Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 169

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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
Friend, Help Me (4)
Ghost Step was a single skill, unlike the Sword King’s Swordsmanship.
Hyeon-su was curious.
Could Ghost Step, capable of deploying only one form, truly surpass the advantage of those three stances?
How many attacks per second could the true Spear Heaven deliver?
[Graut’s HP is at 61%.]
Temporarily, my body came under the system’s control.
Two true ghosts walked forward.
Toward the single demon before them.
Ben was the first to vanish, leaving only afterimages in his wake.
Moving at a speed Graut could not counter, Ben thrust toward his ribs.
Squelch—!
[You have taken 43,031 damage.]
Within the searing pain, Graut grew calm.
‘In our previous encounter, I blocked ten of his twelve strikes.’
Graut’s reflexes transcended common sense to that degree.
After Ben slipped past, I attempted to block Hyeon-su’s sword as it came for my back.
But Hyeon-su was faster by a step.
Rip—!
“…!?”
The speed far surpassed the Ghost Step I had unleashed before.
Moreover, when I had allowed his Ghost Step previously, Graut had taken only minimal damage.
Yet now, damage far exceeding that struck home.
[You have taken 37,963 damage.]
Though less than Spear Heaven’s strike, it was still sufficient to threaten Graut.
Furthermore, the inherent weakness of continuous attack skills that applied multiple hits in a single strike was their inability to trigger Critical Hits.
But Hyeon-su was different.
[Critical Hit triggered.]
[You have taken 54,003 damage.]
The passive of Swordsmanship’s subtlety compensated for that weakness, allowing Critical Hits to land.
Graut grew desperate.
“Grraaahhhhh!”
He judged that he could not withstand the attacks of two ghosts.
Thus, he focused on absorbing all the blood-red orbs surrounding him to recover.
Rip—
Squelch—!
Crash—
Bang—!
Soon, Graut’s eyes widened in shock.
My HP was plummeting at a speed even faster than the sword’s rampage.
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 43%.]
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 41%.]
[Graut’s HP recovers to 52%.]
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 49%…]
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 47%…]
‘Insane….’
Hyeon-su marveled at the sight. Until now, he had been moving desperately with Ghost Step.
Meanwhile, the elderly man passing by in fleeting exchanges moved with complete ease.
Only now did I understand.
Ghost Step was a power that never fell short of the Sword King’s Swordsmanship, wielding three chapters.
When properly manifested, it transcended any other force by an immeasurable distance.
In an instant, it surpassed twenty-six exchanges.
At this point, both bodies began to experience overload.
But the two ghosts did not stop.
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 4%.]
I dramatically drew forth the strength from a body that no longer obeyed.
To kill him and save Artea.
Kwajack
Skraaack
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 2%.]
“Uaaaah!”
“Uooooh!”
I squeezed every last ounce from calves already at their limit, threatening to burst, and arms swollen taut with muscle.
The final blow.
Ben’s spear pierced through his abdomen while my sword came crashing down upon his shoulder.
“Haa… haa…”
“Huh… huh…”
Breathing heavily alongside Ben, I marveled at what we had achieved.
A full thirty-three exchanges.
The number of attacks Ben had unleashed in a single second.
[Graut’s HP reaches 0%.]
I waited expectantly.
For the notification that the demon Graut had been slain.
Then.
[Unkillable Demon]
Both my face and Ben’s contorted in disbelief.
Graut, his abdomen pierced by the spear and his shoulder crushed by the blade, still refused to dissipate.
“Surely not….”
My face drained of all color.
Graut’s characteristic as a Blood Demon was infinite regeneration fueled by blood itself.
Among Named Monsters, there were those with multiple traits.
[Graut does not die and is revived instead.]
[HP recovers to 80%.]
[The Unkillable Demon cannot be used a second time.]
[Due to using the Unkillable Demon, the Blood Demon can no longer be used.]
Because of Graut’s trait this time, he had lost the power of infinite regeneration.
‘This is dangerous….’
I understood the gravity of the situation.
Barad and Ben’s HP had dropped below 40%, and the same was true for those of Guild Gwangmyeong.
Moreover, there was what we had worried about from the beginning.
Graut recovered and remained formidable, but as we progressed through the first, second, and third battles, we grew exhausted and weakened.
‘Do we have any remaining means to kill a fully recovered Graut in our current state…?’
No.
Even NPCs had skill cooldown times.
If one depleted mana to the extreme, activation was impossible until it recovered.
Ben and I hastily lowered our weapons.
“…To push me this far, I must commend that.”
Graut was genuinely astonished.
In hundreds of years, the Unkillable Demon had never been activated even once.
Before they could dodge, Graut detonated the blood surrounding him.
Kwaaaaaang—
Ben and my HP plummeted as we were sent flying.
Ben in particular appeared to have suffered severe injuries.
At that moment, my mind spun rapidly.
‘I must turn the power of this creature who primarily uses blood against him.’
What method could there be?
Soon I recalled a certain Artifact.
It was something far too familiar to the masses.
*
*
*
“Ugh!”
“Mm….”
Nel’s face had gone pale.
Ben and I, embedded in the ground, appeared to have suffered critical damage.
[Hyeon-su’s HP drops below 50%.]
[Ben’s HP drops below 16%.]
Ben’s condition in particular looked dire.
Belia squeezed out her last strength and offered a Saint’s Prayer to Ben.
[Ben’s HP recovers to 30%.]
“It’s over now. I’ve exhausted all my holy power.”
At that moment, I saw Hyeon-su’s guild chat.
Nel, confirming him, issued orders through the guild chat.
[Nel: From this moment on, we are not hunting demons—we are dedicating all our efforts to protecting Barad, Ben, and Bella. We must remember that unlike us, their lives are finite. In any emergency, we must throw ourselves forward to save them.]
For Nel, it was a grim command.
The current situation was that dire.
Moreover, I issued additional orders based on what Hyeon-su had said, watching Graut approach.
[30 seconds remain until Summon ends.]
Friend, Help Me had no function to forcibly send them back.
They could only return once the summoning time ended.
“Sword Fighter.”
Barad turned his head at the voice calling him.
Spear Heaven Ven offered a bitter smile.
“Don’t die.”
“Neither shall you.”
And from Gwangmyeong, Bark took the lead.
“Let’s go.”
And Graut, confident in victory, let out a maniacal laugh.
“Kahahaha!!”
Barad, Spear Heaven Ven, Bella, and the members of Gwangmyeong rushed at him all at once.
Crash!
Crack!
Splurt, splurt—
A fierce exchange of blows unfolded.
Graut’s face, which had been laughing with confidence in victory, turned savage.
Though they were dying, they refused to fall.
What was most astonishing was the unbreakable bodies and willpower of Barad and Ben.
They were currently suffering critical injuries, their situations precarious.
Barad’s wrists barely moved, and Ben had several ribs broken, making his movements difficult.
Splurt—
Crash!
Even in that state, Ben pierced his abdomen, and Barad brought his sword down upon his shoulder.
Simultaneously, the members of Guild Gwangmyeong surged forward.
Clang, clang, clang!
Splurt, splurt, splurt, splurt!
Screech—!
Crash!
[Graut’s HP drops below 60%.]
“Uooooh!”
“Grraaahhh!”
But Graut knew the truth. They were like candles flickering before the wind.
Fragile, ready to extinguish at the slightest gust.
Graut had chosen Ben as his first target to eliminate.
An explosion erupted.
First strike.
BOOM—
Second strike.
BOOM—
Third strike.
BOOM—
Fourth, fifth.
CRASH—!
“Ugh…!”
[Ben’s HP has fallen below 10%.]
Ben’s battered form was drenched in blood from countless wounds.
Graut rushed forward, aiming for his throat.
Ben’s vision swam.
‘…I’m going to die.’
This single attack would surely end him.
Then, another figure shoved Ben aside and took his place.
It was Bark.
“Hngh…!”
Bark seized Graut’s blade with both hands—the very blade that had crushed his shoulder completely.
[Unbreakable Tank]
[Consumes life force to immobilize the enemy.]
[Lasts for 6 seconds.]
“This is it—go now!”
Steam rose from Bark’s body, glowing an intense crimson.
Immediately after, the final barrage of attacks descended from all around.
CRASH—
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!
Thud!
And Bark was literally burning away his own life force.
The penalty for activating this skill was forced Logout.
“These insects, even to the very end!”
[Graut’s HP has fallen below 55%.]
And Bark felt himself slowly beginning to dissipate.
For a high-ranker, the level loss from forced Logout was catastrophic.
But.
‘Ben, Barad, and Bella were people far too precious to Hyeon-su.’
Bark crumbled entirely to ash and scattered.
[Guild member Bark has fallen.]
Behind that horrific notification, Graut’s fury ignited in earnest.
“I no longer wish to dance to your rhythm.”
He wanted to torment them one by one, to snuff out their lives.
But now he felt no need for such prolonged suffering—time was slipping away.
Time to kill those who had tormented him so.
[6 seconds remaining until Summon.]
Blood shed by all began to drift upward into the mid-air.
Ben’s, Barad’s, Bella’s, and the rest of Guild Gwangmyeong’s.
Even Graut’s own blood and what had seeped into the ground—all of it.
These droplets coalesced into fist-sized orbs, hovering around them.
Approximately 786 of them—the pinnacle of the Blood Demon’s power.
[Blood Festival]
[A massive explosion engulfs a 60-meter radius.]
[It carries an additional 800% attack power.]
Once. This single strike would kill everyone here.
Nel’s face drained of all color.
Ben and Barad moved desperately to interrupt the incantation.
[During Blood Festival, attacks against Graut are impossible.]
Ben and Barad realized they were already too late.
“Die.”
The blood droplets began to swell.
The harbinger of detonation.
Then.
‘What…?’
The blood droplets did not explode.
Instead, they suddenly drifted slowly in another direction.
Graut sensed something amiss.
A discovery made at the culmination of their fierce clash.
‘Why are they gathered together?’
They never grouped like this.
They knew that if they were attacked while clustered, all would perish.
[1 second remaining until Summon.]
Graut understood.
They were shielding something, concealing it.
Ben smiled faintly.
“This is the true form of my friend Hyeon-su.”
Barad spoke.
“That’s right, the power of a Master Craftsman.”
Those who had been concealing something stepped back several paces, opening a path.
A single User hidden within that space was revealed.
Through the subtlety of emergency Crafting, a Sword was being completed.
That Sword descended slowly into Hyeon-su’s hand.
Shwing—
A Sword whose Sword Blade and grip were entirely wrought in black.
Gazing upon that Sword, Graut recalled a single blade.
‘A Demonic Sword…?’
*
*
*
Since ancient times, it has been known that Demonic Swords drink blood.
The System acknowledges such power when crafted with absolute perfection.
[The Summon of Friend, Help Me is ending.]
I watched those of Guild Gwangmyeong fade into light and vanish.
The moment I grasped the Sword, every droplet of blood that Graut had created flowed entirely into the Demonic Sword I had forged.
The effect I had woven into this Sword.
[Absorbs all blood.]
That mysterious Demonic Sword began to drain even the blood inherent within Graut himself.
[Graut is weakened.]
[Graut is weakened.]
The fascinating truth was that as it drained his blood, both his level and his HP were being diminished simultaneously.
[Graut’s HP falls below 30%.]
“A, a Demonic Sword…? How could a human forge a Demonic Sword! More than that, what in the world is that Sword!”
[Graut, Blood Demon Lv.378]
“People call this Sword by a different name.”
Whoooooosh—
Graut’s eyes trembled.
The droplets of blood he had unleashed. And the power of blood that his own body possessed.
“Tyrfing.”
Those powers were drawn into the Demonic Sword, becoming the source of its strength.
A colossal force erupted from the Demonic Sword.
Kuhooooooo—
The ground trembled and heaven and earth convulsed.
[The eighth legend is inscribed.]
Using the enemy’s strength to slay the enemy.
The principle of defeating the barbarian with the barbarian’s own methods.

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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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