Literature / The Hammer (2022)

He'll change the future. One hammer swing at a time.

The world is doomed.

The kingdoms of humanity have fallen to the Demon Beastlord's forces. Even the ten strongest knights in all the land could barely hold a candle one of the Demon Beastlord's commanders, Gluttony. When all but two of the knights lay dead, the enormous knight named Tiny stakes his all to bring down Gluttony, sustaining lethal injuries in the process.

While surveying the ruins of the land he tried to defend, Tiny can't help but wonder how things could've been had he been able to train properly from the very beginning. After all, the manipulation of mana was the domain of the rich nobility. A penniless commoner like him had to claw his way up with nothing but grit, ingenuity, and pride. Impressed by Tiny's refusal to run in the face of certain death, the dying Esgard von Valentia tells Tiny a cryptic phrase before instructing Tiny to come to the Valentia estate when he returns.

Just as they're both about to slip into oblivion, Tiny wakes up in his old bed from when he was little more than a starving beggar in the slums twenty years ago. He soon realizes that he's been transported into the past... but with all of his knowledge and his ability to manipulate mana intact.

Realizing that this is his chance to turn it all around, Tiny sets out to meet with Esgard and save the world.

The webcomic version was picked up by Naver Webtoon on June 9th, 2023, and can be read in English for free here.

The Hammer (2022) provides examples of:

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Chloe pats Tiny on the head for a job well done and dotes on him like the child he appears to be. Given that he has the mindset of his 33-year-old future self, he finds this more annoying than anything but keeps his mouth shut to avoid spilling anything about the future.
• Bad Future: In Tiny's former life, the kingdoms of the world have suffered The End of the World as We Know It, with even the strongest knights succumbing to the weakest of the Demon Beastlord's generals. The plot begins when Esgard performs Mental Time Travel to send Tiny's consciousness back twenty years to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Bitch Slap: Due to having to keep up a veneer of civility on the Valentia estate, Tiny deals with multiple nobles trying to get close to Chloe by slapping them rather than punching them. But given his training, even a single slap sends men flying across the room.
• Cool Big Sis: Tiny's adoptive sister, Erina, took him in when he was a nameless, homeless orphan because he reminded her of her actual little brother. She continued to feed and care for him to her dying breath. He clearly thinks the world of her as a result and makes avenging her death his first order of business upon returning to the past.
• Combat Pragmatist: Although she's considered one of the Ten Knights, Luna, the Reaper was an assassin by trade prior to the arrival of the Demon Lord's army. She prefers indirect tactics that exploit the weaknesses of her foes, laying out Razor Floss to bisect anyone riding mounts at great speeds, striking when her foes are already exhausted, and restricting their movements with paralytic poison.
• The Coup: Crown Prince Bradley launches a coup against his own father, Emperor Vincent, after realizing that Vincent planned to plunge the Asran Empire into a pointless war with its own allies over a petty grudge. He then has Vincent executed before capturing and executing any other rivals to the throne, including his half-brother's parents. While he takes no joy in his decision, Bradley's actions are framed as necessary to maintain the Asran Empire's strength.
• Crash-Into Hello: Esgard's sons crash into Tiny while rushing to find the two men who made advances on her. But given that Tiny's Mana Body technique is designed to make him extra heavy and resilient, Tren bounces right off rather than bowling Tiny over. Both Tren and Aaron marvel at Tiny's strength for being able to repel an expert-level knight like Tren before returning to their Knight Templar Big Brother rage.
• Didn't Think This Through: When Tiny hears of Chloe's visit to Lucentias Castle, he rushes out to greet her because she promised him a favor if he ever returned his ring to her. But he was still a starving beggar when she made him that promise. Due to his training and eating on a noble's dime, Tiny is much taller and healthier than he was when he last saw her. In addition, he'd mugged some gang members for the money to buy proper combat gear on top of his former peasant's rags. As a result, she doesn't recognize him and orders her guards to interrogate him at swordpoint as to how he obtained her ring.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The emperor of Asran was so furious with his second wife for questioning one of his decisions that he murdered her entire family before her while she was Forced to Watch. Unsurprisingly, she plots revenge against her husband for this massacre, enlisting the help of demon followers to murder him and the rest of the Asran royal family in order to install her son on the throne.
• Easily Forgiven: Bradley quickly forgives Tiny for slapping "Baron Rendley von Narsar" despite the fact that Tiny struck him almost entirely without provocation. This alleviates Tiny's concerns that he could be put to death for assaulting the crown prince of the Asran Empire.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Tiny takes on the false identity as the last surviving descendant of the Mors, a fallen noble family, in order to travel to Karun on his own while moving to defend its holy relic from being stolen. Although the king of Karun sees through the ruse, Tiny's cover proves incredibly useful when it turns out that Luna, the future Reaper and one of the Ten Knights, is the actual last descendant of the Mors and mistakes him for a Long-Lost Relative. She's so grateful to have a "little brother" that she starts doting on him and defies the emperor's orders for her to kill Tiny. Tiny feels guilty exploiting her feelings but the situation is too dire for him to correct her.
• Explosive Leash: The demon followers force their servants to have a spell cast on them that will cause the victim's head to explode if they attempt to reveal any information that could be potentially damaging or used against the demon followers.
• Famed In-Story: Discussed. Due to fighting along so many heroes in his previous life, Tiny remembers the names of all of the important fighters in the efforts to repel the Demon Beastlord's armies. So Esgard takes notice when Tiny is ignorant of the names of numerous high-level knights living in the present, as this means that these knights were somehow killed before Tiny got to meet or hear of them. This includes one of Esgard's best men, Jenas Freewell, a sixth-level knight and the grandmaster of the Blue Wings Order. With this knowledge in mind, Esgard begins investigating the circumstances that could lead to Jenas' death and the assassination of the Asran Empire's royal family.
• Frame-Up: Tiny kills the Grandmaster of Philes' military by goading him into a fight. He then hides the body before using the Grandmaster's signature artifact sword, Grius, to murder Lord Philes in bed. This frames the Grandmaster (whose body is buried and hidden so no one will find it) for the deed, while the resulting criminal investigation gives Tiny an excuse to leave without arousing suspicion.
• Gambit Pileup: The wedding arc turns into one of these between Bradley, the other members of the royal family, Tiny and Esgard. Tiny and Esgard expect the First Catastrophe to wipe out the royal family and that the demon followers are behind it. So they use the wedding rehearsal as pretense to keep the royal family and anyone near them under surveillence to root out who the traitors are. Bradley is similarly aware of schisms within the royal family and tries to manuever around his father's attempts to keep Bradley under his thumb before the wedding. Meanwhile, the demon followers have convinced the current queen to launch a coup and kill both Vincent and Bradley to install her son on the throne. Vincent is also using the wedding as a means to gather the nobility in one place so he can have them all killed to consolidate his power out of pointless paranoia.
• Gilded Cage: Due to being born into one of the richest and most powerful noble families in the Asran Empire, Chloe is Spoiled Sweet with access to all sorts of luxuries that a slum kid like Tiny could hardly dream of. But it becomes increasingly clear that she's largely confined to her family estate and is being prepared to be married off as part of a coming-of-age ceremony.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The webcomic adaptation cuts away to Tiny seeing Vincent's beheading through Wollang's eyes. The reader can only see the reflection of the deed, casting the event in shadow and omitting all of the blood and gore.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: In his final battle in the Bad Future, Tiny kills Gluttony by splitting the demon in half with one last technique. He then cherry taps Gluttony by causing the body to explode.
• Healing Factor: Mana users are able to use their mana to quickly heal minor injuries like cuts and bruises.
• The Heart: Chloe is explicitly referred to as "Valentia's Heart" for her kindness and generosity. Upon meeting a starving Tiny on the street, she offers him her ring without hesitation and tells him to seek her for help should they meet again.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Subverted. Tiny goads the Grandmaster of Philes' military into a fight to the death by claiming that he deserves the artifact sword Grius more than the Grandmaster. But Tiny abandons the sword to frame the now dead Grandmaster for Lord Philes' death and makes it clear that he prefers the heft of a warhammer to a "flimsy" sword.
• Horse of a Different Color: Wollang typically acts as Tiny's mount in battle, letting him move much faster than his young body can run.
• Kraken and Leviathan: The Kraken is a colossal monster said to possess divine power due to her overwhelming strength and size allowing her to flatten cities if she were to ever go on a rampage. In the Bad Future, the demon followers stole the holy relic of Karun and killed her child to send her into a frenzy, resulting in the kingdom's destruction.
• Mental Time Travel: The Valentia family treasure, Tempus, is able to send the mind of someone of the user's choosing back to the past. However, the user has no control over how far the target will be sent back. Esgard only has an inkling of the idea that the time traveller would be sent back to a time when enormous trauma was engraved on their soul. For Tiny, this was when his adoptive sister died caring for him after he was beaten half-to-death by street gangs.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • Upon arriving in Lucentias Castle, Tiny is immediately confronted by muggers looking to take the purse of a seemingly defenseless commoner boy. Tiny, who has already crushed entire gangs with his bare hands, responds by mugging them back and using their wallet to buy himself some gear.
  • Tiny mistakes Rendley for someone acting perverted toward Chloe and slaps him for it. This infuriates Rendley's bodyguard, a challenger-ranked knight who would have cut Tiny in half if not for Jenas' intervention. Tiny later learns that Rendley is in fact the crown prince, Bradley Asran, who could have easily ordered Tiny killed if he hasn't forgiven Tiny already.
• Multi-Melee Master: Grid is known as the "Weapon Master" for mastering the sword, spear, a pair of axes, as well as the bow, using them all while sparring with Esgard in front of a huge crowd.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Esgard's sons, Tren and Aaron, both love Chloe as much as their father does. They also get similarly enraged when men start trying to get close to her. They're both Blinded by Rage when they hear that Tibron von Lohiter tried to make a pass at her. If Tiny weren't as strong as them, the brothers would've bowled him over in their rush to beat the crap out of Tibron.
• Named Weapons: Artifact Weapons are weapons enchanted with magical powers by master smiths, making them far more valuable than bog-standard equipment. This prestige means that Artifact Weapons are given names to distinguish them. In his previous life, Tiny wielded an enormous warhammer named "Nocturne". He liked it so much that he instantly latches onto a similarly heavy weapon named "Stamp" when Esgard offers him one from a trusted dwarven smithy.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After beating the gang that beat him up, Tiny remarks that it's easier to awaken the ability to use mana in a damaged body. Given that he was beaten and bruised to the point that he could hardly get out of bed, he thanks the gang for helping him activate his mana sooner than later.
• Off with His Head!: Bradley punishes Vincent for conspiring to drag the Asran Empire into a pointless war by having Vincent beheaded.
• Oh, Crap!: This is Tiny's reaction when he learns that "Narsa von Rendsley" is in fact Bradley, the crown prince of the Asran Empire, in disguise. This means Tiny assaulted the second-most powerful political figure in the empire when he slapped Narsa earlier. Tiny is so terrified of the potential consequences that he briefly considers letting the prince die in the coming catastrophe before he learns that Bradley has already forgiven him.
  Tiny: Crap... I messed up real bad...
• Post-Victory Collapse: After taking a hit from Drexler's hammer head-on, Tiny manages to remain conscious just long enough to confirm that he nicked Drexler's face and therefore won their duel. Tiny then collapses from exhaustion and his wounds once Esgard agrees to help him.
• Power Levels: Knights are graded on a scale ranging from 1 to 7. Beginners who have just started the use of mana manipulation sit at Level 1, with the strongest and most experienced of them are graded at Level 7. The power scale is logarithmic, as in a straight fight, a Level 2 would be considered as powerful as 10 Level 1s, and a Level 3 would be as powerful as 100 Level 1s. A similar scale is applied to magicians with the same overall power values. There are other levels beyond this, but none of the knights in the present day have reached Level 8, 9, or 10.
• Protectorate: Chloe's kindness made her a Hope Bringer for Tiny in both his past and current lives. He appreciates her so much that he's almost as protective of her as her father and brothers, slapping three shady men who try to get close to her across the room without hesitation. This is in spite of Esgard's warnings to lay low and be less reckless.
• Punched Across the Room: Tiny Bitch Slaps Tibron, Tibron's bodyguard, and Baron Rendley von Narsar across the room after they all try to get uncomfortably close to Chloe.
• Sdrawkcab Alias: Tiny believes "Baron Rendley von Narsar", whose face is disguised with magic, is suspicious. He then slaps Narsa for what he thinks is perverted leering toward Chloe. Later on, Narsa pronounces his name backwards to Tiny before dropping his disguise, revealing that "Narsa" is in fact Crown Prince Bradley Asran. Tiny is soon sweating bullets over the fact that he assaulted Chloe's fiance AND someone who's well in his rights to kill him.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Esgard sends Tiny's mind back in time to when Tiny was a young boy to both give him a chance to become even stronger and help change the events that lead to The End of the World as We Know It. While he could have sent himself, Esgard chooses to send Tiny back due to banking on Tiny's determination, refusal to run away, and talent to help his younger self save the world.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Tiny immediately pegs Truman, the Grandmaster of the Reliquiary Guards of Karun, as suspicious when he asks about Tiny's interest in holy relics. Just as Tiny is getting ready to cave Truman's head in, the old man takes him to the library and proceeds to give him an enthusiastic Exposition Dump on Karun's treasures. Tiny soon realizes that his gut instinct was wrong and Truman is just passionate about his work. Subverted when Truman turns out to be a traitor after all, as he'd grown dissatisfied with his lot in life after years of trying and failing to raise his standing.
• Sleep-Mode Size: When Tiny summons Wollang, the wolf is usually the size of a small lapdog cute enough for Chloe to suffer Cuteness Proximity and rub him all over. He grows to the size of a fully-grown wolf when it's time for battle.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: Tiny's commoner upbringing and rough personality means that he's the slob to whatever nobles he runs into. He's frequently chastised for his awful table manners and tendency to mouth off to others.
• Snot Bubble: Esgard's lecture on the nature and power of gravity goes right over Tiny's head. To emphasize this, Tiny dozes off in the middle of it with a giant snot bubble the size of his face. Esgard is so annoyed by Tiny's impertinence that he clocks him on the head to wake him up.
• Something Only They Would Say: Esgard understands that his past self would have no reason to trust Tiny. So he says that he had originally planned to name his daughter Chloe "Lilac", after his favorite flower. Only, he doesn't actually like these flowers very much because it's the name that his wife wanted to give her before said wife suffered Death by Childbirth. Tiny remembers these instructions and relays them to the past Esgard, who is forced to take Tiny's word as truth.
• Spirit Cultivation Genre: The control of the body's inner mana is a fundamental technique of high-level knights, as it grants superhuman strength, speed, and durability while also providing a minor Healing Factor. Tiny mentions that many different techniques exist, at least some of which require expensive herbs and medicines to hone to their full potential. Because of this, it's typically the domain of wealthy nobles, who are able to rank a knight's overall strength by a level based on their performance.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Mana manipulation harnessed through training, meditation, and special medicines allows trained knights to imbue their attacks with an attribute that adds a special effect to it. In his previous life, Tiny attuned his mana to the "Explosion" attribute, as seen when he detonates Gluttony's body after splitting it in half with one last attack.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The issues with using Mental Time Travel to Set Right What Once Went Wrong become increasingly apparent as the story goes on. Tiny's knowledge of the future is only so helpful when he takes actions he never did in his previous life. He can't anticipate everything because events happen that never did in the original timeline. In addition, Tiny is only human and a Book Dumb former beggar who spent much of his childhood just trying to survive. He can't remember everything with perfect detail and the information he's able to provide Esgard is sparse beyond general facts that everyone in the Bad Future knew. This infuriates Esgard as this gives him precious little information to work off of, forcing him to draw conclusions based on what Tiny does and does not know. He also tells Tiny not to tell anyone else about the future, lest it change the events uncontrollably and deny opportunities that led to the people Tiny met in the Bad Future from growing strong enough to resist the demons.
  • Tiny's tendency to approach problems with violence as a first resort as a Book Dumb Blood Knight works fine when dealing with common thugs. But when he slaps Narsa for seemingly acting perverted toward Chloe, Tiny draws the ire of Narsa's bodyguard, a challenger-ranked knight who quickly wipes the floor with Tiny and would have cut him in half if not for Jenas' intervention. Jenas then gives Tiny an earful over treating Valentia like his personal playground.
• Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Tiny and Grid manage to save Vincent from being assassinated by a mage working with the demon followers. But the person they just saved makes the mistake of openly antagonizing Grid before walking said statement back. Both knights are then ushered out by Bradley's personal guard,.who bear witness to Vincent attempting to order said guard to murder Bradley and subsequently execute Vincent for treason.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Invoked and subverted. Rendley von Narsar attempts to buy his way into Tiny's good graces by offering to order Tiny a meal. Tiny is prepared to refuse him on account of Esgard's warning to be careful and lay low. Then it becomes clear that Rendley is attempting to use Tiny to get close to Chloe, resulting in Tiny slapping Rendley across the room.
• Training from Hell: Frustrated with Tiny's refusal to wrap his head around the concept of "gravity", Esgard decides to teach it to Tiny by repeatedly dragging him to the top of a tower and throwing Tiny off the ledge. The idea is that his physical and mana bodies would feel and internalize the power of gravity. While this upgraded Tiny to the level of an expert-level knight and teaches him the basics of being a Gravity Master, this is still a grown adult throwing a child (with the mind of an adult) off a building over and over again. Tiny is clearly pissed about this but can't fault the results despite nearly dying several times over.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Erina's friend Emma notices the change in Tiny's behavior following his Mental Time Travel after she sees him eating soup with complete composure in front of his sister's corpse. She's unnerved by how eerily calm he is and the strange maturity he presents himself with when he promises to repay Emma's kindness to him.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chloe gifted Tiny her ring so he could call on a favor from her should they meet again. Unbeknownst to her, the local street gangs found Tiny with the ring and beat him senseless to take it from him. Erina would die trying to protect Tiny from them and Tiny would lose the ring and be unable to reclaim it until years later. In his current life, he's able to take it back sooner thanks to teaching himself his future self's Mana Body technique within the month after Erina's death.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Due to growing up in the slums with little to eat, Tiny doesn't take kindly to gangs who prey on the poor and hungry. He takes special pleasure in beating up these thieves and gangsters, calling them naught more than "trash" and that his conscience is clear because he's not actually killing "people" when a priest tries to talk him out of it.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: It's implied that Tiny lets the Grandmaster of the Philes military injure him badly enough to leave welts and bruises to draw away any suspicion that he could be the culprit behind the Grandmaster's disappearance and Lord Philes' murder. He plays up his injuries for sympathy when interrogated about the murders, but quickly uses his mana to heal the injuries away once all eyes are off him.
• Your Head A-Splode: This is the usual result when Tiny slams his hammer into a mook's head, crushing it into a splatter of blood and visera that's smeared across the floor or nearest wall.

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