Chapter 379 - Divine Swordsman, Blacksmith

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Once Kirito had arrived, Seijiro explained everything to him before he and Sora were laid down in the SoulDive machine.

"The world is called Underworld, and try to have some fun," said Higa before sending off Sora and Kirito.

…

"Ugh…"

Feeling a headache, Sora stood up and looked around.

He was just thrown into Underworld and he feels a headache. He wasn't sure if the headache was supposed to happen, but it did happen to him.

Once Sora stood up, he moved his arms, feeling as if his body was really weak. When he turned around, he noticed a huge tree behind him.

Sora was on some type of hill and with the huge tree standing at the highest point. He looked around before noticing a village far into the distance.

Just when Sora was about to head off into the village, Sora was stopped by a child's voice.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Heaven," said Sora, not revealing his name.

The boy looked similar to Kirito and looked to be about eleven years old. He carried with himself a big axe that he brought by dragging on the floor.

"My name's Eugeo. What's your Sacred Task?" asked the boy.

"Sacred Task? What is that?" asked Sora as he looked at Eugeo with a confused look on his face. 'Sounds like it's supposed to be some type of job or Task.'

As if hearing something shocking, Eugeo looked at Sora in shock, "You don't know what a Sacred Task is?!"

"No," said Sora with a small shake of his head.

"A Sacred Task is a job bestowed upon you by the gods. A job you have to do for the rest of your life," said Eugeo.

"Ah… you meant that type of Divine Task," said Sora with a smile. In order to not let the kid get suspicious, Sora lied to him. "My Sacred Task is Master Swordsman!"

"But you don't have your sword," said Eugeo as he eyed Sora.

"As a Divine Swordsman, I am with and without my sword. I am the sword. When I have a Sword, the only thing that changes is the range and sharpness," said Sora as he stood up and casually grabbed a leaf from the air.

"Like so."

Sora swung down his arm and the lead gave off a beautiful blue glow as it cut down, leaving a trail of a pale blue light.

"Wow!"

Although Eugeo was amazed by Sora's movements, Sora himself wasn't.

He frowned as he looked at his own arm. Now that he played close attention, he looked smaller and almost the same size as Eugeo. Besides his change in size, Sora's movements even became clumsy.

Even if each movement of his carried a sense of familiarity and profoundness, Sora's movements were awkward and were as if he never touched a sword in his life.

Just when Sora was about to curse, he stopped and smiled as he swung his hand once more creating another pale blue light trail.

'Losing my progression didn't make me weaker… it made me see another Path to grow even stronger,' thought Sora as he looked at his arm in ecstasy.

It was as if Sora could see another part and more ideas other than the ones he already knew. All because he started over.

Like the many different forms of cultivation and cultivation techniques, there are also many different types of paths for the sword and any other weapon.

It's like turning a simple restaurant into a chain of restaurants and getting more from spreading out. From getting income from only one place, Sora would be getting income from hundreds if not thousands of other places.

Strengthening and tempering his skills even further. To go further beyond what is thought possible!

Breaking out of his thoughts, Sora looked at Eugeo.

"What does a Divine Swordsman do without a sword?" asked Eugeo with curiosity. Have you ever seen a Swordsman without a sword?

"He goes on an adventure to look for a powerful material that can be used to create his sword. He's like a blacksmith that turns into a swordsman when he creates his own powerful sword," said Sora in a proud way.

"Wow! So you're looking for a powerful material?" asked Eugeo with wide eyes.

"Yes," said Sora with a wry smile.

"Too bad there's none here," said Eugeo sadly.

Sora stayed quiet for a second before smiling, "What's your Sacred Task?"

Like fire being doused in water, Eugeo began sulking, "Giant Tree Cutter."

Only after Eugeo had spoken did Sora look at the Giant Tree next to him. The Giant Tree had a small cut on it that was created from years of effort. Eugeo was stuck in this job for the rest of his life unless he takes down the Giant Tree. However this was nothing but a pipe dream to him.

"Haha, think about it differently," said Sora as he walked over to Eugeo and grabbed the axe in Eugeo's hands, Dragon Bone Axe.

With a bit of difficulty, Sora held the sword by his waist as if it were a greatsword. With one heavy step forward, Sora pushed the Dragon Bone Axe forward and hacked at the tree.

A soft glow of white covered the axe as it cut through the air and struck the Giant Tree. When the axe hit the Giant Tree, a beautiful sound rang out as the axe drove in almost a foot into the Giant Tree.

Just like that, the hundreds of years worth of cutting at Giant Tree was reduced to nothing but rubbish.

And also just like that, the Dragon Bone Axe got stuck in the Giant Tree.

"Ah.. haha," nervously chuckled Sora as he tried pulling back the axe.

Eugeo was kind of dense, so he failed to notice Sora trying to pull the axe out and only thought it was supposed to be some kind of remark like, 'You can do this too!'

With a quiet sound, the axe finally came out and Sora held it in his hands like if nothing happened.

"Just treat it as if your training and everything will come naturally," said Sora as the axe fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Then, without knowing it, you will become strong and your skills will be polished."

Looking around, Sora tried to look for something as the still shocked Eugeo held the axe as if it were a holy object.

'I didn't know that Secret Arts Can be casted on weapons other than swords!!'

Sora walked down the mountain as Eugeo was lost in his thoughts, thinking about various things and the sword light that came out of the axe.

Once Sora made it out to the normal trees, he looked for an average stick before heading back up with Eugeo.

"Now pay close attention to what I'm about to do," said Sora as he had Eugeo look at his Basic Sword Technique.

Iaido…

Hooking…

Pointing…

Carrying…

Piercing…

Slicing…

Hacking…

…

One sword moves after another… Sora performed them with great profundity despite how awkward and amateurish his movements felt and seemed.

After he performed all eight basic sword moves, Sora looked at Eugeo with a tired face.

"You can perform these moves with a stick and you will still get better. Though it should be better using a pointy and sharp item to train since it brings more benefits," said Sora as he threw away the stick in his hands down the mountain.

After all of that, Sora sat down in front of the tree and meditated to regain his stamina.

"Wow!" exclaimed Eugeo in awe.

Sora smiled and continued to speak, "With that axe of yours, you can practice the hacking and slicing as you cut down the Giant Tree. Though I also recommend practicing without the Giant Tree so that you can familiarize yourself."

Eugeo looked at Sora shocked, he didn't know what to think at this point. It was like his world was turning upside down. First, Sora's a Divine Swordsman, which he had never heard of before.

Then he's shown that Secret Arts of the sword category can be performed on any weapon with enough skill. And how he can even practice sword moves with the axe.

Just as Eugeo was going to yell in happiness, he remembered that he can't do what Sora said.

"I can't practice those sword moves, it goes against my calling," said Eugeo with a sulking face.

"Who said they were Sword moves?" Sora looked at Eugeo with a smirk as he stood up and prepared to head into the village he saw earlier.

Only then did Eugeo remember that Sora really did not mention that the moves he showed him were sword moves.

"Just practice those simple moves and your cutting speed will naturally become faster than your predecessors," said Sora as he headed down the hill leaving a joyful Eugeo behind. "Remember, I need to make my own sword. So for the meantime, don't tell anyone that I'm a Swordsman. Just tell them I'm the average blacksmith."

Sora waved goodbye to Eugeo and disappeared down the mountain.

…

Arriving at the village, Sora looked around hoping to find a smithy to forge weapons.

Once Sora found the smithy, he entered with great gusto. He looked for the blacksmith as he looked at all the nearby weapons on display.

All of pretty average good quality.

Cling! Cling!

Sora heard the sound of metal capping against each other and knew that the blacksmith was out in the back working.

He went behind the counter and found a middle aged man with greying hair. Sora stood at the door, waiting for the man to finish smithing.

After one hour or so, the man got tired and began to rest. It was only then that he noticed Sora and beckoned him forward.

"Come here kid. What are you doing here?" The man sounded angry as he talked to Sora with a firm and unshakable tone.

"I came here to blacksmith," said Sora as he looked at the man with a smile.

The man looked at Sora for a second before standing up and heading to a back room. A minute later, the man came back with a small hammer for Sora.

Looking at the hammer, Sora could only sigh inwardly as he took the hammer.

"Wait here once more, I will go and get an anvil for you," said the man before disappearing into the backroom once again.

A minute later he came back with an anvil fit for Sora.

"I can only give you this small stuff for now as you learn to use the hammer and you become stronger," said the blacksmith with a rough face. "My name is Sadore. I will make sure to teach you right."

Sora nodded and followed the man who grabbed a normal sized copper bar and melted half of it.

"You will be working with only half of the bars. Until you become stronger, this is all I can let you do," said Sadore as he poured half of the molten copper into a small sword mold.

After a whole day of blacksmithing, the blacksmith created a below average copper sword that was pretty weak in all aspects.

Looks… strength… durability… weight… sharpness…

It was a pretty weak sword that will break easily against a higher quality sword. However this was all for sure to learn how to blacksmith and it did the job.

Now Sora can work by himself the next day to blacksmith.

With the weak copper sword in hand, Sora swung it a few times, feeling that the sword was really light.

"Aren't you going to check it's information?" The blacksmith looked at Sora with a weird gaze, waiting for Sora to check the sword's information.

With quick thinking, Sora quickly came up with a reason as to why he didn't check the information, "I was never taught how."

"What? What kind of irresponsible parents doesn't teach their child something so simple?" The blacksmith quickly showed Sora how to check there information of weapons before heading back to blacksmith.