Birth Of The Crafts-God

"If there ever comes a day you become a physical entity, dread that day, system." Lucas cursed before stepping into the toilet.

Right as his right leg entered, the water began to spin into a whirlpool that forcefully tugged at him, dragging him into it.

"..."

Lucas held his breath and shut his mouth, mentally cursing intensely at the system and wondering why things had to be like this.

Luckily, the toilet water was sparkling clean otherwise he would have torn his brain out and searched for the system to murder it.

A mix of dark and dull colours appeared all around him as Lucas was in a state of confusion during this while. He could neither hear, smell, nor feel anything. Lucas could only 'see' the dark dull colours that surrounded him as he expressed a strange sensation.

In the very next second, bright white light greeted his sight, stunning Lucas' eyes for a second as he hurriedly adjusted to it. Flapping sounds resounded in his ears as Lucas experienced a sense of weightlessness with a slight force tugging him downwards.

When his sight had recovered, Lucas surveyed his surroundings just to find out that he had appeared high up in the sky, and was rapidly falling down.

"..."

For the umpteenth time, Lucas had the urge to curse out loud, but he knew that it was of no use. Also, having appeared in a new area, it was best to understand the situation than expose his location right away.

As for the current situation? Lucas had been in worse situations and he came prepared. So, he wasn't worried about a fall, even though it was from over a kilometre high, and would take less than half a minute to fall down.

Staring down beneath him, Lucas saw a vast plain covered in a few shrubs and scattered groves. Lucas narrowed his eyes at a region where his instincts seemed to have alerted him of danger. Thanks to his improved spiritual senses and the advantage of a bird's eye view, Lucas could sense an incredible blood energy from that exact location

Based on his experience, there were only two reasons for this: there was either a blood magic user, or a large-scale murder had been carried out there.

'It seems that the situation is worse than I thought.' Lucas frowned.

He then turned his eyes towards a location closely beneath him, where he sensed an intense energy outburst alongside a roar.

Scanning the area with his eyes, Lucas noticed a desolate beast with a thick body and one wing, as the other had been sliced off. He watched as it stared at a particular location.

At first, Lucas thought it was a regular student and decided to save them. Once he did so, he could ask them to help him find Wally.

However, as he kept watching whilst free-falling, Lucas managed to catch sight of a familiar silhouette.

Instantly, his eyes widened as Lucas gripped his palms tightly.

"Retrieve."

The craftsman gloves first appeared on his hands, boosting his strength significantly. But that wasn't enough. Based on the energy signature he was getting as he approached the monster, Lucas knew that it was at the Apertures Opening stage, and above the first at least. The power boost from the craftsman gloves wasn't enough, but as was earlier mentioned, Lucas had made preparations before leaving.

"Retrieve."

A pair of gauntlets suddenly appeared in Lucas' arms. The gauntlets covered the entirety of his forearms, but what was most conspicuous about them was the size of the gauntlets. They each looked to be almost as big as the waist of a fully grown adult male.

The black metal gauntlets had beguiling red lines on them and strange patterns carved on the surface. It appeared like a piece of metal art that somehow managed to wreak a devilish energy from it.

The gauntlets were made using a combination of Devil Mark stones and Gretac-Titanium alloy, which were metals Lucas received in the work-station after the building was renovated. There was also half an ingot of Purple Iridium metal put into the work, and despite wanting more, Lucas could only manipulate a maximum of half an ingot at a time, due to his lack of stellar energy.

For the magic runes and sigils, Lucas used Red Iris stone, which was well known for its conduction of stellar energy, and the recently acquired Violent Sun ores for some parts, to give the runes more aggressive nature and force.

The pair of gauntlets was Lucas' tour de force of vestige-smithing ever since he came into this new world. It had taken him a total of eight hours to melt the metals and prepare the materials, twenty hours just to make the structure, and seven hours to carve the runes. The truth was that it could have been longer, but this was the first prototype of the deisgn.

They were meant to be a part of a set Lucas was building to protect himself, but so far, only the gauntlets had been completed without any issue.

The gauntlets also applied the recent ideology Lucas came up with, which was why the creation process was lengthy and complex, and the size was this large.

*Hum*

When he was less than one hundred metres above, a height that would take less than five seconds to descend, the gauntlets suddenly began to glow along the red lines.

At this moment, the helokiel was about to dish the finishing blow to Wally, who had already given up. However, it suddenly sensed something above and lifted its head to take a look.

*Boom*

The gauntlets smashed right into the face of the helokiel. On impact, it let out a small explosion, shoving the monster down to the ground.

The astonishing combination of the force from a free fall, the intense punch, the weight of the gauntlet, and the explosion released on impact, all dealt a heavy blow to the monster, burying it into the ground.

"What was that?" Wally was stunned and tried to lift his head to take a look. However all he could see was a mix of dust and smoke.

He had barely escaped the reach of the explosion as he wasn't within its range, but the attack still caught him unaware.

"Hey, kid. Who said you could die without fulfilling your end of the bargain?" Lucas' cold voice sounded from the haze.

"Mi-mister?" Wally was astounded. He couldn't believe his ears even though he found that voice to be familiar and knew the owner.

"Move away a bit. I need to teach this fella a lesson for messing with my plans."

"O-okay." Wally nodded before forcing himself to stand up and leave.

When he saw Klein's body on the other side, Wally froze at the sight.

"Mister, please-"

"I got it." Lucas cut him off.

Although he had just arrived, Lucas got a quick glimpse of the situation from above and understood right away.

"Oi, get up. There's no way you would go down from that alone." Lucas massaged his arms as he glanced at the crater formed by the attack.

"Graaaaa." The helokiel rose from the crater and released a low growl.

It was incensed by the new arrival, especially by the attack that struck it. On the helokiel's body, a hole the size of the gauntlet's fist had appeared, bleeding out green liquid. The edge of the hole was filled with burnt marks and even part of the injured flesh was as black as soot.

"Second level Apertures Opening stage desolate beast. An irritating fellow." Lucas' brows furrowed.

If it were a first level desolate beast, the gauntlets he had on as well as the boost from the craftsman gloves underneath, would have enabled him to take it on. However, a second level beast was out of the equation. Taking the risk of facing it alone might end up with him dying.

"Although I'd like to play with you a bit, I've got bigger fish to fry."

Lucas took in deep breath and in the next second,

"Release."

*Boom*

A burst of aura exploded from Lucas, rising quickly from the peak of the Body Strengthening stage to the first level of the Apertures Opening stage. It didn't settle there and went one step further to the second level, before calming down a bit. His body was also covered in strange black tattoos that gave him a mysterious and somewhat culturally aesthetic appearance.

*Whoosh*

At the same time, a grand mass of stellar energy gushed into his body, rejuvenating Lucas and giving him a new sensation.

'So this is stellar energy.' Lucas relished in the sensation of having a mystical energy flow through his body, blood, veins and organs.

'It's a bit like mana but less weighty. Are all mystical energies different?' Lucas thought.

The helokiel stared at him wide-eyed, speechless as to how the creature before it had gone straight from the peak of the Body Strengthening stage to its current level. Although it had also previously undergone a transformation, the helokiel was at the peak of the first level and had received assistance from two strange creatures before achieving its current state.

But the little being before it simply breathed in and out once.

*Bang*

"Let's get this done with." Lucas pounded the gauntlets together, generating a strange wave of electricity over them that dissipated almost immediately.

"Roar!" The helokiel released an intimidating bellow.

The enemy was merely at the same level as it, and had only managed to injure it by surprise. Even though it was injured, the helokiel suspected that Lucas' current state was a sham.

In truth, the helokiel was a tad right. Lucas' current state was as a result of activating the Bronze grade card he got from fulfilling a mission in the past. It was a second level card which meant that for the next two hours, Lucas would possess the strength of a second level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner.

"Noisy." Lucas muttered.

In the next second, the helokiel disappeared and appeared beside him, waving its claw towards him.

*Bang*

Lucas' left palm opened wide and caught the helokiel's claw, leaving the monster dumbfounded.

"Ro-"

*Bam*

A punch greeted the helokiel's face, shutting it up halfway through its roar.

"I said you're being noisy." Lucas coldly stated.

His gaze was like that from the deepest depths of the abyss, freezing the monster and making it shiver for a bit. For a second, the helokiel was confused as to who the real beast was.

Still holding tightly onto the monster's claw, Lucas grabbed a part of its head -which included an eye- with his right arm, and lesser firmly on it.

"This is for making me use my equipment before it's completed."

The helokiel's covered eye could suddenly see a blue light that rapidly expanded before blasting brilliantly.

"Roar!"

The monster let out a mournful scream as it tried to struggle away from Lucas' grip. It brandished its free claw at Lucas in an attempt to efficiently escape.

Lucas didn't hold onto it any longer, letting the monster withdraw from his reach since it was counter-attacking. He wasn't bothered about it escaping; with the combination of his new vestige and his strength now at the second level of the Apertures Opening stage, the helokiel couldn't escape even if it were at the third level.

"Save a bit of your voice before you lose it. You'll be screaming like this a couple more times soon."