In the hellish forge, 16 wannabe blacksmiths were hard at work under the encouragements of their enthusiastic colleague.
"Work harder! Keep fighting! Hammer till your asses start bleeding!" He shouted.
"YES!" (x16)
— Clang! Clang! Clang! —
- One crushed his fingers by mistake
- Another stepped into the forge
- One dude impaled himself
"Senior's on fire again!!! Someone get water!!"
All across the room people were suffering injuries.
They were now accustomed to conditions that any other would have considered physical and mental torture.
Jack had slowly but surely ingrained into their heads that suffering was nothing more than the world trying to hold them back from reaching their full potential.
Yes, it was bullshit, but it got them hyped. Their eyes shone with marvel whenever Jack spoke of his ideals. They were like little chicks pecking from his hand.
"Really?! It's possible to meet real dwarves eventually?!"
"What?! Can we really surpass them?!"
"With Teacher's help, why not, right?!"
It hadn't taken much for them to become his people. This was only possible because of the special circumstances of the Event. After all….
[Quest! Train the Next Generation of Blacksmiths!]
[Potential Reward: Increased Affinity!]
Every time he checked that message, he'd inwardly promise himself: no matter what, he was gonna get some of them at the end!
Why was he going through too much trouble right after learning the trade himself? Well…he had figured out a slight issue. He was incapable of creating non-cursed gear…
—
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Epic Cursed Falchion of DOOM! 🩸
Rank E+
IF Demonic Affinity 50
OR Jack'O
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attack] 21-24
[Speed] Slow
[Range] Melee
[Durability] Decent
[Passive] + High Stakes!
[Active] + Self-Destruct!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
High Stakes: When your life goes below 99%, you explode.
Self-Destruct: You explode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Epic Magnetic Jacket 🧲
Rank E+
IF Level 30
OR Jack'O
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Armor Rating] 10
[Armor Type] Metal
[Durability] Very Good
[Passive] + Magnet!
[Active] Rooted
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Magnet!: Attracts Projectiles (Arrows, Spells)
Rooted: You become completely immobile
—
On the one hand, he was creating Epic Level Gear already, which was phenomenal speed, but on the other hand, it all seemed geared toward killing himself!
Hence he was teaching his disciples seriously, from crafting weapons of slaughter to creating very rough siege weapon components.
"Alright, everyone, I'll be heading out. Behave while I'm gone, alright?"
"Yes, Sir!" (X17!)
"No need to worry, teacher. We'll be fine with our masked brothers!" A bubbly girl cheerfully replied.
Oh, sweet summer child. Her "brothers" were skeletons that would rip her face off had Jack not been controlling them.
He left without a worry in the world….
━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━
As the man left, the shadows of a nearby alley suddenly came to life. A long-legged girl with a toned body appeared: Lord Silver's subordinate!
A few hoodlums hanging nearby looked straight in her direction, yet none reacted. Just to confirm, she approached them, giving them slight pushes one after the other.
"Pfft, how clumsy are you?"
"W-what was that?!"
"G-ghost??!!"
They left screaming their lungs out, crying for their mothers. Many slum dwellers feared more the paranormal than death itself since they were used to the latter.
This test was a success.
Even if it made her feel dirty to use such a cheat, she had to admit that the invisibility scroll her master had gifted her was truly amazing.
She quickly infiltrated the OP Blacksmith School, giving a strange look at the rules on her way. What was up with that last one?
- Consider your handsome Teacher a literal god
Talk about an arrogant bastard! The idiot didn't even realize how grave a sin it was to impersonate a Noble. As for his students, they were utter morons!
She started snooping, listening to their conversations.
—
"No, no! You cannot just rely on your hammer to forge!"
"Ah?! You're right! What if you lose It one day?!
—
"Remember, you should always be on the move while you're working."
"I agree! You never know when's the next undead invasion!"
—
"Brothers and sisters, look at what I brought!"
"Two giant baths? Ah, wait! Oh my god, you're a genius!"
"Hehe, why just temper steel when you can temper yourself too!"
—
They were akin to echoes of one another. Sometimes the meaning of their words would elude her completely, and yet they all understood one another.
That's when she turned serious. He had to have used some kind of memory manipulation magic, right? This was the only explanation!
She used her skills as a hunter, slowly prowling to one of the mask-wearing guards, capturing him and bringing him away.
The two of them soon stood in complete darkness in a remote corner.
"Tell me everything I need to know or else…." She threatened, removing the man's mask…only to be confronted with a skull.
"W-what?!" The skeleton suddenly shattered, sending bone fragments all over the place.
That's when she understood everything.
This man was the very evil they had been looking for! He was the one that had caused the undead invasion, and now he was taking over the City using the catastrophe!
She felt her heart chill as she rushed to her master.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Can you feel this? The wind is turning."
"Woo?" (Is it?)
"Listen well, Moon Moon. Such a phrase is great for posturing. If you ever are trying to impress someone, just repeat that while staring at the horizon with melancholy."
"Woo!" (The wind is turning!)
Jack and his pet were spending quality time together. How long had it been since they had gone on a walk, just the two of them?
They were now strolling the streets of the commercial district, stopping every other step while trying the local delicacies.
- Sausage
- Another sausage
- Another different sausage
The gluttonous little wolf had no qualm about tasting the same item many times in a row.
On their passage, the NPCs would smile warmly. There was something about the two of them that was profoundly heartwarming.
On their way, they would stop by the local churches, orphanages, and other charitable organizations, spending time with the unfortunate.
"Sir, Moon Moon, you're a Saint!"
"Thank you so much for bringing joy to these poor souls!"
—
"Woo!"( The wind is turning…)
The little wolf would repeat that one sentence over and over, trying to master it. Then again, it wasn't like the people around understood it anyway.
Anyone that knew Jack would have questioned their eyes or the world's reality instead. Had he been possessed?
Suddenly, countless footsteps resounded as a crazy number of soldiers appeared. The ones in front had long pikes meant for killing beasts.
"There he is! Surround him, and don't give him the shadow of a chance! Be careful, for he is highly dangerous!" A random leader bellowed.
Many NPCs stepped forward, protesting.
How dared the soldiers cause such commotion in their street? It was fine if it was fighting crime, but why were they bullying such a nice young man?!
"Civilians, disperse! Soldiers, get ready to fight for your lives. There is no way he'll come with us voluntarily and—"
"I don't mind. I'll follow. Where are we going?" Jack innocently asked.
"…." So much for the grand objection.
"Please follow us to the Commerce Union's Headquarters!"
Jack was soon escorted under heavy guard until they finally reached their destination. The soldiers couldn't help but glance at one another, confused. This had been really easy…
Everyone influential was assembled inside the large manor, from merchants to mages and even a bard for posterity.
All eyes were on Jack, observing him and trying to make out any sign of him being evil incarnate. But, at the moment, he seemed elegant and poised.
A man wearing a judge robe stepped forward.
"Let us start this impromptu trial. This man is accused of being a necromancer and using brainwashing magic. Now, I seem to understand that the accused came willingly?"
"Yes, Sir!"
"Good, now can the accuser step forth and state her case?"
Jack simply seemed incredibly baffled as the heavy accusation of using skeleton soldiers and turning students mad were spoken, then there was the bit about City conquest.
At the end of her statement, she even taunted him.
"Do you dare to admit to your crimes! Your school is already surrounded and will be searched any second now. There is no need to drag things out!" She shouted.
"Admit? I admit to strolling with my wolf. I also admit to teaching students with the Commerce Union's blessing….Oh, and I admit to being handsome."
"Y-you!!!"
Jack glanced at the people assembled.
"If you guys wanted to a visit my school, you should have simply asked. Was there a need for all this exaggerated scene?" He chuckled.
"You would comply with a search of your premises?" the judge asked.
"Yes? It's not like I have anything to hide." Jack shrugged.
In a matter of minutes, they were all back at the school, ready to inspect it. As they entered, a bigshot couldn't help but exclaim.
"This really doesn't look like a forge!"
"Pfft— Of course, it doesn't! Our Teacher is awesome!" A student instantly replied. That's when a few blacksmiths from the Union came forth, examining the products.
"They forged a few strange pieces, but it's definitely blacksmithing. It seems like a special training method, one that's effective."
"Yes, these things they forge are mostly worthless, but perfect as a training exercise. No problem here." They happily gave their OK while holding siege weapon components.
The hunter lady came forward. "Just remove the men's helmets! You'll see that they're all skeletons!" She screamed.
"Lady….you certainly have a vivid imagination. Everyone, remove your helmets." Jack instructed. That's when plenty of men revealed their faces.
"As you can see, they're men of flesh and blood. While they hail from the slums, I can vouch for their character and how hardworking they are."
"T-that's impossible! I know what I saw!"
"Now, miss. It appears this has been defamation…."