Chapter 523 – 523. The Thousand and One Nights (6)
Eunhyeon’s existence and appearance became a great turning point in breaking Oran’s values, which had been tied only to her own technology and the perfection of the works she had created.
“A weapon is nothing more than a tool that can spread its reputation and be valued by being held in someone’s hand and being used.”
No matter how brilliant and soulful a weapon is, its essence is a tool made with the intention and purpose of use.
A new goal arose in the mind of Oran, who belatedly realized that if someone did not write it, it would be nothing more than a piece of metal.
“For some reason, my grandfather was convinced that one day that human would grow up to become a great swordsman, and he decided to make a sword for that human.”
It was a decision made after seeing Eun-hyeon, who continued to train her sword without missing a single day while continuing to learn metallurgy from Oran.
It was so dazzling to see him eagerly aspiring for something and constantly pursuing growth.
Neither the blacksmith’s path nor the sword path, being dissatisfied with the current position and continuing to look up and head toward it, made a deep impression on Oran’s heart.
“Then… The fact that you kept teaching metallurgy to my master… Why?”
“Because I was sorry. If only time existed, a human named Eunhyeon would have been able to acquire all the skills of Cheonil Yajang that his grandfather had. My grandfather said.”
Regardless of talent, Eun-hyeon, who really started to accept technology through hard work, was a really special person to Oran.
That’s why he stayed with him and taught him metallurgy.
Rather, he wanted to continue to sit in this village, learn all his skills, take over the position of the Cheonilyajang, and create works that were superior to the weapons he had made.
However, Oran could not recommend it in the end.
Even in the dwarven village, Eun-hyeon, who devotes herself to continuing to hone her swordsmanship outside of the time she spends learning metallurgy and sleeping, is ultimately a swordsman.
This is because Eun-hyeon also knew that he was a human being who had to one day leave this underground world and go to the surface, and he had to complete a certain mission engraved in his heart with the swordsmanship he continued to hone.
“So at least until he left, he said he understood and mastered one more of his skills. And before he left, he handed over to him a mark that qualified him to take the test to succeed him.”
It was only when Oran gave up the title of Cheonilyajang and officially retired from his job as a blacksmith that the truth was revealed.
Many Dwarves were indignant at Oran’s arbitrary actions and strongly insisted that the humans who went to the ground be caught immediately.
However, at the point where more than 100 years had already passed, trying to catch a human on the ground with a lifespan of less than 100 years was as difficult as finding dry firewood on a rainy day.
After all, after Oran died at the end of his life span, it was Oran’s family who had to take responsibility for what he did.
“Many insulted our Black Anvil tribe, to which our grandfather belonged, and ridiculed them as foolish dwarves who passed on the mark to humans and prevented them from inheriting the title of Thousand and One Nights.”
“…”
The expression on Doran’s face is very calm as he utters words that disparage his grandfather.
Doran’s assessment of his grandfather was not particularly wrong.
As a blacksmith, he was a great craftsman whose skills were coveted and looked up to by everyone, but it was not wrong to be a selfish dwarf who only insisted on his own thoughts and did not care about others.
In fact, all of the Black Anvil tribes, including himself, were seeing the damage from him, so it was a fact that had no excuses.
“So I waited too. Just what kind of person is the person my grandfather had such high expectations for?”
Doran was always curious.
What did Oran see and feel to make such a choice to a human named Eunhyeon, one of the reasons why he and his tribe had to be criticized by the dwarves of other tribes?
When Oran told the story of Eunhyeon to his grandson, Doran, who was young, he always smiled as if he was immersed in pleasant memories.
Once, as a child, Doran asked Oran.
Humans are a species that dies after living a short life of less than 100 years, so why can we be so sure that Eun-hyeon will come back?
Oran responded to his young grandson’s question:
“‘I’m not sure I’ll be back. He’s just counting on him to come.'”
No matter how many years or decades, the belief that young people will come even when they are old.
Or he had a firm belief that Eun-hyeon would die and his descendants would come, even belatedly, just as he passed on his mark to his descendants.
“My grandfather regretted not being able to make a sword for that human in the end.”
So after Eunhyeon left, Oran began to focus on making two swords.
I was hoping that someday Eunhyeon or his descendants would come to this village.
However, he could not complete the sword in the end, and Oran ended his life.
“The blacksmiths of this village, including myself, do not know anything about the content of the test at the Cheonil Night Market. But…”
His grandson, Doran, who has watched Oran’s life, isn’t that hard to guess if you think about it from Oran’s point of view, rather than being the best blacksmith in the dwarven village.
Likewise, Lily, who heard the story, also grasped the contents of the test Eun-hyeon was taking.
“That test… It was made only for the master.”
“… Exactly.”
Due to Oran’s reckless behavior, the Cheonil Night Market’s test, which could not be completed for about 300 years, was an arrangement prepared only for Eunhyeon.
“I am still waiting.”
Kaaang!
Beyond the door, where the sound of hammering does not stop for hours and continues to resonate, what kind of objects are being made.
All the Dwarves were waiting with bated breath for the result.
Lily moved her eyes and looked at the expressions of the other dwarves.
“…”
The dwarves of Zor and his tribe, the ‘Red Furnace Tribe’, who came late, are also listening to the sound of the hammer beyond the door, just like the other dwarves.
It’s a completely different attitude from last night’s resentment at Eun-hyeon, who was qualified to take the test in the tribal conference room.
All the Dwarves in this place felt the violent sound of hammers coming from inside the forge and the waves of resounding magic, and gauged the progress inside.
Showing no dissatisfaction, admiration, or anything, the dwarves, who were only focused on the test Eun-hyeon was taking, showed the appearance of blacksmiths.
Beyond racial differences and being strangers, the dwarves began to acknowledge Eunhyeon’s existence little by little.
◆ ◆ ◆
How many hours had passed since he had the hammer in his hand?
How many times do I have to beat it to finish it?
Does the end really exist?
Eunhyeon was engrossed in refining Orichalcum’s blade, unable to measure or think about anything.
The reason why the end cannot be measured is really simple.
– Iron and metal become harder the more they are beaten.
Loads the maximum power and magic that can be loaded with one hammer stroke, and puts one’s soul into the metal to be smelted.
Kaaang!
Every time the hammer struck and collided with the blade made of Orichalcon, the blade trembled as it absorbed the impact.
As if it had a will.
Up to the limit of what metal can contain, he repeats the process as if he were punching everything in himself.
-How long do you have to do it? Since you asked about that, you said you were still far away.
One time becomes two times, two times becomes four times, eight times, sixteen times, Eun-hyeon’s arms scream in convulsions at the repetition of the number of repetitions, contrary to the fatigue accumulated from the repetition of the work that continued for a long time, The mental strength that was being shaved off was so hard that words can’t express it.
-No one will say anything to you that you are stopping here. But that’s it.
But even so, the hand holding the hammer strikes the blade with force once again.
Kaaang!
The reason why this process is not over and is still being repeated is because Eun-hyeon is not satisfied yet.
-Are you satisfied with just this much?
While refining the two Orichalcum blades, as time passed, the words Oran said resurfaced in my head and passed by as if overlapping.
“No way.”
Eunhyun laughed and answered the illusion of Oran that overlapped in her head.
He said he could do more yet.
His arms are complaining of pain, and his mental powers are being shattered like crazy, making his brain foggy, but he’s not weak enough to give in to these things.
“This is better than when I was killed hundreds of times by Master.”
Compared to the three ordeals he had to undergo to attain perfect divinity from Jupiter, this level is ridiculous.
Exposed in front of a hot brazier for a long time, the sweat that flowed from his body evaporated and took away the moisture, and he did not stop hammering even in his fading spirit.
The reason why Eun-hyeon took the test this far is because he realized the meaning of Oran, who left these two blades to himself.
The two Orichalcum blades he is currently smelting are the last pieces of the Thousand and One Night Fields that Oran tried to deliver to him when he visited the Dwarf Village.
However, Oran ended his life without completing these two blades, which were supposed to be his last works.
“So you entrusted it to me?”
It was an answer that would never come back, but Eunhyeon was sure.
The reason Eunhyeon doesn’t stop hammering is because the two blades she is currently refining are the posthumous works of Cheonilyajang.
In order to complete the work he left behind as the best work that is greater and greater than any other work he has created in his lifetime, Eun-hyeon continued to beat the hammer.
‘This isn’t enough.’
But even so, Eun-hyeon, who continued to feel inadequate, eventually let go of the strength in his hand and dropped the hammer he had beaten hundreds of times on the floor.
He stretched out his hand, which was already bleeding from the torn skin from holding the hammer for so long.
[God’s Arms]
[Hammer of Vulcan]
The hammer of Vulcanus, which was imprinted in Eun-hyeon’s soul, is a part of the god itself that has enormous divine power just by existing.
Eunhyeon struck down Vulcan’s hammer on Orichalcum’s blade with all his might.
Kaaang!
Along with the enormous shock, the enormous divine power that had been dwelling within Vulcan’s hammer reacted with Orichalcum and was absorbed into the blade.
Orichalcum’s blade trembled and roared due to the intense energy absorbed, and Eunhyeon struck down Vulcan’s hammer once again.
It is a similar process to the restoration of the holy sword Durandal, but it is not the holy sword that Eunhyeon is trying to make.
The starting point for producing a weapon of the same class as the moment that Brunak’s existence passed through my mind.
‘Oran. I will complete Oran’s last work with a divine sword.’
