Brandon was ecstatic. It had taken him a week to finally improve his smithing enough to start working with alloys, but now he had so much he could do with his new knowledge. Brandon had made a little over 40 swords since he started his final trial a week ago. None of the others were out of their trials yet, but Thysse thought he was close, and the only thing stopping Dylan from finishing was not that he didn’t think he was ready, it was that he wanted to use all two weeks of his trial time so someone else could go out of the dungeon with him.
Mia had three weeks and was the longest aside from Brandon, and Jade and Thysse both had two weeks like Dylan. They had all been helping each other and discussing things. Brandon had been asking about the alloys he was planning to make because it was as much alchemy as smithing he had discovered.
Creating alloys was something he had never done on Earth and here he discovered the process more complex than he imagined. The book he had been given described using monster parts to create alloys and how one could achieve that process, but there was detriment. Items made with monster part alloys would require them to repair as well.
Brandon had quite a collection of electric horns from the deer they had hunted and he put them to use in the creation of a blade material. The process was fairly simple to start and he was currently working on his fifth batch of material. Brandon poured mana into the horn and infused it until it felt like another part of his body. Once the horn was filled, he took it to a mortar and pestle and cut sections off with his knife and then ground them into a fine powder. Once ground down, he added a small amount of mana water to the powder and heated it in the crucible until it boiled. Once it started boiling bolts of electricity would arc out of the top of the crucible and into the ground. The blue purple bolts would sometimes arc into his gloves but the insulation protected him.
He would take this boiling liquid electricity and grab a crucible of already processed liquid magic iron that he had removed the impurities from. He poured in the elemental liquid and used his mana which was in both to pull the materials together and combine them while stirring the mixture. Without careful mana control, slowly pushing together the different materials, the alloy would not be made, but once he had combined them it was indistinguishable from one material. He could not have separated the alloy if he wanted to.
The metal was not named when he first created it, it was listed as unknown and showed only the property of converting mana that went through it into electrical mana. He had started calling it [Thundeer Steel] and the system had named it the same.
The metal was interesting. He had made two weapons with it so far and he was disappointed with the results but also excited. The alloy was tough but flexible. Unfortunately it was too flexible, it lost a lot of its rigidity as an alloy as compared to magic iron and became unable to hold an edge well or be used to make a good sword. It could however dissipate energy much better than magic iron.
When struck with a blow the Thundeer Steel sent out bolts of electricity in the direction the attack hit from using the energy of the attack. It made it much more effective at dispersing blows and it was about 20% lighter than magic iron. This would make for great armor.
If only he had gotten a leather crafting skill like Dylan had, he would be able to make some strong armor for himself and the others. He was planning to work with Dylan to achieve this once they got back together. That was not the point of this experiment though.
Brandon began pouring the bright blue metal into the mix and watched as the metals bubbled and sparked. He began mixing and making sure the flow of the mana of the metals was all in one direction, nudging them gently together. He was combining one of his other alloys that he had been experimenting with.
He had made an alloy of cobalt and mythril that ended up far too rigid, but hadmana transfer abilities he could barely understand. It amplified all mana that went into it and sped up its flow. He had made a wand out of this material and it sped up the mana bolts he used and increased their power by almost twofold.
Brandon worked for ten minutes, mixing and adjusting the flow of the mana. It was not easy to get right. The alloy was 70% magic iron, 15% horn, 12% true cobalt, and 3 percent mythril. In the combined flow, he could feel only the two alloys as they slowly combined, but the properties of each were still changing how they flowed. The concentration was exhausting and he was sweating from the heat even with his resistance. Fixing the flow of mana in this metal was like molding clay into a perfect sphere while keeping it hollow. It was possible but Brandon thought he would rather take on the Rune Bear again than make this metal again.
Once the flow had settled down, Brandon sat on the ground and stared at the crucible. He stayed there for a few minutes laughing at his success and texted Kara, Mia, and Thysse about it. It had been nice to have them to talk to while he had been working. Jade was still not really opening up, though she talked more over chat than in person, and Dylan just did not like texting it seemed. He was much more talkative in person than on the phone.
Still high on his success, he put the new alloy back into the fire and heated it until it was sparking and purple. The lightning coming off it was much stronger than the elemental liquid or even the thundeer steel. It was also more focused. Bolts of electricity would coil around each other in helices as they headed to the ground. He poured the metal into molds and was able to make four ingots out of the metal. It was enough to experiment with and if he liked it, he could make more though it was a difficult process.
Once he finished, he pulled out his mana steel sword he had been working on and began sharpening the blade. He had taken the blade design from the falchion from the Castillion horde and combined it with the handle design of the US heavy cavalry sword. It was designed as a one handed sword he could use for thrusting when he needed but was brutally effective at cutting. Brandon had made the handle a bit larger than for one hand, enough to put a second hand on the handle when he needed to though it would not be comfortable.
Even with his increased strength, there were times he could see himself needing to apply more strength than he could with just one hand. It would also let him perform cuts at different angles than he could with just one hand. He knew that training to use this sword would be difficult, but he was determined to use it. It felt really good in his hands and worked too well with his abilities not to use it.
Brandon had experimented with many swords over the past few days and determined this to be his favorite by far. He could have come up with a crazy fantasy-like weapon, but even if he did, there was no telling how effective it would be. Brandon instead took what he knew about classical weapons and how they worked and used that to come up with a design that may have been a good weapon in history if it had ever existed but would be most effective for his current abilities.
This was his third iteration of this weapon and he thought he finally had the proportions right. A 30 inch blade paired with an 8 inch handle. The weapon would be heavier than those of swords on earth by a factor of nearly double but the mana steel was an incredible material and his increased strength would allow him to wield it effectively.
He was approaching the mist steel sword in power with his new weapons, doing a combined damage of 22 on his last piece. This one looked to be even better. Even once he had a better weapon damage wise, Brandon knew he would still be using his mist steel sword. He had read about them in the books in his trial. Apparently he could manipulate the structure of the steel almost any way he wanted using magic. There were records of someone who would change the length of his blade many times during combat to catch his opponent off guard.
Brandon’s idea was different from that, but he was not sure if it would work till he tested it. If it did, the mist steel sword would become one of his most vicious weapons with his telekinesis.
Brandon took his sword off and got a notification. Ding! He did not get a notification when he made each weapon anymore, so he was curious what this notification would be. He checked it and almost shouted in joy. He had broken through to level 5 in Magic Smithing. He got less and less experience the easier crafting had become. The alloy creation had given him a lot, and finishing this sword must have pushed him over the edge.
He would check the skill selection after he investigated the sword. He was excited to see what he made.
[Brandon’s Falchion (Rare)]
+15 slashing damage
+11 piercing damage
Durability:1000/1000
A combined 26 damage was really good, he could definitely use this to fight against the monster outside, but he was unsure he would be able to win with it. It was his best weapon so far but he had time.
Brandon decided to use that time to look at his new skills. He looked at the first three and dismissed them out of hand; all were common skills tailored to regular smiths who had a different process than a magic smith. The fourth was a bit more interesting.
[Skill: Rune Enchantment level 1 (Rare)]
[Channel your mana into a blade and carve your weapons with runes and fill them with magic. You can create magic weapons out of more than just magic materials. You will learn 3 random runes upon acquiring this skill the rest must be foundlater]
The only problem with this skill was random selection. It was really interesting, but it may not help him out of his current situation. He checked the next skill.
[Skill: Hammer of Ages level 1 (Ancient)]
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
[Unlike other smiths you have mastered various forms of mana manipulation and can infuse items with mana and create mana channels to create magic weapons mana easily flows through. This is no easy feat in itself as mana can be hard to make flow through magic weapons. Hammer of Ages will cause all of your hammer blows to exude tremendous amounts of mana into whatever you are forging, overcoming their natural mana limitation and creating a stronger material that retains its properties.]
This was a much more interesting skill to Brandon. He had also never seen a skill with that rarity before. If he was understanding it right, it would make forging something more powerful much easier. It did have a drawback that meant every hammer swing used lots of mana but after his recent level up he was overflowing with mana. Brandon checked his stats and put his free points in his lower skills to raise them up to a better standard, He wanted them all at at least 40 by his next level.
Level: 14
Class: Magic Swordsman (Level 9)
Profession: Magic Smith (Level 5)
Health: 405/405
Mana: 840/840
Strength: 45
Dexterity: 40
Stamina: 40
Endurance: 38
Magic Power: 72
Free Points: 0
He should be fine with this much mana. He grabbed the ability and decided to start working with the new material. He pulled out the first bar of it and decided to investigate it.
The metal was a shining blue, the color of the sky in the early morning. The property he revealed was also really interesting. The metal had electric control. All mana that passed through it became lightning just like with the thundeer but it allowed full control of the electric energy released. This he could make a weapon out of.
Brandon heated up a bar in his tongs and began to work. He raised his hammer and he felt the mana noticeably drain out of him as he did. He looked, it had taken 40 mana. He swung his hammer down and struck the new material.
Mana exploded in front of Brandon and electricity burst everywhere around him. The bar had a much more noticeable dent than he expected and he could feel his mana slightly stronger in the metal. The hammer had not absorbed any more mana, but he could only use this ability 15-16 times before needing to rest, and there was no toggle off.
Brandon raised his hammer and struck the metal again. It took 40 mana just like before and had a similar explosive reaction. At this pace it would take days to draw out the blade. Brandon hoped he had time. He hammered away at it a dozen more times and almost had the ingot drawn out into the bar he needed, then he decided he needed to meditate.
Brandon went from meditating to hammering and back to meditating. The hammering had become easier and took less mana as he was able to pull more mana from the outside during the process. He could feel the metal becoming more and more powerful with each stroke of his hammer, it must already possess more internal mana than he did.
Brandon hammered day and night for six days before the blade was drawn out and shaped how he wanted it to be and when he was done, he was more exhausted than he had been since coming to this tutorial. He was hot, sweaty, hadn’t slept and hadn’t talked to anyone for days. The meditation helped his need for sleep but did not replace it.
Brandon checked his messages and he had a few from Kara, the most recent worried since he had stopped responding,and he saw that Jade and Thysse were close to completing their goals too and were planning to leave when Dylan did the next day.Mia was only a few days behind. He was happy for them. He sent a message just saying he was okay but a new skill was taking all his focus at the moment. Then he went and cleaned up and fell asleep after.
When he got up, he decided to cast some of the Galvatarim as the guard. The property he had discovered was that even though it was definitely metal, it was an incredible insulator. He would use it as the hand guard to protect his hands from the electricity. He would also make a wire out of it and wrap it around the hilt.
It did not take long to take the alloy already prepared and put it in the two molds. Once he had, he decided to prepare the wood for the hilt as well. Brandon had learned that the wood from the tree they had been staying under was incredibly fire resistant. This should help prevent the handle from taking damage. He carved it into shape and began setting it while the metal for the handle cooled.
Once the handle’s two halves were prepared, he took his metal blank he had made to help fit handles and slid it between the halves and took some of the black leather that was in the store room and wrapped it around the wood to measure it. He cut the leather and punched small holes for the stitching and large holes for where the pins would go in.
He did not exactly want to touch the pins with his hands but they were going to be made of pure mythril to increase his mana flow into the material. It would be expensive, but it wasn’t like the mythril was really his anyway, it was here for the challenge. He doubted the challenge would let him take anything besides what he gathered and made with him.
He would need three pins for his handle and the free flow of his mana into the blade would be exactly what he needed. It would let him unleash even more powerful arc slashes even faster than before. He hoped he would be able to release them without any prep at all so he could just release them on a swing without having to hold and infuse his blade first.
Brandon set aside the materials for his handle and picked up his hammer again. He had previously prepared a bar of mythril to make pins from, but the problem was now each hammer stroke took mana. This would take a while.
Hammer. Meditate. Hammer. Meditate. Eat. Hammer. Meditate. It took two days to finish the pins. Brandon was exhausted and slept right away.
Brandon woke up and checked his phone again. According to Thysse while he had been working, they had all made it out except Mia. She was still just a day or two off. When they got back to camp there had been over a dozen people in their camp, between level 5 and 6. They had tried to say it was theirs and did not want to let Thysse take it back over, so he controlled the vines he had grown and had thorns pointing to each of their throats in moments.
They were terrified but left the hut under his threat. They told him they were terrified and had nowhere to go and Thysse wanted to know what to do with them.
“Use them.” Bradon sent, “If they aren’t evil but just scared, have them help make the camp better. Build more, maybe take them hunting to level them up some and we can use them as lookouts and guards. Turning them away is as likely to get them killed as anything. I bet the main reason they wanted to stay was the food that grows on your vines anyway.”
After answering Thysse, Brandon checked Kara’s messages too. Her group was starting to unlock professions after Brandon had told her about them and had taken a break from hunting to see what they could do. She did not unlock hers yet on purpose. She and the of her group both hoped for a dungeon like the one he described. Their leader was almost level ten accordion to Kara but his experience had stopped going up. They suspected he needed to succeed in a solo hunt of a monster that was stronger to be able to advance.
Brandon glanced out the open wall and shuddered. A stronger monster indeed. His stats had massively increased since he came into the dungeon, but the monster out there was as terrifying as it was on his first day in the final trial. He did not really know if he’d win or die even still. None of the others had combat as their final trial, it felt very unfair to him.
Brandon got up and stretched. Today he would do some grinding and reshaping, then he would hopefully get through hardening and quenching. If he did, he would put the blade together and start on his final sharpen before mana quenching the blade.
Brandon grabbed his blade and headed to the grindstone to work. As soon as the blade touched the stone, he was almost blinded by the explosion of sparks. They shot off in all directions, and if not for his gloves and heat resistance, he would have been seriously injured. He slowed the speed and began grinding, but there were still enough sparks to make the fourth of July look like a casual Tuesday, but it was much more manageable.
He spent a while grinding and shaping the blade, then he was finally happy with its shape and was tired again, but he went through with quenching and tempering the blade. Once he had done that, he set it on his work bench and went back to bed. He had started calling it arc steel and that was the name the system had given it after calling it that, but he was wondering if he could change it to difficult. It should not take this many days to make a single sword.
Brandon’s sleep was restless. It was a mix of excitement and nerves. He was close to completing his weapon, but that was one day closer to fighting the monster outside. What kind of monster covers itself in fucking ores. Brandon thought to himself after waking from another dream of the beast crushing him.
He did not feel rested when he finally woke up for the day. He checked his messages and saw Mia was out too. Kara had found her own dungeon to raid and her party was preparing for it now. Thysse and Dylan had been taking people on hunts and Jade was apparently sitting menacingly at The Hedge to keep people in check. It wasn’t exactly mistrust, more caution.
“Okay, Today I finish, tomorrow…” Brandon went out to the forge and grabbed his blade and the parts for his handle.
He started the assembly by sliding the two pieces of wood between the guard’s top and bottom. The light pressure held them in place as he slid the tang of the blade in between them. He held the blade, which had darkened slightly from its initial appearance as he had shaped and poured mana into it, between his knees and wrapped the black leather around the handle making sure the holes lined up, then he stitched together the leather. He slid in the pins and then hammered them on his anvil causing them to spread and fill their holes fully. They were not quite flush, but he would fix that with his grinder.
Brandon worked on the handle for nearly four hours grinding, polishing, and putting things together just how he wanted, including wrapping the wire around the handle to make grooves for his finger and pounding it into the leather.
Once he was done, he spent his time on the final sharpening then approached the liquid mana. He slid his blade into the water and began the quench. If the previous mana tempering had been rivers, this was an ocean, an ocean of mana he had to create channels to hold. His arm burned with the cold heat of the raw energy. It felt like his arm was on fire and plunged into boiling water while his veins ran cold with the ice from the deepest parts of glaciers. He pushed with his mana at what felt like a wall and it could not go through his new material to form the internal channels of energy, the mana inside was too dense, but it was also Brandon’s mana.
Brandon instead of trying to push through it, pushed his mana to combine with it and it worked. The pain faded as he controlled the mana inside, moving it like one would mold clay but with his mana not his hands. He moved it into the channels he needed and the mana from the liquid flowed in and through smoothly. The sword and barrel glowed brightly as he completed the process.
DING! It was the loudest system notification he had ever heard. He went to check it and was barely able to see three things before he blacked out. He had gained 2 magic power. He had created a masterwork item of Epic rarity. He created the first masterwork in the world. He was in 1st place and got a special reward for being the first.