chapter 20

In the labyrinth of the second floor.

A giant bullheaded monster was glaring menacingly at a group of player lead by a blue haired man, it was none other than Diavel, since the day that they cleared the first floor, Diavel and everyone else except for Leonard group quickly rushed back to the town of beginning in order to inform the players of the good news- also he hoped to recruit more for the raiding team as well.

From then on, Diavel leads them to a grinding spree, leveling up many of the players that soon participate in the next boss- which they manage to find in roughly a week of arriving on the second floor due to sheer luck from a brave player that was out exploring.

"Team A quickly switched out with team B!" Diavel shouted out his command to the tanking group A who was responsible for keeping the boss distracted to switched out with the damage dealer from the back.

The monster that they had to keep busy was none other than the current boss of the second floor. Asterius the Taurus King.

Asterius is a humanoid-form monster with its legs being as thick as tree trunks. Asterius waist was covered with sturdy, dark chainmail, though the upper half of its body was bare. The Taurus's head was that of a bull, but with six horns instead of two, that had a twisted beard hanging down to its stomach, and around, silvery platinum crown atop the center of its head. Asterius body was black, as if painted with ink, on the creature hand was a giant hammer.

What makes this creature so different from Illfang who guarded the first floor was that, unlike Illfang who had only four health bar, Asterius had six of them.

Which indeed made the fight even more difficult because the more health a monster had, the longer they have to drag out the fight.

However, they have to manage to dwindled down the monster to it last one and a half bar of health through a grueling fight that lasted for over half an hour.

"Eat this!" Leonard who was part of the second group of player "Team B" switched out with the main tanking group and launched an attack along with the other member with his sword.

Which he named Vengeance, a fitting name for a cursed sword that's created from the solidified blood of a vengeful evil old god that inhabited the Warcraft Universe.

Upon drawing the blade from its sheath, a chilling cold air current was then released from the blade, attracting the attention Asterius.

"Roooarrrr!!!" the monster staggered back to it fighting position and ready to brought down it hammer onto Leonard.

"Negative- BURST!" the blade of Vengeance roared out and exploded out onto the incoming hammer of Asterius and promptly send the weapon flying backward, creating another opening for the people behind Leonard to do some damages.

*slash *stab *slam

All manner of weapons found its way onto the body of the bullheaded monster and withering its health down to it the last bar of health.

"Keep on pressing the attack! We have to finish it off quickly!" Diavel shouted out.

"Yeah! We're on it!" Kibaou who was on the front line along with Leonard answered him and once again ready for another attack on the creature.

Now, all the player took the chance and jumped the bull-headed monster, and dwindled downed it health point even further.

Until the creature let out an agonized low gruntled before falling over and exploded.

After which they took a bit of rest before continued on pushing toward the next floor.

"Alright, you guy keep heading up, I'll be back in town when you needed me for the next boss," Leonard told them before pulling out a teleport crystal.

"Teleport- Town of the beginning!" he then shouted out before vanishing.

Before Leonard teleported, he remembered that it has been quite a long time since his last visit to the town that has the highest population of players thus far.

*****

Flashback to the day that Leonard was dragged into the inner forge by the grandmaster blacksmith Ingvar.

"Brat, you are going to help me forge this piece of metal into the finest weapon this world has ever seen!" the old blacksmith proclaimed proudly.

"Whose weapon is it going to be?" Leonard questioned the shameless old man.

"No one obviously!" the old man told him.

"...didn't own me a sword?" Leonard reminded Ingvar.

"I owe you nothing kid! You broke my sword so you have to pay for it!" Ingvar continued on the defied all common rational logic of being a good human being and instead of going toward the shameless old coot evolution route.

With that said, Leonard was then responsible for holding onto the cursed piece of metal while the old man pounded it into shape since Ingvar doesn't dare to hold onto it for long, he leaves that job to Leonard instead.

While watching the entire process of making a weapon, Leonard was notified about something quite pleasant as well.

[Blacksmithing skill has been recorded, do you wish to learn it?] the message from the cardinal system informed him instead of the one from the Multiverse.

"Oh hell yeah! Maybe this wasn't so bad after all!" Leonard exclaimed excitedly within his mind while having a stoic face displayed, he didn't hesitate at all in selecting the yes option.

The process of smithing the weapon took hours to complete, Leonard was forced to endure the entire process while being commanded a like a little minions, however it was all worth it in the end, the weapon that came out of the entire torturous event was deemed as an epic grade weapon, needless to say, the shameless blacksmith locked the blade up in a strong steel vault that he built onto the wall and then kicked Leonard out of the blacksmith shop empty-handed.

Or so the Ingvar had thought, Leonard has managed to learn quite a bit of blacksmithing skill from just standing there watching the old man pounding the piece of Saronite.

[Quest completed: reward- Mini-forge and Anvil kit]

"Shameless old coot, you indeed worthy of having the title of grandmaster blacksmith, just by standing there and watching you, my blacksmithing skill almost broke through to the late stage of Journeyman level." along with the reward that he got out of the quest and all, it was indeed worth it to sacrifice a piece of Saronite for a skill that might come in handy further down in the future, Leonard then quickly headed off to buy some cheap ones from the players market and headed off to a secluded location and began leveling up his skill and create his masterpiece of a weapon.

Roughly four days later.

"That's the last one!" Leonard brought down his mighty hammer onto the ingot of metal that was formed from the blood of an old god that he got from the system for two achievement point apiece.

*Clank!!!!

The hammer strikes the piece of Saronite hard, sending dark black dust flying everywhere.

Immediately after that final strike of a hammer, the Saronite began to glow and shaped into a one-handed sword with a dark, misty corrupted appearance on the blade.

[Congratulation on reaching Master level on the skill Blacksmithing! The item that was created will now receive stats boost!]

[You have created a unique weapon, please name it]

Two message quickly blocked his views.

Leonard then picked up the sword with one hand to feel the weight of the sword.

"Quite light…" after which he gave a slight swung using the sword.

*Slash the blade sliced through the anvil without much effort.

"Light in weight, tough in the durability department and finally...sharp as hell…" Leonard began pondering for a good name that would fit his sword.

However the moment his thought ran astray and went to the moment where he had to suffer under the old blacksmith Ingvar he couldn't help but get pissed.

"Vengeance it is then!" he proclaimed loudly.

Flashback ended as Leonard appeared in the central plaza of the town of beginning.