Ascending Endlessly: I Copy Skills

'Ah, is it morning already?'

The sun hitting my eyes woke me from my meditation. The mana in my body dispersed as I stood up and stretched. I had decided to return to training with mana. Even though I'd stopped getting any results years ago, now, with the addition of the mana batteries, there was new ground to be broken.

Namely, the extension of mana outside of my body. It was something I'd tried to exercise for a very long time, but I'd never achieved any results due to my limited supply. If I pushed mana outside of my body, it would rapidly disperse, requiring a much greater amount to sustain it than simply moving it through my body. 

It was, of course, possible with my polarium knife, since it would create a sort of 'closed circuit' between myself and the material, but otherwise was a meaningless endeavor. Now, however, I could sustain it for a brief period of time with my extra mana. It took great concentration, but I'd managed to manipulate a small tendril to lightly tap a can in front of me.

I was a bit surprised at how difficult it was to move mana outside my body, but I welcomed the challenge. Well, it was time to get back to my search. I looked down at some names of smithies I'd scribbled down, three of them crossed off. 

'Callahan's Metallurgy. Alright, you're next.'

I threw on my coat and headed out from my room at the inn, looking over a small folded map of the city with circled locations on it. 

Before long, I'd ended up in front of the metallurgy. It was nothing special. It wasn't particularly run-down, but the signage outside wasn't particularly well-maintained, either. Opening the door, a bell chimed and a man with red hair wearing a black apron and mitts walked over to the counter, wiping some sweat off his forehead.

"What can I do for ye?"

He spoke in what sounded like a scottish accent, his gruff voice matching his large, muscular build.

"I'm looking for a decent polarium knife. Do you have anything I can take a look at?"

He didn't respond, instead sliding the top of the counter off, revealing a layer of knives and swords.

"I do customs, too, but I'm a bit backed up at the moment,"

He spoke as I looked over the small selection of blades he'd presented to me. I pointed to one of the knives.

"May I?"

He nodded.

I picked up the knife, getting a feel for its weight. It felt pretty good, evenly balanced. It was a pretty heavy knife, but that wasn't a problem. Then, I started to circulate a bit of mana through it.

'Ho, not bad.'

It moved very smoothly. It took good craftsmanship to create an even enough structure to stop excessive mana loss when moving through the blade.

"Weight's a bit heavier, but I've got a skill fer density manipulation. That one's going to be much more durable than yer standard cutlery."

His manner of speaking was very fast. It seemed he wasn't one for customer service.

However, he had just the kind of skill I was looking for. With denser materials, the weapon would be not only more durable, but much more capable of handling a large amount of mana, or an erratic flow. The added weight would also allow it to do more damage. 

"How much? I can't pay right now, but once the dungeon opens back up, I'll be pretty flush, so I'll be back,"

I flipped the knife around and handed it back. He took it and carefully returned it to the inside of the counter, securing its top back in place.

"I take payment in Gloam crystals. I can purify them just as well as any of the men over at the embassy. Bit cheaper for both of us, avoiding the taxes and service fees and all that. For this'un, I'd say about five grams raw is a fair price."

This was pretty surprising. Let alone the density manipulation, purification skills were pretty rare. I was surprised this guy wasn't working with The Order. It wasn't anything incredible since the skills' ranks were probably pretty low, but even so, this guy could definitely make a pretty good weapon. 

"Alright, I'll come back in a couple of days for it. By the way, are you Callahan?"

I figured the store was named after him. It wasn't important, but I felt like asking anyway.

"Ay, Angus Callahan. And y'are?"

"Mason Ford. It's a pleasure, Mr. Callahan."

I extended my hand to shake his, but he didn't return it. Instead, he leaned closer to me and rubbed his chin while squinting his eyes.

"Boy, you wouldn't happen to be the traitor, would ye?"

Oh my. He asked quite directly. Usually if someone thought they recognized me they'd skirt around it or ignore me. I frowned.

"I can take my business elsewhere. It was a pleasure meeting you."

I dropped my hand and turned to walk away. Anyone who recognized me would have worked for The Order during the time of its conception, and most of the people who did despised me.

I didn't want any trouble, so unfortunately it seemed I'd need to look for another blacksmith.

"Hold yer horses, lad. I didn't mean 'ta offend. Look at me, I've got two valuable skills, but you don't see me lounging around the embassy, do you? I've got quite a grudge against the bastards in charge 'round there."

I turned back towards him with a skeptical look on my face. It was an unusual thing, to have someone on my side regarding the saviors of humanity.

"Well, then, yes, I'm the one they call the traitor. And who exactly are you? There weren't too many craftsmen following her back then."

He sighed and crossed his arms, shaking his head.

"There were certainly more of us than ya know of. I was one of the men working on Project David. I helped manufacture the weapon. I wasn't particularly important, mostly just built minor components, but I certainly heard about you, Mason Ford. Only saw your face once, but someone like you is hard to forget. The F-Rank hunter who stood against the stars themselves. The saboteur. Ya got quite an impressive resume, boy,"

He said, giving some context to his knowledge of my existence. Project David. The catalyst for my suffering. It seemed like he may hate The Order for a similar reason as me. My thoughts got bitter at the mere mention of it. I gritted my teeth and pushed the memories away, as I'd been doing for years.

It was a rare sight to find someone with such a background in a place like this, especially towards the outskirts of The Order's domain, but if he had the same hatred in his heart as me, then it fit pretty well into place.

"Nowadays, I just make little trinkets. A number of us abandoned The Order after what happened that day. Honestly, part of me thinks it was a poor choice. The people that left were those with a conscience. With us gone, the organization was occupied solely by poison, leaving it to rot from the inside."

I agreed with what he was saying, but I hated hearing it. I was getting visibly distressed. Seeing as such, he hastily changed the topic.

"Tell ye what, boy. I'll do you a favor out of respect."

He walked to the back wall of the store, where an old chest was leaning against the wall. He opened it and started rifling around, the sound of metal clinking against itself filling the store until he pulled out a simple looking kitchen knife.

"'Tis my best work. Ain't nothing very fancy, like those craftsmen in the capitol make, but it's certainly good enough for an F-Rank hunter like yerself."

He walked over to the counter as he spoke before placing it down and gesturing for me to take it.

"Wasn't plannin' on selling it, anyway. Yours fer the takin' if ya want it."

I held it in my hand, looking it over and once again running a small current of mana through it.

'Wow, this is pretty great.'

I could tell this had a higher concentration of polarium than most weapons could handle. He must have worked incredibly hard to make this. Why not sell it?

"You're serious? This thing must be worth a small fortune."

He sighed and nodded.

"Ay, it's certainly worth a pretty penny. But I got a bit of an ego, boy. It's hard for a craftsman to part so easily with his most prized creation. But ye did something good. Yer one of the few people who knows the darkness that lies within the core of our salvation. Weak as you are, lad, your actions didn't go unnoticed. Just take the damn knife. It ain't much, anyway."

I looked at the knife again before returning my gaze to Angus. My brow furrowed.

"Thank you."

Really. I meant it. It was true that it wasn't much; A knife of this quality wasn't hard to come by amongst the higher ranked hunters with greater resources. However, the gesture alone was really touching. This was valuable to him, and definitely useful to me for the time being. It had been a long time since someone had done me a kindness like this. 

I gripped the hilt of the knife tightly.

With this, I wouldn't need to farm the D-Rank dungeon for money anymore. My priorities had changed.

It was time to head to the C-Rank dungeon.