Genius Blacksmith's Game

Protect the people of Hyun’s Forge.

This was Mio’s chance to take back the careless remark she had made in public.

So she simply did as he had said.

And because of that, Mio found this whole situation absurd and infuriating.

Of course she did.

Bow of Ruin.

To find information on it, and for the sake of the bow said to have turned an ordinary archer into the Divine Archer, she had spent roughly eighty percent of her fortune.

The price of obtaining this bow, which she now proudly considered the finest in the world, had been that great.

Even so, she did not regret obtaining it.

Only.

This Bow of Ruin, and the growth it brought me....

It just irritated her for a moment that it was being used to protect Hyun’s Forge.

And so Mio thought:

From the start, Hyun asked me to protect them. He never asked me to wipe everything out.

That really was the favor he had asked.

He had known from the beginning.

That he could use the three of them for a moment, but not fully command them inside this battlefield.

...And yet I’m supposed to let this perfect opportunity go?

[Hidden Quest: For the Ares Church]

Grade: S

Reward: If the Ares Church wins, you level up by 2

Restriction: None

Penalty on failure: Fall of the Ares Church

Description: Heroes of Ares, save the Ares Church from the Calamity Church and become heroes.

If the Ares Church wins, you level up by 2.

And on top of that, the contribution score I earn with the Ares Church will rise to an absurd degree.

There were countless things one could do once one’s contribution score with the Ares Church became high.

And because of this war, experience had risen by 1.5 times and artifact drop rates had increased by 1.5 times as well.

KRAK—

Force entered the hand gripping Mio’s bowstring.

...You knew this, didn’t you?

Back when she had first seen Hyun during the continental war, he had looked clumsy.

He had overcome the crisis by creating the first Transcendence with his father’s help.

And when she thought about the Great Atlas War, that too had really been their own carelessness.

But now, he had seen the whole board.

If he had simply said, “Wipe them all out,” he must have already realized they would refuse.

She had been lazily chanting Gremory’s praises while planting a total of four arrows into Leador’s glabella.

KRAK—

Now she realized just how complacent she had been.

Maybe the others won’t know, but you’ll be watching this right now.

Yes, to everyone else she would look like a heretic of the Calamity Church, but Hyun at least knew who she was.

She wanted to show him.

The Bow of Ruin she had forged in order to face him, and the limitless growth she had achieved.

This was the moment she began to fight with everything she had, just as though Hyun had designed the board himself.

Bow of Ruin.

Words began to appear engraved across the great crimson bow.

And with them, the true nature of the Transcendence-grade bow called Bow of Ruin was revealed.

[Bow of Ruin.]

An enormous power condensed into a single bow.

Heaven and earth shook, and a vast dark aura poured from the bow.

Bow of Ruin suited its name.

The power it now released.

“First Form, Annihilation.”

[Annihilation]

[Those within a 9-meter radius of where the arrow lands are struck directly by a massive force with +550% additional attack power.]

One arrow had definitely flown.

And yet what followed struck the entire world with shock.

Its destination was the place where the Calamity Church members gathered to seize Hyun’s Forge, and beyond that, Luxiu.

The arrow was clearly doing nothing more than slicing through empty air.

And yet every single one of those within a 9-meter radius of the space that arrow passed through—

KRAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAK—!

Were being hit head-on by some kind of invisible arrow and hurled backward, just as if they had been struck directly by Hyunsoo’s Aegisal arrows.

“KRAAAAGH!”

“U-uaaaargh!”

“Guh-huugh!”

There was clearly no arrow there, and yet their armor caved in, or THUNK— sounded as though an arrow had buried itself in them.

And the number of those blasted away by that massive force came to no less than five hundred.

And the name of this bow truly was Bow of Ruin.

The dictionary meaning of ruin.

To be destroyed and wiped away.

While they rolled across the ground, unable to regain their senses—

[Chain damage occurs!]

Chain damage.

That was different from splash damage.

Ordinary splash damage meant force spreading outward into the surroundings.

But this chain damage was a second instance of damage inflicted by a single attack, continuing after the primary strike.

The effect of Annihilation.

[It triggers explosive ruin with a force of +400% additional attack power!]

KRAAAAAAABOOM—!

Mio was already regarded as the player with the highest bow attack power in the world.

And in that state, the first strike had been 550% power, and the second came with 400% power.

It was ruin in the truest sense.

The four hundred high-ranking knights and high-ranking priests of the Calamity Church who had come to seize Hyun’s Forge had vanished without leaving a trace.

All that remained were ashes and bloodstains proving they had once existed.

Are you watching, Hyun? This is the power you expected from me.

She was wrong.

Hyunsoo had expected that she would fight seriously, but he had never expected that she had achieved growth on this level.

And now Mio, imagining Hyun watching her, shrugged her shoulders.

I proved it. Even without you, I can obtain a bow this magnificent. You got a good look at my Bow of Ruin, didn’t you!?

She smiled in mockery.

Meanwhile.

Hyunsoo, watching this, was certainly astonished.

But this man called Hyunsoo—

he was not simply someone who stood there admiring.

What came out of his mouth

was truly an unexpected sound.

“Oh, oh, oooh!!”

Experience was important.

And just as important was seeing an outstanding artifact through that experience, because that too led to growth.

That was why.

Hyunsoo spread out a sheet of paper and quickly began sketching the Divine Archer Mio’s Bow of Ruin.

This was something ordinary blacksmith players could never do just by seeing it.

But player Hyunsoo could.

One by one, he drew out the crafting methods that had made it, and the materials that could compose it.

That was right. Hyunsoo was taking Mio’s growth and using it in reverse, preparing a foothold for his own growth and making it into nourishment.

“I won’t miss a single fragment of the Bow of Ruin’s power.”

And on that day, the design for a Transcendence bow that would one day surpass Mio’s Bow of Ruin was completed.

If Mio ever learned this fact, she would clutch the back of her neck and collapse.

*****

While the whole world reeled in shock at the suddenly revealed power of the Bow of Ruin,

Mio, after sweeping away four hundred members of the Calamity Church, did not forget to say this even while holding the posture in which she had loosed the string.

“All hail Gremory.”

-...If I were Gremory, I think I’d kill that woman first the moment I revived.

-I agree.

Everyone there stared in disbelief at the contradiction between her words and actions.

What the hell do you mean all hail, you crazy bitch!?

At that moment, Leador had fortunately escaped the aftermath of that shock.

Such was the power of Demon’s Step, a skill that let him evade any one skill with one hundred percent certainty a single time.

That was dangerous....

How could someone sweep away four hundred people with a single arrow?

He suspected she was a heretic, but even so, she was a terrifying existence.

Leador regained his composure.

He did not forget his duty.

Assassinate Luxiu, eliminate Hyun’s Forge.

Before long, around twenty of the strongest assassins raised by the Calamity Church had gathered.

There was the unknown heretic, yes, but the mission to kill Luxiu still had to be completed.

And so, just as he was about to burst forward—

FIIIIIWNG—

Leador had only been caught off guard earlier, which was why he had been hit.

And this arrow too—he only had to tilt his head and avoid it once.

But then.

The moment an arrow buried itself in his glabella—

BOOOOOM—!

Leador was blown backward five meters and slammed into the ground.

And at that same moment, the character Break was being branded onto Mio’s Bow of Ruin.

[Thirty arrows possessing intangible force are loaded.]

This was the second mystery of the Bow of Ruin.

[Each arrow exerts a force of +500% additional attack power.]

It held an insane power.

And Leador, regaining his senses, hurriedly looked.

Even so, the assassins were already reaching Luxiu’s side...

“???”

Leador panicked.

Originally, assassins and archers had poor compatibility.

More precisely, archers were easy prey for assassins.

They could not hit assassins who moved faster than the time it took to aim a bow.

To begin with, an arrow was worthless if it could not hit.

Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for archers to hit assassins, who were usually more than one and a half times faster than ordinary melee classes.

Yes... under normal circumstances, it should have been impossible!

The assassins charging toward Hyun’s Forge.

Exactly those twenty were running in all different directions.

Some trampled the air, appearing and vanishing over and over.

Some appeared with a BOOOOM— from inside a log.

Others melted into the ground, trying to surface near Luxiu—

KRAAAASH—!

One who had sunk into the earth and surfaced right in front of Luxiu had his head burst apart by a single arrow and died on the spot.

Another appeared from a log with a BOOOOM—, striking a cool pose with his arms folded, only to catch an arrow in the chest and shatter to pieces.

Another who had been leisurely smiling while trampling the sky was hit directly, flung ten meters, and turned to ash.

One arrow, one death.

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM—!

Twenty assassins died.

To a single bow.

...How could a heretic like this have hidden her identity?

But Leador quickly forced himself calm.

The fortunate thing was that the mysterious power gathered in her bow seemed to have been exhausted.

Her absurd destructive force and accuracy appeared to come from the bow’s special power.

Leador decided that, first of all, that heretic bitch had to die.

Perhaps sensing it, her bowstring aimed at Leador again.

The first four arrows that had struck his glabella had only been the result of his carelessness.

And the intangible force marked with Break from a moment ago had vanished too, so she could not hit him now.

This arrow.

Like the first one she had fired, it was nothing more than a basic shot.

If he didn’t let his guard down, he could avoid something as trivial as a basic shot far too easi—

THUNK—!

He failed to avoid it.

Leador could not hide his confusion.

It was clearly the same basic shot, and yet its speed and destructive force were completely different from the first arrows.

“How can this arrow be almost twice as fast as the first one!?”

“Because earlier, I was drawing it lazily.”

Lazily?

Did she mean the same lazily he knew?

Come to think of it, the woman drawing the bowstring now—

unlike before, she had even put on a finger tab and was pulling the bowstring with all her strength.

Naturally, the destructive force of a tightly drawn bowstring and a loosely drawn one would be different.

PFFT-PFFT-PFFT-PFFT—!

This time it was rapid fire.

That rapid fire struck Leador’s glabella exactly once, twice, three times, five times, six times.

T-this is impossible....

Leador’s consciousness was dimming, but he felt relief.

“...Soon, the mages will bombard Hyun’s Forge. I don’t know why you betrayed the Church, but soon Hyun’s Forge will vanish without a trace—”

“Damn it, then are you saying the mages are all gathered together right now?”

Huh? Why was her reaction like that?

“Ah, damn, they really shouldn’t be gathered in one place. That means everyone’s eyes will be drawn there. How annoying.”

“???”

Leador suddenly thought about it.

Why would it be bad if the mages were gathered together?

Generally, because their HP was low, which meant they might end up getting wiped out—

“...!?”

Leador’s eyes flew wide open.

But—

THUNK—!

Mio’s final arrow buried itself in his glabella.

The fact Leador had realized was this:

I have to let them know there’s another heretic—

He died before he could finish the thought.

Meanwhile.

Legion Commander Rao.

He was one of the finest mages in the demon realm.

At this moment, he was leading five hundred priests in an attempt to unleash a massive bombardment and wipe Hyun’s Forge away.

Before that.

A heretic....

That meant one who worshiped the same Church while harboring a different intention.

Just in case, he swept an eye of suspicion over the five hundred priests.

Then.

“You there, aren’t you a heretic? Try saying, ‘That bastard Hyun.’”

“That dog-bastard Hyun!”

“Excellent.”

“...?”

He had only told him to say bastard, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) so why dog-bastard?

Rao looked into the two men’s eyes.

Their eyes were boiling with genuine fury toward Hyun.

After proving themselves to each other—

“For Lord Gremory.”

“Gremory, be eternal.”

Yes, those two, who raged against Hyun for sealing Mother and praised Mother, were true believers.

Rao felt proud. Relieved, he believed there were no such heretics among them.

But he did not know. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

That the two fierce beasts were staring at his turned back with shining eyes.