"… Nothing yet?" Maria asked even as I went through my notes.

I sighed. I could see that she was getting bored. While she had been interested in my lesson at first, as we reached the four-hour mark, she was getting bored. I couldn't exactly blame her, not when her job was switched between acting as a forge and a spreadsheet calculator.

Therefore, I needed to entertain her. Playing chess to help her pass the time would have been a nice option, as she was still entertained by demolishing me, but I couldn't exactly split my attention between my experiment and playing chess.

It was already stretching my abilities to the limit.

I paused for a moment to compose an answer, one that I would give to a donor asking for another grant despite the failure of a previous experiment. And, the best way to do that was to sculpt even the most basic of results into something fascinating. "We have already made incredible progress," I said.

"We did?" she asked, surprised. I didn't blame her.

"Of course we did," I said as I quickly scribbled some notes, which was essentially the summary of what we did, put in fancier terms. "Look, we already have a good sense of how base metals behave. Copper holds mana longer, but has a lower capacity. Meanwhile, iron almost acts like a semiconductor when mana is concerned. Pewter helps to stabilize mana flow, while aluminum reflects. Those are critical pieces of information that we hadn't previously possessed."

"Really?" she said. "The numbers weren't that different, none of them were able to hold mana longer than half a minute. Most of them were completely inert even before cooling down."

"You're looking at it the wrong way. We already know that various metals react differently. The reason, we don't know yet, but we can start working on identifying it once the books on metallurgy arrive. It has to be something about their physical structure. The interaction between macro structures and atomic crystallization is promising ..." I said, and from there, I spun a rather lengthy explanation about how mana might interact with the material.

Some of that lecture was grounded on my observations about enchantments and weapons, but most of it was wild theories that sounded impressive but had no basis.

"I see," Maria said, once again too proud to admit she lacked the context for half of my explanation. It was mean, but when facing the opportunity to experiment even more, I couldn't refuse the chance. "Let's continue. What's the next step? Are we going to continue testing metals?"

Ideally, I would have continued to test the metals, at least for a month, maybe more. Even without the possibility of a lucky discovery at a certain point of mana density or cooling pattern, having a wider range of materials to test would have been incredibly beneficial.

Unfortunately, I had a feeling that if I said that out loud, her interest would evaporate immediately. I couldn't forget the fact that while it was a very important experiment for me, it was nothing more than a way to pass the time for her. If we still had TV, she wouldn't have even been here.

"Of course not. Now, we're going to see how the alloys given to me by the dungeon products would work when holding mana," I said, curious about the implications. "We'll start with some of the common material and work our way up."

"Are we going to do it for different sizes of coins?" she asked.

I wanted to, but once again, time constraints forced me to take some shortcuts I didn't like. And, I would much rather have a wide range of materials first before the dungeon products. "No, the earlier experimentation already gave us a good baseline for how the size affects the process. While there's a chance for some unexpected interactions depending on the size, it's better we work on a standard size first."

With that, I started another set of experiments, creating hundreds of coins, each mixed with various dungeon parts based on the recipes provided by the Forge skill.

All failed, spectacularly, and obviously even without running any kind of statistical analysis. They functioned worse than ordinary metals. I thought about telling Maria that, but, at the last second, a glance at the pile of swords changed my mind.

I decided to use it as a sample. I grabbed a fresh ingot, and started smashing it with the express purpose of ruining it, every blow changing its structure.

With Inspect, I kept a careful note of every single change, trying to understand what had been going on with the process as I destroyed it slowly, section by section, stretching my Inspect to the limit as I tried to memorize the structures that let out of the mana, and comparing it with the results of the other experiments as far as I could remember.

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Not exactly an easy job, even with all the guidance from the skill. I was once again fumbling in an area that I knew very little about, my three years of practice as a Blacksmith were not as useful as the few fragmented journals I was able to get.

I would pay a lot for a complete introductory book on metallurgy. Unfortunately, considering all the books I had came from ruins of the libraries, I wasn't exactly teeming with options.

I had destroyed five more valuable ingots before I had managed to develop a decent idea of what was going on, not helped by the very complicated structure of the alloy. The ingots weren't uniform, filled with many different internal patterns, including orbs, hexagons, and diamond-like structures.

But, as I destroyed them repeatedly, I realized that the mana was exclusively held in the hexagon structures. Why, I had no idea. Maybe it was something about the shape, or maybe it was about the inoculation material it required to trap mana.

"We have a direction to experiment," I declared.

"Really, that's good," she said excitedly. "Do I need to put in more mana into the flame?"

"Not yet," I said. "Actually, you can even take a dinner break while I experiment on the structure."

"No, it's too exciting, I want to stay," she said. "Maybe we can finish it tonight."

It was certainly optimistic, but rather than trying to explain that to her, I started working once again, adding all types of dungeon products that Eleanor had provided me to help my experimentation. Crystallized monster blood, grounded armor plates, and all types of other stuff.

Some had formed the hexagonal structure I had been searching for, but not when mana was introduced. It just destabilized, refusing to form. "Can you explain to me how it feels to use mana?"

"In what way?" she asked.

"I don't know, just general impressions. How does it feel? Is it a soft sensation, does it fight against your control. How does it feel to use mana through a skill, and how does it feel to use it directly?"

"And, you think that would help?" she said.

"Maybe. At least, it wouldn't hurt," I said.

She paused for a moment. "Alright. It's a different feeling, particularly before and after using it. In the beginning, it's like a soft current, or a calm ocean, still and waiting. But, once I touch it, it turns into a raging inferno, begging to be let out. But, a blast without control lets out nothing but an ineffectual flare."

With a wave of her hand, she released a weak flash of fire. A second move sent a concentrated blast that melted the stone she had targeted. "Both attempts used the same amount of mana, but the first one was directionless, helpless. The second one was a concentrated blast, working on a pattern," she said.

"Can you draw the pattern?" I asked.

"Maybe an outline," she said, suddenly blushing. "I … I'm not the best at drawing. Too bad you can't get magic skills as external skills," she said.

"Why is that?" I asked. "Other than wasting a skill, of course."

"It doesn't work. Unless you have corresponding stat points, you can't absorb the skill," she explained. "Are you sure you want me to draw? It won't look good."

"Doesn't matter," I said, ignoring the implications of what she had revealed. It was another thing I hadn't known. Instead, I examined the pattern she had drawn carefully. It was a complicated, confusing pattern, but I could see a vague pattern of hexagons at the center. "Does the mana flow from inside to outside?"

"Yes," she confirmed, treating it as a casual question. It was not. A sudden inspiration hit me. Not the inspiration from Intuitive Forging — it felt distinct enough to be recognized — but a more ordinary kind, the same thing that I always felt when a mathematical model clicked in place.

"Once I reach that ocean, I give it a mental push, and the energy flows through the pattern, getting wilder and wilder until it suddenly transforms into fire."

"Is it heat, or fire," I asked. This time, it was to distract her as I cut my hand deliberately, bleeding some on the fire. Not just blood, but also as much Health as I could imbue, and the wound recovered immediately.

[-15 Health]

"Hard to say. How do you distinguish them —" she started, only to freeze as she sniffed. "Is that blood?"

"I was careless. A little work accident," I said even as I showed my hand, the wound had already recovered. "Can you imbue the fire with mana as usual? Your explanation inspired me."

"Fine," she said, and I repeated the process. I mixed the Health I imbued into my blood as an inoculation agent while I let the hexagon pattern establish, working with a razor-sharp focus. I pulled the small piece of metal from the fire, and put it into water.

The moment I did so, I felt the familiar feedback from the System. One that confirmed my success even before I read the notification. I closed my eyes for a moment, enjoying the sense of triumph —

One that immediately turned into shock the moment I read the notification. I gaped at the result.

[Forge (Common) - 23 -> Mana Forge (Rare) - 10]

I didn't know what was more shocking: The fact that the skills could transform unaided, or the fact that they could jump two stages directly to Rare. Or that there were Production skills of that rank. Too many questions, enough to make me freeze in shock.

A shock that transformed into a different kind of shock when I heard the door open, followed by some kind of sharpness that threatened to drown me. I only calmed down when I realized it was Eleanor. "What's going on … here," Eleanor gasped, panicked, frowning as she looked at Maria.

At first, I thought it was because she had a bad day. Then, I followed her gaze, and blushed and turned away. Lost in my mind, I didn't notice that her robe was rather disheveled. Understandable, as the forge was a hot place, but that didn't make my blush any less intense. Her cleavage was rather … impressive.

"Maybe you should fix your dress, my lady," Eleanor said pointedly.

"Sorry, it was just getting hot," Maria replied. I avoided her gaze, not wanting to make it any more awkward.

"Yes, a fire mage got bothered by the heat. Very reasonable," Eleanor said. Her tone sounded sarcastic, but I didn't understand why. "Sorry Devon. There's an emergency meeting," she said as she dragged Maria away.

"Be ready for the leveling trip tomorrow —" Maria said.

"No. You have a thing. You can't go," Eleanor cut her off even as they disappeared, leaving me alone in the forge.

It had been weird, but soon I pushed it aside.

I had a new skill to play with.