Growth Type Sword

Ameanum had killed two dozen monsters he had found in the field, but even if his sword seemed to have improved a bit, it still didn't change to Base Rank. After the first five, the improvement seemed to get less and less, and after the first dozen, it was close to nothing.

He tried to find other types of monsters, but the variety wasn't wide here, and it seemed the more of the same kind he killed, the more negligible effect they had on the sword.

He had also noticed at the Goblin Cave back at Picton that they weren't helping his sword at all, but he assumed cause they were relatively low-level monsters.

So he had to change his plan, and the Players that came to investigate were the perfect target.

Since this was a high-level monster field, the Players in the town were around those levels too.

But the 40-50 level characters were simple prey for one as Ameanum, even if his equipment was of inferior quality at that level. His Skills were making all the difference needed.

He also noticed that he had access to his Breaking Limit state, and this body could handle it way better than his NPC child body. Fortunately, the Spirit Hammer also recognized that both his NPC and Player were the same person.

He continued hunting monsters, but this time he prolonged the fight as long as he could and made them scream as much to draw the attention of his actual victims.

Each time it was a solo player, or at most a party of three, none were ready to face Ameanum.

He had taken a few bamboos and covered himself with mud and leaves to make himself look like a kind of monster as it would draw too much attention of a Player going around killing monsters and Players.

He was attacking them fast enough not to give them a chance to inspect him, but they got some general look of his.

After an hour of hunting, he noticed it filled his sword with strange runes on its blade. They seemed to be written by the blood of the players he killed.

He also noticed the sword moving on its own as trying to leave his grasp.

It was a time for him to stop as more parties came to find this strange monster causing that chaos.

He cleared himself and returned to town.

He investigated his sword and its runes on the way back, and they were like nothing he had seen up until now. They didn't look like Enchantments, as they didn't follow the shape system or any Programming Enchantment he knew.

As time passed, the sword seemed to become more restless to be freed from his grasp, but Ameanum didn't let it.

He stopped just a little outside the town in an opening where a lake was and a jetty existed for fishing. 

Nobody was currently around, as most Players were in the Bamboo field looking for the one behind the chaotic situation.

Ameanum stabbed his sword in the ground to keep it in place without having to hold it as he investigated the rest of the blade, not piercing the earth.

The runes seemed to get carved on the blade by the blood as time passed. The carving didn't seem to be continuous, but every few seconds and every time the carving was happening, the sword moved like a person who got hit.

'Did it grow a consciousness?' [Ameanum]

Ameanum had read many stories about Growth-type equipment, but since there wasn't anyone in the current era of the game, none could be sure what was true and what was not.

One of them said that there were two categories of Growth-type equipment with active consciousness and ones without one.

Growth-type equipment was rumored to grow because they had a consciousness of their own, but some seemed to want to communicate with their user, while others didn't. The ones with an active consciousness seemed to be more potent as they could develop them to fit the tactics of their use in how they developed, while the rest seemed to grow more generically. But both were powerful tools, no matter the case.

Ameanum wasn't sure what he should do, as this story seemed to contain some truth.

If he were at his NPC body, he would try to use some of his mana, but as Ameanum, he had zero mana and no man skills.

Even if he tried to learn mana skills, the System wouldn't allow it.

He didn't want to let anyone else check his sword, not even Pan, so he had to find a solution on his own.

Then an idea came to him, and he closed his eye and raised his hand while he focused.

Over his hand, after a few seconds, a few cracks seemed to appear in the air, and as time passed, they were extending as the piece of air there broke, and a small portal opened.

From it, a single item got out, and Ameanum caught it.

It was Garry's Spirit Hammer.

He had noticed that the Hammer seemed to recognize him more over the past days, but still not considering him a master, but he could use it more times.

He also seemed to make it teleport to him, but it was straining his mind and body too much, so he just kept it in his ring.

But now he was in his Player body, and he also didn't have to worry about his body getting strained by it as in theory couldn't.

The Spirit Hammer was to strain the summoning of any mortal person's body, but Ameanum wasn't a mortal, as they considered him a Spirit from the System.

Of course, he was still a living being and could get affected by most things as expected, but some loopholes existed like that.

But he lost some SP from it but nothing he couldn't handle.

He felt his Spirit Hammer would not stay too long here, so he had to hurry.

He focused on changing it in a pick hammer and went to help to finish the carvings on the blade.

He held the blade still and in the ground with one hand while using his Spirit Hammer with the other hand. As the time progressed, and since he wasn't stopping, the blade seemed to fight with more power and to become more restless, but Ameanum kept it under control for now.

He was over with almost half of the carving as the sword started being more restless than he could handle.

Without a second thought, he enabled his Breaking Limit state.

The sword was still once more like a powerless child held by a giant.

He even used Beliss's Blessings, which seemed to be available for Ameanum, which seemed to help with his carving techniques. 

Of course, since his INT as Ameanum wasn't as high as in his NPC body, the boost wasn't as significant as usual, but still helpful.

After an hour and a half since he began carving, they finally finished getting carved on the blade. It was now entirely out of the earth and kept still by him only since the carving was going all along the edge.

The moment he finished, the blood on the blade dropped on the floor as gravity seemed actually to affect it. 

Ameanum swung the blade to get the rest of it away from the blade.

Then he had noticed that the carving he had worked on had disappeared, and there was just a slight painting of it that one could see under the right angle and light only.

He noticed his word to be lighter, and from the swings he did with it, he could see miles of difference in its quality than before.

He checked, and the System finally considered it Base Grade weapon.

Its power was still lacking compared to a Master Grade one, but it was an improvement.

Ameanum focused on remembering the number of Players and Monsters he had to kill for Rank up.

Counting the Players outside to Goblin Cave, he had killed a little less than 50 Players today. 

Calculating the monsters he had to kill and how much they seemed to help the blade, and he was confident that they would count as killing enough players to reach number 50.

It meant that he needed to kill another 50 and more to grow it at Master Rank, and most likely, there would be a limit at their level at some point.

But he wasn't planning to go around massacring Players without reason, as he had noticed something on the last few of his victims.

Their death particles were grey.

The color change meant they wouldn't be able to spawn for some time, and the death penalty would be heavier, but it wasn't as grey as Master Whip in the mine.

His weapon wasn't fighting anymore, so he put it back in its sheath and continued his way to the town.

"Name."[???]

Ameanum stopped as he had heard this strange voice whispering at him.

"My name."[????]

The voice didn't seem to come from a specific direction, but from all over the place. Or so it felt sometimes when one telepathically spoke to him.

Ameanum pulled his sword and brought it at a small distance from his face.

"Need my name." [Sword]

Ameanum was excited at that moment as he seemed to have an active consciousness weapon, but he stayed focused and thought of a name.

"Sinhunter."[Ameanum]

As he told the name, he decided to the sword, the painting of the carving lighted up for a split second, and then there was silence.

Ameanum waited for the sword to say something more, but as a couple of minutes of silence passed, he was the one to speak. 

"Hello there. Can you hear me?" [Ameanum]

It seemed like a stupid question to first ask someone, but in these types of situations of encountering something unknown, Ameanum's mind was too excited to think as usual.

"Me sleepy. Talk when time pass."[Sinhunter]

The response disappointed Ameanum, but he asked nothing more. 

He put the Sinhunter back to its sheath and finally got back in town to find Soryn.

Soryn had taken a new outfit, and this time his clothes were close to what a Chinese monk would wear, which fit with his bold head.

Since the town's architecture was very real-world Asian-like, there were stores selling clothing fitting the theme.

Soryn didn't seem to be a fan of this style, but he said it was a gift from the store owner since she thought it would fit him.

He had bought an outfit similar to his previous, but not of a fancy design.

It looked like an outfit one martial artist would wear at the movies, although its primary color seemed to be green with some yellow details.

It was rare for Shingi to see an NPC going to buy new clothing for himself, but since some had programmed to act as realistic as possible, it wasn't unheard of one to do so.

He informed him he had found a way out and that they would leave before noon.

Soryn told him rumors about a strange beast appearing outside the town, but Shingi said to him they shouldn't worry about it.

So they headed and relaxed for the rest of the day.