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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 322 Part 1

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 322: Rebuilding, that is Restarting From Scratch Part 1

「…… Alright, I’m back.」

For the time being, I have decided to equip the salmon head on my head. Just because, no real reason behind it.

Alright, Emul. Wake the hell up. We have a whole lot of things to do, so off to Rabbitz we go! On the double!

Of course, venturing into Rabbitz means going to visit Break at her workshop. Although this place was turned into a burning hell the last time we have been here, right about now it was more or less back to normal. Aside from the fact that there was still a hole in the floor, the anvil looked somewhat thinner and Break’s fur was largely unkempt.

「Hey there, Break? What about that thing I asked you to do the other day? Think that it can be done?」

「Sure thing. What’s more, it is already done. And the “rebuilding” process was done exactly how you requested it to be performed.」

Yes, that’s right. It seems that the necessary changes to the Aradval’s sheathe that I have requested Break to do were completed about three days ago. However, upon seeing the result of Break’s work, the end product of one of the possible routes we could have taken, I gave Aradval back to Break once more.

「I must say, it’s really a nice thing to be able to see it…… The weapon that Pops’s friend once used to use…… But what if he does not like it……?」

「Don’t worry, don’t worry about it. If Weiss is going to have any objections here, it only means that we will have to do things differently, am I right? Worst case scenario, we will just start from scratch.」

It is a very thin and delicate line, being able to balance what we players want and what the NPCs may want. Sometimes those things align, and sometimes they could be entirely different. Sometimes what the player finds to be good may be worthless for the NPC and vice versa.

「Alright then, so what about the actual product?」

「I have no idea if it is because I am still too inexperienced and I’m lacking the necessary skill for it, or if it is just some sort of a quirk characteristic of Heroic weapons, but I think that the power of the sword actually weakened just a little bit. But a picture is worth more than a thousand words, so here you go. This is the “Aradval Preborn” that you have ordered.」

With that said, Break places the sword right in front of me. Just like before, it was a fairly large sword, but this time around it was housed within a scabbard that was made out of hardened leather and embroiled with intricate symbols and patterns. The blade was hidden inside of the scabbard for now, but once you tried to pull it out, the same red hot blade that would cut and melt everything in its path would greet you.

「Ooooh! Nice! I really like it! It’s fairly big, but this is still a one handed sword, right?」

「That is the limit, and don’t even think about asking me to make it even smaller! Cutting a giant’s spear so that it would resemble a sword was already enough of a tall order here, so don’t ask me to do the virtually impossible thing……」

Well, that’s actually a little bit of a shame. I really wanted this thing to be a one handed sword, so that it would have fitted my play style in the best way possible. But oh well, it’s good enough, I guess. Maybe if I invest some points into Strength down the road, I should be able to hand it in at least similar way to a one handed sword? Who knows?

But this sword here is definietely not a two handed sword. Sure, it is fairly long, but not nearly long enough for that. But then, if it can be handled in one had with this size and weight…… Hmm? Wait a minute. A sword that looks like a two handed sword, but can actually be wielded in one hand. I think that I have heard about a weapon like that somewhere before.

「So, this thing is actually a Bastard Sword now?」

Bastard sword. Out of all sword types, this thing is the one that if getting misunderstood most of the time. You see, Bastard Swords are not pure Power Type weapons, but actually a Hybrid Weapons. A Hybrid Weapon that can essentially be used with one hand or two hands, depending on the situation and the need of the players. But it is because of that that many players tend to scorn them for being impractical and unusable.

「Good grief, so this is the result of all my efforts? All those material, all that hard work and time we have put into making this? And this is the end product we get……?」

「But it is not all that bad. If only you’ll bring me new materials, we can try to rebuild it once more. I can get to work right away.」

I guess that there must be additional conditions needed to re-forge a weapon multiple times, but could it be that I have actually fulfilled them already? On one hand I feel glad that I do not have to go and collect more stuff for that purpose, but on the other hand it made it feel somewhat dull. I wonder what that condition could have been?

The process of rebuilding is actually fundamentally different from that of restoring. Instead of changing the weapon completely, you just alter it slightly, just enough that some of its stats are going to get changed. What’s more, rebuilding has the advantage over restoring in that it needs significantly less materials for the process. But still, it takes a significant amount of ore and materials…… I guess I am going to have to go any restock on some of them in the nearby future.

「Can I pull it out and see it?」

「I mean, yeah, sure, go right ahead, knock yourself out. But let me warn you, if you destroy my workshop some more, you’re getting the hammer. No buts, no ifs…… just the hammer.」

The blade makes a slight metallic noise when I grab its handle and pull it out of its sheathe. Huh, so that’s how Aradval Rebuilt look like? It is probably because the main ingredient used in the process of re-forging was quartz, but the blade looked kind of like a crystal with a whole lot of red veins of pulsing heat running all over it. That, and when you were shaking the sword even slightly, you could actually feel the heat seeping out of the sword and trying to break free.

「It feels slightly heavy…… I think it may have something to do with the fact that it can be used with one hand and two hands respectively, but I’m afraid that my Strength stat might now be quite enough for this……」

If it was one handed sword exclusively, I could easily combine it with Dis Pater for some truly undefeated combination. Or could it be that handing it without any addition would be a better choice here?