[Congratulations! Material is now at the Apprentice stage!]
[For being the first to level an innate skill of mythical value, a special award has been granted.]
[Generating Award]
In front of sam there seems to be a long cylinder, half a meter long, materializing in thin air, suspended by some unknown force there. The same force makes sam grab the item. Suddenly he can feel it.
The rod glows, numerous engravings along its sylvery side glow with the inexplicable sight of mana. Sam can feel that somehow there is a connection being formed with the item, the only thing that it requires in order to finish is something from him.
A simple prick of the tip of his finger with his sword is all that is needed for the offering of ones very essence to take place. Sam touches his finger onto the item, knowing somehow that this is the right decision. As soon as his finger makes contact however Sam felt the force wanting more, not a greedy force that consumes anything it touches, but a force that is begging to him to relent and give it what it needs. Sam, feeling mystified as to how an object is able to project something like this, allows his mana to flow into the device. The device quickly consumes the pure energy, devouring it like how a rich man devours his dessert, one bite at a time. Each second passing by Sam continues to lose mana due to the item until before he would have collapsed from mana exhaustion, the device stops and hums, almost in a way that could be perceived as jubilant.
[You have been awarded with a Unique Soul Bonded item.]
[Tinkers Tool]
[Description- Generated specifically for this user, the Tinkers Tool allows the user to change the tool into whatever it needs to fit the scenario. From a battle axe to cleave through your foes, or an enchanting chisel to create the perfect pathways, this tool does it all! Not only that, but it can also shift itself into any material it has come into contact with before! ]
[Effects-Indestructible under most circumstances, by feeding it the right amount of mana and having a tool in mind, it will automatically change into that tool.]
[Soul Bound- This item is a part of User=Sam. It will alway return to him no matter what. Cannot be used by anyone else. Gained partial sentience.]
This is exactly what I needed, something not only powerful but extremely versatile as well Sam thought. I will need to run some additional tests but I am pretty sure this will be perfect for my idea! Giddy with excitement, Sam allows some of the excitement to show on his face with a small grin.
I wonder if the list of things and their associated mana cost will really help me and the team. If I lost them simply because I was wrong, I don’t think I could live with myself. Sam can’t help but think back to the first time he met Clyde.
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Being Japanese it was always hard for me to fit in with the other kids. I was born in America, my parents immigrated years before I was born so I never really knew about my history. All I know is that apparently my great-great-grandfather was one of the worlds best swordsmiths. The clan fell into ruin after his death though and here we are today. Anyways, I grew up in a household that wanted me to succeed no matter what. To do this I began to bury myself in my studies, earning top remarks on all of my grades. It wasn’t until my freshman year that I met clyde.
“Hey, mind if we sit here?” I look away from my food to see a childish looking teenager with dark emerald eyes staring at me, a half smile on his face. Behind him was a a wiry looking boy with dirty blonde hair looks at me, gives me a goofy smile, and then goes back to rapidly tapping different point on his phone.
“Sure I do not mind.” Letting them sit down I can see what the blonde boy is playing.
“What is that?” I ask, never seeing that game before.
“Duh, it’s a game.” The blonde boy said to me with an annoyed look plastered across his face once he paused the game.
“Well, of course it is, I just have never seen that one before.” It is true that I have seen others play games before, but m studies have always stopped me from doing so.
“Oh, it’s super cool, basically you choose whether you want to be a warrior, mage, or archer. Then you fight creatures and craft gear to fight even stronger monsters. The end game is that you have to try to beat the lich king, who has reigned for thousands of years, and bring about a period of peace.” The blonde kid said excitedly.
“Wow, that sounds fun, what kind of gear can you craft?” I said. Ever since I was little making things was always my hobby, which is why becoming an engineer was so appealing to me.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Umm, I don’t really know, I have always been taking drops off the monsters and selling them for money. Then I go and buy better gear after grinding.” He replied.
“Why would you do that when you can use those drops to make your own tools?” I ask, genuinely not understanding his logic.
“It’s because he only cares about killing monsters and getting stronger, he doesn’t realize the potential that making your own stuff has to offer. Like when you were on that third world boss and you had to save for weeks to afford that amulet to absorb most of his attacks so you wouldn’t die. I looked it up with you afterwards and showed you that you could have crafted it in four hours.” The teen with the Emerald eyes tells the blonde one. I like him, he actually knows how to plan.
“Shut up, how was I supposed to know that?”
“You, didn’t you have actually been playing the game with only half of what it has to offer you. That’s why it is so hard.”
“I have been playing this game for the past year and you bring this up now?!” Uh oh the blonde one looks like he is about to explode. The other one simply shrugs his shoulders and replies.
“I assumed you already knew it and was just trying to play on hard mode or something. I didn’t realize until a week ago that you actually didn’t know the value of crafting your own gear.” Then the boy stops grinning and actually looks at me a bit awkwardly.
“I am sorry, we never even introduced ourselves, I am Clyde Pendragon and this is Gary Muller.”
“Nice to meet you Clyde, Gary, I am Samuel Masamune though most just call me Sam.”
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“So in short, if you farm the reapers in the fields of sorrow, not only will it be level effective but also give you the necrotic bones of chilling you need in order to complete the lifesteal set that is the best armour to counter the giant worm of destruction in the fourth world.” Finishing my report I show Gary where the field of Sorrows is located and he sets to work grinding away. I allow myself a smile of satisfaction since I am able to help my friend with his game. Who knew you can study different types of math by calculating outcomes and such for video games? Once I presented my parents with the powerpoint on the benefits of gaming, they allowed me to play for at most two hours a day.
Because of that I have been having fun getting Gary to easily wipe the bosses with the different combinations of armour and weapons. Clyde has even started talking to me about starting a guild in a popular game him and Gary play online together. He says he’s not the best with numbers and can be quite forgetful at times so he needs someone to be the bookkeeper. He also said I would get first access to any new crafting material they stumble upon.
Thinking back I can’t help but see how boring and dull my old life was, always studying because I thought it was the most important thing in the world, but now I know, this feeling I get from helping my friends that they call happiness is actually kind of nice. I could get used to this…
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I snap out of reminiscing once I hear the sound of footsteps coming towards the breakroom I am currently situated in. In my hands is my Tool and is giving off a feeling of happiness. I admit it is unusual that an object has sentience but what is really weird is instead of communicating verbally, it instead projects its emotions directly into me. I can also feel the tether that connects us to each other. Testing it out I toss the Tool to the other end of the room before it disappears behind a ton of scrap materials that I created. I then tugged at the coord that connected us and instantly the Tool reappeared in my hand. This is so weird.
“What was that?” I hear Clyde ask. Whoops, I totally forgot he was here.
“It is an item I got received since I was the first person in the world apparently to level a Mythical innate ability to the apprentice stage.” I casually reply to see Clyde staring at me with his mouth open.
“H-H-How did you do that!” Clyde said flabbergasted.
“Well, I started thinking about how levelling a skill seemed to take either be a result of two things, continuously grinding a skill until it forcefully reached the Apprentice stage, or having some profound insight. With my [Material] skill I simply had to think how it could be improved. I then realized that while I thought since it related to my heritage I could only create metal and wooden parts I realized that the text never said I was limited in what I could create. So I experimented and found out as long as I have the mana I can create anything. It got it to Apprentice when I tried to copy the mana crystal. It was taking too much mana so I thought, if the mana crystal is made of just one thing, why can’t I just add onto it?” At this point I pull out the mana crystal that I have been modifying. Instead of it being just a circular object, there is now was appears to be a cylinder starting to make its way out of one area, giving it the illusion that it is a balloon on a stick.
“Trying to directly increase the diameter of the sphere gave me the system prompt saying I would have killed myself so instead of using just my mana I started to think, did it have to be a sphere so I started on the cylinder and have to fully charge the ball before I could even increase it by an inch. That’s when it upgraded.”
Clyde couldn’t believe it, his friend just created a larger mana crystal he was almost afraid to ask but.
“How much did you increase the storage by?”
“Hmm? Oh about 2,000 so nothing too crazy since I had to stop at a foot because I was messing around with my item.” He replied, feeling the connection to his tool again he promptly thought, Steel Katana. With a slight drain on his mana his item changed shape, becoming a beautiful silver blade with a flat rounded guard. The wrap was a lustrous black leather with the bottom entering the pommel. On the bottom of the pommel there appears to be a japanese mark and wondering what it is his weapon transferred a meaning of it. Suddenly he understood that this was a symbol representing sharpness and speed all at once.
“That is awesome! Can it do anything else?”
Focusing intently Sam thinks Tower Shield. Suddenly, with another slight mana drain, the katana flattens and stretches out, slowly crawling to the floor. The shield itself was a glimmering silver as the katana this time with gold etchings of what can only be described as a titan on the front. The handle morphed into one that you would find on a coffee cup except thicker. On the top left of this shield was another symbol written in some language that looks like japanese, but is different enough to give Sam confusion as to deciphering them. Then, just as before his item sends him the meaning behind the symbol. This time it represents strength, endurance, and fierceness.
“Cool, that will be really useful in the dungeon when you have to switch from offence to defense. It suits you.” Clyde, now smiling wide, turns to walk out of the door. He then stops before exiting and turns around.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, could you help Claire out with her skill training? Something tells me that it is not going so well.”
Before I could ask how he could possibly know that I hear a disgruntled yell and a chair randomly flying down the hallway until it smashes into the wall when the corner came up.
Clyde suddenly looks very frustrated and begins shouting.
“I ALREADY TOLD YOU TO STOP THROWING THINGS, WE ARE TRYING TO HIDE FROM THE EVIL MONSTERS, NOT INVITE THEM OVER FOR TEA!”
...Does he not realize he is making a louder ruckus than his sister?