Departure! (Continued)

For an instant, he felt incredibly light. Then he grew impossibly heavy, and a heartbeat later, he seemed to have boundless strength.

The feeling came and went in a flash, vanishing without a trace.

But his weary mind suddenly perked up, and the hands that had been growing weak were once again brimming with explosive strength.

"This time, it actually feels real?"

Tetsu no Sosuke looked at his hands, delighted. He understood what had happened.

The attributes that directly affected his body had never increased by more than ten points before. He had felt a faint difference, but the one or two points he usually gained came while his strength was steadily being drained, so they had never felt like much.

This time was different. Every attribute had jumped by thirty points at once. With so many gains accumulating in his body, of course it felt different.

"Weapon Sharpness Level 1 adds ten points to every attribute, and Level 3 adds thirty. Too bad I only got ten points for repairing the Flower Pillar's sword, since I was just the one who repaired it. So if I forge blades at Sharpness Levels 4, 5, and 6... could I get forty, fifty, and sixty points outright?"

His expression turned a little strange. "The better the blade I forge, the better the reward. Come to think of it, that makes perfect sense."

Then he felt something tugging at his mind.

He closed his eyes and suddenly saw a hammer.

When he opened them, it was gone.

"The Heavenly Crafting Hammer?"

Recalling his earlier reward, he realized what it was. "But how do I take it out?"

The moment the thought of taking it out crossed his mind, a hammer appeared in his hand.

It was a round-headed iron hammer with a distinctly metallic sheen.

He had no idea what it was made of, but anything called "Heavenly" could hardly be ordinary.

As he examined it more closely, a strange feeling came over him.

"This hammer seems able to stack beneficial attributes as much as possible while reducing how many of them get used up."

No words had told him so. He could simply feel it, as though the hammer itself were telling him.

"I don't have time to test what you can do right now."

He put away the Heavenly Crafting Hammer and decided to see the Village Chief.

The Nichirin Blade was finished. Naturally, he needed to deliver it to the Swordsman.

Before that, though, he had to report to the Village Chief.

They also needed to go over how he would travel and how they would stay in contact.

That took some time. In the end, they settled on leaving early the next morning.

When Tetsu no Sosuke woke the next morning, he felt completely refreshed.

Ever since he had decided to become a Swordsmith, he seemed to sleep exceptionally well every night.