WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 79

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I'll Show You Who I Am

* * *

The Whiteheart Iron melted down.

- Swish, swish.

Honestly, the process itself was the same.

Melt it, stir it, done.

With ordinary iron, impurities were supposed to rise to the surface as it melted, but the Whiteheart Iron liquid... was just clean.

And then the state of the liquid itself came into view.

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[Whiteheart Iron Molten Liquid][★★★☆☆]

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『A liquid of white iron ore, its impurities washed away over a long time near a mana vein.』

『Having no inherent attribute of its own, it does not reject outside mana.』

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"Now...!"

I hurried down, opened the warming furnace, picked up the two vessels holding the spirit stone liquids, and climbed back up the stairs.

"Ugh, damn it..."

These things were heavy as hell. A normal kid could never manage this, but I'm a guy who actually works out.

And then.

I slowly poured the two liquids into either side of the crucible holding the Whiteheart Iron liquid, at the same time.

Mixing sunlight and wind together first just didn't make sense, right? Their natures were too different.

So instead of mixing the two directly... I poured them into either end of the Whiteheart Iron liquid first, letting it soak them in, then stirred the whole thing together.

That was the basic principle.

Even the warming furnace was, after all, cooler than the crucible furnace I'd pushed the heat up in.

- Hiss...!

The liquids shrieked at the difference in temperature.

Wherever the sunlight liquid touched, it dyed gold; wherever the blue liquid touched, bubbles burst out.

Those bubbles didn't seem like a bad sign, more like an effect of the wind spirit stone.

- Squelch....

I began stirring all three liquids around the Whiteheart Iron liquid at the center, so the two energies would gradually blend.

So that sunlight and wind could each find their place and melt together.

"...Play nice in the middle."

Today's mediator: Whiteheart Iron.

This was the moment its role mattered most.

Fuck, honestly, my role was pretty huge too.

The real grunt work was only just starting, honestly.

[How long do you think you'll have to stir?]

"...An hour, minimum."

[Seriously??]

"There are three liquids, so it might take longer."

Basic theory of Sun Dwarf metallurgy: to mix two liquids of different natures, you had to stir them at high temperature for a very long time.

And this was a process of mixing in iron on top of spirit stone molten liquid, a nature I'd never seen before in my life.

I honestly had no idea how long it would take.

"......."

- Squelch... squelch....

Stir. I had to keep stirring.

The tempo couldn't break down. Not too fast, not too slow.

Sweat kept running, and if it dripped into the liquid it'd be a disaster, so I had to keep wiping it away with my arm.

Thankfully, when it came to sheer grit, I didn't lose to anyone.

How long had I been stirring like that?

"......."

- Swish....

"...Huh."

The thick resistance that had been dragging at my arm vanished.

"Ha...."

I was so exhausted I could taste it.

I lowered my head to check the inside.

The molten liquid in the crucible furnace, at first glance, its color didn't register.

Why?

There were too many colors.

On the surface, three colors wrapped around each other like waves.

A molten liquid where every color existed at once, like a rainbow.

I knew instantly, at a glance, that I'd succeeded.

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[Harmonics][★★★★☆]

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『Through Whiteheart Iron as a medium, the natures of sunlight and wind achieved balance within a single molten liquid.』

『Two different forces coexist around the Whiteheart Iron at their center, neither one lost.』

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"...There it is."

Mediation successful.

I'd succeeded in perfectly meshing two opposing energies together.

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[Achievement][Madman Pioneer][★★★★☆]

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『You made two spirits' origins, which despise each other, coexist within a single substance.』

『You completed a theory that had never once held true in the history of spirits.』

『You melted wind and sunlight together? Who on earth does that???』

[Title Acquired - "Is There Really Someone That Crazy?"]

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"......?"

Was fusing wind and sunlight together actually a pretty insane thing to do?

Fire and wind got along fine, so I figured sunlight and wind would be about the same, that's all...

I didn't know any better, so I went in without any preconceptions. My own way.

You need to be free of preconceptions to do great things, that's just how it works. For the record, I like eating rice soaked in soy milk.

[Reward]

Oh.

There was a reward following after too....

Now this, this is starting to feel worth it.

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[The Spirit Queen's Admiration]

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"Fuck."

What's there to be so admiring about.

The Queen of the Faraway Wind Spirits had already been admiring my underwear for a while now.

"...Sigh."

The reward wasn't the important part anyway.

I hooked the finished crucible onto its ring and slowly lifted it out.

Harmonics.

"Damn, what a stylish name."

I tilted the crucible, and the rainbow-colored liquid streamed out, flowing into the mold's opening.

- Glug, glug, glug....

Thanks to preheating it beforehand, Mr. Harmonics didn't harden and flowed smoothly all the way down to the bottom of the mold.

Before long, hot air began leaking out from the vent on the other side.

Touch that, and something "fun" might happen?

"...All filled."

I set the crucible down and sealed the mold's opening.

Now it was time to wait.

Until the Harmonics inside lost its heat and hardened into the shape of a rod.

Something long and thin like a rod, at most, thirty minutes.

I planned to go straight into forging it, so I had to open the mold before it fully cooled.

So, twenty-eight minutes later.

- Click.

I released the clasp holding the mold's halves together and lifted the frame off.

- Whoosh....

"......."

Leftover heat rushed straight up into my face.

At the same time, the casting sand crumbled and scattered over the rod, but...

"...Whoa, what is this...?"

Even through the scattered casting sand, the shape of the rod caught my eye.

Overall the rod held a soft, pale white, but across its surface, orange and sky-blue flowed together in gentle, wave-like swirls.

And this was just the rod fresh out of casting....

[It's so pretty....]

The color blend was striking enough to draw admiration even from Yuna.

I confirmed it had set properly, then quickly pulled the rod out with the tongs.

I broke off the scraps that had formed at the vent and the opening.

Unlike fish-shaped bread, this wasn't something you could eat, so tossing it away without hesitation was the right call.

Then I set the still-warm rod onto the anvil.

"...Let's do this."

Craftsman's spirit.

Now it was time to start hammering.

So, why hammer a rod that's already turned out well?

Simply put, right now this thing only resembles a rod in shape.

The internal structure was still a bit loose, and there was bound to be some room for gaps to form during cooling.

So hammering it while it's still hot presses those gaps shut and tightens up the structure.

"Whew...."

- Thunk....

Lightly.

With the small sound of the first strike, I turned the rod carefully, little by little, hammering it with the same steady force.

Slowly... slowly....

So that the two spirits' energies soaked into the Whiteheart Iron would bind together tightly.

- Tunk... tunk....

When the rod cooled, I'd pop it back into the forge to heat it up again.

Pull it out, hammer it again.

Making sure there was no bend anywhere, keeping it perfectly... parallel.

How many times had I repeated that process?

The rough surface smoothed out... and, at least to my eye, the whole rod formed a straight line, but...

"Hologram."

I don't trust my own eyes.

I trust Yuna's hologram.

Checked against the hologram, the rod turned out to be very slightly warped.

"Perfectly parallel."

To fix it, I carefully adjusted the ends.

[Match Rate 100!]

Along with Yuna's signal of approval.

I picked up the polishing cloth and gently swept it across the rod's surface.

If I treated it like sandpaper and just ground away, I could wreck the parallel alignment I'd just worked so hard to get....

- Slip....

Slowly, like handling a baby.

Of course, no one actually handles a baby with a polishing cloth, but that's just a figure of speech.

- Slip....

The powder clinging to the rod's surface wiped away smoothly....

and the rod, which had looked dull under the powder, began to shine.

"......."

Finally, still wearing my gloves, I ran my hand gently down the length of the rod.

I closed my eyes, then slowly opened them.

And then.

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[Totality: Ascension][★★★★☆]

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

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[A pioneer does not fear condemnation.]

[For they carry the mission of leading someone down a path no one has ever walked.]

『A weapon only one who stands at the boundary between two worlds can wield.』

『Only when different things become one is the totality finally complete.』

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【Accepts both spirit power and mana at once.】

【The power of two different systems can overlap without loss.】

【Turning the rod clockwise by half a turn inverts the boundary between the mortal realm and the spirit realm.】

【Turning the rod back counterclockwise restores the boundary to its original place.】

【It only manifests when will is put into it.】

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『The door has opened.』

- Adrian Valter, Spirit Emperor -

『Now, the wind will carry the sunlight to greater heights....』

『However did you manage a fusion like this... Amazing....』

- the Queen of the Faraway Wind Spirits -

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Written at the end of that long stream of text.

And beneath it.

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『I'll show you who I am.』

- Skilled Blacksmith L -

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"Heh."

A pretty confident line was written there.

I like it.

I picked up the cooled rod.

It was quite light, but underestimate it and you'd end up with a shattered skull.

And then.

'Clockwise.'

- Whirl.

The moment I put my will into it and turned the rod half a turn.

- Hummm...!

My vision flipped inside out.

I was still inside the workshop, I hadn't moved to another place, but....

"...Huh?"

Things I couldn't see before started coming into view.

The blurry shapes I'd seen yesterday afternoon, the ones that had been offering spirit stones to Ruby.

...This time, those things had far clearer forms, running and playing all over the workshop.

Some looked like nothing more than blobs of deep color, and among those, a few resembled tiny humans.

'...These are spirits?'

So this was what it meant for the boundary to be inverted?

A few little red-tinged critters crouched in front of the crucible furnace, watching the flames.

The blue ones sat perched on the workshop's vents, chattering softly among themselves.

And then.

A woman tinged sky blue.

No, a spirit, floating in midair, was studying the rod in my hand intently.

Then our eyes met.

- Flinch!

The spirit's body trembled.

The spirit immediately flew right up in front of my face and waved a hand side to side.

What.

- Whoosh, whoosh.

When I followed the moving hand with my eyes.

"...... Wh-whoa, wait...?"

The spirit's eyes went wide.

"C-can you s-s-s-see me?"

it shouted, mouth wide open.

"Hey there."

I raised a hand and gave a light greeting.

In that instant.

every spirit in the workshop turned to look at me.

"...... Uh, hey?"

This is my workshop, though...?

As I scratched my head under all those stares,

"Waaaaaahhh!!"

"Uh, wait...!"

What the hell?

The little ones scattered around the workshop all charged at me at once,

and I ended up buried under a pile of tiny spirits.

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