Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 75: Dawn: Part Three

"Now listen to me Dawn... I may be kind of sorta technically like a father to you. But in no world is Peyton your mother. Do you understand?"

"You say that, but-"

"But nothing." I cut Dawn off before she even gets the chance to headcanon my life. "Me and Peyton aren’t like that. We’re just... really good friends, okay?"

"As if." She argues immediately. The brat. "It’s obvious to everyone that you two like each other."

"Who’s ’everyone’ to you?"

"Grandpa Chadwick and Auntie Melissa." She answers my thought. That’s going to get some getting used to.

"You’ve gotta be kidding me."

"I’m not." Seriously going to get some getting used to.

"Where in God’s name did you get the idea that me and Peyton are like that?" I feel how dumb that question is almost immediately after I ask it.

"Like I said, Master. It’s obvious." She reiterates. It drains me completely. There’s no explanation whatsoever, yet she isn’t budging in the slightest.

"Haah... me and Peyton? Really? There’s no way, right? I mean, she’s kind of-"

"I can still hear your thoughts Master."

"Shut up. I’ll throw you in the Item Space, I swear to God, I’ll throw you in the Item Space." She then hurriedly makes a gesture that makes her look like she’s zipping her mouth closed.

I sigh.

"Haah. You’re gonna be a piece of work, aren’t you?"

"You know what they say about the apple and the tree." She jokes.

I pause, realizing something a tad odd. Something that ought to make people ask questions.

"You’re days old. How are you so knowledgeable?"

"Through the Soul Bond..." She readily starts. "I basically know everything you do. And outside of that, I also have some extra knowledge I acquired by default."

"Explain."

"Well..." She gently sits back down next to me to my left and continues. "Aside from knowing everything you do. I also acquired an agreeable level of information on Avatars and Spirits, since I myself am a hybrid of an Avatar and a Spirit."

"I see. So is that why Amaruq was so scared shit-less of you back there? ’Cause you’re a half Spirit, half Avatar?"

"The dog...? Not exactly. It was more about me being a Candidate rather than about me being a hybrid. That’s why she was so wary of me even though she was much older than me."

"Candidate...? Some serious lore dropping is about to go down isn’t it?"

"Pretty much." She affirms with a bright tone, then continues. "See, the word ’Candidate’ refers to a Native Spirit who has the potential to be a Spirit Queen or a Spirit King of one of the Spirit Realms in the Spirit World."

"Native Spirit?"

"Oh, a Native Spirit is a Spirit that didn’t become a Spirit through Ontological Cessation, rather one that is born in the Spirit World."

"Ontological Cessation? Jesus-freaking-Christ, Dawn, one lore drop at a time, please." I snap while scratching the back of my head. Does she just suck at explaining? There’s no order to the things she’s telling me at all.

"Did you not hear Hayzar when he talked about how Material World inhabitants transcend and become Spirit World inhabitants when they die? Or where you just not listening?" She then scratches her own head. I doubt Spirits feel headaches or get an itch. Pretty sure she’s just mimicking me. "Okay..." She sighs. "I’ll start from the beginning..."

Oooh, story time - Is a thought I wanted to have, but she’d hear it, so hell no. "Ontological Cessation refers to..." She pauses. "Well, it’s really just a fancy term for ’death’."

"How blunt." I comment. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Expertly ignoring me, she continues. "When inhabitants, this refers to all sentient beings, of the World you live in, Master, formally known as the Material World, die, they transcend and become Spirits. Inhabitants of the Spirit World."

"That, I remember." I cut in.

"Great. However, there are Spirits who became Spirits not through Ontological Cessation, but rather through being directly born in the Spirit World. These Spirits are formally known as Native Spirits. Another crucial characteristic of Native Spirits is that they all embody one or more of the Six Elements of Elemental Magic, namely, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning and Ice. Native Spirits who embody more than one of these Elements are closer to becoming Candidates. Once they embody all six, they officially become a Candidate."

"And you’re one such Spirit?" I ask.

"Correct!" She confirms."After all. My Master is a power hungry maniac who keeps giving his weapon any an all powers he comes across. Embedding me with elemental gemstones, fusing me with Thunderite."

"I get how the gemstones would give you Fire, Water and Wind, and how Thunderite gave you Lighting. But how could you get Earth? I don’t remember tempering with you in any way when I got the Gaia Skill." I ask.

"Compatibility, Master. You of all people should know how important of a factor that is." She answers matter-of-factly.

"Hmm. You’re telling me, Ifrit, Tetrax, and Marid acted as a link that allowed you to obtain Gaia?" I ask rhetorically. "Show me my Warrior info, System."

[Report. Command accepted. Now opening Warrior info...]

[Report. New advancements detected as rewards of the previously completed Immediate Quest. Now processing new advancements...]

I skim through all my Skill Advancements and effect increases and only check the Skills I gained from Amaruq. Thing is... it’s not just Skills.

"What the?"

...

[Additionally, subject has gained four more new Skills and three more new Spells usurped from the Dungeon Boss, The Wolf Spirit, Amaruq since all have been found to be compatible with the Subject. Now processing list of Skills gained from Dungeon Boss...]

List of Skills gained from Dungeon Boss

• Soul Freeze A-Rank

• Ymir A-Rank

• Winter’s Hush A-Rank

• Mahamaya A-Rank

[Report. Ymir Skill has been found to be strikingly compatible with Pentagon Element King Skill. Pentagon Element King has thus devoured Ymir. Ymir is now a Sub-Skill of Pentagon Element King. Pentagon Element King has improved due to gaining a sixth Sub-Skill. Pentagon Element King is undergoing its final name change. Pentagon Element King is now Hexagon Element King.]

[Now processing list of Spells gained from Dungeon Boss...]

List of Spells gained from Dungeon Boss

• Domain of The Frozen Void

• Frozen Howl of Judgement

• Ruler’s Extended Vision

...

That confirms it. Dawn is a part of me. Even though it’s her who killed Amaruq, the achievement transferred over to me. Which means the System views her as an extension of my abilities.

"Trippy."

"I didn’t know Bosses had Spells, let alone that a Warrior could obtain them." I comment, noticing the Spells I’ve obtained, while Dawn peeks at the System message from the side.

"Well, the fact that Warriors can obtain Skills from Bosses has already been attempted to be kept secret enough on its own. Spells are a tad more special than Skills, so I’m not surprised less people know about the fact that monsters have them too." She adds her take.

"Good point." I’m inclined to agree with her. But then I pause as I notice something. It takes a second to register, but then it dawns on me that she wouldn’t be able to comment on me obtaining the Spells unless she can see the message. "Hold on, you can see this?" I turn to look at her and ask.

"Of course." She readily answers. "Perks of being an Avatar."

"Wow... actually now that we’re on that note. Just how many of my Skills did you inherited. Am I still the only Blacksmith?"

"Oh, very much so-"

"-Rats."

"I heard that. Moving on... A weapon can’t create another weapon, no matter how much you want to be able to slack off, Master." She adds with an firm tone. She has me pegged perfectly. That’s unsettling. "I only have a few of your Skills. Some of which are actually just downgraded versions of the originals, meaning I’ll have to work on them."

"I see... I guess we’ll have to touch on that later. I should get to handling these Skills now." I turn to look back at the message. "Hmm... I think I’ll keep all the Skills, but as for the Spells. I have mixed feelings about shooting a cold beam from my mouth, even if it’s a Spiritual attack."

"Spiritual Attacks are very powerful, but I understand why you wouldn’t want to look ridiculous. Besides, you have me now." Dawn says, smiling proudly and pumping her chest.

"Guess you’re right." I say in a slight chuckle. "Then much like a Skill. I should be able to reject the Spell in exchange for Mana, right?"

[Report. Much like with a Skill, if a Warrior wishes, they may reject a Spell obtained from a Dungeon Boss. However, instead of one percent, in exchange, they will receive two percent of the Minimum of the Mana Capacity Stat of the Rank of the Skill the Spell was under.]

"Wait what!? Two instead of one percent!? Heheh, alright! I’ll reject Frozen Howl of Judgement! Seriously! Do I look like a wolf, to you!?" I exclaim.

[Report. Subject has rejected the Spell Frozen Howl of Judgement from the Dungeon Boss known as the Wolf Spirit, Amaruq. Because the Spell was under the Skill Soul Freeze, which is an A-Rank Skill, in return, Subject’s Mana Capacity will increase by precisely 5 000 000.]

"Beautiful." I praise.

"No question." Dawn agrees. After reading through how the rest of my Warrior info has improved. I notice at the bottom it says something about ’subject having acquired an Avatar’ and that there’s an Avatar info log as well. However, seeing as I’m too mentally exhausted to deal with it, I rushingly brush it away, after allowing all the Mana Crystals and Boss drops gained from clearing the Dungeon to enter the Item Space.

"You should probably check it out. It’s crucial you know your weapon’s full capabilities, don’t you think?" Dawn suggests.

"If my weapon wasn’t alive then maybe, but since you are in fact alive and can handle yourself, I’m not worried. I’ll probably check it out later on, but even if I don’t, if I need to know anything about your Skills, you can just tell me, can’t you?"

"Well... true." She shrugs her shoulders. "On that note, I actually got all those Spells and Skills. So now, I’m officially a full fledged Candidate!" She exclaims excitedly.

"So you weren’t before?"

"Not exactly... I was still one Element short. Which was the Ice Element from Mamaruq."

"Amaruq."

"Right, Amaruq. But even though I only embodied five Elements, it was enough to radiate the aura of a Candidate, which is what threw her off. Normal Spirits tend to think twice before messing with Candidates. Sometimes, when they have a somewhat weak resolve, they even submit whole heartedly and become subjects." She explains.

"That so? Interesting..." I pause. "Wait, hold on, there’s something I don’t get."

"What is it?" She asks, a tad confused.

"You said Native Spirits are born in the Spirit World, but you weren’t born in the Spirit World, so how are you a Native Spirit and a Candidate to boot?"

"Oh, that!" She widens her eyes. "I thought it was obvious. That’s because of the Elements."

"The Elements?"

"Yeah. In the first place, the only reason I’m half Spirit is because of the Elements you made sure I had, otherwise I would’ve just been a full fledged Avatar. Avatars aren’t Spirits in the slightest, but half of their physiology is the same as that of Spirits. Thing is, only Spirits, specifically Native Spirits, can embody one or more of the Six Elements of Elemental Magic, so you bombarding me with Elemental Magic everytime you improved me, allowed me to become a Spirit on top of becoming an Avatar as well. Now as for the subject of me being classified a Native Spirit, while I wasn’t born in the Spirit World, I still didn’t become a Spirit through Ontological Cessation as well, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to embody a single Element even if you forced it on me. So I’m technically only a Native Spirit by default." She finishes.

I pause afterwards, doing well to take in what she just told me. "Wow." Is all I can say in response. Well, not all. "I feel like a lot of rules have been broken here." I add.

"And we have my overly endeavoring Master to blame for that." She responds with a bright genuine looking smile. Actually genuine however? Not so much.

"How was I supposed to know I was creating a monster?"

"You really should’ve, are you forgetting I’m Evolutionary Grade?"

"You know, we’ve been in this Dungeon long enough. We should probably leave now." I get up, dust off the snow on my rear and start walking.

"Mom was right? You really are great at avoiding conversations."

"Stop calling her that!"

"Hehe."

~Sigh~