CHAPTER 7: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [The jungle is hectic]

One week after Damian's encounter with the eagle tribe things had changed a lot, the eagles had been coming from all directions of the jungle and had been gathering a few kilometers north east to the temple of Aankh.

They had to cut trees to widen the camp area, destroying their nests and causing loud noises that scared smaller animals away, creating waves of them that went in a frenzy while escaping their now destroyed homes.

Damian had been exploring the jungle during the past week and had discovered that there were a lot of over eagle camps all around the jungle, most of the ones that were near the first settlement he had stumbled upon had joined it.

The ones that were further away had not yet been notified about the summoning to the gathering or were taking more time to pack up their belongings and join. Some others were against the war, didn't believe that a human had brought the signal of war, or simply refused to obey the elderly eagle Ying-ba order to gather.

Damian had not returned to the monkey temple as he didn't want to be brought into the war that was going to break up, had been living in a cave that he had found further to the north from the temple of Aankh.

He had also removed the robe that he got from the monkeys, as they were easily recognizable to be from Aankh and could bring himself harm if he ever walked across an eagle.

The cave was not very big, it was about two square meters in size and was approximately one and a half meters high. Thus Damian could not stand in the cave, he could only sit and lie down to sleep.

He had made a rudimentary sleeping bag using leaves and vines, and using the same process he had also made himself a loincloth.

Damian resembled the people that were living in the rain forests back on earth, if he could have seen himself, he would have laughed at his new self for starting a new clothing style in the middle of the jungle. His loincloth looked more like a jean than any other loincloth, the 'fabric' had been cut in huge leaves, and he used vines as a tailor would use sewing thread to sew together the different parts creating a one of a kind loincloth.

He, who had nothing to do apart from hunting for food and finding drinkable water back at the river, had been training his body by doing all of those tasks while running. He had created a circuit he followed every time he went for food and water that had many high heels and jumps.

Damian had the idea of the loincloth on the second day of living in the cave and traveling without wearing anything, he wanted to not only train his strength but also his precision and what better way to do just that then sawing something he could wear to cover himself.

At that time his days were separated between 3 activities, his circuit when he needed leaving necessities, his sawing that took most of his time and sleeping. After coming up with the correct design and a lot of failed loincloths, he finally made a wearable one 4 days later.

He had not stopped his training of precision, as from the day he had finished his jeans he had given himself the goal of making himself a 4th saber using minerals from the jungle.

Damian was currently in position of a sword made by a reputed blacksmith, his original sword. In the Salvatore clan the swords are given by the clan as a reward for accomplishments, and they represent how much a person has contributed to the clan, his sword had been given to him for participating in two wars and killing a lot of enemies both times.

He also had taken the sword of his father that was as good as any sword could ever be, it had been passed down from family head to family head for thousands of years and was one of the symbols of the Salvatore clan. It has been called the 'Tempest', the sword that can cut through anything.

Finally, he had a sword that was imbued in demonic energy that he had found in his father's safe. He could easily guess that the sword was very powerful from its aura manifestation alone, and he also felt as if it was calling for him.

Damian preferred staying cautious and not using it as he felt he risked being possessed by the sword or he losing life expectancy as a price to use its great power, like he had seen in cultivation manhua where characters sometimes use forbidden arts that are very powerful but eat away their lives.

He felt that he was not worthy enough to wield his father's sword and the demonic sword was not an option, so he had only his one sword left to use. He knew that even though his sword was quite good it would most likely break In a war where he would need to fight enemies like Andhra, Myott, Bahaha or Ying-ba.

His sword needed to be able to block swings from the 4 great masters that lived in this jungle, so he could defend if the situation arises, giving him time to flee as he knew he could fight them. He could nearly defend against one of their attacks in his current situation, as he was still too weak.

Damian knew that trying to fight them head on was a mistake that would cost him his life, he could only think of one way of killing them with his current strength was using tricks and traps. The two remaining days he added a new route to his daily circuit, he passed near rock formations and tried to see if he could find raw ores embedded in the rocks.

His only reliable solution was to find rare ores that could be used for a new sword, because the region was unexplored by human civilization, all the ore veins, rare materials like orirum and mana stones were waiting to be extracted by him.

After searching for 5 days, he had finally found a rock formation that was embedded with some kind of reddish ore that had multicolor reflections. It was *crimson rain,* an ore that was very strong and rare and was the result of the rust that took a thousand of years to form on mid vampire blood.

He had then proceeded to break off the ores using a big rock like a minor would use a pickaxe. Only after struggling for two full days and breaking multiple 'pickaxes' did he successfully break off all the minerals he needed to make a sword.

He had taken in consideration that he was going to make a lot of the failed swords, so he took a lot more than normally needed to forge a sword.

Damian had no experience in blacksmithing and had no blacksmithing tool, he first had to figure how he was going to work on the heated metal, and then he would be able to think about the heating of the ores to make them into a workable state.

The only thing that could help him was the fact that he had watched a few videos on Wetube where people were smelting swords and knives. Using his knowledge, he knew he needed a tool that could resist the heat and enable him to manipulate the heated metal from a safe distance. He also needed a hammer and a recipient that should be approximately the shape of the blade of the sword he wanted to make.

He started with the hammer as it was the most basic tool that he needed to create, to make the hammer he searched the forest for high quality wood. The forest could be said to be a millennium forest, so it contained a lot of good woods.

Damian wanted to find a rare type of wood that was known for growing in the jungle of the northern part of South America. It was 'purpleheart' wood, a type of wood that turns dark brown when exposed to the light.

Damian wanted to find a rare type of wood that was known for growing in the jungle of the northern part of South America. It was 'purpleheart' wood, a type of wood that is gray when cut and darkens to become purple when exposed to the light.

It is also known for being one of the sturdiest woods in the world, along with resistance to humidity, bacteria, insects and radical changes in temperature. It could be said of being a dream wood to make a blacksmith hammer.

After finding the wood he was planning to find the material for the head of the hammer, he was hoping on finding another ore formation as the one he had found before was already depleted. He hoped to find something that was on equal footing with crimson rust or of superior durability, or it would be even more impossible to forge his sword.

He had in mind a few ores that were famous for their resistance, there was orirum, a gold like metal that is much more expensive and rare as it is not only of a beautiful golden shine but is one of the 5 most durable metals in the current world of Ivental.

There was silum, when presented raw it doesn't seem like anything, but when made in thin silk like strings and made into a piece of fabric it becomes untearable. There was also a type of glass that is made from critalum, it looks like clear glass but is almost impossible to shatter.

By looking in the original Damian's memory, he had found a flower that could help him in finding what he needed for his Hammer, the oscillatoria flower that shines as it gets close to orirum ore veins. With the new information in hand, he came out of his cave and headed deep in the jungle to find the flower and dispersed from sight after tasing a huge bush.

TO BE CONTINUED…