Legendary Shadow Blacksmith

"Let’s just get this over with."

Julian’s words were a whisper, but they still echoed throughout the dark cold chamber—the echoes did not last long, however, as it was soon drowned by the twisting noise of the metal surrounding them.

Julian tightened his shield on his arm, raising it and his short sword at the same time—both, faintly reflecting the Living Statues that were now rushing and surging toward them. It was almost like a sea of copper, or perhaps a tidal wave that completely overwhelmed Julian’s enhanced senses; loud enough to cause his head to tilt.

Talia stood next to him, her eyes sharp and focused as she quickly noticed Julian’s discomfort. “Julian, don’t get reckless. This isn’t the same as—”

Creak!

But her words were cut off as the first of the statues finally reached them.

Julian moved to block the lunging statue, crashing to it with his shield and sending it stumbling backward. But of course, he had no time to rest at all as the living statues did not give them the benefit of attacking one by one, no.

Another one was already threatening to cut Julian’s head off. He stepped forward to meet the attack, swinging his sword at it… but his blade just bounced off the statue’s copper skin with a harsh clang.

“Hm…” Julian’s eyes started to narrow as he took a step back; his hand slightly shaking from the impact. Even with him reassessing the situation, his body still instinctively dodged the sharp limbs of the two copper statues that were swinging toward him. He looked at Talia, only to see her longsword cutting through the living statues with slight resistance.

Cyrus was still… surprisingly completely unharmed—his eyes completely focused on capturing all of his moments.

As for Titus, he knelt beside Dyrroth, a soft glow emanating from his hands as he concentrated on healing the deep wound in Dyrroth’s stomach.

“Hang in there, buddy,” Titus muttered, his brow furrowed in concentration. "I’ll patch you up in no time."

“Kh…” Dyrroth, pale and sweating from the pain, nodded but said nothing. His hands clutched at the dirt around him, his breathing shallow as he watched the battle unfold around him.

With Julian finally fighting with a veteran beside him, his inexperience in combat was finally starting to reveal itself—not only to the Chat, but to himself.

Talia was almost like a whirlwind as she made her way through the copper statues; each swing of her blade took one of them down—and if her blade didn’t fully cut them in half, she quickly pulled out her blade and then swung it right at the same exact cut, finishing what she started.

She ducked under a sweeping blow from one statue, slicing cleanly through its arm in a fluid motion, before spinning on her heel and driving her sword into another statue’s neck. Her strikes were deliberate, efficient, each one aimed at disabling her opponent with minimal effort. There was no wasted movement at all.

As for Julian, it was fully obvious now to the people in the Chat that he was fighting with sheer brutality and instinct.

His strikes were refined, yes—but he always swung the sword with full force. Unfortunately, his full force did not seem enough to actually cut through the bodies of the copper statues.

A statue lunged at him, and Julian met it head-on, slamming his shield into its chest with a resounding clang. The force of the impact sent the statue staggering, this time, however, he did not follow up with an attack at all and just started dodging all the attacks that came his way.

And yet, even with Julian’s lack of experience finally showing—

“The… the Chat’s going wild again!” Cyrus screamed as he weaved through the dozens and dozens of living statues to try and get a better angle of Julian.

“Newbie, you’re swinging too hard,” Talia glanced over at Julian, her lips curving into a slight smirk. “It’s about finesse, not just power.”

“Hm…” Julian did not really say anything, just glancing at her to let her know that he was listening—and listen he will.

With calm, deliberate precision, Julian stepped forward—and this time, he lifted his sword and lightly tapped the copper plating instead of swinging at it. The sound that followed was faint, almost imperceptible amidst the chaos of battle. But to Julian, it was all that he could hear. His eyes narrowed as the metal rang out, the vibrations crawling up his arm, through his body, and into his ears.

The sound was hollow, echoing in a way that made him pause. He could feel it—the raw metal just calling to him— and it told him everything he needed to know.

“Oh…” His lips curled into a slow, almost dangerous smile, the noise flooding his senses. It was like hearing an unspoken language, a language only he understood. “...There it is.”

In an instant, his eyes snapped open. Without hesitation, Julian swung again—but this time, it was precise, deadly, aimed at the point where the copper statue’s armor was weakest. His blade cut through the statue’s chest with startling ease, the metal offered no resistance as it cleaved cleanly in half.

The statue crumbled at his feet, its severed halves hitting the ground with a dull, resounding crash.

“Got it,” Julian muttered under his breath, the satisfaction unmistakable in his voice. His smile widened as the copper pieces clattered to the floor, lifeless and broken.

“Ho…” He took a moment to lightly tap each statue before delivering precise, devastating blows to their weakest spots. One by one, the statues fell before him, crumbling into heaps of copper and dust.

“Yes… yes!” Cyrus, meanwhile, continued to glide through the chaos with… surprising ease. A statue lunged at him from the side, but Cyrus didn’t even flinch. He casually dodged the attack, his hand flicking out to deflect the statue’s blow with minimal effort.

“Y’all seeing this, Chat!?” Cyrus grinned as he spoke with the chat. “We are witnessing it now, the evolution of the Sword Junkie… into the Sword God!”

“Oh… shit.”

“Newbie!?”

Everyone turned to Julian, only for them to see blood dripping from his chin.

Moments ago, Julian had just dispatched another statue when he suddenly felt a sharp pain explode across his face. He blinked, momentarily stunned as he realized a statue had managed to get past his defenses. Its sword had sliced cleanly through his cheek…

…splitting it wide open.

No matter how abnormally high his perception was, the sheer number of living statues rushing and lunging toward him at the same time was still higher. In fact, his abnormally high senses were probably giving him more trouble since he was hearing and feeling everything at the same time—it was just too much.

“Ha…” Blood gushed from the wound, dripping down his chin in thick, hot trails. His tongue brushed against the torn flesh…ironically tasting copper.

And then… Julian smiled. Perhaps the pain was actually what he needed all this time.

His lips, or what remained of them, curled into a bloody grin, the gash making his smile wider than it actually was.

“Newbie!” Talia pushed the living statue rushing toward her so she could focus on Julian for a moment—but Julian barely heard her. The pain was sharp, searing, but it only fueled him. And very soon, his laughter echoed through the chamber, dark and twisted, as he lunged back into the fight with even more ferocity than before.

Wild. He was wild.

The statues fell before him, one after another, as Julian moved through them like a force of nature. His smile never faltered, even as the blood continued to pour from his wound. His eyes gleamed with something dangerous, something… unhinged.

“What the…” Talia’s eyes narrowed—she wanted to back Julian up, but she did not really have the luxury to do so at all since she was also busy with the dozens of living statues surrounding her. And so, she decided to focus on her own battle, cleaving through the wave as fast as she could.

She and Julian, slashing and cleaving through the seemingly endless barrage of living statues. And after what seemed like an eternity for the two of them, the last statue finally fell and broke into pieces.

The chamber, once filled with the sounds of battle, was now eerily quiet. Julian stood amidst the sea of copper, his sword and shield dripping with his own blood. But still, there was a hint of a smile on his mangled face.

“Newbie!” Titus, who had just finished completely healing Dyrroth, rushed over to him, his hands already glowing as he placed them on Julian’s mangled face. “Hold still, Julian. I need to fix this before you lose too much blood.”

“Hm…” Julian let out a small wheeze as his hanging meat dangled from his jaw.

“Titus!” Cyrus also quickly rushed toward Julian, “Make sure you do it right. Julian’s face is one of his many assets, The ladies in the Chat are already freaking out, and if you don’t do this well…”

“I know a woman’s scorn and wrath, boy,” Titus scoffed as he focused on closing the gaping wound in Julian’s cheek. The magic worked quickly, knitting the flesh back together with a faint glow. Within moments, the wound was gone, leaving only a faint scar that was only noticeable when stared at for a few seconds.

Although Julian’s wound might have looked threatening and fatal, it wasn’t at all, at least not compared to Dyrroth’s injuries.

“Good as new, Newbie,” Titus muttered as he stepped back to see his handiwork, “I would say even better than before. Manlier, like a soldier walking out with a medal.”

Julian touched and patted his face, and surprisingly so, Titus was able to reconstruct his face without issues at all. “Thank you, Titus.”

“Did… I miss anything?” Dyrroth, now fully healed and back on his feet, pressed on his stomach as he approached while looking at the piles of broken down copper, “These things aren’t supposed to be here. This isn’t cool, my dudes.”

“You’re fine standing up?” Talia glanced at Dyrroth for a bit. And as soon as he put both of his thumbs up, Talia quickly switched up her focus on the far side of the chamber, where the faint archway they were initially walking to stood hidden in the shadows.

“Think that’s the exit?” Dyrroth suggested, following Talia’s gaze.

“We’re about to find out,” Talia sheathed her longsword back to her waist before glancing at Julian, “Can I borrow your shield? I’m leading the party from now on.”

“Uh… sure,” Julian quickly unstrapped the shield and gave it to Talia.

And as soon as Talia tightened the shield on her arm, the group cautiously approached the archway, weapons at the ready. They stepped through, their footsteps echoing in the narrow passage beyond.

“...I don’t think this is the exit at all.” Titus narrowed his eyes at the thinning path.

“My dudes, I’m—”

“I swear, if you are about to fart again.” Talia glared and pointed back at Dyrroth.

“I’m not!”

“You better. The last time you farted you almost died.”

“Do you see this, Chat…?” And while everyone was getting tense, Cyrus was still making sure that he was capturing all of Julian’s better angles even though he wasn’t the one leading the dungeon anymore. “I think this is it—the boss battle we are waiting for.”

“Can you just stop it, Cy!?” Talia almost hissed at Cyrus, causing him to quickly move behind Julian’s muscular frame, “If you just joined the battle, it would have already been done in no time at all! The newbie almost died!”

Cyrus wagged his finger while clicking his tongue. “But he didn’t—he survived, and now lots of people are donating.”

“You’re still thinking about money now!? You—”

Before Talia could finish her words, Julian’s loud breath whispered in the air.

“How much did we gain from that, Cyrus?” He asked. And as he and Cyrus started talking about the donations, the only thing Talia could really do was shake her head and moved forward.

And very soon, they made it into an opening—it wasn’t an exit at all, but a much smaller chamber, the walls covered in intricate drawings and symbols. Runes, etched into the stone, glowed faintly in the dim light.

“What are these things?” Talia’s eyes narrowed as she looked around. And before anyone else could respond–

[Congratulations, you have found the Hidden Quest: The Bridge.]

–the [Guidance of Artemis] appeared for every one of them.

Julian’s eyes widened as the message floated in front of him. “It says there’s—” He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word, Talia’s hand shot out and covered his mouth with a firm grip. Her eyes were wide with urgency, her gaze darting toward the Cyrus.

And of course, Cyrus quickly understood this gaze. His usual carefree demeanor instantly disappeared as he snapped his fingers right in front of his eyes exactly four times.

“Is it down?” Talia’s long breaths whispered.

“Yes.” Cyrus quickly nodded and started walking around the chamber.

“What… did you just do with your hands?” Julian asked.

“I shut down the stream,” Cyrus glanced back at Julian, “You can set hand gestures to turn it on and off, and the AI overseeing the stream from up there in the space station would recognize it.”

“That’s convenient,” Julian hummed “…How do I turn mine off?”

“Shit!” Cyrus quickly rushed toward Julian, grabbing him by the shoulders as he looked him in the eyes, “MEGAN, turn the stream to private! The control was passed over to you, right!? It’s important that you do so!”

“She… says yes,” Julian looked at Talia, and he could hear them all letting out a sigh of relief which almost harmonized in the small chamber they were in. “What’s going on?”

Talia didn’t immediately respond. She was too busy scanning the room, taking in the details of the strange drawings and symbols.

“This is a hidden quest, my dude,” Dyrroth muttered, his voice tinged with awe as he stepped closer to the walls. His fingers brushed over the markings, tracing the intricate patterns. “A hidden quest… right beneath a beginner’s dungeon. And it hasn’t been discovered by anyone else? I don’t know about you, my dudes…

…but that doesn’t make any sense to me.”