Blade Skill Online: With Trash Job ‘Summoner’, Weakest Weapon ‘Bow’, and Rotten Stat ‘Luck’, I Rise

[Otakus’ Demon King, Yuri-kun!]

“Fu, fuhihi, this is how you hold the hammer…!”

“Hmm, I see~.”

I nodded while holding the hammer. In front of me was a ‘Beginner Sword’ given to me by a senior Craft Maker for practice.

Alright, I got the hang of it after trying it out a few times.

Thanks to the craftsmen players who enthusiastically taught me (closely), I got the smithing system in this game.

Essentially, it was a rhythm game.

After heating the sword and placing it on the anvil, ‘red’, ‘green’, and ‘yellow’ lights would simultaneously blink on different parts of the blade.

If you struck one of the blinking spots at the correct time, the weapon’s stats would increase according to the color.

Red increased ‘attack power’, green increased ‘durability’, and yellow increased ‘status effect rate’.

The lights would blink about 15 times… but the timing was very strict.

If you struck within 0.1 seconds, it was a great success, but over 1 second, it was a complete failure and there would be no effect. If you were unlucky, the corresponding stat might even decrease.

Additionally, if you struck between 0.7 seconds and 1 second, it would be considered a small failure, and the stat increase would be slight. On top of that, a mystery effect named ‘Self-Destruct’ would be added to the weapon.

“It’s a fatal effect, I tell you,” said the senior Craft Maker with a troubled face, “weapons with Self-Destruct’ are the worst. If you feel like you’ve gone over 0.7 seconds, it’s better not to risk it.

“It is applicable only to melee weapons like swords and spears, but it gives the weapon a low chance to explode when it lands a hit, causing both the enemy and the user to take heavy damage.

“If I recall correctly, the resulting damage is three times the attack power of the weapon… and since the blast radius is several meters, it’s practically impossible to escape. You can use it as a throwing weapon, but if swung by a player with high Strength, it would do greater damage.”

“Wow~. By the way, will the blown-up weapon be gone?”

“No, well, at least not all of it. The handle will remain with 1 durability left.

“And that’s when Craft Makers come into play! We have an art called ‘Weapon Repair’ that can restore the durability of weapons in the item box!

“You may wonder ‘Isn’t that a little too easy?’, but you can’t hunt without a weapon, after all. That’s the basic principle of games.

“By the way, repairing armor, on the other hand, is quite difficult. You have to go all the way to a workshop and—” The senior Craft Maker talked on and on while pushing up his glasses once in a while.

At the start, he had been quite nervous talking to me, but once he started talking about smithing, he never stopped.

Well, I guessed that just showed how much he loved crafting stuff.

Before I knew it, the other Craft Makers had also started a discussion among themselves: “Armor craftsmen sure have it hard,” “No, no, weapon craftsmen have it way harder,” “Don’t forget accessory craftsmen. Our work requires extra attention to detail and is in no way easier than the other two.” Looking at them, I revealed a wry smile.

Now then, practice time was over. I got the gist of it.

Without further ado, let’s make a ‘great failure’!

When I stood in front of a furnace, a message popped up [Would you like to reforge a weapon?].

After touching [Yes], I selected the weapon I wanted to reforge from my item box. My body then began to move automatically, taking out the weapon and putting it into the furnace.

In this game, you could only wield the weapon you selected at the start, but that would make it impossible for craftsman players to do their job, hence, this feature.

A few seconds passed when my body took out the sword without my control and placed it on the anvil. Looking at the orange-flaming sword, the craftsmen players’ eyes widened.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! T-that’s the ‘Annihilation Sword Dainsleif’?!”

“It’s an extremely expensive weapon that boasts top-class attack power! Yu-Yuri-dono, are you truly sure you want to mess with it?! It’ll be a disaster if you make a mistake! There’s a limit to how many times you can reforge a weapon!”

In my heart, I apologized to the craftsmen who were making a fuss.

Sorry seniors. I came here with the intention to fail from the very start.

“Everyone, I’m going to do something a little crazy from now on, but can you please keep your mouth shut?”

“O-okay…!”

With my back to the senior Craft Makers nodding with their mouths agape, I raised my hammer high.

10 seconds after the sword was placed on the anvil, it was finally time for me to start working.

Lights appeared on several parts of the blade. Just before a second passed, I swung down the hammer!

The result displayed in the window was—0.8 seconds, a small failure! The sword’s attack power increased a little and at the same time, it got the ‘Self-Destruct’ effect!

Hell yeaaaaaaah! A huge success! For me, at least!

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…?! Yuri-dono, your timing was way off…!” Seeing me fail from the start, my seniors let out small groans.

Paying them no mind, I planned to start doing the reforging the normal way to increase the sword’s attack power, but at that time, it suddenly came to me.

What will happen if I keep applying the ‘Self-Destruct’ effect to it over and over again?

In this game, repeating certain actions often brought about a positive result.

You might acquire skills for example. So was the case when I had been burning Pope Gregory alive. The field effect had progressively gotten worse as I continuously used fire-based attacks on the ‘Scorching Zone’.

Something good may happen… holding such hope, I threw caution to the wind and aimed to continue to fail!

“Inhale, exhale, now!”

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?! Yuri-dono, what are you doiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing?!”

I repeatedly make small failures while sometimes accidentally striking in 0.6 seconds and succeeding (failing).

Then finally at the fifteenth strike… I managed to pull the tenth small failure. At that time, the weapon completion status was displayed in front of me.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

・Weapon reforging is complete.

‘Annihilation Sword Dainsleif Double Twin Mk II Second’ (Named by Yuri): Attack power increased by 40. Acquired the special effect, ‘Great Explosion’!

‘Great Explosion’: Low probability of activating when the blade hits. Create an explosion that causes damage equal to 10x the attack power of the weapon, leaving it at 1 durability.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“I-it’s done… it’s done!”

The result is as I hoped for! As for the activation rate, that was nothing to worry about with my extremely high Luck.

Dainsleif had an ominous design from the start and now it was radiating reddish-black miasma-like magic on top of that. It looked like you’d be annihilated if you so much as to touch it.

Just the way I like it! When heroes of light like me equip weapons of darkness, we’ll become the strongest, after all! Okay, you go straight into the item box.

Now then, contrary to me, who was very satisfied with the result… the senior Craft Makers had a gloomy air around them.

They looked at me with worried eyes.

“Um… Yuri-dono, after all, for a rookie to suddenly work on a super rare weapon was, um…”

“Well, even if it has the Self-Destruct effect, it’s theDainsleif we’re talking about here. It can still be sold at a decent price… probably…!”

“I don’t you’re suited to—no, never mind…!”

…It couldn’t be helped, but my seniors misunderstood that I had failed big time.

Hmm~, keeping the explosive weapon a secret might be a more logical choice, but… well, I was indebted to them.

They were all very kind to me, and I learned a lot from them. They made me understand that fighting was not the only way to enjoy the game.

So I’d show them.

I’d show these Craft Makers who were treated as weaker than even the weakest job that they had the potential to be the strongest.

“…You guys had better take a good look. Whether my sword is a failed work or the Craft Maker is useless in combat, it all comes down to a matter of perspective. As long as you have the will to be the strongest, with guts and effort, as well as a little bit of imagination, it’ll all work out.”

I faced the scarecrow in the courtyard visible from the window and activated the ‘Arms Barrier’ skill.

Dainsleif showed up from the summoning formation that appeared behind me. The moment the tip of the sword—covered in miasma—locked onto the scarecrow outside—

“Fire!”

The annihilation sword shot off. It pierced through its prey while leaving behind a jet-black trail, and in the next moment—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!—A loud explosion followed.

“““Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”””

The craftsmen screamed. The blast caused the air to tremble and sent many people inside the workshop flying.

However, some held on. These men who devoted themselves to crafting—albeit in-game—opened their eyes wide at the power of the ‘invention’ I created.

“What do you think? Powerful, isn’t it? The explosion contained 10x the weapon’s attack power, and that was further multiplied by 10 by my damage-increasing skills.

“In other words, the explosion did damage equal to ‘100x’ the weapon’s attack power. Just with a little bit of this and that, what you thought as a failed work could be this powerful.”

“…….!” The craftsmen players had their breath taken away. They stared at the burning courtyard behind me.

The scale of the explosion was such that it burned down an entire courtyard the size of two tennis courts. It was a proper missile.

Although the devs had limited the damage multiplication rate from skills to 10x, the damage caused by the Great Explosion was ‘10x the attack power of the weapon’. In other words, it wasn’t the damage of the weapon that had been multiplied by 10, but instead the damage of the explosion that was 10x the weapon’s attack power.

I really had created one fearsome weapon, even if I do say so myself.

I decided to leave the place while brushing up my silver hair that had been disarranged by the blast with my hand.

“Well then dear seniors, I learned the basics of crafting, so it is time to part.

“…It’s up to you to decide what to do going forward. Be it staying to be belittled by those with combat jobs or breaking through your current situations with spirit and guts, choose whichever you prefer.”

As thanks for teaching me, I left some top-class materials before leaving the workshop.

—At that moment, the enthusiastic roars of the men resounded. It sounded like they had made their decision.

“W-wow… what was that! That’s simply insane! Hey, why don’t we try making something like that?!”

“Yeah…! Just like Yuri-dono, let’s figure out a way to shock those with combat jobs speechless! I know, how about we start by making an exploding armor—!”

The craftsmen began to speak with voices full of hope and killing intent.

While listening to their voices with satisfaction, I went to find a workshop that I could use.