Early morning, fresh day and eyes full of eagerness, brimming with curious enthusiasm waiting for the sunrise and flowers to bloom, I was recompiling the material I had learned and practiced the previous night. I put some useless metal tools in the crucible outside my house and heated it up for later.
With the blows of swirling wind, I started my work of carving the sword and staff once again with the kitchen knife. Although I had a failed attempt previous night, it was different this time. I infused the knife with magic, sharpening the blade and cutting the wood like frozen butter. After that, I gouged out the volumetric shape of the sword in the wood and put molten metal inside it. The wood caught on flames due to high temperatures of the liquid metal. I got scared that my progress will turn to dust in a few more seconds. The wood, which consumed magic particles leaking out from my knife due to bad control over mana hardened over the mold. Dark charcoal formed on the outer side of the wood which was entirely covered in huge flames. Soon the flames went out to reveal the unique structure formed after the reaction.
Shining particles emerged from the cooled down rigid and rough surface of the sword. It was sleek and about a hand long with a flat crossed hilt. The particles were probably the mana clusters stuck inside the metal which leaked out from the mold. The polished charcoal wooden log holding an outline of a sword inside shining white from its sharp edge.
I used the same knife to polish the sword. It took me a while refining the blade but it turned out good in the end. I completely gave up on the staff for the day and focused on increasing my mana. The surge of energy travelling from my brain to my heart created extreme pulses, increasing my senses to a new height. The mana spinning in my hands was getting consumed by the sword. The shining white flame pattern on its sharp edge when infused with mana would heat up intensely.
I had to recover the money I lost in forging a sword, the best method I could think up of was to sell animal remains in the town marketplace. I took a maroon imprinted cloth and wrapped it around the hilt and tied it a temporary knot at the top.
It was time for the animal hunt. I had to gather myself some basic hunting experience, self analysis of my current ability and some hide and meat. It was almost perfect for me to achieve more than two goals at once. The history book mentioned a few magic animals which would have high value in marketplace. I found some easy targets which were the great rabbits, approximately the size of a human kid, the blue scale wolf and red crystal spider.
By the southern escarp, there were a bunch of animals. Contrary to my goal, I could find every other animal except great rabbits, there were a few young rabbits but that wouldn't be as rewarding as great rabbits. It was a futile search as I was walking confident in my ability but there I could only find cows, deer, squirrels and some rare birds. As I kept getting no clues on the rabbits, I decided to hunt down a deer.
I walked a little while to get back to where I saw the deer resting beside a large tree, under the shade in afternoon heat. I sneaked up close enough to throw my mana infused sword at it, as I accelerated my hand, the deer was hunted down by an arrow which pierced through the tree shot the deer then crashed into the ground.
I rushed towards the corpse of the deer and looked behind the tree only to find a man running with a corpse of blue scale wolf in his hands dragging on the ground. Out of confusion, I started to chase the man as he was running slow enough that without using any mana, I could reach up to him. I dashed towards the man and as he looked behind at a man chasing him, his presence alone was strong enough to kill my momentum and I got knocked out in an instant.
He grabbed me by the neck and hit me at a vital spot. The next thing I saw was a cave, deep underground covered in trees. Pale yellow lighting from never extinguishing fire on the stone ground.