Harmonia Smithing
Balam had expected Jinwoo to charge straight in.
Jinwoo, however, remained ice-cold.
Close combat is too dangerous.
He knew his own strengths perfectly well. The skill to forge equipment. The ability to understand it. In those two things, he yielded to no one.
But combat? That's different.
Battle belonged solely to his thralls.
And besides…
The true worth of this Dragonstone Chain Scythe lay at range.
Range over close quarters.
He was a Necromayster.
This gear was never meant for a straight-up slugfest.
Jinwoo fell back hard.
"First. Pur."
He sent his thralls forward instead. At last his one-two punch stepped into the fray.
"I.have.waited.long."
"Shall I take the lead, Senior?"
Pur asked with perfect courtesy. First answered with his body.
Whoooooosh—
Underworld flame and the hellfire of the Avatar of Evil. First wanted to test those powers against each other.
"Flame.against.flame.We.shall.fight."
"Yes, sir!"
Pur slipped smoothly back.
Whooooosh—
Azure fire wreathed the Orichalcum Light Blade. Blue flames licking over the pinkish radiance only made the weapon's color burn brighter.
"Hiding behind your underlings, are you?"
Jinwoo simply nodded at Balam's taunt.
"We're a team."
He was never alone. With his thralls included, they were all Jinwoo. When Team Jinwoo moved, there was no "hiding" and no "stepping forward"—only the team.
He brushed the provocation aside so lightly that Balam stopped trying.
"You carry fine fire."
"Flame.bestowed.by.the.Great.Master."
Thud—!
First stamped the ground hard and swept the light blade on a diagonal. Balam answered by conjuring flame into his own hand and shaping it into a sword.
"A blade deserves a blade."
KRAAAAAANG—!
The two fires collided. Balam's crimson and First's azure locked in a savage contest of strength.
ZIIIIING—!
Shockwaves rolled outward. First had already grown skilled with the Orichalcum Light Blade.
No. Skilled isn't enough.
Whsssh—! Clang—!
His swordsmanship had already entered the realm of true understanding. Every motion looked as though he knew exactly how to wring the absolute maximum from the Orichalcum Light Blade.
The sword's limits… its potential…
He was drawing every last drop of it. Jinwoo smiled at the sight.
"That's it. That's how you use an Orichalcum Light Blade."
At the same time he heard the faint dissonance inside the blade he had once thought so well made.
If he weren't pushing it to its absolute limit, I never would have heard that.
He always wanted perfection, yet perfection remained impossibly distant. There were always flaws.
The invisible ones only reveal themselves like this.
Jinwoo saw them. Understood them in the same breath.
At high speed an imbalance appears.
A sudden drop in durability. In power. In velocity. It wasn't simply a lack of strength in the wielder.
It's the gear itself.
A craftsman loves what he creates. That love often makes him close his eyes to problems. Jinwoo loved his work too—but he never closed his eyes. His love lived in progress. Finding the shortcomings and forging something better: that, he believed, was a craftsman's true calling.
Clang—!
"That sword… whose is it?"
Blade locked with First, Balam asked in open admiration. Surely the continent's greatest master-smith had forged it.
"Was it made by the Devoured God of the Great Dwarves? Judging by the look of things, your master is that one's successor."
"Sword.forged.by.Master.himself."
"…He forged it himself?"
"My.armor.as.well."
Sword and armor both.
"Forged.and.bestowed.by.his.own.hand."
First kicked off hard and lunged. Then he activated the special skill of the Sky Stone Basago Armor.
Basago's power courses through the entire body!
Basago's essence settles into every limb!
Every stat surged by 500 in an instant, and vitality soared with it. Stats, vitality—and absolute defense.
First poured everything into a single swing of the Orichalcum Light Blade.
"You—!"
An attack that abandoned all thought of defense left Balam rattled. The openings were glaring.
An invitation? A trap?
In the midst of that confusion he felt it: the demonic power rolling off First.
"…Basago!"
That power was unmistakably Basago's.
"Which means this one defeated Basago—and used that power to forge gear!"
Whsssssh—!
Balam swept his flame sword at First without hesitation. Trap or not, at this range First would still take massive damage.
KRAKAKAK—!
Balam's strike landed first.
"Surging Embers."
KRAAAAAAANG—!
A cataclysm of fire engulfed First. The force was so immense that even Pur, watching from behind, jolted forward three involuntary steps. Balam smiled.
"That is not how you dig a trap—"
Yet something came out of the smoke of the explosion.
Azure flame.
A sword wreathed in azure flame.
First's decisive strike.
In that instant Balam understood. This had never been a trap. It was pure faith—absolute trust in the armor's power.
"Futile."
The defensive power of the Sky Stone Basago Armor, special options included, far exceeded 15,000.
"!"
Startled, Balam hastily threw up a flame barrier.
"Sixfold Bastion."
Six layers of fire shields.
KRAAAAAANG—!
The Orichalcum Light Blade shattered every layer at once. The six barriers tore apart like paper.
Whsssssssh—!
The light blade arrived.
"Guhhhhh—!"
Struck by an all-out blow, Balam reeled backward.
"W-what is this…"
Smoke rose from his entire body. His health plummeted; strength drained away.
"My power is being stolen…"
His own strength was flowing into the undead before him.
"It's absorbing my life force?"
Balam's eyes snapped to Jinwoo.
"Just what the hell did you create?!"
In raw power Balam still held the edge over First—that much was certain. But the gear closed the gap. Especially that armor. It had turned Balam's full-force attack into a mere scratch. By rights First should have been left on the brink of death.
Yet he stood. Proudly.
"How can you still be standing…"
Balam ground his teeth. Standing, yes—but not unscathed. Having abandoned all defense for that finishing blow, First had taken damage of his own.
Balam staggered, trying to regroup.
"He's strong, no question."
Jinwoo did not miss the opening.
"Pur."
"Yes!"
The instant Jinwoo called, he flung the chain scythe.
Whsssssh—!
The weary-looking Balam reacted at once to the Dragonstone Chain Scythe.
As expected.
The color of the flames shifted for a heartbeat. Balam was still modulating his power.
He never went all-out against First.
First had emptied everything. Balam still held reserves, and he was clearly watching this side with care.
That fire isn't his true power yet.
I'll have to drag it out of him.
"This scythe…"
Balam's face twisted. The Orichalcum Light Blade had been the same—the sheer quality of the gear was ferocious.
"I feel a dragon's power… and a familiar one at that."
"I forged it from Dragonstone."
Jinwoo yanked the chain. Balam's body lurched backward.
"You're no ordinary… necromancer…!"
Everything First had said was true. This power could never come from a mere necromancer.
"Does it look like I am?"
At those words Pur exploded forward.
Thud—!
He stamped the earth and scattered Underworld frost.
"Judgment."
Pur's power was inherently weak against Balam's fire. Worse, World Tree's Judgment was a wooden weapon—the worst possible matchup.
Even so, Pur trusted World Tree's Judgment completely. It was gear Jinwoo had made. Compatibility meant nothing.
"Hah! A wooden stick trailing pretty little frost."
Balam looked at Pur as though he could not believe his eyes.
"How far do you intend to mock me?!"
He unleashed flame like a breath attack.
SHAAAAAA—!
Heat more than enough to incinerate anything it touched.
"Burn."
Whooooosh—!
Fire swallowed Pur whole. Yet from the very heart of that inferno a massive plume of steam erupted. Pur, having drawn the Underworld cold to its absolute limit, stepped free of the flames.
"!"
"What nonsense is that? This is a weapon Master forged."
Pur spoke as if the very idea were absurd.
"It will never burn! Nor will this cold melt before fire!"
"…Your master was the only sane one among you. You lunatic thralls!"
Azure fire erupted across Balam's body. It felt similar to the blue flames First wielded, yet its power was far greater.
This was true hellfire.
"I can no longer hold back."
Balam revealed his true form.
"Flame Realm: Hellfire."
He swept both arms like whips and the surroundings became a sea of fire. Spears of flame shot straight at Jinwoo.
Thud—! Jinwoo did not even need to swing the Dragonstone Chain Scythe. Bon flicked his tail and simply extinguished the spears.
Jinwoo's eyes were wide, fixed on Balam—more precisely, on his flames.
"There it is."
That beautiful azure fire.
"I'm putting Balam in the forge."
Certainty settled in his heart.
But something feels off.
Those blue flames carried a strangely sacred quality.
Don't tell me…
The sight that had greeted him the moment he entered the tower rose in his mind: two opposing forces fused as one.
The power of the God of the Great Dwarves is inside him.
Balam had swallowed the temple whole—yet somehow…
Why?
Jinwoo stared into the azure fire and the sacred force nested within it.
Those two should never be able to intertwine.
Darkness and light. Heat and cold.
It wasn't absorbed…
In a flash he understood. Balam had not absorbed the god's power. The power of the God of the Great Dwarves had absorbed him.
Deliberately.
A generous power.
It had embraced even Balam's strength with open arms, and that was how the two had seeped into each other.
Just as those opposing forces had flowed together so naturally…
Then why? The god's power could easily have resisted Balam's.
"It flows."
Jinwoo smiled.
Naturally fused, naturally flowing.
That's the kind of power it is.
The God of the Great Dwarves applauds your enlightenment!
You have comprehended the power of the God of the Great Dwarves.
But Jinwoo did not stop there.
"Summon."
In the most dangerous possible moment he summoned his workshop. Instantly First, Pur, Mortus, and Bon stepped forward to form a wall. Pin hovered closest to Jinwoo, intercepting every attack.
"What in the world…"
Balam stared at him in disbelief.
"You mean to craft now?"
Jinwoo gave no answer. His mind was filled only with the knowledge he had just grasped. He took up a spare hammer and activated Ice-Flame Smithing.
Whooooosh—
SHAAAA—
Cold and heat.
"Flow."
He brought the hammer down.
Clang—!
Ice-Flame Smithing is strengthened!
Ice-Flame Smithing itself could be considered the root of the forging arts the God of the Great Dwarves had bestowed upon the dwarves. Grasping its core allowed that primal force to settle into Jinwoo's hands.
You have learned the Smithing of Harmony and Balance.
The name of Ice-Flame Smithing changes!
Ice-Flame Smithing→→Harmonia Smithing ★
Harmony and balance. The bridge that joined them—harmony itself. Ice-Flame Smithing had reclaimed its true form.
Now I can achieve harmony without forcing it.
"Now I understand. And now I see it."
Jinwoo's eyes lit up.
"That sacred power inside you."
He could see the very source of the God of the Great Dwarves' power dwelling within Balam's body.
"You swallowed a hammer."
Jinwoo gripped the Dragonstone scythe.
"Bring it to me."
SHAAAA— Jinwoo kicked off the ground with explosive force.
"That belongs to me."