Spirit Soul

The surrounding was searing hot, and only the sound of metal striking on metal could be heard in the entire house.

Three months had already passed since Kyle and the others chose to rest in the tiny border city.

After many adventures, they finally got the time to truly rest. That was if they wanted to rest, they could do so.

However, nobody was in the mood to rest because the Thunderclaw kingdom's situation grew worse by the day. The seventh prince declared to the Glacia kingdom that they would wage war if they kept accepting the refugees, who fleed from the Thunderclaw kingdom.

This was a weird declaration, but considering that the seventh prince finally defeated all his siblings, his fleeing citizens were the next biggest problem.

Nobody wanted to live under oppression, so they chose to flee. It was a natural reaction, but also something the seventh prince prevented using force.

The Glacia kingdom listened to their declaration but their answer had been quite simple.

-Our border control is not perfect. If someone can flee from your kingdom we may not notice it. How about you pay attention to your own people, and you tend to their needs?-

It was only obvious that this answer was frowned upon by the seventh prince. However, he didn't have the strength to wage war with the Glacia kingdom right off the bat.

The Ragzra kingdom's armies had retreated because their mission ahd ended the moment the seventh prince became crown prince. He was about to get crowned and that was enough for the Nasga race to return to their cozy and stinky home.

Meanwhile, the seventh prince was using all his remaining soldiers to try to control his kingdom. It would take some time but from the rumours they heard, it was quite obvious that the seventh prince would be able to overthrow all the forces that were against him.

Thus, everyone was working hard to cultivate, to become strong enough to leave the Glacia kingdom, to pass through the Nasga race's tribal territory and to enter the forbidden forest.

Beatrice reached the Mid ranks of the Krysal stage, Yasmine was close to reaching the Mid ranks, while Selene was still quite far from reaching the Mid ranks.

Meanwhile, Jaden advanced to the Krysal stage.

Aurora's cultivation progressed as well.

Jaden continued to improve his knowledge in the library, while the three women were mostly focused on their Lifestyle occupations and to keep in peak form by sparring with each other if they didn't cultivate.

On the other hand, almost everything Kyle did was to procure more blacksmithing knowledge and to forge weapons, armors and other necessary equipment.

Improving his proficiency in the Tempest Shirana Warlock technique and the Wings of Ilusia was possible but his Soul force was quickly used up the moment he wanted to advance his proficiency. It was difficult to replenish his soul force just by waiting for it to naturally replenish, and Kyle didn't have the capabilities to actively support the replenishing process because it was Arashi, who did this for him.

He didn't even have the necessary means to do this because his Spirit Soul had everything he needed. And Arashi was still evolving, even if it looked like it wouldn't take long anymore.

By supplying Arashi with nourishment every now and then, the evolution progressed much faster than expected.

Nonetheless, Kyle was slowly getting uncomfortable in the Glacia kingdom. He could tell that trouble awaited them. Kyle didn't like the fact that the Nasga race's tribal territory was close to them and that they had to cross it to enter the forbidden forest.

As for the forbidden forest itself, it became more mysterious the more pieces of information Jaden picked up. Kyle felt like the marked area of the dragonscale map was even more confusing because it seemed to move a tiny bit whenever he opened it.

It was almost as if the forbidden forest was moving, or that the thing which had been marked was moving.

But that wouldn't make any sense. Unfortunately, logic was not really something that worked often in the world of cultivators. Sometimes, it was just brute force or something illogical such as Aurora's existence.

Aurora was something Kyle couldn't understand at all.

She could merge with him and Arashi whenever she wanted to.

Her body was purely made out of the Essence of the Mana Stone deposit but that alone wouldn't explain how she came into existence.

Despite her nonsensical existence, Aurora was extremely helpful. This was the case when they were fighting together and during the entire forging process.

Kyle could give her permission to control some of the winds he circulated through her Sprite Armor.

Smashing the forging hammer on the ore he was working on, it slowly formed into an ingot. Bits of the ore's purity were released until Kyle reached his limit.

He was not yet able to purify the ore perfectly but that was no problem. As long as he had enough practice it would be possible for him to improve. Unfortunately, three months were not enough for him to create a Secur graded weapon.

It was not as if he expected a lot but he was still a bit disappointed. His hopes were thousands of times higher than his rational expectations.

When he finished striking the ingot, he heated it up and started to shape it. Slowly but steadily the blade of a longsword was created. Working tirelessly, Kyle knew that hours had passed.

But even after all this time, the weapon was not yet done. Selene had appeared next to him at some point. She starts to inscribe runes in the weapon he had created it was still warm and Kyle could clearly see the sweat pouring down Selene's temples.

She was sweating just as much as he sweated but none of them minded it as they forced themselves to give their all in order to create their best weapon.

Time passed and once Selene was done, Kyle tempered and quenched it until the sword finally emerged in front of him.

It looked fine but Kyle was not yet done forging. A bunch of whetstones appeared next to him on the table.

Kyle spend another hour finishing the sword until he was satisfied with it.

Looking at the silver shining blade of the thin longsword he smiled faintly.

It was not a perfect weapon but it was greatly balanced, sharp, and had powerful runes inscribed on it.

It was a strong Primar grade weapon and could be used by Cultivators at the Vitae and Krysal stage.

However, for Kyle it was still not good enough. He wanted more and he got greedy at the thought of creating stronger weapons and other equipment.

This was even more so important when he heard that Betrice and Yasmine were able to concoct potions at the Secur grade.

It irked him even if it shouldn't. He should be happy for them, but his mind was just fogged by his selfish thoughts.

"He will definitely become a greedy blacksmith," Selene suddenly mumbled when she noticed that Yasmine and Beatrice had appeared at the door.

"He already is a greedy blacksmith," Beatrice chuckled with love in her eyes.

"Well, whatever. Good weapons are always great. His ambition is great, and he will become a good blacksmith if he wants to focus on it!"