Genius Blacksmith's Game

The Ares Church has a mission to protect the world from evil.

Aria had recently received news that the members of the Calamity Church were moving in secret, and she could feel their energy growing more ferocious.

The Calamity Church worships an evil god and serves the great archdemons—an existence that threatens humanity.

So she sought an audience with the pope.

“Something may happen soon.”

The 16th pope, Karsel, was certainly a strong man.

However, if you asked whether he was a truly distinct figure on this path that had been passed down sixteen generations, the answer was no.

The previous popes had simply been too singular.

So he was full of worry.

I have to protect what they have carried all the way to this time.

He carried a massive sense of duty.

“Without caring about means or methods, we must find out what they want. We will also reorganize the Ares Church, and we must find a way to further strengthen our forces.”

It was an order issued to the entire Ares Church.

And Karsel knew one of the ways to strengthen and reorganize the Ares Church as a whole.

“Saintess Aria, request the forging of another holy relic from Master Blacksmith Hyun once again!”

The Sain Sword.

With that one sword alone, the Ares Church had grown stronger.

But now, it was time for a new holy relic that surpassed even that.

Aria headed for Atlas.

*****

(Bird-Brained)

Passive Skill

Grade: Legendary

Level: 2

Effects:

·Your memory is very bad.

·You tend not to remember places you have been, places you know, or places where someone is.

·Even a bird brain sometimes remembers something.

·If you remember it, you ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ will not forget it until you arrive.

Description: You are bird-brained.

(Deliver-You-There)

Passive Skill

Grade: Legendary

Level: 5

Effects:

·Activates at a 2.1% chance when your master is in danger, or when you are in danger.

·Sends the other party to any place you have been.

·Sometimes it may send them to where allies are, making things awkward.

·Maybe in front of the Ares God(?)

·Maybe hell(?)

·Maybe an eternal prison(?)

·May fail if the target’s level is far higher than yours.

(Can Go Anywhere)

Active Skill

Grade: Legendary

Level: 5

Effects:

·Like a bird that has lived for centuries, you truly know many places and much information, and you could even be said to have gone to more places than a god.

·However, you may refuse to guide you to places that are too absurd.

(Fire Bird)

Active Skill

Grade: Legendary

Level: 9

Effects:

·Moves faster than any other bird.

·Sometimes moves thousands of kilometers in a few seconds.

·With the Myriad Mile Bird’s help, you can instantly move to a place you have been before.

·Using the power of the Fire Bird, instantly summons your vassals, those you know, and sometimes other people as well.

·Even in places with summon restrictions, it can sometimes ignore them.

·Can summon without being limited by number.

·However, be careful—returning may be impossible through the Fire Bird’s power.

·Depending on the number, the Fire Bird may collapse sick in bed.

[Kkoko cannot currently eat fire insects and is in an unstable state.]

[Passive Skill: The memory aspect of Bird-Brained is worse.]

[Passive Skill: The activation chance of Deliver-You-There drops sharply.]

[Active Skill: The power of Can Go Anywhere may sometimes guide you to strange places.]

[Active Skill: A headcount limit is added to Fire Bird.]

[The current unstable physical state is improving thanks to Lucky Lump.]

Hyunsoo, who had changed the Myriad Mile Bird’s name to “Kkoko,” nodded along.

‘At least it’s not Fire Chicken. It’s a very cool name.’

Hyunsoo activated rationalization.

In his view, wouldn’t the general prefer to get back a healthier Myriad Mile Bird rather than an unstable one?

Even if it might be fifty years later.

Anyway.

‘Kkoko. It’s a really good name. Easy to say, too.’

By changing it to Kkoko, he was showing meticulousness—hiding the existence of a “Myriad Mile Bird.”

Confirmed: Kkoko was a truly insane bird.

A bird that’s lived for centuries and moves in an instant. A bird that might even guide me to places I want to go but can’t reach.

Among those, the power called Fire Bird stood out.

In Ares, unfortunately, it was hard to find skills like “vassal summoning.”

‘Well, it’s not like any user has become a king yet....’

Even the power to summon allies or summon guild members had astronomical value right now.

So what about the power called Fire Bird?

‘Mass teleport... this is insane.’

Yeah—if you break it down, Fire Bird could do individual summoning too, but you could view it as the concept of “mass teleport.”

Mass teleport was a power that moved dozens, or even thousands, in an instant.

But that was something that only a grand mage-tier existence could activate.

And even for grand mages, activation itself wasn’t easy.

‘You have to draw a magic circle and absorb the mana of multiple high-tier mages before you use it.’

Moving thousands was a massive burden even for mages.

But Fire Bird didn’t need magic circles, and it didn’t need to borrow the power of mages.

Kkoko just had to move them in one go.

And with a mage’s mass teleport, there were limits—places they’d “been before,” and distance limits.

‘But Kkoko’s been to an insane number of places, and there’s no distance limit.’

You could say it held truly absurd power.

Of course, even if it was weakened because it couldn’t eat fire insects, that was a problem time could solve.

And Kkoko could also be used like this.

“Kkoko, you know how to get back to where the general is, right?”

Kkoko was a being that had come from there.

Of course it had to know the way!

The King of Stories had told him.

Please—arrive at where he was first.

“SCREE!”

[Kkoko is confident.]

Hyunsoo brightened.

It meant he’d found a way to reach the New World first!

“So how do we go?”

But then—

“SCREE?”

Kkoko made a blank expression and tilted its head. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

[Kkoko does not remember.]

“......You really are bird-brained.”

At that, KyooKyoo smacked Hyunsoo’s leg with its wing.

“KYOO!”

THUNK—

[KyooKyoo scolds you.]

[KyooKyoo protects the youngest.]

‘No, you were working it like a mule earlier?’

Thinking about it, that was how it went.

Older brothers who go, “Go boil ramen, you little punk,” still can’t stand seeing their younger sibling getting hit.

Hyunsoo shook his head, wondering if the thing was really bird-brained.

‘Pureum Co., Ltd. really is a god-tier company....’

When they created a being like Kkoko, they must’ve accounted for what would happen when a user obtained it.

If Kkoko’s skill list activated every day whenever you wanted, ordinary Legendary classes wouldn’t even be able to hand over a business card.

Just selling its intel could feed three generations.

‘So Pureum Co., Ltd. gave it the Bird-Brained setting to slap on a penalty.’

Then—

“SCREE!”

[Kkoko clutches its head.]

“Oh!?”

Seeing Kkoko wrap its head with both wings and think, Hyunsoo saw possibility.

But the thing tilted its head again.

“SCREE?”

[Kkoko does not remember.]

Was it not?

Fine. Not bird-brained—KyooKyoo gets angry—so he’d call it a kid with a bird head.

‘Still, according to what the passive skill “Bird-Brained” says, once it remembers, it won’t forget until it at least arrives.’

If it remembered, he could get there, at least.

Hyunsoo asked one of the things he’d always been curious about.

“You know where divine ore is?”

“SCREE!”

[Kkoko does not remember.]

Not remembering was strictly different from “does not know.”

It meant it truly knew—meaning it had been to a place where such a thing existed.

‘The problem is... there’s no telling when it’ll remember.’

Maybe when he became a grandfather? Or maybe it would never remember.

Still, that meant endless possibilities.

Hyunsoo used the “just let one hit” technique.

“You know where the dwarves are?”

[Kkoko does not remember.]

“Where the real World Tree is...”

[Kkoko does not remember.]

“Where orichalcum is...”

“Where the Overlord is...”

“Where a Myth-grade artifact is...”

“Where a real dragon is...”

[Kkoko does not remember.]

“Huff... huff....”

Hyunsoo was out of breath.

He thought he’d asked around thirty things.

And he knew what more than half of them were.

Absurd places....

“Absurd places” would vary depending on a user’s level, and it would also be influenced by how much of the world setting had been unlocked.

Even if it knew or even remembered those absurd places, it could still “not remember,” and that was also written in the passive skill “Can Go Anywhere.”

Hyunsoo spent about thirty minutes asking dozens of places that might work and places that might not.

But his “just let one hit” technique wasn’t doing much.

Then—

“Saintess Aria has arrived.”

“Aria?”

At her sudden visit, Hyunsoo made a puzzled face.

“You’re coming too?”

The new pet, Kkoko, came along—maybe it liked the kidnapper(?) who had taken it.

*****

Aria met Hyunsoo at the forge.

“The Calamity Church’s movements are ominous. I want to request the forging of another astounding holy relic, like the Sain Sword from before.”

Hyunsoo was put in an awkward spot by Aria’s request.

“Rather than crafting a new holy relic, it would be better to make the real Sain Sword.”

“The real Sain Sword?”

Aria heard something unbelievable.

That the current Sain Sword was a fake.

No way....

No matter how you looked at it, she could be proud that even the current Sain Sword was the greatest holy relic in history.

“I can’t believe it. Why are you saying the holy relic Sain Sword is fake?”

Hyunsoo explained calmly.

“You saw it too, Saintess Aria. I crafted the Sain Sword in barely ten seconds.”

“.......”

Aria remembered it vividly.

When she’d been kidnapped by Jack, Hyunsoo had indeed created the Sain Sword through Emergency Crafting.

That was why Aria had been awed.

A blacksmith who made a Legendary-grade artifact in only ten seconds—of course she would think he was incredible.

But Hyunsoo’s words hit hard.

Making it from what was in your head in ten seconds.

Could you really look back?

Mistakes during the process.

Or the agony of seeking an even better process.

The proper ratio of force in the forging hand.

The speed and appropriateness of quenching.

It meant he’d ignored all of that.

And Aria realized she could feel something subtle from Hyunsoo.

“You’re growing.”

“.......”

Hyunsoo didn’t answer.

He couldn’t say yes with his own mouth...

A blacksmith who was already outstanding realizes his mistakes and advances in a new direction....

Aria couldn’t even imagine how far that potential could go.

And she couldn’t help but look forward to it.

“Then you can craft the real Sain Sword for us.”

Aria couldn’t help but anticipate it.

Hyunsoo crafting the Sain Sword he’d made in ten seconds, this time with care.

And the holy relic that will come from that.

But Hyunsoo shook his head.

“It’s impossible right now.”

“Why? We, the Ares Church, will cover all the materials.”

The Ares Church had tremendous financial power.

So it could procure most materials.

“First, according to the crafting method, it needs materials related to tigers.”

“That’s not a problem.”

But the next part was the problem.

“The ‘in’ of the Sain Sword is the tiger in. The Sain Sword can only exert its power if it’s crafted in the Tiger Year and the Tiger Month.”

“......?”

Aria was struck dumb.

“If it’s the Tiger Year and the Tiger Month, that’s the year after next, isn’t it?”

Her lips trembled.

Even the Ares Church couldn’t do anything about time itself.

“Next year is too late....”

Right now, the Calamity Church’s movements were being detected.

And because she didn’t know what threat their movements would become, she had to fight with the best preparation possible.

Seeing her bite her lip, Hyunsoo felt bitter.

But I’m not going to make fakes anymore.

He would rather challenge something original of his own, like Ten Thousand People.

The problem was whether an original holy relic could produce a result satisfying enough, like Ten Thousand People or the Sain Sword.

Right then.

FWOOOOSH—!

“......?”

“......!?”

From Kkoko’s body—who had been listening from the side, watching the room—the scorching blaze began to flare up.

A scorching blaze that could fill the entire forge.

It was the spirit beast itself, the legendary Myriad Mile Bird.

[Can Go Anywhere]

[Kkoko recalls a location where it is the Tiger Year and the Tiger Month.]

[Kkoko remembers exactly!]

[Kkoko will never forget until it guides you there!]