Cultivators who have a high affinity for both Earth and Fire Mana often become blacksmiths specialising in creating various weapons and armour for other cultivators. This is only one of the many jobs that cultivators with high enough affinity for a specific type of Elemental Mana can do. For example, those who specialise only in Earth Mana often find work creating the various walls and fortresses that protect the cities that we live in. While those who specialise in both Water and Earth mana can use their powers to increase the yield of fields or create medicines. These cultivators are just as important and respected as those who specialise in combat if not more so.

* Excerpt from Telram’s notes on the roles of cultivators in society.

When Telram and Jai arrived back home Lily immediately squawked in horror and started ordering Diane to bandage him up before he lost any more blood causing the tiger to huff slightly in irritation.

“What happened Telram?” Aran asked as he looked at both the sack of ore and Jai who was rolled his eyes dramatically as Diane carefully started treating his broken ribs. Despite his obvious irritation however the tiger cooperated better than one would expect which showed just how much pain he was in.

Telram had made sure to take breaks whenever it looked like Jai was struggling which was why they had taken a bit longer to get back than either of them would’ve liked. Getting his ribs treated and bandaged was obviously uncomfortable for Jai but he took the indignity with as much grace as he could muster.

“We were attacked by a Metal Scaled Baboon,” Telram sighed as he rolled his shoulders to try and ease some of the tension that had built up from carrying the heavy sacks of ore.

“And you just left the body there!?” Aran exclaimed staring at his son in shock. “Do you know how much money that body is worth!?”

Like most Mana Beasts almost every part of the Metal Scaled Baboon’s body was worth something to someone. Not least the scales that gave it its name so Telram quickly told his father the location of the corpse so that he could go and retrieve it. He had already expected Aran to ask him this, so he wasn’t surprised by this reaction and just watched with amusement as his father grabbed his spear and shot out of the door.

“So, the two of you managed to defeat an Elemental Mana Beast?” Diane asked. “That’s quite impressive at your cultivation levels.”

‘Thanks,” Telram chuckled. “But I’m pretty sure it had only just managed to become an Elemental Mana Beast. It barely even used any of its special abilities and even then, Jai still got pretty badly injured.”

“No, you still did well,” Gerry disagreed. “it’s not like either of you have that much experience in life and death situations whereas any wild Elemental Mana Beast even one that had only been an Ordinary Mana Beast until recently probably fought every day to grow stronger.”

The others all nodded their agreement at Gerry’s words so Telram decide to just accept the compliment. By the time Aran returned from retrieving the Metal Scaled Baboon’s corpse the others had already had their dinner and not long after that Telram and Jai decided to turn in for the night.

The following morning Telram got up and started to get ready for the day’s lessons with the kids just like he did most days. Meanwhile Jai decided that he would have the day off which Telram readily agreed was a good idea. There was no real need for the tiger to be there today, occasionally having him there was useful. Especially when they were talking about how Mana Beasts used their Mana differently in comparison to cultivators or when they were learning about different methods of using Soul Energy but today they would mostly be studying a few more normal subjects like maths as well as reading and writing before moving onto practicing using movement techniques later on in the day.

Telram knew that the kids wouldn’t be impressed by the first lesson of the day, neither was he really if he was honest. But he also knew that what he considered to be more normal subjects were actually still important in this world, so he made sure to spend some time every day going over at least something. Teaching the kids Cultivation and Martial techniques was of course still the main goal but that didn’t mean that he had an excuse to not teach them as much of what he knew as possible.

Sure, enough when the first lesson started for the day it was met with a chorus of groans from his students which made Telram chuckle to himself. He wasn’t that fond of maths either. In fact, the only thing that seemed to raise their spirits was when Telram announced that they would be working on their respective movement techniques after lunch.

Each of his students was working on their own movement technique so this part of the class was going to be a long one that would last for the rest of the day. Thankfully he wasn’t the only one taking that lesson and both he and Fergus spent time with all four of the students over the course of the rest of the afternoon.

Cameron was learning a movement technique that even Telram was a bit intimidated by that allowed the user to build up a massive amount of forward momentum which would allow them to then transfer that kinetic energy into a single powerful blow. In fact, if Telram got hit by Cameron while he was moving at full speed, he was confident that he would come out the other end with at least some broken bones. However, all that momentum meant that changing directions was very difficult while using this particular technique but Telram had decided that this was still the best technique that he knew about for the powerfully built Cameron. As such Diane had started to teach him a modified version of her own fighting style that was one of the most dangerous fighting styles that Telram had ever seen, using powerful blows to ruthlessly bring down a target. It wasn’t a very effective fighting style to use against faster opponents due to the comparatively slower attacks this style used compared to others but if Cameron did manage to make contact with someone who wasn’t prepared, he would deal some serious damage to them, even with a glancing blow.

On the other hand, Tim’s technique was almost the complete opposite to Cameron’s and used sudden changes in direction to allow the agile young man to strike from a massive number of different directions very quickly. Noticing this Telram had taught him a modified version of his Mana Claws technique as well so that he could use hit and run tactics.

As for Henry Telram had taught him his father’s Graceful Mist Step since the young man had yet to decide what sort of fighting style that he wanted to focus on. Henry had taken to the technique fairly well, but it was clear that it wasn’t quite the right technique for him so Telram and Fergus had been watching him closely to try and figure out a better one.

Finally, Iris was learning a different version of the Graceful Mist Steps technique that had specifically been modified by Telram for her use. This new technique allowed her tiny frame to slip easily into blind spots which Iris seemed to have a natural talent for. Naturally Telram had also taught her several techniques that focussed on attacking different joints as well as things like pressure points and arteries. He was also considering trying to teach her his Resonance Palm technique, but her soul wasn’t quite powerful enough to use it properly just yet.

By the time they sent the students home for the day both Telram and Fergus were very pleased with how hard they were all working, unfortunately they still hadn’t worked out exactly what sort of movement technique to teach Henry yet. It wasn’t the kid’s fault or anything like that. In fact, the problem was that he seemed to have the capability to learn an extremely wide variety of all sorts of different sorts of technique so picking one was actually pretty difficult, so difficult that Telram was just tempted to teach him several different movement techniques so that he had one for any situation that he found himself in. The only problem with that of course was that he wouldn’t be as good with those techniques as he would be if he was only learning the one.

Once they were back in town Telram briefly returned home to grab the sacks of ore before making his way to the town forge where an excited Dale was waiting for him. It wasn’t often that Dale got a really interesting job like this one that had required hm to learn a completely new technique to purify the steel that they were going to use but when he had tested it out earlier he had been amazed to see how much of a difference it made.

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“So, are you ready to start making my weapon?’ Telram asked as he placed the sacks on the floor next to the smelter.

“Yeah everything is all ready to go,” Dale replied as he eyed the pile of sacks with amusement. “So, do you think that we have enough?”

“More than I’d say,” Telram replied drily. “We can keep some of it for when the kids decide what sort of weapon they want to use.”

“That’s… actually a really good idea,” Dale admitted giving his newest friend a grin. Dale had been very impressed with how well Telram had done teaching his son as well as the other students as well as the techniques that he had taught him. He was also very interested in the weapon that Telram had designed for himself because it was very different from the weapons more traditionally used by cultivators which were basically limited to swords and spears with the occasional axe thrown in for good measure.

Dale knew full well that Telram had a very different view on cultivation as well as many other things. He had also been very surprised to learn about some of the things that Telram had been teaching Cameron but try as he might Dale couldn’t deny that his son had improved dramatically in more academic areas including ones that Dale wasn’t that great in himself such as maths. Telram’s students had also undergone significant increases to their cultivation levels which honestly surprised Dale in some ways considering the amount of work that they were doing on subjects that Dale had previously considered were unrelated.

Dale also knew that Telram genuinely cared about his students and Telram’s previous words served to reinforce this. He already knew from Aran who had visited him earlier that Telram had run into problems when he had stayed out to mine more of the mithril than he actually needed to make his weapon.

“Alright then,” Dale said. “Let’s get started.”

As Dale got to work Telram was struck once again by just how useful Mana was. He didn’t really know much about how much about melting down ore onto metal or mixing alloys, especially not without using modern technology but even if he was using that instead he was pretty sure that Dale would still be faster and get better results. Telram watched in awe as the blacksmith used Fire Mana to heat the metal up and then a combination of Earth and Fire Mana to remove all of the impurities before adding the other two metals that they were using to make the alloy that they were using to make his new weapon before pouring it into a mould that Telram already knew had been created using Earth Affinity Mana and strengthened against heat so that it wouldn’t crack when the molten metal was poured in.

When Telram had first described the weapon that he wanted Dale to make the blacksmith had immediately started working on this mould, shaping it out of a special type of rock. This had surprised Telram at first, but Dale had explained that if he made it in the more traditional way then he would have to attach each spike individually which would make it easier to damage the weapon.

When Dale had poured the last of the strange alloy into the mould, he told Telram to head home for the night and come back in the morning, explaining it was going to take most of the night for the metal to cool.

The next morning when Telram made his way over to the forge he discovered that Dale had already broken the mould and was currently leaning against one of his work benches with an odd expression on his face.

“Is there something wrong?” Telram asked curiously as he walked up to the powerfully built blacksmith.

“No, it’s perfect,” Dale replied. “I’m just not sure if you’re going to be able to use it just yet.”

“Well if I’m not then I’ll train until I can,” Telram shrugged in reply. “So, what’s left to do?”

“Not much more that I can do,” Dale replied. “Put a wrapping on the handle so that it won’t slip out of your hand when you swing it and that’s about it.”:

“And then I can Inscribe it right?” Telram asked excitedly. Dale had been surprised to hear that Telram had wanted to Inscribe the weapon himself but once he had seen some of the work that the young man had done, he had readily agreed that he was the better option. Dale had made plenty of weapons for the cultivators in the village and had learned a few Inscriptions over the years that increased the power and durability of those weapons which wasn’t unusual for a blacksmith that made weapons for cultivators. But compared to Telram he had only really dabbled in the subject.

Dale nodded his agreement as he pulled a piece of leather out of a nearby draw that he was planning on using to wrap the handle. Like everything else that went into the creation of this weapon the leather that he had chosen was of very high quality. This leather had been made from the skin of a rather odd Mana Beast known simply as a Sand Shark. A Sand Shark was an Earth Affinity Elemental Mana Beast that could burrow through the ground at high velocity using its ability to sense vibrations to lead it to its prey which usually had no idea what was in store for it. The Sand Shark’s skin was also extremely rough and swords that had Sand Shark leather hilts were said to be nearly impossible to lose your grip on. However, it was also very expensive, even this short strip was worth more than half of the mithril that Telram had brought back with him, but Dale had decided that making sure this weapon was as well made as possible was more than worth it. Every time he heard about or saw what Telram was capable of he became more and more certain that both he and this weapon were going to do great things.

As soon as Dale finished applying the leather to the handle, he handed it over to Telram who almost lost his balance when he took hold of the incredibly heavy weapon.

“Holy shit!” Telram exclaimed once he had recovered from his surprise. The weapon wasn’t actually so heavy that he couldn’t lift it, but he did need both hands to do so.

It was also quite an impressive piece of ironmongery to look at as well coming up to Telram’s shoulder and being almost a half metre across at its widest point it shouldn’t really have been a surprise to him how heavy it was. The primarily red metal itself had a strange, mottled look to it like it hadn’t quite been mixed as well as it could have been but that wasn’t unusual for metals that had mithril mixed in. It also had several spikes that jutted out from each of its six sides making it quite an intimidating thing which was kind of the idea of it. Even Dale had to admit that the idea of someone that looked like Telram rushing him while brandishing this weapon would be terrifying.

“Yeah this is definitely going to take a while to get used to,” Telram muttered to himself as he examined his new weapon.

“Well you can get used to it somewhere else!” Dale said. “I don’t want you swinging that monster around in my forge!”

“Fair enough,” Telram chuckled. “I’ll see you later then.”

While Telram did classes to take today he had managed to convince Diane to take the first lesson, so he had a little time to try out his weapon and work out what sort of Inscriptions he was going to put on the weapon.

The villager’s eyes followed him as he walked through town which wasn’t unusual at all considering the scene that he had made when he had arrived but there were far more people watching him now than there was normally. This was obviously no surprise to Telram; it wasn’t every day that you saw someone carrying a spiked club that was almost as large as he was through town.

Once he was far enough outside of town that testing out his weapon wasn’t going to cause any problems Telram took a strong grip on his new weapon and swung it down as hard as he possibly could.

A massive cloud of dirt and stone blasted out from the point of impact as the Kanabo struck the ground and when it cleared Telram looked around at the shallow crater that surrounded him. As one might expect the combination of the weapon’s weight and Telram’s physical strength was a dangerous combination. The only problem was that the weapon was so heavy that he wouldn’t be able to use it properly for a until he got quite a bit stronger.

“Well I’d feel sorry for anyone who gets hit by this,” Telram muttered. “Now then let’s try putting some Mana and Soul Energy into it and see what happens.”

As this was a new alloy no one really knew what special properties it might possess. Mithril-based alloys had a tendency to do some strange and often dangerous things when a cultivator inserts Mana and occasionally Soul Energy into it which was another reason that Telram was performing tests outside of town.

To Telram’s surprise when he started channelling Mana into the weapon it suddenly got so heavy that it was almost ripped from his hands as it slammed into the ground with enough force that it kicked up another cloud of dust. This time when the dust cloud cleared, he found himself standing in a larger crater than he had before.

“Holy shit,” Telram muttered as he looked around. “So, Mana makes it heavier does it. Interesting, I wonder what Soul Energy will do.”

Next, he inserted some Soul Energy into the weapon and was surprised when the strain on his arms lessened slightly. It wasn’t by a lot, in fact if he wasn’t paying attention, he wouldn’t have even noticed. Concentrating he started forcing more and more Soul Energy into the massive piece of metal and eventually it reached a weight where he could wield it fairly comfortably. However, doing this required so much Soul Energy that he would barely be able to keep it at this weight for 30 seconds. Still this was perhaps even more useful than what happened when he channelled Mana into it and some very interesting uses for this began to occur to him.

"So Mana increases the weigh of the weapon and Soul Energy decreaes it," Telram mused. It would be a while before he could use eithrr of these abilities properly but he could already think of some things that he could use them for.

“Well then, I suppose that I’d better go and check up on my students,” Telram decided as he laid his new toy across his shoulders. “I’ll start on the Inscriptions tonight.”