Hey readers, before we start the winner of Rook's romantic life was one person, but you all said I should do but in different ways so I still need to think about that. Next I changed the final mastery of skills to {Saint} instead of {God}. I'm still looking into different skills and martial arts for Rook so if you have any ideas please pitch them to me. And with that, let's start the game.
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"Your strikes must be more precise! You strike the anvil like a child!" Onyx shouted in my ear for the 39th time.
"I am a kid, or did you forget!" I retorted back at him. Its been about 11 months since I started working for the smithy, I've made great strides in my work to forge a Imperial Arm so far, I even stopped having to mine and cut wood after 7 months of doing it. The good new is that my blacksmithing skill is mastery level Intermediate, every time my mastery level goes up my proficiency with forging gets better. I've neglected my swordsmanship which left it at mastery level Basic on the verge of going to intermediate.
'Mira show me my status.'
[Check it😎]
[Name: Rook Frontier | level 5 | Age: 13
Strength:250
Dexterity:250
Endurance:250
Agility:250
Intelligence:250
Magic:250
Soul Strength: Tier 2
Luck: 100
Skills-
{Blacksmithing(intermediate) +4: 150/2000}
{Swordsmanship (basic)+2: 795/800}
Passive Skills-
{Evolving Weapon's Physic}
Titles- One Tested by God, One who Dares to Defy Heaven's Will]
I had chosen to turn the mining and wood cutting skills into RP giving me 120 RP to use, I've been seriously considering which cultivation technique I should purchase, speaking of which when I had calmed down of being able to start smithing and went back to by the skill I wanted Mira reminded me that I could get any skill in the store I wanted from the store. And even knowing this I still chose to spend SP because to wanted to save for a rainy day.
Mira also told me thanks to my title every time my skills would level up a '+2' would appeared next to it, the more I leveled up the skill the more '+2' I would get. Basically my smithing skill would be better than others on the same mastery level as me.
"Focus damnit!" Onyx yelled. The reason why he was being so hard on me was because I was gonna take the exam to become a professional craftsman, this meantime would be able to pit my logo or name on any product I made, I would even be able to use smithies anywhere. Forging a weapon was harder than it looked and quite tiring on the body, every swing had to hit the correct location otherwise the sword would be ruined, thanks to the system which showed me where to hit I could hit the spots accurately.
The system would show a red dot on whatever I forged showing where to hit, the more the skill leveled up the less dots showed up and the more accurate they were.
The exam would first test my educational knowledge, next my forging, and finally my economical understanding. The last one was especially important because without this you wouldn't have any idea what materials were worth or how much you should charge for your pieces. Although my intellectual stand point is considered low to others, in my original life I was a straight A student, I didn't use advance math so to not draw any attention to myself.
[Days: 3 | Hours: 5 | Minutes: 32]
I asked Mira to set a counter for how long till the show starts so I knew when to make my move.
*Tang* *Tang* *Tang*
"Better." he said sitting down behind me. I know knew why the others didn't like me staring before, they were in a serial mindset, I disrupted that by string and adding some form of pressure.
After hours of striking, sharpening, and fitting I finally finished my sword. Onyx said you'll never forget your first weapon, I could understand why that was, looking at your first fruit of labor was a sight to behold. The sword looked similar to Kirito's from when he was a fairy, the only exceptions were that this one was the size of a straight sword and it was made of steel. Onyx took through sword out of my hand to analyst what I had done.
"How did I do?" I asked him seeing a small grin before setting it down on the table.
"First, don't ask how you did on a weapon unless its a custom job. Second, you did good on this sword, you've done me well." he said proudly smiling. He told me that I could keep it since it was the first thing I forged, I started time clean up the shop when it became nearly nighttime, as I was closing up shop I thought about what martial art skill I should go with to synthesis with swordsmanship or maybe...
'Mira is it possible to fuse my innate abilities with skills from the system?'
[Its possible, but I remind Host that if it fails they'll both be lost forever, and on top of that the chance of success between the two is only 10%.😨]
'What would my 100 points in luck do?'
[The 10% is with your 100 pts in luck.😑]
[I recommend to get more martial art skills first. 😇]
'Fine.'
I rode the wagon(Carriage) home to where Onyx was waiting for me currently. I kept thinking of all the martial arts I could pick to synthesis together, SAO swordsmanship, Demon Slayer breath swordsmanship, or maybe Formless Swordsmanship. There were one to many ideas running throughout my head so I decided to sleep on it. That night I swung a sword instead of a hammer with one goal in mind, get my swordsmanship to Intermediate level mastery. I tried all types of different swings and tried moving in different ways as well.
Swordsmanship was about mainly about three things; footwork, technique, and finally physic. If I lacked even one of these things then my swordsmanship would be considered lacking in many ways. After more than 100 swings my palms tingled with pain, my fingers started to lock and hurt as well, and my shoulders were heavy.
"Straighten your posture." a familiar voice yelled. I looked over seeing Onyx standing there smoking on his pipe again like always, he walked towards me with curiosity in his eyes."When did you decide to take up the sword?"
"If I want to get materials,slay danger beasts, and reach my goal of forging an Imperial Arm then I have to defend myself." I said swinging my sword again with determination. Onyx could see that he meant every word of what he said, the first time he heard Rook say he wanted to make an Imperial Arm he took it for a joke, but what he just heard made his understanding change, he now realized this was his ambition.
"Alright then." he said going to his house and coming back with a wooden sword as well. He took a fighting stance as well. "If your prepared to put in the effort I'll teach you."
"Then let's start." I said getting back into my fighting stance. My wooden sword was held with both of my hands while my left foot was in front of my right. Onyx, on the other hand, stance was at his side in his right hand only, almost in a relax state. He made the first move covering almost 11 meters in a instance as I saw his sword striking down on its way to my head, I attempt to block his attack and nearly failed. I could feel the weight of his sword as I parried him.
I underestimated him since his profession is a blacksmith after all, but by the strike he dealt Rook you could swear he was once a master swordsman. Onyx didn't give Rook time to recover, he had swung from behind Rook hitting his back putting him on his knees.
"Your done already?" Onyx asked wondering if he had gone to far.
"I can take it." I say getting back up into my fighting stance. We continued practicing like this until Onyx said my body couldn't take it anymore, I considered to use the still force or sage force in the fight but I chose not to, one reason being that the I wouldn't gain experience and second was that I didn't know if Onyx would pick up on it. In fact I didn't really know all that much about him.
My body was bruised in almost everyway the only upside about this was that my swordsmanship went to intermediate level and was on its way to mastery level advance.
______________________________________________
Next Day-
Today's the day I attend the Blacksmith Exam to see if I have what it takes to be an official blacksmith. The test is located at the guild in the Capital, the trip would take me almost an entire day which means I would have to start traveling at least.
"Todays, the day." Onyx said sighing at the end. He went to the window looking at Rook practice his swordsmanship maybe for the last time, he noticed the sword that Rook forged yesterday was laying on the table in its leather sheath. He unsheathed the sword remembering all the effort he put into forging it, it was sleek yet showed the dominance of a great-sword surprisingly. He might not realized himself yet, but he was gonna miss Rook almost as much as Rook was gonna miss him.
'Maybe I should teach him it.' he thought while
making breakfast.
The smell of bacon and sausage flooded the air which meant breakfast was ready. The smell that were assaulting my nose made me instantly decide to take a brake, when I arrived at the table I saw all of the food laid before me. I picked up a knife in one hand and a fork in the other as I began to eat with Onyx.
"So when will you start packing for the trip?"Onyx asked while eating a pancake.
"Probably about 5:00 PM, why?" I asked back. It was unusual for Onyx to be asking me of these things.
"I want to show you something when your done eating." he said washing his plate. It was my responsibility to wash the remainder of the plates since I usually ate the most between the two of us, washing the dishes was one of the things I hated to do even in my past life. I followed Onyx into the backyard where we both sat on stumps as explained 'Will'.
"Will is the force that all people emit from their bodies without even knowing it. There are many different ways to put this, but that's the most easiest way I know how to put it. Anyhow, the reason why I'm telling you this is because its possible to use Will when fighting or smithing."He said getting my attention.
"How do I use it?" I ask.
"In order to use Will you must first know which type of Will you possess which can be found out if you know someone who already has their Will activated." he said making me a bit bummed.
"To bad I don't know one."I said disappointed.
"I'm one." he retorted to my disappointed sounding voice.
"Then why haven't you done it, wait let me guess. There's a catch." I said. Onyx was the same as my dad which meant that I knew when he was hesitant on something.
"Indeed there is, in order to awaken your Will I would have to give you all my Will which would mean you would absorb my very existence." he said sadly not wanting to look me in my eyes.
"Then I won't do it." I said standing up instantly to walk away when Onyx grabs my hand. "I told you I'm not doing it."
"Please just listen." he said pulling me to sit back down."I'm dying Rook and if you want to be able to forge an Imperial Arm you would have to awaken your Will to do it. The doctor gave me a miraculous drug which would let me live normally for 3 yrs, but when the times up I'll die on the spot."
"So when do you die then." I asked avoiding eye contact. I couldn't look him in his eyes at least without crying in front of him.
"Tomorrow." he said leaving me both angry and sad.
"You didn't even think of telling me!" I yell thinking for a second after, "You were waiting for when I left weren't you!"
"No, I was waiting for-" he stopped cutting himself off, but I knew what he was gonna say, I just wish hoped he wouldn't say it.
"You were waiting for when you could trust me, right." I said finishing what he would've said. When I had looked up I saw that there was a sense of guilt in his eyes that even he couldn't hide, the only time I saw this look was in my father's eyes when he had to tell me that my sister died which I already knew because I saw it all.
"Yes, I'm sorry to say that is the case." he said confirming my fears. I ran away holding back the tears in my eyes the best I could when I noticed I had ran to the smithy without realizing it. I lit a flame in one of the furnaces and got the tools to work on another sword for me, I didn't want to think about the design I just wanted to hit something.
They're was no metal in the smithy because I didn't go to the mines yet.
'Mira spend all my points on the hardest most densest metal I can buy!'
[OK!😇]
[Purchasing...Host has spent 1,000,400SP...
Remaining SP:0]
I hit the heated metal with all my frustration at the world; it wasn't just Onyx that made me upset it was the fact I had to see that look twice, first with my father and now with Onyx, its all because if that damn trial that god gave me. 'I never wanted to be an apostle and I never wanted my life to become shit.'
Rook hadn't known it, but he subconsciously was emitting a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could go near him, every strike to the anvil was full of emotion; anger, helplessness, sadness, frustration, lost, and many more were swirling around his hammer with every swing. The emotions were so strong that when the hammer hit the metal they were slowly being leaked into it. He wasn't only just making a sword he was making an Imperial Arm because Onyx had already started to transfer his Will to Rook.
'I hope you'll make an Imperial Arm that will surpass them all. I give three gifts; the first is the awakening of you Will, the second is my swordsmanship and finally I leave you with the title of my son. Now finish that damn sword son!'
The voice of Onyx permeated my ears as I let my emotions lose on hot piece of metal because I knew that he was gone and wouldn't be there when I had went back home. I could feel a link to the metal as I hit it with the hammer and with every swing the bond felt stronger like it was alive. My hand started to sting, but I stuffed it out thinking of how Onyx would call me a big baby for not being able to take a little pain. I went down memory lane as I thought about Onyx and how he always pushed me to my limits.
'I guess I have two dads now huh.'
I sharpened the blade and worked out any and all impurities in the blade making sure I did the best I could. When I was about to deal the final blow with my hammer to finish the sword when I saw that the sky had become dark with clouds and I heard thunder booming with violently purple lightning.
[Warning! Host has pissed off Heaven's Will, but it will forgive the Host if he destroys the Imperial Arm before it can be completed!😰]
[Will Host comply with Heaven's Will?
Yes/No]
"Fuck off!" I yell towards the sky hitting the sword with emotions of forgiveness, tenacity, preservation and love when thunder bolt hit me right after, making several notification pop up.
[Error! Error!🤮]
[Host is being thrown into the dungeon called 'Ragnarok'!😵]
[Rules-
1. No help from the System, but can keep skills already learnt with the System
2. All blessings given by a devine/demonic will be revoked
3. Kill all everything that lies in the dungeon world!🤯]
"The hell!" I yell as a familiar feeling of my consciousness drifting away takes over. When I wake up I'm in a dark forest with the sword I forged and the adventure set with a note on top which said and I quote:
"Good luck surviving Ragnarok asshole!"
-Heaven's Will
"Well fuck me." I say thinking of all the bullshit I'm gonna face.