Dimension Blacksmith
I gripped the red-hot iron with tongs and brought the hammer down on it.
Clang-clang.
After shaping the form with hammering, I would put it in the quenching liquid, take it out again, and only do the finishing work to complete it.
“Haa… it’s hot.”
The heat spewing from the forge and the violently rising flames.
The temperature inside the forge had already surpassed 50 degrees, feeling like I had entered a boiling pot.
This is Seo's Blacksmith, passed down for three generations from my grandfather.
I inherited this blacksmith shop from my father and was making kitchen utensils that occasionally came in.
Originally, when my grandfather was alive, there were quite a few blacksmiths in Korea.
But since my father's time, the number of blacksmiths had noticeably decreased.
When I took over the blacksmith shop, Seo's Blacksmith had become the only one in Korea.
The reason blacksmiths disappeared so quickly was…
The reporter's words flowing from the TV placed in the corner of the forge echoed in my ears.
“That damn gate.”
The artifacts and magic stones pouring out from the gate instantly trampled on the blacksmith's position.
No matter how skilled a craftsman hammers day and night, it's not even as good as a single iron rod from the gate.
Magic stones are high-purity energy lumps, priced higher than oil per kg.
Artifacts dramatically increase various physical abilities, so they're expensive.
The weapons and armor that come out of them... just saying their names hurts the mouth.
Because of that, the 'Awakened' selected by the gate became rich by bringing all kinds of items from dungeons.
Owners like me like me make kitchen utensils and barely make ends meet.
“Haa… life is really tough…”
Still, the reason I couldn't quit this job was attachment.
I am Seo Hwan.
I learned blacksmithing little by little from age 10, and at 27, I've been a veteran blacksmith for 17 years.
So, I can make most items with just a little imagination, eyes closed.
The quality is obviously superior to any factory-made, and I can't compare it to any.
“Thinking about it, suddenly annoyed? Sigh… I should smoke a cigarette.”
Our forge was located in a fairly high altitude area in Seoul.
If I went out and smoked a cigarette, I could see Seoul's night view at a glance.
In the center of Seoul's night view, a ominous light was suddenly caught my eye.
It seemed to be the gate reported in the news earlier.
When the gate appeared, the people around it from the 'Association' surrounded it as if controlling it.
Looking at that gate, I felt irritated thinking it ruined my family business, but at the same time, I was envious.
I have pride in being a blacksmith, but I also wanted to become an Awakened and earn a lot of money.
If I had money, my father wouldn't have given up his dreams.
My mother wouldn't have left the house.
The mother who gave birth to me isn't a good person, though I can't say it to her face.
When my father's blacksmith shop was doing well, I was born after marrying my father, but it seemed like she married him for his money.
At that time, my father's blacksmith shop was doing well, so there was money.
When my father's blacksmith shop faltered with the appearance of the gate, my mother threw divorce papers without a second thought and left me and my father.
She even took a fat alimony.
After that incident, my father cried for several nights.
When I woke up in the morning, my father was lying face down on the kitchen table sleeping.
Around him were scattered green soju bottles.
And my father's face was always full of tear marks.
After several days...
My father, as if he had made a decision, handed me the hammer and said:
“Hwan-ah. This forge is our family's pride from your grandfather to you. Don't worry about money, continue this family business.”
So, my father worked manual labor during the day and drove for hire at night to make ends meet.
There were only the two of us in the family, but operating the forge required quite a bit of money...
Most of the money we saved was paid as alimony...
The family's situation quickly deteriorated.
That's why my father willingly took on the burden of living for the family business.
This forge was a bigger existence to my father than I thought.
I felt it at a young age in my early 20s and received my father's hammer.
“Haa… If I become an Awakened... earn a lot of money... my father can hold the hammer again...”
Thinking this, it tasted bitter in my mouth.
...
The cigarette taste today felt particularly bitter.
“Sigh, damn it... what's the point of getting sentimental. I should work.”
I casually threw the cigarette on the floor and entered the forge again.
Coming from the cool outside into the hot interior, the heat felt even more intense, or was it just my mood?
“Is this the last one?”
The request for 10 frying pans that came in a while ago.
I've already made 9, and now the last one just needs finishing work.
I put the handle on the iron piece shaped like a frying pan taken from the quenching liquid and did the finishing.
“Huu… done.”
The current situation was bittersweet, but when I see the finished products stacked up like that, I feel proud inside.
At best, 60,000 won per one, 10 of them is 600,000 won...
“It would have been nice if orders like this came often... sigh...”
I had only received orders of this level about 4 months ago.
Normally, I would have earned around 50,000 won a month...
I threw my gloves carelessly.
It was just a sigh of a man who worked hard, throwing it towards the empty air.
At that moment, a crack appeared in the transparent air, and brilliant blue letters entered my eyes as if dazzling.
[Condition Met.]
“...Huh?”
I thought I was seeing things, so I rubbed my eyes with sweaty hands.
Still, the letters floating in the air didn't disappear.
Instead, the letters changed shape and began to create another sentence.
[The Gate acknowledges your long efforts.]
[Record Measurement: 10,000 iron items hammered without rest for 17 years.]
[The Gate responds to the blacksmith's determination and evolves the soul's level.]
From the moment I held a small hammer next to my father in my childhood.
The past days when I didn't let go of the hammer even as the gate appeared and the forge was collapsing passed by.
17 years of time, and the 10,000 iron items forged at my fingertips.
I hadn't counted them myself, but the record of blood and sweat was being printed on the system window.
[Congratulations! You have been selected as an 'Awakened' according to the Gate's will.]
[A unique class is granted based on your footsteps and physical abilities.]
“Ga... Awakened? N... Did I really become an Awakened?!”
My heart was beating wildly, and my throat was like welding, so words didn't come out properly.
It was the moment a new life, dreaming of web novels and webtoons every night since the gate appeared, began.
'Swordsman? Mage? Or a hidden class as a reward for 17 years of hardship?'
My hands were sweaty, and sweat drops fell to the floor.
Finally, the sentence changed again, and bold letters were clearly imprinted in the center.
“...”
[Dimension Blacksmith].
It wasn't a swordsman or a mage.
Even though it was far from the flashy combat class that slaughters tower monsters for wealth and honor, it was a distant name.
If others heard it, they would have cursed in despair.
But I couldn't take my eyes off those clear letters.
In my pupils, something like hot molten iron was flowing down my cheeks vertically.
That molten iron soon soaked my hands full of burn scars.
'Was the money I really wanted to earn...'
The wall of reality that made my father retire.
It was a clear fact that I wanted to earn a lot of money to save the family business.
But maybe... perhaps what I truly wanted wasn't that.
I might have just missed the memory of laughing and hammering with my father.
Money was just a means to bring back the warm past of hitting iron with my father to the present.
Perhaps what I truly valued wasn't money.
I just wanted to laugh with my father in front of the forge fire once more and engrave memories.
“Thank you...”
Swallowing the surging emotion, I wiped away the hot tears.
Even if others laughed at it, this job was a gift that proved my 17 years and most precious memories.
I quietly took out the mobile phone buried in my pocket and called my father.
Doot-doot-doot-
The moment the connection sound passed as if eternal.
“Eh~ Son. What's up?”
My father's voice echoed in my eardrum through the phone.
“Father... I became an Awakened.”
“...”
My father on the phone didn't say anything.
Perhaps he was also thinking a lot.
If the son becomes an Awakened, the money problem would be solved immediately.
But it also meant I wouldn't be able to hold the hammer again.
“Congratulations, son! Great! So what is that... ah, class! What does it say? Swordsman? Mage?”
My father seemed to be congratulating me for becoming an Awakened.
Perhaps he thought giving the family business to the Awakened was his selfish thought.
But when I heard about the class, seeing him start with swordsman and mage, I let out a hollow laugh.
'It's not just a saying that father-son succession exists...'
I wiped the flowing tears and told my father my class in a strong voice.
“Ah... this is. Not swordsman or mage... Dimension Blacksmith, huh?”
“...”
Again, my father didn't say anything.
This time, while imagining what he was thinking.
A strong voice came out from beyond the phone as if roaring like a lion, hitting my ears.
“What?! Blacksmith?! Really?!”
My father seemed very happy.
He was excited, unable to control his excitement while speaking.
It wasn't just me... my father... we both liked hammering...
“Haha! This is great news! I'll finish what dad was doing and go to the forge right away.”
“Haa... Okay, father.”
“Alright~! Cutting~”
My father hung up the phone while very excited.
...
“Dimension Blacksmith... I know what blacksmith is, but what is the 'Dimension' attached in front?”
At times like this, it's the characteristics of the Awakened... how did I remember?
I recalled the method to check the characteristics I had read in old articles.
I was sure if I shouted 'Characteristics!' in the air, it would work.
“Haa... Characteristics!”
I cleared my throat and shouted 'Characteristics!' in the air.
A system window appeared in front of my eyes, listing the characteristics I had.
I could understand Blacksmith's Pride, but... what was that Dimensional Exchange?
It seemed that this very trait was the reason my class had become a "Dimensional" Blacksmith.
With a fluttering heart, I reached out and pressed my finger against the trait window.