Transmigrate to another world

Once the scabbards are ready, I clip the katanas to my belt, but I'm still thinking about the skill upgrade and wondering if I should forge a two-handed sword.

I can always go get more iron, if there's enough, I could make one. Oh wait, what about that other ore I found, armatite, right? Maybe I should try that.

So I go back to camp to get the other ore and take it to the forge, place it in the crucible and put it in the forge. While I wait, I burn my mana by adding mana veins; by then, I have all my organs hooked up and am working on my muscles. When I finish and wake up from meditation, I check the mineral, but find that it has not melted.

I touch the amulet and say "Ruby?"

Ruby comes out in spirit form and says, "Yes, Klein?"

"Any idea why this mineral is not melting?"

Ruby takes human form and looks at the mineral "Isn't that Armatite?"

"Yes, I think so."

Ruby replies, "Well, that's why. It has a much higher melting temperature than iron."

"Oh, can the forge get that hot?"

Ruby says, "Yes, but I have to fire it directly. I don't think you can use that metal, it takes mana to work it. I know because I saw the Archmage make a single dagger and in doing so he was exhausted."

"Okay, for now let's cast it into a bar, I can carry it more easily and decide what to do with it later."

Ruby says "Sure."

Ruby walks behind the forge and places her hands on it, then with a look of concentration on her face she begins to light the forge. I quickly move to the side as the heat pouring out of her blasts. I quickly move the ingot mold and replace it with a bar mold, then, standing to the side as much as I can, I place the crucible back into the forge.

I watch the ore turn from a brown rock to a silvery metal as it melts. Once it is completely melted and has bubbled for a while, I guess it should be pure, so I take out the crucible and pour it into the mold. Even with my fire resistance, it burns my hands and I get dizzy when my mana reaches zero.

⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.

- Congratulations, the Blacksmithing skill has advanced to level 10!

√ Blacksmithing

√ Level 10 ?????

- Strength +10 Fire resistance +10

- You can transform metal ores into useful items.

'Wow, I got a level just for smelting this?'

Hey, wait, what's with those question marks? The temperature in the room drops rapidly and Ruby, in spirit form, returns to the amulet.

Ruby thinks to herself, 'Sorry, Klein, I'm out of energy.

"Don't apologize. I ran out of mana too, just by melting it. I wasn't expecting it, you earned your break. Thank you."

I sit and meditate to regain some mana while I wait for the bar to cool down. Two hours later, I wake up from meditation, pick up the bar and study it.

"MAGIC OBJECT."

√ armatite bar.

- A magic metal, stronger and lighter than steel.

⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.

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- Congratulations, the Observe skill has advanced to level 5!

√ Observe

√ Level 5

- Intelligence. +5

- You can identify items with study.

"Charming, huh, I wonder if that's why you absorbed mana from both of us?".

Since I have to wait until Ruby recovers to ask her about my ability, I decide to do an experiment. I meditate until my mana is full and then channel it all into the metal bar.

⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.

- Congratulations, you have acquired the magic skill Channeling!

√ channeling

√ Level 1

- Intelligence +1 Mana +10

- You have experience in channeling mana.

"Nice. Another way to increase my mana pool."

Since it seems to have worked, I repeat the process a couple more times. This takes me more than a day, as I have to meditate for hours between each channeling.

Ruby comes out of the amulet in spirit form and says "What are you doing?"

"I've been channeling mana to the bar while waiting for you to recover. I think it's working, look, now there's a golden dot."

Ruby says "Yes, when the Archmage finished the dagger it was already golden, so I guess it's working."

"Besides that, I have a question. You see the skills the same way I see them now, so when we cast this I got to level ten smithing. Next to the level is a bunch of question marks, any idea what that might be?"

Ruby says, "Well, I can't be sure, but it should mean that the skill can evolve."

"Okay, that sounds good, but how do I evolve it?"

Ruby says, "I know of two ways, one is years of study and effort, the other is to use a bestial core."

"Okay, the beast core is easy enough, what grade?"

Ruby says, "For first stage evolution it has to be above a minor grade."

"Wait, first stage evolution?"

Ruby says, "Yes, the first time you evolve a skill is called first stage. Not all skills can evolve, some can only evolve once, but others can evolve two or three times. Second and third stage evolutions require supreme and higher grade beast cores."

"Alas, that could get expensive, well, I won't worry about that for now. I just hope we find a decent beast core as we explore."

Ruby says, "Oh, did you finally finish crafting, are we going to explore now?"

"Yes, I'm done for now. Yes, we can go exploring, but after we eat."

Ruby says "Yes!" and follows me back to camp.

I fish and cook some fish and, while we eat, I show Ruby the map. I show her where the camp is and where her room is so she has an idea of distances.

"First, I want to explore this corridor above the spiders' lair. I think it will connect the two sides. If so, it will be the dividing line. We'll explore everything to the south first."

Ruby says, "Okay, just so you know, I never saw anything outside of my room and the forge room until you came along. So, I can't tell you what might be down here."

"That's okay, I've been exploring blind since I started this mess. At least now I have company to watch my back."

Ruby smiles and finishes her fish then starts to put on her armor while I finish eating.

Ruby says, "By the way master, your new armor looks really nice."

"Oh thank you!"

Once I finished eating, we got our weapons ready and set out to finally explore. Ruby is very excited and practically bounces around the place as she waits for me. When I start moving, she quickly changes to spirit form and flies over the river before transforming back. I simply jump and then lead the way to the nearest exit of the cavern.

The tunnel out of the cavern is only fifteen feet long before it reaches a fork. To the left and right is the main tunnel, though to the left it is blocked by a cave-in. Just on the other side is a smaller passageway that descends a little and then turns left. I lead Ruby to the right down the main tunnel for about thirty feet until we come to a large corridor on the left.

If I am correct, this should be the hallway that the spider room connected to, so we headed down it to check it out. After about forty-five meters, we come to a turn-off to our right. Sure enough, I can see my footprints in the dust, leading to the spiders' lair.

So we go straight ahead, thirty feet ahead is a passageway on the left and thirty feet beyond that is a passageway on the right. I'm taking careful note of the distances so I can add it all to the map accurately.

The next passageway is again on the right, forty feet below the last one, again we pass it because I want to determine the length of this cross passageway and whether it connects to the other main tunnel.

Sixty feet further on, the corridor ends; to the left, it collapsed, so we turn to the right. This is definitely the other main tunnel where I annihilated the goblins, but after fifteen feet, it opens into a room.

In the center of the room is a pile of bones and on the other side the passage continues. I don't see any other way out of the room, so I head towards the pile of bones with the intention of going around it.

"Rattle" "Rattle" "Rattle" "Rattle."

I freeze at the first sound and watch as some of the bones begin to move. Three skeletons rise from the pile of bones and begin to slowly walk towards Ruby and me.

"They are skeletons, a lesser form of undead, destroy the skull and that should be the end of them."

Ruby says "Alright" as she moves towards the skeleton closest to her.

I sheath my katanas and take the mace from my belt. I move towards the other two skeletons and smash the mace into the skull of the lead skeleton.

"Smash!"

The skeleton doesn't even try to defend itself, and as the mace crushes its skull, the rest of the bones fall to the ground. I turn to the second skeleton, which is still advancing towards me. Meanwhile, Ruby walks up to her skeleton and punches it in the face.

"Crack!"

Her skeleton also collapses as her punch turns its skull to dust. I then punch the skull of the last one.

"Crunch!"

⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.

- Congratulations, the Basic Blunt Strike skill has advanced to level 4!

√ Basic Blunt Striking Concepts.

√ Level 4

- Strength +4

- You cause 20% extra damage with blunt weapons.

As the last skeleton crumbles, Ruby says, "Aww, that was too easy!"

"Yeah, skeletons really aren't a threat unless there are a lot of them."

Ruby says, "Why did you use the mace?"

"Heh, one of the rules of roleplaying is to always carry a blunt weapon for the undead."

Ruby says, "No, I mean you're much stronger than me, you could have punched them."

"Ah, right, I hadn't even honestly thought about it."

I shrug and hook the mace on my belt, then poke around a bit in the pile of bones.

Ruby asks "What are you doing?"

"Just checking, usually the undead don't just show up for no reason."

Finding nothing, I head for the exit to the room to the south and Ruby follows me. We follow the main tunnel for a hundred and thirty feet before coming to a four-way corridor that I recognize. The left passage leads to the goblin lair, so I turn right, as it is unexplored.

Go on about fifty feet and turn left, then ten feet down, there's another passageway on the right leading north. I'm pretty sure it connects to the cross corridor we just explored, but I decide to follow it to be sure. It takes us for sixty feet with no branching and ends at the cross corridor as expected, so we backtrack and return to the previous corridor and turn right.

After another twenty feet, it comes to a four-way intersection.

"Right should take us back to the cross aisle, left should come out near my original entry point. Let's check it out first."

So I lead Ruby to the left and, after seven meters, a door opens to our right. I peek inside and see two rat men crouched down rummaging through some trash. I step aside so Ruby can take a look, then point to myself and then to the right, then to her and to the left. Ruby nods and draws her sword, I draw Black Razor and nod.

We both walk through the door together. Ruby goes to the left and punches the rat man in the neck. I go to the right and stab the other rat man in the back.

- Killing the rat men on 11/30.

Ruby says, "That was too easy! When are we going to find a challenge?"

"I don't know, but don't complain about easy. That's asking to get us killed."

Ruby cleans and sheathes her sword, not wanting to argue my point. Meanwhile, I open the chests of the two rat men and pull out their beast cores. I clean one and hand it to Ruby.

"Stare at it, you should acquire the Observe skill and then it will ask if you want to absorb it. I wait."

After staring at it, Ruby says, "I got the skill and it asks me if I want to absorb it, should I?"

"Yes, go ahead," as I absorb the other one.

You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5

"I know it's not much, but believe me they add up."

Ruby says, "Now I see you've gotten so much stronger in such a short time. No, I have no complaints."

I quickly scour the trash piles to check for anything useful and find nothing, so we head back down the aisle. After another six meters, it rejoins the main tunnel, as I thought, so we turn around and check again on the other side.

At the fourth lane we take a left, as I'm sure if we go straight ahead we'll be back in the cross corridor. The corridor on the left goes seven meters before turning right and then another fifteen before ending at a door. I check the door and see that it is locked, so I bend down, pull out my bone picks and try to pick the lock. I break every lock pick I have and fail to open the lock.

⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩.

- Congratulations, the Lock Picking skill has advanced to level 4!

√ Lock picking

√ Level 4

- Agility +4

- You can attempt to pick a lock without a key.

"We'll have to come back after I make more lock picks."

Ruby says, "Okay, that's fine with me, master."

We turn around and backtrack and follow the other tunnel, as I thought it took us back to the cross corridor.

"Okay, that's the south half of the sewers, let's head back to camp to get something to eat and rest before we start on the other area."

Ruby says, "Whatever you say, master..."