Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Whoa, he’s insane.”
“He’s making those without schematics, right?”
The sound of hammers echoed through the workshop.
And the source of that hammering was none other than Igeon.
The hammer rose, fell, and every movement of Igeon’s hands drew the eyes of the onlookers in perfect sync.
Their spellbound gazes were already lost in him.
They couldn’t help it. A brief glance, and something was hammered into existence—his seemingly indifferent strikes captivated people in an instant.
Not to mention, the items designed by the deity of Mageumjwa were notoriously complex. Even the followers of Mageumjwa, who routinely crafted the same thing, struggled without schematics.
Yet here he was, crafting them without so much as a blueprint!
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason for his popularity.
“Kyaa, Sir Igeon is so cool!”
“You’d never guess from the outside!”
“Sir Igeon! Look over here please!”
The number of admirers swooning over Igeon in his black sleeveless shirt skyrocketed. Originally, he’d worn a fairly decent outfit to have dinner with Heylli. Not an overly formal suit, but a dress code that was somewhat dressed up.
Well, normally he’d be too lazy for that; he’d usually wear the shirts and pants Seongjae—who had a good eye for fashion—always bought for him. But...
Hugo had freaked out the moment he saw him.
- Igeon, are you crazy?! Going on a date in a hoodie!
Well, it wasn’t a date, but...
- What’s wrong with a hoo—
- Ugh, this incel idiot!
In the end, after a smack on the back from Hugo and a forced fashion makeover, he’d ended up here.
Well, thanks to that, Heylli had to take deep breaths from 500 meters away the moment she saw him, but that wasn’t important.
Working made him sweat and the sleeves got in the way, so he’d stripped down to just the sleeveless shirt, and the number of followers swooning grew exponentially.
Of course, the follower-gods of the Virgo sign weren’t about to miss this opportunity.
[Move aside, won’t you? We cannot see the young snake lord if you don’t.]
[You should be the one to move! Is your spot not cramped!]
[Kevin! Move aside quickly!]
[You think you can hog all the good stuff for yourse— Kyaah!]
“Don’t forget you’re shadow operatives...” Kevin shoved the heads of the follower-gods trying to emerge from the shadows back down.
Even his own deity tried to descend to see the interesting spectacle, but Kevin’s eyes flashed sharply. “You manage the Sagittarius sign’s gods or something! They’re brother and sister gods! Stop coming here looking for weird things!”
Anyway, about two hours had passed since the crafting contest began.
Even after two hours, not a single person had left. On the contrary, the crowd kept growing.
And before Igeon lay a pile of weapons.
Thanks to that, Gwisun had no choice but to stare at him, exasperated.
‘Just how many has this guy made in two hours? Daggers, greatswords, even complex siege weapons...!’ Their classes were completely different.
At the same time, Gwisun glanced over at the star artisans. They were hammering away furiously too. Perhaps spurred by Igeon, they’d picked up speed like crazy, and a few blade shapes that resembled daggers were visible.
But perhaps they’d rushed too much.
Clang!
“Gah...!”
The moment the hammer came down, the tang snapped and flew toward their face. They’d misaimed the strike. And as soon as it broke, jeers erupted from the crowd.
“How can you make such a basic mistake!”
“Can’t you see Igeon’s posture is more solid than yours!”
“Whoa, at this rate, the master artisans of the Heavenly Talent Workshop look like chicks.”
“Totally sluggish, sluggish.”
The artisans hammering the iron ingots felt wronged.
‘What are they saying!’ ‘The shorter the time, the more it’s obvious you’re just cranking them out rough!’
Though they couldn’t see clearly from afar, there was no way weapons made at that speed could be high quality.
Maybe that’s why. “Amateurs, shut your mouths if you don’t know!”
“Do you think this is just a speed battle?”
At that, another section of the audience growled.
“Why? We should be timing you. Didn’t you dismiss Igeon by saying a weapon you could make in a week would take him four?”
“And you yourselves said speed was a measure of skill...”
The artisans raised their voices in fury.
“We! We’re putting care into quality, s...!”
But just then, the hall buzzed loudly.
The reason was simple.
“One set, all done.”
“!!”
The set of eight daggers he’d started making first was completely finished.
The crowd erupted in cheers and rushed toward the holy artifacts.
“Hey! Appraise it! Appraise it! Confirm if it’s really S-rank!”
“It took about three hours to make all of these?”
“Unbelievable... the Heavenly Talent Workshop took a week for the same item...”
“And that was for just one... a week...”
At their commotion, the star artisans finally blew their tops.
“Go ahead, appraise them! There’s no way something made so hastily can meet the conditions!”
“Exactly! What we demanded was not speed but quality! Do you think S-rank can come out?”
“At best, B-rank!”
But then.
“S-rank! It’s S-rank!”
“?!”
The star artisans nearly dropped their hammers.
Wh-what did you just say?
But the appraisers who had been called in for judging cheered in unison.
“The rank is indeed S-rank! All eight of them!”
Jinmyeong, the SS-rank appraiser who’d come to see Igeon after Kevin called, was practically sobbing. He said the quality was far higher than the items made twenty years ago.
The star artisans, naturally, went berserk.
“Th-they’re really S-rank?”
“H-how can something made like that be S-rank...!”
“And the materials were only fifth-tier... Mmph!”
“Shh!”
The artisans hastily covered their mouths, but the SS-rank appraiser Jinmyeong’s eyes flashed.
But right then.
“Hey. That’s not how you do that.”
“!”
The voice made the artisans flinch. Because Igeon had appeared behind them.
Igeon clicked his tongue as he looked at their workbench. “If you do it that way, the balance is completely broken. You’ll never get an S-rank.”
Maybe he’d come because he had time left and was bored.
At his words, the star artisans bristled.
“Hah, S-rank? Don’t make us laugh! You must have swapped it with a real S-rank in the meantime!”
“Exactly. Otherwise, there’s no way something made at that speed with those materials can be S-rank...!”
Tching, Igeon clicked his tongue and snatched the hammer.
“You morons.”
“Hey, wai— Huk!”
In that instant, Igeon began working on their item.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
And as the star artisans watched Igeon swing the hammer, their expressions froze.
Just five strikes. With only five hammer blows, the form took shape, and Sipseong Taylor couldn’t help but drop his hammer.
Until now, they’d shrugged it off because they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes. They’d been flustered by the crowd’s reaction, but they’d figured it was just a performance. So they thought that if they just did their best, people would eventually recognize their work.
But...
Clang!
The scene unfolding vividly before their eyes left the artisans utterly spellbound.
He’d demonstrated on no other item than the very one they were making, making the gulf between them starkly clear.
Perhaps that was why.
“We lost.”
Sipseong Taylor was the first to speak. And at his words, the lower-ranked artisans gaped.
“W-wait! Sir Taylor! Concede? There’s still plenty of time...”
“It’s meaningless. No matter how much longer, the result will be the same.”
“...!”
Even the various specialists who had come to assist Taylor admitted it.
“Victory is our defeat...”
“Honestly, it seems like you craft better than our deity and saint...”
But just then.
Bam!!
Perhaps someone couldn’t bear to watch any longer.
[You pathetic lot!]
“!!”
Light crashed down beside them. And the face that appeared sent the hall into an uproar.
It couldn’t be helped.
“The direct craftsmen of the Mageumjwa deity!”
Indeed, the ones who had appeared were follower-gods. And not ordinary ones.
[The Dwarves of Nidavellir]
They were dwarves with fiercely angered faces. And they were gods with crafting authorities specialized in creating things. They were one of the many crafting gods scouted by Mageumjwa.
And they spewed boiling fury as they strode toward the star artisans.
[How dare you tarnish the name of our deity!]
[Not only are you admitting defeat without even trying properly, you go so far as to disgrace the name of Mageumjwa?]
[Do you intend to drag our entire divine seat into ruin with your careless words?!]
The artisans trembled under their murderous glares. Then the dwarf follower-gods glared at Igeon.
[There is still time. We will take over.]
Igeon found their entrance intriguing. After all, they were the greatest artisans who even forged weapons for the deities. There was no way he wouldn’t be curious about their skills.
So he said, “Go ahead, then. I’ll wait about two weeks.”
At his expectant words, the dwarves let out incredulous laughs.
[You insolent young god. These were human, so it was a stretch, but a speed like yours is nothing to us divine beings.]
They immediately grabbed the materials. And an astonishing thing occurred.
Clang! Clang!
[The servants of the Heavenly Talent Workshop’s master, the deity of Uigyo, craft armaments]
Were gods indeed different from humans? The weapons were made at a miraculous speed.
Clang! Clang!
And that speed was identical to Igeon’s.
“Unbelievable, truly divine...!”
Just like Igeon had, they crafted daggers in an instant. The same number, at that. And the rank was the same.
“W-we’re sure, this is S-rank too!” The appraiser’s voice rang out, and the follower-gods sneered.
[Behold, we too have made S-rank in the same time as you.]
[Do not underestimate Mageumjwa. You are but a young god with no deep history. How dare you insult artisans with thousands of years of tradition.]
At their shout, the Mageumjwa artisans cheered, and soon the dwarves glared at the artisans who had admitted defeat.
[So, you worthless fools who can’t even use your feet...]
But just then.
“You sons of bitches.”
“!!”
A curse from Igeon and screams erupted.
Clang!!!
As Igeon looked at the weapons the follower-gods had made, he suddenly smashed them to pieces.
Everyone, the crowd and artisans alike, was horrified.
“I-it broke! An S-rank weapon...!”
A hammer was gripped in Igeon’s hand. The follower-gods trembled at the sight. That was not a weapon that should break so easily.
Moreover, a hammer was a tool for making weapons, not for shattering them like that.
The follower-gods stared at Igeon in shock.
“You want to die? If you’re planning to compete with this crap, don’t even think about stepping up.”
“!”
Igeon’s eyes flashed as if he was furious. “You bastards have a job to do. You make empty shells and just slam abilities in there to match the rank?”
“...!”
It was true, the items the follower-gods made were S-rank, at least nominally. But it was a trick using divine authority to fool the appraisers’ eyes. At a glance, they looked plausible, but given the time, the contents were pathetically flimsy.
And what would happen if such an item went to the battlefield?
‘The user would die on the battlefield when their weapon breaks.’
Igeon seemed incredibly angered. He had never once made an armament carelessly.
“Weapons are a warrior’s life. The least a craftsman should do is make an armament that holds up until they can return from the battlefield.”
“!”
“And you pull crap like this, screwing over the faithful who trust you with their lives?”
At this, the crowd stirred, and the panicked follower-gods targeted Igeon’s weapon.
[Wh-what are you saying! You cunning snake god! Didn’t you also make S-rank in the same amount of time, you scoundrel!]
They insisted that all that could be done in that time was a sham. So they summoned a divine axe and brought it down on Igeon’s weapon.
But.
“It’s unscathed...!”
The hall stirred. The follower-gods trembled. And perhaps sensing their faith diminishing...
[W-wait! Today was simply an unlucky day. But our deity is different. He has made not only holy relics for the gods’ audience, but even this guy’s...]
At those words, Igeon let out a disgusted laugh.
“Ah. Right. I’d forgotten. My baby, the one I made—you swindlers claimed you made it, didn’t you? I actually came to correct that and totally forgot.”
The hall buzzed loudly at Igeon’s words. It couldn’t be helped. It had only circulated as a rumor secretly, but wasn’t this the official story from the blacklist incident?
But then.
“What? The Punishment of the Heavens wasn’t made for you by the deity?”
At the same time, Igeon stretched out his hand. And in his hand, the Celestial Punishment was summoned!
Holding Punishment, Igeon’s eyes flashed.
“Go on. Call him. Your deity.”
[......!!!]
“And if you really made it, go ahead and make something identical. I’ll lend you this. You’d know all the materials that went into it, naturally?”
[......!!!]
“Even if the materials are different, you should be able to copy it. If you can copy this, I’ll acknowledge it.”
[Then...!]
Igeon smirked.
“But if you can’t make it the same, your heads get cracked open?”
(Continued in next chapter)