“Vivi, you’re scary when you get mad like that…” Lucius said.

  Vivi frowned. She stepped into her smithy, which was still hot from the work earlier. Tools were left in place, and used ether roots were sprawled wherever they fit. Vivi really should have cleaned before leaving…

  “Are we really getting back to work?” Lucius asked. He floated beside Vivi, but spoke in her head. “You should sleep first, right? Our assistant has passed out.”

  I don’t feel tired, Vivi thought. Why are you scared of my anger? Did we not witness the same scene in the hub? The Stewards killed twenty-six nimrods for their own gain.

  “They did…” Lucius said. “But is that our fault? None of them were our allies.”

  The other nimrods barely batted an eye, Vivi thought. Zand is so cruel that people think this is normal. Everyone is acting like twenty-six people dying for the Stewards’ benefit isn’t a problem.

  Lucius appeared uncomfortable. “I just haven’t seen you get mad before, that’s all.”

  Vivi took a deep breath. She couldn’t recall the last time she was mad either. Back home, she didn’t have time to get angry. She resented a lot of people, including the ether hunters, but Vivi didn’t want to get mad at anyone. She just wanted to smith swords and live.

  She didn’t even know what it was about the Stewards’ stunt that made her so outraged. Everyone already knew that Zand was cruel. The nimrods were too focused on their own survival to care. Was that what made her angry? The total lack of reaction from everyone around her.

  I’m no longer so weak that I’m inconsequential, Lucius, Vivi thought. My efforts can make a difference. I could help others.

  Lucius said nothing, sensing that arguing with Vivi would be useless. Vivi guessed he disagreed. He wasn’t the type of spirit that went out of his way to help those who he didn’t need to. Still, a spirit and the wielder didn’t always need to agree on everything. Lucius would help her even if he didn’t fully agree with Vivi’s decisions. So long as Vivi didn’t do something that totally went against his goals.

  Uundref uses twilight abilities, Vivi thought. His most dangerous skill is the portal skill. That, combined with his speed, makes him a deadly fighter.

  “Yes,” Lucius said. “His dagger skill is strong, whatever the skill is, but it looked like a common skill to me. Your runeswords are strong enough to withstand an attack. The portal is the most dangerous skill.”

  Twilight and ghost monsters, and skills, have a weakness, Vivi thought. A nix rune.

  “Nix?” Lucius thought. “What’s that?”

  Nix is a void element, Vivi thought. It’s rarely used in runesmithing. As the name suggests, the rune does nothing at all. It offers no sharpness or pressure like typical runes do. Nix just coats a sword in ether that does nothing at all. I’ve only carved it a few times in my life as practice.

  Lucius blinked, confused. “So why are you mentioning this?”

  Nix has only one benefit, Vivi thought. It cuts through anything with spectral powers. Twilight and ghost monsters aren’t actually some psychic otherworldly beings. They just use spectral ether full of void elements, which is highly resistant to physical attacks, and ether's live elements. Nix renders spectral powers useless.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Lucius listened curiously, while Vivi picked up an ether root. The sword she was going to create would work best with light metals and highly conductive ether roots. Perhaps a katana would work. Vivi picked up a white obsidian root to use as the base and sat down on the vise.

  Initiate the root, please, Vivi thought.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t rest first?” Lucius asked.

  Just do it.

  Lucius hesitated. However, after a glare from Vivi, he initiated the root. The vein-shaping process started.

  As Lucius had warned, Vivi was tired. She’d only slept for four hours in the last three days, having crafted three swords. Her fingers felt slippery, coated in a layer of old black aspen.

  But she was in the smithy, and the process had started. Vivi wouldn’t stop mid-way through. She shaped the veins with willpower alone.

  The vision for the sword was clear in Vivi’s head. She knew exactly what she wanted to craft. This was usually a good sign. Vivi wasn’t like Grandpa, who could improvise the first few steps of the process, deciding later what the end product would be. Vivi required a specific plan. She needed to know what the veins were supposed to look like, as well as where each rune would go, and what the sword would be used for.

  The last part was especially important. Most of Vivi’s swords were created with the goal of simply creating a powerful weapon that would sell well. In Zand, her swords were created to defeat tough monsters, and to fight spirit blades.

  Never before had Vivi crafted a sword with the goal of killing someone.

  Uundref was a skeletal demon, but he was an intelligent being nonetheless. The sword Vivi worked on now was created solely for the purpose of killing a Steward.

  Vivi didn’t know how to feel about that. The vision of the completed sword was clear in her head. More clear than ever. Yet, Vivi was uncomfortable working toward completing the sword.

  She worked anyway, finishing the core set of veins. She carved the holes into the hilt, then picked up another ether root, choosing green mithril. There was no reason to get creative when basic ether roots would serve their purpose well enough.

  The second veins will be for the nix rune, Vivi thought. It’s best if the core is saved for a shockwave rune.

  “Shockwave?” Lucius asked. “Seriously? A rune like that exists?”

  The name isn’t literal, Vivi thought. The shockwave rune makes use of air and wind elements. Those elements push ether outward with force, creating a shockwave-like effect.

  Lucius looked curious. “Okay, now I’m interested. Craft the sword, Vivi.”

  Vivi smiled slightly. They initiated the second root.

  The theory behind Vivi’s veins was quite simple. The shockwave veins sat at the core of the weapon. The rune worked like a discharge. Upon loading ether inside, an attack was charged. By swiping, the shockwave would be released.

  The shockwave’s discharge of ether would pass through the nix veins, which slithered across by the edge of the blade. This way, the shockwave’s discharge of ether would be coated with nix-enhanced ether.

  If Uundref’s portal was active and Vivi managed to swipe a shockwave toward the skeleton’s direction, the Steward would be blown off guard. His powers would work against him.

  Some hours later, Vivi cauterized each stalk of the second ether root. She yawned. It was a miracle she hadn’t screwed anything up, tired as she was.

  Still, Vivi immediately moved to carving the runes. She hadn’t skipped collection day just so she could sleep. She intended to finish the sword today, forcing herself to carve the runes.

  For the metal, Vivi picked red hardsteel. As the name suggested, the metal was an alloy of steel. It was made by combining a large amount of ordinary steel with a small amount of adamantite. This gave the steel a reddish color, while strengthening it by a significant amount. Hardsteel was relatively light with a low melting point. A low melting point was necessary when working with a nix rune, as nix didn’t offer the veins much protection when dipped into molten metal. With high heat and no protection from runes, the veins would melt.

  Vivi heated up the crucible furnace, melted the metals, and finished carving the runes. She was barely awake by this point, requiring Lucius’s ether just to stay focused. Lucius expressed his concerns, saying that Vivi could fall ill if she stayed awake. She nodded her head back and forth while waiting for the metal to cool around her veins.

  But the sword needed to be finished. Vivi picked up her hammer and began smithing. She barely remembered what happened during the latter part of the process. But she continued hammering, forging the weapon, until eventually collapsing asleep on the anvil.