Inside his forging room, Edward held a white sphere in his hand. He looked at it with satisfaction, then said: "Morgana, begin inserting mana."
Soon after that, blue light flew from the floor to enter the sphere. The process lasted for at least 3 hours. Once everything was done, Edward drew a [Fireball] magic circle or spell model in the air, then controlled it to enter the white sphere.
The sphere floated in front of him, then Edward walked to a table where a sword was located. Under his control, the sphere entered the sword.
"Begin connection," he ordered. As soon as his words finished, a veins-like design started to appear on the side of the blade, and Edward observed with bated breath.
Unfortunately, a few seconds later, cracks started to appear all over the sword before it broke apart.
With a frown on his face, he muttered: "Is the blade too brittle to support the connection?" He experimented a few times again with the same sword, then said: "Morgana, use all the materials we have to manufacture different swords. Organize them from the most brittle to the hardest."
"Yes, sir. Do I only use magical ores?"
"No, use regular ones as well."
"In that case, it will take 7 days to finish."
Edward nodded in response. During these 7 days, he went to see Olivier again. Since she was busy, they did not do much, just talked most of the time. Of course, Edward only sent a clone this time as well.
A week later, he returned to his forging room with thousands of swords in front of him. Without hesitation, he placed the white sphere on the one labeled with #1 and began testing.
Like the previous swords, the majority of the tested ones ended the same way. It was not until 234th swords, that the connection finally succeeded, and Edward's experiment finally succeeded.
Although he could have used the hardest metal at the start, he wanted to gather more data, so he did not hesitate to go through all this trouble.
Edward looked at the swords that had veins pattern all over them with satisfaction. To most people's eyes, this might be an ordinary sword with a strange design. However, the truth was far from this.
The sphere that Edward placed inside was a small pocket dimension he created to house magical enchantment. So, instead of engraving the enchantment on the sword, it was placed inside the dimension.
Edward used a small part of his mana to activate the sword, then a fireball about 100 meters in diameter appeared in front of him. Logically speaking, this sword should only be able to create a fireball about 5 meters in diameter.
However, the pocket dimension inside the sword contained mana of its own. So, when Edward activated the enchantment inside, it also absorbed the mana inside the pocket dimension to increase its strength.
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He waved the sword again, then another fireball appeared. This time though, he did not use his mana to activate the enchantment, but the mana inside the pocket dimension.
This was another advantage of this kind of enchantment; it could be considered magetech and be used by regular people.
There are two reasons that he wanted to develop this kind of technology. One, it was for safety. Engraving magic circles on items makes it easier for other people to decipher them.
With enough time, preparation, and resources, it is possible to decipher the runes used and replicate them. Edward has to prepare in advance for when the Empire encounters other civilizations and prevent them from easily analyzing their technology and replicating it.
With this new technology that he decided to call [Core Engraving] unless a civilization has reached the point of exploring and creating pocket dimension, it is almost impossible for them to decipher their technology.
And even if they have this capability, the Empire can modify the pocket dimension to explode when someone tries to decipher, thus erasing the evidence and protecting the technology behind it.
As for the main reason he created this technology, it was for terrorist bombings. If he ever wanted to destroy a civilization secretly or without going through a long war, all he has to do is have one of these magic items infiltrate the core location of that civilization.
Under the disguise that this was just a normal magical item, the process will be quite simple. Once that item reaches its destination, the program he left inside the pocket dimension will activate causing it to detonate itself.
The spatial energy released by a pocket dimension exploding is enough to destroy anything from a planet to an entire solar system. The scope of the destruction is based on the size of the pocket dimension.
And Edward has no problem extending the size of the dimension. With the Extension Curse, the size of any dimension he creates is theoretically limitless.
Furthermore, he can even place void energy inside the pocket dimension to increase the lethality. However, considering how dangerous this kind of energy is, he would never do so unless absolutely necessary.
As Edward watched his new weapon of mass destruction, he nodded in satisfaction.
"I have tried many times to connect the pocket dimension to my soul, that way, I could use it to store large amounts of mana and use it when needed. Unfortunately, my experiment failed. Yet, I succeeded in connecting it to non-living items."
Ever since he learned how to create pocket dimensions from studying Gluttony, he wanted to use it as a way to store mana. His idea was to use the same method that Sorcerers in the Marvel Universe use to control dimensional energy to cast spells.
Unfortunately, even with his deep understanding of controlling energy that he learned from studying this world's alchemy, he failed. So, he decided to try plan B, which was to connect the pocket dimension to his Soul Dimension.
This way, he could use his Gate of Truth to siphon mana from it and use it to cast spells. But that also failed. Nevertheless, Edward was not in a hurry. He had plenty of time to research this method.
And even if he fails in the end, all he has to do is find a way to go to the Marvel Universe and learn their method of casting spells.
After making further plans for the future, Edward started to think about his recent gain. So far, the three methods of Magic Forging that he created have their advantages and disadvantages.
Still, they can only be considered in their infancy and have plenty of room for growth and development.
"Morgana, continue to test the other hundreds of metals left and record your findings."
"As you wish, sir." Then, a hesitant look appeared on her face. Edward looked at her, then said; "Yes, you will receive your credit."
With a smile on her face, the little elf hurried to conduct her research. Meanwhile, Edward went inside the core of his World Gate. He was preparing for an upgrade.
(AN: The research chapters will not last long. After a while, the regular plot will continue. I still have some things planned before this world ends.)