Genius Blacksmith’s Game

Kan.
He was once the deputy commander of the Storm Brigade.
Among the soldiers in Araham Territory, he had the highest level: 230.
He was strong enough to beat a knight in a straight fight.
He deliberately stood at Hyunsoo’s side, acting as a guide.
It was in case something happened.
If he has no great strength besides that special power, then I have to protect the soldiers.
The soldiers were afraid right now.
When the soldiers fall into danger, the one who must save them is the knight.
But if that knight can’t even protect his own body, the soldiers will die.
It was while they were walking side by side like that.
Ssshhh—
Kan’s expression turned puzzled.
What is this? The atmosphere is different from usual. Something’s off.
Kan had stayed in Araham Territory for close to ten years.
In Araham Territory, the Giant King lying dormant in the green-leaf forest continually calls down giants around itself.
In other words, they respawn.
In this forest he had patrolled countless times, some unknown energy seemed to be hanging in the air.
The first reason was the tremor in the ground.
“Sir Knight, could you wait a moment?”
Kan put his ear to the ground.
Just what is this…?
The fact that users granted the Junior Baron title came to this Araham Territory was a kind of noble tutorial.
They would always hunt a fixed number of monsters together with soldiers within a fixed area.
What is with this number of footsteps?
His face twisted with goosebumps. Something was wrong.
Moreover, the subjugation squad had already reached the midpoint, having only not run into giants.
Why haven’t even the giants shown up?
It was strange.
The subjugation squad was supposed to advance while hunting the Ogres that appeared in small numbers and, in the end, kill the Ogre Chieftain.
But not a single Ogre was in sight, even though they should have already hunted around ten by now.
Don’t tell me…!
Kan felt the massive tremors coming from far away.
Those tremors were the sound of dozens of massively heavy beings all pushing in together.
All the ones they hadn’t hunted along the way were rushing in at once.
“Sir Knight…”
Kan looked up at Hyunsoo at his side with trembling eyes, and Hyunsoo asked:
“You know that outsiders hear mysterious messages, don’t you, Kan?”
He meant notifications.
Kan knew as well.
Those mysterious messages, those notifications, were things even those who lived in this land sometimes heard.
“That message just now said this.”
“What did it say?”
“The Giant King has awakened.”
Kan’s face twisted in utter dismay.
 
*****
Special User Management Team.
Team Leader Kim Taeseok had once said this to Associate Lee Jihee:
“Even if user Hyunsoo raises the subjugation rate with outstanding results, it’ll end up capped at around thirty-five percent.”
There was no helping it. That was the limit of the knight tutorial.
However, because of one particular incident, Team Leader Kim Taeseok’s view had no choice but to change.
The beginning of that incident lay with an arrogant knight.
Kim Taeseok and Lee Jihee had been continuously watching that knight NPC.
His name was Luk. He was none other than Marquis Lukburk’s son.
Luk, Marquis Lukburk’s only child, was one of the kingdom’s five outstanding talents.
Those five outstanding talents was a collective term for those who had stood out since childhood.
Step by step, Luk had honed his swordsmanship and had recently joined the kingdom’s order of knights.
Even though he already had the background of Lukburk and was himself a noble, the reason he walked that path was to become a talent befitting the land of the sword.
At any rate, it was true that Luk, a knight superior to those who had only just received their titles, was somewhat arrogant.
And then his father, Marquis Lukburk, ended up being demoted.
Luk, now holding a knight title, felt a sense of crisis.
As his father’s son, he could not allow a stain on his father’s reputation.
Let’s show our family’s strength here.
Araham Territory was a place every newly minted knight absolutely had to come.
As expected, with outstanding command and excellent skill, he carried out his allotted subjugation in one go.
The problem began from there.
He had to achieve even greater merit.
He had to make his name even more widely known.
Thinking he could do it just as easily again, he took his soldiers’ steps into the green-leaf forest.
The soldiers could not stop him.
Who in Araham Territory could possibly defy the words of Marquis Lukburk’s son, who had become its new master?
Only seasoned people could enter the green-leaf forest, and there was a manual for it.
But Luk went in not knowing even that.
Because of that complacency, the boss monster, the Giant King, who had slept for a long time, was slowly beginning to wake.
“I take back what I said earlier. Now he can push it past forty percent.”

There was a reason Kim Taeseok said that.
“The respawn rate of giant-type monsters has doubled, and in a situation like that, if he hunts more monsters, the subjugation rate can’t help but climb higher.”
Lee Jihee made a bitter face.
“But you said he might be able to raise it. That’s assuming he can actually hunt them.”
Taeseok answered with a wry smile.
“Right. It’s a story for if he survives, to begin with.”
 
*****
[The long-slumbering Giant King awakens.]
[Monster respawn rate doubles.]
[Giant-type monsters gather at the king’s appearance.]
[The gathered giant-type monsters grow more savage.]
[Giant-type monsters under orders begin their charge.]
Hyunsoo could not help but be flustered.
As the subjugation squad leader, riding on horseback, he had thought something was strange.
Why isn’t there a single monster?
The reason there had been no monsters had been revealed by that notification just now, and the notification was blinking red.
[Warning.]
[Warning.]
[Immediate retreat is recommended.]
This was a notification that sounded when a situation unfolded that users could not have predicted.
Normally, notifications of this type occurred when events far exceeded the level of the quest you had accepted.
[The penalty for Kingdom Quest: Ogre Chieftain Hunt is stripping of title.]
But there was a trap in this notification system.
Even if something suddenly happened that you couldn’t possibly handle, the penalty didn’t change.
You could see failure of the Ogre Chieftain Hunt as this.
Total party wipe.
For Hyunsoo, who had planned to show his real worth to those who didn’t trust him and easily raise the subjugation rate, this was a bewildering turn.
And the soldiers, too, spotted the horde of giants coming from afar.
“H-hiiiii…!”
“W-what is that?!”
“No way, did the Giant King wake up? The legend said strange things would happen if the Giant King woke.”
The soldiers’ faces turned even paler.
“W-we’re going to die.”
[The soldiers’ morale drops by 10%.]
[Their attack and defense each decrease by 7%.]
Hyunsoo’s face twisted. The soldiers were in a complete panic.
At that moment, Kan, who was standing beside Hyunsoo, spoke.
“We must retreat. If we don’t retreat now, we’ll all die. Normally, we hunt those things two or three at a time.”
Kan groaned as he looked at the ones visible in the distance.
“There are already twenty of them in sight alone. Please give the order to fall back at once!”
Hyunsoo spoke in a firm voice.
“No.”
“…This is not the time to cling to your pride as a noble.”
Kan swallowed his anger. Was he perhaps worried about losing his title?
Did he really think it was acceptable for thirty soldiers to die meaningless deaths over something like that?
“We’ll die even if we retreat.”
But Kan realized.
What is this…? This man…?
He was calmly assessing the current situation.
Only then did Kan calculate in his head the giants’ running speed and the soldiers’ speed.
If we show them our backs, they’ll catch up and kill us soon enough.
The chance of dying completely helplessly was higher.
There was a big difference between being cut down while fleeing and dying fighting in formation.
Right now, the odds were higher if they prepared and fought.
In truth, even that looked extremely slim.
In other words, a dilemma with no way out.
At that moment, Kan showed a spirit of sacrifice.
“…Lead the soldiers and run.”
Kan could exert strength on par with decent knights.
Knights could handle about three Ogres on their own.
Of course, if he fought twenty of them alone, it might only buy a few minutes of slim possibility.
Even so, it could raise the chances of survival for the soldiers and Hyunsoo.
And Hyunsoo’s mind was already spinning rapidly.
Distance between them and the giant horde: 400 meters.
350 meters.
300 meters…
“Give the order, quickly…!”
The terrified soldiers, and Kan urging him on.
And amidst the horde of giants charging toward them, a stillness settled around Hyunsoo.
I’ll fight as a knight, and I’ll fight as a blacksmith.
A way to fight as a blacksmith.
Although Hyunsoo had never led anyone before, his understanding of weapons was exceptional.
“Those holding spears, stand in the positions I designate.”
Kan was startled by his suddenly transformed ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) charisma.
“Those with bows, take a seated shooting stance and raise your accuracy.”
Then he pointed up at dozens of trees.
“Those with swords, climb up into the trees and lie in wait.”
There was no time.
That was why he chose to be far more forceful and leave them no room to resist.
“That’s an order.”
Hyunsoo didn’t really know how to lead.
But he knew what had to be done in a situation like this.
“I brought you out here, and I won’t let you die like dogs. I can’t promise that no one will die.”
Hyunsoo gave a bitter smile as he looked at the fear-stricken soldiers.
“But it’ll be a far more worthwhile challenge than dying while running away.”
From those words, Kan felt a strange sense of pride and thought he had to move the soldiers.
So he stepped forward and shouted first.
“Order received!”
Following him, the frightened soldiers also began to prepare to survive.
Kan stood right beside Hyunsoo.
Before they knew it: 150 meters.
Kan asked:
“What are you going to do?”
130 meters.
“Grrrrooooaaaar!”
“Graaaarghhh!”
“Grrrhhh…!”
[Ogre Lv.275]
110 meters.
“I’m going to sweep away the ones charging in right now.”
As he said that, Hyunsoo drew the Thousand-Weight Bow.
Kan’s face twisted when he saw it.
“Even then, you can only fire two shots at most.”
Given the current speed of the giant horde and the speed at which you could nock and loose, it was only two arrows.
Could you create any chance with a shot or two?
Kan denied it.
Just now, he had seen the aspect of a strong commander in Hyunsoo.
But he had realized something.
That had been arrogance and a misjudged expectation.
There was no way to deal with those things with only two arrows.
At that moment, tiny bits of ore and what looked like wooden stems rose up above Hyunsoo’s head.
The stems were shaved down rapidly, forming hard, long shafts.
Then sharp arrowheads joined with the shafts.
Clack—
Hyunsoo knew as well.
He couldn’t stop them with a single arrow.
[Time of Thousand-Weight.]
[The weight of Thousand-Weight is applied.]
40 meters.
“H-hiiiii…!”
“Hiiiiii!”
“This is insane!”
“Commander, how are you going to stop Ogres with a single arrow?!”
Before they knew it, the Ogres were almost upon them.
One Ogre, 4 meters tall, was running at Hyunsoo, raising a massive axe behind its back.
30 meters.
Strength gathered in the arm with which Hyunsoo drew the bowstring.
“U-uwaaah!”
“Save us!”
“We-we’re going to die!”
Twaaaang—
“Hold!”
Even at the soldiers’ screams, Hyunsoo spoke.
“Wait… just a little more. Just a little more…”
20 meters.
Sweat beaded on Hyunsoo’s face.
The soldiers screamed or cried out their family members’ names.
A muttered “Damn it…” slipped from Kan’s lips.
15 meters.
Thwip—
At last, a single arrow was fired.
The arrow, released with the subtlety of Emergency Crafting, flew toward the foremost Ogre.
The eyes of the soldiers who had doubted that arrow soon grew wide.
The power Hyunsoo had infused with Emergency Crafting—
It had been inspired by a legendary Vietnamese bow.
The Glory-Gold Demon Bow.
A bow said to strike a thousand enemies with a single arrow.
One arrow was soon copied into twenty.
And the moment each of those arrows touched the Ogres—
Tiiing—
Ting, ting.
Not one of them pierced through; they all bounced off.
As the soldiers sighed at those twenty futile arrows—
KABOOM!
They slammed twenty Ogres into the ground at once.
At that moment, Hyunsoo raised his arm and gave the order.
“Begin the subjugation.”