Genius Blacksmith's Game

[Lesser demon’s fighting spirit.]

[You are afflicted with the Severe Fear status ailment.]

[All stats decrease by 15%.]

[Agility decreases by 25%.]

[You take 1,613 damage per second.]

Level 615. The moment Hyunsoo faced the lesser demon and fell under the status-ailment technique, Hyunsoo felt a massive fear for the first time.

That thing’s fighting spirit was different from ordinary status-ailment techniques.

Severe Fear.

Normally, it was a higher-tier status ailment than ordinary “Fear,” and it felt real on the skin.

The instant Hyunsoo met it head-on, every hair on Hyunsoo’s body stood on end, and Hyunsoo’s legs trembled like an aspen.

But Hyunsoo focused on something else.

[The legion commander’s rage]

[The title First Legend shines.]

[The same legend cannot suppress another legend.]

Robs had appeared out of nowhere. Because it was the same legend-grade, Hyunsoo could resist that status-ailment technique.

Bahala said even hunting a lesser demon with 20% HP wouldn’t be easy.

If Bahala tried to protect Hyunsoo here, their routes would tangle and Bahala would be doomed.

And Hyunsoo’s accompanying Bahala had come from half-forced insistence.

I don’t want to be dead weight—no, rather.

The moment Hyunsoo discarded fear, fighting spirit boiled up.

[You are one of the Asgan Continent’s Top Ten Legends.]

[However, most will not acknowledge you as a legend.]

Hyunsoo wasn’t respected like Barad, or like Ben.

There were many reasons.

It was an era where the average legend’s level reached 480, yet Hyunsoo’s level still lingered in the 360s.

Legends had built up countless achievements, but the only achievement Hyunsoo had piled up was crafting a special artifact.

Yeah. A legend in name only.

That was Hyunsoo right now, and Hyunsoo had lived like that for two months.

Then, at the following notice, Hyunsoo clenched a fist hard.

[Legion Commander Robs is a being who has killed 2,761,614 humans, and is like a legend.]

[If you succeed in putting down Legion Commander Robs, people will praise you as one of the Top Ten Master Blacksmiths.]

When Hyunsoo became a legend, Hyunsoo had felt doubt.

Just as expected, becoming a legend had once unlocked an enormous amount of stats and the First Legend title.

But Hyunsoo had judged it insufficient.

Yet the notice that came now made Hyunsoo’s whole body tingle.

Ding!

[Legend Quest: The Legend Who Defeated a Legend]

Grade: SSS

Restriction: Master Blacksmith

Reward: Master Blacksmith’s Pride

Penalty on failure: Doubt of legend qualification.

Description: Gremory’s Legion Commander Robs is demonfolk that took the lead in massacring humans.

It has erased multiple territories, and it is also legend-grade like you.

Put down Legion Commander Robs, and solidify your standing as a Master Blacksmith.

Now the reason became clear—why Hyunsoo’s rise had felt insufficient even after becoming a legend.

Back then, Hyunsoo’s level had been in the 330s.

Because the achievement Hyunsoo had pulled off was legend-grade, the system had gone into its own internal adjustment.

Just like this quest.

[Master Blacksmith’s Pride is the status-ailment technique possessed by legends.]

Each time Hyunsoo proved Hyunsoo was a true legend, it would unlock anew.

And Hyunsoo knew.

If Hyunsoo was to be on par with the legends Hyunsoo knew, that meant Barad-class, Ben-class.

And there was a strict difference between named NPCs and named boss monsters.

A named NPC’s advantage lay in skills, technique, and experience.

A named boss monster’s advantage lay in an HP total no human could ever match, nonsensical attack power and defense, and traits.

People defined it this way.

Between a human and a monster at the same level, the one with the advantage was the monster.

[It will not be easy to win.]

Even if Barad or Ben came, it wouldn’t be an easy opponent.

But Hyunsoo smiled.

The names of the status-ailment techniques legends naturally possessed were closely tied to them.

The Sword King’s killing intent.

In truth, the fighting spirit flowing from Sword King Barad’s body was something ordinary humans couldn’t even approach.

And Spear Heaven’s rage—ironically—revealed its power the instant Ben, an eccentric old man who controlled even his own anger better than most, unleashed it.

Master Blacksmith’s Pride.

A name only someone who had overcome impossible situations could possess.

[All evil is cut down!]

[It deletes 80% of HP.]

The moment Babylon was swung, Hyunsoo’s mind spun rapidly.

Not enough.

Within a 30m radius.

And while trapped under a status ailment, there wasn’t much Hyunsoo could do.

“You insane human bastard?”

Hyunsoo wrapped Robs up and ran with all Hyunsoo’s strength.

I’ll create a possibility to win—somehow.

Legion Commander Robs was presumed to be a tamer.

It used an irrationally high stat total for its level.

KRRRRAK—!

The burning whip in Robs’s hand struck Hyunsoo nonstop.

[HP drops below 70%.]

In just four lashes, 30% of HP was wiped out.

In the midst of wondering if this even was a tamer—

FWOOM—!

A massive light-magma blasting up from underground swallowed Robs.

The reason Hyunsoo had dragged Robs into the splash damage’s range even while enduring Hyunsoo’s own damage—

Was because, on top of Bahala’s added damage against evil, 2,300% of Bahala’s base attack power as the strongest ranker was transcendent.

[Legion Commander Robs’s HP drops below 60%.]

“KRAAAH!!!”

A boss monster—and a commander among demonfolk, at that. Robs’s total HP was about three times higher than human tamers of the same level.

SSSSS—!

What Robs couldn’t believe, after allowing that hit, was the man in front of it.

What is this bastard?

Someday Bahala would return again.

Believing that, Robs had waited together with the lesser demon.

When the two entered, Robs had felt it.

Ah. This is going to be an easy human hunt.

Because every human other than Bahala had seemed utterly insignificant.

But after that—by displaying momentary ingenuity and dealing massive damage—

Robs’s surprise lasted only a moment.

Between the lingering fragments of light in the air, Robs sneered.

“You dare pull such a petty trick!”

It had only let its guard down.

The speed of its whip rose exponentially.

A whip strike filled with demonic energy—1 hit, 3 hits, 5 hits—smashed down on Hyunsoo in an instant.

KABABABABABABABABABAM—!

Five attacks per second.

[HP drops below 41%.]

Hyunsoo’s agility had fallen sharply due to the lesser demon’s fighting spirit.

Even now, Hyunsoo allowed the whip to strike all over Hyunsoo’s body, yet Hyunsoo couldn’t land even a single hit.

But pride meant a will that does not break.

From the start, Robs was a kind that surpassed Hyunsoo by a vast margin.

Inside that, Hyunsoo searched for a way to win.

Hyunsoo’s armor crumpled and tore, and Hyunsoo’s eyes flashed inside the leftover effects.

Staring at Legion Commander Robs through the light, Hyunsoo found one method.

“Pull.”

SHKAAAA—!

A powerful pull that Robs couldn’t resist made Robs falter.

Hyunsoo—who had been being brutally toyed with—was right in front of it.

Robs was startled by those blazing eyes, and then burst into wild laughter.

“KKEHEHEHEHE—!”

The knight who had protected the human territory Robs had annihilated had the same eyes.

Certain defeat—yet burning pride, claiming victory and vowing to protect the territory.

But what became of him?

His limbs were torn to shreds, and Robs threw his head at the lord’s feet and plunged everyone into despair.

[Neutralization]

Power bestowed by Lady Gremory.

Through neutralization, Robs erased the power held within Hyunsoo’s sword.

[You cannot activate Active Skills.]

Hyunsoo flinched, about to trigger The sword’s cry.

Hyunsoo’s plan—using The sword’s cry’s debuff, a two-second stun, to suppress its flesh—fell apart.

“KKEHEHEHEHE—! You still haven’t landed a single hit!?”

It was like Robs’s maniacal laughter itself.

All Hyunsoo had managed was driving Bahala’s splash damage into Robs.

KRRRRAK—!

Tremendous demonic energy loaded into the whip.

The demonfolk legend that had massacred humanity—Robs’s strong point, the “severing whip.”

A whip that could slice through ordinary rebar—when it struck Hyunsoo’s body several times as Hyunsoo hesitated—

[HP drops below 31%.]

[HP drops below 17%.]

Hyunsoo felt the wall.

But Hyunsoo gripped the Twin Dragon Sword with all Hyunsoo’s strength.

Even if it was only once, Hyunsoo would cut its neck and create another chance, somehow.

That was Master Blacksmith’s Pride.

GRIP—!

Hyunsoo drove strength into Hyunsoo’s back foot and yanked the Twin Dragon Sword with all Hyunsoo’s might.

“KKEHEHEHEHE—! Fine. I’ll give you one chance!”

It sounded like mercy, but it wasn’t.

Between the lashes, Hyunsoo had carved out one opening—one single chance where the strike would land no matter what.

But Robs wasn’t afraid at all.

Then rapture spread across Hyunsoo’s face.

“Do you know this?”

Robs was forced to falter.

That was the kind of arrogance, dignity, and charisma you’d expect from a legend.

And Hyunsoo’s saint-exclusive stat.

Overwhelm.

[You are afflicted with the Overwhelm status ailment.]

[You are stiffened for an instant.]

“This one hit will be different from the ‘one hit’ you knew.”

Robs denied it.

Humans were a race that loved posturing.

A race that claimed it would do what it could not do.

But it was wrong.

[Ultimate Art activates.]

A power defined as World Ares’s first instant-kill technique.

That aura spread over the Twin Dragon Sword.

Hyunsoo’s heart pumped hard.

An impossible existence.

A legend-grade monster.

Evil that had massacred humanity.

Robs was a being Hyunsoo couldn’t reach.

But Hyunsoo wanted to reach it, even for a moment.

And this Ultimate Art manifested, in a single strike, the greatest one-time damage Hyunsoo had ever dealt.

And that was both Ultimate Art’s weakness and its strength.

“Best damage a user has ever dealt” ultimately meant the limit that user had reached.

But Hyunsoo was different.

I achieved that one hit so high that even Bahala couldn’t reach it.

The title—The one who made the most powerful shot—had been boosted back then.

How had that even been possible?

Hyunsoo’s Twin Dragon Sword had a skill called Accumulation.

This Accumulation stored 15% of the damage taken over five minutes.

So this, too, was a double-edged sword.

But that time, the place had been special.

In the Continental War, Accumulation fed on and absorbed the power of China’s top rankers.

Back then, Hyunsoo had thought this.

This is unprecedented Accumulation.

And it really was.

Accumulation became more effective the more Hyunsoo faced strong opponents—and the more numerous the strong opponents were.

Hyunsoo defined it.

That chance would never come again.

But Hyunsoo also knew.

FWOOM—!

A single blade of irrational damage that only Hyunsoo could feel—

Could not cut down Robs in one stroke, with Robs still at 60% HP.

No matter how it’s the best damage, the most it can shave off a legend-grade is 30%.

But even that was enough.

Because Hyunsoo only had to drive this one hit in as a critical wound to the neck.

At last, strength loaded into both of Hyunsoo’s arms as Hyunsoo began to swing.

After landing this attack, Hyunsoo knew Hyunsoo would die horribly.

Then Hyunsoo realized one thing.

The Ultimate Art Hyunsoo had been thinking about until a moment ago was different from the Ultimate Art right now.

[It is activated according to a 0.1% probability.]

Ultimate Art had activations at 0.4% and 0.1%.

Hyunsoo knew 0.4% produced the most powerful damage.

But the 0.1% activation had not been described precisely.

Only that an Ultimate Art superior to ordinary Ultimate Art would unfold.

And this 0.1% Ultimate Art was one in a thousand.

And even if the probability had risen due to the Dagger of Desire, it was still one in seven hundred—

As Hyunsoo thrust the sword forward, Hyunsoo exulted, scorching hot.

[It manifests power twice as strong as the greatest damage you have dealt in history!]

The manifestation of a true instant-kill technique.

Robs’s eyes widened as it had been about to meet Hyunsoo with a casual expression.

“I, too, am a legend.”

Amid everyone’s denial, the swing came down.

SHIIING—!

With a crisp cutting sound, Robs made a hollow expression.

Its body was stiffened by the ailment, yet contrary to that expression, it felt no pain at all.

That’s it? Nothing to it. Hah.

That thought was wrong.

With a sword, the duller the blade that cuts you, the more it hurts and stings.

Conversely, when you’re cut by a blade sharper than any other, you don’t realize it—until you see the blood finally flowing.

Drip. Drip-drip—

Smoothly, cleanly severed, Robs’s head started to fall toward the ground.

Only then did it realize, and it recalled once more.

......With just one strike?

And as Hyunsoo watched the falling head, Hyunsoo exulted.

[It is the highest-ranked among all single instances of damage in history.]

[It will take any user a long time to reach it.]

The highest-ranked.

Meaning a realm even Bahala couldn’t reach.

And even if someone did reach it, it would take ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) a long time from here.

But that wasn’t why Hyunsoo was exulting. The position Hyunsoo would climb through this.

The exultation over the reward Hyunsoo would receive—and how much stronger Hyunsoo would become because of it.

But then, the notice ringing now—

It planted a new reward, a new thought, and one more certainty.

[The title ‘Give me, your loyalty’ shines brilliantly.]

The aura that gains a vassal, which had shone in an ordinary way.

And then another force was added on top of it.

[The Lord’s Grace activates.]

Those two notices proved it.

Lesser demon Luxiu—

Will become the guardian who can protect the northern gate.