Chapter 46

Chapter 3.

A hunting ground near Winstone, frequented by users in the early 100s.

"Huh? What's that?"

Users who were fiercely battling monsters noticed a black dot approaching from the sky and began to murmur in alarm.

"Isn't that too big to be a bird? Could it be a griffin?"

"There's no griffin habitat around here, but nothing else comes to mind besides a griffin... If it is a griffin, we're in big trouble. We'll all die, won't we?"

"Eh? A person?!"

The dot, which initially looked like a small bead, gradually grew larger and quickly approached. To everyone's surprise, the dot turned out to be a human, and more specifically, a user.

"Wow... It looks like a mage who has completed the second job advancement."

"I've never seen a ranker in person before; they're incredibly cool!"

"What's that shiny thing next to him? Is it a pet?"

Kwaang!!

A man in a dark red cloak fluttering as he soared through the sky! Beside him, a lump of cinnabar glowed brilliantly under the scorching sun. The man turned out to be Grid. Without stopping, he flew through the sky and soon disappeared from the users' view.

He then landed and stopped at the edge of a vast forest.

'Mana consumption is insane.'

He had already taken a mana potion once, and his mana was depleted again before the cooldown was over.

Grid had no choice but to descend and land on the ground.

"If I can just get out of this forest, I'll be in Winstone. I'll walk slowly while my mana regenerates."

In the deep, uninhabited forest.

Grid, who had estimated the distance to Winstone, removed the Frosty Orc Chieftain's Helmet. He knew that if he wore the helmet, people would recognize him as the human butcher and cause a commotion.

"I need to change this helmet soon."

Grid, who had already resolved to create an incredibly cool helmet worthy of a hero from mythology, saw Fabraniom rotate above his head.

The little guy seemed to be in a good mood.

"Is it good to be outside after being trapped in a box for 300 years?"

Grid tried to talk to it, but Fabraniom didn't respond. Of course, even though it had a will, it was still a mineral and couldn't speak or engage in conversation.

But Grid kept talking to it regardless.

"But you're incredibly fast, right? I think my flight speed is around 7 seconds for 100 meters, and you keep up with it. And you don't have stamina, so you don't get tired, right?"

Grid's eyes were full of affection as he looked at Fabraniom.

It was natural for a blacksmith to feel fond of the best mineral.

"Kwoa!!"

"Give it back! Human! Life! Separate bones and flesh!"

While Grid was having a casual conversation (or so it seemed) with Fabraniom, a group of sturdy orcs blocked his path. They were all equipped with crude red armor and each had a large wolf.

Considering their ability to speak the human language quite well, they were undoubtedly the Wolf Fang Clan orcs, known for their strength.

Grrr!

The wolves sniffed the air, reacting to the smell of blood on Malakthus's cloak. They seemed to have led their orc masters to this place after catching the scent of blood.

In addition...

Kuung! Kung!

Kyao!

Ogres, hobgoblins, and various snake-type monsters that roamed the forest!

In an instant, over a hundred monsters gathered, drawn by the smell of blood, and surrounded Grid.

"Whoa... What's that?"

Nearby users who had been hunting heard the commotion and were shocked.

They had never seen such a scene where all kinds of monsters targeted one person and formed a mob.

"That person is in trouble."

"What did he do to get marked by the mobs and get ganged up on?"

"Tsk tsk~ He must have really tormented the mobs. He should have hunted more moderately~"

While the nosy users were talking without knowing the situation,

Shush! Shush!

Goblin archers hiding in the bushes aimed at Grid and fired their arrows simultaneously.

Seeing the sky turn black with arrows, the users thought Grid would surely die, riddled with arrows.

However, Grid's dynamic vision, with his high stats, was on par with that of 200-level combat class users. Having observed Jishuka's rapid shooting for a while, the goblins' clumsy archery skills were like child's play to him.

"Are there really people who get hit by such blind arrows?"

With a sneer, Grid drew his Ideal Dagger and used Wind Slash in the direction the arrows were coming from.

Kwaahaaaang!!

Grid had invested all the stat points he gained from leveling up to level 114 in the Golem's Labyrinth into strength. The power of Wind Slash is proportional to the user's physical attack power.

Now that Grid's Wind Slash had been upgraded, it was too much for mere 100-level goblins to handle.

"Kieek!"

"Keeek!"

The goblin archers, whose arrows were cut down and whose limbs were severed by the Wind Slash, screamed and fell.

Taking this as a signal, all the monsters attacked Grid at once.

"It's worth wearing this cloak!"

Mass hunting is directly linked to rapid leveling!

Grid, who had already swapped to Daensleip, drank a mana potion whose cooldown had ended. He then unleashed a wave, sending sword energy in all directions. The monsters that approached him were simultaneously attacked, spewing blood and falling. The ogres, being particularly tough, seemed to withstand it, but they were all hit with speed reduction debuffs. Even if they survived, their slow movements couldn't threaten Grid, and they flailed uselessly.

Punch! Crack!

"Kueok!"

Puuuuk!

"Kieeek!"

With a single wave, Grid subdued most of the monsters and methodically finished off the remaining stragglers.

In the middle of this, a few goblin archers, despite their severe injuries, mustered all their strength and fired their arrows. A few of these arrows flew toward a blind spot of Grid's.

"Chit!"

Realizing the arrows at the last moment, Grid braced himself for the pain. However, the arrows never touched him.

Kwajak! Kwajajajak!!

Fabraniom, which had been circling around Grid, spun like a drill and shattered all the arrows.

"Whoa..."

Wasn't it normal for a class with strong offensive capabilities to be weak defensively?

However, this black-clad swordsman not only slaughtered monsters with overwhelming offensive power but also protected himself effortlessly with a metal pet (?). His balance of offense and defense seemed almost perfect.

"Amazing... May I ask what your class is?"

While Grid, with the help of Fabraniom, cleared the monsters without a scratch and was picking up items, the users who had quietly approached him started bombarding him with questions.

"What is that floating lump of gold? Is it a pet? Or a new style of armor?"

"Sir, how can you be so strong? You must be a high-level player, right? Why is a high-level player in this hunting ground? Is there any good gear here?"

"Sir~?"

"Sir, are you mute? Answer me."

None of the users, who had just seen Grid in danger, stepped forward to help.

Grid, who was inherently unfriendly, had no obligation or desire to politely answer the users' questions.

"Mind your own business and go on your way. Fly."

After spitting out these words to the annoying users, Grid used Fly to levitate and then disappeared into the sky.

"…?"

The users left behind were dumbfounded, blinking their eyes.

A few minutes later, interesting posts started appearing on various community sites around the world.

<Just saw a swordsman flying>

There's a place called Poppo Forest in Winstone. While hunting with a friend, I saw a high-level swordsman slaughtering mobs. After clearing all the mobs, he used Fly to take off. Haha, even a Blade Master can't use Fly, so how did this swordsman do it?

rnfkRk's comment, Haha, when I heard a swordsman flying, I thought he must be incredibly strong.

TuruTuruTubam's comment, A swordsman using Fly? I'm a cleric and can't even heal. BS.

Blackened Flame Dragon's Right Hand's comment, Hehe... That swordsman is me... Hehehe... Despite my efforts to remain unnoticed, someone witnessed my prowess... Oh well...

zkxhfm's comment, Narcissist

Admiral's comment, Did your mother serve you seaweed soup after giving birth to you?

Hourly 30,000 Won's comment, Don't post crap and waste bandwidth.

It was roughly like that.

Users who posted about witnessing a flying warrior were bombarded with questions about their parents' well-being, so they stopped spreading such stories.

Thus, the topic of the day didn't last long and became a temporary fuss.

Meanwhile, upon arriving at Khan's blacksmith shop, Grid rushed to the furnace. He then experimented by placing Fabraniom in the furnace and adjusting the temperature to determine its melting point.

"1,900 degrees is about right."

Due to the extremely small amount of Fabraniom, it refined almost instantly.

"I don't want to carry it around in an egg shape forever, so I want to make something with it..."

However, the amount was too small to create a specific item. With this amount of Fabraniom, he couldn't even make a dagger. If he wanted to create an item, he would inevitably have to mix it with other materials, but Grid didn't want to contaminate this pure Fabraniom.

"I'll be satisfied with just changing its shape."

From his brief experience with Fabraniom, Grid knew it had a tendency to constantly circle around its owner and protect them. It would be best to make it in a shape that maximized this characteristic.

"A shape that can defend more efficiently than an egg... Ah!"

Grid thought of Malakthus's shield.

"He formed a disc-shaped shield with mana at every point of attack to efficiently block attacks..."

Ding! Ding!

Grid began hammering carefully. After a while, Fabraniom became two discs, each slightly smaller than an adult's palm.

"Good."

Grid released the completed discs from his hands. The discs then floated in the air, orbiting around Grid, giving him a sense of security. He felt he would be protected from most attacks.

Just then, Jishuka arrived at the blacksmith shop. Grid asked her,

"Shoot an arrow."

"Huh?"

"Hurry up."

"Hmm, okay."

Jishuka, noticing the small golden discs orbiting around Grid, understood his intention. She took out her bow without hesitation and fired an arrow.

Shush!

Zing!

It was an amazing sight.

One of the two golden discs orbiting around Grid stopped in front of the incoming arrow and perfectly protected Grid.

"That's incredible..."

Jishuka's expression, however, was not one of admiration.

Her pride was hurt.

"To be blocked so easily? Did I shoot the arrow too weakly?"

"Hey, wait a minute...!"

Grid was shocked. While Jishuka had lightly pulled and released the string earlier, this time she pulled it back fully and released it with maximum force.

Zweeek!!

"Ahhh~!"

The arrow, fired with all the power of a Grand Archer, flew toward Grid's shoulder.

And then!

Zing!!

"…Hah!"

Grid and Jishuka burst into laughter simultaneously.

Jishuka laughed out of disbelief, while Grid laughed out of joy and excitement.

"To block even my arrow, which can pierce steel... It's incredibly tough. Brahman was right to call it the pinnacle of minerals."

Indeed, the golden disc had perfectly blocked even an arrow fired with all of Jishuka's might.

However, the impact was quite strong, and the disc was momentarily paralyzed, trembling at the point of collision. It took two seconds to recover and start moving again.

'If Jishuka were to continuously fire arrows with full power, these two discs wouldn't be enough to protect me completely...'

This realization made it clear that he needed to complete the quest and obtain the remaining Fabraniom.

'But if there are only 27 more pieces of this size, it would be barely enough to make a single piece of armor... Hmm, but that's fine. It's still useful.'

Grid thought flexibly.

Instead of stubbornly insisting on creating a complete item with the limited amount of Fabraniom, it would be more efficient to create several small items that could be attached to other items.

'For example, attaching blades made of Fabraniom to armor. These blades would move on their own, protecting me from blind spots and attacking enemies from unexpected angles, providing solid support.'

The idea of self-moving items! If he could complete the quest and obtain the remaining Fabraniom, he could write a new chapter in the history of gear.

Grid, filled with excitement, heard a knock on the blacksmith shop door. He then asked Jishuka,

"Do I need to expose these discs to people?"

"Of course not. It's common sense to keep your trump card hidden."

"Hmm."

Grid grabbed the orbiting discs and put them in his inventory. Then he opened the blacksmith shop door.

A knight stood there with dozens of soldiers.

The knight, who saluted Grid, spoke politely.

"Lord Stein invites you to meet him."

"Lord Stein? The father of Lady Irene?"

"Yes."

"Oh? Great! Let's go!"

Why would such a prominent figure, one of the most powerful men in the Kingdom of Etrnal, seek out Grid? Moreover, it was unusual for an NPC knight known for his arrogance to treat a player with such respect.

Jishuka, watching Grid leave the blacksmith shop under the escort of the knight and soldiers, was at a loss for words.

"Who is he, anyway?"

It seemed that the request to make Bantner's armor would have to be postponed.

"That decoration should go this way!"

"Hey, the new curtains don't match the wallpaper. Let's switch back to the old ones."

"Chef! Is the food ready?"

"There's still dust on the carpet! Clean it again!"

All 80 servants in Winstone Castle were extremely busy.

A very important guest was about to arrive.

However, the expression on Lord Stein's face, who had invited the guest, was far from pleasant.

'I don't like it...'

Lord Stein had only one child, his beloved daughter Irene. She was his pride and joy, the most beautiful and kind-hearted person in the world.

Given her impeccable background, he believed that only a prince of a kingdom would be worthy of marrying his daughter.

But!

For his precious daughter, known for her arrogance in social circles, to fall for a commoner suspected of being a fraud! What a disaster!

"Hmph, hmph, hmph~"

Irene, oblivious to her father's frustration, was humming a tune and smiling broadly, eagerly awaiting the arrival of her beloved.

Lord Stein's frustration grew deeper.

'Grid, was it? No matter how I think about it, he's just a fraud.'

Grid was said to be a hero who saved Winstone from the former lord and the Mero Guild, the creator of the Sword of Enlightenment, and the savior of Irene's life.

But, is that even possible?

The fact that he, at a young age, created the greatest sword is already hard to believe, let alone that he also possesses exceptional sword skills, having defeated Malakthus and rescued Irene from the remnants of the Yatan Cult?

The more he