Daylen's The Herald's Hammer shop was finally open.

The only thing that irritated him was that no one wanted anything to do with him.

It seemed no one needed his services.

He had forged many divine weapons using the aura congealing art. As opposed to the normal divine weapons that anyone could create for themselves given enough ressources, his divine weapons were elementless and were only imbued with aura.

For example, someone with the pyrokinesis ability nurtured a weapon with the same ability.

The weapon had to create a core imbued with the element or ability of the wielder first then outside sources could be used to level it up to a suitable level.

The art of aura congealing captured the aura in the surroundings and imbued the aura into the targeted object. The aura was free and one did not need to use aura crystals and the likes.

The weapons that were created could only spew out aura to attack. Normal aura was formless and could not hurt.

"You've been awfully quiet these days." Daylen looked at the grimoire.

I wanted to let you find the solution on your own, but I guess I'll have to teach you a few things.

"Why wait then? Tell me before I become too bored with this dreamscape."

The art of aura congealing gives you free aura to use. Ever wonder why every blacksmith is crazy for it?

"No, but I feel like I 've lost my time with it."

All those elementless divine weapons you recently created are only useful for one thing : replenishing lost aura.

Imagine you are fighting and you have no more aura left. In that case you use aura crystals and pure crystals to replenish yourself...

The divine weapons you made have no other abilities other that the aura that created them and since a divine weapon has a core and can store and recreate aura, it's like an outside source of aura.

"You're telling me that what I've created can only be used to replenish aura."

Think harder.

"Ornaments... jewelry...also armors, bracers, could enter the category...The more you have, the closest you are to an undying being that cannot be depleted of aura..."

Took you long enough...

You can also level up weapons with pre-existing ability cores inside of them for a price under the price the owner of the weapon would have paid to level it up on his own.

"I cannot create weapons with abilities?"

You'd have to hunt beasts for their cores and infuse them into your weapons or ornaments... There is an ability that lets you infuse monster cores into objects. The object then gains the ability as the monster core will act as the core of the weapon just like any weapon out there.

"Let me guess. Another impossible quest. So far, I've been lucky enough to gain abilities without having to do much. I can feel that the next quest you are about to send me on is going to be close to impossible to complete."

You can bet it is. It's not a quest per say but you have to complete a quest to gain the qualifications to enter a raid hosted by the creator of this dreamscape. Remember the kid you just sole from? He was completing his quest when you interrupted him. It's a random quest given by every grimoire but the difficulty is almost the same for everyone.

"Hosted by that god named Anlow? What is there to gain if you finish the raid?

-The third prize is whatever you want but it cannot exceed the 12th divine stage and the choice to reach the 13th stage or keep the crystals. You can ask for one ability, a custom-made weapon or pure crystals.

-The second prize is leveling you up to the 20th stage or keep the crystals and the right to ask for two abilities.

-The first prize is leveling you up to the 30th stage or keep the pure crystals, the right to ask for three abilities and the right to ask for a custom-made weapon of the 30th stage.

"So, even if I win, I can still choose to remain in the divine dreamscape rather than going to the ascendant dreamscape that starts at the 13th level. Are you sure that I can ask for any ability I can think of?"

Yes. as long as your team is in the first three you can ask for anything you need.

"Teams of how many?"

Three to six.

"Jax and Lin are suitable but their versions of undead are even more useful since they are a part of my power. I trust that they will not be counting my undead."

Even if you had a thousand undead, you'd count as one.

"Then I can forget about Jax and Lin. I need stronger teammates. What of that kid? Was killing the dragon his quest? And can I contact him to see if he can be my teammate for the raid?"

Good idea. His lightning ability is in the top three when it comes to crowd control from a distance and frontal attacks. His mission was to kill the dragon. He took the cloak of invisibility and the mirror core for mirror manipulation ability to increase his chances of winning the raid. His name is Daryl Hornraven. I can send a message to his grimoire and see.

"Do it. If he is preparing for the raid, I bet he has stronger teammates by his side.

Minutes later a message from a person named Graxx appeared:

Daylen Bright is it? You are intersted in forming a team but we just finished the raid. We were about to scout for another capable player to retry it and probably reach second place. I hear good things about you. I hear that you killed a dragon in a second when it took this kid two days as frightning as he is. I want to meet you. Where are you right now?

Southedge city. I own a shop called the herald's hammer. It's in the commecrial district.

Good. We have to prepare for the preliminary quests and we'll be there in ten days.

"I guess I should prepare as well. Time to forge."

With a new plan in mind, he started forging armors and ornaments of all kinds.

In five days, he had finished the first batch.

Luxurious ornaments and armors that could replenish aura with their aura cores at the divine stage.

The rate at which the ornaments and armors replenish themselves was as fast as the humans could. But in a fight the amount that you could replenish in the moment was not useful enough to launch proper attacks. The ornaments could however offer the amount needed in the fastest amount of time without burning through your hard earned crystals. The more ornaments you had, the more you could empty while the ones you emptied before were recovering their aura just like your body.

"The problem right now is to get the word out. Jax can probably help. He owes me one."

He called Jax with his grimoire and waited for a few hours before he showed up.

Daylen explained the usefulness of his ornaments and armors to a Jax that waas too excited to even listen to him.

"The hunter's guild can buy them from you directly and sell them. Or we can sell them for you and gain commissions. Your choice." Jax said.

"You can take such decisions?" a doubtful Daylen asked.

"Absolutely." Jax appeared confident.

Daylen was experiencing a dilemma. He did not have the time to sell his work nor advertise it. He had none of those skills and only preferred to forge.

"It must be clearly mentioned that they were forged by me inside this shop. You can take all of them for now and sell them for me. Keep twenty-five percent as commission." Daylen said.

"You're letting the my Hunter's guild choose the price we charge?" Jax could not believe it.

"Yes. Like that, I am pretty sure you'll try your best to earn as much as you can. In the meantime, I will be looking for a clerk and a few assistants to work around here." Daylen said.

An hour later, severals gigantic birds pulling carravans took all of the divine ornaments and armors to the hunter's guild of southedge city.

Earthshaking news about an auction without precendent were releassed in Southedge city and beyond.

Divine items made by the aura congealing art had resurfaced again.

It put the whole city into a frenzy, especially after learning that some of them were sold into a sets of armors instead of individual ones.

Those that believed that they could afford them were eleated after hearing the news.

Those that could not afford such items were on the verge of crying.

One item could replenish your entire aura before you depleted it. It was like having a life saving treasure that was a important as your own life.

Learning that there were entire sets of armors in which each piece was a divine item made everyone think of the lucky bastard that will acquire it.

An armor that turned you into an undying deity.

Daylen was kept in dark as the entire city bathed in madness.It was mostly because he prefered to lose himself in forging once again.

As he did not want anyone disturbing him, he had put a sign outside his shop that announced that he had given all his merchandise to the Hunter's guild. Everyone just left with a heavy sigh, knowing that they could not even bargain or ask for custom-made items.

Competition in the auctions was fierce and this one was sure to be fiercer than ever.

Like that, five days passed withought anyone ever seeing the Blacksmith of the hour.

It was only when a party of two barged into his shop that Daylen finaly woke up from his trance like state. There were even more ornaments and armors than last time before Jax left with them.

Daylen open the door to the front of the shop only to be greeted by a talking bombay cat : "Hey...I know that you are a huge celebrity and all but we've been waiting outside for three days. Did you even see our messages?"

"Forgive me. I was so engrossed by my work that I forgot that we were supposed to meet. You must be Graxx." Daylen said as he noticed that there was only another youth in the room, Daryl.

"Yes. I am Graxx. You've met Daryl last time." Said the cat as a it pointed at Daryl.

Daryl only managed to say : "What are your stats?"

Graxx said: "What's wrong with you? Can't you just say 'Hi' like a normal person?"

Daylen said: "It's okay. Look.."

Daylen then asked his grimoire to send his stats to the two.

Name Daylen Bright Title Dragon hunter Race Human Level 12/100(Divine stage) Weapon Hammer : 12th stage Abilities

Terrakinesis :

-The ability to control the earth

Undead Rites :

-The power to control the Undead.

-The user has control over undeads of similar level.

-The user can also give life to the dead transforming them into undead.

-Ability to rule over physical and ghostly undead, control souls of the dead or the dying.

Shade Walker:

-Create darkness and shadows.

-Become darkness incarnate : able to pass through objects.

-Ability to manipulate darkness and shadows.

-Can shift from a place to another through connected shadows.(Restricted teleportation)

Aura congealing:

-Make the aura in the immediate surounding your ally.

-Absorb and manipulate the aura present in the area around you.(50 meters.)

-Blacksmithing: Congeal aura from the surroundings into the hammer while hammering. Your products will be imbued with aura for as long as you hammer resulting in the creation of a stronger weapon. The aura can also be used to polish the product according to the user's wish.

Pure crystals 19 Undeads

3 :

-Thorn 1 :

Level 12/100(divine stage) Weapon Bow : 12th stage Abilities Wind Manipulation

-Thorn 2 :

Level 12/100(divine stage) Weapon Bow : 12th stage Abilities Wind Manipulation

-Cleaver :

Level 12/100(divine stage) Weapon Sword : 12th stage Abilities Wind Manipulation Other

Fire cores

Quantity: 2761 cores Grants the ability to breathe fire. (Gained from the killing of wyverns)

Graxx looked at the stats in disbelief : "This...this is way too much...Can you even die?"

Daryl then said : "One single ability makes you invincibe in close quarters combat while the other makes you almost invincible on a battlefield with expandable soldiers...this is better than my lightning, there is always the risk that I can die."

"You can create as many undead as you want?" Graxx asked?

"Yes." Daylen said.

"Good. Good. Good." The cat said as it looked at Daryl.

"What are you looking at me for?" Daryl said as he backed up. He knew that the cat was up to no good again.

"You have more pure crystals than anybody in the dreamscape but you are not allowed to use them in the raid." Graxx said.

"What's your plan?" Daryl asked.

"Simple. Let him kill you as many times as it takes. If we have undeads with your ability in front of us, the raid will become a walk in the park for us." Grax said.

"We'll have to do the raid with an increased difficulty then. For better rewards."Daryl said.

"There is such a thing?" Daylen asked.

"Yes but the drops are random. They are worth it though. From what the grimoire told us, most of the time, the abilities that you gain complement your bloodline ability." Graxx said.

Daryl was then Killed twenty times before Graxx said that it was enough.

With twenty more undead to work with, Daylen was overwhelmed.

"What is my quest to enter the raid?" Daylen asked the grimoire.

There are three modes for the raid:

Human mode: Which is the easiest.

-Rewards:

-The third prize is whatever you want but it cannot exceed the 12th divine stage and the choice to reach the 13th stage or keep the crystals. You can ask for one ability, a custom-made weapon or pure crystals.

-The second prize is leveling you up to the 20th stage or keep the crystals and the right to ask for two abilities.

-The first prize is leveling you up to the 30th stage or keep the pure crystals, the right to ask for three abilities and the right to ask for a custom-made weapon of the 30th stage.

God mode :

-Rewards :

Rewards of the human mode with one drop of a random ability that complements your bloodline ability. Restriction: Must be in the first three

Demon God mode

-Rewards :

Rewards of the human mode with 2 drops of a random ability that complements your bloodline. Restriction: Must be in the first three The quest depends on the mode you plan on entering.

Daylen looked at the other two.

"My last quest was for the Human mode and it was difficult enough to kill the arcane mirror dragon. Let's try the God mode." Daryl said.

Graxx objected: "No. The Demon god mode."

"Why must you be so greedy?" Daryl asked.

"We have nothing to lose and we have a small army of undead on our side." Graxx said.

You're also allowed to create a party for the Demon god quest.

The grimoires said.

"See? even the grimoires are on our side." Graxx said. He added : "Add Daylen to our party."

Daylen then recieved a message:

You've joined the Lightning god Party.

"Alright what will the quest be this time?" Daylen asked.

Defend frost village from the beast tide. You may not be the only ones who recieved this quest. Accept quest?

"This is easy." Graxx.

"You always say that only to be first to run away." Daryl mocked.

"Yes, we accept."

Good luck.