Chapter 51 - Regret
Kai was sweating as the hammer struck the red glowing mass.
The sound was like music.
Though Kai was struggling, his entire body was shown within the mind space. He really just wanted to summon an ice bath and walk into it, but he couldn't. He had to keep the island at the same temperature.
Kai's mind spun as he quickly began imagining a massive dome covering the island he was on.
At the same time, another dome appeared around that same area.
The mind space was truly a great thing.
Kai was trying to imitate the katana he had bought from the system. He picked up many random materials, from iron to diamonds, rubies, and some others he barely knew anything about besides their names and properties.
Heat Gems were an ore found near volcanoes or created by infusing any gem with fire affinity mana.
Kai had a plan, and he was sure he was about to make it.
A naturally created Spirit-grade weapon.
But it needed to be better.
Since he had all the materials he could ever want in the world, this was perhaps the most overly made katana in existence.
Kai finally finished it and stared at the blade.
"Flaming Fang. Before you say anything, I didn't find a good name."
Kai stared at the katana as it finally cooled down.
The blade part, just like the dagger, was crimson in color and released natural heat.
At the hilt of the blade, a dark red gem was fused into the weapon.
This was the only uncrushed Heat Gem he had, and he fused it into the blade in its raw form.
Kai inspected the katana.
[Flaming Fang - Spirit Grade Weapon]
[Flaming Fang - A weapon crafted by Yuan. The first of its kind in the world. An elemental weapon.]
Kai stared as multiple system screens rapidly appeared.
[Completed hidden quest - Craft Spirit Grade Weapon]
[Completed all daily quests. Gain level up.]
[Leveled up]
[Leveled up]
[Level up]
They kept appearing until they finally stopped.
Then a new overwhelming screen appeared.
It was exactly the same one he had received when the system detected his first bloodline, and the same one that appeared with his second.
[You have reached Level 15. System upgrade available.]
[You have upgraded a skill.]
[Basic Forging -> Path of the Forge]
[Path of the Forge - Level 1: Allows the user to forge weapons of Spirit Grade and, when special conditions are met, craft even Heaven Grade weapons.]
Kai smiled proudly before laughing like a madman.
Then he choked on his own laughter.
Kai coughed and said "Alright. First things first, we need to make runes for the new blade. Could I enchant it so it reaches Earth Grade or even Heaven Grade?"
[You could if you had the ability, but right now you might only be able to do that up to Earth Grade.]
Kai laughed again and said "Alright, alright! Does the katana have any natural skills?"
[No weapon can have natural skills. Most are either enchantments or core skills created by the blacksmith while crafting the weapon.]
Kai scoffed and said "We'll see about that... One day. Actually, I ain't betting on that."
Kai stood up and raised his hand.
His senses expanded as he performed a quick teleport.
Kai had just used Shadow Sight for the first time.
It was an instant teleportation ability, but he knew that was because of the short distance.
The longer the distance, the more time it would take.
Kai had finally realized the affinities he possessed, at least the ones he could feel within his body.
The way to feel them was simple.
Normally, someone would need to enter special rooms to perform the test, where the environment could be changed.
But as the mana in the air around Kai turned into fire affinity due to the mind space, Kai did not feel uneasy.
He had an affinity for fire.
At least that was one of them.
Then he began testing and became bored after an hour because every time he tried something, it kept working.
Kai suspected he had far too many affinities for a human.
He had already passed the well-known limit of five affinities.
Kai raised his hand as he infused a part of his mana with fire affinity and launched a massive beam of mana that burned everything in its path.
Kai smiled proudly and said "Now that would have been useful."
Kai raised his hand again and said "One of the skills Ray used on me dealt with gravity. I wonder if that's just his bloodline's skill or his affinity."
Kai raised his hand and said "Inferno."
He immediately cringed.
"I can't believe I'm going to name a skill like that. Why did I get picked to name it? Can you system name it?"
[The skill was created by you, meaning you are the only one who has the records of its creation, allowing you to name it.]
Kai sighed and said "Come on! You and your records."
The skill in question was a simple variation of his explosion skill.
It was essentially what would happen if a fire mana beam and an explosion had a child.
Inferno would create a massive explosion of pure fire elemental mana.
Burning everything around it, the skill was created specifically to be placed onto the katana.
Kai infused the skill into it and began the next step of making this an Earth Grade weapon.
He had an idea.
A rune capable of fixing anything.
Just like Kai's Green Hunter's Garb, he wanted to create something that could repair itself.
Kai began by creating another dagger.
This one was only Mortal Grade.
He made it as a temporary tool and spent two hours creating it.
It did not even matter because neither he nor the system knew how much time had passed.
The only reason the system knew before was because it could keep track of time.
Now it no longer had that ability.
Kai could not even remember the final part of his fight with Elder Huan.
But after far too long, Kai had finally somewhat understood how the runes meant to repair the tool worked.
Using the system, Kai was able to figure out much more about item records.
So much more that he understood the rune was directly tugging at the records of the weapon to maintain its original shape.
However, at Kai's current level, this was nothing more than a dream.
There was no way he could even attempt something like that.
And yet, after Kai forced the system to count time, it had collectively been nine days since he started experimenting with runes.
[You are wasting your time. At your current level, it is not possible to achieve what the runes on your tools do.]
Kai ignored the system.
Once again, he used God Eyes on his body, trying to improve how mana flowed through the mana vines inside him.
However, he could not help but notice that the unknown black and white energy at the ends of his body had grown stronger.
Kai questioned the system.
"What is that?"
[As previously said, it is unknown but recognized as a part of your Weaver's bloodline.]
Kai asked "Is it possible to upgrade it once again? Past Heaven Grade?"
[Yes. However, this time you will have to force your bloodline core to spin faster and deprive it of most of its energy. You can naturally do this due to your title.]
[Title: Governor of Bloodline Essence (Passive) - As long as you live, this title will allow you to control bloodline essence within your body and anyone you are in constant contact with, as long as your soul strength is greater than theirs.]
Kai sat down.
He already knew this was going to hurt like hell.
Since it was his mind space, he simply removed his pain receptors.
Kai began spreading the bloodline essence throughout his entire body, making it thinner and thinner.
Then he began controlling the bloodline essence within the core itself, forcing the core to spin faster and faster.
Kai should have started feeling pain by now.
But he felt nothing.
Kai smirked as he activated [Nightfall's Magic-Martial Art].
He snapped his fingers, and it became nighttime as all of his stats increased.
Kai felt the pure power flowing through him, but he also felt the faint bloodline essence beginning to change in quality.
Using the title, Kai forced the transformation to become faster and stronger.
Kai felt the core begin glowing with pure radiant power.
He also saw the unknown energy pulsing within him, expanding and contracting.
Kai did not know what was happening, but he knew he was on the right path.
Slowly, he felt his power increase as the bloodline spun faster and faster until it looked like a sphere.
Originally, it was already a sphere.
But now it looked like a sphere made of countless hexagons.
Kai felt the blood inside his body burning.
He also began feeling intense sharp pain in his chest, even though his pain receptors were nonexistent.
Kai screamed in pain.
As he did, he accidentally and instinctively activated [War Cry of Mana].
Kai screamed "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
[Your soul is under far too much pressure. Your real body is simply not strong enough to hold a Divine-ranked bloodline.]
Kai shouted in pain.
"Y-You piece of shit!"
Kai roared as he activated [Absolute Charge].