Crafting Battle (5)
Crafting Battle (5)
The interior of the massive arena, packed with tens of thousands of spectators, was dead silent.
If this were an ordinary competition, cheers and shouts of encouragement would have been ceaseless, but the atmosphere here was entirely different now.
The audience's gazes were fixed on a single spot. In front of a forge blazing with crimson flames.
There, Kim Si-woo was personally wielding a hammer, pounding away at the Cloud Stone.
It was a spectacle on an entirely different dimension from the tedious work methods of conventional blacksmiths who simply pressed skill buttons and stared blankly into the air.
Every time the muscles in Kim Si-woo's arm contracted and relaxed, clear and crisp metallic sounds resonated throughout the entire arena.
The sight of the golden Aura and red sparks blossoming from the tip of his hammer and scattering into the air was like watching a grand-scale art performance.
The spectators held their breath, watching the hammering that had continued for hours.
It should have been boring, yet no one could tear their eyes away.
From the previously silent audience seats, suppressed exclamations and gasps of admiration finally began bursting out one by one.
"Wow... that's incredible. I never dreamed he'd actually forge it with his own hands."
A man sitting in the front row swallowed dryly and muttered.
His colleague sitting next to him nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Tell me about it. Honestly, even if that person produces a lower grade than Kim Dal-gak in this competition, I'm definitely going to commission my equipment from him."
"For real. Can you even compare something mass-produced with a skill to that—crafted by pouring your soul into it?"
The mood in the audience had already been completely captivated by Kim Si-woo's artisan spirit, regardless of victory or defeat.
Amid that heated atmosphere, one of a group of women in their twenties gathered in a section of the stands looked down at the stage and spoke up.
"Hey, isn't that guy kind of sexy? Him hammering while sweating is seriously insane, isn't it?"
A woman in a flashy dress with heavy makeup whispered in a voice brimming with considerable confidence in her looks. Then, her friend sitting beside her scoffed incredulously and retorted.
"Oh, this bitch is at it again. Are you out of your damn mind? You think he's even going to bat an eyelash? You think he'd even give you the time of day to begin with?"
Despite her friend's scolding, the woman didn't back down, snorting and putting on airs.
"If I set my mind to it, I could bag him in three days. Just watch. I'm going to go get his number as soon as the competition's over~"
It was exactly the moment she was about to finish speaking smugly with her characteristic nasal tone.
An unpleasant chill that scraped chillingly from behind her back up to the nape of her neck suddenly washed over her. Simultaneously, a scorching heat that seemed like it would burn her skin seized the back of her neck.
"......Huh?"
Instinctively getting goosebumps, the woman slowly turned her head around.
In the seats behind her sat Red Scale Guild Leader Hong Chae-yeon, her amber eyes gleaming fiercely, and Cha Seo-yun, with both eyes open, drilling down a gaze as cold as a sheet of ice.
Around Hong Chae-yeon's tightly clenched fist, a reddish heat shimmered like a desert haze, and Cha Seo-yun's frigid glare seemed ready to behead her with an invisible sword at any moment. Neither of them said a single word, but that unspoken pressure was not something an ordinary person could endure.
The face of the woman who had been boldly boasting just moments ago that she could seduce him in three days turned pale in an instant. Her face ashen, she hastily whipped her head back around, clamped her mouth tightly shut, and became meek. Her friend glanced at her as if asking what was wrong, but the woman only broke out in a cold sweat, her hands neatly folded on her knees, unable to even budge.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the stage, Kim Dal-gak, standing in his flashy setup area, was also stealing glances at Kim Si-woo out of the corner of his eye.
When Kim Si-woo first picked up a hammer and started striking the ore, Kim Dal-gak was so shocked he nearly dropped the expensive jewels he was holding. He absolutely could not understand why anyone would do something so barbaric when there was a system that completed the work automatically with just a press of a skill button.
But soon, Kim Dal-gak twisted the corner of his mouth up in a sneer.
'Huh... Looks like he's trying to at least have an excuse that he lost because he didn't use skills, seeing as he's going to lose anyway.'
He scoffed inwardly, trying to ignore it. However, Kim Dal-gak's gaze kept drifting toward the forge across the way. That was because, after pressing the floating crafting skill buttons a few times, Kim Dal-gak had chunks of downtime with nothing much to do.
As the skill activated and he stood there blankly, every time he saw the overwhelming sight of Kim Si-woo rhythmically hammering away, drenched in sweat and radiating a golden Aura, a strange anxiety stabbed at a corner of his heart.
'Don't pay attention. The results are told by the grade anyway.'
Kim Dal-gak forcibly shook off the anxiety and continued pushing the highest-grade materials he had prepared into the skill window. The rare materials he had bought by liquidating his entire fortune were one by one seeing the bottom of their stock.
Now, only a few materials remained. It was about time for a result to come out. He was burning up inside as dozens of Epic-grade equipment pieces kept pouring out.
From the table in the flashy setup area, an intense burst of light erupted—clearly different from the equipment he had made so far.
Kim Dal-gak's eyes flew wide open. What revealed itself on the table as the light subsided was a sword emitting a dark, black radiance.
With trembling hands, Kim Dal-gak reached for the sword. And the moment he checked the item information floating in the air, a broad, ecstatic smile of assured victory spread across his lips.
The sound announcing the 12-hour time limit echoed throughout the massive arena.
"The competition is over! Both crafters, please stop your hands!"
Along with the emcee's shout, Kim Dal-gak rose from his spot, gasping for breath. And Kim Si-woo, who had been wiping sweat from his brow in front of the forge on the opposite side, also set down his hammer and raised his head.
The two walked out to the center of the stage, each holding their final product. The gazes of tens of thousands focused on the items in their hands.
Placed on Kim Dal-gak's table was a longsword with a blade as dark as jet-black ink. That chilling aura, which did not reflect light even under the illumination, was quite menacing.
On the other hand, the item Kim Si-woo had set down was a pair of boots holding a faint, milky white glow. Large blue Griffin feathers, overlaid with the traces of a Blade Hawk's talon, wrapped smoothly and gracefully around the ankles and shins, above the Cloud Stone firmly supporting the soles.
The emcee cautiously approached the stage where the two items were displayed facing each other, holding the microphone.
"Now! The creations of both participants are finally complete! The entire world is holding its breath, waiting to see just what kind of items have been born. Who will reveal their results first?"
Before the emcee's question could even fully land, Kim Dal-gak twisted his lips up and stepped forward with a voice laced with mockery.
"I'll go first. They're just going to be humiliated if they reveal theirs after, so I'll make sure that person can't even reveal theirs and just runs away."
His intention was to thoroughly seize the initiative. It was a move filled with certainty that no matter how flashy a performance Kim Si-woo put on with his hammering, he could not surpass a Unique grade produced by the system's skills.
"Excellent! Then we will share the item information of Hunter Kim Dal-gak first through the large screen and broadcast feed!"
With the emcee's words, Kim Dal-gak authorized the public release of the system window's information. The detailed specs of the black sword clearly appeared as text on the massive electronic display hanging from the arena ceiling and on the Nutube live broadcast screens being streamed worldwide.
[Cheon-gang Sword]
Grade: Unique
[A sword crafted from a mineral created by compressing 1,000 pieces of Adamantite under extreme pressure. The original hardness of the Adamantite was absorbed into the blade during the compression process, making the edge's sharpness on a completely different level from ordinary swords. However, as the crafter's skill could not keep pace with the material's level, microscopic compression imbalances remain throughout the blade, failing to bring out its full potential.]
Durability: 250/250
Attack Power: +150
Critical Hit Chance: +8%
Critical Hit Damage: +24%
Ignore Defense: +12%
*Sharpness: The blade's edge is extremely sharp, offering almost no resistance when cutting.
*Lower-grade Swordsmanship: Can use the basics of swordsmanship. However, the movements are still clumsy, and a skilled practitioner would easily notice gaps.
The moment the information was revealed, the inside and outside of the arena instantly began to stir.
Honestly, until the middle of the competition, people's attention had been entirely focused on Kim Si-woo's overwhelming crafting performance. So the general mood was that they hadn't expected much from Kim Dal-gak's result. But the three letters 'Unique' clearly stamped on the screen were enough to overturn the public's perception in an instant.
"Wow... Crazy, did he really pull a Unique?"
"Isn't this the first time in Tower history that a crafting skill popped a Unique grade? It was always blocked at Epic!"
"He poured 1,000 Adamantite into the materials. It's a money flex, but you gotta admit the result. Guess he didn't throw down for a live broadcast for nothing."
Exclamations praising Kim Dal-gak burst out from all over the audience seats. The online chat was also being flooded with reactions like 'The victory of capitalism' and 'Kim Dal-gak's form is insane.'
As the arena heated up with praise directed at him, Kim Dal-gak couldn't hide his satisfied smile and shrugged his shoulders. He looked over at Kim Si-woo, quietly standing on the opposite side of the table.
'He saw the Unique, so his legs must be shaking by now? I'll understand even if you run away.'
His gaze was filled with such lowly mockery.
But even under that gaze, I didn't blink a single eyelash. Rather, I calmly asked the emcee, who was still gaping in shock at the appearance of the Unique.
"Can I reveal mine now?"
At that utterly composed voice, the emcee flinched in surprise and stammered.
"Yes... Yes! We will now reveal the equipment of Kim Si-woo-gun!"
With the emcee's cry, Kim Si-woo also opened his system window and authorized the information release.
In that instant, every person around the world watching the screen, whether online or offline, was rendered utterly speechless, as if by a lie.
And in the next moment.
A thunderous roar of cheers and screams a hundred times greater and more insane—incomparably so compared to when the Unique grade was revealed earlier—exploded with enough force to tear the roof off the arena.
[Free Sky Boots]
Grade: Legendary
[A masterpiece completed by SW, a crafter of mediocre talent, who forged the Cloud Stone—imbued with the essence of clouds—while sustaining it with Aura, and mediated the Griffin Feathers with Connecting Fluid extracted from the claws of a Blade Hawk. The unstable density of the Cloud Stone was perfectly controlled by the delicate pressure of golden Aura, and through pure mediated bonding that excluded metal rivets, the energies of wind and cloud were fused into one without loss.]
Durability: 700/700
Defense: +440
Physical Resistance: +33%
Magic Resistance: +33%
Evasion Rate: +35%
Movement Speed: +55%
*Cloud: Once per day, the body turns into a cloud, allowing the wearer to slip through enemy attacks and move like smoke behind the attacking enemy.
*Cloud Walking: Can tread on the atmosphere as if it were solid ground. Does not take falling damage.
*Stoop: Plunge vertically from the air to strike enemies on the ground. Damage increases based on the height from which the fall begins, and the landing impact deals splash damage to all enemies within a 15m diameter.
"No way!! Legendary?!!! Crazy, there was a grade above Unique?!!"
The man sitting in the very front row of the audience screamed while clutching his head. The person next to him also pointed at the screen in astonishment.
"Hey! Look at the item description! This guy says he's mediocre??! If he's mediocre, then are we all trash?!"
The online live chat had completely gone into a frenzy.
└ SkullCrusher: No way, he packed active skills for three people into a single piece of equipment? Isn't this a balance break?
└ SkyRunner: Walking on air is insane hahaha if you wear those, you're literally strolling through the sky!
└ PotBreaker: More than that, do boots normally come with crazy AoE attack options like this? Height-proportional splash damage, what the hell!
└ RealPro: ...Honestly, in terms of mobility and utility alone, this is the highest peak out of all currently existing equipment;; how do you even beat this.
Hunters and the masses across the entire globe began to burn with excitement in front of the boots I had created.