Chapter 710: Lying to oneself.
“Well…I will admit. Your origin is surprisingly sad for a tool such as yourself,” Zhen Liu commented as he rewatched the history of the smithing hammer unfold . “Although…why does something about this story feel off…”
When Zhen Liu connected himself to the [Hammer of the Damned], he didn’t know what to expect exactly.
Was he going to have whatever rudimentary intelligence exist within the hammer, challenge him to a battle between souls?
Was he going to have to navigate some sort of strange maze in order to fully capture the hammer?
Was he about to find out that curses are what happens when a kaijin’s spirit gets infused into a weapon or any item at all?
For all he knew, it could’ve been anyone of these.
It turned out to be none of these…sort of.
The moment Zhen Liu connected himself to the hammer, he found himself back in that floating space in which he would usually construct the kaijin. Instead of the usually thematic crafting tools that seemed to come straight out of a comic book set in the distant future, though, he saw that there was nothing more than a strange looking movie projector and a weird floating home theater in the space. The chairs were of the standard red leather recliner variety, but the movie projector in question seemed to have a glass dome where the film reel would normally be. Floating inside of this dome was a strange glowing ball of light that Zhen Liu sensed was the “core” of the hammer itself.
When Zhen Liu initially saw this set-up, he was confused as all hell, but eventually decided to just sit and watch whatever “movie” was associated with this “core”. That was when he entered this weird state where he was sometimes just watching the originator of this curse take action, while other times he was actually inside of the originator’s mind and feeling everything he was feeling in a given moment.
All in all, this gave him an in-depth look into this curse, it’s origins and how he could possibly fix it or break it or whatever, and after going through this origin story, he received the notification that he had somehow subdued this cursed hunk of metal.
However…Zhen Liu felt he wasn’t quite done yet.
“This hammer’s cursed got one hell of a backstory…but why does it feel off?”
Staring at the core, he couldn’t help but to notice the parallels between it and the [Desire Cores] that he would normally make.
Both seemed to be made of condensed [Desire], both seemed to have some level of liveliness to them and that aforementioned [Desire] seemed to have some influence on how it affects the outside environment. However, there was one big difference that separated his [Desire Cores] from this “cursed core”. That difference was, for lack of a better word, honesty.
[Desire Cores] were simply that, cores made of desire. Those desires varied from heroic to heinous, but they were always obvious. They may have had some additional quirks and traits mixed in, but they were always a particular desire that was plain for the world to see and understand.
On the flip side, this cursed core seemed to have a basis of [Diligence], [Grief] and [Rage] all wrapped up into one nasty package that could drive anyone mad. But the weird thing is that Zhen Liu could sense that there was another, deeper desire mixed in, something that the hammer or maybe the curse itself wanted to keep hidden.
Technically speaking, Zhen Liu had no reason to continue prying since he had already subdued the damn thing and he could’ve just left it at that, happily wielding the [Hammer of the Damned] to much fanfare. But…he was also the type of person who had the nasty habit of trying to help those who would normally want nothing more than to wallow in their own guilt and suffer in silence and solitude.
Even if the “those” in question was a pseudo-sentient cursed hammer.
‘Wait, ain’t wallowing and suffering the same thing? Eh, whatever. Let’s just go for another round and see what I can find out.’
With this idea in mind, Zhen Liu went about watching this hammer’s story play out again, but this time he was going to try and be inside the originator’s head for the whole thing.
Well, he was going to be inside of the originator’s head for a few particular parts.
“Why would this guy just agree to work on a sword for basically free? Hell, why would a metalsmith that seemed to specialize in fancy trinkets and tools be able to reinforce a weapon that crazy? Something’s off… and I need to know what.”
And so, with this notion in mind, Zhen Liu gave this cursed origin another look…
‘Wait…assuming I can notice these discrepancies, in the memories…how am I supposed to fix them? I guess I can just take notes for later…wait, can I make a notepad in here? I can’t use aether for this, but maybe [Chaos]…’
_____________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
The writer of this work would like to apologize in advance to the readers that he will not be doing a full-on re-run of the whole [Hammer of the Damned] backstory with the added or changed details, but will instead be presenting a singular discrepancy that will set the tone for what our nosy protagonist is going to be doing for the rest of his venture into the hammer’s core.
You’ll understand when you see it pass this announcement.
Thank you.
…
…
You couldn’t have just done this the first go round?
|It’s called drama.|
It’s called being lazy.
|Fuck you.|
Later, maybe.
*Bing-Bong*
_____________________________________________
But one day, a strange visitor, wearing simple clothes but bearing the gravitas of a noble, had come to the village, not for the flowers, but for the metalsmith himself…
—————-
“Well the pad was a bust, but I’m pretty sure I can just remember this. Something about this part seemed wrong to me the first time around and now I’m sure of it…wait…the face…this curse is actively trying to blur out the face? But why…huh?”
As Zhen Liu was about to move on, the [Chaos] that was lingering around his hands when he tried to manifest a notepad of all things, suddenly reacted to his thoughts and somehow “attacked” the memory before him.
He was about to panic and freak at the sight, until he saw that the [Chaos] wasn’t attacking the whole memory, but just the bit that was “blurry”.
‘Huh…’
—————-
But one day, an old friend of the metalsmith came to see him, dressed in the knightly robes of the Emperor’s personal honor guard, a recent acquisition to be sure. In his arms was a strangely shaped bundle.
“Hey,%&*($! It’s been a long time!”
“It indeed has been, old friend! Honestly, you should be writing to me more often.”
“I know, I know.”
“Say…what’s that bundle you got? I can feel the aether radiating off of it from here.”
“Oh this? It’s a reward I received after a display of bravery on the battlefield.”
The metalsmith’s old friend proceeded to unwrap the bundle in order to show it off. Inside the bundle was a strange-looking greatsword with a handle made from what appeared to be bone or ivory. The most obvious issue though was that the entire blade was rusted to hell and back.
“Damn, how could something with such a powerful aura look like this?”
“I don’t know…but I do know that you’re the best smith in the village and even beyond that. So…you think you can fix it?”
“Pfft! I’ll do you one better. I can fix it and I think I can also improve it!”
“Really?!”
“Yeah, but I’m going to need some things first…”
“Sweet! I owe you big time.”
“Bah, don’t worry about it. I’m a metalsmith after all. It’s in my job description.”
—————-
“Oh…This is going to be much more tragic than I thought, isn’t it?,” Zhen Liu said to himself as he saw the discrepancy become corrected.
After Zhen Liu had fixed this one issue regarding the identity of this warrior, Zhen Liu saw how the rest of the memories got altered as well to include the detail on how the “mysterious killer” turned out to be none other than a childhood friend of the hammer’s original owner.
Taken at face value, this meant that this cursed smithing hammer was the result of a famous metalsmith having to clean up the mess his old friend had caused after giving him a cursed weapon that he had accidentally strengthened.
This initial assessment would explain as to why the metalsmith kept blaming himself when he saw the initial devastation caused by his friend’s actions.
However, it did not explain the almost maniacal voice the old friend had during their final showdown. Zhen Liu could’ve chalked it up to the cursed blade that the friend was using, messing with his head…but that didn’t sound right.
“That final dialogue between them…something was off.”
Unfortunately for Zhen Liu, he couldn’t fast forward or rewind the memories at the moment. All he could do was just…ride it out for the time being.
‘On the plus side, the working moments were accurate…”
