The glowing anvil and the system notifications that followed.
Seeing them, Su-ho’s lips curled into a smile.
‘So the anvil was a verifier.’
And the Naless Forgemasters, who had regarded him as a dimwit, now nodded in approval.
In other words, using Mana Detection to find the target was indeed the right approach.
But the notifications didn’t end there.
Fwoosh!
[ The Sealed Hamr of the Great Forgemaster responds to your strikes. ]
[ The first seal has been partially released. ]
The anvil with the pure iron began to glow once again.
Then the pure iron vanished, and a new notification appeared confirming the partial release of the first seal.
‘I see. So that’s how it works.’
Su-ho turned his gaze toward the remaining scrap heaps.
Now that he understood the chanism, all that remained was to repeat the sa task.
And that was sothing Su-ho excelled at.
Enduring monotony was one of the things he was most confident in.
Without delay, Su-ho swung his hamr at the next scrap heap.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
Now that he had figured out the thod, his hamring was much more fluid and efficient than before.
He continued hamring away at the pile for so ti.
And then, in the middle of his hamring, Su-ho noticed sothing odd.
‘Lines?’
What caught his eye were lines—barely visible, almost spiderweb-thin lines running across the entire scrap heap.
They were so faint that unless you looked closely, you wouldn’t even notice them.
At first, he thought he was imagining it.
But no matter how much ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) he checked, they were real.
‘What are these lines?’
Was it just this scrap heap?
Just to be sure, Su-ho examined the other heaps as well.
And sure enough, they all had lines—each drawn in different directions.
‘What in the world...’
He hadn’t seen any lines like these on the first heap.
But now they’d appeared.
Coincidence?
He didn’t think so.
There were no coincidences with the system.
Su-ho stopped hamring and began studying the lines more carefully.
After a long while, he discovered a pattern.
The lines weren’t random.
Upon closer inspection, they were dividing the scrap heaps into separate zones.
But why?
Then, an idea struck him.
‘Could it be...?’
Seeing is believing.
Su-ho raised his hamr and began striking a specific spot within one of the outlined sections.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
With just a few hits, a chunk of scrap tal broke off.
Su-ho smiled at the clean break.
Then he started hamring directly on one of the lines.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang!
He hamred for quite so ti.
Eventually, a fragnt broke off—but it was ssy and misshapen.
The line shifted slightly, but the structure of the pile remained mostly intact.
Seeing this, Su-ho turned to another spot within one of the divided zones and hamred again.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
Again, just a few hits and a clean piece broke off.
That was enough for Su-ho to be certain.
‘That's it. The lines divide tangled scrap from one another.’
Exactly.
The lines drawn across the heaps were boundaries separating clusters of entangled tal.
There was no doubt.
He’d tested the theory three tis to be sure.
‘Must be related to the partially released seal.’
Otherwise, there was no reason the lines would have suddenly appeared.
From that point on, Su-ho’s pace accelerated dramatically.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
Even in the sweltering heat, he hardly noticed as he joyfully hamred away.
After all, the first heap had taken him hours, while the second took only a few minutes thanks to the lines.
This allowed him to reach the pure iron spot with unprecedented speed.
Once again, Su-ho used Mana Detection, extracted the pure iron, and placed it on the anvil.
The anvil glowed.
[ The Naless Forgemasters nod in approval. ]
[ The Sealed Hamr of the Great Forgemaster responds to your strikes. ]
[ The first seal has been partially released. ]
The system displayed the exact ssages Su-ho wanted to see.
As he read them, the air around him felt noticeably cooler.
‘Let’s get through the rest quickly.’
But first, he needed to check sothing—the change in the lines.
If his hypothesis was correct, and the seal had been further released, the lines should have changed too.
And his prediction was right.
The spiderweb-thin lines were now clearly visible.
Maybe that’s why...
He began to look forward to the next stage.
With brisk, confident movents, Su-ho followed the now clearer lines and began hamring the third heap.
And just as the third piece of pure iron was about to be revealed—
[ ■■■■ smiles at your hamring. ]
[ Congratulations! You have learned Forgemaster’s Strike (F). ]
A new skill.
Its na: Forgemaster’s Strike.
Su-ho imdiately checked the skill description.
[ Forgemaster’s Strike ]
– Grade: F
A striking technique that only successors of the Forgemaster Style can learn.
Increases damage and durability by 5% when using hamr-type weapons. Increases effectiveness of Forgemaster Style skills by 5%.
Su-ho chuckled at the description.
‘Similar to a Weapon Mastery passive.’
But unlike regular weapon skills, Forgemaster’s Strike also boosted durability and added a bonus to Forgemaster skills.
‘The skill rating may be F, but its value is easily S-rank.’
Perhaps that’s why—
Su-ho, with lighter and more efficient hamr swings, gathered the third pure iron.
[ The Naless Forgemasters nod in approval. ]
[ The Sealed Hamr of the Great Forgemaster responds to your strikes. ]
[ The first seal has been partially released. ]
Sa reaction for the third offering.
Su-ho moved on to the next heap.
‘I wonder what changes I’ll see this ti?’
The first thing he noticed was the lines becoming even clearer.
Then, he saw that the previously wavy lines had now straightened out.
‘Straight lines?’
That was the only change.
And it wasn’t a mistake.
He tilted his head.
‘I get why the lines are more visible, but why would their shape change?’
Wondering if it was just his imagination, he kept observing.
But again, the sa result.
Even with the next heap.
By the fifth one, the previously winding lines had beco perfectly straight.
“What the...”
He couldn’t understand it.
Why would curves turn into straight lines?
Su-ho finished with the fifth and stood before the sixth.
‘Alright, what will this one show ?’
He stood still and began observing the sixth heap through the grid pattern.
Before long, he realized the next change.
A reddish hue had been added to certain areas of the grid-like scrap heap.
Not the entire thing—just a few spots faintly colored.
‘What’s this now?’
What was the Forgemaster trying to show him?
Seeing is believing.
Su-ho aid his hamr at one of the reddish areas.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
A chunk fell off in just three hits.
He furrowed his brow.
‘No way...’
He struck a non-colored area next.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
It took seven hits for a fragnt to co off.
Su-ho’s eyes widened.
He stared at the fallen piece, then struck the red-tinted area again.
Kang! Kang! Kang! Juh-geok!
Another chunk in three hits.
After three tests, Su-ho was convinced.
‘This newly unlocked power shows weak points...!’
It really did.
Red-tinted spots took three hits, while normal areas took seven.
‘Mana Detection hints at vulnerabilities, but this...’
This made them blatantly visible.
All of them.
‘Could it work on people or monsters too?’
If so, it would be an incredible power.
To always see a target’s weak spot in real-ti.
‘No, too soon to celebrate. I don’t even know the conditions yet.’
After offering the sixth pure iron, Su-ho approached the final heap.
He smiled with satisfaction.
By now, not only were the lines sharply defined, but the once-subtle red markings were now bold and clearly visible.
And so were the weak points.
He began hamring with full force at the exposed weak spot.
Kang! Kang! Kang!
Three hits.
Juh-geok! A piece ca off.
But it looked strange.
Unlike the previous random-shaped fragnts, this one was a perfect square.
Su-ho picked up the square-shaped scrap.
“What is this...”
It was a flawless square.
Its surface smooth like it had been polished.
Su-ho let out a bewildered sigh.
“Don’t tell this is the final power?”
But why?
What was the point?
He couldn’t guess the intent.
Still, he couldn’t stop now.
Following the displayed sequence of weak points, he kept hamring.
Each ti, square fragnts poured out.
Even the pure iron was the sa.
After extracting a perfectly square pure iron, Su-ho gently placed it on the anvil.
The anvil shone, and the system ssages poured in.
[ The Naless Forgemasters nod at your results. ]
[ The Naless Forgemasters recognize your talent. ]
[ The Sealed Hamr of the Great Forgemaster responds to their recognition and releases the first seal. ]
[ ■■■■ smiles at your progress. ]
[ Congratulations! You have learned Path of the Forgemaster (S). ]
[ Congratulations! You have learned Eye of the Forgemaster (B). ]
[ Item information has been updated. ]
[ Congratulations! You have acquired the Unsealed Hamr of the Great Forgemaster (S ). ]
[ For achieving a great feat, the system gifts you 10 bonus stats. ]
At last, Su-ho had beco the true successor of the Forgemaster Style.
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