Chương 55: The First Bone-Flesh Blade

Rowan did not wait long. As soon as the sky brightened, he checked the sealed earth at the burrow entrance again. After confirming that there were no fresh traces of large mana-beasts outside, he opened the narrow gap. Cold, damp wind poured in from outside. A pale white mist drifted over the swamp. The smells of humus, grass roots, and wet plant stems mixed together. After walking along the edge of the swamp for less than five minutes, he heard a dragging sound. It was mixed with low, hoarse panting.

The sound was not loud. It was like some animal had been bitten by the hind leg and was struggling desperately in the mud. Rowan was silent for several breaths, then pressed his hand against the short blade at his waist. Chestnut was lying on a nearby stone, its tail swaying lightly. When it saw Rowan stand, it immediately raised its head, its bright black eyes following his movement.

"Follow." Rowan said it in a low voice. Chestnut slid down from the stone, moving lightly enough that it barely disturbed the mud. Its spatial belly pouch, however, was more reliable than any backpack Rowan owned. The most troublesome part of flesh-and-blood materials was not their weight, but their freshness. Anything Chestnut swallowed would remain almost unchanged even if it spat it out after some time. Rowan pushed aside the shrubs ahead.

A thin mist floated over the swamp, carrying the mixed smell of humus and plant roots. In a distant muddy depression, several translucent Mud-Gel Slimes were slowly wriggling, like half-awake water bubbles. The next moment, mud and water exploded. A blue-gray deer-shaped beast burst out of the reeds. Its front half had already reached firm ground, but something had bitten down hard on its hind leg. A pale blue bone line ran along its spine.

Its limbs were slender, and the joints of its hind legs were clearly thicker than those of ordinary beasts. Rowan had never seen this creature before. But that did not stop him from judging its material value. He turned slightly and observed it carefully. A mortal-grade high-mana wild beast. Not quite Tier 1 Single-Phase, but its bones and fascia had been nourished by natural mana for a long time. They were already close to the edge of Tier 1 material.

In the other world, this was probably just common prey near the edge of the swamp. Perfect for a first trial. Below the muddy water, a pair of cloudy yellow eyes slowly surfaced. The thing biting the marsh deer's hind leg was a Mud-Jawed Crocodile. Half its body was hidden inside the mud pool. Its broad lower jaw looked like two stone slabs clamped together, and gray-green blood foam seeped between its teeth. The mana fluctuation from its body was not strong, but it had already reached Tier 1 Single-Phase.

Rowan's gaze fell on the marsh deer's trapped hind leg. The bone had not broken. The fascia was still connected. Rowan did not wait any longer. Water mist burst beneath his feet. [Wellspring Step] pushed his body across the wetland. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile immediately raised its eyes. Its jaw muscles tightened hard, trying to drag the Blue-Spined Marsh Deer fully into the mud. The marsh deer let out a shrill cry. Its front hooves scraped two deep grooves into the firm ground. Rowan did not cut the deer's leg.

That hind-leg long bone was the blade blank he wanted. A Water Blade condensed in his palm, thin and short. Rowan closed in from the side of the Mud-Jawed Crocodile. The Water Blade swept precisely across the root of its right jaw. Hiss. A deep wound opened. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile's bite loosened at once.

The Blue-Spined Marsh Deer struggled forward half a body length, but before it could fully break free, the crocodile's thick tail swept up from beneath the mud, carrying a sheet of foul-smelling sludge toward Rowan. Rowan raised his left arm. The cold energy of [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] covered his forearm. The sludge struck the cold air, mixed with strands of gray-green corrosive blood. Tiny black spots burned across the surface of the white frost. Using the force, Rowan retreated half a step.

His right hand drew the high-frequency short blade. In the instant the Mud-Jawed Crocodile opened its mouth, he stabbed into the soft flesh on the side of its upper jaw. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile rolled violently. Several nearby Mud-Gel Slimes were thrown into the air by the wave of mud. With a few wet splats, they stuck to the rocks, then slowly began shrinking back. Chestnut had originally been clinging to a stone nearby. When it saw a slime roll to its feet, it shifted aside in disgust.

Rowan did not let himself be distracted. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile was harder to kill than he had expected. Tier 1 Single-Phase vitality was not something ordinary beasts could compare to. Its weak points were not in its outer shell, but in the mouth, eyes, jaw roots, and soft skin along the belly. Rowan stepped sideways across the mud surface and avoided the second tail sweep. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile was still biting the Blue-Spined Marsh Deer, half its body sunk in the mud pool.

It was stronger than Rowan, and its vitality far exceeded that of ordinary beasts. But at this moment, both the prey and the mud pool restrained its movement. The angle it could truly turn through was very narrow. That was the angle Rowan had been waiting for. The first Water Blade stabbed toward its left eye. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile jerked its head aside and avoided it, leaving only a bloody cut at the edge of the eye socket.

The second Water Blade followed immediately and cut into the jaw root, forcing it to open its mouth by instinct. Only the third Water Blade truly compressed into a fine blue line. It pierced diagonally through the already torn eye socket, slipped through the gap in the skull, and burst into high-pressure water mist inside the cranial cavity. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The Mud-Jawed Crocodile's movements froze.

Its huge body twitched several times at the edge of the mud pool before finally releasing the Blue-Spined Marsh Deer. The marsh deer collapsed onto the firm ground, its chest heaving rapidly. Its hind leg had been torn open, flesh turned outward, but the bone had miraculously remained intact. Rowan walked over and crouched to inspect it. He did not hesitate for long. The high-frequency short blade cut cleanly into the side of the marsh deer's neck, ending its final struggle.

As blood flowed into the mud, Rowan had already begun processing the hind leg. After digging out the mortal-grade mana crystal from its heart, Rowan continued dissecting the materials. He cut along the seams of the hind-leg muscles, avoided the main fascia, and peeled back the flesh bit by bit. The long bone was straighter than he had expected. A faint blue pattern ran across its surface. It was not an artificial armament pattern, but a natural pathway formed after long-term absorption of natural mana.

Rowan tapped it lightly with his knuckle. A clear sound rang out. No cracks. His eyes brightened slightly, but he quickly suppressed it. Not enough yet. He peeled out a bundle of main fascia. When stretched, the fascia carried a moist sheen. Its elasticity was excellent, and there was a faint sense of mana flowing inside it. Close to Tier 1. His judgment had been correct.

After that, he collected part of the Blue-Spined Marsh Deer's blood, then filled a small vial with gray-green corrosive blood from the jaw root of the Mud-Jawed Crocodile. Then he dug out the Mud-Jawed Crocodile's mana crystal, cut off a piece of thigh meat, and packed it together with the rest. Rowan placed the sealed long bone, fascia, and blood in front of Chestnut one by one. Chestnut lowered its head and sniffed, then flicked out its thin tongue. Rowan looked at it.

"Store them. Don't eat them." Chestnut raised its head and watched his gesture. Then it shook itself as if stretching and swallowed the materials one by one. The sealed flesh-and-blood materials disappeared cleanly, as if they had been stuffed into some invisible hollow. Rowan was already used to it. He still had no idea how much this thing's belly could actually hold. After returning to the burrow, Rowan sealed the entrance again. He did not rest.

Rowan placed the Blue-Spined Marsh Deer's hind-leg long bone in the center of a flat stone. Beside it, he laid out the fascia, blood, short blade, and recording crystal disk. When he pressed the crystal disk against his forehead, the blueprints surfaced again. [Bone-Flesh Blade] Use long bone as the blank. Use fascia as the channel. Use blood as the guide. Tame its life with armament patterns. Use a mana crystal as the core. Rowan closed his eyes and ran through the steps in his mind.

The long bone would serve as the main load-bearing structure. The marrow cavity would serve as the blood storage channel. The fascia would wrap around the spine of the blade and the handle, forming the second buffering layer. The mana armament patterns could not be carved crudely onto the bone surface. Once the bone cracked, surface patterns would immediately break. The best route was along the inner wall of the marrow cavity. Rowan picked up the short blade and began shaping the bone.

The Blue-Spined Marsh Deer's long bone was far harder than ordinary bone. When the high-frequency short blade cut into it, bone dust scattered with a faint blue light. Rowan did not shape it into a long, thin sword. Instead, he preserved part of the natural bone ridge and formed it into a slightly curved short blade blank. One and a half feet. Enough for close combat. Also easy to conceal.

After the rough blade blank was formed, he opened part of the marrow cavity, cleaned the inside, and kept only the thinnest layer of marrow membrane. That membrane could not be fully scraped away. It was the most natural buffer between blood and bone. Then came the armament patterns. Rowan separated a thread of Mental Power and pressed mana bit by bit along the inner wall of the marrow cavity. There was no firelight. No sound. Rowan followed the pattern from the blueprint.

Only the faint blue lines on the bone surface flickered on and off. During the first attempt, the armament pattern had only reached one-third of the route when the remaining blood energy inside the marrow cavity surged violently. The whole bone blade blank snapped like something alive. Rowan immediately pressed his left hand down. The cold of [Frost-Chill Gauntlets] sealed the bone surface. Rowan did not rush to continue.

He stared at the broken point of the armament pattern for several seconds, then adjusted the route, changing the line that originally ran straight to the blade tip into three buffered closed loops. The second attempt succeeded. Wrapping the fascia was more troublesome. The Blue-Spined Marsh Deer fascia contracted slightly the moment it touched the bone blade blank, as if it had not fully died. Rowan pressed it down with Mental Power, wrapping it around the blade spine one loop at a time, then into the handle.

The instant the fascia bonded with the bone surface, the armament patterns inside the marrow cavity finally connected as a whole. Rowan took out the Blue-Spined Marsh Deer's blood. The first drop fell into the groove along the blade spine. The gray-white bone blade drank it in like something that had been thirsty for a long time. The blue lines inside the marrow cavity brightened for a moment, then slowly dimmed. Stable. Rowan continued with the second drop, then the third.

Only when a thin dark red bloodline surfaced inside the marrow cavity did he stop. Next was the Mud-Jawed Crocodile's blood. The moment the gray-green blood approached the blade spine, the fascia tightened by instinct. Rowan stopped. He took only the smallest drop. The instant the blood fell into the bone groove, the entire bone blade trembled hard. The fascia on the blade spine tightened like a startled snake, and a faint crack sounded from the marrow cavity. Rowan's eyes darkened. Mana seeped from his fingertips.

Not into the blade body itself, but around the outer edge of the armament pattern, circling once, pressing that drop of Mud-Jawed Crocodile blood into the deepest part of the blood storage channel. Then Rowan took out the Mud-Jawed Crocodile's mana crystal. The crystal was only the size of a thumb. Its color was cloudy, and within it seemed to be a slowly rotating flow of gray-green mud. Rowan pressed the mana crystal to the blade spine near the handle.

Mental Power flowed back along the armament patterns inside the marrow cavity. The refining circuit of [Flesh Armament Art] was pulled into motion bit by bit. Under the guidance of the armament patterns, the edge of the mana crystal slowly softened and broke down into fine gray-green crystal sand. Grain by grain, it seeped through the bone seam on the blade spine and into the end of the marrow cavity. The gray-white bone blade began trembling lightly.

The dark red fascia on the handle tightened loop by loop, as if trying to force the mana crystal into the bone. After several breaths, the trembling gradually weakened. Near the handle, along the blade spine, an inconspicuous gray-green crystal mark appeared. The next stage of refining took nearly half a day. By the time the bone blade finally quieted down completely, the white mist outside the breathing gap had long dispersed, and the light over the swamp had shifted from morning gray-white to dim yellow.

A gray-white short blade lay on the stone surface. The blade was slightly curved. A natural bone ridge remained along its spine. Its edge was not a polished metal cutting edge, but a thin bone edge compressed by armament patterns. The handle was wrapped in dark red fascia. It looked like dried leather, yet it contracted faintly in response to mana. Inside the marrow cavity, a dark red bloodline extended from the handle to the tip. Rowan reached out and gripped the handle.

The fascia tightened softly, fitting against his palm. Rowan slowly sent in a thread of mana. A thin glow appeared along the edge of the blade. He stood up, aimed at a protruding stone nearby, and slashed down. Hiss. A half-inch-deep mark was cut into the stone surface. Not exaggerated. But mana conduction had succeeded. Rowan did not stop. That was not what he truly wanted to test. He tightened his grip on the Bone-Flesh Blade.

His Mental Power touched the dark red bloodline inside the marrow cavity and gently triggered it using the method recorded in the crystal disk. The blood storage channel inside the blade seemed to open. The dark red bloodline suddenly lit up. Rowan swung the blade. A blood-colored arc flew from the edge and struck the stone wall three meters away. Pfft! A deep slanting cut opened in the stone wall. Pale smoke immediately rose from the edges.

Gray-green corrosive blood spread along the cut, biting tiny holes into the stone surface. Rowan immediately checked his mana pool. Almost no consumption. Only a little Mental Power had been used to trigger the armament pattern. This was not his spell. It was the blood inside the blade casting in his place. Rowan's eyes finally changed. The power of that strike was already close to a Tier 1 Single-Phase spell. And the main material of this blade was only the bone and fascia of a mortal-grade Blue-Spined Marsh Deer.

He touched the bloodline again. A second Blood Blade Swing flew out. Its power was slightly weaker, and the corrosive mark was shallower, but it still reached the edge of low-level Tier 1 attacks. For the third time, Rowan did not hesitate. The blood-colored arc struck another stone, leaving a third cut. At the same time, a very faint cracking sound came from inside the Bone-Flesh Blade. The fascia along the blade spine twitched once, and several tiny cracks appeared along the bone ridge.

The dark red bloodline had clearly dimmed by more than half. Only a little residual blood energy remained in the storage channel. Rowan stopped immediately. A fourth use might make the blade explode. He lowered his head and looked at the Bone-Flesh Blade in his hand. After three Blood Blade Swings, the blade body was already close to its limit. But it had succeeded. Mortal-grade bone as the blade blank. A Tier 1 Single-Phase mana crystal as the core.

Combined with the Mud-Jawed Crocodile's corrosive blood and the armament patterns of [Flesh Armament Art]. Three Blood Blade Swings close to Tier 1 Single-Phase damage, almost without consuming his own mana. Rowan stood inside the burrow in silence for a long time. Excitement rose once again from deep inside his chest. Because the result was already there on the stone wall. Three blood-colored cuts were still releasing faint white smoke.

Chestnut crouched nearby, tilting its head at the marks on the wall, then looking at the Bone-Flesh Blade in Rowan's hand. Rowan withdrew his gaze and looked at the cracks on the blade. If the material were changed to the long bone of a true Tier 1 mana-beast. If the ratio of Mud-Jawed Crocodile blood were lowered a little, or replaced with a more stable blood. This blade could become even stronger. Rowan placed the Bone-Flesh Blade back on the stone surface and did not continue testing.

The first trial piece had already fulfilled its purpose. It had proven one thing. The bones, tendons, and blood of the other world could truly be turned into weapons by him. In the swamp, the distant sound of water still rolled low and deep. In the past, those sounds meant danger. They meant prey. They meant mana crystals and food. Now, they had gained another meaning. Materials. Rowan lowered his head and looked at the gray-white bone blade in his hand, covered with fine cracks.

"Even mortal-grade bone material can withstand three uses." Then what about true Tier 1 bone material?