[HP falls below 30%.]

[HP falls below 29%.]

The fiercely falling snow had, before he knew it, piled up to Hyunsoo’s stomach.

The swirling snow even filled his field of view.

He looked at his hand.

[You have frostbite.]

[It is not easy to move your hand, and it aches as if it will break.]

“Haah.”

White breath poured from Hyunsoo’s mouth. Around then, once in a while, he could feel a warm heat from the Snowman King’s Ring.

[Temperature Control]

[Warm energy wraps around your body.]

[Ice-attribute resistance increases by 60%.]

(Snowman King’s Ring)

Grade: Unique

Durability: 5,000/5,000

Defense: 68

Restriction: Level 310 or higher

Special Abilities:

·Stamina increases by 4%.

·Ice-attribute attack power increases by 43%.

·Ice-attribute resistance increases by 50%.

·Passive Skill Survival.

·Active Skill Temperature Control.

·Active Skill Snowpath Running.

Description: A ring dropped by the Snowman King, a ring that performs at the highest efficiency on a snow-covered mountain.

Temperature Control.

This active skill could be activated once every 10 minutes, and for 1 minute it normalized all body temperature.

But it was not all-powerful.

[HP falls below 5%.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Fear.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Fainting.]

Brutal notifications tormented Hyunsoo.

As if he would faint at any moment, Hyunsoo collapsed onto the snowfield.

His mind grows hazy, and sleep comes over him.

Then he remembers.

If he fails to meet Sage Arte this time, he can never meet them ever again.

That means he cannot obtain what the God of Blacksmiths left behind.

Hyunsoo needed it.

A way to become stronger, and a road to go farther.

Hyunsoo snapped his eyes open.

[You exert extreme mental strength.]

[You gain Will 1.]

[Survival is activated.]

[HP recovers by 10%, and all status ailments are driven out.]

The Survival embedded in the Snowman King’s Ring activates depending on the wearer’s mental strength.

Hyunsoo kept moving forward.

He faced situations where he nearly lost consciousness, time and time again.

[You exert extreme mental strength.]

[Survival is activated.]

He gets blown away by a gale and slammed into a tree.

KRAAAK-!

“Ghk....”

But Hyunsoo stood up again and walked.

At last, he was able to reach the Sage’s Tower.

CREEEAK-

Entering inside, Hyunsoo was able to face people he hadn’t expected.

[Absolute Shield Peya Lv.475]

[Archmage Luwon Lv.481]

[Sword King Barad Lv.478]

[Sky King Ben Lv.488]

[Sage Arte Lv.472]

Levels that defied common sense.

Inside that, Hyunsoo brushed the snow off his clothes and thought.

‘I won’t shrink back.’

He used to.

Every day, with shoulders hunched, he grieved and lamented his life, plunging more desperately into despair.

But not now.

He overcame those snow flurries himself and came all the way here.

It meant he would never fall behind them.

“Master Blacksmith Hyun. I greet Sage Arte.”

[Rewards are maximized.]

Hyunsoo’s heart pounded.

A reward for breaking through that absurd path and coming in.

He was curious what that reward would be.

And he felt a vicious silence settling over the room.

Ben and Barad silently took in Hyunsoo, their close friend.

They, too, were very surprised.

With the blizzard of the first time in a hundred years that suddenly began, they thought their friend might not be able to come here.

But they were wrong.

‘When did he grow this much?’

‘Was that really the Hyun I knew?’

Looking at him, Barad and Ben felt an inexplicable thudding in their chests.

The ones most shocked were Luwon and Peya.

‘Right now, he’s no different from a walking corpse....’

But his gaze was still brimming with life.

‘It might be fun to watch that one become a legend.’

‘With that kind of mental strength, even if he becomes a legend, he won’t be lacking.’

With a small expectation, they spoke.

“We’ll be going back now.”

“See you again next time.”

Luwon and Peya turned into light and disappeared.

And the one among them holding the most interest was Arte.

As the owner of the Sage’s Tower, Arte clearly knew he was coming.

‘But he was a dying candle.’

In the fierce wind, again and again, a precariousness as if he would go out.

That’s why Arte thought he would ultimately die without reaching this place.

Yet within that, he overcame it.

And he arrived here.

And look!

Still unshaken, that firm, unbroken bo—

THUD.

“......?”

Hyunsoo suddenly fainted.

“He does that a lot.”

“Our kid’s kind of frail.”

What was even more absurd was Barad and Ben’s calm reaction.

“???”

Their continued words surprised Arte even more.

“It’s only natural. He’s frailer than the two of us.”

“Did you know? With an unbreakable mental strength, he came here.”

Arte admired it purely.

Soon, Barad and Ben lifted him and headed out.

After a little while, Arte also walked somewhere.

*****

Where Arte arrived after moving.

There, a statue of Aska, the God of Blacksmiths, had been placed.

The statue of a handsome man with white hair tied tightly held a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other.

It symbolized martial might and blacksmithing work.

Arte recalled their conversation with the God of Blacksmiths.

‘If my descendant comes, bring them before this statue. Then they will obtain what I left behind.’

The God of Blacksmiths Arte knew was the strictest person.

No—someone who had to be strict.

‘Even to their own descendant.’

And at any time, the God of Blacksmiths is also prepared to cast the descendant out.

‘Because power, by nature, should belong to the one who has it.’

And what the God of Blacksmiths had said.

‘My statue will prove the road they have passed through until now. And depending on what is proven, the reward will differ. If they brilliantly accomplished and honored the work of blacksmithing, the hammer will be bestowed. If they proved martial might, the sword will be bestowed.’

If the hammer is bestowed, Hyun will obtain the power needed as a blacksmith.

If the sword is bestowed, a reward will descend that lets him unleash outstanding martial might.

But no matter which of the two descends, this too is important.

‘A rusty hammer, or a hammer made of gold.’

A rusty hammer, a rusty sword—though you can receive a reward from the God of Blacksmiths, it becomes a failure of proof.

And if you obtain a hammer or sword made of gold, it means you proved something quite worthy of recognition.

“As finicky as me, to the extreme.”

But Arte understood him.

One who walks the road of a god is not ordinary.

Also, this god’s Recognition ultimately is most affected by climbing this mountain this time.

Thinking that, when half a day /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ had passed, Arte was able to know that the man had awakened.

Soon, a single pigeon flew to him.

*****

Waking from sleep, Hyunsoo wore a resigned expression.

‘Again-Hyunsoo-Fainted, again-Hyunsoo-Fainted....’

It is short for “Hyunsoo fainted again.”

Then he checked his current god’s Recognition.

‘To think something like this existed.’

From the moment Hyunsoo began climbing the tower, this Recognition had begun rising.

‘In a way, meeting Doon’s group worked as an opportunity for me.’

Doon was someone who understood the Beres Mountain Range the best.

Because of him, Hyunsoo climbed a path that would take two days in half a day.

‘It’s really an incredible Recognition.’

Looking at the value he achieved, Hyunsoo smiled faintly.

At that moment, the pigeon that had flown in made a gesture telling Hyunsoo to follow.

‘Am I finally getting it?’

Hyunsoo realized that if he followed this pigeon, he could obtain what the God of Blacksmiths left behind.

And for the first time, he could see what kind of figure the God of Blacksmiths was.

Rather than a blacksmith, he had looks closer to a noble young lord.

Holding a white hammer and a white sword, it made you think he looked truly impressive.

And Arte spoke.

“Hammer or sword. One of the two will come out. If it’s a hammer, you can obtain power as a blacksmith; if it’s a sword, you can obtain power related to martial might.”

For Hyunsoo, both appealed to him.

“How do I receive it?”

“Just touch the statue.”

After Hyunsoo placed his palm on the statue’s chest and stepped back,

a small light rippled from the statue.

“Along with the Recognition you received while climbing the mountain, Recognition according to the road you passed through will also appear.”

And Hyunsoo heard the notifications.

[You gain additional Recognition according to the road you have walked.]

[You gain 65% god’s Recognition.]

Arte asked.

“I’m curious. How much god’s Recognition did you achieve?”

‘Then maybe he built up around 80% Recognition? What an incredible man, to get god’s Recognition to that extent....’

At that moment, Hyunsoo said,

“My Total Recognition is 227%.”

“......What?”

With wavering eyes, Arte looked at the blacksmith called Hyun standing before the statue.

Only after hearing the exact Recognition did Arte understand.

‘It’s far too lacking.’

To obtain just one hammer, just one sword, that is.

And soon, Arte could discover something strange.

All at once, the sword and hammer the statue of the God of Blacksmiths had been holding turned to ash and softly scattered away.

And then, from the statue that had been holding those two things, a sound came out.

CRR, CRRCH-

‘No way...!?’

Arte could not hide his shock. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

[Aska, the God of Blacksmiths, descends.]

Arte’s eyes shook violently.

A god does not easily appear in the world.

In fact, that was why the reward was something the statue bestowed.

Arte’s Adam’s apple moved.

GULP-

He could understand why the god descended.

‘They recognized them too much—because their descendant pleased them too much...!’

The god, delighted, came running in a single step.

And soon, Arte could see it.

That an entirely new reward was descending.

Arte had a premonition.

‘It cannot even be compared to something like a hammer and a sword.’

*****

[Aska, the God of Blacksmiths, descends.]

Hyunsoo was shocked. Even as he played the game as a descendant, he had thought it would take a long time for him to meet Aska.

A god is great and noble.

That was Ares’s setting.

In reality, he had never seen a user who truly faced a god.

The statue’s eyelids move.

And God Aska descended because they were so curious about their descendant who achieved such astounding Recognition.

It is nothing more than a temporary descent.

Aska’s eyes sweep over him.

‘An excellent strong body, calluses packed into the right hand, unwavering eyes. But with only this, you cannot achieve Recognition to this extent.’

Aska thought carefully.

What made him like this?

Outstanding skill?

That, too, is true.

But soon, Aska saw the truly important thing.

‘Unbreakable tenacity.’

Aska admired it purely.

Aska, even while holding their descendant in their eyes, did not say a single word.

They simply knew it.

That for one who achieved work to this degree, they must bestow a reward fitting of it.

‘Yes. Let’s give that. A reward even greater than combining the hammer and the sword.’

And Hyunsoo could see them looking at him and forming an inexplicable smile.

God Aska’s blinking eyelids stopped.

[God Aska’s soul disappears.]

Where they disappeared, other things remained.

[A god cherishes you.]

It was as if they were whispering to him.

And something unknown descending from the sky.

[You have obtained the crown forged by a god.]

It was a crown made of platinum. As Hyunsoo reached out and grasped the crown, his chest pounded.

Hyunsoo was certain.

That this was the greatest reward a god could bestow.

Hyunsoo checked the crown.