Darkwood Forest

It had now been eight months since Kai started training with runes, he had successfully memorized all the characters and their meanings. Because he moved ahead of schedule, Kai will now test his knowledge about runes create his own Enchanted Gear."

"You don't have to create any weapons since you already have a bunch of weapons in the storage. Just chop a tree and use the stump as a table."

"Nn."

Kai stepped towards a tree as he shaped his hand like a blade and darkness materialized on the edges of his hand.

Kai's hand passed through the tree as if he never hit it and then the tree started toppling and fell over.

"I never would have imagined doing this before."

Kai sighed and then retrieved a weapon from inside the pendant.

"A sword, a basic weapon; good choice."

Kai placed the sword in front of him and then took out a knife.

"[ ],"

Kai recited some incomprehensible sounds and then pale light began shining on the tip of the knife and spread throughout the entire knife.

"[Temporary enchantment], by reciting a pseudo-pronunciation, an object can be temporarily enchanted; it depends on the user's understanding of the rune required. This technique is used mostly to inscribe runes on other weapons but most blacksmiths who create enchanted gear have their very own tool to craft runes more efficiently. Very good execution."

Kai proceeded to carve runes into his weapon, he has written each rune until he could perfectly write them; a rune that's perfected and a rune with one mistake have a huge difference. A perfected rune would function properly but a rune with a mistake wouldn't work and worst case scenario: have grave consequences.

Carving runes didn't actually take too much time, but actually making the runes work need a lot of time. Kai had sweat on his forehead as he finished writing the runes but it wasn't over.

Kai fixed even the tiniest errors with his carving and activated the weapon when he thought he had done it correctly.

"[Activate]."

The magic words, although they could be anything; Kai went for a simple one, [Activate].

The sword glowed yellow and then suddenly lifted itself up.

"...That isn't supposed to happen."

"Kai, take cover."

Kai instantly turned around and dashed. The sword kept vibrating until the space around it was shaking and then the sword pointed towards Kai.

"Dammit!"

Kai retrieved another sword from the pendant and tried to defend against the Enchanted Gear.

The failed Enchanted Gear shot out and aimed for Kai, no matter which direction he went; the sword knew where to go.

Kai gave up on running and used the sword to counter the Enchanted Gear but his sword suddenly cracked and shattered like glass.

Kai dodged the sword by a hair's breadth but had his cheek cut.

"The space around it is being disturbed, nothing can enter its area!"

"That's right, but you have the element of darkness; try and bypass the disturbed space!"

Kai channeled his magic and aimed his finger like a gun at the Enchanted Gear.

"[Dark Railgun]!"

A beam of dark light shot out of the tip of his index finger and aimed straight towards the Enchanted Gear, this was a miniature version of another one of his moves, [Dark Beam]. It costs less mana, has almost no cast time, and is more focused so it's ideal to pierce through objects.

The small beam of light shot through the space but dispersed before it could touch the sword.

"If I tried to craft a sword for strengthening... the rune near identical to it would be able to cut space. Then, the vibration there is because of the speed rune which is supposed to lighten the weight. The reason it targets me is because of the heat sensing rune. So, I have no idea how to counter it!"

Kai groaned.

"Wait, how is it able to move by itself? Even if it has the heat sensing rune; it shouldn't be able to actively seek it out."

"That's because the vibration moves the sword and the heat sensing rune manipulates the sword slightly. That means the sword can't make any sharp turns because the heat sensing rune only moves the sword slightly, your best bet is to dodge and attack while the sword is turning. Though you have to think of a way to pierce through the rune that can literally cut space in half."

"How did I even make something like that...?"

"I don't know, you learned of those types of runes the least."

"Ahh!"

The sword turned and went straight for Kai but he managed to dodge it with a roll.

"If space is disrupted, that means it's easier to pass through it but how would I pass through that rune?"

Kai once more pointed his index finger.

"[Dark Railgun]!"

The same event as earlier happened; it dispersed before it hit the sword's blade.

"I got it!"

Kai dodged the sword with a leap and then pointed his index finger once more.

He closed his eyes until a small dark ball that was so tiny you wouldn't even notice it appeared on the tip of Kai's finger. His face went deathly pale and he was sweating.

"T...that should be enough."

The sword aimed towards Kai and was prepared to cut him down but Kai aimed the sword on the tip of his index finger and yelled two words.

"[Dark Matter]!"

The tiny ball of darkness shot out and entered the disrupted space and directly hit the sword, the sword had a thin line that signified that it was cut it in the center; affecting the runes as the two pieces of the sword fell to the ground.

"Ha..."

Kai had ragged breath and fell on the ground.

"Looks like you're actually able to summon it. Last time you attempted that, you blacked out instantly."

"Nn...I think it may have to do with me adapting to this new body."

"That's one factor but there's another factor, you were able to manipulate your magic so well that it actually recreated that rare phenomena, you called it [Dark Matter]. But the same thing happened when you went out of control; I had no idea why you called it by that name."

"I don't know, I wasn't really asleep and experienced it but it was out of my control as if it wasn't my body. Maybe I just subconsciously wanted to call it [Dark Matter]."

"I see. We'll continue creating Enchanted Gear tomorrow."

A day passed as Kai rested and tried to create Enchanted Gear once more, this time he took twice as much time to fix even the most miniscule details. The result was the sword exploded and the shrapnel launched everywhere, Kai had a bit of cuts but other than that, it went smoothly. The next day, he created another one but the sword was so heavy that he couldn't lift it even a bit.

The day after, the sword was so light that it slipped out of his hands and flew into the sky. The next sword burned. The sword after turned into a one-sided blade. Many events like this happened throughout the months. Kai was attacked by his own swords many times and had to stop production to recover. At the middle of the third month, Kai was on the verge of succeeding but ultimately still failed.

That failure encouraged Kai to continue on and finally succeeded on the final day of the third month.

"[Activate, Superbia]."

Kai raised the sword as it started to attract many tiny particles from the ground. The sword then began vibrating but the particles that came with it moved on the surface of the sword at high speed.

"Superbia, the sword that stands above all and controls many beings. I guess that's what you wanted to call it."

"Nn."

The tiny particles that were moving on the surface of the sword was iron sand. I guess you could call the sword an iron sand sword. This world had enough technology and knowledge to make cast iron but iron sand is more efficient to cut objects when vibrating.

"That's not all!"

Kai let out a war cry and slashed at the nearby tree. The tree was neatly cut diagonally and fell down. Kai kicked the tree upwards with his body.

"Lighten!"

The sword became many times lighter as Kai swung it around nearly effortlessly. The iron sand vibrated so fast that it cut the tree like it was cheese and the gravity lightened the sword so much that it didn't tire Kai at all.

"And finally, heaviness!"

The sword that was in the air instantly slashed down and cut through the ground easily.

"This is a good sword."

Kai had a big grin on his face as he made slices in the air until night.

"I think that's enough fun. We're going to train you in magic tomorrow. I hope that you'll reach the peak of F-class before returning to your clan at the very least."

"Nn!"

Kai made an even bigger grin as the iron sand on the sword went back in the ground. Then, he made the sword so heavy that it pierced into the stone.

"Nn. That should be good, exactly like the sword engraved in the stone. Only fit for a true king."

Kai nodded proudly and went inside his cave to eat and sleep.