Game Difficulty
Is Crazy
Glen headed toward the outskirts after passing through the plaza of the Hall of Souls where he was standing.
There, at a blacksmith shop, he was able to find Gotrel’s soul.
Kkaang— kkaang— kkaang—
The evenly ringing sound of a hammer.
But there was nothing on top of the anvil being struck.
He was simply hitting the anvil.
“…….”
Even so, Gotrel continued hammering with an expressionless face.
Was it resentment over the fact that he could not leave behind even a single sword in life?
Even when it was time for him to be guided to the world of souls, he had remained here.
Glen knew that it was his lingering attachment to a single sword.
But he did not rush.
He simply stood still, watching Gotrel’s hammering, and waited for him to speak first.
Kkaang— kkaang—
One hour like that.
Then another hour.
As if only their time had stopped.
Gotrel struck the anvil, and Glen quietly watched.
And when the empty hammering reached three hours, Gotrel lifted his head.
“What do you want?”
“A sword.”
Glen replied as if he had been waiting for it.
Gotrel snorted.
“A dead man looking for a sword—what are you going to use it for?”
“Well. Maybe because I died without properly swinging a sword even once in life?”
Gotrel silently stared at Glen.
His translucent ash-gray eyes scanned Glen from head to toe.
“……Go back. I have no way to help you.”
“You can just make a sword.”
“With what are you going to make a sword?”
Instead of answering, Glen placed three beads on top of the anvil.
They were soul fragments condensed with lingering thoughts, obtained by defeating wraiths.
“With these.”
Gotrel’s dead eyes trembled.
“Where did you get things like this……?”
“That’s not important. What matters is that you now have something to hammer instead of just the anvil.”
“…….”
Gotrel reached out.
His translucent fingers touched the three beads, then slowly slackened.
“Gotrel, the incompetent blacksmith. That’s what everyone called me.”
“I know.”
“……Even though I was a blacksmith, I couldn’t complete a single sword in life.”
“I know.”
“And yet you ask me to make you a sword?”
“Who knows? Maybe a single sword made by an incompetent blacksmith who became a ghost will end up ruling the world?”
“Ruling the world……?”
Glen let out a faint smile and lifted his hood, briefly revealing his bare face.
Gotrel let out a dry laugh.
“So the claim that you never swung a sword in life was a lie.”
“If I didn’t say that, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to talk with you.”
“There are plenty of master craftsmen still alive. Why come all the way here to find a dead man?”
“Why else would I come?”
Glen smiled gently.
At the same time, a sharp glint swirled in his ash-colored eyes.
“I came to proudly present to the world a legendary sword left behind by a blacksmith who died bearing the stigma of incompetence.”
“Hah……!”
Gotrel laughed hollowly, then suddenly grabbed one of the soul fragments on the anvil.
“Of all the strange humans I’ve seen.”
“You’re not one to talk.”
“……Come back in three days.”
At the answer he had been waiting for, the corner of Glen’s mouth curled upward.
“I will.”
Soon after, Glen quietly turned around and left the blacksmith shop.
Left alone, Gotrel stared at his retreating back for a long while, then slowly turned his gaze to the soul fragment.
After letting out a light breath, he raised his hammer.
Kkaang— kkaang—
The evenly ringing hammer sounds echoed through the shop.
The emptiness that had been there before was gone.
Glen’s steps were light as he returned to the plaza of the Hall of Souls.
In just three days, two swords would be in his hands.
One would be a masterpiece created by the greatest blacksmith of Wordsworth.
The other would be a once-in-an-era artifact forged by a soul that kept hammering even after death.
There was no way he could stop himself from humming.
“Time…… it’s going to pass damn slowly, isn’t it?”
When you wait with excitement, time always moves slowly.
For the next three days, the images of two beautiful legendary swords would surely linger before Glen’s eyes.
“Three days, huh.”
During that time, Glen had to stay in Haven.
Normally, he would have wandered around the city, enjoying some leisure to reward himself for all the hardship.
But with less than ten days left until the demon race’s assault, he could not afford that.
“Such precious time… I need to use it well.”
Haven was one of the largest cities in the Wordsworth territory.
There was a lot he could do.
“I could clear out the monsters in the mines.”
Just as he touched his lips with the eyes of someone choosing a menu at a newly discovered restaurant—
Crack—
In an instant, the colors of his vision inverted.
In the next moment, with a tremendous roar, space tore open in front of Glen and a rift formed.
“Uh……?”
A sense of unease slammed into his mind.
Glen instinctively put distance between himself and it.
At the same time, the rift widened greatly, and red light burst out from within.
And the moment that red light completely dyed the area around the rift—
Space twisted, and something black sprang out from inside.
“Ah, don’t tell me—!”
A huge black figure wriggled as it raised its body.
Glen clenched his teeth.
“Shit…….”
A black hood draped over its body, and within it, a faintly visible translucent skull.
A translucent giant scythe held in its hand.
“No way… I got noticed by a Reaper.”
Reaper.
A being that manages the Hall of Souls, collecting souls that have shed their regrets and sending them to the world of souls.
It was a monster related to the Leader he had fought before in the underground of the abandoned village of Sildur.
The problem was that the Reaper was far stronger than the 5-star Leader.
The Reaper was a 7-star monster, bound by seven spirit rings woven with spiritual power.
In his current state, Glen was not someone who could handle such an existence.
Tsssss—
The Reaper muttered incomprehensible words like whispers.
From the eye sockets of the translucent skull, dark green light flickered fiercely.
It was a clear sign of hostility.
“Yeah. I did stay too long.”
It was probably trying to eliminate Glen for invading the Hall of Souls with a living body and disturbing the order.
As an alarm rang in Glen’s head, the Reaper raised the giant scythe with both hands.
Shing—
With a chilling sound, a blue blade flashed.
“Damn it!”
Glen quickly drew his sword.
The scythe struck against the raised blade.
The next moment—
Clang—!
“……Huh?!”
The sword shattered into pieces upon colliding with the Reaper’s scythe.
The blue giant scythe surged toward Glen’s neck.
“Shit, fuck!”
Glen threw his body forward.
Whoooong—!
The scythe passed over Glen’s head, tearing through the air.
The Reaper did not stop there.
It immediately adjusted its stance and swung the scythe again at Glen, who had closed in.
Glen hurriedly pulled out another sword from his inventory and blocked.
The giant scythe collided at a single point with the newly drawn sword—
Clang—!
The second sword also failed to endure the oncoming scythe and shattered, and the impact sent Glen flying back.
“Khak!”
Just before crashing to the ground, Glen barely regained his balance and got back on his feet.
“I’m screwed.”
The situation was bad.
Glen’s swordsmanship was far superior to the Reaper’s handling of the scythe, but the gap in raw power and speed was simply too great.
“Then I run.”
Glen stared behind the Reaper.
There, a magic circle connecting the Hall of Souls and the monastery cemetery was active.
“I’ll deflect its attacks with everything I’ve got and escape to the cemetery.”
Resolving himself, Glen steadied his breathing and activated the gray rings.
Soon, all five gray rings were converted into holy rings.
Holy power equivalent to five stars reinforced his body and his third sword.
Shing—!
At the same time, the Reaper appeared right behind Glen and raised its giant scythe.
A chill of death crept along the back of his neck.
But in Glen’s eyes, pure white radiance was swirling.
Kaaang—!
The third clash followed.
A tremendous impact traveled through his fingertips, up his arms, and through his entire body, crushing his face into a grimace.
But unlike the two swords that had broken earlier, the third sword endured the Reaper’s scythe, though cracks spread across the entire blade.
The Reaper hesitated for a moment.
It seemed it had not expected its attack to be blocked.
Glen smiled bloodily.
“What, are you surprised too?”
The Reaper intensified the glow in its green eyes and raised the scythe high.
Dense translucent spiritual power gathered around the giant scythe.
“Good. It’s coming.”
A strange light flowed through Glen’s eyes.
At the same time, the Reaper swung the giant scythe in a wide horizontal arc.
As if he had been waiting for it, Glen bent his knees and twisted his waist.
Shaaaak—!
The air tore above his head.
It missed, but the powerful strike ruptured his eardrums, blood flowing out.
Glen did not care.
He only focused on the opening he had been waiting for.
“You thought I’d block it!”
Taat—
Glen and the Reaper crossed paths.
When the Reaper turned its body, Glen was already sprinting with all his might toward the magic circle on the ground.
The Reaper chased after him at tremendous speed, scythe in hand.
But Glen had already stepped onto the activated magic circle.
“Nice meeting you, and let’s never see each other again, you bastard.”
He raised his middle finger at the Reaper.
The Reaper swung its scythe quickly, but Glen was already swallowed by blue particles of light.
“Ugh…….”
After returning to the monastery cemetery, Glen clutched his bleeding ear.
Once the crisis passed, his tension loosened, and the pain he had been holding back surged in.
“I almost died.”
He had only managed to escape because he had analyzed the Reaper’s patterns and baited out its skills.
Normally, even with the speed he was confident in, Glen would have been easily caught.
Just for a sword, he had almost crossed the river of death.
“Why does everything keep trying so hard to mess with me lately?”
No matter how fast Glen’s growth was, the specs of the enemies appearing recently were absurd.
Demon race skirmish leader Ralfer, 6 stars.
Ancient Rune Golem, 7 stars.
Reaper, 7 stars.
“……Feels like it’s screwing me over.”
The demon race assault that signaled the start of the game had not even begun yet.
And enemies at the level of finishing the early scenario were already blocking Glen’s path.
At this point, it felt like someone was doing this on purpose.
“Sigh. What’s the point of thinking about it…… it’s not like I can protest anywhere.”
Letting out a sigh, Glen cleared his thoughts and lightly reviewed what had happened in the Hall of Souls.
In any case, judging by the results, Glen had shaken off the Reaper, and the three soul fragments with lingering thoughts were steadily being forged into a sword.
He would need to return to the Hall of Souls in three days to collect it, but he would not stay as long as today.
“I’ll just take the sword and leave.”
Unless Lunatic difficulty kicked in, there was no way he would be discovered by the Reaper again and forced into a second round.
“If there’s any loss, it’s that I used the gray rings unintentionally……”
Still, thanks to the recent increase in proficiency with the gray ring skills, the duration had increased to six minutes, and the penalty time had decreased from twelve hours to eleven.
So as long as he did not overdo it until noon tomorrow, he would be fine.
“Until tomorrow morning, I should rest while practicing weapon switching or something.”
Organizing what he would do over the next three days in his head, Glen slowly stood up.
“What kind of excuse do I give the monk?”
Muttering an appropriate excuse, Glen left the cemetery.
The sky where the sun had been setting was now completely dyed black, stars scattered across it.
