1178 Crude Forging
Kana sat in her dwelling feeling depressed. She got beaten up by a bunch of human-faced monsters that only knew the word pants. This did not sit right with her. She had always used her magic to deal with things, but now that it was sealed, it made things much harder, especially when the monsters that seemed weak were just as strong if not stronger than her.
"I just need to reach the other side of this flat world, right? So if I fly to the other side…. No, there are probably just as many flying monsters that are even stronger than me. If I am not wrong, then the point of this trial is not so much a trial in itself but a place to grow stronger without using magic so that I can be ready for anything. But where did she find so many monsters that are so powerful? When they hit it, it hurts like h.e.l.l!" Kana fell into deep thought as she tried to come up with a plan. "If I want to survive in this world, I will need to fight smart. I can"t let myself get surrounded. If I do, I can end up dead. But how do I quickly defeat a group in case I do get trapped?" Kana furrowed her brow for a moment before an idea came to mind. "I can"t summon Soti, but…. If I were to craft my own sword…."
A plan began to appear in Kana"s mind. She contacted Creige and began asking him all kinds of questions when it came to building a forge. After two nights and three days, Kana had finally built a forge and gathered some ore from the rocky area not far away. She was careful to make sure that she did not get noticed by any monsters. "I never used a rock before to forge, but Creige said it was possible."
This was the hard part: to forge a sword, she needed a proper hammer. But to craft a hammer, she needed to use a rock to forge it. With her crude furnace, this was no easy task. Kana took the ore that Creige helped her identify and tossed it into the furnace. Using a long stick she carved with a rock, she poked at the ore and kept fanning the flames with the makes.h.i.+ft pedal pump she had made. It took almost three hours, but after a lot of hard work, the ore was finally ready to be formed. She placed it on a large flat rock and picked up the rock hammer she made using thin vines and a tree branch and began hammering away. Days pa.s.sed by, and finally, after a lot of effort, Kana held a crude hammer made of a strange ore that was exceptionally hard. Luckily, she was able to flatten the sides and drill a hole in the middle for a handle. "Now then. Time to get to the main show!"
Kana began smelting more ore. This time, she mixed in a few different kinds of ores. Creige did not know what the ore was exactly, but he felt that this ore was worth crafting together and folding it into layers. It was a meticulous process, but if done right, the sharpness of the blade would be thousands of times better than a standard sword, and even its strength would be much better.
However, crafting a blade was much different from a hammer. It took Kana almost thirty tries and a year and a half to finally create something that she was happy with. Around her, her prototypes were scattered across the ground. Each one looked like a sword, but to Kana, they were just too inferior. She got this perfectionism from Creige, who would always toss out bad creations since they were not up to his standard. This could also be seen as a craftsman"s love for their work.
Kana rubbed her belly. She had been so caught up in forging a weapon she had not even eaten any meat as of late. "I guess I should go test this thing out and go try to kill some pantsu monsters."
Kana left her dwelling and made her way into the forest to the spot where she had run into the pantsu monsters before. She quickly found one lurking around. Their strange behavior actually confused Kana since they did not seem to do much of anything but roam around idly. Kana moved in closer and only got a few steps away when the monster suddenly raised its head and yelled out: "Pantsu!" its huge body disappeared and reappeared behind Kana. She was given a start but quickly composed herself as she turned her body around and used her new blade to block the blow. Her sword swung through the air and seemed to feel no resistance as it sliced through the ma.s.sive paw of the pantsu monster.
"Pantsu! Pantsu!" The pantsu monster cried out in pain as it jumped back with one less paw on its front leg. It was now wary of Kana as it watched her carefully. Kana did not want to let it get the jump on her again, so she charged forward to attack. But each time she swung her sword the pantsu monster would dodge. It had even turned and tucked its tail behind its legs as it tried to escape.
"Get back here! I need meat!" Kana"s eyes were wide and crazy looking as she chased the Pantsu monster, forgetting all about the fact that she was in a dangerous forest. Of course, her actions did come back to haunt her as she ended up surrounded once more. "d.a.m.n it! My meat! No, I will not give up! I will cut you all up and roast you all!"
Kana"s epic battle with the Pantsu monsters was just about to begin. But what she did not know was a humanoid figure was watching her off in the distance. It looked at the strange being with curiosity. "It seems this place will be quite interesting from now on."