Sprinting through the devastated territory that housed the steel wing sparrows, Jayce was forced to think about several things at once. Out of all of those thoughts, the one that took center stage was arguably the least urgent. Rather than where he should hide or how he should handle the spirit trapped inside him, Jayce’s mind was focused on a line of information that had entered his head.

Soul Forger has reached level 2.

This had happened after he threw the Cleansing Charm at the bisected spirit of freedom, and it taught Jayce something important. Stimulating a class wasn’t always as simple as following its English name. Trickster, for example, could be stimulated by tricking enemies, but its true focus was on observing and preempting them. Similarly, the Soul Forger class wasn’t just about forging artifacts. Jayce also had to use what he made.

‘Well, there’s probably more to it than that. Otherwise it would just be called Forger.’

Jayce thought back to when he had used Soul-Guided Forging. The way he entered a trance and forgot most of his actions was strange, but the sense of inspiration he felt when communicating with a soul was even stranger. Jayce couldn’t draw any further conclusions about the true nature of his class until he practiced more with this ability.

When he thought about using Soul-Guided Forging again, Jayce’s attention turned to the spirit that was inside the mysterious space within his core. This tiny serpent made from feathers had tried to possess him, but it received a big surprise. Jayce’s soul was abnormally resilient and wouldn’t be tempted by its influence. To make matters worse, when it wanted to leave, Jayce had trapped it with a cage of soulfire. This fire was the spirit’s bane and it couldn’t fight back. Now, it could only cower inside the body that it had wanted to possess.

While Jayce sympathized with the spirit a little, he wasn’t about to let something so valuable slip away. Even though he didn’t know exactly why it was valuable.

The only problem was that Jayce had to focus to keep it caged up. He was definitely going to have to release it at some point. Ideally, he’d be able to hold out until he found a way to capture it properly. Unfortunately, this dungeon was filled with dangerous monsters, many of whom were one gate above him, and there was also Froker chasing him down. If he got into a serious fight, Jayce would likely lose the spirit.

Thinking about the way ahead, Jayce realized that Weiss’s team had already cleared out most of the dangerous monsters in the territories they’d passed. Even many of the weaker camouflaged monsters were flushed out by the team’s investigative abilities and killed. After a few days, some territories would have repopulated a bit, but their numbers would still be thin.

‘Then the biggest obstacle between me and Snowdrift is Weiss’s team…Specifically Weiss and Theresa.’

If it were just the other four, Jayce could find somewhere to hide and wait for them to leave. Weiss and Theresa’s detection ranges weren’t enormous, but they were very accurate. Plus, they had tracked that spirit down, so they might have other methods that Jayce didn’t know about. Hoping to escape their search by hiding wasn’t feasible.

It had taken Weiss’s team 30 minutes to reach this deep into the steel wing sparrows’ territory, but that was while they were being harried by dozens of birds. Jayce left the territory while the monsters were still cowering from the eagle’s aura. He had even activated Bloodrage to boost his running speed.

When he entered an adjacent territory, a rageful roar echoed through the Frozen Expanse. Jayce turned his head and his face paled. Hurriedly changing directions, Jayce moved to where the mist was thicker just as a figure charged into the area he’d been occupying. War hammer in hand, Froker’s bloodshot eyes scanned his surroundings while his bright red veins flared with light. Jayce’s breath caught in his throat as he heard Froker’s frenzied breathing, but he couldn’t see the jotun through the mist. A few seconds later, he heard Froker bolt off in a different direction. The speed this giant moved at was already beyond that of a pro sprinter.

Jayce knew that because of his head-start and the mist, Froker had to cover a lot more ground than Jayce as he searched. Even so, the difference in their physical abilities meant that it was only a matter of time before Jayce was caught. Unless he hid somewhere, he wouldn’t even have to worry about being flushed out by Weiss or Theresa.

As for fighting Froker, Jayce didn’t even consider it. The trapped spirit was one concern, but the real problem was that he was completely outmatched. With Froker running around like an angry freight train, Jayce would be lucky to fire a single bullet before that hammer landed on him. Froker was also a Warrior, which meant that his already strong body was being enhanced by various abilities. Without the element of surprise, Jayce couldn’t even knock him down, let alone beat him.

Jayce ran while checking each ice pillar he came across. The instant he found a burrow that fit him, Jayce equipped both Tiny Hammers and dove inside. If there was a monster, it would be a weak one below the first gate. He was resolved to take a hit before blowing its brains out and healing himself with the blood he’d saved up. Fortunately, this burrow was abandoned. The monster living in it had either been killed by Weiss’s team or escaped when it heard them fighting.

Hidden from sight, Jayce still couldn’t relax. Froker’s chances of finding him were extremely low, but there was still Weiss and Theresa. Jayce had no idea how long it would take for them to capture the other pieces of that spirit and track him down. Wracking his brain, Jayce thought about what he needed most in this situation.

“If hiding won’t work, and fighting definitely won’t work, then running is my only option.” He muttered to himself. “But I’m too slow.”

Thinking about the spirit trapped in his body, Jayce even considered praying to it like Weiss had done. However, he didn’t understand why the spirit had stopped to listen to her. If he let it out now, the greatly agitated spirit would probably run away without giving him a chance to speak.

Jayce sighed and took out his sack full of talismans and mana cores. He mobilized his mental energy and tried to wrap it around the trapped spirit. Despite being only a fourth of its original size and weakened by Weiss’s poison, the spirit resisted fiercely and tore apart Jayce’s mental energy. Unperturbed, Jayce tightened the cage of soulfire and burned part of the spirit’s tail. The tiny spirit screeched in indignation and Jayce tightened the cage even further. The spirit eventually had to coil itself into a ball to avoid being incinerated. Jayce sent his mental energy over again and this time the spirit only put up a token resistance. With materials prepared and a soul in his grasp, Jayce activated Soul-Guided Forging.

The subdued soul formed a connection with him instantly and it was like a geyser of inspiration had suddenly sprung from his head. Jayce’s eyes dimmed as his hands started moving without his control. His memories became vague, but there were a few instances that stuck with him. First, he remembered being confused when his body ignored all of the materials in front of it and brought out the green staff. Using his dagger, he sawed off a piece from the butt of the staff and then heated it with his soulfire. Although he didn’t know why exactly, it started to become pliable. Jayce’s memory cut out around the time he started using his hands to carefully bend the wood.

The next thing he recalled was having five rings of green wood in front of him. These rings were far too large for his fingers, and their shape reminded him of an artifact he already had.

Before Jayce’s inner self could think too much about it, his body retrieved a mana core from his sack. This one had been taken from an icewind snake that didn’t form a talisman. Once again, when he started using techniques he didn’t understand, his memory became extremely fuzzy. After he finished processing the mana core, it had been divided in two—leaving one tiny core and another that hadn’t shrunk much. Jayce took that tiny core filled with only wind aspects and continued working.

‘Ah! No, what are you doing, me!?’

Jayce’s clearest memory of the entire process was when he was raging inside of his head. While his mind struggled in vain, his body removed the five protective bands from his neck, wrists and ankles and started melting them down. Despite the protection from the runes drawn on his hands, his skin was still burnt by this process. Nevertheless, his body maintained its mechanical precision. He didn’t pool them together and instead melted each one over a corresponding ring of wood that had black crystalline pieces of a mana core embedded in it.

If he were simply upgrading them, Jayce wouldn’t have minded. Unfortunately, he knew that forging this way was guaranteed to create a low-quality product. Using the polished work of a master as material for his shoddy creation was something that pained even a layman.

When he was finished, the black metal had mysteriously taken on a spring-green sheen. Runes were carved into the bands and they vanished into the metal. Making Jayce feel even worse was the fact that his mana ran dry by the end of this process, and he could see his body using hasty, slipshod methods to finish carving near the end.

Regaining control of his body, Jayce looked around wearily. Despite having absolutely no mana left, he didn’t feel any different. This was in stark contrast with his mental energy and vital energy, as when they were lowered, he would feel sleepy or exhausted respectively. Currently, he was a little tired because of his lost mental energy, but he was mostly feeling down because of his ruined protective artifact and (probably) expensive staff.

‘No, let’s at least see what I made before getting depressed.’

Bands of Freedom (Shoddy)

Energy Requirement: First Gate

A set of five bands created with inspiration from a lesser spirit’s desire to escape and be free. While active, the bands will protect the wearer with a barrier and increase the speed of their movements. As the wearer moves continuously, these two effects will become more powerful. When the wearer stops, these effects will slowly weaken again.

Note: As a shoddy product, this artifact is very energy inefficient. It will also start to break once its effects reach a certain level of power.

Jayce’s lips cracked open in a strange grin. Using inspiration from the spirit of freedom, he had been hoping to create something to escape Froker’s pursuit. Jayce had almost lost all hope when he started melting down his protective bands, as he was guaranteed to create a defensive artifact from that point onward. Somehow, the artifact still turned out to be exactly what he needed.

Now that he had a solution, Jayce wanted to start running as quickly as possible. The only issue was the energy cost. The Bands of Freedom required energy from someone at the first gate, which was an upgrade from the original protective bands. On top of that, they were very inefficient, so even someone who opened the second gate might have trouble using them for long periods of time. Jayce knew that Seeker and Tiny Hammer used his mana when they were fired, and considering the protective bands’ reality-bending effects, it was clear they also drained mana.

Jayce picked up the leftover mana core from the icewind snake and rolled it in his palm. Mize had said that these items had many uses. One of them was to somehow improve leveling speed when ingested. Another was as a material for artifact refining—something Jayce’s Soul-Guided Forging ability had just demonstrated. Just going by the name alone, Jayce had a guess about its third use.

Since he knew that ingesting it had a completely different effect, Jayce tried extracting the core’s mana by drawing it out with his mental energy. He was quickly met with success, but it was a slow and fragile process. Jayce had to concentrate carefully to pull the mana into his body, so he would have to find a place to rest every time he wanted to recover like this.

As he stored away the core and his sack of talismans, Jayce reviewed his loot and grinned. He realized that, staff or no staff, he would be escaping from here with a small fortune.

---

A wolf cloaked in snow and ice growled and leapt forward, only to be crushed into pulp by a heavy bronze war hammer. Froker sneered and pounded the wolf’s corpse a few more times just to release stress. Even though he was furious, he hadn’t become stupid. Since he hadn’t caught up with Jayce after a couple hours, Froker knew that the thief had found a hiding spot. Instead of searching every pillar and crevice in the dungeon, he rushed to an area where the walls were relatively close to each other and patrolled it. If Jayce left his hiding spot and tried to escape, Froker would capture him here. If Jayce stayed hidden, then it would become Weiss and Theresa’s job.

Even though hours had passed since the spirit escaped, Froker wasn’t worried that Weiss couldn’t catch it. His leader’s class was Assassin, a promotion of the Trickster class, and she could track anything she injured within certain limits. During their first encounter with the spirit, this ability was the main reason why they had managed to find it after it fled. Theresa’s analysis and speculations on what happened after it left Weiss’s tracking range was the other reason. This time, they had dealt it severe damage and even used a special poison that affected souls. The spirit could run fast, but its capture was just a matter of time.

Froker snarled as he heard something else approaching through the mist. Territorial monsters frequently rushed to attack him without a second thought, making them an extreme nuisance. More footsteps joined the first set and Froker narrowed his eyes. The mist bulged and parted, revealing a figure clad in an expensive-looking outfit with a long dark coat. Wind coiled around his entire body, seemingly pulling him along as he ran. Behind him was a small pack of wolves. The monsters gnashed their teeth and howled, but it was clear that they couldn’t catch this person.

“It’s you!” Froker roared, charging forward.

“Fuck, you had a brain after all.” Jayce realized what Froker had been trying to do immediately.

Unwilling to fight, Jayce zagged and avoided Froker’s hammer strike. A loud bang erupted behind him as spiderweb cracks extended for several meters around the point of impact. Jayce’s running stance faltered for a moment as he thought about how his newly enhanced barrier was no match for Froker’s raw power. It would shatter from even a glancing hit and if he received a blow head on, Jayce would be reduced to a human pancake.

Froker lifted his hammer and continued to chase Jayce. Just as he was hitting his stride, Jayce vanished into a particularly thick section of mist. Froker followed him without hesitation. Soon, a tiny projectile shot towards Froker. The jotun didn’t bother trying to dodge and focused on keeping his momentum. To his surprise, the tiny nail didn’t push him back at all. More nails followed but in exchange, Froker was able to see Jayce’s back through the thick mist. Activating his abilities, Froker put on a burst of speed and threw his hammer down.

To his surprise, this burst of speed wasn’t nearly as fast as he’d expected it to be. Jayce, who was even faster than before, ultimately escaped being crushed by the hammer. However, that didn’t mean he had escaped Froker’s attack unscathed.

This time, Froker’s hammer sent out a shockwave when it hit the ground and Jayce was forced to take the blow. Froker grinned as he saw Jayce fly through the air while blood spurted from his mouth and trickled down from his arms. Jayce’s barrier survived with a few cracks, but a good portion of the shockwave’s force ignored it and damaged his body. Jayce ignored the pain and rolled with the blow. He then transitioned from rolling to a running pose and sped off even faster than before.

Froker stopped running and stared into the mist with bloodshot eyes. The jotun’s veins brightened and began glowing a dangerous shade of crimson. Froker’s breath caught in his throat and he desperately tried to calm himself down. To his dismay, the rage in his body refused to be quenched and was on the brink of boiling over. Fortunately, stress relief arrived in the form of a pack of wolves. Froker gave up on chasing Jayce and soothed his fury with the unlucky monsters.