If his spear was the work of a master painterâor at least an incredibly skilled apprenticeâhis mana within had all the artistic value of Bogâs slag droppings. To his senses, the item was filled with a tangled web of broken strands of mana.
He examined his knife to be certain his older work wasnât so horrible inside, and he found while there was mana deep within it, it was hardly detectable even to his increased magical perception.
Caleb had been judgmental of his masterâs work with the hammer, but his master was an adolescent artist compared to the toddler level work of his own mana within the spear.
âHow did it get in there?â he asked himself.
With his perception still active, he went back to work, heating the spearhead and examining the mana within as he did. As the metal grew hotter and the structures within weakened, the mana heâd beaten in loosened with it and began to move freely through the weapon. The loose mana didnât leave the item, however.
He reached out with his Mana Manipulation and tried to pull the mana out of the spear, but he couldnât control the mana, as it wasnât in his pool. Caleb walked closer to the spear so that the pool of mana surrounding him contained the heating weapon and tried again. Still he couldnât directly pull the mana out of the spear, but mist did begin to rise slowly from the spear of its own accord, mist which his pool then absorbed. He was certain that hadnât occurred while the item sat on the anvil within his pool earlier.
Mana Manipulation has increased to level 5.
A quick check of his status page showed his mana regen in this âaverageâ environment had just increased from 2.22 mana per minute to 2.25. A part of him wanted to figure out the math behind all the stats, but compared to the smithing task and the mana mystery in front of him, that part was a snowflake in the avalanche of his curiosity.
Next, he reached out to the spear with a tendril of his mana and tried to push it into the metal. He felt the barest sliver of the mana enter, but the limited success reminded him of his previous efforts to shape the metal with his will.
Caleb used the tendril to lift the hot steel and moved it to the forge. Once it was there, he kept the mana on the surface and swung his hammer into it, pushing the mana into the steel with his will as the hammer struck.
Mana Manipulation has increased to level 6.
âI did it!â he cheered, not sure what exactly he did.
The mana of the tendril had left him, depleting his pool by 1 as the mana was hammered into the weapon. A check of his status page showed his regen had increased by another .02 to 2.27 and his capacity was nearly at 200, just half a point shy.
Eagerly he examined the mana in the spear, and all his joy vanished as he saw the giant scar heâd just marred his creation with. A long streak of mana filled the spearhead. Where his other accidental mana strands had been a tangled spiderweb, this intentional piece was like a snake caught in that web, dwarfing the other strands and forcing them to bend around it while still lacking any artistic merit.
He examined the hammer that granted him a point of strength. While he wasnât sure how he knew which strands granted the strength bonus, he was certain he did. The strands, while chaotic and malformed, were thin and delicate, the natural product of his unintentional hammerings. Looking at his nearly full mana pool, and comparing the spearhead to his masterâs work, he realized he needed a more delicate hand.
Caleb sighed, placing the spear back in the coals and heating it faster with his wind magic.
Once he was ready to begin again, he tried a new approach. He focused on his mana pool this time, pushing the mana away from the spear, creating a bubble in the mist that surrounded and suffused him. He swung down on the spear, ensuring that there was no mana between hammer and steel, and when he struck, he pushed at the mana within.
Like a ripple through a pond, the blow pushed all the mana in the spear, forcing some out of the metal, where his pool greedily absorbed it.
Mana Manipulation has increased to level 7.
Caleb didnât even notice the notification and the fact that his mana pool had increased beyond 200. He was realizing how to restore the beauty of his spear.
A few hours and many ignored notifications later, Caleb stared in awe at the spearhead in front of him, the weapon completely devoid of mana. As heâd worked, his ability to perceive mana increased, showing him more nuance in the mana within his masterâs hammer. So with each increase, more flaws in the spear became known, and when those were removed, more increases came, showing more flaws still.
Now he finally had a blank canvas on which he could experiment.
Caleb dove into the hammer with his new perception, looking at each facet of the mana that spoke to him as beautiful despite the chaos of it. Delicately he worked to pull strands from his pool and shape them like the hammerâs, copying the mana within.
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The strands fell apart in his mind, but he kept at it. His eyes were too crude and clumsy to truly appreciate the nuances of the designs, and he reverted to only using his affinity sensesâreviewing the mana in the hammer with his Metal Affinity as he compared it to the strand he was creating in the air with his Wind Affinity.
Finally, after more ignored level-up notifications, Caleb deemed the first strand ready. It didnât match the one in the hammer exactlyâhis masterâs work had been done blindly, after allâbut it had all the parts that spoke of deeper truths contained within it. He laid the first strand down on the spear and struck.
Unlike before, only a sliver of mana left his pool with the strike, and when he inspected the spearhead, he saw it perfectly preserved within.
More notifications appeared, but still he ignored them.
Cautiously, he moved the spear back to the flame, watching the mana as the weapon heated. Just as the temperature of the metal reached the point where the mana loosened, he stepped closer, engulfing the metal in his pool. He pressed the mana on all sides, willing it to stay still until the temperature of the metal was right, then pulled the weapon out.
He sagged with relief when he saw the strand within just as it had been. Confident heâd not lose the work on the next heating, he went back to copying more strands.
Caleb once more lost himself in the smithing, and Bog took it upon himself to tend the fire. Heâd been watching Caleb do so for hours, and whether it was his nature as a dragon or his bond with Caleb, the young creature was able to manage the fire as well as any apprentice blacksmith.
He crawled up onto the side of the forge, dipping his foreclaws in and shovelling the coal without aid of a tool. Cautiously he took a nibble of a burning coal, and found while it wasnât metal, it was still enjoyable. When Caleb put the spear back in to reheat, Bog used his Wind Affinity to stoke the flames back up to a high heat, and when the iron was removed he lay down in the coals, spreading them out with his body as he rolled around in the heat.
Long after Bog grew bored of watching and tending the fire, having fallen asleep in the coals using the long-since overheated and collapsed pot as a pillow, Calebâdehydrated, hungry and covered in sweat and grimeâstepped back from the anvil to take in what heâd made.
The spear was fresh from the quenching tank. Heâd been nervous in the lead-up to that final operation, watching the mana within, carefully holding the form together in his mind as the metal heated. All his fears had been relieved, though, when he placed the hot blade with its loose structure and mana matrix into the oil and saw the rapid cooling lock it all in place.
Never before had he worked for so long, but the ability to use his mana to strengthen his blows, only needing his muscles to guide the strike, allowed him to work almost tirelessly. Briefly heâd attempted to use Power Attack to draw upon his stamina and further lengthen his endurance, but quickly found his accuracy with the skill to be nonexistent, making it unsuited for the delicate stage of the forging process heâd been in.
The shaping of the mana had grown harder the more heâd put into the weapon. Heâd been forced to rearrange the strands, but found that he could shift them almost the same way he pressed the mana from the steel. Through his repeated hammering, he sensed it as the cold aspect of his hammer leached into the earth aspect of the spear, muddling both and causing Calebâs sense of the combined aspect to grow vague and uncertain.
The blade was black with scale, and in dire need of grinding, sharpening and polishing, but to Calebâs magical senses, it was the most beautiful work of smithing heâd ever seen. The steel itself was free of flaws. As heâd worked and the notifications came unchecked, his ability to perceive flaws increased, but in the end, with the last few increases in perception, no new flaws appeared.
The spear was devoid of mana, save for what he put in it intentionally. Comparing it now to his masterâs hammer, Caleb couldnât fathom how heâd been impressed by the crude work just that morning. The enchantment in the hammer was like a vein of gold running through a cliffâbeautiful in a wild natural way. His was simple, and clean. Through his work, heâd refined the pattern, identifying through some ineffable manner which parts resonated with the world and the essence within him, and which did not.
The mana in his spear was a neat network of lines, buried deep in the core, safe from the finishing work heâd yet to do, and the battles it would aid him in.
Hesitantly, he reached out for the head and touched it.
Journeyman Dissonant Steel Spearhead of Strength (+3) (uncommon)
Weapon type: Spear (incomplete)
Material: Steel
Aspect: Dissonant
Effects:
Strength (+3)
âWell, thatâs new,â Caleb said as the words appeared in front of him.
Then he burst into a manic laughter born of his exhausted state.
âWhat isnât?â he asked Bog, only noticing then that his little dragon friend had fallen asleep in the coals.
The dragonâs hide had begun to glow red like workable steel, but Caleb sensed through the bond the comfort Bog felt.
âPlus threeâ¦â he said, finally taking in the message. âI did it.â
Heâd finally achieved what he set out on his trip to do. Heâd created a magical item, one recognized by the system.
The laughter returned as he thought back on the events that led him here. His goalâno, his dreamâhad been to get a common crafting class, and thisâ¦
This was so, so, much better.
No common, or even uncommon, crafting class would have let him do what heâd done today, trapped in a strange forge in a stranger cave with only mundane steel at his disposal.
Finally free of his mania, he found the persistent pulse in his mind telling of unread system messages was too much to ignore.
Notification, he thought, calling the screen.
Mana Manipulation has increased to level 5.
â¦
Mana Manipulation has increased to level 13.
Imperium Metallorum has increased to level 5.
â¦
Imperium Metallorum has increased to level 9.
Imperium Ventorum has increased to level 5.
Imperium Ventorum has increased to level 6.
Magical Perception has increased to level 2.
Magical Perception has increased to level 3.
Dragon Bond has increased to level 6.
Your class Dragon Rider has increased to level 3.