Ackster was in a twist about what to do once he woke up at the crack of dawn. He had a refreshing sleep, and while his body ached, it was far from enough to make him even consider staying still. With his body in great shape, he was ready to set out and continue getting stronger by fighting monsters while wearing the training equipment that he slept in after rinsing it.
However, simply going straight into the wild without preparations wasn't the wisest thing to do, especially not now that he had gotten his hands on detailed ways to get more skills.
Reading through the instructions for the basic skills Wilma had given him last night before deciding where to go was obvious. And Ackster did just that. The question about what to do came when he had to decide between actually heading out or staying inside and diving into the mystery of the Nold Secret Skeleton Refinement Technique.
It felt like the secret technique would be time-consuming, and if he holed up in his room with it, he might miss out on an opportunity to secure Karandiel, which was his primary goal in staying on the western side of Lill.
But, if the secret technique was as rewarding as Wilma made it sound, the sooner he began practicing it, the better. In the same vein, if he had to decide whether to go through with it or not, getting a grasp of whether he could learn and practice it was something he ought to do posthaste.
Ackster wasn't sure what to do. However, doing nothing was the absolute worst. And since he had already been pretty active the last couple of days, he decided to nurture his brain instead of his body this time.
He wanted to learn more skills and feel himself growing stronger since it was the only way to alleviate his Hero-induced paranoia and anxiety temporarily. But he shouldn't lose sight of his long-term goals just for the sake of his sense of ease and comfort.
So, with Mio in his lap, he set aside the texts concerning the other skills before they could convince him to get out and start acquiring them. One of the things that convinced him to stay put and prioritize the secret technique was the fact that none of the other skills were quick and easy to get.
Some of them were straightforward, but that only meant he had to be patient and take his time fulfilling the acquisition conditions since it was more of a practice and experience deal rather than achievement. So, even if he left for the wild and found suitable opponents to help him practice, it would still take a little while until he got the skills.
Anticipation and trepidation filled Ackster's eyes as he held up and inspected the seamless box. The only reason he could even tell it was a box in the first place was the fact that it was too square and even to be an ordinary chunk of wood. Ironwood supposedly had straighter and tidier formations than ordinary sorts of wood like oak, pine, and birch.
But Ackster doubted even ironwood was this naturally cuboid. Of course, it could be shaped and cut into a box-like shape without actually being a container. But if it were, Wilma wouldn't have given it to him.
He knocked on the chunk of solid and heavy wood a couple of times.
'How am I supposed to open this thing if she doesn't tell me?'
Ackster couldn't help but blame Wilma when the box was unresponsive to his fingers crawling all over it, looking for an opening mechanism.
'Do I need to break it?'
Ackster raised the box, ready to smash it against his knee. He was willing to see if he or the box broke first. But when he gripped the edges hard enough, the lid cracked open.
"Ah!"
Ackster caught the contents with the lid before they could drop to the floor since he had opened it upside down.
'Stupid design.'
Ackster grumbled as he sorted out the box's contents and put it all on the bed before he stared at it in wonder. He wasn't sure what he had expected when he had heard about the secret technique from Wilma. But he thought it would be some complex and overly masochistic training method or something along those lines.
So why was there a hammer and a chisel among the stack of papers bound with a single string in one corner? Like, what was he supposed to do with those? Carve rocks?
He couldn't even do that.
There was nothing wrong with the hammer. It had a straight wooden handle made from ironwood and a matte grey head with one flat and one round end.
The chisel, on the other hand, would have looked like any other chisel. It also had an ironwood handle and a tip made from the same grey metal, which was where the difference lay.
Instead of a blade that could cut through wood or stone, it was a rounded ball-like tip. And as he touched it, Ackster could feel that it wasn't completely smooth. It had small groves, like a golf ball, but a lot smaller and barely perceivable even to his keen eyes.
A chill ran down Ackster's spine as he touched the ball. It was a small one, but it didn't bode well, and he put down the chisel-like tool. He didn't know what it did, and while it felt ominous, he couldn't just pack things up. He had to find out what it was, and the only way to do that would be to read what was on the papers.
So, he grabbed the bundle of parchments. The paper was slightly rigid and grainy. It also had a yellow tint that Ackster couldn't tell if it was natural or from age. At least it didn't give him chills just from touching it.
The only question was if the contents would.