Chapter 5:

Following the battle with the volt fox, Alric spent a couple of months recuperating from his wounds.

He spent these months working on his flow, mana storage, and his reaction time, so that the outcome of the battle would not repeat.

If he wanted to be successful in his trip to the surface, he had to be completely prepared as there were even stronger creatures lurking in the winding caverns that he must pass through.

As the years before his journey passed Alric continued with his regular training.

However, after the incident with the volt fox he began to train his combat skills against many of the predators that were known to the mana titans.

He learned his lesson from that first conflict and whenever he would pick a new target he would first spend time getting information about it from the other villagers beforehand.

He faced a variety of opponents, some with magical attributes, some with extreme physical prowess, some with extraordinary cunning, and some that were simply unpredictable.

As the time of his fifteenth birthday drew near he became more and more of a skilled fighter, bringing down many creatures that no other mana titan would dare approach.

But as the fights continued Alric became aware of a problem that only got worse over time.

Because of the immense physical strength of his body strengthening he had become practically unable to use any sort of weapon.

Whenever he either used a sword or a dagger he would always end up losing it somehow.

Sometimes they would be crushed by his grip or shatter under the strength of his blows.

Sometimes they would become lodged inside the creature and be unable to be used.

Because of this he had begun to just fight bare handed.

But if he wanted to leave the cave he would need a weapon that would suit him.

~~~~Alric’s POV~~~~

“The biggest problem is how to make a weapon that will be able to withstand the power of my body strengthening…” I thought to myself.

“At my current strength even boulder tortoise shell wouldn’t be tough enough unless I used a good inch of it.”

“I need to find a suitable material, I’ll go ask the elders if there is any such material.”

So I went to visit the elder who, when he was younger, explored more of the caves than anyone else.

“Elder Vareth! I have a matter I would like to discuss with you, can I have a bit of your time?”

“Ah, Alric, yes I have some free time. What can I help you with?”

“I have a question about your travels when you were younger.”

“I’ll do my best to answer but it has been quite a long time.”

“Have you ever come across a material that is extremely tough, even tougher than boulder tortoise shell?”

“Well I did run across a very tough crystalline material that could not be scratched by any blade, known as diamond.”

“I did consider that but even though it is very hard it can shatter relatively easily so it wouldn’t work for my purposes, creating a weapon. I need something that can survive heavy impacts.”

“Hmm, there may be something. In the days I spent exploring the uninhabitable caves I happened across a strange plant with metallic flesh, I called it Living Steel. In the uninhabitable caves the stone is weak and there are frequent cave in’s, much more so than where we live now. Upon finding the Living Steel I witnessed a small cave in. The falling rocks bounced off the plant instead of breaking it.”

“Where is this cave? I have to check it out!”

“It’s to the south, just be very careful when you go, its not called uninhabitable for no reason.”

And so I spent the next month searching for the Living Steel.

I finally found it in small cave deep in the winding maze of passages.

I almost missed it because, at first glance, it looked identical to an ordinary tree.

It had a dark trunk and branches and dark green leaves.

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The floor of the cave was made up of a pile of rubble from the rocks that had fallen from above.

In the celling there was a large opening lined with mana crystals that gave off light. This seemed to be where the debris came from.

The tree’s trunk and branches were made up of a dark gray, almost black steel, it was very dense and sturdy. The surface was pitted and rough and felt similar to the bark of an ordinary tree except for the fact that it sucked away the heat from a touch and had the characteristic feeling of metal.

I experimented with the material by hitting it with the full force of my body strengthening.

The material was fantastic, it escaped my blows completely unharmed.

This was the perfect material to use for my weapon, the steel must consist of microstructures that make it even stronger than forged steel.

Not wanting to waste any of this amazing substance I quickly set to work digging the tree out of the rubble, roots and all.

Once I had removed the tree I had to decide how to get it back to the village.

With my strengthening it should be no problem to carry this much weight however, right now the tree is just too bulky.

I began to disassemble the tree by removing its leaves.

It was then that I made an amazing discovery.

When I tore off a leaf I became shocked because the leaf was as flexible as a piece of cloth, however it was extremely strong, I had to use a fair portion of my strength just to tear one leaf in two.

It seems that because the leaves needed light to enter in order to survive it was impossible to have tough steel like in the trunk and branches.

But if the leaves were weak then they would easily get destroyed in the cave in’s.

So, the leaves made small interlocking rings of steel on the cellular level.

These leaves were natural cellular chainmail.

The leaves would be perfect for light armor.

Back at the village I began the preparations to create my new equipment.

Because at its core living steel was a plant and I didn’t want to walk around in a mail set made of decomposing leaves I began by using an acid that would not harm the metal in order to rid the leaves of plant matter without destroying the steel microstructures.

When I was done the leaves looked like scraps of metallic fabric that were the same shade of gray as the trunk and branches.

Using magic to join the leaves together I created a full light mail set.

Then from various hides I created a simple set of leather clothes to go with the mail.

I then proceeded on to the main event, my weapons.

Because of the natural structures forging any weapons from the material would only weaken its strength, so I decided that I would carve out my weapon using magic.

Because I was accustomed to fighting close range hand to hand combat and because I eventually wanted to learn more magic I decided that anything long range was out.

I wouldn’t be able to use a spear, a polearm, or even a longsword.

Probably the longest weapon I could use would be a short sword, but even that would be different from my current fighting style.

So I decided that I would make a pair of bladed gauntlets.

This would allow me to continue using my fighting style that was a combination of punches and chops while increasing my damage.

The knuckle portion of the gauntlet consisted of a large wedge that tapered to a blade, allowing a punch to penetrate the body of an opponent.

On the outer side of the gauntlet, extending from the wedge was a blade that followed the length of the forearm.

This gave any chopping attacks the ability to slash the opponent and it also allowed the wielder to block any strikes from the opponent.

Now that I had prepared my new equipment I was finally ready to begin my trip to the surface.