Thump, thump—

Ha Gangwoo stared at the anvil Mimic had brought out, the corners of his mouth creeping upward.

‘Insane.’

Anvil[E]

Grade: ???

Description: A commemorative anvil released for Enhancement Day! Imbued with intense power, it makes hammering feel even more enjoyable.

Effects

– Increases enhancement success rate by 10%.

– Increases repair success rate by 80%.

– Grants Destruction Prevention.

– 1% chance to grant a Great Success effect.

*Great Success: Enhancement and repair values are applied at double the rate.

A DLC product he’d bought for fifty million Gold after leaving Scenario 1.

Back then, he’d purchased it for weapon repairs, but with no items to fix, he’d never even checked its effects.

He never imagined it would come with enhancement capabilities built in, too.

Thump—thump—

His heart hammered against his ribs at the unexpected turn.

A 10% boost to enhancement success, plus that Great Success effect.

[Enhancement Anvil]

Grade: F

Description: A standard anvil made for enhancements.

Effects

– Increases enhancement success rate by 1%.

Seeing the stats on the Anvil[E] beside him, he understood just how absurdly overpowered its effects truly were.

‘Destruction Prevention…’

That Destruction Prevention effect in particular.

*Destruction Prevention: Weapons with an enhancement level of +10 or lower will not be destroyed.

Normally, items have a chance of being destroyed on a failed enhancement starting from +1.

Hell, even people aiming for +5 whined when their gear shattered, didn’t they?

Creek—

Ha Gangwoo’s grip tightened on the hammer in his hand without him even realizing it.

‘Making money would be a joke.’

The biggest risk in the enhancement trade was item destruction. But with this anvil, that risk vanished.

And on top of that — a Great Success. A 1% chance to jump the enhancement level by +2 at once.

Since he’d come here to do business in the first place, his mind was already racing, calculating how best to leverage this effect.

“Hoooh…”

Ha Gangwoo took a deep breath and steadied himself.

‘Focus on the event for now.’

This was an unexpected stroke of luck, and it felt great. But he needed to stay calm.

Zenith Elysifer’s event. Under normal circumstances, he’d have just half-assed a run-through and given up.

Out of hundreds of Players, he had to be among the first ten to forge a +9 item.

And reaching +9 would be just the first hurdle.

He was certain there’d be another round to pick the single person who’d get to enhance Zidhart’s Longbow.

Only by clearing that final game would he earn the chance to upgrade the S-Rank weapon, Zidhart’s Longbow.

What were the odds of making it that far?

In other words, under normal circumstances, the chance of walking away with that one billion Gold from this event was practically zero.

Thump-thump—

But not anymore.

‘It’s doable.’

A success rate 10% higher than everyone else’s, plus items that wouldn’t break.

Meaning — if he could just secure the opportunity to enhance, that one billion Gold was as good as his.

Ha Gangwoo looked down at his Anvil[E]. Its exterior was nearly indistinguishable from the standard anvils around him.

He set his hand flat on its cold iron surface.

‘Let’s do this.’

Right now, this anvil was an item. It would react to a Player.

Blue mana writhed and pulsed from Ha Gangwoo’s palm.

That instant—a low hum, and the Anvil[E] trembled, a faint current of Mana beginning to seep into its form.

Ding—

Anvil[E]

Grade: ???

User: Ha Gangwoo

Description: An anvil released to commemorate Enhancement Day! It’s imbued with fierce power, making each hammer strike all the more satisfying.

Effect

– Increases Enhancement probability by 16% (+6 increase).

– Increases Repair probability by 86% (+6 increase).

– Grants a Destruction-Prevention effect.

– Grants a 7% (+6 increase) chance of a Great Success effect.

‘Got it.’

Ha Gangwoo read the effects his Luck stat had carved into the Anvil and allowed himself a satisfied smile.

Weapon: Barzel’s Appetite: Blue

Weapon: Anvil[E]

The Anvil, too, counted as equipment—and so it had been bent by the Influence of his Luck stat.

All preparations were complete.

[Worn Dagger]

Grade: F

Durability: 9/9

Attack Power: 5

Strength: +4

Description: A worn dagger. Rust has crept along the blade, making it ill-suited for cutting anything.

Ha Gangwoo set the battered dagger’s edge atop the Anvil’s face.

[Enhancement Hammer][Common]

Grade: F

Durability: 20/20

Description: A hammer made for Enhancement. Try empowering your items to make them stronger.

Effect:

– Consumes 1 Durability to enhance an item struck three times.

He took the Enhancement Hammer in his right hand.

[You have stored Barzel’s Appetite: Blue in the Inventory.]

A hammer, too, was a weapon.

Ding—

[You have equipped the Enhancement Hammer.]

The moment Barzel’s Appetite vanished into his Inventory and his fingers closed around the hammer’s handle—

It was only the grip he held, but the tool nestled into his palm like a weapon he had carried for ten years.

All thanks to Weapon Mastery.

Everything was as close to perfect as it could get. And then—*whoosh*—Ha Gangwoo swung the hammer in a light, testing arc.

The moment it moved—

Ding—

[The Enhancement System has been activated.]

The system’s chime had barely brushed his ears—

Bzzzt—*Flash!*

Something glittered along the blade of the dagger, which was barely thirty centimeters long.

Clang!!!

Ha Gangwoo didn’t hesitate. He brought the hammer down on that exact spot.

Ding!

[Perfect Hammering!!!]

[The Enhancement success rate increases by 1%.]

‘Interesting.’

Right then, he understood why Zenith Elysifer had gone to the trouble of opening an event like this.

*Whoosh—*

Ha Gangwoo swung the hammer a second time.

And sure enough—

*Flash!*

The blade gleamed. *Clang!!!* He struck it precisely.

Ding!

[Perfect Hammering!!!]

[The Enhancement success rate increases by 1%.]

*Whoosh—*

Thus began the final swing. And sure enough, the blade flashed.

*Clang!*

[Perfect Hammering!!!]

[Enhancement success rate increases by 1%.]

The third and final hammer strike landed just as precisely as the first two.

*Ding-*

[Worn Dagger enhancement succeeded!!!]

A cheerful notification appeared.

Ha Gangwoo’s first enhancement had ended in success.

Gangwoo looked at the dagger, now faintly imbued with Mana.

[Worn Dagger +1]

Grade: F

Durability: 9/9

Attack Power: 5 (+1)

Strength: +4

Description: A worn dagger. Its blade is rusted, making it unsuitable for cutting anything.

‘So enhancement really is about skill.’

Zenith Elysifer. The head of the world’s seventh-ranked Pairing Guild and the current Rank 6 player.

Yet someone of that caliber had shown up at the enhancement chamber, offering a reward, looking for someone to enhance her weapon in her place.

‘Why would she go out of her way to find a proxy?’

At first, he hadn’t understood.

But now, in this moment, he realized.

The one person who rose through hundreds of competitors.

It wasn’t a seat reached by luck alone.

‘No time to waste.’

*Clang! Clang!*

Maybe it was the enthusiasm of the surrounding players, but impatience pressed in on him.

*Clang!*

Yet on Ha Gangwoo’s face, as he swung his hammer, a relaxed smile spread.

***

*Whoosh-* The heat billowing out from the massive furnace.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The frenzy of players swinging sledgehammers like madmen.

Countless hammers flying through the air on top of it all. The atmosphere here was a battlefield itself.

At the center of that pandemonium.

Zenith Elysifer sat on a golden anvil, arms crossed, staring at one spot.

‘An Enhancement Trait? Or just someone with good luck?’

Zenith Elysifer had held events like this several times before. With all that experience, that man caught her attention.

To come back with a +9 dagger in just thirty minutes.

It wasn’t impossible with good luck, but going through the Gaia System had taught her one truth.

‘Everything has a reason.’

It could be just luck, but she couldn’t rule out something else entirely.

‘I’ll know when I see it.’

Whether it was a Trait or just good fortune, she’d find out naturally through the next event.

Zenith Elysifer narrowed her eyes as if intrigued, watching Ha Gangwoo.

Just then, a man stepped up beside Zenith Elysifer.

“Master. What about this time? Think they’ll succeed?”

It was Tom Antonio, the vice guild leader.

“Who knows. I have a good feeling this time.”

Zenith Elysifer replied with a flat expression.

Zidhart’s Longbow. The number of times she’d challenged +10 had already exceeded a hundred.

Each time, she’d blown through Gold and failed, over and over.

No matter how she thought about it, the chances of failing this time were high. But today, she had an inexplicable feeling.

At Zenith Elysifer’s answer, Tom Antonio bared his teeth in a wide, booming laugh.

“Master’s in a strange mood today, throwing out vague answers like that.”

The Master who always relied on cold analysis over gut feelings or premonitions in every affair.

Today, for some reason, he’d been spinning nothing but ambiguous replies.

Tom Antonio felt that shift in atmosphere too.

Normally, a +9 item would take over eight hours to draw out just one or two craftsmen.

But now — only five hours in — nine people had already appeared. Something was definitely different.

Just as Zenith Elysifer and Tom Antonio were sensing the change in the air around them —

“Done!!!!”

The tenth and final success had arrived.

***

“Ah… what a waste. Just burned time and Gold for nothing.”

“If the longbow shatters, maybe I’ll dump some Gold into my own weapon.”

With that last success, the event was effectively over. Grimaces spread across the faces of those who’d sunk time and Enhancement costs into trying.

Still, hundreds of eyes turned toward the golden anvil.

This was the stage for attempting a +10 on an S-Rank item — a spectacle worth watching.

“Smash it clean.”

“Let’s use it as a sacrifice!”

Most wished for failure, their mood hostile.

Superstitious as it was, the saying went that a high-enhancement weapon offered up as sacrifice could forge another high-enhancement piece.

So hundreds of gazes locked onto the golden anvil, and feeling the weight of that attention, Tom Antonio stepped forward.

“What kind of day is this, really? Normally it’d take a solid eight hours — never thought we’d wrap it in five.”

Tom Antonio flashed a wide grin, teeth bared. He did nothing but watch, and yet he radiated the unsettling presence of a predator.

“Congratulations. This is your reward for joining our event.”

Tom Antonio plunged his hand into the air — reaching into his Inventory — and produced something, handing it to each of the ten Players.

Among them, Ha Gangwoo, who’d taken first place.

He accepted the item Tom Antonio offered.

‘A reward?’

A fist-sized stone, riddled with holes like something from a volcanic zone.

Ding-

[Enhancement Protection Stone]

Grade: A

Description: A mineral imbued with Dragonic’s mysterious power. It holds the energy to protect items.

Effect

– Greatly reduces the chance of item destruction upon Enhancement failure.

‘An Enhancement Protection Stone?’

Just as Ha Gangwoo was puzzling over the item —

“An Enhancement Protection Stone! I’m so glad I joined! Thank you so much!”

Right beside Ha Gangwoo, Ikeda Gondo bowed his head deeply and accepted the Enhancement Protection Stone.

How he found the anvil was anyone’s guess, but Ikeda Gondo was also among the ten successful participants.

“An Enhancement Protection Stone? That ultra-rare item?!!!”

“So this is what a Ranker does. Man, I’m jealous. One of those goes for fifty million Gold, and they’re just handing them out.”

At Ikeda Gondo’s words, nearby Players’ eyes gleamed with envy.

“This… is worth fifty million Gold?”

Ha Gangwoo snatched up the Enhancement Protection Stone and let a smile curl across his lips.

The stone’s sole function was preventing destruction. But with Anvil’s effect, Gangwoo had no need for it.

Which meant he’d just made a clean 50 million Gold.

‘Good thing I joined.’

Gangwoo let his mind drift back to that Enhancement session.

[Enhancement Probability +16% (↑6).]

The probability boost from the Anvil.

Clang!

[Perfect Hammering!!!]

[Enhancement Success Rate increases by 1%.]

Another probability bump from the hammer strike.

And then, though the chance was abysmally low — Clang!!!

[Worn Dagger Enhancement succeeded as a Masterpiece!!!]

[Enhancement level increases by +2.]

Plus the Masterpiece proc from Anvil[E].

Up to +6, the Enhancement had gone impossibly smooth.

But the real wall started at +6.

6→7 Enhancement: 11%

7→8 Enhancement: 8%

8→9 Enhancement: 5%

The probabilities posted online.

Even pushing the odds to their absolute limit, Gangwoo couldn’t break 30%.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ding-

[Enhancement failed.]

[Enhancement level decreases by –1.]

On failure, Anvil’s effect saved it from destruction — but there was no dodging the level drop.

Thirty minutes of time, gone.

‘Not impressed.’

The moment he’d finally scraped together +9, he’d thought it was nothing special. But five hours later, it hit him.

‘No — it’s completely broken.’

Out of hundreds of people, only ten had succeeded in five hours. And he’d done it in just thirty minutes.

Whoooosh —

Gangwoo stared at the dagger in his hand, pulsing with raw Mana.

[Worn Dagger+9]

Grade: F

Durability: 9/9

Attack Power: 5(+107)

Strength: +4

Description: A worn dagger. Rust has eaten into the blade, making it unsuitable for cutting anything.

+9. Having forged it himself, he knew exactly how absurd that stat was.

A measly 5 Attack Power item suddenly inflated by 107 points.

[Barzel’s Appetite: Blue]

Grade: ???

Durability: ∞/∞

Satiety: 90/100

Attack Power: 267

Strength: +43

Agility: +21

Mana: +6

Description: Gloves infused with Barzel’s Appetite. A fierce hunger lingers within—be cautious, as even the wearer may be devoured.

Effects

– Barzel’s Appetite gains the Devour effect.

– Barzel’s Appetite gains the Ruin effect.

Additional Effects (3/10)

– On hit, 30% (↑5) chance to explode.

– Gains the Extreme Pain effect.

– Can use Paralysis Fog.

‘What would happen if this was +9?’

The Enhancement cost would be insane, sure — but even so, he wanted to throw it on the anvil right now.

Thump-thump —

If Barzel’s Appetite hit +9, how high would the Attack Power climb?

A mere +5 base attack had ballooned by 107. If that was the increase on a stat stick, then Barzel’s Appetite had to be gaining at least 300 attack power.

If that weapon had been enhanced when he threw it, Jutrek would have been dead the instant that Big Glaive left his hand.

‘I need it.’

Overwhelming attack power — it was an absolute necessity for the battles ahead.

‘God, I want to enhance.’

Now that he actually held a +9 weapon in his hands, the craving for more enhancements burned even hotter.

Ha Gangwoo was still lost in thought about how broken Enhancement really was when —

“Master! There’s a really good item over here!”

Mimic tugged at his pants and pointed straight at Zenith Elysifer.

She was clearly reporting on the S-Rank item the archer carried.

‘That woman.’

Ha Gangwoo narrowed his eyes at Zenith Elysifer. Her expression was flat, unreadable — impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Ever since he’d stepped into the Golden Anvil’s territory, she’d been watching him.

Even now, she was looking elsewhere, but a steady current of Mana coiled around her entire body.

Proof she was still keeping tabs on him.

‘Maybe I came too fast.’

Back then, he hadn’t expected the match to drag on this long. All he’d wanted was to finish it as quickly as possible.

That might have earned him a sliver of suspicion, but it didn’t matter.

After all, the face he wore now was a crafted one.

As Ha Gangwoo sank deeper into his thoughts —

“Now then, let’s begin the final game to select who will enhance Zidhart’s Longbow!”

Tom Antonio’s voice boomed so loud that standing this close made Gangwoo’s skull ring.

“The final game is simple. The player who successfully pushes the +9 weapon they brought to +10 gets the chance. Of course, using the Protection Stone you just received is entirely your choice. If two or more of you succeed, or if everyone fails — we’ll determine a new game on the spot.”

Tom Antonio laid out the rules.

The content was dead simple.

Take the +9 weapon you brought and push it to +10.

In the end, it came down to picking the player with the best luck.

Once all explanations were finished, Tom Antonio pointed at Ha Gangwoo.

“You were the first one in. You go first.”

Hundreds of eyes naturally slid toward Gangwoo.

The stage for the enhancement: the Golden Anvil itself.

*Gulp.*

Ha Gangwoo swallowed dryly and stepped up to the Golden Anvil.

A murmur rippled around him, tickling his ears.

“Shatter!”

“Explode, baby!”

Most of them wanted to hear that distinctive crack of a destroyed item.

Ha Gangwoo let the noise wash over him and slowly closed his eyes.

*Thump — thump —*

A chance at 1 billion Gold.

It would take the best luck in the world — but not for Gangwoo.

[Weapon: Enhancement Hammer (Normal)] [Lock]

[Weapon: Anvil [E]] [Lock]

With the item Lock effect in place, the Anvil[E]’s influence was active. This dagger couldn’t possibly break.

“Let’s do this.”

Ha Gangwoo gripped the hammer—a satisfying crunch of leather against his palm—and kindled his will to fight. Tom Antonio bellowed out.

“We’re starting now!”

In an instant, the murmuring crowd fell into silence.

The Players watching here were the most seasoned of veterans when it came to Enhancement. So they knew full well what it meant to challenge +10.

No matter if it was an F-rank item, the significance of +10 was something else entirely.

The moment even a normal item reached +10, it gained power that surpassed an Artifact.

That was why everyone clamped their mouths shut and fixed their eyes on Ha Gangwoo.

In that dizzying silence, that single moment.

Ha Gangwoo hoisted his arm with all his might.

Swoosh—

In the quiet, the sound of the hammer slicing through the air echoed eerily,

Crack!!!

With a sharp ring, it struck the dagger’s blade.

And with that, Ha Gangwoo’s first hammer blow in his +10 challenge began.