Chapter 44: Prep

"A warhammer," Martin repeated, shifting the weapon in his grip.

The weight sat forward, dragging at his arm. The head was compact, thick, and ugly in a way that made immediate sense.

It was not built to look good. It was built to break things.

Robert crossed his arms and grinned. "You want to keep your shield up and still be ready to smash with the other hand, yeah? A warhammer keeps the handle short, but the head does the work, so you still get heavy impact without a slow recovery. Perfect for cracking armor without giving up your guard. I’ve got a few watermelons you could test this one on. Haha!"

Martin chuckled. "I’d rather try it on a wooden dummy. Can I borrow it?"

"Yep!" Robert nodded, still smiling. "Let’s turn our deal into a quest."

"Oh, that’s fun," Martin replied.

[You have received a new quest: Robert’s Crystal Warhammer.]

[Objective: Bring five more Crystal Pickaxes (Orange) to Robert the blacksmith. Using his skill, expertise, and experience, he will craft you a new weapon specialized in breaking raw mana in its solidified form.]

[Reward: Crystal Warhammer]

[Note: This quest was issued after an unofficial deal with Robert the blacksmith. If you fail to bring the pickaxes to Robert after your successful conquest of the buried mine site, your relationship with him will worsen, and additional consequences may follow.]

Martin skimmed the quest, but his eyes stayed on the note at the end.

Given how realistic this game is, Robert might just start disliking me and tell people I backed out of the deal. Fair enough. That makes sense.

That probably meant other blacksmiths learning Martin’s name and habits, Robert’s acquaintances hearing about it, and his relationship with Rangar souring even further.

He did not want that to happen, so he made a mental note to never forget the deal.

[NukEncore: Maaaartin! Where are you?]

[Emperoar: Preparing for the next runs... I may need five prep runs, though.]

[NukEncore: Then we need to discuss it! Come, come! Let’s meet up and talk. I don’t want to do this through voice chat!]

[Emperoar: Yeah, fine. Wait for me.]

She sent the messages first, then quickly called, said her piece, and hung up. Martin guessed she had listened to enough podcasts to be sick of voice chat.

"Should I bring all five pickaxes in one trip, or one by one? Does it matter?" Martin asked.

"It doesn’t," Robert replied.

"Okay. Thanks for everything. I’ll get to work, then. See you soon. Don’t eat too much, Scunko," Martin said in farewell, making both members of the blacksmith pair smile before he left the smithy.

Outside, the evening air hit him like a reward. After the forge’s heat, the cool breeze felt sharp and clean against his skin.

The smell of soot and hot metal still clung to him, which made the river ahead feel even colder by contrast.

Rangar spotted him and gave him a knowing smile, clearly understanding how Martin felt. On Martin’s head, Ao Tenshin sensed the cold wind and peeked out, her eyes still closed.

Martin walked over to the riverbank, cupped some water in his hands, and splashed it onto his face.

Ah, this is good. I could almost forget I’m in a game.

Sensing the water, Ao Tenshin opened her eyes and looked at it. Then she boldly slid off Martin’s head and plopped into the river with a loud splash.

Martin’s heart jumped straight into his throat. For one awful second, the dark water swallowed her whole.

Then the surface cleared, and Ao Tenshin shot through the river in bright little loops, circling like a queen inspecting her new domain. Martin let out a relieved sigh.

How did I get that worried over her? I mean...

"Don’t scare me like that, Angel!"

She either did not hear him or ignored him.

"How did it go?" Rangar asked.

"They’re a likable duo, which makes me confident Robert and Scunko will come up with a great warhammer," Martin replied.

Rangar’s smile widened at that.

He smiled. "They’re the best. Trust me on that. Well, it’s getting late, but players never stop coming. I’ll head back to the Light Tree and see if any new talent shows up!"

"Ah, yeah. See ya, man. Thanks for the help!" Martin said.

"No worries! I’m looking forward to that kebab!" Rangar grinned and walked off with a happy strut.

Martin wanted to leave and catch up with his friends, but Ao Tenshin had other plans. She swam deeper into the river, and with the darkness settling in, spotting her was nearly impossible despite her sparking shell. Only Kill Clause would have been able to find her.

"ANGEL!" Martin shouted.

—

"Took you long enough, Martin. I can’t say I approve," Kill Clause said the moment he returned with Ao Tenshin asleep on his head.

The little queen rested there like nothing had happened, tucked into herself with calm, shameless comfort after nearly scaring his soul out of his body.

"I had to go into the river to scoop her up..." he said, deadpan.

"Oh? Did she have her first swim? How did it go?" NukEncore asked, her mood and reaction completely opposite to Kill Clause’s efficient, boss-like attitude.

That alone eased Martin a little.

He smiled. "I was worried she’d need to learn, but she’s a born queen of the water. Even with her shell still sparking from the recent evolution, she hid from me so well."

"Awesome! Nice one, Little Angel." NukEncore winked at the sleeping pet, then looked at Martin. "It’s too early for us to have a beach episode."

She teased him with a chuckle.

Martin said what was on his mind. "It’d be way better to have a beach episode in real life, though. That’s probably impossible for us. America’s huge, and... well."

He shrugged.

NukEncore blinked, thrown off at first. Then the meaning sank in, and guilt quietly tightened in her chest.

Meeting in real life is impossible for me... and not for the reason you think, Martin.

As her mood dimmed, Chaosgraphy stepped in.

Chaosgraphy caught the shift in mood before anyone had to say it out loud.

"We had a short talk about our battle against the Goblin Boss. It’s been decided that NukEncore and Clause will take care of the boss’s guards. We’ll go straight for him right off the bat. Always. Personally, I think we should get creative."

Martin had been nodding along the whole time. Then he asked, "Creative?"

"Yeah. That first hit worked because he gave me a clean opening and thought we were beneath him. I made him pay for it. Next time, I want all of us ready when he slips," Chaosgraphy said before looking at everyone else.

A sharp grin tugged at her mouth, and her fingers tightened around her weapon at the thought.

Martin, NukEncore, and Kill Clause nodded.

"Yeah. We don’t waste a window like that twice," Martin said.

Kill Clause only gave a confident nod.

NukEncore clenched her little fists. "I will not miss. For sure! And with Martin at the front, I’ll definitely land the critical strike. You’ll see."

Martin chuckled. "Good. Keep that energy when we’re in front of him."

NukEncore gave him a sweet sidelong glance. "Thanks."

"And that can’t be our only trick," Chaosgraphy said. "If we’re going back in, I want more than one way to open him up."

Kill Clause chimed in. "Of course. There are pillars. I think even you should be able to use them. You just need to learn how to see the gaps through NukEncore’s flames."

"So I cut through the gap, tag something bleeding, and dash back out before he can punish it?" Chaosgraphy grinned. "Yeah. That sounds fun."

"Then we bring back the cart trick too," Martin said. "It worked once. Next time, we make it cleaner and faster."

Everyone’s eyes lit up.

"I’ll need a sword for that one, though. And we’ll need the timing clean. No hesitation, no bumping into each other," Martin added.

"Ah, you also said you need five runs specifically. Why’s that?" NukEncore asked. Her mood had already cleared, and now she looked like a curious kitten again.

Martin nodded. "I’m getting a new weapon that’ll let us damage the boss without relying on creative moves. For that, I need five orange-grade pickaxes from the boss room."

NukEncore’s eyes brightened at once, and she leaned forward before he had even finished. "So my fire can help set it up, right? Heat the crystal, soften it, and then you smash through it?"

Kill Clause smiled as soon as she sensed the opportunity. "So we’ll have plenty of time to prepare and practice against waves of goblins before the final run against the boss. We can practice fighting without Martin, fill our inventories with goblin weapons and blue crystals, and maybe even collect the crystal statues from the mine..."

She paused for half a beat, then added in the same dry tone, "Wasted drops would be irresponsible."

Martin, NukEncore, and Chaosgraphy all stared at her with the exact same expression while their ranger kept going like she was already dividing up the profits in her head.

Martin sighed. "You’re exactly the kind of player Cassandra wants."

"Um... well, I do agree with a lot of her points," Kill Clause replied awkwardly, her usual composure completely broken.

NukEncore and Chaosgraphy smirked, and only Kill Clause noticed.

She grew annoyed with the two of them while Martin remained completely oblivious.

"Well, I’m going to get a few swings in on the wooden dummy before we head out," Martin said, letting the three of them have their moment.

The first practice swing told him almost everything. The weight pulled harder than a sword and demanded a cleaner path, but the impact was brutal.

When the hammer slammed into the dummy, the whole wooden frame jolted sideways with a deep, ugly thud that ran straight up Martin’s arm. The dent it left was not clean. It looked crushed.

Martin exhaled, reset his stance, and stared at it.

Yeah. This thing wasn’t made to look good. It was made to break whatever tried to hide behind armor. And against that boss, that was exactly what I needed.