"Shit"

He said to himself before activating his gene skill at the last moment as it spun. And a card appeared right in front of him. The nine of diamonds. Just then, as he looked at the card, a smile came up on his face.

The basilisk, which was lunging towards him, suddenly stopped mid-air as if crashing into an invisible wall. As it crashed, multiple cracks formed in the head of the stone basilisk before it was sent flying in the direction it came from with double the force. This caused the creature to be sent flying with so much force that he crashed into a wall, and multiple pieces of the rock basilisk broke and fell off while its whole body was embedded inside the wall quite frankly from the rebound.

"Didn't see that coming, did you?" Jack said, chuckling to himself as he picked up the hammer from the ground.

[Hammer of Rhurtas - II

A copy of the hammer rhurtas used while learning smithing. Can be used as a blunt-force weapon.

Effects: locked

Note: Due to the hammer being a utility-type object, when used as a weapon, it will only be as good as an inferior weapon.]

He was not meant to get any effects, it seemed, but it was an intermediate-ranked tool. Still, it was no better than an inferior weapon. Fuck it, beggars can be choosers, and in this case, he was definitely the beggar. He sighed as he looked at the cracked and broken snake with red eyes that almost looked angry slither out from the wall and then take a deep breath before releasing a cloud of purple mist from its mouth.

It didn't take a genius to realize a snake breathing out something was going to be poison, but he was not stupid as he ran towards the snake right through the poison, which also blocked the snake's field of vision. So he was able to use it to sneak in a surprise attack from right under the snake as he jumped up, holding the hammer in his hand, and struck the snake from right under his chin. Hitting as hard as he could on the snake's chin, the already damaged snake's head was broken into a thousand pieces while the rest of its body fell to the ground.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

[You have killed an inferior creature.]

[+50 merits]

"Thank the gods, there wasn't any blood this time." As he was speaking, suddenly blood came out of his mouth as he coughed, and the same from his nose. He saw a screen pop up in front of him.

[You have inhaled the basilisk's poison. Your blood vessels will shut down in 30 seconds.]

Upon reading the notification, he more or less expected it, but instead of panicking, he smiled, as he was not afraid in the least. He reached out for the pouch he was carrying, and with all the strength in his body, he pulled out a blue cube from it, swallowing it.

[Poison within the body has been cured due to the effects of the Bulaba fruit.]

[The status condition has been lifted.]

He finally took a deep breath and laughed. "Totally not doing that shit again. Also give me back my swords, you fuckers!" he yelled out at the door in front of him. Almost, as if offended by his words, opened the door, and his two blades came flying from the other room, which he barely avoided getting sliced by his own swords. It would have been a rather ironic death, now that you think about it.

With the doors finally open, he could move forward, but before that, he went to wash his face in the lake. That poison really did a number on him, and he had no intention of letting himself stay like that. After washing his face, he put his weapons back, grabbed his bag, and took the hammer with him. All the things he thought he should do, so before moving on, he walked through the door, which seemed to lead into some kind of tunnel or path, probably leading to the next room or trial.

As he saw the door to the next room, he was more confused than anything, as there was no door. There was a simple push to open the wooden door at the end of the tunnel. He was a bit skeptical at first but ended up pushing it either way as the door opened up. It finally revealed to him what was inside the next room.

As he walked inside, the room looked nothing like what you would expect a forge to look like. There was an altar right in the middle of the room with symbols on it. On one corner of the room were multiple crystals of different colors. And in another corner, there were multiple pieces of coal, it seemed. But except for everything else, in the middle of the room was an orb with a blue top that started floating above the ground and spinning. As a white light was emitted upwards by the orb, the light turned blue as a hologram was formed.

"Welcome to the forge of Ruthras, young challenger."