I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

The Lonely Sword of the Great Plains

I took in my surroundings which looked nothing like my Earth. If this were an alternate universe light novel, I would have some sort of cheat skill, I thought. Although, considering I had been reincarnated as a sword, I wondered if I could use any skills. Maybe being turned into a sword was itself my cheat skill, though I highly doubted it. It could just be wishful thinking and I might not even have any overpowered skills to begin with. A staple of cheat skills would be Identify… Oh, hello. It turned out I could look at my own stats. How convenient.

Name: Unknown

Owner: None

Race: Intelligent Weapon

Attack: 132 MP: 200/200 Durability: 100/100

Evolution: [Rank 1]

Skills: Identify 6; Self-Repair; Telekinesis; Telepathy; Status+; Recovery Rate+; Skill Sharing; Mage

I seemed pretty strong. Looked like I could check out each individual skill, too.

Identify 6: Displays information of surrounding objects.

Self-Repair: Automatically restores weapon durability unless completely destroyed.

Telekinesis: Use magic to affect surrounding physical objects.

Telepathy: Use magic to speak directly into the minds of others.

Status+: Slightly increase all user stats.

Recovery Rate+: Slightly increase user’s health and magic recovery rate.

Skill Sharing: Grants Owner access to all skills.

Mage: Ability to feel the flow of magic. The mark of a mage.

I guessed the number following the skill name was its level. I thought I was somewhat strong, considering I came out the box with a Level 6 in Identify. Then again, the cap could be 9,999 for all I knew, so it might be too early to celebrate. But I was no ordinary weapon at the very least. There were so many terms and skills I didn’t understand, but there was an air of power about them. The abilities seemed fitting for a rare weapon, or a unique weapon at that.

Yet my name remained “Unknown.” Was it because my Identify skill wasn’t high enough, or because it had been left blank in the first place? It’d be weird if my sword self-retained my former name—wait, my former name? What was it again? Huh… I couldn’t remember for the life of me. Weird.

Uhhh…I really can’t remember. Despite having retained full memory of everything else. Thirty years old. Male. Office worker. Lived alone. Hobbies: anime, manga, VRMMO, novels (of the light variety). People told me I had a positive outlook on life. Liked curry; didn’t have any foods I particularly disliked. No girlfriend; I had never been in a relationship, now that I thought about it. Well, that’s kinda sad… That said, the rest of my memories remained intact, so I was sure my name would come back to me eventually. I did reincarnate into a sword after all, so I was bound to have some discrepancies in my memory here and there. There was nothing I could do about my memories at the moment, so I decided to leave it alone for now.

Moving onto my appearance: The blade, forged from an unknown metal, glowed white with three blue lines running down it. I may be flattering myself, but the blade did look beautiful. I seemed to have been forged into the form of a longsword.

My sword guard was of a subdued golden color, and a carving of a gallant wolf decorated it, along with blue twine. The string was a lattice of blue and white braided into one. Not to toot my own horn, but I didn’t look like a mass-produced sword, so I thought I was probably one of great worth. Though, I couldn’t tell how strong I was, going by my attack value of 132. There was the possibility I was little more than a heavily decorated, ornamental sword, but the odds of that being true were low since I came equipped with skills. It’d be awful if it did happen to be true, though. I might as well toss myself into a furnace and kill myself at that point. But I was still a beautiful-looking sword. In an RPG, this would be the sword that made its appearance well into the game; as mysterious as it was elegant.

Doesn’t change the fact that I’m a sword though, I sighed to myself.

I wouldn’t have called myself handsome in my previous life. That being said, I wasn’t butt-ugly, either. I was just your average, run-of-the-mill nerd, I guess, which was why I had no particular longing for my old body. I had no objections to being born into a different one. In fact, I would’ve requested it if I’d had the option to.

A sword, though. Really? I couldn’t eat, couldn’t play video games, and man, there went my chances of graduating from virginity. Th-then again, this meant I was going to be a wizard for sure! This was the cross I had to bear for the rest of my life.

I paused.

This was depressing. If I had hands and feet, I would’ve prostrated myself right here and now. Wait, was that what that Mage skill meant? It was the only skill that seemed different from the rest… Damn it, this was no laughing matter!

I didn’t know how long I sulked. It could’ve been five minutes, it could’ve been an hour. The more I sank into my dumbfounded silence, the more stupid I felt for being upset. Well, I’m a sword now. No use worrying about that kind of stuff. I couldn’t run from reality if I tried. Besides, if I hadn’t been reincarnated, I would’ve died in the accident. The more I thought about it, the more fortunate I felt. I was supposed to die, but here I was, still conscious. Yeah, not everyone got to become a sword after all, so I should enjoy it while it lasted. When I put it that way, it wasn’t so bad. This was my unexpected second lease on life. I may as well aim to live the best possible sword life I could.

What constituted the best of the sword life, though? Well, I needed someone to wield me, that was for sure. Maybe a hero? But being the sword of a hero wasn’t without its difficulties. I would have to fight a demon lord, and I might break in the process, which would mean a legendary blacksmith (a dwarf) would have to fix me. And a hero usually meant someone with a passionate sense of dumb justice and a trim, but muscular frame; probably good looking. Basically, someone who was the complete opposite of me. Honestly, I didn’t think we could get along if we tried. If it came down to it, I’d much rather have a girl wield me. It’d be best if she were cute, but I’d be able to live with her if she wasn’t completely ugly. That was already worlds better than being paired with a meathead hero. It’d also be great if she had an amazing sword arm. She’d become a legendary hero wielding me to mow down her enemies. I’d go down in history as her beloved sword and they’d tell of our exploits in every textbook in the land… I mean, if I was going to dream, I may as well dream big. But first, I needed to figure out a way to leave these plains. I couldn’t hear the mysterious voice anymore, so I needed to think this through.

I began by taking stock of my surroundings. It seemed I was standing in the middle of some ancient ruins. There was no roof over my head, and the pedestal I was stuck in was placed in the middle of the ruins as if I were a prize. Surrounding the pedestal were small shrines which made it seem like an object of worship. The place was covered in moss and looked neglected—why, there was even a tree sprouting through a crack in the roof of one of the small shrines. It underscored the passage of time, and how no man had walked through these fields in ages.

Was I some sort of legendary weapon, granted to those worthy enough to find me? It didn’t look like I was in any sort of dungeon though. I couldn’t see behind me since I was planted on the pedestal, but before me were grasslands and shrubbery as far as the eye could see, with not a single tall tree in sight. Squinting, I could barely make out some moving shapes in the distance. Were they animals? It doesn’t look human, that’s for sure. And it didn’t seem like I could move on my own. Hang on a minute… I had Telekinesis on my list of skills. Maybe I could move using that.

I grunted and began concentrating on casting Telekinesis. I felt myself getting lighter and my blade slowly sliding out of the pedestal. Focusing on the sensation, I imagined a sword floating in the air. Wow, I’m flying! I could move in any direction I put my mind to. Parted from the pedestal, I began flitting through the air. I CAN FLY! I wasn’t very fast, but I was satisfied with it for the moment since I could move of my own volition. I circled the pedestal, confirming my suspicion that I was surrounded by ruins. The place was about thirty meters in diameter and seemed to have originally been constructed of brown bricks. Years of neglect and exposure to the elements had left it darkened with moss.

Who made this place? I have a sinking feeling it’s the same person who made me… Judging by how old the place looked, I must’ve been left here for a long time. A sword didn’t just come into the world wailing like a baby does; someone must have forged me. Ruling out the possibility of my body being warped into a sword by the accident that is. My creator would be my top candidate for the first person to use me, but if he was already dead, there went that possibility. That said, there was no moss or grime on my pedestal or the piece of cloth decorating it. It was like I’d been left there just the other day. Did that mean my creator was still out there somewhere?

Hmm? An odd sensation rushed through my body as I took in my surroundings. What’s this…? I felt…tired. A feeling of weakness overwhelmed my blade.

Then I started falling.

Seriously?! I began desperately casting Telekinesis to no avail. I was thirty meters off the ground. Float! Please, just float at least! My prayers were left unanswered and I hit the ground with a loud metallic clang which rang through the air. Ow… That…didn’t hurt at all, actually, but am I cracked anywhere? Any fractures? I scanned my body and was relieved to find myself unscathed. My senses were working as they should, too. I might just be some sort of legendary sword after all if I fell from such a height and was no worse for wear. But why did I fall? I couldn’t use Telekinesis anymore, and listlessness washed over me. I checked my stats to look for the cause of this accident.

Well, there was the problem. Looks like I’m out of MP. My Mana Pool was at 0/200. I must have been spending it the entire time I was using Telekinesis. This, too, must have been the cause of my listlessness. At least I didn’t lose consciousness when my MP hit zero. I think I was only flying for about three minutes. Couldn’t have been more than five. I lay on the stone pavement and waited to see if my MP would recover, and it did. I could feel magic flow into me from my surroundings. The air must’ve been filled with mana. I counted the time it took to recover my MP and found it to be at a rate of one point per minute. I waited an hour to get my mana up to sixty before attempting Telekinesis again.

All right, I’m in the air. No problems so far. I checked my stats to see my MP steadily dropping. I use a point of mana for every second of Telekinesis, which means I can get about three minutes of air time with 200 MP. I didn’t want to fall flat on the ground again, so I hurried back to my pedestal before my mana ran dry.

I felt oddly at ease when I slid back into it. Home sweet home. I shouldn’t move about recklessly like that again; it was too risky. I held off going on any grand expeditions and took in the surrounding area.

I spotted many animals in the grasslands. It looked like a savannah from my Earth. There were mammals, insects, and oddly-shaped creatures which were probably unique to this world. One thing for sure was that things were much bigger here than they were back home. For example, the ant-like shadow I saw first was the size of a large dog. The things that looked like cows and bats were all gigantic in size. Nothing like the ones back home. I was only eyeballing, but they had to be ten meters tall, at least. That was bigger than an elephant, now that I thought about it. 

I guess you could call them monsters. Which made me wonder, With those huge monsters walking around, I don’t suppose I’m bound to see any people running around these parts. At least, I didn’t see any humanoid shapes.

Reincarnation Log: Day Three

I heard something coming from behind me. Footsteps; multiple pairs of them.

“Gehe, gehaf.”

“Agyogyo.”

“Gegya!”

Were they talking to each other? I wasn’t sure if they were speaking a type of language, but it seemed they were communicating with each other. They could be wolves, judging by the sounds of their voices. They were coming closer, and I could feel them right behind me. Come closer so I can see what you are.

Rustling.

Come on…

More rustling.

Just a few more steps…

More rustling, which then stopped.

Damn it, they stopped right behind me.

“Gya gyu?”

“Gyal gaga.”

“Gyang ga?”

“Gruhaaa.”

What were they saying? I thought one of them was asking for advice from the others, but then something grabbed me. I felt fingers wrap around my hilt, and, as hard and callused as they were, the hand they belonged to felt human. I guessed they were trying to pull me out of my pedestal. Yet I felt an odd revulsion to whoever it was that was trying to take me. I didn’t even know what he looked like, so the least I could do was give him a fair shot…but still.

I used Telekinesis to resist their advances and hold my ground. My resistance must have awakened their greed, because my mysterious visitor was now putting his back into yanking me out. Well, too bad. I rooted myself even harder. I wasn’t going to let this thing pull me out of my home.

“Gya gya!”

“Gyu gaga gaga…!”

“Haga hav!”

The others were getting riled up, as if they were cheering their friend on. They were dancing around me now, ready to take on the challenge of pulling the sword from the pedestal.

“Gyal gaga!”

“Gol gyal!”

And that was when I saw what they were.

Seriously?

He had green skin with a face that looked more brutal than a gorilla’s, and a pair of short horns coming out of his head. He wore a fur pelt and had a club in his hands.

Goblins?

They were goblins beyond any shadow of doubt. Excuse me, but I didn’t want to be used by a couple of goblins! If I ended up as a magic sword wielded by goblins, that’d be the end of me. If I had to settle for them, then at least have a Goblin King wield me and not these mooks!

I continued resisting with Telekinesis and used Identify on the two goblins who were in my line of sight.

Name: Goblin

Race: Demon

LV: 1

HP: 17; Magic: 6; Strength: 8; Agility: 12

Skills: Club Mastery 1; Dig 2

Name: Goblin

Race: Demon

LV: 5

HP: 19; Magic: 4; Strength: 9; Agility: 10

Skills: Sword Mastery 1; Vigilance 1; Poison Resistance 1

I see. There were small differences even among members of the same race. I figured that’d be the case since they had different weapons between them, so they probably specialized in different things. The one trying to pull me out had finally tired and moved around to my front. I wasted no time in using Identify on him, too.

Name: Goblin Leader

Race: Demon

LV: 2

HP: 24; Magic: 11; Strength: 11; Agility: 13

Skills: Sword Mastery 1; Survivalist 1; Disassembly 2; Command 1

And here was their leader. Was his level lower than the rest because he had just evolved? Well, he was stronger than the other two, by about an inch. What do I do now? They didn’t look like they had any intention of leaving any time soon. The leader began smacking me, seeing that he wasn’t going to pull me out by conventional means. When I still refused to budge, he gave up and let another goblin have a go. The next goblin—who had been in my blind spot until just now—grabbed my hilt, grunted, then heaved with all his might. In turn, I resisted with all my might.

Upon seeing that brute force wasn’t going to be enough to claim his prize, the goblin leader took his flunky’s club and began trying to smash my pedestal. The logic was sound: He would destroy my pedestal, then claim me in the aftermath. However, all his bludgeoning barely left a dent in the pedestal. His face reddened in frustration, and now I wasn’t sure whether he was hammering my pedestal to claim me or simply vent. They were goblins, after all. They really are as dumb as they say.

The lead goblin struggled for a while before finally kicking the pedestal in frustration. Unfortunately, the pedestal proved to be much harder than he expected. He gripped his toes and began jumping up and down in pain, looking very comical as he did so. Heheh. Good job, idiot. The angry leader threw his club at the goblin who was in my blind spot. Come on, don’t take it out on your friends now. Just when I thought he was done, the green bastard turned around and hocked a loogie at me. I could feel the disgusting liquid trickle down my blade. Ew, gross! It’s sticking to me! But worse than that was the humiliation. All right, you want war? I’ll give you war. I was oddly itching to get in a fight.

I started with the one who was right in front of me. The goblin swordsman went up following his leader’s failed attempt at pulling me out. I calculated the exact moment he would begin heaving and stopped my Telekinesis then. He pulled me out that very instant. It was very easy for a goblin to pull me out now that I had stopped resisting. The sheer force the goblin put into the effort worked against him, as he lost his balance and fell right on his ass.

Hah, I got you now! I used Telekinesis to adjust the business end of my blade and cut right through the defenseless goblin’s throat in one swing that looked more like an accident than an assault. Surprisingly enough, my first kill didn’t disturb me. Instead, it excited me. In fact, I thought it was the obvious thing to do to a goblin who was right in front of me. Oh, no. Was I a cursed sword that hungered for blood and thirsted for souls? Well, too late to stop now. I may as well finish the job.

“Gya, gyago?”

The remaining goblins scurried to the side of their fallen comrade, unable to grasp what had happened. I slammed my body against the strongest goblin in the group (seeing that I was a sword, my body slam was roughly equivalent to a stab). The goblin leader barely had any time to react to my charge—after all, how could he expect a sword to move on its own?—and my blade pierced his belly, going straight through his back. All he did was look down at me in confusion before falling on the ground. Two left.

I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt as I killed the next goblin. Even as I cut him open, I didn’t feel the least bit disgusted. Maybe it was because I had the body of a sword now, but I didn’t feel any aversion to slashing through my enemies. In its place was an odd sense of fulfillment; I was doing my job as a sword after all. That must have satisfied me. I chased after the one who was trying to run away and he, too, went down in one swing. Only one remained now and he was quaking in his boots. I took care of him in no time.

Name: Goblin

Race: Demon

LV: 2

HP: 12; Magic: 9; Strength: 7; Agility: 10

Skills: Sword Mastery 1; Kobold Killer

Still, I was doing incredibly well. I may have taken them by surprise, but all of them had gone down in one hit. My attack power of 132 wasn’t just for show. I didn’t know how strong it really was, but it made quick work of those goblins. Then, something caught my eye.

Am I glowing right now? I emitted light on my third, maybe fourth, kill. I think I glowed on my second kill too, but I’d paid no attention to it then, thinking I was imagining things. I guess I hadn’t been, although I was pretty sure I didn’t glow when I killed my first goblin. I opened my stats to check if anything had changed.

Name: Unknown

Race: Intelligent Weapon

Attack: 132; MP: 166/200; Durability: 100/100

Evolution: [Rank 1; Crystals: 3/100; Skill Capacity: 10]

Skills: Identify 6; Self-Repair; Telekinesis; Telepathy; Status+; Recovery Rate+; Skill Sharing; Mage

Equipped Skills: None

Skill Bank: Dig 1; Disassembly 1; Sword Mastery 1; Club Mastery 1; Command 1; Survivalist 1; Kobold Killer

What’s this? It looked like I had gained some new items among my stats. The new description next to the Evolution menu specifically caught my eye: My Crystal count was at 3/100. Did that have anything to do with the three times I glowed earlier? And what of my Skill Capacity? I didn’t know what that one meant either, only that it had something to do with Skill Bank, which came after it. I figured that I only kept the skills of the goblins if I glowed after killing them, since I didn’t have Vigilance or Poison Resistance from my first victim. So, I absorbed the goblin’s skills? I picked Skill Bank and heard a voice that sounded like a Tutorial Guide.

You have ten slots remaining. Would you like to equip skills from your Skill Bank?

Of course I do. The skill selection window opened.

Equipped Skills: Dig 1; Disassembly 1; Sword Mastery 1; Club Mastery 1; Command 1; Survivalist 1; Kobold Killer 1

Skill Bank: None

Did that do it? I couldn’t tell. I especially couldn’t tell why I glowed some times and not others. Why didn’t I glow after my first kill? I had a feeling it was linked to the things called “Crystals.” They cropped up often in alternate universe light novels. From what I’d read, they were crystallizations of magic found within the bodies of monsters. If my assumptions were correct, it had something to do with the way I killed the first goblin. I’d killed him by cutting his throat, while finishing the rest off by stabbing them. That could be the difference.

I rushed over to the body of the first goblin and began stabbing his corpse with my blade. On my third stab, I found what I was looking for. I felt my blade pierce through something hard, and I glowed again. Something flowed through me and I felt an odd sense of satisfaction. It felt like eating your favorite food after being starved for days. As I thought, I absorbed crystals by cutting through them, and it seemed the goblins had theirs located in their stomach. I didn’t know if I had a hunger for crystals, but this could be why I’d felt an odd desire to fight them in the first place. I could have been reacting to the magic stones inside them. I’ll have to experiment later.

For now, I looked at my Crystal count. Like I thought, my Crystal counter was now at 4/100, and Vigilance and Poison Resistance had been added to my Skill Bank list. The Goblin Leader had Disassembly 2 and his flunky had Dig 2, but the skills I absorbed were both at Level 1. I guessed the levels had been reset after absorption. So how do I level these skills up? Was using them in battle enough? Would I need to keep absorbing more crystals? I would have to experiment with these too. For now, I would equip Vigilance and Poison Resistance.

These goblin corpses are annoying me, though.

Their corpses lay in front of my pedestal, which meant I would have to keep looking at this sorry mess if I didn’t do something about it. So I used Telekinesis and dragged their bodies out of the ruins. It left a trail of blood, but at least the corpses were out of sight now. I then put my newly obtained Dig skill to work and dug a hole for them. That’s pretty good, I thought to myself as my slim blade repurposed itself into a shovel and made quick work of the ground. Though, I couldn’t tell if that was thanks to the actual Dig skill or if Telekinesis was just that useful. It was one of the two, for sure. In any case, it was good for me to have a new goal while I waited for my User. I would go out and collect more skills, therefore making myself a stronger enchanted blade.

And so, I immediately set out on my hunt. I used Telekinesis to fly around the ruins and rested on the ground when I ran out of Mana. The plains were composed of flatlands for the most part, which was comforting because it meant I wasn’t going to lose sight of my home pedestal any time soon.

The first thing I ran into was a small rat with six legs.

Let’s Identify it real quick.

Name: Six-Legged Rat

Race: Animal

LV: 1

HP: 2; Magic: 0; Strength: 1; Agility: 7

Skills: None

Weak. Too weak. It didn’t even have any skills. It might yield some crystals, though. My crystal count was currently at 4/100. I might rank up if I collected 96 more crystals. Please die so that I may grow. I came down on the rat with a sudden swing and cut the rat clean in two. It was easier to hit than I thought, but I wasn’t glowing. Huh? What’s going on here? I jabbed the corpse a little for good measure but still remained unlit. Was I unable to absorb crystals with that swing? Curious, I cut open the rats’s body to investigate. It was such a grotesque sight that I counted myself lucky to have been born again as a sword since I didn’t have the facilities to get sick or nauseous. I dug around and found no trace of any crystals inside the rat. Oh, now I get it. When I identified the rat’s stats earlier, its race was listed as Animal. I supposed only monsters had them, since the animals on Earth didn’t have any magic crystals inside them, either.

I’ll look for a monster this time.

One was already walking into sight. A giant centipede, half a meter long, had come to scavenge on the dead rat.

Name: Giant Centipede

Race: Monster; Insect

LV: 4

HP: 18; Magic: 7; Strength 6; Agility: 14

Skills: Tremor Sense 1; Climb 1; Poison Fang

“Race: Monster.” That should do it. I opened the fight by stabbing it in the head, but it struggled and flailed, yellow liquid gushing from its mouth as its body slapped helplessly against the ground. I put it out of its misery by cutting it in half. Its upper and lower halves squirmed with a vigor that was unique to the insect kingdom until it finally ceased. Well, that was disgusting. But my slaughter of the centipede bore fruit when I stabbed the tip of my blade near its heart. I glowed, the satisfying feeling of crystal absorption coursing through me once again. I also absorbed its Tremor Sense, Climb, and Poison Fang, although it didn’t look like the bug had any fangs to me… I equipped Poison Fang, reducing my Mana by five points and covering my blade with a subtle film of liquid. It was probably poison, but I was just happy it worked. I tried equipping Climb and Tremor Sense but couldn’t.

You have reached the maximum amount of Skills you can equip.

It didn’t look like I could equip all the Skills I had acquired. I looked at my stats again under Evolution Rank to find that Gems was now at 5/100, and Skill Capacity was at ten. Skill Capacity had to refer to the number of skills I could equip. True enough, I did have all my previous skills equipped at the moment: Digging 1; Disassembly 1; Vigilance 1; Sword Mastery 1; Club Mastery 1; Command 1; Survivalist 1; Kobold Killer 1; Poison Resistance 1; and Poison Fang. I unequipped Club Mastery—it was the most useless of my current skills—and equipped Tremor Sense in its place.

I’ll go with this setup until I find a new skill.

In the list of other clearly useless skills I had: Command; Survivalist; and Climb. Hopefully I would get some more useful skills to replace these.

With that out of the way, I went back to my search. What I found next were two bowlegged, bipedal silhouettes which had the gaits of chimpanzees. Their green skin told me they were my old, ugly nemesis.

Goblins. And they have something in their hands.

I cast Identify on them and found they were little to no different from the goblins I had run into up to now. I was more interested, however, in the animal they were holding in their hands which looked like a large rat. I had never seen that one before.

Name: Poison Fang Rat

Race: Monster; Fanged Brute.

LV: 1

Status: Dead

HP: 0; Magic: 3; Strength: 4; Agility: 14

Skills: Vigilance 1

I’ll take it. I slowly inched to some nearby bushes so I wouldn’t be spotted. I was only a couple meters from them now, and I decided to start with the higher-level goblin.

Put ’em up! Your crystals or your life!

I promise you, I wasn’t overcome with bloodlust or anything of the sort. I just wanted to say that line at least once in my life was all. I stabbed one of the goblins in the back and he slumped dead without any resistance. When I noticed I was glowing, I immediately pulled myself out of him and came down on his dumbfounded companion. Two down. I also got the Throwing Weapons and Hunting skills for my trouble; I equipped myself with those immediately. Then I came to my newly-discovered monster, which made me tilt my head in confusion. Not that I had a head, of course.

Why does this Poison Fang Rat not have any skills other than Vigilance?

I expected it to have Poison Fang at least. Talk about false advertising. I pulled back the dead creature’s upper lip to expose its long canine. Yellow liquid was dripping from its tip. Was this venom?

Huh. What gives? The giant centipede had had Poison Fang in its skillset, but this “Poison Fang Rat” didn’t? I didn’t have enough clues to figure out why, so I decided to hunt some more monsters for more data. That was when my Tremor Sense and Hunting skills began reacting. The signal was weak, but I followed it by slowly circling to the other side of the bushes.

Name: Carrion Vulture

Race: Monster; Bird.

LV: 5

HP: 13; Magic: 5; Strength: 9; Agility: 15

Skills: Poison Resistance 1; Enhanced Digestion

A bird. It looked like it’d be incredibly alert, so it would be best to be careful. I hovered above the ground, taking care not to rustle any tall strands of grass, and ambushed it before it had a chance to fly away. I cut off its head and it fell limp to the ground.

Phew. Good thing I killed it before it flew off. That would’ve been annoying.

I stabbed its corpse a couple times before absorbing its crystal. I learned Enhanced Digestion, although, having no digestive tract to speak of, it was of no use to me. I had to respect the lack of discrimination my Evolution menu had for even bothering to learn this skill. I felt legitimate satisfaction when I absorbed its crystal, though. I had joked about having a hunger for crystals earlier, but it seemed it was true. I wanted more.

What shall I have next? I’d like to have something that has a new skill if possible.

I was looking for my next prey when I saw a strange shadow. It belonged to something that looked like a kite gliding through the sky. It wasn’t fast, but its movements were irregular, making it seem otherworldly. The thing looked like a green jellyfish that was drifting in the sky.

Name: Air Floater

Race: Monster; Plant

LV: 5

HP: 14; Magic: 10; Strength: 6; Agility: 4

Skills: Drain Magic 1; Hawkeye; Float

I was about ten meters away from it now, but it didn’t react to me and carried on drifting along. I guessed I could attack it, but I was careful in approaching it just in case it jumped on me. I aimed for the jellyfish’s head, which looked like a mushroom cap. It housed something that looked like an eye, which I assumed to be its core. When I was about two meters away from it, the Air Floater began showing signs of intelligence and lashed out its tentacles.

Ew, gross!

There were about ten of them and they came at me fast. The dark red appendages squirmed like a cross between a snake and a worm. They latched on to me as I was preoccupied with revulsion.

Is it draining my mana?

I could feel my mana being sucked away by its tentacles. The thing was as dangerous as it was gross. I was now solely focused on escaping its clutches. Fortunately, the tentacles weren’t very strong, and I was able to wiggle free and cut through them with little difficulty.

Phew, that was close.

I checked my stats and found that my mana had dropped by ten. Who knew what would have happened if it had kept on draining me? But now I knew how dangerous it was and that it had to die. I circled over its head and lunged at top speed. It launched its tentacles one last time but I cut them down along with its torso. Well, that was easy. I felt my blade strike against something hard and I glowed, proof I had destroyed the crystal which was its weak spot. The Air Floater lost its floatation capabilities without its Float skill and its dead body laid limp on the ground.

I got Float, Drain Magic, and Hawkeye from that encounter. All of them seemed like useful skills, and Float seemed like it would have great synergy with Telekinesis after I played around with it for a bit. As its name implied, it allowed me to float in the air with little effort. Casting it consumed mana, of course, but it wasn’t as much of a drain as having to constantly fly using Telekinesis. I could now cover five times as much distance as I did before, and with the help of Drain Magic, I could extend my excursions indefinitely.

Then, a thought crossed my mind as I was experimenting with Float. That Air Floater had Float in its skillset, so why didn’t the Carrion Vulture have Flight despite it being a bird monster? The same could be said of the Poison Fang Rat which didn’t have the Poison Fang skill. There had to have been something common between the two monsters. Then again, you might need wings to use Flight, so I might not be able to use it even if I got it.

Wait, I wouldn’t be able to fly without wings? What if Flight isn’t a skill to begin with?

The goblins didn’t have Walking or Breathing in their Skill List, so maybe it was the same with Flight for bird monsters. They didn’t need magic or specialization to function considering it was a normal physiological feature. That would explain the Poison Fang Rat too. It already came equipped with specialized glands and fangs which allowed it to use venom, like venomous snakes back on my Earth. In comparison, the Giant Centipede’s poison fangs must have been created with magic.

And seeing as Sword Mastery is an acquired skill, is that why I’m able to absorb it?

There were many things I didn’t know about my body that warranted further experimentation. The Hawkeye skill proved to be of great use, too. It allowed me to zoom in and manipulate the angles from which I was viewing a certain object, which meant I was no longer restricted to a fixed camera angle. It didn’t work if my target was too far, but I could now see almost everything around me.

Let’s see what else I can hunt!

Reincarnation Log: Day Four.

Gimme all your gems!

I was just coming off my 124th kill of the day when I received a certain prompt.

You have reached a new Evolution Level. You have acquired 10 Evolution Points.

I opened my Status menu.

Evolution: [Rank 2; Crystals: 102/300; Skill Capacity: 12; Free Points: 10]

Well that was fast.

I had gone over a hundred crystals at some point in the day, despite only being at eighty this morning.

What did I do differently from yesterday? I guess I moved to new hunting grounds…

The monsters in the direct vicinity of the ruins were becoming easier and easier, and I had decided to move away from it. As such, the monsters got stronger the further I went away. There was the Crush Boar, a giant pig with a hammer for a snout; the Iron Ant, a giant ant with mandibles that could crush boulders; and the Rock Bison, which had fur as hard as stone. The beasts were larger, their levels higher, their skills more plentiful, and their crystals bigger.

I guess size does matter when it comes to magic crystals… Do I get more than one crystal out of the tougher monsters?

That had to be the case. There was no way the Crush Boar, which was over two meters in size, would yield the same amount of crystals as your garden variety of goblin.

I wonder what else has changed.

I looked to see if my other stats had gone up. The differences were quite significant.

Attack: 132, MP: 200/200, Durability: 100/100

Whoa, this is awesome! I could actually become the world’s strongest sword! Haha, now I’m motivated! It looks like my skill cap went up, too.

I set my sights on capping all my stats.

So…what am I supposed to do with the ten Evolution Points?

I looked at the points I got with my rank up. A slew of items popped up on my menu under the header of Skill List.

Upgrades:

Attack Up (Small); Durability Up (Small);Telekinesis Up (Small); Telepathy Up (Small); MP Up (Small); Skill Capacity Up (Small); Increase Skill Level; Bestiary; Herbology; Mineralogy

Boy, that’s a lot. Am I supposed to pick some to level up? After mulling it over, I decided to increase my MP for now.

Spend 5 points to obtain MP Up (Small)?

I thought “Yes” to myself, answering the text prompt.

You have obtained MP Up (Small).

I saw that five points had been deducted from my total Evolution Points and that MP Up (Small) had been added to my Skill List. Finally, my MP had been increased by one hundred points.

Thanks, Evolution!

But what now? I wanted all the upgrades, but I knew I wasn’t going to have enough points for all of them. I ended up picking Increase Skill Level since it looked like that was going to let me level up the skills in my Skill Bank. However, it looked like I had to level them up one at a time. I picked Sword Mastery to see what would happen and it told me I needed two points to level it up. Actually, most of my skills only needed two points to level up, with the exception of Poison Fang and Floatation which needed five. I wondered what the cause of the difference was and speculated that it had something to do with the fact that Poison Fang and Floatation didn’t have numbers indicating their skill levels.

I didn’t have much to go on, but I decided on Attack Up (Small) in the end. It was straightforward and had the most impact on fighting monsters. The skill was added to my Skill List and my attack power was increased by fifty points. Great, now I had more reason for crystal collection.

Now I’m really motivated! I’ll hunt every last monster in these parts to extinction!

I was ready to get down to business. I soared through the skies with high spirits and descended upon every monster I came across like an eagle on its prey. Most of them went out in one hit while the ones that didn’t were very close to dying. All that remained for the stragglers was their cruel slaughter. When I was done absorbing their crystals, I took to the skies again and resumed my hunt for prey. Search and Destroy. I didn’t feel bad for my prey and I felt I was little more than a bloodthirsty cursed sword without a conscience. As a matter of fact, I had to hunt to survive. The sensation of absorbing crystals was the closest thing to eating that I had.

All in all, I was happy about getting all sorts of skills. Ooh, I haven’t seen that one before. My skills were increasing at a steady rate, though I did get some useless ones like Enhanced Digestion and Enhanced Taste Buds. How was I supposed to use either of those? They would come in handy once I found my User I guess, but until then they were completely pointless. This aspect of collecting skills did tickle my nerd side, and I found it to be more enjoyable than gathering up crystals. I would love to get my hands on a monster that has a lot of skills, I thought to myself, recalling the monsters I had faced until now.

Goblins taste pretty good, actually.

They usually moved around in small groups and yielded a decent amount of crystals. More importantly, they had an amazing variety of skills to choose from. Their opposable thumbs had given the goblins an opportunity to learn a great assortment of skills that would help with their daily lives which separated them from the animal-type monsters.

Guess I’m going on a goblin hunt.

Fortunately, I saw them quite frequently around the pedestal, so they shouldn’t be too hard to find. However, just as I decided to make goblins the main part of my crystal diet, I immediately hit a wall.

Where the hell are all the goblins?!

They weren’t completely absent, but they weren’t flourishing, either. What was a magic sword to do in this situation?

Hmm… I know! I’ll look for the goblins’ nest and exterminate every last one of them!

I hadn’t noticed anything that resembled housing on the plains, so they had to be in some sort of hole somewhere. It shouldn’t be too hard to spot from the sky.

Or so I thought.

Can’t seem to find any goblin nests.

Two days had gone by and I had yet to find a single goblin nest. I supposed they were craftier than I thought. All right then. The next time I fought a group of goblins, I would let some of them escape and let them guide me to their base of operations. Then I could just slaughter them all in one fell swoop. A brilliant plan, if I did say so myself.

I spotted a group of goblins and hovered at a lower altitude to follow them. I stalked them for about an hour on my tiptoes (if I had any toes to speak of), remaining as quiet as possible. I observed that the goblins would break into a dance at times and be completely entranced by a formation of ants at another. All in all, they wasted so much time getting to where they were going which I found irritating. So irritating, in fact, that I thought about killing them at multiple points during the observation.

I’ve gotten way too used to Search and Destroy.

I wanted to give myself a pat on the back for showing restraint as I infiltrated the hole in the ground hidden by some shrubbery. The further I went in, the less able I was to restrain my laughter.

Heheheh… I don’t have to hold back anymore, do I?

In an instant, I let out my pent-up rage along with my mounting hunger for crystals.

Give me all your crystals!

“Shoo gya gya!”

“Gyuha!”

This hole in the ground was a great idea.

Magic coursed through me after my meal, soothing the sensations which felt like thirst and hunger. I dusted myself off, concealed my presence, and resumed my stealthy hunt for more goblins. I had to have killed around thirty of them after an hour, but they hadn’t sent any of their troops after me yet. Had they not noticed?

Well, this is a big hallway.

I followed it until I turned a corner and entered a room the size of a gymnasium that was filled with goblins as far as the eye could see. There must have been around fifty of them. They were a considerable threat at that amount, even if all of them were weak individually. I figured they could easily mob a medium-sized monster to death. As I was scanning the room, one of the goblins caught my eye. Its face was covered with scars and its body was twice as large as the rest of the greenskins; it looked like an old war veteran. It wore armor, which may have belonged to an adventurer once, and its giant sword was stuck in the ground next to it.

Yes, jackpot!

Name: Goblin King

Race: Demon

LV: 21

HP: 97; Magic: 26; Strength: 57; Agility: 26

Skills: Intimidate 2; Sword Arts 2; Sword Mastery 4; Command 4; Morale Boost 3; Shield Mastery 2; Provoke 1; Throwing Weapons 1; Vigor 1; Spirit Manipulation

The Goblin King himself. The other goblins’ stats were nothing compared to his.

I guess they found out about my intrusion and went to protect their king.

I trembled with excitement as I looked at his stats. It was the sort of euphoria you got when you were about to be served a high-class dinner, except this was also an all-out buffet to boot. There was a veritable assortment of goblins: soldiers, archers, knights, mages, warriors, monks, medics, and shamans.

Let’s do this!

I focused my energy, careful to hold nothing back since my will commanded the intensity of my Telekinesis. I gathered up all the mana I could put into Telekinesis to accelerate toward the mob at blinding speeds. I called this one the Telekinesis Catapult.

You’re going down first, Your Majesty!

I unleashed my charge and launched toward the Goblin King in an instant. The silence of my Telekinesis gave him no chance to react. Despite being a sharp object, the impact of my blade was closer to that of a cannonball, and I ended up exploding his head before getting stuck in the cave wall. I was quite impressed with myself. A few moments later, the beheaded body of the Goblin King slumped forward and fell to the ground with a thud. Blood gushed out of his neck and stained the ground. Silence fell upon the cave as the goblins realized what had just happened to their king. Then they erupted, in anguish and rage, and it felt like their voices shook the room itself.

“Gyaooo!”

“Graaah!”

“Grooo!”

There were a whole slew of reactions. There were those who panicked and ran around the room; those who ran up to the king’s corpse; those who stood in place, roaring as they stood.

Now the goblin king’s aide, who had been standing next to the king before he died, faced the other goblins and barked orders at them. Five of them ran out of the room to check if anyone had thrown the sword which killed their leader, seeing as they thought it impossible for a sword to throw itself. The goblins’ gazes were fixed on the hallway, anxious to find their mysterious assassin.

Except there’s no one for you to find, you fools!

I put on a show of falling to the ground due to a breeze, but I turned and launched myself at the aide instead. He looked like he was the brains of the operation in my opinion.

Now give me your magic!

As useful as the Goblin King’s physical stats may have been, the goblin mages were my main target from the start. I had been itching to get my blade on their spells since the first time I used Identify on them.

Name: Goblin Mage

Race: Demon

LV: 9

HP: 27; Magic: 36; Strength: 14; Agility: 20

Skills: Mineralogy 1; Command 1; Staff Mastery 2; Battle Staff 1; Fire Magic 3; Fire Magic Up (Small); Mana Manipulation

Bwahahaha! Now I can use magic, too!

It was every nerd’s dream to use magic in an alternate universe, after all, and seeing that I was a nerd myself, my excitement was a foregone conclusion.

But before that, I’ll have to clean the rest of you up!

It was a one-sided fight from there. The goblins were in a state of fearful panic throughout, most likely because they were no longer under the effects of the Goblin King’s Morale Boost. The Goblin Mage wasn’t around to give them orders anymore either, so they no longer had anyone to quell their hysteria. Having lost their leaders, the formidable fighting force that was the goblin troop was reduced to little more than a terrified mob. The stronger goblins fought back, but their uncoordinated attacks were no match for me. Meanwhile, the weaker goblins couldn’t land any direct hits on me either, and I came out unscathed. In fact, the goblins got in each other’s way more than they got in mine.

And this would be the last archer!

I prioritized taking out my long-range attackers. With them taken care of, I flew close to the ceiling where the rest of the troop could do nothing but stare. I looked down on them like the pile of EXP that they were. I swooped down and circled round the mob, cutting goblins down as I went. I killed the ones who were trying to escape first, and, although a significant amount of them got away, I managed to take down thirty of them during my assault.

Boy, did I level up after that.

My skill levels for Sword Mastery and Club Mastery went up with nearly every crystal I absorbed. I supposed my skills leveled up when I absorbed a crystal which had the same skill. Alternatively, I had to absorb a certain number of crystals with the same skill to level it up. In any case, the fact that I was able to level up made me quite happy.

HAHAHAHA! NOW I HAVE ALL THE EXP!

After slaughtering the stragglers and absorbing their crystals, I left the goblin nest with something akin to a full stomach.

Now, where’s my pedestal again?

Night had fallen by the time I had demolished the goblin nest and. Although I was flying around in high spirits, darkness had enveloped the land and I lost my sense of direction.

The moon’s over there, which means…

Not much, really. The moons moved differently in this world, so I could scarcely rely on them for direction. The moonlight may have brightened up the landscape but I still couldn’t see as well compared to daytime. I was completely lost.

I guess I should give up on going home tonight.

The pedestal had become something of a home to me, so I wanted to go home at least once every day where possible. Resting within the pedestal made me feel at ease, if nothing else. Returning under the cover of night seemed impossible, however, so I figured I may as well spend the rest of the night hunting since I no longer had any need of sleep. I hesitated for some time since the idea of nocturnal exploration scared me, but it wasn’t as if I had any other choice.

I headed out, flying at a lower altitude this time. The less distance I had to fall to the ground in case of any surprise attacks, the better. I had seen some large flying monsters earlier, like a bat the size of a cow and a winged anaconda, so I had to play it safe.

I used not only my eyes but all my senses, if you could call them that, on my hunt. I had half expected the monsters to be stronger at night, but it was quite the opposite; they might have been weaker since they had to live under the cover of darkness. It took some time to find my quarry but none of them put up much of a fight.

Nice! Echolocation and Awareness! I’m getting so many great utility skills!

The nocturnal monsters were loaded with exploration and detection skills. One of the most helpful skills was Echolocation, which I got from a Giant Bat. It allowed the user to use mana and sound to locate creatures and objects within a thirty-meter radius. Nocturnal exploration became a walk in the park with it.

Time to rake in those crystals and rank up!

I proceeded to hunt down monsters I hadn’t seen during the daytime and was filled with so much ecstasy that I couldn’t see two feet ahead of me. All I could think about was going after my prey. Looking back, I may have let the thrill of the hunt get to my head.

“GRAAARGH!”

Which was why I was caught off guard by a sudden roar that sounded like it came from right above me. I looked up at the source of the noise and saw a huge black shape the size of a Cessna plane.

What?! How did Echolocation not detect that thing?!

I had scanned the area with my Skill a few moments ago and that huge shadow didn’t show up in the results. It roared again, whizzing by me at what felt like supersonic speeds. It grazed a part of my blade, and a high-pitched metallic clang rang through the air. The creature’s lunge was so powerful that I flung back about ten meters in a tailspin. That wasn’t all: The graze had decreased my Durability by 30 when I checked my status screen.

You’d resort to an ambush, you coward?!

Now, you might be thinking, “But you ambush monsters all the time,” and you’d be right. But it was okay if I did it, because I was a sword. Why does that make it okay, you ask? Well, because! Being on the receiving end of an ambush also pissed me off!

I tried stabilizing myself as I spun in the air from the ambush. I needed to see what I was up against, but I couldn’t even see it. It was too fast to see with the naked eye—and I suddenly understood why Echolocation didn’t work on it. I only used Echolocation once every few minutes to check my surroundings, but a creature with that kind of speed would only take an instant to get to me; it was well outside the effective range of thirty meters. Considering the thing was already a tiny dot in the distance in the five seconds after it had grazed me, I figured it probably took less than three seconds for it to find then carry out the initial strike against me.

The creature roared again.

Damn, it’s coming in hot!

I cast Identify on it, barely evading its assault.

Name: Lesser Wyvern

Race: Monster; Lesser Dragon.

LV: 21

HP: 223; Magic: 95; Strength: 122; Agility: 142

Skills: Intimidate 2; Stealth 2; Fire Resistance 3; Air Manipulation 3; Poison Resistance 3; Hardened Scales; Enhanced Olfaction; Enhanced Absorption; Enhanced Sight

It was strong! The wyvern may have been a lesser dragon but it was the strongest monster I had come to face yet. It had more skills, too. I managed to avoid a direct hit this time, but the wind pressure it generated was enough to knock me off course. It was then I realized that I had taken this world lightly. I had yet to face any hard opposition, but throwing me a dragon for my first real fight was overdoing it, don’t you think?

Damn it!

My formidable foe circled around, moving even faster this time. This seemed to be a hopeless boss fight, but giving up wasn’t an option on the off-chance I got a Game Over screen instead of progressing my story. I resolved that, if it came down to it, I would hover close to the ground to escape the dragon’s missile-like assaults. That might be enough to do it. Maybe.

For now, I was going to try and fight it since it was doubtful whether I’d be able to run away from it in the first place. It was probably going to pursue me as long as I stayed in its territory, so I may as well find a way to create an opening and fight back. Its supersonic speed seemed like a double-edged sword I could use to my advantage, so I decided to start there. My own survival took precedence of course.

I waited for the Lesser Wyvern to make its next attack. The creature’s speed worked against it, making it difficult to alter its own flight course. Thankfully, I didn’t need to worry about the certainty of the dragon’s next assault. It made a great turn and lunged toward me once more.

Here it comes!

The creature let out a mighty roar as I readied myself to aim for its soft underbelly. My plan was to dodge its charge while staying close to the creature’s stomach. I could then slash upward to cut it open in one quick swing. I wasn’t sure whether it would work, but I was all for trying it out. If I was damaged in the process, I would hastily make my retreat.

The dark shape grew larger as it closed in on me, but I was oddly calm. It was fast, but it wasn’t quite as fast as the cars and bikes back home. Add the fact that it couldn’t make any fancy maneuvers, and you had what was essentially a flying freight train; fast, but predictable. This might just work.

Come on!

“GROAR!”

No, never mind. I had managed to dodge the wyvern’s charge, but I only grazed the belly of the beast. Trying with all my might to stay calm, I had overcorrected the course of my swing out of subconscious fear. At least I knew I could hurt it now though, even if it was just a scratch. The graze gave me a chunk of my mana back, given the wyvern’s high magic value. This would make it easier for me to cast my skills.

A low growl emanated out of the creature.

Crap, it looks pissed now. I barely scratched you, buddy.

I may have made things worse for myself, seeing that the dragon was now glaring at me with resentful eyes.

This may not end well.

It charged at me again. I tried to get away, but, alas, it hit me dead on.

Ow! That’s it, you oversized, winged lizard!

It got a good hit in, I had to admit. The Lesser Wyvern flicked its tail as it grazed against me, as if expecting my counterattack in a display of acrobatic flair to knock its talons on me. But I wasn’t about to just float there and take it. I took advantage of the momentum from its claw striking me and charged straight into its right eye. However, gouging the eye proved to be too great an effort for my blade and the tip of it snapped. It was so worth it, though. The creature roared and flailed in pain, its flight becoming erratic.

Now let’s see if I’m okay.

I still had two thirds of my blade left on me. It didn’t hurt, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to be all right after this encounter. It didn’t look like I had any problems with flying either, likely thanks to my use of Telekinesis. My broken shape had no apparent effect on my aerodynamics, and neither was I leaking mana from my broken blade. I was in surprisingly decent shape. I had that Self-Repair skill, so I wondered if that would fix me after this. It would suck if I had to remain broken though, I thought to myself. Just then, my blade began glowing and a couple millimeters of my broken cross-section had begun fusing itself. The Self-Repair skill was kicking in. I sighed in relief. It looked like I was going to be whole again.

You’re done for, you oversized lizard!

Having checked to see that I was all right, I resumed my furious name-calling of the wyvern. My beautiful white blade was now cracked and in pieces, and I wasn’t going to let it get away with that. I suspected it wasn’t going to let me get away, either. The wyvern reared up resentfully and launched itself toward me again, set on destroying me for the injury I had dealt it. It was slightly slower, but it was still faster than I was by far.

Bring it on!

I had made peace with the fact that my broken blade was going to make my life difficult, but I had steeled myself. I was ready to lose one battle to win the war against this thing. First, I slowed myself down, deliberately allowing the flying lizard to gain on me. Having tricked it into thinking I was limping away, it charged in a straight line toward me.

Hah, you fell for it, you winged bastard!

I pivoted, aimed my blade at its wings, accelerated, and was rewarded with a body blow. The wyvern couldn’t dodge my attack with how fast it was going, and we rammed into each other. Only a tenth of my blade remained after the crash, most of it shattered by the smash. But the Lesser Wyvern wasn’t doing so great, either. I had cut its left wing clean off its base and it was now hurtling toward the ground. We were about thirty meters in the air, and I figured that wasn’t going to be enough to finish off a lesser dragon. But as I approached the Lesser Wyvern, I found that its neck was bent at an odd angle and was now sputtering copious amounts of blood from its mouth. The creature was in its death throes, and it was only a matter of time until it ceased moving entirely.

Phew, I survived that encounter somehow.

My Durability counter was at 23 now. That was too close for comfort. I wouldn’t have survived if I had taken more damage from the first hit.

Well, it’s a good thing I won…but how do I go about getting your crystal?

Digging out my hard-earned prize was going to prove difficult with only a tenth of a blade. Considering how long it took for Self-Repair to work, it was probably going to take more than a night to get back to my original shape. In the meantime, the corpse of the Lesser Wyvern might not be safe from the scavengers wandering the grasslands at night.

What do I do now…?

I felt a bond forming between my broken pieces thanks to my Self-Repair skill.

Maybe…

I focused my energy and visualized Self-Repair energy flooding my blade in the hopes it would speed things up. Granted, it was a silly speculation but—

What’s this?

My blade was now glowing brighter.

This might just work…

Focusing my energy made the Self-Repair skill work faster. This was quite the discovery. It meant that increased focus during the casting of other skills may increase the effectiveness of those skills. On the flip side, I was now consuming mana at a rate of 1 MP per second. My mana consumption wasn’t without merit however, when I had recovered the entirety of my blade in about three minutes’ time. I had 15 MP left by the end of my repair. I wouldn’t have had enough if I hadn’t drained mana from the Lesser Wyvern during our fight.

I learned a lot from that fight.

Now I had enough blade to carve myself a crystal. The Lesser Wyvern’s crystal was in its neck (I should’ve aimed at this spot instead) and was worth 20 points, indicative of how hard the fight against it was.

I guess I’ll find a bush to hide myself in for the rest of the night…

It was the morning after I had defeated the Lesser Wyvern. I was hovering in the air trying to locate my pedestal. It was a bright day, and the increased visibility aided me in locating my home. I spotted it eventually, much farther away than I had thought. I must have gotten turned around the other night and went in the opposite direction.

And away we go!

I launched myself in the direction of my pedestal. I took down some weak monsters who were unfortunate enough to be caught in my flight path and had a hearty breakfast of crystals. The fight with the wyvern last night strengthened me to the point where the weaker monsters had become little more than trash mobs. I noticed monsters grew stronger the further away I went from the pedestal, and weaker the closer I was to it. It might have something to do with the magic emitted by the pedestal; perhaps it made a barrier of some sort. Incidentally, I only noticed this barrier ever since I began using magic. I didn’t know who put it up, but I speculated that it might have been my creator.

It took a little under an hour to reach the pedestal I called home. Flying in a straight line helped, and it was a lot easier to navigate now that it was light out. I was only away for a night, but I had already begun feeling homesick. As I drew closer to the pedestal, the warm magic of the barrier welcomed me home.

I’m back, Pedestal! Did you miss me?

I dove into it and sheathed myself with a plop. Resting within the pedestal was comfortable beyond belief.

Home sweet pedestal. I can finally kick back and relax!

I spent a few minutes just staring at the clouds as they went by. Then, it was time for entertainment.

Heheheh… Mwahahaha! I finally have it! I have ceased to be a mere sword, J*jo!

It was time for some magic. I had gotten fire magic off a Goblin Mage during my goblin slaughter the other day and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Let’s just equip it real quick… And, we’re set.

I concentrated on casting it. I was no stranger to using my Skills, so I was curious as to how a Spell would work, if at all. My initial results were disappointing, to say the least.

It doesn’t look like it’s doing anything…

I had cast the spell, but nothing came of it. Though, it didn’t feel like I had failed to cast the spell, either.

What gives? Do I not have enough magic? I’m pretty sure that Goblin Mage had less magic than I do though… I’ll try equipping all of the mage’s skills for now.

I equipped Mineralogy, Command, Staff Mastery, Battle Staff, Fire Magic, Fire Magic Up (Small), and Mana Manipulation to start. Suddenly, some new images came into view.

Fire Arrow and Fire Shield?

I picked Fire Arrow because if I was going to use any magic at all, then it had to be offensive magic.

Whoa, there’s an actual incantation in my head now.

I began reading the incantation and my blade glowed by the time I finished.

Fire Arrow!

An arrow made of flames shot out of me when I said the magic words. It flew off into the distance at the speed and trajectory of an actual arrow.

Whoa…

It worked!

Hahahaha! I did it!

The fire arrow only singed the grass it flew over. If we were talking about pure damage, then flinging myself at an incoming enemy would’ve been a hundred times more effective; but that wasn’t the point. The point was that I was now able to use magic.

All right, let’s try this one next! Fire Shield!

A small, flaming buckler projected itself in front of me.

Hm. I wonder how strong it is.

I picked up some rocks with Telekinesis and began flinging it at the shield. Nothing too powerful, I was only tossing them at the speed a baseball pitcher would throw a ball. It took the first rock without any problems but began wavering by the third.

That’s about it, I guess.

The shield was good for three hits, after which it dissipated. It was going to suffice for any projectiles, but I was doubtful about putting it up against swords and axes. For now, I was content playing around with these two spells. I had more than enough mana to spare after my rank up and they both only cost 5 MP to cast. I enjoyed myself, casting one spell after another.

Fire Arrow! Fire Arrow! Woohoo!

Thirty minutes went by before I started coming down from my high. The surrounding shrubbery appeared to have been on fire, but that could’ve been my imagination.

Phew. Speaking of, I should look into my skills.

Specifically, I wanted to know which skills I needed to equip to cast magic. I began by unequipping the two skills which obviously had nothing to do with magic: Mineralogy and Command. With Staff Mastery, Battle Staff, Fire Magic, Fire Magic Up (Small), and Mana Manipulation still equipped, I cast Fire Arrow again.

That worked.

I then unequipped Staff Mastery and Battle Staff.

Fire Arrow!

No problems there. I unequipped Fire Magic Up (Small) and found I was still able to cast magic. This time, I unequipped Mana Manipulation so that Fire Magic was the only magic related skill I had equipped.

Nope.

I re-equipped Mana Manipulation.

Fire Arrow.

Whoosh.

It looked like I was going to need Mana Manipulation to use any magic at all, so I may as well just leave it equipped at all times. Which brought my attention to another skill with a similar name: Spirit Manipulation.

If Mana Manipulation is for Magic, what’s Spirit Manipulation for?

The skills the Goblin King had were as follows: Intimidate, Sword Arts, Sword Mastery, Command, Morale Boost, Shield Mastery, Provoke, Throwing Weapons, and Vigor. Was Spirit Manipulation for Sword Mastery? Or maybe it was for this new skill called Sword Arts. After some time experimenting with my skill sets, I figured out that Spirit Manipulation indeed went with Sword Arts. I was able to expend Spirit to unleash devastating attacks called Sword Arts. There was the Double Slash which allowed me to attack twice, and the Heavy Slash which was a devastating strike sure to kill most enemies. They looked intriguing.

I can’t wait to try them out on a moving target.

I could hunt tougher monsters with all these new skills. I’d be able to expand my hunting grounds as well.

I’ve already taken care of the goblin situation, so I guess I’ll try venturing farther out.

Four days had gone by since I first learned fire magic. The local monsters had begun fearing me as the murderous magic sword, and some even took the initiative to destroy me. I carried on absorbing crystals and was now at Rank 4. I had developed a taste for the various kinds of magic crystals available; not that the crystals themselves literally had different flavors, but there was a difference in the quality of magic between every monster type. The orcs and goblins I’d been killing as of late had a stronger taste compared to the other monsters. Absorbing the crystals of the demonkin was like eating spicy food in my previous life, although the resemblance was vague at best.

I’d collected a myriad of different skills and was slowly increasing their levels as well. My raid of the Gourmet Orc’s nest proved to be a delicious venture, both in the skill acquisition and crystal absorption senses. I acquired various weapon skills which included my most frequently used Sword Mastery and Sword Arts, both of which were now at Level 3. Leveling Sword Mastery to Level 3 really made a difference as I could manipulate my blade, which was really my body, much better, and I was much more efficient at striking the enemy’s vital parts as well. I could deflect the attacks of some of the larger monsters, too. This really was the most important skill to have if you had a sword for a body.

I also acquired a variety of skills from the other monsters of course: The rock-like Stone Spider gave me an upgrade of my Poison Fang skill, Advanced Poison Fang; the carnivorous Giant Mole gave me Heat Sense; and much like a certain Poison Fang Rat, the Paralysis Cat didn’t give me Paralysis Claws, but it did give me Conceal Presence. On top of that, I got Air Current Sight from the bird-type monsters, a skill which fell under the Sense category, and other Stealth skills from the smaller, fanged monsters. They were all easy to use and had great utility. I had explored seventy percent of the grasslands and it now felt like my backyard.

Take this! Fire Arrow!

I was currently fighting some Slimes, a creature which was either the weakest or the strongest, depending on the work of fiction it appeared in. It was quite strong in this world, having amazing regenerative capabilities, strong physical defense stats, and being able to conceal itself to mount an ambush. It also had various ways of manipulating its gelatinous body to mount an attack, such as forming tentacles which lashed like whips and shooting out parts of its body like bullets. The Slime was made up of multiple layers, including a tough outer layer, an acidic inner layer to digest its prey, and its deepest layer being poisonous so it could better defend its precious crystal.

All in all, they were incredibly annoying. Especially the acid layer, since I took damage just from touching it. The only way forward was to spam my fire magic. They were quite large however, with the smallest one being around a meter tall and the biggest being two meters. They could take a great deal of punishment from my fire magic; I didn’t even know how many fire arrows I’d shot by now.

My current plan was to cut open the Slimes, fully prepared to take damage in the process, and shoot my fire magic right into the place they stored their crystals. The Slimes would sometimes resist by lashing away at me with their tentacles, which was a decent way of fighting back. However, forming tentacles took away from their overall body mass and in turn made it easier for me to fire my magic at their crystals. In the end, most of my mana went into healing myself instead of endlessly casting fire magic.

Is that all of them?

I must’ve stumbled upon their natural habitat because there was an absurd number of them. With every Slime I killed, two seemed to spawn out of the ground to take its place. The Slimes weren’t as strong as the rest of the monsters around here, but there was strength in their numbers.

I hear something…

I barely had time to catch my breath before I felt the presence of a new monster fast approaching. It might have been attracted to the pile of freshly slaughtered Slime. The creature approached me and roared, showing itself to be a giant turtle three meters in length. I wasted no time in using Identify on it.

Cannon Tortoise? I guess that tube must be a cannon.

There was a meter-long protrusion sticking out the front of its gigantic shell. That must have been the barrel of the cannon. So what was with the thin piping on the rear end of the shell? It looked like the exhaust pipe of a modified motorcycle. The turtle roared again, and what followed was the high-pitched sound of a vacuum cleaner as it sucked up the air around it.

I see, so the pipe’s an intake rather than an exhaust.

The Air Current Sight I got from the bird monsters allowed me to see the Cannon Tortoise suck up the wind around it to its rear intake. It then fired an invisible bullet out of its cannon. It would’ve been impossible to dodge had it not been for my vision.

So it shoots out highly-compressed air!

It wasn’t often that I ran into a monster capable of long-distance artillery. Its movement was appropriately lumbering, however.

Too slow!

But it could only fire one shot at a time, and the shots only came from one direction. I quickly flew behind it but it was very slow in turning to face me. Its shell was sufficiently hard, and I certainly didn’t look forward to being plowed under it.

I’ll just have to kill you before that happens!

I flew up and out of the Cannon Tortoise’s field of view. I could see its head as it looked at its surroundings to look for me, so I immediately plunged my blade through its head, killing it instantly.

Just as planned!

I couldn’t bask in the glory of victory for long however, since the other monsters were now swarming the Cannon Tortoise’s fresh corpse just as the Slime remains had called the Cannon Tortoise to begin with.

Could you at least give me a second?

Nature was enacting her law, but I couldn’t help but sigh since I was a concerned party for once. The monsters that came along looked pretty strong, too.

You don’t look very friendly…

Indeed, I was now face to face with a giant red leopard which stretched seven to eight meters in length. The tip of its tail looked like a torch that burned with a red flame.

Let’s Identify you real quick.

The monster was called a Flare Leopard. It had the highest stats of all the monsters I’d encountered so far. Its Agility even topped that of the Lesser Wyvern’s, coming in at 305. It also came equipped with Fire Magic, making it a force to be reckoned with at both close and long ranges.

You look like trouble.

But a creature this strong had to have had equally large crystals. I wondered what its crystal must have tasted like.

Only one way to find out!

The leopard roared as I thrust myself into battle.

Two days had passed since my fierce fight with the Flare Leopard.

I should get going.

Specifically, to the outer rim of the grasslands, a place I had christened Area 5. As I mentioned earlier, the further I went away from the pedestal, the stronger the monsters became, possibly as a result of the barrier. So I decided to call the immediate area surrounding the pedestal Area 1, as it was populated with goblins and other lower-level monsters. Area 5 was the furthest away from the pedestal and was therefore populated with the strongest monsters in the grasslands. Beyond Area 5 was unexplored territory. It was where the grasslands ended and the forest started. However, I would sometimes see monsters from Areas 1 and 2 peeking out of the woods of the forest, so it was doubtful the forest was more dangerous than Area 5. I didn’t know why the monsters of Area 5 didn’t move into the forest, but maybe I’d figure that out once I got there.

It doesn’t look like there are any trash mobs around.

The number of monsters dropped the further out I went into the grasslands. The difficult areas were populated with large monsters who, although not as plentiful, maintained control over vast territories. I was hunting in Area 4 the other day and I had only managed to take down twenty of such creatures. However, the average crystal drop rate was about fifteen per encounter, which meant I had farmed far more crystals out of those twenty than I would have if I had hunted down a hundred goblins. Here was my current stat spread:

Name: Unknown

Race: Intelligent Weapon

Attack: 314; MP: 1000/1000; Durability: 800/800

Evolution: [Rank 5; Crystals: 1366/1500; Skill Capacity: 34; Free Points: 38]

Skills: Identify 6; Attack Up (Small); High-Speed Self-Repair; Skill Sharing; Recovery Rate+; Status+; Telekinesis; Telekinesis Up (Small); Telepathy; MP Up (Small); Bestiary; Mage; Skill Capacity Up (Small)

I used the points I received from my rank up to level up my Self-Repair into High-Speed Self-Repair and equipped Telekinesis Up (Small), Bestiary, and Skill Capacity Up (Small). I was free to switch up the skills I had in my Skill Bank, and it wasn’t like I could use all the skills I had acquired anyway. In fact, I couldn’t even use most of them.

Oh, I see a monster!

Name: Goblin

Race: Demon

LV: 3

HP: 10; Magic: 2; Strength: 7; Agility: 8

Skills: Vigilance 1; Poison Resistance 1; Cooking 1

Details: A demon born from a piece of the Demon God when it was destroyed 100,000 years ago. Bears deep hatred and resentment toward all non-demon species. While nimble and dexterous, it has a vicious and brutal temper. Being evil by nature, it is recommended to exterminate them as you find them. 

Crystal location: belly; tailbone.

Two goblins were walking side by side on the borderline between Areas 2 and 3. Although I was able to destroy their base of operations, I still hadn’t managed to eradicate them completely. I got some extra details when I used Identify on them this time around, a benefit I most likely owed to investing some points into Bestiary. Who knew it would kick in when I used Identify? It actually made fighting monsters so much easier. It told me of a monster’s weak points and where its crystals were which made it possible for me to kill most my foes with one strike.

“Exterminate as you find them”… So, like cockroaches.

They were much eviler than I thought, which made sense from a human standpoint. As a former human, I was on the side of humanity. I was strengthened in my resolve to convert them into quick EXP.

Now what about the other one…

The other goblin looked slightly different from the first one. Its horns were about twenty centimeters long and were curved at a wicked angle. Its clothing was slightly different too, as it was dyed pitch black.

Name: High Goblin

Race: Demon

LV: 2

HP: 38; Magic: 21; Strength: 26; Agility: 19

Skills: Sword Mastery 2; Throwing Weapons 1; Climbing 1; Poison Resistance 1

Title: Slave of the Demon God

Details: Unknown.

Here was the High Goblin. I had actually run into some at the goblin nest before, but I had thought them to be nothing more than just odd-looking goblins at the time. The Goblin King notwithstanding, they were far stronger than any of the normal goblins. The stats this thing had at Level 2 were ridiculous, and it even had a title to boot. They were probably the elite fighting force of the goblin race, considering I had often seen them lead a crew of goblins. There were no further details about the High Goblin and I wondered if I needed to put more points into Identify, or if I needed to kill more of them to get it to unlock. Well, I was told to exterminate any goblins I came across, so it must have held true for the high goblins as well. EXP was EXP.

Still, I was amazed to discover that gods existed in this world. I didn’t know whether the gods here were self-proclaimed superhumans or actual gods, but I didn’t want to run into them either way. Gods and religions were both annoying to me.

Leave your crystals at the door!

And so, I carried on my hunt for monsters.

Yeehaw!

I came up with a great method of getting around the other day. I would charge up Telekinesis and launch myself at great distances. Then I’d let myself fall wherever I would. I called it the Telekinetic Catapult. It was much more mana-efficient, since all I needed to spend was the initial mana it took to cast Telekinesis. With this method of transportation, I reached Area 4 sometime before noon.

The residents of Area 4 were as strong as I expected. I could no longer one-shot everything I came across, and I took significant damage to my Durability whenever the monsters hit me. An attack from a goblin in Area 1 wouldn’t even register a decrease in Durability, but a direct hit from the monsters here knocked my Durability down by at least one hundred points. I needed to be careful.

Eventually, I reached Area 5.

What monsters await me here?

I used my various detection skills to scout the area for monsters. Getting a preemptive attack on my enemies was a vital strategy in my hunts, and, at times, I would come out of the ensuing scuffle unscathed because of it.

Where are all the monsters, though?

I had been searching for monsters to kill for close to an hour to no avail. Were there no monsters to be found here? Was Area 4 the final stop in my journey after all? Just as I was beginning to question myself, I sensed a large magic source coming from a corner of the area. It had to be a monster, and a strong one too.

Ooh, that’s one hell of a pulse!

The response was even stronger than the Flare Leopard in Area 4, which was the strongest thing I’d fought up till now.

Let’s get some altitude.

I flew up into the sky so the thing wouldn’t be able to see me; at this height, it’d be difficult for monsters without advanced detection skills to do so.

Found it! Wait, what is that, a puddle?

A pool of water about five meters in length lay over the spot where the strong pulse was coming from. Was the pulse coming from inside it? It didn’t look like there was anything living within it from a glance.

I’ll get closer and use Identify on it.

Identify didn’t work with this much distance between the target and me. I figured its effective range was about twenty meters. I closed in on the body of water and its surface began wobbling. Was it the wind? The wind wouldn’t make it wobble so much as ripple. The gelatinous pool of water continued shivering before breaking the optical illusion and exploding to reveal its true identity. The pool wasn’t a body of water after all.

Ew, that’s one huge Slime!

The puddle gathered itself and formed a giant Slime. It must’ve sensed I was around and prepared itself for confrontation. The thing jumped up with the pressure of a water fountain, but soon lost to the force of gravity. Its gelatinous body looked like a waterfall as it fell to the ground. It splattered against the earth before reforming into a gigantic blob of Slime.

Aside from its massive size, it looked like all the other Slimes I had faced. A regular Slime was about one meter in diameter, two meters at the most, while this gargantuan blob was over fifteen meters long and loaded with magical energy. It was quite intimidating.

L-Let’s just Identify him for now…

Name: Gluttonous Slimelord

Race: Monster; Slime.

LV: 58

HP: 620; Magic: 822; Strength: 539; Agility: 308

Skills: Evasion 3; Evasion Up 4; Camouflage 6; Drain 8; Harden 8; Instant Regen 7; Abnormal Status Resistance 7; Jump 5; Soften 8; Fluid Mastery 7; Fluid Arts 8; Physical Resistance 7; Predator 9; Magic Sense 7; Pocket Dimension; Spirit Manipulation; Enhanced Drain; Acid Body; Enhanced Digestion; Mana Manipulation

Details: The final evolution of a Gluttonous Slime. Consumes every living thing in its vicinity and possesses unlimited capacity for growth. Stores away its defeated prey in a pocket dimension for later consumption, making it capable of time-space magic to some degree. Some speculate it is capable of killing and eating dragons when there are no smaller creatures to consume. Upon sighting, some countries dispatch entire squadrons to deal with this threat.

Crystal location: Center of the body.

Whoa, that thing looks dangerous. “Unlimited capacity for growth”?

The Slime in front of me was quite young by the looks of it, but that didn’t change the fact that it was high on the threat level, particularly with the skills of Physical Resistance and Acid Body. It might drag me to my slimy grave if I wasn’t careful. Also, where the other Slimes only had four levels of Fluid Mastery, this guy had seven.

I’d probably die if I committed to a frontal assault.

So, what then? Do I start spamming fire magic? Even if I did, it would’ve taken hundreds of Fire Arrows to take this thing down given the sheer bulk of it. I’d run out of mana before that even happened. The Slime formed a tentacle to lash at me, but it fell short given how high in the sky I was. Its high level in Magic Sense probably told it that I would make for a decent meal. Do I start pummeling it with my physical skills? Not that it would do much good against the Slimelord’s Instant Regen.

Would I even be able to withstand attacking him?

It had Acid Body too, so I wouldn’t be able to attack it without taking damage myself. I had a limited number of strikes to work with.

Whoa!

My Dodge skill helped me evade the Slime’s attack, though I had a feeling that that was just a prelude to its real assault. I wasn’t sure if I could dodge this thing when it got serious.

That just means I’ll have to send you to your grave with one attack. Your death will be quick and painless.

I aimed at the Slimelord and shot my fire magic at it. It didn’t do much damage, but that was enough for me.

I know how you Slimes think.

I continued pelting Fire Arrows and stones that I shot with Telekinesis at the beast. I pressed my advantage, fully expecting to take damage during my offense. The Slime lashed out its tentacles at me to the point where I was spending more MP on healing than on attacking.

Damn it, I can’t heal fast enough to cover the damage I’m taking.

The Gluttonous Slimelord became more frantic with every tentacle it sent after me, but that was exactly what I was aiming for.

Evolve all you want, you still have the habits of a Slime!

With most of its body mass focused on offensive tentacles, it didn’t have much Slime left to protect its magical core, so I used Telekinetic Catapult to launch myself directly at the thing’s crystal. It was a reckless charge into which I put my entire being. Indeed, I had increased the potency of the Telekinetic Catapult with the wind magic, Wind Shooter. Coupled with the boost in attack power from Sword Mastery, this was the deadliest move in my repertoire.

I’d even thought of a name for it. “Heavenly Slash!” I shouted in my excitement. If I took some time to consider the name, I would have probably rejected it. Probably.

Silence fell upon the grasslands for a moment which was followed by an ear-piercing roar. If I had ears, they’d probably be ringing right now. I had stabbed a huge hole in the Slime’s body, which left it unable to counterattack. Its crystal was clearly broken as well. The Slime stopped moving and melted all over the ground. It was a strange sight to behold as earth and grass were covered in mucilage.

Phew, I did it… That was dangerous.

Half my blade had been melted off. The Slime would’ve dissolved me if it had gotten a hold of me, and I felt good about my decision to end the fight as quickly as I could.

You have reached a new Evolution Level. You have acquired 30 Evolution Points.

I got 150 crystals out of it—I expected nothing less from a high-level monster.

Name: Unknown

Race: Intelligent Weapon

Attack: 352; MP: 1300/1300; Durability: 1100/1100

New skills: Camouflage 1; Harden 1; Instant Regen 1; Soften 1; Pocket Dimension

It looked like I got some useful skills out of that skirmish. I would have to try all of them out.

Hmm?

I began with Camouflage. It supposedly allowed me to blend into my surroundings, but I had no way of telling if it worked; I personally thought it didn’t. The same thing happened with Harden, seeing as I was already solid enough as a sword.

Instant Regen, though, was impressive. It consumed an extraordinary amount of mana, but it regenerated most of my blade in mere seconds. It was good for when I would be pressed for time, whereas Self-Repair was sufficient when I would have time to wait.

Ooh, I’m all bendy.

Soften really did soften my blade. Not by much since it was at such a low level, but shaking my blade did make it bend. It was a funny looking skill.

In any case, it was time to move on from the appetizer skills.

Activate Pocket Dimension.

It was an ability which gave me a private item box. I focused on a rock in front of me and thought about storing it, which caused it to disappear. I then thought of taking it out of storage which caused a pebble to appear out of thin air. I added some grass and stones into the storage space which prompted a list of my stored items when I tried taking something out of storage.

How’s the capacity then?

I’d be disappointed if it couldn’t store much, so I began testing the limits of the Pocket Dimension by putting more stuff into it.

Let’s start with you.

I looked over at the remains of the Gluttonous Slimelord. There was enough of it left to fill half of a pool twenty-five meters wide, so I was doubtful. But the Pocket Dimension easily stored it away in an instant.

That’s high-rank magic for you.

I didn’t know its upper limits, but it was bound to be useful for my User if it could store this much mass inside it. I could store away monsters we killed, as well as food supplies. I could even use it as a substitute wallet.

I had refilled my Durability and MP when I ranked up earlier, so I was in top condition. That said, it didn’t reduce any of the mental stress I had incurred during the fight.

I’m kinda tired, so I’ll go to the lower-level areas to hunt for a bit.

I began exploring the rest of Area 5 a day after my fierce battle with the Slimelord. I fought the beast somewhere in the south, so I thought I’d cover some other patch of land today.

I’d already run into some monsters that looked as strong as the Slimelord, like the twenty-meter-long Doppel Snake whose body was as thick as a barrel. As its name implied, it had the ability to make copies of itself. The copy would disappear shortly after being killed, which gave me a genuine fright. Worse, the skill was at such a high level that the copies were stronger than the Doppel Snake itself, which was kind of a letdown when the serpent unceremoniously died after I put all my strength into killing it. In fact, the snake was weaker than most of the monsters in Area 4; it was only dangerous mainly because it could make copies of itself. Still, I happened to find it resting in its hiding hole, and the cramped space may have been part of the reason it couldn’t put up much of a fight.

Heheheh, now I’m exponentially stronger…

I wasted no time in using my newly acquired Doppelganger, but…

“Huh, I’m not a sword…”

What? It’s just me from my previous life?

Yes, the copy the Doppelganger skill had produced was in fact the human me. Split Thinking, another skill I got off the Doppel Snake, allowed independent movement of my sword self and my copy.

“Does this mean I don’t need a User?”

Seriously? How strong is my copy, though?

I was hopeful about the possibility of foregoing a User altogether, but reality wasn’t as sweet. For starters, the Doppelganger skill had a time limit: five minutes for now. On top of that, my copy was extremely weak. It had an average stat of five and was therefore weaker than the average goblin. It could use all my skills, but they were all Level 1. I wouldn’t be able to use it if I tried.

Adding insult to weakness, my copy was butt naked. I thanked my lucky stars no one was around to see it. I recast it many times but could only conjure up dirty rags to clothe my copy at best. Was it because the Doppelganger skill was only Level 1? I supposed I could use it as a distraction, but creating a weak copy ate up so much MP—500 to be exact—that I didn’t think it was feasible. Using it in its current state, this skill would probably kill me in a fight.

Aside from Doppelganger, the snake gave me Molt Skin, Heat Seeker, and Scale Regeneration, which seemed pretty useless to me. The rest were skills I already had in my Skill Bank. The most useful among them was Ultimate Poison Fang, a further upgrade of Advanced Poison Fang.

I’ll have to try that one out in an actual fight.

I proceeded to store away the gigantic Doppel Snake in my Pocket Dimension, which still didn’t fill it up. The thing was roomier than I thought.

I headed north around midday, beating up monsters and storing them as I went. It occurred to me that each of the cardinal directions in Area 5 was ruled by a powerful monster, something that was made apparent to me after my campaign in the southern and eastern regions.

I thought of the powerful monsters, like the Slimelord and Doppel Snake, as Area Bosses. The weaker monsters in the area seemed to serve only as prey for these apex predators. I was on my way to beat up the Northern Area Boss now.

These Area Bosses have given me powerful skills so far. I can’t wait!

What I found was the smallest among the area bosses I’d fought up till now. The turtle monster radiated strong magic though, and it was no slouch compared to the other area bosses.

The reptile’s body was about five meters in length. Its ten rear intake pipes shone a metallic black as they connected to a thick cannon sticking out from the front of its shell. I used Identify on it to figure out its name.

Blast Tortoise.

It looked to be a close relative of the Cannon Tortoise I had run into before, which meant it also had the ability to suck up air and shoot out blasts of air pressure. The creature roared as if to showcase its power. It must’ve been much stronger than its cousin, given the amount of intake pipes it possessed. It also had better detection skills to go with its artillery capability, as it was already lining up its barrel to fire at me at this great a distance. It shot out one air blast after another.

Whoa!

I didn’t see that coming. The Cannon Tortoise needed to reload after every shot, but this high-rank monster was worthy of its title. The creature roared as it shot out another blast of highly compressed air. I managed to avoid a direct hit so far, but the air bullets had suddenly exploded around me, dealing massive damage—and that was just the aftershock! The fact that it could detonate its air charges remotely was also a sign of its advanced evolution.

This is bad!

Explosions of air pressure followed one after another as I tried to get away while the blasts chipped at my Durability. I could see the air bullets better now, but escape was my top priority. I plunged myself toward the ground with Telekinetic Catapult to dodge the ensuing barrage, zigzagging left and right.

I’ve had enough out of you!

I closed in on the turtle, taking every hit that came my way in stride.

Got you!

The battle was mine now that we were in close range. I brought my blade down upon the turtle to cut it open, but—

Hey, get back here!

The turtle drew its head and limbs into its shell at a speed I’d never seen before. I slashed its shell out of frustration, but it was of little to no effect. I wondered if I could wear its shell down if I cut it enough times…

But I’m not letting you get away that easily!

The turtle, all holed up in its shell, began spinning in place (it sorta looked like Gamera), and indiscriminately shooting its payload of air bullets all around it. It was a mindless barrage which made it hard to read and difficult to dodge. The air grenades rolled up the ground in its immediate vicinity but reverted to regular air bullets at a distance. Its detection skills must’ve told it of my every move, and it therefore decided to shoot at its main blind spot above its shell by tilting its body.

Jeez!

I couldn’t stay above it, so that meant I had to go under it. I checked my stats while dodging the incoming air bullets, an ability I gained thanks to the Doppel Snake’s Split Thinking skill. I put my Evolution Points, which I was saving up, into my Earth Magic to bump it up to Level 4. The monster I got that from was the Gourmet Orc Mage, and its Earth Magic was also at Level 4.

There it is!

I was now able to use the Gourmet Orc Mage’s hole-

digging spell.

Earth Digger!

I jumped into the freshly dug hole and continued burrowing using Earth Digger until I was directly under the Blast Tortoise. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel his presence.

Earth Wall.

I used the Level 3 Earth Magic, Earth Wall, to erect a two-meter-high wall from right under the Blast Tortoise’s giant body. It drove the creature high enough that it couldn’t feel the ground anymore, confusing it. I took the chance and charged right into the turtle. Damaging it wasn’t my main objective, however.

I’ve got you right where I want you!

The turtle toppled from my tackle, unable to gain stable footing on the Earth Wall, and fell to the ground with its belly exposed. It tried turning itself right side up with its tail but failed miserably. It wouldn’t be able to get away now. The turtle stretched out its head and limbs in a desperate attempt to regain its footing, but I wasn’t about to let this chance slip by. I used my greatest skill, the one I used to defeat the Slimelord, and launched myself at the turtle’s head with the Telekinetic Catapult. It was only a turtle after all; it was no match for me.

I win!

That was dangerous, though. I couldn’t afford to underestimate Area 5. I went inside the turtle through the hole I made in its head and dug around until I found something that looked like a heart containing its crystal. I absorbed it and stored the Blast Tortoise away. And the Pocket Dimension still wasn’t full.

I don’t think I have enough MP. I should head back.

I would leave investigating the western part of Area 5 for tomorrow. I needed to look at the skills I got from the Blast Tortoise anyway.

I returned to the pedestal and found that the only skills I could use were Air Compression and Air Blast. Granted, these were both useful skills. Air Blast allowed one to draw in the surrounding air and shoot it out like a bullet. The Blast Tortoise had specialized organs which allowed it to use this skill whereas I, on the other hand, used Air Manipulation and Wind Magic to achieve the same effect.

Air Compression seemed useless at first, but it was actually an interesting skill. Using it with Air Blast buffed up the power of the air bullets, and casting it on myself allowed me to put up a shield of compressed air. It was useless by itself, but it seemed to have interesting effects when used together with other skills.

I’m glad I have a lot of skills now, but I’m gonna need some practice so I can put them to good work.

A skill was only as powerful as how I used it after all.

The following afternoon—

I was locked in a fierce battle with the last area boss, Tyrant Saber-Tooth. It was a gigantic tiger with long fangs, its body standing four meters tall and spanning ten meters long. It was incredibly fast for its size, too. Its ability to jump mid-air made it a deadly and agile enemy. It had various abilities to oscillate its body parts which made its attack power disgustingly high. Its fur was covered in some sort of magic that made it difficult for my blade to cut through. I managed to slip through the tiger’s claws and charged to its side, but I barely scratched it.

I managed to avoid the Tyrant Saber-Tooth’s clamping jaws, but the aftershock dealt incredible damage regardless.

Was that from its skill?!

If its graze was enough to rattle me, a direct attack may break me in one hit!

The tiger didn’t have any way of attacking me from a long range, so putting some distance between it and me seemed to be the best strategy. However, the big cat’s insane speed, and its ability to traverse mid-air, enabled it to catch up no matter how far up in the sky I flew.

Fire Arrow!

The fire arrow bounced off its fur, leaving little more than a singe in its place. Well, that didn’t work. I had to put my back into my slashes to cut through this thing, and magic fared little better. The creature roared though, so I supposed my efforts weren’t all for naught. It seemed I did enough damage to greatly annoy the Tyrant Saber-Tooth.

This can only get worse…

Should I go for its weak spots, or stick to my bread and butter skills? I dodged the creature’s attacks as I pondered this question and looked through my Skill Bank. Eventually, I found my answer.

That’s it!

I decided to use my remaining Evolution Points. However, I wasn’t sure if this would secure my victory.

You have spent 15 Evolution Points to upgrade Ultimate Poison Fang to EX Poison Fang.

My solution was Ultimate Poison Fang. The Tyrant Saber-Tooth didn’t have Poison Resistance among its skills which meant Ultimate Poison Fang should work against it, and I may as well evolve it further with my remaining EP. If it still didn’t work, I would make my escape.

With that plan in mind, I poked the Tyrant Saber-Tooth.

How do you like that?

I cast Identify on him while flying away.

Yes, it worked!

The Tyrant Saber-Tooth was now poisoned, its life draining away rapidly. The tiger roared again in a frenzy, its attacks more frantic in its poisoned state. I kept up the offense to make the poison work faster.

Three hours later…

I won!

I pointed the tip of my blade to the sky in an expression of victory. At my hilt was the corpse of the final boss of Area 5, the Tyrant Saber-Tooth. The poison had worked its magic, but it entered an enraged state when its Life Points counter was at about half. I honestly thought I was going to lose that fight, but it was a risk worth taking.

First, the skills: I got Oscillation and Vibrofang for my trouble. Oscillation allowed me to use vibrations to destroy a target from the inside out, while Vibrofang allowed me to increase the sharpness of my blade by vibrating it, essentially turning me into a high-frequency blade. The slightest touch would make a target explode, so I quite liked this skill.

Next were the crystals. Beating a boss in Area 5 gave me 150 crystals, at least. Pair that with the crystals I got from hunting around in Area 4 and I was ready to rank up again.

Name: Unknown

Race: Intelligent Weapon

Attack: 392; MP: 1650/1650; Durability: 1450/1450

Evolution: [Rank 7; Crystals: 2109/2800; Skill Capacity: 47; Free Points: 82]

Skills: Identify 6; Attack Up (Small); High-Speed Self-Repair; Skill Sharing; Recovery Rate+; Status+; Telekinesis; Telekinesis Up (Small); Telepathy; MP Up (Small); Bestiary; Mage; Skill Capacity Up (Small)

The rank up had also topped me off.

What should I do now?

I was going to go back to the pedestal after the fight was over… But the sun was high in the sky, and the mysterious forest line surrounding Area 5 was staring me right in the face. I had plans to investigate it later, but…

Hm, I dunno.

I was fully healed, and I had time. I thought I could take a peek.

I may as well check it out while I’m here. It’d be a shame to go back empty-handed.

And so I decided I would explore these uncharted woods. I took my time and inspected my surroundings using Night Vision and Thermal Vision to look for potential predators.

Doesn’t look like there’s anything here…

There were quite a few animals, but not that many monsters. I spotted some goblins, but they weren’t worth the effort killing at this point.

Nothing but low-rank monsters around, it looks like.

I thought I would have run into an impossibly difficult god monster in Area 6, but this was no different compared to Area 1.

Man, I’m kinda disappointed…

I launched myself into the air with Telekinetic Catapult to get a bird’s eye view of the woods. It seemed to be a normal forest, and I didn’t feel the presence of any large monsters around.

Oh, I can see a clearing.

There was a patch of land in the forest which was clear of trees. I turned around and dropped myself to the ground. I fell, blade first, and lodged myself inside the earth.

Perfect landing!

Telekinetic Catapult often put my blade in a horizontal position, so there had been times where I smacked against the ground with the flat of my blade. It didn’t do any damage to my Durability, but I considered it a failed landing. I considered sticking the landing with the end of my blade the ideal landing position since it felt nice. It would’ve been easy to alter my course with Telekinesis of course, but it felt more rewarding to let gravity be the judge of my landing. It was an alternative form of entertainment that wasn’t hunting and killing monsters.

My blade pierced through the moist ground, and I deduced from its humidity that the ground here was mostly made of clay.

All right, let’s do another jump… Huh?

I couldn’t move.

Was the clay’s hold on my blade stronger than I thought? I concentrated to increase the potency of my Telekinesis.

N-no way… I can’t cast Telekinesis?

More specifically, something cancelled my Telekinesis just as I cast it.

Time to put some oomph into it.

I focused all my magical energy into casting Telekinesis, but it whiffed with a weak noise and nothing happened.

Ugh, that didn’t work?

I knew now the ground was absorbing my magic. It drained all the magic I had focused in a flash.

What about this?

I tried using my skills now. I used Vibrofang to vibrate my blade and create a gap in the ground to wiggle myself out.

But Vibrofang wouldn’t even cast.

Then I tried shooting Air Bullets to blast myself out of the ground.

That didn’t work, either.

I attempted to use fire magic to burn the surrounding ground away…

…but no luck.

Oh, come on…

I took a break from trying to escape and looked at my surroundings. It was a forest—nothing more, nothing less. I was now sure the reason for the lack of strong monsters in the forest was because of this mana-draining phenomenon. If a powerful monster walked around here, it wouldn’t take long before it would start feeling sluggish and unable to move like yours truly at the moment.

It’s a good thing I don’t get hungry…

In my attempts to escape, I confirmed that any magic which projected out of me didn’t work at all. Oddly enough, mana was drained from my blade only when I cast skills or magic and not throughout the entire time I was stuck in the ground. I didn’t have any problems with my vision (which was also maintained by the blade’s mana) either.

But I noticed something after a few hours of being stuck in the ground:

Oh god, my MP’s not recovering at all.

I still had more than half left over, but it meant I shouldn’t use any more of it carelessly. I didn’t think there was any way of escaping on my own now.

How did this happen…?

Three days had gone by and nothing had changed. On day one, I experimented with all the skills I had in an effort to escape but soon realized it was to no avail. I couldn’t project any magical objects out of me which meant my attack skills, magic, and Telekinesis were out of the question.

All that was left to do was wait for some sort of creature to pull me out out of curiosity or a miraculous natural disaster to blow me away. The best-case scenario would be for a human to come along and pull me out of course.

A month had gone by and no one had come to my rescue.

Please! I’m a really good sword! Top quality, in fact!

I was enchanted, and I could think and move for myself. You couldn’t get a better deal if you tried!

You ever seen a sword that can cook? Well, look no further. See, I’ll even max out the skill for it right now.

Cooking is now at Level 10. You have unlocked skill and status bonuses for Cooking.

You have unlocked a new option for evolving.

You want something demolished? I have that skill too. It’s super useful. It’s at Level 10 too, see!

Disassembly is now at Level 10. You have unlocked skill and status bonuses for Disassembly.

I have Identify too. I’ll even level it up for you right now. And I’m one hell of a fighter. My Sword Mastery and Sword Arts skills are at Level 7 you know. You want me to throw in some magic in there too? No problem! How’s Fire Magic 10 sound?

Fire Magic is now at Level 10. You have acquired a new fire spell.

Would you look at that! And I won’t stop there, here’s some stat bonuses to boot!

You have obtained Status+ (Medium).

Just equip me and you’ll be one hell of a fighter too! How’s that? I’m not some random piece of junk, and would you look at this skill right here—

“Help!”

I was getting delusional now; I could’ve sworn I heard someone talk. This might be the end of me.

“Help me!”

Wait, was I really hearing things?

I felt the slight vibrations of the ground through my blade. I wondered what was making that rattling noise.

“It’s—still on us—”

“Damn it!—no choice…”

They were human voices! Finally! Thank you, God!

Hey, I’m over here! See the sword that’s stuck in the ground that looks all legendary? Come on! Get me out of here! Please?

The rattling came from the wheels of a horse carriage. A wagon shot out of the forest like a bullet. It looked quite dangerous, what with how fast it was going, especially since it looked like it was going to make a sharp turn—which was how the carriage turned over in front of me.

Whoa, is everyone okay in there?!

I didn’t understand why they were in such a panic, though. It looked like they were being chased by something. I couldn’t use Telekinesis, so I had no choice but to watch with bated breath as the passengers crawled out of the cart.

It looks like everyone’s in one piece.

Were they merchants? They didn’t look like warriors, but they didn’t look like civilians either. Their heads were wrapped with bandannas and their clothes were ragged which showed signs of their long journey.

The small man, which I assumed to be a lackey, led out several men and women who, frankly, looked…terrible. Their clothes were in tatters with nothing more than pieces of string keeping it all together. Their hair was a ragged mess and heavy iron collars were placed around their necks.

I guess this is a world with slaves.

“Hey, get the slaves to carry the goods!”

“Yessir! You heard the man, hurry up, you subhumans!”

“Uugh…”

“Aargh…”

“Don’t just sit there!”

Oh, he’s human filth, isn’t he?

The sight of the small man cracking his whip at the slaves to make them carry the heavy-looking load was enough to make me sick.

“Come on! I-It’s coming!”

“It”? I wonder what’s chasing them.

The answer soon announced itself to me with a deafening roar.

“Oh my God, it’s here!”

It was a monstrous, two-headed bear.