System Notice: You have created a Magical rarity Bearded Axe. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 427 Magitech Engineering experience.

Weapon Type: Bearded Axe Rarity: Magical Quality: Excellent Description: A stylized war axe with a long beard that has been excellently crafted with mana infused iron. While the user channels their mana into this weapon it becomes hardened. While hardened this weapon cannot be damaged, broken, or become dull.

+75 Power (Attacks made by the Bearded Axe only)

+Immune to durability loss and cannot become dull while infused with mana

+Increased Power based on the amount of mana infused

After waking up and eating a wonderfully delicious breakfast made by Mr. Pancake, Thomas had finished the work on the bearded axe within a couple of hours. It was just grinding, quenching, and polishing the weapon so it was more tedious than difficult. He held the axe in both his hands and ran his glowing eyes over it. The metal mana within the axe head was a lot more languid than the fire mana in the cutlass had been. Mana started to feed out of his hands and into the axe to trigger its ability.

Thomas watched closely as the metal mana began to change and move as it interacted with his mana. Due to the low amount of mana he was feeding into it the change took some time and allowed him to watch as the randomly dispersed metal mana came together to form a stable lattice structure within the axe head. As the structure came into being there were physical changes to the axe itself. The closer the lattice structure came to completion the darker the iron became until it reached solid black. Only the razor-sharp edge showed any signs of light reflection.

He observed the axe for a bit and smiled. Maintaining its active state didn't take much effort or mana. With that being the case it was a very sharp nearly indestructible weapon. He looked around for something to test it with. As for the guards, they didn't see anything flashy so they didn't pay too much attention to him. The effect of the metal magic on the axe was significantly less eye-catching than the fire on the cutlass.

After poking around, Thomas selected the extra wood that had been removed from the handle that made up the axe. It was currently a twisted up blob as a side effect of his Transmutation ability. It would make for a perfect test cutting material. He set the lump of wood on the anvil then gripped the axe in both of his hands. He lifted it up and carefully chopped down with it. There was no point in using his full strength to just cut wood and he was worried that if he did he would damage either the axe or the anvil.

The axe descended through the air and sliced into the wooden target with ease. The enhanced edge cut through the wood like it wasn't even there and collided with the anvil beneath it. The metallic sound of the collision echoed through the room while Thomas felt his mana decrease slightly. Ever since his Mana Control evolved into Mana Mastery he'd had a much better understanding of his own mana and could feel minute differences in it. He lifted the axe up and checked the edge, there were no signs of any damage at all. After sweeping the two halves of wood off of the anvil he examined its surface and found a thin mark where the axe had hit. Thankfully he hadn't used much power when swinging the axe or he might have cut deeply into the anvil!

After he stopped channeling his magic into the axe it returned to the dull silver color of iron. Infusing metal mana into the product had produced a rather subtle but excellent effect. As long as the person using the item had mana the item would be practically indestructible. Though he held some suspicion that something far stronger would be capable of damaging the item even when it was infused with mana. He had no proof, of course, it was just a suspicion. Even if that was the case it would still make for an excellent defensive product similar to a classic mana shield. It would let a player use their mana pool to protect themselves from damage until they ran out of mana. For a physically weaker 'wizard' type character with a large mana pool, it was a rather good defensive ability.

He set the axe in the weapon rack and turned to face the guards still watching him, "I'm going to go to 'sleep' for a couple of days."

As the guards were all players they understood what he meant and nodded in response. One of the guards chimed in, "We'll let Yorik know."

Thomas made his way over to one of the walls and set out his personal camping gear to make a comfortable seat. He relaxed and quickly logged out. He should have done so first thing in the morning but felt like finishing the axe first. While Darren was logged out he did his usual routine and added some grocery shopping to it. He browsed both the public and private forums for AoG to gather information on pirates in general and to see if he could find anything specific on the guys who had captured him. Unfortunately, there was very little to go on as they had a tendency to kill everyone and sink their ships. The only good news he found was that pirates seemed to have massive bounties on them that grew almost exponentially with every ship they raided. When he was ready he would have to make sure to kill as many of them as he could. Who would ever say no to more money?

Once he logged back in, Thomas opened his eyes and stretched with a sigh. He'd stayed in the real world for twelve hours so two full days had passed within AoG. The poor guards had been forced to watch his unconscious body the entire time. They couldn't risk Thomas waking up when no one was around and letting him do anything unsupervised.

Thomas checked his work area and found that nothing had been disturbed. Even the Icebound Platinum was sitting where he'd left it. Today he planned to experiment with it. Using the Icebound Platinum might produce a weapon of Uncommon rarity and gain him some much-needed experience. Currently, he had enough experience to increase his Magic attribute by a single point but that seemed so... useless. After deciding on a more effective route for his work, Thomas turned to the guards, "I'd like to talk to Mr. Pancake."

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The guard he addressed shook his head, "Mr. Pancake is 'asleep' at the moment and should be for another day or two."

"Then get Yorik. I need to request something."

The guard left and a short time later, Yorik came to the workshop, "What do you need? It may not seem like it but I am a pretty busy man."

Thomas shrugged his shoulders, "You and Mr. Pancake are the only people I know with any authority around here and since he's not around..." he let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing, "I need some assistants. They don't need to know anything about crafting they just need a large mana pool so I can use them as batteries. I don't have enough mana to craft a whole lot or at high speed. Since I can't just go into a dungeon and earn some experience to raise my Magic attribute they'll have to power some stuff for me."

Yorik listened to Thomas while stroking the still growing goatee on his chin. Thomas couldn't help but wonder how he was growing facial hair. In the months he'd been inside of AoG he'd never had to shave a single time. Not that he wanted to shave or anything. It just struck him as odd. Yorik beaconed Thomas with his hand, "Follow me." He then turned to the guards, "You too."

Yorik led Thomas back down the path he'd walked to get to the workshop. Aside from the hole in the ceiling, there was only one entrance to the workshop and the workshop was the only thing that this particular path led to. It was almost like it was designed to be a prison with no escape routes. Well, for people who couldn't fly. Once they arrived back at the lagoon where the boat had dropped them off, Yorik led him down the cave path that was on the complete opposite side of the workshop path. As they moved down it Yorik spoke, "You won't need anyone to help you out. I've got something better."

Thomas was curious but didn't ask about what 'it' was. He'd find out soon enough. Yorik led him down the path and took several turns along the way. Unlike the workshop path, this one had multiple branches leading to different areas within the cave system. After a good fifteen-minute walk, they arrived at their destination. They had arrived in a massive cave with high vaulted ceilings covered in stalactites. On the wall opposite them was a large doorway with stairs leading down into the earth. Near the doorway was a large magic circle carved into the cave floor that Thomas found shockingly familiar.

Yorik smiled as he pointed to the entrance, "I assume you know what that is."

Thomas nodded as he grew more and more excited, "It's a dungeon!"

Yorkin nodded, "That's right. This is what's known as a 'Wild Dungeon'. The rules for these dungeons are a little different but generally, they're the same as the dungeons you would find inside of any city. As for the difference, well that would be the monsters themselves." He turned to look seriously at Thomas, "Wild dungeons are extremely hard. Even we have only managed to get down to the fifth floor. The moment we did we were slaughtered so fast we couldn't even figure out what had attacked us."

Thomas listened seriously to Yorik's warning, "So what's inside of the first four floors?"

"The theme of the dungeon seems to be humanoid monsters, mostly. The first floor is just goblins, cakewalk. The second floor is Orcs, significantly stronger than goblins but still not too hard. The third floor is trolls. Strong, near-infinite regeneration, and dumb as a bag of rocks. Toss some fire or acid on their wounds to stop their regeneration or kill them in a single strike by decapitation. Otherwise, it becomes a war of attrition. As long as they have mana they will regenerate from just about any wound. Lastly, the fourth floor is... unique. Unlike the first three, the fourth floor looks like a giant sprawling forest. There's even a simulation of the sun in the sky that changes over the course of the day and a river with flowing water. The forest is filled with Treants and Dryads that will try to ambush you at every turn."

After explaining the dungeon to Thomas, Yorik looked at him and said very seriously, "You shouldn't head to the fifth floor no matter what. Like I said before, when we went there we died without even seeing our attackers." Yorik crossed his arms over his thick chest and continued, "I expect you to work for us five days out of the week. On your free days, you can do whatever you want. Enter the dungeon, slack off, I don't care. However, if you enter the dungeon and don't come out for over forty-eight hours I will have the guards assume you're dead. Since when you die you will be teleported to the graveyard of the last city you visited it will mean that you can't return here even if you wanted to. We'll do whatever we want to your Snowlily, understood?"

Thomas understood so he nodded his head. Entering the dungeon would give him a way to earn far more experience than he had been expecting and would let him grow stronger quickly. The monsters on the first two floors wouldn't provide any challenge, though the orcs would provide excellent experience. He would need to explore the first four floors and pick the one that was the most efficient at farming. He could also use his time inside of the dungeon to prepare items for use in his escape plan. It was obvious that there was only one entrance and exit to the dungeon so they had no need to worry about him escaping their grasp.

Thomas turned to Yorik, "In that case, I'll head into the dungeon now. Since Mr. Pancake is 'asleep' and I'm still waiting on materials it seems like a good use of my time."

With the prospect of gaining experience, the Icebound Platinum was completely forgotten. Yorik just gave a shrug of his shoulders, "Just remember the forty-eight-hour limit. The guards will stay here and wait for you to exit the dungeon."

Yorik saw no need to have the guards escorting Thomas within the dungeon. There was no escape and if Thomas was dumb enough to die in there it was no skin off his back. He doubted that Thomas would die though. He'd seen the way he fought when they captured him and he was sufficiently strong enough to handle the monsters in the first four floors of the dungeon. Especially with his arsenal of guns that could spew out death from a good distance.

Thomas parted with Yorik and his guards to enter the dungeon. Like every dungeon he'd entered before, the stairs led down deeper into the earth and were dimly lit so even normal people could see somewhat. To him, it posed no problems at all as his eyes glowed blue to activate his dark, or night, vision. The first floor was just as could be expected. The first room was the safe room with several branching paths leading to other rooms that would contain monsters. The construction of the first floor resembled the caves above with wind or water-carved pathways.

Since he had no map, Thomas picked a random passage and made his way down it without bothering to prep anything. Goblins posed zero threat to him so he just intended to explore until he found his way down to the second floor where he could earn some real experience. When he entered the first room he was greeted by a group of seventeen diminutive green monsters wielding 'clubs' that were little more than sticks. He didn't even pause before lifting his hand and casting out a blastwave of flames that roasted the little beasts to death instantly. With their deaths, his slaughter within the dungeon began!