Genius Blacksmith's Game

Grant Me Your Protection.

It was the greatest power that had once helped Hyunsoo grow faster than anyone else.

Depending on the target’s strength, potential, and other factors, the Protection Rate rose, and the higher that rate was, the greater the protection the caster received.

Hyunsoo had applied it, in order, to Sage Arte, Lucky Lump, the world’s number-one-ranked Tamer Bahala, and finally the Transcendent species Gremory, and had achieved enormous growth through it.

Naturally.

Thanks to the Transcendent species Gremory, Hyunsoo had grown to a degree that bordered on the absurd.

That was why.

If he was going to restore and use any power whose uses had already been exhausted, it had to be this one.

[You have selected Grant Me Your Protection.]

Grant Me Your Protection granted more buffs the higher the Protection Rate number was.

Back then, Gremory’s Protection Rate had been 72%.

[Golemmy’s protection descends.]

[You obtain a Protection Rate of 66%.]

[You obtain 15% of the Dexterity stat.]

[You obtain 9% of the Will stat.]

[The probability of crafting a better artifact increases by 25%.]

In the end, Golemmy had awakened a trait tied to Dexterity.

And Grant Me Your Protection also raised stats according to the target’s advantages.

Because of that, Hyunsoo’s strengthening itself was not especially obvious.

However.

The chance of crafting a better artifact went up by twenty-five percent??

This was not some concept like a 10% increase to the odds of making a Rare.

It applied to every grade.

Ghk? Then that means Mythic grade goes up by 25% too!

And the Will stat was the force that kept Hyunsoo from tiring out.

There was also another truth he had learned about the Dexterity stat.

Hyunsoo’s Dexterity stat was roughly three to four times [N O V E L I G H T] higher than that of ordinary blacksmiths.

Auto-production barely raises the Dexterity stat at all.

Dexterity was a benefit gained through repetitive action, and the Will stat was the same.

That was why.

[You are the first user to reach 10,000 in the Dexterity stat.]

[You obtain the title Rampage.]

Hyunsoo felt proud.

How could I not be pleased? I raised Golemmy into something incredible, and I grow from it too.

At this point, he was starting to wonder if Golemmy’s name ought to be changed to Luckymy instead.

What puzzled him was the skill name.

“Why Rampage?”

For a skill related to the Dexterity stat, it was a strange one.

(Rampage)

Unique Title

Grade: S

Special Abilities:

· When crafting artifacts, there is a 15% chance that every effect you possess or have equipped that can create a “better artifact” will apply in a runaway surge.

“...Ghk!”

It was exactly what the name implied. A full-blown rampage.

Wooooo, I’m rampaging!

It might sound like he was getting carried away, but it meant that “Extreme Trance,” “Blacksmith’s Soul,” “Daeng’s Hammer of Replication,” “God-Forged Crown,” “Even If It Breaks,” and even the Will stat would all apply at once.

Hyunsoo could barely contain his emotion.

Good God...

He had been the one to apply Grant Me Your Protection, but he had never imagined that Golemmy’s growth would make him grow this much too.

With trembling hands, he checked Golemmy, who had unlocked Harvest—a legion-class trait.

(Harvest)

Grade: Transcendent

Level: 1

Trait Skills

Effects:

· With Dexterity multiplied by 10, Golemmy performs grindwork better than anyone.

· With Stamina multiplied by 10, it never tires.

“...????”

For a moment, Hyunsoo thought he had misread it.

...Did I mistake a 2 for something else?

He rubbed his eyes.

Because the number written there was a multiplier he had never once seen in his life.

Ten times?

A 2x multiplier was already extremely rare, and even 3x was rarer still.

Ten times Dexterity!!!!?

The instant he truly grasped it, Hyunsoo’s breathing trembled.

Wait, in cases like this, what usually matters is how much Dexterity it actually has, right?

If he opened up detailed pet information, he could even check raw stat amounts.

One thing was certain: the moment Golemmy unlocked Harvest, its Dexterity stat must have skyrocketed.

[Golemmy’s Dexterity: 3,310.]

“...?”

And Golemmy’s Dexterity was indeed in an absurdly elevated state.

Which meant, with the 10x multiplier—

Thirty-three thousand one hundred?

Just moments earlier, Hyunsoo had been swelling with pride for reaching 10,000 Dexterity himself. Now the number in front of him nearly made him feel shabby.

Hah, hahahahahaha...

A hollow laugh escaped him.

At this level, among all production-class users—

No, even including NPCs and pets, wouldn’t Golemmy be the one with the highest Dexterity stat of all?

And its Stamina was multiplied by ten too.

The higher Stamina was, the less easily one tired, and naturally that also tended to drag the Health and Strength stats up along with it.

Taking all of that into account, Golemmy had effectively become an untiring energizer of a grinder.

Then he checked the next one.

(One Plus One)

Effects:

· If Golemmy harvests a designated target, one additional unit is guaranteed.

· Can be used once per month.

“...????”

Hyunsoo was momentarily speechless.

No, what kind of broken cheat skill is this...??

A mine still followed game logic in the end.

If ore was mined out, then just as when a monster was hunted, it would reset after some time and become minable again.

But that only applies to normal minerals.

It did not apply from Rare grade onward.

Rare, Epic, Unique, Legendary, Transcendent, god.

For minerals with grades, only limited quantities existed within a mine.

If a mine held only a single Transcendent mineral, that number would never increase, and once it was mined out, it would be gone forever.

That was why anything with a grade was so much rarer.

And if—

If there were somewhere with a god-grade mineral buried in it, and I activated this there and mined it?

It would double.

A god-grade mineral would double!?

That was insane beyond belief.

Next came Ruler.

(Ruler)

Effects:

· The gathering speed of all grinders working with Golemmy increases by 40%.

· When Golemmy enters any location—fields, mines, or any other place where materials are gathered—the total quantity of materials there increases by 50%. However, the total quantity of Epic-grade or higher materials does not increase.

Their gathering ability goes up by forty percent? So that means they work forty percent faster? And if it steps into a field or a mine, the total amount of materials there increases by fifty percent?

For example, suppose there were 100 apples on a field, and they were all Normal.

Then those Normal apples would become 150.

Lastly—

(Tracking)

Effects:

· Its master may have Golemmy track materials of a desired effect and grade.

· However, if the specified mineral does not exist, the use count is consumed.

· Current uses available: 3/3

· 1 use is generated per month.

Tracking was exactly the power Hyunsoo had wanted.

It could track materials of the desired effect and grade.

That meant crops, minerals, and anything else.

“Golems, we’re rich now!!!”

In other words, Golemmy was no longer just a being specialized in obtaining materials. It had become an outrageous pet that could scrape up the wealth of this world clean to the bottom.

And the moment he realized it could find desired materials, one particular type of material flashed through Hyunsoo’s mind.

Hyunsoo immediately set Tracking.

[Please state the desired effect of the mineral.]

“A mineral that can be turned into an all-purpose tool. Something suited to being a pickaxe at times, a hoe at times, and the sort of tool a production-class user could use while gathering. Naturally, it would be even better if it contained an ability that could greatly increase the wearer’s gathering, harvesting, and other grinding-related capabilities.”

The mineral Hyunsoo wanted to find—

it came from a simple thought.

Wouldn’t it be even better if he could put a proper tool into the hands of Golemmy, a Transcendent being?

But.

Only if such a thing exists.

Of course, he would borrow the power of God’s custom crafting and do his best to create such a tool.

But he also had to remember that high-grade minerals existed in limited numbers and that not many had been uncovered yet.

Right away—

[Golemmy begins tracking.]

The little thing closed its eyes and concentrated.

“...Golemmy.”

[Tracking Rate: 6%... 12%... 18%...]

[Tracking begins from the highest-grade materials first.]

Listening to the notifications, Hyunsoo held his breath in anticipation.

Please let it exist. It doesn’t even have to be Transcendent—Legendary would be fine!

[Tracking Rate: 43%... 67%...]

[The search is not easy.]

[Searching all of Ares.]

That message made Hyunsoo uneasy for no reason at all.

If it failed to find it, the use would vanish.

Then, right at that moment—

Ding!

[Transcendent grade. Tracking of the Transformation Mineral has succeeded.]

[Its location is being guided.]

[It exists in the ‘Transformation Mine’ of the Prime Kingdom.]

Wait a second, does that belong to His Highness Ben?

A mine could belong to a nation.

Or it could belong to an individual.

And if it belonged to an individual, there were only two possibilities.

Either they had bought it outright for a huge sum.

Or they had discovered it through exploration.

Hyunsoo decided to look up information on the mine.

[You have logged out.]

Hm, will anything come up if I search it?

A moment later, Hyunsoo’s expression changed in surprise.

The ticket price was three million won.

In other words, that was just the entry fee.

There were indeed privately owned mines like this with daily entry limits, but this was the first time he had seen one selling tickets like this, and the ticket price was extremely high.

But one thought slammed itself into Hyunsoo’s head.

Transcendent-grade materials trade for 500 million, don’t they?

Which meant that this three million won was a challenge fee paid by production-class users chasing a lottery ticket.

And when he looked it up, there were plenty of posts like that.

Seeing that, Hyunsoo grinned and immediately contacted the man called Red.

*****

Red.

Lee Daesung sat back and enjoyed the comfort of his apartment with a view of the Han River, a place he had bought for the enormous sum of three billion won.

The reason a dirt-poor man like him had been able to live in a place like this—

Thaaaanks, you bastards.

Starting from low levels, he had built his fortune bit by bit by backstabbing users in dungeons as a PK criminal.

Of course, that alone had not been enough to buy an apartment with a river view.

At one point, he had been the master of a notorious murderer guild in Korea.

He had been active from the early days, which made hunting users easy, and as guild master, he had naturally made a lot of money.

On top of that, he had been lucky.

He held the Legendary class Mine Ruler.

What was the advantage of Mine Ruler?

Did it help him find mines?

Nothing like that.

What it did allow was this.

Setting the difficulty of a mine.

When he had first gotten the class, he had wondered what the hell he was supposed to do with something like that.

But throughout the world, there was no shortage of miners dreaming of hitting the jackpot by finding high-grade ore.

So he had come up with an idea.

Buy mines. Then sell them entry tickets.

It sold better than expected, and word spread among miners.

A holy land for miners!

The place that’ll make you the best miner alive if you clear it!

And so miners lined up waiting their turn to enter, because he only allowed one a day.

At first, the ticket price had been one million won.

But it sold even at two million.

And even at three million, it still sold quite well.

So now Red had gone so far as to buy eight such mines around the world, even taking on debt to do it.

And they were generating a ridiculous amount of profit.

“Ha!”

And today, he had reeled in a proper sucker.

Golemmy’s Dad? What the hell is that?

The guy had bought tickets to every single mine Red owned.

All eight of them. Twenty-four million won total.

Red climbed into his Ares capsule to hand over the tickets.

[Connecting to Ares.]

A moment later, Red appeared at the Transformation Mine and saw them.

A traditional mask?

The man wore a traditional mask, and beside him stood some kind of mini golem.

“Golemmy, say hello.”

“Golemmy, Golemmy...!”

Red glanced at the little thing, which timidly checked his mood before bowing its head, and burst into laughter inside.

Puhahahahaha! What kind of dumb fucks showed up here?

Red handed over the tickets with a bright smile.

“You’re taking on all of them?”

“That’s right.”

“I wish you the best of luck. I hope you succeed.”

“Yes, thank you. Let’s go, Golemmy.”

“Golemmy, Golemmy...”

Red watched the mini golem wobble inside while holding the man’s hand.

The moment they went in, Red moved.

[The Mine Ruler is covert.]

[The mine’s mining difficulty increases by 50%.]

[The mining difficulty of Unique-grade or higher minerals increases by 100%.]

What a sucker. Kkahahaha, the sucker to end all suckers!!

At least, at that point, Red still did not know.

That he himself was the king of suckers.