Genius Blacksmith's Game

The Kingdom of Goyard and the Kingdom of Praham had originally been nations on the verge of war.

But through the small link called Hyunsoo, the two kingdoms found peace.

A cold war that had lasted for centuries was ended by a single man—what a staggering thing that was.

And with the war brought to a close, Barad and Ben gained some breathing room.

Sometimes Barad would cross into Ben’s kingdom, and sometimes Ben would cross into Barad’s, and the two would sit and talk.

In the middle of that, a woman named Nell visited to have tea time.

Since she was the woman Hyunsoo had praised so highly, both kings were friendly toward her.

But the word “housewarming” piqued their interest.

What she called a housewarming was this: people who were close to the one who’d moved would visit the new ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ place, look around, eat good food, and then leave.

That was all the kings thought it was.

And then they were shocked.

“Housewarming gifts.”

The thing they were missing.

At the words “housewarming gifts,” the two of them listened closely, and Kabel spoke smoothly.

“A housewarming gift is usually something the person who moved needs.”

“A gift the person who moved needs?”

“Yes. Usually, it carries the guest’s feelings, and it changes depending on the guest’s current situation.”

“Depending on their current situation?”

“Yes. If someone isn’t well-off, they bring something meant to deliver their feelings as best they can. If someone has plenty of room, they sometimes bring something quite valuable. There isn’t a single correct answer for what you have to bring.”

“Do people tend to remember what was brought?”

All of a sudden, Kabel recalled a post he’d seen in a community.

A friend had come to a housewarming and brought dog treats.

Of course, they said it was a normal housewarming gift.

But that house didn’t actually keep a dog—so the friend’s prank was remembered for a long time.

Kabel let out a small laugh.

“Yes. At the very least, they’ll remember what was brought for a long time.”

Ben let out a sigh.

“Heh... I thought all I had to do was show up.”

“I’m the same.”

The two of them looked down at themselves.

They looked exactly like beggars.

They’d come like this on purpose.

In case they were being tailed—or in case Hyunsoo’s Atlas might be discovered.

So Kabel said,

“Then couldn’t you prepare housewarming gifts on the way?”

“Oho. So it can be prepared?”

The piece of paper Kabel had tucked against his chest—covered in dozens of listed dungeons—crumbled in an instant and turned old and tattered.

It was the power of his skill, “Item Disguise.”

“This is a map discovered in Atlas. It shows nearby dungeons. A housewarming gift is ‘a feeling.’ If you two obtain something with your own sweat, the one who invited you to the housewarming will cherish your feelings for a long, long time.”

Ben and Barad smiled faintly.

It really was a good idea.

The two of them went into a dungeon with Kabel.

To obtain gifts.

And Kabel couldn’t stop himself from being horrified.

What am I even looking at right now?

Clearing a single dungeon took less than five minutes.

How are they clearing a level-380 dungeon...?

Then he realized one fact.

These two were in the 480s.

And both of them were holders of Legendary artifacts Hyun had made.

Also, being level 480 didn’t automatically mean someone was strong.

They were ultra-famous NPCs—fewer than ten on the Korea server—and they were legends.

The reason those ultra-famous NPCs and ultra-famous monsters were strong was because they had traits, power, and skill that set them apart even at the same level.

And when the two came back out of the dungeon, they didn’t even have a speck of dust on them.

“Heh-heh. Swordsmen really are weak as hell, aren’t they?”

“...Spearman. Do you even know that while you were killing the boss monster, I was fighting hundreds of monsters?”

“They’re the kind of things I fought when I was ten.”

“...In the next dungeon, I’ll show you this strength properly.”

They were even fanning their competitive spirit.

“......”

In that moment, Kabel understood.

This is a bus. And not just any bus—this is a bus tearing down the road like it’s insane!

Kabel was hearing something that made no sense.

[There are too many Seeds of Life acquired.]

[They will be measured in aggregate.]

And the passenger on this bus wasn’t him.

Hyunsoo was in Atlas right now, yet Kabel was the one riding this absurd bus.

Thirty minutes.

In those thirty minutes, more than ten dungeons collapsed.

“Ah, that swordsman bastard is really slow!”

“What are you talking about? While you faced five, I faced seven.”

Before he knew it, the two prideful kings had stoked their rivalry even hotter, and the pace of the hunt kept accelerating.

And then—

“In your eyes, who’s stronger?”

“Heh-heh. Obviously me.”

“Me, right?”

“Heh-heh. It has to be me.”

“......”

The killing intent from the two kings as they stared at him struck Kabel head-on.

I—I can’t... breathe... kuhk...!

After taking their killing intent across his entire body, Kabel passed out.

“Hey, what’s with them? Wake up.”

“Heh-heh. What a weakling.”

That was right.

By their standards, Kabel was a weakling.

*****

If a big problem happens, I’ll take responsibility.

That was what China Branch Head Tao had said in the video conference when he argued that they should give Atlas to the MVP.

Of course, that MVP had to meet their high standards—and Tao quietly hoped.

That Territory Atlas, planned by the China branch, would end up in the hands of their own people.

Many ancient territories had been planned across countries all over the world.

But Tao took pride.

After five years, the best territory will be Atlas.

To keep balance, it would be slow at the start—but if it kept growing, he was certain it would become the greatest great territory.

The power held within Territory Atlas was truly limitless.

Sleeping ancient things awaken.

It fit perfectly.

But contrary to the prediction that it would take five years, the timeline was being shortened rapidly.

Worse—

[User Hyunsoo is approaching what the Saint left behind.]

The Saint.

A notification that appeared in front of Tao and Team Lead Wang.

This notification was different from Atlas’s internal things awakening.

He was the master of Atlas—the new lord.

He would obtain a portion of the power of that extraordinary king who had reached the Virtuous King.

This power is a tremendous help on the path of the Virtuous King, who must embrace many talents.

Tao had wanted a Chinese user to obtain it.

And even if they did, it should have been far in the future.

The reason this strange phenomenon was happening—

“Does this make any sense, Branch Head?”

GLUG-GLUG!

Team Lead Wang—eyes bloodshot—downed a venti-sized iced Americano in one go.

“How can it be that a single user’s housewarming—!”

He screamed.

“Legends are coming, and why didn’t the Korea team report this?”

China Branch Head Tao couldn’t endure it with a sober mind, either.

Why?

Because he would be taking responsibility for all of this.

GLUG-GLUG!

He, too, downed his coffee in one go, forcing himself awake.

“Who would bother reporting friendly NPCs?”

Tao’s words were reasonable.

It’s just that...

“They’re the unusual ones.”

Still, Tao held onto a small hope.

“It says he’s approaching Legendary stats. It doesn’t say he obtained it, does it?”

Right—“approaching” also meant it could fall through.

User Hyunsoo gaining the power the Saint left behind was something triggered by the absurd number and speed of seed acquisition.

But if the pace stayed like this, then he couldn’t possibly obt—

[Atlas’s seed acquisition accelerates further while in a state of explosive surge.]

[Acquisition cannot be measured.]

[Acquisition cannot be measured.]

[Acquisition is abnormal.]

“What is that, too—?!”

What happened next made Tao, Team Lead Wang, and the entire China Special User Management Team scream.

*****

Saint Aria was the holiest woman—and the greatest priest-class in the world, acknowledged by everyone.

No one could deny that.

Users even joked that if Saint Aria dropped a single heal, even the dead would wake up.

But her true worth wasn’t in healing.

She could turn an ordinary holy knight into the greatest holy knight in an instant.

It was because her buff and debuff abilities transcended common sense.

Someone had once said this:

If war broke out, it wouldn’t be the powerful legends who shined the most on the battlefield.

It would be the Saint.

She would overturn the battlefield itself.

That greatest and noblest Saint Aria drank tea with a woman named Nell.

Hyunsoo became the master of Atlas.

Ares Church legend.

On the day the Ares Church was in danger, the Saint would save them.

Aria, who believed in that, was awed.

And because she was the one who had bestowed the Saint’s Blessing upon Hyunsoo, she thought this:

It’s a destiny forged by God.

Then Aria asked,

Why are you telling me this? To build ties between the Papal Palace and Lord Hyunsoo?

Nell was blunt.

Long ago, the lord saved your life. But he isn’t like ordinary people.

Aria agreed.

Ordinary people would have tried to use it as leverage somehow. But to Lord Hyunsoo, it was something he had to do—and after that, it was over.

It was true.

After that, unlike other greedy outsiders, Hyunsoo ended it there, and Aria grew even more fond of him.

But even if my lord isn’t, I am a greedy outsider.

Aria was impressed.

Whether she became a villain or nothing more than a merchant—

My greed is in raising my lord to be a king. A plague is raging in Atlas, and an incurable illness is spreading. I’m telling you not to abandon Hyunsoo, the benefactor of the Saint, even if you’re greedy.

Nell was saying she would keep Hyunsoo as a good lord and shoulder everything herself.

Aria ended up laughing at the time.

He had good people.

Then she caught herself.

A good person is beside a good person.

Someone with mysterious power.

And from the Ares Church’s perspective, Hyunsoo had become Atlas’s new master—and might walk the Saint’s Path—so building ties with him was the right move.

Just as long ago, the Saint was the only one who could interact with the Ares Church.

Aria wasn’t moving because of Nell’s words.

The gratitude she felt toward Hyunsoo.

And the relationship she would have with Lord Hyunsoo going forward.

And beyond that, to fight evil that might come someday—Aria headed for Atlas.

There was only a single holy knight by her side.

But that holy knight was Pao, the strongest knight of the Ares Church, approaching legend.

And the two of them were pushing through the brush on their way to Atlas.

Then, at that moment—

Some old man and a man with an enormous, iron-like frame appeared.

“You headed to a housewarming too?”

Housewarming?

Aria tilted her head at a word she’d never heard before.

The old man clicked his tongue.

“Tsk. How can you go to a housewarming empty-handed?!”

The iron-framed man beside him chimed in.

“He’s right. How can you go empty-handed? We prepared and planned everything. Right?”

The old man and the iron-framed man flicked their gaze toward a territory resident who looked ordinary.

The territory resident—face drained white—nodded at the speed of light.

*****

An hour later.

[You are proceeding with the territory quest, Collect Seeds of Life.]

[At exactly 12 o’clock, you will learn the total acquisition for the day.]

Hyunsoo was moving through the gaps between the 4,000 blacksmiths, teaching them.

It wasn’t anything special.

He gave them the most basic fundamentals—the kind of framework that would help them later.

Then Hyunsoo froze at the notification he heard.

It was almost 12.

The Seed of Life quest announces, at exactly 12, how many everyone acquired in total for the day.

Yesterday’s result had been miserable.

121.

So Hyunsoo decided to let go of big expectations.

I already had over 500. And they said if it’s around that amount, it’s slow, but you can still awaken it, right?

He tried to comfort himself with that.

Hyunsoo chased away his anxiety and waited calmly for 12.

If today is around 300, that’d be nice...

With 4,000 blacksmiths joining in, it was only natural that it would be different from yesterday.

But then Hyunsoo’s eyes went wide.

What the...?

In front of him was a number that soared far beyond anything he’d expected.