Immortal Era's Crafting Master 115 Late To The Party

Along with Kirou's words and him relaxing his body, another change took place in the clearing. His usually invisible wires started becoming visible bit by bit. This went on for roughly thirty seconds before what Bladesmith's clone could a.s.sume to be all of them finally being visible. The sight.... wasn't easy for anyone with a weak stomach to look at.

Each individual thread was extremely thin, so seeing enough to completely restrict all of the clone's movements, contain the surrounding area, and further secure the first two sets in that order, how could the clone not be horrified. In fact, it had only noticed the first set of threads used in restricting it, and that was due to Kirou's expert control of them slipping for a moment. With the sight of the next two sets becoming visible, the clone genuinely started questioning the fairness of life, similarly to what its creator would have done had he been in its place.

Seeing through the clone's thoughts, Kirou maintained his control over the wires as he spoke up, "Do you concede or do I have to make use of these wires?"

Although the clone had an unwilling expression form on its face after hearing that question, the reality of the situation forced his hand. Releasing a deep sigh, the clone spoke up in a quiet and unwilling voice, "I concede. This victory is yours."

Hearing those words, Kirou instantly checked his quest window to see if the information was reflected there. After all, it wouldn't do for him to believe the clone's words and release it, only for it to be a lie and he gets jumped instantly, failing the difficult quest. Kirou was not keen on repeating this quest, especially with a weapon he hasn't mastered to a similar degree as his wires.

Bind your targets: 100/100

Hunt your targets and defeat them as follows:

Dismemberment- 100/100

Decapitation- 100/100

Splitting in Two- 100/100

Freestyle- 300 (329)/300

*Defeat Weapon Master Bladesmith's Clone: 1/1

Seeing that the quest window reflecting the clone's words, Kirou allowed his body to fully relax, resulting in his body falling to his knees as the various wires surrounding the clone started to slack and fall to the floor. Bladesmith's clone just watched as the various wires in the surroundings fell slack, wondering just how on earth Kirou managed to manipulate so many wires to form such a structure and when he had time to set it up.

As it surveyed the area, it noticed that roughly two-thirds of the wires started vanishing. This prompted it to narrow its eyes slightly as that gave it an idea as to where the extra went. This was further confirmed when it saw Kirou rising to his feet, albeit slowly, but doing much better than before, especially with Kirou's health currently resting on twenty-four percent.

The clone waited for Kirou to regain his composure before it spoke, "You made use of shadow clones during our fight. When did you manage to summon them?"

Now that he was doing better, albeit slightly since his mind was still spent, Kirou formed a casual smile on his face as he spoke, "When I landed the first hit. You were momentarily distracted, after all, so I took advantage of that to summon them out."

The clone nodded slightly in understanding, remember how that went down. The clone then frowned as he stared at Kirou before speaking, "Will you be able to walk like that? If you're unable to move on your own, I'll take you back to the entrance myself."

To this, Kirou responded by shaking his head. He already had something prepared, just for this situation. As he made a sign with one of his hands, he spoke up, "No need to worry, as I already have a way back to the entrance. Instead, why not allow me to give you some company on your return trip?"

Following those words, Kirou's body immediately vanished from where he stood, only to be replaced with a similarly dressed Lycan sitting in a meditative stance. The clone was admittedly shocked by this as he never expected for Kirou to have yet another trick up his sleeve, even in that weakened state of his. It could only shake its head as it stared at the clone sitting before it showing signs of mana exhaustion. Bladesmith's clone just grabbed Kirou's clone and held it under its arm as it rushed back to the entrance of this u003cUnnamed Training Groundsu003e. For now, it cannot wait to return and inform its creator about all that transpired in this fight.

*******

Over at the entrance to the u003cUnnamed Training Groundsu003e, Bladesmith felt a change in the flow of mana in the area, Upon immediately turning his eyes towards the source, he noticed that it was the location where he had seen Kirou's clone meditating earlier. He noticed this, except, instead of it being the clone underneath the tree meditating, it was an exhausted Kirou that was now gasping for breath as he leaned back on the tree.

Without the slightest change in expression, Bladesmith went over to the exhausted Kirou in order to examine him. With Kirou's appearance at the entrance, he had already cleared the conditions for the quest so regardless of what actually happened on that side, he was now going to treat the young pup before him.

As Bladesmith placed a hand on Kirou and injected a bit of his own mana inside his body in order to examine Kirou and find out what needs to be treated, a p.r.o.nounced frown formed on his face. With just a casual sweep, he was already able to figure out that Kirou had exhausted a good amount of his mental energy doing who knows what. As for other injuries, there was a distinct lack of them which caused him to look at Kirou with slightly narrowed eyes. Although he was curious as to what happened, that would have to wait until his clone returned.

Retracting back his mana from Kirou's body, Bladesmith then placed a hand on Kirou's head and quietly recited a chant, which resulted in him instantly pa.s.sing out. For now, he would make Kirou sleep as it was the best way to recover mental energy naturally. As for himself, Bladesmith also sat beneath the shade of a tree, as he was intent on waiting for his clone to return before heading back to the cottage.

He didn't have to wait too long as roughly ten minutes later, Bladesmith noticed the presence of something heading in his general direction at a quick pace. After another thirty seconds or so, Bladesmith was greeted to the sight of his clone carrying Kirou's clone under its arm as it appeared at the entrance.

Without saying another word, Bladesmith's clone placed the clone under its arm next to its master before it then turned into a shadow that fused back with Bladesmith. A few seconds later, Bladesmith now had a profound look on his face as he stared at the resting Kirou. If not for the memories he had just received, he probably wouldn't have believed that Kirou was able to force his clone into submission. In fact, even with the memories, Bladesmith still found it a bit hard to believe.

For now, however, all of that would have to wait until Kirou woke up. Nothing could happen if Kirou wasn't conscious so Bladesmith hefted both Kirou and his clone into the cottage's lounge area to rest. Just as he was about to head over to the forge area for a bit, he noticed that both Kirou and his clone arousing from their respective sleep at the same time.

This prompted Bladesmith to raise an eyebrow as he spoke, "Waking up so quickly after having a medium grade sleep spell cast on you isn't something one sees every day, lad. If I wasn't before, I'm d.a.m.n sure now that you've got quite a few secrets hidden on you."

Shaking the sleep from his eyes and feeling the slight recovery of his mental energy, Kirou dispelled his clone that was still confused about their surroundings as he spoke up, "Just a bit of conditioning from my master. I had to be able to wake up at the slightest drop of a hat, regardless of how tired I was when I have things to do. For now, I still have some business left in a few places so I cannot allow myself to sleep for too long."

At those words, Bladesmith released a shrug before he spoke, "Since that's the case, it's probably best I don't keep you for too long then." Following those words, Kirou received a few system messages.

[System: You have completed the quest u003cOvercoming the Bottleneck- Weapon Master (Advance)u003e]

[You have received the following items: +4 level, 2x Random Weapon Blueprints (Rare), 1x Random Architecture Blueprint (Rare), 1x Random Skill (Rank )]

[You have upgraded your cla.s.s to u003cWeapon Master (Advanced)u003e]

As he read the system messages, a halo of light blinked four times before flashing over his entire body, signifying that he had just gained four levels. Besides this, Kirou took note that the rewards he obtained are slightly different from what was originally promised. For one, he gained four levels instead of three. Besides that, he also obtained an extra blueprint. Kirou raised an eye at this before focusing his attention on the final reward he obtained, the skill.

Besides the change in rank from to , Kirou had no idea what to expect. With that in mind, he decided to deal with it now instead of waiting. Kirou immediately made use of the Random Skill. The results..... were quite interesting. It was surprisingly another skill related to u003cShadow Clonesu003e

Skill: Shadow Clone Explosion

Skill Level: 1/3

Rank:

Cost: 30 MP

Description: A variant developed from Weapon Master Bladesmith's signature skill, u003cShadow Bodyu003e, for its downgraded skill, u003cShadow Cloneu003e. This skill allows the user to detonate an active shadow clone, dealing up to ten times the clones hp plus the user's attack together as damage. The downside to this is that the user won't regain health with the death of the clone and will face a 30% slow for 5 seconds. With an increase in proficiency, so too is the damage while the time limit for the slow is lowered.

Looking at the skill's description, Kirou was curious as to what caused Bladesmith to create such a skill. Considering how his version looked, he was positive the version that Bladesmith has in his possession is much more destructive, along with its side effects being just as debilitating.

Shaking his head free of those thoughts, Kirou turned to Bladesmith as he spoke, "Thank you for enlightening me, Senior Bladesmith. Unfortunately, I have a previous engagement to meet and I'm already incredibly late, so I'll have to take my leave now."

Bladesmith just shrugged and headed back to his forge before speaking, "Don't worry about it, lad. I know you're quite busy to off with you. Just be sure to pay me a visit before you head off to the Beast Continent. I might have something else for you by then."

"Understood, Senior." Following those words, Kirou gave Bladesmith his farewells before rushing out of the cottage. For now, he had to rush to SC Pier City as he was already an hour late for his appointment with the two elf girls.

*******

Roughly ten minutes and a teleport later, Kirou was now standing at the entrance of SC Pier City. From where he was standing, he started looking around for the two elves, only to find a crowd gathering at one section. While he wasn't interested in the show going on, he got the feeling that he heard a familiar voice coming from that area.

Deciding to verify what he heard, Kirou forced his way through the crowd, only to find a group of three currently being surrounded by a large squad of players. What Kirou found funny was that he knew the group of three, with two of them being the girls he was about to start looking for in earnest, while the third person was clearly Mistaken Fox, if that familiar-looking medallion in his hand was anything to go by.

Kirou wasted no time in joining his companions, his actions surprising all those present. While the trio adopted a look of happiness at seeing him, the group they were dealing with only looked at him with contempt. When Kirou got to their side, he spoke in a casual voice that was heard by all, "Sorry for being late to the party. For now, can someone explain to me what's going on here?"