Genius Blacksmith's Game

RUMMMMMBLE—!

Like Hyunsoo’s burning chest, the furnace roared.

HISSSSS—

The sound of oxygen igniting.

CRACKLE CRACKLE—

The sound of fire burning.

And also—

The scorching heat.

A searing temperature that filled the entire space above 50 degrees, something no one else would ever experience even once.

Just 23 years old.

I’m young.

But he faced the truth that the time he had lived inside this place alone was not young at all.

The moment he put the mineral Jae Stone in, black smoke billowed.

The instant he saw that billowing black smoke, he predicted it.

[Carbon content is decreasing.]

To realize it from nothing but the burning sound and the way it melted.

It made one feel that the blacksmith called Hyunsoo was reaching the level of a master artisan.

Using all the experience he had built up until now, he put in iron ore.

[Carbon content is increasing.]

[This is the most suitable carbon content.]

An artisan could be said to differ somewhat in meaning from a master blacksmith.

If a master blacksmith gave the feeling of being the highest authority in the field, an artisan meant someone who had devoted a very long time to that work.

Watching the flowing molten metal with the eyes of an artisan.

Refining the cooled mineral with the hands of a master blacksmith.

[There is almost no damage.]

Heating that cleanly refined material until it burned hot again, he made the thoughts in his head concrete.

Today is different.

From now on, he had said he would create crafting methods and accompany them with revision, supplementation, and effort.

And yet the reason he was doing it differently now—

His father’s words were at work.

Spending a month devising something does not always produce the finest creation. There are some people who, after all sorts of things have been built up inside them, create something from a momentary inspiration, and when they create and make that something, they come to understand it.

Something special will come out today.

Hyunsoo smiled faintly.

Today, something incredible would come out.

This arose from instinct.

But the instinct of one who had piled and piled these things up was what gave birth to masterpieces.

For only 20 seconds, Hyunsoo stopped.

Yet it made him sink so deeply it felt as if he had thought for more than 20 minutes.

[You are falling into a trance.]

Originally, trance was a title related to combat.

But apart from raising stats, it granted an irrational level of immersion.

Within that 20 seconds of irrational immersion—

Hundreds of processes in his head tangled together and drew out a conclusion.

Flamberge.

A sword with a wavy shape.

A flamberge was an extremely cruel weapon. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

That wavy shape gave not the sense of cutting an enemy, but tearing one apart.

But do not forget—

This will be the true form of the demonic sword as I understand it.

A design method found from among hundreds of processes.

And the puzzle of that design method fit together inside his head even though he had not drawn it.

It would imitate a flamberge, yet become a different sword.

The weakness of a flamberge was that it could not truly cut an enemy.

The weakness of an ordinary longsword was that it could not become a demon’s blade like a flamberge.

...What if a blood-soaked longsword became like a flamberge?

Then both advantages would be obtained.

CLAAANG!

It was an image as close to perfect as one could get.

CLAAAANG!

CLAAAAANG!

And in reality, it was impossible.

But Hyunsoo’s growth in skill had occurred not only in weapons, but also in contemplation of artifacts.

Artifacts were clearly different from weapons of reality, and they could fulfill the imaginings that blacksmiths had dreamed of.

A demonic sword that breathed fire!

A spear that froze everything!

A bow that pierced the sky!

Hyunsoo, with the imagination of a user who had played for more than 500 days, the eye of an artisan, and the hands of a master blacksmith, ran wild.

“UOOOOOOOOH!”

A cry bursting out on its own from being too immersed and too excited!

CLAAAANG!

And at times it could become a single longsword, and at times a single flamberge!

CLAAANG!

Just as the Twin Dragon Sword possessed the originality of being a greatsword as large as several paces.

CLAAAANG!

Just as the Four Tiger Sword was imbued with the thought of driving away all evil spirits by breathing in the energy of a tiger.

CLAAAAANG!

Just as Baekje’s Seven-Branched Sword had come into being by attaching multiple branches to one straight blade.

CLAAANG!

In this era, there existed a blacksmith of this era, and there was no one but him who could create it now.

To make the realistically impossible possible, divide the wavy blade into dozens of pieces and attach them.

The moment a CLACK sounded from the blood-soaked blade, what had looked ordinary raised dozens of ripples.

But creating dozens of blades and joining them together was by no means easy.

An ordinary blacksmith might have given up within the short time allowed.

But one more thing was added to Hyunsoo’s perfect materials.

[You exert extreme mental strength.]

[You obtain Will 1.]

That was Will.

The power of a legendary stat no other user possessed.

The more one had of Will, the less tired one became.

And becoming less tired meant being able to craft in peak condition, and Hyunsoo’s current amount of Will had grown into the hundreds.

This too was something Hyunsoo had built up.

The six perfect materials he had accumulated formed a perfect sixfold unity.

CLAAAANG!

CLAAAANG!

CLAAAANG!

He carefully made the dozens of small blades one by one, yet did not tire.

Rather, every time his strength began to fade—

[You exert extreme mental strength.]

The titles and the Will stat created by all he had built up supported him.

At last, every sound reaching his ears was cut off, and Hyunsoo had begun not even to recognize the flow of time.

But unlike him, there were those who could hear it.

*****

CLAAAANG!

CLAAAAANG!

CLAAAAANG!

The fierce, powerful sound of hammering rang out in steady rhythm from the screen.

The Russia Branch Head groaned.

—It has already been two days [N O V E L I G H T] and half a day.

Only two days inside the game, but in reality it had been more than ten hours.

The branch heads had thought they would be unable to go home for a while and would merely sit bored in front of the screen.

But that was not how it turned out.

They had all stopped eating the lunch boxes set before them and were watching Hyunsoo instead.

The sweat streaming down their bodies made several branch heads groan.

—How...?

Yet another smiled along with him at the sight of that grin, one that looked sincerely joyful in total contrast to that sweat.

—Magnificent.

And then there was Lee Sejin. Though Hyunsoo could not hear it, Lee Sejin saw a notification he had not seen in a long time.

[Something irrational is occurring.]

In the early days, it had been a notification often heard because of User Hyunsoo.

But as time passed and User Hyunsoo’s level rose, that notification had disappeared.

And yet now, as if announcing that his halted growth had begun again, that notification was being heard once more.

Representative Lee Sejin was astonished.

Only 22 years old by international age.

A young man who had been able to forge the great things of legend better than anyone.

But as if proving that this young man was still continuing to grow and advance, he was showing it now.

And this was what happened after meeting Takashi, one of the four artisans.

Did this mean he had reached the end of growth?

No.

This is only one of the roads he still has to walk, and only the first of them.

And Lee Sejin was beginning to feel it vaguely.

That is this era’s Twin Dragon Sword.

Just as in that age, some master blacksmith had made and gifted a sword to Admiral Yi Sun-sin with the wish that he protect the nation, and it had been etched into history.

And then, just as they once again realized they had not eaten and were about to reach for their now-cold lunch boxes—

CLAAAANG!

The sound spreading together with a bright, clear note made several people there rise from their seats.

[User Hyunsoo takes a step forward as the true God of Blacksmiths.]

—What...?

—Th-this can’t be...!

—But the second act has only just opened!

This was a notification that should not yet be heard by any user.

Lee Sejin was one of those who had risen from his seat.

Sejin’s chest burned hot.

Within the fist he had clenched, the many concerns raised in the past when Hyunsoo had tried to become the God of Blacksmiths flashed through his mind.

That young man?

A god? That’s absurd.

It’s true he is the only manual blacksmith, but for a 21-year-old to obtain one of the few god classes not long after starting the game...

What greater balance collapse could there be than this?

But the young man before them was proving it.

That if anyone truly had to become a god in this land called Ares, then it had to be him.

And Sejin, who had believed in him yet had doubted even himself, finally became certain.

I was right after all. User Hyunsoo, only you can do it.

The first mythology to be achieved someday.

Lee Sejin too felt Hyunsoo taking that first step.

Just as Hyunsoo knew through instinct that a great sword would come out, Lee Sejin too felt that a great sword would emerge.

And while watching Hyunsoo race toward that complete end within that instinct, Sejin could not hide his shock at the final material that followed.

With shaking eyes, he fixed the screen in his gaze.

[The blacksmith’s soul activates.]

The final material.

Sejin, who had been staring in a daze, looked at it as if entranced, then became curious.

That curiosity was this:

The Twin Dragon Sword and the Four Tiger Sword. Part of what makes these swords so excellent is that even their names are magnificent.

Then what would determine the name of that sword?

This was extremely important.

And one branch head voiced a fearful concern.

—What if it comes out with a name like Hyun’s Fifteenth Sword?

—....

—....

—....

—....

All of them prayed it would not be so, and focused on the screen.

*****

He concentrated on attaching dozens of small wavy blades to one solid sword body.

And they were not merely wavy.

In the end, this was the crafting of an artifact.

Without forgetting that, he came up with this idea.

Wielding dozens of blades is impressive, but at certain moments, having those dozens of blades burst out and fly toward enemies would be even better.

And by using the fact that this is Grout’s blood, capable of infinite regeneration, this blood will restore me endlessly.

One more thing. Another advantage in regenerative blood. It says it can become infinitely stronger, so I’m putting that in too.

But normally, this would have been close to impossible.

A sword that restored its user, grew stronger itself, and when needed could become a longsword or a flamberge—

And yet there were several things supporting it.

First was the existence called Grout.

This sword will become a sword that changes according to the power of the demon dwelling within it.

Second was regenerative blood.

Regenerative blood will help with endless recovery.

Third was Jae Stone.

If regenerative blood is dropped carelessly, it will devour me and revive Grout again. But the prison called expertly crafted Jae Stone will trap him.

Before he knew it, Hyunsoo had attached every blade, refined them, and reached the end of crafting.

Now he was about to drop the most important thing of all, regenerative blood.

[Regenerative blood may attempt to suck away the user’s blood.]

Pop—

He opened the stopper and was just about to let one drop of that red blood fall.

FWAAAAH—

A black current surged forth and tried to swallow Hyunsoo.

But the sword was one step faster.

Instead, the sword began gulping down that black current.

In that gap, Hyunsoo dropped the regenerative blood.

[Grout is sealed inside the sword.]

At last, the sword was completed.

He knew this was the moment its name had to be decided.

No empty, meaningless name came to mind.

Soaked through, he looked at the sword.

Hyunsoo knew better than anyone that this sword was proof of the path he had walked until now.

It was so hard.

Passing through many seasons had not been easy.

There were times when he had wanted to collapse under the burning sunlight.

Walking an unmatched path, there were also moments of terrible loneliness, solitude, and sorrow, even in seasons where everyone else mingled happily.

There were times in bitterly cold seasons when he had wanted to lay everything down.

But within all of those processes, there was something one could see blooming in a single season.

He slowly lifted the sword and looked at it.

This would bloom in full glory on a blade soaked in the blood of enemies, and prove itself.

“Full Bloom. The name of this sword is Full Bloom.”

It meant the blood cherry blossoms bloomed in full.

A name that would lead a new era.

And then—

[You emerge from your trance.]

The grade of Full Bloom was decided.