THE SSS-RANKED TAMING VILLAIN SKILL-Chapter 34: Craft a colt : Prototype v.02 (2)
After having respectively taken out the Obscure Mythril, the cold iron, the runic oak, the Dragonis Alloy, and the eternal steel.
The process would be more arduous than that of the prototype because this time it was not about manipulating simple iron but different types of metal with their particularities, such as the Dragonis alloy which had a rather high tolerance to heat.
On top of that, the Obscure Mythril and cold iron alloy had no guarantee of working, because Mythril being a conductor of mana, would mixing it with a metal that had no conductivity ruin this property? It had to be tried.
Aelion would personally take care of the runic oak in order to deepen his knowledge in runes. Sitting withdrawn this time, the wood in hand, he watched the gestures of UGAEL at the forge without interfering, while he himself carved the wood and cut it.
The thin shavings of the wood, at first rectilinear, ended up joining and intertwining in order to form a rune in the wood. He had to be very careful not to cut in the middle of a rune so as not to render it obsolete.
A few hours later, UGAEL had come back with the alloy to present it to him and, just as he thought, it had not gone as expected. When he touched the new metal, he could feel the cold on contact with his skin. It was much more reinforced than when it was only cold iron. That meant it combined rather well.
The mana conductivity, however, was catastrophic. Each time he tried to inject mana into it, nothing worked: either the distribution was not uniform, or it stopped, or it drifted completely.
"I suspected it a bit," declared Aelion, worried and thoughtful.
"What should we do? I think we should make a choice," imposed UGAEL.
But Aelion refused to do that if he had the possibility to do something more advantageous. The more he looked at the ingot presented by the automaton, the more he thought of a solution. And his speed of thought was surprisingly much faster than usual. He remembered his title and its effect.
How to make cold iron conductive.
His thinking and his understanding of everything revolving around this single subject, he suddenly had a revolutionary idea. He too at the beginning was like cold iron: normal and without sensitivity to mana. But after being exposed for a long moment and especially on the inside, he had developed this sensitivity, but that was because of the Universality.
Yet despite that, he couldn’t use mana efficiently; he needed a mana core and a circuit to conduct mana. This is where he wanted to get. Cold iron did not need sensitivity nor a mana core; it just needed to be conductive. So he was going to engrave a magic circuit on and inside the cold iron.
How was he going to do it? It’s very simple. First, he pulled the nearby cold iron ingot and placed it on a workbench further away. There, he tried to integrate mana into it. He didn’t really succeed, but it allowed him to prove that the cold iron was neither insensitive to it nor rejected it.
Then he moved on to his real idea. UGAEL, approaching curiously, saw her master indicate for her to bring him the hammer. Which she did before coming near him. Thus he began to strike the iron, which he had previously plunged into the embers, with the hammer he infused with mana.
With each blow of the hammer on the iron, Aelion forcibly inscribed the circuit and the lines similar to those of the runic oak that formed the runes. He continued the operation under the confused gaze of UGAEL.
The more he struck, the more the circuits and lines were inscribed deeply in the metal. When he finished a cycle, he cooled the metal, folded it, and went back to the same task.
In the end, he held the metal and showed it to UGAEL, who looked lost. However, when he began to inject mana into it, the mana flowed naturally without effort. A wide smile appeared on his face under the astonished eyes of UGAEL, who was also showing her astonishment for the first time.
"And that’s how we make a metal capable of conducting mana. I didn’t know forging would be this fun! I’ve decided! I won’t stay in the background anymore; now we will forge this weapon together. I don’t care if it’s only common, we will start over until we succeed."
[ You have acquired the skill Magic Circuit Integration! ]
[ Magic Circuit Integration ] (Level 1)
Type: Active
Description: -
Effect:
Allows engraving magic circuits on normal metals.
Increases the mana conductivity of a metal. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
[ You have created a new alloy: Cold Obscure Mythril ]
[ You have unlocked a special quest related to your profession! ]
I will see all that later.
"So? Why don’t we get to work?"
UGAEL nodded and the two started actively. With materials that sometimes required particular conditions, like the Dragonis for which a high temperature was necessary.
Aelion was in charge of engraving as many magic circuits as possible in the cold iron before it was alloyed with the Obscure Mythril. The quantity becoming substantial, he abandoned it and now took care of the small mechanisms alone. From what he had seen when UGAEL did it, it was rather easy. Just a bit of extra dexterity was required.
The real deal of this forge was the eternal steel, which was the origin of the frequent tremors in the manor. Besides being resistant to time, stainless, it was incredibly hard to work. To such an extent that UGAEL no longer limited her strength to 800; her stats reflected her true level, and yet nothing had improved.
Each strike of the hammer on the eternal steel made the entire manor tremble. The supports the automaton used did not resist for long for the most part.
The discomfort of the work was becoming more and more felt because each blow prevented him from working due not only to the sound but also the shockwave that literally spread at each encounter between the force UGAEL exerted with her hammer and the eternal steel.
The small mechanisms he assembled nearly failed to assemble correctly, in addition to his natural balance, which wavered when the manor vibrated.
Seraphina, in the kitchen, felt the effects too.
"What are the master and the assistant doing again? Those two... that’s the second time they force me to come see them. I can’t even cook in peace!!!!"
The vampiress literally rushed toward the forge, and the scene she observed left her speechless. Before, it was only UGAEL who worked the iron, which prevented Aelion from working correctly. However, being in euphoria, he had come with an idea: playing ping-pong with the incandescent metal.
The rackets? They were none other than the hammers they used and which, by chance, were made of the same steel. The automaton, following only her master’s ideas, accepted without thinking but reduced her strength to balance things a bit, and then their little crazy match began.
UGAEL launched the red-hot ingot into the air and struck with moderate force, while Aelion covered his arms with his black blood, reinforcing his arms, and struck in turn with all his strength toward his opponent.
The scene was quite surreal for Seraphina as she saw them playing so recklessly, because each return produced a horrible sound, and on top of that, sparks flew around the room uncontrollably, and their clothes burned little by little.
"CAN I KNOW WHAT KIND OF CRAZY GAME YOU’RE PLAYING? I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE FORGING AT MOST, BUT HERE I SEE YOU’RE HAVING FUN ON THE SIDE WHILE I’M GETTING ANNOYED!!"
As soon as her voice reached them, he instinctively hid his hammer and let the steel fall during his turn to strike.
"Seraphina, I didn’t expect to see you here," he said, embarrassed, avoiding her gaze.
"Master Aelion, since you didn’t strike, does that mean I won?"
Seraphina tilted her head slightly at UGAEL’s words, who, due to her lack of delicacy, may have worsened the situation.
It wasn’t just the fact that their occupation bothered her during her time in the kitchen, but seeing them both having fun this way, and especially Aelion who seemed much happier than in her company, irritated her and rather hurt her.
"When I think that I thought I was being a bit too extreme with you... this is what you show me... OK, fine," declared Seraphina, while a troubling and unhealthy laugh escaped from her lips and echoed through the whole room.
Shit, I hope she won’t do anything extreme now.
"Wait, I can explain everything," stammered Aelion, troubled.
Yet Seraphina no longer answered him. She simply looked at both of them, then left without saying anything. However, he could not forget her look. Deep inside, he could feel a hidden emotion, a madness nestled at the bottom of her gaze.
