Art of Creation

Rings appeared in Grey's vision. There were many more than the time he was using the axe.

He didn't know if the sword was sharper or if it was a better tool. Or, maybe it was neither, and he was just better at using a sword.

But he wasn't sure about the last one. Even though he learned how to use a sword, he was swinging his axe from morning to evening almost every day in the village.

Well, I was hitting only immobile objects.

He didn't know if it would have an effect, but it didn't matter. He jumped at the Orc that had the axe stuck on his arm.

It wasn't hard, he hit the other side of the axe and the Orc's arm fell together with the axe.

But Grey didn't take the axe back. Now that he had an Art, he needed to become a real fighter.

Some of the Orcs turned his way. This meant that his plan was working.

Again, he wasn't in a hurry to kill them. "Ray, don't risk yourself. Just stall them a bit more."

Ray definitely deserved the leadership position. With that one sentence, he understood Grey's plan and started fighting non-aggressively.

Of course, when they fought defensively, they couldn't kill or seriously injure any of the Orcs. But it was okay.

After a few minutes of fighting, it happened. Six Orcs, four from Ray's side and two from Grey's side, fell to one knee.

The six others were here. So, they immediately divided into two and started killing the remaining two Orcs fighting Ray.

After that was easy. It didn't take long until only one Orc remained. Grey saw the black ring on the Orc's neck and attacked, slashing it from one side to the other.

And then, he fell to the ground with the strongest headache he had ever lived through.

His single purple eye turned back to red, and he blacked out.

---

This place is too ugly.

We are really in a cave...

This is our only chance.

Too loud...

"Grey!"

"Uhgg." Grey frowned without even opening his eyes.

"Call the doctor! He woke up!"

Hearing the sound, Grey turned his head. But he regretted it since it felt like an explosion had happened in his brain.

He also tried to open his eyes, but the same thing happened. He started breathing slowly to ease the pain.

Thankfully, the pain didn't last long, and he slowly opened his eyes again.

"Grey, are you okay?"

In front of him was Elaine, looking at him with worry.

"Where am I?" He started to remember what happened, but he couldn't.

"We are back at the village."

Grey instantly raised his upper body as he remembered everything with that one sentence.

For some reason, his body was in good condition. Too good, even.

"What happened? Where are Ray and Taek?"

"You are worried about others when you are in this state!" Elaine said harshly. She seemed to be really worried about him.

"I am sorry," Grey apologized.

"They are both okay. It seems like after you killed all the Orcs, they returned safely, carrying you since you fainted. We were already waiting with the other villagers."

Grey sighed with relief. But this time, he started checking his body. There was only one conclusion he got.

"How long have I been sleeping?"

"Uhm... One week."

"What?"

"It is okay. Everyone was worried about you. You are known as the hero of the village right now."

Grey couldn't care less about being a hero, though.

One week... Will it always be the same when I use my Art, or was it different this time since I used it for two hours without prior training?

He knew that there were legends of real heroes who fought enemies for years at a time. So, two hours wasn't good enough.

Still, he was thankful he was alive. He also remembered everything that had happened in the forest.

He had a new power he didn't know about. Since it hadn't leveled up, he also didn't check the Art of Creation.

But he had a new goal now. One even better than roaming the world...

Seeing his face, Elaine had an ominous feeling.

---

Grey left the hospital that day. Even though it was called a hospital, he was living in a small village, so it was more like a sickroom.

Still, the doctor was real. Even without an Art related to healing, he was a good doctor.

Grey had always wondered if this world had better standards like on Earth in his past life, if the world would be better ot worse.

Even though Earth was the same in terms of inequality, even though the rich were always stronger, at least people could access the basic luxury there.

But here, the real geniuses like the doctor in this village rot because they weren't rich, and they didn't have access to a good Art.

Of course, he wasn't after correcting the world. It was way above his goals. He just wanted to live a good life by getting stronger.

Unlike Earth, this world was dangerous. So, he wanted to be strong enough at least to be able to defend against the dangers he would encounter.

Well, if he could become stronger than that, he wouldn't reject it.

He also wanted to learn more about his new Art. He hadn't told anyone about it to anyone yet, mostly because he spent the last week in bad, blacked out, right after gaining this Art.

But, even if that wasn't the case, he wouldn't tell anyone about this. Even though people were mostly good in this village, human greed was a dangerous thing.

He wasn't an idiot, so he knew that an Art gained without being taught, and a strong one at that, would definitely attract attention. Everyone would lust over it.

Well, he didn't know how strong his Art, Art of Creation, was. He knew that it gave him something like a status screen and a panel to check things.

But most of it was still locked, so he didn't know what kinds of things he could check apart from the Art of Source.

Also, he knew that the Art of Creation had given him some energy. Or maybe it healed him a bit when he was trying to get up, as the Orc Chieftain followed Elaine.

Even though he knew there was some kind of energy in him, he didn't know exactly what it was.

Whenever he used his Art of Wood before, he lost something. He always thought it was similar to mana in the games back on Earth.

But there weren't enough resources in this village. There were only the old people who knew more than the younger ones.

Well, there is only one way I could learn this...

He headed towards his home for now.