It took Jake nineteen days of constant practice before he could partially replicate lesser versions of his smithing skills to the point where he could produce small ingots of some different ores he found as he headed for his cave. He had two copper ingots, one steel ingot, and five tin ingots, which was enough to begin practising by making a handle for the sword he decided to craft out of the strange rock he found down in Zero's hideout.
Laying out all the ingredients in front of him, he began refining the strange rocks by placing them on the ground and forming a mana shield that encompassed all of the rocks but didn't touch them, as Jake didn't want to drain his limited mana into it. Then, pushing his hand through the barrier, he began heating the rocks. It took a long time before Jake could remove his hand from the barrier. His hand was as black as night, burnt by the excessive heat required to begin the refinement process. But it at least worked, and work it did; the rocks began to melt as the arcane energy started eating away at the barrier, using it as a fuel source to increase the heat inside. All Jake had to do now was maintain the barrier until the job was done. More time had passed than it had taken to melt any other metal before a beautiful glowing liquid began to solidify at the bottom of the makeshift cauldron.
“I guess I'm going to need to make the blade first. Well, after I rest for a bit.”
Jake slept for three days or more before his hand was healed. His hope was
to form the blade in a similar process to what a blacksmith would have used before the system—well, kind of; he was still using arcane energy to hammer the metal instead of a normal hammer, and the heat was also coming from arcane energy, but it was still the same in Jake's mind. He began heating the black metal,slowly bringing it up to temperature for the hammering process. Once the metal was glowing, Jake brought down the arcane hammer.
Bang!
The sound reverberated through the forest; birds screeched as they scattered into the wind and small creatures on the forest floor dug deep into the earth.
Bang!
Bang!
As the noise continued, even the rabbits began to hide.
Bang!
The noise continued for days, with only short reprieves; even the fox tribe could hear it from deep within their territory.
“Yes, I did it.” Jake held the pitch-black sword in his hands; it took on the same shape as a falchion, but with a slightly lengthened hilt, giving the user the ability to grasp it with one and a half hands if needed, and the blade had been ever so slightly lengthened. Jake went with the falchion because of its similar look to a machete, so Jake thought he might be able to use it. Even though he didn't know how to use a sword, he should be able to modify his fighting style a bit; he could swap out the daggers he used once he got out of the dungeon. But while he was in here, Jake poured mana into the sword. Blue veins filled the blade, and then the blade began expanding by half a foot as the edge glowed bright blue, before shooting a quick burst of arcane energy along the edge of the blade, lighting up the escaping mana. The flames roared on the blade's edge; the flames lasted for a minute before the arcane energy ran out. Thinking over the cost of using the new sword's special ability, Jake realised it was actually one of the most efficient methods he had in or outside of the dungeon. The mana he used was stored inside the blade and only slowly leaked out, while the arcane energy he used was less than the flame of a prayer candle.
“I need to practice,” Jake said as he walked deeper into the forest, while every five minutes he would put a little bit of mana into the sword just to keep it topped off and ready to go at all times. Ducking under a branch, Jake felt deep in his chest the unmistakable warning honk of a deer, along with the rustling of leaves and thumping of hooves on the wet forest floor. Jake let out a sigh.
“Bloody hell, I did it again. Five is right; I can't sneak for shit. Sure, if I just use shadows and teleport into them, it's fine, but that's just a crutch, and I'm pretty sure even that won't work for long. But then again, there's always the fact that I could be blown to bits at any time by some fucker in a big ship. So what do you do, Jake? Do you work on your hand-to-hand skills or just go for overpowering tech?”
Jake was quiet for some time before he spoke again.
“I can't go down the tech path; that is what Aaliyah has done, and her path has already ended. That only leaves me with one choice: absolute power. So what's your next step, Jake? Tech is not bad, but I can't use it as a crutch; it must be a means to an end, nothing more. So the first thing I do: do I work on stealth or do I just go with raw power? Raw power will only work if I have that power, and right now I don't. But then there's stealth, which I thought I had a good grasp on, but clearly not. Maybe I just go with a combination of both. Light on stealth and heavy on power; that sounds more like me than some assassination type or a brute fighting on the front line.” While Jake was talking to himself, he heard the voices of some rabbits up ahead, so he stopped moving and waited behind a small hill.
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“Why did it have to be us? The boss is a real prick. Yes, Hank, go check out that loud noise that stopped just as fast as it started. No, there won't be anything dangerous there; not like I want you dead or anything.”
“Well, maybe if you didn't sleep with his lady, we wouldn't be in this mess.”
“Oh, how hasn't slept with her? She has more children from random men than her own partner, for fuck's sake.”
“Yeah, but you didn't have to do it right there in front of him, did you?”
“Come on, she was asking for it. What was I to do, say no? Fucking hell, man, we're rabbits. It's what we do. I can't stand this new shit. No, you can't mate with whoever you want; we are civilised now. You can only have one mate. Well, fuck, I can't do that, so kill me.”
“I believe that is exactly what the boss is trying to do, Hank.” The other rabbit started laughing.
“Oh yeah, you keep laughing. You know you're also here with me, right?”
The rabbit that was laughing didn't stop but replied, “I know, right? I'm so dead, and the only thing I did wrong was hang around with you, you fucking arsehole. Some friend you turned out to be.”
Those were the last words the rabbit said before his body was bisected by a flaming sword right there in front of his friend.
“Ma–”
Jake slashed down on the rabbit's neck, activating the flame to its highest level. The poor little rabbit exploded, sending flaming chunks of meat in every direction.
“Well, that was gross,” a voice said from behind Jake. Swinging around, Jake saw two foxes.
“Still can't do the whole stealth thing, I see. Sometimes I wonder if you even try,” Five said.
“Well, we're not all sneaky arse transformed foxes now, are we?” Jake replied to the fox with the half-baked transformation skill.
“Yeah, there's no way I'm falling for that. Now, would you like to know about what we found out?”
“Fine, what did you find out?”
“Not much actually, although we may have found a pathway out of this level. And what's more, we believe there will be no need to attack those walking trees.”
“And that's what you call not much?”
“Yes, but we don't know if the path out is correct, and we're not 100% sure if the walking trees won't find us. Maybe Zero and I can get through, but at your current level of stealth, you won't.”
“Back to me being useless again. Don't worry about me; if you two can get out, go for it. I will find my own way out.” Jake was a bit depressed at his lack of skill, but he didn't want to hold back his friend.
“I'm not going to leave you here alone.”
“Five, don't worry about me. I have a plan to get out of here, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to take charge out there and move as many civilians as you can to the other world. Then head with them. I'm not going to be able to help out there for a while.”
“Can't you just leave with us at the safe zone?”
“Not likely the safe zone isn't part of the dungeon, the system won't let me out till it has had its fun.”
Zero looked strangely at Five for a second then said,
“I might not be able to leave with you, but I will get you there, my friend.”
“Leave, Five, this place has no benefits for you.” Jake said as he walked over to his friend, resting a hand on his shoulder. “I need you out there.”
Jake turned to leave when Five stopped him. “Don't get yourself killed.” Jake laughed and gave his friend a smile before leaving to find more rabbits to murder so he could refine his combat prowess.
I hope they make it out safely,Jake thought.
It took Jake half a day to find his next set of targets: two more rabbits. But this time he wanted to try sneaking up on the two. Jake slowly moved through the forest, keeping as many trees between himself and his targets. He slowly moved closer, trying to keep the wind in his face. With each step he took, Jake got closer to his targets, but at the same time, he became easier to detect. As he got within ten metres of them, his luck changed when the wind that was blowing towards him gusted in the other direction. The rabbit's nose shot up into the air, its whiskers twitching rapidly.
“It's the human, go.” The second rabbit rocketed through the forest, and before Jake could go after it, the little rabbit was gone. The last thing Jake saw of it was its little white tail flicking with every hop. Turning his head back to where the other rabbit was, he saw that rabbit was still there, holding in its hands a one metre long, rough-cut wooden spear.
“Well come on then you fucken murderer, let's just get this started.” The rabbit said before lunging directly at Jake, the spear screaming as it ripped apart Jake's calf. Slashing down with his mana-infused sword, he split the spear in half, but without activating his arcane energy, there was no flame. Even though the sword wasn't ablaze, it still easily sliced through the spear as if it wasn't wood but butter. Jake brought up the sword under the rabbit's throat. All that remained of the brave rabbit was its fluffy head flying through the air. Jake dropped to the ground, his leg in pain.
“Fuck, I need to get stronger. Being hurt this bad by a small rabbit with a stick. How far I have fallen. If it was before, I could have finished all this in an instant. It's got to be impossible to get worse than this. How pathetic.”
Rolling onto his stomach, he pushed himself up, resting on a nearby tree. Holding his sword in one hand, Jake snapped off a branch and, using it as a crutch, began slowly heading back to his small one-man cave.