Champion's Arena (1)
The quest was simple.
Craft one hundred low-grade hammers.
What he gained in return, though, was considerable.
He could now refine iron to perfection, and the feel of the hammer had settled into his hands as if it belonged there. Forms that once took a hundred strikes to catch now came in seventy, then fifty. Later still, the metal found its shape in as few as ten blows.
And that was not all.
His rapport with the spirits had deepened as well.
Whatever this is…
It seemed dangerous to treat a secondary profession lightly. Just as a swordsman might break through the walls of the Flower Realm or the Profound Realm with the blade, there had to be a path for a blacksmith as well—one that transcended the limits of ordinary humanity.
And this quest is probably the guide for that path.
A brutal guide, one that would let him transcend as a blacksmith if he simply walked it step by careful step.
Introductory Quest — True Tempering
You have proven the fundamental aptitude of a blacksmith. Forge low-grade swords (Normal), low-grade spears (Normal), low-grade blunt weapons (Normal), and low-grade shields (Normal) to lay the foundation for true iron weapon crafting. (0/100)
🎁 Reward: Low-Grade Blacksmith Lv.3
"Hoo."
A new quest had arrived.
One hundred each of swords, spears, blunt weapons, and shields.
You have acquired the Low-Grade Sword Blueprint.
You have acquired the Low-Grade Spear Blueprint.
You have acquired the Low-Grade Blunt Weapon Blueprint.
You have acquired the Low-Grade Shield Blueprint.
The blueprints arrived as well.
An ordinary climber might have cursed out loud. Hyun Si-woon only smiled.
Of course. A blacksmith starts with weapons.
He found himself looking forward to whatever new world might open next.
But…
He could not pick up the hammer just yet.
Survival Qualification Status: (7/8)
The status updating in the notices had been stuck at seven for a while now. It meant the final slot would fill soon. He needed to start preparing for the server war.
Two more days passed.
Judgment Day. The selection of the eight (8) surviving servers is complete.
The Towers of Despair belonging to unselected servers will now vanish.
At last, the day arrived.
The day the sealed borders between nations finally broke open.
Community functions have been improved.
The Server Integration Update has been applied.
When accessing the community, a tab has been added that allows you to select which server to enter.
All posts and comments will automatically display an affiliated server [Nation Name] tag.
An automatic interpretation system is supported, allowing communication without language barriers.
Other-server boards have been newly established.
Climbers not belonging to a given server may only write posts on other-server boards.
It was identical to what he had seen in previous cycles.
The boards erupted past boiling point and simply exploded. The members could not hide their excitement, saying it had happened exactly as their leader had predicted.
Another day passed.
In celebration of the eight servers' survival! A Server War will be held.
Please check the community notices of each server for details.
Enormous rewards will be distributed differentially according to ranking.
The Server War had begun.
For the climbers of the eight servers who have proven their right to survive, the Tower of Despair opens a festival ground.
The glorious stage that will determine the strongest climber in the name of each server's honor — the Champion's Arena — will now be held.
Event Name — Champion's Arena
Schedule — One week from now
Broadcast Method — Live streaming via the community system
Rules — Each server selects six representative athletes. The eight servers will face one another according to a randomly drawn tournament bracket. Points are awarded by ranking.
Athlete Selection Method
A one-week registration period begins now. Climbers who wish to participate may apply through the [Athlete Registration] tab in the community. If more than six register, a vote open to all climbers will select the final six.
We await the challenge of true heroes who will fight with their server's pride on the line.
A storm of comments poured onto the notice.
Not long after—
Six names registered under the [Athlete Registration] tab, in order:
Hyun Si-woon, Jang Cha-yul, Baek Do-hee, Baek Yeon-ho, Kang Si-a, Hwang Dae-un.
The mood was overwhelmingly bright. They felt sorry for the nations that had not made the eight and offered their prayers, but for now they themselves had survived.
Less than thirty minutes had passed when a new notice appeared on the Republic of Korea server community.
The post rocketed to the top almost instantly.
Hello. This is Yoon Tae-shik, guild master of Owl.
With the server integration and the opening of the Server War, I believe many of you feel both confusion and anticipation.
Given the urgency, I will be brief.
The information war has begun.
I ask that you voluntarily delete all strategy videos, combat footage, analysis posts, and any other information regarding the Pioneer and his party members that you have previously uploaded to the community.
This is a temporary defensive measure to prevent the leakage of our core combat power to other servers.
Our strength alone cannot control information scattered across the entire server. We desperately need your voluntary cooperation.
After deleting the information, please capture a verification screen and send it to me by mail. As a token of gratitude, I will pay 500 TC per post.
For the victory of the Republic of Korea server, I sincerely ask for your cooperation.
The moment the post went up, the comment section detonated.
At that same moment—
"Hoo."
In the Owl Guild's hideout in Seoul, Yoon Tae-shik stretched his arms over his head.
"We've put out the immediate fire. Shadow."
"Yes, hyung-nim."
"The kids are still cleaning things up?"
"They are."
"Tell them to move fast. Once this job is done I'll give them a full week of leave."
"Understood!"
Footsteps clattered away. Watching Shadow's retreating back, Yoon Tae-shik thought to himself.
It was real.
A few months ago, exactly as Hyun Si-woon had said, the Server War had opened without the slightest deviation.
Did the captain come from the future or something?
Even if that strange book had given him answers, this was something that had not yet happened. And yet the certainty in the captain's eyes—he had known, one hundred percent, that it would occur.
If he hadn't said anything…
In the middle of this sudden upheaval, Owl would have flailed around and missed every scrap of golden time.
The moment the servers integrated, Yoon Tae-shik's instincts had driven him straight to the other servers. After catching that you could not post outside the other-server boards but you could still lurk freely, he had immediately ordered his members to collect every scrap of information on the opposition.
I have to be of at least some use to the captain.
Hyun Si-woon was already a being who had long since left the bounds of Yoon Tae-shik's understanding. There was not much he could do for a man like that. One of the things he could do was this—gather information and analyze it.
They will have run the Atla raid as well. Cross-reference the strategy videos on each board and we can map their combat power.
Beyond that: the number of towers, climber population figures, everything else. He had ordered them to scrape up every last thing they could get.
And at the same time, seal off their own critical information.
Compared to those nations we have a smaller population, better control, and massive capital.
That was what made the strategy possible.
Hyun Si-woon smiled in satisfaction.
He had been watching Owl's lightning-fast response in real time.
Everyone's working this hard. I can't just sit still.
He immediately summoned the members—not to the meeting room, but to the training ground.
"Everyone here?"
Expectation filled their faces. They had not said it out loud, but they had been waiting for this. They were strong—strong enough now that no one on the Republic of Korea server could match them. Of course they were curious about the powerhouses of other servers.
"Does this mean we can finally stop that endless grinding?"
"Haha, I'm getting a little nervous for some reason."
They were overflowing with composure. In truth, they had every right to be. In the previous cycle, under Yoon Seo-a's lead, they had taken first place in Round 1 of the Server War. The current members would be even stronger than they had been then—back then he had left them to grow on their own; now he had been personally overseeing their martial arts the entire time.
But…
Hyun Si-woon did not want a simple win.
We crush them.
Even when Sword Emperor Yoon Seo-a had been in command, the victory had not come easily.
China was especially brutal, wasn't it?
He had only half-listened at the time, so the details were fuzzy, but one thing was certain: irregulars existed on their side as well.
"Weapons out, everyone."
Shing—
Hyun Si-woon drew the Invisible Sword. The members swallowed hard. The aura pouring off a peak master was deeper and more majestic than anything they could match—like a vast mountain range standing directly in their path, an overwhelming presence.
Hyun Si-woon spoke quietly.
"For one week, we spar without rest."
He had decided not to throw away this cycle. He would live with everything he had. He would raise them with everything he had. And after that? He would clear the 11th floor and create a perfect save point.
To do that—
We need to get stronger than we are now.
His gaze swept across Jang Cha-yul, Kang Si-a, Baek Yeon-ho, and Hwang Dae-un in turn. Sorry, but this week was going to be pure Spartan training.
"All of you. Come at me at once."
Thud—!
Hyun Si-woon kicked off the ground and shot forward.