Chapter 6

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 6

Chapter Title: EX-Grade Blacksmith Tutorial (3)

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"Is this really okay...?"

That doubt lingered in his mind, but so did the thought that as the world's one and only—and an EX-grade—Blacksmith, it had to have effects like this.

A bit more reflection tipped the scales toward the idea that an EX-grade Blacksmith should absolutely deliver at this level.

Definitely not because I'm the one involved.

Equipment obtained from hunting beasts usually carried additional effects infused with the beast's characteristics.

On the flip side, not a single piece of gear made by those pseudo-blacksmiths up to now had ever had any extra effects.

Probably because they weren't real blacksmiths—they were just mimicking the craft.

That made his own gear's bonuses seem perfectly reasonable, fair, and impeccably balanced.

Just to be safe, he checked the E-grade rusty iron sword afterward, but it was just your standard E-grade iron sword.

Since he hadn't made it himself, no bonus effect was attached.

It was awkward to just toss it somewhere, and his inventory had plenty of space anyway, so he decided to leave it be.

The last function to check was [Equipment Codex]

"Whoa..."

He scrolled and scrolled, but it never ended.

Everything was plastered with ???, all empty boxes—except for exactly two spots.

The two pieces of gear he'd acquired were registered and unlocked there.

The first was the rusty iron series, including the rusty iron sword.

Not particularly interested, he skipped over it without a close look.

Naturally, what drew his eye was the section with the D-grade Light Staff.

[Magic Staff (D)]

Under the codex combination name, his Light Staff was registered, while the rest were all ??? staffs.

It was obvious at a glance: other attribute D-grade staffs would slot in here.

He had no idea yet what good completing a codex would do, but since it existed, it had to be something worthwhile.

Figuring it wasn't time to grind the codex yet, he returned to the main screen.

"So... what now...?"

He'd checked every unlocked function.

He knew exactly how they worked and just how ridiculously overpowered they were.

"So what the hell do I do now?"

Well, simple.

To craft more gear, he needed equipment crafting tickets.

And he had no clue how to get them.

'Maybe run the tutorial again?'

Since the functions unlocked an updated tutorial, it might offer some guidance here.

He scrolled all the way down to tap Tutorial—

And that's when he spotted an icon he'd never noticed before, tucked in the bottom-right corner.

"No way..."

The numbers at the end were definitely a timer.

The last two digits ticked down one second at a time, while the first two held steady at 59.

A little more waiting confirmed it: 58:59.

'This is...'

He definitely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠felt like he'd seen it before.

'When was it...'

"Ah!"

Back when he was little, before the Awakener-linked orphanage days, in the peaceful ordinary orphanage.

A game on the director's phone, with a heart system for play attempts—it looked just like that.

His skill was crude, but that made it intuitively easy to grasp in ways like this. Maybe that was a plus.

Anyway, four X's with a glaringly blacksmith-related ⚒️ icon in front.

He immediately scrolled back up and activated [Equipment Crafting].

He'd half-hoped the doubled odds from the tutorial would stick around, but nope—all gone.

A new icon in the bottom-right of the screen.

The exact same one from the main screen earlier.

And now the crafting buttons were more detailed than before.

"Oh, man..."

The latter was obviously better... but it meant twiddling his thumbs for another four hours.

"Hooo... patience."

He barely resisted the temptation of the single craft.

But another thought popped up right away.

'Is this the equipment crafting ticket...?'

It seemed almost certainly yes, but not 100%.

Worth testing once, right...?

He wasn't even committing to a full craft!

Just one tap.

If it was the ticket, it'd prompt something like "Are you sure?"—and if not, nothing, like before.

...

Squish—

"Ah..."

His hands shook so much he forgot to pick a grade.

Obviously the 100% E-grade... But then he remembered the rusty iron sword he'd gotten earlier.

"50% seems doable...?"

At least guarantee a D-grade.

"...25%... gulp..."

Thinking it over, his satisfaction with the D-grade had been luck: a staff, and a confirmed light attribute.

The odds of another satisfying D-grade were slim to none.

If satisfaction was a long shot anyway... drop to 25% for C-grade...

'12%...?'

Clap-clap-

"Snap out of it."

No matter what, 12% was too low.

Probabilities had halved precisely so far, so it should be 12.5%—but they rounded down the decimal.

13% rounded up he'd maybe buy, but 12% was a straight loss.

"Hooo..."

He wasn't actually crafting—just testing the button—but since he'd face this dilemma eventually, better practice for real.

"Alright!"

As the proud owner of a D-grade Light Staff, his lingering everyman mindset still saw challenging C-grade as revolutionary progress.

Grade selected. Now just hit craft.

"..."

Squeeze!—

"Please!!!"

There'd be a "Proceed with crafting?" message, right?

But honestly, screw that—he just wanted instant success!!!

"Ah, fuck..."

Maybe his wicked inner thoughts at the end did it.

His predicted worst-case played out.

No confirmation prompt, and a 25% chance bombed.

Why slap an exclamation point on a failure message anyway...?

He vented his frustration at the system to calm down.

"It's fine... 5+1 will hit..."

One hour added, but five hours from now meant six straight pulls.

25% C-grade? Four pulls basically guaranteed one.

"C-grade locked in."

Current time: 4 p.m.

Five tickets would fill in 4 hours 40 minutes—9 p.m. sharp.

No need to ponder what to do till then.

This cramped room had no computer, nothing.

All he could do was fire up the Hunter Gallery and scroll.

"...Pull it out."

Hugging his precious D-grade staff while scrolling? Double the bliss!

——

He still hadn't picked a Hunter Gallery nickname.

He'd tried posting once before but got hung up on the name, deciding to choose later once he knew his abilities better.

And that later was now!

Plenty of functions still locked, but he'd confirmed all the core ones.

Candidates popping into his head:

RealBlacksmith

TrueBlacksmith

Hephaestus

ClickClackSmith

BoastfulBlacksmith

All blacksmith-themed, screaming massive pride in the job.

"Hmm... table it for now!"

No rush to name himself.

He wasn't dying to post anything yet—pick when inspiration hit.

He jotted the list in a notepad, set it on the nightstand drawer, and dove into gallery browsing proper.

Surprisingly, the Saintess weapon rumor had fizzled out fast.

Fizzled wasn't quite right—more like buried under bigger news.

Korea's third S-Rank Awakener debut.

An S-Rank mage in Twilight Guild? Had to be Kwon Yena, 100%.

Lips sealed tight for now, but once fellow Twilight Orphanage kids got comfy with the gallery, info would leak.

And as an active S-Rank, it'd come out naturally anyway.

"Phew..."

That really drove home how lucky he was.

Beyond S-grade to straight EX-grade—the first-ever job: Blacksmith.

His clickety-clack D-grade Light Staff straight-up outclassed the Saintess.

And now just three hours till tickets topped off.

Basically a guaranteed C-grade pull waiting.