One week passed and nothing out of the ordinary happened in Jason’s life. This whole week was peaceful with not a shred of violence in his everyday life. Hard to fathom considering how action-packed his daily routine had been in this couple of months.

 

There was no bloodshed as his hands were free from the guilt of killing another life. Rather than killing, these hands of his turned to another path, a path of creation. Day and night, he spent most of his time at Gondor Smithy, and occasionally during the night, he would spend time learning the art of weaving threads from a delicate boomer, Mrs.Prada.

 

It was late in the afternoon and Jason was wielding a hammer smashing the flat surface of the blunt tool to the burning metal laid on top of the anvil. Again and again, he smashed the hammer with two ardent observers watching his every movement.

 

One of them was Mateo, the overly sensitive blacksmith and the other person besides him was the owner of the smithy, a middle-aged man with a full gray hair known to his peers and employees as Logan.

 

Logan stood there not too far and not to close to Jason with his arms crossed in front of his chest. For the whole week, he had been keeping an eye on Jason, and day after day, Jason didn’t stop amazed him.

 

“He’s getting better,” said Logan.

 

Mateo who heard his boss’s words was piqued with curiosity. But rather than being curious about Jason’s intention in smithing, Mateo was focused on the unchanging number floating above Jason’s head.

 

He had been dying to ask Jason regarding the number but he couldn’t put himself to the front in asking such a sensitive question. He had been contemplating for the whole week whether it was good or not to ask Jason, from what he had seen, Mateo thought Jason as an impulsive type of person who did everything according to his own whim.

 

Thus, he had tried to be close with Jason in order to ask the question in a more natural way but his attempt in bonding with Jason was a flop. Throughout the whole week, Jason was like a madman as he only focused on smithing. Mateo couldn’t find the chance to even strike a conversation.

 

While Mateo was frustrated all by his lonesome self, Logan approached Jason from the back. Just a few more steps before reaching Jason, Logan stopped short. He heard the sizzling noise of hot metal being quenched inside cold water.

 

“Finally,” Logan heard Jason’s voice and as Logan’s eyes gazed upon the shining surface of a newly created sword, he couldn’t hide his admiration.

 

Steel Sword Category : 1H-Sword Grade : Rare A normal double-edge sword in appearance yet it carries a hidden strength unseen by the naked eye. The continuous effort of a diligent blacksmith created this one of a kind sword. Attack : +27(+5) Effect : 5% chance of ignoring armor

 

A first for Jason, this steel sword was the first sword he had made labeled with a ‘rare’ grade. A faint shimmered surrounded the steel sword and a second later the shimmer vanished within sight.

 

“Beautiful sword,” said Logan as he stood a few steps right behind Jason.

 

Jason turned and smiled at Logan.

 

“Indeed it is,” said Jason as his gaze went up and down taking in the sight of his creation.

 

Despite looking the same like the rest of the steel swords that he had made over the course of the whole week, this rare grade sword indeed a rather unique aura surrounding it.

 

“Oh,” Jason received another surprise as a blue window greeted him.

 

Novice Smithing level up to level 4

 

His effort wasn’t for nothing. His blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off seeing this blue window. He had to admit, his progress in leveling smithing was rather too slow. He had the same thought of relying on the Scarlet Rex’s scale to leveling his smithing skill but he was in need of a good weapon, as well as a good armor.

 

“Can I take a look?” Logan’s voice reached out to Jason.

 

Jason glanced at this middle-aged man. Throughout the whole week, besides making swords, this middle-aged man was one of the two people who kept trying to talk to him. Since Logan did do a favor for him in purchasing those materials, at least he had to show some politeness to the owner of the smithy.

 

Jason passed over the steel sword gently with his two hands. Logan grabbed it in his hand as he felt the grip of the sword. While the owner of the smithy traced his eyes up and down on the sword, a new customer just arrived.

 

Tall, dark, and adequately pleasing to the eyes, it was none other than Hakeem himself. After asking around and wandering like a lost child, he finally found Gondor Smithy in this huge building.

 

“Jason,” said Hakeem calling out to his friend.

 

Jason turned around and saw his friend waving his hand at him. It was a surprise for Jason as he didn’t expect to find Hakeem stepping inside this smithy.

 

Jason left Logan alone with the steel sword as he approached Hakeem. Meanwhile, Mateo couldn’t hide his surprise as he saw a number floating on top of Hakeem’s head. Similar to Jason, it was also in double-digit.

 

“Dude, how did you know I was here?” said Jason.

 

“Esther told me,” said Hakeem.

 

Jason was confused. He didn’t actually tell anyone about this place since most of the time he just told the family that he was going out to do some business with the military yet it seemed his cover was blown.

 

“But how did she…” even before he could finish his words, Hakeem responded.

 

“She told me she saw the car GPS,” said Hakeem.

 

“Oh,” Jason said. A rather stupid mistake or to be more precise, he was careless in hiding his track. But at least he learned a lesson here.

 

I better delete the navigation history.

 

“So you want to explain about what you’re doing here for the past whole week?” Hakeem asked as his eyes were wandering around the whole place.

 

“You know about those axes I made a couple of weeks ago?” said Jason.

 

“Yeah, why?” Hakeem asked back.

 

“Well, I’m making swords now. Do you want one? I’ve got plenty of them,” Jason said as he pointed out at a bunch of swords piling up on the floor.

 

Hakeem couldn’t believe his eyes. Those swords stacking on top of another like a bunch of dirty clothes waiting for laundry and if he properly counted them all, the number wouldn’t be that far from reaching sixty or seventy of them.

 

Hakeem shook his head as this wasn’t the time to be amazed by a pile of swords. He came to find Jason for a reason.

 

“Jason, this isn’t the time to making swords, aren’t you worry?” Hakeem asked.

 

“Worry about what?” Jason replied.

 

“The military. It’s been a whole week and they haven’t been calling us,” said Hakeem.

 

Hakeem was expecting another mission into UC territory since the pay was pretty good. He couldn’t wait for another one but his patience was running thin, and one whole week was the end of his limit.

 

“Running out of money?” Jason asked.

 

“Cash is good but that isn’t the point here, aren’t you worry about the UC advancement? We should be going out there and push back against those UC,” said Hakeem.

 

“Relax, the military is probably handling it,” said Jason in his nonchalant tone.

 

“What do you mean by that?” Hakeem asked. He was confused by Jason’s statement.

 

“You want some water?” Jason asked.

 

“Nah, I’m fine,” Hakeem said.

 

“Well, I need it. Come, follow me,” said Jason.

 

Both of them went to the pantry. Jason grabbed a glass of cold fresh water as he gulped it all down his throat.

 

“Ahhh, that’s good,” said Jason.

 

He took a seat and glanced at Hakeem. He gestured at his friend to take a seat.

 

“The military is probably grinding their levels,” said Jason.

 

“What?” Hakeem responded. “What do you mean by that?”

 

“Simple really, with all those new Awakened in their rank, they’re probably turning more soldiers into Awakened at Thunder Bay City,” Jason said.

 

“But isn’t it too dangerous? They probably need our help,” said Hakeem.

 

“They’re fine, they’re probably staying at the safer area with UC below level five. Rather than worrying about them, you should probably worry about yourself, what have you been doing in the past week, I hope you’re not slacking around,” said Jason.

 

“Nah man, I’m grinding on my skills but there isn’t much progress,” said Hakeem with his head looking down.

 

“Just keep on doing it, effort won’t betray you,” said Jason.

 

“I know man, but… I feel the need to go out there and fight some monsters. I don’t know how to explain this but sitting around and just grinding feels just too lazy and makes me feel left behind,” said Hakeem.

 

Hakeem changed his glance at Jason staring right at Jason’s eyes.

 

“Don’t you have a plan or something? I’m down if you want to explore the nearest UC infested city,” Hakeem said.

 

Jason could tell that Hakeem was anxious. He had the look of a person that needs to increase his level no matter what the cost. Considering the changes that had been going throughout the entire whole world, Hakeem probably had realized the utmost importance of leveling.

 

But sadly for this enthusiastic man, Jason had no plan whatsoever.

 

“Sorry to disappoint you but for the time being I’ve got no plan at all,” said Jason.

 

Hakeem was disappointed as his head tilted down facing the floor. Both of his legs couldn’t stop shaking for a while now as he had passing thought going through his mind. Should he go alone, was the bold sentence playing in a loop inside his mind.

 

But before he could make a mistake, a voice interrupted these two.

 

“I’ve got a plan.”

 

Both Jason and Hakeem turned their heads at the same time and as they saw who it was, Jason narrowed his eyes.

 

“What do you mean a plan?” Jason asked this person back with skepticism in his voice.

 

“Who is this dude?” Hakeem asked.

 

Before Jason could answer, the new guest answered for his own.

 

“I’m Mateo, I’m a blacksmith here in Gondor Smithy,” said Mateo.

 

“Did I heard him right? Why is he introducing himself like a character coming from a book written by Tolkien,” said Hakeem.

 

Both Mateo and Jason ignored Hakeem as Mateo answered.

 

“There’s a buyer who wants to buy all of your swords, Mr.Park, and to tell you the truth the one who is buying is an Awakened,” said Mateo.

 

Jason was intrigued. Although he didn’t care about what the smithy do with his swords, but hearing about an unknown Awakened piqued his curiosity.

 

“I’m listening,” Jason said.

 

Mateo couldn’t hide his smile but it was about to turn upside down when Jason opened his mouth once more.

 

“But tell me this first, how do you know the buyer is an Awakened? I don’t think an Awakened would give themselves out in the open with the military searching for more of them for recruitment,” said Jason.

 

A rather sharp glare coming from Jason was directed at Mateo.

 

At this point in time, Mateo was sweating bullets as he faced an incredible heavy pressure and as he braced himself from buckling his knees, he tried to fight against this cold murderous aura directed at him.

 

Mateo stared at Jason with quivering eyes and rather than seeing Jason as a human, the aura surrounding Jason was turning him more like a demon.