[Copper Spear] = Copper (Bar, 0.5-0.7kg) + Wood (Hard, 1.05-1.3m) + Twine (Hemp+1, 0.1-0.2m) + [Knife] (Flint+2) + [Hammer] (Stone+2) + [Workbench] (Any)
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It was time to power up.
Jay held the monster cores close. His trade with that sprigg had earned him more than enough to compensate for the losses of the days before, and even if he lacked the means to upscale his suit of pig iron-plated gear, the higher tier cores would pick up the slack.
So long as he didn’t lose anymore, Jay still had a fighting chance against a rising Natura.
He studied his scimitar. Unlocking and leveling this Sub-Craft had given him another avenue in defense, but it had been ages since he’d been able to gain another skill from it. With a level 38 and 42 core available, he’d finally see that moment come again.
He gently dismantled the scimitar, being careful not to harm the parts too much. His iron supplies were quickly dwindling, and he would be screwed if he tried to upscale this weapon again from the ground up.
The first cores were hammered into place, slowly melding with the hilt. With each strike, it faded further.
Before finally shimmering a moment with purple, magical light. The wisps dissipated, the infusion once again complete.
Buzz.
Level Up! Swords 9 → 11
New Weapon Art available.
Crafted sword durability increased.
Level Up! Curved Swords 3 → 5
Crafted curved swords attack speed increased.
Crafted curved swords skill affinity increased.
Congratulations! You have unlocked your first [Weapon Art], Expatriate. These unique Skills represent the pinnacle of weapon understanding, allowing you to enter a weapon stance for one minute, twice per day, that reduces your Skill energy well by half while greatly increasing specific combat efficiencies. Choose wisely, Expatriate!
He turned the page cautiously, unsure what to expect.
[Flowing Rock] – Become one with the tip of your blade, allowing attacks to move at double the speed and inflict twice the damage while this weapon art is active.
[Crushing Wave] – Infuse your will into your sword’s hilt, doubling its ability to penetrate armor, knock back foes, and inflict damage while this weapon art is active.
[Violent Storm] – Become one with your weapon skills, doubling your affinity while this weapon art is active.
[Living Dune] – Treat your sword as if it were your own limb, greatly increasing reflex speed while halving any durability loss it takes.
His eyes popped. This wasn’t just a normal level up that granted him a new skill, but an unparalleled power up that could forever define his life on Annwyn. Double damage? Halved reduction? Skills that were twice as strong?
The repercussions were clear. Like an ultimate for a video game character, these weapon arts worked to temporarily give him an overpowered boost, but at the cost of every other skill’s usage. Jay had invested in skills enough to understand their limitation, and that was the amount of stamina he could burn on them. Even with his ability to [Recover], he’d always been limited in how many he could do in rapid succession.
But his skill energy well also grew with time, not because of his vitality, but through the cores infused into various pieces of gear. During his first couple days, he could barely do three in short succession without wanting to pass out. These days? Dozens, easy. All recoverable within a few moments of [Recovering].
And with this realization, Jay reconsidered every decision that led to here. With these weapon arts on the table, he could define his build choices anew. Could Jay lean into pure physical damage? Elemental? A few Aer gemstones would buff his knockback. Could he stack that with a weapon art to never get trapped? Why not pick up [Flowing Rock], and become an unstoppable wall of death? Or perhaps [Living Dune] and turn into a tank? Would he even need [Shirk] if he could make his default reflexes so quick and strong that he could knock arrows out of the air without ever invoking another skill? Even at twice per day, he seldom had more life or death fights than that.
But why stop there? Jay had invested so much into pig iron because of the skill affinity, but copper and silver gear always had more damage by default. He’d only made it work by relying on the power of his skills, but this gave him the perfect off-ramp to jump ship completely, never having to balance another choice for how his energy was spent, but rather brute-forcing it all.
So many options, so many decisions. The passive boosts were just icing on the cake at this point. Jay’s theories on long-term survival had been shattered with this choice.
For an impossibly long time, Jay sat on this choice before selecting it.
He grinned, knowing what would happen the next time he entered a fight.
* * *
Jay’s old nemesis marched into the open.
Giant hooves pounded through the underbrush, flattening everything in its path. Its armored hide rose and fell with each breath, and puffs of steam erupted from its snout. Red beating eyes glared out from the sunken chasms of its skull, its tusks caked in dried blood from whatever it had killed before.
And Jay stood in front, his scimitar resting lazily over a shoulder. His new set of metal-plated armor glistened in the afternoon sun, a reminder that he was back to peak strength, having redistributed his latest cores to compensate for a lack of upscaled mats.
The dire boar hissed, eyes locked with him.
The last time Jay had faced a dire boar, it nearly cost his life. This monster was a walking wrecking ball, the kind that could bulldoze through everything in its path without slowing down a beat. Trees, bushes, boulders, people. It didn’t matter. Strength was its forte, and it threw everything into it.
Jay grinned. Could there be a better test for his newest skill?
The dire boar charged, once again demolishing everything in its path.
Jay did not turn. He did not run. He merely walked up to this goliath with his head held high, ready to see which would come out on top.
Brilliant magenta light suddenly erupted from his entire body as he activated his weapon art, the raw potential resonating strongest from his sword. He gleamed, feeling more in sync with his abilities than ever before.
[Violent Storm].
The dire boar continued to charge, and Jay took the opportunity to strike first, [Leaping] straight into his enemy.
The boar bowed its head, ready to headbutt at max speed. Jay gripped his sword tight and dropped a single [Power Attack].
Both collided at once, the world slowing to a trickle.
Despite the fact that Jay had used no more than a basic skill, his [Power Attack] was magnified by the innate skill affinity of his pig iron blade, the +5 monster core infused inside, the +5 Sharpness modifier on top, every passive buff he’d ever received, all now doubled with the strength of his weapon art active. Just as a violent wave crashing against a pitiful sand castle, the once formidable dire boar’s skull exploded from so much raw power concentrated against it in one fell swoop. Bone mixed with sparks shot out like shrapnel, and Jay’s body launched back, the physical reaction even more powerful than he’d expected.
He tumbled into a rock with a yelp, heart still racing and arm vibrating. His wooden cart quaked nearby from the shockwave that’d been sent out.
Meanwhile, the dire boar was no more, its head destroyed by that single hit.
Whoa. Of all the combinations he’d discovered, this was by far the most powerful. Where every other boost seemed to be linear and hard to quantify in terms of real damage, the addition of [Violent Storm] didn’t just stack, but multiplied all the others. By surrendering his ability to perform skills in rapid succession, he’d made each one double in potency.
But like everything else, it had its cost. Jay could still feel the lingering fatigue from just that one hit, his ears were ringing, and his sword’s hilt had been almost broken. He suspected that even under the most ideal circumstances, he could only perform a [Power Attack] of that magnitude twice before losing his weapon completely.
No, Jay couldn’t just use this for every fight. Not without first rounding everything else out.
“Holy shit!” someone cursed nearby. “You alright?”
Jay blinked, the world once again coming back together. When the disorientation wore off, he caught sight of the snoop.
Though this woman had grown less pale, her blonde hair remained trimmed short, like a marine on duty. Her palm bark armor had since been turned into a full leather cloak, and she carried a copper spear in place of a club. Black war paint had been decorated around her blue eyes as she stared him down.
Jay had only seen her once before, back when everyone was brought together right before Viktor first showed up.
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The woman marched close, spear in hand. Jay wriggled at the sight, but he hadn’t quite recovered quickly enough. Not that it mattered. She was nowhere near his level.
“Gotta say,” she said, “it’s been a few weeks in this hell, but that might have been the most ridiculous shit I’ve seen yet. How the hell did you do that?”
“Can’t say,” Jay wheezed. “Rule 5, remember?”
“Fair enough.” She held out a hand to pick him up, then pulled it back. “Right… That won’t help either.”
Jay slowly stood back up and brushed himself off. This mysterious woman watched him with a raised eyebrow.
“What’s your name, anyway?” Jay asked.
“Trish. Trish Crawford. You?”
“Jay Reis.”
“Right. Saw you with the others. Still surprised you’re alive.”
His cheeks reddened. “What makes you say that?”
“Because you were stupid enough to pull a gun on Viktor, even after we saw how easily he beat Naomi and the others. You should’ve either waited until he was at his most vulnerable or kept that advantage hidden. But you let your emotions get in the way, and now, he’s even more unbeatable.”
He exhaled. “Easy for you to say. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
She shrugged. “No one knows what anyone’s gone through. Doesn’t make a difference if you’re dead, and this world is either kill or die. Nothing new, honestly.”
A fair point, Jay considered. She wasn’t exactly wrong, and Jay had been thinking about those mistakes since he made them. “Looks like you’re doing well, at least.”
“You could say that.”
Trish walked over to a nearby creek, collected some water, and then made a basic campfire nearby. Jay took the cue and dragged his cart over to the dead dire boar, his knife ready to harvest its remains.
The fire was up within moments, and Trish began purifying her water.
Jay eyed her suspiciously. “You said that this was your kill. You know that it’s level 29, right?”
“So?”
“I mean, aren’t you barely in Copper Age?”
“Doesn’t matter. This spear’s strong enough.”
“That’s what I thought the first time I fought one of these, and it ended up as a close call. That can’t be more than more than +2 Sharpened, right?”
She gave her bowl of boiling water a swirl. “It’s +7, actually.”
“Wait… How the hell did you craft a weapon so strong, so quickly?”
“I didn’t. I just killed someone for it.”
Jay’s heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t the declaration that unsettled him half as much as the tone. Or lack thereof. Trish stated that she’d murdered someone over that spear in the same manner that someone else might’ve said they bought it online.
She yawned. “Don’t look so surprised. I might be the newest one on this island, but I see how it works.”
“But someone lost their life over that…”
“Yeah? Well, he came for me first. Probably thought I was an easy target. He was wrong.” She gave her spear a twirl. “Now, my life is easier, and his is gone. Seems like karmic justice to me.”
Jay watched this woman. This fellow human who’d been thrust into this world beyond her control.
And not just that. He might have just met Trish, didn’t know where she’d come from, or what she’d done to get the Grand Bargain, but he could see that same fury behind her eyes. Not just the certainty in claiming another life, but the regret in knowing it had to be done, except that her eyes were worn out with more experience than he’d ever possessed.
Jay had never been one for therapy. Hell, he’d never been one to bring up his feelings in general. Not outwardly. But here, now, with this woman he barely knew, something felt right. Like whatever he said would disappear into the ether. Like he wouldn’t be misunderstood, much less judged.
“Does it ever get easier?” Jay asked.
“No,” she answered, no more clarification needed. “Not now. Not ever.”
“How did you do it then?”
“First man? With a knife. It was self defense, so I got off. I ended up in the military after though, stuck in an MRAP. Took out my share of Arabs from behind the barrel of that beast. I can still see their brains splattered against the pavement if I close my eyes long enough.” She took a sip from her water. “What about you? When was your first?”
Jay didn’t say anything for a moment, once again reliving that moment when he drove his sword into an enemy he’d already beaten in a fight. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. Not completely.
Hell, he’d never even learned the guy’s name.
“It happened here,” Jay said simply, hacking another chunk of boar flesh away.
Trish frowned. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s done is done, I guess. Just never thought I’d feel so…”
“Numb? Alive?” She filled in. “Both at once?”
“Yes. And I still don’t know what to do.”
“No one does.”
She gave her water another sniff. Without saying a word, she put out her campfire, poured the distilled water into her waterskin, and loaded the rest of her gear away.
Trish tilted her head. “But I can tell you one thing: you feel every kill until you don’t, and then it comes for you anyway. That’s what happened with my stepfather. The man was a monster in the flesh, and I’d never felt more alive than when I finally put him down. That still hasn’t stopped me from waking up in a cold sweat, all these years later.
“It’s not about what’s good, bad, or whatever else lies in between. It just is. I killed people. You did the same. No more complicated than that.
“Sure, you can sit around and lament what you’ve done, but that shit right there will get you killed, faster than anything that can come for you in the night. You’re right, Jay. What’s done is done. I’ve killed to survive, even if all that means is I get to survive to kill. The best you can do is to take the wins where you can find them, and carve that out for your own life.” She held up her weapon. “I got my spear and armor from my struggle. Ask yourself this: what did you get?”
On that thought, Trish turned and walked away, fading into the trees as quickly as she had come.
And Jay sat where he remained, no longer having the energy to keep up this charade. What a strange woman.
In truth, he’d been languishing over that murder since it first occurred. Not sad, not angry at himself, not even overtly proud after the initial shock. It was just a miasma of raw emotion that he had never considered before, and the more he tried to understand it, the more complicated it became. An enigma that his logical brain could not comprehend.
But Trish was right, and only now could Jay see that. Remaining trapped in some emotional turmoil would earn him nothing, especially with the continued crisis at hand. If he still planned to see this through, he couldn’t allow past events to dictate future behavior.
No, Jay could fixate on the meanings of life and death another time. He still had work to do, and things to gain.
He packed up the last of the dire boar, grabbed his cart, and made off for the horizon. Even with the sun fast falling, he still had a place to be. Back to a base camp, with all the resources left behind, ready to be taken by whomever needed them.
Home sweet home, he considered.
Though not his own.
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – 94/99
Hunger – 63/72
Thirst – 18/24
Fatigue – 42/48
Sanity – 86/100
Main Crafts: Alchemy 2, Armor Crafting 2, Base Building 3, Cooking 2, Jewelry 2, Medicine 2, Tailoring 2, Tool Crafting 3, Vehicles 1, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 5, Bows 6, Clubs 5, Daggers 5, Spears 5, Swords 11.
Armor Crafts: Heavy Armor 5, Light Armor 5, Medium Armor 8, Shields 6.
Sub-Crafts: Curved Swords 5.
Character Skills:
[Forbidden Knowledge]
Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor: [Push], [Stampede]
Medium Armor: [Recover], [Leap], [Waterform], [Quickstep]
Light Armor: [Dash], [Feather Fall]
Shield: [Brace], [Track], [Break]
Weapon Skills:
Axes: [Chop], [Whirlwind]
Bows: [Sharpshooter], [Longshot], [Scattershot Arrow]
Clubs: [Bash], [Paralyze]
Daggers: [Slice], [Flourish]
Spears: [Thrust], [Sweep]
Swords: [Power Attack], [Slash], [Rend], [Shirk], [Violent Storm]
Armor:
[Pig Ironplated Hat+2] (Hardened+2), (Reinforced)
[Pig Ironplated Coat+2] (Hardened+2), (Reinforced)
[Pig Ironplated Leggings+2] (Hardened+2), (Reinforced)
[Pig Ironplated Shoes+1] (Hardened+2), (Reinforced)
[Pig Ironplated Gloves+1] (Hardened+2), (Reinforced)
[Silver Amulet]: Socketed with [Chipped Tourmaline] (Tempus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
Weapons:
[Pig Iron Scimitar+5] (Affinity+5), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+2), (Stable+1)
[Treated Bow] (Reinforced): Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 17 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+4) and 3 [Scattershot Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+4)
Tools:
[Copper Knife+3]
[Copper Axe+3]
[Copper Hammer+3]
[Copper Pickaxe+3]
[Copper Shovel+3]
Boons:
[Minor (Speed)] (x3)