I woke up feeling slightly different than before. To say the least, as I looked at my hands, the lines for my power were straight lines, meaning the lightning had been drained out of me. This type of feeling, without the lightning element or however it worked, keeping my mind at a constant higher rate it was like being groggy and clear headed at the same time.

No real way to explain it for now I guess.

‘What is different?’ Looking around, I was still in the large office study of Enigma, seated in the chair I was mostly in before. After I had finished my smoke next to the window, Enigma waved his hands at me and I rose into the air before horrendous pain made me falter within consciousness. I wasn’t able to pass out though; somehow Enigma kept me awake and needed to keep it so. ‘He had to consciously bind to the gifts he was given or they would only work subconsciously when activated by stimulus’ was the words I faintly remember hearing beyond my own voice leaving my lungs. 

After he finished, that was when Enigma let me pass out. Waking up, it seemed I had been set back in the chair. The old man Enigma was seated across from me, but the servant was gone for some particular reason. Most likely he had to attend to whatever job that front desk entailed.

“How does it work…” Feeling healed, so no lasting pain resided within, that was good.

“Simply…grasp the air, and spatial energy will slowly fill up the lines on your hand over time. I am sorry to say, but it takes at least an hour per line to fill. You can’t use them until it is filled, not constantly use the proportions while it is filled.”

“That’s okay…I can work around it. Thank you Enigma…this will really help me.”

“I like that you lost your doubt…heh…as for the pocket dimension ability, simply summon your frog. Do as you did before, and he will pull in what you will. The limit within the frog seemed to be only be 20 by 40 feet…I am sorry. It isn’t as large as I thought I could make it.”

“8…800 square feet! That is amazing”

“Eh?” Enigma turned his head sideways, “this amount of space was quite small. In fact dimensional items that could hold a cubic foot or 100 cubic feet of space within them were drops in the ocean for me. The best items had 100,000’s of cubic meters of space within. They were known as reality marbles, and were hard to come by and create as an item for most mortals not bordering ascension, and were usually found or gifted by a god on how to craft. The space within could be quite large, this 20 by 40 was indeed mediocre in comparison, so why be satisfied?”

“You probably don’t understand…I have lived in a room that was 8 by 20 feet a good portion of my life. That is…to me a lot of space. Who needs some massive space anyway, I expected a 5 by 5 anyway, and this is way beyond my expectation.”

Enigma gave a wry smile, a ‘Well damn really?’, “I am glad you are alright with that then…I gifted you something as well, you should feel it on your back.”

“Eh?” I moved my hands around towards my back side but nothing was there.

“Right…I’ll explain it first, spatial manipulation like I said has things like constructs just like any element. Except they are usually incorporeal or planar. I gave you a set of arms, they can manipulate things in this world of course and are quite strong due to being made of spatial energy. You seem like the nimble type, and so these should prove of use. Focus your mind, you will come to feel them.”

I gave him a strange look, indeed it felt like I had phantom limbs coming from my rib cage near my back and below my arm pits. However, the arms could move through my body, space, or items until I gave it the thought to actually interact. Or to say the least, this was the context of what it should be like.

“Don’t worry…you’ll get used to that feeling. In fact this ability can grow unlike your others, if you so choose you can have a thousand arms. It is tailored after a Buddhist I once gave this gift too…sigh…that was so long ago, I wonder how he is.”

1,000 arms? That Buddhist? Like the ones in frames throughout people’s houses? That was a real person, from this world!

I shook my head, “Damn”

“Well…not a lot more I can do for you, for now. Use what I have given you wisely, I won’t make you sign some contract, because I like you kid. Just do well for us is all I ask.”

Us.

About to bow with thanks when I felt a push in the air, looking up Enigma was waving his hand non chalantly but the force of it threw me out the window through the rain and to the ground below. I was about to start screaming and flail my arms when I saw Enigma smile a cheeky grin.

“This isn’t a great way….to learn…” My voice faded as I fell towards the ground, friends were near the fountain looking up at me, flying through the air, with horrified looks on their faces. Jack and Solomon were running to try to catch me but before I struck the ground, I vanished.

“Didn’t turn invisible, he vanished!”

“Hey babe, who the hell was that guy?” I walked from behind Alexandria and pointed up towards the mage towers. Thankfully I just found one of the most broken aspects of the teleportation. It paused my inertia.

She was about to answer when she jerked her head over to me, “You little shit!” *Bop!*

“Ow! I just went through torture, and not even a kiss?” She was about to strike again but frowned, if I wasn’t lying then she might actually damage my brain. She sighed and hugged me, causing those around to shake their head in pity. Pity for me being such a jack ass that is.

I felt horrendous, the feeling from changing spaces while within motion was jolting and my body felt like it wanted to continue to move downwards. It left a sick pit in my stomach, I wanted to scream at the mage tower but was stopped as Damon approached excitedly.

“Get what you need? We gotta go over to the crafting shop, it’s already been a couple hours” Damon had a hurried expression, meaning things weren’t the best for those within the fountain currently.

Nodding, I left my friends again off to the smithy shop.

‘Only a couple hours had passed?'

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“You want a what?” A thick bearded man was looking me up and down.

“A chain… with a spear head on one end of it, and a ring at the other. With the ability to extend and retract the chain into the spear head.”

“You know how complicated transforming weapons are?”

“Pretty complicated I know…but my patron here said the whole school will pay you, so it should make you feel easier. It isn’t the only thing I will be asking for either, and more in the future.”

“Hmm…” The man waved someone over, who was identical to him in every way, like a twin but I suspected more likely for him to be a clone.

“Go back, grab the other two…and let’s start doing these orders. You already heard from me what he wanted…so you go make it after this” Indeed he was talking to himself, except in this case it was literally.

The god of craft had the ability to duplicate himself, and then later picked up manipulative skills and abilities through the gods as gifts for craft. In every sanctuary, and before in the past, every city he had a duplicate of himself. His original wasn’t here, but it didn’t matter because they were exact copies of the original, or so I heard from Damon on the walk over.

Damon looked at me strange, “Do you even have proficiency in such a thing?”

“No…but after you gave me the directory, I saw a skill that allows the mastering of one weapon of choice. So, I chose this one as the most useful…it can bind, trap, bludgeon, help escape, slice, and be used as a dagger. Swords are great, but I could learn those over time maybe or even spears I honestly don’t know. I haven’t exactly fought in any of the great wars and I’m already pretty good with my weapon of choice the gun. I also have used knives most of my life, and so in its smallest form as a spear head with a loop at the bottom…it becomes a throwing knife.”

Damon began to nod, “Now that you say that…maybe I should’ve chosen something like that…huh…I’ll have to tell the boys about this.”

Was, was that insecurity? Are you fucking kidding me? It was an arbitrary choice, not a pissing contest.

“They’re out in the yard…go to them, I’ll be here a little bit and just bill you or something. I won’t get a lot, I mostly just needed you to inquire to the smithy for me…so thank you.”

Damon nodded and ran off through the door.

I turned around to the ‘Crafting God’ otherwise known as ‘Craft’. Simple, straight forward, no vague godly bullshit. Perfect.

“Anything else?” Craft asked, less confused after hearing my earlier reasoning.

“Yeah…could you reforge this blade and gun with stronger material, or I guess make duplicates of them? and maybe imprint the top barrel with a rune for added power. Some specialty rounds as well would be great, as I am going to a fight a myriad of things here to come. My friend who had just left said enchantment would be the best avenue for me if I am to continue to use guns haa…” A sigh escaped my lips, I couldn’t change, it was at worst a boon for the thing’s others couldn’t do. I was confident in a gun, wielding a sword even after swinging one a couple times with someone else through my life as a kid was fun but I was grasping at straws here. There was a reason guns and explosives had never overcame the power of Man itself.

Why not just blast the head of a zombie off if you could? Hell, it was even silenced. No energy used. I didn’t have a lifetime like that Swordsmen even with some gimmick sounding boons from ‘mystical portals’ that could help me.

“You use this too?” Not a lot of people used guns I get it, hell Craft “I couldn’t remember a soul other than weak people who came in for them recently. Even then, the weak always choose swords or shields. Something, as they could get skills and abilities to make up for what they lacked. Guns were always thrown away soon after; it was filler if anything.”

“Yeah…all my life. My power is also made for it or at least the only application that made sense.”

Craft was actually quite a jovial guy, he was extremely passionate and well-rounded in almost every field. After a while of talking, he and I had already become good friends.

“You scared?” He asked sharing one of my cigarettes with me.

“Who wouldn’t be? They are throwing me to the wolves man…anybody would have cold feet”

“Got me there…heh…” Craft took a last drag, “Gun is ready…ope…and the chain spear head as well.” Craft had a telepathic link with all his selves, and thus increased the proficiency of crafting by 100 fold because they didn’t have to speak to know what to do. With an inhuman endurance, he was never tired and thus worked endlessly. In fact, he barely ever slept. Sleeping was a reward for a job well done. What was that like?

“Anything else? I mean…even with this it seems a bit lacking through what you are going into.” Craft was surprised, why hadn’t I asked for something mighty? Many had asked this, I litterly had a school to pay for it, let alone a god backing him. I just didn’t know. Was that not answer enough?

“I don’t know what exists, I don’t know what I will face…I don’t know what to ask for, and usually I am one to let things fall into my lap rather than seek it out, not unless I have something I mind. Yeah…I heard you had a bracelet that could duplicate any mortal material? Could this be used on bullets?”

“Yeah? I mean most people use it for mundane things as the size is so small within the bracelet, but now that I think about it…yeah, 6 inches by 2 inches could duplicate any bullet you wanted…most have used it for knives though or throwing blades, or other things but those always have a limit. Like duplicating a potion once a day or food with immediate dwindling effect on potency, usually only once for organic material of common nature. Bullets though…hmm…” Seemed that craft had been given some inspiration, he soon disappeared, but another copy came out of a back room with a thin metal box in his hands. Then another copy, with a slightly large metal box.

I popped them open on the shop counter, I think Craft had even installed some form of lights because golden light poured out upon the box opening. Even the box itself was beautiful and ornate, not like any I had seen.

“So…because I was in such a good mood and like you…” It was strange having a different him come out, and act as if the one who left was him “I engraved several runes on the upper barrel…the silencer it had was good, but doubling the length of the gun makes it less nimble even though it looks…badass as hell. So, I put a rune on the gun to silence the sound it emits as well as hide the lighting of it firing in dark places.”

My gods.

“What are the ones on the top barrel?” Several runes were glittering on top of the top barrel, like gold lines.

“Gods…I have to say, this slide forward design for the shot gun rounds…is just marvelous, I changed the gun like you wanted and it’s a top break now, so it can flip forward to load for the revolver portion or the shotgun portion that comes with it. The top runes are power burst, which accumulates kinetic energy after several shots, and then adds that kinetic force to a shot…the other two are for kick, which pulls in kinetic energy and accumulates it even faster.”

“Thanks Craft, I owe you one.” I smiled contently.

Craft wasn’t done though, “The chain spear has an enchantment that increases the sharpness of the spear end. The chain itself is made from a material that is very hard to break but is also light weight, so even after a long length the weight won’t increase a lot.”

“Oof…thank you, thank you.” I pulled out the spear head looking blade from its box and spun it on my finger through the loop at the bottom of it.

“Here’s a sheath for that, and…an armpit holster for the gun. What about that long barrel hand cannon derringer?” Craft looked as if he was intent on crafting more for me. I can see why the gods loved this guy, and granted him what they did.

“Yeah…actually…if you could make it have rounds that fire spikes that have wires attached to them that would be great. I can discharge electricity…so it would be quite the useful medium.”

“A self-charge Taser? Yeah that sounds great actually” Craft took the derringer, looked it over and then walked to the back room to create.

Another craft came forward, handing me a bracelet that looked almost like an obsidian circlet at first but was a metal. Its reflective look made it look like glass.

“Here is the bracelet, had one in stock, this is the most efficient one too. I did the math and to duplicate 6 rounds for the revolver takes only several seconds, ain’t it grand?”

“OOoh! Holy shit” I caressed the bracelet like it was a treasure trove.

“Yeah most wouldn’t react that way, you have to have one of such item you are copying. So for someone to duplicate a throwing knife 1 at a time…well you know, I think only you would say it’s so wonderful. All currency is on the mediums, and I am strictly forbidden from duplicating those. No magical things either or items, that would be omnipotent. To you? Yeah it’s a treasure hahaha”

“Thanks craft…” I smiled and patted his shoulder, I genuinely felt admiration for this guy.

“…Want a smoke?”

“Just had one with you?” Craft looked at me strange, and I who couldn’t shake the fact they were all telepathically linked laughed.

Seemingly several conversations later, another Craft clone came out and handed the derringer back.

“The metal line is highly conductive, there is a capacitor set into the handle of the derringer. Remade the metal barrel too, wasn’t that hard either it’s just a tube either way…here is a second set of the line and spikes, so that you can duplicate them. I figure with the space within the bracelet…you should be able to hold 6 rounds for the pistol, and two of the spikes and lines and still be able to duplicate both.”

“You sure are a wonder Craft, thank you”

“No problem man, enjoy it” Both the Craft said it at the same time, looked at each other and then laughed.

‘Wierdos…hahaha’ I was about to wave goodbye when one of the Crafts stopped me.

“You wouldn’t happen to be able to go faster with lightning energy would you?”

“Yeah…why?” Jaeger asked slightly confused.

“When you go fast…you break. There was a guy once I heard about that tried to reach the peak of speed, he attained countless skills that sped him up. However, when he activated them all he disappeared before the area surrounding him was covered in blood. He couldn’t stand the friction of air, turbulence, no traction…be wary of how fast you go. He was someone with a lightning affinity too…only one then you I heard of, so you don’t have anyone to ask about it.”

My eyes focused deeply on the wall behind him, I nodded, “Thanks for the tip” before he left. 

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Half an hour later—after leaving a trail of undead with clean, smoking holes in their skulls—I found myself standing before a portal.

The gun in my hand was a masterpiece. It didn’t feel foreign, despite its upgrades. In fact, it felt even more like an extension of my body—intuitive, responsive, balanced. I was already accustomed to the weight and the firing rhythm. The lack of recoil, however, took some getting used to. Funny, isn’t it? How even efficiency can feel strange when you’re used to fighting with flaws. Sometimes, perfecting something—even yourself—feels alien.

A steel plaque was bolted above the portal, engraved with letters that looked carved by the edge of a blade:
MASTER THE SWORD

Despite the name, it was well known that the trial within didn’t strictly apply to swords. Those who emerged often found their chosen weapon—any weapon—had been honed to the edge of mastery.

“Fight for a month with little rest against countless ninja.”
Really? Ninja? It sounded cheesy as hell, but those who came back alive were undeniably changed. Sharper. Stronger.

I drew in a breath. This was to be my first real trial in these strange, divine dimensions. Then, I stepped forward.

*WOOSH*
Light swirled around my body, then spat me out.

I hit the ground hard. A woman nearby scrambled back, her breathing quick and sharp.
“Who are you?!” she hissed, exasperated, but not screaming. Interesting.

First rule they drilled into your head? Check the watch.
I tapped the face, and the display flickered alive.

Current Mission:
Keep the woman you meet alive. Secure her in the basement of the building you arrive in. She must be able to survive one month inside. Once secured, the nearby clan will launch an assault on the structure.

So that was the scenario.

It even said prepare her to survive—meaning there’d be no supplies inside. I’d need to scavenge.

I looked at her, then scrolled down further on the watch.

Weapon Proficiency Bonus:
For every ninja you kill, gain +0.01% proficiency with the weapon used to kill them.

“…Fuck me,” I muttered, lighting my eternal cigarette as the woman peered cautiously out the window, staring into the distance.

0.01% per kill. That meant 100 kills just to hit 1%... and 10,000 kills for full mastery.
A city’s worth of enemies. In one month.

Thirty days. That was 333 enemies a day. Every. Single. Day.

Beneath the mission details, two potential outcomes were listed:

If you can no longer fight, hide in the basement with the woman.
→ No reward. No proficiency gained.

If the woman dies, but you survive the month:
→ You leave with half your gained proficiency.

If she survives, and you finish the month with 100%:
→ You earn the skill “10,000 Fold Slayer” and retain all your gained proficiency.

10,000 Fold Slayer.
No description. No hints.
But the name alone screamed high-tier.

The fact that most who attempted this didn’t even leave as masters told me all I needed to know—almost no one ever completed it. Most players probably opted to cut their losses, bail with a few thousand kills and maybe 10–15% proficiency... assuming the woman didn’t die in the process.

The biggest challenge?
You had to directly kill enemies with your weapon. No environmental kills. No spells. No bleedouts. No poisons. Your weapon. Your hand. Your intent.

Use a fire-enchanted blade, and the flames got the kill? Too bad.
Shot someone with a bullet? The gun didn’t get credit—the bullet did. And since bullets were “released,” the gun didn't count.
Tricky, but clear.

The weapon that lands the final, direct blow is the one that gains proficiency.

For mages trying to master an item? Damon’s theory was that you’d have to bludgeon someone to death with it. Absurd, maybe. But possible. A cheat path, paved in blood, time, and a high chance of death.

I turned to the woman, who still hadn’t moved.
“Come on,” I said calmly. “The gods sent me to save you.”

I knelt and touched the floor—absorbing the material beneath with a soft pulse of my power. Her eyes widened as the glow passed from my fingertips. She gasped, whispered something about a “divine miracle,” then rushed to my side.

Most people in these dimensional trials had never seen real magic before. Reactions varied—worship, fear, awe. Some threw spears. Others bent the knee.

Thankfully, she was the non-stabbing type.

Of course, not all these pocket realms were full of ignorant mortals. But this one?
This one was.
A clan capable of fielding an army of ten thousand.
To kill… one woman.

A princess, no doubt.
Cliché? Absolutely.
But that didn’t make the situation any less real.

And me?
Well. I was the fool who stepped into the portal