Taehyun was a blacksmith who had moved to Atlas.

Why had he moved to Atlas?

Because Hyun had shown him a new possibility.

Before Hyun appeared, what kind of class had blacksmith been?

It had been a class looked down on by users of the four major classes, including mages, swordsmen, assassins, and archers.

If you’re going to be a blacksmith, why not just go outside and do manual labor instead?

Isn’t the game only fun if you hunt?

A lot of people could not understand why anyone would choose blacksmith, but after Hyun appeared, that changed.

The blacksmith class, which had been only 0.9% in the beginning, had risen to 2%.

At hunting grounds, you could sometimes hear blacksmiths shouting things like this.

Sword King Swordsmanship!

Sword King Rampage!

It was half a joke, but even so, every little thing Hyun did was changing a great deal in Ares.

The biggest reason blacksmiths had been looked down on was that they could not craft anything better than NPCs.

But with Hyun’s appearance, blacksmiths naturally became more numerous, and the number of those who actually grew stronger increased too.

And because of that, more and more people—NPCs and users alike—started seeking out artifacts.

That was one of the reasons Taehyun had moved to Atlas.

To him, Hyun was an idol.

But yesterday,

his idol had collapsed.

He had been crushed before the unreachable sky of Bahala’s level 514.

Taehyun felt bitter.

The gap really is too big...

As a pure fan of Hyunsoo, that was what he wanted.

It was fine if Hyunsoo lost.

Even so, he had wanted to at least see the two of them fight, but now that seemed like a dream that could never come true.

He really is amazing...

To be honest, even Taehyun acknowledged Bahala.

Going from level 513 to 514 in a single day?

That was beyond the realm of humanity.

And yesterday evening, Taehyun had overheard members of Hyun’s Forge talking.

“Where did Hyunsoo go?”

“I heard he went to get power-leveled.”

“Huh? Sudden power-leveling?”

Taehyun came to realize it too.

His idol was struggling in unseen places as well.

But it was hard to close the distance.

Taehyun had seen the experts’ opinions yesterday.

The experts had said this.

Master Blacksmith Hyunsoo at level 452 probably needs only about half the amount of experience Bahala at level 514 needs to level up.In other words, when Bahala gains 1 level, Master Blacksmith Hyunsoo has to gain 2 levels just to be said to be chasing him.He had to gain 2 levels just to stand on equal footing.

The problem is that even if he does gain 2 levels, the level gap is still way too big.

He sat down in front of his computer.

Only eight hours earlier, the level Taehyun had checked for Hyunsoo had been 452.

Bahala’s, meanwhile, was 514.

He checked Bahala first.

[Bahala Lv.514]

Bahala’s level had not changed overnight.

Right. If it kept changing overnight too, that would just be ridiculous.

Thinking that, Taehyun still hoped Hyunsoo had gone up by at least 1 level.

“Huh?”

He rubbed his eyes.

Because a level far beyond his expectations was sitting right in front of him.

[Hyunsoo Lv.455]

“L-L-Level 455...!?”

That was a full 3-level increase.

And he checked again at intervals.

By the time fifty hours had passed since the leveling had started,

[Hyunsoo Lv.457]

He had gained a total of 5 levels.

H-How is this even...?

There was something else that shocked him too.

The levels were still going up without stopping!

A human being clearly should not be able to do this.

Why?

Because there was always time when people were not logged in.

H-He’s not sleeping!?

Taehyun could feel it. His idol, Hyunsoo, was doing his very best and had not given up.

And it was not just Taehyun.

The entire world was facing an upheaval of pure shock.

*****

5 levels in 50 hours.

For those under level 400, that was entirely possible.

But Hyunsoo’s level had already entered ranker territory, and he had originally been around the 1,700s in rank.

[#432 Hyunsoo Lv.457]

The updated ranking itself sent shockwaves through people.

It was more than enough to make the rankers who had been holding their spots tense.

Hyunsoo already had an extremely high amount of stats for his level.

His rise in level indicated that he was becoming even stronger.

And all kinds of speculation flew around about how this kind of explosive leveling was even possible.

Didn’t he just chain-raid boss monsters?User Hyunsoo? Alone?...Ah, right.Maybe once would be possible.

But the truth was that hunting enough boss monsters in fifty hours to gain 5 levels like that was next to impossible.

The conclusion came faster than expected.

Tower of Honor rewards. It seems obvious that he bought every item in there that raises experience gain.Oh...... that actually sounds right.Ah, I totally forgot about Tower of Honor.Tower of Honor is fair game lolIt was a high ranker speaking.

I thought he was using a bug.It seems User Hyunsoo also wants to show that he does not want to fall behind Bahala.Because of that, people around the world found his feelings admirable.

The high ranker added,

In the end, the points in Tower of Honor are bound to hit a limit, and that means they are bound to run out soon.The items in Tower of Honor are limited in number, and even if you have the money, the amount you can buy gets restricted.At that, people applauded him, saying that was exactly what you would expect from a high ranker.

Because the mystery of Hyunsoo’s explosive leveling had, at that moment, been solved.

But in the end, that produced a result that pushed Hyunsoo’s leveling even further.

As Hyunsoo came back from the bathroom thanks to his overactive bladder, he happened to see that high ranker’s statement.

“Oh...... right!? I had Tower of Honor points too!?”

Hyunsoo was not perfect.

He was not the supercomputer Ares, so how could he be perfect?

The fact that Hyunsoo had thought up the whole idea of getting power-leveled by the Pope and Aria was already something that deserved praise.

The problem was that the high ranker’s line of No more leveling for him now lol was about to end up benefiting Hyunsoo instead.

After finishing up, Hyunsoo logged into Ares again.

[You log into Ares.]

He saw Pope Karsel collapsed to one side, pretending to sleep(?).

Pope Karsel was dumbfounded.

He’s really doing nothing but hunting for fifty straight hours without sleeping!?

To be exact, it was ninety-six hours.

There were still forty-six hours left!

At that moment, Hyunsoo recited his magic spell.

“How can...”

“......”

He spoke in a trembling voice.

“How can someone who feels Ares’s love, mercy, and warmth be ‘sleepy, hungry, and exhausted’? Right now, because I feel Ares’s love, I am not hungry, not sleepy, and not tired. Areslujah.”

Hyunsoo was the sort of person who held grudges harder than you might think.

A short while ago, when Pope Karsel bought the White Tiger Sword, what had he said?

Think of it as showing your love for Ares.

Of course, in the end, Hyunsoo had indeed sold it well.

And it was true that he had sold it for less than Karsel had thought, which was why he had also gained the ability to borrow the White Tiger Sword.

Even so, Hyunsoo had definitely been shocked, and definitely hurt, at the time!

And then—

“...I did not sleep.”

Pope Karsel sat up.

As Pope, he literally acted out those same words when he worshiped with the believers.

Which was why, after hearing Hyunsoo speak of love like that, Pope Karsel could not very well go to sleep while keeping up his Pope act!

Also, it was not as though Hyunsoo truly was not eating.

He was chewing on jerky and hard bread while focusing on hunting.

And he had also bought something called an Experience Elixir in the Tower of Honor and consumed it.

Its effect was that experience gain doubled for 6 hours, it did not stack, and thanks to that he instantly gained another level.

Ding!

[You obtain the title One Who Grows.]

Hyunsoo had obtained a title through his rapid leveling.

His face brightened.

Even without checking it, he had expected that title to have a permanent experience-gain effect.

(One Who Grows)

Multi-Title

Grade: A

Special Abilities:

·Experience gain permanently increases by 6%.

·However, for 5 days from the moment this title is obtained, experience gain decreases by 30%.

“......?”

For the first time after seeing a title he had obtained, Hyunsoo felt a sense of crisis.

It certainly raised experience gain permanently by 6%, but as the special abilities stated, it came with a fatal downside.

[For 5 days from the moment this title is obtained, experience gain decreases by 30%.]

Because this title belonged to the category called penalty titles.

Hyunsoo could feel it.

His growth was about to hit a wall.

*****

What was a penalty title?

It was a title that gave a reward and imposed a penalty for abnormal user behavior.

Associate Lee Jihee of the Special User Management Team explained,

“It’s a good title. But for User Hyunsoo right now, it’s a bad title.”

It permanently increased all lifetime experience gain by 6%.

And the penalty attached to it was a 30% decrease in experience gain for 5 days.

But most people would be happy.

Because the permanent 6% increase in experience gain was much greater than a 30% decrease for just 5 days.

But from Hyunsoo’s standpoint, while receiving the Pope’s power-leveling, it was different.

This gave both a reward and a penalty.

It was not aimed at Hyunsoo.

There had once been a wealthy mage user in the past.

He had been an Arab prince, and he had used Summoning Rods.

A Summoning Rod was a consumable item that could store up to 30 monsters and carried an astronomical price.

The Arab prince had bought massive quantities of them after storing 30 monsters inside each one.

And what did he do?

He repeatedly released them onto the ground and blasted them with wide-area magic, power-leveling 5 levels at once.

At that time, this Multi-Title had triggered and restrained him.

It did not apply when hunting boss monsters.

And it only applied when the speed was absurd.

The prince, who kept ignoring that and using Summoning Rods, eventually stopped.

Because this title itself was a growth-type title.

If you leveled up using the same method, the system grew the title, and by the second stage it outright slapped you with a 60% reduction in experience gain when hunting by that method.

In this way, Pureum Co., Ltd. displayed perfect thoroughness in everything.

However, there was another trap to this as well.

This was a new story formed through titles.

Team Lead Kim, looking at the monitor, said,

“If it grows all the way into a Unique Title, then the EXP perk tied to the penalized behavior goes up, and the permanent experience gain rises by a large amount too.”

Pureum Co., Ltd. created penalties for the amazing things users accomplished.

Instead, the moment a user broke through that penalty, it showered them with infinite praise.

But Associate Lee Jihee shook her head.

“You can only reach a Unique Title if you become faster than your previous experience-gain speed, right?”

In her view, that would be difficult for Hyunsoo as he was now.

She thought,

unfortunately, his explosive growth was about to stagnate.

Then Associate Lee Jihee, who was looking at the monitor, grew flustered.

“Team Lead, User Hyunsoo is smiling.”

Team Lead Kim made a puzzled expression.

Then he hurriedly checked Hyunsoo’s status and became flustered.

“What, what is this?”

Team Lead Kim knew as well that Hyunsoo had achieved the feat of gaining 5 levels in 50 hours.

But something even more astonishing was revealed here.

“He wasn’t even in a full-buff state...!?”

Full-buff.

It referred to a state in which one had received every possible buff from every possible being and had been fully completed.

This was the state of the buff rate Hyunsoo had received from Pope Karsel.

[Buff Rate 45% is currently applied.]

“I don’t understand it. He’s only getting power-leveled by Pope Karsel for 4 days, he hasn’t slept, and hunted like that, but he only received a buff rate of this much?”

Team Lead Kim bit his lip as he thought, and then one person came to mind.

“Kabel... would have known, wouldn’t he.”

Kabel.

The genius gamer living in Atlas.

Would he not have known about the Arab prince and the Summoning Rod story?

The user who gathered all information in the world was Kabel.

Hyunsoo was not a perfect person.

And Kabel was not a perfect person either.

But the two filled in each other’s lacking parts and reached the completed form called perfection—

“I knew this would happen.”

“......?”

Soon the two of them marveled at Hyunsoo’s voice.

“User Hyunsoo... is growing.”

“......” 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

That had been Hyunsoo’s own judgment, not Kabel’s.

And there was something else astonishing too.

“Was Hyun always this strong?”

Lee Jihee corrected him.

“He got this strong...?”

That was right.

Back when he hunted the great archdemon Gremory, there had been something hidden beneath the enormous power of the White Tiger Sword.

It was the fact that User Hyunsoo had been building an abnormal kind of strength inside the Tower of Honor.

And there was one more thing.

“Your Holiness, as we discussed before, please put me into a berserker state.”

“As I said before, Berserker is a power that makes one lose reason through black magic. However, while our faith does not possess anything called Berserker Mode, there is a power with a similar name. It is called Holy Body.”

Berserker Mode.

It lowered total defense and total HP by several stages.

In return, by the amount of defense and HP lost, everything—including basic attack power—rose to a level absurdly beyond ordinary buffs.

But Berserker Mode was dangerous.

Because it was based on just how much HP and defense dropped.

And as Karsel explained, while Holy Body did not go so far as causing loss of reason, there existed a ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ power close enough to be called something like Berserker Mode.

“H-Hahaha......”

Team Lead Kim let out a hollow laugh.

User Hyunsoo gained 5 levels in just 50 hours with only a 45% buff rate. If he receives a power similar to Berserker Mode and gets a 100% buff rate... just how many levels is he going to gain...?

For today at least, Team Lead Kim felt like he would not be able to leave this seat.

In other words, it meant overtime.