Many of the artifacts Hyunsoo crafts are connected to stories.

Haemosu’s Dragon Light Sword.

Jumong’s Horn Bow.

Yi Sun-sin’s Ring-Pommel Saber.

Poseidon’s Trident, and so on.

‘If the system deems it the most fitting story and you recreated it the most perfectly, it grants power worthy of it.’

What is the Story Stone?

‘A mineral that brings out even more maximized power when a story dwells within it.’

It was clearly the mineral best suited for Hyunsoo.

“Check it.”

The Story Stone had a mysterious appearance made of pure white.

(Story Stone)

Grade: Legend

Restriction: Level 400+ Blacksmith

Difficulty: Top-tier

Special Ability

·Depending on how perfectly you recreated the story, the artifact’s effect increases from a minimum of 50% to a maximum of 350%.

·When crafting a sword, if there is no story, it is merely 50% cutting power; if it is a decent story, 50–100% cutting power; if you drew out a story no one else can imitate, it may produce 100–250% cutting power.

Description: A special mineral that can contain a story.

‘Normal minerals say what percentage of sword attack power, cutting power, or penetration you gain when you craft.’

But this Story Stone didn’t list those kinds of things.

“That should be enough to make two artifacts.”

“I’ll use it well, Sage Arte.”

He felt like he needed to think carefully about what he would craft.

And Arte had something they wanted to check.

“Can you show me the power of the legend that was created because of me?”

“Of course.”

Soon, Arte checked the power of Fate that dwelled within Hyunsoo.

“This Fate will give you greater power later. Do you see ‘A special event may occur’?”

“Yes, I see it.”

Hyunsoo was familiar with explanations like this, too.

“This ‘A special event occurs’ will grant you a new power worthy of the name Fate.”

For Hyunsoo, it was a happy thing.

Even just as it was now, the power of the skill Fate was excellent.

Of course, the activation probability itself was absurdly low, but still.

And the name Fate itself showed endless, limitless possibilities.

‘Maybe.......’

Hyunsoo hoped.

Because he might be able to unlock a power that could obtain talents.

Arte, who had been looking at Hyunsoo, spoke with a bitter expression.

“I cherish you. But even so, I need you to understand that I can’t tell you everything in the world.”

Arte was like Barad and Ben.

They knew it wasn’t all about just handing everything over.

Power, by nature, should be held by those who have it, and they believed information should belong to those who are qualified to obtain it.

There were also some constraints from the system.

Most decisively, Arte wasn’t bound as a vassal, but remained here as a friend, to help Hyunsoo.

“If there’s something you’re curious about, I’ll tell you, but depending on how much that information is, there may be things I can’t say—and I might even demand a price.”

“I don’t want to obtain the information you have so easily, either.”

Hyunsoo’s words made Arte laugh.

If it were ordinary people, they would have said, “I want all the information.”

But Hyunsoo knew that kind of relationship wouldn’t last long.

And Arte wasn’t only saying unpleasant things.

“I intend to establish an academy in this Vallas Territory.”

“......An academy?”

Hyunsoo gasped.

One of the things that contributes most to territory development is an academy.

It instills knowledge into those who are growing.

The problem is that finding good teachers to establish and run an academy is like picking a star from the sky.

But if it’s Sage Arte?

[If Sage Arte establishes an academy, the probability of discovering outstanding talents increases by at least 60% compared to a normal territory.]

“At first, I’ll start with a small academy, but as time passes, it may grow.”

A great academy inevitably draws people in.

Right now, Vallas Territory needed development, and for that, what it needed most was migrants.

‘If it’s an academy, it’ll draw in even nobles’ children, and that makes it possible to secure that much more tax revenue, too.’

This was the part that made Hyunsoo’s heart pound the most.

By the time Hyunsoo became king, the scale of the academy run by Sage Arte would likely have grown to an unbelievable degree.

It would lend tremendous strength to Hyunsoo’s kingdom.

After a while, Sage Arte went to the residence prepared for them.

And Hyunsoo, left alone, still had something he needed to check.

The increase in subscribers caused by the world message.

Hyunsoo had deliberately avoided checking until things quieted down.

If he sat in front of the computer and stared at nothing but that, Hyunsoo would end up exhausted instead.

And Hyunsoo had never once forgotten his promise with Rowoon, the master of the #1 forge in the forge rankings, Black Anvil Forge.

[Hyun, come to where I am. I’ll be waiting. And if the day comes when #1 changes, will you make me a proposal?]

[To come because you’ll give me the deputy guild master position.]

What this meant was that Hyun’s Forge could absorb Black Anvil Forge.

‘You might end up getting only an empty shell of Black Anvil Forge.’

Of course, Rowoon, the #2 blacksmith, had tremendous power.

But even if he joined Hyun’s Forge, would the guild members of Black Anvil Forge join along with him?

The easiest way to persuade them was, of course, subscriber count.

Hyunsoo was in a situation where he was hiding that he was a strong, outstanding blacksmith.

Even so, there was a reason he made the world message that said he hunted a demon ring out.

And he was also sure that reason would instead increase his subscribers even more.

The problem was the ripple effect.

‘How much did it go up? 200,000? 300,000?’

Subscriber count follows a law of total volume.

It’s similar to the required EXP for leveling up.

The more your subscriber count increases and the more you already have, the less your subscriber count noticeably grows.

‘It’ll still be hard to take #1, right?’

The last time he checked, he was #2 with around 2.3 million subscribers.

Black Anvil Forge, in first place, had recently gained subscribers, and there had been an article saying it surpassed 3 million two weeks ago.

Hyunsoo logged out.

After taking a deep breath, he was about to check the Auction House right away.

At that moment.

BZZZZZT-

Hyunsoo checked that his phone was ringing.

He was subscribed to an internet newspaper on his smartphone.

There was a one-line breaking article written there.

[Breaking News. Hyun’s Forge......]

“......Huh?”

Hyunsoo ended up standing up.

Because what was written there was shocking.

A few days ago.

The world was turned upside down.

Most of the world’s portal sites put up this article.

[Blacksmith Hyun. Hunts a demon.]

Because of that, the breaking news continued endlessly.

Blacksmith Hyun took over #1 in the real-time search rankings on all sorts of portal sites.

Korean communities also heated up.

[Praise God Hyun!]

[Everyone, I made a fan cafe for God Hyun’s Forge, please join~]

[God Hyun’s Forge fan cafe already has 50,000 members...... 😰]

And Hyunsoo had predicted part of what would happen after the world message rang out.

[Hunts what, lol. You think a blacksmith hunted it?]

[Is Hyun omnipotent, lol. Like he’s going to crank out legendary artifacts stitch by stitch and hunt demons too. There’s no way a user like that exists.]

From the start, people didn’t think Hyun really hunted a demon.

Of course, the expert team that always showed up also pushed their opinion.

[I think you’ll remember the Time Attack Dungeon from before. The Korean national team, a trio of geniuses who had been ranked 15th, became ranked 1st and set an unprecedented record when Hyun joined their team. At the time, the world judged it was possible because Hyun crafted outstanding artifacts for them. It’s the same now. Unknown powerhouses set a record by hunting a demon with artifacts Hyun crafted.]

[What are you even saying, lol.]

[Who doesn’t know that?]

As if they’d gotten flustered, the expert team added more.

[What you should pay attention to is this. Not long ago, the world’s hunters challenged demon hunting. They were a group made up of top-tier high-rankers, and there were more than ten of them. They were wiped out miserably. That shows how strong a demon is. But a few blades of artifacts Hyun made changed that balance. And there’s something else our expert team is amazed by.]

The expert team posted captures of articles floating around the world.

[World Rank #9 Grahan. When a reporter asked, ‘Is there a user you really want to meet?’ they said they want to meet Blacksmith Hyun.]

[Demon worshipper Rain. Becomes a hot topic after saying they want to commission Hyun to craft a demonic sword.]

[Companies around the world considering advertising deals with Blacksmith Hyun...... reportedly nothing has been finalized yet......]

There was also an article that caused the biggest ripple effect.

[Selected by World Ares. Blacksmith Hyun is named as one of this year’s 100 most influential users.]

[An astonishing achievement accomplished for the first time by a Korean.]

[Reportedly, breaking news is only now beginning to spread in Korea......]

The VR game Ares changed the world.

World Ares.

There are more than a hundred branches around the world.

And World Ares is Ares’s own independent daily paper that is not influenced by the global branches.

What World Ares does is simple.

Since 2.5 billion users play the game Ares, it delivers Ares-exclusive articles to its readers.

And every year, World Ares would select the world’s 100 most influential users.

Being selected for the World Ares 100 was the dream of users around the globe.

And today, Blacksmith Hyun had risen onto that World Ares list for the first time as a Korean.

[So how far will Hyun’s Forge’s subscriber count rise, carried by the power of this ripple effect?]

Community users were checking for themselves, too.

[The whole world’s coming in!]

[Hyun’s Forge, let’s go!]

[Wow...... I can’t believe a user from our country got selected by World Ares 😭]

Even before Hyunsoo checked the subscriber count, the community was on fire.

[The subscriber count is insane, for real lol.]

[If Hyun crafts me an artifact, I’ll do three steps, one bow for 10 km vs I won’t.]

[......And the distance already covered doing three steps, one bow is 100 km lololol.]

[Sure, I’d do it 100 times, easy.]

[The subscriber count is insane!]

[Isn’t that a bug? How does it go up that much?]

[Hey, you disrespecting the World Ares 100!?]

*****

Hyunsoo, who had stood up, exclaimed in awe.

[Breaking News. Hyun’s Forge. Blacksmith Hyun. Selected by World Ares as one of this year’s 100, subscriber count skyrockets.]

Hyunsoo couldn’t make it feel real.

‘I got selected by World Ares......?’

Suddenly, he thought of the guild members who always smiled brightly whenever they saw him.

‘How hard must it have been to keep this hidden every time they saw me.’

His heart started pounding like crazy.

The law of total volume for subscriber count.

Because of it, Hyunsoo had thought his subscribers would go up by 200,000 to 300,000.

That thought changed completely.

Hyun’s Forge’s existing subscribers were in the 2.3 million range.

Black Anvil Forge in first place was 3 million.

Hyunsoo connected to the Auction House.

And with a trembling heart, he checked the subscriber count.

CLICK-!

“W-Woooooow!”

The moment he checked, Hyunsoo ended up shouting without realizing it.

That’s how tremendous the subscriber count had risen.

[Hyun’s Forge subscriber ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) count: 2,796,013.]

[Current Korean forge subscriber ranking: 2nd place.]

It had gone up by nearly 500,000 subscribers.

Hyunsoo’s fist clenched tight.

[Subscriber gap with the #1 Black Anvil Forge: 213,041.]

The seat of the #1 forge in the country was right in front of him.