Genius Blacksmith's Game

Stepping into the rental forge, Hyunsoo thought:

I have to hit 50% Contribution.

What did he need to do that? Hyunsoo’s tempering.

Hyunsoo’s tempering—as a blacksmith, that meant crafting Artifacts he himself would use.

Talking with the man named Bekel and finding a way to meet Barad, Hyunsoo had decided then what he would make.

He took Orichalcum and Short Arrows out of his inventory.

Orichalcum.

For a so-called mineral, the stuff was unbelievably light.

And the Short Arrow. Short Arrows excel in destructive power.

But arrows are nothing more than consumable Artifacts.

He intended to make this consumable Artifact into something ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) that wasn’t.

The Short Arrow’s advantage is that the short shaft produces strong destructive force.

Meanwhile, if Orichalcum had its impurities removed, he estimated it would be as light as wood.

You could tell even from the ore before impurity removal.

Orichalcum arrows made from the strongest mineral in the world.

Don’t forget this part, too.

It must not break, and it must not be stolen.

Arrows are the easiest weapons to lose to someone else. The moment they are loosed, they leave your hand.

So Hyunsoo intended to craft an arrow that would return to its owner and would not break.

By common sense, impossible. But for Hyunsoo, possible.

[God’s Custom Crafting begins.]

“I will craft an arrow that does not break and returns to its owner.”

After setting what to make, Hyunsoo used his Ore Maker title to look into the essence of Orichalcum.

[Orichalcum]

[Composed of silver and Black Mithril; buried underground for millennia, it has grown lighter and harder over time.]

Black Mithril and silver...

He was familiar with smelting silver, but a special ore called Black Mithril was not familiar.

Still, he was familiar with mithril to a degree.

Mithril is composed of iron, manganese, oxygen, phosphorus, silicon, and so on.

If Black Mithril followed the same principles, this wouldn’t be hard for Hyunsoo.

After raising the furnace temperature to a certain point, Hyunsoo fed in the Orichalcum.

He waited a moment, thinking.

“In Ares, smelting special ores is hard work. What does that mean?”

This was the second time Hyunsoo had used a special ore in Ares.

The first was mithril from the Beginner Zone.

The second was this Orichalcum.

From what he’d heard, when an ore’s grade is high, the difficulty of smelting, refining, and the like rises to a level that defies common sense.

Then—

[You have begun smelting Orichalcum.]

[Effects of skills related to smelting are temporarily reduced by 50%.]

Hyunsoo blinked.

What...?

Skill-effect reduction.

[Guidance for Auto-Smelting is incomplete.]

Incomplete.

It would help him smelt to a point, but it would not tell him everything.

Interesting.

Hyunsoo couldn’t help but smile.

The instant you start smelting Orichalcum, parts of the system that players rave about simply shut off.

KRRRRRRR—!

[Warning.]

[Set the correct temperature.]

[The ore Orichalcum does not smelt easily.]

[If an appropriate temperature is not set, the Orichalcum will vaporize inside the furnace.]

“Wow...”

Hyunsoo let out a hollow laugh.

Vaporize meant the material would be lost.

And a material at the level of Orichalcum, lost?

Could there be words more terrifying to a blacksmith?

Even with this minute amount of Orichalcum, Hyunsoo could guarantee one thing.

It might be worth at least ₩10,000,000.

That tiny bit of Orichalcum.

And it might just vanish?

Orichalcum was a wily thing.

Even with a high level, if you lacked courage, challenge, and a measure of knowledge, it would not allow you to handle it.

Knowledge.

Blacksmiths around Level 350 run many processes through Auto-Crafting—smelting, refining, forging.

Ninety-nine percent of them turn it on and do something else. Or just zone out.

The other 1% do not.

They repeat it, striving to learn and understand.

Those who have understanding from such work—

Only those who can keep up even when parts of the system are shut off are allowed to smelt Orichalcum.

Of course, with higher skill levels, even that handicap could be ignored.

But at the current level of blacksmiths, it was nigh impossible.

He raised the furnace temperature.

He had to raise it appropriately.

[The furnace temperature rises.]

[The furnace temperature reaches 1,850 degrees.]

Within Hyunsoo’s knowledge, he sought the peak efficiency point to melt silver and mithril.

How did he know?

Because the composition of mithril resembles iron in the first place. And silver was a material he had smelted thousands of times.

KIIIIIIIII—!

An unplaceable noise spread from the furnace, something one shouldn’t be able to hear from one.

Then—

[This temperature is optimized to melt Orichalcum.]

[It might even yield slightly better effects.]

SSSHHHHHH—

Watching the molten metal flow, Hyunsoo thrilled.

Before long, the fully flowed Orichalcum solidified again.

What had set like a heap of stone now needed the refining process.

The process of drawing true Orichalcum out of a lumpy rock.

[If Orichalcum suffers more than 30% damage during refining, it will be lost.]

“......”

Hyunsoo gave a wry smile. It was like the enhancement systems in games.

The first enhancement on an Artifact has a very high chance; as you go, the chance plummets, and on failure, the Artifact is destroyed.

The difference here was that he hadn’t even enhanced it, and it was already threatening immediate destruction.

But it was fine.

Hyunsoo’s refining hand was better than any blacksmith’s.

[Damage to Orichalcum is minimized.]

[It might even yield slightly better effects.]

This cheeky stuff, when you met its standards, would give off a faint black glow as if praising you for a job well done.

Before long, he moved into forging.

TTA-AAANG—!

TTAA-AA-AANG—!

When he finished refining, what Hyunsoo had in hand was truly scant.

A typical arrowhead isn’t even the size of a finger. He would craft an Artifact out of this tiny amount of Orichalcum.

Even Hyunsoo found it absurd.

And so he hammered.

TTAA-AANG—

SHHHHHHHH—

[Orichalcum does not forge easily.]

[Within 2 days, you must achieve at least 60% forging completion.]

[If you fail, the Orichalcum will be lost.]

[Current forging completion: 1%.]

Hyunsoo hammered for about twenty minutes. Even so, forging completion was only 1%.

Time is tight.

But he wasn’t in a rush.

Forging is the process of placing a solid material on the anvil and hammering it into shape.

And Hyunsoo had done more forging than anyone.

When multiple custom orders came in at once, he’d stayed up nights to meet the delivery times.

It feels like it’s testing me.

Hyunsoo knew better than anyone how to make a fine blade. You invest enough time and care.

TTAA-AA-AANG—!

TTAA-AAA-AANG—!

He did not stop forging. Compared to ordinary ores, this was far more finicky and difficult.

No matter how much he hammered and tried to bring the shape out, it would not easily change.

But he made no complaints.

Orichalcum had waited underground for millennia buried in impurities, and in just a few days he meant to create it into a weapon.

A day passed, and then he stayed up the second night.

[Current forging completion: 91%.]

Before he knew it, the Orichalcum had taken the form Hyunsoo wanted.

Up until now, Orichalcum had been throwing up this message:

[It might even yield slightly better effects.]

But the moment Hyunsoo ended the forging work, the notification changed.

[Orichalcum will exhibit its best possible effect!]

The arrowhead was already complete. Within Hyunsoo’s knowledge, the method to craft an unbreakable arrow—

He whittled a short shaft from quality wood.

The shaft was thinner and lighter than the ones he usually made. With the Orichalcum left in the melt, he coated the shaft.

Hyunsoo repeated the processes of cooling and coating.

Then he engraved the character Hyun on the arrowhead, fitted head and shaft, and finished.

At that moment, nonstop crafting notifications rang out.

Hearing them, Hyunsoo could not hide his rapture.

He decided to test it at once—to see what effects the newly crafted Orichalcum Short Arrow had.

CLICK—

Hyunsoo set the Orichalcum Short Arrow into the guide-tube and stepped outside.

Outside, targets were set up where rental-forge users who had crafted bows and arrows could test their power.

When Hyunsoo loosed the bowstring, something astonishing happened.

****

NPC Falcon ran the rental forge.

Once, he had been a fairly successful blacksmith, but after reaching High-tier Blacksmith, he felt his limits and retired.

Early in the morning, he was heading to where the rental forges were.

The first thing he did when he arrived was replace the targets.

Overnight, blacksmiths who had crafted bows or arrows would test them on the targets.

Walking along thus, Falcon soon saw a blacksmith standing before a target, drawing a bowstring.

He remembered.

The young man who’d paid for two days’ use of a rental forge the other day.

He’d found it odd that it was only two days.

What can you properly make in two days?

And Falcon tilted his head.

What’s that?

He had never seen an arrow mounted inside a bamboo tube before.

And there was something stranger still.

The arrow...?

How could it be that short? And what drew his eyes even more was the bearing of the arrow itself.

Arrowhead and shaft alike were black, so lustrous it seemed iridescent.

He’s in a good phase.

Having felt his limits and retired at High-tier Blacksmith, Falcon folded his arms and watched.

A novice blacksmith? Or intermediate?

Most outlanders who used the rental forge were low-tier blacksmiths.

Blacksmiths of higher level generally owned private forges.

More than that—did he spend two whole days to make an arrow? What a waste.

Arrows were worth next to nothing.

Then Falcon looked at the “target.”

It hung on a single tree.

“Target” was a generous word—just a sheet of parchment drawn with rings and hung up.

And behind that tree stood a line of nine trees in a row.

In that moment, the man released the bowstring.

SWEEEE—!

“...!?”

Arms folded, Falcon found himself uncrossing them.

The instant the invisible-fast arrow touched the target—

KWA-RRRRRRRRK—!

The tree tore apart. Then it pierced the trees standing behind it.

PSSK, PSSK, PSSK, PSSK, PSSK—!

The arrow, flying with ferocity, stopped at the sixth tree.

What did I just see?

Those trees were troll trees. They were lined up because, on occasion, arrows crafted by excellent blacksmiths would pierce a tree.

Troll trees had the peculiar property of regenerating when damaged.

And yet—

KIIIIIIIK—

THU-U-UD—

The tree with the target on it toppled over.

It had failed to withstand the shockwave. Nor was it managing to regenerate.

A consumable arrow has that kind of power?

Then—

The arrow lodged in the sixth tree—

It began to move on its own.

RUMMMBLE—

Drawn out of the wood, the arrow slid, shwick, into the man’s raised hand as if it had been called.

Looking at the arrow gripped in his hand, Falcon was even more aghast.

Unbelievable...!

The arrowhead wasn’t damaged in the slightest. The shaft was the same.

And in that instant, Falcon’s fixed idea shattered.

The notion that arrows are consumables.

And something boiled up.

A desire to challenge a higher stage again—he who had felt his limit as a High-tier Blacksmith!

I’m glad...!

To feel this way again?

More urgently than that, Falcon hurried.

The blacksmith who had done this astonishing thing—

Who was he?

He rushed up to him.

“You, you’ve crafted a truly tremendous arrow. And—thank you!”

“...?”

The man wore a puzzled look. Thank you, out of nowhere?

“Seeing your arrow, the desire to grip a hammer again surged in me. I’m curious—your name... no, may I ask the blacksmith’s honored name?”

To that, the man, who had slung the arrow shaft over his back, gave a small smile and answered:

“I’m the blacksmith Hyun.”

He bowed his head—and dissolved into light.

An outlander returning to his own world. And as Hyunsoo logged out, a notification arrived.

[A blacksmith will long remember what happened today.]

[You gain 10 Renown.]