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The day after the crowning ceremony where Ervas, Veronica, and Jason became the official governors of the new Kingdom of Igni, Veronica, the Queen of the Raccoon-kin, Rabbit-kin and Squirrel-kin beastmen was currently with Anna inside the forgery, working in various items with her forging hammer, which was a clone of herself as well.
?
Clank, clank!
Veronica was using her hammer to make the last finishing moves into the weapon she was forging. Since she started to forge with the help of Anna, she had been crafting a special weapon, an ax.
This axe was made by special alloys created through the replication of her metallic components in her body, alongside many other alloys that Anna had created through the combination of minerals found in the Earth Worm Hive.
Clank, clank!
"It is… done, I think…" muttered Veronica, if she could sweat, she would be cleaning the sweat dripping from within her forehead.
The weapon was a large axe with a long handle, similar to the style of axe that Anna liked to wield, the handle was also metallic and firm as a trunk. It was a double-bladed axe that also had incrusted a few magical jewels and stones to enhance the wearer's technique's strength.
"It looks pretty good… did you made yourself another axe to absorb?" asked Anna.
"No, I don't think I can absorb it just as simply, it wouldn't let me fuse it as I need to consume more raw materials… just crafting weapons and stacking them over and over again doesn't work with the Armory Skill, it only lets you add one weapon or armor of a type per slot, after that, you can't just abuse it and add many of the same to strengthen it indefinitely. It is way more complex than it seems… To strengthen it, I need to absorb materials from Rank 7 and above monsters, but those are rare, and I have already absorbed a bunch before when we killed the Minotaur Boss," said Veronica.
"I see… then?" asked Anna.
"It is for you, of course! The axe that you have is very bad as it was crafted just in a split second. I am sure that this new one can supply your needs way better, as it was created with various blacksmithing techniques and many alloys" said Veronica with a happy smile.
"Wait, what?! You were crafting one for me this whole time?" asked Anna.
"Yeah! Of course, how couldn't you tell?" asked Veronica.
"I… I think I was being way too stupid, I guess" said Anna.
Anna would usually be concentrated in the act of teaching Veronica every time they worked together while forging, she knew that she was making an axe, but had assumed early on that it was probably to fuse it over her axe with her strange powers… but after receiving an explanation of Veronica's powers complexity, she realized that the weapon was for her.
"So, do you want me to make it a cursed weapon? I can transfer the composite dead spirits inhabiting your old into this one" said Veronica.
"Oh, that would be nice then… Thanks! Axe-chan, you will get a new body" said Anna to her old axe, grabbing it.
"A new body? It looks amazing! Nice, nice! Thanks a lot, Princess Veronica!" said the axe, it had the voice of a young and playful girl, it seems that it was the composite dead spirits of many warriors, but the personality of a young warrior girl that perished many years ago in the Devil Forest became the main personality.
"No problem Axe-chan… though, wouldn't it another name be better?" asked Veronica.
"Well… naming every cursed equipment would be quite hard, especially to remember always all the names," said Anna.
"Yeah, yeah! I don't care what name you gave me as long as I can rip apart some flesh and blood!" said the axe, as the large spirit lump was transferred into the new axe by Veronica and then bind into it with 'Soul Binding'.
"Oh, it seems that my skills are still here! But my Rank went down to Rank 2! Well, this is a way better host than the other one, so as long as we rip apart some monsters, we'll get to Rank 4 soon enough!" said Axe-chan.
Cursed Weapons, like any other Undead Monster, were benefitted from the System of Kritias, and were capable of leveling up by sharing the exp from their wielders and even rank up to become stronger. They had stats and could even learn skills like any other weapon.
Cursed Weapons, however, were incredibly dangerous to use by normal means, and would most of the time curse their wielders making them go insane or even kill them, this is why very little information was gathered about the benefits of using Cursed equipment.
In Kritias Undead Tamers were incredibly rare and exclusive to Demon Races, the Liches could only tame Bone Monsters, while Vampires were said to be able to tame Zombies, but none of the two could tame Material-type Undead Monsters such as Living Armors or Cursed Weapons.
But thanks to Veronica and Ervas unique 'Death Attribute Charm' they charmed any undead and by feeding them their mana, the undead would slowly regain sentience, intelligence, a sense of self, and a fervent royalty, making them reliable allies that would never betray them.
Axe-chan was one of these, an amalgamation of warriors that wielded axes that Veronica had casually merged and then made into an Undead Cursed Axe. She now had transferred it to a new body, but because it was undead, it did not 'die', while it even transferred some of the skills it earned, at least those that depended on the strength of its soul and knowledge about techniques, such as Axe Technique or Phantom Form.
With the use of Cursed Weapons or Armors, warriors could showcase double of their original strength. As the user (Anna) was able to use Axe Technique alongside its weapon (Axe-chan), effectively dealing two times an attack with a single swing… such potential could be improved even further as both evolved their abilities.
And if things went in a different direction, Axe-chan could always fight by herself by using Phantom Form and creating a temporary phantasmal body to carry herself and attack.
However, because the changes in her stats carried into the weapon she possessed, she reversed to Rank 2, so she needed to level up all the way to get back to her previous Rank of 4.
After having her Axe-chan upgraded, Anna was a bit flustered…
"Thanks a lot, Veronica… I mean, Princess Veronica now, right?" laughed Anna, trying to lighten her mood which was a bit flustered.
"You can keep just referring to me as Veronica, Anna, I don't really mind the titles. I like when people call me by my name, is very refreshing" said Veronica, remembering when she was Anastacia and was only referred to as Queen Anastacia her entire second life… now that she was being finally called Veronica by everyone, she felt it was refreshing.
"Alright then… Did you learn the Blacksmith skill yet?" asked Anna.
"Yeah! All thanks to you, Anna-chan~!" said Veronica, hugging Anna with her strong and metallic body, but Anna was packed with enough muscles to withstand her gentle grip.
"Hahah… it was nothing, really," said Anna.
At this, Shade groaned in a bit of jealously.
"Hmmm… Y-You two are already hugging a lot, you know? Why don't you hug me instead?" he asked, only Veronica was capable of hearing him as Anna didn't possess the Spirit Magic skill nor any innate talent in hearing spirits.
"I can't hug you, you can't materialize, can't you? Also, you live inside of my soul, shouldn't that be enough? In a way you're the closest person to me…" said Veronica telepathically.
"W-Well… I guess so…" muttered Shade, going silent in embarrassment.
"O-Okay then… the day is pretty young, so let's go practice Axe Technique now by chopping down some monsters to level up Axe-chan as well!" said Anna, freeing herself from Veronica's metallic yet lovely embrace.
"Alright! I am definitely learning Axe Technique today! As long as I am taught by Anna-chan!" said Veronica, leading the way to the nearest dungeon.
"I'm gonna chop, chop, and chop! I cannot wait to use this new body to slice things into a bloody mess! Fufufufufu!" laughed Axe-chan, she was really a big psycho.
"Y-Yeah, calm down there, Axe-chan…" said Anna, patting Axe-cha atop her blades.
"Hey, why is she going and not us? We want some action!" said Anna's shield which was left in the workshop alongside her armor, all of them were Cursed Equipment… when pieces of armor that weren't a complete set were raised into an undead, they would become Cursed Pieces of Equipment instead than a Living Armor.
"Yeah, bring us as well, don't be like that!"
"I want to level up too… Anna, don't do us like that…"
"Sigh… Okay, okay, all of you come here" said Anna, as she called her Cursed Equipment, which was a party by itself. All of them floated towards her as if they were ghosts and equipped themselves into her body.
"The whole gang is here!" said the Shield.
"Hey, I want an upgrade too!" asked the torso armor.
"Ask the Princess for that!" said the Shield.
"Hey, don't be disrespectful with the Princess… don't ask her things, don't be selfish!" said the shoulder armor.
"Okay, okay…" muttered the torso armor.
Every time they talked, they were a rather chaotic bunch… each of the warriors of the Kingdom of Igni possessed their own 'party' of cursed equipment provided by the government itself, so no citizens would ever feel alone nor lack a party willing to help them out when they wanted to level up a bit or hunt for dinner.
"They're quite loud" laughed Veronica as she walked with Anna out of the city, through large doors made from wood that opened automatically as they were golems in truth…
(Veronica)
[You acquired the [Blacksmithing; Level 1] and [Axe Technique; Level 1] Skills!]
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