Hammer Artist

CLANG—! CLANG—!

Jinwoo was handling the Rage Orichalcum perfectly.

"That's definitely the same material, right?"

Dongwoo scrubbed back through the video his brother had sent him.

"Hyung even wrote comments on it."

Rage Orichalcum was an incredible material.

The material adapts to the hammering.

That was clearly written in the information his brother had sent about Rage Orichalcum.

An adapting material. That meant it went beyond merely being difficult to work — you had to fight the material itself.

"No way. How is he adapting to it? The Rage Orichalcum is just taking hits one-sidedly?"

And yet his brother was handling the Rage Orichalcum with ease.

"If this looks easy…"

It meant his brother's skill had grown even further.

Dongwoo leaned in. He scrubbed the video forward and watched again, carefully, how his brother worked.

Click.

He hit the spacebar and paused.

"Holy hell."

The curse slipped out before he could stop it.

"He's changing his hammering the moment it adapts?"

The force of each blow. The angle. Even the skill woven into the hammer.

"Every single swing… every time it adapts, he adjusts his hammering to match…"

The detail. The detail was terrifyingly precise.

"If you don't know what to look for, you'd never even notice."

Not knowing made it look incredible. Knowing made it look even more incredible. No — past incredible. It was almost frightening.

Dongwoo hit play again.

CLANG—! CLANG—!

Jinwoo began to hammer.

"How far has your gear gone, hyung?"

The gear upgrades were one thing, but his brother's raw skill seemed to have climbed in the meantime as well.

"Now that I've piled up enough knowledge, I can see it. The blacksmiths posting on MeTube and hyung — they're not even in the same league."

Dongwoo felt the overwhelming gap. Not a single crafter currently on MeTube could work the way his brother did. They couldn't keep up with his skill.

This wasn't favoritism just because they were brothers. Dongwoo wanted to grow JinTube properly, so he forced himself to be as objective as possible.

And still the gap was there. A massive one.

"Or maybe… it's not that his skill has increased."

Maybe he was reclaiming the skill he'd always had?

New Generation and Eternal Sunshine were fundamentally different in how they synchronized with the body. If the brother who had been unmatched even in the choppy, disconnected feel of Eternal Sunshine was slowly adapting to New Generation…

"Is his Synchronization Rate climbing past eighty percent?"

Gulp.

Dongwoo swallowed hard. Unlike other crafting videos, his brother's production footage made him hold his breath while watching.

"There's something that just pulls your eyes in."

Whatever that element was that other crafting videos lacked, his brother's videos had it.

"I have to bring that out."

Bringing that part to life was Dongwoo's job.

"Hooooo."

Ever since becoming JinTube's editor, his sleep had plummeted. He'd quit every tutoring job.

"My body's wrecked, but…"

It was fun.

Dongwoo edited through the night. By the time he finished, he had three complete videos.

"The Dragonstone Chain Scythe crafting video, the Rage Orichalcum video, and the new clear of the Tower of Sulfur and Magma."

Each one packed serious impact.

"I'll queue the uploads in order."

The first one up was obviously the Rage Orichalcum video.

"Grab their attention hard with this one."

Next would be the Dragonstone Chain Scythe, to properly stamp Jinwoo's skill into people's minds. That was Dongwoo's goal.

"Subscribers are at four hundred thousand right now."

JinTube had already broken past four hundred thousand subscribers. The first Orichalcum crafting video he'd uploaded had already blown past thirty million views.

"They said the JBS channel is shifting to shorts-focused uploads from now on."

Long-form Jinwoo videos wouldn't be going up on the JBS channel the way they used to.

"The long videos are moving to Netfelix, apparently."

Which meant, for all practical purposes, the only place left to watch Jinwoo's long videos was JinTube.

"If I can yank the subscribers who flowed in through JBS over here…"

He could hit a million right away.

"Let's hit one million fast."

He wanted to get the Gold Play Button and send it straight to his brother.

Ding-ding—! Ding-ding—!

Subscribers with JinTube notifications turned on flooded to the channel the moment the new video alert hit.

The new video's title was Rage Orichalcum Crafting Log.

Even players who weren't crafters knew this material by reputation.

Plenty of combat-class players had looked at nothing but the name and grade of Rage Orichalcum and commissioned blacksmiths with it. Every last one of them had earned a blacksmith's fury.

Because of that, the vast majority of players had almost never seen equipment made from Rage Orichalcum.

Subscribers rushed to watch the video.

On screen, Jinwoo stood before a piece of Rage Orichalcum.

Everyone assumed that even Jinwoo would struggle with the infamous Rage Orichalcum.

Of course, given what Jinwoo had already shown, most people believed he could handle Rage Orichalcum. But they also decided it wouldn't look as overwhelming as his previous work.

So everyone watched with half-belief, half-doubt.

And the impact hit immediately.

CLANG—!

Rage Orichalcum shattered easily if you applied force wrong. On screen, Jinwoo struck the Rage Orichalcum quite hard.

It didn't break. Instead, it deformed perfectly.

Everyone was speechless — and still couldn't help admiring his skill.

Overseas users piled on. Captivated by Jinwoo's hammering, they stuck him with the nickname Hammer Artist.

And as the view count rocketed, the subscriber count climbed with it.

Five hundred fifty thousand.

Six hundred thousand.

…

Seven hundred fifty thousand.

At this rate, one million wouldn't take long at all.

The Rage Orichalcum Mace. Jinwoo handed the finished weapon straight to Pur.

"This is…!"

In that instant Pur launched into a full-body reaction of pure gratitude — dropping both knees to the ground as he received the mace.

He learned that from watching Suhaeng-won.

But he still had a long way to go before matching the original.

"Rage Mace. Give it a try."

Special Skill: Rage Mace.

Just as First had done, Pur slammed the mace into the ground.

CRACK—.

A deep crimson aura poured from the entire head of the Orichalcum mace.

BOOOOOOOOOOM—!

Then the earth caved in with force comparable to Thunder Crush.

"Heh."

If Thunder Crush comes first and Rage Mace follows up, that alone starts the fight by smashing half of anything.

It might even end things with that one-two punch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone.

"Vanguard firepower has to be at least this strong."

Jinwoo was thoroughly pleased.

There's no point using the rest of the materials right now.

"Harmonia Smithing. This is pretty damn good."

But he still needed to refine his mastery further.

A smithing art that creates harmony and flow — the possibilities are endless.

Jinwoo planned to keep probing those possibilities with his remaining UR materials.

For now…

He set the ???-grade material aside for safekeeping, then headed once more for Iron Helm.

Iron Helm. The underground city was still deep in festival mode. Having survived a crisis that could have collapsed the entire place, they were going to eat and drink for days.

Through the festival atmosphere, Jinwoo went straight to find Hairun.

"Thank you so much, Hairun! I learned a great deal."

"Nonsense. We're the ones who should be thanking you! Come back anytime. We'll be installing your statue right away, so make sure you come see it!"

Hairun greeted him with a broad smile.

Next Jinwoo sought out Big Hammer. The dwarf elder welcomed him warmly.

"This is rather embarrassing. Our elders wanted to apologize to you all over again, but I stopped them."

He'd judged that would only get in Jinwoo's way. Jinwoo smiled and nodded.

"It's fine. More importantly…"

Jinwoo told him about the temple.

"I found a temple at the desolate edge of the land. A temple dedicated to the great god of the dwarves."

"!"

Big Hammer's face went wide with shock.

"We thought it was lost — and it was there all along! Thank you. Truly, thank you. I'll pass word to the dwarves of the East!"

Big Hammer, beaming, pulled something out.

"This is a Token of Gratitude. Just as you aided us, if ever you need our help, we will aid you. Not me alone — all of Iron Helm."

I can borrow the strength of all of Iron Helm…

That was a far greater reward than he'd expected.

They really are different from the elves.

What Jinwoo had done in Elven City hadn't been all that different from what he'd done here.

Of course, Elven City would help me if I needed it too, but…

"Thank you."

Jinwoo carefully stowed the token.

First stop — Lykkeision.

It was time to leave the underground.

The auction house.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, a new listing appeared.

Ding-ding—!

The Orichalcum Light Greatsword — and World Tree's Judgment on top of it. The moment both of the summons' weapons from the video went up, people started ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bidding like madmen.

Players who had been perfectly content with two SSR+ pieces — the Orichalcum Light Greatsword and World Tree's Judgment — suddenly started panicking.

People scrambled over to JinTube.

It wasn't just UR. It was UR+. Two full grades higher.

And one person in particular was reeling at the situation.

MeTuber Fritz.

"This is impossible. How is this even working?"

They weren't stunned because Jinwoo made good gear. They already knew he made good gear.

The problem was—

"The speed doesn't make any sense."

Jinwoo was pulling ahead at an overwhelming pace.