thomasdarkrose
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Vol. 5 - Journey - Chapter 35
🕑 Added 2019-08-26 18:49:08 +0000 UTCThomas stored the iron ingot back inside of his inventory and looked at one of the rainbow ingots he'd purchased earlier. As he was reaching for it the driver of the cargo wagon in the lead called out, "We're arriving!"
Thomas looked up and saw that they weren't too far from the gates of Jarns. The sun was beginning to set and the day would soon be coming to a close. The new ingots would have to wait for a bit it seemed. The remainder of the trip to the small, but bustling, city was finished in just a few minutes.
Once they were inside, Thomas found a guard and asked for directions to a middle-class inn. Given the size of the city and the amount of traffic flowing through it, the inn industry was booming. The guard easily gave Thomas directions to a half dozen inns within steps of each other, just in case some were fully booked. The trip was quick and easy thanks to the directions and introduction to the area from the guard. The first two inns were fully booked, but the third had a room available for rent.
By the time their room was booked the sun was beginning to set. Dinner was a nice affair with a couple of mugs of ale included. The room they retired to had a nice large bed, desk, and chair. Snowlily hopped up onto the large bed and made herself comfortable while Thomas pulled out the chair at the desk and sat down. He retrieved a random ingot that he'd purchased earlier in the day and set it on the desk. This particular ingot had a yellowish tint to it, almost golden. The ingot still had the silver that could be expected from metal but with the golden tint shrouding it. It was like looking at a regular iron ingot through tinted glasses.
After observing its outer appearance, Thomas placed his hand on the ingot and sent his mana through it to form a loop within it. When his mana returned to him he could feel the changes to his mana a bit more easily than the first time. There were several of them. First, his mana flowed through this ingot far more easily than through the iron ingot. What took a full second with the plain iron ingot only took about half a second with this yellow-tinted ingot. Second, his mana felt like it was a little 'harder' than when it went through the iron ingot making him think it should be a better metal. And Third, the mana that returned felt 'tingly' when it touched his hand giving him the impression that the yellow tint represented the lightning element. Which was hardly a surprise.
In almost every game he had ever played color was a very clear indicator of elements. Lightning was almost always yellow, fire was red, water was blue, ice was a lighter shade of blue, and so on for the various elements. This yellow-tinted ingot being lightning oriented was almost obvious. Still, there could be exceptions sometimes so it was best to always check to be certain.
Now, the real question was, what kind of metal was the ingot made from? He was certain that it was not iron. It didn't feel right and the mana conductivity of the ingot was too fast and smooth. He pulled out the book on metallurgy and flipped through the pages. A bit of reading lead him to the conclusion that the ingot was most likely to be mithril. According to the book mithril, being a highly magic conductive metal, was a metal that was easily influenced by the elements and the most common metal found to be affected.
There were other possibilities, of course. Though some, such as adamantine could easily be dismissed. Not only did the ingot not have the appearance of adamantine, but adamantine was one of the few metals that were horrible at mana conduction. It wasn't impossible, it was just that it was slow and inefficient so adamantine, and similar metals, were labeled as useless for magical gear in general. What it all really boiled down to was that he was just guessing. It could be mithril, it could be deep silver, it could be a number of other metals. He would have to get an ingot of regular mithril and compare the two to know for sure.
He sighed and leaned back in the chair, lifting the two front legs off the ground as he balanced it. The book on metallurgy was extremely helpful, it was just that his lack of experience within AoG was limiting what he could know for certain. Sadly, there were no shortcuts there. In other games he could just pick up any random ingot and the game system would let him know what it was but here, he had to know the metal to know for certain. Such a pain. He dropped the chair back down on all four legs so he could store the lightning ingot and the metallurgy book. He dug through his inventory until he found a book on blacksmithing.
He chose a book on blacksmithing as he wanted to get a better understanding of how blacksmithing was done in this world with metals of higher tiers than iron and steel. The metallurgy book had listed special treatment processes so it stood to reason that there might be special forging processes to go along with them. It would be a shame if he got his hands on some mithril and ruined it because he didn't know how to handle it properly.
The book on blacksmithing was, for lack of a better word, profound. Thomas was confident in his blacksmithing skills. It was one of the things he was best known for and he considered himself to be rather knowledgable in the field. This book though... it shattered that confidence. Everything he had made so far from his pseudo-magical weapons to his uncommon grade weapons... all of it was just an accident. Something he found to be a sick joke. The more he read in the book the more he realized that if he had continued to do things the way he was used to doing them, the less success he would have had.
The only reason the things he made were higher than normal rarity was simply because of his habit of folding iron and steel. With purer metals, it did very little to make the metal better and didn't serve the original purpose that folding metal was created for. He simply did it because he enjoyed doing it and it gave him a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. This habit of his, along with his enchantments, were the only reasons that anything he made rose above normal rarity.
In fact, according to the book, his greatest achievement and the closest he had come to making a true magical weapon was all the way back in the beginning. His pseudo-magical kukri was the closest to 'proper' blacksmithing that he had come in this world. Everything after that was just luck, accidental, enchanting, or using the purified heart items. Thomas couldn't help sighing as he read the book further and discovered just how wrong his methods had been. Even worse, he was upset that no one had bothered pointing them out to him.
To forge something truly magical, with the magic innately part of the item with no enchantments, required that the metal be forged into an embryo first. This was not a foreign concept by any means. Many games with eastern influences in them had the concept of an embryo being the 'core' or 'foundation' of forging. The blacksmith would first forge the embryo out of the metal making the item giving it more power. Once the embryo was forged out into a weapon or armor it would contain innate magical power. This was the true form of forging anything magical within AoG. This was why his pseudo-magical kukri was the closest he had ever come to real forging within AoG. It was the only thing he had forged with innate magical properties. Everything else was enhanced with enchantments!
Just take the shortsword he was currently using. It was only magical grade because he had enchanted it with the wing enchantment around the blade to make it cut better. If he had forged a proper wind infused embryo and then enchanted it, it likely would have become an uncommon rarity item from the start! Only now, with his failures so plainly put in front of him, did he understand why Hekrin had told him that infusing his magic into an item was the proper way to create something with Magitech Engineering. All of the things he was so proud of, all of the things he created, trash.
He pulled his Spell Cannon out of his inventory and stared at it. It gleamed silver in the dull light of the lamp-lit room. It looked slick and impressive with the complex enchanting ring wrapped around the barrel and the lines carved into it with the purified mana crystals. When he had finished it, it had instantly become his most powerful weapon and greatest achievement. Looking at it now, it was nothing but a hunk of garbage that he should be embarrassed to be using. The only thing he felt he could still be proud of was the variable enchantments he had built into it... Then again...
He looked inside of his inventory at the pile of books he'd purchased and saw several with titles related to enchanting. He became fearful that all his experimentation and achievements with enchanting were really just something that existed previously. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd been wasting his time and should have instead been burying his nose inside of books. Had everything he'd done so far been a waste of time? Worse, had his own ego and hubris caused him to walk down the wrong path?
As he thought about it he started to wonder if he was not only behind on his personal strength but in crafting as well. After all, he had been the first person to make a magical item, the system had rewarded him while informing him of that. Yet, when he made the uncommon rarity Gravity Hammer there had not been a notice. Meaning... Someone else had already made an uncommon rarity item before him.
He rested his head in his hands with his elbows on the desk as he contemplated that. If he was not the best at crafting then what use was his pride in it? He had walked down the path of crafting since long ago because he simply couldn't compete in any other field. He was a decent fighter but nothing compared to the professionals. He'd tried entering PvP tournaments a long time ago and got his ass handed to him many many times. He'd tried many things and it took years before he turned to the 'lowly' profession skills. However, he found he had a knack for them and quickly fell in love with the whole process of making something amazing out of the 'scraps' from monsters and metal dug from the earth.
He took a deep breath and lifted his head to look at the still open book of forging in front of him. He needed to let his pride and ego go for now. He needed to change his thinking and truly look at how things were done within AoG. Someone may have pulled ahead of him in crafting but they would only enjoy their position for so long! If he could force inferior items into higher rarity tiers through the sheer complexity of what he was doing, then couldn't he push his crafting to greater heights by doing it properly?
Thomas stopped caring about his failures and shortcomings. Failure was allowed. Falling on his face was allowed. What really mattered was getting back up and pushing forward. It wasn't some great genius or impossible skill that had made him into the most famous crafting in the gaming community. It was perseverance. Starting as a nobody who barely knew that metal needed to be hot before hitting it with a hammer and progressing step by painful step. Working non-stop to get better, to improve, to become the best version of himself that he could be. That is what made him the greatest, not any single item he'd ever made.
He buckled down and studied the book on forging seriously. He dismissed his preconceptions and focused on just learning how forging worked in this world. He would grow, improve, and learn until he was once again the top crafter in the world. That was his goal, his ambition. To reach that goal he studied the book on forging like a college kid cramming for a final exam. He didn't pay attention to the time, or the light snoring of Snowlily on the bed. All that mattered to him were the words written by an experienced blacksmithing master on the pages in front of him. He didn't feel tired or hungry as the hours passed. He only felt excitement. Knowledge was a powerful weapon for most people. For him, it was the most powerful!
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