Genius Blacksmith's Game

Chirp, chirp—

Birdsong tickled Hyunsoo’s ears.

He slowly opened his eyes against the glare.

A world completely different from the one he knew unfolded before him.

NPCs in armor that looked straight out of the Middle Ages walked along the streets.

He also noticed other players in shabby clothes who looked like they had just started the game.

Hyunsoo looked down at his hands.

Just like in the character creation screen, there wasn’t the slightest tremor.

Clench—

He opened and closed his fist several times.

Whenever he used his right hand, Hyunsoo had always unconsciously been careful.

Afraid he might hurt it more, make it worse.

But here, no matter how hard he gripped, the strength held.

With a small smile, Hyunsoo soon spotted a wooden-dummy training yard in the distance.

So that’s the place where, if you succeed, they give you a fifty-million-won capsule, huh?

Hyunsoo didn’t have the money to buy a capsule.

So if he was going to make money through this game, he absolutely had to clear the Break the Wooden Dummy challenge.

“Watch me. I’m getting that capsule.”

“Oh, is that the infamous wooden dummy that all 2.5 billion people failed to break?”

Other brand-new players, like Hyunsoo, were eyeing the wooden dummy with interest.

Pureum Co. has some solid marketing...

Hyunsoo was impressed.

In a way, it was a brilliant idea—to spark player interest the moment they started the game.

He followed the others over.

First, before crafting a weapon, I should check what the dummy is like.

Hyunsoo spotted the instructors standing ahead.

They were watching players pound away at the wooden dummies with bored expressions.

One instructor noticed Hyunsoo and came over.

“Pick any wooden practice sword from here and strike the wooden dummy fifty times.”

Ding!

[Quest: Strike the Wooden Dummy 50 Times]

Grade: Tutorial

Restriction: New players.

Reward: 10 silver.

Failure Penalty: Cannot proceed to the next step.

Description: Learn the absolute basics.

“Any one of them is fine?”

The instructor only nodded.

Hyunsoo looked at the long racks of wooden swords.

There had to be around five hundred of them.

It said a lot about how many players came and went every day.

He started to grab any old sword at random—then paused.

Hmm...?

A puzzled look crossed his face.

The sensation in his hands the instant he took hold of the wood—the feel of it.

Back in the day, Hyunsoo had made thousands of wooden practice swords with his father just to earn some pocket money.

Making a living hadn’t been easy.

Because of that, he knew very well what materials were used for bokken.

Wait a second...

He frowned slightly.

Why lay out all these wooden swords in the first place? he wondered.

All five hundred of them.

In a game, there’s no real need for something this cumbersome.

What made him think that way was the texture of the wood.

His eyes swept over the swords.

They were all the same color. The only differences were in their appearance.

Some were glossy, others looked rough with bits of bark raised from heavy use.

After touching one wooden sword, Hyunsoo reached for another beside it.

Different...

They looked the same on the surface, but many of the swords here were made from different kinds of wood.

About 90% were made from hornbeam.

The rest were jujube, oak, zelkova, and so on.

Hornbeam-made swords were hard.

The others weren’t bad either.

But if there was a best choice, shouldn’t he pick it?

Normally, you could tell by color...

It looked like they’d intentionally hidden the color differences.

Hyunsoo kept picking up and setting down the swords one by one, running his hands along them.

“Hey. Just grab any old thing and start swinging.”

“Isn’t it better if I pick a good one?”

The instructor scowled, but soon moved off to another player.

Hyunsoo continued feeling along the swords.

And then, finally—

This is it...!

A small smile tugged at his lips.

At a glance, it looked worn, with split grain here and there and the shine of hand grime.

No wonder people skip this one.

But the truth was different.

This one’s ebony.

Ebony.

Among multiple woods, ebony was the hardest and most efficient for making bokken.

In short, of all these swords, ebony was the best.

“I’ll use this.”

He made his selection.

Ding!

[Hidden Piece. One Who Can Discern the Genuine Article.]

[You gain Dexterity +3.]

Huh?

Hyunsoo tilted his head. A Hidden Piece.

A secret embedded in the game that grants a reward if you uncover it.

A special bonus triggered by either absurdly low odds or a player’s unusual actions.

For a moment, he didn’t understand why this qualified as a Hidden Piece.

Someone could pick it by luck, right?

Then it hit him.

I handled and compared dozens of them with my own hands.

The notice explicitly said “discern.”

So the condition probably wasn’t just selecting one—it likely required touching and feeling several swords before choosing.

Furthermore, identifying wood by feel alone was nearly impossible for the average person.

And then, something else surprising happened.

Whissss—

[The ebony wooden sword begins to shine.]

A sword that had looked like ordinary wood now gleamed with the deep black of true ebony.

“Hey, look at that player’s wooden sword.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a Hidden Piece! The ebony Hidden Piece people talk about on the forums. But even knowing about it, they say you can’t pull it off.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because normal folks can’t actually discern it.”

“Whoa... what a talent...”

People’s attention flicked to Hyunsoo.

But then the instructor approached, and the cluster of players scattered like they were fleeing.

“Congratulations. You found a good sword. Before you start striking the dummy, I’ll explain the stats.”

There were five basic stats.

Strength, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom.

“The special stats you’ll learn about as you go. As for the Status Window and Quest Window...”

You just muttered it under your breath.

“Status Window.”

(Hyunsoo)

Level: 1

Class: Unemployed

Strength: 5 Agility: 5 Endurance: Wisdom: 5 Intelligence: 5 Dexterity: 3

“What’s the Dexterity stat for?”

“Dexterity helps with the non-combat professions—crafting, gathering, cooking—making them easier and the results finer. It also has a very slight effect on things like attack power...”

“Oh...”

For Hyunsoo, it was exactly the stat he needed.

He then checked the ebony bokken.

(Ebony Wooden Sword)

Grade: Common

Durability: 500/500

Attack: 11

Special:

· Strength +1

Description: An ebony bokken with 4 higher attack than a normal wooden sword, and it grants +1 Strength.

Nice...

Hyunsoo was impressed.

Four more attack than a normal wooden sword, and a Strength boost.

A better start right from the beginning.

At last, Hyunsoo stood before the wooden dummy.

Break it in ten hits and I get fifty million won...!

He went all in and hammered away.

Thud!

Thwack.

Thud-thud-thud—

But after a total of ten strikes, his expression twisted.

How are you supposed to break this...?

[Wooden Dummy Durability 811/1,000]

[You failed to break the Wooden Dummy.]

[You can retry in 30 minutes.]

Hyunsoo was aghast. Ten full hits, and he hadn’t even shaved off half its durability.

And that was with an ebony sword.

No wonder all 2.5 billion failed...

Even so, it was worth attempting for Hyunsoo.

First, he finished the remaining forty strikes.

[Quest: Strike the Wooden Dummy 50 Times — Complete.]

[You obtain 10 silver.]

He left the area.

After Jihoon went home last night, Hyunsoo had researched the Ares beginner zone.

He needed a few things to craft a sword.

Materials and a # Nоvеlight # forge.

Without those two, even the best blacksmith couldn’t craft.

Fortunately, while you couldn’t choose a class in the beginner zone, there was a forge.

There was also a quest available there: collect 50 rabbit hides.

But he’d heard people rarely did it.

The reason: the forge’s reward was notoriously stingy.

Of course, he wasn’t doing it for the rabbit-hide quest.

To use the forge, you needed the blacksmith’s permission.

So he headed that way.

****

Clang, clang, claaang—!

Ren, the beginner zone’s blacksmith, was hammering a piece of red-hot iron with all his might.

He stopped and his face hardened.

“Damn it, another failure...”

His relationship with the beginner zone instructors had been rocky lately.

They often visited the forge to get their weapons maintained and complained about the price.

The complaints kept piling up until it turned into a full-blown argument.

“Forge fees are set by the blacksmith’s skill. How does it make sense for a novice like you to charge this much?”

That jabbed at Ren’s pride.

“I can make a pretty good sword. I’m just in a slump right now!”

“Does a slump last a lifetime? Tell you what—if you make me a sword better than the one I’m using, I’ll acknowledge you. I’ll even apologize for what I said.”

“Apologize? If I make that sword, I’m raising your maintenance fee by thirty percent!”

“...Do as you like.”

Ren’s pride took a deep scratch.

But even after dozens of attempts, he hadn’t produced a sword superior to the instructor’s.

He’d come close a few times, but as the man had said, it was a tall order for a mere “novice blacksmith.”

He shoved the piece he’d been hammering aside and pulled out another heated billet.

“Why isn’t it working?”

The problem was tensile strength. With better strength, a sword wouldn’t break easily, and he could make the kind of high-attack blades people loved.

But no matter how he hammered the hot iron, that kind of sword never came out.

Claaang—!

Claaang—!

Clang—!

There was only one forge in this zone.

Of course Ren had a dream too.

To reach a higher level than he was now—to surpass anything he’d ever made.

No—he didn’t even have a “masterpiece” to speak of.

He’d never made a single rare artifact in his life.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

Claaang—!

Gnashing his teeth at his own meager skill, he kept hammering.

The only forge in the beginner zone.

Like any human, he wanted to rub it in the instructors’ faces.

“Please, just this once...!”

Claaang—!

But the results were still poor, and he kept hammering away.

At last, just as his jaws clenched and the strength started draining from his arms—

“You’re not supposed to do it like that...”

A strange voice drifted over.

Ren turned his head and saw a man standing there.

Ren was in no mood.

Not supposed to do it like that?

One look said this was an outsider.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

The outsider bowed politely at a ninety-degree angle.

Whether he was polite or not, Ren was dumbfounded.

Some outsider thinks he can lecture me?

Plenty of outsiders had passed by the forge.

They always watched him work and marveled.

“Wow, that’s a blacksmith...!”

“Man, that’s cool!”

Why did they say that?

Because they didn’t know anything about blacksmithing.

So who was this guy to talk like that?

Ren strode over, irritation bubbling up.

“Then how are you supposed to do it? Why don’t you try.”

Scowling, he thrust his hammer into the man’s hands.

****

Inside the forge, Hyunsoo accepted the hammer Ren held out—and realized he’d made a mistake.

He should’ve waited to speak until after the man was finished...

But hearing the blacksmith mutter to himself, he’d recognized the desire to make something better.

Why had he butted in? Because the blacksmith needed it to craft a better sword.

This sword was done wrong from the very start.

With a small sigh, Hyunsoo took the hammer.

If something’s wrong, you fix it.

He walked deeper into the forge.

For the first time in three years, a hammer in his grip set his blood ablaze.