After some time Mark spoke,
"You know despite all these thoughts, I still want to return.
Even it is boring routine, I still loved waking up every morning and greeting my neighbours, talking to them."
Mark took a bite and after swallowing it, he said,
"I loved going to Aunt Lyanna's restaurant every afternoon to eat her delicious food, and I felt a deep satisfaction whenever someone at the night pub complimented me on my hunt."
He finished his fish and stood up,
"You know life is very short, and it is not always what you expect it to be, but it is still beautiful, so I promised myself to live each and every moment to its fullest."
"I've got a crazy idea," he said aloud. "One that might just get me killed. But it's the only shot I've got. And I am going to do it."
He glanced at the smiling face carved into the stone.
"Not because I don't value my life," he added with a faint grin, "but because I do. And as much as you've been a great conversation partner, at the end of the day I am a human and human are the social animals."
Then he turned his back to rock and said,
"Thank you for taking care of me all this time. Goodbye, Smiley, you will be remembered."
After eating and talking with Smiley, Mark felt much better than before.
'He is really a great listener.'
Now with calmer mind Mark began to weave his suicidal plan.
'Ok, the plan is to ride the glass peacock over the lake.'
So far he knew only something about glass peacock,
1. If it look at you, you die.
2. If you look at it, you fall under its mental hex, you die.
3. It eyes only turn living creature into crystals, rocks and other crystals were fine.
So, he had to ride the monster without it noticing him, and without seeing it himself.
'Truly a blind date.'
Other thing he knew about the peacock monsters was that they like shiny things, but the glass peacock was fully made of crystals itself, so it might not be interested in shiny things.
'If not shiny than opposite might work...maybe.'
Mark decided to test his theory.
He took a black rock placed it on fire to made it even more black.
Then he placed it in amoung the crystal on the place, glass peacock often visited.
He himself hid in the far away corner not even daring to look at it.
_kreee!
So the cry of the bird came, and Mark activated the [stealth] and suck even deeper in the slope where he was hiding.
After some time the shimmering of the crystal stopped and he got out of his hiding.
He went to the place where he had placed the stone only to find nothing.
'Success!'
He revised his list,
4. To it, anything that fails to shine is nothing but an eyesore, needed to be removed immediately.
'I can use it.'
He thought if he build a black box and hid in it, and drop out of it just as it cross the lake.
'The problem is mental attacks, what if they work even across the box.'
Mark looked at his subspace for something usefull.
---------------------------
[Ebonsteel sword]
Rank: D
Category: Weapon
Enchantment: [Weight balance], [Blood drinker]
Description: This sword was forged out of ebonsteel by a drunk blacksmith who was trying to make a didlo at night but somehow ended up making a sword.
"This is....~even better."_Drunk Blacksmith
The sword feels lighter in the wielder's hand, improving speed and control.
Restores a tiny fraction of stamina with each strike that draws blood.
---------------------------
".."
Ebonsteel itself possessed some ability to ward off mental attack.
'If I melt it and mix it with crystal I can draw a mental defense rune on it.'
Mark knew a thing or two about runes, he had learnt it to make better traps.
'All right, let's get to work.'
First he removed the runes from the [Ebonsteel sword] then,
He built a small forge out of rocks, lit it up using [dawn] and placed the black blade inside.
The flames wrapped around it, glowing red as the metal slowly softened.
It was not easy task to melt the ebonsteel, it was only possible because of the [Dawn] enchantment [Hotter than fire].
Next, he brought out the crystals he had gathered and set them near the heat until cracks spread through them.
'Little bit of crystal mixed with the black ebonsteel won't make it much shiny. let hope it works.'
Bit by bit, he melted the ebonsteel and mixed it with the softened crystal.
The two didn't blend easily, but with steady mana and patience, Mark shaped them together.
Slowly, a crude black box began to take form, big enough for him to fit inside.
When it was ready, he took a sharp piece of crystal and began carving runes into the surface.
Each stroke left a faint glow as his mana flowed into the marks.
Mark wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a tired breath.
'It's done.'