The workshop was considerably darker since Arnold had fallen asleep, but on the outside, the moon was shining in all its glory, a cool breeze was flowing around, everything was peaceful... everything, except Arnold's mind as he constantly flipped and squirmed on his bed while sleeping. He was having a nightmare, like one he had long back when Bob (Bad-Breath) and Nikki, tried to capture his sister. But this time, it was a bit different...

He was stranded on a barren snowy mountain. There was not even a single living soul in his sights, just rock and snow all around. He felt a bit cold as he wasn't wearing anything apart from a worn-out shirt and a torn pants that barely covered his knees and was climbing the mountain barefoot, but still, the cold was bearable, it wasn't like someone who had ice affinity would freeze to death either way. ​​

Arnold knew it was him but something felt different as he couldn't control his own body. Suddenly his body started paining a lot. It was then he noticed that his body was covered with wounds, there wasn't a single part of his body that wasn't drenched in blood... taking a single step was proving to be a herculean task, but he kept moving forward.

With every step he took more blood spurted out of his wounds... it was as if he was possessed... all he cared about was reaching the summit of the mountain. His bloodshot eyes were filled with rage, remorse and sadness. He wanted to give up, but he kept moving forward. His stamina was running low as the weight of his body was pulling him down.

From time to time, he heard the bloodcurdling cries of multiple people... most of whom were cursing him to death and desperately trying to shake his focus but he just smiled and kept moving forward towards the summit of the mountain... The place of his salvation.

But before he could reach there, a man gently grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. Arnold turned around but lost his balance and fell over. He tried to look up to the one who made him fall but his vision was blacked out and he couldn't see a thing... he could only hear a man's voice ringing in his ears...

"Being my vassal is a curse... a curse to lose everything you ever loved... a curse to make the sacrifices for the greater good... a curse of creation and destruction..." The voice whispered, "But you're not ready yet... for you don't know what true meaning of sacrifice is. Go back now... become a true vassal... defeat the trials and when you've experienced the true pain... come and find me... only then you'd be worthy of becoming my successor. No matter what happens you must never lose hope in yourself, and never forget your dharma." (Author's note: 'Dharma' essentially translates to religion but in Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as Jainism it has a much deeper meaning than that. The word itself encompasses, the eternal and inherent nature of reality, regarded as a cosmic law underlying right behaviour and social order, or in other words, it is the 'Law of Life'. Which guides a soul on the right path.)

****

Arnold woke up with a start, his whole body was drenched in his sweat. His heart was beating madly, ready to come out of his mouth at any second. He placed his right hand on his chest, tried to calm his heart and his breath.

"What the hell was that all about..."

Once he regained his composure, he looked around himself to confirm whether it was a dream or not... he was still inside the room next to the workshop.

'So it was a nightmare...'

He then tried to remember what he was dreaming about but nothing much came into his mind... and all he remembered clearly was a strange feeling... as if his life was slowly being torn apart.

Slowly he began to vaguely remember a bit more about his 'nightmare'. He remembered the voice of the man who was standing in front of him. Arnold didn't know who the man was but his voice sounded divine and almighty... The man was telling him something about Dharma or something but he couldn't remember what.

He was still tired so he tried to sleep once again but he just couldn't. Whenever he closed his eyes, the image of his bloodied and battered self flashed before his eyes.

"Damn it! I can't sleep like this. Nor can I ignore the nightmare... last time I ignored it Nicole almost got kidnapped." He said as he massaged his temple, "The only good thing this time was that it only involved me and nobody else... I guess I got all the sleep I could, so much for having a peaceful night."

He hastily got up from his bed, drank some water and went inside the workshop, as it was the only place that would distract his mind intro doing something fruitful. Once he was inside the workshop, he poured all of the materials that he had gained after hunting a few monsters earlier, on the floor and then proceeded to fire up the forge. He didn't spare a single thought on what he was going to make as he already had a clear picture in his head about it.

"I don't wanna ignore that nightmare... in any case, it's about time to rearm my summons with deadlier weapons." Arnold nodded his head, "They are my first line of defence as well as offence, if they have better weapons, it'll increase their battle prowess significantly."

With that being said, he picked up the largest scale he had gained after processing the leviathan grade insect and started beating on the scales slowly shaping it up. He also summoned Talos and the other automatons to help him out.

****

"Finally all done..." Arnold yawned as The sun came out and kissed the surface of the earth.

Arnold silently admired his new creations... a huge sledgehammer for Asterios and a katana like sword for Dread.

___

• [STORM CRUSHER]: A Warhammer made up of scales of a leviathan grade monster which was enhanced by its creator.

Grade: A

Strength (STR) : + 75

Weapon Type: Warhammer

Weight : 18 kg

Additional effect : [THE BARBARIAN

FROM HELL] - Each successful strike by this hammer increases the chances to insta-kill an enemy if the enemy has the same rank as the one welding the Warhammer.

Additional effect : [PLEASED TO KILL] - Killing enemies strengthens the hammer. (STR increases by 2 points for every 10 monsters slain.)

___

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• [FUTUSUNOMITAMA-NO-TSURUGI¹]: A katana made up of scales of a leviathan grade monster which was enhanced by its creator. The sharpness of this sword allows it to slice through the enemies like a hot knife through butter.

Grade: A

Strength (STR) : + 80

Weapon Type: Sword (Katana)

Weight : 12 kg

Additional effect : [LEVIATHAN'S FURY] - Deals additional 12% damage to monsters.

Additional effect : [UNTAMED DEATH] - When fighting alongside undead soldiers, adds a buff of +18 defence to the soldiers as well as the wielder of the sword.

___

(note: Generally weight of a katana is 1.5 kg but since this katana was made for Dread, thus it's bigger and heavier.)

He had already used Enhancement on both of these weapons as well as on his already overpowered cloak and gloves but sadly he could only achieve permanent enhancement on the Sledgehammer and the katana, but he wasn't sad or anything as his gears were already great and would remain so for a long time.

But that wasn't all, he was now making plans to make a variety of weapons to rearm all of his summons. Moreover, he still needed to figure out the secret behind the monster taming collars and the brainwashing blood concoction as well as meet with Nathan to think about what they were going to do with Allen.

"Tsk. It's gonna be a hell of a busy day for me."

***

1. Futsunomitama-no-Tsurugi: Is the name of the Sword of Shinto, Thunder God. You guys might've heard the name 'Futsunomitama' is you have seen 'Danmachi'.