Starting from Zero

------------------

I ran to Clark\'s shop with much enthusiasm, only to find the guy is not home. Where did he wander off to in the busiest night hours?

I went to the clothes shop instead. He got to be there.

And yes I did find him. The dude is having a good time with his wife! When he saw me, he pushed me out of the door while looking really embarrassed.

"Why are you here?"

"I got business, obviously! Someone kidnapped my wife! Can I borrow some useful equipment? I gonna infiltrate a city."

"You mad??" Clark shouted in shock. "Do you even know how powerful the city guards are?"

"They are above 800 right? That\'s why I came to you."

Clark considered for a moment. "Fine. I do have something that will allow you to regain full strength of your Artifact armors, temporarily. You can only use it once per day, and it lasts for only 10 minutes. You MUST take your gear off before that time limit, or your armors will break beyond repair. The worst part is it costs 10 levels to use, whether you follow that time limit or not. You sure about that?"

"10 levels in 10 minutes? That\'s sounds harsh. But I got no choice. I\'m quick at grinding anyway, I can get 10 levels within a day!"

I can\'t let Rose wait in there for too long, that\'s for sure!

"Tell me how to do it!"

"Follow me then."

Clark led me back to his shop and collected my armors. "How is your Thousand Blood going?"

I took out my note. "783 for now, 217 more to go."

"Wait a sec."

He hunted in a closet and took out a bottle and another note. "I collected some for you. Check if there are any repetitions."

"You did? Thanks mate!" I browsed through the two papers. "79 rep. That means you got 210 of them. still 7 more to go!"

I mixed up the two bottles. "What next?"

"A moment."

Clark took out a knife which is giving out a blue shimmering. "Lucky you. This undead blood of mine values a ton on the market! It makes stuff resistant to dark."

He cut his finger and dripped some blood into the bottle, then he handed the knife to me. "Your Divine Demon blood can reduce the weight of forged product, increasing your speed. With these rare materials, maybe I can repair your outfit earlier than planned."

"Do you mean the blood of rare creatures are all valuable?"

"That\'s right. Look at your companions. Phoenix\'s blood is fused with reviving energy, it makes your gear repair itself as long as it\'s not totally broken. Dragon blood makes it exceptionally sturdy. Shinryuu blood is resistant to spells and increases your own spell power. The blood essence of your spirit mutant will make it resonate with other pieces, you can easily retrieve your lost piece unless you lose all of them. Finally, a Nightmare\'s blood may sometimes stun the enemy."

"That\'s brilliant! Why didn\'t you tell me earlier? I\'ll mix their blood too."

"Huh, you didn\'t? I thought you would take their blood first!"

"Well I didn\'t know they can be of so much help. I wouldn\'t cut my companions just for less than 10 types of blood."

I called my companions up. That makes it exactly a thousand. Aha, all done!

Then I followed Clark out of the city to dig holes. The reason is simple: we need Lucky\'s plasma flame to forge the armors. Clark\'s furnace will break apart for sure, while burning several holes in the ground won\'t be too much of an issue.

And I discovered Lucky\'s new ability too. He digs way faster than an excavator! After only 10 minutes, we already have a 3-meter-deep swimming pool shaped crater in front of us.

Clark began to prepare his tools and cooling waters while I collected the rest of the materials off my companions--dragon tooth, phoenix feathers and stuff.

We threw everything into the pit once we\'re done. Lucky stood beside the pit, drew a deep breath, and unleashed his signature purple plasma fire. I think I can electric arcs moving around the area. But it\'s too bright to see what\'s going on inside.

Lucky kept on for a full minute before the flame began to shrink, then gave out, after which Lucky just fainted again. I un-summoned him to let him rest. Sorry friend.

However Clark gave me the bad news. "This isn\'t good. We don\'t have enough heat! The materials are gonna be wasted!"

"What??"

Now I\'m the one feeling faint! I ran to the edge of the pit and saw my Dark Dragon Lord set emitting a weak red color. They started to melt but this isn\'t enough!

Before I gave up hope, Phiona jumped into the pit.

"Inferno RAAAGE!"

A giant purple fireball appeared under us. Clark exclaimed: "Ahh the flames of a Phoenix! I almost forgot that."

Different from Lucky, Phiona\'s flame is hardly bright. Though the dim flame is just as powerful. I can feel it.

That said, I noticed Phiona is panting pretty hard. This move is too draining!

Night Shade moved to the edge, stood up on his hind legs and summoned a white lightning ball into the pit, causing a lot of flashes. He\'s trying to heat up the pit using electricity. Now it looks enough to me! Phiona recovered her spirit as well. She loves heat.

"Just a little more power!" Clark shouted to us.

Loong\'er floated above the area and started deploying her matrix. A big magic ring appeared around the edge. Then she raised her head towards the sky and roared.

"Thunder of the seventh heaven!"

Black clouds gathered, making the dark perimeter around the Lost City even darker. A lightning pillar the same thickness as the pit dropped itself into the ground, while stimulating all the flames to erupt a dozen meters higher, scaring me and Clark away.

After two minutes, I un-summoned Night Shade, who collapsed first. Phiona left the area after another minute. That\'s the best she can hold even with the extra help. Loong\'er got more stamina than I expected. It doesn\'t look like she\'s going to cut her heating spell any time soon.

"We\'re good!" Clark finally gave the signal to stop.

The disappearance of the final flicker of fire revealed a now bottomless pit. The wall has been enlarged by several times, and I think it\'s at least 50 meters deep, from where I\'m standing. I peaked over the edge. Nope, there\'s only lava in my sight.

Phiona dived into the lava pool. When she came out she\'s holding something in her talons. She brought some immense heat with her too. My face burns!

Clark asked Phiona to drop the pieces onto the platform he placed and search for the remaining ones.

Now it\'s time for the professional blacksmith to start his show. He wrapped some damp towels around his head, hands, with only his eyes and nose exposed, and began his work. I copied him and covered myself up as well. This looks like taking a sauna but I must say it feels way better.

Phiona have already fished out all the parts. Now she\'s back into the lava, bathing. Ouch. I\'m a little envious of her for some reason.

The repairing went on into the midnight, during which I assisted Clark like an apprentice. It proved to be rewardful though. When we\'re finished, the system told me my Blacksmith class has leveled up to max (10) because I just helped repairing Artifact! I even got a reward out of it--a big diamond called [Heart of the Creator]. But it won\'t show me any information even if I [Identify]\'d it. Huh, weird.

This diamond, however, reminded me that Phiona gave me a fire gem when we first met. So I handed it to Clark. "Can you get this thing onto my gear too?"

"For the-- How did you-- This is one of the rarest fire gems in the world, only a Phoenix--"

Then he glanced at Phiona, who just enjoyed her lava shower.

"...Yeah right. \'Kay, which piece do I get it into?"

"Helmet!" I pointed at the helm between the eyebrows. "The gem is pretty shiny so I gotta make it stick out right? I\'m not the type to hide my wealth."

"Well it\'s yours, so be it then."

While Clark went to continue his work, I considered about the gem\'s effect. It allows me to summon Flame Hornets. I\'m level 263 (got two levels for killing that high level bounty hunter), which means I can summon 526 of them. The hornets are only level 100 creatures but...that number alone is enough to scare off people!

When I\'m still daydreaming about how I can order the hornets to sting people, Clark yelled: "All good. Do you try it on now?"

"You bet I will!"

I began to suit up myself with some help from Clark. It took quite a while. There are too many parts!

"Alright. Move around and see if there\'s any problem." Clark stepped back a bit and instructed.

"Got it!"

With much excitement, I tried to draw my sword, only to find I can\'t lift my arm. Then I tried to bend down, nope, I can\'t.

I tried walking. Argh! my legs feel like they\'re stuck in solid concrete!

"Um, Clark? I can\'t move!"

"Try harder!"

I used up all my strength and successfully moved...for one step.

"Phew! Ca..Clark!... This...huff... Ar..Armor! Why...so heavy!"

"So, it didn\'t work." Clark sighed.

"What do you mean? Didn\'t we succeed? The system told me I got promoted for finishing the job!"

"We only repaired the Artifact\'s body. As I said before, Artifacts have their own souls. We can repair the body all we want, but it\'s useless once the soul is annihilated."

"What should we do?" I panicked. "The set isn\'t going to be broken forever right?"

"Of course...We can fix that."