I Need Your Clean Flame
“We came here for a flame.”
Jinwoo watched the fire of Shadow Wing.
Nether Breath.
A breath so thoroughly corrupted it had turned a sickly green.
“I can’t put a flame like that into anything.”
What he had imagined was raw, overwhelming heat—fire that could melt any material, that would let him work metal better than he already could. Not this. Not a flame that reduced everything to sludge and left only essence behind.
“……I.do.not.understand.”
“Drop that into a forge and the forge itself would rot.”
Jinwoo clicked his tongue.
“It never used its breath, so I waited to see. I never thought the breath would be contaminated too. And this badly.”
“Then there’s no point.”
Why had they come here at all? Wasn’t it for that dragon’s firepower? Hadn’t they volunteered for this climb specifically to claim its flame?
“Stuff like that would rot every material I have. Even Deep Smithing has limits.”
And more than anything, the stench was appalling.
“……As.expected.of.my.Master.”
First murmured in admiration beside him. As always, his master’s approach was on a different plane entirely.
“Hmmm.”
Jinwoo thought for a moment. The deliberation did not last long.
“This won’t work.”
“First. You’re up next—buy me some time. The Dragon Words will make a clean win hard.”
First had seen enough to know that already.
“I’ve found a way to deal with it.”
With a soft shaaak, Jinwoo opened his Summoned Workshop right where he stood.
“I.will.meet.your.expectations.”
Pin descended and took First this time. Jinwoo laid materials out across the workbench. He had plenty to work with.
“First, we change the battlefield.”
Shadow Wing’s domain was the sky. Dropping it from that sky was priority one.
It uses its original dragon power and the corrupted power on top of that—and it uses both well.
Of all a dragon’s gifts, the most troublesome was Dragon Words.
Strong enough to shut Pur down completely in an instant.
Closing distance was hard. Applying pressure was hard. King of the sky. Sovereign of magic.
Very dragon of it.
“So we drop it first.”
Getting that lofty creature out of the air was everything. Jinwoo summoned the workshop at once.
“I’ve fought skyborne enemies until I was sick of them.”
He grinned. Bows, throwing spears, every ranged weapon under the sun—none of that would bring Shadow Wing down.
I need something new.
He checked the materials on the bench.
“Plenty of stock.”
Obsidian. Blaze Worm chitin. And—
“Kobold leather.”
Jinwoo began sewing kobold leather to Blaze Worm chitin.
“Flawless Tailoring.”
Srrk. Srrk. Srrk.
Mire’s needle flashed with light. In stitches of almost unbearable beauty, the two materials began to interlock with perfect precision.
Srrk. Srrk.
Cut. Sew. In moments, a massive form took shape.
“A net.”
What Jinwoo was making was an enormous net—equipment built to completely pin the wings of the dragon ruling the sky.
Shadow Wing’s true threats are two.
Dragon Words. And Breath.
A net will burn by default—so I make one that doesn’t.
As for the Dragon Words…
Those were far harder to block.
“I give up on blocking them.”
If he could not stop the Dragon Words, he would simply stop trying to stop them.
Srrk. Srrk.
If you understood your own equipment down to the bone, you could craft whatever the situation demanded.
Srrk.
◈ You have crafted equipment!
◈ You have crafted SSR+-grade equipment!
The net took form in Jinwoo’s hands.
Obsidian Net. Purpose-built anti-dragon gear.
“If I use it as a weapon, it counts as a weapon.”
A grand gift, from Jinwoo, to the dragon soaring the open sky.
“That husk convalescing below is far stronger than you. What difference does it make that you have come up, skeleton?”
Shadow Wing taunted First as he rose on Pin’s back. First, however, had already climbed with a purpose far larger than victory.
“Nothing.will.change.”
His role was not to win.
“I.came.to.do.that.which.will.not.change.”
Whiiish—!
First patted Pin’s shoulder.
“I.know.your.hardship.”
Pin’s wingbeats surged.
“Master.is.preparing.”
First took the Orichalcum Lightblade in hand.
“Believe.That.is.all.”
“Pin—!”
Earlier, carrying Pur, Pin had flown half-crippled by emotion. That feeling had kept the creature from moving properly. Now its spirit returned.
“Correct.”
Whiiish—!
Only then could Pin remember: the thing before them was a dragon of untouchable strength. But Pin possessed a power no dragon had.
Steel wings.
As long as those steel wings remained, Pin held at least one edge over a dragon.
“Pin—!”
Pin flew free.
“You writhe like an insect.”
Shadow Wing loosed its breath.
“Nether Breath.”
Whiiiiiiish—!
Corrupted breath flooded the air. This Nether Breath was not meant to hit. It was meant to stain the sky, to shrink the space in which anything could move.
Pin’s room to fly steadily collapsed.
“Afraid? You no longer dive in as you did before.”
Even under the taunt, Pin would not close easily.
“Very well, then.”
Shadow Wing beat its wings.
“Let us see how long you can keep flitting through my sky.”
Shaaaaak—!
Bit by bit the dragon claimed the air and pressed Pin harder. First answered with boomerangs thrown in the gaps—weapons he had grown quite used to in the Tower of Altitude. Their grade was far too low to truly hurt Shadow Wing, of course. First attacked anyway without pause.
Whenever Pin managed an approach, First swung the Orichalcum Lightblade for the opening.
Whiiiiish—!
The range was hopelessly short. But First had skills of his own.
“Wave Release.”
A pulse charged with the Lightblade’s power streaked toward Shadow Wing.
Crack—!
The dragon casually swatted it aside with a wing.
“Multi Scale.”
Shadow Wing’s defensive magic was excellent as well. First kept circling on Pin, releasing wave after wave. With Multi Scale elevating its defenses, the dragon no longer took any damage at all.
“Playtime is over.”
Bored at last, Shadow Wing flared its wings wide and unleashed a breath of a different order entirely.
“Nether Breath.”
Fwoooooooosh—!
Corrupted fire streaked straight for First’s torso. Pin dove hard. Shadow Wing roared with laughter at the sight.
“A fine diversion.”
Watching them flee, it beat its wings at full power—and in an instant that seemed to tear space itself, it closed on Pin.
But Pin had not been fleeing.
“!”
First leapt from that exact spot. Pin wheeled at once and took Jinwoo aboard.
“Kkhhh… Khahahahahaha—!”
So. After sending its thralls one by one, the man himself had come.
“At last you arrive!”
As Jinwoo rose on Pin, Shadow Wing bared its teeth in open delight.
“I toyed with them on purpose.”
It had wanted to plant despair in the man watching from below—to prove that even if he sent his proud thralls forward, victory was impossible. Psychological pressure, and a generous helping of the dragon’s own cruel hobbies.
“Well then. Show me your skill. I am desperately curious.”
It truly was. A human who called himself a blacksmith, yet wielded a necromancer’s power—how had such a creature broken free of the infinite cycle?
“Show me that power.”
Even now, it looked down on every living thing from above.
Jinwoo held a single small dagger. An obsidian dagger.
“You mean to stab me with that? Going for my reverse scale, are you?”
Every dragon’s fatal weakness: the reverse scale.
“Here, then. I’ll show you. Beneath the throat. The inverted scale. That is my weakness. Though you’ve already seen that your little bones cannot even approach me.”
Jinwoo flicked the obsidian dagger from a distance.
“You, like your thralls, will—”
In a blink, the equipment changed.
Pin, which had climbed, plunged hard.
Whiiiiish—!
And what unfurled was the net.
“!”
Vast. Wide enough to swallow the air itself. The enormous net bloomed, and Shadow Wing startled, beating hard to the side—but it was already too late, and so it spoke the Dragon Words.
“Zun!”
Collapse magic bloomed. The net jerked once, then shot sideways and fell.
“That net of yours…!”
Had he carried it from the start? Or had he just made it?
Either way, Shadow Wing was forced to be impressed. The aura rolling off the Obsidian Net was vicious. Caught in that thing in this sky, even a dragon would fall without fail.
Jinwoo, still on Pin, reeled the net back in.
“You looked so at ease.”
For only a moment—but Shadow Wing had scrambled free of that Obsidian Net. For the first time, the dragon that had seemed so unhurried felt a true threat.
Jinwoo smiled and scraped a nail straight down its pride.
“Running with your tail between your legs?”
A bow was already in his hands; this time the arrow carried a net.
“And using Dragon Words for it, no less.”
Whiiiiiiiiish—!
Blinding speed. Shadow Wing’s expression twisted. It wasn’t only the net at the arrow’s end. That pitch-black arrowhead—near the end of its flight, it accelerated even further!
Jinwoo’s needling had stung its pride raw, but pride or not, it had to admit the truth. That net was dangerous. It could not afford to grow emotional and take it lightly.
Crack—!
Shadow Wing forced a violent lateral spin. The instant it thought it had dodged, the net’s edge snagged its tail.
Tuk—! It lashed the tail hard and flung the net free. Exactly what Jinwoo had wanted.
“Did you think there was only one net?”
Whiiiiish—!
A second net flew. No room to dodge.
“Zun!”
The Dragon Word of Collapse rang out—but it was imperfect.
You can’t chain something that strong without a cost.
Jinwoo had already known. Great power always came with conditions.
Kwaak—!
The Obsidian Net swallowed Shadow Wing whole. It twisted, beat its wings, tried to thrash free—and the more it fought, the tighter the mesh tangled.
“Nether Breath.”
Fwooooosh—!
Then simply burn it. But it would not burn.
“I made it out of obsidian.”
The net would not catch fire. The dragon that had ruled the open sky, snarled in a single net—thoroughly humiliating. Still Shadow Wing did not drop its guard. This net… the more it moved, the more its mana drained away.
“Damn it.”
The mesh was drinking mana. Right now, Shadow Wing was nearly defenseless—the perfect moment for a follow-up strike.
Jinwoo did nothing. He made no move to attack at all. He simply waited for Shadow Wing to hit the ground.
Had he already measured the range of the Dragon Words? Or was he simply looking down on it?
No—looking down made no sense. That meticulously thorough man hid gravity inside lightness.
Shadow Wing understood in a flash. This one intended to seize victory with absolute certainty. This was pure, complete caution!
Jinwoo, of course, had a different purpose in mind.
Kuuung—!
Shadow Wing slammed into the earth.
“So that was your talent. That is how you slipped free.”
This almost supernatural craftsmanship and hand skill—that had to be how he had escaped the cycle.
Kuuung—!
Fallen, Shadow Wing fixed its gaze on Jinwoo.
“Did you think grounding me would strip me of my power?”
“Hardly.”
Jinwoo shook his head.
“I only needed our attacks to be able to reach you.”
Shadow Wing ground its teeth. Yes—this human was careful. Dangerous to the bone.
Shaaaak—.
Before it realized, a recovered Pur and First—who had barely managed a proper strike—stood at four points around Shadow Wing.
“Payback time.”
The thralls crashed in as one.
Whiiiiish—!
“Where do you think—!”
True to its word, losing flight had not erased its power. It slipped every attack with perfect precision.
Almost every attack.
It allowed exactly one—Jinwoo’s strike with the obsidian dagger. And it did nothing. Shadow Wing’s current defense was so high that an attack from Jinwoo without thrall unification simply bounced off.
“?”
Something felt wrong.
“What did you just…?”
That glancing blow. It had not been an attack. In the wake of that single brush, the corruption flooding Shadow Wing’s body had… recovered. More precisely: it had been purified.
“Go wash up once in a while.”
Shadow Wing’s contamination was a force of the same family as dark energy.
Not identical, so I can’t absorb it outright—but I can pull it out.
And more than that…
Jinwoo had combined Soul Sight with Deep Smithing.
The power to purify and bleach is mine right now.
“I need your flame.”
Jinwoo said.
“Your thoroughly cleaned flame.”
Shaaaaak—!
“You would… purify me?”
Shadow Wing wore an expression it had never once shown before.
“To take my flame?”
“I don’t need a corrupted one.”
“You insane human—!”
The real thing. A genuine, complete madman.