The smoke from the dying campfire stung Kanos's nose, making him cough so hard his chest felt like it was tearing apart.
Kanos opened his eyes slowly. Morning sunlight in a weird color—slightly greenish—poured in through the hole in the stone tower's roof. His whole body was stiff. It felt exactly like pulling an all-nighter for four days and then falling asleep on the studio floor without a mattress.
Across the dying fire, Belida was already standing tall. The giant man was tying a torn piece of his shirt to cover the nasty wound on his left shoulder. His face was flat, not showing any pain at all, even though the wound was pretty deep.
"You sleep like a dead man," Belida remarked without looking back. His hands were busy tightening the cloth knot using his teeth and his right hand. "I even kicked your foot twice to make sure you were still breathing."
"Let me be dead for another five minutes," Kanos mumbled hoarsely. He tried to sit up, but immediately winced when his ribs shifted. "Seriously. My body feels like it got run over by a truck."
"A truck?"
"Forget it." Kanos wiped his face, which was caked with dried mud.
He pictured the blue system box in his head, and the transparent panel instantly popped up in front of his eyes.
[ HP: 22/60 ]
[ PHYSICAL STATUS: LIGHT INJURIES, DEHYDRATED, EXHAUSTED ]
Sleeping all night on a cold stone floor apparently only gave him back ten health points. This system was stingy as hell. At least the word 'starving' had changed to 'dehydrated'. Probably because he drank the water from that stone fruit last night, even if it tasted like garbage.
"We need to move soon," Belida said. He kicked the remaining ashes of the campfire, scattering them to make sure the fire was completely dead. "Nocturnal monsters are asleep, but daytime is hunting hour for packs of Coral Lizards. They move in groups. If we get intercepted, I can't hold them off without a weapon."
Kanos glanced at Belida's steel gauntlet that had been tossed to the floor last night. That left arm guard was useless now. His right hand was still armored, but Belida didn't carry a sword or a knife at all. This massive knight was technically empty-handed.
Kanos reached into his cargo pocket. He pulled out the last two chunks of charcoal he had, along with the flat river stone. There wasn't much charcoal left, only about the size of his thumb.
"What kind of weapon do you usually use?" Kanos asked.
Belida stared at the stone and charcoal in Kanos's hands. His eyes still looked a bit doubtful, but he answered anyway. "A two-handed greatsword. Standard for vanguard soldiers."
"Can't do it." Kanos shook his head. He placed the flat stone on his lap. "My only ink left is wood charcoal. If I make a long sword, the structure will be too brittle in the middle. You swing it once against a hard shell, the sword will snap in half."
"Then what can you make?"
"Something blunt, solid, that doesn't need a sharp edge to kill a target." Kanos scraped the tip of his charcoal against the stone floor to make it a bit pointed. "I'll make you a mace. I'll keep the handle short so the weight won't snap it easily, but I'll make the head the size of a melon. You're strong enough to lift heavy stuff with one hand, right?"
Belida snorted softly, as if Kanos's question was an insult to his muscles. "Just make it."
Kanos took a deep breath. This was the third time he was forcing his brain to form a real object.
He started drawing lines on the stone. The scraping sound of charcoal was rough. His brain immediately pictured the structure of an iron mace. A solid cylindrical handle. A round head covered in blunt conical spikes to shatter bone.
The nausea returned, this time hitting the pit of his stomach. His head throbbed violently. A thin blue light started glowing from the black lines he made. Kanos forced his hand to keep moving, holding his breath so his hand wouldn't shake while drawing the details of the head.
The moment the final line connected, the blue dust from the air was rapidly sucked onto the stone.
Thud.
A pitch-black mace the size of an adult's arm dropped onto the stone floor with a heavy thud. It was matte black, reflecting absolutely no light because it was made of compressed charcoal carbon.
Kanos immediately leaned back, panting heavily. Cold sweat dripped profusely from his forehead. His hand holding the leftover charcoal was shaking uncontrollably.
"Take it," Kanos ordered softly, his eyes half-closed fighting the dizziness.
Belida crouched down, picking up the black mace with his right hand. He looked a bit surprised when he felt its weight. The giant man stood up, then rotated his wrist to test the swing. The sound of the wind being split by the mace was loud and clear.
"The balance is perfect," Belida murmured, his eyes glued to the mace in his hand. He stared at Kanos again. This time, there was no condescending look. "The center of weight is right at the base of the head. I've never held a mace with this balanced of a distribution, not even ones forged by royal ironmasters."
"I told you, didn't I," Kanos replied, slipping the tiny bit of leftover charcoal back into his pocket. "I know the true shape of things. I know how they work."
"This is made of charcoal. How long can this thing last?"
Kanos shrugged. "Depends on how crazy you swing it. The material is still carbon. If you bash it against a solid rock over and over, it's gonna crack. Just use it to smash heads, don't use it to block slashes."
Belida nodded. He tied the mace to his leather belt. "Let's go. The city of Marrath is about ten kilometers to the north. If we keep moving and don't stop much, we can reach the outer gates before sunset."
"Ten kilometers?" Kanos held his breath. His legs already felt like they were going to fall off. "On foot? In this crazy forest?"
"Would you rather wait here until night falls again and those wolves return with their pack?"
Kanos didn't answer. He forced himself to stand up, wincing against the pain, and started walking, following Belida's large strides out of the ruined tower.
Traveling during the day turned out to be just as miserable as at night. The Yomalvara forest was an absolutely unwelcoming place for a level one human. The air was humid and hot. Purple vines hanging from the trees kept sticking to his clothes, leaving behind an itchy sap.
About two hours into trekking through the bushes, Belida's prediction came true.
From behind a thick bush ahead of them, two monsters emerged. They looked like Komodo dragons, but their backs were covered in sharp stone spikes. They were pretty huge, almost the size of large breed dogs.
"Coral Lizards," Belida whispered. He instantly pulled the charcoal mace from his belt. "Stay behind me. Don't make a sound."
Kanos took two steps back, finding a safe spot behind a massive tree trunk.
The two lizards hissed, flicking out their forked tongues. Without warning, the lizard on the left lunged forward with its mouth wide open, ready to bite Belida's leg.
Belida didn't step back. Instead, he took a step forward, planted his stance, and swung the black mace from top to bottom. There was no flashy technique. Just pure power and brutal accuracy.
CRACK!
The head of the charcoal mace smashed right on top of the lizard's skull. The sound made his teeth ache. The monster's skull was instantly crushed, and its body immediately dropped to the ground without even having the chance to thrash.
The second lizard was stunned seeing its packmate die. It tried to turn around to flee, but Belida was faster. With a sweeping side motion, Belida smashed into the second lizard's ribs. A rapid series of bones snapping echoed out, and the monster was thrown against a tree, dead on impact.
It took less than fifteen seconds. The fight was over.
Belida stood tall, taking a short breath. He studied the head of the mace in his hand.
Kanos was just about to step out from behind the tree when his vision was suddenly blocked by a transparent blue screen. Golden notifications blinked in front of his eyes.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED: CORAL LIZARD (x2) ]
[ EXPERIENCE SHARED: WEAPON CRAFTER (50% CONTRIBUTION) ]
[ EXP GAINED. MINOR PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTE INCREASE ]
[ STRENGTH: 4 -> 5 ]
Kanos gaped for a second. He rubbed his eyes.
Wait... I still get an EXP cut even if I'm not the one hitting them? Kanos thought. The corner of his mouth automatically pulled up. If this crazy system counted him dealing damage just because he crafted the weapon, that meant he didn't have to nearly die on the front lines. He just needed a muscular bodyguard to be his brawler. The stinging pain in his ribs also felt a bit better as his physical stat just went up.
Kanos walked closer, quickly hiding his satisfied smile. His Structural Analysis skill flared up for a moment. Blue lines appeared over the mace.
"Hairline fracture," Kanos said quietly. "On the neck of the mace. See it?"
Belida ran his fingers under the head of the mace. "Yes. Slightly. But the destructive power is incredible. If this were made of real steel..."
"Steel needs a medium much denser than wet charcoal, big guy," Kanos cut in. He stared at the remaining charcoal in his hand, which was now making his entire palm filthy. "That's why we need to get to the city fast. I need ink. Real ink. If we run into another big monster, that mace won't last more than five hits."
Belida nodded in agreement. He wiped the lizard blood off the mace with a leaf, then continued walking.
Three hours later, the forest began to thin out. Those giant purple trees were seen less often, replaced by an uphill rocky terrain. The air also felt different, breezier, and smelled like actual firewood smoke, not rotting leaves.
"We're almost there," Belida said when they reached the top of the rocky incline.
Kanos dragged his numb legs. He stood next to Belida, looking down at the massive valley. His eyes instantly widened.
Down below stretched an absurdly massive city. Its stone walls were incredibly high, surrounding an area packed tightly with red and gray-roofed buildings. But what shocked Kanos wasn't the city.
Right in the middle of the city, there was a giant hole.
Not an ordinary hole. It was a dark crater that might be hundreds of meters in diameter, like a meteorite impact site but with perfectly neat edges. There were dozens of iron chains the size of bridge pillars connecting the rim of the hole to a giant stone pillar floating right above the center.
"Welcome to Marrath," Belida's voice sounded quietly next to Kanos. "The city of death seekers."
Kanos swallowed hard. His throat was dry. As someone whose job was to handle landscape art for fantasy games, seeing the scale of this absurd architecture right in front of his very eyes truly made his legs go weak.
"Haaa, finally here," Kanos muttered. The corner of his mouth twitched. "Looks like I'm gonna have to find an art supply store ASAP."