Stepping through the portal, Jake found his sight suddenly blocked. Mist and fog surrounded him, completely obscuring his legs and waist. He could barely even see three feet in front of him, cutting off his sight like it was a wall of solid clouds.

A relatively minor issue, but nothing he couldn’t deal with.

Observe.

Suddenly, lights of various shapes and colors started to appear in his sight, cutting through the fog like that of knives. The pastel red of human beings, the cold cyan of weapons, the colorless light of the streetlights and walls. All of it painted a blurry, but understandable picture of his surroundings.

This'll work.

Making his way out of the fort, he suddenly felt himself sink into the ground, causing him to pause. Looking down, he saw muddy water wrapping around his feet, a bit above his ankles.

‘Well, that was unexpected,’ he thought before looking around. As it turned out, the area outside of the fort was some type of marshland. Trees that seemed to meld into each other, grass reaching his knees. It felt like he was in Louisiana, just without the gators.

‘Still has the decaying smell, though,’ he thought before continuing his walk. As he made his way through the area, following the dirt paths, he suddenly heard a faint groaning. Suddenly, he noticed the air felt…colder. As if he stepped into a fridge.

Silently pulling out his pistol, he turned the corner and found the source. A cabal of humans in the loosest sense stood in front of him, their bodies gaunt. Their skin exposed and rotted, sharpened bone poked out of their fingers like that of knives. 

‘Thralls, huh,’ he thought, tilting his head. He had seen these monsters a lot. Individually, they were rather unimportant, mainly serving to just fill out earlier battles with enemies. However, they never came alone. And from the looks of it, it seemed like the group was a bit on the larger side, possibly in the thirties. 

A minor road bump, but nothing extreme.

Pointing his pistol at one of the Thralls' heads, he let out a small breath before pulling the trigger,causing a loud crack. Suddenly, the Thrall’s head exploded, leaving nothing more than a bloody stump. 

With each pull of the trigger, another one of the corpse-walkers fell. 

Another bullet fired, another one down.

As the final Thrall collapsed, their skull opened like that of a busted watermelon, he quickly holstered his pistol before making his way over to the corpses. Walking over to the nearest body, he knelt down before placing his hand onto the cold body.

Reforge.

Almost instantly, the body was consumed by bright flames. Slowly, the flame started to shrink, consuming the body. As the flame burnt itself out, he was met with a small pile of things. A cylinder of ivory around the size of a flashlight. A roll of leather like that of a small book. A gleaming Magos Core the size of a golf ball. 

Putting the materials in his pouch, he got up from his spot before going over to the next body and repeating the process.

As he went through the process again and again, his eyes paused as he held the leather of the last corpse. He couldn’t help but find how similar the leather was to cowhide.

Eh, not like it matters.

Putting the last piece in his pouch, he made his way down the path, hands in his pocket.

He could grab a couple more materials. It'd be a good time-killer.

Stepping through the portal, he made his way out of the hub area. Weaving through the people, he stepped out of the building before ducking into a nearby alley.

‘Now, to try it out,’ he thought before pulling out some of the materials. A roll of leather, a cylinder of bone, and a Purified Core. 

Reforge.

Suddenly, his hand bursted into flame, consuming his hand and the materials. Closing his eyes, he brought an image into his mind. A blade, made to cut through meat like that of butter, with a hilt of textured hide.

Opening his eyes, he saw the blade he imagined in his hand. Spinning the knife in his hand, he found it to be rather balanced. Looking into the blade, he was met with his reflection.

Yeah, this’ll work. Might have to test it just to make sure.