Ggahng ggahng ggahng!
“Wow! This is crazy!”
“He made them without looking at the blueprint, right?”
The sound of the hammer pounding on the metal rang out through the workshop. This sound belonged to none other than Lee Gun.
The hammer was raised into the sky, then brought down.
Everyone’s gaze followed Lee Gun’s hands. Their eyes looked spellbound. Lee Gun had mesmerized them, and it was understandable.
They just needed to see him for a short period before he quickly made something.
The people in the building were engrossed in the movements of his hands, which looked to be moving absentmindedly.
The items designed by the Capricorn were complex. Therefore, the Capricorn disciples had a hard time making them without the blueprint despite having made those items over and over again.
Yet, Lee Gun was making such items without blueprints! Of course, there was another reason for his current popularity.
“Kyaa! Lee Gun-nim is amazing!”
“I didn’t know when I saw him from the outside!”
“Lee Gun-nim! Please look here!”
At the sight of Lee Gun wearing a black sleeveless shirt, the contingent of disciples who liked how he looked grew.
Lee Gun had worn this as he had planned on eating dinner with Hailey; so he had donned on a pretty dashing outfit. That restaurant wasn’t a very formal place where he needed a suit, but the dress code was pretty upscale.
Normally, he would have found it annoying. However, Sungjae had an uncanny sense when it came to fashion. Therefore, Lee Gun had worn the t-shirt and pants that Sungjae had bought for him.
However, Hugo had reared back in shock when he had seen him.
“Have you lost your mind, Gun?! You’re going on a date, and you plan on wearing a hooded t-shirt!”
It wasn’t a date, but…
“What is wrong with a hooded t-shirt…”
“Damn it. You really are going to be forever alone!”
In the end, Hugo had slapped Lee Gun’s back and modified Lee Gun’s style before Lee Gun arrived here.
Of course, Hailey had moved five hundred meters away from him when she saw him and started to hyperventilate. However, that wasn’t important right now.
Lee Gun was sweating as he worked, and as his shirt had been getting in the way, he had worn a sleeveless shirt.
The number of disciples who liked this look increased exponentially. Of course, the Virgo Constructs wouldn’t miss such an opportunity, either.
[Get out of the way. I can’t see Baby snake-nim.]
[You’re the one that should move! It’s too crowded here!]
[Kevin! Hurry up and get out of the way!]
[Don’t try to look at the good stuff by yourself— Kyaa!]
“Do not forget you guys are Constructs that are supposed to stay incognito…”
Kevin pressed down on the heads of the Constructs that were trying to come out of his shadow.
At that moment, the Virgo tried to descend since she thought it would be fun to watch this scene.
However, Kevin’s eyes flashed. “You should keep the Sagittarius in check! You guys are sibling gods, yet he keeps coming to us looking for odd things!”
Anyway, two hours had passed since the start of the manufacturing battle. Yet, no one had left their seat. On the contrary, the crowd was getting larger.
A pile of weapons lay in front of Lee Gun.
Guisoon looked at Lee Gun with an overwhelmed expression.
‘How many did he make in two hours? He made daggers, great swords, and even a complex siege weapon…!’
He was in a different class.
Guisoon discreetly glanced at the star master craftsmen. Naturally, they were busy hammering away.
When they saw Lee Gun, they acted like madmen as they sped up their work. Moreover, one could see several blades that had taken the shape of daggers. However, the craftsmen were in too much of a rush.
Ggahng!
“Huhk…!”
When the hammer hit the workpiece, the hilt broke and bounced toward the face of a master craftsman. The hammer had been swung at a wrong angle.
Suddenly, their surroundings became full of jeers.
“How can you make such a basic mistake?”
“Lee Gun is carrying himself much better than you guys!”
“Wow! The master craftsmen of the Genius Workshop look like rookies compared to him.”
“They are complete slowpokes.”
The master craftsmen who were pounding the metal bars felt aggrieved.
‘What the hell are they saying?’
‘Of course, Lee Gun is half-assing it since he spent so little time making those weapons! It’s obvious’
They were too far away to see closely, but with the speed they were made at, there was no way those weapons would be of high quality.
“Amateurs should shut their mouths!”
“Do you think this is a speed battle?”
At those words, a different set of audience members snarled at the craftsmen.
“Why not? Speed should be taken into account. You guys looked down on Lee Gun. You said a weapon that you could make in a week would take four weeks for Lee Gun.”
“You guys are the ones who said that speed is proof of one’s skill…”
The master craftsmen became angry.
“We are putting in effort for quality….”
At that moment, a big commotion occurred on the grounds. The reason was simple.
“I finished one set.”
“!!”
It was the set of eight daggers that Lee Gun had started making first. The set was finished now.
People cheered as they moved closer toward the holy items.
“Hey! Appraise it! Try appraising it! Check if they are really S-rank items!”
“It took him around three hours to make all of that?”
“My goddd! It would have taken a week for the Genius Workshop to make the same item…”
“One item… One week…”
In the end, the star master craftsmen became angry at the murmurings.
“Appraise it! There is no way he can satisfy the requirement since he rushed it!”
“That’s right! We didn’t request speed! We wanted quality! There is no way any of those is an S-rank item.”
“At the very least, they are B rank!”
However…
“S rank! They are S rank!”
“?!”
The star master craftsmen almost dropped their hammers. W… What did he just say?
The appraiser who had been gathered as a judge cheered.
“They are all S-rank items! All eight of them!”
The SS-rank Appraiser Jinmyung had been called in. It had been a while since he had seen Lee Gun, so Jinmyung wailed.
These items were much better in quality than the ones Lee Gun made twenty years ago.
The star master craftsmen were about to lose their minds.
“T… They really are S rank items?”
“H… How can it be S rank if it was made like that…?”
“The ingredients were only rank 5— Oohp!”
“Shhh!”
The master craftsmen quickly shut their mouths. However, Jinmyung’s eyes flashed.
“Hey, you aren’t supposed to do it like that.”
“!”
The voice frightened the master craftsmen.
Lee Gun had appeared behind them. He clicked his tongue as he looked at their workbench. “If you do it like that, the balance will be off. There is no way an S-rank item will come out.”
He had plenty of time left, so he had come out of boredom.
Lee Gun’s words angered the star master craftsmen.
“Hmph! S rank? Don’t joke with us! He probably swapped it out with real S-rank items!”
“That’s right. If not, how can you make an S-rank item so fast using those ingredients…!”
Lee Gun clicked his tongue at those words. He snatched their hammers away. “Idiots.”
“Wait a mom— Huhk!”
He made adjustments to their item.
Ggahng! Gghang! Ghang!
The faces of the star master craftsmen stiffened when they witnessed Lee Gun bring down the hammer.
Five times. It just took him five swings of the hammer to shape the item.
Taylor, the Capricorn temple’s Ten Star, finally dropped his hammer. Before, the star master craftsmen hadn’t witnessed Lee Gun at work with their own eyes. This was why their reactions were understandable.
They were discouraged by the crowd’s reactions and had assumed Lee Gun was just putting up a performance.
Therefore, they had thought they just had to do their best, and people would recognize their work.
Ggahng!
The master craftsmen were mesmerized by the sight before them. It wasn’t just any item. It was the item they had been working on. Lee Gun’s demonstration clearly showed the gap in their skills.
“We have lost.”
Taylor was the first to speak.
Then, the mouths of all the low-rank master craftsmen fell open.
“W-Wait a moment, Taylor-nim! Why throw in the towel? We still have plenty of time…”
“It’s meaningless. The result will be the same even if we pursue this further.”
“…!”
The master craftsmen of different specialties, who had stepped up to help Taylor, acknowledged it.
“It is our defeat…”
“If I’m being honest, you are better at manufacturing than our Zodiac and Zodiac Saint…”
At that moment…
Kwahng!!
It could no longer watch this situation.
[Imbeciles!]
“!!”
A light descended next to them. The building went abuzz when the people there saw a face emerge from the light.
“They are the foreman of the Capricorn!”
Yes, the ones to appear were Constructs, but not normal Constructs.
[Dwarves of Nidavellir]
The angry faces of the dwarves were quite imposing. They were gods with specialized manufacturing power. They were one of the various types of manufacturing gods scouted by the Capricorn temple.
The Constructs let out their boiling anger as they moved toward the star master craftsmen.
[How dare you guys dirty the name of our Zodiac!]
[You didn’t give it your all, yet you admitted defeat. As if that wasn’t enough, you sully the name of the Capricorn?]
[Do you guys plan on pushing the entire temple into a bottomless pit with your irresponsible words?]
The master craftsmen trembled when confronted by the menacing gazes of the dwarves. The dwarven Constructs then glared at Lee Gun.
[There is still time left. We’ll take over.]
Lee Gun was intrigued by their appearances. It was to be expected since they were considered the top master craftsmen who had created weapons for the Zodiacs. Of course, he was intrigued by their skills.
“Go for it. I’ll wait around two weeks for you guys.”
There was anticipation in his words. The dwarves laughed as if those words had left them dumbfounded.
[You’re a cocky baby god. It might be impossible for humans, but those in the divine rank like us can keep up with your speed.]
They immediately grabbed the item. Then, something surprising happened.
Ggahng! Ggahng
[The servants of the Capricorn are making weapons.]
As expected, there was a difference between gods and humans. The dwarven Constructs created weapons at surprising speed.
Ggahng! Ggahng!
Their speed was on par with Lee Gun’s.
“My god! As expected of divine rank…!”
Like Lee Gun, the Constructs created daggers in short order. They produced the same number of items and that too of the same rank.
“These are clearly S-rank items!”
The Constructs laughed in derision when they heard the appraiser’s words.
[Look. We made the S-rank items in the same amount of time as you did.]
[Do not look down at the Capricorn temple. You’re a baby god who has no deep history. Our history as master craftsmen spans several thousands of years. Do not insult us.]
The Capricorn master craftsmen cheered at their words. Soon, the dwarves glared at the master craftsmen, who had accepted defeat.
[You guys are worse than the dirt between my toes…]
At that moment…
“Assholes.”
“!!”
Screams rang out as Lee Gun cussed.
Ggahng!!!
Lee Gun had been looking at the weapons made by the Constructs when he suddenly broke those weapons.
This shocked the audience members and the master craftsmen.
“I-It broke! That was an S-rank weapon…!”
Lee Gun held a hammer in his hand.
The Constructs shook when they saw this. It wasn’t a weapon that should be broken so easily.
Moreover, a hammer was a tool used to make a weapon. It shouldn’t be able to destroy the weapon.
The shocked Constructs looked at Lee Gun.
“Do you want to die? Don’t even think about competing with me with such weapons.”
“!”
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed in anger. “Of all the things you can do, you created an empty vessel to push abilities into it. You did it to fix the rank?”
“…!”
The Constructs had not created real S-rank items. Since they were using the ability of gods, they were able to hoodwink the appraiser.
At a glance, the items looked decent. However, there was little substance to them. They were weak. What would happen if someone took such weapons out into battle?
‘The user will die in the middle of the battlefield when the weapon breaks.’
This had made Lee Gun furious. He had never made weapons half-heartedly.
“Weapons are like the lives of warriors. It is the job of the manufacturer to create weapons that’ll last until their wielders can return from the battlefield at the very least.”
“!”
“Are you trying to fuck over the disciples that entrust their lives in your hands?”
When a commotion happened around them, the flustered Constructs aimed for Lee Gun’s weapon.
[W-What are you saying, you sly snake? You used the same method to make your S-rank items!]
Window-dressing was all they could do in such a short amount of time.
Therefore, they summoned their divine axes and struck Lee Gun’s weapons.
“The items are undamaged…!”
The commotion inside the building turned bigger.
The Constructs shook. At the same time, they realized the Faith toward the Capricorn was plummeting.
[W-Wait a moment! Today was just a bad day for us. However, it’ll be different for our Zodiac. The Capricorn made the royal holy item for the other gods. It created this bastard’s Heaven’s Punishment….]
Lee Gun contemptuously laughed. “Ah! That’s right. I forgot about that. You guys committed fraud by claiming you guys created my baby. I came here to correct that, yet I completely forgot about it.”
Lee Gun’s words set the place on fire. It was to be expected.
This rumor had been going around in secret, but the rumor was never legitimized since people were threatened with being blacklisted.
“What? Heaven’s Punishment wasn’t made by the Capricorn?”
At the same time, Lee Gun extended his hand. Heaven’s Punishment was summoned into Lee Gun’s hand!
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed as he pushed Heaven’s Punishment toward the Constructs. “Call for your Zodiac.”
[…!!!]
“If you guys really made this, you guys can make the same weapon. I’ll lend you this. Of course, you know all the ingredients that went into making it, right?”
[…!!!]
“Even if the ingredients are different, you can still copy them. If you can make a copy, I’ll acknowledge your claims.”
[Them…!]
Lee Gun grinned. “If you can’t make the same thing, I’ll break all your shit”
