Chapter 3: Arc 1, Chapter 2

At the doorstep of the local smithy, I walked in confidently and stared Ned, the blacksmith, in the eyes with contempt. The rather old-looking man flinched as I threw my pouch of money at him. Barely managing to catch it, he fumbled with the rather heavy pouch.

 

" You said you would sell the sword your former master crafted to me at 5 gold, bring it to me now," I said with a rather flat tone. I was confident in my ability to dodge and run away from monsters, however, currently, the sharpest weapon I owned was a kitchen knife. Not bad for cutting and stabbing but has terrible range.

 

" But I-" The blacksmith seemed rather reluctant to hand over the last relic that he had left from his formerly prestigious life. Ned was once one of many students to the master smith, Smog Gaus.

 

However, after the great smith died in the war that resulted in the formation of the Everent empire, all his students were left unattended. The talented and well-known ones were either scouted or killed by the imperial army and the lessers of his students were left alone to either rot or pick up their smithing hammers again.

 

Ned was one of those lessers. However, he had something the other students did not have. He had a sword made by the legendary Smog Gaus. 

 

I watched as the mouse-like man pulled out a sword with a shining blade yet had an ugly mess of a leather handle. To be precise, Ned had a blade made by the great smith but had ruined it with his shoddy craftsmanship by putting a subpar handle on the masterpiece.

 

While most of the master smith's works have been confiscated by the Emperor, this one was not. That was all due to the fact that it really did not look like one of the many powerful swords Master Smog had made. 

 

Perhaps I should be thankful that Ned had turned what was otherwise a great blade into an ugly sword.

 

Snatching the sword from the smith, I inspected the sword and checked if it was truly the blade that I had spotted 6 years ago. Ignoring the handle, it was a truly beautiful blade.

 

Cracking a small grin, I ran my hand over the blade's cold surface. Then, with both hands, I held it at an angle and saw what looked faintly like magical runes.

 

This was the reason why I believed that the blade was indeed made by Master Smith Smog. It was a magic blade... Rather I hoped it was a magic blade.

 

" Do you have a sheath?" I asked as I turned back to the man.

 

" I-"

 

" Nevermind, I will just take one of those from that rack near the entrance. Keep the change as payment for the sheath." I said as I made my way to the rack with several decent-looking sheaths. I shuffled through the mess until I found one that fit my new sword and sheathed my blade in it.

 

With my dream sword acquired, I made my way to the forest. As soon as I saw the vibrant trees, I frowned.

 

I could understand that building a wall to separate the village from the forest would be expensive. I could understand that building a wall would also disrupt several businesses. However, I couldn't help but think that a wall would help protect the village from monsters. 

 

There would be less need to pay mercenaries and monster hunters if the village had a wall. On top of that, a wall would warn all visitors and villagers from entering the monster-infested forest. It would only take a few days of hard work from each of the nearly 100 villagers and we would be able to build a sufficiently tall wall. 

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But no... Everybody is too busy with work. A wall would spoil the view. The lumber business would be disturbed. Hunting for food would be more difficult. Walls of logs would be useless. 

 

No budget for safety?! No time for security?! Idiots all of them.

 

My frown faded as I entered the forest, as I opted to stay vigilant rather than vent on the inside. Unsheathing my sword, I gripped it with two hands.

 

As someone who always preached getting maximum preparation before hunting monsters, it was a bit hypocritical of me to enter the forest before practising with the sword to get used to its weight. However, I just couldn't wait to get myself drenched in monster blood.

 

Slowly I inched my way deeper into the forest, I strained my ears and eyes to spot one of the hated creatures. 

 

...

 

Then I spotted one, a wolf-like creature hunched over a corpse of what looked like a deer. I knew that the wolf was a monster because it was emitting magicules in a rather obvious way. I suspect that it was a way to keep other weaker monsters from attacking it while it was eating.

 

However... I was human... an intelligent human being...

 

With a sadistic smile plastered to my face, I raised my left hand and pointed at the creature while holding my sword in my right hand.

 

[Fireball] I thought internally. Then, a familiar magic circle of about the size of a small shield materialised before my finger. A ball of fire burst from it and struck the creature with a boom. Still smiling, I walked towards the smoking wolf lying on its side.

 

Raising my sword, I prepared to finish off the twitching wolf. However, a howl rang out from behind me. Moving the fastest I had ever moved, I turned around and pulled off a verticle slash with the sword in my right hand. I used my other hand to maintain balance.

 

I gritted my teeth as I realised that I had utterly missed the attacking wolf and pulled my arm back for a second strike.

 

Unfortunately for me, the wolf howled once more, this time its howl seemed to carry magicules. My body froze against my will and I could only watch in fear as the monster bounded to me. With a flash of claws, I gained three fresh and rather large cuts on my sword arm.

 

In desperation, I grabbed the wolf's front leg with my left arm and activated my only unique skill.

 

" [Match Fire]!" I yelled as the wolf tried to back away. In an instant, the wolf's head burst into flames as I felt most of my magicules exit my body leaving me exhausted. Stabbing my new sword into the grass below me, I leaned on it as support.

 

" Fucking monster..." I whispered between my huffing.

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