The adrenaline crash hit me like a sledgehammer. I slumped against the crystal pedestal, my hands trembling as the system's golden text burned across my vision:
[LEVEL UP! x3]
Current Level: 5
"Menu," I croaked, wiping beetle ichor from my face. The stat sheet shimmered into existence:
[FELIX SHAW]
STR: 90
CON: 92
AGI: 91
LCK: 16
A disbelieving laugh escaped my cracked lips. Three levels in one night. The numbers should've felt abstract, but my body told the truth - the deep bruises already fading, the gashes sealing into thin scars. When I flexed my arm, muscle rippled where before there'd only been wiry desperation.
My attention snapped to the carnage outside. The Swarm Queen's corpse lay where it fell, her obsidian carapace gleaming in the dawn light. Those mandibles - each as long as my forearm and serrated like nature's own katanas - made my fingers itch.
The Beginner's Guide practically leapt to the relevant page when I summoned it:
[ADVANCED CRAFTING: SWORDS]
Queen's Fang Blade
Requirements:
- 2x Pristine Mandibles
- 1x Monster Tendon (Binding)
- 3x Hardened Chitin Plates
- 1x Forge Source (Crystal Outpost Detected)
I rolled my stiff shoulders. "Guess I'm not sleeping yet."
The butchering took hours. The Queen's hide resisted even my sharpest tools, forcing me to work the knife along natural fissures in her armor. By the time I'd extracted both mandibles and a dozen usable chitin plates, my hands were slick with black fluids that smelled like battery acid and spoiled milk.
The crystal surprised me. When I dragged the materials inside, its pedestal *shifted*, revealing a smooth indentation just large enough for a mandible. The moment I placed one inside, blue flames erupted without heat, etching away impurities until the bone-white blade glowed like moonlight.
[OUTPOST FORGE UNLOCKED]
Crystal Enhancement Available: +10% Durability
As I worked, the cave's entrance remained ominously quiet. No new countdown appeared. Just the whispering leaves and the occasional plink of drying ichor falling from the ceiling.
I paused to glance at my cracked breastplate. The guide promised armor repairs could wait until after bladecrafting, but every creak of the damaged plate reminded me how close I'd come to death.
"One problem at a time," I told the empty cave, the rhythm of my crafting driving back the memories of snapping mandibles and too-many legs. The knife hummed in agreement, its edge catching the crystal's light as if winking.
The sword's balance felt perfect in my grip—like an extension of my arm rather than a tool. I gave it a few experimental swings, watching how the morning light caught the razor edge I'd honed from the Queen's mandible. The blade whispered through the air with barely any resistance.
[New Weapon Mastery Unlocked: 0%]
Faint golden lines appeared in my vision, tracing potential attack angles I'd never considered with the club. More intricate. More lethal.
My battered old club lay nearby, its once-sharp Ebon Mite carapaces now chipped and dull. I picked it up, running my fingers along the notches in the wood—each one a memory of a desperate fight. "You served me well," I murmured before setting it carefully against the cave wall. Not discarded. Retired.
The carnage outside was worse in daylight. Dozens of beetle corpses littered the clearing, their ichor soaking into the earth like spilled ink. The Queen's massive form dominated the center, already attracting buzzing scavengers.
I set to work methodically:
- Salvaging intact chitin plates from the smaller beetles
- Harvesting the Queen's remaining mandible (backup weapon)
- Collecting strange, vein-like tendons that might be useful for crafting
The new sword made quick work of the butchering. Where my knife would have required careful sawing, the blade sliced through tough hide with smooth precision. After each clean cut, I noticed the mastery percentage tick upward slightly—0.2% here, 0.3% there.
As I worked, something glinted beneath the Queen's carcass. Brushing aside clotted ichor revealed three crystalline shards fused together, their surfaces etched with faint geometric patterns. The system identified them immediately:
[Crystal Shard Cluster]
Value: 90 Shards
I pocketed them with a tired smile. Maybe my luck was finally changing.
The sun climbed higher as I hauled the last usable materials into the cave. My arms burned with fatigue, but it was a good pain—the ache of progress. Leaning against the crystal pedestal, I gave the sword one last inspection before sheathing it.
"One step at a time," I reminded myself as I finally collapsed onto my bedroll. The blade's cool hilt remained within easy reach as sleep claimed me, the crystal's steady pulse a silent lullaby.