Over the next two days, true to her word, Grace trained wearing nothing but her undergarments on her upper body. Neither she nor the old man god even noticed when I arrived—they were completely absorbed in swordsmanship.
Since I had already perfected the bubble tea, I turned my attention to exploring the forging ability I had just obtained. I started by examining the magic core in my beloved sword. Kaiden at the forge shop had said it could only utilize 300 years' worth of its power. My goal was to unlock the core's full potential.
The moment I took the magic core out and looked at it, the method to activate its full years instantly appeared in my mind—strike it hard with a hammer 1,718 times. To do that, I would need eighteen hammers.
After learning the method, I didn't know what to say. Was it really this simple? But what was with the eighteen hammers? And why exactly 1,718 strikes?
After calming down and thinking it through, I realized that 1,718 strikes plus the 300 years Kaiden had already unlocked equaled 2,018—the total years of the magic core. In other words, Kaiden had already struck it 300 times.
As for the hammers, I rounded 1,718 down to 1,700 and subtracted one from the eighteen hammers, leaving seventeen. Dividing 1,700 by 17 meant each hammer would be used for 100 strikes.
But did each hammer break after 100 hits? That was incredibly wasteful. No wonder the cost had been so high back then.
Still, why hadn't Kaiden told us? I'd thought it required years of training to accomplish something like this. If I had known, I would've spent all my money buying hammers.
After that, I went to level 96, the commercial district, and bought a large number of hammers. Then I immediately took out the magic core to test it.
At that moment, my body suddenly moved on its own.
I threw the magic core onto the ground, grabbed a hammer, and began striking it repeatedly with great force.
What's going on?! I couldn't control my body—this was terrifying! The hammer in my hand broke, and I instantly grabbed another and kept striking.
Why was this happening? I hated losing control of my body. Panic flooded my mind as I kept thinking, What do I do? I felt completely helpless, desperately trying to stop it in my thoughts.
(…Stop. Stop now. Don't hit it anymore!)
Then, as if my hands heard my desperate plea, they stopped. Control of my body returned to me.
"...Huh?"
The sudden shift startled me so much that I reacted slowly. I collapsed from a crouch onto the ground, my breathing rapid, my heart pounding. That was terrifying.
It took me a long time to calm down. I kept checking whether my body was truly under my control again—and it was. My muscles hadn't changed either. Did the consumption only happen upon completion?
Now that I confirmed I was fine, it was time to figure out what had just happened. As scary as it was, I couldn't ignore it. This was probably part of the forging ability.
I decided to move somewhere else to continue testing. After putting everything away, I grabbed a mirror and went to Level 99, the tourism area.
But instead of returning to the hot spring inn, I headed to the riverside campsite on the east side. It was actually my first time there—Lina and I preferred sleeping comfortably in beds, so we'd never considered camping overnight.
This time, I came to relax, taking in the beautiful scenery and listening to the clear sound of flowing water.
Back to the matter at hand.
I sat in a rented folding chair, placed the magic core and hammers on the ground, and took a deep breath while holding a hammer, preparing myself mentally.
I raised the hammer and moved to strike—
But in the next instant, my body moved on its own again and began hammering the magic core.
This time, I was ready.
"Stop."
The moment I said it, my hand froze, and I regained control of my body.
So I could control it?
I tried again. The moment I moved to strike, my body once again took over.
After repeating this several times, I finally understood—and felt relieved.
I hadn't lost control of my body. Rather, this forging ability made my body perform the actions automatically.
In other words, this was a cheat-like ability that allowed me to create weapons rivaling those made by divine craftsmen with minimal effort. All I had to do was give a verbal command, and the ability would handle the rest. It was absurdly convenient.
After that, I continued hammering the magic core. When I got down to the last three strikes, I stopped and took out a large portion of boxed meals I had prepared in advance, just in case my muscles were consumed afterward and I lost strength.
I also took out the mirror. I wanted to see what I would look like afterward—it might be horrifying.
"Three… two… one… Agh—this hurts…!"
The moment I finished the final strike, control returned to my body—but I was hit with a burning heat and sharp pain. It wasn't life-threatening, but it felt like a fever combined with being pricked by countless needles. The pain was enough to force a strained groan out of me.
Then my limbs began to weaken. The muscles in my arms visibly shrank.
After about ten seconds, the pain finally subsided—but immediately afterward, an intense hunger hit me. My stomach let out a loud growl.
But wait—I needed to check my condition first.
I wasn't completely powerless, just very weak. I could still lift a hammer, but my arms tired quickly.
As for my body, my arms were now as slender as Lina's, and my thighs were the same. But since I was tall, I looked like a walking stick.
I struggled to lift the mirror and looked at my face.
"Wow… that's ugly."
My cheeks were gaunt and hollow—it didn't suit me at all.
Now that I confirmed everything, it was time to eat. I was starving.
I grabbed a meal and devoured it.
It tasted amazing. Even though it was just an ordinary boxed meal, it felt incredibly delicious. Hunger really was the best seasoning.
One box wasn't enough—I ended up eating ten.
Just as I expected, my muscles and abs gradually returned. What an incredible recovery ability.
But ten boxes of food was even more than Ethefelis could eat. If I wanted to forge multiple weapons, I might need a wish for unlimited food.
Still, I had already promised, so I'd leave that to Ethefelis. I could just have her go buy food in the future.
As I was about to put the magic core back into my sword, it occurred to me—maybe my blade could become even sharper. The forging ability immediately responded to that thought: it could, as long as I polished it.
With that answer, I quickly cleaned up the empty meal boxes and discarded hammers, then headed to level 96—the commercial district—to gather the tools I needed: a belt grinder, along with sanding belts and sandpaper of various grits. After that, I returned to the hot spring inn. I'd need food for what came next.
Honestly, though, Aimebisalon's dungeon really was convenient—or rather, the dungeon transport magic was. Even so, going up and down and searching for everything still took me a full hour.
I was exhausted.