Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 258

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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
Royal Shop (5)
[Lesser Demon’s Wager.]
[Status Abnormality: Extreme Fear has been applied.]
[All Stats decreased by 15%.]
[Agility decreased by 25%.]
[You take 1,613 damage per second.]
Level 615. The moment I faced the lesser demon, I fell into a state of abnormality and experienced genuine, overwhelming terror for the first time.
Its wager was unlike ordinary status effects.
‘Extreme fear.’
It was a higher-tier abnormality than the typical ‘fear’ status effect, and it felt viscerally real.
The instant we locked eyes, every hair on my body stood on end, and my legs trembled like aspen leaves.
Yet I focused on something else.
[Legion Commander’s Wrath]
[Your first Legend title shines brightly.]
[One legend cannot suppress another of equal standing.]
Robbs appeared suddenly. Because he shared the same legendary rank, he could resist its status effect.
‘Bahala said that even hunting the lesser demon with 20% HP remaining was no simple task.’
If he were to protect me now, his movements would become tangled, and Bahala would face certain defeat.
Moreover, my presence here stemmed from his reluctant consent.
‘I refuse to be dead weight—no, quite the opposite.’
The moment I cast aside my fear, fighting spirit surged within me.
[You are one of the 10 Legends of the Asgan Continent.]
[Yet most will not acknowledge you as a true legend.]
I was not revered like Barad or Ben.
There were many reasons.
In an era where the average legend reached level 480, my level remained stuck in the 360s.
While legends had accumulated countless achievements, the only achievement I could claim was crafting a special artifact.
‘Yes, a legend in name only.’
That was who I was, and I had lived two months in that state.
I clenched my fist at the notification that followed.
[Legion Commander Robbs is a being who has slain 2,761,614 humans, equivalent to a legend.]
[Should you succeed in vanquishing Legion Commander Robbs, people will shower you with praise as one of the 10 Master Craftsmen.]
When I became a legend, I had harbored doubts.
As expected, upon becoming a legend, I had unlocked countless stat points and the first Legend title.
Yet I had deemed it insufficient.
But the notification I now heard sent a thrill through me.
Ding!
[Legendary Quest: A Legend Who Defeated a Legend]
Rank: SSS
Restriction: Master Craftsman
Reward: Master Craftsman’s Pride
Penalty on Failure: Suspicion of Legendary Status.
Description: Robbs, Legion Commander of Gremory’s Legion, is a demon who led the massacre of humans.
Several territories have been annihilated by him, and he too is of Legendary Grade like yourself.
Eliminate Legion Commander Robbs and solidify your standing as a Master Craftsman.
The reason why Hyeon-su’s ascension to legend had been insufficient becomes clear.
His level at that time was in the 330s.
The Achievement he accomplished was Legendary Grade, so the system had initiated its own adjustment.
Just like this current Quest.
[Master Craftsman’s Pride is an abnormal status condition possessed by legends.]
It would unlock anew each time Hyeon-su proved he was a true legend.
And Hyeon-su understood.
If he were to be equated with the legends he knew, it would be Ben and Barad’s tier.
Moreover, Named NPCs and Named Boss Monsters carry distinct differences.
The advantage of Named NPCs lies in skills, ability, and experience.
Conversely, the advantage of Named Boss Monsters lies in an HP pool no human could dare match, along with absurd attack and defense power, and their inherent traits.
People define it thus.
When human and monster are of equal level, the monster holds superiority.
[This will not be easy to overcome.]
Even if Barad and Ben were to come, this would not be a simple opponent.
Yet Hyeon-su laughed.
The names of abnormal status conditions that legends inherently possess are closely tied to their essence.
The Sword King’s Killing Intent.
In truth, the fighting spirit flowing through Sword King Barad’s body was beyond what any ordinary human could approach.
And Spear Heaven’s Wrath—ironically, it manifests its power the moment Ben, the cantankerous old man who controls his own anger better than most, unleashes it.
‘Master Craftsman’s Pride.’
A name only he who had overcome impossible circumstances could possess.
[All evil shall be severed!]
[80% of HP is deleted!]
The instant Babylon was swung, Hyeon-su’s mind raced with calculation.
‘It’s insufficient.’
Within a 30-meter radius.
And trapped within an abnormal status condition, there was little Hyeon-su could do.
“You insane bastard?”
He embraced the creature and charged forward with all his might.
‘I will create a possibility to win, no matter what.’
Legion Commander Robbs is presumed to be a Tamer.
He wields stats absurdly high for his level.
Crackle—crackle—crackle—crackle—
Robbs’s blazing whip lashed out relentlessly, striking me again and again.
[Your HP has fallen below 70%.]
In just four whip strikes, 30% of my health vanished.
I found myself questioning whether this creature was truly a Tamer.
Fwoooooosh—
A colossal torrent of luminous lava erupted from the earth, engulfing Robbs.
The reason I had drawn him into the splash damage radius despite the cost to myself.
With Bahala’s additional damage against evil, combined with my base attack power of 2,300% as the highest-ranked User, the devastation was transcendent.
[Legion Commander Robbs’s HP has fallen below 60%.]
“Krraaaaaaagh!!!”
A boss monster—and moreover, the commander of the demon forces—Robbs possessed roughly three times the total HP of human Tamers of the same level.
Screeeech—
Robbs, now forced to acknowledge the attack, found the man before him utterly incomprehensible.
‘What is this creature?’
Bahala would return someday.
Robbs had been waiting with the lesser demons, confident in that fact.
When the two of them entered, Robbs had sensed it.
‘Ah, this will be an easy hunt of humans.’
The other human, apart from Bahala, seemed utterly insignificant.
Yet this man had demonstrated quick wit and inflicted catastrophic damage upon him.
The shock was fleeting.
He sneered through the lingering traces of light suspended in mid-air.
“Resorting to such trivial tricks!”
I had merely been careless.
His whip’s velocity increased exponentially.
The whip, infused with demonic energy, struck in rapid succession—once, thrice, five times—lashing me in an instant.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-crack—!
Five attacks per second.
[Your HP has fallen below 41%.]
My agility had been severely reduced by the lesser demon’s spirit suppression.
Even now, though my body bore the brunt of the whip’s assault, I couldn’t land a single strike.
Yet pride means an unbreakable spirit.
From the start, Robbs was a being far beyond me.
Within that chasm, I searched for a way to win.
My armor crumpled and torn, my eyes gleamed through the lingering effects.
Gazing at Legion Commander Robbs through the light, I found a method.
“Pull.”
Shuuuuuuuck—!
An irresistible force of attraction seized Robbs, catching him off-guard.
There I stood before him, battered and trampled.
Robbs burst into laughter, startled by that searing gaze.
“Krahaha, krahahahaha!”
That same burning look had blazed in the knight who once defended the human Territory that he had annihilated.
Certain defeat, yet he burned with pride to achieve victory and protect his Territory.
But what became of him?
His limbs were torn to shreds, and Robbs hurled his head before the Lord, plunging all into despair.
[Nullification]
A power bestowed by Gremory.
Through Nullification, Robbs erases the force imbued within my Sword.
[Unable to manifest Active Skill.]
I hesitate, about to trigger the Sword’s Cry.
My plan to suppress his body through the Sword’s Cry’s debuff—a two-second stun—crumbles.
“Krahahahaha, you haven’t landed a single blow yet!?”
Robbs’s laughter rang out like thunder.
All I had managed was to land Bahala’s splash damage upon him.
Kwaarrrrgh—!
Tremendous demonic energy surges through the whip.
The legendary demon race who slaughtered humanity. Robbs’s strength—the “Severing Whip.”
The whip that cleaves through reinforced steel strikes my motionless body repeatedly.
[HP drops below 31%.]
[HP drops below 17%.]
I feel the wall closing in.
Yet I grip the Twin Dragon Sword with all my might.
Even if only once, I will sever his neck and create another opening somehow.
That is the pride of a Master Craftsman.
Kwaaaagh—
Channeling strength through my hind legs, I parry the Twin Dragon Sword with everything I have.
“Krahahahaha, yes, just once!”
He speaks as though indulging me, but that is not it.
Between the sweeping whips, I have carved out a single guaranteed opening—one chance for certain contact.
Yet Robbs felt no fear whatsoever.
But then elation bloomed across my face.
“Do you know what this is?”
Robbs was taken aback.
It was an arrogance and majesty, a charisma befitting any legend.
And a unique stat I possessed—that of the Saint.
Overwhelming Presence.
[You are afflicted with the status abnormality: Overwhelming Presence.]
[You are momentarily paralyzed.]
“This strike will be nothing like the one you remember.”
Robbs denied it.
Humans were a race that loved to boast.
A race that claimed to do the impossible.
But he was wrong.
[Ultimate Technique activates.]
A power defined as Ares’s first instant-death skill.
That aura spreads across the Twin Dragon Sword.
My heart pounded like a pump.
An entity of impossibility.
A Legendary Grade monster.
An evil that slaughtered humanity.
Robbs was an entity difficult to reach.
Yet I wished to touch him, if only for a moment.
And this Ultimate Technique unleashes in a single strike the greatest single damage I had ever dealt.
This is both the weakness and strength of the Ultimate Technique.
The highest damage a User has ever dealt ultimately represents the limit that User had reached.
But what of me?
‘I achieved that single strike at a height even Bahala could never approach.’
The title of creator of the strongest single blow was buffed at that time.
How was such a thing possible?
My Twin Dragon Sword possesses a skill called Accumulation.
This Accumulation stores 15% of damage received over 5 minutes.
In other words, this too is a double-edged sword.
But that place was different.
During the Continental War, Accumulation absorbed the power of China’s greatest rankers as nourishment.
At that time, I thought this.
‘Unprecedented accumulation.’
It truly was.
Accumulation grows more effective the more I face the Strong Ones, and the greater their numbers.
I define it this way.
Such an opportunity would never come again.
But I knew.
Whoooooosh—
A single blade of absurd damage felt only by me.
This cannot sever Robbs, who possesses 60% of his HP, in one stroke.
‘No matter how much maximum damage, I can only shave 30% from a Legendary Grade.’
But I am satisfied with this much.
I need only drive this single strike as a fatal wound into his throat.
At last, strength fills both my arms as I begin to swing.
I know that after landing this attack, I will die miserably.
Yet I realize one crucial fact.
The Extremity I wielded moments ago differs from the Extremity manifesting now.
[Triggered by 0.1% probability.]
Extremity possessed two activation thresholds: 0.4% and 0.1%.
I understood that 0.4% unleashed the most devastating damage.
But the 0.1% probability activation was never precisely documented.
Only that an Extremity superior to the ordinary would unfold.
This 0.1% Extremity occurs once in a thousand strikes.
Even with the Dagger of Desire elevating the probability, it manifests once in seven hundred strikes.
As I thrust my Sword forward, exhilaration burned through me.
[You manifest twice the power of your highest damage ever inflicted!]
The true manifestation of an instant death technique.
Robbs’ eyes widened as he prepared to greet me with a casual expression.
“I too am a Legend.”
Amid universal denial, the Sword swings.
Shhhhwiiing—!
With a clean, crisp cutting sound, Robbs’ face turned hollow.
His body stiffened from the blow, yet contradicting that expression, he felt no pain whatsoever.
‘That was nothing? Hmph.’
That thought was mistaken.
A dull blade cuts deeper and stings more sharply.
Conversely, when cut by a Sword sharper than any other, one feels nothing—only upon seeing the blood flow does awareness arrive.
Drip, drip drip—
Robbs’ head, cleanly severed, begins to fall toward the ground.
Only then does he realize once more.
‘…In just one strike?’
And watching the falling head, I exult.
[First among all damage dealt in history.]
[It will take any User an eternity to reach this height.]
First in all history.
Meaning a realm even Bahala never touched.
And even if reached, it demands an age of cultivation.
Yet my exultation stems not from this. It is the position I shall ascend to through him.
The exultation of the reward I shall receive as I grow stronger through this.
But now, a notification rings.
That notification plants a new reward and new thought, seeding also a singular certainty.
[The title ‘To me, your loyalty’ shines brilliantly.]
The aura of obtaining a Retainer who shone ordinarily.
Added to that, another power.
[The Lord’s Grace activates.]
Two notifications proved it.
The lesser demon Lucifer would.
‘become the guardian who would protect the North Gate.’

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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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