A week later after the first dive into the dungeon arches, a final bang echoed through the air as a suspended Neil hammered an iron nail into one of the many two-storey ironwood houses. He slumped back on his makeshift suspended chair, sweat dripping from his pores, and pulled at his dark green plant fibre tank top, flapping it back and forth to push away the hot air under his tank top.
"Good grief... even with my new abilities this is still a chore...," Neil grumbled as a faint buzzing sound rattled beside his ear. Using her four new swarmer wings, Yai fluttered past Neil as she circled the house and checked between the house and the blueprint of said house.
"Seems about right," Yai remarked as she noticed the muntin glass window was slightly off from its intended location. Neil groaned at also noticing the window's misalignment to the blueprint, muttering he should've known he put another wall on backwards, and sighed as he flipped his iron hammer around so its claw side faced the house.
"Does it really matter? As long as it's in one piece, it should be fine, right?" Yai asked as she stopped beside Neil with the scrunched-up blueprint in her grip. Neil signed, tossing his hammer and the blueprint into his Inventory, before Yai and Regal grabbed the support ropes of Neil's suspended chair and carefully descended it to ground level.
Inside one of the four bedrooms of the recently constructed house, Zalroth sat on his bed, its wooden framed and wool bedding bouncing slightly from his weight.
"Phimona's handy work sure is something," Zalroth remarked as he peered over to the smaller beds in the corner of his room, where the two living swords lay in slumber and recalled the night they less than subtly took residence. Contemplating the reasoning behind the two swords claiming his room as theirs too, Zalroth closed his eyes. But he didn't mull over it for long, deeming recency bias the answer.
"I suppose that's an explanation...," Zalroth mentally uttered as he picked himself off his bed at the sound of frantic metalic clanging flooded in through the window, "Seems Nagami's finished with her project.". Zalroth raised a hand, a cyan grid-like pop-up appearing before his hand as he open his Inventory. Drifting his finger over the square-encased icons, Zalroth sifted through his Inventory with a keen eye for his clothing inside the sea of ore, monster loot, and miscellaneous items.
He double-tapped a few icons, a bundle of cyan Hexa encased his plain black fur shirt and dark red fur trousers, completely obscuring them as the Hexa particles altered their arrangement before bursting off him revealing his new gear.
(Zalroth is wearing a hip-low dark red direwolf pelt cloak, black cotton-looking plant fibre tunic, plain trousers made of a silver sting and a plant fibre compound, dark red fur winter boots)
Zalroth gazed at his new attire, noticing the small dove insignia woven into each of them, raising the end of his cloak to his face before letting it drop and wave around.
[Activated Ability: Material Coating]
The fur of his cloak and boots rustled, both drooping slightly before both became coated in a coating of iron. Zalroth mildly adjusted his armour and took a few steps around his room, checking the added weight didn't affect his or his clothing's mobility.
"Seems stable enough," Zalroth mentioned, briefly heading to leave the room before Gnawraul's mumbling caught his attention.
"Hurry up... and get to level five.. zundrend already," Gnawraul bumbled in her sleep with agitation. Staring at the sleeping swords, Zalroth shook his head, deeming a retort worthless as the swords wouldn't even hear it while in their hibernating state.
[Activated Talent: Status]
[Zalroth Akikou][Level: 536]
[HP: 4500][Hexa: 4850]
[Class: Creation Crest]
[Vitality: 450][Stamina: 225]
[Attack: 250][Hexa Proficiency: 350]
[Defence: 280][intelligence: 485]
[Agility: 360][Speed: 288]
[Avaliable Points: 0]
"Perhaps, if you hadn't gone into hibernation three days ago you've got what you wanted," Zalroth uttered as he closed his status and opened his Skill panel.
[Activated Talent: Skill/Abilities]
[Zalroth's New Skills]
[Unique Skills]
[Crest Share]
-The user can apply an inverted Creation Crest on a person or object and allow them to use any skills the user has acquired using Crest Copy-
[Crest Gamble]
-The user can spend 10 crest credits to randomly improve one of the crest series of skills-
[Crest Copy: Credit Conversion]
-The user can instead of gaining a new skill/ability can instead gain crest credit(s)-
[Crest Creation]
-The user can spend 5000 crest credits to create a unique skill/ability-
[Skills]
[Flame Blast]
[Level: 3][Cost: 130 Hexa]
-User fires a large wave of flames at their target that does 330% of the user's attack and 280% of intelligence-
[Gale Blade]
[Level: 3][Cost: 130 Hexa]
-User fires a large barrage of condensed wind blades at their target that does 330% of the user's attack and 280% of intelligence-
[Thunder Wave]
[Level: 3][Cost: 130 Hexa]
-The user fires a small sphere of lightning at their target that explodes into a 15-meter AoE which does 330% of the user's attack and 280% of intelligence-
[Frostbite Armament]
[Level: 3][Cost: 465 Hexa]
-The user can coat parts of their body/weapons in condensed opaque ice that increases the user's physical attack by 330% of user's attack and 280% of intelligence when using ice magic, and increases the user's defence by 220% along with making all the user's physical attacks of the ice element-
-Armor coating has 55% of the user's Max Hexa, and 80% of the user's base defence-
[Detect(Creature)]
-The user's map displays all nearby creatures on their map when the skill is active or gets a sense of nearby creatures when the map isn't open.
[Level: 4]
-100 meters-
[Zalroth's New Abilities]
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[Unique Abilities]
[Power Infuser]
-The user can infuse the properties of a skill/ability into another skill/ability-
[Blessed Crest][Unique]
-User has a 0.1% chance to receive a tailored skill/ability when fighting a boss-type monster-
[Crest Select: Bounce][Passive]
-When a target with a Creation Crest is defeated, there is a 35% chance for nearby opponents without a crest to gain one-
"These sure would've been handy if I had these before helping everyone level up, especially the bounce ability," Zalroth grumbled exhaustedly, a half-baked frown on his face as he tried to make himself mad but gave up on it, figuring he wouldn't get any more worthwhile skills/abilities from the swarmer dungeon arch anyway.
"YES! I got it to at least five hundred!" Nagami exclaimed in pure glee before a loud thud, with two fainter ones, shortly followed outside Zalroth's house. After swiping all his RPG panels away, Zalroth failed to stifle a small smirk and sauntered out of his bedroom, leaving the magical sword duo to slumber in peace.
Zalroth walked through his house, taking quick strides across the second-floor walkway. As he walked in front of the bedroom door next to his room, he dramatically increased his speed, intentionally stomping his feet to make as much noise as possible. Despite his efforts, Chronia continued overpowering his stomping with her snoring alone.
"Good grief," Zalroth uttered, stopping beside the door of Chronia's bedroom and raising a hand to the door. He pulled his fist back, mildly winding it up to knock on the door, before moving it towards the door. He halted his hand mere inches from the door, the sound of Chronia's snoring abruptly halting catching Zalroth's attention.
"Hampter...," a sleepy Chronia mumbled from inside the bedroom. Zalroth blankly stared at the door before slumping his shoulders in resignation, deciding he'd let Chronia sleep in so she wouldn't be able to tail him on his excursion out of the forest.
Zalroth stepped out of his house, the breeze of the early morning blowing past him while struggling to make his cloak budge. He peered around, casting his gaze across everyone going about their morning, before noticing Nagamai sprawled out on the ground in a sweat: wearing pale brown full-body blacksmith overalls, solidified pink slime framed blacksmith googles, and solidified pink slime boots.
He sauntered over. Nagami stared blankly at the sky, her gaze only shifting as Zalroth entered her field of view.
"Mind telling me why you keep making a racket outside my house every day instead of your forge?" Zalroth asked unamusedly, casting his gaze at the silver leather scabbard containing a long sword. Using the little energy she had recovered, Nagami weakly pulled her noodle arms off the ground, causing them to wobble like jelly before they flopped back to the ground. She tried to kick up her feet but despite how much she tried, she only managed to wiggle her feet. Nagami angrily huffed, cursing herself for her self-destructive work ethic.
"Enhancing got boring, decided to walk around while doing it," Nagami said between sparse breaths, her voice slightly hoarse from her exhaustion. Zalroth stared down at the lethargic Nagami, watching her squirm around like a worm before he sighed. He reached down to her, grabbing both her and the scabbarded sword; hoisting her off the ground, Nagami involuntarily groaned in pain and relief as her back curved into the shape of a banana and her spine repeatedly popped.
"You aren't getting some twisted satisfaction from making me carry you every day?" Zalroth questioned, inquiring as to Nagami's motives as he saw the satisfaction oozing from Nagami's face. Completely ignoring Zalroth's question, Nagami basked in the overwhelming pleasure of the tension in her spine being stretched out of her.
"Just... think of this as reimbursement for... making Kotatzugami for you," Nagami mumbled, wiggling her finger in the direction of the scabbard-cladded longsword. Zalroth rolled his eyes in frustration and hoisted her even higher off the ground, leading her overall straps to tighten against her shoulders. Nagami's relaxed expression froze, slowly morphing into a strained one as she turned a pale blue from her shoulder straps constricting her neck.
"Gonna knock it off?" Zalroth asked sternly, casting an unamused glare at Nagami. Pulling at the shoulder straps to lessen their grasp on her neck, Nagami desperately flailed her head in a vaguely nodding motion as her blue hue gradually increased. Zalroth defeatedly sighed before releasing Nagami, allowing her to drop to the ground and make a huffing noise as she landed on her butt. Nagami faintly coughed and rubbed the sides of her neck, mildly giggling as she staggered to her feet.
"Heh...guess you're not much of a pushover, ey?" Nagami remarked, cheekily grinning while adjusting her blacksmith overalls. Nagami added, "Then for Kotatzugami, I'd like you to collect lots of interesting materials for me; oh, and also give me massages whenever I have to make gear on short notice like you did.". Zalroth adverted his eyes, scoffing at her request, before thrusting a thumb into her shoulder. A sharp jolt shot through her causing Nagami to tense up before going limp like a noodle.
"That isn't what I had in mind by a massage...," Nagami grumbled defeatedly, despite the content smile on her face. Sighing in mild disappointment, Zalroth picked Nagami back off the ground and placed her on her feet.
"It's like all the blacksmithing, made your common sense go out the window," Zalroth grumbled as he turned his focus to the very sword which caused the situation.
[Activated Skill: Appraisal(Level:3)]
[Kokatzugami(Super)][Level: 500]
-A dark rouge metal longsword; it has a silver stretched four-pointed star-shaped cross-guard with a triangle-shaped ruby socketed in its centre, a black leather-covered handle, and a cone-shaped mythril pummel-
[Attack: 10000]
[Defence: 2000]
[Intellegence: 8000]
[Compounding Pressure]
-The user can stack the same skill through the longsword, compounding their effects until the user unleashes them-
-Using a different skill causes the original skill(s) to be removed and the user is refunded 20% of the Hexa used-
[Mythril Defence]
-When Hexa is channelled into the sword the user's defence increases by 8 times-
[Kokatzugami's Scabbard(Very Rare)][Level: 341]
-A silver leather longsword scabbard-
[Intellegence: 4550]
[Stamina: 1929]
[Compounding Storage]
-The user can store the skills being compounded by Compounding Pressure into it, removing it from the original and then can be reapplied later-
[Silver Combat Knife(Rare)][Level: 67]
[Intelligence: 575]
[Attack: 430]
[Silver Blessing]
-Elemental attacks do 50% more DMG-
[Direwolf Pelt cloak(Rare)][Level: 85]
[Defence: 900]
[Vitality: 460]
[Wolvern Pride]
-DMG received from physical attacks are reduced by 25% and DMG from elemental attacks by 15%-
[Silver Plant Fibred Compound Trousers(Rare)][Level: 76]
[Agility: 588]
[Stamina: 552]
[Silver Veil]
-Elemental RES increased by 40%-
[Direwolf Fur Boots(Rare)][Level: 67]
[Speed: 383]
[Stamina: 555]
[Wolvern Pride]
-DMG received from physical attacks are reduced by 25% and DMG from elemental attacks by 15%-
Feeling like a truck crashed head-on into him, Zalroth slightly jumped at seeing the stats of his equipment almost making his soul leave his body. He exhaled through his nose, a tinge of guilt crawling under his skin as a shiver before he attached the scabbard to his side.
"I'll ask Neil and the others to make their next project a hot spring," Zalroth stated as he turned around, checking his surroundings until spotting the group waiting for him.
"And the mas-.".
"Don't push your luck," Zalroth uttered coldly. Nagami sinisterly grinned, contemplating with glee at how far she could potentially stretch Zalroth's patience; Zalroth grabbed her by the back of her overalls, brought her to his eye level, and gave her an unamused death stare. Left with no choice, Nagami could only hang there and giggle nervously as Zalroth carried her towards the others.