Mike’s vision dipped into his soul once more, a few differences sticking out right away. First of the changes, there were a lot more cubes than last time. The second thing he noticed was how two of the cubes were significantly larger than the others, with one being just a bit larger than the other. He identified them, trying to figure out why they were so much larger than the others.
Fragment of a Warrior (level 5) (Common)
Fragment of a Crafter (level 4) (Common)
Mike looked at the cubes once more, having a theory as to the size difference. The Warrior fragment was larger than before, and he guessed that it was related to the level going up. Naturally this would also explain the size of the Crafter fragment. He looked once more at the other cubes, noticing another three that were larger than the rest. They glowed a soft green, contrasting the white glow of the others. Identifying the first one, he found what changed the color.
Fragment of an exterminator (Uncommon)
Focusing on the fragment more, it revealed what had earned it.
Fragment of an exterminator (Uncommon)
Earned for defeating a lair of monsters with a population of at least 5.
This one was interesting. Firstly, it was marked uncommon. Mile figured the reason it was considered to be less common was due to being more difficult than his other accomplishments. The only thing he had done that he would consider more difficult than it was when he fought the group of foxes. Why he didn't get any fragments for that, he didn't know. Moving on to the next one, he was puzzled as to how he had gotten it.
Fragment of a beginner crafter (Uncommon)
Earned for creating an item of uncommon rarity.
For the exterminator fragment, he knew exactly the event that had caused him to earn it. This fragment took a bit of thought to figure out. He had only made one item that he wouldn’t consider to be poor quality, and that was the armor he had just made himself out of the pelt of the wolf alpha. Even then, he assumed the rarity bump was from the materials used, and not any impressive craftsmanship on his part. He checked the last one, but wasn't as surprised to see it as the other two.
Fragment of skill creation (uncommon)
It was the same as one of the first he had gotten, but just better thanks to making an uncommon skill. His armor creation skill was certainly where it came from. He didn't have any more new fragments, so he moved on to trying to manipulate his fragments again. Last time there wasn't a lot that could be done due to lack of fragments to work with. This time he was able to do a bit more with them. He didn't know what to shape them into, but settled on attempting to recreate his hammer.
He used the Crafter fragment as the handle, stretching it out into the correct shape. It took a few tries to get the proportions right, as it seemed to always be trying to return to its natural cube shape. He kept it locked in place with his mind, preventing it from changing anymore. After getting it in place, he manipulated his Warrior fragment into the shape of the maul's head. It wasn't difficult, as it was mostly a rectangular shape.
It was comically oversized, seeing as it had more volume than the handle. He tried squishing it down, attempting to get it to the correct size. Surprisingly, he was able to get it to shrink. It glowed brighter as it got denser and denser. After getting to the size he wanted, he attached it to the Crafter fragment by jamming the handle through a hole he made through the head. After the pieces were in place, he tentatively let go of his will on the two pieces.
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The two fragments held shape as he released his mental grip on the two, much to Mike's delight. Just as he began mentally celebrating, a bright blue cube popped into existence, bigger and brighter than all the others. Its appearance startled Mike, causing him to unthinkingly throw his newly made hammer at the cube. It bounced off, not doing any noticeable damage. Realizing it was another fragment, he inspected it.
Fragment of the Prodigious Soul Smith (Rare)
Earned for creating a soul item without instruction before the first evolution.
Once again he felt the rarity did not fit the accomplishment. It had been a relatively easy feat, and yet he got a rare fragment for it. He wasn't so sure anymore that the difficulty alone was what determined the rarity, but he would have to find out some other time. He tried manipulating the rare fragment, attempting to find a way to add it on to his hammer, but found it heavily resisted his attempts at changing its shape.
He could move it around just fine, but it was steadfast in its desire to not change. He tried manipulating one of the uncommon fragments, and found them to also be resistant, though not nearly to the level of the rare one. He was able to slightly change the shape of it with extreme effort, but the most he could do with it was make another hammerhead. He replaced the existing head of his hammer with the new one, but found it quite unwilling to cooperate with the inferior fragments.
Mike spent a few hours on trying to shape the fragments, pulling, twisting, and moving them all about. He left his hammer alone for the moment, not wanting to have to repeat the process. After a while, he felt that he could manipulate them all a bit better, but still not enough to make anything meaningful out of the uncommon ones. Feeling that his practice was complete, he moved on to trying to incorporate his last common fragment into his hammer.
Fragment of skill creation (Common)
He had already decided on adding a spike to one end of the hammer, wanting more than just a blunt end to hit his enemies with. He began shaping the fragment into a spike shape that was about half as long as the head of the hammer was. After that, he tried figuring out how to secure it to the hammer. The handle had been easy, as he had just done what people did before the system, and jammed it through the hammers head.
The spike, however, would usually be the same piece of metal that the head was formed from. He tried a few different ways, including making a screw to try and fasten it. Unfortunately he still lacked the fine control required to create the necessary spiral. Eventually he tried seeing if he could somehow fasten the two pieces without needing to reshape them at all.
After more trial and error, he discovered that shaping them in a way where there was absolutely no gap between the two could make them stick together. It took a while, as getting a surface to be perfectly flat with nothing but your mind was near impossible. After just a few minutes of trying, he just shaped them both to push into one another until they had no gap. Once he tried releasing his grip on it, the shape held. He tried identifying the hammer, since apparently the system recognized it as an item, according to his new rare fragment.
Soul made Maul (Common) (Soulbound)
Made from the fragments of Mike Jones.
Well, that was a bit underwhelming. Pausing for a moment, he realized he had used an identity on something other than a living being. He wasn't sure if he couldn't do it before, or if he just never thought of it. He had to have at least tried it, right? Surely he had tried looking closely at literally any equipment he owned, if even just once.
Comforted by the absolutely true and irrefutable fact that he just now gained the ability to identify items, he continued on to the next part of the description. It was soulbound, which while interesting, he wasn't entirely sure what that meant. It gave him an idea as to what this whole process of making items in his soul was meant for, and he wanted to try it out.
He left his meditation, coming back into the world, still perched upon his tree. He was taken aback for a moment to see that the sun had already set, though he had been in his soul for quite a few hours. He tried feeling around his body, similar to when he first opened his system menu. He felt something else within him, also similar to when he pulled up his menu, but different in that it felt far more present. It was like constantly being aware you had something in your pocket from just the weight it held, but instead he felt it in his soul. He tried pulling on the feeling, confident his idea would work, and it did.
A glowing white maul appeared in his hand a moment later, shining briefly before lessening to a dim white glow. He could feel the weight of it, now more physical than before. It felt like it held a power more than just how hard he could swing it. The only problem that Mike had with it, was that it was the size of your classic, run of the mill hammer that anyone could buy at a local hardware store.