In the year 2040, Earth faced an unprecedented threat. An alien spacecraft, a metallic behemoth of unknown design, had landed on our planet, bringing with it a disease that transformed humans into monstrous entities. The only way to counter this horrific plague was a special bullet, forged from a living metal that came from the alien craft itself. The scientists called the metal Extraterrestrial Element 120, but the soldiers called it Martian Metal. The metal was parasitic, when introduced into a monster's body, it turned the beast into a lifeless metal statue, thus neutralizing the threat.
For years, humanity struggled to survive, clinging to the hope that they could keep the metal supply steady by recycling the metal from fallen monsters into more bullets. Soldiers fought valiantly, but the toll was immense. One such soldier, Lieutenant Jin Shu, had been fighting on the front lines, defending a decimated city against the relentless onslaught of the creatures. The battle had been fierce, and as he and his platoon fought desperately, disaster struck.
Lieutenant Jin Shu and his platoon were tasked with evacuating the last remaining survivors from a city overrun with monsters.
As the last of the survivors was loaded into the Armored Transport Carrier. Squad Leader Sargent Daniel Park called out to Jin Shu. "That was the last survivor Lieutenant. Should we begin transporting?"
Lieutenant Jin Shu nodded and called out over the radio. "All squads mount up and begin transportation."
A reply came over the radio "Looks like we finally got an easy assignment, aye Lieutenant?"
Sargent Park replied back "Corporal McTavish I thought I told you to keep your jinx mouth shut! Everytime you open you mouth something goes wrong."
Lieutenant Jin Shu sighed than responded over the radio. "Clear comms, double time everyone, let's get out of here before McTavish jinxs us... again."
Responses came from over the radio.
"Yessir!"
"Aye, aye Lieutenant!"
Lieutenant Jin Shu ordered the transports to move out. "ATCs get a move on, we'll take up the rear."
As the ATCs began driving away a gunshot sounded.
*BANG!*
Corporal McTavish yelled over the radio. "Shit! Contact left!"
Lieutenant Jin Shu ordered his men as he moved to support the left side. "Alpha and Bravo squad cover the left flank! Charlie and Delta keep an eye on the right flank. Echo squad protect the ATCs. Don't let a single monster through until the ATCs are clear!"
"Movement on the right flank!"
"We're engaging!"
The sound of gunshots continued to ring out for the next tens of minutes.
"Fuck! There's an Armored on the left flank, we need an RPG here now!"
The constant radio comms were interspersed with the sound of gunshots and explosions.
"I'm out of ammo!"
The monsters broke through the hail of gunfire pouncing onto Jin Shu and his squad. One monster lunged at Jin Shu it's claws knocking his assault rifle back in a violent clash. In a cruel twist of fate, the recoil caused the weapon to fire, the bullet tearing into his left shoulder. The pain was immediate and searing, but Jin Shu's resolve was unshaken. He struggled against the growing numbness as his arm began to turn into metal, a grotesque transformation caused by the alien metal. With grit and determination, he dropped his rifle and drew his sidearm.
Through blurred vision and with the weight of his metal arm dragging him down, Jin Shu faced the final monster of the horde; an Armored monstrosity it's hide to thick for bullets to peirce. He fired at the monster, but the bullets just bounced off of it's armored shell. It lurched toward him, jaws agape. Jin Shu's fingers trembled as he aimed the gun. With a surge of remaining strength, he fired. The bullet found its mark, piercing through the roof of the monsters open jaws into its brain issuing it a quick death.
Exhausted and on the brink of transformation, Jin Shu looked around to find all of his squad mates dead. As the last echoes of battle faded, he collapsed, his body nearly entirely converted into metal. The transformation was almost complete when, with his final ounce of strength, he looked at the once-familiar battlefield, now silent and forsaken, and thought. 'I hope the survivors made it out.'
Then, darkness took him.
---
Jin Shu awoke in a place unlike any he had ever known. The air was thick with the scent of forge fires and earthy minerals. He was in a small room, adorned with an array of blacksmithing tools and weapons. As he struggled to sit up, he noticed his body was no longer encased in metal, but rather, he was fully human again—at least in appearance.
A man, robust and stern, entered the room. "You're awake," the man said. "Get out here and help your old man with the forge"
Confused and disoriented, Jin Shu tried to piece together his fragmented memories. The battle, his transformation, and his fall, but also other memories that didn't seem to be his yet at the same time to familiar not to be. Like the man in front of him in his memories seems to be his father Jin Chen the master blacksmith of the Jin family—it was all surreal. Yet, the presence of his sidearm, now lying beside him, offered a thread of continuity.
His father noticed the gun and huffed angrily. "I thought I told you to stop making those little ornaments if you want to forge something let it be a weapon to sell to a cultivator. Our family has been forging weapons and selling them to the immortal cultivators for hundreds of years, that was how we made our fortune, not by selling knick knacks like some type of street vendor."
Jin Shu nodded weakly and reflexively replied. "I just made a couple of ornaments for mother and she seemed to like them alot and even praised my craftsmanship."
Jin Chen raised his hand. "You brat! Don't try to use your mother to threaten me! Get out here already or do you need me to smack some sense into that thick skull of yours?"
As his father walked out Jin Shu stood up and took a moment to get his memories in order. It seems that he was reborn into another world in the body of the Jin Shu of this world, the eldest son of the Jin family. The Jin family is a renowned blacksmithing family in the Qi dynasty, as one of the only families with the knowledge of runesmithing, they made a fortune by selling weapons to cultivators. The Jin Shu of this world had just turned 16 and reached the first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm which means he could start learning runesmithing from his father.
After Jin Shu gathered his thoughts he walked outside and followed behind his father. His father was a large muscular man standing at six and a half feet tall, Jin Shu wasn't as muscular as his father nor as tall, however he was still quite tall for his age, standing at six feet tall.
Jin Chen looked back at Jin Shu and said. "Now that you've reached the first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm it's time for you to learn runesmithing."
Jin Chen led Jin Shu toward a forge in the distance. Jin Shu marveled at the ancient Chinese style buildings that they pasted by thinking to himself. 'I feel like I've walked this path hundreds of times, yet it also feels as if I'm seeing this all for the first time. It's like I'm two different people yet also just one person. I guess the easiest way to think about it would be; that I've unlocked memories of my past life and I'm not two different Jin Shu's I'm just Jin Shu eldest son of the Jin family who happened to be Lieutenant Jin Shu in a past life.'
As Jin Shu was coming to terms with his reincarnation his father led him into the forge. And Jin Shu was awaken from his thoughts from the roaring flames and blistering heat.
Jin Chen patted Jin Shu on the shoulder nearly knocking Jin Shu over. "Alright son it's time to learn our family's runesmithing method. First I'll teach you the ten basic runes that can be learned at the lower three and middle three stages of the Qi Gathering Realm. To learn the next set of runes you'll need to advance to the upper three stages of the Qi Gathering Realm. Anyways let me give you a test first. You remember what the ten basic runes are right?"
"Yes, I remember."
"Alright than recite them to me along with there effects."
"Ugh... do I have to?"
Jin Chen cocked his hand back "Do you want a slap?"
Jin Shu quickly shook his head and began reciting the runes. "The two most common runes are the Sharpness rune and the Durability rune."
"The Sharpness rune increases the shapness of bladed weapons."
"The Durability rune increases the strength of a weapon making less likely to break."
"Weight Increase and Weight Reduction runes as the names suggests increase and decrease the weight of weapons."
"Flame and Frost runes make weapons hot or cold. They have a more advanced version of both that allow weapons to emit flames or ice."
"The Silence rune is rarely used as most people don't need silent weapons. Except maybe an assassin."
"The Explosion rune is another rarely used rune. It essentially cuases an explosion when Qi is used on the weapon. It isn't used very often because there is no way to delay the activation, so the weapon would end up blow it's wielder up."
Jin Chen interrupted him there "Actually your father here has recently found a way to delay the activation of runes I'll teach it to you later. Anyways continue."
Jin Shu resumed his reciting. "The Wind rune is exclusive to our family's runesmithing method. It's effect is to increase the speed of a weapon, allowing the wielder to swing the weapon faster than there opponent and is one of the reason our family has gained a standing in the cultivation world."
"The final rune is the Qi Circulation rune, it is a special rune that doesn't do much on it's own, but when used in conjunction with other runes it allows the weapons wielder to inject Qi into the other runes on the weapon thus strengthening said runes."
Jin Chen applauded his son "Good you've memorized all of them. When I was first learning from your grandfather I forgot about the Silence rune, so your grandfather gave me a slap to the back of the head. To be honest I was hoping you'd forget a rune as well gahaha!"
Jin Shu sighed and shook his head in exasperation.
Jin Chen stopped laughing and began explaining how he had learned how to delay the activation of runes. "Your old man here has made a groundbreaking discovery! The other night I fell asleep while I was inscribing an Explosion rune a weapon that someone ordered to prank their friend with. Since I fell asleep before I could finish injecting my Qi into the rune it became a dormant rune; you know that a dormant rune is one that never had Qi injected into it during inscribing right?"
Jin Shu nodded and his father continued his explanation. "Where was I? Oh right, so that Explosion rune became a dormant rune, and I thought I'd have to scrap it and start over so I pushed it off to the side and began working on a weapon that needed a Qi Circulation rune inscribed onto it. And you'll never guess what happened. The Qi Circulation rune activated the Explosion rune and nearly blew my hand off Gahahaha!"
After Jin Shu's father finished his explanation he took Jin Shu into the workshop in the back of the forge room and taught Jin Shu how to inscribe runes.
Over the coming weeks, Jin Shu immersed himself in the art of runesmithing. He learned to inscribe runes onto weapons, imbuing them with various magical properties.
While learning runesmithing he continued to sort through his memories, in this world there are people known as immortals or cultivators as his family makes rune weapons to sell to these people and has recently become a cultivation family itself he has access to certain knowledge that most mortals don't. Like the realms of cultivation, the second of which he has just entered. The realms of cultivation that he knows of are the first realm Body Building, the second Qi Gathering, the third Core Forging, and the fourth Spirit Strengthening. Each of which is further separated into 9 stages.
The Jin family was originally a family of mortal blacksmiths, however 100 years ago Jin Shu's Grandfather Jin Zhu, found a scroll containing a record of runesmithing along with a cultivation method. Since then their family has been on the rise. With his Father reaching the Core Forging Realm they were one of the strongest cultivation family's in the Qi dynasty. Second only to the royal family of which the emperor has reached the Spirt Strengthening Realm.
After three weeks of learning runesmithing he had learned all his father had to teach him for his current cultivation level.
His father mentioned that he had learned much faster than himself when he was Jin Shu's age.
All he needed to do now is focus on applying his newfound knowledge to practice and to work on increasing his cultivation level so he could learn the next set of runes.
Now that he had some free time Jin Shu decided to check out his gun that reincarnated with him. After disassembling and checking the gun for any damage, everything seemed to be the same as it was before he was reborn.
"Hmm... it's definitely the same pistol I was using right before I died, even the fact that I only have one bullet left is the same. I wonder if this is like one of those cultivation novels I used to read? Maybe I have a system?"
"System Open"
...
"...OK so no system"
"Maybe this gun is like some supreme artifact, maybe I need to drop my blood on it to bind it?"
Jin Shu bit his finger and let a drop of blood land on his gun, and... nothing happened.
"Maybe its just a normal gun? I guess I can use my new knowledge of runesmithing to inscribe some runes onto it and turn it into a rune weapon. I'll also need to hunt down an animal to get more Martian Metal to make bullets."
Jin Shu pulled out an etching tool from the desk in his room to start inscribing runes onto the gun.
"I only have enough Qi to inscribe two runes I also only know about ten different runes, Sharpness, Durability, Weight Reduction, Weight Increase, Explosion, Silence, Flame, Frost, Wind, and Qi Circulation. Let's start with a Durability rune to make sure that it doesn't brake easily, and a Silence rune to mute the sound of the gunshot."
The gun, now engraved with intricate runes, glowed faintly with arcane energy. It was no longer just a weapon; it had become a tool of immense power. Jin Shu would forge a new path in the world of cultivation.
His past as a soldier, with its pain and loss, had not been in vain. It had brought him to this new world, where he would forge not just metal but a new destiny.