NOVEL NEXT chapter 9 - Crafting an Epic Artifact (3)
“This is the finest ore I have.”
Ren smiled at Hyunsoo.
Mithril ore.
Set on the cloth inside a wooden box, the ore gave off a faint silvery sheen.
“I feel like this ore has finally found its true owner.”
Ren smiled.
A blacksmith was like a chef.
Even with the same ingredients, they produced entirely different results.
Right now, Ren was certain Hyunsoo was the one in the Beginner Zone who could handle mithril best.
“Thank you, Ren.”
Hyunsoo didn’t refuse. He was more than ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) deserving of it.
His heart pounded madly as he reached for the mithril.
A new ore…
A never-before-handled new ore.
Mithril didn’t exist in reality, but in RPGs and various novels, mithril was well known.
(Beginner Zone’s Mithril Ore)
Grade: Rare
Restriction: Level 30+
Difficulty: Upper-Mid
Special Effects
· Up to +7% Attack against Undead.
· Up to +11% Attack Speed.
· Up to +7 Strength, Agility.
Description: Far inferior to ordinary mithril, but it is the finest ore obtainable in the Beginner Zone.
After checking the mithril, Hyunsoo wore a puzzled expression.
Level 30+ restriction?
Did that mean only Level 30+ could smelt this mithril?
He stroked the mithril, set it on the anvil, and gave it a light tap with the hammer.
It works?
Restriction or not, physical impact clearly registered.
Which meant he could actually attempt to smelt it.
Then what was this restriction for?
Ares has many level brackets.
Practically speaking, Hyunsoo was the top maker of a Level 1 best-in-class sword.
But a Rare sword for Level 1 was still far worse than a common sword worn by a Level 30 user.
As level rose, the standard of everything rose.
Monsters, quests, users.
Artifacts had to evolve accordingly.
And this “restriction” might be necessary.
Most artifacts carried a “wear restriction.”
It ensured only users within the appropriate level bracket could equip them.
How broken would it be if a Level 1 user could wear a sword meant for Level 300.
But mithril clearly could be hammered. That was entirely different from wearing it.
“Ah…!”
Hyunsoo caught on.
Ares was a game, after all.
He understood what “usable from Level 30+” meant.
“Does it mean I have to be Level 30+ for system-assisted smelting to work?”
There were blacksmiths everywhere, but 99.9% of them relied on system assistance.
In other words, they crafted with a single “Auto-Craft” button.
Hyunsoo had watched blacksmith-user videos more than once.
They’d run auto-craft, and whenever red or blue pips flashed, they’d cancel auto and hammer those spots.
So the restriction was a “condition to receive aid from the game.”
“…”
A smile tugged at Hyunsoo’s lips.
For him, the restriction told a slightly different story.
Others didn’t know the smelting method or how to handle it, so they were gated at Level 30—but he could work it by hand now.
I think I can do it.
Of course, there would be trial and error.
Temperament, properties, degree of warp, level of impurities—
Many variables.
But he had reasons to succeed at “Break the Wooden Dummy,” and mithril might help.
After checking the mithril, Hyunsoo finished the impurity removal on the iron-sand ingot.
Ding!
[You have succeeded in smelting a new ore not found in this land.]
[You receive the accumulated reward.]
[You gain All Stats +1.]
[You gain 219 Dexterity.]
[You gain 100 Fame.]
[Your iron-sand ingot improves by 10%.]
[You have acquired the Iron-Sand Smelting Method.]
[You have acquired the title Ore Maker.]
The rewards were excellent.
The Iron-Sand Smelting Method, when checked, listed the process as-is.
And then the title, Ore Maker.
(Ore Maker)
Unique Title
Grade: A
Special Effects:
· +3% Dexterity
· 100% Understanding of Ore
Understanding of ore?
Hyunsoo touched the mithril again.
[Beginner Zone’s Mithril]
[Composed of iron, manganese, oxygen, phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur.]
“…!?”
Eureka!
Hyunsoo felt a surge of joy.
Before attempting mithril smelting, the biggest stumbling block in his mind—
That was its composition.
But now, just by touching an ore, he could learn its components.
I can do it.
He’d planned to attempt mithril smelting anyway, but he hadn’t expected to obtain true mithril.
But the moment he learned the composition, the story changed.
He immediately checked the completed iron-sand ingot as well.
(Iron-Sand Ingot)
Grade: Rare
Restriction: None for the maker.
Difficulty: Mid
Special Effects
· Up to +17% Attack over ordinary iron.
· Up to +35% Durability over ordinary iron.
· Up to +40% Critical Chance over ordinary iron.
Description: An iron-sand ingot whose smelting method is held only by user Hyunsoo.
“…As expected.”
There was no Beginner Zone’s tag.
Hyunsoo’s breath trembled.
Seeing him unable to contain his excitement, Ren smiled slightly.
He already knew what Hyunsoo intended to do here.
The “Break the Wooden Dummy” challenge countless outsiders had tried.
“I’ll assist.”
Ren thumped his chest.
All materials were in place.
“Ren.”
“Yes.”
The alerts had said Ren would be loyal to Hyunsoo.
In truth, Ren now looked like a faithful lieutenant.
He watched Hyunsoo with a face that said Hyunsoo’s joy was his own.
“Will you join me in forging a blade the Beginner Zone will never see again?”
Ren answered with vigor.
“Yes!”
****
Special User Management Team.
Cold sweat kept running down Team Leader Kim Taeseok’s back.
Same for employee Lee Jihee.
“Of all things, he got a title called Ore Maker…”
Ore Maker was a reward even they didn’t know about.
Meaning it was a title the supercomputer AI Ares had created on its own and bestowed upon him.
The problem was that the title’s ore understanding let Hyunsoo grasp the internal composition.
“This is totally balance-breaking…”
A Level 1 using ore that Level 30 users could make use of.
“But it’s his own skill.”
A fact no one could argue with.
But Kim Taeseok and Lee Jihee knew something else.
“Level-restriction penalties aren’t just about ‘no system assistance.’”
They also meant difficulty scaling by level.
“And all he knows about mithril is its components.”
“Right.”
“Mithril takes at least three times longer than ordinary iron ore.”
Exactly that.
More time.
More grueling labor.
Of course, that limitation eased as a blacksmith’s level rose.
A Level 30 blacksmith might need a week to use a single mithril.
But a Level 100 blacksmith could do it in two days.
At Level 200, a day would suffice.
With skills and various bonuses, they could manage.
From Kim Taeseok’s perspective, using mithril at Level 1 bordered on impossible.
Under normal assumptions…
Kim Taeseok and Lee Jihee watched the monitor with their hearts in their throats.
****
No one knew it better than Hyunsoo.
Whether this completed blade would break the Wooden Dummy—and become the turning point of his life.
Begin.
The furnace glowed hot.
He fed the mithril ore into the blazing furnace.
Time passed, and red molten metal flowed down a long channel.
He cooled the poured metal.
Then the refining stage to strip impurities.
He used razor-sharp tools to hand-scrape impurities from the lumpy mithril.
Even that alone took a very long time.
What…? Why is this taking so long?
Hyunsoo realized it.
Even if its components were similar to iron, this stuff might simply require more time.
Or else—
Because of the level restriction?
Maybe.
Then he put the material into the converter.
At that moment—
[You must lower the carbon content.]
[If you fail to control the carbon content, you will not be able to use mithril.]
“…!?”
Hyunsoo’s face twisted.
Carbon control was critical.
The strength of iron changed completely with its carbon content.
“What the—!”
Ren sensed something was wrong, too.
He needed a way to lower the carbon content immediately.
Then—
“Ren, bring iron ore.”
“Sorry? What are you—”
“Quickly.”
Ren didn’t grasp why Hyunsoo would add unsmelted, unrefined iron ore.
But once Hyunsoo added it, the carbon began to drop.
[Carbon content decreases.]
[Carbon content decreases.]
He controlled the carbon content of iron ore with iron ore.
It was a secret he’d learned from his father.
Soon, the silver, impurity-free mithril took shape.
And the iron-sand ingot lay beside it.
Hyunsoo decided to blend the two properties.
Mithril is definitely similar to ordinary iron ore. I can do this.
He proceeded to mix the two ingots.
When he got hungry, Hyunsoo kept stuffing bread and water into his mouth.
Even so, he never stopped hammering the blazing mass on the anvil.
Taaaang! Taaaang! Taaaaaang!
He had no idea how much time had passed.
Ren already looked exhausted to the bone.
Dad.
He was afraid—afraid of whether he could truly make it well.
Sword prodigy, archery prodigy, judo prodigy, soccer prodigy—
The world had many prodigies, and they were rewarded after effort.
People cheered Olympic gold medalists.
And his father and he—rare master artisans left in the world—
“I’m filing a complaint!”
“What do you mean a forge, in this day and age!”
“A blacksmith? Does that even still exist?”
“Do you know how inconvenient your forge smoke is!?”
—had never received that reward.
That was what being a modern blacksmith meant.
You are a blacksmithing prodigy, Hyunsoo.
His father had told him.
But what had he obtained?
Not cheers in the spotlight.
Not a nation’s love greeting him as he stepped off a plane.
No world putting flower leis around his neck.
Don’t worry, Hyunsoo.
But his father had told him:
Your effort, your will, your day, your two days, your week are proven by your work.
Why Hyunsoo was afraid—
It wasn’t that he doubted his talent.
From his first piece to his last—
The father who had made them with him was gone.
Hyunsoo, now you are the only master.
Still, he found courage.
Words from a father whose hands could barely hold a hammer after too many years of hammering.
Now the world’s only master.
The only genius.
The only restorer of master blades.
The only maker of ore.
The only handcraftsman.
The only.
Peerless.
Only you.
Can make the finest sword.
For a moment, dizziness hit.
He staggered, but didn’t back down.
Fighting mithril, which demanded far more labor than ordinary iron.
Fighting the iron-sand ingot—he did not retreat.
He straightened his mind.
He was a genius the world had turned away from.
His blades had gone unrecognized.
But in this world—
Taaaaaang!
Everyone needed them, everyone wanted to have them.
Taaaaaaaaang!
The finest weapon maker.
Sweat streamed endlessly from his drenched body.
Muscles flushed and swelled.
And the sword neared completion.
Sssssss—
A cycle of quenching and hammering.
Raise strength with quenching; shape with hammering.
Nothing but grind, grind, damn grind.
Taaaaaaaaang!
Taaaaaaaaaaang!
But here was something he could say with certainty.
Sword prodigy, archery prodigy—any prodigy—
I’ve worked just as hard as they have!
At his fingertips, the blade’s edge was ground.
He went through the polishing process.
At some point, the deep night lifted.
Once, his father and he had smiled at their completed work after more than a week of labor.
It was like that day.
The piece earned through hardship.
His father, watching the sun climb from the dark, had said:
Hyunsoo, this work is like radiance.
Light found in the dark.
Radiance means bright and shining—but it has another meaning. It also means a bright future and hope.
A beautiful morning after a night’s work.
Radiant light seeped into the forge where Hyunsoo stood.
Ding!
[A once-in-a-lifetime masterwork has been born—one the Beginner Zone will never see again.]
At last, it was complete. The fruit of an effort that would astonish the world, the work of a genius blacksmith no one had praised.
A memory flickered—standing beside his father in the forge, smiling at each other.
Now he could say it:
That he could keep walking as a master even without him.
[Please name the sword.]
At the sound of the alert, Hyunsoo named the blade.
“Radiance.”
The sword’s name was Radiance.
Hyunsoo’s bright future.