Genius Blacksmith's Game

If you asked Ares players all over the world,

or the countless experts, famous high rankers, and streamers besides them, what the greatest status-ailment skill was, they would all choose exactly one.

It was Gremory’s Demon Descension, the one seen in the Battle of Goyard’s Fall.

Blood had sprayed from eyes, ears, noses, and most of the Blood Knight Corps had collapsed.

That event, which had struck friend and foe alike, had been recorded as the greatest status-ailment skill in history, and no one could deny it.

And yet...

History changed, and it happened at the hands of a mere user.

A new history delivered shock.

“Cry out, White Tiger.”

The black tiger’s roar that arose through that effect—

[You have been afflicted with the status ailment Near-Death {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Fear.]

—first gave the enemies a fear that went beyond the back of their knees going weak and all the way to suffocating terror.

The back of your knees go weak.

Do you know that this expression came from people who saw tigers?

The reason people’s knees especially buckled when they saw only tigers was because within a tiger’s roar lay a real force that humans did not understand, and that ultra-high frequency made humans freeze in fear.

The first thing that happened was that the demonic beasts and demonkind soldiers grabbed at their throats.

[You have been afflicted with the status ailment Stunned!]

And the tiger called the West King had the power to make ordinary people die from nothing more than looking at him.

So in Cry out, White Tiger, where that greatest power had taken root—

“Guuugh...”

“Kuhhhh...!”

—they could not endure it and collapsed, stunned.

[You have been afflicted with the status ailment Instant Death!!]

Those already exhausted.

Or those whose resistance to status ailments was lower than average.

And a handful of others besides them.

To them, that instant of fear gripped the heart and caused cardiac arrest.

Did demonkind and monsters have cardiac arrest too?

Of course they did. They were living beings as well.

And at the end of it—

the great archdemon Gremory’s resistance to status ailments defied common sense.

She had been born that way. People had thought that to inflict a status ailment on her, it would take the Evil God or Ares itself.

RUMMMMMBLE—!

But before the White Tiger Sword—

[Even a god cannot resist!!]

How could a mere demon dare resist?

Coughing blood, her body locked stiff, Gremory had not been afraid of him.

He had been the weakest among the Lamps, and she had believed the only reason they had ever been able to hunt her was because of Destroy Evil.

But he had already used Destroy Evil, and she had believed something like that no longer mattered in the slightest.

And yet.

The aura rising from that bastard Hyunsoo, gripping the white-cloth-wrapped sword called the White Tiger Sword, told her that he had continued growing endlessly while she dreamed of resurrection.

The fear reflected in her eyes.

Was it Hyun?

No. To be honest, it was that sword she feared.

But the fact that shocked her even more was—

‘...’

—that Hyun had forged that sword.

Three hundred years.

In human history, a divine armament that had never existed had been forged at the fingertips of a lowly human.

But Gremory

knew status ailments very well.

Because she herself understood that kind of power.

[Cry out, White Tiger]

[Lasts for 10 seconds.]

Continuous damage every second.

On top of that, a thousand weak-hearted creatures died of cardiac arrest.

And that power called Cry out, White Tiger—

[The designated target is immobilized for 30 seconds.]

She had definitely been startled.

But as a demon, she was the kind who prepared for every variable.

All she had to do was make sure he could not reach her.

“If you do not rise, I will kill you with my own hands.”

At least the demon’s mouth still worked.

Normally, Cry out, White Tiger targeted all enemies who could hear it, inflicting 10 seconds of stun and a 25% debuff.

Even so, a status-ailment skill was a debuff skill, not a power of slaughter.

And besides.

“Outsiders, members of the Calamity Church, listen well. To the one who kills him, I shall gift the position of a new Legion Commander.”

“...!?”

“...!?”

There were many outsiders in that place who had joined the Calamity Church’s war effort.

Not long ago, many had joined because of Vera’s smooth-talking, and among them were many blinded by the quest rewards they would gain if they helped Gremory resurrect.

And there were not only the forces the Legion Commander had summoned here.

A great many of the Calamity Church’s own followers were still standing strong as well.

Whip—!

The greedy users and the members of the Calamity Church all fixed their eyes on one place.

Because there were more than enough people to protect Gremory, who could not move for 30 seconds as the designated target, Gremory was about to smile arrogantly as she briefly forgot her fear.

But then...

“I can break through in ten seconds.”

Ten seconds?

Everyone there was dumbfounded.

The Ares Church had not been able to hold up after his arrival, and right now he was the only one who could truly fight.

Even so, a mere user was going to break through this crowd alone and reach Gremory?

“You still look like a complete idiot.”

In the end, it was a curse that burst out of Gremory’s mouth.

But then—

KRAAAAAOOOAR—!

A single enormous White Tiger sprang out from one sword.

For an instant, Gremory thought it was the black tiger from before.

But that was only a mistake.

The thing that had leaped out of the sword—

was the real White Tiger.

The whole world was stunned.

Because—

“...Did you all see that? Gremory turned her eyes away.”

“What kind of nonsense is this...?”

“Just now... Gremory avoided the White Tiger’s gaze...”

The White Tiger was a divine beast.

And unlike the others, she knew.

Hydra symbolized evil.

Phoenix symbolized good.

The Black Tortoise symbolized protection.

And the White Tiger symbolized power.

That was right. Of all the divine beasts, the White Tiger was the strongest.

Gremory, having turned her head away, questioned it.

‘...How can a divine beast be sleeping inside a mere artifact!!’

It made no sense.

An artifact capable of containing a true divine beast?

No such thing existed in this world.

A demon’s common sense was breaking apart.

Within that common sense, the White Tiger—

the West King.

The North King.

The East King.

It contained the power that came when the three kings became one.

Three tigers met and became one true White Tiger.

“Tear them apart, White Tiger.”

KRAAAAAOOOAR—!

The power of the first mythology artifact in the history of this world,

the White Tiger Sword, revealed itself in full.

A White Tiger standing 20 feet tall came charging forward.

“T-this is an artifact skill?”

“I have never in my life seen an artifact skill like this!”

There was a rule in Ares.

No matter how incredible an artifact was, most of the skills contained within it remained inferior versions of ordinary skills possessed by users.

Because an object as lowly as an artifact could not possibly contain power greater than that of the people who manifested those skills.

But the lunatics of the Calamity Church, together with the demonic beasts and monsters, were fanatics.

People who could die only for Gremory.

They layered themselves in front of Gremory like shields.

They piled up, and piled up again, protecting their mother.

And would there not be users like that as well?

There were.

There was User Reag.

Reag.

The world’s #5 tanker had fallen in love with Gremory when she appeared in the Battle of Goyard.

Was he some foolish creature?

No.

Just as there had once been people who fell in love with animated characters,

there were now bound to be people who fell in love with beings that had taken actual form inside the virtual reality of Ares.

In her usual form, Gremory was so beautiful she looked like a goddess, to the point where she was also called the Demon of Enchantment.

On top of that, she already had many fan clubs throughout Ares.

That was why Reag possessed the famous guild called Shield of the Continent.

He had coaxed his guild members with honeyed words.

If they received Gremory’s love, their guild could be reborn as the true greatest tanker guild.

It was not a fantasy.

If Reag, the world’s #5-ranked user, were granted the position of Legion Commander, and he placed his guild members under him,

then by serving Mother Gremory, he really could make it happen.

And besides—

“Gremory, we do not fear divine power!!”

There was another variable.

Because they had not been recognized as enemies, around fifty members of the tanker legion remained perfectly intact, unaffected by Cry out, White Tiger.

They tightly blocked the way in front of the tens of thousands of monsters and protected Gremory.

The true power revealed only when fifty tankers all brought their strength to bear.

KRAAAAAK—!

Fifty enormous shields floated into the sky, became one, and poured in all of their magic power at once.

And so—

[The Shield That Does Not Fall]

[It is a Transcendence skill.]

[By condensing the defense of the tankers, it protects the recipient from anything at all with defense equal to 1,600% of what was received!]

[It resists even power that ignores all defense by 100%!]

[Even transcendent power will not be able to break it!]

That final line sent ecstasy through Reag.

Yes, The Shield That Does Not Fall was exactly the power capable of blocking even a Transcendence skill, the strongest ultimate technique current users possessed.

With an arrogant look on his face, Reag activated his own skill, Eyes of the One Who Intends to Block.

It was a power that let him briefly glimpse the grade of his opponent’s power and prepare accordingly.

[It is a mythology-grade skill!]

‘W-what!!!!?’

Horrified, Reag realized that he had already crossed a river he could never cross back over.

The moment the White Tiger collided with the shield.

More precisely, the moment it passed through the shield and touched them—

[It rends 31 times with attack power equal to 600% of the user’s attack power.]

[It extends outward to a 100-foot diameter!]

KRAAAAAK—!

Where the White Tiger passed, every last creature was literally torn apart and scattered.

By the force that extended outward to a 100-foot diameter, a path was torn open through the beings guarding Gremory.

“O-ONE SHOT KIIIILL!”

“Right now, an entire tanker guild was wiped out by a single skill!”

Tankers had about twice the total HP of ordinary users and roughly three times the defense.

So one-shotting a tanker—especially the tanker ranked #5 in the world—was normally impossible.

[You have executed 6,310 enemies!]

And Hyunsoo—

had made all of this happen in just four seconds.

“S-stop him!”

“Don’t let him reach Mother!!!”

Amid hundreds of spells pouring down, he stood alone.

“Layer upon layer of stacked magic—there doesn’t seem to be any way to dodge it.”

“There are only six seconds left, and you’re saying he can make it!?”

A ranker must never speak carelessly.

Amid the barrage of hundreds of bombardments raining down—

“Ghost Step.”

PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPANG—!

A total of forty times, disappearing and reappearing all over the place, Hyunsoo dodged them all and moved forward 30 feet in a single rush.

“Kiheeeeeeeek!”

“Khuwoooooooar!!!!”

He looked at the thousands of monsters rising to seize him.

“Bow before me.”

KOOOONG—!

He tamed a flying demonic beast in an instant, soared into the air, and charged.

And then in the sky—

KRAAAAAK—!

the attack-type Twin Dragon Sword, which had briefly transferred its bearer to Bahala, was sucked into his hand and wrapped around it like Thor’s hammer.

THUUUUD—!

“Pull them in.”

SHRRAAAAAAK—!

In an instant, he dragged the demon called Gremory right in front of his eyes.

The entire world.

Watching Hyunsoo riding atop a wyvern-like demonic beast and Gremory being dragged toward him with a stunned expression, they realized he had kept his promise.

“E-eight seconds...”

“The time it took Hyun to break through tens of thousands of troops and reach Gremory was only eight seconds!”

But there was something the commentators around the world were worried about.

There was a 250-level gap between the demon Gremory and Hyunsoo.

Normally, in cases like this, the attack itself would not even land.

A gap of over 200 levels was the difference between heaven and earth.

And Gremory knew that too.

Watching Hyunsoo, who had drawn the White Tiger Sword back behind him while she was still stunned, Gremory mocked him.

“With the Twin Dragon Sword, the blade you carried, even the strength of that bastard Bahala wasn’t enough.”

And in fact, a great many of Bahala’s attacks had missed the moment she awakened.

Gremory also loved quantifying things.

Through the power called Demon’s Numbers, she was able to see the numerical value of what outsiders called attack power.

The attack power of the attack-type Twin Dragon Sword that she had seen:

[Twin Dragon Sword]

[Attack Power 894]

Yes, even the greatest sword humans could carry was only this much, and even in Bahala’s hands, it had not been enough to cut her down easily.

Hyunsoo pulled the White Tiger Sword back with all his strength and swung it.

“With some petty blade that is neither a greatsword nor even a phantom blade—”

KRAAAAAANG—!

“...Ghuuugh!?”

Her back bent like a bow, and Demon’s Numbers displayed the attack power of the White Tiger Sword.

Ding!

[White Tiger Sword]

[Attack Power 4,031]

‘What!!!!!!?’