Dean needed to spend a good part of the day searching for the resources that he would need to make his sword. He wanted to do a short sword, so he didn't need to take too much, but it was still a struggle to find the right items.
While on his trip with the group, Dean could spot several items that the blacksmiths of Refuge Sarah used in their crafts before. He knew roughly how to collect them and how to do the process of refining, particularly in the petroleum-metal, which was filled with impurities that needed to be taken off, so he could make a good blade.
The first thing that Dean went to take was the petroleum-metal, which was the most difficult one to get. On those three days of traveling, he could spot it just one time. Maybe it was because his group remained on the black fields for too much time, which was a biome with few resources to collect.
When it came to metals, it was easier to find them when searching on biomes with greater relief and mountains.
Since they were now in a highland, then it should be easier for him to find something. Nonetheless, it was the first time that Dean was mining. Despite the struggle he needed to pass in order to find the right place to mine, he also strived when trying to get the metal. After all, it wasn't a matter of just take a pickaxe and hit the rock with all his might until the item simply dropped in front of him. There was the right technique.
The boy was aware that his deadline to take all the resources was very short, so he needed to do it faster. The episode of the petroleum-metal lasted some hours, nearly a quarter of the day, but he could go through it and get metal enough to give some to Frederick and make his sword.
The next necessary thing was wooden. He didn't need to struggle as much to take wood since there were a lot of trees with long and thick branches out there.
Dean needed the wood to make the grip of the sword, but also to make charcoal. This way he wouldn't need to bother himself by going to buy or beg for coal.
After some more hours searching other materials that would be useful in the process, always taking into consideration the 20% fee of the blacksmith, Dean could take everything and finished his searching, coming back to the refuge as fast as possible.
In the way, he had an encounter with a Dread, but that one was of the 7th generation, which allowed him to fight that monster without concerns.
It was a Dread wolf and, besides its generation being new, he himself was still like a puppet. Dean got lucky that he didn't find a wolf bigger than that one, or else he would have trouble.
Regardless of how weak the monster was, Dean was glad that he could kill his second Dread. Move the "Willpower" to the edge of his sword didn't work, though.
Before, added with his determination was the fact that Dean was in a life or death kind of situation, which triggered his mind to focus properly on his enemy and to use his power to subdue him.
Nevertheless, now, he wasn't in such a fight. The monster in front of him was still a puppet, after all, so it didn't present any real threat. This feeling of safety made him fail in his attack.
After that fight, and still carrying his materials with difficulty, the boy went back to the refuge. He was feeling ecstatic with his first battle all alone against a Dread and in a normal state. It was a little achievement, actually, but good enough for him.
'Even though I failed when using that basic technique, I am still glad that I could pull through it unscathed. It served to measure my attack power as well, and I just realized that I can't do the same thing I did in the previous battle all the time. I need to train more.'
It was frustrating for him that his path would be so harsh like this, but he understood that nobody could take something (in this case, power) without paying the price for this. It was something that his mother had taught him before. After all, she worked on a stall, so she knew very well how to evaluate things and make others agree with their value. She could use the market as a philosophy for her life, somehow.
'Well, just as my father always used swordsmanship to exemplify things, my mother did the same. When we like something, our eyes change and, in our perspective, the thing we like will be everywhere.'
It wasn't just a metaphor. With Dean, it indeed happened.
He was always amazed by the idea of Ascend and help humanity. Now, everything he could see was about "Willpower".
Dean could sense the "Willpower" in other people's hearts, he could see it traveling in the air, fighting against "Chaos", then dissipating slowly. He could perceive how that energy was the foundation for every human and was the most strong basis for everyone in all means.
Without "Willpower", humanity wouldn't even be alive, after all.
While thinking about those things, Dean barely could notice the distance he covered to the refuge. It seemed like he was walking for just some minutes, but he was already passing across those simple streets made of gravel.
Starting to run, he headed to the smithy of Refuge Oslan, getting there in just some minutes.
Frederick was now in a break. His eyes were turned to the ceiling as he was rambling about something.
He got alarmed again when someone burst inside the smithy. The man barely needed to look at him to know who it was.
"You are fast, brat! I never thought you would do it so quickly!" He laughed, standing from the chair he was sitting on.
"Cut the bullshit! Let's forge!" Dean threw the materials on the ground, smiling.