Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 157

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Blacksmith’s Game
The One Who Soars Above the Runner (4)
“So you lured us in reverse? How amusing. But what do you think you can accomplish alone? Shouldn’t you be luring us while observing your opponents?”
The Assassin Buns could not hide his bewilderment.
This man called Hyeon-su was supposedly a level 307 Blacksmith.
“Even if he weren’t a Blacksmith, we are quite renowned in Ares.”
As if to prove it, a notification sounded regarding the mysterious status ailment that bound them.
[Your high resistance will resist in 2 seconds.]
Indeed, the resistance was so swift that even Hyeon-su was taken aback.
In merely five seconds, the lord’s command that had bound the four of them was about to be broken.
Buns, in particular, was something special.
[Assassin’s Instinct]
[Resists all status ailments instantaneously.]
[Controls the skill availability time of the one who inflicted the status ailment for 10 seconds.]
Immediately unleashing that power, Buns moved.
“Actually, this works out well. That sword looks incredibly rare just by appearance. Where did you obtain such a blade?”
Buns was an exceptional Assassin.
Ordinary level 300-tier Users typically could not even react to his attacks.
Especially when skill usage was disabled for 10 seconds.
‘What was that black current being drawn into the sword?’
Unfortunately, he could not cancel an already-activated skill.
Buns, driving into Hyeon-su’s flank, laughed.
‘The game is all about control.’
Indeed, it was he who had climbed to 8th place in the Assassin rankings with control alone.
Clang!
Buns’s expression soon turned to shock.
‘What?’
The man called Hyeon-su lightly raised his sword to block, his eyes sharp.
Buns created three attack points within his field of vision and moved toward him.
Left, left, right.
Clang, clang-clang!
Buns’s expression turned to bewilderment.
‘What is this…?’
An inexplicable force was felt.
Buns was a martial arts master even in reality.
Yet Hyeon-su did not seem to have learned martial arts from reality.
And yet his movements were extraordinary.
‘My life and death hung in the balance multiple times.’
Hyeon-su felt it.
Before blocking Buns’s attacks as smoothly as flowing water, there had indeed been concern.
It was my first time properly facing off against users called the Strong Ones.
And I came to understand something.
‘I have grown.’
Though the road ahead remained long, I had undoubtedly grown stronger.
This growth stemmed from the countless life-or-death struggles that ordinary Users never experienced.
The Fifth and Fourth Calamities.
The Giant King.
Prak, the descendant of the Primordial Sky, and the Small World Tree.
‘All of those accumulated and converged to forge who I am now.’
Whoooosh—
Hyeon-su raised his Sword with all his might and struck down.
Craaack—
[A Critical Hit has triggered.]
[You have dealt 54,313 damage.]
“Gaaahhhhh!”
Buns, slashed diagonally across his body, stared at a notification he had never once seen before.
‘D-Damage in the fifty-thousand range…!?’
Buns had encountered many Strong Ones in this place.
Among them was even a swordsman ranked in the top forty domestically.
That swordsman’s damage output was in the twenty-thousand range.
[Your HP has dropped below 70%.]
‘No matter that I’m an Assassin, this is…!’
It transcended common sense. The only saving grace was that the abnormal status effects on the other three members had been lifted.
Dun, the Mountain Keeper.
[Mountain Keeper]
[Becomes 30% stronger in mountains.]
In the mountains, he was someone even most top-thirty rankers could not handle.
The reason he was particularly dangerous in the mountains stemmed from this effect contained within the skill ‘Mountain Keeper.’
[The power of Mountain Keeper instantly draws all nearby monsters toward you.]
It happened in an instant.
Every monster in the Blessed Land was pulled forward before Dun.
Of course, he could not control the monsters at will.
But at minimum, he could designate a single target and force only that one to attack.
[Designating target.]
[Snowy Field Yeti Lv.331]
[Snowy Field Orc Lv.325]
[Snowy Field Ogre Lv.339]
There were roughly sixty of them in total.
And their levels were far superior to Hyeon-su standing before them.
Of course, after killing Hyeon-su, they might become a dangerous liability to themselves as well.
But Dun, as a mountain keeper, possessed more than enough ability to evade that handshake.
Thump-thump-thump, thump-thump-thump—
And Hyeon-su’s expression was tinged with bewilderment.
“No matter how monstrous your damage output is, you won’t be able to handle this many!”
Dun was a high-ranker.
Because he thought differently from ordinary people, he could stand in that position.
When Buns fell, Dun witnessed damage that defied all common sense.
He believed without doubt that it was temporary power.
Moreover, even if the sword’s attack power was enhanced, his level 300 body’s physical defense had not been strengthened.
Soon enough.
“Kuhooo!”
“Kuaaa!”
“Krahaha!”
“Kyahaha!”
Approximately sixty monsters surrounded Hyeon-su.
Creatures ranging from two to four meters in height assailed him indiscriminately from all sides.
And Won, Buns, Bon, and Dun unleashed their skills upon Hyeon-su caught in their midst.
[Rend Asunder]
[Indiscriminate Slash]
[Throwing Star Mastery]
Using their respective skills, they watched his HP plummet to less than 25% in a mere three seconds.
Three meters.
They burst into wild laughter as they tore through the monster horde.
“Madman!”
“Acting so arrogant, and yet here you are in this state in less than ten seconds!”
The four couldn’t help but laugh like lunatics.
Yes, barely ten seconds had passed.
Since he had spoken so arrogantly, as if he had lured them in.
They closed the distance further.
One and a half meters.
Having closed to that distance, Dun anticipated the moment.
‘Imagining the face of a dying man feels good.’
Especially since Dun was the one who had sworn to kill him as painfully as possible.
Still seething with rage, he finally faced him after pushing through the monster throng.
“This damned bird… huh?”
Dun and his companions were left stunned, unable to see him due to the tall monsters blocking their view.
Hyeon-su, his entire body battered and broken, was dying.
No, judging by the HP bar hovering above his head alone, he was dying.
Yet caught in the midst of the monster onslaught, Hyeon-su stood firm against the collective assault.
Especially his chilling gaze made Dun shrink back.
‘What… what is this…?’
After all, wasn’t he on the brink of death?
Yet as they drew near, he spoke to them.
“Thank you.”
Hyeon-su had been waiting for a certain notification for a long time.
Since level 50 until now.
That notification, which he had awaited through all those years, arrived at this very moment.
*
*
*
The most recent time Barad and Hyeon-su had met was when he elevated him from viscount to count.
After receiving his title, Hyeon-su shared various stories with Barad.
Among those stories, there was one that left a deep impression on Bella.
Bella recalled the conversation between the two men.
‘Your Majesty taught me the Sword King’s Swordsmanship, and it’s certainly a formidable technique, but strangely, its growth has been sluggish. Is this how it’s supposed to be?’
Barad had answered with a bitter smile.
‘It’s because you lack the qualifications.’
According to Hyeon-su’s account, the Sword King’s Swordsmanship had never leveled up even once.
The swordsmanship techniques used by kingdom soldiers and knights typically increase by one level every thirty levels.
Even at the slowest pace, they gain a skill level increase roughly every fifty levels.
Yet Hyeon-su learned it in his fifties and surpassed level 250 without a single increase—a truly ironic situation.
“Your Majesty, may I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Why hasn’t Count Hyeon-su’s Sword King’s Swordsmanship been able to grow?”
Barad smiled faintly.
‘Bella isn’t the type to take interest in others’ affairs.’
Yet toward Hyeon alone, she showed particular concern.
Barad gave her the same answer he had given Hyeon-su.
“Because he lacked the qualifications. At that time, Hyeon-su was far too weak a being.”
He was merely an Outsider in his fifties, after all.
Barely taking his first steps.
“Even if his power had grown stronger, his body wouldn’t have been able to endure it.”
With average stat growth, he would reach level 100.
Even at level 100, using the Sword King’s Swordsmanship itself defied common sense.
“Swordsmanship becomes more refined the more one hones it, the more one improves oneself. Yet when I saw Hyeon-su recently, I felt this.”
Barad smiled, thinking of Hyeon-su at that time.
“…He has become a magnificent warrior.”
That meant Hyeon-su was growing.
And it meant the time for the Sword King’s Swordsmanship to grow was approaching.
“Just as Hyeon-su said, the growth of the Sword King’s Swordsmanship must have felt absurdly slow.”
By ordinary standards alone, other Users would have raised their Swordsmanship level by at least 5.
“What’s interesting is that this single growth will now showcase all the progress I’ve made up until now.”
“…!”
Bella understood the meaning behind those words.
Though her growth was painfully slower than others, a single advancement would surpass five levels of growth in other skills.
Bella had come to realize it.
‘This is the true essence of the Sword King’s Swordsmanship….’
Swordsmanship growth has limits.
Once Swordsmanship reaches level 9, it cannot grow further and one must learn a new technique.
But that was far from easy.
Yet, though slow, each growth encompassed the power of five levels, allowing it to develop longer and stronger than ordinary Swordsmanship.
Bella suddenly became curious.
‘Just once.’
How much power would that single growth unleash?
*
*
*
For Hyeon-su, this was a moment he had long awaited.
[Sword King’s Swordsmanship levels up.]
The proficiency that had been rising at a grueling pace surged dramatically the moment I reached level 300.
Surrounded by monsters, I was not dying.
I was filling the proficiency of Sword King’s Swordsmanship, which had reached 99.1%.
Not that I was deliberately doing so.
‘The monsters’ range far exceeds a radius of 20 meters.’
I needed a means to eliminate them all at once.
[You possess Asthenium.]
[Your HP has dropped below 10%.]
[Your HP recovers to 15%.]
That’s why I waited with a strategy of sacrificing flesh to gain bone.
Level 250.
During that long climb, I had only raised the Sword King skill by a single level, yet I felt exhilaration.
It was beyond my own satisfaction—it was nothing short of miraculous.
Among the monsters, the mountain keeper Dun thrust his face forward.
“Thank you.”
“…?”
Dun could not comprehend those words.
Thank me for what?
“Kill them!”
Kiiiiiiing—
A crystalline cry that numbed the senses.
[Cry of the Sword]
The essence of Cry of the Sword lay in its indiscriminate flurry of slashes.
[Cuts down enemies 50% faster.]
[Indiscriminately cuts down all recognized enemies with 230% additional damage.]
[Even without direct contact, anything within a 30m radius is cut, and all defense is ignored.]
Being faster meant dealing 50% more damage than usual.
Moreover, the ordinary Cry of the Sword carried a fatal weakness.
It required multiple preparatory movements.
One had to lower their knees, breathe shallowly, and draw the sword from its scabbard.
‘Not anymore.’
Four figures closed in on Hyeon-su with thrusting motions and skill-casting stances, falling into stun.
Then Hyeon-su raised the Supremacy Blade, enhanced by over 610%.
Whoooosh—
The original sound of Cry of the Sword was a sharp ‘crack-crack-crack.’
That sound had transformed.
Krrrrrrrrgh, slash-slash-slash-slash—!
The sound of hundreds upon hundreds of blades being unleashed.
Dun couldn’t comprehend it.
‘…What is this?’
The snow-covered mountain pass.
Every monster surrounding Hyeon-su was being slaughtered and collapsing.
‘What in the world am I witnessing…?’
His comrades were turning to ash.
The monsters split into dozens of pieces met the same fate.
Thump—
‘What the hell is this monster—!’
Hyeon-su, holding a sword to that throat, laughed coldly.
The clear reason he had thanked Dun was now laid bare before his eyes.
[3x Experience Points and 3x Drop Rate applied.]
Applied to roughly sixty monsters and the four-man group.
A notification defying all logic struck him with overwhelming force.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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