Jack of All Trades, Party of None

A week had passed since I consulted Grandpa about magic.

I was now heading to the forge in the weapon development room.

It seemed that my sword was finally complete.

“Good morning, Mr. Alan.”

“Hey, Orun. Good morning. It’s finally done. Your sword!”

Saying that, he handed me a sword wrapped in cloth.

I took it and unwrapped the cloth to reveal a sword completely black from the hilt to the blade.

As requested, although made using black dragon scales, it had no shine; instead, it was a black that seemed to swallow light.

The shape was a double-edged longsword tailored to my height.

There was no excessive decoration, just a simple design, yet it had a presence that immediately showed it was a fine piece.

“Thank you, Mr. Alan. Mind if I do some light swings?”

“Of course.”

Moving to an open space, I swung the black sword.

There was no awkwardness in handling it; it felt perfect in my hand.

The balance was perfect too.

(So this is a sword made just for me. Amazing…)

“How does it feel to use?”

“No problems. As expected from the top blacksmith of the silver rabbits of the night sky. It’s perfect.”

“That’s good to hear. As you requested, I infused the blood of hide turtle into the black dragon scales and ore. Because of that, the durability dropped a bit. But it’s still way tougher than an ordinary sword.”

“No problem, my support magic will cover that.”

“I see. So, have you decided on the name for the sword yet?”

“Yes. It’s called Schwarzhase.”

“Schwarzhase? Never heard that word before.”

“Probably not. It’s a term from a certain region’s language.”

“Oh? What does it mean?”

“‘Black rabbit.’ It’s a black sword born from the silver rabbits of the night sky.”

“I see. That’s a good choice.”

◇

After receiving the sword, I headed to the war room where everyone was already gathered.

“Good morning, Orun! Hey, hey! Show us the finished sword!”

As soon as I entered, Lucre excitedly asked to see it.

“Morning, Lucre. Sure.”

I pulled Schwarzhase out from my storage magical tool.

Not only Lucre, but everyone else looked at Schwarzhase with keen interest.

“Wow! It’s black! So cool!”

“For something made with black dragon scales, it has no gloss.”

Will raised a question.

“I asked them to remove the gloss. If it reflected light, it would stand out too much.”

“With this, we’re finally ready to go to the deep layers.”

Ms. Selma muttered with a confident smile.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“We’ve already waited a year. This is just a minor delay.”

“That’s right. Finally, the time for revenge in the deep layers has come!”

Ms. Rain spoke with a tone full of deep emotion.

“Then, as discussed earlier, we’re ready to head deep! Today’s exploration is the 91st floor. If all goes well, we’ll proceed again to the 92nd floor! Everyone, are you ready?”

We all nodded in response to Ms. Selma’s question.

“...Let’s go!”

““““Yeah!!!!””””

◇

We arrived at the 91st floor of the Great Labyrinth.

Finally, it was the first deep layer for our group.

The 91st floor was a swamp area.

The ground was muddy, making footing unstable.

The trees scattered around were leafless and rotting.

The demonic beasts here were mostly undead types—either rotted to mush or reduced to bones.

Their behavior was simple, and individual combat power was low.

But they appeared in abnormally large numbers.

They kept spawning one after another, forcing us to deal with them constantly.

Moreover, we had to collect magic stones continuously, or the demonic beasts absorbing them would become stronger.

A few stones didn’t make a visible difference, but every little bit counted.

Better to prevent the demonic beasts from absorbing magic stones altogether.

The demonic beasts were troublesome enough, but the smell here was awful.

The air was stagnant, creating a miserable environment that could make you feel sick if you stayed too long.

Suddenly, demonic beasts appeared.

They were bipedal, monkey-like rotten creatures.