Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero [REMASTERED]

Nigel and Nathan were sitting in a tavern in Valyria, the large city in the central region of the kingdom. Even at night, the city was still alive. The streets were quieter than they were during the day, but there were still people moving between the buildings, voices carrying through the streets, and warm light spilling from the windows of taverns and inns. The faint sounds of music and drunken laughter could be heard from some of the buildings, mixing with the occasional clatter of passing carts.

Valyria was mostly known for its taverns and its enormous population. Compared to other cities in the kingdom, it had fewer restrictions, and people came from all over to take advantage of that freedom. Some called it the City of Joy, while others called it the City of Sin.

It wasn't difficult to understand why.

Taverns and inns could be found throughout the city, with brothels and other places of entertainment occupying many of the streets between them. Big signs hung above some of the establishments, while others were little more than dimly lit entrances tucked between larger buildings. The streets were crowded with hunters and merchants, along with travelers who had come simply to spend their money and forget about whatever problems they had waiting for them elsewhere.

Almost a quarter of Valyria's population consisted of people who didn't actually live there. They came for a few days, sometimes longer, drinking, spending their money, and enjoying whatever the city had to offer before eventually moving on.

That was what had attracted Nathan and Nigel in the first place.

They had wanted to visit the city for a long time, and after fleeing the southern regions with a tremendous amount of money, they finally had enough to enjoy themselves without worrying about every coin they spent.

Now, this was their fourth night in Valyria.

Both men sat at one of the tables in the middle of the large tavern, surrounded by dozens of other people. The room was filled with the smell of alcohol, cooked meat, and the smoke that lingered in the air. Conversations overlapped from every direction, some loud enough to drown out those nearby, while laughter occasionally erupted from different parts of the room. Cups clinked against wooden tables, chairs scraped across the floor, and every now and then someone shouted loud enough to make several people turn their heads.

Their own conversation was nearly swallowed by the noise around them.

Nigel leaned back in his chair, his shoulders shaking as he laughed.

“Haha. But seriously, man, you really gotta stop spending so much money in those brothels. It might kill you one day.”

Nathan laughed, pushing himself up from his chair. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned before reaching for his cup and taking another sip of ale.

“Then I'll die happy,” he said.

Nigel glanced up at him.

“Where are you going?”

“I'm just going to take a piss. We've been drinking for hours.”

“All right. When you come back, I'll order some more,” Nigel said playfully.

Nathan smiled and stepped away from the table, weaving through the crowd before finally making his way outside.

The noise of the tavern dulled as the door closed behind him. The air outside felt cooler against his skin, and the streets were noticeably quieter than the inside of the building. Even so, Valyria was nowhere near asleep.

People still walked along the streets in small groups, some laughing among themselves while others stumbled out of taverns or disappeared through the doors of nearby establishments. Lanterns and lamps illuminated parts of the road, leaving other sections under the softer darkness of the night. The smell of food, alcohol, and smoke drifted through the air, mixing with the colder night air.

The city's guards also continued their patrols.

They wore dark gray metal armor that reflected the light whenever they passed beneath a lamp, and each carried a spear as they moved through the streets, keeping watch for any trouble.

Nathan noticed them from near the tavern and watched as a pair of guards passed by.

His heart barely reacted.

At first, seeing guards had made him tense, just as it would have for any criminal. The sight of their armor and spears had once been enough to make him instinctively think about whether he had done anything that could draw their attention.

But the guards in Valyria had a reputation of their own.

They didn't take their jobs nearly as seriously as guards in other cities, and some were even known for breaking the law themselves. Because of that, Nithan no longer felt the same uneasiness whenever he saw them.

He simply turned away and continued walking around the side of the tavern as though they weren't there.

At the back of the building, he found a narrow alley between the tavern and the neighboring building. The light from the street barely reached inside, leaving most of it covered in shadow. Nathan stepped into the alley and finally stopped, ready to relieve himself.

As he unbuckled his pants, Nathan couldn't help but smile. It had been years since he and his brother had been able to enjoy themselves like this. For so long, they had only dreamed of a life where they could spend their money however they wanted, drink as much as they pleased, visit whatever places caught their interest, and enjoy themselves without constantly having to worry about what would happen afterward.

After finishing, Nathan turned around and stretched, squeezing his eyes shut as he rolled his shoulders. He had been enjoying himself with his brother for several days now, and spending the entire day going around brothels and exploring the city had started to catch up with him. His body felt heavy with exhaustion, the kind that came after hours of drinking and barely giving himself time to rest.

A cold breeze brushed against his skin.

Nathan lowered his arms slightly. The wind felt different from the cool night air he'd been experiencing throughout the city. It was colder, almost unnaturally so, and it raised goosebumps along his arms.

He opened his eyes and the road was gone.

Nathan stared ahead, his body becoming completely still as he found himself staring at the rough trunk of a tree. Thick branches stretched overhead, their leaves blocking out most of the night sky. The familiar buildings and distant lights of Valyria had vanished completely.

He was in a forest.

“Ah...” he breathed, his eyes widening as he slowly turned his head.

“Where am I? How did I get here?”

Nothing answered him.

There was nothing but trees and deep shadows in every direction. The darkness between the trunks seemed to stretch far beyond what he could see, while the weak light filtering through the canopy did little to reveal what lay farther ahead. Nathan took a slow breath, but the air felt different too. Damp and colder than before. A faint rustling moved through the leaves somewhere in the distance, though he couldn't tell what had caused it.

His heart began to beat faster.

Another gust moved through the forest, brushing against his skin and sending another chill down his spine. His hand instinctively flew to his hip where his fingers found nothing.

Nathan's expression changed as he looked down at his empty side. He ran his hand over it again, almost expecting the familiar shape of the dagger to be there but It wasn't.

He quickly looked around him.

He was sure he'd had it with him. He always carried his dagger wherever he went. Even when drinking, even when visiting a brothel, even when walking through the streets of a city he had visited dozens of times.

"Did I leave it at the brothel?"

Nathan shook his head.

"No. I had it with me."

His breathing became more noticeable as the confusion in his mind grew.

"What is this?"

For a moment, he considered calling out for someone. The thought of shouting Nathan's name through the forest almost left his mouth, but years of freezing his level in the master zones had taught him better. The first lesson he'd learned was simple: never attract attention in a forest at night unless you knew exactly what was around you.

Nathan swallowed and slowly turned around instead, taking a few careful steps while keeping his eyes on the darkness between the trees.

A small part of him still refused to believe what he was seeing.

"Did I get too drunk?"

He stared at the unfamiliar trees, then shook his head.

That didn't make sense. He had gotten drunk enough to pass out plenty of times before. There had been nights when he could barely remember how he had gotten back to his room, but never once had he woken up somewhere completely different from where he had been.

Maybe someone put something in the ale. Nathan's eyes narrowed as he considered it. Something that causes hallucinations...

He slowly nodded to himself, clinging to the explanation because it was the only one that made any sense.

*Maybe that's it.*

Even so, the uneasy feeling in his stomach refused to disappear.

Nathan approached the nearest tree and reached out. His fingers brushed against the bark.

The rough texture was unmistakable beneath his fingertips.His body trembled..Nathan stared at his hand.

This is real.

His eyes moved back to the tree, his fingers still hovering near the bark. The realization settled into him slowly, and all the explanations he'd been trying to hold onto began falling apart.

Whatever this was, it wasn't a hallucination. Nathan abruptly snatched his hand away as if the tree had bitten him and took a step back.

“No, this is impossible.”

Suddenly, a strange sound came from behind him. It was intense, almost like the vibration of an earthquake, though it didn't come from the ground. Instead, it seemed to travel through the air around him, carrying a deep metallic resonance, like the vibration of metal after being struck, mixed with something that sounded almost like a low growl. Nathan turned around immediately, his body tense as he tried to see through the darkness.

To his surprise, his brother stumbled forward from the shadows and fell toward the ground, catching himself with both hands. Nathan's eyes widened as he rushed toward him. “Nigel,” he said, grabbing his brother by the arm and helping him back to his feet. Nigel coughed violently, spitting out what seemed to be ale before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“You're here,” Nathan said, still looking at him in disbelief.

Nigel coughed a few more times before finally managing to breathe properly. He looked around, his confusion becoming more apparent as his eyes moved between the trees. “What happened?” he asked. “Where are we?”

“I don't know,” Nathan said.

Nigel frowned, trying to remember what had happened. The last thing he could recall was sitting at the table in the tavern, taking the final sip from his cup before standing up. He had gotten to his feet so quickly that he still had the ale in his mouth, but before he could even swallow it, he felt someone bump into him.

There had been no time to react. His vision suddenly blurred, the tavern around him seemed to smear together, and less than half a second later he was stumbling forward through the forest, almost choking on the drink that was still in his mouth.

He looked around again, trying to find some explanation for what had happened. The trees stood densely around them, their branches blocking out most of the sky, while the darkness between them seemed to stretch much farther than either brother could see. The cold wind continued to move through the leaves, making them rustle softly above their heads.

Then they heard the vibrating sound again.

It came from behind them, similar to the distant rumble of thunder, although quieter and somehow more concentrated. Both brothers immediately turned toward it.

A woman was standing there.

She wore a dark coat that blended into the shadows around her, with a purple mask covering the upper half of her face from the top of her nose all the way to her forehead. Her long dark hair rested around her shoulders, moving slightly in the cold breeze, while her bright purple eyes stood out beneath the mask. She stared at them without saying anything, a small smile resting on her lips.

Nathan felt his body tense as he looked at her. There was something predatory about her gaze, as if she wasn't simply looking at two strangers who had suddenly appeared in the forest. She seemed to be studying them, almost like she already knew exactly who they were.

“Who are you?” Nathan asked angrily.

The woman remained quiet. She tilted her head slightly, her small smile still there, and took a step forward. Her expression almost seemed amused, but Nathan noticed that she wasn't looking at him.

Her eyes were fixed on Nigel.

“You know who I am, don't you?” she asked in a soft, melodic voice.

Nathan immediately looked toward his brother.

Nigel's eyes were wide, and his mouth was slightly agape. His body looked stiff, but Nathan could see him trembling. Whatever he was seeing in front of him had frightened him badly enough that he seemed unable to move.

“Brother, do you know her?” Nathan asked.

Nigel swallowed, his eyes never leaving the woman.

“That's... that's Violet,” he said.

Nathan looked at the woman again, and it suddenly dawned on him. The dark coat, the purple mask, the violet eyes; they all matched the descriptions he'd heard before. He had heard people talk about her appearance many times, usually alongside stories that were difficult to believe.

His heart began hammering against his chest as he realized who was standing in front of them.

Violet was one of the deadliest assassins in the kingdom, rumored to be an SS-rank. But what terrified people wasn't simply her strength. It was the way she killed. The stories about her victims were disturbing enough on their own, with bodies sometimes left so horribly broken that people couldn't even describe what had happened to them. There were also stories of wounds that seemed to make no sense, injuries that looked almost impossible for a person to inflict.

Nathan had always known those were only stories.

Now, standing in the darkness of the forest with his brother trembling beside him, he was beginning to understand just how terrifying it was to be standing in front of the real thing.

“No. It can't be. How did she find us?” Nathan said, taking a step back as he stared at Violet.

“That money... you spent it all, didn't you?” she asked. Her voice sounded almost pleased rather than angry or suspicious, as if she were simply curious about the answer.

“No. No, we didn't,” Nigel said quickly.

Suddenly, the woman disappeared.

Nathan barely had time to register that she was gone before her voice came from directly behind them.

“Don't lie to me.”

Both men's adrenaline surged. Nathan flinched and immediately stumbled to the side, trying to put distance between himself and whatever had just happened. Nigel attempted to move as well, but his body suddenly jerked forward.

Something was wrong.

A horrible pain had erupted in his back.

It felt as though he'd been stabbed, except the pain was deeper and far more intense than anything he'd ever experienced. His eyes flew open and his mouth hung wide as broken sounds escaped his throat, his body trembling as his mind struggled to understand what was happening.

Nathan's expression changed completely when he saw her.

Violet's right hand was buried in Nigel's back. All five of her fingers had sunk deep into the center of it, just above his waist, and from the way her hand was positioned, Nigel could feel her fingers pressing against his spine beneath the layers of flesh and muscle. Every nerve in his body seemed to erupt at once, sending wave after wave of pain through him so overwhelming that he couldn't even form words.

For a moment, all he could do was stutter.

Then a raw scream tore out of his throat.

The sound echoed through the forest, bouncing between the trees and carrying far into the darkness. Nathan stood only a short distance away, yet even he felt the scream reverberate through his body. He had heard his brother injured before. He had heard him curse, shout, and complain, but he had never heard Nigel scream like this.

Violet smiled.

“You bitch, let him go!” Nathan shouted.

He launched himself at her, activating his skill and pushing his speed far beyond what he normally used. Adrenaline coursed through his body, and panic drowned out every thought except one. He had never moved this fast before, never put this much force behind a single attack. His fist shot toward Violet's face with everything he had, driven by the terror of watching his brother being held like that.

But Violet's other hand moved.

Nathan couldn't follow it.

It flashed across his vision so quickly that there was no time to react before her palm struck his fist and knocked it violently to the side. The impact made a sharp crack, and Nathan stumbled forward from the sudden force.

The pain reached him a second later.

It was so severe that his entire body recoiled. It didn't feel like he'd been struck by another person's hand. It felt more like he'd been hit with a rock or smashed with a mace, the force traveling from his hand through his wrist and up his arm.

Nathan staggered back, clutching his arm as he stared at it in disbelief.

Two bones had broken through the skin of his wrist.

His hand hung at an unnatural angle, the bones protruding from the back of it as blood slowly ran down toward his fingers.

The sight made his stomach twist.

A scream escaped him as he stumbled backward, nearly losing his balance.

Violet finally released Nigel for only a moment.

Then her fingers tightened around his back and There was a sickening crack.

Nigel's scream became even louder as the force of it broke his backbone completely. His legs immediately went limp beneath him, no longer able to support his weight, yet he didn't fall to the ground.

Violet was still holding him.

Her hand remained buried in his back, gripping him by the broken bone inside his body. Nigel's arms shook violently as his body hung from her grasp, his feet touching the ground. Every movement sent another wave of pain through him, and his screams became ragged as he struggled to breathe through it.

It felt as though his entire body was being pulled upward by his spine.

“No! Please, stop! I beg you!” Nigel cried, his hands reaching desperately behind himself as if he could somehow pry her hand away. His fingers trembled against her wrist, but he didn't have the strength to move her.

Violet finally let him go.

Her hand came out of his back in an instant, leaving blood smeared across her glove. Nigel collapsed to the ground, his body crumpling beneath him as he struggled to move his legs.

Nathan stared at his brother in horror before looking back at Violet.

“Please, don't kill us. We'll do anything,” he said, tears running down his cheeks as he held his broken wrist against his chest.

“Anything?” she asked, looking directly at him. Her smile had disappeared, and there was something unsettling about her gaze now. Her purple eyes seemed almost hollow, distant, as if what she had just done to Nigel wasn't serious enough to matter to her.

Nathan looked past that empty stare and nodded repeatedly, his breathing uneven.“Yes, anything.”

The woman watched him for another moment before saying, “Well, you could do this one thing for me.”

She turned completely toward him. Nathan barely had time to react before he felt a tremendous force slam into his chest. His body was thrown backward and crashed into a tree so hard that the trunk groaned from the impact. The bark splintered around his back, and the entire tree shook as Nathan's body struck it.

A sharp gasp escaped him as his breath was knocked out of his lungs.Before he could even understand what had happened, something pierced through his shoulder.

Nathan's scream rang through the forest.

A long sword had gone straight through his shoulder, driven so deeply that the hilt had reached his flesh. Almost the entire blade had disappeared into the tree behind him, pinning him against the trunk. Blood quickly spread across his clothes around the wound, while the pain shot through his shoulder and down his arm in waves that made his body shake.

He tried to move, but the sword held him firmly in place. Violet didn't even look back.

She simply turned away from him and walked toward Nigel.

She crouched beside him and grabbed a fistful of his hair before pulling him upward. Nigel's body jerked from the sudden movement, and a strained grunt escaped through his clenched teeth. His eyes widened as the pain in his back surged again, especially with his broken spine being forced to move with the rest of his body.

Both of his hands immediately reached up and grabbed at Violet's wrist, his fingers trembling as he desperately tried to pull himself free.

“Firstly, I want you to tell me about the man you stole that money from. Who killed him?” she asked.

Nathan struggled against the sword, grabbing at the hilt with his good hand and trying to pull himself away from the tree. The effort made his shoulder burn even more, and his breathing came out in short, painful gasps. As he heard Violet's question, his mind returned to the day they had left Bernardo behind in the monster zone.

He remembered the way they had taken his money and left him there alone.

Nathan's movements slowed.

“We... We left him inside the monster zone at a hunter base,” he said through his pain. “He was eaten by a monster.”

Violet's fingers tightened around Nigel's hair.

Nigel winced as the pressure increased, and several strands of his hair began pulling loose from his scalp. He clenched his teeth, a pained groan escaping him as his hands tightened around her wrist.

“No, please,” he pleaded. “I'm telling the truth.”

“No, you're not.”

Her voice remained calm.

“He wasn't killed by a monster. He was killed by a human.”

Nathan's eyes widened. For a moment, he forgot about the sword buried in his shoulder.

"A human?"

He had never known.

When they left Bernardo alone in the monster zone after taking his money, Nathan had always assumed that a monster had eventually found him. It had seemed like the obvious conclusion. They had abandoned him in a dangerous area with monsters roaming around, so there had never been any reason to think otherwise.

He hadn't known another hunter had killed him.

“No, I...” Nathan struggled against the sword again, his voice breaking. “I didn't know. Please, we didn't know.”

His eyes were filled with fear as he looked toward Violet.

“Just let us go. We'll get you the money. We'll get you even more. Just please.”

Violet watched him in silence for a while. Her expression remained unreadable as she looked at Nathan, still holding Nigel by his hair. Then a smile slowly returned to her face before she suddenly broke into laughter and released her grip, allowing Nigel's body to drop heavily onto the forest floor.

“I already knew that you didn't know. I was just messing with you.”

“What?” Nigel said, confusion mixing with the pain still etched across his face.

“The Black Cloud Guild's captain doesn't tolerate those who steal his money. So he sent me here to take care of you two.”

“No, please. We said we'd get it,” Nathan pleaded, still trapped against the tree with the sword through his shoulder.

“I know,” she said.

Violet reached down and pulled a small dagger from her hip. The faint scrape of the blade leaving its sheath was enough to make Nathan's heartbeat quicken, and he stared at the weapon as it caught what little light reached the forest floor.

“After all, you two are thieves, right? I'm guessing you've been doing this for some time. You can get the money if I wanted you to, but the truth is, I don't want that. To be honest, the captain doesn't even know about you two,” she said with a shrug.

Nathan stared at her in disbelief.

“But I just couldn't let this moment go. I'm enjoying myself,” Violet continued, her eyes narrowing with a focused excitement that made her smile seem even more disturbing.

She stepped around Nigel, who was still lying on the ground, and looked down at him. “Two brothers who deeply care for each other. It's so rare to run into things like this on my job. I thought you'd run away, but you didn't. There's just so many things I want to do now.”

“You sick monster! Leave him alone!” Nathan yelled.

He gripped the hilt of the sword buried in his shoulder with his good hand and pulled with everything he had. The blade barely moved, and the effort sent another burst of pain through his body.

Violet looked back at him.

“You see, there's nothing you can do right now but watch as I tear your brother apart piece by piece while he screams. Just thinking about it is making me excited.”

“No! No, please don't do it.”

Violet immediately swung her dagger.

The blade sliced through Nigel's ear.

His scream ripped through the forest as he threw his hands toward the side of his head, blood quickly running down his neck and staining the ground beneath him. Violet didn't slow down. She continued torturing him relentlessly, giving the brothers no time to recover before turning her attention from one to the other.

Nathan could only watch.

Every time he tried to pull himself free from the sword, the movement only made the wound in his shoulder worse, while Nigel's screams continued to echo through the trees. Eventually, their voices became hoarse and ragged from screaming for so long, their throats unable to produce anything more than strained cries.

Violet kept going, switching between them and torturing them turn after turn.

Nigel was eventually left as nothing more than a bloody mess on the forest floor, his body barely responding anymore. Nathan remained pinned against the tree, unable to do anything as the blood continued to escape from his wounds. His strength gradually faded until the movement in his body became weaker and weaker.

Eventually, he stopped responding altogether.

His life ended from the blood he had lost.

Violet stood over the two bodies for a moment before withdrawing her dagger. The blade came free from Nathan's bloodied corpse, which was covered in wounds and missing pieces of flesh. The pieces that had been removed fell onto the forest floor beside him.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

For a moment, she simply stood there, breathing in the cold night air.

Then she sighed and opened her eyes again, looking almost disappointed.

“Couldn't they have held on a little longer?” she muttered.

Violet glanced downward before disappearing from the forest.

Meanwhile, the strange vibrating sound echoed behind the backyard of the mansion. The air itself seemed to distort, almost like the wavering effect of heat haze, as a small swirling vortex of shadow formed in the darkness. A figure emerged from it almost instantly.

It was Violet.

But she no longer looked like herself.

Her dark hair had become brown, her bright purple eyes were now blue, and the dark coat and purple mask were gone. Instead, she wore simple dark leather armor. She smiled as she opened the back door and walked into the mansion.

A long sword had gone straight throug