It’s been a long time.

Hyunsoo, who had risen to prominence as the one and only handcrafting blacksmith, had a career of barely more than ten years.

From Takashi’s point of view, it was true that Hyunsoo possessed heaven-given talent.

But even Takashi’s talent had been beyond words.

Takashi had been born into a blacksmith family that had continued for more than twenty generations.

Takashi’s grandfather had once looked at him and said this:

If Takashi had been born in the age of our founding ancestor, then the name engraved at the end of Takashi’s hilt would have represented the family.

In the distant past,

the famous names of Japan had been engraved inside the place where the blade and hilt joined before the swords were sold.

It meant that if Takashi had been born in that era, then even now, hundreds of years later, the Japanese swords he made would still have been the most valuable of all, and it was proof that he was the greatest blacksmith the family had ever produced.

It had been an astonishing statement.

After all, one of the famed swords left behind by Takashi’s ancestors had once sold for over 5 billion won in reality.

And on top of that, while Hyunsoo had held a hammer for close to twelve years, Takashi had held one for fifty.

That was why.

Passing through the gap of ten long years, the furnace flames he was facing again after so long lit up the return of an old friend.

FSSSSSSHHHH—!

The sound of oxygen burning.

RUMBLE—!

The sound of the flames growing fiercer.

WHOOOSH, WHOOOSH—!

Inside the forge, packed with iron and filled with scorching heat—

“Sir, be careful. The forge is dangerous.”

This time, it was spoken sincerely.

At that, Takashi stared into the burning flames.

He knew.

He knew the heat of a forge was hot and dangerous.

He had felt it in his own flesh for more than fifty years.

That heat began waking Takashi’s senses one by one, senses that had been shut away for ten years.

Heh heh, furnace, my old friend.

Takashi, who had always muttered to the furnace whenever things were hard, looked at the blue-rising flames as if he were looking at a heartless old companion.

To say my final work will become a masterwork. You’re heartless too.

Takashi was certain.

There was more than enough to support that certainty.

First.

Beings who had devoted themselves to one thing for a very long time and mastered it came to sense something through long-honed intuition.

That they themselves were about to reach the very highest point.

Second.

Nothing feels inconvenient.

Takashi’s body in reality screamed every single day.

It was true that he was healthier than anyone his age, but age could not be deceived.

His lower back hurt, his arms went numb, and if he stood too long, he became short of breath.

And the Takashi of reality had the body of an old man who could no longer forge.

But—

This body has no pain anywhere. It moves like a young man’s. And yet my experience has piled up for fifty years. Heh heh.

The virtual reality game Ares was the only world where even those whose legs were weak could stand.

It was absurd.

That an old man with fifty years of experience could move like a youth.

And last—

I’ve gained a new tool.

A tool.

A hammer, a mold, ore tongs, and the like.

A tool meant something necessary for a task, or something helpful toward it.

The new tool was the system.

Takashi was the blacksmiths’ teacher.

If he, the teacher, could not understand the system, there was no choice but for him to hit a limit in teaching blacksmiths.

And Takashi had come to understand.

Because of the system, the difficulty of blacksmithing work has dropped by several stages.

And Takashi was someone who had studied this thing called the system day and night.

That could become either an advantage or a disadvantage.

RUMBLE—!

At last, Takashi began tending the furnace fire.

Quite a few of the blacksmiths gathered here were world-famous ranked blacksmiths, or masters of well-known guilds.

They folded their arms and watched the old man’s actions through the black smoke rising from the chimney as if they were simply watching something amusing.

There was more than enough reason for that.

[Takashi Lv.13]

Takashi’s level was that of a beginner among beginners, someone who had barely even left the beginner zone.

Their reason for mocking Takashi was perfectly rational.

An old man who served at a soup shop.

And on top of that, a level 13 nobody.

In front of world rankers busy enough to have no time to spare, he was trying to put on some kind of stunt.

But before long, they came to understand that this was no stunt.

“...The black smoke disappeared?”

The black smoke rising from the chimney signified unstable oxygen flow.

But now smoke still rose, yet its color had changed so transparent that it was barely perceptible at all.

And blacksmiths possessed a skill called Blacksmith’s Eye.

It was learned at the most basic beginner stage, and it too shone more brightly as a blacksmith’s level grew.

The effect of this Blacksmith’s Eye was that by merely looking, one could glimpse the current forging process.

And one could tell what process was needed next.

One of those necessary processes was the fire’s temperature.

The fire’s temperature had to be perfect.

The more perfect it was, the better the refining process became, and it directly connected to the standard for crafting a good artifact.

[This is the most perfect temperature!!]

“...?”

The blacksmiths were reduced to confusion.

A great many of the people gathered here were blacksmiths, which meant they knew.

Normally, the notifications that appeared were things like—

“It is a sufficient temperature for crafting.”

“It is an unstable temperature for crafting, but you may attempt it.”

And occasionally, on a lucky day, they would see a notification that it was a perfect temperature.

“Has anyone here ever seen a notification calling it the most perfect temperature?”

“......”

“......”

No one answered.

He caught the flowing crimson molten metal, then cooled and refined it.

[The impurities are being removed in the most perfect way!!]

They were shocked yet again.

“...?”

A notification saying most perfect.

The system they knew never exaggerated.

If anything, the system was usually only negative.

A great many of the blacksmiths present had heard things like this during refinement.

“35% of the ore will be damaged.”

“53% of the ore will be damaged.”

Until now, blacksmith users had crafted with damaged ore.

Even within the same 1 kilogram of ore, they had been extracting lower-purity material from it.

But the old man was different.

He removes the unnecessary with delicate hands.

He does not leave behind even the smallest crumb.

One ranker who had been standing there with folded arms and a grin slowly let their arms fall.

The concentration of a blacksmith who had been yawning began rising to an extreme degree.

At last, Takashi placed the refined material into the furnace once more,

gripped it with tongs,

set it on the anvil,

and the instant he struck it—

CLAAANG—!

RUMBLE—!

—they understood.

Something!!

Is different!!!!

They could not understand this bizarre phenomenon.

At that moment, the first person to realize what it was was CocoCat.

“Why did we come here?”

It was a stupid question.

“Wasn’t it to confirm whether, if we learned blacksmithing done by hand, there really would be growth that surpasses the system?”

“......It’s a ridiculous story. The system is convenient. And the system helps users grow. It’s this convenient, and every time you level up, all your blacksmith skills rise. So what do you mean by building skill through experience and growing that way? You’d be better off spending that time leveling instead.”

CocoCat asked in a trembling voice,

“But... we can’t do that, can we?”

At that, the blacksmiths made puzzled expressions.

What are they talking about?

Then they recalled the very first question and answer.

The reason we came here.

We had come here to see handcrafting blacksmith work.

Goosebumps rose all over their bodies.

Because they had realized that from beginning to end, the old man was doing everything by hand.

And then there was what he had said before.

I was a blacksmith. Once.

The eyes of those who remembered that line widened.

But even here, the people present threw out all sorts of questions and concerns.

“But even so, it’s still just ordinary ore, isn’t it?”

“What kind of sword is he making?”

And the thing that made them most curious of all—

“Then what kind of notifications is that old man hearing?”

That was the core of it.

*****

Takashi could feel it for himself.

[The temperature of the fire is most perfect.]

[Because the fire temperature is so firmly established, the chance of producing a better artifact increases by 10%!]

DING!

[Perfect refinement.]

[You have become the first user to succeed in extracting the purest and cleanest iron.]

[The grade of the extracted ore is upgraded from Normal to Unique!]

DING!

[Your immersion is higher than that of any other user.]

[You acquire the title Blacksmith’s Immersion......]

[Correction.]

[Your immersion has surpassed the level of mere immersion.]

[Because you forge as if this were your last, the title is upgraded.]

[You acquire the title Blazing Blacksmith.]

DING!

[The effect of Blazing Blacksmith is applied!]

[You do not grow tired, and your immersion becomes even more extreme.]

[The chance of creating a superior artifact increases by 20%!]

“......”

He felt it.

The system had realized this was his last forging.

He had heard that the supercomputer recorded everything from the moment a user began the game to the moment of their final logout.

What time they ate that day.

How many monsters they hunted.

What words they spoke.

Recognizing all of that, the system gave rewards and praised the user’s growth.

Through the things Takashi had said over all that time, the system had known.

That I would never forge again.

But—

If I ever did forge again, then through the things I said, it must have inferred that it would be my last forging.

And the reason such a high level of concentration had arisen was because Takashi truly was making his final work.

And there was something else that proved the system knew it was the end.

[Perk activates!]

[Master Blacksmith’s Final Soul dwells within!]

[The grade of the artifact being crafted rises by one more rank!]

Receiving that perk, Takashi gave a faint smile and thought,

Thank you.

And then he added,

And I’m sorry.

The reason was this.

[This is the most perfect Tale Crafting Method!!]

He was exploiting the system against itself.

He understood the tale of the White Tiger Sword’s birth.

Originally, the White Tiger Sword had been forged by altering the Four Tiger Sword, the sword that had once led an era.

Through that, the master blacksmith who had lived seventy years had realized something.

There must have also been a perk dwelling within it called the most perfect Tale Crafting Method.

And it was because that tale twisted within it that the White Tiger Sword had come into being.

That was right.

CLAAANG—!

At this moment, Takashi twisted a tale.

He was following the forging method of Kusanagi, and the tale was responding to it.

Kusanagi.

The Grass-Cutter Sword, also called the Orochi Sword, one of Japan’s three divine swords.

Twisting that tale, Takashi smiled.

Ancestors, in our age, we have our own sword!

CLAAANG—!

After twisting that tale, he mixed a new process into what he had modeled after Kusanagi.

Japan and Korea had fought over this since long ago.

The ring-pommel saber and the Japanese sword.

Which sword was superior?

And within that question, Takashi had been studying Hyunsoo’s forging of ring-pommel sabers.

Which one was superior did [N O V E L I G H T] not matter.

CLAAAANG!!!!

The greatest maker of Japanese swords added the strengths of the Japanese sword,

CLAAANG—!

and into it he poured the beauty of the ring-pommel saber.

At last, at the tail end of a four-day labor,

the blade had become long and sharp like a ring-pommel saber,

while the hilt had taken after Japan’s Kusanagi sword, forming into a white wooden grip.

Now, if Takashi carved only the pattern into the sword, it would be complete.

At that moment—

[Nell: Could you stop?]

Takashi raised his head and looked at them.

Their expression looked sorrowful.

[Nell: I know that you’re trying to raise the blacksmith recruitment rate by showing the blacksmiths your final forging, Mr. Takashi. And just now, I felt it too. The sword you are forging. Even with the consumable Dwarf’s Eye, it cannot be glimpsed. Once the artifact being forged exceeds Unique grade, Dwarf’s Eye can no longer observe it.]

[Nell: And I’m grateful for your heart, sir, but... you know that two suns cannot exist.]

Nell was respectful.

Even sending that whisper had been a decision reached only after long thought and hesitation.

But if it could not be seen even with Dwarf’s Eye, then that meant at minimum a Legendary artifact was about to be born.

A level 13 user making a Legend?

Leaving blacksmith recruitment aside, if that happened, Hyunsoo’s standing could actually fall.

Because Takashi’s fame would rise higher than his.

That was why Nell wanted him to stop here.

You’ve already shown them enough.

Nell could not meet Takashi’s eyes.

They knew this was his masterwork.

They knew this sword represented the life he had lived.

They knew it would carry an astronomical value that could never be compared to any sword in reality.

But it had to stop here.

Even showing just this much would raise the blacksmith recruitment rate.

But—

[Takashi: No.]

At that firm reply, Nell’s chest sank.

The hands of a master blacksmith, impossible to stop, began carving the pattern.

It was delicate and beautiful work, like a master calligrapher painting across the sword with a brush.

Then Takashi, meeting the eyes of Nell, whose expression had turned bitter, smiled.

[Takashi: This is the end of my plan, and there will not be two suns.]

Nell’s eyes shook.

Plan...?

On the black blade, they could see the white inscription taking shape.

[For the New King.]

“......!”

Through that, Nell understood.

That the final act of this master blacksmith had, from beginning to end, been for Hyun.

Takashi.

Right now, he was making a sword for Hyunsoo to use.