After Jinir's coronation ceremony, Crane was called by one of the attendants to follow him downstairs where he was asked to wait in a large stone room. Crane guessed from the interior walls and the thick door in the back that he was in the guard room near the entrance to the castle's dungeon. Crane did what had become a habit when he had to wait and took out his carving knife and some wood, but no sooner had he made his first cut did the door open revealing a long line of nervous looking noblemen. The first passed through the room and into the dungeon followed by the rest. Crane counted a few dozen entering before Jinir came through the door at the tail end of the group.
Crane had a flashback of when he lead a group of monsters to kill a large number of noblemen underground and vaguely wondered if he would see a repeat show. Jinir said to Crane, "Follow me, I want to speak with you afterwards." At least Crane wouldn't be apart of the massacre should there be one.
Within the dungeon was a room large enough to accommodate all the noblemen Jinir had called with some room to spare. The men talked amongst themselves about what was going on, none of them seemed to have any ideas. Crane saw that the seven noblemen who hired the Dark Djinns to rescue Jinir were also there but they too seemed clueless as to what was going on as well.
Jinir appeared from a hallway dragging in chains the man who, only a day before, was the ruler of the kingdom, Daxes. Jinir threw him before the noblemen and said, "I am going to interrogate my uncle on all the deeds he misused the power of the throne for. But before I do so I will give you men a chance. Anyone who has done something to shame their office can admit to doing so now by stepping forward."
Several people began twitching nervously. One of the men who was sweating the most consciously stepped forward. Jinir show no hostility, which prompted a few more to step forward. After a few minutes, it seemed like no one else would step forward, so Jinir continued speaking. "I see." However against everyone expectations, Jinir suddenly whipped his arm out at his uncle. Crane saw the instant extension and retraction of his shadow in the motion. The next moment, Daxes's whimpering stopped, and his head fell to the ground.
Jinir continued, "Truth be told I do not care what any of you have done before this point. That means nothing to me. I grew up in a prison and have done things far worse than most of you just to survive. I don't expect perfection. That being said, I will not accept deception or insubordination. From this point on you men will only be punished under two conditions, if you disobey my order, or try to deceive me. If you do something unbefitting of your position, do not try to hide it. If I disapprove, I shall order you to stop. That is all. You are dismissed back to your posts."
The nobles slowly walked around the body headless body of their former king, blood still dripping from his neck throughout Jinir's speech. They dared not speak until they were sure Jinir was out of earshot.
Crane walked up to Jinir and said, "Effective. I didn't think a person could make ruling a kingdom so simple."
Corruption and conspiracy within were some of the most dangerous components within a kingdom. But Jinir basically said nothing was illegal until he said it was except for hiding what you were doing. In such a system, blackmail threats of the past were useless since even if someone did something illegal in the past, the king didn't care so the threat of revealing such a thing was useless. In fact any who were controlled through blackmail could bring his deeds t the king himself and get off with a 'don’t do it again.'
Both corruption and conspiracy would be rendered useless, if the nobles obey the honesty policy then Jinir would know what they were up to and if they didn't then Jinir's newly acquired lie detection skill would see through them.
In a single meeting he removed all the challenges brought forth from being a king.
Jinir said, "I thought you would approve. Now, I need to know what you intend to do."
What a single user does should have no consequence to a king but Jinir understood the reach that this user's plans had. Should Crane's plans interfere with Jinir's own, it would be in Jinir's best interest that Crane never left the dungeon.
Knowing that lying was pointless Crane said, "Well, I want to gain access to the Mordin Shrine, the forest of Gorfil, the temple of Resshin, the island of Ur, the cave of Sartiel, and the Dorack mountain range. For starters."
Now Jinir seemed dumbstruck. At each of the locations was a either a method to make Crane stronger or possibly a new rune to discover, but Jinir had no way to know that. Jinir had in fact been expecting a far more impressive goal considering how much effort was put into reaching it.
After a moment Jinir said, "Most of those are places that an outsider would never be allowed to enter. All of them however are in kingdoms that were once part of the Muspelheim empire. You mean that you took the effort to make me king so that I would reclaim these kingdoms and then allow you access to these places once they were under my control?..."
Crane smiled and said, "That about sums it up. My first stop was going to be the Resshin temple."
The Resshin temple was built on the northern mountain range but had been closed by the late King Daxes. It was however one of the few places Crane listed that he could access immediately within the kingdom should it be re-opened.
Jinir nodded and said, "Very well, but take some men with you. I have some tasks that require a small team of skilled soldiers and my uncle left the military in a poor state. Take some men and train them the best you can, and I'll give you the quests as the head of the team."
Crane answered, "Alright, but I want to pick them out myself from your army. It would be easiest if you could get them all to one spot so I can talk to them."
Jinir said, "I can have a general arrange it that all the men show up tomorrow and arrange a time for you to pick them out. We have 1700 soldiers, about 400 can be taken out from any position without trouble. You will have to chose from these. How long will it take you to pick amongst them? They can't stay there all day."
Crane smiled and said, "Don't worry, it won’t take long."
After buying a large amount of hard wood, Crane go to work carving. The method of training he thought of required wooden weapons and Crane wanted a large variety.
You have learned new Skill: Weapon Carving
Crane had carved wooden knives before but he had never made so many wooden weapons at once and had received a skill for it. “Open Skill Window: Weapon Carving.”
Weapon Carving [1] 0%
Weapons carved out of wood are stronger and more resilient.
After thinking about it for a moment Crane scrapped the wooden weapons he had and made new ones. He was pleased to see the stats of his wooden weapons now had a higher durability and slightly higher attack. After making a large set of wood weapons he forged three steel weapons and carved runes into each. Now he was ready to sort out the soldiers.
The next day Crane was brought to a stage overlooking the training grounds where a square of twenty rows of twenty soldiers stood in formation. Crane took out six weapons of the weapons he made the previous night and placed them upright on the stage where they could easily been seen. As both a wooden weapon and rune engraved composite steel weapon Crane had on both sides of him a hand axe, long sword, and broadsword.
He placed the three steel rune weapons to his left and the three wooden weapons to his right. Then he said in a voice that echoed all the way to the back, "I will take some of you and make you stronger. How you become stronger is up to you. Under my command you can train with a weapon like this," he picked up the longsword with four Thurisaz runes carved into it, "a weapon that has magic applied to it making it stronger. If you fight with it you will kill monsters quickly and raise your level faster." Crane even swung the sword which sent a thunder wave out above the heads of the soldiers causing some excitement at the idea of possessing the sword. Crane then put it down and picked up the carved wooden sword and said, "Or you can train with this, this wooden weapon will deal less damage than a regular sword so you will have to attack more often to kill an enemy, slowing your leveling speed but also increasing how much you raise your skill proficiency and overall weapon skill per level."
No one sounded very excited about training with a wooden weapon. Crane then said, "Those of you who wish to train with the enhanced weapons, exit to the wall on my left, those who wish to train with the wooden weapons, exit to the wall on my right."
Crane even pointed to each exit with the corresponding weapon. People were practically pushing eachother out of the way to leave through the exit to Crane's left. They wanted the power of the magic sword he showed them, and it made sense that to become stronger you raise your level. Crane waited a few minutes for the whole of the crowd to leave before walking to the right exit.
On the other side of the wall were a few people, Crane counted them up to find the number only reached seventeen.
Crane went up to the group and said, "Gratz, you guys all pass."
"Wait, what?" The exclamation came from behind Crane where he saw the general who had organized everything. the man continued, "What kind of selection was that? What is it these guys have that the others don't?"
Crane picked out one of the seventeen and said, "What's your name?"
"Clint," the aloof man answered.
"Well Clint, time to show your stuff, explain to the general why you choose to train with a wooden weapon over the supercharged magic weapon."
Clint took a deep breath, sighed, then took another and began speaking. "Well sir, against the same opponent with a wooden sword, you would have to attack several times without getting killed yourself to defeat an opponent. With that super weapon you could defeat an opponent with fewer hits and not worry so much about defending."
The general interrupted, "That is why it is obviously the better choice!"
Clint sighed again and said, "Yes sir, for fighting, but this is training. Imagine if someone trained against a monster that the super sword could defeat in two hits, but the wooden sword took ten hits to beat. Now imagine that someone trained against this monster for a month with the super sword, and someone else trained with the wooden sword for a month without dying."
Clint paused to make sure the thick general understood the scenario before he continued, again after a sigh, "Now imagine that the two guys were each given a normal sword and told to fight. The guy who trained with the super sword, the one used to killing his opponents easily would just swing his sword, the only thing he needed to do during his training. But the guy who trained with the wooden sword, who had a difficult time would have learned how to hit rapidly to accumulate damage faster and avoid attacks while attacking since he never killed anything with one hit. Now between these two, who would win?"
The answer was obvious however not everyone thought of training in the long term in such a way, in fact only seventeen out of four hundred of these soldiers did.
Crane said, "Thankyou general, give my regards to the other men and the king of course."
The man left without a word and Crane said to the group, "Before we start I want everyone to introduce yourselves and get to know one another."
Crane got out ten more wooden swords and ten other weapons.
"I want everyone to pick a weapon and a partner, Clint, since the number is odd you're with me." Clint sighed and Crane continued, "The weapon mastery you have up to this point is nothing compared to what you will gain during this training, therefore now is the best time to try out different weapons and see what you feel you work best with. I carved the weapons myself so if you would like some adjustments on the weapon you choose or had another idea for a weapon you wanted, just ask."
Clint sighed and walked over to the pile where he picked up a Bo staff before getting out of the way for the others to browse through the selection. Some quickly picked up swords but some were adventurous enough to pick up the tonfas, the wooden fists (like iron knuckles that cover the whole hand), the short paired short sticks, the wooden knives, the wooden hand axes, and the wooden mace. Crane himself was going to fight unarmed.
After seeing that everyone had a partner he said, “Alright, we will practice at an even pace for thirty minutes. For the first ten one will attack and the other defend, switch for the next ten and for the last ten free sparring. After which will be a ten minute break where you can choose a new weapon or keep the one you have. Decide who will attack and defend first then begin.”
Crane looked at his lackluster opponent and said, “You attack first.”
Clint sighed again and tried to sweep the bo staff at Crane with one hand. Crane took a step forward and tapped the center of the bo staff which caused its to bend towards Crane then whip backwards and right out of Clint’s hand. Crane said, “ The best way to use a large weapon is with small movements. Grab the stick at two point and think of three ways to deliver a strong attack using small quick movements, then practice them for five minutes. I’ll check on the other guys.”
The guys with swords, knives and axes were doing ok, most soldiers can figure out how to use them, but the two guys who took tonfas, the guy with the short (one meter in length) pair of sticks, and the guy with the the wooden knuckles didn’t seem to have a knack for their weapons. Crane gave pointers to each. With a heavier fist the wooden knuckles were best with straight line punches, the tonfas uses at close range range were different from their uses at mid range, and the sticks required some minor footwork while striking that increased range and speed.
Crane went back to Clint who was practicing three distinct strikes. Clint tried a short thrust, quick low sweep, and a diagonal strike with the tip of the staff. Crane dodged in ways that showed small faults in Clint’s technique he could improve on like retracting the thrust quickly before Crane caught it, aiming just above the knee on the low sweep instead of the foot, and twisting his hip on the diagonal strike to increase speed.
After five more minutes had passed Crane yelled, “Switch.”
Crane then begun attacking Clint at a pace he could dodge while slowly increasing his speed. However Clint had no idea how to use the staff to defend without attacking. Crane asked for the staff so he could demonstrate basic blocking skills. Clint tried to punch Crane, but as he did, Crane aligned the edge of the staff with Clint’s striking fist and bopped it while quickly rotating the staff with his wrist. When the edge of the staff made contact with Clint’s wrist the spinning cause the punch to be deflected outward. Clint’s lazy appearance broke for a moment. To someone who didn’t know how much power rotation could impart on a technique, what he had just seen may have looked like magic. Crane showed him three moves that used a quick rotation to deflect attacks and had him practice it while Crane went around checking on the other guys.
The varied weapon practice kept up until everyone had chosen a weapon and Crane was satisfied with their capabilities with it. Crane was actually surprised that after practicing the defense skills, Clint stuck with the Bo staff and seemed a bit more lively. Just a bit.
When it was time for Crane to log out for lunch he brought everyone to a section with practice dummies and told them to practice until they got the mastery skill for their weapon. Once they had it they were to free spar until Crane’s return, which he told them would be in a few hours.
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After logging out, Do Hyup moved his legs out of the capsule where he placed himself on his wheelchair with the strength of his arms alone. His legs were slightly sore, a sign that the electric muscle stimulators had recently been active on them, contracting and releasing various muscle groups in his legs likely for the past hour. He checked his cell phone to see he had two new text messages, one from his mom, the other from his best friend
“Lunch is in the microwave when you get hungry.”
-Mom
“My capsule is coming in today, any pointers?”
-Yoochun
It wasn’t that his mother wasn’t home, she was just in her room. Hyup found out only recently that the Unicorn company truck that came to install Crane’s capsule had in fact installed a total of three capsules in his house. Crane had one in his room and his mother and father had one apiece in their room. In other words his parents had been playing Royal Road just as long as he had. When he asked why they never said anything his mom answered that they didn’t want to seem like they were watching over him. Both his mom and dad started in the Kingdom of Haven so he had of course never ran into them. And while they answered questions he had of them, they refrained from asking him, satisfied with whatever he was willing to share with them.
Crane texted his mom- “Thankyou,” she would read it when she next got out and he texted Yoochun- “You were born as yourself, in the game you can be something else, don’t let the opportunity pass by.”
The message had several meanings and Hyup wondered which Yoochun would take from it.
The microwave had some fried chicken, homemade by his mom with her own blend of spices. After microwaving it for thirty seconds they were steaming hot. He took took the food to his computer and logged onto a special website. His guild, the Dark Djinns, had a website which Crane was given a login ID and password to after becoming an Active member recently. His guild points, currently 1765, was displayed in the upper corner of the screen. From this site, Crane could chat on forums with other guild members, trade and sell information to other guild members, buy information from the guild with guild points, or sell information to the guild for guild points.
After first logging in he used a few points searching for info the guild had on runes. Rune spells, runes themselves, or locations that depict runes.
Several searches, (the searches themselves costing points) said that the guild had one available match, a single member of the guild with a rune related class who the guild would contact for you for a fee of 25 guild points.
Hyup was sure he knew who the person it was talking about was so he didn’t bother.
Although the site didn’t have much info for him to buy, there was still things he could sell. Hyup perused the listings for anything he might recognize.
-Info needed on the lair of the Black Hydra
-Location needed of the Temple of Joelerick
-Introduction needed to the Sage Lorendo
-Searching for information on the NPC, Claudius Silver.
-Ancient language translator needed.
-Contact info needed of a blacksmith who can make Mithril armor
That last one made Crane want to go further into blacksmithing, so on impulse alone he searched for blacksmithing skills and came upon a list of skills, relating to blacksmithing and a guild point price on each for info on how to learn the skills.
Sharpening- 30
Polishing- 30
Mineral Refining-60
Equipment Enhancement- 300
Crane knew that he would get Sharpening and Polishing as a skill when he got to intermediate but the other two he didn’t recognize. He clicked on Mineral refining and accepted the 60 point charge in points.
Mineral Refining:
A skill used to refine ores by removing impurities, converting them into useful materials.
It requires a deep understanding of fire, water, and metal.
Obtained after refining two different types of ores.
Hyup almost smacked his head. The town he learned smithing in had only a iron mine around so although he was skilled in purification he had never refined anything other iron.
Crane clicked on Equipment Enhancement. 300 was a large amount but he didn’t have anything else he wanted to use it on.
Equipment Enhancement:
The blacksmith’s hand can draw out the hidden potential of equipment. After noticing various imperfections in equipment, they can be corrected.
Acquired at or after intermediate level blacksmithing is acquired after having made a large amount of different objects. Swords, axes, hammers, knives, steel pole arms and various types of armors must be made en masse to understand what works and what doesn’t while blacksmithing.
Hyup nodded. The method to acquire it was not so much a secret as a training regimen but it was something to do. Now that Hyup had a small group he could use to test weapons he felt he would be able to achieve the prerequisite before he hit intermediate level blacksmithing. His finished his meal and put the plate in the dishwasher before heading back to his capsule.
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Crane was pleased to see that all seventeen men were free sparring, meaning they had each acquired the mastery skill for their respective skills. Crane had them all line up and display it for him. Besides the guys with sword mastery who kept swords, the other guys had gotten their weapon mastery to about fifty percent of the first level. Crane needed one of the guys to switch to hammers and he needed Clint to try out some steel polearms if he wanted to get the Equipment enhancement skill when he hit intermediate blacksmithing. Crane told them all to get some rest and that the next day they would be heading out for extensive training.
After leaving the barracks the first thing Crane wanted to do was go to the local commodity exchange and buy 1500 gold worth of silver ore. He could have just bought silver ingots but he needed the experience purifying non-iron ores. The ore itself was cheap so he had been able to buy a massive volume of it but that was because all but the highest grade of silver ore yielded very low amounts of silver when smelting. He also bought a large amount of galena, a mineral crystal made silicon and lead, as well as bone ash, mortar powder, and more large cement crucibles.
- Current weight has exceeded strength capacity.
Penalty: 25% increase in stamina consumption rate.
Crane slowly trotted away from the exchange, his feet pressing hard into the ground with each step of his overencumbered soles searching for a open area.
After finding a spot Crane got out several piles of what appeared to be useless rocks, dust, and sand. The first thing he did was make a mold of clay for an ashtray shaped container called a cupel. Crane heated the clay with his Kenaz spell until it was solid. He then got out a bowl and filled it with bone ash, a bit of mortar, some water, and mixed them together. He then scooped it into the mold and heated it till the mortar dried and solidified it into a bone ash cupel.
Crane used all the bone ash to make about sixty cupels. After which he started with the silver. In a crucible the size of a coffee pot Crane put silver ore, charcoal dust, sand, and galena. After capping and sealing the rim with clay he heated it beyond the melting point of silver with Kenaz, and slightly shook it while keeping it heated for a minute. Crane then set it down and did the same thing with the same mixture in another crucible, doing so until he had used up every single crucible.
Skill Level Up: Rune Call [5]
Skill Level Up: Rune Magic [6]
Because he used Rune call to use Kenaz’s power the skill itself leveled up, as well as Rune magic in general which had been teetering since he got back from his quest. Crane was fortunate that silver melted at a much lower temperature than steel or it would have taken more time and more mana to bring each crucible to its melting point with Kenaz.
Crane then broke the first crucible which had cooled revealing a blackish mass with a shiny silvery bottom. The melted galena had broken into silicon and lead, the silicon from that and the sand bonded to the impurities, freeing the silver from it while the lead trickled down, bonding to the freed silver. The heavy lead silver mixture settled at the bottom where it cooled and Crane broke the excess slag off with a hammer revealing the button, the term used for the lead silver mixture remaining. Crane put the button on one of the cupels and heated it up carefully, making sure not to spill it after it melted. The bone ash combines with the liquid lead even better than silver, it slowly sucked up the lead until only pure silver remained. From the coffee pot sized crucible came only a pea sized lump of pure silver which Crane immediately dropped into a glass jar of oil. Pure silver, especially when hot, oxidizes with oxygen when solid so for now Crane would store them in oil until he decided what to do with it.
After having made enough silver pellets to fill his little jar, Crane got the long awaited message.
You have learned new Skill: Mineral Refining
Crane finished refining all the buttons into pure silver before packing everything and leaving.
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The next day Crane and his troop left the city. Crane had gotten enough iron and wood to make many weapons, and with his skills he would even be able to recycle broken or old equipment into new equipment, with only a small loss in total metal.
His men still had wooden weapons and for now, Crane would keep it like that. First he had to teach them how to fight, and the best way to do that was to get them massive amounts of fighting experience against something that couldn’t easily kill them but couldn’t easily be killed by wooden weapons. Crane knew just the place. On the side of the mountains north of the city was tomb that was filled with the dead. In the area in front of the tomb was a graveyard with ordinary skeletons, while inside the tomb itself were skeleton soldiers and stronger monsters.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It took four days to arrive there by road, Crane had only one day to arrange a schedule for his men to follow in his absence. His plan was that over the school week the men would fight with wooden weapons against the skeletons in the graveyard, and during the his three day weekends Crane would make weapons and armor for all of them and supervise training within the tomb against the stronger monsters.
The ancient tomb was of a local king who was worse than the Pharaohs about working his people to death making his resting place. The whole graveyard in fact was of the workers who died making the tomb. Crane tested the graveyard before sending his men. He walked through the path to the tomb causing half a dozen skeletons to pop out of the ground. The act of walking around caused the mobs to appear so it was relatively controllable. Crane busted them up and took a few hits to judge their strength. It was in fact perfect. The men he brought with him averages level sixty and these skeletons were about level fifty. While equipped with wooden weapons the men couldn’t kill them easily and the skeletons were not strong enough to kill them easily.
“Ok listen up. From now until I get back you will train by fighting these guys with your wooden weapons. I’ve made plenty of spares so no need to be gentle. When night falls and these guys get a 50% bonus you will practice group formations, no one fights alone at night. When I return I will make steel weapons for all of you and we will fight inside the tomb until I leave, at which point you will go back to practicing with wooden weapons against the skeletons until I return again.”
Crane first made sure everyone was capable of killing a skeleton without dying. A few had to be given pointers on the best way to dodge and attack an opening with their weapon but other than that they were doing great.
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Connect to Royal Road?Yes|No
Crane logged back in thursday afternoon after school the get back the his men. All the men were accounted for and still using wooden weapons. Crane had not told them exactly when he would return so they did not just switch back to wooden on the last day. Their skills had improved greatly, all having reached at least level five in their respective mastery. Crane took out his blacksmith gear and started working. Although he made mostly swords and rapiers he was taught the technique to make most weapons and for the irregular ones he felt he could figure it out. First he made a few sets of Steel tonfas.
Steel Tonfas
Durability – 110/110.
Damage – 22~26
Steel Tonfas made with a thick steel shell over a soft iron core.
Requires: Level 60. STR 200.
Increase Critical chance on unarmored opponents
For the shaft of the steel bo staff Crane layered a shell of medium carbon steel over a core of low carbon steel and slowly quenched it to get a hard yet bendable stick, for the short sticks he made high carbon steel over medium carbon steel. That way it would impact hard but be able to absorb impacts without breaking. Crane was able to get one of the sword guys to switch to a hammer before they left the city so with that, the axes, knives and swords, he just needed to make armor for his men and he would be all set for his smithing practice regimen.
The men had only gains two or three levels a piece and the skeleton soldiers in the first section of the tomb were about level eighty, so this would be the first test to see the effectiveness of his own training. At the first skeleton warrior encounter Clint walked up to fight it alone. The skeleton swung its sword which Clint reflected back with a small move of the stick combined with a high speed wrist rotation. The powerful skeleton’s attack was only deflected slightly but it was enough to give Clint an opening he used to whack the head of the skeleton so hard the skull actually spun a few times before Clint had spun himself around and swept its legs, cracking the knee of the creature before he used the staff as a spring the jump a few feet into the air and smash the tip of the staff into the skeleton’s head in what Crane assumed was a polearm skill. It seemed he had nothing to worry about. The training had taught them to attack without being attacked as well as many different combinations of skills that could be used in succession against the skeletons. Each person was able to attack while dodging because the skeleton warrior’s movements were so similar to that of the ordinary skeleton. The only problem were the mages. The tomb was where the King’s warriors, knights, mages and few other things got buried with him. The skeleton mages had many curses they could use and without a priest they had to rely on the ever diminishing potion supply Crane had to keep making. Crane found that the best way to deal with mages was a three fold Isa spell. Crane was the only person who could take care of them instantly when they appeared so the group was unable to stay training in the tomb when Crane had to leave the following sunday night.
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And so it went for four weeks. Every thursday he logged back in and remade weapons and armor for each of his men after questioning them about how well the last one was and how they thought Crane could make them better. Crane got a little more insight on how his techniques affected the overall quality of the weapons and armor each time. After that Crane would escort them through the tomb, fighting skeleton soldiers, skeleton knights, and skeleton mages. At the end of the weekend Crane would carve new wooden weapons, destroy the steel weapons and armors, and repeat the cycle the following thursday.
Skill Level Up: Blacksmithing [10]
Your blacksmithing skill has exceeded level 10 and has reached the intermediate stage.
New skills:
Sword Grind, Armor Polish, and Equipment Enhancement
Sword Grind – Grinds the sword, weapon damage is amplified
Armor Polish – Confuses and dazzles enemies along with an increase in defense.
Equipment Enhancement –Can correct the various faults within equipment.
Rune Smith can be used without lowering durability.
+5 To all stats
Fame +50.
Crane let out a heavy sigh of relief and gratitude. After the message came out, a couple of pictures popped up illustrating a technique. Crane saw it was a blacksmith carving a line out of a sword. Next it showed him placing a small strip of metal the same width and depth on the section that was carved out, and the next had the smith hammering it in. The picture after that showed him heating it and the last showed the glowing rune Isa on a sword, but not as an indentation but as a strip of different colored metal.
Now Crane knew what he needed to do, basically after having carved out the rune he needed to replace the metal and melt it into the work. That way the loss metal and structural integrity is restored.
His men were about level 90, they could defeat skeleton soldiers (lvl 80) with wooden weapons and skeletons knights (lvl 100) one on one with normal weapons. Now it was time to up the stakes.
First thing he wanted to do was test Rune smith’s full power, the Equipment enhancement skill, as well as sword grind and armor polish.
Crane first made a steel shield, after letting it cool and polishing it he got a base reading. “Identify.”
Composite Steel Shield
Durability – 130/130.
Defense – 21
A round shield made with different types of iron by a skilled smith.
Requires: Level 75. STR 230.
First the skill he spent so many guild points to find out how to learn it. “Enhance equipment.”
Suddenly Crane noticed several points on the shield were a slightly different shade than the area around it, he hadn’t noticed it before, but the carbon that permeated that area had very few cross sections. From experience Crane knew this was because the carbon had not uniformly mixed, but there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. Crane removed the hide and wooden lining of the shield and got a little bit of iron and charcoal. In his own hands used kenaz to melt the iron and thoroughly mix the carbon into it. When finished he divided it into five and put each over the weakspots. After heating up the shield in the same areas, Crane hammered the carbon iron into the spots until completely flattened, and let it cool. Crane observed that the carbon lines that formed on cooling now criss crossed with the lines in the rest of the shield. He then hammered the edges and polished until one couldn’t even tell new metal had been added, after which he reattached the wood handle and hide backing. “Identify.”
Composite Steel Shield
Durability – 140/140.
Defense – 23
A round shield made with different types of iron by a skilled smith.
Requires: Level 80. STR 240.
The stats of the shield increased, it was now a higher quality equipment, meaning the requirements also increased. This meant he couldn’t enhance the equipment of someone when it was close to or matched their level. Crane used the skill again to see if there was anything he missed, but there wasn’t. The shield wasn’t perfect, but it no longer had flaws that brought down its stats. Now it was time for the next test. Crane got out a carving knife and a small hammer. He then skillfully proceeded to carve four Thurisaz runes into four sides of the shield. Before casting, Crane took out the silver pellets he had made and heated them until malleable. He drew a few out into a long piece the same width of the carved runes and broke the thin silver rod into segments he placed into the indentation of the runes, and heated them up again. Crane hammered them flat and polished them, the result was a pure silver symbol on a shiny grey surface. Crane imagined Thurisaz’s power of defense and protection being added to the shield and said, “Thurisaz.”
Maximum Mana decreases by 200
Composite Steel Shield has been added to Rune List
The four silver runes now glowed dimly on the edges of the shield’s face. “Identify.”
Composite Steel Shield
Durability – 140/140.
Defense – 23
A round shield made with different types of iron by a skilled smith. Powerful rune magic has been inscribed into this shield.
Options:
+15% Defense
+20% Magic Resistance
Reflects 10% Physical Damage as lightning magic
Requires: Level 80. STR 240.
The shield he upgraded back in purgatory had more damage reflection, but for this one he focused on defense and magic defense to counter the skeleton mages. Overall it was an excellent shield, especially since adding Rune magic didn’t increase the level requirement. Crane proceeded to make weapons and armor for everyone. He enhanced the equipments who owners were a higher level, and after that he carved runes onto everything. For the weapons he carved either fire, ice, or lightning attributes, and for the armor and remaining shields he carved various combinations of runes, mostly Thurisaz and Isa.
After a practice session where Crane ensured that everyone could handle their new weapons properly, Crane sharpened every weapon with an edge, polished everyone’s armor, and lead the troop into the deeper part of the tomb where the king’s elite guards were buried, after they were beheaded for trying to rise up against their king. They were the level 140 Dullahans. Before this point Crane had not given them rune enhanced weapons, how they fought with these against a monster about fifty levels stronger then they were would determine the true effectiveness of the training.
The first Dullahan they found was a muscular brute of a knight, a black axe in one hand and a his own head carried in the other. Before the group approached the severed head spoke. “Are you lot warriors?” At the query the whole group raised their weapons. A smile could clearly be seen on the dullahan’s face. He charged forward, abnormally fast for someone with such a large body. Two of the swordsmen in the troop rushed to meet the oncoming axe. In perfect unison they raised their shields overlapping one another and took the axe’s hit. The men’s knees buckled under the weight and power of the strike but in the same moment the hammer and mace users jumped over the kneeling soldiers and smashed their thirty-five pound weapons into the Dullahan’s chest armor. Crane could only smile. Spending equal time fighting individually and in self assigned teams made the whole of unit stronger than the sum of its parts. Of course it wasn’t just that. Crane gave both the hammer and mace user weapons with lightning damage, and had them practice such maneuvers. The simultaneous blow from the two lightning weapons sent a thunderbolt throw the dullahan as well as sent him back about seven feet. The dullahan’s face went red, his severed head roared as he got back up and shouted “DEVIL”S STRIKE!” as he threw his axe at the group. The shield users raised their shields and ducked low, at the moment just before impact they bumped their shield’s up. It was the same trick Crane’s blacksmith instructor used and Crane taught to them. The impact of the axe sent the shields back but the axe was bumped into the air above them where it dug into the ceiling. The Dullahan charged after producing another axe and the swordsman charged as well. With the men ducking and weaving when the monster slashed they attacked relentlessly until the brute finally fell.
Even if the men were able to notice the dullahan’s fighting pattern they probably wouldn’t be able to use it to predict the movement of their opponent. Crane learned awhile ago the strengths and limits of NPCs in combat. At low levels an NPC was unable to recognize patterns and use them to predict movements like a reasonably skilled user could do. They could however be trained to work together with far more efficiently than users with the same experience. A fact which Crane did everything in his power to utilize to best effect.
After seeing how well his men and their new equipment were doing he assigned the men into four groups and set them loose on the dungeon with instructions to wipe everything out. There was something he wanted to do himself. It had been a while since he he last wore armor and he wanted a challenge. He saved the dungeon boss for last.
In a large room on a stone throne sat a skeleton wearing a gold crown.
In a voice that seemed to be coming from the walls themselves spoke, “Bow before the great King!”
Crane looked around for a moment and said, “Great King? What great king? All I see is a rotten old man who can’t let go of the past.”
The king answered, “My reign is eternal, my subjects, forever bound to my service. As long as I wear this crown. I am King!” The skeleton raised his hand into the air, all around him Crane could hear the sound of coffins opening.
Crane took noble step and majestic stance. He then wrote the Thurisaz rune three times with his rapier and took a step into it with the thought, ‘Imbue my armor with the cosmic force of defense through lightning,’ before calling, “Thurisaz.”
Crane’s armor glowed bright yellow, this was only the third time he had successfully buffed equipment that had a rune carved into it. In previous attempts he had made a knife, carved thurisaz on it, cast thurisaz four times with rune sword on the knife then doubled the effect with rune call but that combined with the already charged knife caused an explosion. He tried several combinations only to find that just like rune call and rune sword stacked with a doubling effect, so did rune smith. Crane learned the hard way the effects of overcharging a weapon with runes, and since it did not increase the spell’s power unless it was the same type, it was better not to use weapons with runes on them for now. This applied to his armor as well but this situation was an exception. The pure silver Crane had used to fill the carved out Thurisaz runes in the armor was a perfect conductor of electricity. This slightly increased the limit the equipment could be charged with the lightning based Thurisaz rune before exploding. (The armor had only two thurisaz runes carved onto it so it stacked to twelve times the power of a single thurisaz.)
From the coffins emerged skeletons, skeleton soldiers, and skeleton mages. Crane dashed to the king but was blocked off by the quick casting of the mages and the four skeleton knights who emerged from the ground and now stood in between Crane and his target. The king himself seemed content to watch Crane struggle to reach him. The skeletons, the mages, and knights numbered in about forty total. However they were all so weak Crane could take them out with one or two blows a piece. Crane dashed from one to another slashing off skull after skull, with each skeleton falling into a heap of bones. After half a minute Crane had killed about half of them and was moving to the king who started a low cackling laugh. The next moment the bones started reassembling themselves back into skeletons. The king stated, “As I said, forever bound to my service.”
In other words the subjects were enslaves even in death to whatever magic the king was using. Attacking them with normal attacks just broke them. He would have to either burn or freeze every bone there and he didn’t have nearly enough mana to do it after having lost more than half of it making equipment for his men. Crane still had his trump card of course, but he needed an opening to make the most of it.
He tried going for the king again but the knights got in the mage and the mages cast curse spells at his back. He couldn’t afford to ignore them so he rushed to kill just the mages before returning to fight the king. However the mages resurrected as soon as his back was turned, the king laughed as Crane wasted his stamina trying to get through them. Crane found another mage and cast “Isa,” but before the black wave got to it, several other skeletons jumped into the path, taking the hit. Crane could use Fehu but that spell costed almost five hundred mana and he couldn’t waste that on the mages and the skeletons before fighting the king.
Crane resorted to taunting. “You think you’re strong, you have nothing but the strength of your men, you’re nothing!.”
At this the king stood up, seething for a moment. He yelled, “THEIR STRENGTH IS MY STRENGTH!!”
All of the skeletons fell apart to the ground, but as if they were on an inclined slope they fell sideways towards the king. The bones then flew to him, assembling around him into a giant mass that slowly took shape into an enormous bone behemoth.
Crane stared up at the towering monster and said, “Well, its now or never, Call Keagan.”
Keagan appeared in the room and set himself ablaze in response to the presence of the bone behemoth. Crane went to one side while Keagan went to the other. The bone monster roared as a dark aura enveloped the bones, likely a spell from the skeleton mages that were now apart of him. Keagan pounched on the beast causing it to topple for a moment, his jaw and claws ripped bones off the body. Crane cast rune sword Thurisaz, Fehu, Fehu, Fehu, while Keagan distracted it. The moment the spell was ready Crane used battle aura to signal Keagan to jump off before Crane shot an enormous torrent of fire at the creature’s back. The dark aura was blown away and the bones were now on fire. Crane saw a shining spec among the fire at the top of the beast, Crane shouted, “Get the Crown!”
Keagan jumped back onto the burning behemoth but was swatted away before he could climb to the top. Crane made another runesword spell aimed at the monster’s composite bone feet, the only place that wasn’t on fire. Isa! Crane coated as much of the feet as he could in ice before, with the last of his mana cast with rune sword, ‘Thurisaz Fehu.’ The fire pillar struck the iced legs causing them to emit steam for a moment before they completely exploded. With its feet suddenly gone it buckled over giving Keagan the opportunity to rush in and grab the crown. Keagan crushed it in his teeth before jumping off the behemoth.
What at first appeared to be white steam started evaporating out of the bones. Only a moment later did the white mist coalesce into many spirits who floated up to the ceiling. Form the pile Crane heard a quiet, “Thankyou.”
Your familiarity towards spirits of the dead has increased.
The remainder of the skeleton behemoth dissolved into a pile of bones but Crane’s experience points since entering had remained unchanged. Crane waited for a moment but the pile wasn’t moving. “Keagan, go get him.” The skeleton king was actually hiding, hiding in plain sight among the giant pile of bones. Too bad Keagan could sense his fighting spirit. The fire cat dug through the pile, grabbed the skull of the king and ran with it in his teeth back to Crane who said, “Any last words?”
Keagan crunched the skull anyways. “Too late.”
Crane didn’t get any experience for the infinite responding skeletons he defeated and the King was about his level so he only got moderate exp for it, but the king did drop a key. But after searching a bit Crane found a chest with about seven hundred and sixty gold and some jewels. Crane had not actually sold the jewels he had been accumulating, he wanted to wait till he was a better sculptor and carve runes into the jewels and make accessories or impart the jewels into weapons to make them look cooler and have stronger magic effects.
Crane returned Keagan to his necklace and went around the dungeon to see that it was mostly empty, either his men killed everything off or all the skeletons vanished with the destruction of the crown. Crane found his men at the dungeon’s entrance and asked each one questions about the efficacy of the weapons before retrieving them. For many of the weapons he gave different attributes and he wanted to know the differences between effects. After asking question and examining the weapons, Crane had a general idea of the strengths and limits of rune smith. The strengths were obviously the incredible increase in damage and defense, of both physical and magic. However after examining all the equipment he found that the weapon’s durability degraded at a terrifying rate. Between a sword with two runes on it and a sword with four from two swordsmen who fought together and roughly the same amount, the sword with more runes lost durability much faster. Also between a sword with three Thurisaz runes and a sword with three Fehu runes, the sword with the lightning damage had more durability than the sword with fire damage. Crane attributed this to the silver giving the sword greater compatibility with the rune. The only exception was the weapons and armor that only had one or more Isa runes on them. Those pieces barely lost any durability since the fight started. However from the reports, Crane found out that the weapons with just Isa for ice damage did less overall damage than the other weapons, and the armor with Isa did not absorb as much damage as regular armor. Crane concluded that Isa preserved the weapons and armor by bypassing damage. So a weapon with high durability and less attack will last longer than a weapon with high durability and high attack. And armor needs to be able to take damage to absorb impacts, otherwise it seamlessly passes through the armor into the wearer.
Crane concluded that the weapons degraded faster to to the incompatibility of the foreign power. Crane wasn’t a true magic blacksmith, nor a proper enchanter so he couldn’t add magic attributes without a cost. Until higher levels of skill mastery at least Crane would have to limit production to expendable weapons or weapons made of compatible materials. Crane would try for a silver alloy lightning blade another day. For now Crane destroyed all the equipment, he couldn’t afford having his men rely on glass cannon.
Crane addressed his men. “Congratulations, you have the basics down. Our next destination is Resshin temple.” There was some murmuring in the ranks. Resshin temple was built by the great Warrior Resshin and his disciples as an all purpose training ground. The descendents of his disciples still keep it in operation, though the late King Daxes had closed it off in fear that an army would train there and gain enough strength to overthrow him. Under the order of Jinir, the temple was re-opened and brought back to working order a few days ago.
Crane continued, “Herios Goldking sent specific instructions to the temple that it will receive a boost in funding on the condition that individual training is giving to each man in this unit. Your specialties will be expanded and refined, you will become the strongest unit in this kingdom.” Many of the men seemed excited, they were picked because of their appreciation of the merits of training and they understood what receiving personal training at Resshin temple meant.
It was also time for Crane’s own martial training to start. But first he checked on the progress of his craft training. “Open Skill list.”
Alchemy [9] 70%
Enables you to create quality potions from ingredientsRune Smith [5] 31%
Can carve Runes into weapons and armor that grant additional options without decreasing max durability
Effect of Rune Determined by intention when used
For every rune carved, Maximum mana decreases by 50
Mana returns upon item's destruction
Effect Strength determined by Sculpture masterySculpture Mastery Intermediate [2] 89%
Enables you to produce complicated works.Handicraft skill Intermediate [5] 72%
Dexterity Rating. Enhances your craft skills in every field
Increases attack power with melee and long range weapons. (+65% ATK)
Increases attack power with fists. (+90% ATK)Cooking [5] 69%Blacksmith Intermediate [1] 12%
Enables you to craft equipment from metal.Weapon Carving [5] 81%
Weapons carved out of wood are stronger and more resilient.Mineral Refining [2] 60%
Increases ability to remove impurity from various metalsSword Grind [1] 54%
Grinds the sword, weapon damage is amplifiedPolishing [2] 77%
Confuses and dazzles enemies along with an increase in defenseEquipment Enhancement [2] 96%
Can correct the various faults within equipment
Mana cost: 50
Besides making weapons and armor he was also making food and brewing potions. Over the last month each of his craft skills improved by at least one level and he gained nearly half a dozen new ones.