In Magaljwa, there are star artisans.
They stand alongside Magaljwa's saint Sebaschan—some specializing in weapons, some in armor, some in buff sacred items.
All were world-renowned in their respective fields.
Of course, there are famous artisans in other divine seats as well, but the most overwhelming ones are undoubtedly the artisans of this place.
[Lion Seat’s Ten-Star Oliver Fails in His Repeated Requests; Lion Seat’s Genius Workshop Also Fails to Place a Crafting Request]
[Waiting list: 12,000 people]
[Sagittarius Seat’s Saint, Hugo Otters, Also Has His Repair Request Rejected by Them]
[Sagittarius Seat Probably Can’t Even Afford the Repair Fee]
They had even upset Hugo, yet in the face of Igeon, they were brimming with confidence.
They had good reason to be confident, of course.
First, they’d heard Igeon needed four weeks to make a combat weapon.
‘Even low-grade artisans can do it in three weeks.’
They themselves could do it in a week.
The second reason was that he hadn’t caught on to the materials they’d handed over.
‘He said the materials are good? That he can make an S-class weapon with those?’
‘Huh. He doesn’t even have the basic eye of a crafter.’
But even though they sneered at Igeon, they didn’t dislike him.
After all, Igeon was a celebrity drawing the world’s attention.
And if they could outshine that celebrity?
‘Our reputation and the fame of our divine seat will soar.’
Experience points increased the scale of a divine seat, while fame improved its quality.
In other words, various aspects, like skills, could evolve.
That’s why saints threw themselves into achieving feats.
And Igeon was the perfect prey for that.
‘I’ll win here and become strength for the Seongsin.’
As if they would just sit back and watch Igeon become the number one divine seat.
He was a rival, a target to be dealt with.
That’s certainly what they’d thought, but...
“What the hell is that!”
People shrieked the moment they saw Igeon.
“Kyaaa! He’s insane!”
“I-is that even possible?”
The artisans flinched at the screams.
And the place everyone was staring at was none other than the furnace.
Indeed.
Before Igeon stood a blazing furnace that looked like a hybrid of a hearth and a chimney.
But the furnace was burning with terrifying intensity.
It had been a furnace that normally blazed at the level of firewood, but now it was on a whole different level.
“Aagh! The furnace is melting!!”
Tremendous flames were spewing from the furnace.
And the ferocious heat was so bad that even those nearby had to run away immediately.
The heat made it feel as if the smithy had suddenly transformed into a volcanic zone.
Naturally, the artisans were horrified.
They couldn’t help it.
‘That furnace is a training furnace…!’
It wasn’t a furnace capable of such firepower in the first place.
‘But how…!’
However, what was even more shocking was something else.
“Igeon-nim!! Your hand is melting!”
“He’s barehanded! Is that okay?”
Yes. Igeon was plunging his arm into the insane furnace.
And Guisun, beside Igeon, was just as horrified.
“Hey! Sin-nim! Are you crazy! Pull it out, quick! What are you doing! A guy whose arm barely regenerated not long ago!”
Maybe it was because his arm had been severed by the Abyss.
The demonic energy of a lord-class being seemed potent; even with super-regeneration, it had taken days for his right arm to barely return.
It was partly because the level was still low.
Anyway, even with super-regeneration, he must feel pain!
As a result, Guisun latched onto Igeon’s arm, which was calmly inserted into the fire.
“Sin-nim! All the furnace fires Magaljwa uses are subordinate gods! Burns will definitely not be the end of it!”
Even the low-grade artisans of Magaljwa rushed over in horror.
“You’ll die doing that! The fire is too strong!”
But Igeon, who had his hand in the flames, scoffed.
“This is strong? This is still far from enough.”
“What?!”
No sooner had he spoken than Igeon put strength into the arm he’d placed in the furnace.
And the moment he did, a scream erupted from inside the furnace!
[Kkueeeek!]
Both the artisans and Guisun were startled by that scream.
But regardless, Igeon’s eyes flashed.
“What are you doing, you bastard, do you wanna die? Why aren’t you raising the temperature faster?”
At his words, a familiar face appeared within the flames.
And that face was that of a lizard-shaped fire spirit.
‘A salamander!’
In fact, being a blacksmith’s divine seat, Magaljwa had brought in all manner of fire-related gods as subordinate gods.
And when the Seongsin crafted items, the fire subordinate god, Agni, would sometimes even enter the furnace directly.
Anyway, Igeon was strangling that subordinate god.
That threat was likely why he could produce such unusual firepower.
In the end, the salamander, feeling like it was being choked to death, shouted.
[Let go! You snake bast... keokhupeok!]
“Good grief, that Torch guy at my place listens well enough. They look the same, so why is this bastard like this?”
At that, Guisun shot him a dumbfounded look.
What Igeon called Torch was probably the high-grade fire monster he’d shoved into a furnace.
The very Red Zone-class monster that had attacked the Blue House and turned northern Seoul into a wasteland.
And that one had already been educated (?) by Igeon, so even if he just got ready to step on its tail, it would spew insane heat.
Whether he knew that or not.
“A god, my ass. Pathetically weaker than a monster. With shitty firepower like this, you can’t even make candy, let alone a weapon, you bastard!”
The subordinate god was dumbfounded.
[Hey, you bastard! If I raise it any further, you’ll get hurt too... keoheok!!!]
“You think I’ll get hurt by this ondol fire?!”
As Igeon throttled its airway once more, the subordinate god ended up spewing flames like crazy.
The moment it did, a fierce heat surged as if the furnace would melt!
Only after the firepower churned like it had summoned the sun did Igeon nod in satisfaction.
“Good. It’s still lukewarm, but I guess this’ll do.”
In the end, the nearby low-grade artisans backed off, feeling like they might burn to death.
“Showing off your high fire resistance!”
“Our artisans have that level of resistance too, you know!”
“What do you take blacksmiths who handle fire for?!”
At those shouts, the star artisans at the adjacent workbench couldn’t help but sweat.
Honestly, even they were afraid to stick their hands into that level of flame.
Because of that, they gritted their teeth.
“That madman’s trying to melt the furnace when he’s supposed to make a weapon.”
“Does doing that produce an S-class?”
The artisans flustered, but soon picked up their hammers as if it was nothing.
“Obviously a useless performance. That’s all he has to show off.”
“Right. In the first place, with grade-5 materials, they’d all melt and disappear in that heat…”
But it was exactly then.
“Whoa, insane, what’s that!”
“Look at the speed!”
Along with the murmuring of the crowd, the sound of hammering rang out.
It was the sound of Igeon’s hammer.
So the star artisans could only be flustered.
Normally, when crafting sacred items, all materials are first put into the fire of a forge or furnace.
They are melted together with the god-given ores and obtained materials to create a lump of metal, an ingot, of appropriate shape.
And they use that to form the object.
But they hadn’t even seen him put the materials in the fire yet, and he was already hammering metal?
‘The materials shouldn’t even have mixed yet?’
But Igeon was truly hammering on the workbench.
Clang clang!
A hammer in his left hand, and a long piece of metal in his right.
The metal in his right hand looked like a burning marshmallow skewered on a stick.
Clang! Clang!
Igeon was hammering the red-hot, lumpy iron.
And that iron was unmistakably the materials they had provided!
The materials had clearly already melted and mixed.
So they couldn’t help but be confounded.
‘How in the world?’
But they soon found out why.
“Ah, that’s a bit lacking.”
Igeon gathered up the prepared ores and materials, then soon pulled the salamander out by its neck from the furnace.
And then!
“Here, eat up. Stuff it into your stomach and mix it.”
“!?!”
Igeon crammed the materials into the salamander’s mouth.
Because of that, the subordinate god was about to die.
[Ku, keoheok! You wretch... I can’t put in any more... ugh ugh!]
“What a crybaby.”
Igeon plugged the salamander’s mouth and shook it as if mixing grain powder.
All of this happened within the fire.
And a few seconds later.
[Kkueeeek!]
When Igeon opened the salamander’s mouth and shook it out, mixed materials miraculously came out from inside.
At the same time, artisans from other divine seats in the audience finally shouted as if they understood.
“Right. He raised the fire temperature to shorten the time!”
“……!”
“And inside a subordinate god’s body is the ultimate furnace. The mixing process won’t take long either.”
“Ah, no. You fool. Doing that will kill the subordinate god! Those people are gods, you know!”
“Anyway, he found a way to shorten the time, didn’t he? If it were possible, I’d like to try it too.”
“You fool! Where do you get off saying such blasphemous things to a god! Just think about raising the temperature!”
At those words, the star artisans panicked.
No, the theory was easy.
But did they think a person could remain unscathed in front of that fire?
No, the problem was before that.
‘It’s that level of high heat. The data of grade-5 materials would be gone, they’d completely evaporate.’
But how was that thing fine?
However, that question was soon resolved.
“Hey, shit, lizard. Aren’t you lowering the temperature? The data’s all getting wiped.”
[Keuk... a moment ago you told me to raise it... keuk!]
At his words, the artisans went “oh.”
‘Could it be he has the exact temperature for each material memorized?’
‘Crazy, without a thermometer?’
‘A thermometer can’t even be used in the first place. It’d melt!’
‘Then by feel…’
Yes. Using the heat felt on his skin, he had precisely matched the temperature so the materials wouldn’t be damaged.
Because of that, the workshop became a mess, but the star artisans soon shook their heads.
“Forget it. Don’t mind that kind of method.”
“Correct. No matter what he does, the materials are still materials. You can only make trash out of trash.”
S-class would never come out.
And not only that.
‘His speed alone…’
But then. They practically fainted.
Clangclangclangclangclang!
The possessed sound of a hammer!
Igeon madly struck, turned, struck, and turned the extracted iron ingot repeatedly.
The sight was like pounding grain.
Like kneading dough, Igeon struck and struck again.
[Impurities vanish]
[Impurities vanish]
[Strength increases]
The low-grade artisans of Magaljwa wondered what on earth he was doing, but Kevin, who was watching, smiled.
“The material grade is rising?”
At those words, one of the Magaljwa artisans hurriedly put on glasses.
Those glasses were none other than a sacred item that could see the grade of materials.
At the same time, the artisan who looked toward Igeon could only be aghast.
‘Th-the material grade really is rising!’
The sight was like an infrared camera.
The mineral Igeon was hammering had the cloudy brown color symbolizing grade 5.
But every time Igeon folded it like kneading and brought his strength down on it, the cloudy brown gradually cleared, climbing through red, orange, yellow, even green.
And at last!
‘Blue!’
In the end, the artisan observing through the glasses collapsed.
“Insane, how can that become grade 1... mmp!”
The artisan hastily shut his mouth, but the star artisans who had clearly heard those words trembled.
‘The material grade went up?’
Of course, it wasn’t a wrong method.
Just as folding paper over and over increases its strength, folding and striking, compressing the material to raise its grade—that was a possible method.
It was a method used only when the material quality was too poor.
But it required strength.
However, it was still too early to be surprised.
Clang!
The artisans flinched at the sound of iron.
Tremendous force fell upon the metal.
As if material preparation was already finished, Igeon turned the metal with tongs and struck with the hammer.
And in an instant, the shape of a blade was taking form!
Clang clang!
People were astonished.
“What the? He already got the shape out?”
It wasn’t even dozens of strikes.
He just tapped it once here and there, and the shape of a sword, its joint, and even a hole at the gap were made.
Clang!
Along with the iron sound, people were stupefied.
“He already made a whole sword!”
“Didn’t it take less than five minutes?”
In the end, as the artisans froze at this, jeers came from the audience seats.
“Magaljwa! What are you doing! Igeon already made one sword!”
“Were you guys just playing around normally while working?”
At those protests, the star artisans trembled.
“N-no, that’s not…”
“Make it quickly!”
So the star artisans hastily put their materials into the fire.
But because the mixing time was long, they had no choice but to pull out an ingot they had prepared in advance.
And just as one person held the iron and two were about to swing their hammers!
“Whoa! Igeon is crazy! Already on the third one!”
“??!!”
The star artisans froze.
No, they hadn’t even swung their hammer once yet!
But regardless, Igeon, having finished shaping in an instant, dusted off his hands.
“Haa. Too bad. If the materials were good, I’d have just made a mold and done it even faster.”
At this, people were horrified.
No, he was already plenty fast, wasn’t he?
“Well, whatever. Hammering directly is fun too.”
Igeon madly repeated the previous process.
Raising the grade of shoddy materials, and forming a shape with just a few hand movements.
Clangclangclangclang!
In the end, Igeon had churned out eight dagger blades in the blink of an eye.
The time taken was just slightly over 30 minutes.
“Well, this isn’t bad.”
People were aghast.
“Wha, it’s not like making fish-shaped bread.”
“He’s a machine…!”
Even the shapes of the eight were perfectly identical.
It looked as if he made them roughly, but the form was sturdy and beautiful.
There wasn’t an error of even 1mm.
But what was more shocking was something else.
While Igeon made eight, the star artisans were...
“S-surely they haven’t made a single one…?”
The artisans froze.
(Continued in the next episode)