4 First Weapon/Skill Improvements
You know the drill, I woke up, cursed my alarm and did all my usual stuff. It was earlier than usual so, I decided to go grind a couple of levels. I managed to level up twice and also level up some skills. It's getting harder to gain levels nowadays, maybe I should go hunt some strays.
Before I go hunting anything, I need a main weapon and a secondary weapon and to get a weapon I need to set up a workshop.
I set out, took the train to Kyoto and searched for a place that sells tooling-machines and hand tools. I didn't buy the most expensive ones, but the ones with the most versatility. To not attract any attention to myself, I had them deliver all of my stuff to my house. That took all my money from grinding and from my starting capital. So I decided since I'm in Kyoto, maybe I should go and grind some more levels, I had a couple of hours until my train ride back.
And so I started to grind my skills and level again. I even ran into a new type of zombie.
[Observe]
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Name: Zombie Shrine-Guard
Race: Undead/Yokai
LVL:12
HP: 600
MP: 50
CKRA: 345 (Chakra)
VIT: 145
STR: 35 (55)
DEX: 25 (40)
INT: 20
WIS: 20
LUK: 10
Skills:
[Senjutsu (Active) LVL:12]
[Youjutsu (Active) LVL:8]
[Touki (Active) LVL:15]
Equipment:
Wooden Staff (Good)
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It got the Touki skill I want, though I don't know if I can absorb monsters from IDs since they disappear right after being defeated.
I got an idea, it will give me quite the headache, but it could work. So I activated [Multi Thread Calculation] and got to work on creating a construct in the form of an arm using Mana and Reinforcement, at the same time I got into a brawl with the zombie, well half zombie. He attacked with his staff by either stabbing it forward or by swinging it like sword, it's clear it had a lot of fighting experience, before it died that is. I deflected its swings by using [Reinforcement] and dodged its thrusts by either turning to the side, making them miss by a small margin or straight up stepping away from the attack. Not wanting to cause too much damage I only gave it a couple love of taps in between its thrusts, seemingly realizing that I'm only playing with it, it decided to use Touki, increasing it's stats by a good amount. Dodging became harder, not impossible, but I got hit a couple of times, like just now, being hit by a swing before being able to defend. I slid back from the force, but it will end now since my calculation for my Mana construct is done, I even got a skill out of it.
[Mana Construct (Active) LVL: N/A] A skill that makes use of Mana Control and Reinforcement to create a physical construct, the higher the level of the skills used to create this skill, the easier the forming of constructs and the less Mana is used.
While I was marveling at my achievement, a translucent arm with claw like fingers shaped itself around my own. It was like an extension of my own, but to complete it, I focused on shaping my Sacred Gear around it. Formless Absorption couldn't just be a name, it had to have a reason behind the 'Formless' and I guessed correctly as the translucent claw was gradually being encroached by the Sacred Gear, turning it pitch black.
This is the end, as my enemy was starting to close in with a thrust, I sidestepped the attack and grabbed forward. Being trapped in my claw, it tried to struggle to get free, but I didn't let up, I constantly channeled Mana through the construct, further reinforcing it. Sadly this trick doesn't work with a body made of flesh and blood, when I tried, my skin cracked and my muscles tore, making for one painful night. Now that I had my prey safely secured, I used the main component of my Sacred Gear, [Absorbtion].
It cried out in pain, or the equivalent of what a zombie is capable of, before turning into a black sludge like substance that got absorbed.
[*Ding* Level up]
[Skill Reinforcement leveled up, skill is now level 5]
[Skill Mana Control leveled up, skill is now level 10]
[User gained: [Touki (Active) LVL:4] Currently able to enhance stats by 40%
[User gained Chakra:10 (CKRA)]
Ashtal: "YESSSSSSS" I screamed out in happiness, I momentarily ignored the other announcements and tried it out.
My strength, defense and speed skyrocketed, 40% is nothing to laugh at. I felt so light and at the same time as if I could destroy a mountain, though it's just a feeling, I wanted to try out my current strength. I looked for a fairly large building, before concentrating all my strength into my punch, even going as far as using [Reinforcement]. I punched forward, my fist pushing the air out of its way, before finally coming into contact with the building.
*Crash, Booooooooom*
There was only the sound of the resounding destruction, blowing up a giant dust-cloud.
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When the dust finally settled, there was nothing of the building left and the shock-wave even destroyed part of the floor and the building in the back.
Either my stats are different in the way they increase my strength, or this is normal. I decided to not think about it any further, to keep my sanity.
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1 hour later
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I was currently sitting on the train, on my way back from Kyoto. I was currently thinking about the weapons I'm going to choose. My thought was a light primary weapon that was even viable in tight spaces and a ranged weapon that could be used up close as the secondary.
My choices fell on a rifle with a bayonet attachment and a dagger. So the only thing that remained was the making, which wasn't so hard, probably. The dagger was straightforward, a project that included almost only smithing and a bit of woodworking. The rifle on the other hand was a bit harder since I only knew the inner workings of a single rifle and that was the M1-Garant. I also needed to engrave and inlay all my parts so they properly conduct magic and for increasing durability.
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I was finally home and only needed to wait for all of my stuff to arrive, which is probably going to take a while.
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Time-skip: 1 week later
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A week passed and I continued to grind, mostly my magic skills as well as Touki, but I did level up a couple of times, reaching level 22. I also used the absorption trick on the mages and gained some magical affinities, they even leveled quite nicely since if I get the same affinity twice they give EXP for the correlating affinity or skill.
Ashtal: 'Status'
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Name: Ashtal Eldritch
Level: 22 (5% to next level)
Race: Human / ???
Soul: ???
Title: The Gamer
HP: 1850
MP: 2430
VIT: ∞
STR: 118
DEX: 76
INT: 188 (18.8% Magic Resistance)
WIS: ∞
LUK: 8
Stat Points: 110
Affinities:
-Lightning LVL:42
-Fire LVL:28
-Wind LVL:22
-Water LVL:45
-Ice LVL:34
-Dark LVL:18
Skills:
[Gamer's Body (Passive) LVL:MAX]
[Gamer's Mind (Passive) LVL:MAX]
[Create ID (Active) LVL:8]
[Escape ID (Active) LV:5]
[Meditation (Active) LVL:1]
[Instant Mana Regeneration (Passive) LVL:MAX]
[Observe (Active) LVL:12]
[Lie Detection (Passive) LVL:1]
[Lie (Passive) LVL:1]
[Thought Acceleration (Passive/Active) LVL:2] (Current limit: X4)
[Multi Thread Calculation (Passive) LVL:1] (Current Limit: 2 Thought Processes)
[Magic Control (Passive) LVL:33]
[Mana Construct (Active) LVL: N/A]
[Reinforcement (Active) LVL:12]
[Touki (Active) LVL:18] (180% STR,DEX increase)
[Elemental Transformation (Active) LVL:18] A skill to shape Mana that has been infused with an element more efficient, depends on skill level.
Sacred Gear: Formless Absorption (22% Mastery)
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I also got a skill that's quite useful in conjunction with my affinities, I also combined some of my attacks with elemental Mana to increase damage, mainly my claw Mana-construct. I also thought about the way to use my Sacred Gear in battle. My idea was to form a Mana-construct in the form of one to 9 independent spear shaped 'tails', they will be thin like cloth to give them flexibility and be coated on the tips with the Sacred Gear. I realized that I had a limited amount of the substance/energy that I can use to coat things, also one more reason as to why I want to make the 'tails' so thin and only coat the tips. I can freely control the length of the 'tails' since they're Mana-constructs and I don't lack Mana. *cough* I basically am going to trap my 'prey' by impaling them with the covered tips and start to absorb them, they could also be imbued with elements at the same time time to cause more damage or to just torment them.
I also met up with Sona and Koneko for our biweekly meeting and this time I made enough food to get Koneko to fall into a food-coma, also this time I brought some refreshments in the form of homemade iced-tea.
Ashtal: "So that's 5-0 in my favor, Sona-san." I said as I looked at Koneko that was peacefully sleeping on my lap, curled up into a ball, completely ignoring the conflicted look on Sona's face.
Sona: "Say Ashtal, how is it that I'm incapable of taking a single piece from you?" Sona asked with a interested and hopeful expression on her face.
Ashtal: "A good king knows not only to defend himself if the situation requires it, but also to keep those under him safe and capable of defending themselves and subsequently capable of defending him." I said while readjusting the cat on my lap and keeping her from falling off.
Sona had a thoughtful look on her face, contemplating what I am trying to tell her. She doesn't know that I'm part of the supernatural, so she probably thinks that I'm talking strictly about chess.
Sona: "That is actually pretty logical, if you always defend your king, you are forced to sacrifice some pieces to defend it." Sona looked enlightened or atleast she thought she now had a chance against me.
Sona: "I want a rematch, this time I'm going to beat you" She declared haughtily.
Ashtal: " Sure, but nothings going to change the outcome." I told her matter of factly.
This wasn't arrogance speaking, just the fact that not only am I a faster thinker than her, I also had a cheat to accelerate my thinking by four times and that's only what it is capable of at the moment.
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Ashtal: "Checkmate" I said while looking at Sona with a 'told you so' look on my face.
Sona: "THAT'S SO UNFAIR" She finally lost her composure, shouting out and waking Koneko up in the process.
Koneko: "Sona-san, why did you have to scream?" Even though the question was asked in a neutral way, it had a hidden undertone that promised pain, if the answer was less than adequate.
Sona: "You see Ashtal-san beat me at chess and it made me lose my composure a little, so I accidentally screamed out." Sona stuttered out in a panic and started sweating, Koneko can be quite scary, but adorable at the same time.
I decided to safe Sona from a fate worse than death and took out a bag with cookies I made yesterday and it worked like a charm, Koneko ignored Sona and came over and took her place on my lap again. I just gave her the bag and we watched as she started to nibble on some cookies.
Sona: "Thanks, you saved me" she looked relieved but it's her fault for loosing her composure in the first place.
Ashtal: "You owe me one" I told her silently, which she seemed to have understood.
That was pretty much all that happened and we parted ways when the sun started to set, which is already fairly late in the day. I went home and saw that all of the things I bought arrived, now I just needed a place to turn into a workshop, the basement maybe, yeah that will do. After I put all the things into my inventory, yes I have a inventory if that wasn't obvious. I only bought the bag so I can pull stuff out in public without putting attention on myself.
So, I went down into the basement and the only thing down there was a robust wood table, good thing I have the connections required to plug in the more energy intensive machines.
After I set everything up, I had to make a forge and a foundry, I can only create basic resources and sadly steel is a composite material. So I build two structures out of heat resistant stones on which I carved runes for heating, powering them through the use of a fire-dragons core, I could use them to melt and heat most materials.
I started by creating an alloy of 50% iron, 20% titanium, 15% gold and 15% ground-up Mana-crystal. I casted the alloy into a bar and let it cool overnight. After it was cooled down, i checked the bar for impurities. I needed to forge the impurities out by folding the metal, which I did a lot. Afterwards I forged the now impurity free bar into the shape of a dagger, the dagger was 12" long or 25,4 centimetres. It was a so called needle pointed dagger, a double edged type of dagger.
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After the forging was complete, I continued with the rough grinding and contouring before hardening and tempering, lastly sharpening. I created a wooden handle out of purpleheart or otherwise known as amaranth, a purple type of wood, purely cosmetic since wood has a good magic conductivity by default and the only way to increase it would be through infusing it with other compounds which I'm currently not able to. The handle looked like it was twisted, like a spiral.
The only component still missing is the guard which was made from the same alloy as the blade, it's a flat guard that becomes thinner at the ends and is broad enough to protect my hand, about ten centimetres.
After the final assembly and the final sharpening and polish, I was left with a messy workshop and a beautiful but deadly dagger, I didn't carve any runes into the dagger, since I will use it mainly in conjunction with Reinforcement anyway and it has no moving parts that could jam.
After a hard day of work I went to bed, contend with what I accomplished, tomorrow I'm going to continue with the rifle and bayonet, maybe also some defensive equipment.
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Goodnight...
