Reign made his way to the castle right away, hearing that his sword was finally finished made him smile brightly as he couldn't wait to take a look at it.
Upon reaching the smithy, Reign could see Adrian and the elven smith sitting outside. Adrian had a cigarette in his hands while the elf was drinking something.
"You're quite quick to come when it's about collecting a weapon, kid." Adrian smiled at Reign who smiled back without even holding back his enthusiasm.
"Well, as I have promised, we managed to fix the sword and bring it to a higher rank, it took a bit longer than expected, but things mostly went as we thought they would," Adrian said before taking out a sword from the inside of the smithy.
The sword he took out was in a scabbard that Adrian and the elf made. The scabbard was milky white and although it wasn't something that Reign preferred, it definitely did give the sword a sort of mystical quality.
The scabbard was not only white of course, there were patterns on it that were seemingly inlaid in gold while certain black lines on the scabbard seemed to even pulsate a bit.
"It's a rank SS weapon, it needs to have a good quality scabbard to be put in, I used the bones and leather of a white serpent as a base for the scabbard before taking its blood and making the runes on the scabbard, that way it will help keep all the power of the sword inside and nourish it, it will also block anyone that tried to inspect the sword before it is drawn," Adrian explained.
"Now, before you say anything, the serpent came from the elf, it's a beast with an incredibly strong bloodline, similar to the Vajra you got over there, it was a Tier III monster when it died and the materials were perfect for the scabbard, these pulsating black line, however, they're there to look good."
"As for the sword." Adrian let out a chuckle before drawing out the sword.
A sharp sound of a blade could be heard in the surroundings as the sword was drawn out and its splendor was something to behold at.
A white blade that didn't have a speck of impurity on the outside appeared. There were patterns on the blade that looked similar to lightning on it, but they were barely visible as the white sword shone brightly under the sunlight.
The handle was white as well, it seemed that Adrian used the same leather for it as he did for the scabbard. The handle was about 20 cm ( 7.9 inches) in length and had a black pommel that was shaped like a ball at the end.
The cross guard was a simple one, merely two pieces of black metal that curved slightly upwards to the blade.
As Reign stared at the sword, he could feel a sense of familiarity with it. The sword spirit that he had managed to subdue a long time ago was still in the sword and called out to him. He took a step forward and Adrian gave him the sword.
Reign was immediately put in a sort of trance. His eyes were open but he was blinded by a white light.
When the light subsided, he found himself on a battlefield, hundreds of soldiers fighting against each other around Reign. What surprised Reign the most however was the fact that all of the soldiers around him were Tier I, and yet there were so many of them.
From the splendid armor and weapons they used, Reign could infer that they were elite troops of sorts and were locked into a bitter battle against one another. In the distance, however, Reign could see a man dressed in a white and blue robe fighting.
The rank S Sword of Dominance shone brightly in the man's hand as he used it to its fullest. His sword cut through his enemies with ease as even those that were Tier II had to be wary and dared not fight him alone.
The man was the previous owner of the sword whose soul seemed to have fused with the sword's spirit upon his death. It was however only a small part of his soul and it allowed Reign to see his final moments.
The man's swordplay was mesmerizing, each stroke of the sword was like a painter using a paintbrush to paint something, instead of using colors, however, the man used the blood of his enemies to paint the battlefield.
Reign could also see two familiar faces, Eldar and Jack were also near the man and fought with everything they had. Both were Tier II, but their power was clearly below the man's as they fought against the Tier II enemies, even though they were clearly stronger, they couldn't dominate the enemy as the man could.
Even though they were outnumbered 7 to 3, they were able to enter a stalemate with their enemies. Soon Reign completely lost track of Eldar and Jack as his sight was completely focused on the man.
He observed the man's swordplay, the skills he used, and how he moved. Each step and slash of the sword was perfectly coordinated, the man used his strength perfectly and never used more than he needed. Such perfect fighting was something that Reign was unable to do, even though his sword proficiency was high, it was not enough to make him fight like this.
No unnecessary movement was made by the man as each attack had a purpose, sometimes it was to wound an enemy but sometimes he missed on purpose in order to lure the enemy in before attacking them fiercely. Hours passed as Reign observed the man, unaware that most of the army, together with Eldar and Jack, had left.
The man as well as moving back, holding the enemy back in order to let his comrades retreat safely. It was no trouble for him, only 3 Tier II enemies were left and the normal soldiers were unable to put any pressure on him.
The situation suddenly changed, however.
The clouds above parted as a red spear fell down like a comet. The man looked at the spear with dread before his eyes focused, no fear could be seen on them, only resolution and acceptance.
He held the sword with both hands before slashing upwards. The sword and spear collided as a powerful shockwave blasted everyone back. Even the powerful Tier II fighters were forced back and spat out blood from the shockwave.
As the dust settled, the man could be seen standing. His sword was broken in half as his chest was impaled by the spear that was now filled with cracks. Reign was looking at the sight with his eyes wide open, unable to hear the heart-wrenching shouts of Eldar and Jack.
Suddenly the world turned blank before the white light appeared once more and returned him back to the castle grounds. Shadow and the others looked worriedly at him as he simply smiled at them.
They became incredibly worried when they saw Reign standing there with his eyes wide open and wanted to quickly come to him, only to be stopped by Adrian who told them to wait and that everything was fine.
Adrian had felt the existence of the spirit together with the elven smith during the re-forging process. He knew that what was happening to Reign at the moment was nothing that would be detrimental to him and he didn't want anybody to wake him from this state.
After about 10 minutes, Reign came by.
"What happened?"
"I saw what happened to the previous owner of the sword, he, he showed me how he fought, and how he fell in battle." Reign said absent-mindedly as he stared at the sword in his hands.
Reign was certain that even if he was at the same level as the man, even with superior stats, he would lose in battle. Even Lico, who had a rank S sword proficiency was not a match to the man.
As Reign was thinking, a notification from the system suddenly woke him up from his stupor.
Ding!
[ Thanks to the enlightened state the player had gone through, the Sword Proficiency has increased ]
[ Sword Proficiency S- ]
Reign's eyes opened wide as he stared at the notification. He had reached the A+ in proficiency quite some time ago, but no matter how much he trained or fought, he was unable to increase it. After looking at the memory of the final battle of the previous owner of the sword, however, it increased, just like that.
High up on the castle, however, Eldar and Jack were observing everything that was happening. Upon seeing Reign go into a trance, the both of them looked at each other with a knowing gaze.
"He probably saw what happened that day, didn't he?" Asked Eldar as he looked at Jack who simply nodded.
"The sword, however, I have to props to Adrian, he did a very good job," Jack said as Eldar smiled.
"He's a Transcendent blacksmith, if not for the system limiting him, he would have been able to increase its rank to SSS or even Z with the same materials," Eldar said as he looked at Adrian.
"Yeah, three Transcendents in one place on a new, previously unknown planet, what are the chances for that?"
"Slim, very slim."
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