Genius Blacksmith's Game

“Valhalla. Back when he was a small boy at the orphanage, there was someone he loved.”

Kabel’s sanctuary.

A small, gloomy castle.

More than five thousand werewolves surrounded it, along with all manner of undead that seemed to have been created by Kabel.

When Hyunsoo climbed atop the castle wall, Kabel looked down at the world with him and began their story.

At first, Hyunsoo assumed it was that kind of love story.

That Valhalla, too, had once loved someone.

“The two met at the orphanage and depended on each other more than anyone else. After Valhalla enlisted in special forces, he proposed to her.”

Hyunsoo could not understand why Kabel was telling him this.

Especially because Hyunsoo, Kabel, and Valhalla had been rivals caught in an endless cycle, though they had sometimes fought side by side.

Gremory, the Great Archdemon.

The three of them had stood against the demon nobody could seal.

At the time, Hyunsoo had thought:

Could there really be people this dependable—people I could entrust my back to for the rest of my life?

That was why they had been rivals, but also friends.

Yet Kabel had investigated Valhalla’s past.

Hyunsoo could not understand how Kabel knew the trivial details of his friend’s love story, so he looked at them.

The moment he saw Kabel’s expression, he understood there was a reason behind it. He remained silent, and the story continued.

Valhalla had flown a small plane himself to propose to Sophia.

It was beautiful. Impressive.

It even made Hyunsoo wonder whether someone would someday come into his life whom he could give everything to as well.

Then—

Hyunsoo sensed something strange.

Valhalla has never once said he had a wife.

No, if anything—

He had been a lonely beast.

Valhalla was the one who had conquered dungeons nobody else could clear.

The one who had slain monsters no one else could hunt, all alone.

He had hunted in silence, quieter than anyone, as though possessed by something.

There had never been anyone in his story.

“Don’t tell me...”

When Hyunsoo realized the truth and looked at Kabel, they nodded with a bitter smile.

“That’s right. Sophia died. She left him with the words, ‘Find a reason to live.’”

Everything Kabel had done had a reason.

“When he said, ‘Thank you,’ I felt something was wrong.”

That was when Hyunsoo understood why Kabel had begun investigating Valhalla’s past.

“You had to be stopped, Hyunsoo.”

And why Kabel, who had remained out of sight while training, had summoned Hyunsoo to their sanctuary.

“I knew that if this match did not happen, his reason for living would not end. So I intended to crush you with force.”

Hyunsoo finally understood why Kabel had overwhelmed him with status ailment skills and Tyrant’s Killing Intent when he arrived at the sanctuary.

They had intended to trample him with everything they had.

Kabel did not need to say the rest.

You, who could not even defeat me—do you think you can defeat Valhalla?

They must have crushed him utterly.

Hyunsoo knew Valhalla was even stronger than Kabel.

But there was something he did not understand.

When he arrived, the five thousand werewolves had taken a step back.

And contrary to their plan, Kabel had not attacked.

“I saw a sliver of possibility.”

That possibility.

Kabel’s eyes, fixed on Hyunsoo, were more serious than ever.

Kabel believed Hyunsoo had surpassed them.

But even they could not predict whether Hyunsoo could defeat Valhalla.

So, as a friend who had seen that sliver of possibility, Kabel wanted to try another approach.

“There is a place called the Tyrant’s Training Ground.”

“The Tyrant’s Training Ground?”

“Yes. After I followed the Tyrant and grew strong enough, I was allowed to enter it. This Tyrant’s Training Ground is special.”

Kabel had never seen anything like it.

Furthermore, only the Tyrant could grant someone else permission to enter.

“The entrance period is one day. But inside the Tyrant’s Training Ground, time is effectively limitless.”

“Limitless?”

“Only one day passes outside, but time inside the Tyrant’s Training Ground is essentially held still. Whether you leave after one hour or after a thousand hours, only one day will have passed outside.”

“Countless undead and chimeras the Tyrant has created appear there without end. There are even many legendary monsters among them.”

Hyunsoo asked with a hopeful expression.

“Do those things give EXP?”

If they did, a user could grow infinitely.

The amount of growth from that EXP would be impossible to measure.

But even as he asked, Hyunsoo understood that it could not be possible.

“No. You cannot gain any EXP. There are no drops, either. As I said, it is only a training ground.”

“Then why enter it?”

“Growth through repetition.”

“...”

Kabel had hit the heart of it.

“The Tyrant’s Training Ground determines how much a person can grow according to their mental strength. Inside, you die and revive. Then you die and revive again. Over and over.”

“Through that repetition, people learn how to fight more efficiently.”

“You cannot gain EXP, but your body can still grow. Through that repetition.”

Repetition.

It was something familiar to Hyunsoo, and to every user.

Every user knew that if they stood in one spot and swung a sword endlessly, they would eventually gain one point each in health and Strength.

Infinite repetition could make a user’s body grow in this way.

But 99.9% of users—no, even more than that—did not do it.

Leveling up and completing quests were far more meaningful uses of their time.

Hyunsoo agreed.

But this was different.

No matter how many days passed inside, only twenty-four hours would pass outside.

“It won’t be easy.”

Hyunsoo immediately identified the fundamental problem, and Kabel smiled bitterly.

It would be difficult to endure mentally, regardless of physical limits.

But Kabel was not an NPC.

They did not possess the power to grant Tyrant’s Blessing to Hyunsoo as the true Tyrant could.

And Kabel knew it, too.

Growing through repetition alone is only a slim possibility.

Kabel was also puzzled.

They had expected Hyunsoo to look conflicted, perhaps even heartbroken, after hearing Valhalla’s story.

But even after hearing everything, even after receiving the proposal, Hyunsoo remained calm.

He simply nodded.

“I’ll try it.”

“When it ends, you’ll reappear somewhere near here.”

Kabel had entered the Tyrant’s Training Ground before.

“If it becomes too hard, give up. We’ll find another way together.”

“Okay.”

Hyunsoo smiled faintly.

Unable to read what lay behind that smile, Kabel waved a hand.

WHOOOOOOO—!!

A warp gate appeared, black-hole-like and seemingly capable of distorting everything around it.

SHHHHHH—

A chilling aura flowed from within.

With the Twin Dragon Sword strapped across his back, Hyunsoo took one step, then another, into that ominous path.

As he vanished, he raised a thumb.

Then—

FWOOOOSH!

The entrance closed in only 0.1 seconds.

[User Hyunsoo has entered the Tyrant’s Training Ground.]

Kabel’s feelings became complicated as they watched Hyunsoo disappear.

Hyunsoo had looked far too calm.

Because Kabel could not read his thoughts, their feelings became even more complicated.

Kabel decided to log back in when it was time for Hyunsoo to return, then logged out.

[You have logged out.]

Kabel was in America.

Coincidentally, investigating Valhalla’s past had required them to visit the United States.

Dressed in a black suit, Kabel arrived at a sweeping blue-green field.

Sophia’s grave stood there, and Kabel placed a bouquet of flowers atop it.

Nearby lay another bouquet, already wilted—the one Valhalla had left behind.

Kabel greeted Sophia’s grave with a silent bow.

Kabel did not understand emotions very well. They did not understand friendship, either.

That was why they asked.

“Is it normally this hard?”

Then Kabel asked another question.

“Is that really the only place left for Valhalla?”

Naturally, Sophia in her grave gave no answer.

Then—

“...”

As Kabel stared at the grave for a long time, they noticed something strange.

Why?

Valhalla had left Kabel with a meaningful statement before ending the call.

Did Valhalla think Kabel would not sense anything strange in those words?

No.

Valhalla might have been even more thorough than Kabel.

He possessed stronger mental strength than they did, and he was not someone who would easily collapse.

At the very least, that was how Kabel evaluated Valhalla.

Could it be that you knew I might go looking for Hyunsoo...?

Kabel turned away.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

They had stood at the grave for so long that quite a bit of time had passed.

By the time they drove back to the hotel, the appointed time had arrived.

[Logging in to Ares.]

[The Tyrant’s Training Ground has ended.]

Kabel looked around for Hyunsoo, then soon found him sitting atop a rock on a hill, watching the setting sun.

Kabel sat beside him, but Hyunsoo said nothing. He only watched the sunset.

Kabel simply remained at Hyunsoo’s side in silence.

The Tyrant’s Training Ground.

Growth there depended on how many attempts one made.

It was a contest of mental strength. Kabel had died and revived forty-six times, training for thirty-eight days.

Kabel had intended to tell Hyunsoo what they had realized at Sophia’s grave.

But Hyunsoo spoke first.

“I thought about it for a long time. Why Valhalla said something like that.”

Hyunsoo, who had worn an unreadable expression before entering the Tyrant’s Training Ground, spoke as he watched the sunset fade.

“Valhalla isn’t the kind of person I know to say something like that. So why did he say it? And why did he say it to you, his friend? I kept cutting them down like crazy, and eventually I understood what it meant.”

Kabel listened in silence. Hyunsoo turned to them.

“He’s asking for help.”

“...”

“Before he breaks down on his own, he wants someone to bring him down. The moment I realized that, I couldn’t give up. So I kept going, and this is what happened.”

This?

Kabel had the authority to check what entrants accomplished in the Tyrant’s Training Ground.

Sensing something unusual, they checked.

[The entrant of the Tyrant’s Training Ground has made a total of 89 attempts.]

[You have hunted a total of 641,013 monsters.]

[By repeatedly hunting beyond your limits, proficiency with sword-related weapons has increased by 27%.]

[By repeatedly hunting beyond your limits, the attack power and radius of Sword King’s Swordsmanship have increased by 20%.]

[By repeatedly moving beyond your limits, Strength has increased by 32, Agility by 36, and health by 53.]

[By pushing your limits without end, Extreme Mental Strength has awakened, and the effect that prevents exhaustion has become twice as effective.]

[By pushing your limits without end, your understanding of more than 75 species—including Chimera Dragon, Chimera Owlbear, Chimera Ogre, Chimera Orc, Skeleton Knight, and werewolves—has risen to an abnormal level.]

[You can deal 30% more damage to those species.]

As the messages appeared, Kabel did not look surprised.

They did not look horrified, either.

They simply sat beside Hyunsoo and watched the setting sun with him.

The two of them had found their answers, and each had done their best from where they stood.

At Valhalla’s single word—Thank you—Kabel had shown Hyunsoo a way to stop him.

Kabel had visited Sophia’s humble grave and shown her that Valhalla had friends.

Within that chain of events, Hyunsoo had done his best in his own way.

He had exceeded his limits hundreds of times over, and whenever he felt like giving up, he had risen again more calmly than anyone.

One person had calmly pushed beyond every limit for someone else.

Another, who had never done anything like this for anyone in their life, had done their best to save someone.

Before long, the sun had fully set.

The two people sitting side by side and quietly watching the sunset were not special people.

We were only Valhalla’s friends.