Tec Mage Chapter Twenty Four: Light After The Fire

With the dealings with the dwarf over, Atlas left him alone with his 1700 gold and went to visit his new property, the dwarf had lost his reputation, lying to the police force which was his 2nd biggest customer meant they had lost their trust in him and they couldn't afford to be connect with people that had a criminal record and especially not for some thing as important as arming the police force, that wasn't all, his biggest customer was the army, sometimes he would get the run off of the weapons order that the army blacksmiths couldn't finish on time but with the loss of the police force trust a snowball effect happened, the police force had friends, siblings and connections within the army and word had gotten to them of the dwarfs actions and just like a player doing bad things and gaining infamy the army blacksmiths went other places to get there orders filled

Reputations was a big part of business, a good reputation would draw customer and orders from far and wide but a bad one would make it hard for the dwarf to do simple business with any of the npc and with the fact no one cared for his rough and violent manners, he was alone

The feelings that the dwarf had was a strange mixture of anger, loss and pity for him self, when he sold his shop he was going to use some of the money to buy the forge that was still in the shop and remove it piece by piece from the shop with the new owners permission and carry on with his blacksmithing, but he knew that there was no chance of that with Atlas owning the shop

What was he going to do, no friends, no business, no home and now no forge, with his gold he walked the streets looking for a purpose, his feet by instinct brought him to his old shop, his hand reached out for the door and paused on the handle, a new shiny lock had been placed on the door and lights were on in the up stairs rooms, as Roark was looking up he saw Atlas pass by a window

That was all the dwarf could take, with out realising it the dwarf had taken out a bottle of spirits that he was going to drink to say goodbye to his shop and maybe get drunk but now he had placed a rag and set fire to it, looking at the bottle in his hand he gained his senses but the only thing that changed was now he said something

"if i can't have my forge then i'll be damned if he gets it" the bottle left his hand as he chucked it in to the air and with a uncommon graceful arch it smashed on the roof, the dwarf watched for 5 seconds before he dropped the flint and steel he had used to light the rag in a bin and ran away, the dwarf quickly gathered a cart and horse with a simply magical forge and supply's, he left town with in 10 minutes because the police force had been uncommonly good at there job lately and he had no reason to stay but had a bigger reason to leave

Atlas was checking what materials he needed for the renovation of his new shop when he could hear a thump and crash from out side, it didn't sound bad so Atlas didn't pay attention to it after all there was nothing to steal in here and it was most likely a fight going on out side maybe a player vs player, Atlas made his way down to the ground floor were he meet the only thing that was left, the forge

Even though the forge hadn't been used for over three months it still had some heat from it, this interested Atlas greatly he remembered that the dwarf had mentioned that it was magically enhanced and so he investigated it, using he's skill Mana deflection skill he was able to pass the heat off him self in to a different direction plus with his resistance to fire that he had gained from blacksmithing and the buff his Avatar Of Fire skill gave him he didn't even feel the heat as his hand moved the ash away from the walls, uncovering the inside of the forge walls he witnessed symbols on the walls that he recognized as spell runes

"Ding"

You are the first player to have witnessed all of the Lasting Fire Element Forge a great piece

Lasting Fire Element Forge

A forge with runes written in side and enchanted, each rune represents a spell and the enchantment fuels the spell, only a small fraction of people have understood Enchanting to the extent of the person who made this

Simply but excellent workmanship is shown and even after 300 years of use the forge still works

The creator name is Dr Alberich

Added effects: due to fire and wind runes being placed in the forge heat is always on and fuel needs are reduced

60% less fuel

No bellows needed

Always hot

For the first player to discover the Lasting Fire Element Forge

2% fire resistance

5+ strength

5+ vitality

Added bonus for being an enchanter

5% added to enchantment strength

Rune list has been added: Intermediate fire rune and Basic wind rune

Added bonus from learning from Dr Alberich and being an apprentices of his:

5% added to enchantment strength

5+ wisdom

10+ intelligence

2% added to potions strength

Enchantment has levelled to Intermediate level 3

Enchanting Intermediate level 3

making every day items in to useful items by magic, every level in enchanting gives 100 mana permanently and 10% increase in magic power per level permanently

hitting the intermediate level gives the user 500 mana extra and 50% extra spell power permanently, every level now gives 150 mana and 15% increase in spell power

also when intermediate level, user can enchant a item with 2 enchants but only if they have a second mana supply

Your Affinity with Magic has increased by 30.

All-based magic resistance has increased by +5%. Earth and Water-based magic resistance has increased by +5%.

Atlas had just gained a lot of stats for doing almost nothing, it was quite pleasing to gain unsuspecting stats and Atlas welcomed them but what was even better in Atlas eyes was that this forge was the work of the long dead Enchanter Dr Alberich and Atlas had learnt how to properly enchant spells in to items, before he would use all of his massive mana to gain a small elemental in a weapon but know he could draw runes and power them with enchanting to possible make weapons that held spells instead of doing a small element damage

Atlas brushed his hands together to get rid of the ash on his hands and deactivated his mana deflection that had protected him from the heat, all of a sudden the air hit him, it was like opening a oven door and getting blasted by the heat

Atlas looked around everything seemed fine but the heat made the place difficult to move in, Atlas reactivated his mana defection so he could walk with out feeling the massive heat, moving up stairs Atlas was blocked by a wall of smoke, pushing it away with gust showed the whole roof was on fire, due to the rotten wood and time that Atlas had failed to notice the beams were on fire and about to collapse, it didn't help that Atlas had used the gust spell and fanned the flames some more

Atlas tried to use his basic elemental control skill on the fire but it was still beginner level 1 and all he could do was change a very small part of the fires shape and direction, the heat didn't bother Atlas because of his skill but the falling debris were dangerous, Atlas tried one last thing before he thought about retreating

"Ice walk" the floor started to gloss over with thick ice and it made its way to the walls after covering the floor, it started to creep up the walls but stopped, the roof was a blaze and the heat stopped the ice from going any further up the wall, Atlas had tried but he knew with out a water source or sand he couldn't put out the fire, he left the building and stood out side with the rest of the surrounding crowd, just to see if he could he poured water from his canteen on to his hand and formed a ball of water, he tried to throw the ball of water but instead his hand went though the water and this ended up destroying the shape

It was no use, elemental control was too weak at beginner level 1 and his other spells couldn't help to save the shop, if the ground was made of sand he could of used it and made a clay hand out of sand to put the fire out but it was made out of comprised dirt and stone and would only destroy the building further if used

Atlas had excepted the building was gone, it would take too long to find some one with water magic strong enough to put out the fire if there was even one to begin with but there was still people franticly trying to stop the fire

At first it was a small distraction and people came to see the new owner shop in flames but they soon realise that the fire would spread to the surrounding buildings, as women and children ran away and men tried to destroy the walls of Atlas shop to stop the fire from spreading, Atlas just looked at it in till a screaming man shouted for some help at him

Shaking his head to get rid of his confusion Atlas started to cast his magic, the ground around the building started to rumble and the men trying to save there own building moved away from the inferno, up grew hands made from earth on all four sides of the burning shop, taller and taller in till the hands were bigger than the building, Atlas had to make smaller hands to support the biggest hands but after he was finished all view and fire from the shop was blocked, this was all possible because of Atlas huge mana pool

Atlas sat down in till night fall waiting for the fire to burn out, he felt he had wasted 8000 gold and the worse was it didn't all belong to him, what was he going to tell his apprentices, as he was sitting and contemplating on what he was going to say to Mary and Dracken when a familiar voice spoke to him from behind

"Are you ok" it was Lieutenant Borin, as a police officer he had to keep the peace and he had heard of a fire, fire could spread and cause mass destruction, people could start looting and it had been known that some people would murder and throw the body's in to the fire to get ride of the evidence and with that reason Borin had amassed a team to follow him and keep the peace

"Is this your place" asked Borin, his team was searching around and asking question around the place

"Yes, i had just bought it" Atlas said very little because he was feeling guilty that he had used his apprentices money to buy the shop

"Its not all bad, no one got hurt thanks to your magic, at least you should be happy about that" said Borin

"Yes your right but.." Atlas was about to tell Borin about how he had bought the shop, why not Atlas trusted Borin "i should be happy no one died but i used the money me and my apprentices have saved up to buy this shop, i wanted to have a safe place for them to sell there wears, i thought that Mary could sell her weapons and armour where Dracken could help and maybe practice his magic"

Lieutenant Borin listened to Atlas hopes for his apprentices " you can rebuild and if its money your after i could talk to the quartermaster, we need a new source of weapons and a reliable blacksmith to repair our items", Borin felt sorry for Atlas but he still couldn't just give him money, he him self had gained more money with his promotion but a little went to his informants, what he could offer was a job that the city would pay for, he wouldn't offer this to any blacksmith but Atlas had proven him self trust worthy and Lieutenant Borin had dealing with Drackens information network that hadn't failed him yet, he didn't know Mary but if she was like the other two he would not regret it

Atlas stood up and turned his back to his burnt down shop "thank you, i'm so glad that we met, i and my apprentices wont let you down" Atlas truly felt this and Lieutenant Borin could feel it

"Well i have to finish here first but after i will get you an official order form telling you what we need and when we need it by" said Borin

"Great, i need a little time to gather the things i've ordered any way" replied Atlas

Atlas left to pick up a cart and horse to pull the full load of furniture he had already paid for, as he left a private came up to Lieutenant Borin and handed him a small package that held flint and steel in it

Atlas had bought a slightly bigger cart so he could carry back everything he needed, it was almost packed with furniture and leather bags from Noah but there was room if needed, he pulled up out side the police station where there was Lieutenant Borin and ten of his subordinates carrying cotton bags, Lieutenant Borin handed over a list

"I'm putting a lot on the line for you, i know you won't steel these items but the quartermaster doesn't know you as i do, i know what i just said sounds like a contradiction but i have to tell you how i feel " said Lieutenant Borin, he pointed at the cart and the subordinates tied the bags on the edge of the cart, Borin handed over a list

Reading it Atlas pointed out to him self that the iron he already had at the gnoll base would be enough to make the new steel weapons that the list asked for

Lieutenant Borin wanted to ask Atlas were he was going with all the furniture and cart but before he could ask Atlas had waved good bye and started on his short journey back to the gnolls base

It didn't take long to get back to the gnolls home but it did take longer than normal, making sure people didn't follow him by keeping his ears open and the extra weight from the equipment and furniture meant that the new horse Atlas bought had more to pull and thus took longer

Out side the entrance to the base Atlas tapped a secret knock on what looked like a small hill, before Atlas could put his hand down from knocking a metal sound came from the hill and a small hole appeared, no sound came from there and Atlas knew that they were waiting for the password that had to be said in the language of the gnolls, to Atlas surprise when he made the noise of a growl and yelp which was the password he understood it "let me in"

The wish that Atlas asked for from the small land god was the gnolls and himself to be able to learn any language was beginning to take effect, the door that was blended in to the rock so well you wouldn't noticed opened and fell down like a draw bridge, Atlas lead the horse and cart in to the cave and parked the cart near the forge, the gnoll children who's sole responsibility was to take care of animals took the horse away and place it with the other horse with some hay and water, the horse didn't struggle because it felt no killing intent from these strange little creatures

The area had changed from before, it used to have a forge in the corner and six slightly armoured scarecrows lined against the wall but now the floor had been cleared and was completely flat, near the scarecrows was a square area that had the pads for unarmed sparing laid on the floor, Atlas had ordered picked up but failed to place them down, in the other corner was a cheap looking stable that Atlas hadn't made, beside that was were the chicken coop and rabbit breading box's with some bails of hay, grass and food for the animals and finally cut in to the wall was the massive fridge that Atlas had made to store food in, Atlas had only been away for two days but wondered what the main hall would look like, Mary was at the forge like always and next to her was Dracken, Dracken had been mining a lot lately but every since he reached the max out level for a person who didn't have the class he had stopped, Atlas beckoned both of them to sit at the table he had made with his clay hand spell

Atlas looked at both of the apprentices and felt ashamed he explained how he had hoped that he was giving them a future with the shop he had bought but now all he could say was how it was destroyed and what he tried to do to save it

As the apprentices listened they could feel the sincerity of Atlas words but they could also sense that Atlas was asking for forgiveness

Dracken was the first to react, moving around the earth table he placed his hand on the table "You know that i love money and what it can do for you" Atlas didn't feel good about what Dracken had said, "but i just can't be angry with you, what you did was for our sake and i do believe that not once have you put your needs above ours" Dracken moved his hand from the table and placed it on Atlas shoulder

Mary didn't say anything and instead just moved to Atlas and embraced him, for the first time in over ten years Atlas felt he had a family, no words needed to be said, Dracken and Mary had excepted and forgave Atlas, a tear formed in the eye of Atlas, he was slightly conflicted and he felt a little like he had betrayed his dead family with what he was feeling now but he needed it and also embraced it

After a while Atlas pushed them away and wiped his eyes, after all he had been alone for awhile and it had made him feel that showing emotions were some how weak or unsightly, Dracken and Mary excepted it for what it was, a man who wasn't used to expressing his emotions but was still touched by what had happened

Coughing and clearing his voice Atlas got down to business by pulling out the folder of magic spells he had earned by enchanting he separated it in to three piles, both of the apprentices looked at their own pile

"Are you sure you bought a shop and not these, there must be at least seven spells per person" Dracken remarked

In the piles of spells were the four elements control but there were spells meant just for the apprentices speciality, for example Dracken natural mana leant towards electricity and so in his pile of spells was a spell called static force

Static Force Beginner Level 1

An offensive and defensive spell, the force of lightning builds up in the users causing anyone or anything to touch the user will be electrocuted, with more time the lightning will build up and cause a more powerful effect, when the power gets to a certain level a bolt of electric can be expelled but at the cost of the spell reseating it self

cost 10 mana to start and 1 mana a second to build up, when the combined mana used reaches 100 mana a bolt can be used

Atlas and the group sat down to learn their spells, Atlas first spell he was going to learn was called Rain Cloud, it was like a upgrade of fog ball but in stead of fog, water came from the cloud, Atlas couldn't think of away that he could use the skill as a weapon but that didn't deter him from leaning it, just as he was going to learn his seconded spell Marry spoke up

"Atlas, i can't learn these spells any more" Mary was trying to learn Fire Control but a message came up saying that this skill wasn't for her class

Atlas thought that this might happen, every since Mary had changed her class from mage to blacksmith no new magic could be learnt even if it was low level magic

"For now put your spells in your bag and we will change your class to mage when we enter town, i'm sure that if i do a bit of enchanting for Noah he will change your class to mage for free"

"But what about my blacksmith class" asked Mary

"Do you still have your skills from when you were a mage" Atlas was referring about gust

"Yes but it doesn't increase in level now i'm a smith" answered Mary

"It's a simple answer then, change your class to mage then when you have learnt the spells and increased it to the level you want go and get your class changed back" answered Atlas

Mary didn't look convinced and all she could do was look and twist her hammer in her hands

"Mary, you don't have to do it, how about you make your decision after you see what Dracken and me can do with it" said Atlas

Mary nodded in agreement

"But let's sort out some business after i've learnt these spells " Atlas quickly glanced over his last spell

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Conjure Familiar Beginner Level 1

A strict mage skill, only those with great skill in manipulation of mana and great amount of mana can use this skill, by bending and manipulating mana a creature of pure mana can be created, because of the creature being made of the users mana anything they sense will be felt by the user on contact or destruction of creature

Mouse 500 mana, no limit of creations

???

Limits: must have the skill Magical Mastery and Mana manipulation

Atlas was amazed, was this truly a 2 tier magic, creating creatures must be hard but it was the limits that gave it away that it might be something special, he had to try it out straight away, by activating the skill a steady stream of mana exited his fingers and started to twist and mould together in till a small transparent mouse looked back at him, the little creature was cute but it also did nothing, Atlas gave it an order

"umm go and check on the gnolls" as soon as the words left his lips the mouse jumped off the table and ran down to the area where the gnolls were working

"Uh ha, interesting" it would seem like that because it came from Atlas it knew where to go and what a gnoll was, these little critters would make excellent scouts

"Did you make that little ghost mouse" asked Mary, Dracken looked up, he had been reading his spells and what they did and so he had missed the creation of the little mouse

"It's a mana mouse, i think it's taking the natural element of the creator and that's why it's transparent because i'm a neutral mana user but i'm not too knowledgeable on it yet" said Atlas

Before any more questions could be asked Atlas gave the list of weapons for the police force to Mary

"Even though i did lose a lot of money on the burnt down shop, i did gain a order of weapon making and armour repair that will give us a good amount of gold and if we do a good job we may get future orders, so this is what i propose, you two will concentrate on weapon making while i will start and finish the repairs and enchant the weapons"

"Fine"

"Fine"

While Dracken and Mary started to heat up the forge and use their magic to cast gust in to the fire Atlas unloaded the bags that were attached to the side of the cart, in the bag was dented armour and torn leather armour, Atlas level in repair was above intermediate and with a huge mana source he could spam the repair skill so all the armour was like brand new, this was the absolute advantage Atlas had, with a massive mana pool he could grind any skill and raise it's proficiency with ease

Atlas had finished repairing the items in the bags and reattached them back on the cart before Mary had even put in the first steel bar to start melting it

Atlas had a lot of projects he wanted to start and two of them he could start right now, the first was simple, Atlas melted some steel using his Avatar Of Fire cape, it was so much quicker and easer to get the metal at the right temperature using his fire cape that it only took minutes for the metal to start to melt, the only thing Atlas did was make round metal balls the size of a golf ball Atlas made 8 in total, after cooling them down in water Atlas placed them in a leather bag and tied it to his Bitting Belt, while making the steel balls Atlas also made sheets of steel metal

Atlas put his plan to work, the biggest problem with mages was there armour, it couldn't be made from metal because as soon as metal was used extensively in armour it would be locked out of mages class and could be only used by warriors or any class that held the strength stat in high esteem but this is were Atlas came up with a design that would use metal but not strictly on his armour

Taking off his new dark blue Razor Fin leather armour robe Atlas enchanted the inside of his jacket robe, Atlas had ordered this piece to have many pockets lined closely together in side the robe and now he was enchanting all the pockets at once to reduce the weight of what ever was put in it by 8x, he followed up by cutting the sheets of steel to fit perfectly in the pockets, Atlas would normally put a space enchantment on the pockets but this time he wanted a tight fit with no movement

Atlas had done it, by placing metal in a pocket he had removed the effects of warriors being the only ones to use metal in there armour, strictly the metal wasn't part of the armour but because they were in side a pocket it would act like armour and with a weight reduction enchant on it it was only a little heavier then usually

Testing his armour out on the scarecrow that Nelious the spirit possessed Atlas raised his arms so his ribs and organs were exposed, each hit did nothing, a soft thud was all that could be heard as the wooden sword hit leather covered metal

Brilliant thought Atlas, he would make something like this for his apprentices but before that he tried out the other thing he had made, untying the bag with metal balls in side Atlas used his Magnetic Presence skill and used a new program that made all 8 of the metal balls to float around Atlas in a circle

Moving closer to the scarecrow the balls slammed in to the scarecrows head and body

"THIS ISN'T FAIR" shouted Nelious "I CAN'T EVEN REACH YOU"

As the balls continued to slam in to the scarecrow and move it around all Atlas could hear was Nelious screaming how unfair it was

"THI.." SMACK "THIS I... " SMACK "THIS IS WRONG" SMACK

Atlas had tested it out enough but instead of stopping the balls he changed the program to his 2nd one, four steel balls removed them self from the circle and started to go in the opposite direction at a different angle, both of the circling ball groups were closer to Atlas and Atlas walked towards Nelious

"REVENGE" Nelious raised his weapon and attacked Atlas

SMACK

Instead of the wooden sword in Nelious hand hitting Atlas on the head one of the balls hit the sword away from Atlas, what Atlas had done was make a shield that could attack and with a different program could defend, all of this was inspired by Noah the mage's shield that he had used against Atlas but the best thing was once the program was set and the spell was casted Atlas was free to cast different spells

After about 15 minutes of metal balls smacking the sword away from Atlas he retreated, Nelious was getting angry with the ball shield and Atlas was getting dirtier words thrown at him as time passed

"Ding"

A message came up as Atlas walked back to the forge, Atlas could still hear Nelious throwing abuse at him as he started to read the message and put the balls back in to there pouch

Conjure Familiar Mouse has been destroyed, would you like to witness the senses of the mouse

Atlas wanted to see what this was about "Yes"

in the corner of his vision a small image appeared, he was looking at him self from the point of view of the mouse, then the mouse dropped of the desk and started to run down the hall way leading to the Colosseum, it was a strange feeling as the mouse bounced up and down as he ran down the tunnel passing gnolls feet as they worked

"I wonder if you can speed this up" as Atlas said it the speed of the images sped up, it felt like watching a movie on fast forwards, when the mouse got to the hall Atlas slowed it down to normal, the hall had gone though a even bigger change then the forge area, half built house were popping up all around the place and in the middle of the soon to be made street was a huge ditch that the gnolls were laying cut stones to make a big tube, this was the sewers that Atlas had drawn up using his Blueprint Construction skill, it would seem that even though the gnolls were good at this kind of things, they still didn't work on one project at a time, they needed a foreman to concentrate their efforts in to one project at a time, Atlas didn't really mind, he had been away for 2 days and they had done so much work and because of that he decided to let them do it there way

The mouse continued on it's way dodging between the legs of the gnolls and looking up at different things, after some more time with the mouse bouncing around and looked at buildings and gnolls it came to the biggest structure, the Colosseum was started by Atlas for keeping the Fish Men in side of the lake but now it and transformed, the walls looked thicker and stronger, there was thick metal gates making entrance easier and there was big wooden cranes lifting up stone blocks from the ground floor, there was also a smaller crane erected in side the Colosseum walls that leaned over to the lake, as the mouse waited on the Colosseum wall the smaller crane started to pull up a Fish Man that was meet with five gnolls who started to stab it with spears behind a metal fence that was drilled into the existing wall, with no place to go the Fish Man only option was to die, the mouse followed the dead corpse of the Fish Man as it was taken to oven ranges and cut a part and cooked by other gnolls

It would seem that the gnolls had divided the work, first gnolls gathered the meat then there was some who skinned and cut the meat and there was cooks who prepared the meat so every one could eat, there was even little gnoll children grinding the bones in to powder, Atlas was glad to see that nothing was going to waste

The mouse carried on with the exploring and went down a tunnel, apart for some gnolls working the mines it was quite, Atlas sped the image up again, the mouse speed was very fast like most mouses but even with the image speed increased it took time for the mouse to get to the end of the very long dark tunnel, at the end of the tunnel was about 5 gnolls working with Loki, judging by how the tunnel went in a straight line with no detours Loki was going some were, just as the mouse looked up Loki took a back step and stood on the little mouse

"SQUICK"

"Ahhh what did i just step in" Loki voice sounded like he was in disgust

The last couple of seconds were of Loki scarping his boots on stones trying to get ride of what ever he stepped in, it turned out that even when the little mouse was destroyed it would still show a couple of seconds of images after it's destruction

"Ding"

Would you like to incorporate the mouses senses to your own

Atlas thought about it, what did this mean, Atlas said yes just so he could get some idea of what it meant

The little image in the corner of his vision disappeared but now he could remember the feeling of the mouse as it ran bare footed across the floor and even the smell of what the mouse was sniffing like he had done it him self

Atlas looked at his hands, the memory's were too real for him, at this point in time all he wanted was to wash his hands, he suppressed the need to wash his hands and join the apprentices to help them with the weapons

At the same time as making weapons Atlas thought it would be a good idea to refine the rest of the moonstone ore he had kept in the bag beside the forge, when Atlas pulled out a chunk of moonstone ore Mary spoke up

"Oh i have something to show you" Mary went in to her own bag and pulled out a cube that was wrapped in cloth, unwrapping it Atlas could tell what it was before the cloth was even removed, the whole room lit up with light, it was a pure and refined moonstone on the same level as Atlas's

Atlas hadn't told Mary about the acid and polish technique he him self had developed plus the shape of the moonstone didn't enhance the brightness of the moonstone

"How did you do this" Atlas was amazed and his voice said it too

Mary had started to blush and if it wasn't for the fact she had been working at the forge "I just followed what the book told me to do"

Mary was referring to the book Moonstones and the processing steps that Atlas had left in the bag with the moonstone ore

"And what else did you do" asked Atlas, he knew that some thing else had to be done because he had also followed the same steps but got less bright results

Mary gave a sweet smile, she was happy that Atlas didn't know how she had done it, it made her feel that all the research she did as a blacksmith was justified and her time wasn't wasted

"Well just like adding sand and broken glass to iron as it's being turned in to steel causing the slag and waste product to be absorbed by the sand and leaving a better steel, i added a catalyst to the moonstone" explained Mary

"Ahhhhh" Atlas understood instantly, in the beginning the moonstone was going to be used as a catalyst for his skill but he had been too close to his moonstone refining project to think to use a catalyst for his moonstone catalyst

"I realised that Fish Men scales had a fire resistance on it and so i grinded the scales into powder and added it to the moonstone, this meant it could stay in the forge for longer with out destroying it and get rid of any impurity's" Mary not only realised she needed a catalyst but found the catalyst as well

Atlas was excited, when he had made his moonstone it came out almost flawless but wasn't quite there but now he was certain he could pull it off

Atlas put aside his plan to help with the weapons and instead started on some moonstone, he followed the steps he did before, separate moonstone ore from stone and dirt, wash ore many times, compressing it and tempering it, now was the time for the Fish Men scales dust to be added, with more time in the forge all the impurity's could be removed, the moonstone that Atlas had was the same type as Marys but Atlas also reshaped the stone into a diamond shape and polished the moonstone with acid and his armour polishing skill

"Ding"

You are the first to make a perfect Moonstone

A perfect piece of moonstone has been created for the first time, using old techniques and new improved and unheard of techniques has granted the best out come

Due to your involvement in the refining of a perfect moonstone you have been granted a title

Because of the help of your apprentice she will gain the title as well

wisdom and intelligence + 20

Knowledge + 10

Endurance, Luck and Concentration + 5

Title gained: Light Bringer

Religion and royalty respect you due to your mastery over moonstone

50% more chance for gaining a audience with higher ranked Religion members and royalty

The new perfect moonstone sat on the table were Atlas had polished it, it dimly shone but nothing special, Atlas used gust but it still shone dimly, Atlas started to tap the moonstone and again nothing apart from a dim shine, Atlas picked up the moonstone and rolled it over in his hands

"Why isn't it working" Atlas started to tap the moonstone even harder, "was this a failure, it can't be the message says it's perfect"

Putting the perfect moonstone back on the table "i'm a missing some thing" Atlas was trying to think and was scratching his face with his claw gauntlet

As Atlas was busy with thinking on what to do, the moonstone on the table started to brighten up, as each second went by the stone got brighter in till it started to flicker with light, on and off the light started and with no warning the light blasted out with the brightest light Atlas had ever seen, the white light would've been better to describe it as all consuming, even with Atlas hands over his eyes the cracks between his fingers let the light in causing Atlas to try to retreat, scrapes, bumps and things being knocked could be heard as the apprentice, gnolls and animals that was kept for food and mating was blinded

No matter were you went in that room the light reached you, Atlas regretted hitting the moonstone so hard, the moonstone properties were that any energy fed in to the stone would be turned in to light, even the friction in the air fed the moonstone power, so a perfect piece of moonstone wouldn't need so much energy and would keep going indefinitely

Screams could be heard as the gnolls guards panicked and the horses stared to kick up and animals dashed against the cages wall where they were kept, Atlas thumbled towards the table were the moonstone had last been and with out stretched hands managed to feel the stone, Atlas placed it in his bag and closed it

Like a torch being turned off after shinning in a persons face it had stopped, everyone was still blinded and falling over each other while rubbing their eyes, it had taken minutes before everyone in the forge room got there sight back

Everyone had got a message pop up

You have been blinded, the effects will last for two minutes after the light has been extinguished

"SORRY, SORRY, THAT WAS MY FAULT SORRY" Atlas apologized and tried to clam everyone down

Such a powerful moonstone would be hard to find a use for, Atlas was going to use it to light the caves and halls but it was just to bright, a lesser refined moonstone would be used for that but the question was what to do with it, just as Atlas was thinking that Beast the leader of the gnolls, Loki and a group of the strongest gnolls came busting in to the forge room with there weapons raised and in the case of Loki he had a pickaxe raised, Atlas was more weary about the big pickaxe than the steel swords and spears, if a sword made contact with armour it would likely bounce off but a pickaxe could tear right though it like paper

Atlas raised his hands in the air like he was under arrest, "What's going on" asked Beast

Atlas walked slowly towards the pack with his arms still raised and explained his perfect moonstone "Can i see it" asked Loki

"MMMMMM....suuurrre, but how did you get up here so quickly, weren't you mining in the caves" asked Atlas

"Yea i was but i stepped in something and i needed to fill my water bottle and wash my boots off then we saw a bright light coming from the upper hall... but how do you know were i was"

"Don't worry about that, do you want to see this perfect moonstone" before Loki could say anything Atlas lead him to the walk in fridge he had made to store excess food

From the point of view of the gnolls that witnessed Atlas lead Loki into the cold box and close the door behind them, seconds of mumbling could be heard were Atlas and Loki was talking, and then a blinding light could be seen coming from the bottom of the wooden door, all the gnolls that watched this covered the bottom of there faces to stop the light entering their eyes and as suddenly the light was on it was turned off, the door flew open and out came Loki stumbling and falling over

"Haaahahaha, i've seen brighter" Loki fell over again

Atlas followed but he was grabbing the door frame and shuffling forwards, all of these experience with the light had given Atlas a great idea for the perfect moonstone but before he could make a tool from the moonstone he had to make protection from the light, as Atlas had a couple of hours before he was going to be tutored he made a simple wielding mask that had black glass where the eyes were by putting a mix of manganese, cobalt, iron in to his glass, he still had to layer 4 strips of black glass before he was certain it would keep most of the light out from the moonstone

"Are you ready" Loki had sat down at the earth table and rested his pickaxe on the side of the table "this will be the last night you study at this level for Chemistry"

Atlas nodded, for the past two months, almost every night he had studied for his chemistry test and in one and a half real life days he would be taking his test, Loki had advised that he get a good night sleep and a good meal before going for his test and so he need a full day in real life

In truth Ben was excited and felt a little sick, it had been many years since he had taken a test he hadn't taken before, Ben had taken many test so he could be electrician and a gas safe test so he could install gas according to the law, he had to retake the test every year but it was the same test and Ben knew the materials inside out, it was the unknown that made Ben feel sick but this is what he had worked towards and part of his goal

End Of Chapter Twenty Four: