Chapter 691

[ Item information has changed. ]

[ Congratulations! You have acquired the Liberated Necklace of the Great Smith(S++). ]

[ Skill information has changed. ]

[ For achieving a great accomplishment, the System grants you 10 bonus stats. ]

Information poured out one after another.

The timing was good.

He had been about to take a break anyway, and just then, he had completed his hundredth use of the furnace as well.

Wiping away his sweat, Su-ho set down the hammer and sat in a chair for a moment.

'First, the status window.'

He brought up his status window first so he could distribute the bonus stats.

[ An Su-ho ]

Lv : 400Class : Black PopeGrade : Guardian DeityBetting : ＜Umbra＞＜Heracles＞＜Sword Demon＞Traits▲ : ＜New Blood★＞＜Heracles＞＜King of a Fallen Nation＞＜King of the Demon Realm＞＜Sun-Moon Body＞Titan(G) : 78Dragon Horse(W) : 412Super Senses(S) : 90Command(N) : 220Bonus Stats : 20Twenty bonus stats.

After some thought, he invested all of them into Super Senses this time.

The reason was Smith's Eye.

He wondered if raising his sensory stat might improve the efficiency of Smith's Eye as well.

Next, he checked the changed information for the hammer, necklace, and Smith's Eye.

[ Liberated Hammer of the Great Smith ]

Grade : S++# A brilliant legacy bestowed by the Great Smith only upon the successor he cherishes most.

# To release the hammer's fourth seal, ten thousand strikes are required.

# The first seal has been released, activating the ability 'Square Extraction,' which harvests part of a target in a precise shape, and the 'Socket' function, which allows harvested fragments to be equipped.

# The second seal has been released, activating the ability 'Square Forge-Welding,' which creates materials by overlapping one material with another.

# The third seal has been released, activating the ability 'Precision Dismantling,' which dismantles a material one additional time.

# Socket 1 - Fragment of Obsession from the Suppressing Chain Coffin(S).

# Socket 2 - Fragment of Obsession from the Suppressing Chain Coffin(S).

# Socket 3 - Empty.

[ Liberated Necklace of the Great Smith ]

Grade : S++# A brilliant legacy bestowed by the Great Smith only upon the successor he cherishes most.

# To release the necklace's third seal, the furnace must be used one thousand times.

# The first seal has been released, activating Flame of the Golden Blacksmith(S++) and Smith's Furnace(S++).

# The second seal has been released.

# Once all seals are released, a hidden power will be unlocked.

[ Smith's Eye ]

Grade : S# An eye possessed only by successors of the Blacksmith Style.

# Also known as Smith's Eye, and when used, it allows the user to observe the target from a smith's perspective.

# The target's most vulnerable point becomes visible.

# The effect of Smith's Eye now applies not only to inanimate objects and monsters, but to humans as well.

Su-ho slowly examined all the information.

Both items had become S++ grade, and Smith's Eye had become S grade.

But while the Smith's Hammer had gained a new ability, the Smith's Necklace merely stated that its second seal had been released.

'Just what is this hidden power that it's dragging things out this much?'

He knew where this was going.

The Lord of Ten Thousand Gold City had said there were four ultimate arts he needed to master.

So whatever it was, all he had to do was keep working.

Smith's Eye had changed slightly.

Previously, its activation conditions had been limited to inanimate objects and monsters, but now it stated that it could also be used on humans.

'Still, ten thousand and one thousand, huh.'

How did the release conditions keep increasing by exactly ten times?

Su-ho picked up the hammer again.

Then slowly set it back down.

'Wait. If it's ten thousand strikes.......'

Just how long would that take?

Even if he only lightly hammered during harvesting, forge-welding, and dismantling, it would still take at least ten hours.

'Ten hours.......'

Tsk.

Would this be the last one?

What if there was another seal after this?

And what if the next condition increased tenfold again, just like this one?

'Ah, so that's why he said I didn't have to take the orthodox approach.'

He understood.

Now he knew why the Lord of Ten Thousand Gold City had said that.

Judging by the feeling he got, there were probably still several more seals after this.

He suddenly remembered what the boy near the entrance of Ten Thousand Gold City had said.

The boy had clicked his tongue as though mocking him, saying his hammer was short.

The hammer the Lord of Ten Thousand Gold City had shown him had also been a long, two-handed hammer like a sledgehammer.

Su-ho looked at his own hammer again.

A very short hand hammer.

The Lord of Ten Thousand Gold City had shown him a hand hammer too, but that was probably because he had multiple hammers, or because he had reached a level where he could freely lengthen or shorten the hammer itself.

'For my hammer to become that long, I'll probably have to release at least several more seals.'

So he needed to find another way.

He had no intention of mindlessly wasting time releasing the seals one by one.

Su-ho picked up another sword and began hammering it.

[ Smith's Eye is activated. ]

[ Square Extraction is activated. ]

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The skill activated, and clear metallic sounds rang out once again.

Filling the ten-thousand-strike count itself probably wouldn't take long.

It was just the act of hammering, after all.

The problem was everything that came after.

Still, he couldn't just sit there thinking, so he moved his body while working his mind.

No one was chasing him, but that didn't mean he wanted to waste time fumbling through it at a leisurely pace.

As he hammered several pieces of equipment, a thought suddenly came to him.

'Why am I trying to figure this out by myself?'

I have plenty of people whose wisdom I can borrow.

The most obvious one was Jack.

He was an extremely reliable strategist for Su-ho.

"Jack."

- What?

A reply came back immediately.

Su-ho had expected him to respond late because he'd be focused on his drama, but as expected, Jack knew how to separate work from play.

"Lend me some wisdom."

- Wisdom? Hold on.

A moment later, Jack paused the drama he had been watching and replied again.

- What's the situation?

"Well, right now......."

Su-ho explained his current situation.

There was no answer for a moment, and then Jack appeared in front of Su-ho.

"You came in person?"

- Of course. Sounds like a serious matter.

"You know how to say 'serious matter' too?"

- Heard it in a movie. What's so important?

"You've been watching some pretty old movies. Anyway, got any good ideas?"

- Is that the hammer you were talking about?

Jack gestured for it, so Su-ho handed it over.

Jack examined it for a moment, then returned it and rubbed his chin.

- Before anything else, there's one thing we need to establish clearly. Do you personally have to strike something ten thousand times with this, or does this hammer just have to be used for ten thousand strikes?

"Not sure. Probably the hammer itself? The necklace has a similar condition, and that one requires the furnace to be used a thousand times."

- Furnace?

"That thing."

Su-ho pointed at the furnace, and Jack's brow furrowed again.

- That one's definitely centered on the furnace rather than you. Then by the same logic, wouldn't the hammer also be the subject rather than you?

"Probably?"

- In that case.......

Jack thought for a moment.

Then he suddenly clapped his hands.

- I've got a decent idea.

"What is it?"

- We used a similar strategy once in the Spirit Realm. We called it the item duplication strategy.

"Item duplication?"

- What, you've never heard of it? There were never any cases in your world where items, skills, monsters, or things like that were duplicated?

There had been.

The item duplication incident.

A scammer Player had duplicated items and released them onto the market, but they hadn't been perfect copies.

They were temporary duplicates that disappeared after a certain amount of time, causing chaos in the market.

"There was. But there was no perfect duplication. Most of them had conditions attached. Like disappearing after a certain amount of time."

- Right. Umbra studied every item in the Spirit Realm as well, but there was nothing capable of perfect duplication, whether it was an item or a skill. It couldn't even be reproduced with shadow magic.

"So?"

- But we did learn that there are various methods of duplication. We once defeated a powerful enemy using one of them.

"What method?"

At that, Jack took Su-ho's hammer again and placed it on his palm.

Then he concentrated his mana.

WHOOOOSH-

As though an illusion were forming, another identical hammer appeared, almost unbelievably.

- We called this Shadow Duplication.

"Shadow Duplication?"

- Check the item information.

Su-ho checked the information for both hammers.

One displayed the familiar information for his hammer.

That was the original.

Then, the moment he looked at the other one, Su-ho narrowed his eyes.

[ Liberated Hammer of the Great Smith(Duplicate) ]

Grade : S++# A brilliant legacy bestowed by the Great Smith only upon the successor he cherishes most.

# To release the hammer's fourth seal, ten thousand strikes are required.

# The first seal has been released, activating the ability 'Square Extraction,' which harvests part of a target in a precise shape, and the 'Socket' function, which allows harvested fragments to be equipped.

# The second seal has been released, activating the ability 'Square Forge-Welding,' which creates materials by overlapping one material with another.

# The third seal has been released, activating the ability 'Precision Dismantling,' which dismantles a material one additional time.

# Socket 1 - Fragment of Obsession from the Suppressing Chain Coffin(S).

# Socket 2 - Fragment of Obsession from the Suppressing Chain Coffin(S).

# Socket 3 - Empty.

# Currently under the effect of 'Shadow Duplication.' An identical item is duplicated and manifested using the caster's mana. Mana is consumed for as long as the manifestation is maintained, and the duplicated item is treated as an individual item while the manifestation persists. However, the moment the manifestation period ends, all conditions immediately affect the original. In addition, the moment the original is destroyed, the duplicate can no longer remain manifested.

- Did you read the option information?

"I'm reading it. But I don't really understand it, so explain."

- It's simple. Shadow-duplicated items are treated as separate items while the duplication effect lasts, but the moment the duration ends, they merge back into the original. For example, if one of the duplicated items is damaged while it's in the duplicated state, the original won't be damaged. But once the duration ends, the original becomes damaged too. That's because all the accumulated damage is transferred back to the original item.

"But what it says here isn't damage. It's conditions...... Wait, then don't tell me?"

Jack smiled.

- Exactly. If we duplicate a whole bunch of hammers and start working with them, then whether it's ten thousand strikes or a hundred thousand, we can shorten the work time as much as we want.