Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (24 page)

Regal helplessly tries to
avoid the attacking lightning, but it is attracted to him like to a metal rod.
The attack only lasts for five seconds but it damages his health at a speed of
twenty points a second. He would have survived if he had been at full health,
but from sixty percent health, Regal has no choice but to admit defeat.

The judges gloat about how
impressive Caius is, and Regal is tempted to scream out that he isn’t the only
one who has mastered a skill, and that he himself has mastered several,
including the infamous ‘Future Sight’. He withholds himself in the end, as it
would only serve to humiliate himself later on.

They still give Regal an
impressive score of 175, while Caius got 285, the highest score awarded yet.

Returning back to the
seats, Regal begins some self-reflection to determine how best to use
‘Foresight’ in battle while preventing his opponents from discovering what he
is doing. A few other participants came to talk with him, along with a couple
of representatives from nearby settlements. The representatives wanted him to
come live in their small communities after graduation, and would offer a free
place to stay and food.

Their only requirement was
that he had to be one of the tribe, ready to defend the community at any time
and attack when the Lord of the settlement dictated. Regal of course
understands the reasons behind the requirements, but has no interest in making
any empty promises or being bothered continuously, so he tells them directly
that he does not wish to join any community. If he does, he will go through the
recruitment and settlement papers at the hunter’s association and decide then.

With all the business
settled in regard to people inviting him to their settlements, Regal
occasionally talks with the other participants but mostly watches the remainder
of the tournament. The student who defeated him, Caius, actually made it to the
finals before he himself was defeated. He still has a chance to become first if
his score is higher than the student who beat him, but that is a very unlikely
scenario.

Regal’s total score is
522, extremely low for someone who made it to the top 62 of 255 students.
 His ranking ends up being 61st place, with only a single person who made
it to the third round behind him, but he is still happy that he himself,
someone whose only talent is in crafting and the miscellaneous, was able to
make it so far in a competition between the most talented students of all the academies
in Grand City Theore.

After the inter academy
tournament, the yearly break from study begins. There is a full month until
Regal will need to return to Bluemist Academy for his second year. With no
transmission plates, he and his friends have no way of contacting each other
either. Not wanting to be apart from Veronica for so long, he takes her home on
the last evening to show her where he lives.

“The break lasts for an
entire month. If you want to practice together, you can come find me here
anytime,” Regal says awkwardly, too nervous to say that he just wants to see
her more.

Veronica holds his arm for
a short while before telling him, “I will come when I get a chance. I want your
help with ‘Cartography’.”

“Is that so… Well, I will,
umm, be waiting.”

Piora and Veronica have
improved greatly with the ‘Cartography’ skill. Their ability is still
incomparable to Regal’s, who has improved even more than theirs have, but the
two are unlikely to always be alongside him so they can’t always rely on him to
create maps.

After a silent parting,
Regal enters his home and sits down in the living area, exhausted. It is only a
moment before he decides what to do over the break and his eyes become
resolute. Sampson had told him not long ago that he will still only work at the
restaurant on the weekends over the break for various reasons.

With nothing else to do
during the week, Regal decides on several things to do. The first and most
important decision is to create new weapons for himself and the others in his
squad to improve their firepower. It is possible to purchase some, but it only
costs a fraction of the price to purchase the materials and make weapons
customized for each member.

His second goal is to
increase his alchemy and martial skills training, as they are currently lacking
in power. The last task is additional research in the library on other skills,
so that he will be able to recognize more Divine Arts before they are used
against him.

Regal learned during class
that there are stronger mutated beasts, and especially monsters, that are
capable of alchemy as well. He didn’t fully understand the difference between
the two until it was discussed in class not long ago as they finished learning
about the lower levelled mutated beasts, and lessons on monsters began.

Mutated beasts are enemies
that usually have large numbers, travel in packs, and have specific
territories. Monsters are different in that they are unique creatures of all
shapes and sizes that roam the wilderness. A cautionary fact is that they are
always much stronger than a mutated beast of the same level.

After deciding on his
schedule and hoping Veronica doesn’t come around when he is not home, Regal
double checks his inventory to make sure he has enough ammunition and recovery
items before leaving for the public training center.

***************************************************

The very next day, Regal
heads to Market Street and finds a small shop that specializes in selling ores
and already refined metals. He already has the plan for what he wants to
create, so he knows exactly how much of each material he will need.

He considers buying the
ores, which are considerably cheaper than the better already refined metals,
buts decides against it as he will at best only be able to refine a medium
grade metal. Allowing himself to spend more, Regal chooses all his materials
from high grade ingots. He chooses almost forty pieces of iron, bronze, copper
and steel as well as some clay to form the molds.

“That will be 38 silver,”
a man with long curly hair and a brown top hat lazily says after adding up the
value of the material.

“Can you do something
cheaper? That’s incredibly expensive!”

“38 silver is expensive?
We don’t bargain here.”

After a few more failed
attempts, Regal ends up purchasing the metal at the store price. He isn’t aware
that the price is in fact cheap for metal, and only because they are the lowest
tier of metals. The next tier, including titanium, black iron and platinum,
would have been at least ten times as expensive.

Placing the new metals in
his inventory, Regal leaves for Atelier Gun & Bullet, which is ten minutes
down the street. Inside, Aqua is minding the store. She immediately becomes
angry when she sees him.

“How long do you think
it’s been!? You said you would come see me but you didn’t!”

Regal, not feeling like it
has been that long gives her a confused look. “What do you mean? I am here
right now.”

“Well... I suppose. But
you should have come sooner!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think
it had been that long.”

“It has!”

Regal and Aqua share some
small talk for a while; even though it is mostly Regal listening to Aqua speak
about Gold Phoenix Academy, her friends, and a boy who asked her on a date just
before the academy break. After that, Regal excuses himself and enters the rear
workshop where he finds Tanner working the forge and working on some exotic and
complicated gun that he doesn’t understand at all.

After hearing that Regal
wants to borrow the forge to craft some weapons with the materials he bought,
Tanner quickly finishes up what he was doing and stands back, curiously
anticipating what Regal will make.

Regal immediately clears
some room on the bench and starts with the first of the weapons, a large knife
for each member when the enemy gets too close to worry about reloading. Taking
out the clay, he mixes it with water and begins forming it’s shape with his
fingers. Once it’s nearly completed, he picks a few specialized tools off the
walls to finish its shape before baking it in the furnace to solidify it.

For the knives’ materials,
he chooses to only use steel, which is known for being much more rigid with the
ability to have a sharper edge than the other basic metals. It also has a lower
durability, but that isn’t a concern if Regal maintains everyone’s weapons or
they have it repaired at a smithy.

After the metal turns into
a liquid state, he pours it in the mold and hardens it with water just like he
practiced many times before. The only difference is that with an edged weapon,
the metal needs to be ground into shape, as there is no bladed edge upon
pouring. Tanner powers a foot pedal grinding wheel that Regal uses to slowly
grind the blade into shape, forming the cutting edge and completing the weapon.

He does this four more
times, creating four more weapons that are twenty inches long with basic
leather grips. If it wasn’t for the curved blades and jagged rear edges to
catch enemy weapons, they would almost be short swords with their size. The
light of the forge glistens menacingly off the knives, reflecting the
deadliness of these simple looking weapons.

Regal stares at the knives
before turning to Tanner and saying incredulously, “They’re all of the rare
grade!”

“Of course!” Tanner’s
laugh resounds loudly, even attracting Aqua’s attention at the front of the
store.

“What do you mean, of
course?”

“Do you know what defines
the weapon or armor grade when crafting?”

“I don’t. Is it the
quality of materials and how well it’s forged?”

Tanner sighs before
continuing. “Perhaps I didn’t teach you well enough then. You learned so fast
that I must have missed it. You are partially correct, but item grade is mainly
defined by how unique, and often practical, the weapon you craft is. You could
create a legendary grade weapon out of iron and copper if you were good
enough.”

This news stuns Regal. He
simply made the weapon per the design as he envisioned it – how he thought it
would be best – but he had no clue that was the deciding factor in the weapon
grade.

Excited about the new
information, Regal hurriedly starts creating guns for each member of his squad.
For Astore, a handgun with a smaller ammo capacity, but much higher damage,
similar to that of a hand cannon. For Kilde, another handgun, but lightweight
so he can move around easily. Piora gets a pair of handguns focused on firing
speed, which when used by her fast attack flame alchemy could create a large
barrage of attacks.

Veronica’s weapon is
different, a rifle with a requirement of level 7 to equip. As a person with a
high amount of Divine Arts for controlling the battlefield, a high firepower
weapon she can use from a distance with increased accuracy and a slight
knockback effect for controlling enemies will be useful.

For himself, Regal makes a
normal revolver that doesn’t excel in any particular category, but is slightly
better than standard.

The knives only took him
an hour to create all of them, but the guns take him five hours straight for
each one. He has to return the next day to finish them all. He uses the basic
design for each weapon, but alters all the gears, springs and body parts, even
adding a few based on his understanding of how the guns work and how best to
improve them. He also uses the best material each time, reinforcing important
parts of each weapon.

Once the job is finished,
Regal sits down wearily as Tanner inspects the weapons. Regal has already
inspected each one after making them, but not a single one came out as rare
quality. They are all uncommon, a single grade above ordinary. At the same
time, they are still customized for each squad member and how they fight best
based on Regal’s experience with them.

After the exhaustive task
of creating the weapons, the remainder of the academy break seems to pass by
faster than Regal realizes. Veronica also comes to visit him, arriving at his
house five times. He wasn’t home for the first three and after waiting an hour,
Veronica decides to leave to focus on her training. The last two times, she
comes late at night when Regal is almost guaranteed to be home.

The first time someone
knocks, Regal stumbles over his feet and makes a loud clatter before opening
the door. No one would come visit him aside from Veronica as he hadn’t told his
other friends where he lives yet.

Veronica stays unusually
close to him while they are practicing ‘Cartography’ together and copying some
old maps she brought. Their shoulders were touching one another, and despite
being nervous, Regal felt incredibly happy.

The first visit by
Veronica was also when he passed the new weapon he crafted to her, explaining
it and reminding her to let him know whenever it needs maintenance. She was
happy to receive the weapon Regal crafted, briefly showing one of her rare
smiles.

Regal’s training in his
martial and alchemy skills show significant results, each improving by three
levels, with his ‘Combat Knife Proficiency’ breaking through the third tier and
permanently adding fifteen points to his health.

His study in the library
on the Divine Arts of various skills shows the least results over the break.
Regal fills half a notebook with descriptions, including the alchemy formula
diagrams, but only manages to memorize a quarter of them.

Regal returns to Bluemist
Academy for his second year, making sure to get there early enough that he can
hand out the weapons he crafted to everyone before classes begin.  Astore
and Kilde accept the weapons gratefully, promising to do their best for Regal.
Piora is extremely surprised, and vehemently refuses his gift at first, but
gives in after a few words from Veronica. All of the members need to level up
once, twice, or three times in Veronica’s case, to use them, but once they do,
exploring the second and even the third floor of Theore Substructure will
become much easier.