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[You are allowed to upgrade your Special Class: Fire Monarch]
[Things needed for upgrade:
Gold: 10.000...X
Blood of the Ice elemental Danger Beast...✓
Base Charisma 40...X
Base Intelligence 50...X]
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Ugh, even the system wants money from me. Well, I can make fortune by killing Danger Beasts like the ones we have just killed. Unfortunately, I had to burn them to level up this special class.
If one looks at my status, they would probably think that I didn't get much stronger but it is quite opposite. Thanks to Babara's medicine that made my entire mind clearer, I was finally able to perfect both stances and combine them together. Currently, when I get into my stance, the zone that is created all around me even above me is more than 2 meters wide and thanks to combining both stances together, it is now much stronger than Taeko's stance.
Her stance is indeed very similar to mine and is very deadly but she is vulnerable to long-range attacks while in my stance, nothing can get past my zone as long as I can slash it into nothingness. Even the gas is no problem to counter but something like controlled water by Teigu is slightly more problematic.
Anyway...
"Akashi Nii-sama~! Did you see me how I easily killed it?!" Kurome came running up to me and asked with a wide smile while leaning forward.
"Heh, you really became strong but don't become overconfident." I said with a small smile.
"Tehee, I know, I will never drop my guard when facing a strong opponent." Her smile widened when she heard my praise and nodded her head.
"Young lord, is that everything for today?" Ichika also arrived next to Kurome and asked with a completely calm expression and smile.
Heh, What a refined lady...
"That's right, we already killed more than hundreds of those beasts so let's go back. Kurome also needs a new weapon." I said and turned around toward the Capital's direction and slowly started to walk.
"Eeeh, it seems that I can't hide anything from Akashi Nii-sama...I wanted to tell you but..." Kurome was slightly surprised by my words so she replied with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"I understand, you didn't want me to change plans just because of you. Don't worry, I want to try something out anyway so I need to go back to the Capital." I waved my hand to gesture her not to worry about it.
"*Hehe, you should be more confident around Young lord. Or are you perhaps afraid that he will bite you?*" Ichika whispered to Kurome as they were following behind my steps.
"*Wha-? I just don't want to cause any troubles!*" Kurome retorted with upset expression.
"I can hear you, girls!" I shouted at them and both stopped talking and quickly run up to me from each side while giggling.
Where is my Kurome who was behaving like a lost cute kitten...I guess even kitten needs to grow up and start acting like a grown-up cat. *sigh*
I sighed inwardly but a small smile was still visible on my face.
.
.
.
When we arrived at our mansion, my mother immediately received us and forced us to sit down on the couch and talk to her.
After more than 20 minutes of talking with my mother, I decided that it would be the best time to start on my new project.
I got up from my seat.
"Akashi?" My mother called out with a confused expression.
"Young lord, are you going somewhere?" Ichika also asked and started to slowly get up from her seat.
"Stop, you can have a woman talk only. I need something to do in the cellar, and I will probably spend there a few days without going out. I will take food and water down with me so please don't let anyone disturb me." I said with a small smile while gesturing for Ichika to stop getting up.
"I don't really understand son but...make sure to take enough food if you won't come out in a few days. Also, don't remain there for too long, the sun is also very important, you can't spend numerous days down there with only candles." She remained me with a worried smile.
"Haha, don't worry. Mother, can you please relay the message to everyone that they are forbidden to come into the cellar for a few days?" I asked with a pleading smile.
"Of course, good luck with whatever you will be doing, son! We girls will have a good talk" My mother answered and then a slightly sly smile appeared on her face.
...*sigh* What do I expect. Of course, she will talk about my love life, I am already 17 and I have yet to do anything with Aiko, I also don't have any lover she knows about. I hope she won't corrupt Kurome with any ideas because sometimes it's even harder to resist cute, not so devilishly developed body than somebody with a devilish body like Esdeath or Ichika.
"Alright, have fun...I will go to suffer while you enjoy your tea" I said but the last part was only muttered by me.
"Hm?" All of them looked at me questioningly because they didn't hear clearly the part I muttered to myself.
"It nothing!" I decisively said and left the main hall, with the cellar as my destination.
While I was closing the door behind me, I couldn't help but freeze in place from what I have heard...
"Kurome, Ichika, you two spend a lot of time with my son so you should know... You, Kurome, in particular even sleep within the same room with my son. Tell me honestly, is there something between you two? Have you two done it already?" My mother asked aloud.
*Bam*
I couldn't help but slam the door behind me with an irritated expression.
I expected something like this but not from the start, she didn't even wait for me to leave. Maybe it was part of her plan...who knows, my mother is sometimes really scary.
Anyway, down to the cellar...
I took some provisions with me and if worse came to worst I can drink wine that's stored down there.
.
.
"*sigh* Finally alone, nice calm silence with only candles around me and big forge in the middle of the cellar.
I am glad my father decided to upgrade it with the passage of time, right now it looks more than just provisional forge.
...I have only 1 shot, 1 opportunity to sei- oops I am losing focus.
I thought while I gripped only a few remaining ores of that green metal. While on the other side I had an adequate stock of the Abyssal Iron that should be the most expensive metal on the market and even then it isn't metal that is accessible to regular people.
I can't afford to fail this...My father already excavated the rest of the ores in that cave and he had already ordered some blacksmiths in another city to forge weapons with help of that ore.
If I will succeed, I might have some remaining ore to make daggers for Ichika but my main problem is Kurome's katana.
This will be a very long process if I want to make sure I won't make any mistake and I want the final product to be perfect.
I thought and started my work.
Thankfully the cellar was mostly soundproof so no one was disturbed by my hammering through the entire 3 nights. I spent 2 and a half days plus 3 nights to just complete Kurome's new katana. I wasn't sleeping the entire time which was extremely unusual and uncomfortable for me but I endured it.
Although I spent so much time on it, I could have completed it in half-day and 1 night, however, I decided to refine it and sharpen it numerous times over to make it the top quality, thus it took so long. Also, the last night was dedicated to creating a perfect sheath for it. For the sheath, I used extremely durable yet light in weight bones from the Danger Beast that I hunt down in those 5 years. It was probably one of the strongest I have found in those years so I decided to keep its materials. Then I put a thin layer of Abyssal Iron over the white sheath, making it completely black.
After that, I used my index finger together with my flames to create a few decorative symbols on it because it looked kinda plain. The red symbols were slightly glowing in the dark, thus the sheath was done.
After everything was done, I took a look at the katana I have made.
Entire black hilt up to blade except for the slightly glowing green entire edge of the blade. I couldn't help but smile despite the fatigue I was feeling when I saw how sharp it was. I didn't even need to try it out to feel how the edge was sharp. In such a weapon...only one look is enough to recognize how sharp and dangerous it is.
I really can't help but praise myself for this masterpiece.
I thought and with an appreciative nod, I sheathed the katana. When the katana was fully sheathed...
[Congratulation on creating a new weapon that is on par with Teigu the only exception is that it is without any attribute or abilities, however, for slicing enemies it is more than good enough.]
[Gained new class: Master Blacksmith (Lv. 1; +1 Str, +1 Const) 0/10 XP]
[+ 1000 XP to your Master Blacksmith class for creating your first weapon that's on par with Teigu. You are the pride of all blacksmiths for showing that even normal metals can match weapons made from Super-Class Danger Beasts.]
[Gained new class: Master Blacksmith (Lv. 7; +7 Str, +7 Const) 370/640 XP]
[Free Stat points: 17 -> 23
[Caring Touch - While creating new weapons, you show extreme care and compassion for the materials you are using. +20% to the sharpness of weapons you create and -20% materials needed for forging the weapon and other gear. The same applies to the armor. +20% toughness of the gear you create.]
Whoa, that's a lot of experience points and it seems that I can gain experience points with another way other than killing.
I was quite surprised by this amount of experience but I quickly calmed down and started using the rest of the materials to make 2 daggers for Ichika.
This time I took only 1 day and 1 entire night to create it.
The daggers had glowing greed edges of the blade while the middle of the blade was completely black. Although I spent much less time on it, didn't mean that it was worse than Kurome's katana. Thanks to my new passive I was able to reduce the time of creating it, of course, I could spend more time on it but I didn't want it to be better than Kurome's katana...just in case they would start arguing. I am thinking on everything...
[+ 100 XP for creating another weapon on par with Teigu]
[Gained new class: Master Blacksmith (Lv. 7; +7 Str, +7 Const) 470/640 XP]
Meh, I already expected the less experience. If I want more, I will probably need to make real Teigu or something that even surpasses Teigu.
I was already quite sleepy but with everything that happened right now, I was too excited to go sleep so I decided to make a few more things. Although I no longer had enough of that green ore to make any bigger weapon, I could make mini daggers for throwing, I could use it only for the tip of the blade and reduce the spending of the material.
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.
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Another few hours passed by and I was finally done creating mini daggers and also armored plating for the forearms and also for the shin. It shouldn't reduce our speed or mobility.
Finally done...I thought and climbed the stairs leading out of the cellar and when I walked out of the cellar, the sun rays immediately started piercing my eyes so I had to adapt my eyes for a few minutes before walking somewhere.
"Oh?! Akashi Nii-sama, you are finally out?" Kurome who was currently relaxing together with Ichika inside the main hall, sitting on the couch and enjoying the tea called out to me when she noticed me.
"Yeah, this is for you two." I said with a hollow voice while my face was devoid of any emotion with big dark circles under my eyes and then threw them the equipment I have crafted for them.
"Y-Young lord?!"
"Akashi Nii-sama?!"
Both of them cried out when they saw my expression but they still catch the things I weakly threw at them.
"I will go take a bath and then to the bed, you can inspect your new weapons meanwhile and do whatever you want." I told them without any care in the world and slowly walked out of the room.
---When Akashi left the room---
"? What was that? Did Young lord really craft new weapons for us?" Ichika muttered while looking at the daggers in sheaths with an absent-minded expression before looking at Kurome who returned the look.
Both of them gulped down and nodded at each other with a determined expression.
Both of them drew their weapons and when they saw the sharpness of that glowingly green blade they couldn't help but gasp.
They themselves felt how sharp their new weapons were, there was no need to try it out but they still felt urge to go and kill some Danger Beasts with it, however, the concern they felt for Akashi was much greater so they pushed the urge to try it out away.
"How long was the Young lord down there?" Ichika asked aloud while looking at her weapon with an enchanted look in her face.
"...It should be around 4 days and 4 nights" Kurome muttered with a slightly guilty expression while hugging her new katana.
"?! Don't tell me that he didn't sleep at all!" Both of them realized something and snapped their heads at each other while saying the same thing at the same time with dumbfounded expressions.
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