanted, grinned.

“That’s enough.”

Having received confirmation, Shin Tae-ho moved his body.

He tore off and collected parts like wood or cloth from various areas, such as sword handles or bow bodies.

Thanks to the infinite supply of items, materials were gathered in an instant.

The preparations continued.

Shin Tae-ho, who had laboriously dragged a thick and heavy shield, stacked the shields on top of each other like building blocks.

Kkadeudeudeudeuk!

He inserted a rod into the bowstring and rotated it rapidly.

After a while, when smoke rose from the groove, Shin Tae-ho quickly brought the collected cloth parts to it.

Hwareuk!

The cloth caught fire.

Shin Tae-ho put that fire into the place where he had stacked the shields and added the wooden parts of the broken items.

As the firewood went in, the fire finally began to burn steadily.

“Good.”

Shin Tae-ho, drenched in sweat, had shining eyes.

It was extremely humble compared to the past, but minimal work was possible.

While collecting more firewood, Shin Tae-ho retraced his memories.

‘They said you don’t feel hunger or fatigue in the Tutorial.’

Furthermore, it was said that the Awakened who stayed in the Tutorial the longest stayed for a whopping 20 days.

Although they had just entered the Tutorial, got scared, and stayed in the item selection space.

‘That means I can stay for at least 20 days.’

A body that doesn’t get hungry.

Over 20 days of time.

A crude, temporary furnace.

And even items that are General grade but provided infinitely.

‘It’s enough. No, it’s more than enough.’

Shin Tae-ho gripped the one-handed hammer firmly.

Shin Tae-ho’s eyes, filled with the blazing light of the fire, stared at the infinitely spread-out items as if looking at prey.

To be continued in the next chapter ▶