While out gathering I had leveled twice. I found out that my subclasses were bound and leveled at the same time. I also learned that epic classes had higher XP requirements. So now I would level a little slower. But it also came with the benefit that Since both classes had static points placed into attributes, I had none of the issues with placing points in those attributes now. So, I would not pass out or feel pain when I added points to CON, DEX, or STR. I understand now where the pain came from. It was my body's way of adjusting to the changes of this new world. Now that I have been through the upgrade, I know that while the change might be slightly uncomfortable. It would not be the screeching pain of before.

I am not out just killing beasts. I am gathering plants and mushrooms and roots as well. With master-level herbology, I find all kinds of valuable plants. This is good because they are often needed for my alchemy. I often find myself using ingredients from one form of alchemy to make concoctions for the other.

During the day I travel, kill beasts, and gather herbs and plants. At night I work on my alchemy until the wee hours of the morning and sleep some. The night's work is mostly working with bone, and teeth to try to make weapons I figure I should straight up monster hunter this shit. Since I have hidden knowledge and some crafting skills. I use most of the teeth of the creatures I have killed to test the processes. I find a recipe that is used to clean and soften the teeth. Next is an infusion process the shigan had discovered a way to infuse bone with metal-like properties. They had used it to give bone weapons bronze-like qualities. I on the other hand use it to give the bone iron like qualities. Since I have hematite and magnetite. It takes extra work since I have to find a way to strip the oxygen from the iron ore to make it just iron. I find an alchemical concoction that does just that in the tsoho alchemy they used it to get pure water for other reasons. The recipe leaves me with a metallic black powder that is pure iron. The process would not be efficient to do on a large scale but if I could find a way to do half of what it does it would make smelting iron much easier.

Once both processes are done the bones and fangs need to be dried. Surprisingly they also can be worked some like metal. They can be heated and hammered. It takes some tinkering to find the right temps. If they get too hot, they crack but if they are not hot enough, they are not malleable enough. Once I find the right spot the bones work quite easily. I also find that they compress nicely. It also matters what beasts the bones come from, as to how easily they take to the whole process. The bones and fangs from the wolves I killed before I entered the glade end up being the best material. I test this with the smaller teeth first.

Through my exploration of the shigan library, I find another tsoho alchemy book. The shigan knew it was important that’s why the book was in the restricted section. I found the book along with a base primer on what the shigan knew about enchanting. The shigan knew that the two went hand in hand but not how. It seemed that they had not fully cracked the tsoho language. The book that the shigan had found was a way to treat beast cores to use them to enhance weapons and armor. It was a simpler process but the formula had slightly more ingredients. From what I could tell the tsoho had used the process to make great weapons and armor with the traits of the beasts that they killed. From what I read the process worked better the earlier it was used with the best results being when it was used when items were made.

On the third day, I had gathered enough to make a serious try at putting everything together. I started with an incisor from the beta wolf. I used the solution to soften it and split it in half. Once that was done, I placed both halves in the bath with the iron dust. The ferrous greyfang incisors sucked up the process better than any of the other creatures. Next was the process of drawing out the fangs to be longer and more swordlike. This process required me to heat them to a high enough temperature to make them workable but not too high. Luckily for me, the wolf fangs were more forgiving in that area. Once I had them long enough and straight enough, I set them aside to cool. I would have to wait for some time for them to cool enough for the next process.

I wanted to try to enchant them and the tsoho core to them at the same time. Insight told me this is what the tsoho had done to create things like the tower I was in. While the blade cooled, I went through the process of creating the cores I would need. The book said that the cores could reject the process if the materials were too different from the beast the core came from. In this case, I had the perfect core available since I still had the cores from the wolves I had killed. In this case, I decided to use the core from the same wolf that the teeth had come from. Once the core was processed, I set it aside and went back to working on the blades.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The next part was going to be the tricky part. I had some idea about how the enchanting process worked from the portals. I also had the equipment that I had previously enchanted by accident. In my spell book, I have taken the pains to add several printouts that I had found about runes. I had even added art from Pinterest, and Deviant art. All of the symbols, glyphs, and runes seemed to glow with power. For some the glow was more intense so, I guessed those would be the more powerful ones! Two sets seemed to contain the most power. One was a set of elemental symbols, the other was a set of glyphs. The glyphs were not too complicated being somewhat basic symbols. Being new to this and using the gate as a guide. I picked three symbols for each blade. The first blade got the symbols for sword, dark, and blood. The other got the symbols for sword, fire, and power. When I was done with that, I looked over my work and felt like something was missing. Insight kicked in and I almost slapped myself at the simplicity of it. The reason these symbols seemed more powerful was because of the moon symbols. The moon was very important here it was how they marked the months, and how they kept their calendar. For these symbols to be at full power I needed to add a moon symbol. I added the symbol for a waxing crescent to the first blade, the second one got a waxing gibbous symbol. Once added I could feel the additional power in the material. I also felt and knew I could do more.

I moved on to the elemental symbols this was easy for me to pick the two symbols tied to my classes were no brainers. I carefully carved the symbols for void and death into both blades. The symbol for death was simple enough since it was a skull. The symbol for void was circular like an ouroboros symbol with some bursts coming from it. When I completed the carving, it was like completing a circuit. I realized my mistake immediately these runes were meant to power other runes like the ones I had carved into the tang. I knew I needed to add something for them to power or the blade would crack under the strain. I immediately started to carve words on the blade near the edge I carved the word sharp. On the blade ridge, I carved durable, and at the base near the flat, I carved in the word strength. I did the words in English I figured it would work and I did not want people here to be able to decipher what I had written. The last thing I carved into the blade was 怒り it was Japanese for fury. As soon as I was done the blade settled. I did the same thing for the other blade only carving the words in first. The second blade was only different in that I carved speed in where I had put strength in on the other blade. I added 刈取 on the second blade which meant reaper. These were basically to name the blades. Anyone knew that named weapons were stronger than basic weapons plus I was sure I was doing something no one had done one this world yet by mixing two different processes. If that was going to be the case, I was going to benefit from it and the weapons would as well.

Last was the process of hardening the blades. I decided to go with a mixture of processes. I decided to use the heating and quenching cycle like that used on steel. The only difference was that I would use the hardening liquid that the shigan had developed as the quenching liquid. Hopefully, it would give the weapons more steel-like qualities. I heat both blades to glowing and quench them in the hardening solution that works quite well. I heat cycle both blades before I head to bed. First thing in the morning I wake up eat and then finish the crafting portion of the blades. The last thing I need to do is add them to the new solution to use the core that I prepped for this purpose. The trick about the new solution is that it requires mana to work. Once I feed it mana though it starts to bubble and I add the core. I watch as the solution roils as it dissolves the core and the energy is absorbed into both blades. Normally you would need more than one core per weapon, but in this case, it was not necessary. Since the fang and the core had come from the same beast. The wolf in this case had been overly large and the second most powerful in its pack only the single core was needed. Even better the solution could be reused as long as I kept it clean. Which in this case meant lifting the screen at the bottom of the container I used and straining the liquid through a cloth.

I was done working for the moment and Akurra and I set in for our day’s travels. During the day I could tell we were getting closer to the edges of the forest, as the trees started to thin out in areas. We reach a wide shallow river. I could have jumped over it but the water was only ankle deep. After a couple of days of walking fording, the river felt nice. It was the most fun I had splashing through the river, and since the water was clear there was no danger for once. It took us longer to cross the river because of my playing, but it was fun. Once we crossed the river, I spent time collecting more stones that I believed were hematite and magnetite. As well as some gold I was able to find and other stones. I continue on the rest of the day unarmored. I had taken it off to cross the river. Since I had gotten my storage upgrade, I could take it off and put it back on at a moment’s notice.