I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Night's Gentle Chill looked absolutely miserable right now — or rather, had looked miserable the entire night.

They'd assumed that just spotting the boss meant they were halfway there, only to discover that spotting the boss was actually just the beginning of their suffering...

Big Dumb Duck nearby had also reached level seven, yet there wasn't a trace of joy on his face. Yesterday he'd frantically grinded his way to level 7, then joined Lonely as a Song's party hoping to snag a first-clear reward — or at the very least leech some EXP and gear. The moment he entered the dungeon, his nightmare began.

Because Lonely as a Song and the others were leading the way, he'd avoided all the traps up front. But once they reached the boss, the problems started piling up.

Hunt Heaven was different from other games. As a fully immersive experience, dodging certain skills required actual jumping — not a simple button press. In this game, players had to physically leap with their own legs. It sounded simple enough, but in practice? Once or twice was fine, but jumping for an entire boss fight was genuinely torturous! And they had to leap back and forth between stone pillars of varying heights!

The constant repositioning over distances already wrecked their damage output, and on top of that they had to fight through the fear of heights. A boss that should've gone down in a steady twenty minutes of DPS had only lost half its HP after thirty minutes of fighting!

"Boss, relax — it's just a game. If you fall, you respawn!" No. 7 had said this countless times, but it hadn't helped one bit.

The sudden sensation of weightlessness was something you simply couldn't get used to. After falling a few times, the fear only grew worse!

In the end, Big Dumb Duck was nearly at his breaking point: "No. 7... I think I've developed a fear of heights..."

Night's Gentle Chill's party was dealing with a similar situation, though their problem wasn't acrophobia — it was exhaustion. Night's Gentle Chill and the others could barely hold on, but Ye Weinuan, their healer, simply couldn't keep going.

It wasn't a matter of gender. In terms of stamina and focus, Ye Weinuan was actually stronger than Heart and Soul and Eagle.

But as the healer, she faced one fatal problem: due to the unique terrain of the boss arena, when she stood on one of the smaller stone pillars, she couldn't see her teammates on the other side. That meant she had to spend far more effort tracking everyone's condition, predicting who would get hit next, and then choosing the right pillar to position herself on to keep her teammates alive. As a result, she moved more than anyone else throughout the entire fight.

She had suggested letting her teammates come to her instead, but unfortunately, some of them were just too bad at the game — they'd start running and simply vanish.

Was it really that brutal? Even Liu Kongkong hadn't expected things to turn out this way. He checked the first-clear records and found that the Path of Samsara still had zero completions. He glanced over at Lonely as a Song, now level 8, then pulled up his own stat panel.

One hundred Available Points...

These players had died ten thousand times in the Path of Samsara overnight?!

Well, that had nothing to do with him. He casually allocated the points.

Name: Liu Dameng

Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 7)

HP: 431/431

Mana: 421/421

Strength: 43

Constitution: 44

Agility: 43

Intelligence: 43

Spirit: 43

Available Points: 0

This was getting a little absurd. Liu Kongkong stared at his character panel. If he went all-in on a single stat, he could probably one-punch everyone in front of him except the tank.

But that was just a passing thought — fighting had nothing to do with him. He'd originally assumed the level-10 gear would be today's main seller, so he'd crafted a large stockpile yesterday. But only 450 pieces had sold so far; buyers grabbed their weapons and immediately ran off to grind other dungeons.

Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck's groups had each bought some more level-5 gear.

What stubborn people. Can't they just go level up in another dungeon first? Liu Kongkong looked at the sorry bunch in front of him, then glanced over at the disappointingly cheerful Lonely as a Song — who, to his surprise, seemed to be having the time of his life.

That guy definitely got paid. Losing levels and still grinning like that — Liu Kongkong guessed Big Dumb Duck must have transferred him some money on the side. And he was right: to compensate Lonely as a Song, Big Dumb Duck had sent him twenty thousand yuan and asked him to stay on the team.

Big Dumb Duck's reasoning was simple. This guy had been involved in some uncanny things ever since the server launched, and he didn't want to make an enemy of Lonely as a Song. The reason his group hadn't gone off to level up was because Night's Gentle Chill's party kept grinding the dungeon relentlessly, so they didn't want to stop either. Of course, he had his own private reasons too.

He was genuinely sick of running this dungeon, but he couldn't bring himself to say so — after all, if he was the one to give up first, it would look bad. At the same time, quite a few of his people had already hit level ten and were currently attempting the dungeon themselves. If they could clear it and claim the reward, the whole ordeal would be over.

Night's Gentle Chill's group was in a similar boat, though their progress was notably better than Big Dumb Duck's team. At one point they'd even gotten the boss down to just 12% HP — twice — only for the tank, Hit Me Please, to die both times.

"Let's not rush. Our guys are still working at it. If we really can't do it ourselves, we'll just leave it to them." Night's Gentle Chill tried to reassure the group, while also feeling genuinely sorry for Ye Weinuan, whose eyes had gone glassy after a night of intense concentration.

"Ahem."

Even though none of the big spenders had reached level 10 yet, that didn't stop Liu Kongkong from doing business. He cleared his throat twice to get their attention, then put the Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +5 and the Sword of Radiance up for sale.

"This busted stick has an upgraded version?" Everyone here was familiar with the Deadly Strike of a Single Stick, and now that an enhanced version had appeared, they all stared wide-eyed. The 25 Attack stat made Big Dumb Duck want to take it into the dungeon for another try — he still hadn't gotten his name announced over the village broadcast, and if there was a chance, he wanted to experience that.

But his attention was quickly drawn to the other weapon — an elegantly designed longsword.

"Sword of Radiance? And it has a special effect... hey, hey, hey! I wasn't done reading!" Night's Gentle Chill was still scrolling through the special effects when, in the next second, the weapon had already landed in Big Dumb Duck's inventory.

"Brother Night, some things you're just not allowed to take your time with." Big Dumb Duck laughed. He couldn't equip the weapon yet, but it was only a matter of time. Along with it, he also scooped up 100 Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +5s.

"Master Liu, what does the '+5' on these mean?" Both Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck had been wanting to ask this. They'd been too busy leveling up and recruiting people before to get around to it.

Liu Kongkong had actually been wondering how to steer the conversation toward weapon enhancement. Hearing them bring it up on their own, he felt a quiet surge of delight.

"Enhancement level." True masters always speak in few words.

The moment they heard that Liu Kongkong could actually enhance weapons, everyone's hearts started racing.

"Could you enhance one for us? What materials do you need?"

If the Deadly Strike of a Single Stick got such a terrifying Attack boost from enhancement, what about the Sword of Radiance?! Big Dumb Duck was buzzing with excitement.

Night's Gentle Chill's group also felt their expressions drop. They hadn't fully read the special effects, but they'd caught the 20 Attack stat. If it got enhanced on top of that, wouldn't it one-shot everything in sight?!

Liu Kongkong skipped the small talk. He had Big Dumb Duck hand over the weapon, then picked up his hammer and gave it a light tap.

The weapon upgrade panel materialized before them.

"Forty silver coins per attempt? That's pretty fair — give me... wait, can the weapon break?" Big Dumb Duck had been about to select the in-game currency option without a second thought, but the question slipped out.

"There's a chance."

"How big of a chance?"

"Feel it out yourself." Liu Kongkong genuinely didn't know the exact odds — and even if he did, he wouldn't have told Big Dumb Duck.

Big Dumb Duck hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth.

"Let's go for it!"

He hit confirm on the enhancement, and instantly — Clang!

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