Chapter 26 Is This The Limit Of Talent...?!
――197th Time.
The long, thin, cone-shaped aura emitted from my fingertips was scraping away at the "Ice Elemental Treant's Core Wood" with a high-pitched sound.
ZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIII!!
Snip, Snap!!
"UUUUAAAAA!!"
The sound of cracks forming. And the sound of it breaking in 2.
Right after, I threw away the wooden sword, which had broken in half, with a grand gesture.
"UUU, UUU, UUUUUUUAAAAA!!"
Then, I pounded my fists on the workbench multiple times, releasing my frustration.
It's been almost 2 weeks since we brought Eva and the others to the 41st floor.
This is my home. Specifically, a room in my house that I've converted into a workshop for making wooden swords.
What I'm doing is trying to create a new wooden sword using the "Ice Elemental Treant's Core Wood".
Originally, the "Ice Elemental Treant's Core Wood" isn't a material used for making weapons. Most of it is used as an ingredient for potions, a catalyst for large-scale magic, or a component for magical tools, and it's not used as is.
The reason is simple. It's difficult to shape the wood freely in its natural state.
To be precise, it's hard to process unless you dissolve it with a potion first. After dissolving it, you can solidify it relatively easily and shape it into various forms, but if you dissolve it, its strength decreases significantly. Moreover, it becomes cloudy white, losing the transparent beauty unique to the "Ice Elemental Treant".
So, if I want to turn this into a wooden sword, a work of art, I have to process it into the shape of a sword without dissolving it.
The "Ice Elemental Treant's Core Wood" is hard. Extremely hard. But hardness and durability are not the same thing.
This material has an incredible hardness, but it lacks elasticity and viscosity. That's why it can be said to be brittle.
What I mean is, if I fail even a little in the processing, cracks will form and it will break.
And yet, the material itself is hard, so if I don't process it by crushing or dissolving it with chemicals, there are mainly 2 ways to work on it: either using an enormous amount of force to carve it, or taking a long time to carve it slowly.
However, if I try the former, it's highly likely to break. If I add a power like ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫ to carve it, it'll instantly develop cracks.
As for the latter, it's more like polishing a gemstone with a cloth to create a complex, intricate object.
In the woodworking industry, it's common to take a time and polish the material carefully.
In fact, there's already a ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫ wooden sword that exists.
I didn't make it, but there's a famous story about a ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫ wooden sword that was carved over 15 years and presented to a royal family in a certain country.
In other words, there's already a pioneer.
If I follow in their footsteps and take a long time, I can probably make a ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫ wooden sword too. But that would kill my unique touch, [Hand of Meister].
That's no good.
I need to break the conventional rules, bring innovation to the industry, and complete the ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫ wooden sword with a completely new method. That's the mission given to me as a master craftsman.
That's why I've been dedicating myself to creating the ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫ wooden sword in a short period, repeating my failures without giving up.
Luckily, the 'Ice Elemental Treant core wood' I get from one drop is equivalent to several dozen wooden swords. I don't need to frequently gather materials just because I failed once....
"Is this... the limit of Talent...?!"
As my failures approach 200, exceeding 100, I'm starting to lose confidence.
Come to think of it, I've never struggled this much with woodworking. As a craftsman, I'm experiencing my first slump.
A feeling of frustration is welling up inside me.
Maybe I should just give up on this already.
Because I managed to create a wooden sword a little better than others, what's the big deal? I've already earned enough money, so I should be able to live a comfortable life in seclusion. It might be a bit early to retire, but I have enough money to live a simple life.
There's no reason for me to keep making wooden swords...
――But.
Another me, the "Wood Sword Meister," speaks from within me.
――Hey, hey, Aaron Gale.
――Are you searching for a reason to make wooden swords?
――Is it because you want money, status, or fame that you're making wooden swords?
I clenched my fist tightly.
"――That's not it!!"
――No.
No, no, no, no, no! I'm not doing it for those reasons!
I became a wooden sword craftsman because I simply enjoy making wooden swords... and because I dream of creating the greatest sword someday... That's all!
I stand up again.
No, every time I hear the sound of destruction, "Snap," I feel like my heart is breaking, but I still stand up.
More, more, Aaron Gale...!!
You can definitely do it.
Focus on controlling the aura of the [Hand of Meister], which bursts out from your fingertips in a long, thin, conical shape. Concentrate deeply, without even blinking, even if sweat gets in your eyes.
When I apply pressure to the wood with the [Hand of Meister] at a nearly vertical angle, there's a high risk of it breaking. I can't just cut it all at once, either. Listen to the wood's voice and find the limit of how much I can cut at once.
Maintain the conical aura without any distortion, making it seem like it's standing still from the outside. Then, rotate it at an extremely high speed, more like polishing than cutting.
If the aura wavers even slightly, it will put a load on the 'Ice Elemental Treant's core wood' and create cracks.
So, if I can control the aura without any wavering, I should be able to cut even the 'Ice Elemental Treant's core wood' freely.
It's easy to say, but it's a godly feat that's almost impossible for humans.
Any ordinary craftsman would give up.
But I can do it!
I can do it!!
So, focus, focus, focus, and focus!!
My blood flow increases excessively, and my head hurts from the intense concentration.
The sound "Ziiiiiiiiii!" echoed, a sorrowful cry-like sound produced by the [Hand of Meister]'s aura and the 'Ice Elemental Treant's core wood', which suddenly changed to a clear tone.
Hummmmm!!
And when my concentration reached its extreme limit, the world... expanded.
"―――!!?"
The control power of the aura, which I thought was at its limit, suddenly broke free. The strong, solid wall of limits that existed was gone, and the aura flowed out smoothly.
I surpassed the wall.
I'm certain of it.
I can manipulate my aura more precisely than my limbs.
――Awakening, it's awakening...!!
My unique wood sword crafting technique――[True Hand of Meister]
That day, I finally succeeded in creating the 203rd wood sword, "Silver", of the ≪Ice Elemental Treant≫.
* * *
The "Silver" I painstakingly crafted was, however, a defective product as a wood sword.
It would break easily if struck with strong force, so it couldn't be used like a normal wood sword.
But I wasn't using the wood sword to directly strike enemies anyway. I was using the aura wrapped around the sword to slash and deflect my opponents' weapons and magic.
So, for me, it wasn't a big problem, and I could wield it with the same feeling as Black Radiance.
Moreover, "Silver" had a special ability.
When I channeled my aura into Silver, it gained ice and snow attributes.
In other words, the targets I struck would freeze.
While it might be an unnecessary ability against opponents who could be defeated in one hit, it would be extremely effective against monsters with body heat that couldn't be defeated in one hit.
It's only natural, but if a part of your body freezes, blood won't circulate to that area, and your body temperature will drop. And if your body temperature drops, your physical abilities will decline, and your enemies' movements will slow down.
In other words, it's like being constantly debuffed.
However, that ability was more than I had bargained for.
The greatest thing I gained by creating "Silver" ―― it's an extremely precise and powerful control over my aura.
I felt its excellence when I went to the 15th floor of the [God's Remains Labyrinth] to harvest the core wood of the Elder Treant.
And now, I can defeat the Elder Treant with [Heavy Flying Blade], which was impossible before.
The sensation of controlling my aura more precisely than my own limbs, which I felt when creating Silver, still continues to this day.
In short, my ability to control my aura has risen to a whole new level.
For me, who fights using an aura, this means a direct increase in my combat abilities.
No way, I never imagined that making wooden swords would make me stronger, but thinking back, I realized that I started to rapidly acquire various sword techniques and combat skills around the time I began making wooden swords with [Hand of Meister].
Maybe... from now on, making wooden swords will become the standard training method for Swordsmen...
"――No way, you're kidding me."
At our usual tavern, near the explorer guild.
Lion, the one-eyed man with an eyepatch, sitting across from me, said so with a stunned expression.
Today, with the whole clan's exploration scheduled for tomorrow, I was drinking with Lion for the first time in a while. I was telling him about my groundbreaking discovery that making wooden swords can make me stronger... but Lion, stuck in his conventional thinking, couldn't believe it.
"Sigh... pioneers are always lonely, no matter the era..."
As I smiled wistfully, unable to get my friend to understand, Lion let out a deep sigh and said so.
"Aaron... I've thought you were a weirdo since way back, but I never thought you'd be this abnormal..."
"Hey, that's rude. You're talking to a normal person here."
"Normal person? You're more like something I don't even know what to call anymore, Aaron. Please, just stop pretending to be human, okay?"
I shook my head, thinking "What is he even saying?"
To be honest, Lion, who has awakened to Unique Jobs, is way more inhuman than me, a Basic Jobs user, in terms of physical abilities.
It seems that humans are really hard to understand, just like me.
"So, what about that? Did you find anything?"
Well, that's beside the point.
I changed the subject and asked Lion.
Even without a clear question, Lion answered without hesitation.
"No luck. There are several suspicious parties, but I couldn't find any concrete evidence. I've reported it to Kirke's princess, but she doesn't have any reliable information either. I guess we'll have to continue the investigation tomorrow."
"I see. So it's back to the original plan, then."
Lion is one of the many cooperators of the Kirke family and helps manage the ≪Labyrinth Conquest Team≫ while also using his guild staff position to gather intel.
Well, since the investigation target is within the ≪Labyrinth Conquest Team≫, it's more like an audit than espionage.
I thought back to the time I formed the clan until now and let out a sigh.
"In the end, they didn't attack individual clan members."
The "enemy" that caused last year's stampede, according to Eva, seems to have a reason not to want explorers to progress. That's why they might attack the ≪Labyrinth Conquest Team≫ clan.
But, surprisingly, not a single clan member has been attacked.
It's also possible that this clan itself is being used as bait.
"That's how confident the others is. They can take out a large group at once in the labyrinth."
Lion's words seemed to be the real reason.
"If the other take out the clan members outside the labyrinth, they'd need to go to great lengths to erase the evidence, and even if they think they've erased it all, it's not perfect.
But the labyrinth has a property where it rapidly decomposes and absorbs the bodies of those who die inside. Not only do people not have to worry about disposing of the corpses, but the deeper they are, the less they need to worry about being seen by others.
The labyrinth's depths are an incredibly convenient place to kill someone without leaving any evidence.
"Be careful, Aaron. The opponent is probably at least 45 floors strong, so they're not to be underestimated."
"Got it, I won't do anything reckless."
I replied nonchalantly to Lion's serious warning.
Thanks to someone, I wasn't burning with revenge to the point of forgetting myself.
"Well, let's do this slowly and steadily."
If I know they're coming, it's not an ambush or anything.
To catch the unseen prey at the end of the fishing line, I need to stay calm and act coolly.
I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart, and downed an ale.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Donate me
Support Me with USDC
(ERC20)
Support Me with XLM
(Stellar Lumens)