Genius Blacksmith's Game

A vast night plain stretched open.

An old, weathered fortress stood alone in the middle of it.

Beyond the horizon, dawn began to brighten over a night filled with the crying of grass insects and dew settling over the ground.

The beautiful landscape captivated viewers, unfolding like the opening scene of a film.

But soon—

THOOM, THOOM, THOOOM!

The footsteps shaking the ground announced that this event was Mob Hunting.

Beneath the light of dawn, monster legions filling the earth came into view.

The monsters appearing were varied.

Chimeras, high-level flying monsters said to be in the 460s, with eagle wings and the lower bodies of lions.

Tusk Trolls, known to be more troublesome than nearly any other monster because of their regeneration.

Cyclopes, one-eyed monsters seven meters tall, wielding iron maces.

Giants, the representative giant-type monster—huge beasts that looked exactly like humans.

And even gigantic super-sized ghouls and super-sized skeletons, set as creatures controlled by black mages.

THOOOOM!

—What is this......?

—Whoa......? They’re all giant-types. Damn.

Before the Mob Hunting event began, rankers from across the world had spoken through interviews.

“Shouldn’t I be able to hunt at least a thousand?”

“I think I can manage around twelve hundred.”

“I have wide-area skills. I can sweep them away all at once.”

On top of the old fortress.

The faces of the rankers who had made those statements went white.

“They’re all......”

“Giant-type monsters.”

In particular, the words of Divine Archer Miao, Vietnam’s most famous user, drew agreement from the rankers present.

“Even half of what we said is going to be hard, isn’t it?”

She was one of the strongest candidates for silver or bronze.

There was more than enough reason behind her words.

“Why did it have to be giant-type monsters?”

Giant-type monsters.

A general term for monsters whose minimum height exceeded five meters.

They shared certain traits.

—Giant-type monsters are known to have total HP anywhere from 50% higher to as much as twice as high as same-level monsters.

—Their Defense is also around 40 to 50% higher than ordinary monsters.

—The worst part is when wide-area attacks are used. Wide-area attacks are calculated by radius. But because these monsters are about two to three times larger than ordinary monsters, the number that can fit inside that radius drops to less than half of normal, which means the hunting count falls exponentially.

—Also, wide-area attacks naturally deal less damage than single-target attacks. Users who planned to sweep them away with wide-area attacks will be forced to stare at giant-type monsters still standing perfectly alive.

After the commentators’ explanation, the NPC announcing the start of the event appeared.

The Commander, who had appeared solely for this Mob Hunting event, raised his sword high into the sky.

“All forces, advance.”

CREEEEEAK—

THUD!

[Please move outside the fortress within 10 seconds.]

[If you do not move, you will be forcibly warped after 10 seconds.]

The participating users panicked.

“Hey, at least give us time to think!”

“You’re not even giving us time to make a plan?!”

The sight made them look like soldiers being dragged away after forced conscription, and this was exactly the situation Pureum wanted.

They had realized that if Mob Hunting showed nothing but users “massacring” monsters, the event could easily grow dull.

Every event was more entertaining when medals were won at the end of fierce battle.

The roughly one hundred users from nations around the world, suddenly shoved forward, encountered six thousand monsters rushing toward them like light.

“Fuck!”

“Damn it!”

Some of them were visibly flustered.

Caught off guard by the sudden deployment, the users who had failed to calculate properly made mistakes in their panic.

“Fire Dragon Fist.”

BOOOOM!

A massive fire dragon’s fist stretched out, covering a radius of twenty meters and triggering an explosion.

Under normal circumstances, it should easily have attacked about seventy monsters, but this time, it only struck around thirty.

And the monsters that should have had their entire bodies blown apart by the enormous explosion—

These predators among ordinary monsters, superior not only in Defense but also in status ailment resistance and magic resistance, did not lose even one of their number.

“......”

Similar situations erupted everywhere.

“Ice Storm.”

CRRRRRRUNCH—

“Destruction Chariot.”

RUMBLEEEEEE!

“Phoenix Arrow.”

“Storm Arrow.”

A highest-class ice spell began from the ground, rose in a swirling spiral, and swallowed the monsters.

CRASH!

But the frozen giant-type monsters shattered the ice and attacked the user who had cast it.

A giant phoenix shot forward as an arrow as well, but it failed to melt the giant-type monsters.

Storm Arrow.

The arrow named for firing one hundred shots into an enemy and creating a massive whirlwind that tore them apart only inflicted critical wounds against the giant-type monsters’ high Defense. It could not kill them.

Of course, their HP had been reduced by 60 to 70%, but this was completely different from the direction the rankers had originally predicted.

The users had to attack the still-living monsters one by one, and their hunting speed rose only very slowly.

At that moment, one user began drawing attention.

The other users had merely been people who sprinted too fast at the beginning of a marathon.

This user personally showed that, in the end, the winner of a marathon was the one who kept running while maintaining a steady pace.

It was Valhalla.

Valhalla did not use any skills, nor did he grow impatient.

He simply faced a Cyclops for the first time.

Soon, the Cyclops swung its massive iron mace.

But Valhalla was one step faster.

After striking its knee with the butt of his sword grip, Valhalla murmured,

“Twist.”

CRAAACK!

The Cyclops’s knee, struck directly by the grip, rotated and buckled.

“Graaaagh!”

With its center of gravity lowered, the Cyclops swung its mace with all its might, and Valhalla’s grip struck its arm.

“Break.”

BOOOOOM!

The Cyclops’s arm exploded.

The Cyclops let out a monstrous shriek and lowered its head.

At that instant—

“Slash.”

SHAAAAK!

The Cyclops’s severed neck scattered into ash.

—......!

—......!

“......!”

“......!”

The entire process had taken only two seconds.

And those three powers—

They were part of the “Swordsman’s Forms,” which a user obtained after advancing to the swordsman class.

It was made up of five forms: Twist, Break, Slash, Cleave, and Thrust.

And the key point of Swordsman’s Forms was that it was a skill any swordsman could possess.

But they did not use it.

Because there were overflowing numbers of better skills than that.

The skill was also difficult to control, and when a user’s level was low, it did not produce much effect in practice.

But Valhalla—

In an era when the highest level any ranker swordsman had reached with Swordsman’s Forms was Level 4, he alone had raised it to Level 9.

Because of that, Swordsman’s Forms, once Normal, had surged all the way to Legendary.

Also, one advantage when Swordsman’s Forms leveled up was that its cooldown grew shorter.

The Attack Power of those five movements rose as well.

At Level 1, Attack Power increased by 8%.

But Valhalla’s current increase was roughly 2.5 times that.

And the more shocking fact was this.

“Break.”

“Twist.”

“Cleave.”

CRAAASH!

Only five seconds after using the skill, he used it again.

In other words, the leveling advantage of reducing cooldowns had surpassed Level 9 and been upgraded to Legendary, leaving the cooldown at only about five seconds.

—What in the world......?

—This is an example showing that even a power ordinary users possess becomes entirely different when he wields it.

No other user could use Swordsman’s Forms like that.

“Thrust.”

BOOOOOM!

“Twist.”

“Cleave.”

“Break.”

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Furthermore, another advantage of Swordsman’s Forms was its extremely small Mana consumption.

Because the skill itself was not a power meant to cause tremendous damage.

Even so, the reason Cyclopes collapsed after only a few moves like this was simple.

Valhalla’s total Attack Power was overwhelmingly higher than that of any other user here.

[Hunting count has been updated.]

[Hunting count has been updated.]

[Hunting count has been updated.]

Valhalla’s hunting count rose slowly but steadily.

The entire world was falling into shock.

The people currently ranked high in hunting count were all users who had poured out skills.

In other words, their Mana consumption and stamina consumption were high.

Their cooldowns and MP depletion would soon make them feel the limits of their bodies.

By contrast, Valhalla was hunting one monster every five to ten seconds with actions that looked like nothing more than a warm-up.

I’ll get through the first and second waves this way.

And once even Valhalla found this style of hunting difficult, he would properly combine his skills with the powers of his artifacts.

To be honest, Valhalla was disappointed in the high-rankers who were exhausting themselves from the very beginning.

Did I become the spark for them?

One of the reasons they had shown that early burst must have been their desire to build a score far higher than his.

Of course—

Putting that aside, it was also because Valhalla was simply that strong.

As expected, is Kabel the only worthy opponent?

Valhalla thought that.

And fifteen minutes after the match began—

Looking at the users who had started fast now gasping from exhaustion, he took an interest in the scores.

By now, I should have caught them all.

Then Valhalla checked and froze.

What?

Goosebumps rose down his back.

[1st place, Korea’s Hwan. 114 monsters.]

[2nd place, United States’ Valhalla. 110 monsters.]

Valhalla’s gaze turned.

Hwan was standing amid giants, trolls, chimeras, and ogres that looked as if they had just been bombarded by some other user.

The wounded monsters lost their reason and rampaged.

But as Hwan merely took a step forward, the sword at his waist flashed from its sheath.

SHAAAK!

THUNK!!!

Hwan severed one head cleanly, then drew from his sheath three more times.

Slash, slash, SHAAAK!

I missed it?

Valhalla had missed the last quick draw from Hwan’s waist.

And the sight of Hwan cutting off four heads cleanly in three seconds, then walking on in silence as he drew, was astonishing.

Of course, Hwan was smart.

He was drawing against monsters whose HP had dropped to 60 or 70% after being hit by the other users’ wide-area attacks.

Even so, he was faster than Valhalla.

Of course, once the battle turned long-term, Valhalla, who possessed many more skills, would unquestionably gain the advantage, but this was still bewildering.

How?

And Valhalla could not understand that damage right now.

Just then, Hwan came near him.

“That damage is incredibly high. How is that possible?”

Valhalla liked studying.

That was what made him grow.

Perhaps because of the debt created by the Cutting Gauntlet, Hwan answered him.

“Have you ever played the game while doing nothing but one movement over and over?”

“......?”

One movement.

There could not possibly be a person like that.

Valhalla, who held that common-sense assumption, was startled.

Hwan’s class—

Quick-Draw Prodigy.

An unfortunate class that could not equip Transcendent artifacts.

As far as Valhalla knew, Hyunsoo had helped him overcome that.

“I draw two thousand times a day.”

“......?”

Valhalla could not understand those words.

Swinging two thousand times every day? That was an exaggeration.

If he went monster hunting and swung two thousand times a day while hunting every day, then by now he should have reached Level 600 alone.

And humans had difficulty repeating the same movement two thousand times a day.

Right, Valhalla thought it would be difficult—then marveled.

Two thousand times?

Because he understood.

“I train quick draw two thousand times every day.”

Was that foolish behavior?

Not at all.

An ordinary person could not do it.

What happened when someone swung two thousand times in the same place?

In Ares, repeating the same action granted stats.

Then what if that action was quick draw?

“Every repetition must have raised your Agility, Strength, Vitality, and your Attack Power for quick draw. And when you succeeded in a weak-point attack, your quick-draw damage would have increased too, along with all sorts of other things.”

What was more, two thousand times a day meant seven hundred thirty thousand times a year.

And Hwan was an early-stage user.

In other words—

His total number of quick draws until now has easily surpassed one million?

Valhalla felt goosebumps for a different reason.

He was a fool who only knew how to do one thing.

But in that one thing, he was a genius who had reached supremacy.

And—

“I was able to one-kill them because I have this.”

“......”

The Cutting Gauntlet.

It was an item Valhalla himself had sold.

It raised critical hits and sword Attack Power.

And the fact that Hwan himself said he could one-kill because of it made Valhalla remember.

Guild master, you need that gauntlet!

Please!!!

They had known about Hwan’s quick draw.

And this was the result produced by his quick draw and the Cutting Gauntlet.

In other words—

The dragon called Valhalla had raised a tiger.