Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 230

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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
Housewarming (6)
[The evaluation is in progress.]
Hyeon-su froze upon hearing the notification.
No matter how long he waited, the evaluator Bon never appeared.
The message that the evaluation was ongoing suggested several possible scenarios.
The most heavily weighted prediction was that he was “currently fighting someone.”
Karn’s words had lent credence to this theory.
“Commander Bon of Atlas was truly formidable and exceptional. However, it is said that as he grasped greater power, he developed an arrogant and contemptuous disposition toward others.”
Hyeon-su decided he could not simply stand idle and wait for them.
“An hour has passed without his arrival, and we don’t know what’s happening. We need to find them quickly.”
The fortunate aspect was that NPCs did not die during the evaluation.
Hyeon’s Blacksmith Shop shifted their plan from waiting to actively searching for them.
They quickly dispersed to hunt for the group.
Hyeon-su’s teeth clenched.
‘Who on earth could it be…!?’
Then, at that moment.
[Guild member Nel has logged in.]
Nel had fallen asleep immediately after having several tea times, exhausted from the social engagement.
She learned the full story from her fellow guild members.
She spoke in the guild chat.
[Nel: Haven’t Ben, Prince Barad, and Saint Aria arrived yet?]
“…?”
Hyeon-su’s expression grew puzzled.
Why would they be coming to Atlas?
Soon Nel revealed that she had held a tea time.
[Bark: Then why haven’t those three arrived?]
[Risel: It was merely an invitation, so perhaps they simply chose not to come?]
It was a reasonable point.
Hyeon-su could understand why her unilateral action had occurred.
Gathering Seeds of Life was an extraordinarily difficult task for Hyeon’s Blacksmith Shop, which had only a minimal number of members.
Nel had taken independent action to meet with them, attempting to accomplish the gathering of Seeds of Life.
Hyeon-su felt no anger.
He understood her intentions.
‘Sometimes, words spoken by another carry far greater weight than those I speak myself.’
Her unilateral action was also for the sake of Hyeon’s Blacksmith Shop.
[Nel: Could it be that one of them has clashed with someone?]
It was a plausible theory.
Because of this, Hyeon-su began moving with greater urgency.
Just as those three people were precious to Hyeon-su, he cherished them equally in return.
And Hyeon-su discovered Bon and five hundred of the elite forces.
‘Did they really clash with one of the Legends?’
Their HP had already plummeted to below fifty percent.
Moreover, the numbers had drastically decreased from the initial thousand.
One thing was certain: the trial was being conducted through combat from the start.
Hyeon-su immediately activated the power dwelling within the Twin Dragon Sword.
[Linkage]
[The Twin Dragon Sword maximizes the power dwelling within its wielder, and the speed at which those powers connect accelerates by more than twice.]
‘This is the level where I can deliver the finishing blow.’
The moment Hyeon-su saw them, he noticed they were in an extremely exhausted state.
Additionally, when HP decreased, most of their abnormal status resistance also dropped significantly.
Hyeon-su pulled them all before him in one swift motion.
“Greetings. I am Hyeon-su, the new Lord of Atlas Territory.”
It was anger at the fact that they had tormented those under his rule.
Hyeon-su did not know that three Legends had been present together.
However, had they been alone individually, he judged that a battle with them would have been quite formidable.
‘Such tremendous power….’
Bon felt the immense force emanating from the sword Hyeon-su had drawn behind him.
Moreover, he and the elite soldiers were in an exhausted state.
Just moments before, they had encountered the strongest beings beyond common sense, leaving them unable to regain their composure.
In this situation, Bon had denied that it made sense for the Lord to be strong as well.
Yet that denial shattered pathetically as he beheld the Twin Dragon Sword drawn behind him.
Furthermore.
[Overwhelming Pressure]
Hyeon-su’s newly acquired legendary stat, Overwhelming Pressure, manifested its power.
According to the description of Overwhelming Pressure, it exerted more dramatic power depending on the situation.
Bon and the five hundred elite soldiers, exhausted beyond measure, fell perfectly into this dramatic circumstance.
All of them, including Bon.
Kuuuoooooo—
They were being overwhelmed, quite literally, by the formidable aura emanating from his sword.
Moreover, this Overwhelming Pressure was a legendary stat possessing a special power capable of inducing various abnormal status conditions.
[You have been afflicted with Stiffening.]
[Your body cannot move due to sudden terror.]
Bon was stiffened completely.
And the power contained within the Twin Dragon Sword that Hyeon-su drew back with all his might.
It was the same power that had bisected hundreds of rankers in a single stroke during the Continental War.
[One Stroke, Two Halves]
[Cutting power is maximized at 641%, cleaving horizontally across a radius of five meters.]
Hyeon-su planted his right foot on the ground and unleashed the Twin Dragon Sword with tremendous force.
Shwiiiiing—!
Bon’s pupils dilated.
‘What in the world…?’
He couldn’t suppress his shock.
He who had reached Level 475.
Himself, possessing strength that bordered on legend, had suffered a grave wound and nearly been cleaved in two.
Moreover, a power that split everything within a five-meter radius.
The elite soldiers who had been densely packed from the recent gathering.
Approximately two hundred of them had turned to ash and scattered in an instant.
“Commander Bon!”
“Damn it all!”
The remaining three hundred or so elite soldiers rushed forward to save him as he staggered.
That was a mistake.
Fluttering—
Hyeon-su, who had already swapped to the buff-type Twin Dragon Sword, soared high into the sky.
I contemplate the meaning of this trial.
What is a trial, after all?
It was to see whether I was a master worthy of possessing this Atlas.
I pose this question to myself.
‘What are you, to dare judge me?’
A trial means a superior evaluating an inferior.
And I understood the current situation better than anyone.
They may not know whom they’ve encountered, but right now I face another situation of overwhelming advantage.
The HP of Bon and the elite soldiers could be taken down in one strike if I landed my ultimate skill properly!
[Three-Foot Oath to Heaven.]
[Mountains and Rivers Shift in Color.]
The debuff aura that manifested in an instant crashed down upon the three hundred elite soldiers rushing forward and Bon standing among them.
“Gack…!”
“Cough!”
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch—
And furthermore.
[One Sweep Annihilation.]
[Blood Stains the Mountains and Rivers.]
The Twin Dragon Sword, greatly enhanced by the power of the buff.
“The Sword’s Cry.”
Hundreds of blades lacerated them.
Yet something strange occurred.
The soldiers’ expressions, which had shown shock and fear, began to be touched by an odd sense of relief.
And that same relief was present in Bon as well.
Three hundred soldiers turned to ash and vanished.
And Bon too had met death, yet he was not dead.
[The Examiner does not die until the examination is complete.]
His body, which seemed to scatter completely, was recreated.
And the reason Bon and the elite soldiers held onto a sliver of hope.
Before opening his eyes again, Examiner Bon recalled his conversation with the Saint.
‘Bon. The next master of Atlas Territory must not be weak like me, one who harbors these Seeds of Life. I lacked strength because of my weakness, unable to protect my territory and my people. If someone worthy of your loyalty appears within the standards you recognize, and if they are capable of preventing such tragedy from repeating, then follow them. Not for your sake, but for those who have awakened.’
Thus, Bon and the elite soldiers’ true purpose lay in serving a new Lord someday.
Bon had witnessed it together with the elite soldiers on the day they were struck by the dragon’s breath.
The sight of everything precious that he and the Saint had built scattering into ash.
The despair, the loss, the pain of that moment….
‘I did not want to see history repeat itself.’
As his eyes opened, he saw the new Lord breathing heavily.
He still did not know if those three remained his subordinates or not.
But they were certainly those who sought to protect him.
Hyeon-su’s expression as he looked at Bon was sharp.
“It should have come from me. You had no right to attack them.”
Bon could understand his angry expression.
Though in truth they had been beaten like dogs, he was misunderstanding and cherishing, worrying over someone.
And so Bon came to understand.
Even if they were residents of Atlas Territory, his heart would have been the same.
“So, do you acknowledge this? Are you satisfied?”
In truth, Bon had already died once, so the examination was as good as finished.
Bon answered.
“Quite impressive. I will not apologize. That was my duty to fulfill.”
Bon began to fade away.
And the moment the fading Bon closed his eyes, Hyeon-su heard a remarkable notification.
Though Hyeon-su did not know it, from the lips of the arrogant Bon, “quite impressive” was the highest praise.
[The examination is complete.]
[Bon grants all 100,000 Seeds he can give.]
[The total number of Seeds exceeds 200,000.]
[You can awaken to the maximum at your current level.]
He offered no excuses to the angry Hyeon-su, nor words of servitude.
Yet he gave the highest examination score he could offer and the greatest number of Seeds.
As Bon scattered completely, he harbored one thought.
‘When I awaken, will you be able to win my heart as well?’
That would be known in the distant future.
*
*
*
After Bon completely vanished, guild members who heard the commotion rushed over.
“Hyeon-su, are you alright?”
“It’s fine.”
Though I now possessed 200,000 Seeds of Life, a concern gnawed at me.
200,000 seeds nestled within my grasp.
An unknowable number of people would awaken from them.
“…Can we truly manage all of them?”
Nel grasped the implication.
“It will be difficult. If tens of thousands of territory residents awaken, our current financial resources will fall woefully short.”
When they awaken, we’ll need funds to feed them, clothe them, and shelter them.
Of course, once they awaken, they’ll begin productive activities, allowing us to collect taxes.
The problem is we don’t know how many months stabilization will take.
“Still, we should awaken them, shouldn’t we?”
“We must. Hyeon’s Forge is pathetically weak in its current state.”
I recalled the balance in my bank account.
“I’ll have to abandon my plans of becoming a king in reality.”
The money I’d been saving to purchase buildings would need to be spent here.
Nel spoke as well.
“I’ll tighten my belt as much as possible.”
“We’ll focus on hunting for now and funnel the proceeds into the territory’s coffers.”
In truth, this would stall the guild members’ growth for a while.
I felt a bitter taste.
My guild members were suffering because they had an incompetent master.
Thus we completed our seed gathering—joyless though it was—and trudged wearily toward the Lord’s Castle.
Then something unexpected befell me.
Three legends arrived.
“Housewarming gifts.”
“Heh, it took some effort to bring them.”
“These are gifts from the Ares Church.”
[You obtain 1,703,010 Gold.]
“Gasp!?”
The housewarming gifts amounted to 1.7 billion won.
When Aria, who possessed a subspace, emptied it completely, miscellaneous items piled up like mountains.
Including all the miscellaneous items, the total gifts reached 3.6 billion won.
After hearing the full story from the three of them, I screamed internally.
‘This is incredible! An absolute windfall!’
Multiple coincidences and circumstances had aligned to create this fortune.
And now I felt no fear.
‘No matter how many territory residents I awaken!’
I now possessed sufficient funds to lead and manage them.
And there was something I needed to do immediately.
[Please use the Seeds of Life.]
It was to use the Seeds of Life to awaken the slumbering and become a true Lord.
Hyeon-su stepped forward with an eager heart toward the point where he could use the Seeds of Life.
Then.
[You have gathered the Seeds of Life exponentially in a short period.]
Through the notification, I could discern one fact.
[One of what the Saint left behind.]
[You can learn a Passive Skill.]
[The Ultimate Principle is of Transcendent grade.]
There remained rewards yet to be claimed.

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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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