Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero [REMASTERED]

Tyler walked beside Rebecca through the forest, carefully stepping over the roots that pushed through the damp ground and the small puddles scattered between them. Every so often, he lifted his gaze toward the vines hanging from the trees, watching them closely.

He couldn’t see any movement and because that his heart gradually settled.

“We’re here,” Rebecca said. “This is the Greenwings’ territory.”

Almost immediately, Tyler heard something pounding against the ground.

It was rapid and uneven, like numerous limbs striking the earth in quick succession. The sound grew louder as something moved through the forest. Then, from somewhere behind the trees, came a strange noise that sounded like a shriek mixed with a wet gurgle.

Tyler stopped and his muscles tensed as he raised his dagger slightly, his eyes fixed on the trees.

Suddenly, a four-legged creature resembling a spider emerged from behind one of the trees. Its limbs moved rapidly beneath its body as it lurched forward, a wet gurgling sound coming from its mouth.

The creature suddenly spat a glob of green mucus that shot toward Tyler.

He immediately jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding it. The mucus struck the bark of the tree behind him and clung to the surface.

Tyler stared at it, a faint hiss came from the bark.

The wood began to burn where the mucus had landed, the green substance eating into it as it slowly sank beneath the surface.

Rebecca immediately nocked an arrow, drawing the string back in one smooth motion before releasing it. The arrow flew straight into the creature’s open mouth. It shrieked in pain.

A thin layer of ice suddenly spread across its entire body, freezing it in place. The creature toppled onto its side, its legs lifting from the ground until its feet pointed toward the sky before It lay motionless.

“It’s really an insect,” Tyler muttered as he stepped closer to the dead creature.

A system panel appeared above the spider’s body.

[SWAMP SPIDER: LV 54]

“Yes. Be careful of those.” Rebecca stepped over one of its legs, her eyes lingering on the creature as she continued. “And by the way, if we run into more of these, don’t target their legs. If you cut one off, two more will grow in its place. It’ll just end up with another limb.”

Tyler looked down at the spider, then slowly turned his head toward Rebecca. “What?”

“Yeah.” Rebecca glanced back at him. “If I’d targeted one of its four legs, it would’ve come at me with five.” She tapped the side of her bow with her fingers before continuing, “So aim for its upper body instead.”

“Oh, okay.”

Tyler nodded, but his gaze drifted back toward the spider. The strange limbs reminded him of the sack carried by one of the hunters they had passed earlier. He could still picture the long, jointed pieces sticking out of the opening.

“Wait.” He looked back at Rebecca. “Those hunters we passed earlier had these limbs with them, didn’t they?”

“Probably because the creature was already dead when they cut them off.” Rebecca walked around the spider, her boots pressing into the damp ground. “They can’t regrow and multiply them once they’re dead.”

Tyler followed alongside her, but instead of stepping over the creature, he moved around it, his eyes tracing its body. From this close, the size of it was even more obvious. Its legs stretched outward far enough to reach his knees.

“It’s strange,” Rebecca said.

Tyler lifted his head toward her. “What do you mean?”

Rebecca stopped.

Her eyes moved across the trees, searching between the thick trunks and hanging vines. Her posture became still as she carefully scanned the forest around them.

“Why is it even here?”

Tyler watched her for a moment before looking around as well.

Rebecca activated her skill: Perception

The system immediately appeared before Tyler, alerting him of the activation.

“The spiders never hunt alone,” she said, her gaze still moving from one part of the forest to another. “They mostly hunt at night, too. That’s when they dare to go into other monsters’ territory. So if there’s one, there should be more close by.”

Tyler swallowed and glanced toward the trees.

“More?”

His heart was already beating faster.

“Uh-huh.” Rebecca finally lowered her gaze from the branches. “A swarm of them.”

Tyler’s eyes widened slightly.

Rebecca deactivated the skill and stepped forward, her pace returning to normal.

“But there’s not.”

She continued ahead without dwelling on it. “Come on. We need to hunt for that monster.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wet rag. She unfolded it and tied it around the lower half of her face, pulling the fabric into place until it covered her nose and mouth.

Tyler watched her for a second before looking at the cloth in her hands.

A wet rag appeared in his own hand.

He brought it up and tied it over his face, adjusting it until it covered his nose and mouth as well. Then he lowered his hand and continued walking beside her through the damp forest.

Rebecca glanced at Tyler from the corner of her eye.

He still looked alert. His eyes kept moving across the trees and hanging vines around them, as though he expected one of them to suddenly move. The sight amused her, and she couldn’t help the small smile that formed beneath the wet cloth covering her face.

It was funny. Tyler was faster and stronger than she was, yet he had looked almost afraid.

When he fought the hunters, even when he faced the Dracos at the last base, back then, he had looked determined, almost fearless. His movements had been focused, with little hesitation.

Now, he seemed like a completely different person.

A small part of Rebecca understood why.

*Does he find snakes and insects repulsive?* she wondered, thinking back to his reaction earlier and the way his expression had looked when he stared at the dead snake.

She was fairly certain that was it. She herself had monsters she didn’t want to face. It didn’t matter whether they were weaker than her or not. There were simply some creatures she would rather avoid.

As they continued forward, Tyler noticed that the forest around them had changed.

The trees were spaced farther apart now, leaving more room between their trunks. A fine layer white dust covered the ground, scattered across the dirt and damp patches. Some of it had gathered around the roots while even more clung to the trunks and lower branches, giving the trees a dusty appearance.

“Stop.”

Rebecca’s voice came suddenly from beside him.

Tyler froze immediately.

His head turned as he quickly scanned the forest, his eyes moving across the trees before settling on Rebecca. “What?”

Rebecca had already reached for an arrow.

She drew one from her quiver, placed it against the bowstring, and pulled the string back. Tyler followed the direction of her aim, narrowing his eyes as he searched the area ahead.

There was nothing there, at least, nothing he could see.

Rebecca kept her bow raised for another moment before slowly lowering it. Tyler followed the movement of the bow with his eyes, then looked down.

She was aiming at a small puddle of water about five feet in front of him.

“What...?”

Rebecca loosened the arrow, It flew straight into the puddle.

The instant it struck the water, ten-inch black spikes suddenly erupted from its surface, shooting upward in a tight cluster. Tyler heard a wet squelch as something pushed itself rapidly out of the puddle.

A strange creature rose from the water.

Its body had a broad, flat surface and six tiny legs underneath it. With the spikes jutting from its back, it looked almost like a crab covered in spikes.

Before Tyler could fully take it in, another arrow flew through the air and struck the top of its shell. The creature immediately collapsed onto the ground.

“Whoa...” he muttered.

*If she hadn’t stopped me, I might not have noticed it.*

A system panel appeared above the dead creature.

[MUD SPIKER, LEVEL 61]

*Everything is C-rank out here.*

“You need to be careful of those too,” Rebecca said, keeping her bow lowered as she looked toward the puddle. “Don’t just walk over puddles of water. Walk around them. Even the ones that look shallow.”

She nudged her head toward the dead Mud Spiker.

“These things can hide inside them. The moment your foot hovers over the water, they’ll pierce you with those spikes and suck your blood through them.”

Tyler looked down at the puddle again, keeping his distance from it now.

Before he could respond, the air above them filled with the rapid sound of large wings beating against the air..Both of them looked up.

“Hide.”

Rebecca immediately grabbed Tyler by the arm and pulled him toward one of the huge trees. Tyler followed as she dragged him behind the thick trunk.

They heard the heavy beating of wings, each flap slow and deep, and from the sound alone, Tyler could already tell that whatever was approaching was huge. He watched Rebecca slowly pull an arrow from her quiver and notch it onto her bow. The system in front of Tyler read: [REBECCA ACTIVATED SKILL: FROST ARROW]

The metal tip of Rebecca’s arrow froze over, the surface looking as though it had been coated in a thin layer of snow. She immediately jumped out from their hiding spot and fired. Tyler saw her gasp and instantly move back as something shot past her cheek and struck the ground in front of them.

Tyler’s eyebrows rose. It looked like a small, thin spike, roughly a quarter of a meter long, but the speed at which it had been fired gave him a bit of confidence. He heard a small shriek and saw Rebecca already nocking another arrow.

Tyler jumped out instead.

To his surprise, he saw a moth almost the size of a small car. Its wings moved slowly as it hovered, and its light-brown body was enormous. Every time its wings flapped, a fine dust seemed to fall from them, drifting down through the air.

*It’s so huge*, Tyler thought.

The monster immediately fired something from its mouth. Tyler swung his dagger upward, knocking the spike away, and without waiting, rushed toward the creature. Seeing him charge, the moth suddenly flapped its wings aggressively. A thick cloud of white powder swept off them and poured toward Tyler, spreading through the air like a windy snowstorm.

Rebecca wanted to come out of hiding as well, but from behind the tree trunk, she could already see the dust blowing past it in large quantities.

*Shit, what is he thinking, attacking it head-on? Did he not hear what I said?*

She immediately stepped out of hiding and drew an arrow from her quiver, but the amount of powder filling the air was so great that it was already obstructing her vision. Through the thick white haze, the monster opened its mouth and fired another spike.

Tyler twisted to the right, narrowly avoiding it as he continued charging forward. Another spike shot toward him almost immediately. He veered to the left, and the projectile cut through the space beside him, missing him by no more than an inch.

But it didn't slow him down.

With a burst of strength, Tyler stepped over a small boulder and launched himself into the air. His body spun horizontally as he twisted through the air, and with a roar, he hurled the dagger toward the creature with everything he had.

Rebecca's eyes widened.

The dagger slammed into the monster's head and tore straight through its mouth. The force of the impact ripped through its head so violently that it looked as if the entire front of its skull had burst apart. The blade continued through and emerged from the other side.

Tyler dropped back to the ground, landing firmly on both feet.

The enormous moth began to collapse.

Its wings sagged as its body slowly crashed to the ground, sending more of the white powder drifting into the air before it gradually began to settle around the fallen creature.

He walked toward it, but then stopped. Its other limbs were still moving..They jerked and twitched erratically against the ground.

"It's not dead yet," Rebecca said, stepping up beside him. "You need to destroy its heart. It's in the middle of its chest."

The dagger materialized back into Tyler's hand. He tightened his grip and raised it toward the creature, ready to finish it, but just before he struck, he stopped.

"You do it."

"What?" Rebecca asked, confused.

"You want to grow stronger, right?" Tyler said. "You should make the kill."

"All right."

Rebecca raised her bow, placed an arrow against the string, and pulled it back.

She released it. The arrow flew straight into the middle of the creature's chest.The moment it struck, the monster's entire body froze and she gasped.

"What is it?" Tyler asked.

He watched as she slowly exhaled, her shoulders dropping as though a weight had suddenly been lifted from them.

"I leveled up," she said. "I even gained a skill."

Tyler smiled. "That's awesome."

Curious, he brought up his system panel.

[REBECCA, LEVEL 70]

*Level 70?*

Tyler stared at the number for a moment.

*She's a lot higher than me, and she leveled up fast. Last time I looked at her level, she was Level 60.*

"Let's take its wings," Rebecca said, drawing her dagger from its sheath.

She crouched beside the fallen creature and reached toward one of its wings, but before the blade could touch it, the wing gave off a faint blue glow. Rebecca's hand paused in midair as the entire thing vanished in an instant, the limb disappearing into Tyler's inventory.

"Oh," she breathed, her eyes lingering on the empty space where the wing had been before she looked up at him. A small realization crossed her face. "I forgot you could do that."

"Yeah, we got him. We should probably head back. What's the reward for this thing?" Tyler asked.

"It's thirty silver."

"Thirty silver?" Tyler's eyes brow rose. *That's a lot.*

His attention shifted back to the dead creature. Above its body, the system panel remained suspended in the air.

[DREAMWING: LEVEL 67]

*It's a C-rank, too. I bet if I killed a lot of monsters here, I'd level up like crazy.*

The thought had barely finished forming before another one came to him.

"Ah, I almost forgot." Tyler reached for the necklace around his neck and slipped it off. As the pendant came free, he looked down at it, wondering about the ingredients he'd seen at the base.

*Are those ingredients here too?* He focused on what he wanted to find. The Emerald leaves.

Almost immediately, the pendant began to rise, pulling the necklace forward as though something beyond them had caught its attention. A small grin spread across Tyler's face when he saw it move.

Rebecca's eyebrows lifted, recognition flashing across her face. She had seen it do this before.

"We can't go back now," Tyler said, looking toward her. "We need to get some materials."

He started forward, the necklace pulling gently in front of him.

"Huh? Where are you going?" Rebecca asked, quickly falling into step beside him.

"I'm trying to find some ingredients for my potions. We're gonna need them, right?"

"That's true, but that pendant..." Her eyes remained fixed on it as it continued leading them deeper into the zone. "Is it the one leading you toward them?"

"It is," Tyler said casually.

Rebecca stared at the pendant for another moment before looking at him. "How is it even doing that?" she asked, amazement creeping into her voice. She remembered seeing him use it in the forest when he had found the Dracos.

Tyler glanced at her. "I don't know."

He gave a small shrug and continued walking.

"You don't?" Rebecca breathed, her eyebrows drawing together.

Her frustration rose almost immediately, but just as quickly, it sank back down. She already knew what was coming. The same answer, the same casual indifference whenever she tried to understand something about him.

*He's just not going to tell me again, is he? Just what else is he hiding from me?*

Her eyes remained on Tyler as they walked, and her thoughts drifted back over the strange abilities she'd already witnessed from him.

Then another memory surfaced.

She remembered the moment Tyler had been holding her bow. In his hands, he'd somehow materialized a rectangular platform made entirely of metal, only for the strange object to disappear into his inventory moments later.

She had no idea what that ability was. But she had a small idea.

And if she was right, it would be one of the most incredible abilities Tyler had ever displayed in front of her.

****

Meanwhile, back in Aria, Catherine had just finished training, hoping the exercise would be enough to push the thoughts from her mind. Now she sat alone in her quarters on the large bed, her staff laid beside her within arm's reach. She stared ahead for a while, her brow slowly tightening as she remembered the person she'd run into in the hallway before coming here.

Vanessa.

She looked a little older than Catherine, perhaps a woman in her late twenties, and there was nothing openly unpleasant about her. In fact, Vanessa had been kind, almost excessively so. Her voice had been soft and reassuring, and the way she spoke carried a warmth that should have made Catherine feel at ease. Yet there was something underneath it that never failed to make her uneasy, something she couldn't put into words.

Vanessa felt big.

That was the only way Catherine could describe it. Walking beside her had felt like casually strolling next to someone with a drawn sword, except Vanessa hadn't been carrying a weapon at all. There had been no threat in her movements, no hostile expression, nothing Catherine could point to and say that's what made her uncomfortable. It was simply there, hanging around the woman so naturally that Catherine had never been able to get used to it, even after months.

And then there was the strangest part of all.

Vanessa had only joined the guild months ago, yet she seemed to have freedoms that none of the others possessed. The other members were expected to remain here and fulfill their duties before they could take breaks and return to their families. Vanessa, however, could come and go whenever she pleased. She also seemed closer to the captain than any of them, close enough that Catherine had always assumed there had to be more to their relationship than she understood.

And yet, for all that closeness, it almost seemed as though the other members didn't really know her at all.

Catherine let out a weary sigh and closed her eyes. The moment she let herself fall backward, the mattress gave beneath her, and her back sank into the softness of the bed as the comforter folded around her. For a moment she simply lay there, staring up at nothing.

Only a few meters away, in another room, the captain leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. His attention remained fixed on Vanessa.

She sat on the windowsill with one leg drawn up slightly, her brown hair falling loosely around her shoulders. The faint smile on her face looked perfectly calm at first, almost pleasant, but there was something deeply unsettling about the way it sat there as she looked at him.

"So you tortured them?" the captain asked.

"Yes, I did."

A light chuckle escaped Vanessa. The corners of her mouth lifted a little higher, and more of her teeth became visible behind her smile, just enough to make it look unnatural. The expression stretched across her face with a cheerfulness that didn't belong to what she was describing.

"You should have seen the look on their faces." She gave a small shake of her head, almost amused by the memory. "Running into brothers who care for each other like that..." Her voice softened, and she let out another quiet sigh. "It's not something I get to have fun with, you know."

The captain said nothing for a moment. He had already grown used to the strange way she spoke, the casual tone she could use even when discussing things that should have sounded anything but casual.

"So even after that, they still said they weren't the ones who killed him?"

"Yes." Vanessa lifted one hand, her palm opening in a careless gesture. "They kept saying it wasn't them."

"I knew it wasn't them, but I also can't tell who it was." The captain's eyes narrowed as he watched her. "Aren't you supposed to be able to track anyone? Your skill is similar to the Kindred Flame, isn't it? You should be able to track the one who killed him."

"I should."

Vanessa's smile remained on her face for a moment before it slowly began to grow.

Her lips pulled farther apart, exposing more of her teeth than before. The corners of her mouth stretched until the calm, pleasant expression she'd been wearing began to look almost wrong, as though the smile itself had become too wide for her face. There was something almost eager in her eyes now.

"But that's just the thing."

She leaned slightly forward on the windowsill, her gaze fixed on the captain.

"I can't."

Her eyes narrowed

And strangely enough, she looked pleased about it.

"What do you mean?" the captain asked, his expression becoming even more serious.

"I'm saying whoever killed Bernardo isn't trackable." Vanessa's voice remained calm, but there was a strange fascination behind it as she continued. "I should be able to track them, whether they're human or animal, but for some reason, I can't. It's like they're neither of those two." Her lips curled into that unsettling smile again, her eyes seeming to brighten with interest. "It's so... fascinating."

"What does this mean?" the captain muttered, more to himself than to her.

Vanessa stepped forward, the sharp sound of her heels carrying across the spacious room. The captain remained where he was, his attention fixed on the stone floor as he turned the information over in his mind.

"It means that person is extremely dangerous and very capable," Vanessa continued, her footsteps drawing closer. "They're surely capable enough to hide from me."

The room fell quite again.

"They're the first ones."

The captain didn't respond. His thoughts remained elsewhere as he stared down at the stone beneath his feet, his expression heavy with concentration. Vanessa stood quietly in front of him, watching him for a moment before moving closer.

When he saw her feet, she was already standing inches away.

He had not heard her approach.

Her heels had been echoing through the room only moments before, yet somehow she'd crossed the remaining distance without making a sound. Vanessa looked directly at him, her calm expression almost playful now as she slowly raised a hand and slipped one finger beneath his chin, gently lifting his face toward hers.

Her eyes gave off a faint violet glow.

"You said you're looking for an assassin and a silver-haired woman, right?" she asked, her voice soft enough to contrast with the intensity of her gaze.

Her smile curled a little farther across her face.

"Maybe I can help."

"Yes." Vanessa lifted one hand, her palm opening in a careless gesture. "The