Reigniting the Heavenly Fire
The Earth Dragon was strong.
Far stronger than Yujin remembered.
A colossal worm-monster well over a hundred meters long, five meters thick around. To any low-level player, its sheer mass alone was a death sentence. Ordinary attacks bounced off it like rain on stone, and even the slightest thrash of its body sent people flying and tumbling like leaves.
There was a reason players in the previous cycle had wasted so much time just reaching the second floor. At this stage of the Tower, the thing might as well have been an apocalypse given flesh. Calling it anything less would have been pure understatement.
Of course, none of that applied to Yujin.
He had already torn real apocalypses apart with his bare hands.
It took him less than ten minutes.
That was all the time he needed to carve the Earth Dragon’s enormous body into exactly eighteen pieces and snuff out its life.
God-Infused Body [S].
It outclassed every skill and trait he had obtained so far—well, everything except Chronos’s Hourglass [EX], naturally.
Especially good synergy.
Paired with Inside-Outside Unity [E], the skill that had carried him hardest in the first cycle, the combination was absurd.
Inside-Outside Unity is invincible. God-Infused Body is a god.
Honestly, those two alone would let him cruise comfortably all the way to the thirtieth floor without breaking a sweat.
Absolute workhorses. Real filial piety.
He found himself feeling oddly proud of his past self for going all-in on the dark horse back in the Tutorial Floor.
And thanks to that, I picked up something decent on the side too.
Yujin was still grinning to himself when his brow furrowed.
“Anyway, never mind that. When the hell is this guy coming back?”
He’d told Citadel to show him to the furnace, and the blacksmith had said to wait a moment—then vanished and still hadn’t returned. So Yujin was stuck standing alone in the empty shop, staring into space.
“Ugh. Like I don’t already have enough to do.”
He still needed a subspace, still needed a horse, and still needed to sift through the players who would start pouring in soon for anyone actually worth using.
After waiting long enough that boredom finally won, Yujin started wandering the shop, examining the displays. For a place that claimed to sell weapons, there were quite a few items laid out. Better to kill time looking at junk than standing around like an idiot.
A short inspection later, he shook his head.
“…Now I get why there were never any customers.”
Even in the first cycle, Citadel’s Golden Hammer had never been popular. Without Black Wing [C], the place would have faded into complete obscurity, untrod by a single foot.
“How is every single finished product F-grade? Not even materials—actual gear.”
Take any of this trash into the field and you were begging to die. A few swings and it would shatter into powder. Balance was a joke, the tempering was nonexistent, and the metal’s hardness was so uneven the stress would concentrate and snap it in no time.
“What’s the point of looking pretty on the outside? Tsk. How the hell did something like Black Wing [C] ever come out of a place like this?”
Most likely Citadel hadn’t forged it himself. It was probably a family heirloom passed down through generations. Nothing else made sense. At this level of craftsmanship, Citadel had zero talent for smithing—not even a speck.
“Might be better for him if he switched careers already.”
For Citadel’s own future, that is. Of course, saying that to his face would get Yujin murdered on the spot. But facts were facts.
BOOM!
A heavy thud announced Citadel’s return. The blacksmith reappeared, gasping for breath, and somehow he had brought the entire furnace with him.
“I-I brought it.”
Yujin stared at him, incredulous.
“I told you to lead me there, and you hauled the whole damn thing over?”
Was the man also completely hopeless at reading a room?
Citadel cleared his throat under that look.
“Ahem. Outsiders aren’t allowed in that place. I brought it myself, so don’t get any wrong ideas.”
“…Stubborn bastard.”
No outsiders allowed? Yujin had no idea how sacred that rule was supposed to be, but they were talking about reclaiming a flame more precious than the blacksmith’s own life, and the man was still fretting over protocol.
“I don’t get it at all, but whatever. The furnace’s the only thing that matters anyway.”
If the guy wanted to make things harder on himself, lecturing him about it would just be funny.
“So I just need to bring the flame back to life inside this thing, right?”
“Y-yeah. But… is that actually possible?”
Citadel still looked half-convinced at best.
“Just trust me a little. You think I went and gathered all this because I’ve got free time to burn?”
Yujin untied the leather bundle he had brought along.
Sulfur Deer’s Horn [F].
Vampire Bat Wing Membrane [F].
Blue Slime Core [F].
Earth Dragon’s Blood [D].
“Oh, and for the record, this leather wrapping is the Vampire Bat Wing Membrane [F]. Too much of a hassle to carry everything separately, so I just bundled it all up.”
Citadel’s eyes went round at the items on the floor. The first three weren’t especially rare—NPC hunters could wander out and grab them on a slow day. The last one, though…
“Earth Dragon’s Blood [D]… So I didn’t mishear you earlier.”
A D-grade material. Citadel let out a hollow laugh at the sight of something that high-grade sitting there like it was nothing.
“You didn’t actually kill the Earth Dragon yourself, did you?”
The look on his face said “surely not.” And as always, “surely not” was exactly what people said right before they got punched in the face by reality.
“What, you think I went and donated the blood myself? Of course I killed it.”
“Y-you! Do you even understand what that means?!”
Of course he did. When it came to the Tower, Yujin knew hundreds of times more than Citadel ever would.
“Obviously.”
Yujin nodded like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Killing the Earth Dragon meant the path to the second floor was open. The creature was the first floor’s boss. With it dead, every player now had a road forward.
“That’s why I told you I’m busy.”
He needed to wrap this up and head straight to the second floor. Busy didn’t even begin to cover it.
Citadel fell silent. He simply had no idea what to say. A player who had only just been summoned—who hadn’t even spent a full day on the first floor—had already slain the Earth Dragon and opened the way?
It was a feat no player in history had ever managed. Watching Yujin drop that news like he was commenting on the weather, Citadel could hardly be blamed for losing the power of speech.
“Move aside a bit. You’re in the way.”
Yujin gave Citadel a couple of light kicks with his foot and stepped up to the massive furnace.
“Fancy.”
A golden hammer was engraved across the surface of the three-meter-tall furnace. So that was where the name Citadel’s Golden Hammer came from.
‘Pearls before swine’ is the saying that applies here, right?
The quality of the furnace itself was excellent. Roughly Furnace [B], give or take. Even cities past the fiftieth floor would struggle to produce something this fine. The real oddity was Citadel, churning out pure garbage with a masterpiece like this.
Yujin circled the furnace once, admiring it, then began loading the materials he had prepared.
He spread the Vampire Bat Wing Membrane [F] wide across the bottom, stacked the Sulfur Deer’s Horn [F] on top, and nestled the Blue Slime Cores [F] carefully between them.
The process was meticulous. It looked casual, but every piece had to sit in the exact right spot. In other words, Yujin was laying down a precise formation.
“Whew. That should just about do it.”
He had focused harder on this than he had on killing the Earth Dragon. One wrong placement and the precious materials would go up in smoke for nothing. He couldn’t afford to half-ass it.
Yujin nodded at the arrangement he had created.
“Alright. Now the last piece…”
He poured the crimson liquid. There wasn’t much of it, but it was more than enough to soak every prepared material.
“Done.”
Preparation complete. One more step and the flame Citadel had longed for so desperately would live again.
Yujin turned to look at the still-dazed blacksmith.
“Don’t forget our deal. If you try to back out later, I’ll just cut your head off and take what I want myself.”
He wasn’t joking. The depth that settled into his eyes made Citadel flinch hard before the blacksmith hurriedly nodded.
“Do I look stupid enough to try cheating the player who killed the Earth Dragon?”
“Yeah.”
Yujin answered without a second’s hesitation, then began drawing up his mana.
There wasn’t much of it. Killing the Earth Dragon had raised his level, but he still hadn’t even hit level ten. He hadn’t obtained a single mana-related trait yet, so his current reserves were a pathetic dribble.
It didn’t matter. The mana only needed to act as a flint—just enough to strike a spark.
“Huu—”
Yujin took a short breath, raised his arm, and snapped his fingers without hesitation.
Snap!
The mana gathered at his fingertips detonated in a tiny shockwave and reacted instantly with the Earth Dragon’s Blood [D].
Sizzle— crackle—!
Tiny sparks began to rise.
That was enough.
Yujin stepped back and simply watched the inside of the furnace.
The feeble sparks slowly grew. And then—
FWOOOOOOSH!
The carefully arranged materials erupted, engulfed in a blaze that poured out staggering heat.
This was no ordinary fire.
A mystical flame that shone with seven beautiful colors.
This was the Heavenly Fire Citadel had yearned for with every fiber of his being.
“Ah… ahh…”
A choked gasp came from behind Yujin. Citadel stared at the madly burning flames with a face that looked one light touch away from dissolving into tears.
“It… it was real.”
He had clung to doubt until the very end. Now he had no choice but to accept it.
Yujin was his benefactor.
No—benefactor to his entire clan.
“The Heavenly Fire I thought I’d never see again… is alive.”
In the end, the tears fell.
“Thank you. Truly, thank you!”
Citadel bent at the waist toward Yujin, pouring every ounce of sincerity into the bow.
“It was a deal either way.”
Yujin had only helped because he wanted something. If it hadn’t been for Black Wing [C], he wouldn’t have given Citadel a second glance even if the man had clung to his pant legs and begged.
Still… not bad, I guess.
Something he never would have done in the first cycle. He had thrown a little tantrum just to get Black Wing [C], but watching Citadel’s pure joy left him feeling surprisingly decent.
Maybe if I’ve got time later, I should do a good deed every now and then?
The thought flickered past. Of course, the odds of him actually following through when the moment came were still abysmal.
After watching the mysteriously burning Heavenly Fire for a while, something occurred to Yujin and he called out.
“Hey. By the way—”
“Ah, about the promise? Black Wing [C] and Grace [C], right? Of course I’ll hand them over. You revived the Heavenly Fire—I keep my word!”
Citadel boomed the words with full-chested pride.
“No, what are you talking about. That part’s obvious.”
Yujin had a completely different question.
“How exactly are you planning to get this thing back to its original spot?”
This furnace currently roaring with seven-colored fire and blasting out murderous heat.
“Coming here without the flame was one thing. How are you moving it now?”
“Uh… uhh?”
Citadel blinked blankly.
Looking at that face, Yujin confirmed it once and for all.
Yeah. Not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
