([Doppelganger Synthesis SP] parameters set: five duplicate of 80% strength, 4 hour duration. Cooldown: 40 hours)
Archer was in Gallus's forge again, this time with his own sword body and five duplicates of it, and all of them focusing on the same task. It had been three hours since he had started his latest project and the blades were nearly complete, it was time for the home stretch.
He cut into the Colossal Giant's Magic Stone, absorbing its Magic Stone Points and causing him to grow from Rank 11 to Rank 12.
Self-Evolving:
(Rank 11 | Memory 100 | Points 61) → (Rank 12 | Magic Stone Value 6658/7800 | Memory 112 | Points 121)
ATK: 572 → 620 MP: 3550 → 4150 Durability: 3350 → 3950 Mana Channel: A+
The mana pools of all six bodies immediately refreshed to full, giving Archer 20,000 units of Mana to work with, Even more than he had when he was a Servant, which he then spent dumping into the nearly finished blades, saturating them with mana as he strengthened the inherent skills within them.
With any other material, the blades would have immediately shattered, but the Orichalcum alloy, strengthened using some of the bones and teeth of the Moonlight Dragon, part of a Demon's horn, and the nails of a B-rank Earthshaker Mole they had stumbled upon in the Haunt, drank up the mana like a sponge.
The air was almost on fire as Archer shaped the blades to perfection in the heat of the moment. And when he was done, he inspected his creations with interest.
[...Passable.] He said cheekily. If he had lips, he would have smiled.
The Mirroring Swords - Kuroko and Shiroko
ATK: 1495 MP: 1500 Durability: 9000 Mana Channel: S
Effects: Principle of an Element (Mirror): Lv3, Magic Resistance: Lv6, Attraction, Return, Self-repairing, +20 to all stats
"They… they're beautiful." Gallus said, seeming prepared to drop to his knees at any moment to begin worship. "Are they… Are they a Godblade?"
Archer almost laughed, though he wasn't too surprised by the dwarf's reaction. He had modeled the swords after the Married Swords, Kanshou and Bakuya, keeping the minimalist beauty of the blades as well as the black and white color scheme. The only difference he made was one he made out of fancy, changing the design of the yin yang symbol to incorporate the silhouette of a cat on each of the blades.
They possessed the same attraction based properties as Kanshou and Bakuya had, but also had some of the Moonlight Dragon's force reflection ability, allowing them to automatically redirect 15% of incoming force, making it much easier to parry blows.
He hadn't really plain a name ahead of time, but the one the Goddess of Chaos choose to bestow upon it worked well enough; Kuroko and Shiroko, meaning black child and white child.
[No. They are good blades, and a good proof of concept, but they aren't a Godblade.] Archer said as his clones dissolved, their job complete. It would be another two days before he could do this again. [Next will be Fran's armor. After that, I'll give making a real Godblade a try.]
"You… you're really going to do it, aren't you. An Intelligent Weapon, making a Godblade. What has this world come to?" Gallus said, running his hand over his face. "Did whatever blacksmith who made you plan on making all other blacksmiths obsolete?"
Archer could only shake his mental head at the man. [Rani, you there?] Archer checked as he had just ranked up once again.
{System 'Rani' is currently operational.} Came the machine-like reply.
[You feeling any better than last time?]
{Change in functionality is currently only marginal. More Magic Stones will be required before this system can overcome the elements suppressing it.}
[Is that so? Well, it will hopefully only be a matter of time then.] Archer said, making a little small talk before diving into his questions. He wasn't sure what Rani was, but she was a resource. [Rani, you seem to be capable of accessing some form of information storage. Does that information storage tell you the requirements for a Black Catkin to evolve?]
Archer had done a small bit of research into the subject of evolution, nothing extensive, but the basic, common knowledge about it is that the Demonic Beast or Beastkin must first reach their current level cap, after which they will evolve, so long as they meet the requirements for doing so. These requirements can be anything from having learned a certain skill, to having obtained a base level of stats.
So far, no one has figured out what the requirements for a Black Catkin's evolution was, meaning that it was probably connected to a rare skill that few could learn. But if they could identify what skill it was, it would only be a matter of finding out which Demonic Beast had said skill.
{Searching… Searching… Information: Blocked.}
[Blocked?] Archer repeated. [Just to clarify, you mean that the information isn't just missing, but that there is something actively blocking you from accessing it, correct?]
{Correct. A higher power is suppressing that information. I can attempt to force access, however, that route has a 99.5% chance of causing critical system damage. Action: not suggested.}
[I see.]
{This system is sorry that it could not be of more help.}
[Don't be. The fact that someone went through all the trouble to block it means that it isn't impossible. That in itself is meaningful information to have.] Archer said.
{...It is entirely possible that as this system gains more functionality, a back door could be found in order to access the locked information.}
[I'll keep that in mind. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about, while you still have the capacity to?]
{Calculating… No items found.}
[Is that so. I suppose I will talk to you again next time I rank up.]
{Yes… until next time.}
"Black Catkin Evolution: Possible." Fran said, her eyes wide and her tail twitching back and forth after Archer told her what he had discovered.
[Yes, though we still don't know how.]
"Hmm, would be nice to have a little more to go on." Art said as she slouched in her seat. "Yeah, find out it was possible was great but, how are we supposed to try to do it? Collecting all this skills in existence is kind of a long shot." Art stopped when she heard Fran sniffling and saw tears in the quiet girl's eyes. "Hey! I didn't mean it like that! We are totally going to find out how to make you evolve, so don't cry!"
"*Sniff* Not sad." Fran said a small smile on her face. "All this time, wasn't sure. But now know it is possible."
...As determined as she had been, Fran must have always harbored the fear that she would never evolve, that it was actually impossible. That all her efforts would be for nothing and that there was no hope at all.
[Fran, we will find a way to make you evolve. I promise you that.] Archer said, getting a strong nod out of the girl as Art gave her a hug. [This means that our first objective needs to be getting Fran to level 45, and to that end, we will need to leave Aressa.]
"We will?" Art said, surprised.
[There are not enough strong enemies to face around here. Right now we were able to farm a few levels in the Demon Wolf Plains, but strong enemies appearing there in large numbers is an unusual event. If we want to level you two up quickly, we will need to go where there is more reliable prey.] Archer said, lifting out a map and spreading it out in front of them. [I am currently looking at the 'Cage of Crystal' Forest, a B-rank Haunt located to the East, near a port city. While it is technically a lower rank Haunt than the Demon Wolf Plains, as it won't spawn A-rank Demonic Beasts, it spawns B and C-rank enemies at a high rate, meaning that there will always be plenty of worthwhile targets.]
"Going to Haunt, not Dungeon?" Fran asked, tilting her head.
[Yes. Normally, Adventurers would choose to go to dungeons for training, as the corridors and limited number of enemy types permit a certain level of safety, and the Dungeon loot can provide a bonus source of income. However, because of this, competition for kills will be higher and there are dangers from other Adventurers that are more complicated than simply fighting Demonic Beasts. Since we are more focused on leveling up quickly than income, the Haunts are a much more appealing target. At least till Fran reaches level 45.]
"Makes sense." Art said, nodding her head. "What kind of food do they got there?"
[The most common of their B-rank Demonic Beasts is the Thunderbird. According to reports about their size and relative strength, they should have some of the highest quality meat. Though the C-rank Golden Boars are also good bang for your buck.]
"Nn! Sounds good!" "Can't wait!" Fran and Art nodded together, both of them starting to drool. Archer couldn't help but laugh.
[Well, we aren't going there immediately. I'm planning for us to leave in seven days, so I can take care of the last of our preparations. Until then, have what fun you can. It will probably be a long while before we return this way, if ever.]
"Why a week? Isn't that kind of long to be spending on preparations? I mean, we already got tons of food and you can basically carry a whole house with you in that [Dimensional Storage]. What else do we need?" Art asked.
[I need to create both of your armor sets, and make my attempt at creating a Godblade. Each of them will take some time, since I have to wait for my [Doppelganger Synthesis SP] skill to come off cooldown after each one, and I don't want use to leave the city with the skill on cooldown either.]
They had managed to track down another Doppel Snake and absorb its [Body Split] Skill again, but Archer would rather be at 100% before they leave. Until then, the city offered them a certain level of safety and comfort.
He actually wasn't sure if he would be able to make all three. He was currently only sitting on enough Magic Stones to perform a rank up twice. If made to choose, the girl's defense would take priority. With Kuroko and Shiroko, Archer now had weapons easily capable of dealing serious damage to even B-rank Demonic Beasts, making even their strongest defenses insignificant. There was still the chance of A-rank monsters proving to be too much, but the likelihood of running into Demonic Beasts capable of resisting his new weapons was low.
"You're making our armor now! Can we help design it!?" Art said, once again using her [Illusion Magic] to make her eyes shine as a huge grin split her face.
[...Uh, you want to?] Archer said, more than a little surprised.
"Of course I want to!" Art said crossing her arms. "No offense mom, but sometimes, you can be such a guy when it comes to these kinds of things, and for Fran, nothing but the absolute cutest outfit will do." She then grabbed Fran's arm and started to pull her away. "Come on, lets go make some concept sketches! Oh, we should get Nell to help chip in ideas!"
[...If only she approached learning to read with this level of enthusiasm.] Archer said with a sigh. He couldn't help but worry about what would come of this. Making Fran too cute could become dangerous. [Stupid Lady Killer title.]
"Geez, Nell didn't have to nag at us so much." Art mumbled as she and Fran started to walk back home after their nightly bath with the young women from the Adventurer's Guild's reception desk. The Demoness had a huge pout on her face, after getting lectured by Nell. "So we snuck off to the Demon Wolf Plains without getting the old elf's permission. Big deal. I don't see why we would need his permission. It isn't like he owns the place."
"No fair. Going was Archer's idea, but he didn't get a lecture." Fran said, as she stomped along, complain about the injustice of it all.
[She was just worried. Normally speaking, dealing with B-rank threats would require five or more B-rank Adventurers working together.] Archer said. [We got lucky with the nature of the threats we faced, but there was the real chance of things going wrong.]
Archer eventually had 'threat levels' explained to him, though the levels seemed pretty arbitrary at times. The general idea was that a G-rank threat was something that could threaten a normal full grown man, F-rank could be considered a threat to a group of ten people, E-rank was a threat capable of destroying a small village, D-rank could threaten a whole town, C-rank could destroy a large city, B-rank could threaten the lives of an entire country, A-rank was dangerous enough to be considered a threat to an entire continent, and S-rank threats were beings that could theoretically wipe out all life on the planet, if uncontested.
At first, it was a system of ranking that made Archer raise an eyebrow, as he felt it made things sound a lot scarier than they actually were. Yes, a B-rank Colossal Giant could smash an entire country into pieces, but that was under the impression that the country didn't have anything but normal level 1 people in it. Once you consider the fact that individuals like Donna exist, a B-rank threat can be handled by your average army.
Or so Archer thought. As it turned out, people at Donna's level were actually pretty rare, and that they just happened to stumble upon a city with an abnormally large number of such people. In fact, even people who were recruited by the royal palace weren't any better than an C-rank Adventurer.
Your average person was only level 1. Your average 10 people weren't yet level 10. You're average village didn't have anyone over level 20. Your average town didn't have access to anyone over level 30, and so on.
At the moment, the country had four A-rank Adventurers and one B-rank Adventurer who were all considered to be more powerful than the entire Kingdom's army put together, and of their five people, four of them were thought of as being in semi-retirement.
Young as they were, Fran and Art were already in the top 0.01%. It felt unreal, considering that just a few weeks back Fran was just an extremely determined slave girl. Her growth had just been extremely high. Most Adventurers took twenty years to reach her current level, if they even survived that long. In fact, someone was considered to be an abnormal talent if they reached level 35 by the age of 30, and Fran was abnormally strong, even for a level 35. Even without Archer's buffs, she would be stronger and more skilled than any of the C-rank Adventurers currently at the Guild.
Of course, her growth was a result of her unnatural luck when it came to the Demonic Beasts they had stumbled across. The hundreds of goblins, the thousands of Army Beetles, the Demon allowed her to grow extremely quickly. Even the Moonlight Dragon was a very fortunate encounter, in retrospect, especially when you considered the fact that it was a Demonic Beast that drew its power from the phases of the moons and they just so happened to fight it in the middle of the day, during the night of the new moon. Even the rare disturbances in the Demon Wolf Plains acted to help accelerate her growth.
The Blessings of the Goddess of Chaos wasn't to be taken lightly.
(People following.) Fran said as they started to move into the less wholesome part of town. She didn't even bother to look around, as that would possibly alert the people tailing them that they had been spotted. She had learned her lesson after Amanda.
(Huh? Really?) Art replied, having not noticed. Her detection skills weren't as high as Fran's, nor did she have the experience of Archer to help notice these kinds of things. (Man, it's been a hot minute since this kind of thing happened. Though usually they just walk straight up to us shouting about how stupid they are. I don't think anyone has actually tried to stalk us before.)
[Yes, three of them, by the looks of it.] Archer agreed, picking out the three people in question with ease. [Don't seem strong. All of them just have the basic Mercenary job class. Highest level among them is a 31, and his stats are rather sub-par, only around half Donna's, and they have no Magic Skills.]
(Small-Fries.) Fran agreed. pointing in the direction of a dead end alley. (Take to alley. Deal with it quick.)
(Sounds good to me.) Art agreed as they made their way into the dark alleyway. No sooner had they gotten to the end of that dead end than they started to hear stereotypical brainless evil laughs.
"My my, look what we got here, a couple of lost low level children with very shiny things." One of the soon to be deceased said as he eyed up Fran and Art's equipment. The guy was a Beastkin with cat ears and blue hair all over his head and face, he wore metal plate armor and had a sword at his side, which he was casually playing with.
Name: Gyuran
Age: 34
Race: Blue Catkin (Beastkin)
Job: Mercenary
Status: Normal
Level: 31/45
HP: 168 MP: 136 STR: 78 END: 81 AGI: 118 INT: 70 MGC: 60 DEX: 81
Skills: Intimidation Lv3, Danger Perception Lv3, Archery Lv2, Strong Presence Perception Lv5, Sword Techniques Lv5, Sword Arts Lv6, Shield Arts Lv4, Flash Step Lv3, Commerce Lv3, Spear Arts Lv3, Dagger Arts Lv3, Threaten Lv3, Capture Lv3, Paralysis Resistance Lv3, Vigor Manipulation, Pain Reduction, AGI ↑, Directional Sense, Night Eyes
Titles: None
(Learned Skill: Strong Presence Perception Lv5 | A skill which allows the user to know instinctively whether the individual they are confronting is a lower or higher level than them through a magic based perception. Rarity 5)
A Skill worthy of a coward who never picks a fight with anyone who might be stronger than him… the poor bastard. Because of Fran's [Magic Concealment] she must be turning up in his vision as so low of a level as to be nonexistent, where as Art is technically a level 4.
He believes that he is massively stronger than the two children in front of him, but they were about to rip him apart. Archer had never disguised Fran or Art's equipment, even though he knew that things like this would occasionally happen.
Anyone who tried to rob the pair of children was a waste of humanity and deserved what was coming to them.
This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, but unlike before, Fran's normally cool demeanor changed. At the sight of the blue haired Beastkin, she bore her teeth and the hair on her head and tail began to stand on end.
"Hm? You a Black Catkin, right?" The Blue Catkin said, with a laugh. "My esteemed self is from the Blue Catkin Tribe. Could it be that you detest me?
"Blue Catkin Tribe: Enemies." Fran said forcefully as she reached for Archer's hilt.
"Fran, what's wrong?" Art said, not used to her cute little friend getting so angry at a bunch of 'small-fry'.
"Blue Catkin Tribe has lots of slave merchants. Black marketeers as well." Fran explained quickly. "Around 300 years ago, the Blue Catkin Tribe started becoming slave traders. Tricked members of the Black Catkin Tribe. Made us into slaves and sold. Blue Catkin Tribe pretended to be friendly, then launched a surprise attack. Many of the Black Catkin were caught and sold. Tried to appealed to the King of the Beastmen, but because of status, but couldn't receive an audience."
"Hahaha, and why would the Beast Lord ever give the time of day to worthless little weaklings like you? None of you can even evolve. You belong as slaves." The man laughed along with his two lackeys. "So don't worry, after we strip the two of you naked, you will be going exactly where you belong."
...After his words ended, the exit to the alley closed behind him as a stone wall erupted from the ground. A silencing spell was placed over the small section of the city and the entire place turned deathly silent. The three 'mercenaries' backed away as a massive amount of killing intent flooded over them.
[Fran, Art, I know you are angry, but try to leave them alive?]
(Why should we?) Fran asked as she drew Archer from her back.
[Because, we can't torture them for information about the black market's location if they are dead. Cut their limbs off, but keep them alive… for now.]
(...Understood.)