The blacksmiths of Vallas Territory achieved a lot of growth thanks to Hyunsoo.

Even now, under the basic manuals Hyunsoo created and his guidance, the blacksmiths’ skills were steadily improving.

At times like this, there was a young blacksmith named Pick who was called a bizarre blacksmith.

The reason he was called a bizarre blacksmith.

His skill was definitely outstanding and his growth rate was faster than others, but most of the masterpieces he forged well—or even most of the things he made well—had bizarre effects.

The effects on an artifact.

Except for Hyunsoo, you couldn’t force them to go in exactly the direction you wanted.

They simply reflected the materials and the direction you had in mind while making it.

And so Pick’s work was born.

(Bow for Making Enemies)

Grade: Unique

Durability: 3,500/3,500

Attack Power: 195

Restriction: Archer 150~350

Special Abilities:

·Strength 2, Agility 4

·On last hit, gain 30% additional experience.

·On last hit, gain a large amount of Contribution.

·Active Skill: Arrow That Gathers Enemies.

·Active Skill: Invisible Arrow.

·Passive Skill: Not Me, That One.

Description: A masterpiece crafted by Blacksmith Pick. But if you use it wrong, it’s the perfect bow for becoming enemies with someone.

A masterpiece, and Unique.

When he first made it, Pick thought he had finally achieved his lifelong dream.

But when you picked it apart, it was weird.

Other blacksmiths who checked it said:

‘A large amount of Contribution on last hit? So you steal a huge chunk of Contribution by last-hitting the guy someone else did all the work killing. Isn’t that what the outsiders call stealing?’

‘Arrow That Gathers Enemies is weird too. If every time you shoot an arrow it gathers monsters within a 50 m radius, isn’t that basically suicide?’

‘And what the hell is Not Me, That One? Huh—so your own arrow gathers them up, then hands the aggro to someone else?’

If you combined the blacksmiths’ overall verdict, it was this:

‘It’s a good bow for when there’s someone you really want to screw over, but if you use it, you’ll become enemies with them, so it’s better not to use it.’

In other words, Pick’s works were so bizarre that they were all things that would be shunned.

Most of his other artifacts were full of things like that, too.

All the blacksmiths said with pitiful expressions:

‘Your skill is good, but everything you make.......’

‘Your skill is the best, but every effect that settles into it.......’

Pick cursed his cursed hands.

But there was one person who didn’t.

‘Pick, every piece of equipment exists for a reason. Someday your masterpiece will accomplish a lot, and I think it will become absolutely necessary to someone.’

It was the newly appointed Lord Hyunsoo.

Using those words as comfort, Pick didn’t quit being a blacksmith, and he went to work at the forge again today.

That was when Chancellor Nell came.

“Pick, my lord needs your artifact.”

“M-My lord?”

“Yeah. Here’s 50,000 gold from my lord. He says he wants to purchase your Bow for Making Enemies.”

After selling the bow for 50,000 gold, Pick was overwhelmed with fresh emotion.

Soon, Chancellor Nell used the gifting function to send the bow to my lord.

On the other hand, it was puzzling.

‘What on earth is he going to use that bow—perfect for making enemies—for?’

*****

Doon.

He was a veteran among veterans who had climbed this Beres Mountain Range hundreds of times over.

He was someone who understood all the geography, paths, and monsters better than anyone.

‘What is this?’

But something was strange.

A place where monsters normally didn’t appear much.

As Doon cut down monsters, he made a baffled face.

He had definitely said it.

That he would take the lead, pull all the mobs’ aggro, and make sure Hyunsoo—the blacksmith—got hurt as little as possible.

So Hyunsoo decided he would just support from behind with a bow.

But suddenly, the surrounding monsters started swarming in.

“Ghhk—what is this? Why, why are there so manyyyyy!?”

Ice-attribute monsters also swarmed in from somewhere else.

The strange thing was that the monsters were only swarming onto Doon.

The reason was the bow Hyunsoo was holding.

[Not Me, That One]

[By focusing all aggro on someone else, you avoid damage from it.]

Surrounded by dozens of monsters, Doon was about to go insane.

‘No—why are they all coming to me!’

In the mountains, Doon became 30% stronger.

He could somehow handle it, but it was an insanely difficult fight.

“Maybe climbing the mountain really {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} was too much.”

From behind, that man named Hyunsoo spoke in a scared voice.

Doon had promised.

That he would take him to where Sage Arte was!

“I think we should go down.”

More than anything, Hyunsoo absolutely had to be brought into the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.

“Even you look like it’s too much, Doon.”

Doon fought the monsters with difficulty, then smiled confidently.

“Don’t worry. This happens every time. Haha. And I may look like I’m struggling, but actually I’m dealing with these guys like it’s nothing—”

WHACK—

Doon got smashed in the side of the head by a snowman’s club and collapsed. Blood streamed down from his head.

“......?”

“?”

“......?”

“??”

Doon was flustered. For a moment, Hyunsoo’s expression had been like this:

‘What is this X idiot......?’

Was it his imagination?

Hyunsoo, whose expression quickly vanished, said,

“I guess I really can’t climb it.”

Doon chugged down top-grade potions that cost a fortune—100,000 won per bottle.

“N-No, it’s fine. Just support me a little, hahahahaha!”

At this point, Doon decided to think positively.

‘If there are a lot of mobs, that’s a lot of hunting. Good, right. Oh, this one’s at one HP.’

That moment.

WHOOSH—

An arrow flying from behind killed the one-HP monster in a single shot.

When two people hunt together, a Contribution system activates.

Experience is split according to how much you contributed.

But what was a bit special was that usually, the user who lands the last hit takes a pretty big share of Contribution.

‘Huh? Even so, why am I getting so little experience?’

Doon couldn’t understand it, and the truth was in Hyunsoo’s bow.

[You landed the last hit.]

[You gain 30% additional experience.]

[You steal Doon’s Contribution and increase your Contribution.]

[You gained 5,313 experience.]

Doon thought it was his misunderstanding.

But every time—

THUNK—

“Oh, I hit.”

THUNK—

“Let’s go!”

THUNK—

“Ooh......!”

“Y-You, man?”

“Huh? Why? I’m doing my best to help you, Doon!”

At Hyunsoo’s bright, innocent words, Doon felt weird.

‘Why does this feel so X shitty?’

Anyway, Hyunsoo cheered on the inside.

Doon kept tanking while chugging top-grade potions.

Then, once things were somewhat cleared out, one of those arrows would fire, calling in monsters within a 50 m radius.

And Hyunsoo, as expected, was cunningly aiming only for last hits.

Hyunsoo was extremely comfortable.

All he had to do was draw his bow from behind, land last hits, and eat experience—how comfortable was that?

[You leveled up.]

And while Doon kept chugging top-grade potions as his consolation, he tried to take comfort in something else.

‘Still, that snowman gloves dropped earlier. And a lot of gold and junk dropped too, so if I pick that up and sell it, I can definitely cover the potion cost—huh?’

Doon suddenly turned around.

Because Hyunsoo was rapidly scooping up every single drop on the ground.

“Hey, you X bastard!”

“?”

“......?”

“??”

Doon panicked.

‘Mistake. Me—a veteran—making a mistake like this.’

He quickly found a way to get out of the situation.

“Hey, you X monsters!”

Doon had no choice but to swallow back tears.

His furious sword butchered the monsters.

And Hyunsoo heard a notification.

[You have entered the Beres Mountain Range for the first time.]

[You are climbing the Beres Mountain Range at an unbelievable speed.]

[Experience gained increases by 10%.]

Hyunsoo was comfortably eating experience, comfortably gaining money and artifacts, and comfortably climbing the demon mountain range, Beres.

‘Let’s see, I leveled up twice, got two points into Dexterity, and the gold I got plus selling the items is about 500,000 won? That’s insane!’

Hyunsoo couldn’t help but feel happy as he watched Doon’s reliable(?) back.

Doon, who was a mess, succeeded in hunting all the surrounding monsters.

‘Huff, huff... I’ve never hunted this much before.’

Doon didn’t know he could fight this well.

It was born from his firm will to drag that bastard into the Snowfield Blessing Grounds and kill him no matter what.

Doon had told a half lie and a half truth.

The half lie was killing him by taking him to the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.

And the half truth was this.

‘This time, the Sage’s Tower is close to the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.’

Walking with Hyunsoo, Doon pointed at the Sage’s Tower, which had started to come into view faintly.

“How is it? We really came to the Sage’s Tower, right?”

Doon was proud.

“It’s probably the first time. A user who came here for the first time climbing this far up in such a short period.”

It made his stomach burn, but it was true—Doon had brought this annoying bastard up here fast.

And before he knew it, Doon had reached the vicinity of the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.

Doon explained the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.

“A truly amazing place where it increases by triple like this.”

Walking ahead of Hyunsoo, Doon heard a notification.

[You have entered the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.]

Notifications also rang out about increased experience and drop rate, and about penalties.

Doon left out the penalties completely when he told him.

Then he turned around, looked at Hyunsoo, and smiled.

“If you just cross this Snowfield Blessing Grounds, you’ll be able to go to the Sage’s Tower.”

And he waited.

For the bastard to enter the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.

“Yes, thanks to you, Doon, I came comfortably. Thanks to you......”

At last, Hyunsoo entered the Snowfield Blessing Grounds.

Doon’s expression turned cold.

“Thanks my ass. You’re going to die anyway.”

Doon could see his waiting comrades appear.

Doon’s comrades were extremely strong.

They had to be.

Usually, the ones who searched for the Sage’s Tower were high-level users.

Since they had to deal with those users, these people were big shots as well.

“This is the bastard? The one who made you swallow it?”

[Wind Sorcerer Won Lv.341]

“Puhaha, a blacksmith with nothing but a bow on his back thinking he can climb the Beres Mountain Range alone.”

[Assassin Burns Lv.349]

“Damn...... those artifacts are really nice?”

[Swordsman Bon Lv.351]

And.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for the moment to kill you? I’m going to kill you as painfully as possible. So you get trauma and can’t even log into the game.”

[Mountain Warden Doon Lv.361]

They were all rankers within the top 300.

Wind Sorcerer Won was 131st.

Assassin Burns was 115th.

Swordsman Bon was 107th.

And Mountain Warden Doon was 99th—a top-100 high-ranker.

They looked at Hyunsoo, who wore a flustered expression.

“Why are you doing this......?”

“It’s simple. Artifacts are rare. Even rankers can’t get Rare, Epic, or Unique like it’s common, and high-level users save up the money they’ve hunted until now and fit themselves out in the best gear. If you kill them, those precious things drop—at triple drop rate. And with a 100% probability, they will definitely drop the artifacts they’re wearing.”

Mountain Warden Doon smiled.

“Killing them one by one like that, we sold what they dropped, and only then could we arm ourselves with these amazing artifacts and become even stronger.”

“So you did it to steal the results of years of their suffering?”

At those words, Doon and his group laughed.

And Assassin Burns didn’t feel any need to talk more with him.

‘In one strike, I pierce his throat......!’

Then he made a puzzled face.

‘My body...... won’t move......?’

Burns could only roll his eyes.

The others couldn’t move either.

Soon, Hyunsoo pulled out the sword he had hidden in his inventory and equipped it.

[You have equipped the Supreme Blade.]

The moment they saw the sword, their eyes went wide.

A terrifying famous blade at a glance.

A current of energy was sucked into the sword.

[Rampaging Sword]

The Supreme Blade’s subtlety—its basic attack power is determined by probability.

“Do you know something?”

The expression that had looked naive and immature completely changed.

[By a 2% probability, the sword’s basic attack power increases by 641%.]

[It lasts for 15 seconds.]

The lord of a territory.

One of fewer than ten viscounts.

And the expressionless charisma of someone who had reached the summit in a single field left them flustered.

“You guys too.”

“Triple drop rate.”