Len awoke with the sounds of morning coming through the window. He stretched, feeling the new strength through his body. His muscles built up from hard work had developed further, he turned and put his legs down on the ground. They were solid and filled out his pants.
He reached out to his canteen, it had filled through the night, and drained it. His stomach roiled, hungry.
He rolled his shoulders, his body had bulked up through the training. Throughout his younger years he’d had little extra food and while he was strong he hadn’t had the foods needed to promote his growth.
Mana was an ultimate tonic, unleashing his latent potential and working with his body. Through his tempering one weakness had been revealed. His need for food and water.
No matter the injuries he incurred or the healing spells utilized, one would need energy from the body to repair itself, let alone become stronger.
Rick rolled around on his bunk, a snore ending in surprise. The mana’s density in the room had stabilized, captured in place by the enchanted formation.
Len sat down and crossed his legs, reaching out to the mana and drawing in just a small part, he condensed it and drew it through his gates, flowing through his channels, it stirred up the room in the room, his cultivation technique drawing in the mana around him, making it denser as it followed his cultivation pathways.
The first part dropped into his core. Like a cup beneath a well spout, his liquid orange core began filling with mana. It was invigorating! His body was young capable and strong, the impurities that came from his life, from working in the ironworks furnace was pushed out. He sat up as the orange solidified in his core.
The barriers that he strained against for so long they broke down in front of him. Once more his channels and core expanded, becoming finer and stronger.
More mana rushed through his channels, the yellow vapor thickening, and climbing.
Successive barriers were surpassed, yellow gave way to green vapor. Len exhaled and opened his eyes. His energy reaching new heights.
He slowly stood up, moving carefully, he reached over to a backpack and picked it up, it moved with ease where he’d have to lever it up on his back before.
“What you making so much noise for?” Rick complained.
“Time to train,” Len said.
Rick grumbled but kicked his feet over the side of the bed. He climbed down the ladder and rubbed his face, pushing his hair back, letting out a sigh before he grabbed his canteen, bending the metal and spilling water.
Rick frowned at the canteen, then his eyes widened. “What in the actual hell.” Rick yelled down at his stomach.
“Huh?”
“Apparently I cultivated a red liquid core in my sleep!”
“Keep your voice down,” Len patted the air. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I know we trained in it so much that we could do it fighting. I guess we do it while we’re sleeping too?” Rick snorted. “In my sleep! Hah! I’m a genius!”
“Alright genius, cultivate well,” Len shook his head.
“Damn right!” Rick drank from his canteen and quickly dropped down into the middle of the mana gathering formation.
Len watched, there was little to see from someone increasing their cultivation. He used mana in his eyes to see the flow of mana around Rick. When he stepped up a cultivation stage the mana rippled around him, drawn in rapidly.
As he passed through a grade this was more exaggerated and the ‘reach’ of mana he could draw in around him increased.
Successive satisfying pops emanated from Rick's body, reminiscent of cracking his vertebrae one by one, releasing tension. Rick sat up straighter, a newfound strength radiating from him. Len stood back, careful not to absorb any of the manna surrounding Rick. Several minutes passed before the successive breakthroughs slowed down.
Rick's muscles tensed in sequence as he exhaled, opening his eyes. His aura had completely transformed, exerting a slight pressure on Len. He raised an eyebrow in question at Rick.
"Looks like you're not getting that far ahead of me," Rick said, grinning.
“Orange solid?”
“Yeah. One damn shot too.” Rick shook his head.
Len unfolded his arms, shaking his head. "It's truly monstrous how fast we've progressed already. With our control, formations, and cultivation techniques, we're well ahead of anyone else, or even what we were able to do when we started," Len said.
He reached over to Rick, who grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "Oh, sorry, gotta get used to that," Rick said.
"No worries," Len said, helping him to his feet. He barely felt the strength that would have casually broken a normal man’s bones.
Rick moved around the room shakily, acclimating to the new strength of his body and his cultivation, merging them seamlessly. It took him only a few minutes to do so. He picked up his canteen, handling it gingerly.
"It feels so much stronger than before, but still nothing compared to how we were," Rick said, frowning. It was why it was so easy for them to get used to their tempered bodies and high cultivations. They had dealt with this strength before and more. Others would have an incredibly difficult time getting used to this power.
"We'll get there," Len assured him.
"But will this be enough to get us to the obelisk?" Rick asked, his eyes meeting Len's.
"It'll have to be," Len said. "Come on, we've got lots of work to do today."
Rick grunted, sealing up his canteen and checking over his meager belongings. Len packed up his messenger bag.
“Can you take this for me?” Rick held out his canteen.
Len stored it away and headed for the door.
"So, I had some ideas," Rick said.
Len removed the door jamb before heading out, there was no one near the door thankfully. “Okay?”
Rick followed him, closing the door most of the way and replacing the door jamb before shutting it completely.
"So, I know I've got the sword and all, but I was thinking about making a hammer," Rick said, standing up.
"A hammer, you say? Who would have thought," Len said dryly, heading for the stairs.
"This one will be a little different," Rick said quickly.
“I don’t doubt it,” Len smirked.
“And how many chisels do you have?”
“One,” Len grinned.
“You had hundreds!” Rick shook his finger at him as they reached the stairs and descended.
Len shrugged simply.
Rick shook his head. "Remember the theory I had about the internal cone chamber hammer?”
Len cast his thoughts back, it had been a long time since Rick had talked about it. A project that could have brought other’s attention down upon them.
“Yeah I remember it. You wanted to make a cylinder on the inside of a hammer to hold a vibration within to augment your resonating strike. Then went with a cones shaped internally, and added in holes as well so that you would be able to control the air and discharge it safely.”
“You are scary sometimes with how much you remember.,”
“And you aren’t? How many techniques you saw once did you remember for years? How many weapons could you reference in a single breath?” Len raised an eyebrow. “We were old, doesn’t mean that we lost our mental faculties.”
“Some of us, anyway,” Rick interrupted becoming more animated as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "I didn't want to make it before because it might have been stronger than we could keep quiet. But here we should have enough leeway to test out everything, right?"
They reached the gate. Len nodded to the old lady behind the desk. She raised an eyebrow, looking between him and Rick, before shaking her head and continuing to play with her cards. Len grimaced, remembering the interruption that had happened last night, a shiver running down his spine. They quickly made it out onto the street, heading towards Coiled Serpent.
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“Yes, I think that’s right. Any project we do we should push it as far as possible. Though some might be hard with the limited materials available.” Rick had told him about the short supply of anything beyond steel.
“I'll need your help to create an enchantment to be able to hold the vibration. The holes on either side will allow air to pass through so I can shoot it out of either direction, discharging the vibration, or I can send it through the hammer's metal itself as I require," Rick explained.
"Okay, so a hammer with a cone cavity in the middle and a vibration enchantment upon it," Len mused, scratching his cheek in thought. "Yeah, that should be doable. We'll have to really fine-tune it to have the directionality. Might be best if we have a power source internal to the hammer. Then the enchantment to hold vibration. If we can simplify the direction with you controlling it instead then I can increased the vibration held."
Len looked over to Rick.
"Yeah, I can do that. That would actually be best because if the enchantment's directionality section is too strong, then it would stop me being able to utilize the vibration as I want. It would just hold it, discharge it, be very simplistic in design," Rick said.
Len nodded in agreement. "Okay, so that should be all doable, but what are you thinking of doing with it?" he asked.
"So, if I was to hit someone with the hammer, I'd be able to take the vibration of the impact and add it into the hammer and also utilize the vibration held within the hammer to strike at them directly with my resonating strike," Rick said.
Len's eyebrows rose at the thought. "The resonating strike ability was already powerful, allowing Rick to bypass most armors. If he had the charge already within the hammer and was able to use that to augment his attacks.
“That could be pretty devastating," Len said.
"Right? That's what I was thinking," Rick nodded. "Now, it's going to be an experiment to see if we can make something like that. It'll probably have to be a bit thicker and heavier than other hammers, with the center hollowed out quite a bit. That will also reduce the overall weight and make it easier to wield. Reinforcement on the steel for sure.”
“Naturally,” Len said.
“In older versions I was thinking about putting a hollow section inside with a pin running through and a weight on it, which would be good for single one-plane strikes. But then, as soon as you did a backswing or another kind of hit from any other angle, you'd be fighting resistance in one direction or another," Rick grimaced.
“Works with your skill set well." Len praised.
"So, how about you? Did you think of anything last night?" Rick asked.
"I’ve been thinking about a few things. Armor, those steam rifles, also about casting."
"Oh?" Rick asked, eager to learn more. It was part of why they got along so well. They might harp and bug one another, when it came to problems they dug in hard and gave their all. Willing to listen to one another and put the project not their egos first and foremost.
Len caught onto Rick’s excitement, checking there wasn’t anyone too close to hear them. "So, I was thinking with the armor maybe about utilizing the bracers to hold enchantments and allow me to take enchantment blanks. Enchantment blanks that have a spell and are powered with mana. Slide those in and they activate. Then, as they run out of mana, slide them out and replace them with new ones, allowing you to utilize spells nearly continuously. As long as those blanks have time to recover mana or you charge them between fights.”
He took in a breath thoughts flowing through him. “Then, that got me thinking about the steam guns. Right now, they utilize backpacks to create the steam, push that through a tube into the rifle, and fire. If we were able to create a miniaturized backpack or something that doesn't have to have that piping, then you'd be able to use them much more effectively," Len said.
Rick nodded along. “Heat enchantment and a water reservoir added to the gun?”
“That’s what I was thinking, would have to see how much water is converted into steam and lost, as well as the mana that is consumed. Or well, what if it didn’t need steam? Remember the straight air guns?”
“The ones that used air runes to accelerate their bullets?” Rick snapped his fingers, nodding, his eyes wide capturing the thought.
“That’s right. The water is a condensed form of the steam expanding rapidly. Though could use powerful air runes to help the process along too. I think with experimentation that it could create a powerful long range weapon.”
“Quite,” Rick nodded.
“Though that will take a lot of time to do and that is the majority of the issue and the problem with all three of my ideas. My last idea was about casting, taking principles from the armbands.
A casting deck, basically a metal pad that you could place enchantments on, intermix them as you needed. Then, instead of having to carve new enchantments all the time, you'd just mix in parts of different enchantments to create an effect. But, it's actually seeing if that's effective. I can cast spells of a low grade right now, and as I get stronger, I'll be able to cast stronger spells. A casting deck would augment those spells, but it's tricky to utilize when in a fight. But, if, say, using it in a controlled area, a defensive position, or somewhere we don't have to move, that changes things dramatically."
"Yeah, that makes sense. Well what are you thinking about making right now? What can you make right now?" Rick asked.
"Right now, I think it would be best to focus on making the alarm formations and then the enchantments on the gear that we already have. Your fighting style suits a hammer while mine suits a sword more," Len said. "I don't think we want to get too complicated as right now we just need gear that works and allows us to get to the obelisk with as little problems as possible." Len sighed, shaking his head. "Honestly, I feel like there is so much I could make, but right now I can't picture it. Each of these three ideas would take a long time to get working. The casting deck would be problematic as while it may work for many things. Spells are powerful because of their fluidity. The deck would have less restrictions, but it wouldn’t be without.”
"I think its normal that you’re not full of brilliant ideas right off the start. We've been used to tempering down our expectations of what we can make for so long, it's going to be hard to focus on making gear that's well beyond the norm for others. It's going to be a kind of mental gymnastics to get to that point," Rick said.
Len spotted a breakfast cart, tilting his chin towards it. "Should we get something?"
"Yeah, I'm freaking starving," Rick said.
"Yeah, me too. Tempering your body takes a lot of food. It still surprises me just how fast we've been able to increase our cultivation." Rick shook his head.
“Feels like we’re flying ahead,” Len agreed.
“Morning lads, what will you have?” The man at the cart asked as the person ahead of them stepped away.
“Three pastries—”
“—Five!” Rick said from behind.
“Five pastries,” Len said.
“Five, you must be hungry,” The man laughed, reaching into his cart to pull out the pastries. “Uhh, Five, each please.”
The man paused, looking up at them with a bizarre expression. “So ten?”
“Yeah.”
The man shrugged and pulled out more. “Your work crews got you getting their breakfasts?” He asked taking out a newspaper and wrapping the pastries together.
Rick had changed into the work clothes Len had bought for him, making him just another worker among many.
“Just, hungry,” Len said lamely.
“Right,” The man nodded and finished preparing them all into two wrapped packages, leaving two free. “That’ll be thirty coppers.”
Rick moved up and used his funds to pay. Len grabbed the packages putting it into his messenger bag before picking up one of the free pastries and biting into it. It was still warm, his stomach shifted as he quickly took a second and third bite.
“Next!” The man said to the person behind Rick and Len.
They moved around his cart, the two focused on getting their breakfast down. Len finished off his first and pulled out two more, one for Rick and himself.
Talking fell to the side as they continued to eat as fast as possible.
Timothy was at the front desk as they walked into the office.
"Morning," Rick said.
"Morning," Timothy replied, moving to the counter and opening it.
"Thank you," Rick said. Len nodded as they continued through the door into the smithy itself.
Darnell and a few of the smiths were by the back loading door, having their breakfast. All of the hearths were cold from the night before.
Rick led the charge to the second forge, checking everything, making sure it was in the same place he'd left it.
Nodding to himself in agreement, he moved towards the hearth.
Before leaving the previous day, he'd cleaned it out, put in a new fire starter, and banked coal ready for the next day. With a snap of his fingers, a flame conjured among the coals, catching the fire starter. He reached up, adjusting the hood’s lever and pressing on the bellows. He seemed to blend in with the world, the wind and the flames working at his command, feeding right into the coals, heating it up quickly and uniformly.
Len moved over to the worktable covered in finished pieces. He stretched one last time, tensing his muscles before releasing them. Shaking it out, he took off his messenger bag, retrieving his chisel and his tools.
They’d finished off all of the pasties. He put the messenger bag down to the side and pulled the closest armor piece infront of himself.
Len conjured a mana blueprint inside the forearm bracer’s interior, using it to etch out the runes and lines he required for the two enchantments.
He dismissed the blueprint, a thin etching inside. There was still a strain, the spell beyond what he could force with mana alone, though it was nothing compared to the limited capacity he’d had the day before.
The world fell away as he started working with his chisel and knife, cleaning up and deepening the etchings he'd created, turning them into true enchantments.
Work continued like this, blueprint, etch, carve, repeat. He worked through the pieces quickly and accurately, his chisel working as an extension of himself. It had been a long time since he'd actually applied chisel to metal without having to utilize mana to control it. No damn arthritis.
Rick hammered steel into sheets then into armor in a third of the time it took him yesterday.
His strength had undergone and evolution and his mana was well beyond what it had been.
They worked quickly and efficiently with Rick finishing first and taking the time to draw out blueprints with paper and pencil of his weapon.
Len reached the end of the pieces of armor, picking back up the helmets and modifying them with a few flicks of his mana blade, smoothing out edges here and there to make them more comfortable for wearing.
“How’s it looking?” He asked Rick as he worked.
“I think that I’m almost there,” Rick said moving to the side slightly as his pencil traced over the page.
Len moved closer to peer over his shoulder at the growing plan.
"I'm considering two options," Rick began. "I could form one solid hammer head, then hollow it out, which is going to take a lot of mana and a lot of work. Or, I could do it in two parts. Cut the hollow section and holes into the identical sections, then meld them together. It should work fine, and I can fuse the two sections into one singular whole. I just hate the idea of using two parts to make one thing, you know?"
Len nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. More of a mental block than anything with you really.”
Rick grunted and tilted his head in acceptance. “You nearly done with your work?”
“Just about,” Len said.
“Say, you got that chisel over there. Wanna give me a hand hollowing it out?" Rick gave him a too-sweet smile.
"You just want me to do half the damn work for you, don't you?" Len rolled his eyes.
"What are friends for if not to help out one another, right?" Rick said, wrapping his arm around Len's neck.
"Alright," Len conceded, shaking his head.
"Awesome," Rick patted his chest before releasing him, snatching up steel ingots from the side. "Just gotta heat these beauties up, hammer them into something square, and then we'll see from there."
"What are you going to make the handle out of?" Len asked.
"Metal, I was thinking wood because it would add flexibility. But, honestly, if we're trying to use this thing to capture vibrations, any vibration is going to be good. So, I can send my mana through the steel handle into the hammer, storing the energy there. It won’t also come back down the handle to mess me up."
"What about the shearing forces?" Len asked.
"It's what you said before. If I can meld the handle into the head perfectly, making them one complete whole, there shouldn't be any issue with strength between them. They should come together nicely," Rick said.
"Alright, just let me know what you need me to do," Len said.
“Have you figured out the enchantment?” Rick asked peering into the hearth and the ingots in their bed of red coals.
He cast a spell into the iron, gaining color quickly.
“Just about.”