Chapter 71: Reforging

Finn tightened both hands around the sword.

One sheep had been grazing alone only a moment ago. Now several were charging down the hill toward him at once, hooves pounding against the grass.

"Why are all of you mad?!"

The closest sheep lowered its head.

Finn braced himself. He barely understood how dungeon monsters worked, but he had an idea on what was about to happen. Several hundred pounds of wool and horns were coming straight at him.

He raised the sword. "Okay, Finn. You can do this."

The first sheep charged.

Finn drew in a breath. "Sweeping Strike!"

The sword suddenly felt lighter in his hands, almost weightless compared to only a moment before. His arms moved through the same smooth motion as before, and the blade swept downward in a clean arc.

The blade struck the sheep across the front, and the creature vanished into smoke. Another slab of meat dropped onto the grass.

Finn’s eyes widened. "It worked! I really did learn a skill!"

He barely had time to enjoy the thought before something slammed into his side and sent him stumbling. Then a second sheep crashed into him from behind.

"Wait—"

Before he could recover, another headbutt caught him across the ribs.

Finn twisted around, trying to get the sword between himself and the flock, but there were already too many of them. Hooves tore through the grass around his boots while wool and lowered horns crowded his vision from every direction.

Then one sheep charged straight into him. He barely had time to see it coming. His entire view filled with white wool.

A moment later, he disappeared in pale light.

Zion stared at the empty patch of grass as the notification appeared.

[Adventurer defeated.]

[Defeat Essence acquired: 25]

Zion leaned back against the throne. "Well...That had gone about as expected."

Still, he was smiling.

"So Golden Boy’s name is Finn." He repeated it once under his breath. "It suits him."

Zion looked toward the spot where Finn had disappeared. The slab of meat and the old sword were still lying in the grass, and a moment later both vanished into his dungeon inventory.

He pulled up the meat first. The same clean, perfectly butchered slab sat there as if someone had prepared it at a butcher shop instead of dropping it from a dungeon sheep.

Zion frowned and opened the sheep contract again, checking the description, rewards, monster traits, contract conditions, Pack Mentality, even respawn behavior.

Nothing mentioned meat.

"Where is this coming from?"

He went through it once more in case he had missed something, but there was no special loot condition or hidden note explaining why a defeated sheep would occasionally drop a perfectly cut slab ready to cook.

He stared at it for another few seconds. "This makes no sense."

Eventually, he closed the contract. He decided he would ask the others in the Bone Zone about it later.

His attention moved to the second item: Finn’s sword.

Zion pulled it from the inventory.

Up close, it looked even worse than he remembered. The blade was old and dull, with patches of rust scattered across the metal. The leather around the grip had been worn smooth in places, and several small chips ran along one side of the edge.

Zion turned it over in his hands. "I’m surprised this thing even does enough damage to kill a sheep."

A wooden stick might have been more dangerous.

He looked toward Floor 1 again. Finn was already gone.

Zion imagined him coming back next time with the shovel because he no longer had a sword. "He’s probably going to have to use that again now."

For some reason, he felt a little sad for him. Finn was clearly poor. Probably a farmer’s son. Despite that, he kept coming back with the same terrible weapon and throwing himself at sheep like his life depended on it.

Zion looked down at the sword again. Finn’s determination was kind of sweet. More importantly, watching the golden haired young man had pulled him out of the miserable mood he had been sitting in earlier.

He opened the dungeon panel and selected the feature he had barely touched since unlocking it.

[Basic Reforging]

A new interface appeared in front of him, and Zion looked between it and the sword.

"This seems like a good test."

He placed the weapon into the reforging section.

[How much Essence would you like to spend to reforge this item?]

Zion paused. "It’s not a fixed price?"

That was interesting. He considered the options for a moment. Too little might do nothing, but spending too much on a rusty farm sword would be stupid.

Twenty essence felt safe. It was still worth five sheep, which seemed reasonable for a first attempt.

[Reforge with 20 Essence?]

"Yes."

The essence disappeared, and the interface flashed once before the sword dropped back into his hands.

Zion lifted it and turned the blade slightly. At first glance, it looked almost the same but then he noticed the rust was gone.

The metal had been cleaned without losing its age, and the small chips along the edge had smoothed out. Even the grip looked slightly better, with some of the worst wear around the leather repaired.

Zion tilted the blade and watched the light catch along the edge. It was noticeably sharper too.

"Not bad."

He turned the sword over once more. "I wonder what a thousand essence would do?"

Zion stared at it for a moment, almost tempted to try it out. Then immediately shook his head.

"No." A thousand essence was still far too much to waste experimenting on a rusty farm sword. This was enough.

Finn would probably notice the difference the moment he held it.

He smiled slightly before returning the sword to his inventory. "A reward for next time."

Then his attention shifted toward something more important: Floor 4 and Floor 5. He still had no clear plan for either of them, but leaving them locked was not helping.

Zion opened the floor expansion menu.

[Unlock Floor 4: 2,000 Essence]

[Unlock Floor 5: 4,000 Essence]

[Total Cost: 6,000 Essence]

He stared at the amount for a moment before confirming it. The essence vanished, and two new empty floors appeared beneath the others.

Zion opened Floor 4 first, then Floor 5. Both were completely blank.

Normally, that would have excited him. Two empty floors meant more room to experiment, more monsters to choose from, and more things he could build. This time, nothing came together.

He opened the monster catalogue and started scrolling through skeletons, undead, beasts, constructs, and everything else he had unlocked.

There were more options than before, but instead of thinking about what looked interesting, his mind kept returning to the Brotherhood.

Lyza disappearing completely. Adventurers teleporting past traps. People dismantling mechanisms before they ever activated.

Zion frowned at the catalogue. "How do I even counter that?" he asked, letting out a sigh.

He kept scrolling, but the same problem followed him. It did not matter how dangerous a monster was if it could not find the person attacking it.