I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With - Chapter 76

WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 76

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Crafting Custom Gear

* * *

Dolores's tower climb had resumed,

and before I knew it, the year had turned over, April had come, spring had arrived, and the weather was finally starting to warm.

Every year around this time, watching the flowers bloom outside the window, I used to have one thought.

'When the hell am I getting out of this damn lab.'

Mm, well, not having to think that anymore was definitely one point in my favor.

The workshop beat the lab, hands down.

[This place does seem nicer than the lab, the air smells good and it's nice and open.]

I have no idea how Yuna even smells anything, but she agreed with me on that one anyway.

Dolores's climbing comeback... was a smashing success.

She cleared a floor in a single attempt, in no time at all, which was nothing but good news.

The community's reaction was the same.

The residential district of the floor she was climbing, not the climbing zone itself, has a full view down into the trial grounds, so apparently the 142nd floor, the floor she'd just decided to tackle, was packed with spectators.

And the result was.

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[who the fuck said she was washed up ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[wait what was that, walking on thin air? that was basically teleporting right??]

[has it even been an hour since she started?]

[the Formula School never disappoints!!!!!!!!!!!]

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Everyone's singing Dolores's praises. Excellent.

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[Mina]: There's not a single difference from her prime...?

↳[Anon1]: She's seriously amazing

[Peekaboo]: I wonder how far she'll go

↳[Anon2]: The top.

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Compliments were pouring in from every direction.

Dolores had spent a long time stuck on floor 141, and had only just reached 142 yesterday.

Apparently the current top-ranked climbers were somewhere in the high 100s or so.

Honestly, I don't know the details, and it's not really my business anyway.

[Anyway, it doesn't look like anyone's passed floor 200.]

I'd heard there's a trial every ten floors, and a great trial every fifty.

If that's right, Dolores's next target would be the great trial on floor 150.

They used to say clearing the great trial on floor 100 alone earned you the title of High Ranker, but these days the trend seems to be that you need to clear the one on floor 150.

So whether Dolores could clear 150 without much trouble was really the true test of her comeback.

"Good luck."

Honestly, I don't think it'll be hard.

That Silver Palace thing of hers... it doesn't even make sense, as far as I can tell.

As a result, Dolores had gotten busy enough that these days she only came home on weekends.

Every time she did, she'd shower Ruby and me with all the cheek kisses she'd missed.

So in the end, with Dolores away, it fell to Ruby and me to fill up the empty mansion.

That's how it was, one weekend morning in the spring of my fourteenth year, right as Ruby and I were finishing breakfast together.

Since it was just the two of us living here, I'd suggested we at least eat breakfast together, and that's how this little ritual started.

"A letter's arrived for Miss Ruby."

Just then, a servant came into the dining room carrying a silver tray.

On it sat an envelope trimmed with gold leaf.

Hmm... this was no ordinary letter.

It even had Ruby's name written along the border.

Ruby herself didn't seem the least bit interested in picking it up, just stared at it.

"Ruby, what's this?"

"......"

Ruby snatched the letter right out of my hands.

And then suddenly moved to tear it in half...

"Whoa, whoa."

I grabbed her wrist right away to stop her, but...?

"......?"

She was insanely strong. I could tell instantly this was way outside anything I could stop.

Ruby had been changing more and more with every passing day,

and that wasn't just true of how much prettier she was getting, it was true of her strength too.

I've been swinging a hammer every single day too lately, so I figured I wasn't exactly weak?

What the hell is this feeling of complete helplessness??

"Wait, wait wait!!"

In the end, I basically hung off Ruby's arm to stop her from tearing the letter apart.

Well, more accurately, I just slowed down the tearing, and I could tell I wasn't going to hold out much longer like this, so.

"Dolores!!"

"No!!"

Luckily, it was the weekend, so Dolores happened to be home.

"What's going on?"

Dolores hurried into the dining room and found us.

She spotted me dangling off Ruby's arm, and the corner of her mouth curled up.

Once things had settled down... Dolores took the envelope and looked it over front and back.

"An invitation... from Astera Academy."

"An academy?"

"They used to teach different things, but these days it's a place where you learn what you need before you start climbing the Tower. You can get training in both climbing technique and real combat."

Oh, so a place like that exists.

Dolores's gaze drifted toward Ruby.

"...To think Ruby's already old enough for the academy..."

She had a rather sentimental expression on her face.

Ruby, on the other hand, didn't look moved in the slightest, her lips were jutting out a solid few inches.

Pure, undiluted sulking.

"I'm not going."

"?"

A sudden, shocking declaration.

[They say it's incredibly hard to get in, like you basically have to reserve a spot years in advance?]

If it was that kind of place, surely Ruby and Dolores had already talked it over.

There's no way Dolores was the type to force her into it.

"Lionel, Lionel, I don't want to go..."

Little Ruby suddenly started tearing up and inching toward me.

Sorry, but there's nothing I can do for you here.

"I'm not going..."

And then she lay down flat on the mansion floor and started rolling back and forth.

"Oh, this kid, honestly... weren't you the one singing about wanting to go, not that long ago..."

Dolores looked utterly at a loss.

Apparently Ruby had originally wanted to go, badly.

"Or Lionel comes tooooo..."

Ah, sorry, that's genuinely not happening.

I'm way too old to be starting an academy now... ugh.

"I can't."

"Then I'm not going eitherrrr..."

"Ruby..."

And so, persuasion and negotiation dragged on for quite a while.

"...Fine, Lionel would be lonely too, I suppose."

In the end, Dolores decided to have a separate conversation with the academy.

A few days later.

A special education program for Ruby was officially approved.

Wow, being a Grand Duchess really does have its perks.

They settled it so she'd only attend Monday through Wednesday, coming home Wednesday evening, with the rest of her lessons handled through private tutoring.

I wasn't sure that was really allowed, but given the house she belongs to, missing a bit of coursework didn't seem like it'd cause any real problems.

It wasn't like they were just letting her skip everything, either.

Ruby still had to sit the same written and practical exams every term as the other students, and she'd only be allowed to keep the special program if she scored above the required standard.

In the end, it all came down to one thing, how well she climbed and how strong she grew.

"Hehehe. Isn't this great, Lionel?"

"Glad it worked out."

A little bloom of a smile had spread across Ruby's face.

Well, if she's happy, that's what matters.

I smiled brightly too... and went straight to the bathroom.

...Which is where a certain question came to mind.

"......"

Ruby kept getting taller by the day.

Girls tend to grow fast, I guess, because she'd shot up a whole lot in just a year.

"As for me..."

Why the fuck does it seem like I'm not growing at all...?

There's a little mark I'd penciled on the wall next to the bathroom, right at my head height,

and compared to that, I'd genuinely grown, like, barely at all.

Ruby's already over 155 centimeters, I think...

"Huh..."

It's definitely, definitely just because I haven't hit puberty yet.

There's still hope left for me.

Anyway... congratulations to Ruby, first things first.

And it seemed like a good idea to make her a piece of gear as an admission gift too.

"I've been practicing plenty lately."

I've really put in the hours on metallurgy training in isolation.

I'd been wanting to hammer some iron anyway, and what better than making something for Ruby?

"What should it be?"

I don't hold back my curiosity, so I went straight to Dolores and asked.

"Hmm... I think Ruby would love anything you make her, no matter what it is."

"Still, isn't there something specific she'd like?"

"Hmm..."

I racked my brain too.

A question suddenly occurred to me.

"...By the way, Ruby is actually a mage, right?"

"......"

She works out so much these days that, honestly, I'm not even sure anymore if she counts as a mage.

Working out the moment she wakes up, working out before bed.

The funny thing is her muscles aren't getting bulky at all, more like slim and tight, hugging her frame.

You know, the kind of build in the direction people actually find attractive.

I guess that's a blessing too, that body type.

"Hmm... come to think of it, Lionel, what got Ruby started working out in the first place?"

"...Ha ha."

Actually, that was me.

Dolores lightly pressed a hand to her forehead before speaking again.

"...I've been going back and forth on this too, Ruby has strong affinity with spirits, and talent for magic, and a natural Iron Body, and she enjoys working out on top of all that."

"So basically she's good at everything?"

"That's about the size of it. So I was thinking Battle Ma... ah, no, never mind that..."

For someone that all-around talented, what role would actually suit her?

I turned straight to Yuna and her enormous stockpile of data.

Over the past year Yuna had crammed in so much data about this world's setting that she might as well have been an encyclopedia at this point.

[Hmm... she's a bit wasted on being a straight-up mage, but a Battle Mage? That might actually be pretty good... though the concerning part is whether Dolores would even like it, given she's from the Formula School...]

The Formula School?

Going by that community post earlier, it seemed to be one of the schools of magic Dolores belonged to.

I cautiously spoke up.

"...What about making her a Battle Mage?"

That seemed to be exactly what Dolores had been about to say a second ago.

- Twitch.

Dolores's eyebrow twitched.

"...Hm, Lionel? Where did you hear something like that?"

"Not a good idea?"

"No, no, that's not it at all. Magic has limitless possibilities, so there's nothing wrong with it, I was actually thinking of running an aptitude test on her too..."

"Really? Then let me try making a weapon for a Battle Mage. How about we test it out with that?"

"......"

Honestly, I think if someone has a lot of different talents, they still need to pick one thing to focus on.

Nobody can be good at absolutely everything.

In that sense, according to Yuna, a Battle Mage that could hold every bit of Ruby's talent at once sounded like it'd be perfect.

Dolores didn't seem to have brought it up for no reason either.

Right?

[Right, apparently a Battle Mage's level depends on what kind of energy gets channeled into the weapon they carry.]

[And Ruby can handle both spirit energy and magic, so...]

Yeah, whatever, I don't get the complicated parts, but sounds good either way.

The fact that Dolores wasn't outright shooting it down was, in itself, a pretty good sign.

I drove the point home while Dolores was still mulling it over.

"So how about this? You bring a weapon you've prepared, and I bring one I've prepared, and Ruby picks between them."

"...Let's do that, aptitude tests are usually run that way anyway."

"You prepare a weapon for a proper mage."

"And Lionel?"

"I'll go ahead and try making a Battle Mage weapon."

It's my first attempt at it, but this could be fun.

"...Could I at least ask for a Resonance School wand, if nothing else?"

"Nooo way."

Yeah, it's pretty clear she's not thrilled about the whole Battle Mage idea.

"What kind of school is Battle Mage, anyway?"

"...That's not really something classified by school."

"I see."

In the end, Dolores and I each agreed to bring back a weapon suited to Ruby.

Right around then, something in the corner of the room caught my eye.

Something about it kept nagging at me, could it be.

"By any chance, what's this?"

"The appraisal machine."

The appraisal machine?

"...The appraisal machine? Why would you need that for..."

Suddenly, a flood of memories hit me, all the Origin Scripts inscribed on the gear I'd made.

There's no way that thing can read those too... right?

"...... Heh."

Dolores looked at me and smiled sweetly.

Ah.

I realized, with a high degree of certainty, that I'd been caught.

"I-I-I-I'll get going."

"Sure, thanks, Lionel."

My face went red as I fled straight back to the workshop.

Along with a moment of quiet reflection on the state of my dignity.

I'd figured those somewhat private pieces of gear would stay hidden forever, but...

"Ha... well, it's a bit late for that now."

Honestly, I've already shown Dolores far too much shameful stuff for it to matter at this point, so I decided to let it go.

"...Fine, let's just get started."

Making gear, my hands had been itching for it for a while now anyway.

Over the past few months, while Dolores climbed and Ruby grew up, it's not like I'd been sitting around doing nothing either.

I'd been making all sorts of things to sharpen my skills at metallurgy, working with ore and iron.

Basically, practicing forging and metalworking.

The reason I hadn't made any gauntlets or swords up until now was mostly, honestly, that I didn't have the confidence to melt down and work iron and metal properly.

I was young and small and it took a physical toll too.

But I'd kept working out steadily, and hammered away for a long time now...

It's finally time.

Here's what I've got to show for it.

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[Fine Sickle][★★★☆☆]

[Fine Pickaxe][★★★☆☆]

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I'd made dozens of each and supplied them to the village,

so this year's harvest across Dolores's duchy is probably going to be very, very good.

Anyway, given all that practiced metallurgy, what could I actually make?

"What does a Battle Mage's gear usually look like?"

[Well, the most famous Battle Mage is... hm, Yeomhwa, I guess?]

"Yeomhwa?"

That's Dolores's sworn sister, and she used to be one of Maman's comrades too.

Her ranking's pretty high too, isn't it?

[But Battle Mages branch out in all kinds of directions. This particular one's main weapon is a gun, apparently.]

"Whoa."

There's even a gun option?

Yuna and I spent a good while digging through related information.

Battle Mage really doesn't have anything resembling a school, there's every kind of branch imaginable.

No orthodoxy, no standardized weapon.

Now I get why Dolores didn't like the sound of it, it's got a bit of a Lazy Donkey Roll vibe to it, doesn't it.

Like some no-pedigree martial art you scraped together eating whatever you found.

Some fight with iron gauntlets, some skip the spellcasting and just bash heads in with a staff, all sorts of styles.

[There's also staffs, staffs too]

"A staff, huh..."

A staff, not bad, right?

At the end of the day, a Battle Mage's whole identity is fighting by channeling their own mana into a weapon.

Ruby's strength is being able to handle multiple kinds of power at once, and, exaggerating only a little, her raw strength is about on par with a lowland gorilla's.

"A staff, how about a staff."

A staff is traditionally an attack-and-defense-in-one thing, too.

And honestly, they just look cool.

Of course, that was just my own opinion, so I figured I should go ask her what she actually thought.

Dolores and I had agreed to at least do a bit of market research with her before either of us started making anything.

The aesthetic sense of a girl going through adolescence is something you have to take seriously, after all.

I cautiously made my way to the gym.

But when I reached the gym door, I heard hushed voices coming from inside.

"...Ruby, what about this book? I used it myself, it's an old tome, and it'd go perfectly with the Formula School, don't you think?"

"...It's not bad."

Well, well, someone's already hard at work.

But I was confident I had a better option than Dolores's.