Genius Blacksmith's Game

The killing intent of named NPCs is basically a status ailment—power that ordinary users can’t even dream of enduring.

On the Ares community, one user once said this:

When they encountered a legend, just the pressure those beings radiated made their knees go weak, and it was hard to even keep their head straight.

That’s how hard it is to withstand the oppressive presence legends give off.

And yet—

Those three legends just now.

Ben, Barad, and Aria unleashed real killing intent.

It all started with what Bon said.

“I should meet your lord and start by breaking one of his legs, huh?”

Saint Aria.

She hadn’t known Hyunsoo for long.

“Break my benefactor’s leg?”

But Hyunsoo was absolutely the one who had saved her.

“Hoho. You mean our Hyunsoo’s leg?”

To Ben, Hyunsoo was like a grandson, and sometimes like a friend.

“My descendant’s leg...?”

And to Barad, he was a dear companion—yet also a treasure who would one day lead a kingdom.

Their killing intent boiled over.

Even one of them was more than a normal human could endure.

“Guhhh....”

“Ku-heuk.”

“Uh, uhh....”

The 1,000 elite troops couldn’t withstand that aura.

Their throats felt choked shut, their knees buckled, and every last one of them collapsed.

And the most flustered of all was Bon.

“What the...?”

With the pressure pouring out of those three, he couldn’t get his thoughts to line up.

Bon’s level was in the 470s.

He, too, was a powerhouse beyond common sense.

But the killing intent that had dropped the elite troops started concentrating on Bon.

Then Barad asked the elite troops,

“Are you going to fight?”

Bon witnessed something unbelievable.

Just a moment ago, looking at the two pitiful-looking(?) people caught between them, he’d thought they were shrinking back with hunched shoulders, going pale.

But now—

SHAKE-SHAKE!

All 1,000 elite troops—faces gone ashen like those two—were shaking their heads with everything they had.

Bon felt humiliation he couldn’t swallow.

“What are you doing? Did you forget who you are!? If you won’t fight, I’ll cut you down myself!”

His disgrace wasn’t just fear.

It was that the elite soldiers who’d marched through battle alongside him had lost their spirit and were trembling.

Hearing Bon’s shout, they forced themselves through the terror and charged the huge, iron-framed man.

And Bon himself was already trembling like a leaf.

But Bon had once commanded battlefields as a commander.

He endured the pressure and clenched his spear with both hands.

A massive force surged and churned at his spearpoint.

It was the manifestation of an Aura Spear.

KRKKKK—!

“What kind of sorcery are you using!”

But he’d picked the wrong opponent.

Bon was someone who had used a spear for a long time.

Yet his strength lay not in spear technique, but in the aura he could amplify.

The one he leveled his spear at—

A genius said to be the kind who would never appear again, who had become Spear Heaven.

“You don’t swing a spear like that.”

The bony old man lightly brought his own spear down, striking the spearhead.

The Aura Spear lost its power in an instant and vanished.

“......!”

Normally, Bon was maybe one step below Ben.

And right now, Ben was under Saint Aria’s buff.

On top of that, in pure skill, Ben was several steps above Bon.

Ben recalled the word inspector.

I shouldn’t kill them.

So instead of striking with the spearhead, he brought the shaft down on Bon’s head.

“Ku-heuk!”

Bon’s vision swam.

After that, the bony old man started using the shaft to batter Bon all over his body.

WHAM, WHAM-WHAM-WHAM, WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM—!

“By the way,”

the old man said.

“You attacked first, and you’re the one who said you’d break the lord’s leg.”

“......!?”

Yeah. This all began with Bon’s mouth.

That day, Bon got beaten like a dog.

*****

The reason Saint Harun awakened wasn’t the same as Bon’s.

In Bon’s case, the abnormally high Seed of Life acquisition made him awaken to verify—by force—whether the new lord truly had the right to stand there.

But Saint Harun was different.

Because Hyunsoo had acquired abnormal seeds, Harun’s own powerful force—Overwhelm—had been inherited.

And that meant Harun had to confirm him.

If Overwhelm ended up in the hands of the Tyrant’s descendants, it would be a disaster.

The Tyrant was someone who had once stood against Harun, the Virtuous King—someone who had constantly coveted the great territory, Atlas.

There’s no time.

Unlike Bon, Saint Harun couldn’t remain here for long.

The Seeds of Life had been applied to everyone except Harun.

Harun had, in fact, succeeded in killing the dragon, and he had met his rest on a different day than the people of Atlas.

And when Harun discovered the new lord standing atop the lord’s castle, he couldn’t help but marvel.

The aura I left behind is flowing...?

Eight hundred years ago, the Saint had gone to the Ares Church.

Please grant this protection to one worthy of the Saint’s legacy.

It had been passed to the Saintess of that era, and it must have been handed down ever since.

Harun relaxed.

Then the reason he drew out my stat is because he’s walking the path of my descendants... and because of his own excellence?

And also—

“Don’t worry. This is Atlas you’ve protected for so long. I will awaken your Atlas, no matter what.”

Those were the words the lord had spoken to the territory residents who had guarded this place for 800 years.

Of course the territory residents were afraid.

The ones they’d been waiting to awaken were about to collide with the current master of Atlas.

Watching over the territory residents, Harun let out a small laugh.

He seems like a good lord.

Now I’m curious about the inspection result.

Unfortunately, Harun wouldn’t get to see the inspection result.

Because his body kept turning hazy, then clear, over and over.

After finishing his thoughts, Harun turned—

And froze.

“WOOF-WOOF!”

A small, adorable puppy blocking his path.

And on top of it—

a tiny Bone Dragon.

What is this...?

The moment he met the puppy—standing proudly while snot dribbled from its black nose—his body, which had been turning hazy, returned to normal.

I’m not disappearing...?

Even now, the only reason he could awaken inside the territory Atlas he’d built was because a fragment of his soul had remained here.

For Harun, who should soon have become dead again, this was hard to believe.

And then—

“WOOF!”

“......?”

When the puppy looked up at him and wagged its tail, Harun caught on.

On purpose...?

Yes. This wasn’t power that manifested because he happened to meet a mysterious puppy.

That puppy was deliberately helping him not to be erased.

And then—

Harun felt an overwhelming power he couldn’t resist.

Why is my hand...?

His hand moved on its own toward the pink belly.

The moment he rubbed it, Harun felt his mind clear.

“Haaaah....”

And the body that hadn’t been disappearing wasn’t complete.

But the instant he touched it, the disappearance stopped completely.

The puppy bit down on a leash and placed it into Harun’s hand.

“You want me to walk you? That’s the price?”

It was far too light a price.

And Harun realized a few things.

This puppy’s owner was the new lord.

If Harun took any action that harmed the lord, the disappearance would begin again.

And—

It’s the one that stopped my erasure. Maybe it even knows a way for me to awaken again.

Awaken again.

It was only a guess, but it might be possible.

Harun also felt the holy aura and intent coming from the puppy.

“......Is it to protect your master?”

“WOOF, WOOF!”

“KyooKyoo!”

Right. This was a deal between this being and himself.

One reason Harun had been shocked when he saw the new lord of Atlas was the pitifully shabby forces he commanded.

You protect the lord, and I look for a way to awaken again.

That was a very good deal.

And Harun sensed something else, too.

“Grrrr...!”

“If someone tries to take this territory, you’ll erase them on the spot? Don’t worry. I don’t have that kind of power now, and I have no intention of doing that.”

In truth, the Saint was heavily weakened now, and he had other things he absolutely had to do.

Then Harun suddenly snapped his head around.

He panicked.

He didn’t know where Inspector Bon was right now, or what Bon was doing.

All he could do was predict how many Seeds of Life the current lord was about to obtain.

Because he could infer it from which of Harun’s remaining powers was trying to pass on.

Harun stared into the forest, his expression turning grave.

Bon—what in the world is happening for the Ultimate Art to be reacting?

Ultimate Art.

The strongest passive Saint Harun had possessed.

But it didn’t seem to have reached the final stage yet.

Harun turned his head toward where the lord had been—

And was startled again.

Where did the lord go?

Because Hyunsoo was gone.

*****

Bon couldn’t understand it.

That old man who had beaten him like he was a dog.

Bon had genuinely thought he was going to be beaten to death.

Then, in the middle of it, the old man said something he couldn’t make sense of.

“This should be close enough.”

“Agreed, spear guy.”

And then they disappeared.

What?

Bon was dumbfounded.

Then he looked at his own wretched state, and at the elite troops.

Exactly half of them had scattered into ash.

And if Bon had been a user, he would have heard an alert like this:

[HP falls below 50%.]

Exactly half. That much damage.

And Bon had no choice but to admit it.

Who were they? Were they the new lord’s subordinates?

There was no way for him to know.

What was certain was this:

Whether they were subordinates or not, the fact they’d burned with that much fury at the words break the lord’s leg—that itself was proof of the new lord’s influence.

And Inspector Bon’s nature wasn’t just to judge the lord’s power.

He also had to deliver the inspection result.

So he gathered the remaining elite and headed for Atlas.

One elite soldier asked,

“Do you think the lord will be as strong as them?”

Bon shook his head.

“No. If we assume they’re his subordinates.”

Bon had a clear reason for thinking so.

“Not every lord is strong. And having subordinates that strong means the lord’s power is specialized in making others grow. But if the lord himself is strong on top of that, it would violate the order of things.”

That’s right. Order.

Power is supposed to be balanced.

There shouldn’t exist a strong being that can seize everything.

No—there must not be.

Bon rationalized it to himself. A being that holds everything must not exist.

Then—Bon’s eyes went wide.

“......!?”

RUMMMBLE—

He could feel an unknown telekinetic force pressing down on him and every last one of his soldiers.

All of us...?

As they reeled, a voice came.

“Gather.”

Bon blinked once.

And in that instant, the roughly 500 of them had been packed tightly in front of one man.

The man wore a brown coat, and he stood far taller than Bon.

And even what he wore beneath it—his boots and everything—was pitch-black.

Bon had never seen a being in his life armed with such a dense concentration of artifacts.

The man’s jet-black hair framed a face handsome enough to look like a nobleman.

He opened his mouth.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Hyunsoo, the new lord of Atlas.”

Bon felt every one of his expectations shatter.

The new lord had appeared out of nowhere.

His right foot braced against the ground, and he dragged back a sword labeled the Twin Dragon Sword, pulling with all his strength.

From that blade, a power beyond common sense writhed and surged.

Meanwhile—

Two legends °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° watched.

They understood that the inspector’s appearance was a mishap caused by the housewarming.

The problem was that the mishap had dropped an ordeal on Hyunsoo that he couldn’t possibly bear.

Our mistake.

We almost caused Hyunsoo harm.

Of course, preparing the housewarming gifts had come from their affection for Hyunsoo.

And they understood the essence of an inspection.

No matter how many times they beat those inspectors down or even wipe them out, the greatest recognition was the recognition Hyunsoo himself earned.

So, for as much as they’d caused, they made it into something Hyunsoo could handle.

Yes.

Those people were now at a level Hyunsoo could endure.

Which meant—

“Now it’s Hyunsoo’s time.”