For an ordinary Adventurer who joined a Familia, there was usually one thing they did first.
Enter the Dungeon.
Hunt monsters, accumulate Excelia, and grow stronger.
That was how most Adventurers began.
The Hephaestus Familia was somewhat different. As a crafting Familia, most of its members did not descend into the Dungeon themselves.
To begin with, ranking up was not something that could only be achieved in the Dungeon.
Honing one’s craft as a smith, forging weapons, and gaining experience through such work also became Excelia.
Of course, there were exceptions.
People like Tsubaki Collbrande, who headed to the front lines under the pretext of personally testing weapons.
She was one such unusual case, having reached Level 3.
Ordinarily, Kashi would have headed straight for the Dungeon as soon as he received his Falna.
But Hephaestus had set conditions.
First.
He was to be assessed to determine whether he possessed enough skill to enter the Dungeon.
Second.
He was to receive a new weapon.
If his ability was judged inadequate, she said he would need to train until he reached a certain standard.
That made Kashi realize something anew.
Hephaestus cared for her followers more than he had expected.
At the very least, she was not the kind of goddess who recklessly threw children into the Dungeon.
And so, the following day.
Kashi had his skills evaluated by Tsubaki.
First came an inspection of his equipment.
Kashi handed her the sole weapon he possessed.
An old longsword.
Tsubaki accepted the sword and slowly drew it. Her brow immediately furrowed.
"Hmm..."
By Orario standards, it was a cheap longsword belonging to the low-end range.
The blade was chipped all over, and fine cracks ran through the body of the sword.
Even the joints of its hilt had come loose and creaked.
Anyone could see it would not last much longer. It had been used so harshly that it was little more than a piece of scrap metal.
Tsubaki clicked her tongue.
"You were still using this?"
"It got the job done."
"No, it didn’t."
She cut him off firmly.
"If you go into the Dungeon with this and it breaks in the middle of a fight, you’ll die. That’s it."
She slid the sword back into its scabbard.
"This thing’s no good anymore. I’ll make you a new one."
Resting her chin in her hand, Tsubaki asked,
"Got a style you want?"
Kashi considered it for a moment, then answered casually.
"Not particularly. Something like the one I just had will do."
Tsubaki knew far more about equipment than he did, after all.
She would make it suit him.
"Fine."
Tsubaki gave a faint grin and rose from her seat.
"Then next comes the skill test."
She returned with two wooden swords.
"We’ll look at your swordsmanship first. Purely—no magic or Skills."
Without complaint, Kashi accepted the wooden sword.
The two moved to a small clearing behind the Familia home.
Holding the wooden sword, Kashi lightly loosened his wrist.
He was accustomed to hunting and battles staked on life and death. But this was his first formal spar, standing face-to-face with an opponent like this.
It felt strangely awkward.
"There’s a difference in our Levels, so I’ll go easy on you."
Tsubaki casually rested her wooden sword on her shoulder.
"But show me everything you’ve got."
Her red eyes fixed on Kashi.
"If you land even one proper hit on me, you pass."
At those words, Kashi immediately lowered his stance. The tip of his wooden sword hung near the ground. His breathing settled.
He had been given the initiative. There was no reason to hesitate.
He kicked off the ground and closed the distance in an instant. At the same time, his thrust tore sharply through the air.
Fast.
Tsubaki lightly twisted her wrist and deflected the attack. The sword point slid aside. Then offense and defense immediately reversed. Tsubaki’s counterattack was lightning-fast—a downward strike aimed at his thigh.
Kashi immediately took two steps back.
Then he stomped down on Tsubaki’s wooden sword.
"Oh?"
A brief opening.
In that instant, Kashi’s sword shot upward half a beat faster. Tsubaki hurriedly raised her wooden sword and blocked it.
Clack.
The sound of wooden swords colliding rang out.
Surprise was plainly visible on her face.
The more exchanges they traded, the stranger it became.
At first, he had been unpolished.
His lack of experience sparring against people had been obvious.
But—
His sword was changing.
With every swing, it became more precise.
With every exchange, it grew sharper.
Each movement was rapidly being corrected.
It was as though his swordsmanship itself was growing in the midst of battle.
And Kashi was smiling.
As though he were having fun.
[Sword Saint]
The [Sword Insight] manifested by that Skill was driving the boy’s senses to their limits.
The flow of the sword.
The direction of force.
The moment an opening appeared.
He could see it all.
Then the answer was simple.
Move forward.
The next instant.
Kashi vanished in a flash.
A sudden burst of footwork with no warning.
And the sword strike that followed.
One step back, two steps forward.
It was the footwork of a swordsman he had happened to see during his travels before coming to Orario. Kashi had already made a movement he had seen only once into his own.
Tsubaki’s eyes flew wide open.
"This brat—"
And then.
Tap.
The tip of Kashi’s wooden sword touched her shoulder.
No matter that she had been going easy on him. No matter that she had let her guard down. The sword of a mere Level 1 had reached a Level 3, utterly shattering common sense.
Silence hung between them for a moment.
Kashi caught his breath and lowered his sword.
Tsubaki blankly looked down at her shoulder.
Then she let out a hollow laugh.
"Ha."
This was not the swordsmanship of a Level 1. He could more than hold his own even against an average Level 2.
No, considering his rate of growth, he was beyond even that.
Tsubaki scratched her head as though dumbfounded.
Then she muttered,
"Seriously..."
Her red eyes turned toward Kashi.
"Where on earth did our goddess pick up a monster like you?"
Hearing Tsubaki’s mutter, Kashi slowly looked down at his own hand.
And realized something.
He had changed.
Clearly.
There was a definite gap between before and after receiving his Falna.
The same was true of the footwork and strike he had used moments ago.
He had remembered them for a long time: swordsmanship he had happened to witness during his travels.
The movements and flow had lingered vaguely in his mind.
But until now, it had been little more than imitation.
He could copy the form.
But linking the footwork and sword strikes together—
The breathing and timing.
Perfectly matching even the flow of force.
That had been difficult.
Whenever he tried to reproduce it by force, something went wrong. But now, it was different. The movements that came to mind flowed naturally into his body.
He could see the trajectory of the blade.
He could read the direction in which force flowed.
He could tell for himself if even the slightest thing was off.
And at the same time.
He understood how to correct it.
[Sword Insight] was not simply an enhancement of his senses. It dramatically elevated his understanding of the very concept of swordsmanship. He had always been able to watch and copy swordsmanship.
But there had been a wall at the stage of making it his own. His body could not keep up, and his senses had been lacking.
But not anymore. If he saw a style of swordsmanship once, he could understand it.
Why that flow was necessary.
Why it led into that movement.
And.
How to turn it into his own sword.
Kashi slowly clenched the wooden sword in his hand.
A strange certainty came over him.
He felt as though he could reproduce any swordsmanship.
No.
He felt there was no reason he could not reproduce it.
Then an absurd thought passed through his mind.
Could he perhaps reproduce swordsmanship not of this world, but of an entirely different one as well?
The fictional sword arts he had seen in memories of his previous life.
Outlandish theories and unrealistic techniques.
Until now, they had been nothing more than fantasies.
But somehow, now they felt possible.
He could do it.
At least, Kashi’s senses whispered as much.
As he sank into those thoughts, Tsubaki rested her wooden sword on her shoulder and spoke.
"You pass."
Her voice was crisp and decisive.
"Once your sword is finished, you can head straight into the Dungeon."
Kashi let out a short breath.
Permission had come much sooner than he expected.
From Tsubaki’s perspective, though, it was a perfectly understandable result.
The boy before her was still unpolished.
He lacked experience, and his combat against people was rough as well.
Even so, his fundamentals were exceptionally good.
More than anything.
He grew while fighting.
It stood out so clearly that it was almost unsettling.
Tsubaki gave a faint grin.
To be honest, she had been bored lately. The orders that came in every day were all predictable: mass-produced weapons for second-tier Adventurers. Swords with solid performance but no personality. The repetition of formulaic work.
The little brat before her was undoubtedly a monster.
He was not even complete yet, but he already made people anticipate what he would become.
And she would personally forge the sword that someone like him would wield.
That fact alone made her heart beat strangely fast.
Tsubaki smiled meaningfully.
"Nice."
Her red eyes turned toward Kashi.
"I’m starting to look forward to seeing what kind of monster you’ll become."
The first thing Tsubaki did after assessing Kashi’s ability was head straight to the workshop.
"Goddess!"
The forge door flew open. Hephaestus looked up from where she had been sorting metal before the workbench.
"What has you so worked up?"
"This little brat is the real deal. He’s a monster."
Blatant excitement was written across Tsubaki’s face.
"I can’t believe he’s Level 1. He landed a strike on me using nothing but the fundamentals."
Hephaestus gave a small smile.
"That’s what I told you. I said it was all right to look forward to it."
"He’s beyond what I was expecting."
Tsubaki set Kashi’s old longsword on the workbench.
Clank.
It was scrap that looked ready to snap at any moment.
"It’s incredible enough that he survived all the way here carrying this piece of junk."
She braced both hands against the workbench and leaned forward.
"But more than that... he grows while he fights."
Her red eyes gleamed.
"His sword was evolving right before my eyes."
For a moment, silence fell.
A gentle smile touched Hephaestus’s lips.
"I see."
Her divine instinct had not been wrong.
Kashi was still an unfinished gem. But within him, a brilliantly shining star already lay dormant.
And one day, that star would illuminate all of Orario.
"So,"
Hephaestus asked quietly.
"What kind of sword are you thinking of making for him?"
Tsubaki flashed a grin.
"The finest first sword."
The workshop was filled with scorching heat.
The forge blazed.
Iron glowed red-hot.
And the sound of hammering rang out late into the night.
Kashi watched from a distance.
Iron was heated in flame. Taken out and hammered. Shaped. Returned to the fire.
Then hammered again.
It looked like a simple repetition, but there was breath within it.
A blacksmith’s breathing. Will. Obsession.
Without a word, Tsubaki swung her hammer.
Sweat flew.
Sparks scattered.
And the metal gradually took the form of a sword.
The sight looked almost like a battle.
As though cutting down an enemy, she shaped the iron.
Kashi murmured without thinking,
"...Beautiful."
Tsubaki’s hand paused briefly.
Then she gave a faint grin.
"I thought you were only good with a sword, but you’ve got an eye for things too."
The hammer came down again.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The sound was like a heartbeat.
The next morning.
Tsubaki held out the completed sword to Kashi.
"Here."
The scabbard was simple. It bore no decoration.
But the moment he gripped it, he knew.
It was on an entirely different level from the old longsword he had used before.
Kashi slowly drew the sword.
Shing.
A clear metallic ring resounded.
The silver blade was straight and free of excess, its balance nearly perfect.
From the moment he held it, it already felt like a part of his body.
Unconsciously, Kashi swung it several times.
The air split sharply.
There was no strain whatsoever.
If anything, it felt too natural.
"This is... good. I like it."
At Kashi’s brief admiration, Tsubaki smiled in satisfaction.
"Of course you do."
She crossed her arms.
"I made it while watching the way you move."
"The way I move?"
"A sword isn’t complete just because it’s sharp."
Tsubaki pointed at the sword in Kashi’s hand.
"It only becomes complete once it is fitted to its wielder."
Kashi looked at his face reflected in the blade.
Since his previous life.
And since losing everything.
For the first time.
Someone had made something just for him.
For someone with no name.
No home.
Someone who had wandered alone.
A sword someone had spent their time and skill to make.
Somewhere deep in his chest, warmth stirred strangely.
"What is this sword’s name?"
At Kashi’s question, Tsubaki thought for a moment.
Then she grinned.
"It doesn’t have one yet."
She lightly flicked the sword tip with a finger.
Ting.
"One day, you give it a name yourself."
That evening, Hephaestus checked Kashi’s back once more and spoke.
"Your preparations are complete."
There was still barely any change in his Status. The numbers were not important.
What mattered was potential. And Kashi’s potential had already surpassed a level that could be measured in numbers.
Hephaestus smiled quietly.
"Starting tomorrow, enter the Dungeon."
A short sentence. Yet it was his first step as an Adventurer.
Kashi nodded.
"Understood."
A calm answer. Yet deep in his eyes, a distinct light trembled.
Anticipation.
Tension.
And.
Certainty.
He would grow stronger.
More than anyone.
Strong enough to kill any dragon, no matter what kind.
That night.
Kashi lay in bed with his new sword at his side.
Close enough to touch if he stretched out a hand.
The cold feel of metal reached his fingertips.
He closed his eyes.
Raging flames.
Screams.
The shadow of a dragon.
The nightmare had still not disappeared.
But it was different from before.
Now, he was not alone.
He had a roof over his head.
A place to return to.
People who acknowledged him.
And he had a sword in his hand.
His first sword, meant to reach the dragon.
Kashi slowly gripped its hilt.
Then, in a very quiet voice, he murmured,
"Wait for me."
He knew exactly whom the words were directed at.
The dragon of calamity.
The being that had taken everything from him.
One day, without fail.
He would kill it.
In the darkness, the boy’s eyes glimmered quietly.
Like the morning star.
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