Regression of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 10

========== REGRESSION OF THE TRANSCENDENT BLACKSMITH CHAPTER 10 ==========

Bang!

With the sound of a balloon popping, the giant caterpillar breathed its last.

At that moment, a message window popped up in front of Shin Tae-ho.

[Giant Caterpillars Defeated: 10/10]

[Remaining Time: 2 hours 43 minutes.]

[You have cleared the 1st-floor trial.]

[Your clear rank is S.]

[Rewards will be granted based on your clear rank.]

“S-rank, huh.”

S was the highest of the seven ranks.

Even in the real world, this grading system was used to evaluate challengers.

Seeing an S-rank right from the start made Shin Tae-ho’s face beam with satisfaction.

After waiting a moment, a message window regarding the rewards appeared.

[Reward Contents: Lowest-grade Fragment of Qi x100, Lowest-grade Fire Rune x1, Lowest-grade Ice Rune x1, Fragment of a Broken Chest Key (1/5).]

“Runes from the 1st floor. A good start.”

Runes were rare materials containing special powers.

When crafting, using a rune allowed one to imbue an item with specific elemental abilities.

Because of those special abilities, they were popular items sought after not just by blacksmiths, but also by mages, alchemists, and even druids or elementalists, who wanted them as snacks for their pets.

However, something else caught Shin Tae-ho’s eye.

It was the Fragment of a Broken Chest Key.

‘I’ve seen this before. It was definitely said to be a key used to open treasure chests.’

While climbing the Tower, one would occasionally encounter hidden treasure chests.

But naturally, those treasure chests were locked.

If one tried to force them open, the chest would break, spewing out poison or curses, so a key was absolutely necessary.

Furthermore, treasure chests had a very short duration.

It was said that if you didn’t open them within the time limit, they would suddenly spew smoke from inside and vanish.

‘They said finding the chests was hard, and getting the keys to open them was even harder. To think I’d see one here.’

What he had obtained now was 1/5 of a key.

He would need to find four more such fragments to complete a whole key.

But Shin Tae-ho didn’t mind.

‘If I can’t find them, I can just sell them. Key fragments were always traded at high prices because so many people were looking for them.’

After confirming that the rewards had been safely deposited into his inventory, Shin Tae-ho started walking.

When Shin Tae-ho didn’t leave the Tower, a message window popped up.

[You have cleared the trial and may remain for the duration of the remaining time.]

[Would you like to remain?]

The time limit for the 1st floor was 3 hours.

Thanks to clearing it quickly, he still had over two and a half hours of remaining time.

“Yes.”

After dismissing the message window with his answer, Shin Tae-ho spread his Qi sense.

The Qi sense, which spread out like a net, gathered the Qi scattered in the surroundings.

Although the amount wasn’t much, Shin Tae-ho moved diligently, gathering the Qi and storing it in his circuit.

‘Qi can only be obtained in the Tower. I have to collect it whenever I can.’

While storing the Qi in his circuit, Shin Tae-ho reviewed the battle that had just taken place.

His physical abilities had been far stronger than usual, even though he had reinforced them with Qi.

On top of that, he had instinctively known how to fight every time he swung his hammer, despite never having learned it.

Shin Tae-ho could tell that this was the ability of the War-smith class.

‘So they call it a War-smith. It wasn’t an empty title.’

However, that alone didn’t explain why he had hunted the giant caterpillar so easily.

And Shin Tae-ho could guess the reason for that to some extent as well.

‘Even if the combat ability is thanks to the class, the fact that my physical abilities become ridiculously strong even when using a tiny amount of Qi must be because of body refinement.’

Thanks to that, Shin Tae-ho used only a minimal amount of Qi and didn’t even feel tired.

No, rather, as he gathered more Qi now, he even felt restless, overflowing with power.

‘I need to climb diligently.’

Feeling the Qi slowly filling his circuit like dripping water, Shin Tae-ho tightened his grip on the hammer.

Within a few days, South Korea had become a country that the whole world was paying attention to.

The reason was the unbelievable actions of one Awakened.

[Announcement. The 22nd successful S-rank clear of the 12th floor in the Tower of South Korea.]

Tower announcements, which one rarely saw unless it was something important.

And yet, for the past few days, Awakened had been receiving Tower announcements every day.

It was that a South Korean challenger had succeeded in an S-rank clear!

Even though it happened in Korea, because of the Tower announcement, Awakened all over the world could immediately know of Shin Tae-ho’s existence.

Shin Tae-ho’s unbelievable progress, appearing like a supernova, was also heating up Tower.com, the world’s largest Tower community.

-This is seriously insane. Is this a bug?

⌎Looking at the announcement time from yesterday, it says they cleared the 12th floor in 25 minutes. Does that even make sense?

⌎What kind of country is Korea, anyway? Who is the challenger?

⌎We don’t know either. If you find out, please let us know. Please.

It had been several years since the Tower appeared.

With the creation of communities, even ordinary people interested in the Tower had a lot of knowledge about it.

Floors 1 through 10 were floors where beasts, not monsters, appeared, such as giant caterpillars and ferocious poison centipedes.

Of course, those beasts were also extremely dangerous, but from the 11th floor, the difficulty level changed entirely.

The goblins that appeared from the 11th floor were monsters.

In other words, even if they were weaker in strength than beasts, they were a race with much higher intelligence and organization.

On top of that, the trial of the 12th floor was to face 20 Forest Goblins, a type of goblin.

They were notorious monsters among challengers, as they swung through trees like monkeys and even used poison darts.

Until now, only 21 people in the entire world had received an S-rank on this 12th floor.

And yet, this challenger had achieved an S-rank on that 12th floor as well.

And they had compressed the average clear time of 1 hour down to 25 minutes!

-To not miss an S-rank throughout the 12th floor. The future of South Korea is bright!

⌎But why aren’t they registering as an Awakened? If they’re an Awakened of that level, they’d get tons of benefits, right?

Awakened received various benefits.

Not only were they provided with bodyguards, but free rentals of Awakened apartments or officetels were also possible.

They even provided cheap rentals for items needed to climb the Tower.

At this level, it was practically a loss not to register.

Even more so if that person was a challenger who received an S-rank every time up to the 12th floor?

Their reputation would be higher than others, and they would be able to enjoy much better benefits to their heart’s content.

However, in any matter, where there is a strong light, there is bound to be a proportional shadow.

⌎Tsk tsk, you’re not an Awakened, are you? Registering as an Awakened isn’t necessarily a good thing, you non-Awakened.

A common misconception people had was that being an Awakened was unconditionally good.

But that was only half true.

Since Awakened were connected to the safety of the country, the government protected them safely.

The problem was that this “protection” meant attaching bodyguards and providing free rentals of residential areas where Awakened were gathered.

Unless they were someone like a celebrity or a high-ranking official, challengers were also just ordinary people when they weren’t climbing the Tower.

But the moment bodyguards were attached like this, it became difficult to lead a peaceful and ordinary daily life.

Above all, personal security was the problem.

-True. There was an incident before where they sent an Awakened to attempt an assassination to ruin an enemy country.

Although a common problem called the Tower had appeared, it did not unite humanity as one.

Humanity was still in conflict over various issues such as religion and economy.

In the days before the Tower, war was what happened when these conflicts piled up and rotted.

But with the appearance of the Tower, one more invisible fight had emerged before this war could break out.

If a country didn’t update the highest floor of the Tower within the time limit, a Gate would occur as the price.

And if they couldn’t destroy the Gate in time, monsters would pour out of the Gate into reality.

Using this very point, they would assassinate or kidnap strong Awakened from enemy countries.

And the method was to make it so they couldn’t update the highest floor of the Tower, causing a Gate to occur.

In fact, there were already 3 countries that had been destroyed by this method.

-I’d rather they keep hiding their identity like this. How many Awakened have been ruined because they got bad habits like they became celebrities for no reason?

⌎LOL, agreed, seriously. At first, they tasted money by filming commercials, and then they didn’t even climb the Tower at all, LOL.

⌎Do you think they can get an S-rank on the 13th floor too? I bet 500 that they can.

⌎This bastard is gambling on an Awakened who’s risking their life climbing the Tower? Reported.

The people writing comments on Tower.com criticized and cursed at the person who was gambling.

But the same question was planted in their hearts.

Can they really get an S-rank?

The 13th-floor S-rank, which only 14 people in the entire world had achieved?

Boom!

With a heavy impact sound, half of the tree was smashed.

As the tree fell, two Forest Goblins who had been shooting poison darts from above rolled on the ground.

Kera-hu! Ke-kek!

The ones who quickly got up tried to hurriedly take out the axes they had been wearing at their waists.

But the hammer, which arrived faster than that, smashed the heads of both Forest Goblins together.

Ke-gerek! Ke-rek-!!

From afar, a large number of loud shouts were heard.

Realizing it was the shout of their leader, the Forest Goblins put distance between themselves and Shin Tae-ho.

At that moment, a giant ball that appeared while knocking down trees rushed at Shin Tae-ho.

Gurururung-!!

A ball that looked like it easily weighed several hundred tons rolled noisily.

It was an attack that strongly felt like the characteristics of goblins who enjoyed confusing enemies with traps.

However, Shin Tae-ho didn’t even think of dodging and stood in place, adjusting his grip on the hammer.

As Shin Tae-ho’s eyes looked at the hammer, information popped up.

[Destructive Strike]

-Details: Destroys the target with a momentary release of Qi.

-Ignores 50% of the target’s physical defense.

-30% chance to stun the attack target upon hit.

The Qi flowing from Shin Tae-ho’s circuit was infused into the hammer.

The system, reading Shin Tae-ho’s will, immediately popped up a message window.

[Unique Ability, Destructive Strike is activated.]

The Qi flowing from Shin Tae-ho’s circuit was infused into the hammer.

The hammer head, coated with Destructive Strike, rushed forward, aiming at the giant rock.

Kwagwagwang-!!

At the thunderous roar, the Forest Goblins were surprised and fell over.

The goblin leader, who was the first to come to its senses, was terrified and only poked its face out from behind the tree it was hiding behind.

The goblin leader’s eyes widened in shock as it confirmed the rock that had been destroyed with a dent on one side.

Ki, kike-

Kwang!

The sound of the leader goblin, who was shouting orders, stopped abruptly.

Shin Tae-ho, who had approached like the wind, had blown its head off in one stroke.

Pung! Kwang! Kwajik!

Heavy impact sounds exploded one after another without rest.

The Forest Goblins who were near the leader lost their lives and fell in an instant.

When he threw his hammer and hit the last one running away, a message window popped up.

[Giant Forest Goblin Leader Defeated: 1/1]

[Forest Goblins Defeated: 50/50]

[Remaining Time: 7 hours 55 minutes.]

[You have cleared the 13th-floor trial.]

[Your clear rank is S.]

[Rewards will be granted based on your clear rank.]

[Reward Contents: Lowest-grade Fragment of Qi x200, Goblin Leather x50.]

“The rewards seem a bit stingy.”

As he climbed the floors, the number of rewards increased.

However, special rewards like runes or key fragments had never been obtained even once so far.

Shin Tae-ho, who was scanning his inventory while gathering Qi as usual, stroked his chin.

‘My inventory is almost full.’

The inventory was piled up with rewards received while climbing up to the 13th floor.

It was because he had piled them up since there was no way to sell items legally if he didn’t register as an Awakened.

On top of that, his bank balance was running low, so he needed money soon.

‘To make money, I can’t put off registering as an Awakened any longer.’

Awakened registration, which he had been putting off because he was busy and didn’t feel like it.

Shin Tae-ho’s eyes, thinking about what he had to do when he went out, sank heavily.

To be continued in the next episode ▶