Chapter 613: Supreme (4)

Grade: Rare.

Durability: 100/100

Restriction: None.

Special Abilities:

· When meat is grilled and eaten using this charcoal, Attack Power increases by 12% for one week.

Description: The first charcoal made by Master Blacksmith Hyun, created from the roughest wood.

The production-class users of the nation of Hyun erupted.

“It says right there that it was the first charcoal he made?”

“And the effect is excellent.”

“It really is Rare grade?”

Every production-class user could only stare in disbelief at the effect displayed before them.

Meanwhile—

“Please accept me as your disciple.”

“???”

Kadem, who had been pointed at as a liar by the users, suddenly gained an apprentice.

Hyunsoo had only learned one thing so far.

But he had gained certainty.

I can grow enormously in a short time!

That was why he decided to keep learning one new thing after another without stopping.

The next NPC he visited was a hunter.

[Quest: Gather with Hunter Roa.]

Grade: C

Restriction: None.

Reward: 1 Gold.

Penalty upon Failure: None.

Description: Hunter Roa processes hides from monsters and animals and supplies them to various places. Recently, he has received more orders than usual and needs more hands. Go hunting with him and gather hides.

Roa belonged to the gathering side of production classes.

Like Kadem, he had made a living for decades by skinning animals and monsters.

He was also close friends with Kadem.

Roa let out a quiet snort.

There’s no way making charcoal and skinning monster hides could be anywhere near the same difficulty.

Especially when—

“Your Majesty, skinning requires great care.”

“Why?”

“Think of filleting fish. The difference between cleanly removing the flesh and doing a poor job is enormous, isn’t it?”

That was certainly true.

Someone skilled at filleting fish could cleanly remove the skin and leave ninety-nine percent of the meat intact.

But when someone bad at it tried, the result was practically a hack job.

Wearing a wolf-head helmet, Roa led Hyunsoo onward.

Still, since Hyunsoo was his king, Roa intended to teach him kindly before sending him on his way.

At last, they hunted a roe deer.

“Now, watch carefully.”

SHK, SHK-SHK!

Roa moved as smoothly as flowing water.

He skinned the deer in one continuous motion, swiftly stripping away the hide before spreading the clean deerskin on the ground.

Then Hyunsoo received a skinning dagger from him.

And then—

WHIRRR!

He spun the dagger like he was performing a trick with it.

SNICK!

Then he began skinning at remarkable speed.

Roa’s eyes flew wide.

Fast...!

Hyunsoo truly was fast.

He stripped the hide from the legs and worked his way across the body without hesitation.

Even Hyunsoo could not help being amazed. He had watched Roa’s movements only once, yet his hands moved like this naturally.

Of course, that was because—

[Dexterity exerts immense influence in crafting and production fields.]

[The chance of obtaining much higher-quality leather has increased dramatically.]

[The title Supreme takes effect.]

[You display innate talent for skinning.]

[You skillfully reproduce the method for skinning hides.]

It was the result of Hyunsoo’s absurd Dexterity and the effects of the title Supreme.

Before Roa knew it, Hyunsoo had finished skinning the deer in an instant. Roa could only blink.

Isn’t it as good as if I had skinned it myself?!

[Roa’s respect for you has reached MAX.]

That was not all.

The hide Hyunsoo had skinned began to shine.

[It is Rare grade.]

[You have received a reward for being the first to gather Rare-grade leather.]

[You have gained All Stats +1.]

[You have gained Dexterity +10.]

[You have gained Fame +30.]

[Skinning hides deepens a blacksmith’s understanding of materials and minimizes damage.]

[Your use of leather in crafting will become more exceptional.]

[You will understand leather better than anyone else and be able to make superior armor from it or put it to use in other ways.]

[The chance that the artifacts you craft will be of higher quality has increased by 4%.]

[Quest: Gather with Hunter Roa complete.]

[A wondrous achievement.]

[The 1 Gold reward has been upgraded to 2 Gold.]

Hyunsoo possessed the skill Gathering.

What was Gathering?

It was a skill that allowed him to gather things ordinary people could not.

However, Gathering came with conditions.

First, the target had to be a gatherable monster or animal.

But learning to gather by hand and personally harvesting animal or monster hides was different.

There was no restriction requiring the target to give off a black glow, and he could gather without limit.

Of course, that doesn’t mean painstakingly gathering things one by one like this is all-powerful.

In general, the quality of things obtained through the skill Gathering was excellent.

Things he gathered one by one like this would be Normal grade—or, occasionally, Rare grade like this hide.

Still, it was better than having nothing.

High-level monsters.

Being able to use their hides was a very good thing.

Even now, the blacksmiths of the nation of Hyun suffered from a shortage of materials.

Goldie was helping, of course, but considering how the number of blacksmiths increased every year, it was still far from enough.

In that situation, being able to obtain hides from high-level monsters was tremendously valuable.

And the notification had not increased the chance of making better artifacts by 4% for no reason.

After gathering them myself, I understand how to use them better.

As a real-world blacksmith, Hyunsoo already understood leather better than ordinary users.

Take a horn bow, for example. Materials such as whale sinew and water-buffalo horn were used to make one.

But now, as he handled and gathered all sorts of materials, he could sell them for money. And by touching them and repeating the work over and over, he could gain experience.

That was why—

“I want to gather more. Roa, I really need your gathering techniques.”

“O-Oh...!”

Roa was moved.

Hyunsoo was sincerely asking for his help, and Roa had been looked down upon his entire life as nothing more than a hunter or gatherer.

There was nothing especially remarkable about his job.

Yet the king of a nation—the lord of a rising country—needed his skills.

“Leave it to me, Your Majesty.”

[Hunter Roa wishes to teach you everything he can.]

Hyunsoo found it strange that Roa had become so fired up from a few words alone.

Could it be?

Perhaps this, too, was one effect of the title Supreme.

And that was indeed the truth.

Hyunsoo was already deeply respected as king, and he had recently defeated the greatest user alive.

Roa, who lived in his nation, had no way of not knowing that.

The fact that Supreme needed him set Roa ablaze.

“Your Majesty, today we shall gather until our hands are covered in blisters!”

Roa and Hyunsoo threw themselves into gathering like madmen.

The result was—

[The title Supreme shines brightly.]

[You awaken Gathering Mastery: Intermediate Level 4.]

Charcoal Making had only reached Beginner Level 9, but Gathering Mastery leaped all the way to Intermediate Level 4 at once.

Valhalla...

Hyunsoo felt as though he was beginning to understand why Valhalla had become such a versatile fighter.

If Valhalla saw someone’s punch, he would quickly learn it and gain high proficiency.

If he saw a one-hundred-eighty-degree kick, he could likely imitate it at once.

Of course—

Seventy percent of it is personal ability.

The system was not perfect.

When he thought about it, Hyunsoo had been a production-class user from the beginning.

And not just any production-class user. He surpassed every other user by a wide margin.

That was why his understanding of making things and using his hands was several times greater than ordinary users’.

In other words, even if an ordinary user obtained the title Supreme and awakened the ability to become talented in every field, they could not stand out in crafting as Hyunsoo did.

Nor could they stand out in combat as Valhalla did.

Hyunsoo was more certain of that than anyone.

His gathering continued all day, and it ultimately produced an even more astonishing result than charcoal-making had.

[It is Epic grade.]

[You have received the first Epic-grade leather gathering reward.]

[You have gained All Stats +2.]

[You have gained Dexterity +30.]

[You have gained Fame +40.]

He had spent no more than two days.

Yet Hyunsoo’s All Stats had already risen by three points, amounting to more than thirty points overall.

Of course, those rewards were for creating something special for the first time.

Even if he gathered Epic-grade leather again or made Rare-grade charcoal again, his All Stats would no longer increase.

But as he continued to play Ares—

What if I keep making charcoal and gathering leather?

Someday, he would make Epic-grade charcoal and gather Unique-grade leather.

And what he would gain from that was not merely higher All Stats and Fame.

Those things themselves can make money!

Having realized how incredible and valuable those seemingly trivial acts were, Hyunsoo did not stop.

The next thing he learned was sculpture.

To be honest, even while sculpting, Hyunsoo wondered whether it could really improve anything connected to blacksmithing.

But after pouring himself into making a statue of himself, he discovered that it was connected after all.

[It is Rare grade.]

[You have received the first Rare-grade sculpture crafting reward.]

[You have gained All Stats +1.]

[You have gained Dexterity +10.]

[You have gained Fame +30.]

[Sculpture is useful to a blacksmith when performing more delicate work.]

[By sculpting, you will become better at forging, engraving patterns, crafting chain swords, attaching rings, and other fine work.]

[The chance that the artifacts you craft will be of higher quality has increased by 2.1%.]

Looking at the statue of himself that he had completed, Hyunsoo had another thought.

The people precious to me...

Would it not be a meaningful gift to sculpt them someday?

The next thing he learned was painting.

“First, deciding what to paint is important.”

At painter Obje’s words, Hyunsoo thought long and hard before painting what he knew best.

What did he paint?

The Twin Dragon Sword.

After putting two full days of effort into it, he finally completed the painting.

“Are you sure this is really your first time?”

Obje was amazed.

The painted Twin Dragon Sword was quite good.

It was not dazzlingly extravagant or impressive enough to rival a true painter’s work. But because the Twin Dragon Sword itself was like a symbol of the nation of Hyun, it felt far more meaningful.

And painting was what helped Hyunsoo grow the most.

[It is Unique grade.]

[You have gained All Stats +4.]

[You have gained Dexterity +50.]

[You have gained Fame +100.]

[Painting is closely connected to drawing blueprints.]

[Your blueprints will become much more complete, and the patterns engraved upon your artifacts will become more varied.]

[The effects of the artifacts you craft will become far more spectacular.]

[The chance that the artifacts you craft will be of higher quality has increased by 4.6%.]

Hyunsoo felt satisfied.

The results he had gained by doing things that others considered miscellaneous made him happy.

Hyunsoo did not know it, but the production-class users who had initially doubted him had kept denying the rumors about him.

“No way.”

“The first hide he gathered was Epic grade?”

“His sculpture was Rare grade?”

“His painting was Unique grade?”

But they investigated the rumors, found out that all of them were true, and could only marvel.

“Hyunsoo was never someone we could predict in the first place.”

“As expected of the king of the nation of Hyun...”

“He’s incredible...”

The production-class users in the nation of Hyun had no choice but to acknowledge Hyunsoo.

And that produced this result.

[The title One Who Is Respected Just for Breathing shines brightly.]

[Production-class users have an extremely high level of respect for you.]

[You have gained Charisma +153.]

That was right.

Today, too, Hyunsoo was respected just for breathing.