[Anemos, although gives a lot of insight into the relationship between mana and the living things living alongside it, also raises a lot of new questions. we know that every living thing needs mana to survive and this mana in high enough concentration can either be poison or an elixir. The Mages of old and new have conducted countless experiments on this miraculous event that grants a person a unique ability. And I say miraculous because of the sheer number of random variables involved in its occurrence. From dormant bloodlines to excessive exposure, they can all be factored into the process. Hence the low number of Anemos holders. they need to either have a strong enough body or a strong enough spirit to withstand the exposure. However, most mages did not support these conclusions because of the rarity of the people with Anemos. In the continent of [Gladia] a conservative estimate puts the Anemos holders at the number 11 and throughout the known regions of [Anka] the number does not go past 50. And these people were only discovered because of the fame associated with Anemos and their unique abilities. The specimen pool is just too small to support any world-changing discoveries. At best, we have theories that require future experimentation and analysis. The survivors’ bias must also be taken into consideration. How many die before gaining enough strength to protect themselves from wizards, sorcerers and slave merchants looking for exotic products?
Opportunistic kings and mad tyrants have tried to weaponize it more times than I can count on my fingers, with little to no success. Ander Gali the Mage of Temerity Tower hypothesized that theoretically, it would be possible to create soldiers with Anemos but the amount of control you would need on the subject as well as on the environment would turn away the casually interested parties. Even with the proper stimulation of the subject's body and a highly controlled mana-saturated environment would still require almost 40 Years to show extremely minimal results discouraging any sensible fellow but little can be done about the crazy, determined and most importantly rich. This process is not cheap. On the contrary, it requires a conduit of [Mithril]. With little to no suspense, his research had ignited quite a few wars mainly because of the Mithril which is very rare.
Mithril is made when metals are baptized in the deepest mana veins of the world for thousands of years. It is the best mana conductor known to us. Almost every known piece of mithril has been crafted into an exquisite artifact yet it would be used to be a mere conduit to be placed inside the heart of the subject, essentially fusing to the body of the subject. it is so rare that no amount of money will be enough to buy an ore of mithril. Only the Dwarves would have any extra for they know the depths of Anka better than any race, which is why they were targeted even more. Thankfully the Central Tower of Magic and the Kingdom Alliance together with the three Guilds stopped the war and banned this research and censored it throughout the world. Even its possession is a serious crime now.] Excerpt from ‘Fundamental understanding and history of Anemos by Dan Pradia of House Pradia, Scholar, Researcher’
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Dolen just stood there looking into his Father-in-law’s blistering gaze, tongue-tied by his embarrassment. He did not try to make excuses. He had been Rudius’ student long enough that he knew that it was useless to say anything. He just stood there awaiting what would eventually follow.
After a few moments of deliberation, Turing around Rudius sighs, “If only your discipline would be as good as your creativity and talent, you would truly thrive. Well, At least you are here now. Come, quickly. Daylights wasting. ”
Dolen let go of the breath he was holding. ‘hooo. I guess I'm safe from this old gorilla today ’
Rudius’ ear twitched and he turned around, “You're not having any disrespectful thoughts about your master, are you?”
“what? Master I am your loyal and most filial disciple. After yesterday's beat…cough..cough.. teachings I have thoroughly reflected on my mistakes.”
“15 years and that mouth is the one thing I could not fix. haaa..” Rudius sighed.
Then without waiting for Dolen his massive form, draped in a white tunic and brown leather pants with leather apron for safety, turned around and started walking away. Rudius hooked his thumbs over his belt in a relaxed posture as Dolen Followed behind him.
They were walking on the topmost loggia looking at the whole facility. They could feel all the heat rising from below, being seasoned blacksmiths, it did not bother them. They could see all the craftsmen hammering away at the metal.
Rudius stood there with closed eyes silently listening to the sounds of hammers striking metals.
When Dolen saw this he knew today his master would teach him something important. Without saying a word he also moved beside him and listened. The cacophony of pings and clangs filled Dolen’s ears. Slowly the shouts and rugged breaths zoned out and only the sounds of hammers hitting metals resounded in Dolen’s mind.
Rudius called it Symphony of Hammers. Dolen First Found out about it when he became a mastersmith as only the experienced smiths were able to hear it. It helped calm and focus their minds. Wisdom of the old said that a master smith could hear whispers of the metal in the Symphony of Hammers. The metal would guide the smith to its destined shape. At that moment the smith, hammer. Anvil, metal and fire would become one.
However, Dolen thought it must have an effect like Acoustic therapy on blacksmiths but he did not have a definitive way to know without an Electroencephalogram (EEG) or Electromagnetic brain wave scanner.
After a few moments, Rudius opened his eyes and started walking again, moving downstairs to the lowest level
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
On the Far-left end of the workshop was a large personal workshop of Rudius. The first thing to notice was a huge metal pipe connecting the main furnace to the forge. This was necessary because Rudius worked with rare metals that had very high melting points, a normal forge would never be powerful enough. The main furnace extracted the heat from the magma pockets deep in the ground. it was used for melting ores on a large scale making it hot enough to melt any kind of metal.
Another thing that caught Dolen’s eye was an awl-shaped tool with a mana stone embedded in the handle. ‘the Rune engraver.’ He thought. That was the only thing he was not allowed to touch yet.
Aside from the forge and the rune engraver, everything looked like the things you would have in a smithy. Racks for different mallets and a large anvil in the middle, Differently sized tongs, A few moulds for pouring metal and other weirdly shaped tools that were used to shape the metal.
When they were both inside, Rudius closed the door and said while facing away from Dolen, “You have been my student for 15 years and your talent for smithing is undeniable. And I am not getting any younger so someone will have to manage the smithy in the future.” He picked up the rune engraver and continued, “It's time I pass down my legacy to you”
“….”
Rudius was expecting joyous Shouting from his student but it never came. He turned around in confusion and saw Dolen shaking from head to toe, his face red as a tomato.
‘Damn old man!! I thought I had to wait for you to die before I could touch that Ruin engraver. I guess I finally broke that stone heart of yours with my ass kis…cough…cough I mean my dedication and hard work.’ But Dolen did not say all that to his master's face and said, “Yes! Yes! 100 times yes.”
Rudis’ expression froze instantly and he smacked Dolen on the head, “Are you getting engaged? Why are you replying like that?”
Dolen half lay on the ground like a brokenhearted maiden looking away, “your so cruel master. Even on this joyous occasion, you can't restrain yourself from hitting your loyal student.”
Looking at Dolen’s Oscar-worthy performance Rudius just sighed, “Alright Dolen let's move on to more important things.”
Hearing this Dolen sat up straight right away. He may be bitter about all the hardship his teacher had made him go through, but he still had genuine respect and admiration for him and his craft.
from the day he first held a Hammer, he fell in love with blacksmithing. And most importantly, he was intrigued by runes. These strange symbols seem to hold great mystery and power.
His wife once showed him her Rune Axe. Hers in particular had two ruins. A gravity rune to make it lighter and a force rune to create a shockwave. This axe was truly a work of art as using 2 different ruins on the same weapon was an extremely hard thing to do. But it was only possible because his Father-in-law was the one who made it. An easy comparison would be that engraving 1 rune on anything was like adding 1+1. But adding another? That would be equal to multiplying 2*3. It was not only difficult because the engraving took longer but also because it had to be made such that the two runes didn’t interfere with the working of one another.
One way to make it easier was to use runes with elements that were related.
For example, the gravity rune and the force rune are closely related. The Force rune purely uses the force element but the gravity element is a derivative of force and earth and black element.
Gravity was just an advanced implementation of force magic, both being cousins of sorts.
This was the reason that Yuriel could spin that two-meter-tall slab of metal like it was a kitchen ladle.
The other way was to use metals with higher mana conductivity for the rune engraving and a mana insulator for its surroundings. Dolen had studied everything he could find about runes in these past years waiting for the day he could lay his hands on Rudius’ rune journal as this was protected knowledge and was not readily available. It being the blood and sweat of every rune smith, it was obvious that they did not share this easily. All he did find was basic information such as the rune converting pure mana into elemental mana for that specific element or that they were very hard to produce because they needed a highly skilled smith to work them. Now his wish was finally coming true.
Rudius picked up a two-inch thick book off a small shelf to the side and gave it to his disciple.
Dolen recognised the rune on the cover was a force rune.
“This is the book I have compiled on the force rune but it also serves as an introduction to rune smithing as a whole. ”
Yes, it was a whole book just for Force Rune. The complexity lay in the fact that the rune was the same but the ‘shaping’ or utilization of the rune was different and completely up to the creativity of the smith. The same force rune could be used to form an invisible wall or cut a giant bolder in half. It all came down to how the rune was being shaped. The shaping in question was done by smaller mini-runes when placed in a specific place around the ruin would cause the ruin to have a certain effect. They sort of worked like logic gates. Some of them coded a specific shape while others were gates such as and, or, nor, nand and so on.
This helped merge various shapes and allowed smiths a great deal of freedom in shaping the elemental mana
Dollen was looking forward to learning something flashy like a fire or lightning rune but force was the most basic and simple element to master hence he could guess why his master was teaching him this rune first. Having taken the first bite out of a dish he was craving for years he did not want to stop now. Dolen stood up while staring into the book and started leaving the workshop.
Rudius just watched him leave and didn’t say anything. He had had this disciple for 15 years and knew his habits very well. He had just entered his “focused” state. Once he was in they did not know when he would come out of it. He had seen him like this the first time when he was doing the windmill project. The whole thing took months because once he was in then he would only do that one thing and when he was out he could do nothing. He would just stay in the room all day and never come out. But when he did he would go straight to his project. He forgot to eat, sleep or almost go to the toilet. If it was possible Rudius thought Dolen would not even breathe while he was ‘focused’. Been reminded of that time he began to worry. “’ I should check on him before I leave in the evening or they will close the smithy with him inside”
Meanwhile, Dolen was completely oblivious to Rudius’ worries as he engrossed himself in the rune journal. It had many prearranged formations for shaping and their uses. The combination of runes and shapers was called [Rune Origin]. This area was the main component of the Rune circuit, where the desired effect was produced. Then came the [Rune Endings]. These were the traces that carried the processed mana to the point where it was to be released. This configuration was designed so because most of the time where you want the effect to take place is not a good place for the Rune Origin. Another way to explain it would be a sword with the ability to create wind slashes. Now the effect had to be applied to the edge as far away from the wielder’s hands as possible to not get caught in the spell. Similarly, the edge was prone to chipping and getting damaged which would immediately affect the rune if it was placed on the edge. Ruin Endings helped alleviate all these problems.