Return After 300 Years
I was a dwarf.
More precisely, I had been living a normal life on Earth, then summoned to another world and spent three hundred years as a dwarf.
A modern person suddenly born as a short, squat dwarf?
It was a tragic and cruel beginning to my fate.
Some people received blessings from goddesses and got special traits.
Others got rare abilities and lived lavishly in the other world.
But I had none of that.
The only things I had were two testicles and a body measuring one hundred eighteen centimeters tall.
So I lived as a dwarf for three hundred years and did everything imaginable.
I fought monsters in the depths of mines with a pickaxe.
I swung the hammer without rest for three days and nights in scorching heat that could burn your skin.
Sometimes I breathed in poisonous gas that corroded your entire body while digging the vein.
I shaved dragon bones as finely as handling a newborn baby.
The calluses on my palms had turned into steel-like hardness.
The tip of my nose always carried the scent of coal dust and burning metal.
Three hundred years of living like that.
A whopping three hundred years!
After enduring a time when mountains and rivers had changed thirty times, I finally became the master blacksmith, the Grand Smith.
But then I suddenly returned to Earth with a bang.
Was this the gods’ prank, or had my usefulness run out? I didn’t know.
What I did know for sure was that my masterpiece of life, forged through endless hardship, had been compressed and slammed into Earth.
The moment I hadn’t seen the swing of the divine blade.
My masterpiece, my gold, my fame, my honor...
A futile murmur echoed off the moldy walls of my one-room apartment and vanished into emptiness.
“Fuck…”
Honestly, it was too unjust.
After three hundred years of endless suffering, the glory I had finally earned.
The times when a single swing of my hammer could change the continental situation.
Noble nobles who bowed to my gaze.
Even heroes who ruled the world kneeling at my feet to obtain just one of my weapons.
The glorious times.
I thought I had only to enjoy the peak of that glory and live the rest of my days swinging my hammer.
But then the bank balance window popped up.
[Bank Balance: 43,420 won]
When I returned to Earth, the only thing greeting me was a one-room apartment crawling with cockroaches.
A worn-out tracksuit and an empty bank balance.
I was on the verge of having a heart attack from injustice.
“Phew… Status window…”
I opened the status window with a trembling voice.
[Name: Lee Shinwoo]
[Grade: E]
* Affected by unique skill level.
[Level: 1]
[Job: Grand Smith [EX]]
[Stats]
Strength (E+) Stamina (D) Agility (E) Mana (C) Dexterity (S+)
[Traits]
Indomitable Will (EX) Emotion (-)
[Unique Skills]
Crafting [E] LV.1 (EXP 0/100)
Engraving [E] LV.1 (EXP 0/100)
Inscription [E] LV.1 (EXP 0/100)
Dismantling [E] LV.1 (EXP 0/100)
Extraction [E] LV.1 (EXP 0/100)
Tuning [E] LV.1 (EXP 0/100)
[Bonus]
The influence of life in the other world has increased the efficiency of acquiring experience points for all unique skills.
Craft success rate when making items: 1% (maximum 10%)
The only good thing was that my abilities had come from living in the other world.
“Hah… Just a sigh.”
The levels of the skills in front of me sparkled.
If I had been in my dwarf body, every stat would have been at the maximum.
But the skill levels were all E.
It seemed I had lost all the essence of three hundred years when I returned to my original body.
I had no idea how to raise them again.
While I was still pondering in my head.
“Hey! Hey, bachelor! Open the door!”
A woman’s voice came from beyond the door.
“…”
I recognized that voice.
The person I had known since my days on Earth.
The one who had been a thorn in my side ever since.
“Bachelor! When are you going to pay the rent?”
That was right.
She was the owner of the penthouse apartment I was currently living in.
“Bachelor! I’ve been looking after you a lot! The place was empty because you disappeared for ten years! Now pay the rent on time. Got it?”
“…”
Since I didn’t answer, she let out a long sigh.
“Sigh. I don’t know what you’ve been doing for ten years, but if you have nothing to do, go to the Hunter Personnel Office and look for a job as a Tower porter. You said you’re a Hunter, right?”
It seemed she had said everything she needed to.
She disappeared down the stairs with quick footsteps.
“Ten years…”
I lay quietly on the bed staring at the ceiling.
It was something I learned only after returning to Earth.
The three hundred years in the other world were only ten years on Earth.
Even more absurd was the fact that during those ten years I was absent, Earth had become a world dominated by Towers and Gates.
Well, since I had experienced all sorts of things in the other world, it wasn’t that shocking to me.
But still, thanks to the influence, I had heard that a job called “Hunter” had been born.
“So that’s why the status window is visible.”
In fact, this story had come from people working at the national Hunter Administration Office right after my return.
Right after I opened my eyes, I was in the Hunter Administration Office’s isolation facility.
And because I was a returnee, I had to undergo precise examinations and interviews for several days.
They registered me as a Hunter just because mana was detected.
E-grade, the lowest rank.
“Phew…”
I got up from the bed and went out into the penthouse.
I immediately placed my hand on the small stove on the floor.
“I need to earn money first.”
An E-grade Hunter’s tag was meaningless.
What was urgent right now was to crawl my way back up from this hellish bottom.
“What should I make?”
I gripped the hammer.
Since I had lived the life of iron and fire, this was the only thing I had to do.
*
The most important thing when making weapons or armor was the material.
In the other world, I would use dragon bones, mana stones, or various rare materials.
But now on Earth, it was different.
There weren’t even rare materials.
Materials processed with Earth’s smelting technology looked shabby to the Hunters.
Well, they could obtain them if I went to the Tower, but with my current funds and strength, it was impossible.
But I was a man who had received the title of Grand Smith.
I never blamed the materials.
What I had learned while rolling around as a dwarf for three hundred years was the obsession to find gems in the trash and shape them.
“Appraisal.”
So the materials I bought were.
[Appraisal Result]
- Name: Daedo (fruit knife)
- Grade: F-grade
- Classification: Misc / Tool
Durability: 37 / 40
- Description: A plain knife made for peeling fruit.
- Effect: -
It was a knife I bought for 2,000 won at Daedo.
I had prepared one hundred of them!
I had invested a whopping 200,000 won to buy them with no money.
I had planned to start with these.
In the other world, the main material for weapons was mostly steel.
On Earth, the cheap kitchen knives were also mainly steel, so there was no better material in terms of cost-effectiveness for pouring my skills into.
“Well, this is interesting. A mana stone stove? The structure is similar to mana stones?”
[Appraisal Result]
- Name: Small Stove (Mana Stone Stove)
- Grade: F-grade
- Classification: Crafting Tool / Production Equipment
Durability: 5 / 20
- Description: Price 210,000 won / Designed to generate heat using mana stones as fuel, but durability is low.
- Effect: -
To make equipment from materials, I needed to go through the forging process.
Strong fire was essential for that.
I had thought about using gas, coal, charcoal, or coke at first.
But after learning that there was this mana stone, I changed my mind.
What I used to draw up heat in the other world was mana stones condensed with high-concentration mana.
When I heard there were similar mana stones on Earth, I had no reason not to use them.
Even though it was F-grade performance, was there a need to use a chicken-killing knife for catching a dragon?
I decided this was enough.
“Shall I start?”
I stretched my body lightly and placed a knife in the stove.
“Hoo. Good.”
Even though I had done countless things as a dwarf, it was the first time in my original body.
Honestly, even if I had abilities, I wasn’t sure it would work.
Making weapons was like that.
Listening to the material’s sound, feeling the flame’s temperature with my skin, and hammering along the metal grain.
It wasn’t simple labor.
It was a ritual that gave birth to a life itself.
So it wasn’t just about abilities.
It required the harmonious integration of countless experiences and instinctive senses engraved in the body.
“A bit more.”
The blade of the knife began to rise in the stove’s flames, glowing dark red.
In other words, it was in the red-hot state.
But the temperature wasn’t high enough yet to enter the forging stage.
“It’s F-grade, but it really has power.”
Before long, the blade had turned a sharp red.
This was the perfect temperature for forging!
I hurriedly removed the overheating blade and moved it to the anvil prepared beside me.
“I would have liked my usual hammer, but since I don’t have one…”
Using what was available, I grabbed the cheap hammer I had bought at Daedo.
The weight was terrible, but the light weight was just right for my weak arm muscles right now.
“Hoo. Let’s try!”
Through the forging process, I had to extract impurities from the knife and make the structure dense.
Not once, but thousands, no, tens of thousands of hammer swings.
It was a task that required stamina.
But I didn’t have time to think about that.
If time passed, the heated iron would cool down, making it harder to forge.
Plus, I didn’t know how long the stove would last.
I had to hurry.
- Clash!
I swung the hammer with all my strength.
The first impact echoed through the penthouse’s silence.
“…Eh?”
[Weapon Crafting Success!]
[Thanks to the success, the weapon grade rises two steps.]
Before I could be surprised by the result, the status message sparkled in front of my eyes.
“…Why is it made?”
Through the system messages that filled my vision, the silhouette of the blade emitting cold light appeared.
“Appraisal…!”
I shouted in panic. The condition of the weapon was visible at a glance.
[Appraisal Result]
- Name: Blade Imbued with Tenacity
- Grade: C-grade
- Classification: Weapon
Durability: 50 / 50
- Description: A blade forged by blowing the master’s soul into it. A single blacksmith compressed the essence accumulated over a lifetime into the edge of one sword.
- Effect
[Supreme Sharpness: Attack Power +300]
[Lightness: Weight reduced by 20%]
[Bound: Bound to the owner.]
“…Really?”
It wasn’t supposed to be made this easily?
Blade Imbued with Tenacity