Now with another slip of Smokecall paper in his spatial storage, Archie jumped into his base and landed with a thud.
Archie took his forging equipment out of his spatial storage and placed two medium-sized chunks of Cragforge ore atop the table.
While looking through his spatial storage he remembered the three gorilla corpses he took to study their sigils. Archie took them out and tossed them onto the ground. I’ll look at them when I’m free, Archie thought. They’ll start to rot after a couple of days, but since I’ll be testing out my gauntlets once I finish making them; I’m going to need as much free storage as possible. Besides, I’ll just be away for a day or two.
Archie then turned to stare at the Cragforge ore and tried to imagine how the finished project would look like. The fingers would have to be made from individual plates…But I need to take into account their undersides, so twenty-eight per hand. The back of my hand will be covered by five interconnected plates with WW folds in the middle of them to allow back-and-forth movement.
Archie then looked at his Frostiron Gauntlets, specifically at his palms. They’re completely made out of frostiron, yet when I open and close my hands, there isn’t any resistance, but they’re just as resilient as any other part of my gauntlet…I guess I should use them for my palms.
Archie grabbed one of the two medium-sized chunks of Cragforge ore and placed it in between his heavy-duty tongs. As Archie approached his forge, he set it alight with Forgesmith’s Flame.
While Archie was waiting for the Cragforge to turn red-hot an idea popped in his mind. Would the Cragforge lose its ability to store latent energy if I infuse it with my nature mana?
Taking the now red-hot Cragforge, Archie chiseled a thin piece of it off on the heavy-duty anvil and took that thin piece, placed it onto the precision anvil, and lightly started to hammer it, while slowly infusing it with his nature-attuned mana.
While hammering the thin piece of Cragforge, Archie activated Gaze of the Forgefather. Archie took notice that the metal was gaining small hues of dull orange with every strike, specifically where he struck it. And once he stopped, they clumped together and made the metal shake for a moment before disappearing.
He also noticed deep green mana flow from his hands, into the hammer and splash onto the Cragforge, before slowly seeping into it. Archie then noticed the nature mana slowly interwound itself with the small hues of dull orange.
Stopping his hammering, Archie took out the Magmasteel Sheet he infused with his nature mana and the Magmasteel Sheet he infused with normal mana and compared the two of them.
The Magmasteel Sheet infused with normal mana had molten red hues dancing around, while the Magmasteel Sheet infused with nature mana and deep green hues slowly danced around, with not a single red hue in sight.
A realization came to Archie as he looked at the two Magmasteel sheets and piece of Cragforge. I needed to balance the elements within the metal with my own mana, else it turns to shit. Okay, I’ll just take it slow.
Archie then put away the two sheets and continued to lightly hammer the Cragforge and slowly imbue it with his nature mana.
After it was uniform, Archie Identified it.
Cragforge Sheet (Common):
A cragforge sheet forged by Archie Gracefield, a Novice Forgesmith. During the forging process, the sheet was imbued with potent nature-attuned mana. However, due to the forger's mana control, the nature-mana merged with the Cragforge's inherent kinetic properties. Status: Perfect.
“Nice,” Archie smiled as he picked up the sheet and placed it on the table beside him. Archie then turned to face the red-hot Cragforge, except it was a dull grey color now, making him sigh. “This is going to be a while.”
Archie now looked at the pile of twenty-eight small Cragforge plates infused with nature-attuned mana by the foot of his anvil. Archie took off his gauntlets and started to shape the plates on the precision anvil, checking to see if they would fit onto, and under his fingers properly.
After properly shaping the plate to fit onto his fingers, Archie then soldered the ends of them onto the middle of the other, making them look like scales. Archie curled the metal fingers and smiled as they showed no signs of being clunky.
Placing them onto the table, Archie grabbed the remaining Cragforge that he had to reheat and fashioned them into five medium-sized strips. Grabbing a strip of Cragforge, Archie placed it on the side of the precision anvil and started to form some creases in the middle of the strip.
The creases formed wide looking side by side ‘W’s. After making three more, Archie placed them atop his hand. He noticed that they weren’t properly atop the other, so he lightly hammered them to make them mold atop one another.
After soldering their ends to the part under them, Archie placed the back part of the gauntlet atop his arm and moved it around. Hmm…a bit rigid on my wrist, Archie thought as he slightly widened the ends of the wrist piece with his Forgesmith’s Flame-covered fingers. Perfect.
Archie then grabbed the last plate alongside a larger strip, grabbed his Thermal Carver, and sliced two straight lines, a quarter inch long onto the middle width of the plate. Placing the plate on the side of the anvil, Archie hammered it until it became almost 90 degrees.
Archie then made similar ‘W’ shaped creases on both sides of the bent strip. Archie then placed the strip atop his knuckles and covered his fingers in Forgesmith’s Flame and started to make minute fixes for the Cragforge to fit around his knuckles, ignoring the pain from the heated metal.
Taking off the knuckle piece and bits of melted skin, Archie connected the top part of the gauntlet together.
Archie then placed it atop the table, took out a handful of frostiron, placed it in the crucible, and held it over his flame. Weirdly enough, the frost iron never turned red-hot, rather it stayed frost-blue, but it became liquid. Huh?
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Archie exhaled as he needed to focus on this next part; he needed to mold the liquid frostiron onto the underside of the gauntlet but make gaps to allow his hand to go through it.
Archie looked at his right hand and placed it on the top part of the gauntlet. He then covered his hand with a coat of mana, tilted it upside down, and poured the liquid frostiron atop it.
Archie ignored the feeling of fire and frostbite gnawing at his bare hand and focused on condensing the mana around his hand. Archie focused on his mana, he imagined his mana wrapping around his hand, forming a glove, an unbreakable glove the same shape as his hand.
As sweat dripped from his head, Archie’s mana around his palm condensed enough to slightly push the liquid frostiron from touching his skin. The feeling of fire and frostbit gnawing at his hand lessened a bit but still lingered.
After a couple of minutes, the frostiron hardened and Archie took his hand out from the gauntlet. Archie stared at the gauntlet and started to curl it around, releasing a sigh of relief as it held together and was flexible yet rigid.
I really need to practice mana shaping. Archie then looked at the melted flesh on his right hand, knitting back together with a grimace. Onto making the second gauntlet.
A bit better. Archie placed the second gauntlet atop his table and released another sigh while looking at the melted flesh on his left hand knit back together.
Archie took out his runic scriber and quickly etched the Self-Repair and Soul-Bound runes into the inside of the gloves.
Tapping the butt of the runic scriber on his chin, Archie contemplated what type of rune he wanted to add to the gloves. Cragforge stores latent energy, so when I punch things, it should build up energy and when I feel it’s enough, I can put all that stored energy into a devastating punch. So, I guess something that enhances kinetic energy.
Taking out an iron sheet, Archie started to etch a fire runic base and connect it within an amplification circuit, with some modifications. Instead of etching the resistor, Archie decided to add a Wind runic base directly onto the amplifier…Uh oh, Archie thought as he saw the runic base and pathways start to shake uncontrollably and sizzle with his Gaze of the Forgefather.
Archie needed to quickly modify the pathways to not destabilize the structure of the rune. To stabilize the rune, he needed to add another transistor and a capacitor around the fire runic base.
Looking at the rune that stabilized on the iron sheet, Archie released a breath he did not realize he held. “I’m pretty sure this could have exploded in my face. Fire + Wind = Danger.”
Iron Sheet (Common):
An iron Sheet forged by Syllia Glynvyre, a D-Grade Expert Runesmith. A Kinetic Enhancement rune has been etched by Archie Gracefield, a Novice Forgesmith. Effect: Kinetic Enhancement. Status: Perfect.
This rune would only enhance the blast of the attack when releasing the energy stored into the gauntlet. If the objective was to retain more kinetic energy then Archie would have used the runic bases of Water and Earth.
An amplifier centered around Earth would theoretically enhance the properties of Cragforge while adding a Water rune to it should enhance the fluidity of the energy flowing in the gauntlet. Possibly making some sort of Kinetic Retention rune, if combined.
Archie then began to etch the Kinetic Enhancement rune across the knuckles of his gauntlets, tossing the iron sheet into his spatial ring with a mana string.
After etching the rune, Archie took out the Resonance Bat Beastcore and Identified it.
Resonance Bat Beastcore:
A beastcore from an E-Grade Resonance Bat retaining fragments of its records, left behind after its death. Within its fragmented records, lies the will of the Resonance Bat. Can be used for various forging and medium applications.
Tossing the core a few times into the air, Archie got up from his chair and made his way towards his forge. Activating Forgesmith’s Flame, Archie placed the core into the crucible and held it with his heavy-duty tongs within the flames.
Archie stared at the core with his Gaze of the Forgefather, the core’s previous appearance of a sphere of dark purple ripples, changed into that of a black sphere, not a hint of another color in sight.
Did I burn it? Archie thought as he deactivated Gaze of the Forgefather but saw its original appearance return. The hell?
Reactivating Gaze of the Forgefather, making the core’s appearance turn black. After fifteen minutes of watching the core and no change occurring, Archie slightly raised the heat of the Forgesmith’s Flame.
Suddenly a piece of the orb chipped off and not a moment later the core crumbled into ash. Archie looked taken aback at the sudden crumbling of the core. Was the change in temperature too much for it to handle?
Archie took out another Resonance Bat Beastcore and placed it within the crucible, keeping the heat of the flame at its previous temperature.
Archie concentrated on the core, refusing to close his eyes as he stared at the core, bathed in green flames.
After 20 minutes, a razor-thin crack appeared on the core, but Archie did not take out the core. Archie kept observing the core as the thin crack grew. The cracks that grew across the core were translucent in color.
Just as the razor-thin cracks surrounded the core, in its entirety, Archie pulled the core out of the forge. Gaze of the Forgefather informing him of a razor-thin imperfection that stuck to the core due to overheating.
Identifying the core, Archie noticed new information added to it.
Resonance Bat Beastcore:
A primed beastcore from an E-Grade Resonance Bat retaining fragments of its records, left behind after its death. Within its fragmented records, lies the will of the Resonance Bat. Currently primed from an E-Grade Forgesmith’s Flame. Can be used for various forging and medium applications.
Primed doesn’t mean it's ready. Is there another step I have to do? Archie questioned as he stared at the core. Do I have to infuse it with mana?
Archie sent a mana string to wrap around the core and carry it from the crucible and in front of him. Wrapping the core with a few more mana strings, Archie steadily channeled his mana into the core; not wanting to rush imbuing it and causing it to crumble.
The razor-thin cracks widened, slowly gaining a faint green tinge.
Eventually, the black core turned light green, making Archie stop imbuing it with mana and catching it with his hand before Identifying it.
Resonance Bat Beastcore:
An activated beastcore from an E-Grade Resonance Bat retaining fragments of its records, left behind after its death. Within its fragmented records, lies the will of the Resonance Bat. Can be used for various forging and medium applications.
Archie smiled as he walked over to the table and placed the core atop one of the gauntlets. The core liquified upon touching the gauntlet, covering the top of the gauntlet in its entirety, before starting to harden.
Archie stared at the now deep purplish-grey gauntlet with intrigue. “What?”
After Archie placed an activated Resonance Bat Beastcore atop the second gauntlet and watched as its color turned into a deep purplish grey.
Identifying the gauntlets brought a wide smile to Archie’s face.
Cragforge Gauntlets of Nature Resonance (Rare):
Crafted by Archie Gracefield, a Novice Forgesmith, these gauntlets are a fusion of three materials: Cragforge, Frostiron, and Resonance Bat Beastcores while imbued with potent nature-attuned mana. The innate properties of Cragforge allow the gauntlets to store latent energy with every punch and convert it into nature-attuned kinetic energy when activated. Enhanced by the Resonance Bat Beastcores, the Kinetic Enhancement Rune further amplifies the nature-attuned kinetic energy of released attacks, delivering devastating force. Effects: Self-Repair, Soul-Bound & Impact Dynamo. Provides: +80 Strength, +50 Endurance, +25 Agility. Status: Excellent. Requirements: Level 65+ & Humanoid Race.