Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero [REMASTERED]

Tyler walked slowly through the monster zone, his footsteps unmeasured and relaxed, as if he were taking a casual stroll through town. The terror that had once gripped him in these woods was gone, replaced by an absolute confidence that nothing in this zone possessed the power to kill him. After all, he had fought and defeated two deadly, ferocious boss monsters.

Those battles had been grueling, but they had forced his strength to skyrocket. He felt so powerful now that he knew he hadn't even pushed his full physical strength since leveling up from that last boss fight. Yet beneath his relaxed posture, his eyes stayed fixed on the patches of grass passing beneath his boots, a deep frown creasing his brow.

He was looking back on the moment he had slapped Rebecca.

*Was it too much?* he thought to himself.

He lifted his head, a resolute look replacing his momentary doubt. *No, she deserved that. She didn't even thank me for saving her life. If it wasn't for me, she'd be dead right now. She should have been glad that she gets to live longer.*

He let out a huff of anger, continuing his unhurried march. He remained so relaxed that he relied purely on his sharp instincts to alert him if any threat drew near.

Little did he know, more than fifty feet behind him, Rebecca moved through the forest shadows. She had already activated her skill, Perception, her silver gaze locked onto his back as she ducked behind a thick tree trunk to observe his movements.

She stared in disbelief at his open posture. He looked completely calm, walking through a dangerous monster zone without his guard up.

Following her humiliating defeat in the tent, she had immediately pursued him into the woods. There was no way she could accomplish her goal without her bow, it had taken her long months of grueling effort to acquire that weapon, and right now, Tyler knew where it was. While a burning rage to get back at him boiled in her chest, a deep, gnawing curiosity grew alongside it.

She recalled Tyler's cold words before he had left the tent, how he had known she was searching for him. After putting the pieces together, she had confirmed the truth: Tyler was the unknown hunter who had beaten Gary. He was the very person she had been looking for.

Yet she was confused, utterly bewildered.

Stepping out from behind the tree trunk, Rebecca crept forward through the brush, keeping her eyes fixed on his back.

*How did he get so strong?* she thought.

She remembered their fight inside the tent, how effortlessly he had evaded every single strike she threw at him, dodging her fists as if she were moving in slow motion. Even when she had pushed her movement speed to its absolute limit with her skill, Archer's Flight, it had made no difference at all.

"It doesn't make any sense," she muttered under her breath.

*He looked so weak just a month ago, but now...*

She shook her head slowly. Tyler's rate of progress was simply too absurd for her mind to comprehend. She kept her steps quiet, maintaining her distance as she trailed him.

Looking down at her hands, she squeezed her fingers into a tight fist, testing the movement. A vivid memory from that morning flashed through her mind. She remembered waking up with a violent jolt in the small bed at the base inn, her chest heaving as she tore herself from the nightmare of her mother's death.

She had been stunned to find herself alive and even more shocked to see her fingers intact.

She vividly remembered the arrow detonating in her grip, blowing away nearly her entire palm. The agony had been unbearable, overshadowed only by a crushing sense of hopelessness. Then, footsteps had echoed through the dark before blackness claimed her.

Even now, as she walked through the trees, her survival felt completely surreal. Her body functioned perfectly, save for the dull ache in her back where the Tyler had slammed her into the ground, and the lingering sting on her cheeks from his slaps. Otherwise, she felt whole.

Suddenly, Rebecca saw something shift in the bushes a feet away from Tyler, and she stopped. *Its a monster.* she thought to herself. With her perception, the bushes far away came closer. She zoomed in, and within those bushes, she saw something round and blue.

"It's a slime?" She saw how Tyler was casually walking towards it. He seemed definitely unaware of the slime. *If keeps his guard down like that He's gonna get hit by a simple slime. Is he an idiot?* Suddenly, in front of Tyler, the system panel appeared, reading, [LEVEL 13 SLIME HAS ACTIVATED SKILL: BASH].

The slime exploded from the tree, launching itself towards Tyler. The bush leaves erupted around, and Tyler quickly caught the slime with both hands, a loud thud echoing throughout the forest. Rebecca's eyes widened in surprise. Tyler smiled at the slime as he caught it. "You thought I had my guard down, didn't you?" he said with a smile. "This is perfect. You should call the others."

*He caught it?* Rebecca thought. *I thought he was gonna get hit. And his reaction, it's so fast.

That slime definitely used its skill.*

Tyler looked at the slime, and his smile disappeared. "Well, aren't you gonna call for them?" he muttered under his breath. The slime did not react. It just stayed still in his hands.

Tyler stared down at the squishy creature in his grip. A few seconds ticked by in complete, awkward silence. Behind a thick tree trunk, Rebecca watched the scene with a bewildered expression.

*What is he doing with it?* she thought.

In all her years as a hunter, she had never seen or heard of anyone handling an untamed monster for so long without killing.

*Come on, what are you doing?* Tyler thought, irritation rising in his chest.

"Kyuu?" the slime squeaked, sounding just as confused as he was.

Tyler tightened his grip on the monster's gelatinous body and began shaking it violently up and down. "Come on, call the others already!"

"Eh—" Rebecca blurted out, her hand flying over her mouth in sudden shock at how absurdly Tyler was treating the creature.

Tyler stopped shaking it, a wave of embarrassment washing over him as he realized how bizarre he looked. He was handling the slime like a broken electronic device, shaking it as if violence would force it to make a noise.

*What made it call the others last time?* He looked away from the creature, his brow furrowing as he searched for an idea.

He let out a heavy sigh, giving up. "Guess I'll just use you then," he muttered under his breath.

With a quick flick of his wrist, he tossed the slime high into the air.

Rebecca watched the creature arc upward before gravity pulled it back down toward the forest floor. In that split second, Tyler reached up and snapped the C-rank pendant from his neck, holding the metal chain in his right hand.

The necklace shifted, its metal liquefying and extending into a sleek, one-meter thin sword. Rebecca gasped at the visual of a metal accessory morphing into a weapon.

As the slime fell to head level, Tyler swung the thin sword upward in a sharp arc. But just as the edge was about to slice through the monster, something completely bizarre happened.

The blade vibrated violently within Tyler's palm, passing straight through the slime as if the monster were made of smoke. The slime landed softly on the forest floor with a small puff of dust, completely unscathed.

Tyler froze, thoroughly bewildered. The slime squeaked once more, activated its skill, and launched itself fifteen meters through the air, leaping over the bush it had originally come from.

"Hey!" Tyler shouted.

He exploded forward, sprinting after the creature and swinging the sword again to cut it down. The metal blade vibrated, not the hilt in his hand, but the blade itself humming with high-frequency motion.

*What is this?* he thought, watching the steel pass harmlessly through the slime a second time.

The creature hit the ground, bound forward again, and kept leaping away.

Tyler came to a sudden halt, utter disbelief written across his face. He hadn't expected the weapon to behave like this. "What the hell is going on?"

He looked down at the blade. Extending his left hand, he slowly touched the flat of the steel with his fingers. It felt solid, hard, and metallic. "Why isn't it cutting?"

He turned to his side and slashed the blade against the nearest tree trunk. The steel passed directly through the thick bark, moving as effortlessly as if he were waving a hand through thin air.

"This doesn't make any sense. How does it keep passing through?"

He slashed the tree again, and again, and again, the blade gliding through the solid wood without leaving a single scratch.

Behind him, Rebecca watched the display, her mind completely baffled. *What is he doing? What is that thing? Is this some type of skill? How is he doing that?*

Frustration boiled over in Tyler's chest. He glared at the useless sword, commanding it to morph again. The steel shifted, expanding and thickening into a heavy bashing hammer. Rebecca's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the second weapon transformation.

Tyler swung the heavy hammer head at the tree with massive physical force, but the metal head passed right through the trunk without resistance.

"Damn it!" hurling the heavy weapon downward to slam it against the floor of the forest.

The heavy iron head struck the dirt flat, but no sound echoed from the impact, no thud, no rustle of grass, no disturbed soil, leaving the ground untouched as if he had dropped nothing at all.

"It's freaking useless!" Tyler exclaimed, planting his hands firmly on his waist.

"It's freaking useless!" Tyler exclaims, planting his hands on his waist.

*I thought it was worth something, with the system telling me to get rid of it and all that.* He let out a long sigh.

After a long moment of staring down at the hammer, the metal shifted once more, morphing back into the small, dark metal orb. Tyler slowly picked it up, cradling the sphere in his palm.

"Am I using this wrong?" he muttered under his breath, his brow furrowing. "I wish I knew the conditions of using it, but the system just won't tell me. It doesn't know what this thing is, as if it's not even a part of it."

The thought made him question the true origins of the item resting in his hand. It had been created from the slime core, yet it behaved in a completely foreign manner, as if it were an entirely different object altogether. Worse still, the system had repeatedly urged him to get rid of it, even resorting to begging him to discard the item.

"Maybe I should just throw this thing away," Tyler said, rolling the orb in his fingers. "The only thing it's good at doing is turning into a necklace. Other than that, it's useless. It keeps passing through everything I'm trying to hit. I'm the only one who can touch it."

Issuing a simple mental command, he let the dark orb change back into his C-rank hunter necklace. He reached up and fastened the chain around his neck.

"Well, that was all for nothing," he said, turning his shoulders. "I think I'll just throw this away when I reach the deepest part of the forest. Those Dracos should be there, right?"

Suddenly, the pendant on his chest snapped upward, floating directly to his left. Tyler gasped, startled as his hands flew up to protect his chest. The metal chain pulled taut against his neck, as if an invisible force were tugging the pendant in that direction.

*Whoa, what is it doing?* he thought, grabbing hold of the pendant.

He unclasped the chain and held the necklace suspended by its silver links. The pendant slowly rose into the air, tugging toward the deep forest like a magnetic compass needle. He opened his fingers, letting the chain drop, the moment he let go, the pendant lost its momentum and began falling straight toward the dirt. Tyler darted his hand out, catching the necklace before it could hit the earth.

He lifted the chain again, and the instant his fingers held the weight, the pendant reacted the exact same way, floating upward and pulling toward the woods.

"It seems to be doing this only when I'm holding it," Tyler murmured, inspecting the floating metal closely.

*It feels like something is pulling it. But what could it be?*

With the chain held loose in his grip, Tyler turned his feet and began walking in the exact direction the necklace was pointing.

From behind a wide tree trunk, Rebecca watched every second of the display. She couldn't begin to comprehend what she was witnessing. A mountain of unanswered questions raced through her mind, leaving her completely baffled by his abilities.

Yet she made her choice, she decided to follow him. She wanted to study his movements, to learn what else he was capable of. Everything he did seemed strange, unexpected, and utterly bizarre. She believed that if she trailed him closely enough, she might finally uncover the truth behind his power.

Ducking from tree to tree, she crept through the shadows, cautiously following behind him as he marched deeper into the forest.

Meanwhile, right at the outer edge of the forest, Lucy walked a few paces ahead of Naomi and Ben. She brought her boots to a sudden halt, pivoting on her heel to face Naomi.

"You can feel it too, right?" Lucy asked, her short black hair fluttering in the wind.

"Yeah," Naomi answered, nodding her head slowly

. Her eyes narrowed in deep concentration, her gaze fixed on the dark canopy looming ahead. "The person we're searching for... she's definitely in there."