Genius Blacksmith's Game

Hyunsoo, with a Short Arrow on the string, smiled faintly.

This was an opportunity not easily won.

They’re offering 20 Gold per kill to a Level-13 user......

Ordinary users would quote around 2 Silver.

That was how little the knight commander named Carl valued facing him.

When Carl walked off elsewhere, Centurion Render, who had been watching for a cue, approached.

“Why would you accept that? Don’t act recklessly. At your level, ghouls are hard to bring down......!”

Render cared for the volunteers.

After all, weren’t they people who had come from outside to help this failing territory!?

“Undead don’t die well unless it’s a weapon imbued with holy power. To kill them, you have to inflict absurd damage...... Better to go plead with the commander.......”

Just then, the bowstring in Hyunsoo’s hand was released.

Swaeeeee—

“......?”

Render had never heard an arrow’s sonic tear like that in his life.

The arrow punched clean through a ghoul scaling the wall.

Psshk—!

Then it skewered the ghoul behind it as well.

“......?”

[You have hunted a Ghoul.]

[You have leveled up.]

As expected.

Hyunsoo’s prediction was correct.

Even if they were strong, Hyunsoo had hunted an Orc Warrior at Level 50—one wearing very solid armor—and felled it in a single blow.

“Khhuoooorrr.”

“Krraaaarrr!”

The ghouls shrieked louder and clawed up the wall.

There are quite a few of them......? 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Hyunsoo looked around.

Aside from Render, everyone else was locked in struggle, fighting undead in other sectors.

Ah, so they want me and Render to handle this lane?

Hyunsoo grasped how this territorial war progressed.

Even though many were fighting together like this, once you accepted a quest or assignment, only one NPC fought by your side.

Just then he spotted another ghoul that had already come up.

“Kuheooorgh!”

Hyunsoo shot the chest of the one standing on the rampart.

Puuuuft—!

The ghoul, pierced by the Short Arrow, quite literally flew about 2 meters and crashed to the ground.

Can arrows with that kind of destructive power even exist......?

At that moment, another ghoul lunged at an off-guard Render. Render’s blood ran cold.

To lapse into idle thoughts on a battlefield—

He cursed his own foolishness. And he realized:

That outsider can’t help me......!

From nocking to shooting, it seemed to take the outsider a fair bit of time.

At that rate, his throat would be torn out faster than the arrow could be shot......

[Swift Blade]

[For 1 second, your attack speed becomes 1.7×.]

Hyunsoo swapped weapons in a flash.

In that instant, the passive skill triggered as if by miracle.

The ghoul’s head flew off at once.

Pshhk—

“O-one hit......?”

Render himself could not send a ghoul off in a single blow.

The answer lay in Hyunsoo’s Radiance.

Radiance’s high attack power.

And Hyunsoo’s stat totals, outrageously high for his level.

Hyunsoo even possessed Sword Mastery Beginner Lv.1.

Merely having this Sword Mastery greatly increased attack power.

As Hyunsoo quickly cut down the ghouls on the wall, he soon heard a notification.

[You have hunted many ghouls far above your level in a short time.]

[A new episode you have never seen before will soon begin.]

[If you complete the new episode excellently, you will receive a special reward from Knight Commander Carl.]

Uh......?

This notification.

Hyunsoo knew it all too well.

After this notification last time, an Orc Warrior had appeared.

One thing was certain.

After hearing this notification, he had obtained a special reward from Subjugation Captain Hans.

Perhaps the same would be true here.

The problem was this:

A “new episode” isn’t necessarily a good thing.

And indeed—

[More ghouls begin their advance.]

“Gwooooaaar!”

“Graaaarrrr!”

Far more ghouls than before began to press in.

[Descend beneath the rampart and defend the rampart.]

“......?”

Hyunsoo’s face twisted.

Last time and this time as well, the direction of the new episode strongly felt like it always presented danger.

[If you do not carry out the new episode, you cannot receive the special reward.]

And it pushed him in the back.

Hyunsoo sighed.

Hey, I’m a blacksmith......!

He was not a swordsman nor an archer. He was only a blacksmith.

Yet precisely because of that, an unknown confidence welled up.

It came from confidence in the artifacts he had created.

“What are you doing now?”

“You’ll need to follow quickly.”

Render wondered if this outsider had lost his mind. The man was wrapping a rope tightly around his body.

Then he leaped off the rampart.

“You said you’re a blacksmith!”

Watching that reckless and preposterous outsider, Render’s vision went dark.

Was yet another reinforcement going to meet death like this?

Render rushed to the wall and soon saw it.

The moment the rope went taut, the outsider named Hyunsoo rolled across the ground.

What can a blacksmith possibly do before dozens of ghouls......

But then Render’s eyes went round as saucers.

The outsider named Hyunsoo sprang to his feet.

“Fuuuuu.”

From his body, the aura of swordsmanship wavered up like heat-haze.

W-what is that?

Render was a centurion.

Centurions typically practiced the commonly issued sword or spear arts.

A blacksmith outsider, breathing calmly and staring at the onrushing ghouls!

But the sword stance he took—

Render’s pupils trembled as he watched him.

Noble...... and of high pedigree.

Render wondered what that swordsmanship truly was.

****

“Fuuuuu.”

Over more than twenty days—

Alongside Lord Vance of the Beginner Zone, Hyunsoo had learned much. He had not merely passed on a skill.

A lord from a much-renowned sword family, he had grown Hyunsoo day by day.

That’s not how you swing it!

More! More! More!

You can’t swing a sword just by pouring strength into it!

At times he raged; at times he looked at Hyunsoo with an expression of incomprehension.

One day, then two, then three.

While crafting the horn bow, he had never once neglected sword training. When it was nearing the end—

......Do you know why I’m angry?

Because you call it tough love?

......Truthfully, I was teasing you. You’re strange. Most people who are good at something fall into one of two categories. Either they’re simply gifted, or they work hard.

Vance looked at him with a wry smile.

And when someone has both, we call that this.

......?

Genius. You’re a genius who has a knack for the sword and also works. You’ll make remarkable progress as you go. That’s why I’m angry.

Hyunsoo had seen that inexplicable, bitter smile on Vance.

And he looked upon the ghouls surging in.

It’s my first time unfolding it properly.

He had used Rampage once before.

But it was his first time manifesting this power Vance had passed on. He let the sword hang lightly, just as he had been taught.

[The One Who Does Not Retreat]

[For 1 minute, Physical Attack +13%, Cutting Power +7%, and Critical Damage Chance +20%.]

It fit the moment exactly.

A new story demanded recklessness, so Hyunsoo would not retreat.

A faint heat-haze rose from Hyunsoo’s body.

Let’s do this.

Just as he’d been taught.

In that instant, Hyunsoo stamped the ground. He charged, looking at the ghouls drooling strings of filthy spit.

“H-hey!”

He ignored Centurion Render’s voice from behind.

[Critical Strike to the Vital Point]

[You discern the enemy’s vital points; on a successful vital strike, deal +45% damage.]

[15% chance to apply +60% damage.]

He manifested the skill on the [N O V E L I G H T] ghoul that rushed in to bite him. In that instant, five vital points lit up as blue dots.

The moment he struck a vital point cleanly—

Puuuk—!

[+60% damage is applied.]

Pwoooom—

With the sword’s destruction maximized, the ghoul quite literally shattered to pieces.

Pzzzeeee—

Then, whipping the blade at high speed, he began cutting down the ghouls one by one.

[You have hunted 8 Ghouls.]

[You have hunted 9 Ghouls.]

[You have leveled up.]

The level-ups continued without end.

Do you know that feeling?

Every few swings and steps forward, you feel yourself getting stronger, and stronger still.

It happens when you level up at a rapid pace.

Dding!

[You acquire the title Rapid Grower.]

(Rapid Grower)

Multi-Title

Grade: B

Special Ability:

·When you achieve rapid level-ups in a short time, EXP increases by 10% for 15 minutes.

[Title Rapid Grower is applied.]

Skrraaaak—

The ghouls’ filthy teeth, hands, and feet menaced Hyunsoo. But it was useless.

He wore the Radiant Lord’s Armor, whose defense was unreasonably high relative to its restriction.

Moreover, the ghouls that attacked instead took damage from the Damage Reflection and screamed.

They’re certainly persistent.

If you didn’t kill them in one go, no matter how much you slashed and slashed again, they kept coming.

Unless you took the head or chopped a precise blow to cleave down a big chunk of HP.

And before he knew it, more than a dozen ghouls had surrounded Hyunsoo.

[HP has fallen below 60%.]

[HP has fallen below 50%.]

[You are afflicted with the Status Ailment: Bleeding.]

[Your movement slows and HP steadily decreases.]

Surrounded by over a dozen ghouls, Hyunsoo looked in dire straits to anyone watching.

Even as his HP kept falling, Hyunsoo waited.

For more ghouls to crowd around him.

At last—

When fifteen ghouls, like a zombie movie, clung all over Hyunsoo and piled into a mound—

[Rampage]

[Indiscriminate attacks to all enemies recognized within a 10 m radius.]

[On activation, Attack Speed +70%, Physical Attack +30%.]

His blade began to mangle the ghouls like madness.

With +70% Attack Speed and +30% Physical Attack—and the sword in his hand was Radiance.

Pwahahahahahak—

The ghouls clinging to Hyunsoo were shredded mercilessly. Their arms and legs were dismantled.

No matter how tenacious their life force as undead, they could not withstand Rampage unleashed point-blank.

[You have leveled up.]

Joy spread across Hyunsoo’s face.

[Impromptu Quest: Hunt 10 Ghouls is complete.]

In truth, it was a notification he had already heard earlier.

[You are currently at 33 Ghouls hunted.]

A whopping 660 Gold. 660,000 won.

Seeing how many ghouls had vanished already, Hyunsoo wore a satisfied smile.

This would do.

Shall I head back now and check the Bell of Lamas?

Just as he was about to turn his body—

[A new story begins.]

“.......”

Hyunsoo’s face went rigid.

The start of the new story didn’t end here.

Come to think of it, when that line—a new story begins—had sounded back then, two Orc Warriors had appeared instead of the one that should have.

[A Giant Ghoul appears.]

“Krwoooaaaar!”

Amid the ranks of ghouls in the distance—

Crushing them underfoot, a single gigantic ghoul charged at Hyunsoo.

Height roughly 2.6 m.

And a Giant Ghoul that looked thick and massive like a golem.

Hyunsoo checked its level and was appalled.

[Giant Ghoul Lv.79]

Hyunsoo hesitated for a moment.

Should I run......?

But the notification kept him from stepping back.

[An Impromptu Quest: Hunt the Giant Ghoul is generated.]

[Impromptu Quest: Hunt the Giant Ghoul]

Grade: A

Restriction: One who is proceeding with the new story.

Reward: Payout equal to hunting 50 ghouls.

Failure Penalty: You can never again conduct a territorial war.

Description: You have excellently carried out Knight Commander Carl’s proposal. Hunt the Giant Ghoul for a greater reward.

Hyunsoo had no choice but to reconsider when he saw the reward list.

Payout equal to hunting 50 ghouls......?

In other words, the reward for hunting the Giant Ghoul was 1,000 Gold. Far too tempting a reward to run away from.