[The Gate has been cleared.]
[The MVP of the Gate Raid is ‘An Su-ho’.]
[Bonus experience granted for MVP selection.]
[1 bonus stat awarded for MVP selection.]
[A Hidden Gate has been cleared.]
[You have successfully cleared the Hidden Gate alone.]
[You have accomplished a remarkable feat. The system grants you 5 bonus stats.]
[Level up.]
[All stats have increased by 1.]
[You have obtained 1 bonus stat.]
A flurry of system notifications rained down.
Su-ho grinned crookedly as he read through them.
‘As expected, it was a Hidden Gate.’
Of course it was.
A place only accessible to the successor of the Blacksmith's Lineage — how could it be anything else?
Thanks to that, he earned five additional bonus stats.
KUUUUUUNG!
At that mont, the Molten Dragon — split cleanly in half — crashed down in both directions, shaking the ground with a thunderous rumble.
He had finally slain the Molten Dragon.
Considering the creature had been engulfed in blazing flas, Su-ho had assud it wouldn’t even bleed. But surprisingly, that wasn’t the case.
Just then, more system ssages popped up.
[Quest conditions have been t.]
[The Naless Blacksmiths marvel at the result you have achieved.]
[A Naless Blacksmith mutters in disbelief.]
[A Naless Blacksmith rubs his eyes and looks again.]
[A Naless Blacksmith...]
The new notifications were related to a quest.
It was the one that had triggered the mont the first seal of the Hamr was partially released — a quest not about the hamr itself, but a special quest generated from within the Furnace Gate.
That’s why Su-ho couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.
At the start of the quest, those sa blacksmiths had called him all sorts of nas — airhead, clueless, etc.
But now? Without exception, every single one of them was full of admiration.
The notifications continued to appear.
[The Naless Blacksmiths have convened to discuss your achievent.]
[They express their opinions.]
[Everyone praises your result.]
[A unanimous decision has been made.]
[According to an unbreakable oath, the Naless Blacksmiths bestow upon you the highest level of reward.]
[You have obtained the Fragnt of the Great Fla (S).]
[■■■■ smiles with satisfaction at your accomplishnt.]
[You have achieved a great feat. The system grants you 10 bonus stats.]
An avalanche of notifications.
Su-ho skimd through them with a satisfied grin.
And why wouldn’t he? They were all praise.
On top of that, the system had rewarded him with 10 bonus stats for achieving a great feat.
Still, more than the blacksmiths’ admiration or even the generous bonus stats, his attention naturally turned to the quest reward.
Su-ho imdiately checked the details of the reward.
[Fragnt of the Great Fla]
Grade: S
A blacksmith has many friends, but none closer than the fla.
A fragnt of the fla known as the greatest among those bestowed upon blacksmiths.
Only one who has proven their worth may use this.
Su-ho narrowed his eyes.
For an S-rank item, the description felt abstract, even sentintal.
‘So... what exactly does this thing do?’
When he had obtained the Soul of Fire recently, at least that item had a straightforward description — it granted the power of fla.
But this?
This had no clear indication of how it could be used.
Then, one line in the item’s description caught Su-ho’s attention:
A blacksmith has many friends, but none closer than the fla.
The very first line of the description.
“Their closest friend?”
As he stared at that sentence, Su-ho instantly pulled out the Blacksmith’s Sealed Necklace from his inventory and checked its details.
[Sealed Necklace of the Great Blacksmith]
Grade: S
A radiant legacy granted only to the blacksmith’s most cherished successor.
To release the first seal of the necklace, you need the fla it holds most dear.
‘I knew it.’
The mont he confird the item description, Su-ho instinctively realized that the Fragnt of the Great Fla was directly related to the blacksmith’s necklace.
He held the necklace in one hand and the fla fragnt in the other.
The fragnt was a flattened, ruby-like gem about the size of a thumbnail, and on the necklace was a slot that looked like it would fit the fragnt perfectly.
‘They’re clearly ant to be a set.’
Seeing is believing.
Su-ho imdiately slotted the fragnt into the necklace.
Click.
Like magic, the fragnt fit the groove perfectly.
[The Sealed Necklace of the Great Blacksmith reacts to the dearest fla.]
[Item information has been updated.]
[The first seal is partially released.]
[Mana is required.]
Mana?
Then—
SHWAAAAAA!
“......!”
As soon as the alert popped up, an enormous amount of mana began pouring out of Su-ho’s body.
‘What the hell?!’
A wave of dizziness hit him like a truck.
Startled, Su-ho quickly dropped the items to the floor. The necklace, still absorbing his mana, shimred with a soft blue light for a mont, then returned to its original state.
“Whoa.”
The sound escaped his lips without thought.
Of course it did — it wasn’t every day mana was drained like that.
As a result, Su-ho’s mana was nearly depleted.
‘I almost passed out.’
He had to always keep a bit of mana in reserve.
According to the system’s rules, once a player’s mana hits zero, they experience a blackout — collapsing on the spot.
Newbies who didn’t know that often ended up unconscious after burning through all their energy.
‘Passing out in a Gate like that is a good way to die.’
In that sense, the blacksmith’s necklace was clearly going to require so careful preparation going forward.
‘I’ll deal with this gradually...’
Su-ho turned his gaze toward the two halves of the Molten Dragon.
Its body lay split and abandoned where it had fallen. With its death, the flas that had filled the area had completely vanished, and the lava beneath the railway tracks had cooled to a lifeless gray.
‘Now, what to do with this guy?’
Dragons and cattle shared one thing in common:
Nothing goes to waste.
Especially when it’s a dragon.
It would be foolish to leave it untouched or discard it casually.
And so, Su-ho found himself weighing his options.
He could already think of nurous valuable resources he could extract from the Molten Dragon — but the question was what order to do it in.
‘With the Tower Dragon, the Guiyeong Spear absorbed its shadow, and the corpse disappeared imdiately afterward.’
That hadn’t been the case with other boss monsters.
The key difference was that Su-ho hadn’t had to stab the Tower Dragon’s shadow himself — the Guiyeong Spear had reacted on its own, drawn by its will to unlock the first seal.
‘And it even left behind a loot drop on its own.’
That loot had been the Dragon Fang, a rare S-grade material with the special property of being Unrecoverable.
‘But if I’d harvested the corpse myself, I probably could’ve gotten even more.’
That’s why he was saving the Guiyeong Spear for later.
‘First things first — blood.’
Through the Blacksmith’s Eye, he could extract materials the sa way he had with the Ironclad Warrior.
But if he took too much, the corpse could vanish like [N O V E L I G H T] it had with the Tower Dragon.
So he had to collect the loot safely and thodically — starting with the blood.
Su-ho raised a hand and activated his skill toward the bisected dragon.
[True Blood Drain has been activated.]
SHWAAAA!
The skill activated: True Blood Drain.
Su-ho recalled the details.
[True Blood Drain]
Grade: S
An enhanced blood-siphoning ability powered by True Blood.
Allows separate extraction of blood, mana, and innate abilities from the target.
With this upgraded skill, he could extract blood, mana, and even innate abilities, even from a boss monster.
Of course, there was a condition:
The target had to possess blood.
Most monsters Su-ho had encountered lacked it — either made of spirit matter or just empty husks like Chainbound.
‘Or they just didn’t have any skills I wanted.’
And even if both conditions were t, he couldn’t copy every ability.
He could only obtain powers that he could actually use — and a lot of them had limitations that didn’t suit him.
But the Molten Dragon?
This one had a lot to offer.
Gurgle— gurgle—
As expected of a dragon.
With a body that massive, it had blood in spades.
It didn’t take long for Su-ho’s Blood Jewel to fill to the brim.
The sa went for mana.
‘Dragons really are on another level.’
And then it happened.
[Successfully copied the ability ‘Heat Storm’ from the target.]
“......!”
Su-ho’s eyes widened.
Then, the corners of his lips slowly curled upward.
‘I actually got it.’
There were several abilities Su-ho had hoped to get from the Molten Dragon.
And one of them was exactly this: Heat Storm.
He had wanted it more than even its Breath.
The Breath attack had devastating power, sure — but it required the user to lock their neck in place, limiting its practicality.
That’s why he’d hoped for Heat Storm instead — and now, it was his.
Additional alerts popped up.
[Two abilities are already stored in the Blood Jewel.]
[To copy ‘Heat Storm’, you must delete one existing ability.]
[Would you like to remove an existing copied skill?]
The Blood Jewel could only store two abilities at a ti.
Without hesitation, Su-ho removed Seo Gi-won’s Digitization skill.
[‘Digitization’ has been deleted.]
[‘Heat Storm’ has been copied.]
Heat Storm was now his.
The process had drained a significant amount of the dragon’s blood.
Yet the Molten Dragon still remained soaked in gore.
‘A dragon’s a dragon, alright.’
It really lived up to its size.
Su-ho moved on to the next step and activated another skill.
[Blacksmith’s Eye has been activated.]
As it had during the Ironclad Warrior battle, a fine grid overlay appeared across the Molten Dragon’s corpse.
Wherever materials could be harvested, the grid would light up in color — Su-ho dubbed them "harvest slots."
The Ironclad Warrior had six such slots — all Iron Shell Fragnts, but that wasn’t the point.
‘Let’s see what we’ve got this ti.’
The colored sections gradually filled in across the grid overlay.
But as they did, Su-ho found himself frowning.
‘What the hell... why are there so few?’
Given the Molten Dragon’s massive size, he had expected hundreds of harvest slots.
But only a handful lit up.
‘Forget what I said about its size being impressive.’
Just as he thought that—
“...Huh?”
Su-ho’s gaze shifted to a specific spot.
Near the dragon’s chest.
If his mory was correct, that’s where the Dragon Heart should be.
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