Genius Blacksmith's Game

Everyone was watching.

The Twin Dragon Sword that had appeared out of nowhere.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s vanished sword from a world where it was presumed to be gone, assumed to have been made by Blacksmith Hyun.

Bella stretched out both hands and gripped the massive Twin Dragon Sword’s hilt.

[A one-of-a-kind masterpiece crafted by a master artisan.]

[A skill is activated.]

[Wake up]

[It reacts to the potential and story you possess.]

What was Bella’s potential value?

At the age of twenty, she had already held the position of a kingdom’s Deputy Commander of the Knights.

That potential transcended common sense.

[HP recovers to 50%.]

[You surpass your limit.]

[You surpass your limit.]

[You surpass your li......]

That notification kept changing.

[You transcend your limit.]

[You transcend your limit.]

SSSSSIZZLE—

Blue mana blazed from Bella’s body.

[Measuring level.]

[Cannot be measured.]

[Cannot be measured.]

Bella had once heard a tale about Hyunsoo.

A single sword that awakened the mana of those who were mana-incompatible.

She realized that this Twin Dragon Sword held power similar to that.

The Soldier Ant that had been flying in, aiming for Bella’s abdomen.

When it met Bella’s eyes as she turned her head, it twisted its body away.

SKREEE—!

It was running away.

First Calamity Helenya panicked.

‘W-what is this?’

From the woman who had been dying just moments ago, unbelievable power was being born.

Helenya couldn’t understand it.

Whether it was the sword’s power, or the power of the woman called Bella.

And then she realized.

‘It’s both.’

That unknown, tremendous sword was awakening the power that had been sleeping inside her.

Barad had seen far.

In five years, Bella would become the Knight Commander, and in ten years she would surpass him.

Helenya grew desperate.

She slammed the ground with the staff she held.

Space opened around her, and enormous insects revealed themselves.

[Giant Mantis Lv.365]

[Giant Wasp Lv.364]

[Giant Butterfly Lv.364]

Her face turned pale after she summoned over seventy of them at once.

It meant even for her, summoning this much was a strain.

Over seventy powerful insects flew toward Bella.

And they burrowed in with them.

[Measurement complete.]

[A new legend awakens.]

[Sword King Bella Lv.458]

Bella looked at the swarm of over seventy insects charging straight at her.

And through the Twin Dragon Sword, she felt something.

The mineral used to forge the Twin Dragon Sword.

It was the power of Story Stone.

[The story that saved the nation reacts to you.]

A story that saved the nation.

That story was asking.

The one sleeping within the story. A voice that seemed audible only to Bella.

Why did you say that?

‘Fight, even if you die.’

Bella’s answer was simple.

Because she knew the First Sun and the Second Sun would grieve.

She gripped the Twin Dragon Sword even tighter.

I am a selfish person.

That was true.

She didn’t know the people the Sword King cherished, and she didn’t know the Radiance Hyunsoo embraced.

She simply didn’t want the two people she loved to hurt.

Then.

[You become the protagonist of the story.]

She becomes the protagonist of the story.

What does that mean?

[You are recorded in history.]

Bella moved.

She moved toward the swarm of over seventy insects rushing in.

She brought her blade down on the mantis in the very front, the one extending knife-sharp hands toward her.

KRA-KRA-KRAK—!

Two times her usual strength—no, three times.

Power that far surpassed him split the mantis in two and ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) swept through the insects behind it as well.

It was her power, and the Twin Dragon Sword’s power.

The Twin Dragon Sword was a saber.

A saber was an artifact that held power beyond a normal sword.

Its drawback was that it was viciously heavy and difficult to swing.

But this sword was different.

The crest on the blade that read Twin Dragon Sword glowed red.

SHRAAAK—

KWA-RRUMBLE, KWA-KWA-KWA, KWAHK—!

Three seconds.

In an instant like time just passing by, viewers doubted their own eyes.

With her great saber, the byproducts of over seventy insects thudded, pattering to the ground.

Thud, thud—among the falling insects—

TA, TATATA, TAT—!

Bella landed and sprinted.

Over a hundred Giant Ants moved toward her.

Once again, it manifested.

A bombardment of the sword.

The ultimate force that tore ten Giant Ants into shredded pieces.

KUUUHHH—

From the Twin Dragon Sword, a strength raged that couldn’t even be compared to before.

In an instant, the image of a small nation and a great general was projected onto her, captivating the viewers, and the recorded history could be heard.

[She is a selfish knight. She fights not for the peace of all people and the nation, but only for the suns she holds within herself.]

[To protect the two suns, she will cut down anything in this world!]

The two suns she held.

The king named Barad, who first reached out a hand to the abandoned girl, Bella.

And the day she was dying.

The knight who cared only for the Second Sun, Hyunsoo, who saved her.

Yes, Bella was selfish.

Not for the nation, but for those two people, she swung her sword.

KRA-KRA-KRA-KRAK—

Hundreds of strands of sword aura minced the Giant Ants blocking her path.

She kicked off the ground, slipped through the gap, and fought the Giant Ants alone.

Bella clenched her teeth.

Because she knew that if she couldn’t kill them, this calamity would reach the First Sun.

A massive greatsword slammed down toward her as she crazily burrowed into the ant swarm.

KWAHAAANG—

Thrown backward, she steadied herself and drew the Twin Dragon Sword back.

“This is our land.”

Words she didn’t even know were transmitted through the sword.

“I still have, one sword left.”

[I still have]

[A massive compression of power stretches toward the enemy.]

[It cuts the enemy 27 times.]

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWACK—!

The moment the drawn-back sword came down, Second Calamity Rogal’s body was shredded to pieces.

“K-khhaaaack, uuaaaack! Khaaaack!”

[Rogal’s HP falls below 40%.]

SHRAAAK—

Cutting through him, she didn’t stop—she sprinted on.

Where she ran, the First Calamity was there.

[First Calamity Helenya Lv.436]

“D-don’t come. Don’t come, don’t come, don’t cooome!”

The most evil calamity.

A villain who had fed multiple territories to ants.

A cruel existence that had never felt fear.

First Calamity, a name that made everyone tremble just hearing it, stumbled backward.

“Ant arm.”

KUUUHHH—

A colossal ant arm, summoned from the sky, slammed down on Bella.

And then Helenya panicked.

Because Bella lifted the Twin Dragon Sword and, with a single swing, the six-meter-tall ant arm was split cleanly in two.

KUUUUGGGG—

Helenya gathered every last bit of her strength.

Insect corpses piled into a mountain, trying to guard her front.

But before that—

STAB—

Bella, already within arm’s reach, cut her shoulder.

“KYAHAK!”

[Helenya’s HP falls below 85%.]

Damage so immense it defied common sense.

KUUUUGGGG

Even if she pulled her strength up again and blocked the front with insects, it was useless.

KWAJAAK—

Cutting them down in an instant, Bella kept advancing, pressuring her.

Once.

KWAJAAK—

Twice.

KUUUUNG

Three times.

Between the silver short hair, a blade-like gaze that contrasted with her beautiful eyes planted fear into Helenya.

Helenya saw it.

The tip of the Twin Dragon Sword surged up toward her throat.

Then, Rogal—somehow recovered—appeared.

Bella drew her sword back and struck up at Rogal as he surged from above.

That sight was captured on the broadcasted screen.

Rogal was being overwhelmed by Bella wielding the massive Twin Dragon Sword.

STAB, STAB-STAB-STAB, STAB-STAB-STAB—!

What Rogal found even harder to believe was that she wasn’t even exchanging blows.

A sword with a rippling blade was the cruelest sword.

Not cutting, but tearing—pain you couldn’t endure.

But Bella was ignoring that pain.

Rogal, too, felt fear.

Bella’s Twin Dragon Sword was turning Rogal into a complete wreck.

The funny thing was, her HP had also dropped to 20%.

No matter that she had briefly reached legend—First Calamity and Second Calamity possessed tremendous power.

Yet Bella kept allowing attacks, and instead attacked Rogal harder.

At last, Rogal felt that he was approaching death.

CHILL—

“......!”

This next attack would kill him.

Rogal, the symbol of fear and dread as the Second Calamity.

He tried to cross his forearms over his face.

“H-hhiiiik!”

Screaming and falling into fear, he was no different from an ordinary human.

SHRAAAK—

The Twin Dragon Sword swept through Rogal’s neck.

[Story. The selfish knight is recorded in history.]

The record of history ended.

But Bella still couldn’t stop.

Just as she was about to turn her body, Bella felt something hot boiling up from the end of her chest.

“Guh-luk!”

Thick blood poured from her mouth.

[Wake up ends.]

Her body collapsed.

Kneeling, her eyes trembled. Helenya was smiling in front of her companion’s death.

“Thank you. I was going to kill Rogal from the start.”

This was the truth.

After this tragedy passed, Barad would pursue them.

To survive, Helenya had to become stronger.

She was known as a summoner.

But her true trait lay in something completely different.

Her arm changed into something like an ant’s.

That arm pierced into Rogal’s corpse that had just died.

Her arm wriggled as if tentacles were sucking something in.

And as it absorbed it, her appearance changed.

It looked like a winged, bipedal queen ant.

[First Calamity is strengthened.]

[First Calamity is strengthened.]

[First Calamity is......]

[First Calamity Helenya Lv.467]

[First Calamity Helenya reaches the eighth monster-grade.]

She approached legend-grade.

SKREEEEEEEE—!

[Queen’s Roar]

[It paralyzes reason.]

“Khhhaaaack!”

“U- uuaaaack!”

People began bleeding from their ears, eyes, and noses.

Seeing the completely transformed, grotesque Helenya, everyone trembled in fear.

“H-how do we kill that.......”

“Legend-grade?”

“Insane.......”

Amid the fear and dread of the people, Helenya approached her.

As Bella stared blankly, she felt power pouring out of the Twin Dragon Sword she had dropped.

“......?”

Helenya, who had been about to bring her hand down to strike Bella’s neck, made a puzzled expression.

Because Bella suddenly let out a small laugh.

It was a smile of faith.

And beyond the barrier.

Notifications were slamming into one man.

[It is the most perfect trinity.]

[10% additional attack power is imbued.]

[The title The One Who Made the Strongest Shot shines.]

[2x damage is applied.]

Helenya swung her arm to strike Bella’s neck.

‘What is this?’

It didn’t move, as if someone had seized her arm tightly.

‘Telekinesis?’

Then—

KWA-DRRRRRT—!

As if the barrier were being drilled through by a violently spinning drill, it tore open.

FWEEEEENG—!

And a single small arrow fired out struck her.

“KUUHEEEEEEEK!”

Helenya flew thirty meters.

As if pinned to a cross, Helenya’s eyes—embedded into a wall three stories high along with the arrow—turned toward the torn barrier.

A man was crossing over the barrier.

Wrapped in a brown coat, he had a huge, iron-hard frame like Barad’s.

Bella smiled, sending a gaze of faith.

Hyun’s Forge guild members’ eyes reached him.

When he spread his hand forward, the Twin Dragon Sword that had fallen beside Bella moved, finding its owner.

CHUK—

He lightly caught the Twin Dragon Sword.

With his appearance, the notification Hyun’s Forge had been waiting for rang out.

[Guild Master Hyunsoo has entered.]