Chapter 10: Way of the Blacksmith
POV Blaze
Location: Marcoon City, Blaze's apartment
-The next morning-
I woke up sleeping on my floor, as I must have passed out sometime at night from all my mental and spiritual training. My body was stiff and tired; getting up caused multiple pops to ring out, as even moving my tail caused something to pop, and I yelped from it, my ears flattening against my head.
"Fuck me, no more sleeping on the floor...ughh."
Stretching out, I got my body in a more limber state as I got a notification on my phone, taking it out to see I was finally transferred the gold for the month from my mother, Dawn, along with a message which read.
"I have a feeling a great opportunity came your way, little pup. Please do stay safe and come back home soon. Your sister had a son recently, and both his uncles can't be missing from his life, Blaze," the message said, along with way more gold than she's ever sent me, let alone the family, allowing her to give me 50,000 gold.
I stood there, shocked and worried; at best, my mom would only send me no less than 5,000, just barely enough to help me with rent, food, and maybe supplies for hunting, but this was 10 times the price, and my family...the clan was ruled on the strong are helped, and the weak suffer and struggle. Even if my grandfather was one of the 4 clan heads of the Night's family, his direct children and packmates were not exempt from this law.
So for my mother to do this, something had to have happened to shake up the family's politics. The only thing I can think of, along with her words, is that she and the others learned that I joined a guild, or even that I had a named system now. My family had many ways to keep tabs on its members, as we were a long and old werewolf clan, having been one of the first 50 families under Lycan himself after the great merge.
My family in particular had many notable figures in the years my father was one; what made him an anomaly was that he was stuck at the level 100 cap as a standard system user, yet his hunting, knife, and killing ability allowed him to kill and best those well into lv 300. He was a battle junkie and a trainaholic, learning low-grade skills or buying them and training them from F rank to some A, if not A+, as well as his familiar, a shadow wolf, which paired perfectly with his innate shadow abilities. Because of these skills he my aunt and a few others were tasked with invading the offten random appareing dungeon, Transylvania.
What made this dungeon so random was that it held the king of vampires, the first progenitor, Dracula ... well, at least the newest reincarnation of them. Many would plunge into this dungeon to look for long-hidden and mystical treasures and loot, not to mention taking down Dracula themselves, but there was an ancient law put on the castle.
It was a small world with its own laws and rules, and nothing outside could come in if they were over level 100. It was twofold, though, as no one inside the dungeon could come out without removing the law, so dungeon breaks could not occur. Dracula made it so his successors, if not reincarnations, could amass his thousands of years of knowledge and strength without being hunted and stolen.
It was a rather brutal place, as most monsters were in the 80s to 120s in level, which made it damn near impossible for new hunters or adventurers to clear it; even more powerful gods who did get in after reincarnating and starting from level 1 again to go in had hard times surviving. Well, back to the point: my father did the impossible and killed Dracula. From what I heard, it was a battle that lasted days, with him just barely killing the man named Tempest, the 5th Dracula at the time.
He came across many things inside that allowed him to evolve into a Silver werewolf...a natural-born enemy to Lycan back in the day, as silver werewolves were immune to Lycans ' absolute authority and held an unnatural amount of Ki inside themselves naturally, which man cultivators sought after if not respected. That was only one of the three treasures he got, which he never told anyone how he managed to get. The other two were the ability to transcend the system and create his own named system, dubbed the Shadow Hunter system...not an original name, but I always thought it was a cool name, even if it sounded edgy.
He held knowledge many would kill to have. As well, he somehow used the body of Tempest to create a legendary-grade cursed weapon: a knife that grew stronger from drinking the blood of others that also empowered the user. However, despite being classified as a cursed weapon, it did nothing to him, only to others, and no one but him or his blood could hold it.
Many tried and were inflicted with the curse of Blooddrinker, which would drain them dry even if the blade was out of their hand; only if my father wanted it to stop, or you had to sever the limb that touched it, would it break the curse. Many tried probing him for the information, but something inside the castle placed a strong seal on him that left him unable to say much. It was because of that he rose in the ranks of my family and met my mother. I was born a lesser werewolf, while my younger sister Shaya was a Silver-werefox.
I was seen as a dark mark on my father's legacy. I was seen as weak and a waste of the many resources he left for me and my sister. If it wasn't because of my mother being Nut pre-tested, the family would most likely have had me killed or used as a grunt in the clan. It was only because of my grandfather and mother that I had a somewhat ok upbringing. As I long left the clan to be my own pack leader after passing a rite of passage.....
I got up and dressed, not dwelling too much on what the family was doing; unless I was summoned back home, I could zero fucks about that system of old mutts. I definitely needed to replace my gear and get something better, as I finally accepted the transfer of gold from Mom.
Gold:300>53,000
I walked the city of Marcoon, a pretty large place. It was a spot of new landmass off the coast of Arizona and Mexico from when the world expanded, quite far from my home in Texas. I could have gone to the guild and used the training facilities and picked up some quests, but I was still shaken from what I saw in my soul; I needed to start doing what I wanted. So soon I found my way to Gorath's shop again, the Leaf-Hammer Smithy, walking inside as I was more lively, as many were watching the old elf hammering away at something.
I ignored it all, grabbing a beginner's set of smithing tools he sold along with as much Iron ore as I could buy. I had it all planned out. I was going to follow my dream of being not just a blacksmith but a craftsmith as well, as I always loved to make things with my hands. As I was browsing the hammers, I landed on one, and with [Aura Sense] I could see its dark green aura just barely coming off the 2-foot-long hammer. It was nothing special: just steel, smooth, with no engravings or flourish, but the aura it held was what called to me as I reached out and grabbed it, holding it in my right hand. It felt right, like something I was waiting to do.
"So ya ain't got horrible eyes, ya little welp!" A voice boomed in the shop as I turned around to see Gorath walking out of the forge part of his shop, an ultra greatsword in one hand and a hammer in the other, as everyone stepped aside.
I stood there, not really knowing how to respond. It felt like I did something both he waited for me to do and something no one in their right mind would do. As he stood there looking down at me, waiting as people hurried to buy their items from the shopkeepers Goarth had before hurrying out, he had the look of someone who was going to use that slab of metal called a sword on anyone.
"....well....I need a hammer if ima be a smith, and... this, once I can fell something special on it," I said
He slammed the freshly forged blade into the wooden floor, shaking the shop, grinning wide as he took my hand holding the hammer, picking me up like I was nothing before dragging me into the forge with him.
"H-hey!?" I squeaked out, as he ignored my whimpering before dropping me in front of an anvil.
"Been waiting for someone to grab that hammer. Ain't no normal seeing skill will let ya see it; the only way ya gonna get a whiff is if ya had a natural-born talent for skill, you little runt. Haha, I knew ya had the look, but you ain't ever grabbed what ya wanted in the years ya been here; why else you think I'd have you around so long. That hammer was made to show me my future student; now get ready, Blaze. I'm breakin' you down and moldin' ya into a truth smith!" Gorath said in a loud, brash fashion.
I could only stare at this crazy elf, but hey, if he was taking me under his wing as a student in blacksmithing, I wouldn't say no to that, and if I was going to have a teacher, Gorath was perfect, as I began the long process of forging a knife. Hammering, heating, and shaping the metal into shape before tossing it back into the fires of the forge before quenching it, only to fail multiple times at different points of the process. There was a lot of yelling and cursing from us both. I was even hit with a hammer a few good times for talking too much or trying to worm my way out of it.
This went on for a month straight until I could make over 4 knives in one go without any fuckups in the process. At one point, I saw guild master Leo watching me as he was talking to Gorath; apparently, he wanted to hire him under the guild. He refused but did say he'd become an exclusive contractor, keeping his freedom as he saw fit.
"I have no reason to be under you, as that will cut into my business; however, I'm not stupid enough not to hustle with you, so I'll work for you, but I'll still have the right to make orders for others, and my students' guild gets first priority. How's that sound?" He said, looking at Leo, as the guildmaster only had a polite smile on his face. He was a mysterious man, to be honest.
"But of course that's not only fair but makes the most sense from a business standpoint. I would not hamper your shop, and you taking our guild members' requests and commissions first does us well. I have high hopes for this arrangement, Mr Gorath." Leo said before teleporting away via some skill.
Out of the 4 knives I made, 2 were trash grade, 1 was common, and one was common but had actual stats, a sign of it bordering on uncommon grade; as for most weapons, they had added stats after common, same with armour, most times adding anything that wasn't simple defense. I felt pride in myself and my own ability. My hands had new scars and were wrapped in bandages as I used all my stat points to bump up my low strength to better use my hammer and help with orders Gorath had. I long since got a two-job skill, as I've been helping him make weapons and equipment this month.
[-Iron combat knife (trash grade) durability 50/50-]
[-Iron combat knife (trash grade) durability 50/50-]
[-Iron combat knife (common grade) durability 500/500-]
[-Iron combat knife (common grade) +1Agi durability 500/500-]
Str:15>20
Def:2 >7
Job Skills:
[Blacksmithing lv:5 (D+)] [Craftsmithing lv:6 (D)]
I was slowly walking my path, and I wasn't stopping anytime soon. Hammering away at my new sword.