Forging Without a Hammer
MeTube.
Sharknet.
And across a dozen other communities, conversation about the video Jinwoo had uploaded to JBS refused to die down.
Ordinarily the feeds should have been drowning in talk of Slayer and High-tech. Their footage had been impressive enough for that. Instead, every eye had locked onto Jinwoo.
Whether the reactions ran hot or cold, Jinwoo's tower-clear footage was pure aggro. Of course it was. What users were watching made no sense inside the rules they knew—something their common sense insisted could never be done.
Players from every trade watched the raw footage with their hearts hammering—because it was their field on display.
Which was another way of saying: please, for the love of god, let him be one of us so he can flood our profession with god-tier gear.
Plenty of people were still fighting, though.
It wasn't really about possible versus impossible anymore. They had already decided the feat was impossible, so the only remaining question was whether the footage was staged or genuine.
Someone dropped that, and the thread froze.
Users who had been at each other's throats stopped mid-argument and piled into the replies.
On the back of that, the rumor that Jinwoo was Jin hardened into accepted fact.
A kind of etiquette settled over everyone. He was Jinwoo now. If that was how he chose to play, they would honor it.
Click. Click-click.
The more issues piled up, the more information spilled out, the harder the view count climbed. Normally a video spiked early and then bled momentum. Jinwoo's was different. People who had already watched it rewound and watched again. Inside the tower he had been doing so many things at once that every class of player found a reason to scrub back through the footage.
And it didn't stop there.
Jinwoo's video—already sitting at number one on Trending—had started catching fire overseas.
Lately Jinwoo had been getting standing ovations from foreign MeTubers. Fritz. Mr. Left. Measured by reach, both were mega-corporate-tier creators, and both had bought his gear and sung its praises—early-period pieces, at that.
It was starting to rival the number-one broadcast holding the throne on KBC and Netfelix. No—rival wasn't the word anymore.
Had there ever been a human like this?
No. Absolutely not.
There had been glory-mad men who came to kill him for the title of Dragon Slayer, but never a human who tried to restore him out of pure greed for his flame.
"You insane creature! You weren't trying to stop me? You weren't here to kill me?!"
"There are things I finish first."
"You would heal me just to claim my original fire?"
The mindset made no sense. Right now, he and this human were locked in a fight to the death.
"Yes."
Jinwoo nodded, then signaled his thralls.
"Purification work begins."
Jinwoo was the core of the operation. The thralls' job was simply to open lanes so his touch could land.
KRAAAAK!
The Obsidian Net had grounded Shadow Wing for good. Grounded, though, did not mean a dragon's power vanished. If anything, enraged, Shadow Wing stopped holding back the way he had before and committed fully.
"I.can.attack."
Even if Shadow Wing's strength surged higher, it no longer mattered. Once he was on the ground, the thralls could finally reach him.
THUD!
First charged hard and swung the Orichalcum Lightblade as if settling an old grudge.
"Zuun! Matera."
Shadow Wing hurled a Dragon Word at the closing First. The force of it shoved First's body far backward—but First had already weathered those words more than once. He poured everything into the lightblade and resisted.
"How dare you!"
A dragon on the ground was still a dragon.
WHIIIIP!
The tail lashed and sent First flying. Exactly as First intended.
CRACK!
He caught the tail and wrenched open a gap for Jinwoo.
"You—!"
Jinwoo was already there, palm settling cleanly on Shadow Wing's foot. The foot purified.
SHHHHHH!
"Stop healing me!"
The irony was almost funny. Stop healing him?
"I'll get you healthy."
Jinwoo smiled, cold and thin.
"So the flame comes back in peak condition."
Peak flame. And, beyond that, peak materials.
"Mahuzra!"
A Dragon Word detonated at the approaching Jinwoo—the strongest Shadow Wing had used yet. A word of destruction and rage, every emotion he carried converting straight into damage.
First stopped it.
"That.much.will.not.do."
To punch through the armor First wore, a word of that caliber simply wasn't enough.
"Finally, a proper opponent."
A real test for the Sky Stone Basago Armor.
"First."
Jinwoo centered the purification work on First and pressed the operation forward.
"Gyaaah—!"
"Why are you screaming? You're getting healthier."
There was no pain. Contaminated tissue was being cleaned, which in practical terms meant Shadow Wing's power was rising by the second.
Of course, it isn't simple contamination.
Shadow Wing had been bound to the tower—granted power by it, corrupted by it. In some ways he might even have been stronger than in his original state.
But for me, at least—
The original form was far more potent.
"Nether…"
Shadow Wing tried to fire a Nether Breath and faltered.
"Breath!"
The contamination level had dropped.
"Good! Yes. There it is!"
"Damned lowly creature… weakling!"
Even his speech was shifting.
It's working.
Jinwoo kept borrowing First and Pur's strength to drive the purification deeper. And then, mid-process—
BOOOOOOM!
Shadow Wing's body began to blaze with light.
Shadow Wing's power is unleashed!
A powerful shockwave radiates outward!
Dragon Aura crashes over you!
Phase Two—normally gated behind a health threshold—had kicked in immediately.
"A dragon is a dragon, after all."
At the same moment, every thrall Shadow Wing had been commanding vanished at once. Mortus, who had been focused on clearing those minions, suddenly had room to breathe.
"You have made a grave mistake, human."
Shadow Wing ripped free of the nets binding him. The Obsidian Net still snarled around his wings held firm, but the mesh on his hands, feet, and torso tore away.
"I need not fly. I will fight you in your domain."
SHHHHHHH!
Crack. Crrrrrack!
Shadow Wing's eyes went pitch black. A blood-red aura poured off him.
Of course he wouldn't die easily.
Jinwoo had expected as much. He had been looking forward to it.
There's still plenty left to test.
A powerful monster meant materials, yes—but more importantly, it meant gear could be pushed to its absolute limit.
"First. Pur. Mortus. Pin."
Jinwoo gestured to the four thralls.
"Fight freely."
Primary objective—ground him—is done.
Jinwoo eased a step back. Shadow Wing, lost in fury, did not rise to the bait even as Jinwoo withdrew.
He knows the situation isn't in his favor.
So there would be no provocation until the odds shifted.
"Albas."
A Dragon Word of binding rolled outward.
"Sharak."
Then magic beyond words bloomed in every direction.
WHOOSH!
A plague gale blasted from a furious wingbeat, elemental spells streaking out with it. Arrows of flame. Arrows of frost. Between them a corrupted Breath roared free—already half-purified by Jinwoo, which meant a fierce fire attribute rode inside it as well.
It was a pure magical barrage. Everything a dragon possessed tore through the thralls' lines. The thralls did not give ground easily.
Jinwoo watched the clash between his thralls and Shadow Wing unfold. First's use of the Orichalcum Lightblade. The defensive ceiling of the Sky Stone Basago Armor. The power of a Hero-rank undead in Pur, and the upper limit of World Tree's Judgment. Mortus's attacks through the Sky Stone Orb. The force of Pin's steel wings.
I can see it more clearly now.
Fighting a dragon this strong painted the height Jinwoo had reached in stark relief. The current situation was clearly in their favor. But the kind of advantage Jinwoo wanted was not this vague edge.
Overwhelming.
The kind of edge where a single piece of equipment flipped the entire field.
That is advantage.
Right now, the only thing that counted as overwhelming was the UR-grade Sky Stone Basago Armor—and even that was only possible because Shadow Wing had already been weakened.
A flood of information poured into Jinwoo's mind. It made his hands twitch. The path forward lit up. He could see exactly what needed to be corrected.
My head is so clear.
Immersion has increased!
Jinwoo gripped a hammer. Or rather—his hand held nothing. And yet, at the same time, it was unmistakably there.
Whoosh.
As if bringing it down, Jinwoo moved his hand.
A great swordsman could unleash swordsmanship without a blade. In the same way, a great blacksmith could refine without a hammer. Every shortcoming standing clear in his mind—Jinwoo was hammering it into his hands.
Synchronization Rate is rising.
Synchronization Rate has increased by 0.2%.
Current Synchronization Rate: 80.6%
In that moment, Jinwoo felt a new realm open.
He raised his hand.
And brought it down.
CLANG!
A sound that should not have existed rang out. And in the same instant, Pur—locked in a brutal exchange—heard it.
The sound of Jinwoo's hammer had always been a joy to the thralls. When Jinwoo forged, the results came to them. That feeling lived in Pur as well. Especially in Pur—who, even after rising to Hero-rank undead, had known nothing but humiliation. He had not been useful. That feeling had cut deep.
"My lord placed his trust in me."
Then he would answer that trust.