Chapter 5: Progress of The Weak: Part Two

“A perfectly symmetrical slice…”

The Werehyena that had attacked earlier, half of its body, head to toe…or tail, was laying on my right side, the other half on my left. There was no doubt about it, it was dead, so dead, super dead. Some of its blood dripping down my forehead and the rest splashed on the ground, in both my hands shone an illuminating white light as if in response to my Mana. The light came from a blade, a strong and sturdy blade. It was none other than the great iron blade. First Dawn.

“Holy crud, I had totally forgotten about this. When did I unsheath it though?” I wondered.

“This must be the Weapon Fanatic’s Sub-Skill Bladework at play. So I activated it without even thinking, with instinct alone!? Is that even possible? I thought I had accepted my fate but subconsciously, I must’ve really not wanted to die. No, it was more than that, I couldn’t accept it, I didn’t want to accept it. Not a death like that. This is me fighting back, fighting back against the cruelty of this world, against fate itself!”

I removed my left hand from First Dawn, holding it with just my right, I then clenched my right fist tightening my grip on my trusty blade. After that I reactivated my Treasure Hunt Skill. I drew my attention to the other Werehyenas as I pointed the blade towards them.

“I can do this!” I declared.

“One down, twenty-seven more to g-hm?”

I couldn’t help but notice that the Werehyenas were starting to act strange. They weren’t laughing anymore. They just stood there, completely silent while attentively staring at me, almost as if they were wary of me. No, ’wary’ was putting it lightly, ’scared’ was more like it.

“So they’re conscious of what’s happening. Still though, last I checked, even normal hyenas were some of the most persistent animals out there, with these guys, it’s like an exponential mutation, so what’s up with this reaction just ’cause I managed to kill one of them. Was this one some sort of alpha? Is that why it attacked first? Now that I mention it, it’s slightly bigger than the others, about fifty percent bigger to be exact, if that’s the case then it all makes sense now. To these guys I must look like a newly awakened beast with an indomitable will and spirit who just instilled his resolve, an alpha in my own right. Well, then if they’re not fighting back, that makes things easier for me.”

I closed my eyes, inhaled and exhaled a few times then opened my eyes again, the purpose; to achieve complete calmness and unity with oneself. My self-awareness spiked up like crazy. All that, piled with the shit ton amount of info gained from the 360 degree vision of my Treasure Hunt Skill could probably melt someone’s brain but due to my relatively high Intelligence Stat, it only further heightened my senses. Making my brain the source, I then circulated my Mana throughout my entire body. The manifestation of one’s subconscious mind. This thus created a connection between my instincts and self-realisation making them one. My body instantly felt lighter, while emitting a faint white light. Everything was so clear. I just suddenly knew what I had to do and how to do it, it all just naturally came to me, including the words I whispered next…

“Sunset Slash”

For that brief moment, nature itself followed my every whim. A single horizontal slash. Total decapitation. All the Werehyenas’ heads fell off their bodies, it didn’t matter where they were. However, this wasn’t because the effect of the slash was one that allowed it to adapt its trajectory to match the surroundings. Rather, the slash was an attack that forced the surroundings to adapt to its rules. I sheathed back my blade afterwords as I was ready to start exploring the caves.

[Report. Immediate Quest: Werehyena Extermination has been completed. Now calculating rewards…]

[Weapon Fanatic Skill has advanced from D-Rank to C-Rank. Weapon Fanatic’s Sub-Skill Bladework has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank. Bladework Sub-Skill has awakened its first Special Attack Sunset Slash. Sunset Slash has been examined and found to be multi-usable. Subject can now use Sunset Slash with any weapon that has sharp properties.]

“So not just blades but I can use it with swords, axes, spears and the like now too? Sweet.”

[Furthermore, Treasure Hunt Skill has advanced from D-Rank to C-Rank, Mana Capacity has increased by 40. Strength has increased by 30. Speed has increased by 34. Health has increased by 36 and Intelligence has increased by 39. Now redesigning overall Warrior info…]

Name: Raid

Surname: ???

Affiliation: Awakened Warrior

Class: Blacksmith

Skills:

• Craft D-Rank : Can craft high level equipment, weapons and amour from scratch as long as the necessary products to do so are present.

• Repair D-Rank: Can fix broken equipment, weapons and amour.

• Weapon Fanatic C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of understanding of how various weapons operate, including how to use them in battle.

•• Bladework B-Rank: Possesses a high level of mastery with blades.

••• Sunset Slash: A very powerful slash with the power to bend nature to its will.

• Treasure Hunt C-Rank: Can expertly locate mines with products and minerals for crafting within a 600 kilometre radius. Tip: Mines found in dungeons have the best products.

• Mine E-Rank: Can expertly mine products and minerals for crafting.

• Item Space D-Rank: Limited space to store equipment, weapons, armoury, products, minerals, etc…

Rank: F

Level: Locked

Mana Capacity: 3471

Strength: 876

Speed: 990

Health: 912

Intelligence: 980

“Three of four of my Stats outside of Mana Capacity are close to reaching the thousand realm, once that happens, I’ll have Stats on the level of a D-Rank Warrior. When you consider all of that, my overall specs are on the unbalanced side, but I guess all that training for three whole years had to count for something. And with my Bladework Sub-Skill on the level it is in now, I reckon I should be able to go toe to toe with at least a C-Rank and at most a B-Rank Warrior. I shouldn’t get ahead of myself though but still…”

[Final rewards are being allocated. Subject has received 28 E-Rank monster cores, otherwise known as Mana Crystals plus entry into the Werehyena Caves with no disturbance.]

“Oh, lookie here. Almost forgot about these.”

Monster cores, as the name suggests, are cores that exist inside monsters. They’re formed when the Natural Mana in the air fuses with the Source Mana of the monsters and the fused Mana’s density increases from within the monster’s body thus turning solid. They appear every time a monster dies. If they aren’t captured and contained within half an hour after appearing, they’ll dissipate and the Mana they emit will then fuse with nature, becoming part of the Natural Mana.

Monster cores, or Mana Crystals are used by Warriors for the purpose of increasing their Mana Capacity. I didn’t know how it worked but I wasn’t about to let these treasures go to waste like that so I put them all in my Item Space.

“Man, if I didn’t have this Skill, I don’t know what I would’ve done with this many Mana Crystals in hand. I wonder if other Warriors beside me have anything similar. I remember watching Warriors go in and out of Dungeons on TV when I was still young and most always carried large backpacks and sacks so I doubt that that many Warriors have a Skill similar to Item Space if at all any.”

Engrossed in the feeling of believing that I’m special, I was ready to start venturing through the caves. As I was about to do just that however, the Werehyenas’ dead bodies infront of me caught fire and burned to ashes.

“What the heck!? Is that what happens when monsters die and lose their cores!? Damn, that literally came out of nowhere. Hold up, then what about…?”

I drew my attention towards the place where the buffalo like monster that was being eaten by the Werehyenas before was. There was nothing.

“Must’ve also burned up while I was fighting the Werehyenas, explains why they were munching on it so intensely, the meal isn’t one that lasts long”

Doing my best to put the shock I just experienced behind me, I made my way through one of the caves, it became darker and darker as I ventured deeper and deeper into the cave. I wouldn’t be able to see at all if I didn’t have my Treasure Hunt Skill which had advanced to a new Rank. The waves it emitted and the glow in my eyes in response to it were now blue in colour in correspondence to its new Rank. With its range increased two-fold, I had already located the mine that laid underground so I headed straight to it, making my way through a tunnel like path. I arrived and there it was, the mine. The darkness earlier was no more, in the wide spacious area before me shone an almost silver-like light that filled the entire surrounding. The light came from the rich minerals slightly poking out from the walls and ground, I wondered what type of minerals they were specifically so I used my Treasure Hunt Skill to examine them.

“Cold Iron, it’s Cold Iron. No freaking way.”

I couldn’t believe it. While not especially rare, Cold Iron was a very treasured mineral, named so due to its absurdly high melting point calculated to be 50 times that of normal iron. It also has very high Mana conductivity. I wanted to immediately go and start mining that precious mineral but there was still something other than the iron in the mine, something that was preventing me from acting rash. As I stood at the edge of the tunnel that led to the mine looking down from above, I saw them. More Werehyenas. There was no alpha though, so I concluded that the first one I had killed must’ve been the alpha of all of them here. Some were sleeping, the rest walking and lounging around. There were more here than the ones I fought earlier. A little over thrice as much but I had no intention of hiding myself this time so I unsheathed my blade, jumped down then took a battle stance. I then deactivated my Treasure Hunt Skill since I doubted I needed it in this situation.

“Hey there you mutts.”

All those that were sleeping and lounging around immediately got up as they noticed me after I said that. A message then popped up as they surrounded me slowly. I snickered as I checked the message’s contents, mentally readying myself for the battle ahead.

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