The moment I entered the smithy, an intense wave of heat engulfed my body… or rather, it didn't.
I'd expected the place to be unbearably hot, considering that I'd heard hammering just moments ago and flames were still burning inside the enormous furnace.
But when I actually stepped inside, that wasn't the case.
If anything, it was a little cold.
“Ha! Surprised, brat? This is one of the miracles our Goddess created.”
The Goddess? Then that means you're….
“That's right. I am also a follower of the ‘Goddess of the Doomed’… No, an Apostle. Strictly speaking, that makes me your senior.”
I looked the Dwarf up and down.
…For some reason, I felt a sudden surge of emotion. It seemed that this Dwarf—no, my senior—had also endured countless hardships because of the Damn Goddess.
“…I can tell what you're thinking, but do not look at me like that. I am satisfied…. Even with a body like this, as long as I can swing my hammer, I am content.”
Well, if you say so.
“That aside, take this.”
With those words, my senior tossed something toward me.
TAP!
What I caught naturally, as though it had been drawn into my hand, was a notebook and a pen.
“Since you're a skeleton and cannot speak properly, use those to communicate in writing. They can be used indefinitely, so you need not worry about running out.”
Upon hearing that, I immediately wrote something at random in the notebook.
The writing remained for about 20 seconds before scattering and disappearing.
—Wait, weren't you understanding what I was saying?
“That is only because, despite being a skeleton, your actions are strangely easy to read.”
So that's what it was….
Wait a minute. Didn't he just call me simple-minded?
“Now then, as for why I brought you here. Do you have a weapon?”
In response to my senior's question, I used [Bone Manipulation] to grow a bone bow from my left hand.
“Hooh, a bow made from your own bones…. Quite impressive. What about arrows?”
I immediately grew an arrow from my right hand.
“Good. If you can create arrows as well, there should be no problem.”
“Clatter.”
I called out to my senior as he was about to turn away.
—There's a limit to how many arrows I can create each day. Can you help me?
At present, I could create approximately 45 arrows a day.
It might seem like a considerable number, but when I thought about actual combat, where anything could happen, it was nowhere near enough.
“So you cannot create an unlimited number…. Well, I suppose that is only natural. Follow me.”
With those words, my senior turned and walked away, and I followed behind him.
***
“As I mentioned earlier, I am the Apostle who preceded you. Therefore, my duty is to train you well enough that you will not die too easily, and to pass on a weapon into which I have poured my soul.”
My senior continued walking.
We passed the enormous furnace burning with blue flames, countless melee weapons such as swords, hammers, and bows, and a statue of the Goddess depicting a familiar-looking witch.
“Here, take this. It is the only piece of equipment worth handing over to you in your current state.”
Something rolled across the floor and came to a stop at my feet.
When I picked it up, I discovered that it was a round container.
[Ordinary Quiver]
-A quiver crafted by a fairly skilled blacksmith. Prevents arrows from falling out, no matter how violently the wearer moves.
“Clack….”
According to the window that appeared before my eyes, it was a quiver.
And an ordinary quiver at that.
—Didn't you say you were going to give me a weapon you'd poured your soul into?
There's nothing worse in this world than getting someone's hopes up only to disappoint them.
I showed my senior the words I'd written, full of dissatisfaction.
“Ha! What good would it do to give a bastard like you one of my masterpieces? A dragon could cleave a mountain with a mere tree branch, but do you think a skeleton… No, a goblin could cut down even a tree if you gave it a Holy Sword?”
He was about to say skeleton, then changed it to goblin because he was watching my reaction, wasn't he?
“No matter how excellent a weapon may be, if the one wielding it is useless, the weapon cannot display its true capabilities. Therefore, I, your senior, shall personally turn you into a skeleton worthy of wielding one of my masterpieces.”
WHIRR!
The moment he finished speaking, something resembling a transparent barrier surrounded the area.
CLICK, BANG, CLICK.
Before I could even react to the sudden phenomenon, changes began taking place.
A pillar began rising from the center of the space enclosed by the transparent barrier.
RUMBLE!
When the pillar opened, a wooden puppet appeared.
CREAAAK! THUD!
And it was clearly radiating hostility.
“This is your first training exercise. Defeat Alpha-29481, which I created myself. Since you're a skeleton, you have no need to eat or sleep anyway. You cannot leave until you defeat that child, so do your best.”
CREAAAK!
“Clatter!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than the wooden puppet charged at me.
Without even having time to panic at its movements, I rolled to evade it.
The smithy's floor was paved with smoothly cut stone, so no dust rose into the air.
…Which unfortunately meant I could see its lifeless eyes all the more clearly as it twisted its neck at an angle impossible for a human and stared at me.
The wooden puppet was nothing more than several blocks of wood joined together to imitate the human form, with holes carved into its head to resemble eyes.
But the sight of that thing moving and approaching me was terrifying enough to leave me traumatized.
CREAAAK…!
The wooden puppet charged again, producing an unpleasant sound.
I tried to retreat once more to avoid it, but….
DING—!
My escape route was blocked by the transparent wall.
CLATTER!
Naturally, the wooden puppet's fist struck me squarely in the ribs.
“Clatteeeer!”
It wasn't enough to kill me, but it was certainly painful enough to send me collapsing to the ground while clutching my chest.
“Tch. If you keep moving around without thinking, you will never defeat my Alpha-29481.”
That was easy for him to say.
The transparent enclosure was so narrow that it put someone who used a bow at a disadvantage.
The fundamental combat technique for ranged Awakened was a hit-and-run tactic known as kiting.
The basic principle was to attack while maintaining as much distance from the opponent as possible, but….
CREAAAK!
Regardless of my circumstances, the wooden puppet stared down at me through its hollow eye sockets as I lay on the ground.
CLACK!
“Clatter!”
Naturally, what followed was the sight of a skeleton being kicked away by a mere wooden puppet.
How irritating.
That damned senior who claimed to be the previous Apostle was just like the Damn Goddess, and this creepy wooden puppet was equally irritating.
Everything about them annoyed me.
CREAAAK!
So I gripped my bow and nocked an arrow.
There was no chance of escaping anyway.
Which meant that all I had left was a head-on confrontation.
The wooden puppet charged toward me once again, and I calmly drew the bowstring.
Its behavior pattern was simple.
First, it located the enemy's position and charged straight toward them.
Then it swung its fists, paused briefly, and repeated the process from the beginning, starting by locating the enemy again.
Even someone like me could deal with such a simple behavior pattern.
CREAAAK!
Its charge was a straight line anyway, so if I fired now, the arrow would hit.
TWANG!
The moment I released the bowstring, the arrow flew freely through the air.
“…Clatter!”
Yeah.
…Very freely indeed.
THUD!
“Oh dear. You have a long way to go….”
DING—
Our freedom-loving arrow completely missed the wooden puppet, even though it had been charging in a straight line.
And thanks to that, I took another punch.
“Clatter!”
It hurt like hell.
That damned wooden puppet had struck the exact same spot on my left third rib that it had hit earlier.
“Clatter! Clatter!”
“Unfortunately, I cannot understand a word you're saying. Well, you're a skeleton, so you will not die. Just keep trying.”
You damned senior.
In my mind, that ghostly Dwarf had already transformed from a pitiful senior who'd suffered a fate similar to mine into a damned senior, just like the Damn Goddess.
CREAAAK!
Of course, that didn't mean the wooden puppet stopped attacking.
If anything, its hostility seemed to have grown even stronger.
CRASH—!
I once again rolled away from the wooden puppet's incoming attack and took a deep breath.
Ah, right. I'm a skeleton, so I don't need to breathe, do I?
With my current abilities, the only moments when I had a reasonable chance of hitting that wooden puppet were when it charged and when it stopped after attacking.
For the sake of safety, the sensible choice would've been to dodge its attack and shoot while it was standing still….
But for some reason, I didn't want to do that.
A counterattack, perhaps?
I wanted to drive an arrow into the wooden puppet's body while it was charging, delivering a counterattack that would avenge the humiliation of being beaten by it.
CREAAAK!
So I waited until the moment the wooden puppet prepared to charge again.
I nocked an arrow and concentrated.
I steadied my breathing and fixed my eyes on the wooden puppet's movements.
The world was erased.
The enormous furnace disappeared.
The countless weapons vanished.
My damned senior disappeared.
Even the smithy itself vanished.
All that remained were the wooden puppet and me.
The erased world slowed, as though sinking into a swamp of time.
I can feel it.
To be honest, I didn't know exactly what I was feeling.
But I somehow knew that if I released the bowstring now, even if the arrow didn't possess the tremendous power of the first and last arrows I'd fired in the chamber, it would definitely hit.
Trusting nothing but that instinct, I released the string.
The arrow sliced through the world that had been erased into pure white.
It soon struck the right fist of the charging wooden puppet.
CRASH—!
With a sound like an explosion, the wooden puppet's stance collapsed, unable to withstand the impact.
It was precisely the ideal counterattack I'd envisioned.
But I had no intention of stopping there.
[Bone Manipulation].
An arrow grew from my right hand.
I immediately nocked the newly formed arrow onto the bowstring.
Then I drew and released.
CRASH—!
This time, the arrow struck the puppet's left leg, which had jutted farthest forward as its stance collapsed.
Even then, I didn't stop.
I continued creating arrows.
And firing them.
CRASH—! CRASH—!
As though mounting the wooden puppet for display, I drove arrows into its remaining left hand and right leg.
Only then did the pain of my pent-up frustration finally ease, as though a knot in my stomach had completely unraveled.
Still, I need to finish it off…!
TWANG—
At that moment, I heard the sound of something snapping.
At the same time, the world gradually returned to normal, while I, in contrast, collapsed.
A numbing pain surged through me, as though someone had struck my head with something enormous.
“…Hah. You certainly have received an extraordinary amount of our Goddess's love.”
My damned senior seemed to be saying something, but the words wouldn't register in my mind.
What was it?
What exactly had happened just now?
My head felt as though it were about to burst from everything that had occurred during those brief moments when I attacked the wooden puppet.
It was like trying to cram all the knowledge of Fermat's Last Theorem into the mind of a three-year-old child.
My head was filled with knowledge I couldn't comprehend, and the pain was unbearable.
“Tch. Thanks to the Goddess, you forcibly squeezed your way into a Domain you were not permitted to enter. Naturally, this was bound to happen. Rest for now.”
As my damned senior said that, he covered my skull with a black cloth he'd brought from somewhere.
—Hah, you damned disciple. How dare you come here? Get out at once.
Something visible beyond the black cloth spoke those words.
That something, which had the appearance of an old man who seemed both pure white and pitch black, spoke to me.
“Clatter!”
“Madness! What the hell?!”
Strangely enough, my mind immediately cleared, and my body sprang upright as though a spring had been attached to my back.
“Y-you bastard… How did you get up?”
Uh… I don't know?
“Normally, someone entering a Domain for the first time would… No, in your case, you forced your way inside, so it should have been even more….”
My damned senior looked rather flustered by my sudden recovery.
But I was just as confused….
That mysterious old man I'd seen moments ago.
Surely it was thanks to him that my head had suddenly cleared and I'd regained my senses.
“Haha… So this is what it means to be an Apostle chosen by the Goddess….”
My damned senior muttered something and seemed to have arrived at his own understanding of the situation.
But there was one thing I knew.
That old man.
That old man was definitely connected to my lost memories.
He'd appeared and vanished like a mirage, but I was certain he wasn't merely some ordinary hallucination.
It was a baseless hunch, but… in a world like this, instincts were important.
Whatever the case, that old man had clearly called me his disciple.
The ‘me’ in my fragmentary memories had been an ordinary person, so it was difficult to imagine that I'd had a master who possessed such a mysterious aura….
Still, a vision I'd personally experienced was probably more trustworthy than memories that only extended as far back as the moments before my death.
“Hey, are you all right?”
Seeing me standing there motionless, my senior waved his hand in front of my eye sockets.
“Clack.”
“If you're fine, then get moving. Unless you intend to dig yourself a grave and be buried right here.”
With those words, my senior collected the cloth he'd draped over me and walked away.
Yeah. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't learn anything more about that old man right now.
So, for the time being, I should concentrate on squeezing as much as possible out of my senior.