WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 65

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Dawn Bringer

* * *

The instant I set it down, I thought my eardrums were about to burst.

- Hisssssss...!

A fierce, spitting rejection burst out, unsurprisingly.

White steam sprayed out in every direction, and wherever the two touched, they shoved each other away.

"......."

I kept my grip on the tongs and watched.

If anything went wrong, I could just yank them back right away.

But then.

- Hisss...

The sound started to fade.

"...?"

Thinking it might just be my imagination, I took a step closer, but no, the sound really was fading.

- Hiss.

Soon the sound stopped entirely.

The Frost Crystal sat there on the sheet, wrapped in a blue haze, cold energy, probably, curling around itself.

The white flame rising off the White-Fire Crystal flickered nearby.

- Hisss...

The two energies.

At first, they seemed to push each other away.

At first, it looked like the Frost Crystal's energy was the one avoiding the white flame.

Whenever the white flame drew near, the cold would startle and pull back,

and if it approached again, the cold would pretend not to notice and slip off to the other side.

The Frost Crystal's chill kept dodging the white flame like that for a good while.

"...?"

After getting rebuffed about five times in a row, the white flame finally stopped chasing and just held still.

- Shff.

This time, the cold was the one who approached the flame first.

It tapped, tapped, at the edge of the white flame...

then flinched right back,

and touched it again.

"What is up with this thing."

It had made such a show of hating this,

but now that the flame wasn't chasing it anymore, it was sneaking back to rub up against it.

[.........]

What came after that was, well, a little explicit.

The white flame seemed to have caught on to the Frost Crystal's tsundere little heart,

and it opened its arms right where it stood.

The blue cold, no longer dodging, began soaking into every part of the white flame.

The flame burrowed deep into the crystal,

and the cold, in turn, took the flame into itself.

Following each other's grain, working inward...

as the white flame overran and wrapped around every corner of the Frost Crystal,

before long...

- Hisssss...

the Frost Crystal let out one last long breath of white steam,

- Shudder...

- Shudder...

and trembled all over.

And once that trembling stopped,

the two energies looked to have merged into one, completely.

At least, to my eyes.

[... big brother, that was kind of...]

"...... So it wasn't just my eyes playing tricks on me."

[Yeah... kind of...]

Of all the things I'd live to see,

I never thought I'd watch two minerals reach a mutual agreement and, well, get intimate with each other.

Honestly, how am I supposed to go on living after that.

And as if to prove that agreement,

new information floated up in front of my eyes.

─────────────────

[Ice-Fire Crystal (氷火晶石)][★★★★☆]

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『A composite crystal born when the White-Fire Crystal and the Frost Crystal accepted each other.』

『Two utterly opposing forces, fire and cold, coexist here without either losing a shred of its nature.』

『No craftsman without mineral affinity honed to its very peak could ever hope to reproduce this.』

─────────────────

Whoa... nice...

Though I'll admit, this feeling is genuinely hard to put into words.

For reference, if I had to describe what the Ice-Fire Crystal actually looked like now,

a white tattoo had etched itself across its blue body.

Like someone had splattered a huge amount of white ink across it.

Uh, I could keep going with the description if I really wanted to,

"...I'll pass."

Congratulations on the wedding, you two fine minerals.

"...Let's get to work."

I picked the Earthborn Hammer back up.

From here on, it was all about shaping the form.

I pushed the sheet up as it was.

For reference, the Frost Crystal couldn't just sit dead center.

The handle still needed to pass through the hammerhead, after all.

Just slightly off, right at the edge of where the balance wouldn't break.

- Shff...

The White-Fire Crystal wrapped around the core as one side folded over.

- Thump.

Then the other side.

Now I hammered down the spot where the folds overlapped.

- Tap... tap....

The idea was to seal the seam until it disappeared entirely.

Next up was setting the angles.

- Thump-thump.

I pressed the top face flat.

- Thump.

Straightened the sides to square off the edges,

- Thump.

and did the same for the bottom.

Every time I struck it, flame flared up and then sank back down again.

"Blueprint."

[Yep.]

A blue rectangular prism overlaid itself onto the anvil.

Yuna had worked out the hammerhead's final dimensions for me.

I refined the angles to match that outline, bit by bit.

The striking face, wide and long.

The back face, thin enough to spread and bend iron.

A socket hole for the handle ran clean through the hammerhead too.

- Thump...

The final hammer strike landed.

And there, on the anvil,

sat a pale white material speckled with flecks of red and blue light,

a hammerhead, perfectly finished.

"...Hah."

I looked down at it for a long while,

then picked it up.

"...The weight's good."

Now.

All that was left was fitting the handle.

I pulled out a handle I'd already carved, stored under the worktable.

Ash wood.

When Dolores had gathered a huge stockpile of timber to build this workshop,

I'd set this piece aside from the pile ahead of time.

The grain ran straight and long, apparently it even got used for instruments,

so I'd already shaped it into a handle in advance.

Sized to fit one hand, thickening slightly toward the end.

So even if my grip slipped, it would catch on that last swell.

- Shff.

I lined the end of the handle up with the socket hole in the hammerhead.

For reference, fitting a handle into a hammer isn't as simple as just shoving it in and calling it done, obviously.

The socket was wider at top and bottom, tapered narrow through the middle.

Push the handle in from below, upward, and

- Shff.

it passes straight through the head, poking out just slightly above.

I'd already carved a vertical groove into that protruding tip beforehand.

- Bang!

- Craaack....

I drove a wooden wedge straight into that groove.

That spreads the handle's tip open side to side, pressing it tight against the inner walls of the socket.

To slip back down, it'd have to pass back through the narrowed part of the hole, but it's already spread too wide to fit through.

And to come out the top, it would catch on the wedge now driven into it.

That way, you couldn't pull it out even if you tried,

and no amount of hammering would loosen it.

The simplest way to think of it: you're just splitting the very tip of the handle open a little.

- Shff.

I sawed off the part sticking out and smoothed the cut face down.

For a later replacement, all I'd need to do was pull the wedge and swap in a new handle.

'A handle that can be replaced later, to keep pace with a still-growing body.'

That was the condition Hareungar had set.

This satisfied it perfectly.

"......."

And with that, every step was finished.

I looked down at the hammer.

"...Hah."

One thing still remained.

The engraving.

Last time, when I made the Divine Bell, the engraving had etched itself in automatically the instant it was finished.

I guess being a Certified Blacksmith counted for something.

I hadn't done a thing, and it had just carved itself in on its own.

But today, it stayed quiet.

I turned my head and looked out the window.

Somehow, the time was...

Wait, the sun hasn't set?

I'd definitely walked into the workshop right after breakfast.

Guess I finished faster than I expected...

[That's not it, big brother.]

"Huh."

[You pulled an all-nighter. This is the next morning.]

"......."

Maybe the engraving wouldn't carve itself in unless the sun had actually set.

Well, whatever. Didn't matter either way.

- Slam!

I grabbed the hammer, threw the workshop door open, and stepped outside.

The cool dawn air brushed against my face.

And then, that same spot I always went to.

Right in the middle of the garden, I lifted the hammer toward the rising sun.

I closed my eyes.

How long had passed?

This time too, I heard nothing at all.

"...?"

I opened my eyes.

In front of me.

A familiar pattern was etched into a golden plate.

The Heir of Flame's Apprentice Blacksmith pattern, and beneath it,

the letter L, engraved in its own pattern.

In other words, what should now be called the Certified Blacksmith's pattern,

the personal engraving I'd drawn and added on my own, last time.

The first time is the hard part.

The second time is easy.

"I just have to draw it, right?"

Following the tip of my index finger,

a thread of golden light stitched embroidery into the empty air.

I'd had something in mind, actually...

"...... I don't know."

Just.

"Yujin."

I set the signature I'd used in my past life into the lower part of the sun.

Just because.

If nobody was ever going to recognize it anyway,

then at least I should be the one to remember my own name.

The moment I did.

- Crackle-crackle-crackle-!

The pattern I'd just finished drawing

began carving itself into the center of the white hammerhead.

A sun radiating eight rays of light.

And an L, holding that sun up from below.

And inside the sun itself, written in flowing script, "Yujin."

And.

─────────────────

[Dawn Bringer][★★★☆☆]

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

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『Fire resembles the day, and ice resembles the night.』

『Two energies that could not overcome each other met, and together they formed a single boundary.』

『Where night and day meet, people call it dawn.』

─────────────────

The energy that awakens shifts depending on which way the handle is held.

Its high mana conductivity means it can also be used as an enchant hammer.

─────────────────

『If anyone doubts a Skilled Craftsman's qualifications, let them raise their eyes and look upon the first hammer he ever made.』

『How could a lowly servant ever hope to understand a giant's footsteps?』

- To Skilled Blacksmith L, the second tribute sent by the sun -

『A hammer that calls forth the dawn, is it....』

『You need wait for the sun no longer. Wherever your hammer falls, the sun will rise there first!』

- Solau, God of the Sun -

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"......."

My heart pounded, heavy and deep.

Somewhere along the way, the White-Fire Crystal that made up the hammerhead

had hardened, solid as iron.

I gripped Dawn Bringer in front of me and looked up into empty air,

[★★★☆☆] [Beyond Certified, Onward to Skilled][Title Acquired: 'Skilled Craftsman']

[Reward]

[Personal Interface]

"......."

Up until now, I'd been able to see everyone else's Compatibility Rating.

Just never my own.

"Good timing."

After all,

I'd just finished making a piece of gear meant purely for myself.

Without wasting a moment, I opened the Personal Interface.

And then,

a newly opened equipment interface appeared.

I equipped Dawn Bringer into the empty slot.

[Dawn Bringer][★★★☆☆]

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

From start to finish,

the Compatibility Rating of a hammer made purely and entirely for myself was...

[Dawn Bringer][★★★☆☆]

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

Happily, it was absolutely perfect.

I tightened my grip around the hammer,

"Niiiiiice!!!!"

and roared at the dawn sky just breaking into light.

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