Genius Blacksmith's Game

The first stage.

Hyunsoo deliberately tried a method no one else had attempted.

Because he needed to show the effects of the artifacts he’d made over ten days at their absolute maximum.

And he’d already tried making a gauntlet that went all-in on Strength as an emergency craft when hunting Stone Golems.

“Rowoon, thank you for the ten-million-won donation.”

Rowoon still hadn’t donated because he hadn’t revealed the information yet.

The reason Hyunsoo said that was pressure to hurry up and keep his promise.

“Blacksmith Hyun has made an interesting proposal. He says he’ll sell the three artifacts he made this time through a Real-Time Auction. We’re starting the Real-Time Auction now.”

Hyunsoo opened the artifact’s information.

****

The KkakkaoTalk open chat room titled Archers’ Brotherhood.

Archers’ Brotherhood was a room named “Archers’ Friendship Until We Drop Dead.”

That KkakkaoTalk room contained countless archer users who were considered the best of the best in Korea.

-That gauntlet is interesting.

-It says it boosted a range that used to cap out at 250 meters to over 400 meters... damn.

-Looking at it, it seems like a gauntlet that massively increases Strength stats?

For the first time in a while, the Archers’ Brotherhood chat room got loud.

Because of the gauntlet that appeared on a broadcast.

-A Real-Time Auction, huh lol. Are they trying to make viewers compete against each other?

-That only works if the artifact is good. That blacksmith Hyun seems way too full of himself.

-Yeah. Increasing range with a Strength gauntlet. It’s definitely a good artifact. It looks like Unique grade, but if it just jacks Strength through the roof and the other effects are useless, isn’t it basically worthless?

-Exactly. What’s the point of a high grade if the effects suck? There are tons of Uniques that are basically Rare-tier.

-Plus gauntlets and thimble-type gear are just archer support items, right?

Then.

The information for the gauntlet opened.

(Hyun’s Ninth Custom Craft Gauntlet)

Grade: Unique

Durability: 7,000/7,000

Defense: 220

Restriction: No restriction for the creator, Archers level 80 and above

Special Abilities:

·Strength +111.

·Bow Hit Rate +15%.

·Arrow Critical Hit Chance +10%.

·Active Skill Accurate Aim.

Description: Hyun’s Ninth Custom Craft Gauntlet. By massively increasing Strength stats, it greatly increases range, penetration, and destructive power.

The moment it was revealed, one archer admired it out loud.

-Wow... guys, this is insane.

He was Handsup, an archer ranked 87th.

-It’s not just Strength. What kind of gauntlet has 220 defense?

Ironically, smart users attack the hands when fighting archers.

It’s to keep them from shooting easily.

So defense was a very important stat.

-Wow, a support item pulling off effects like this. And there isn’t a single thing that’s useless for archers. Damn, the level requirement is even low...

Support items referred to things like thimbles or accessories. Compared to main armor or swords, support items were usually far weaker.

But even though this was a support item, the effects were absurdly good, like main armor.

-And it still keeps the core advantage of a Strength gauntlet—Strength +111... holy crap.

Strength +111.

Archers usually had very low Strength.

Because the stats they normally invested in were Agility and Vitality.

When Agility goes up, you can get special effects like better bow accuracy and penetration.

So does that mean Strength isn’t needed? No.

It’s just that Agility is better, so investing in Agility is the right move.

But the penetration and destructive power that come from being strong, and the way your range grows longer, can’t be ignored.

And 111 points of Strength was basically the same as dumping every stat point from about twenty levels into Strength alone.

-But guys, why isn’t anyone saying anything?

Handsup felt something weird.

The chat window that had been lively up to a second «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» ago went quiet.

He found their names in an unexpected place.

**** 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Hyunsoo waited.

‘Ask. Ask. Ask.’

And soon, the effect showed.

-I’m willing to buy it.

-Archer rank 15 Koru...?

-I’m willing to buy it too. If you sell to me, I’ll pay 1.5 times market price.

-Damn, even rank 4 Hansen is here...

-What are you guys doing here?

Right away, nicknames of archers famous enough to be household names in Korea started flooding the chat.

The viewer count kept climbing, too.

-I want to buy it.

-I want to buy it too!

-Blacksmith Hyun, please sell it to meㅠㅠ

Hyunsoo smiled slightly and said,

“The auction starts at 10,000 gold.”

Ten thousand gold.

A huge sum worth ten million won in Korean money. The real value, considering the artifact, was on the low side.

But Hyunsoo knew. The auction price would keep climbing.

“The auction closes when the main broadcast ends.”

The response exploded immediately.

-15,000.

-20,000.

-22,000.

-22,500.

-What am I even watching right now...?

-What are archer rankers doing here...?

Hyunsoo responded calmly.

“Please send your bids by message to Hyun’s Forge. Thank you.”

Then.

-Rowoon has donated 10,000,000 won.

-Oh, it’s Unique.

Hyunsoo let out a bitter smile. And the second stage began.

The rules of the second stage weren’t hard.

He just had to solo-raid two boss monsters.

‘The second piece was a disaster.’

Hyunsoo gave a self-mocking smile.

Sadly, the second artifact’s effects weren’t that good.

No, it was basically the worst artifact he’d ever made.

Hyunsoo looked at the monster that appeared in front of him.

-Degenerated Troll Lv.121

Trolls were originally high-level monsters that were over level 270.

The Degenerated Trolls here were much weaker than real trolls, but they were tricky because they still had regeneration.

And he had to face two of them.

“The second item kind of sucks.”

Hyunsoo watched the trolls approaching, his face full of regret.

The one saving grace was that Hyunsoo could still hunt comfortably even with an artifact like this.

Hyunsoo was level 80 now, much stronger than he’d been during the Super Rookie Tournament.

Because of Sword King Barad’s swordsmanship and the all-stats boost from crafting.

And soon Hyunsoo opened the artifact’s information.

(Hyun’s Tenth Custom Craft Greatsword)

Grade: Normal

Durability: 4,000/4,000

Attack Power: 286.

Restriction: No restriction for the creator, Swordsman classes level 70 and above

Special Abilities:

·Attack Speed and Movement Speed -15%.

·Strength +6, Vitality +3.

·Active Skill Cleave in One Stroke.

Description: Hyun’s Tenth Custom Craft Greatsword. It suffered an unintended penalty.

-Huh? What? Isn’t the gap from the first artifact way too huge?

-...Proof that Hyun just got lucky....

-The first was Unique and the second is Normal?

-Even normal blacksmiths make stuff like that. Kinda disappointing that Hyun made that.

-Yeah....

-Did he just cherry-pick the good ones before and auctioned those? lol?

In an instant, the chat mood sank again. But Hyunsoo dashed forward.

Hyunsoo collided with the two Degenerated Trolls.

Rowoon, watching him, felt deeply disappointed.

Not because Hyunsoo couldn’t hunt the trolls.

The troll hunt was going great.

What Rowoon had hoped for was this.

‘Maybe he’s someone who can catch up to the world’s number-one blacksmith.’

That was what he’d thought when he saw the first gauntlet.

Smith, the number-one blacksmith in the world.

‘For some reason, he’s a blacksmith untouched by probability.’

And he was the world’s only maker of Legendary artifacts. The only person who’d smashed the rule that users couldn’t craft Legends.

‘A lot of information is hidden, but he’s the best blacksmith in the world.’

Yet even after recruiting hundreds of people, Rowoon had never found someone like that.

‘Hyun was the same after all.’

The fact that the gap between the first piece and the second piece was this huge—

was proof that Hyun couldn’t reach Smith.

[Bill: Guild Master, how much should we offer as a signing bonus?]

[Rowoon: Twenty billion should be enough.]

Even that was an astronomically high number.

What was disappointing was simply that Hyun hadn’t met Rowoon’s expectations.

‘With skill like that, no matter how hard he struggles, he won’t be able to close the gap with our guild’s ranking.’

The difference between the one who held the seat from the start and the one who started late was naturally enormous.

But then Rowoon checked the greatsword’s information one more time and frowned in confusion.

Something he’d missed in disappointment came into view.

‘What is this?’

The description said this.

‘An unintended penalty?’

****

Five days ago.

After Hyunsoo made the second artifact, he heard the notification.

[It is Epic grade.]

[You have crafted an artifact that was previously crafted through God’s Emergency Crafting twice in a row.]

[By crafting an artifact that was previously crafted through God’s Emergency Crafting without leaving a sufficient interval, you receive a penalty.]

[The artifact’s grade drops by two stages, and its effects are greatly reduced.]

“...What?”

Hyunsoo knitted his brows.

Just like the God of Blacksmiths title, Ares had penalties users didn’t know existed.

Hyunsoo understood why this penalty appeared.

‘Is this telling me not to take the easy way?’

A part of Hyunsoo’s plan got thrown off.

Not because of his skill.

This greatsword had clearly been crafted excellently, and the notification had called it Epic grade.

But because of the penalty, he ended up producing a Normal-grade item.

‘It’s fine, even if the second artifact is weak.’

He thought, instead,

‘If I blow them away with the third one, won’t the impact be even bigger?’

There was one condition, though. The third one had to be truly incredible.

‘Anyway, for the third one, I wasn’t planning to recreate something I’d made through Emergency Crafting.’

The three artifacts Hyunsoo made were all meant to show their best power in each stage of the Time-Attack Dungeon.

‘For the third....’

A massive swarm of boss monsters would appear. There was an artifact he’d decided to make specifically to kill them.

He’d made that decision through a conversation with his father.

Back when he’d gone to Jeju Island with his father, his father had looked out at the broad Jeju sea and said,

‘Hyunsoo, our country once had a legendary bow of its own.’

A smile formed on Hyunsoo’s lips.

The remaining five days.

Hyunsoo threw himself into crafting.

And he finished it.

[You have crafted an artifact closest to a Legend.]

One of the bows from our country’s legends.

****

Rowoon.

Taehyun headed to the meeting room.

Even though Crazy Rookie’s broadcast was still ongoing, Taehyun didn’t feel it was worth spending time on.

Then, when Kim Taehyun opened the door and walked in, he could see the broadcast playing on the TV already on in the meeting room.

“He cleared the second stage pretty cleanly, too.”

“Crazy Rookie himself is insanely strong.”

On the monitor, Crazy Rookie was preparing for the third stage.

When Taehyun sat down, the others hurriedly quieted.

“Look, it’s fine.”

Taehyun wasn’t the type of guild master who was that strict. Then he felt curious.

“What’s the third stage?”

A female staffer explained.

“Thirteen werewolves appear.”

“Werewolves?”

Taehyun frowned.

Werewolves were level 138 monsters.

They weren’t boss-class, but thirteen level-138 werewolves against someone who wasn’t even level 100 yet?

“Cleaning them is impossible, of course. Their hide is so thick that even same-level users struggle. There’s no way a user who’s just hit the 80s can hunt them. The third stage is about pushing through them and reaching the destination within 300 meters safely.”

“Hmm.”

Taehyun nodded. Then he watched Crazy Rookie getting ready for the third stage.

-Why isn’t he moving?

-Huh? What’s he doing?

-The werewolves are about to come out.

It was a huge place like a colosseum.

Thirteen cages stood there.

The bars on the thirteen cages holding the werewolves started to rise.

“Huh? Why isn’t he moving?”

“He needs to run right now.”

Taehyun asked,

“What’s the success rate?”

“Usually 80% die on the way, and 20% barely succeed.”

Taehyun also stared at Crazy Rookie with a puzzled look.

But then.

On the monitor, he said,

-I’m going to try the third stage with a special strategy.

A special strategy? What was that?

The bars opened, and thirteen ferocious werewolves burst out at once.

Watching Crazy Rookie on the screen, Rowoon realized what that strategy was.

‘He’s not saying he’ll hunt all thirteen werewolves, is he?’

No, that was impossible.

He knew Crazy Rookie was strong, but that was beyond common sense.

Then Crazy Rookie pulled out a bow from his coat and aimed at the werewolves.

[Two artifacts closest to a Legend meet.]

[Their effects improve by 10% each.]

Rowoon shot to his feet. Letters branded on the bowstring pulled taut.

‘Thousand-Pound Bow...?’

Crazy Rookie’s Short Arrow streaked out and buried itself in the leading werewolf.

PEUUUUT—

The Short Arrow’s power made the werewolf stagger. But the level gap was too high.

The werewolf that had sneered at him tried to charge again.

Then.

[Thousand-Pound Weight is applied.]

[Thousand-Pound Weight presses down on the enemy.]

KUUUUNG—

The ground under the werewolf caved.

Its two feet were pinned into the earth, like something above was crushing it down with all its strength.

KWA-A-A-AANG—

The ground collapsed and the werewolf was slammed into it.

Yeah. Like a real thousand-pound weight had been hung on it.