I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With - Chapter 053

WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 053

──────

Enchanting Unique Equipment

* * *

And so, uneventful days repeated themselves, one after another.

A lot about my daily routine had changed too.

Normally, I’d wake up, bite into a piece of ciabatta, and head straight into the workshop,

or grab a hammer and start pounding on something right away, since that was the only thing that ever settled my mind.

But that wasn’t what mattered right now.

I’d decided to look after my body and give myself some breathing room instead, that kind of thing.

During the day, I’d watch Ruby train her magic,

or take Dolores’s and Ruby’s hands and head out for a picnic around the territory,

or do physical training together with Ruby.

Of course, soothing Yuna came along as a bonus.

She seemed to have belatedly realized that I’d tampered with her own system,

and that because of it, she hadn’t been able to tell that something might’ve gone seriously wrong with me.

[Irespectyoutoobigbrotherandialwayswantyoutokeeppushingandicheeryouon but isn’t it still my job to manage things when you get hurt???]

[I’m your secretary, sure, but I’m your little sister too]

And so Yuna’s clingy meltdown started right back up again,

but in the end,

“Yeah, I love you too.”

[… Yeah, me too. Then undo the training.]

“Can’t undo that.”

Undo, That’s something you do on a computer.

Unfortunately, there’s no computer here.

[Just how did you even train me in the first place!!]

I had put a fair amount of effort into it, admittedly.

A one-of-a-kind training method, you could call it.

“I won’t push myself too hard anymore.”

Just once in a while. Only once in a while.

That’s how Yuna and I worked out a smooth compromise and settled things.

And then.

once night fell,

in my dreams, I spent the whole day swinging a hammer.

That place was strange like that. If I pictured it right before falling asleep, I’d open my eyes and find myself already there.

The waterfall of lava was gone now, and the place had reshaped itself back into an exact copy of my own workshop,

- Clang! Clang!

and I hammered away there.

Hareungar said he couldn’t come every time.

To begin with, both that space and he himself,

were things meant to disappear once he’d passed on his three pieces of wisdom.

So the fact that he was still sticking around this long was already unusual, he said.

Every so often he’d drop by and point out my form, or things I’d been missing.

“When will this place disappear?”

“When the time comes.”

That was all he’d say.

Not the usual “work by day, study by night.”

Rest by day, work by night, instead.

That was roughly how I spent my time, easy and light.

For about two weeks or so.

One morning,

“… Hah, hah.”

I lay sprawled out next to the jump rope I’d thrown aside, gasping for breath.

Then I looked over with an expression of pure disbelief.

“… Hff.”

- Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

Seriously, what even is this kid.

Ruby seemed to have a real talent for working out.

I’d do about three sets and end up sprawled on the ground, and Ruby would just knock out thirteen sets without a single break.

‘Ruby was born with an Iron Body constitution.’

According to Dolores, this trait of Ruby’s was just her natural constitution.

No frequent illnesses, a healthy body, strong.

‘Ruby will never fall sick,’

Was it that she hoped, of all people, that child would never have to go through the kind of suffering she herself had?

Her face had looked a little brighter than usual as she said it, and it had struck me as a bit bittersweet.

I watched Ruby a moment longer, then got to my feet.

“… I’m heading out, Ruby. It’s about time for my appointment.”

“Okay.”

“How much longer are you going to keep going?”

“An hour… no, two… five hours.”

I had no idea how “an hour” could somehow become “five hours,”

but in the end, the sheer gap in our stamina meant our total workout time was bound to differ too,

and she’d reached the point where she’d mastered every modern exercise I taught her.

She’s not going to end up bulging with muscle at this rate, is she.

- Creak.

I closed the parlor door behind me and stepped outside, heading naturally toward Dolores’s study.

The appointment I’d just mentioned to Ruby was with her, after all.

It was time.

Two weeks, I’d rested enough.

- Knock knock.

“You’re here, Lionel?”

I opened the door, and Dolores greeted me with a warm smile,

and, looking at her, I let the corner of my mouth curl up.

“Dolores.”

“Yes?”

“Would you take it off for me?”

That’s what I said.

* * *

“…”

Beside me, Dolores stood with her face flushed red.

For the record, she still had all her clothes on.

I have no idea why her face was so red.

“Is that everything?”

“… There’s underwear too, but it doesn’t have any ability worth calling gear.”

“Ah, then you don’t need to take that off.”

“… Right.”

Across the wide floor of the study,

every piece of gear Dolores had once worn head to toe, back when she still climbed the Tower, lay spread out in front of us.

The kind of things she never wore in ordinary life, outside the Tower, in other words.

What I had to do today was simple enough.

Collect every last piece of her gear, then enchant every last piece of it.

It was about time, really. I’d held myself back for so long.

- Rub, rub, rub…

I let a grin tug at the corners of my mouth, flicked my tongue over my lips, and slowly turned my gaze toward Dolores’s gear.

All right, now, it was unboxing time.

I was thrilled.

Just how outstanding would the Unique Equipment Dolores had once worn turn out to be?

First, I’d asked her to lay it all out sorted by type.

First, the clothing category.

A hat, a top, bottoms, a cloak, an epaulet.

The hat, being a mage’s, had more of a tiara feel to it.

Second, accessories.

Earrings, a pendant, a ring.

Third, armaments.

A bracelet, a grimoire.

… A bracelet?

Why was a bracelet filed under weapons?

“What’s this one?”

“A bracelet that helps circulate and release magic. Think of it as my main weapon.”

I see.

A bracelet, huh… quite the cute weapon of choice.

All right, time to get to it.

It was time to unlock things.

The moment I brought her into focus in front of me,

Dolores’s gear window came into view.

Right now, only two slots were unlocked and filled here, Spring Without Frost and the Warming Gloves,

and every other slot was still blacked out.

Slots that had never passed through my hands, that I’d never even laid eyes on.

That was the moment I took in the gear laid out before me.

- Clink, clink, clink, clink!

The gear slots shattered open, one after another,

and the gear began filling into them one by one.

She had 5-star Unique Equipment, but there were 4-star pieces too.

Gear flickered past my field of view.

[Hat]

[Frost Tiara][★★★★☆]

[Unique Equipment][Compatibility Rating][21 / 80]

[The higher the wearer’s frost affinity, the more it drags down their body temperature. Since this wearer’s frost affinity has passed its natural limit, it drags her temperature down by a huge margin.]

[Top]

[Glacier][★★★★★]

[Unique Equipment][Compatibility Rating][19 / 100]

[Keeps the wearer’s mana aligned so it doesn’t scatter. But the wearer’s own mana control is already so exceptional that, while it causes no harm, it isn’t gear she actually needs.]

[Shoes]

[Silver Palace][★★★★☆]

[Unique Equipment][Compatibility Rating][8 / 80]

[Recovers mana with every step and returns it to circulation. But because of the wearer’s Nine Yin Meridian Affliction, she can’t take in the mana it recovers.]

[Cloak]

[Everbloom Prime][★★★★★]

[Unique Equipment][Compatibility Rating][0 / 100]

[Accumulates the mana of a cast spell and adds it to the next spell cast.]

[The maker’s design was built around the body of a woman under thirty. Any wearer past that age gets no effect from it at all.]

Hold on a second.

That’s enough of that.

I skimmed through the rest of the gear too, but it was all more or less the same disaster.

I sat down on the floor with a grave look on my face,

“…”

Wow. So this is how it was?

“Heh heh.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

The question I’d been carrying around all this time was,

‘Why in the world do Rankers even use gear with such terrible compatibility?’

That was it.

But looking at it now, in Dolores’s case, it made sense she wouldn’t have known.

The tiara, first of all, fine, I could see that one. Frost being bad for her was her chronic problem to begin with.

But.

The second, the third, the fourth.

In these cases, the gear’s actual ability was excellent. The fourth one, even, was so absurdly overpowered it made me wonder how such broken gear could even exist.

The problem was,

‘It just didn’t suit her constitution.’

Dolores’s own mana control was so refined she never needed a top like that,

and even if the shoes recovered mana and fed it back to her, her frozen meridians only blocked it from getting through.

The fourth one was, well… just bad luck, really. Climbing the Tower must have taken her a long time.

Of course she’d have passed thirty by then, wouldn’t she?

I figured I could just hand this one down to Ruby later, though.

Actually, that works out nicely.

[🐔🐔🐔]

Kim Yuna, suddenly dissing Dolores.

Oh no, Yuna.

She’s still sulking, huh.

Anyway, if those first three pieces had gone to a different climber, they’d definitely have found good compatibility.

Individual constitution and temperament, or even… age, timing.

One small difference like that, and the Compatibility Rating dropped this far.

In the end,

“… Dolores.”

“Hm?”

“Did you never feel like your gear wasn’t really helping you much?”

This woman.

She hadn’t been getting any real benefit from her gear at all, had she?

“…”

Dolores scratched at her chin lightly and looked away.

Had she actually been unsure about it herself this whole time?

“Once my gear set was fully in place, my condition started declining so fast… I couldn’t really tell the difference anymore.”

“… I see. Well, I’m going to change all of it for you now.”

First, though, some enchanting.

Enchanting a piece of Unique Equipment unlocks its Potential Ability.

Which meant maybe that Potential Ability could shift the gear’s very nature into something different, right?

For instance, raising the age restriction on something that only worked below thirty,

or picking up an entirely different ability altogether.

All right, on to the next step, then.

“Can I go ahead and enchant it now?”

“Of course.”

Oh, she’s giving me the go-ahead just like that?

It’s Unique Equipment, after all. Sort of a big deal.

Just then, Dolores smiled warmly,

and held out a bracelet she’d been holding against her chest.

It looked different from the bracelet already laid out on the floor.

“Could you start with this one? I don’t use it anymore.”

“… Sure, I guess. Why not.”

She still didn’t seem to fully trust me with it, it seemed.

Given that was just common sense in this day and age, I got it.

Right. I’d take this chance to show off what I could do.

“Watch me enchant it. I really am confident I won’t destroy it.”

“All right, I understand.”

"But you said it’s gear you don’t use anymore, right?

“That’s right.”

So once the enchanting was done, what would happen to it?

She wasn’t even going to wear it.

“So if the enchant goes well, can I sell it?”

“Good idea.”

“Would it be a problem if people found out it’s your gear and that gave away who you are…”

Enchanting, and Unique Equipment enchanting on top of that, was supposed to be impossible in the first place.

If anyone recognized it as Dolores’s own gear, that could get a little awkward.

I just wanted to collect the money without ever having to show my face.

“I never once got to wear that piece, not from the moment I got it. My condition took a turn for the worse right after, so no one knows about it.”

Never once got to wear it.

For a moment, those words sounded a little sad.

“I’ll enchant this, and…”

I lifted the bracelet,

[Ether Circle][★★★★☆]

[Unique Equipment]

─────────────────

Circulates mana to aid the wearer’s own mana circulation.

─────────────────

『Turns without rest, circulating.』

─────────────────

“… I’ll spoil you rotten with this one.”

A bold promise, made straight to her face.

* * *

- Scroll, scroll.

Sakpung, guild leader of Berdandi.

Today, too, he was scrolling through the auction house.

The search term was always the same.

‘Gloves.’

“… Nothing today either.”

There had once been an item that turned this whole auction house upside down, that turned the entire Tower upside down.

Chore gloves. But… enchanted to +20.

A piece of junk with not a single star, somehow on par with a 3-star item enchanted to +10.5.

The problem was, after that one listing, the item never showed up on the auction house again.

And since then, no piece of gear had ever again surpassed the normal enhancement ceiling.

[Probably an error, that one]

[Seeing as nothing like it’s shown up since, it really does seem like it was just a bug]

People had started treating it as an error in the Tower’s system,

and Dwarf Company had officially said the same thing.

An “error.”

“Was it really nothing, then…”

Just as he was about to close the auction house tab where he’d searched for gloves,

- Bang!

the study door burst open.

“Sa, Sak… Sakpung…”

“Ha ha! What is it?”

“Y-you, you need to s-see this…”

A guild member stood there, hands trembling for some reason, sharing her Tower interface with him.

She pulled up a window in front of them,

─────────────────

[Ether Circle] [★★★★☆]

[Unique Equipment]

[Enhancement Level: +16]

[Current Bid: 70,000 gold]

─────────────────

『Turns without rest, circulating.』

─────────────────

He found himself looking at the window floating right in front of him.

“…”

Sakpung, like he couldn’t believe it,

- Blink, blink.

blinked his eyes about ten times,

- Whip, whip.

and shook his head about three times too, but.

Unique Equipment.

4-star.

… +16.

The interface in front of him hadn’t changed, not even a little.

“They said it was an error. Fuck.”

“W-what?”

Even when an enhancement roll blew up on him, even when a guild member screwed something up,

Sakpung always spoke in that same easygoing, boisterous tone, so the sudden curse caught the guild member off guard.

“Dwarf Company, those absolute con artists.”

Hadn’t they said Unique Equipment couldn’t be enchanted, not even by a single point?

Hadn’t they said a 3-star item was the absolute pinnacle of what enchanting could achieve?

And so, Dwarf Company

had told Sakpung, who’d always struggled to get his hands on Unique Equipment, that maxing out a 3-star item’s enhancement would solve everything for him.

‘Just get the vambrace done, and that’s it!’

That was something they’d told him personally, in a face-to-face consultation, as a VIP client.

Then what the hell was this piece of gear sitting right in front of him?

The very principle of value preservation Dwarf Company had preached so loudly,

was getting torn to shreds right before his eyes,

and at that very instant, the thing famous for being colder and more clear-eyed than anything else,

the market economy, ironically enough…

- Ding!

[Current Bid: 618,000 gold]

- Ding.

[Current Bid: 745,000 gold]

“…”