After two days, I was able to walk around my room without wincing at every step so I decided that I was well enough to start doing some things. And by doing things I mean experiment with my new addition to my ring collection, that has never left my middle finger sense I made it, right beside Masatr.
My experimenting went a little like this, I put the MD ring so it touches a wall in my room and I run my Spirit Energy through it and into the wall, feeling the changes it goes through while it travels through the wall, eventually I start feeling when it has been fully marked with a material and then I give the command ‘Materialize’ after positioning the Spirit Energy back through the wall and in various positions, trying to make shapes out of the wood behind the plaster. I usually create something that resembles the shape I am trying to make, but the Spirit Energy is really hard to control and shape with small details, like corners.
My experimenting was very useful however as I noticed that I was slowly getting better at shaping the Spirit Energy and I found out that I could make the Spirit Energy materialize inside objects. I actually found that out on one of my first tests, where I make a sphere halfway inside a wall because I forgot to move it out of the wall.
A very interesting thing though is that when I turned it back into Spirit Energy, the wall was exactly the same! Because of my discovery, I theorized that I could fill my bedroom walls with steel to reinforce them, and then dissolve it when I leave the orphanage with no one in the wiser!
Of course I can't do that now because my soul is still in the early stage of recovery and expansion, so my Spirit Energy production is abysmal and I can barely make a cube of wood the size of my eleven year old hand every few minutes without dissolving it, but eventually I could if I wanted to.
In theory, I could build a hut the size of my room made of solid steel with a full bed and desk, in about two weeks from now, if I compare my abilities with the amount of Spirit Energy production to what it will be about that time.
An interesting thought I had about my discovery is ‘What if I materialized a hunk of iron inside something? Or if I could just give myself armor plating that is directly fused with me?’ Of course I didn't test it, I don't want to accidentally killing myself and I don't have an animal to test it on at hand. It could be cool though, useful too, imagine if I just make a layer of adamantium, just below the skin…
I would be practically indestructible. Or I could die because of a hunk of metal blocking up something or whatever and preventing me from saying ‘Dissolve’. I will need to do a lot of testing, if I decide to actually try it at all…
Also another interesting discovery I made is, when I duplicate any material it takes the exact same amount of Spirit Energy in relation to size, volume and mass, except for mythril which costs more than two times the amount of spirit energy as any mortal material. I don't really know why but I think that it might be because mythril is a non mortal material, and therefore was enhanced by high levels of stagnating Spirit Energy and Spirit Aura and therefore it needs a high Spirit Energy concentration to be created.
I don't know for sure though.
Also a slight mistake when I made the MD ring is that it choses a specific molecule, not an object as a whole. Well, it is not really a mistake, but more like an oversight. You see when I duplicate a piece of wood, it makes a piece of homogeneous wood, without the grain. The grain of wood is very important, and a piece of wood without a grain is slightly weaker overall than a natural one with grain. I mean, it's not that much of a bad thing, but it looks really weird without the grain as well… I don't even know how I would change it though…
Well, if I ever decide to upgrade the ring, I will know what I need to change. But, it is good enough for now. I just need to keep in mind its limitations when using it.
The experimenting phase of testing went by fast, only taking me two days with my normal schedule where I took the time from the blacksmithing practice.
Today I am taking a small break though, to get my hands on more materials. Or more specifically, to get my ring on new materials. I decided that I would take a walk around the city, and inside some shops, and if I am lucky I will find a construction site where I can sample the building materials.
My current priorities are metal first and foremost, but I am planning to get wood and stone samples as well. I decide to leave in the morning immediately after breakfast, so after eating a good hearty breakfast and grabbing a small bag, I walk to the front door and am about to open it for my little adventure.
“Where are you going?” I hear coming from behind me, I spin around startled, its Director Kasandra who is standing by the stairs behind me. There is no reason to lie to her right now so I decided to just tell her the truth. “Well, I was just going on a small walk. Maybe some shopping.” I tell her calmly, she looks curiously at me and I wonder if I did something wrong for a second before she walks over to me and puts her shoes on, “I will come with you then, it is a nice day this morning. Might as well enjoy it for a while.” she tells me.
Well… I suppose it’s ok, but I wish that I could go alone, it would be easier. “You really don't have to, I will be back for lunch.” I tell her earnestly, she looks amusedly at me and smiles “I know, I could use the break though.” Ah well, I can understand that. No harm in letting her tag along. “Ok then.” I tell her and shrug my shoulders, I turn back to the door and open it, stepping into the busy street with Kasandra at my back.
I look around the street and then turn to Kasandra “You wouldn't happen to know where I might find a Home Depot would you?”
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It turns out that, yes indeed she knew where Home Depot was. I nearly laughed out loud when she told me yes, Home Depot is apparently a multidimensional thing. Convergent evolution at its finest. This universe is insanely similar to my old one.
We spent about twenty minutes where I had to wait up for Kasandra a couple of times from her lagging behind against my walking pace. I wasn't upset about it though, just a little amused. Some things carry between bodies after all.
When we arrived at the Home Depot, Kasandra finally spoke up again, “So, what are you looking for? Also, how exactly are you going to pay?” She asked me interestingly, I realized that I hadn't really thought through what I was going to tell her about that part. Ok, improvise. I looked at her and said “Well, I wasn't really going to buy anything today, I was just planning to take a look and see what the prices look like before I decide later what all I need.”
She looked interested and continued the line of questioning “Good, at least you are putting some thought as to how to spend this money. But, where are you getting the money you are spending?” She asks me. ‘Shoot… Where am I getting this money from? Oh, that could work.’ I think to myself, trying to come up with an answer to her question. “Well, I don't exactly have the cash right now. But I am going to be getting some soon, I am selling some things I made, to a guy I know. Like these ones.” I say to her, holding up my hand and gesturing at my rings.
She looks satisfied so I give myself an internal pat on the back and we enter the store together. I look around the store, I see a row full of wood and building materials almost immediately and start to walk over to it. Kasandra follows me and I start to think over exactly how I can touch my ring to a material long enough to run some Spirit Energy through it, without being noticed.
When we reach the aisle, I look around and inspect the shelves carefully. I can see some wooden dowels and PVC pipes a little ways down, I can see several types of steel rods and a lot of planks further down the aisle. Ok, I think I know how I can do this. I start walking over to the wooden dowels, channeling Spirit Energy through the MD ring as I do, careful to not let any energy escape the ring to prevent it from being marked by a molecular structure.
When I reach the dowels, I reach out my hand and take hold of a dowel, trying to act like I am testing it while I release the Spirit Energy into the wood. A second later I had marked enough Spirit Energy so I forced it back to me and materialized my sample in my pocket. It took about a second to get my sample. Everything is going smoothly.
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An hour later, I had gone through almost the entire store and I felt pretty satisfied with the results. I had collected a total of sixty samples that I had mostly placed in the bag that I brought with me, namely twenty samples of various wood types, nineteen types of metals, ten types of stones and rocks, seven types of fabrics, three types of plastics and a sample of a glass window.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
My bag was getting quite full though, so I decided that it was about time that I headed back with the mildly confused Director Kasandra to the orphanage.
“I am about ready to head back.” I told Kasandra who was watching me take one last sample of fiberglass insulation foam. “Ok, if you are ready we can go.” She responds and we start walking to the exit. “Did you find what you were looking for?” Kasandra asked curiously, turning to me as we walked out the exit, “Yes, yes I did.” I told her, satisfied with the weight I can feel in my bag as we walked down the busy street to the orphanage.
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My door squeaks open and I step inside, looking around my room for some place to set down my bag of debatably stolen material samples. I step forward into the room and place it onto my desk, where I sit down to begin some experimenting.
I open the small bag and dump all of my tube-like samples onto the hard wooden surface of the work surface and start to spread them out into six rows. In the first row I placed all of my wood samples, the second consisted of my metal samples, the third had my cloth samples that I noticed looked really interesting as a solid mass without any stitching patterns in it. My fourth had rock and stone samples, my fifth had my plastics and finally the sixth one had my glass and fiberglass tubes.
I then started Appraising the samples, looking for any repeated samples. I found out that I collected three pieces of steel, two iron and three tin samples for my metal row, three duplicates of fabrics, two duplicates of a type of stone and no duplicates of any wood samples.
I picked up the duplicate samples and was about to give the command ‘Dissolve’ when I realized that anything I had duplicated with the ring within a six foot radius would also be dissolved. If I had given the command, all the time I had spent to get samples would be wasted in a second.
I let out a relieved sigh for remembering that little detail and started thinking about what I could do. After thinking of the problem for a few minutes, I came up with two solutions, well technically a solution and an idea. I could either go inside the Soul Forge and walk seven feet away from the door, or I could somehow remove the ‘Transformed matter’ mark on the other samples I don't want to dissolve and render them unable to be dissolved.
How would I go about removing the mark on the other samples though? I comb my new knowledge on spirit Energy and after a good five minutes of reviewing my memories, I find an answer. I could inject my Spirit Energy into the samples and sort of wipe the mark off of it, like spraying water at a plate to get rid of chunks of food. The only problem is that it will be really hard, as I have never done it before and my soul is still recovering from enchanting the MD ring.
Well, I can't think of anything else I can do, until I can enchant my next ring that is. But I won't waste a month of recovery to make something that I could do on my own. So I will start to practice wiping the mark off of the materials.
I put the duplicate samples down and grab an iron sample off the desk. I hold it in my hand and I start to concentrate, feeling my soul, the energy that it is emitting, and I start to guide the Spirit Energy into the chunk of iron in my hand. It starts to flow into it, but very slowly like cold syrup. That won't work… I start to push more energy into the iron and I feel the resistance of the Spirit Energy as the speed increases to something like mildly viscous water.
When the Spirit Energy enters into the tube I feel resistance, as if something in the iron is resisting the flow of Spirit Energy. That is probably the ‘Transformed matter’ mark that the ring put on it. I concentrate harder and push the energy out of me and I can start to feel the resistance give a little. Ok, I just need to keep it up for a little.
Thirty seconds passed and I felt the resistance dissolve in the tide of my Spirit Energy. “That took way longer than I would like…” I mumble to myself, sensing that the mark dissolved. Well, I have a lot of samples to remove the mark from, I can practice and improve the time it takes.
Onto the next sample…
Twenty minutes later and I was finished, the marks on every sample, except the duplicates, were removed. The fastest that I removed the mark turned out to be not much lower than my first, about eight seconds shorter towards the end. Well, it is a start at least.
“Dissolve” I relay the command to the ring that is sitting on my finger, causing several tubes to vanish as if they never existed and filling my soul with the Spirit Energy they were made of.
Disappointingly several chunks of my samples vanished with my duplicates. They were small chunks but it showed me that I had not fully removed the mark on most of them. I need to practice that if I am planning to make things with duplicated materials…
But it is good enough for now, I don't think that this is a huge problem for my samples.
Now let's get started on finishing my samples. I walk over to my desk and sit down. My hand reaches over to a metal sample and I appraise the metal, causing the blue box to appear reading, “Chunk of iron.”
Ok, iron is first then. I send some Spirit Energy into the MD ring and then push it through the iron, marking it with the iron. I force the Spirit Energy to take the shape of a third of the MD ring, fitting snugly around the MD ring’s front side and give the command to “Materialize!” and watch the iron mesh appear around the MD ring. I put the Iron sample down, creating another pile for used samples and I inspect my creation.
My plan was to create a special pattern for material samples to attach to the MD ring so I can create things out of the materials attached without having to haul a bunch of rods with me to do the same thing. My first attempt seemed good and it fit around the MD ring without a gap between them, while also being able to remove it and leaving room for another two sample attachments to be added.
The way I designed the attachments is a bit like a screw, there is the first attachment, which covers about a third of the ring and has a screw shaped extrusion on the back side of it, which attaches to the middle section, which has an attachment for the last edge section. Letting me attach three types of materials for me to use.
I nod to myself and I pick up the sample of iron and prepare to create the middle section.
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Two days of hard work later, I finish all the material ring attachments, along with removing the ‘Transformed matter’ mark on them, and I feel quite happy about it. I can finally create some cool stuff and experiment to come up with some fighting techniques.
First things first though, I realize that I will need something to hold all the attachments and I start to think of solutions. I pull out three attachments, dark oak, glass and iron and take off the MD ring to attach them. As soon as they are all screwed in, I open the gateway to the Soul Forge. As soon as the doorway appears in front of me, I reach out and twist open the door. Walking inside, I look for a good place to put material samples. I decided to just use the space directly beside directly to the right of the door, a good place for quick retrieval.
Ok, now I need a shelf. I start to channel my Spirit Energy into the MD ring and then direct the flow into the dark oak attachment, setting the material type. I then direct the energy into the space I decided to use, forming a thin rectangle between the wall and the floor, about six feet high and four feet wide, with about a hundred tubes extruding from that and a wider base for stabilization in the front half. “Materialize!” I say out loud, causing the wood to appear in roughly the shape I wanted. It did seem really rough though... I still need to do a lot of practice...
I put my hand into my pocket and bring out a sample ring of concrete. I reach out and place the ring onto one of the extruding tubes, where it fits perfectly.
Being able to materialize things makes making things like this a lot easier.
Ok, it can hold the rings, now I need a way to organize and identify the rings. Lets just create a little plaque that has the materials name, and arrange them into material type rows…
I run my Spirit Energy through the MD ring again, but this time I run it through the glass sample, marking it as glass. I then create small rectangles of glass that are just large enough to hold the names of the materials, placed a inch in the wood and extruding half an inch out of the wood, directly above every tube that is extruding from the main body of the shelf.
As soon as they are in place, I materialize it. Now all I need to do is create the name’s out of whatever, inside the glass when I have arranged all the samples.
“Oh, I nearly forgot. I need to remove the mark…” I say, looking at the shelf with trepidation. This is going to take a long time…
Let's get started. I concentrate on my Spirit Energy and push it into the wood and glass, straining against the resistance in the shelf that I can feel is slowly dissolving close to me, but my Spirit Energy can't even reach the opposite side after thirty seconds of the constant flow.
Twenty minutes later, I finally finished. Feeling absolutely mentally exhausted from pushing my Spirit Energy into something so big, I lay down on the cold stone floor of the Soul Forge. I don't want to do that again for a while…
Onto a less stressful and mentally intensive step then.
I stand up from the cool floor and walk back into my room, to get all the ring attachments to start working on arranging everything. Bringing every type of material, a middle section and the two end pieces, for every type of material takes a long time, but eventually I start arranging them into rows, metals on the far left side, wood right from that, stone right from wood, my cloth beside the stone and a rather large section for miscellaneous, like glass, beside that and finally on the fat end I put the plastics.
When I was finally done and all of the materials were labeled, it was supper time. For reference I started an hour after lunch. I will have to wait to work on building something until tomorrow…