SSS-Rank Engineer: Only I Can Create Legendary Weapons

The late hours of the night were filled with the sounds of crickets and the crackling fire that Percy had made for them. It wasn't the best use of Spiritmancy, but it was practical and he wanted to use the spell.

Bart said with reluctant amazement.

"Back in my day, you sat with a flint and a stone for a couple minutes before you got a decent fire going."

"Did they have fire back in your day?" Percy asked almost innocently, like an interested child. Bart glared at him. Then a loud snap drew their attention.

Thalos was behind them with a broken log in hand.

"Sorry about that."

Percy was more concerned with the fact that he broke that thick piece of wood with his bare hand. You don't see talent for handling wood like that these days.

Raunchy jokes aside, the enhancement of Arete was startling. He had seen his father move as fast as the wind and strike like lightning. He couldn't wait to test his own strength with his Fighting Spirit.

━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Attributes ✦ ━━━━━━━━━

༺Strength : 20

༺Agility : 15

༺Constitution : 25

༺Stamina : 25

༺Spirit Energy : 30

༺Intelligence : 30

✧──────────────────────────────────────────────✧

He hadn't increased strength and agility much because he didn't use it normally. Everywhere he went he was followed both openly and secretly by guards. What he did need was increased magical attributes for his Hermetics work and improved health attributes to stay awake all night.

He could complete daily quests to receive stat points, and he never skipped out on a day of exercise with Terra and Lecetes.

Now that he would be getting into actual danger he had to focus on his combat skills more. His [Dragon fighting spirit] gift from Nyx was probably why Thalos thought it was time to begin his Arete training.

Thalos was effortlessly breaking more logs into smaller pieces and using them to build a shelter that would hide the light of their fire.

"Bart, you'll have to stay here while I take Percy out to hunt. It'll only be like this for the first three days while I help him learn the basics. No monster will come here thankfully, they know I camp here."

"Can you catch some fish too?" Bart asked. "They are good for my stomach."

"I'll personally get some. We have some drying salt that the servants prepared for me. Percy, come on. Time for your first hunt."

They both left the shelter and went into the forest. It was eerily dark and almost unbearably cold sometimes. The twisted branches of trees raked against each other, echoing hauntingly through the forest.

"This is so fuckin… unsettling. I don't know why, I'm not even scared of the dark. But something is just off."

Thalos turned, smiling. It was rare to see his son afraid, he had really hoped the shadowed forest would do the trick.

"That's because something is watching us."

Percy jolted, turning around to check his back instinctively. Most people expected danger to be out of sight.

"Where? Why didn't you say anything before?"

"It's not behind us. It's right in front of us, we'll pass it soon. I think it's just a mole making sure we aren't dangerous."

Percy glared at his smirking father, feeling the urge to kick his shins. But he could bet the man's shins were harder than steel.

"You seem to be having a good time scaring children. Why did you make me think we were being followed by fucking bigfoot."

"What is a bigfoot?" Thalos asked, raising an eyebrow. Percy wasn't answering so he continued speaking. "My goal was to teach you that sense of urgency. And the forest is the perfect teacher."

They both turned their heads, searching the uneven earth and tightly clustered trees. Percy suddenly realised how many hiding places there were for a determined stalker.

Thalos continued.

"Igniting your Fighting Spirit at will is about creating a false sense of urgency. Well… not really false because you should always be ready for a fight. The forest is a place where whoever sees who first has the advantage."

Percy nodded, fully understanding not just the idea behind using a sense of urgency to get into fighting mode, but how the forest could help him learn to always be ready for an ambush.

"Not only does the forest teach you that sense of urgency, it can also help you hone that eerie feeling you had of something being off. For you it's just instinct to look for danger when in an unfamiliar and deadly place. But for me I can let my sense of urgency guide me and enhance my senses. I can guess what's coming before I see it."

Percy couldn't keep his jaw from falling. That sounded incredible, the chance of never being ambushed. He already had a good sense of danger, with this addition he would be unsurprisable.

"So this sense of urgency is both your natural instinct and your Fighting Spirit working in tandem?"

"Yes. But I see that look on your face, Percy." Thalos faced him, steely grey eyes growing deadly serious. "Never believe you cannot be surprised. Most beasts and trained assassins hone their skills to not be sensed. Unlike the trash that Sion Eurides sends after us, I know assassins so skilled they could be standing next to you and not be noticed."

He was a bit struck by what his father was saying. How was that even possible? But in a world of magic he learned not to doubt the possibility of someone creating something to fuck with you.

People did that back on Earth with no magic already. But now he was interested in stalking something instead of being stalked.

Thalos turned upwards, smirking for some reason.

"Like right now. I didn't sense that Silksong Moth was coming at us."

He only had a second to register what the man had just said before a massive beast crashed through the canopy of leaves, shattering the eerie silence of the forest with its ear-scratching yell.

He jumped aside as the rain of wood and leaves came down on him, rolling and darting behind a tree in one smooth movement.

Thalos didn't even bother moving as the moth came down. It latched onto his shoulder, feet bigger than his head, and tried pulling him off the ground.

Percy raised an eyebrow as his father didn't even budge. The moth's wings raised up a furious storm of wind as it tried lifting the man, but he seemed to weigh a ton.

"We'll use this friend as your first opponent," Thalos said, an excited gleam in his grey eyes. "Be careful, he is very poisonous."