Chapter 8 - Curved Sword

Blake was woken up by a very weird creepy laugh. It sounded like someone was trying very hard to hold back huge laughter but failing. Flustered he looked around but saw that he was alone in the room; that is until he looked up to see Aaron floating above him. Having been surprised by the sight, he nearly fell off the bed but he just barely managed to catch himself. “Why were you laughing. You scared me half to death?” he exclaimed.

“Well I was bored since I don’t sleep so I was looking at your stats and noticed that you gained a new skill, limus. It’s from the slime, I couldn’t help myself. It’s extremely rare to get a skill this way, and you get one first your first time but it’s from a slime.” Aaron laughed. “It’s a real pity.”

“What does it do?” Blake asked.

“Why don’t we go try it out?” Aaron suggested. Blake didn’t feel like it but still got up, out of bed. He was sure to be quiet as he went outside. The sky was still dark, the sun had yet to come out, and there was a nice breeze. It was a refreshing change for him. He walked into the forest as always.

“Okay, we’re here. Any idea of what to do?” he asked, but Aaron shook his head no.

“I’ve never had or seen someone who had this skill. The only thing that I know is that limus means slime.” Aaron said.

“Just great.” Blake thought. He had no idea of what to do, so he thought back to the sensation of the slime on his hand. It was a weird sensation, squishy and slippery. As he remembered he started to feel it again. He looked over at his hand to see a weird slimy substance coming out of his hand.

He tried shaking it off but it had started gushing out. Aaron just kept laughing at the mess Blake was making. He started to think about wanting it to stop coming out and it stopped. “Do I just have to think about it to activate it?” he pondered. He tried again, slime was coming out of his hand once more and then it stopped when he wanted it to.

“Oh wow.” Aaron clapped. “You actually figured out how to use it. Too bad that it’s probably useless.”

“No it’s not useless, I can think of one good use for it already.” Blake responded with an oddly creepy smile.

“If you say so. Are you going back to sleep?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know if could right now. I might as well get the fireballs and swings out of the way now.” Aaron nodded and watched as Blake continued the training. He launched three fireballs and swung the stick twelve times before he called it quits.

“Let’s go back, we’ll go hunt another slime soon.” Aaron said. Blake walked back to the house and laid back down on the bed, drifting into a peaceful sleep.

The days passed and he continued to practice every day, before he knew it, a month of waking up in the morning to train had passed; he kept leveling up. Before he knew it, the shy Anna had gotten very comfortable around him and kept forcing him to play with her. (He would give in as soon as she brought out the puppy dog eyes.) One day early in the morning after doing his training he turned to Aaron. “Hey Aaron, are birthdays a big deal here?” he asked. Aaron scratched the back of his head.

“I don’t seem to understand what you are asking.” He responded.

“It’s just that where I come from, birthdays are treated as important events. They are celebrated with family and friends.” Aaron now understanding the question shook his head side to side.

“Not really, here they strictly represent the day you were born and not much else.” Aaron responded. Blake didn’t mind that there was no party but he was secretly hoping for some kind of present so he was a little bit down. He made his way back with his spirits low. “Although thinking back now, there is one thing that reminds me of your so called birthdays.” Aaron grabbed all Blake’s attention at once.

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“Do you get a present?” he asked.

“I don’t remember the exact details.” Aaron admitted. “What I do remember is that it’s when a boy turns fifteen, he goes out on a few days journey to hunt a bear or other large creature. If successful, the entire town will have a party and the boy has become a man.”

“That’s definitely deserving of some kind of present or reward.” He thought. “Well I guess I can hope.” He continued his walk back and opened the door. Before he could even take one step he noticed that someone was blocking the door. He looked up to see Norman.

“It’s time son.” Blake just tilted his head in confusion, but he took him by the hand and started walking to his man cave. “Your seventh birthday is actually two days away but I convinced your mother to let you start today.” If Blake had been excited before, now he was ecstatic. The day had finally arrived. He had an idea of what he what type of sword he wanted to make, but first he had to learn about it.

Upon entering the room, Blake could see that it had changed very little from the first time. There were still tools and weapons hung on the wall, the only difference was that now instead of one anvil in the middle of the room, there were two.

Norman let go of his hand, “Okay! I want you to do as I do.” he grabbed two hammers that were laying on a table; one was smaller than the other. He handed the smaller one to Blake. Norman had been carrying it so easily but it wasn’t as light as it looked. It took a lot of Blake to just hold it.

Without delay Norman lit the fire in the fireplace and, he put two pieces of metal in the fire. He moved a stool closer to the anvil so Blake could reach. After 5 minutes he took them out and laid them on the anvils; the pieces of metal were glowing a bright orange color.

Norman took a swing at the metal; unlike last time when he used a high level skill, it completely flattened the metal. “Don’t just stare, you can hit it too.” he said. Blake looked at the hammer in his hand and then at glowing metal. He took a swing and made the slightest dent.

“This is going to be tougher than I thought.” He kept hitting it for a while.

“Good, now that you have done that, you should have gotten the basic blacksmithing skill. Just imagine what the sword you want to make and hit the metal according to what the skill tells you.” Norman said. Blake looked at the glowing orange in front of him but saw nothing. He tried to visualize the sword he wanted to make and he immediately knew where to hit. Not that it did much of a difference since he could barely make a dent to the metal itself.

After a few hours, he had finally made a little bit of progress. He could see it taking shape; he could hardly wait. Although he did think it was annoying that he had to keep heating the metal since it always cools down. By the end of the day he had only finished half of it.

“Not bad son. I’m impressed you got so much done.” Norman told him.

“Easy for you to say, you finished like five swords.” He thought.

The next day was another tough day for Blake. He woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. He had to wait until Norman woke up and started to work so that he could continue from where he left off the previous day. He immediately started to work and kept trying to finish his sword as quickly as he could.

“Don’t rush, take your time or it won’t come out correctly.” Aaron warned, but Blake didn’t listen. He finished the blade but it was extremely crooked. “What did I tell you?” He felt a pat on the back right when he finished.

“Don’t worry son, everyone has a failure or two at the start. Take your time and make your sword.” Norman told him. Blake immediately got started on another piece of metal but told himself to take his time. He took him three days to finish but he it came out exactly how he imagined. Blake hadn’t noticed it with the first sword but when he finished, the sword already had a guard.

“Got to love these game like mechanics.” He thought. He left the room and headed to his. It was late and he was going to sleep but, Aaron appeared. He looked at the curve in Blake’s sword and shook his head.

“I guess you just don’t have talent for this. I also had one failure right at the beginning but my second one was okay. Just keep trying I guess.” Aaron said. Blake started to laugh.

“No, this one came out fine.” He responded. This just seemed to confuse Aaron, and the realization hit Blake. “Oh, I didn’t consider that you hadn’t seen this before. This is a sword that comes from my world. The curve is supposed to be there. It’s a type of sword called a katana. Granted I never had one since it was never available, but I’ve always wanted one; so this was the perfect opportunity to get one.”

“If you say so.” Aaron shrugged.

   “Let’s test it out tomorrow.” Blake exclaimed.