The rancid smell of charred flesh permeated his nostrils as he dug through the different parts of the tortoise carcass. He took only what was viable for crafting, as a lot of the armour plating had been damaged in the fight, leaving him with far less material than was ideal.

  Lloyd couldn’t complain too much though, he still had a huge quantity of new crafting material left over, and the heart had gone untouched during the battle. With all the necessities taken care of, Lloyd was more than happy with what he got out of the encounter.

  It had been a good fight, one that didn’t allow him to use his standard approach and forcing him to adapt. The chance to test out his new enchantment was also nice, but he felt there was more to it than just a defensive lightning bolt.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t inquire further, as despite having quite the exorbitant activation cost, immutable storm still had a twelve-hour cooldown. It was entirely fair, for something that was powerful enough to stagger such a strong enemy it was a completely understandable cooldown, but it was a bit annoying when he just wanted to experiment with the enchantment.

  Lloyd cut up the bits of the carcass he could, sending them into his ring before moving onto the next, but there was a very real limit to what he could and couldn’t cut up. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him that there was a problem, Thunder bone was falling behind.

  He had started to come to this realisation when he first started fighting creatures over level twenty, but against such a strong defensively oriented beast it was clear as day. Even after it had fallen Lloyd still couldn’t properly cut it up, and Thunder bone was partially to blame.

  What would once have been able to cut with a quick slice now needed him to do a forceful swing, and there was no real way to fix this. He needed a new weapon, and it was about time he did so.

  Lloyd had made his halberd back in the guildhall with the same crappy materials his old armour had been made from, so it was a miracle it had even made it this far. The most responsible thing for him to do would be go back to his workshop and upgrade his weapon, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  He had been cooped up in there for several weeks, spent his eighteenth birthday unconscious because he had overused his mana and tortured himself mentally and physically to make his armour. After all that he had only just gotten a taste of freedom, and he had to go back already? Not going to happen.

  The idea of going back to crafting already was just not one Lloyd was willing to entertain, but he was willing to find a compromise. He would hunt one more beast at his level, which was now level twenty-three after his fight with the tortoise, and then he would go and make a new weapon.

  With an empty mana reserve Lloyd decided to sit and wait for a bit, climbing into a tree as he waited for his mana to regen. It was almost an hour until Lloyd saw the first sign of life, a small mammalian creature snooping around the carcass before running away into the underbrush, clearly startled by what it found.

  This process repeated several times over the next few hours, with nothing powerful coming near, and the creatures that did come being too scared of the destruction to stay long. When Lloyd finally finished regenerating his mana, he was slightly annoyed that nothing worth his time had come along, but was also grateful, as it gave him more time away from the workshop.

  Lloyd leapt down from the tree, landing amongst the craters and scars filling the unnatural clearing left over from their fight. As he traversed the ugly scene, Lloyd did a quick inspection of the carcass to see if there were any valuable materials he’d missed.

  Finding nothing, Lloyd turned to the edge of the clearing picking a direction at random and heading out in search of a new foe. Pushing his way through the tall leafy plants and hopping across moss covered fallen logs, Lloyd jogged across the forest floor.

  The dim light and tall foliage surrounding him made quite an imposing image, which served to put his senses on edge for even the slightest movement. Somewhere nearby, Lloyd heard the rustling of ferns and snapping of branches, struggling to pinpoint exactly where the noise was coming from, Lloyd leapt up with boundless leap to get a better vantage point.

  Looking down upon the forest floor, Lloyd scanned the greenery in search of movement, finding success between the roots of a large tree. Before he could catch a glimpse of its level with identify, Lloyd felt weight return to his body, and he started falling to the ground.

  When he landed on the ground, Lloyd was once more plunged into the murky green light beneath the shrubbery, and lost sight of the beast. Going purely based off guesswork and memory, Lloyd stumbled through the undergrowth, spotting glimpses of the tree trunk up above.

  He knew he was going in the right direction when he felt the hard wood of the roots rising out of the leaflitter below his feet. Just as soon as he noticed this, Lloyd was stopped dead in his tracks as he pushed aside some leaves only to be face to face with a wall of spear sized spines pointing right at him.

  Unsure of what to do, Lloyd tried to back away slowly so as to gain some distance, but he was just too slow to avoid the beast’s eyes when it turned around to acknowledge the disturbance. As they met each other’s gazes, Lloyd knew there was no point in trying to hide and activated identify to get a sense of what he was facing.

  Earthen echidna -lvl 24

  Ok, so it was an echidna that was only a level higher than him, he could do this. With a better grasp of what he was facing, Lloyd sent out streams of mana that wove themselves into durable ropes filled with electric energy.

  As they flew forward, the destructive mana ropes tore apart the foliage, creating a wide-open path in front of his enemy. Before the ropes could even arrive, Lloyd started spreading a field of mana bolts and plasma mines through the air, ready for the beast’s response.

  The supercharged ropes shot through the ferns, before wrapping themselves around the echidna’s quills and exploding. The subsequent shockwave knocked out several of the spines, but they were replaced with new ones before Lloyd could do anything to retaliate.

  Lloyd looked on firing a small swarm of mana bolts in the echidna’s direction, but it didn’t retaliate, it just looked downwards before rolling itself into a ball. The mana bolts either dug in between the spines doing limited damage or collided with them bursting into vapour on impact.

  Before he could figure out what the echidna was doing a look of shock spread across his face, his arms flew up to cover his head, and his eyes flew open in shock. A shocking force sent Lloyd’s bracers reeling back, slamming them into his face as pain overwhelmed his body.

  In not even a second, the echidna had managed to activate a skill and launch a cloud of spines at him with only a moment to react. They flew forward with unbridled force, most simply bounced off his armour, but not every collision ended so well for him.

  A quill easily a big as his arm tore through his bicep, instantly debilitating his arm, and before he could even react, another one pierced his thigh. Lloyd fell to the ground in agony, but Lloyd didn’t stop his offense, four more mana ropes appeared in the air, rocketing towards the beast.

  Lightning and mana pulsed within the ropes as they shot forward, burrowing between the echidna’s spines and around where its face should be. The explosion of plasma and blood sent the creature flying backwards, exposing its weak underbelly as it rolled back against the tree.

  The creature’s face was bloody, but just like its missing spines it was regenerating quickly, clearly this beast had a lot of vitality. A wave of mana bolts was hot on the tail of the ropes, digging into the echidnas exposed stomach and spurting gore and viscera into the air.

  Much to Lloyds disdain, the holes on its stomach closed almost immediately with the only signs of damage being white scars that soon faded away. Lloyd went for a follow up, sending forth a swarm of plasma mines ready for the beast to retaliate, but it stood unmoving, just continuing to heal.

  It almost looked like it was regrowing the hairs on its stomach, something that was just overkill for a time like this. Not seeing any reason to give it a chance to recover any more, Lloyd launched a barrage of mana bolts into its stomach.

  As they slammed into its stomach, but instead of tearing it apart like last time, they simply dissipated on impact, something which shouldn’t be possible unless— oh no. Lloyd watched in horror as the ‘hairs’ on its stomach burst into more spikes making it a perfect sphere of spiny death.

  It felt like he was dreaming, at least in the sense that he couldn’t run fast enough. The wall of spines shooting towards him was coming at him like a train, and he couldn’t escape. He triggered titan stride repeatedly, but the ferns and bushes kept intercepting his movement, cutting him short.

  Seeing that that wouldn’t work, and having obstacles blocking him in from the sides, Lloyd decided it was time to test out his latest use for his enchantments. Lloyd sent out three mana bolts a few meters in front of him they hovered midair perfectly still as he ran towards them.

  One step after another, Lloyd ran up them, feeling the effects of negating gravity, and when he reached the top, he activated titan stride. As he felt space warping around him, Lloyd looked over his shoulder and watched with a mix of awe and horror.

  For the first time, it had worked, he had actually managed to use titan stride vertically, and it had worked well, a little too well. Lloyd stared down in shock as he started falling towards the ground, the gap must be almost a hundred metres, there was no way he was taking that without utilising an enchantment.

  As the collision became imminent, Lloyd activated boundless leap, allowing him to float softly to the ground as he responded to the echidna’s attack. The area lit up with scalding blue light as Lloyd hurled a supercharged plasma bolt into the beast’s chest, leaving a massive cavity that was already starting to heal.

  Seeing how quickly the beast was regenerating such a vital area, Lloyd refused to let that happen, he had already dealt with two of its attacks and he didn’t want to make it three. Lloyd seized a plasma mine in his hand, encapsulating it in mana strings making sure not to disrupt it, and hurled it towards the echidnas wound like he was fighting for his life in a game of dodgeball.

  Luckily, Lloyd’s opponent was unable to dodge and the plasma mine tore the beast open even further, revealing several of its severely damaged organs. It was less than ideal that he was being reseized by gravity right now, but there wasn’t much he could do besides keep up the offensive.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  As he leapt across the field of bisected ferns, Lloyd opened his hands as Thunder bone was summoned from his ring. Seeing how fast the beast was able to regenerate itself, Lloyd saw no option but to go into melee as his regular approach wasn’t working, and he didn’t want to ruin the corpse.

  The nonstop barrage of mana bolts was clearly getting to the creature, as they were managing to keep the beast from fully regenerating, but the beast seemed to preoccupied to pay them any notice. Lloyd leapt into the air, ready to swing down on the beast’s head using lightning slice but noticed to late what the beast had been preoccupied with.

  Lloyds eyes were wide with horror as he saw the beast clasp its front paws together, unwinding them in a spiral motion revealing its third attack. The tip of a spine emerged, though this one was larger than any of the ones he’d seen on its back, and it wasn’t stopping anytime soon.

  His feet dug into the soil, spraying leaflitter everywhere as he tried to deflect the quill with his halberd. With the tip of the spine pinned between the point and head of his weapon, Lloyd strained to keep it in place, desperately trying to push it away from his head.

  Lloyd pushed back with all his might, straining his arms to their limits and even supercharging them in an effort to hold his ground. His heels dug into the ground, trying not to give out against the overwhelming force, and he didn’t, but something else did.

  His eyes opened in shock as he heard a sickening crack before being hurled off his feet by the incoming quill. Lloyd slammed backwards into the ground, the spine shattering into deadly shrapnel that burst out in all directions.

  He couldn’t say for sure, but he was pretty confident that a fair bit of it snuck around his armour, but he couldn’t tell where because of all the blood pouring from his mouth. Lloyd spat out blood as he grabbed his mouth feeling the splinters from Thunder bone slamming into his face.

  That wasn’t what he was worried about though, he was more concerned about Thunder bone itself, and as he grabbed it out of the dirt the sinking feeling only grew worse. He had gone too far, been to greedy, he had known that he had to make a knew halberd when he killed the tortoise, but he had kept hunting out of selfish desire.

  Now he was paying the price. As he looked down at the shattered fragments of his weapon, Lloyd didn’t know what to do. It had been with him for so long now, he had made it as his last act in the miscus guild hall, it was his first uncommon item and now it was gone.

  Now having time to process his emotions right now, Lloyd stowed away the fragments of his weapon before turning to face the beast that had done this. He was no longer concerned with preserving the body, he didn’t want it now anyway, he just wanted to get the job done.

  A bolt of lighting descended on the beast as it sent out a volley of spines that Lloyd ducked under as the echidna’s stomach was torn open by the explosion. Without a second of reprieve, Lloyd leapt up with boundless leap, hurling down one supercharged plasma mine after another, not stopping until he got the kill notification.

  You have slain an Earthen echidna -lvl 24

  Experience gained, + 190 credits

  The corpse was now a charred husk of flesh and keratin, completely useless to him for crafting, as the heart was a shrivelled husk of black goo. Lloyd didn’t look at it though, he was sitting on the ground with his back against a tree and his head between his hands.

  He starred blankly at the shards of bone laid out on the ground, it was irreparable, the hook was completely severed, and the blade was split down the middle. It was already clear that this wasn’t something he could fix, he just had to accept that as there truly was nothing he could do.

  The path he had taken with joy earlier now felt uncomfortable and unnatural, as he was shameful for his carelessness. Lloyd had very clearly seen the problem earlier, but he hadn’t acknowledged it properly, just saying he would do it later.

  It was entirely his fault and he knew it, but he couldn’t mope about it forever, he had to make a new one, one that could match the foes he was fighting. As he burst through the doorway of his workshop Lloyd looked around grabbing the nearest barrel he could find and pulling out a sheet of paper.

  Lloyd took out the heart of the tortoise from within his spatial ring, dumping it into the barrel as he summoned a large, flat sheet of keratin. He sat down and activated energetic inscriptions, scrawling across the tortoise shell as he contemplated the consequences of his actions.

  As he dug out the intricate patterns, he thought about the folly of his actions, how he had been so eager to fight that he had purposefully ignored the fact that his halberd wasn’t up to par. With each piece of keratin that he dug out, Lloyd did so with a muted face, not enjoying the process the way he usually did.

  After a while, Lloyd dropped the plate and got to his feet, he had to acknowledge what had happened properly. At the moment, Lloyd was just sulking about it without looking for solutions, and that had to stop.

  It was just a weapon, he had to accept that, it held no value aside from its usefulness, usefulness which had now expired. Yes, it was his fault that it expired prematurely, but that didn’t matter, it just gave him more of a reason to get an upgrade.

  But he couldn’t let it go, he may only have had it for the same amount of time as he’d had his armour, but it felt different. His armour had always just been there, not doing much but blocking attacks, whereas his halberd had been the basis of his combat for so long.

  The fact that he had lost something that he had become so attached to because of his mistake was just an uncomfortable notion to deal with. The whole thing seemed negative, with no positives in sight, well, except for one.

  Before he had ever made his halberd, Lloyd had fought with a spear made from a simple ironwood branch. A branch that grew in power as it absorbed more and more of his energy, this made it both stronger and more valuable as a crafting material.

  Miraculously, because of its naturally increasing durability, this branch had been strong enough to survive the attack that shattered the blade, so he could keep his little memento a bit longer. Maybe he could find something stronger, maybe for a while, but the branch would inevitably outclass it after enough time had passed.

  Not to mention how the metallic properties of the ironwood made it extra conductive compared to something like bone. The only downside was that he couldn’t inscribe it, or at least he wouldn’t yet, as inscribing it now would ruin it for later when he was more skilled, so it was best to wait.

  Holding the stick in his hands, Lloyd felt a bit better, comforted by the fact that his old weapon wasn’t entirely gone. Sitting back down, Lloyd felt a lot calmer as he resumed inscribing the plate of keratin, preparing to liquify the beast’s heart.

  With the rune template ready, Lloyd began infusing it with mana, completing the inscription before pushing it forward. As he pushed himself to his limits holding it together, Lloyd watched with satisfaction as he perfectly lined it up, turning the heart into energy filled paste.

  What was once a struggle for him was now almost natural after making the copious amount of bonding agent needed for his armour set, so Lloyd had got this step down to a tee. Without giving it much thought, Lloyd summoned one of the tortoise’s massive tibia, digging out intricate patterns in the durable bone.

  The small mountain of bone shavings next to him quickly grew as he carved more intricate patterns for a finer powder, something that he hadn’t done until recently when he made his chestplate. It didn’t make much difference at a glance, but it created a product that was able to better penetrate the leather, increasing the bonding agent’s overall efficacy.

  This meant that it could better strengthen the leather, the difference wasn’t huge, but every advantage was one worthwhile seeking out. Especially so at this level, as Lloyd was beginning to have tougher fights as his enemies gained access to higher quality skills.

  The toughening ability of the finer powder wasn’t the main reason though, what would be the point in making leather more durable for a weapon? When it came to something like this, the powder would infiltrate the blade, and it would help to maintain the strength and sharpness of his weapon, and worse powder would result in a weaker blade.

  Unfortunately, the rather coarse powder that Lloyd had used when making Thunder bone had played a role in its downfall. It wasn’t immediate, but overtime his old halberd had seen a slow but noticeable decline in sharpness and durability.

  At first, Lloyd had just assumed that it was just his enemies getting stronger, it was only now, after it was already broken that Lloyd saw the problem with Thunder bone. It was because of this realisation that Lloyd had put so much effort into this step, as an extra hour of his time now would go a long way later.

  Some extra effort now would save him from untold problems later, so everything he could do to improve the weapon was necessary. As he completed the final inscription, Lloyd looked at the bone intently, spinning it around in his palm as he inspected it for flaws.

  After fixing the few imperfections he could see, Lloyd held it over a large stone saucer he’d chiselled from the rock of the cavern walls a few days ago. Mana flowed through the inscriptions like a flood in a canyon, settling around the runes at its centre.

  The instant the circuit was complete, the whole bone turned to dust, a powder so fine that Lloyd struggled to think of any pre-system comparisons. He was sure there were some, scientists made all kinds of weird shit, there were definitely some really fine powders out there, just none available to the general public.

  As he felt the bone dust flow between his fingers, Lloyd marvelled at the feeling, trying to properly grasp the sensation. The powder was perfectly ready to enter the bonding agent, but the agent wasn’t ready to receive it, he wanted to try something first.

  Lloyd summoned the small stone bowl he had made from back in the guild hall, placing it down next to the array of roots and leaves he’d foraged whilst hunting. he hadn’t used them until now, as he had only gotten them after finalising the last of the previous batch of bonding agents.

  Now however, he had plenty of time to experiment. All of the plants he’d gathered had one thing in common, all of them —or at least similar species of them— had been described and mentioned in at least on of his books on crafting.

  Supposedly, they were meant to improve the way the bonding agent functioned in various ways. Some of them, like the vigour root musk bloom, were meant to improve the effect the agent had on the weapon, whilst others like the Tormenium sprout bulb, were supposed to improve the way they mixed together.

  Each individual ingredient played an important role in making the bonding agent, and together they would make it almost thirty percent more effective. It didn’t seem that good on paper, but it would turn out to be an immense boost in quality, especially when considering just how durable the new blade would be.

  One at a time, Lloyd sat the different herbs into the bowl, grinding them into a paste with a large bone, almost like a mortar and pestle would. The mixture within the bowl soon turned into a nasty looking brown goo, and that was pretty accurate, as the myriad of smells did not complement each other.

  Now, Lloyd could finish off the bonding agent, scooping the plant slurry into the barrel before stirring it and adding the pile of bone powder. The billowing cloud within the barrel quickly dissipated, blending seamlessly with the red of the blood.

  Hoping that it would turn out well, Lloyd slid the lid onto the barrel, infusing it with just enough mana to speed up the process but not enough to damage the natural fermentation. All Lloyd had to do now was wait, and in the meantime, he could multitask by creating the head for the halberd while he waited.

  For the halberd itself, Lloyd already had a material in mind, and similar to Thunder bone before it, Lloyd would be utilizing a tail club. Although, he had to say that this one was a whole lot more suited for a blade than the blunt one he had used last time.

  The tail club he had pried from the corpse of the tortoise was quite unique with an appearance that reminded Lloyd more of a flanged mace than any traditional tail clubs. Compared to the one he had got from the rock beast back in the guildhall this one had several advantages.

  For one, it already had thin serrated edges that were great at absorbing blunt force trauma, but also, it was just generally more halberd shaped. If he was going to use it, Lloyd would certainly have to remove a significant portion of the original tail club, but it would allow for a more refined final product compared to his old weapon.

  The main advantage was the fact that this weapon would have a blade made as a whole, not two connected sections connected with bone glue like Thunder bone. In theory this would allow it to better displace force amongst the whole blade as opposed to focusing it one the weakness formed by the glue.

  To better visualise what he planned to do, Lloyd took out some paper and a bit of charcoal, scribbling up a concept of what he was going to do. With something of a plan in place, Lloyd summoned string saw, beginning to cleave of sheets of keratin as he worked the tail club closer to his drawing.

  Lloyd entranced himself in the task, entering flow state as he shaved the bony club into the shape of a halberd head. As each curve and edge became clearer, Lloyd’s work became more minute, perfecting his weapon down to the millimetre.

  It was clear just how well it was going, and how much of an improvement it would be compared to Thunder bone. As much as he hated to criticize a weapon he had liked so much, it was true, Thunder bone was ultimately flawed, and not just a little.

  At the time, Lloyd didn’t know about the mistakes he was making, so he couldn’t blame himself too much, but that didn’t change how lacklustre his old halberd really had been. Almost every step of the process had been flawed to some degree, resulting in a weapon destined not to go far.

  However this new weapon turned out, it wouldn’t be perfect, nothing ever could be, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be better, and better it would be.