Genius Blacksmith's Game

It was the same as always.

A spear shaft that still wasn’t fully finished.

KWAAAAAANG—!

With a colossal roar, a wall collapsed, and surging flames came rushing in.

[HP has fallen below 97%.]

[HP has fallen below 93%.]

Inside the flames that kept pressing in without end, Hyunsoo turned his whole body into a shield against the fire and wrapped himself around the spear shaft.

Right now, Hyunsoo was protecting the spear that would be completed, even more than his own body.

Just as the flames tried to swallow even that spear shaft—

KUUUWOONG—!

He endured the blaze by driving the Aegis down behind his back.

[The Small World Tree’s Wrath cannot be stopped easily!]

[If you fail to soothe it, everyone will die.]

The Small World Tree’s flames were hot and savage.

If it were anyone else in this situation, they’d be thinking about running instead of crafting—how to avoid it, how to survive.

But Hyunsoo knew there was only this one way.

‘It won’t stop.’

His hands moved as if possessed. He polished the carved spear shaft.

At last, he connected the spear shaft to the spearhead.

CLICK—

Yeah. The reason this spear could be completed.

[Even if it breaks.]

[In a do-or-die moment of absolute desperation, you found a breakthrough.]

[The completed artifact’s effect improves by an additional 5%.]

It was thanks to his unbending will to see it finished.

[A fourth legend is written.]

A rampant power could be felt from the spear.

Gripping the softly glowing spear tinted blue, he passed beyond the broken wall.

In that moment, the spear’s effect spread outward.

SHHHHHHH—!

The melody of gentle waves breaking softly as they collided with the earth.

[In 30 seconds, the Small World Tree will trigger an explosion equivalent to 10 times its first explosion’s power.]

Pan, the nobles, and every knight captured the sight of Hyunsoo stepping forward.

Their faces were filled with fear.

And Pan thought the spear in Hyunsoo’s hand was strange.

Most spears have a single spearhead.

But that spear had three spearheads.

He read the word engraved on the center spearhead first.

“Hyun...?”

Then his gaze was seized by the spear shaft.

On the spear shaft, it was written like this.

“A trident...?”

He couldn’t understand.

He could only feel.

[The Small World Tree detects danger.]

[It drives its flames into a frenzy toward the one person manifesting that ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) danger.]

KUUHWAAAAAANG—!

The swirling flames exploded and reached for Hyunsoo.

He would burn.

Until only bone dust remained.

In that instant, Hyunsoo slammed the spear down in front of him with all his strength.

The gentle melody of the waves reversed.

[Raging Surge]

A massive wave surged outward from behind him, blocking the flames that had been blasting up from the Small World Tree.

KURRRRRRRR—!

Fire and water.

Two attributes wrestled for dominance. And the victor was water.

A tidal wave that swallowed the spewing flames.

Riding that enormous tidal wave, Hyunsoo advanced.

[The fourth legend began from inspiration granted by one god.]

Enraged by the failed attack, the Small World Tree spewed flames in every direction.

PWHAAAAAAAK—!

At that moment—

Hyunsoo swung the spear.

[That god is the one who rules the sea, a presence that dwells within his world.]

[The name of that god, who rules the sea and is known as one of the three Absolute Gods.]

At that moment—

PWHAAAAAAAK—!

This time, massive waves poured down from all directions.

Those raging waves began filling the garden like a sewer flooded by a downpour.

And Hyunsoo’s eyes, running atop the waves, narrowed like a hawk’s.

[Poseidon, the god of the sea.]

In truth, Hyunsoo had been feeling it.

‘You don’t want this either, do you?’

The Small World Tree does not want these people to die.

The one that gave the sudden quest was the Small World Tree.

And yet it rampages with an eerie intensity.

It was like a law of nature.

If the Small World Tree was stimulated, it had to blaze, and if it was attacked, it had to vent its rage.

Whether it wanted to or not.

SHHHHHHH—!

The Small World Tree’s parched branches trembled.

Watching it as he advanced, Hyunsoo soon felt power focusing on him.

[A massive explosion will occur in 5 seconds.]

Hyunsoo sensed it.

The moment that explosion went off, everyone here would die.

As Hyunsoo surged forward atop the waves, powerful balls of fire hammered him without pause.

PAANG

PUH-EONG

PUH-PUH-PUH-PUH-PUH-PUNG—!

Even amid that countless damage and impact, Hyunsoo did not stop.

And five waves formed around his spear.

Five waves that collided and shattered in the sky settled into Hyunsoo’s spear.

SHWAAAAAA—!

[A massive explosion will occur in 4 seconds.]

BEEEEEP—!

The Small World Tree turned red, like a kettle heated until it glowed.

[In 3 seconds...]

Before that—

Hyunsoo arrived first, and drove the spear into the Small World Tree with all his strength.

In that instant—

The five waves that had dwelled within Hyunsoo’s spear—

[In 2 seconds...]

All at once, from five points, they swallowed the Small World Tree.

KWARRRRRRRRRK—!

[In 1 second...]

And at last—

[The Small World Tree’s Wrath is soothed.]

Hyunsoo let out a breath of relief.

And as he relaxed, he knew what he had to do now.

SHHHHHHH—!

The flames that had been pouring out of the Small World Tree were sucked back into it.

In contrast, the raging waves had already calmed.

Hyunsoo pulled out the spear he was holding, then brought it down once more.

Water began to rise, like pouring water into a fishbowl.

As the water rose, he felt the World Tree’s power trying to draw him in.

At last, a single permanent sea was created around the Small World Tree.

CHWAAAAAA—!

The melody of the waves unfolded again.

And Hyunsoo felt it.

It was as if the Small World Tree’s branches were trembling out of sight.

Like it was saying thank you, but Hyunsoo felt something entirely different.

Not gratitude for saving it from withering, but gratitude for something else.

And at last, the garden began to change.

[The Small World Tree is revived.]

Right now, it literally looked like the sea was covering the Small World Tree up to its center.

Naturally, the nobles, the knights, and even Pan were floating on the water. But the water rapidly receded.

As it receded, earth formed around the Small World Tree.

When the soil piled up, thousands of stems shot out at an exponential rate.

In a mere ten seconds, those stems sprouted from seeds, took shape, spread, and grew—forming a complete forest.

[The Small World Tree has regained its complete form.]

The Small World Tree had regained its complete form. As the water receded, everyone was now standing in the garden.

Pan looked around.

Half the garden was sea.

The other half seemed to have become a single island centered on the Small World Tree.

What shocked Hyunsoo the most was this.

[The Small World Tree bears the most special fruit in the world.]

[You can check representative fruits.]

Pan fell into enchantment.

One fruit among the countless fruits hanging from the vast Small World Tree—

One shaped like rice.

The moment Pan saw it—one with only ten grains of rice—he collapsed to the ground.

[This is a fruit with ten grains of rice.]

[If you scatter the grains into the soil, even the most barren land will yield abundant crops.]

Pan had denied it.

The legendary fruit Ben had spoken of.

Then Hyunsoo, looking at him, spoke.

“The Ben I’ve seen is this kind of person.”

Pan met his eyes.

Hyunsoo smiled faintly as he spoke—words that ran contrary to how they had all thought of Ben.

“Only the people.”

A stubborn, harsh temperament.

“The people’s.”

The suspicion that he’d fallen into dementia.

“A king for the people.”

An old man trapped in memories and delusions.

“That’s who His Majesty Ben is.”

“......”

The nobles and knights there all fell silent.

They had thought he was a king trapped in memories and delusions.

But now, that grain would ease the people’s hunger.

“Khh... hhuhhh... hhhhk.”

Many of the nobles and knights there wept bitterly.

The sin of defying the king’s wish and command, and trying to ruin the Small World Tree.

The sin of believing he had dementia.

They thought they would accept all of those sins willingly.

And then Ben stepped into the garden.

No explanation was needed.

Ben had already heard everything outside, and he took in his foolish subjects with his eyes.

“You goddamn bastards.”

But that was the end.

There was no, I’ll beat you to death, no, I’ll take your heads, no, I’ll wipe out your entire clan.

Of course he would make them pay for their crimes, but in the end they were still objects of love and hate to Ben.

And Hyunsoo felt his heart pounding.

A bright light gathered within the Small World Tree.

[Sudden Quest: The Small World Tree’s Wrath complete]

[You soothed its wrath and furthermore revived the Small World Tree.]

[You completed it with a miraculous result.]

From that bright light, a material shaped like a log descended in front of Hyunsoo.

[You have obtained the Highest-grade Small World Tree.]

[This is the most precious 1% of materials obtainable from the Small World Tree.]

Originally, he was supposed to obtain a mid-grade Small World Tree.

But it changed to highest-grade.

Beside him, Ben murmured.

“I can’t understand it. In the end, the Small World Tree is still a tree. If you chop a tree, you get material, time passes, it recovers, and you repeat it.”

Even Ben was seeing something like this for the first time.

“But now, the Small World Tree offered up material on its own.”

Hyunsoo knew the truth.

Back then, the Small World Tree really had seemed grateful.

It wasn’t gratitude for something like keeping it from withering.

“The Small World Tree seems to cherish Your Majesty too.”

“......”

Ben was left speechless.

Of course, it might have been nothing but an abstract statement.

SHHHHHHH—!

The vast leaves fluttering in the wind seemed to answer him.

Suddenly, his own life from seventeen until now flashed past.

After bringing the Small World Tree here, he had not left it even once.

Sometimes he slept beside it, sometimes he watered it.

Sometimes he even poured out worries he couldn’t speak to his own subjects.

Yeah.

The old man and the tree cherished each other.

And Hyunsoo...

‘At this point, am I not some kind of ill-fated male lead?’

You know, the kind of protagonist with some condition who passes out at the drop of a hat.

[Fatigue accumulates.]

Come to think of it, Hyunsoo hadn’t slept a wink for the three days he spent making that spear.

And in the fight to stop the Small World Tree, he’d felt endless tension—mental fatigue piling up.

Hyunsoo’s vision spun.

“...I need to sleep.”

[You fall into the status effect: Fainting.]

Ben watched Hyunsoo collapse.

Pan, who had come up close, watched too.

The nobles who had walked over watched; the knights supported him and looked down at his sleeping face.

All of them were looking at him with expressions completely unlike before.

And as Hyunsoo was dragged down into the abyss, he remembered a notification he’d forgotten in his focus.

‘What was that again...?’

He’d heard that notification after making the fourth-legend artifact.

[You are approaching a special name.]

At last, he fell fully asleep.

*****

The Special User Management Team.

Kim Taeseok and Associate Lee Jihee.

The two stared at the fainted Hyunsoo with shocked expressions.

In front of them, this notification was floating.

[User Hyunsoo is reaching a special name.]

[If you create a total of six legends, you will qualify to claim that name.]

A special name.

It was a name so noble and beautiful.

And it wasn’t something you were chosen for—only a name you could obtain solely through your own strength.

Taeseok let out a bitter smile.

Worldwide, a total of eleven people had received this notification.

And of those eleven users, only three had actually claimed a name.

On the Korean server—the Asgan server—there existed the Asgan Continent’s Ten Legends.

Those Ten Legends were people who had long represented the continent.

Sword King Barad.

Sky King Ben.

Archmage Luwon.

Absolute Shield Peya.

Divine Archer Baneka...

And more.

Countless names. And among them, there were vacant seats as well.

“It’s the first time.”

Kim Taeseok muttered with a look like he couldn’t quite believe it.

“For the first time in the world, a non-combat job class is approaching the Ten Legends.”

The Ten Legends weren’t the same thing as a Legend Class.

They meant those who possessed the most ultimate power, as things stood now.

Even among users who held a Legend Class, there were many who couldn’t even reach the Ten Legends’ toes.

All at once, Lee Jihee felt curious.

“What name will Hyun get?”

Taeseok’s answer didn’t take long.

“The Ten Legends. Master Blacksmith Hyun.”

It was the name that would one day be engraved upon him.