Shit. That was lucky. I can’t afford to do that again. I can’t leave everything up to fate again. And my head is pounding. It hurts. Everything is dark. Am I still in Frost’s room? Does that mean Frost is still alive?

If he is, I’m screwed. Just as I was thinking that I see light. Light so bright, only sun could generate it. I open my eyes and see myself standing on a cliff overseeing a forest. Behind me is still forest. For some reason, I’m happy to be here.

It may not be The Forest, but I’m still happy to be near a forest.

So, I suppose my gamble paid off. I think it is safe to assume that this is the second floor. Finally, something different from that gloomy first floor.

I feel at home. But no matter how I call out to the tree, there is no response. Well, anyway, once again where do I head. If I head north, I will have to jump off from this cliff and who knows what’s down there.

And from my fight with Frost, I understood that arsenal is limited. What if I face this floor’s boss and it turns out to be even stronger that Frost? I can’t try my luck out like last time. Next time I really might die.

So, I need something more powerful. The way I am is not enough. I need to figure out something better. But what? I suppose I could start practicing sixth fifth technique. But that will take too long. Wait a minute I got nothing waiting for me outside. So, I got no problem with wasting few months in here.

So, I suppose I will start practicing the fifth technique then.

I enter my Soul Palace and open the door on second floor and enter. I find the copy of Ark’s book on the shelf and open it to take a look. After all, fifth technique can increase my firepower.

After all, what I am lacking is some kind of finishing move. I got the mana and strength to support it. But I lack the way to use it efficiently. Simply brawling with stronger opponents won’t work.

Ark’s fifth technique is different from the ones before. First to fourth ones were concentrated on brawling. Like punching and kicking. But fifth one cuts. By directing my mana in a specific direction and adding a vibration to it, I make an energy blade and that blade can cut through anything. Well, I suppose anything is kind of over exaggeration.

Still, it will be useful in a fight. If I could cut through Frost’s bones last time, I could have killed him, even though it would have been a little bit difficult.

But I think it will take a while for me to learn to direct my mana in that specific direction. And on top of that I need to go through few more steps to make that blade.

So, I guess I will start practicing it now.

First, I shape my mana into an ingot. After shaping it, I compress it as hard as I can. Then I mak…

Now, wait a minute. Isn’t it just forging? Why didn’t I notice it before? What makes it different is way I need to guide my mana to make these ingots. My mana becomes the material to forge the blade.

I think I will approach it in a different way then.

I erase what I made just now and enter my Soul Palace. After that I enter my third door. First, I make an anvil then hammer. I always liked an idea of becoming a blacksmith.

After that, I make an ingot out of mana and start hitting it. When tempering metal, I need to heat it. But I don’t need to do that for mana. And as I temper my mana ingot with my hammer, it starts to compress and shrink.

But problem is: I can’t temper it evenly. After few hits its shape deforms. I need to practice to temper this mana ingot into proper shape and only after learning that will it be possible for me to enter next stage.

So, I guess I will just continue tempering this ingot until I learn then.

……..

I finally manage to learn to temper mana ingot into right shape after month of training. It is no just about hitting in the right place. What is most important is hitting it with appropriate force. If I hit it too hard it will deform in wrong place. And if I hit it too soft it won’t have any point.

Now finally after whole month of non-stop training, did I manage to make a mana sheet out of mana ingot. After that I need to make nine more. Ooh, this will take a long time. But since I already started and learned how to do it, it will be much easier now.

And make another nine took me two more weeks. Still, it was worth it. Now that I finished making mana sheets from mana ingot, I need to layer them on top of each other and start tempering them again until they become one whole again.

That will be even harder I’m sure.

………

Whew, it’s been five months since I started forging my blade. I learned to how to temper my mana ingot into mana sheet in a month. After that I spend another three months to temper my mana sheets into one whole mana ingot again.

This is the first time I managed to do it perfectly. Now I have manga ingot with 20cmX5cmX3cm. Now I can finally start forging my blade out of this mana ingot. And once again I start hitting the ingot from the start.

This time it will be different. After I spend months forging mana ingot, I managed to learn it and that new knowledge somehow became a new spell matrix stored in my second door.

So, even if I fail to forge my blade on my first try, I can simply use the spell matrix to make a tempered mana ingot again. This makes things so much easier.

………

Damn it, even with the help of my spell matrix, it took me another six months to finally succeed at forging my blade. I say blade but it’s a katana really. Shape is exactly a katana. Last time katana I made out of mana broke like a stick because there was no depth to it. But now I believe things will be different.

Now that I managed to finish forging my katana blade, what’s left is easy. Making the tang and the sheath. And as I finish forging my mana katana in my third door, new spell matrix forms in my second door right next to my fourth technique’s spell matrix.

After finishing all that, I exit my Soul Palace and take a nap.

………

YAWN.

Whoo. That was nice. When I started doing this, I didn’t expect it to take almost a whole year. Frankly this was exhausting. Now let’s see the fruit of my labor.

I cast my katana’s spell matrix. Spell matrix materializes over my hands as I cast it. After a few seconds, matrix vanishes and instead of it lays a classic Japanese katana on my hands.

I hold its tang and unsheathe it. And as soon as I do that, I feel certain connection with it. I feel as if I can control it anyway I can. And the best way to manipulate it according to Ark’s book is to make its edge rotate at high frequency like a chain saw.

And if possible, make it vibrate at the same time too. That will increase its cutting power.

I know that a mana can rotate at least ten thousand times a second. At least that is how fast my mana rotates in my body when I’m using my techniques. But I know that is not the limit. I had to lower it because if I make it rotate too fast, it will start rending my innards into shreds.

But with this katana, I don’t have to worry about that. As I forged it from scratch, I know that this katana is at least ten times sturdier than me. So, that means I can push my mana to rotate at least hundred thousand and with that I believe I can cut through anything.

Now I can explore this floor with more confidence.