Jude was a little disappointed that he didn't have anything else to work with and wished he asked for more than one ring. Once he started to focus on something he would block everything else out and work endlessly on that one thing. That was part of the reason why his was already Rank III. One must understand that the equivalent Wizard skill was much harder to learn than other types of magic. And was ten times harder to learn than . It was only because of Jude’s dedication and past experience in another world that he was able to get it to Rank III.

The time he spent in Longdale after the defeat of the , Jude found that he could stay awake for three days at a time because of his high Spirit (Spi) stat. He was more than ready to pull an all-nighter if only he could find the right objects to work on.

Since everyone else was getting ready to sleep, he didn’t feel right to ask Ellie to make him something. So he went digging through his to find something that might work. He found a few small things, but nothing suitable. He took a gold coin out but, curiously, found it unenchantable. Moving on to larger items than a coin or ring, he was surprised to find that food could be inscribed in a similar way as the ring, but the workable area was way to small for what he wanted to do.

Next, he pulled out his sword. Krinn had given it back to him when he received his axe back from Cairfray. After Jude had taken over Longdale, he had upgraded his sword to an Exquisite Steel Sword made by none other than Ellie. It did a good amount of damage and boosted all of his stats thanks to her Divine Smith class. Even someone level 30 would be drooling after this weapon. But Ellie empowered this sword through external glyphs, so Jude wondered how the internal space for inscriptions would look like if it already had them. Would it have the same glyphs on the outside or would it be blank? Or would the internal space for inscribing even be there? If it were blank Jude would be able to use the sword for an experiment!

He had used on this sword before, so he already knew the answer somewhat. The glyphs showed up in the properties, but what he didn't know was how it related to the space where he could write circuitry as he did with the bronze ring.

Jude activated his skill and looked inside the weapon. To his surprise, the glyphs didn’t take up more room, rather they added room to the item! On closer examination, each glyph added an entire region of inner space perfect for spell circuitry! Each space radiated energy of the particular glyph and Jude assumed that he would need to write something corresponding to that energy. This area also answered his question at how the creators of Cairfray’s ring embedded glyphs into its internal structure. Rune’s he could understand as they were more exacting, but glyphs were abstract pictographs that only crafters could use and he didn't know how they could have been put into the internal space. But evidently, the glyphs were one of the most integral parts of expanding and extending what an item was capable of.

This sword was something Ellie had made early on in their work. It only contained the simpler glyphs for Health, Mana, Strength, Spirit, Agility, and Charisma. If Jude wanted to make skill circuitry inside this item, it would need to be put into one of those categories. The Mana glyph would be a good one to choose to power a skill and Spirit would be another good one if he wanted to make a magic based skill. Or could he connect them?

Ideas were blazing through Jude’s mind as he started laying out circuitry with . Already he noticed a marked difference from when he was trying to use this skill on the bronze ring or even his own Modicuit; it felt much stronger than before. The glyphs were like a strong foundation; they were able to support a weightier power.

Jude continued to work on the sword all through the night. One idea connected to another and soon the circuitry spread across the inner plane of the item from the Mana glyph to the Spirit glyph. But as one thought led to another so did the circuitry expand. A new idea formed and he created more skills that connected Agility and Charisma and again with Health and Strength.

By the time morning light began to flow out of the gigantic embedded into the ceiling, a radiant glow was now emanating from the sword. And the name of the sword had changed as well; it was now the Arkess Underlight.

***

Ellie woke up in the morning to find Jude still sitting cross-legged with a sword in his lap. She wasn’t surprised by this; she had seen Jude often get lost in his work. But in the past, it was with so she could see that he was actively working. Now it just seemed as if he was sitting with his eyes closed. She would have thought he was asleep, but there was an air of energy in his sitting.

She looked down at the sword and though it strange how it caught the morning light. But then she realized that it wasn’t catching the morning light, it was alight itself! She wasn’t sure what Jude was doing but thought that it had to be some form of inscription. He had fallen the day before from his shock at examining Cairfray’s ring and could only guess that he had figured out a new way of doing things yet again.

By this point, the others were waking up as well. Wen was the first one to speak.

“What is going on with that sword?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” Ellie replied, “But it looks like Jude had some success last night.”

“Just leave him be,” Krinn said with a yawn. “If we make some good smelling breakfast he will come out of it. Or that horrible Gib Dei he drinks.”

“Really,” Wen said sarcastically, they hadn’t had a fire to cook with in weeks, “I would like to see how you are going to do that.”

Krinn’s tired brain was slow to catch up, so he only gave Wen a confused look.

“Ugh, my sarcastic talent is completely wasted on you,” Wen said, and girls giggled.

It was at this moment that a flash of light burst off the sword Jude was working on, and then all went dim. Jude opened his eyes to see his friends and smiled.

“I had some good luck last night,” he said, “Let’s go hunt down some monsters and see how it works.”

Krinn yawned again, “Breakfast first, I want something that smells good.”

Wen rolled her eyes.

***

The group headed out towards the forest as soon as they finished their cold, hard breakfast. Jude had stowed away his staff and was only carrying his sword. Now that he thought about it, Jude wondered what kind of enhancements he could make to his staff. The Dark Wood Staff of Light that he used as his primary weapon was actually a crafting material. It could be considered a staff blank, ready to be made into a supreme magical item. It was just such a good crafting material that it could also be used as a weapon.

In fact, Jude had learned during his time in Longdale that many low-level dungeon items were this way. Many adventurers would slowly refine at least one item they got from a dungeon, and that item would say with them for quite a while. The only problem in the past with Longdale was that their dungeon was too hard for the newbies of the area to complete it. Hence, things like the Dark Wood Staff of Light were relatively rare. The goblin village in the Allur Forest would also drop such an item, but it was only on the village chief, and the drop rate was not very good.

Jude had thought about going out and seeing if he could get more craftable items but decided against it. Once you got one such item, it wasn’t easy to get another one, besides he had Ellie to make his other items. She was primarily a blacksmith, but she could use her Divine Smith abilities on just about any item. It really was a ‘divine’ class.

“Oh come on, tell me what it does,” Ellie had been pestering him about what he had done to the sword.

“I already told you, I want to showcase it first. And the best way to do that is against an enemy.” Jude replied.

“But that is a sword that I smithed! You should let me examine it before you take it to battle.” Ellie insisted.

“Oh look, there’s a ,” Krinn said, “Why don’t you try your sword out on it?”

“Sure, you guys stay here,” Jude said and avoided Ellie’s glare.

“you're going by yourself?” Nellie asked. “Do you want me to come and heal?”

“I think I can take care of a single treant, but thanks.”

As Jude left, Wen commented, “He must feel confident about his new sword if he is going it alone.”

“He’s not exactly alone. We are all here in case it is too much for him.” Krinn said.

Ellie smirked, “You really think he’s going to need help? This is Jude after all.”

“I guess you’re right,” Krinn admitted with a chuckle.

***

Jude walked toward the , it’s lifeless body looked like a dead and hollow tree. The bark faded and fallen away leaving a gray husk of what this mighty treant once used to be. Even though it looked dead, Jude knew that it was still alive. He began to wonder about what a really was. Was it possible that this being was the zombie version for trees? It was an interesting thought, but he cast it aside, right now it was time to test out his new technique.

First, he cast some to destabilize the ground causing it to burst up with spikes made of rock. The spikes tried to stab into the tree but had little effect as treants had a natural resistance to earth type magic. But Jude wasn’t aiming to damage the monster with it; rather he used it to wake it up.

The treant slowly aroused, the cracks in its surface formed to the shapes of eyes and mouth. Inside the orifices, there was a pale green light that this breed of treant all exhibited. The roots burst forth from the ground, and the treant used them to move forward like a flood of writhing snakes. This treant's roots were especially numerous as it used both the roots and branches to launch its first attack.

Jude waved the sword and issued the command word, “.”

After which, Jude appeared a distance behind the treant. Then he turned around and waved the sword again saying yet another word, “.”

A flair burst forth from the sword and hit the treant from the back side. It looked exactly like a spark created from a piece of flint, only bigger. And just as a spark starts a fire, so too did this skill. The treant’s back side ignited with a burst of flame.

The treant roared! A treants weakness is not always fire, but a was the dried out husk of a normal treant. Fire was a very significant weakness to it. But these treants had lived down in the Arkess Aquifers for a long time and only setting one of fire was not enough.

The treant turned around far faster than it would seem possible. Its branches working quickly to put out the fire while its roots advanced like an army of pikemen. However, Jude was not worried, this was the perfect opportunity to test out the last skill he imbued into the sword.

Jude swung his sword in a large slow arc and said, “!”

An intangible force shot out towards the roots like a shockwave. The front line of the roots burst into pieces. The rest of the roots were pushed back toppling the tree over. This helped put out the fire on the tree’s back, but Jude was not concerned with it. With the tree fell over, it was in a very vulnerable spot.

Jude cast several more , quickly setting the whole thing on fire. Then he used appear 10 meters above the treant where he unleashed another . The shockwave blasted the treant into pieces and put out the fire before it could catch the surroundings ablaze. Another two blinks’ later and Jude was standing before his friends yet again.

“So, how was it?” He asked.

They merely stood there with their jaws dropped.

Ellie was the first to respond, “How did you do that?”

Of course, she was the most curious one as she helped Jude with a lot of his research into various magical studies and items. Cairfray was curious also, but she venerated Jude, so she didn’t voice that curiosity.

Jude explained to the group how he had written magic into the item. He left out the parts about circuitry and did his best to explain it another way.

“Wait, if each of the glyphs that I put on the sword creates its own space,” Ellie asked, “Then how did you bridge the gaps in between the glyphs?”

“Good question,” Jude said, “Each glyph does indeed create its own space which is then reinforced by that kind of power. But since the Glyphs are all on the same item, there really isn’t a gap between the two inner spaces. Although, some are harder to reach than others.”

Finally, Cairfray’s curiosity couldn’t be contained, so she asked, “Did you actually cast back there?”

“Yes, although this is not the same as the blink. You should have access to it now, right? After all, I saw you cast that , and it’s a higher rank than .”

“That’s right, but my is nowhere near as powerful as yours. At most I can move about a meter. How can you move so far?” Cairfray asked.

“It’s a little bit of a trick really. Your is an actual teleport through space that happens very quickly. Mine enhances my speed to an extreme while at the same time creates an illusion that I’ve disappeared. At my level, it puts a lot of stress on my body. If I used it a bit more back there, I would probably start losing health!” Jude laughed at himself.

The gains from this experiment were great, and he wondered what other effects he could make using this technique. His other achievement from this process was to rank up to Rank V. This unlocked something he had been hoping for. .