Genius Blacksmith’s Game

Hyunsoo looked far ahead to breaking the Wooden Dummy in ten hits.
He was willing to stay in the Beginner Zone for as long as a month.
If he stayed a month and earned the ₩50,000,000-value VVIP Capsule, that would be an enormous haul.
So he thought, and thought again.
What you can get in the Beginner Zone is limited.
Even if you can get something, it comes tagged as “Beginner Zone’s.”
Its efficacy is only one-third of ore from outside the Beginner Zone.
With things like that, he would eventually hit a wall.
So he considered a method.
A way to raise his Dexterity while also breaking through the “Beginner Zone’s” limitation.
And a way to make the blacksmith Ren into a better blacksmith.
Three birds with one stone.
That was to obtain iron-sand ingots.
Ore I make with my own hands has a high chance of not being tagged as Beginner Zone’s.
If so, the iron-sand ingot would carry its full power.
If he used that ore to make an artifact, he would get something better.
“You’re saying we’ll collect this iron powder from the beach and turn it into ore?”
Ren wore a puzzled expression.
And as a blacksmith, he had one question.
“Is there an advantage?”
If they were going to go through this much trouble, there needed to be a benefit.
Hyunsoo nodded.
“Iron sand has a much higher titanium content than ordinary ingots. It’s even less prone to corrosion. So you can obtain steel far stronger than ordinary iron.”
“…!?”
Ren’s eyes went round.
That iron powder from the beach had a large amount of titanium?
[Ren gains new blacksmithing knowledge from your instruction.]
[You gain 2 Dexterity.]
“What should I do?”
Ren, who had been lukewarm, now looked fired up.
“It’s simple.”
Hyunsoo literally crouched and scraped up iron sand with the large magnet.
“Do what I’m doing—collect iron sand.”
Soon Ren grabbed a large magnet of his own and crouched down.
Ren was a big man, around 1.9 meters tall, with a clean-shaven head and a rough look.
Hyunsoo was tall too, around 184 centimeters.
The sight of two fully grown men squatting to harvest iron sand was quite a picture.
“Collecting iron sand takes no small amount of time.”
Most of the work in a forge was grueling labor to begin with.
We buy machine-made kitchen knives for just tens of thousands of won.
But a hand-made kitchen knife can take more than a day to make.
Hyunsoo kept raking iron sand with the magnet.
[You gain 1 Dexterity.]
Oh…?
Hyunsoo could feel his “Dexterity For You Alone” title definitely speeding up his Dexterity gains.
And if he counted the time it would take to consolidate this iron sand into a single ore, he expected to gain a tremendous amount of Dexterity.
But the surprising alerts didn’t end there.
[This is a new challenge no one has attempted.]
[You gain 30 Dexterity.]
[If you produce a result from a challenge no one has been able to attempt, you will receive additional rewards.]
[Rewards for the new, never-before-attempted challenge will accumulate.]
[If you fail to produce a result, the accumulated rewards will be deleted.]
“Hm…?”
No one had attempted it.
Hyunsoo thought carefully about Ares.
The game was controlled by the supercomputer Ares.
And the supercomputer contained all the world’s information.
Iron-sand ingots had truly existed in the distant past.
But in the modern era, no one made iron-sand ingots.
So of course, in Ares, no one would have tried to make them.
Hyunsoo kept scraping up iron sand.
[The reward accumulates.]
[The reward accumulates.]
[Accumulating…]
[Accumulating…]
[You gain 1 Dexterity.]
He was curious about those rewards.
The Dexterity he was gaining now came from repetition.
The accumulated reward was likely Dexterity as well.
He had been gaining Dexterity accompanied by “illogical action” alerts.
And after Hyunsoo and Ren spent about five full days scraping iron sand, they left the beach.
 
****
Once they had gathered enough iron sand, Ren and Hyunsoo returned to the forge.
Ren looked at Hyunsoo in surprise.
“Y-you should rest a little, shouldn’t you?”
“…What blacksmith has time to rest?”

Ren was baffled.
Hyunsoo looked at most like he was in his early twenties.
And yet the blacksmith’s spirit he showed felt unfathomable, even to Ren.
How can someone so young…
It looked impressive to Ren, but to Hyunsoo it had once been routine.
In his father’s forge, everything had been done by hand.
Blacksmiths needed temperatures above 1,500 degrees to melt ore.
So they stood before the furnace for days, stoking the heat every hour.
Before starting to smelt the iron sand, Hyunsoo began by raising the furnace temperature.
“Since you’re in the learning phase, Ren, you can get some sleep.”
“N-no. How could I…”
But time dragged on.
An hour, five hours, ten hours…
To escape the sweltering forge for a moment, Ren set a chair outside the door and sat.
When it was his turn, he had to go in and feed charcoal.
But the cool summer night breeze felt good.
Without realizing it, Ren fell asleep.
Chirp-chirp—
When he opened his eyes, he jolted.
“I need to add charcoal!”
To raise the temperature, charcoal had to be added constantly.
Ren rushed—then stopped in his tracks.
This is insane…
Hyunsoo was standing there with his arms folded.
He looked obviously tired.
But he was composed.
As if it were the most natural thing for a blacksmith.
While Ren slept, he had not shut his eyes once and had stood watch over the fire.
“…”
It stirred something indescribable.
Ren had only wanted to become a better blacksmith.
He wanted to make a blade one level higher and flatten Instructor Hans’s nose.
But a thought struck him.
Maybe that astounding skill the man had shown came from a long process of effort.
Hammered tens of thousands of times.
Stayed up tens of thousands of nights.
Fought in front of the blazing fire tens of thousands of times to earn that skill.
Ren was sincerely moved.
I want to make weapons with that kind of will… with that kind of spirit…
Sensing movement, Hyunsoo turned his head.
“Sleep well?”
[Ren holds respect for your blacksmith’s spirit.]
[Affinity with Ren reaches MAX.]
Hyunsoo looked puzzled.
He’d only behaved as usual, and suddenly their Affinity hit MAX.
Soon Ren approached with a resolved expression.
“How many days will it take to obtain the ore going forward?”
“Hm, at least four days?”
“Then I want to try making a sword during that time. Will you help me?”
Hyunsoo read Ren’s expression.
As mentioned, countless would-be blacksmiths had come to see Hyunsoo’s father.
Nine out of ten ran away.
The remaining one—
That one lasted a few more days, then ran too.
So out of a hundred, there was perhaps one.
From that one, he felt the same look now shining in Ren’s eyes.
I want to be like you.
I want to be a true blacksmith.
Even if he made no money and was looked down on, he wanted to bring forth a handmade work of his own.
Even if he had only just awakened to that spirit,
Hyunsoo believed he could become a blacksmith who would go far.
Hyunsoo smiled faintly.
“Shall we make it? Your magnum opus.”
It began.
Hyunsoo smelted, and Ren worked on making the sword.
Ren burned with zeal.
He had never in his life been this passionate about learning blacksmithing.
“That’s not how. Ease up the hammer. I’ve told you again and /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ again—too much force backfires.”
Sometimes he got scolded hard.
Smelting, refining.
Quenching.
Hammering.
Working the bellows.
Oil quenching.
One by one, Hyunsoo corrected his form and drilled him mercilessly.
And somehow—
Ren was happy.
One day passed.
Two days passed.
Three days passed.
Taaaang! Taaaang! Taaaaaang!
“Good!”
Following Hyunsoo’s instruction, Ren took another step forward.
Fwoooosh—
Hyunsoo watched molten steel flow from the furnace.
Taaang!
Taaaaang!
Taaang!
With each passing day, Ren’s hammering grew more skilled.
Hyunsoo heated and cooled the lumpy, basalt-like iron-sand mass without rest, driving out impurities.
Taaang— taang! Taaaaang!
Listening to Hyunsoo’s nagging, Ren’s understanding of sword-making rose day by day.
“This is about right.”
In front of the hot flames, Hyunsoo heated and cooled the bumpy iron sand again and again, purging more impurities.
And Ren began to understand and apply things he had never grasped in all his life.
At last, Hyunsoo obtained a true iron-sand ingot with the impurities fully removed.
“We’re almost there.”
So much time passed they lost track.
After that grueling process, Hyunsoo reached the final stage of obtaining the iron-sand ingot.
And then, at some point—
Ren, whose bellows work, oil quench, and hammering had improved considerably, finished polishing and even engraved patterns onto the blade.
When Ren finally completed the sword, he broke into sobs.
“Kh… hhhk!”
“…?”
Hyunsoo looked puzzled at the sudden sobbing.
Ding!
[Hidden Quest: Help Ren Grow complete.]
[You can receive the reward from Ren.]
[Ren produces the magnum opus of his life.]
[Novice Blacksmith Ren grows a step and now peers into the realm of Intermediate Blacksmith.]
[Through you, Ren awakens to the true spirit of a blacksmith.]
[Perhaps he will reach an even higher realm as a blacksmith in the future.]
[You gain 20 Dexterity.]
“…”
With a puzzled look, Hyunsoo approached the weeping Ren.
“Thank you, thank you…!”
Hyunsoo had only taught him.
Exactly as he had learned from his father.
And he had only behaved according to the blacksmith’s spirit he’d learned.
He hadn’t known it would completely transform Ren’s mindset.
Clutching the sword, Ren wept.
“Please look. This sword I created because of you!”
Hyunsoo took the sword he offered and checked it.
(The Faded Sword of the Enlightened)
Grade: Rare
Durability: 1,200/1,200
Attack: 39
Level Requirement: 1–50
Special Effects:
· Endurance +3, Agility +2.
· Active Skill: Smash.
Description: The second masterwork of the Beginner Zone, created as Ren, a Novice Blacksmith, surpasses his previous magnum opus.
Hyunsoo checked the sword’s completeness.
In pure craftsmanship, it didn’t quite reach Hyunsoo’s First Sword.
But this was a game.
He could receive help from various systems.
Moreover, Ren possessed various skills, and NPCs could benefit from multiple effects.
The result those effects produced: a Rare artifact.
Even if its craftsmanship lagged behind his own, it was clearly a blade with a higher grade.
This was the product of Ren’s desire to become a better blacksmith.
A sword he had made—an outcome he had achieved.
“Excellent. Ren, you’re now a blacksmith who can aim for any realm.”
Having grown one step meant he could keep growing.
Wiping tears as he bawled, Ren spoke.
“Even if you leave, I will remember you forever.”
[Ren swears fealty to you.]
[Even after you leave, Ren will speak of you endlessly.]
In a good mood, Hyunsoo smiled.
Then Ren suddenly ran off somewhere.
“…?”
Hyunsoo figured the overjoyed man might have sprinted off to go flatten Instructor Hans’s nose.
But Ren quickly returned, clutching a certain box to his chest.
He set it on the ground and opened it.
Ding!
[Affinity with Ren is MAX.]
[Thanks to tremendous results, you have completed the Hidden Quest: Help Ren Grow.]
Inside was an ore Hyunsoo had never seen in his life.
[The reward improves.]
[You have acquired Beginner Zone’s Mithril Ore.]
It wasn’t Beginner Zone’s Top-Grade Iron Ore—but an ore named Beginner Zone’s Mithril.