Now that he had a spare moment of time, Sam pulsed his Dao through his body, clearing the effect of the darkness on his eyes. He saw the form of the beast almost vanishing into the trees, and Sam shook his head. His eyes began to glow with a bright red light as he pumped his Dao and mana into his mace. His Dao reserves by now were effectively bottomless in fights like these, but his supplies of elemental energy and mana were not. He really had to do a bit more elemental cultivation soon.

All of this energy coursed down his arm and into his hammer, making it glow like the sun. Cocking his arm back, Sam built up power in his muscles and then threw it after the beast. It flew like a shooting star, leaving a faint afterimage in the air. Just as the monster roared in triumph, thinking that it had escaped, the weapon hit it. There was a dull thump like a thundercrack as the weapon struck home, and an orb of energy expanded outwards, snapping trees like they were made out of sugar glass. The beast itself fell to the ground, a hole bored straight through its skull. Sam hoped that whoever had commissioned the quest wouldn't mind their beast hide being a bit battered.

A surge of essence rushed into Sam, stacking on top of the essence that he had earned from the Legion. It was just enough to push him over to the next level. Sam felt the essence pushing against a point in his left wrist, and he slammed his will down on it, forcing it through and into the node. Sam let out a gasp as the node opened. It was even more painful than the previous one had been. Not enough to be troubling, but still startling nonetheless. With a moment of quick consideration, he placed the points into Strength.

You have killed a Juvenile Tenebral Lycanthrope!

You have leveled up!

“You’re already dealing with node cracking, I see? That stuff hurts like a son of a bitch. It must be even worse with your perfect ascension,” Jeffrey said, wincing. “Even for me, an utterly average cultivator, it was extremely painful. Most people just use pills and cultivation supplements to break though. After all, only the insane hope to rise above F Rank.”

“What do you mean by that? Do these pills and cultivation resources damage your ability to progress?”

“Yes. If you've ever used an essence crystal, you’ll know what I mean. Most people think that it’s worth it however. A peak F Ranker can easily live to a thousand years in age. That’s enough for almost everyone.”

“Not enough for me,” Sam said, looking off into the distance.

“You’re at it again,” Jeffrey observed, watching as Sam clenched his fist. “The whole inviolate resolve thing you have going on.”

“Huh?” Sam said, only then realizing what he was doing. He hastily unclenched his fist, and coughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Doesn't matter. It’s better than the whole insanity chic many powerful cultivators aspire to. ‘The ways of the powerful are mysterious, young Torturna’.” Jeffrey quoted, spitting to the side. “Hah. pompous assholes.”

Before Jeffrey could go off on a trip down memory lane, Sam made his way over to the corpse and started to strip off the hide. It came off easily enough, but there were a few large holes in it. Sam bundled it up, shaking off as much blood and viscera as he could, and then rested it on his shoulder.

“Alright. It’s time to find that metal we need.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

They escaped the woods after an hour of wandering, interspersed with many curses, and started running towards the city as soon as they were on the plain. A bit later, they were standing outside of the shield, and they walked through, the mana recognizing them. The gates swung open as the sentry spotted them, and Sam walked through, dripping blood from the hide. The sentries watched him closely, but he ignored it. The day when a man could not carry the hide of a powerful beast through a city would be the beginning of the end. Oh wait, that had already happened.

Sam and Jeffrey walked down the streets towards George’s smithy. The man was the only source of purified metals that they could think of. Rax had broken off as soon as they had entered the city, citing a delicious smell coming from somewhere. They pushed through the doors of the smithy, ignoring the cries of rage from the people waiting. This would only take a few minutes. Sometimes, being in charge did have its benefits. Besides, a hundred thousand credits was better for everyone in the long run than making some random guy wait a few minutes for his order to be ready. Sam’s Dao dealt in the concrete forms of justice, which were always refreshing. Things like people being offended barely made their way on there, unless there was no counterbalance. Utilitarianism was always fun.

When they entered the smithy, Sam noticed that it looked far more cozy than it had before. It seemed that George had taken his advice to heart, and had finally started to make some money off his craft. Sam and Jeffrey waited in the doorway until George noticed them.

“Oh, you two. What are you here for? A commission?”

“Actually, we have a quest to finish. We need 100 grams of purified copper and the same in purified iron, “ Sam told George.

“Purified, huh? It’s not everyday that someone asks for that. Usually alloys or other mixed metals are more durable. Anything for the faction leader through. Such a job is well within my capabilities,” George responded, walking into the back of his smithy, and emerging with two lumps of metal. One was silvery gray, and the other was a dull reddish color. In other words, a lump of iron and a lump of copper.

George set them down on his anvil, and then pulled out a hammer from his belt. His hands blurred as he stuck the metal dozens of times within the span of a minute, each strike perfectly aligned with where it needed to be. The metal formed into an ingot shape at a visible rate, and soon there were two gleaming pieces of metal on the anvil. George tossed them into the roaring fire in the center of the forge, and started to pump the bellows to make the fire roar hotter. A small spark of his mana entered the flames, and they flashed a blue color for a moment. Two thin streams of molten metal poured down from the forge and into channels on the floor. George sent another surge of mana downwards, and they cooled rapidly. He lifted them up, and gave them a light tap with his hammer, using a skill to imbue the weapon with vibrational energy. Small lumps of impurities fell off the ingots like a fine rain, and the ingots became like mirrors, such was their perfection.

George placed them down on the anvil once more, and eyed them critically from all angles. Lifting his hammer, he brought it down once on each ingot like a thunderbolt, flattening them into a thin sheet. The strength that he could exert made the process of heating it pointless, especially for softer metals like these two. Normally one might run the risk of cracking the metal with such a maneuver, but George was skilled enough with his hammer to avoid such a thing. He lifted the two sheets, and weighed them up with his hands before placing them back down and removing a chisel from his belt. Using it in a staccato series of sharp taps, he cut out a circular shape from each sheet, before handing them two circles to Sam.

“There you go, a hundred grams, give or take, for both.”

Sam took them, amazed at how adept George was with his craft. He had not actually seen the man work before, and this was the first time.

“George, this is amazing. Is that what a crafter can do?” Sam said.

The other man scoffed.

“That? That was nothing. I can do far more than that. Every ounce of Intelligence and Dexterity from my levels went towards allowing me to do things like making those.”

“Well, very good job on those. By the way, you're going to be having a disgruntled customer coming in soon, just so you know.” With that, Sam turned around and left. Jeffrey behind him.