Thomas held the sword for a bit longer before setting it down gently on the work table. He looked over the beautiful weapon for a bit to admire his hard work. It wasn't his most artistic piece ever but it still had a deadly beauty to it. Still, it wasn't finished yet and it would become more beautiful with the touches he planned to add to it. He started by removing some Mithril from the same ingot he made the pommel from. The removed piece was quickly broken into four much smaller pieces. From there he turned the four pieces into small chain links. Three of the links were set together with the opening fused closed into a perfectly smooth surface.
For the final link, he fed it through the D-link at the bottom of the sword and fused it together. The four links now hung from the pommel of the sword but he still wasn't done with the small accessory he was creating for the sword. Another tiny piece of Mithril was transmuted into a tiny shiny sphere with a diameter of no more than a couple of millimeters. After setting the Mithril sphere to the side, he extracted a Troll mana crystal from his inventory and quickly purified it. Once purified, he set the Mithril ball on top of the crystal and Transmuted the crystal around the sphere. It was similar to a trick that jewelers used to make gems look brighter. They would place the gem on top of a reflective surface so that the light that entered the gem would bounce back and make the gem look brighter.
He wrapped the mana crystal around the Mithril sphere for the same purpose, to make it look bright thanks to the light bouncing back from it. He left the natural striations in the mana crystal alone as much as he could while morphing it into a perfect sphere. Once it was formed he used another small piece of Mithril to wrap a thin wire cage around the 'gem'. At the top of the cage was an open D-ring. He fed it through the last link of the chain on the sword and fused it together. When he picked up the sword the 'gem' dangled below the pommel and gently swayed in the air.
Naturally, the new 'gem' on his sword wasn't just for looks. Though it was small the mana crystal was still a battery of sorts. Thanks to the Mithril core, chain, and pommel, the mana from it could easily be moved into the sword. He set the sword back down and started pulling out his enchanting supplies. He quickly mixed up some of the enchanting medium. While doing so he opened the internet browser and began searching. As the weapon was a katana it deserved to have proper kanji markings on it for the enchantment.
After picking out the phrase he wanted to carve, he got to work. Naturally, because he wasn't a native speaker of the language and was using online translating software, it might not be completely accurate. He summoned his favorite Mithril engraving tool along with retrieving his ball-peen hammer. The Manaborne Truesteel was likely to be much harder than regular steel so he decided to have a little extra behind his engraving tool. Slowly he began tapping away at the end of the engraving tool. He was very careful and followed the lines of the kanji to the best of his abilities. He was no expert on the Japanese language but anyone could trace the lines of the words, even if they didn't completely know the meaning behind them. He just hoped it was close enough to his desired meaning.
As he carved the words onto the flat of the blade he focused on the image he had for the sword. It was a classic in fantasy games, stories, and more. The 'sword beam' or 'compressed air' or whatever you wanted to call it. The trope was common enough that anyone would recognize it. Those white slashes of light that would fly off of a sword when it was swung and cut through just about anything at a distance. He wanted to add such a feature to his katana so that it could be used in close and medium-range combat. Or to just simply slice deeper into the enemy. Or maybe... he just wanted to look cool.
After finishing the kanji on the first side, he flipped the sword over and began to perform the same actions a second time. He wanted both sides of the sword to mirror each other. The longer he worked on the enchantment, the more he could feel his mana draining. Every enchantment took some mana to create. However, the amount was usually so minimal that it was hard to notice. He'd only ever felt a large drain once before and that enchantment had turned out rather powerful, for the time when he'd made it. Feeling his mana draining filled him with excitement for the potency of the enchantment.
The enchanting was completed without any issues. He looked over the blade and smiled at its appearance. He just needed to do one more thing and the sword itself would be completed. The blade was moved over to the sharpening stones provided by the guild. After wetting the stones with some water, Thomas began the process of sharpening the blade. He very carefully and very deliberately slid the edge of the blade against the stones at the proper angle. He worked from the lowest grit of stone to the highest going from roughly sharpening the edge to refining it. He wanted to bring the blade from dull to razor-sharp.
As he slid the blade along the final sharpening stone for the final time the sword emitted a bright flash of gray light. It was finally finished!
System Notice: You have created an Epic rarity Cresent Moon Katana. Quality: Perfect. You have gained 3,900 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 7,800 experience.
Weapon Type: Crescent Moon Katana Rarity: Epic Quality: Perfect Description: Katana's are an elegant weapon long revered in certain parts of the world and in certain cultures. The engraving on the blade of this katana reads 'Kurai Yoru no Tsuki', which translates to 'Dark Night's Moon'.
When mana is channeled into this sword the blade will turn pitch black increasing it's durability and sharpness. Mana can also be channeled into the blade and stored inside of the mana crystal hanging from the pommel. Once enough has been stored a special attack can be unleashed. This attack will send out a wave of solidified metal mana with extreme sharpness.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
+250 Power (Attacks with the sword only)
+50-250 additional Power based on mana channeled into the sword
+Mana can be stored for the special attack 'Crescent Moon'
+Crescent Moon - Unleashes a wave of compressed metal mana in a 90° arc out to 10 meters with a strength of up to +500 Power
+Charged: 0/10
-Requires 250 Power
-Requires 250 Magic
After reading over the description, Thomas was brimming with joy. The katana had turned out far better than he expected. The base Power of the weapon alone was already excellent but combined with the hardening and sharpening brought about by the Metal mana infused into the steel made it even better. Then there was the special attack attached to the weapon. A short-ranged area attack that added an astounding amount of power to a single brutal attack. The absolute best of all though, he could use the weapon right away.
Thomas firmly held the katana in his hands and slowly moved through a few swings with it. The Manaborne Truesteel was a little heavier than regular steel, but with his strength, the sword was still as light as a feather in his hands. After the swings, he held the sword vertically and began to channel mana into it. He moved his mana slowly so he could watch the transformation of the blade. As his mana fed into the blade it started to turn black from the base. The blackening slowly moved up until it covered the whole weapon. The entire blade turned pitch black except for the enchantments carved into it. With the enchantments unchanged they became strikingly visible against the black blade.
Just looking at the black blade of the weapon made him feel like he would be cut by it. Given that his own Endurance, without his armor, was lower than the minimum Power of the katana at its lowest enhanced setting made it deadly. If the sword was fully powered it would still be capable of slicing through his armor and his body. With the sword enhanced as much as possible, he would have a total of seven hundred and eighty Power behind all of his attacks. There was a slight problem though. Even with the sword currently enhanced by the smallest amount, he could feel it draining his mana. It wasn't rapid but he estimated that he would only be able to wield the sword at its lowest setting for a few minutes before being drained of mana. He couldn't even guess how quickly he would run out of mana at its highest setting.
The next issue arose when he channeled mana into the mana crystal for the special attack. Despite the tiny size of the crystal, he went through a quarter of his maximum mana just to gain a single charge. It seemed that the special attack wasn't very mana efficient. To fill the crystal with enough mana for a single full-power attack would cost him at least two and a half times his current total mana. Give or take a few percent. It's not like he had one hundred percent accuracy when judging his mana. What he wouldn't give for a mana bar with exact numbers. Even with its flaws, the sword was extremely powerful and the special attack would make an excellent 'Oh Fuck!' button.
He set the sword down for the time being and checked the time. He still had a few hours left and at least two things he needed to do. They would both be easy tasks though. The first was to make a sheath for the katana. There was nothing special about making it, he decided not to use any special materials or anything for it. He selected plain wood and used a chisel to carve out the center of two slats that could be glued together. After over an hour of carving, sanding, and gluing, he had a viable sheath for the katana. It was plain wood, nothing fancy. He would need to pick up some dye to change its color from brown wood to something more interesting.
With the sheath done, for the moment, Thomas sheathed his katana inside of it and stored the weapon inside of his inventory. There was just one thing left for him to do. He walked over to Snowlily and crouched down in front of her. She looked up at him curiously. Thomas smiled as he spoke, "I need to take your collar for a bit. I'm going to make you a nice new one to give you a bit of a boost."
Hearing what he said, Snowlily's tail immediately began to wag while she sat up and presented her neck to him. He removed the collar from her neck and looked it over. Though he called it a collar it was actually a choker designed to be worn by human women as an accessory. The Frozentite Ore adorning it was meant to look like large diamonds. Though for ore the pieces were rather small. He quickly disassembled the choker to harvest the half dozen pieces of ore. Aside from the buckle, the rest of the choker was tossed it was simple and useless cloth.
He decided to replace the cloth with the last of his Black Tar Boa skin. It was durable and could be enchanted. It was exactly what he needed for Snowlily's new collar. He started by trimming the leather into a proper shape. He made sure that it had plenty of length so it could be loosened as Snowlily grew larger. From there he Transmuted some purified Mithril into long thin strands of wire. With a combination of Transmutation to open and close small holes along with his dextrous fingers, he weaved two strands of Mithril along the edges of the collar making it look as though it had been stitched.
He used more Mithril wire to secure the Frozentite ore to the collar. He did so by strapping the ore to the collar with both a vertical and horizontal wire. The wires fed through the collar and were fused together tightly so the ore couldn't move. He spaced them out along the collar so they weren't too close together. For the enchantment itself, he retrieved his small supply of enchanting thread, he really needed to take the time to make some more of it. He conjured a sewing needle made of Mithril and fed the thread through the eye of the needle.
He sat for a moment and tried to decide what would be the best option for Snowlily. After thinking for a bit, he decided to just go with a straight power boost. He started pushing the needle through the hide, the sharp tip of the needle easily pierced through the snakeskin and allowed him to sew in the enchantment. He kept his intent focused as he worked the needle and thread. For the design, he went with something exceedingly simple that connected the pieces of ore together. He used as much thread as he needed between the pieces of ore to link them together. Though the ore wasn't like mana crystals it had the properties necessary to enhance Ice magic. As he completed the final stitch the item was completed.
System Notice: You have created an Uncommon rarity Ice Princess Collar. Quality: Above Average. You have gained 988 Magitech Engineering experience.
Item Type: Ice Princess Collar Rarity: Uncommon Quality: Above Average Description: A simple collar studded with Frozentite Ore cut to look like diamonds. Lovingly crafted and designed for a special princess.
+Increases all Ice magic by 15%
-Lowers Magic attribute by 30.