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The Exalt - Act 1: Blue Ocean Pavilion - Chapter 229: Reis Forging
🕑 Added 2023-01-07 04:00:02 +0000 UTC"To do Reis forging, you must be very delicate. Reis is a power that draws on physical forces rather than Ein. The momentum must remain undisturbed through the armament much like how you flow it through your body." Rosett made an odd motion to explain the flow of momentum by waving her arms
"So then? We recreate something like our own body?" Oscar asked. "The process for when I learned Reis was to feel each muscle through my body and let it go through. How do we replicate that with armaments?"
"For years, I researched as Draven complained about the armaments slowly impeding the power of his Reis. Although he's also a fabricator, I'm far more talented than him." Rosett puffed out her chest in pride. "Figuring it out wasn't easy, but the good part was that I got to speak to Draven much longer."
Oscar chuckled. He could never imagine his master talking with Aunt Rosett for a long time alone. Following her hand gesture, he went to the crucible she held out and peered inside for a closer look. "It looks like a normal mixture of materials."
"It is. Reis forging is the steps afterward. The steps you have taken for normal forging were to refine materials, extract the core, and create the formation. Three steps for the norm, but Reis forging is to add an extra step before you create your formation." Rosett sounded grand, and her voice echoed powerfully across the room. Oscar noticed she was having fun doing this.
"Now, watch closely," Rosett advised.
Oscar moved closer to the anvil, where she laid down a mold. He watched as Aunt Rosett poured a tiny portion of the molten mixture, enough to spread thinly across the square mold. Her hammer lifted high and started to tap all over the tiny sheet of molten material.
As she did, the material started to cool slightly and settle. Then, again, Rosett poured another tiny portion. She repeated this on end until finally, the crucible had emptied, and a large block of molten metal resided on top of the anvil; if one could see closely, there were lines across its surface.
Oscar heard her breathing quite heavily; this process must have been extremely taxing for her, but he could not see or feel any indication of what else she could have done other than pour little bits at a time while hammering in between. He opened his mouth, about to ask his question when Aunt Rosett picked up the large chunk and placed it in the furnace to burn.
Once the chunk began to burn to a bright orange again, the lines that made up its structure resembling a large stack of paper, Aunt Rosett pulled it out and began hammering it.
Oscar admired her hammer strikes, seeing how quick and efficient they were. The large chunk of metallic sheets began to thin, getting lower and lower, but the width oddly did not increase. It resembled the usual refinement of raw ores into thin purified plates, but he knew this process was different.
Finally, the large chunk had become a large molten bar; Oscar believed it was over, but Aunt Rosett took it and placed it back into the furnace to burn up again. Once it was out, she held the molten bar with her tongs in one hand and the hammer in the other. Each time she struck the molten bar, she rotated it ever so slightly with the tongs.
Oscar stared in disbelief. She was twisting the molten bar with this method, resembling one of the many twisted marble pillars around the Pavilion. Looking deeper, Oscar could see the many lines coiled around.
Once the entire bar was coiled around, Aunt Rosett placed her hammer down and turned to Oscar. "This is the step for Reis forging. Once you've reached this part, you can start melding in the core formation and create the armament. It looks simple right?"
Oscar nodded. "But it's not, right?"
"Of course not." Aunt Rosett sat on the stool. "It's incredibly draining, and there is a purpose in hammering each different sheet. If you fail, you will have to restart."
"Please teach me!" Oscar didn't know how hard it would be, but seeing her at work made him want to start. He wanted to use his hammer so badly that his hands were aching and shaking.
"Come here." Rosett chuckled at Oscar's impatient figure. She threw the materials back into the crucible to melt down and be ready for his turn. "What did you think when you saw the finished product?"
Oscar calmed down and pondered. The individual sheets were lined on top of each other, set to melt in the furnace, and finished off with her clean hammer strikes. But all throughout, he remembered the lines never merged but only squeezed so tightly together that it was hard to see them.
Then there was the finishing twist that coiled the lines. But they looked familiar to Oscar. He had seen these linings before, and his mind collected back through his memories.
"Muscles." Oscar snapped his fingers. He had seen a similar structure every day whenever he used 'Reis Awaken' to look into his body. The setup of the Reis forging on this material was similar to the muscles inside living things. "Am I correct?"
Rosett clapped her hands together. "If you didn't know, despite being a Reis user who looks at their muscular structure daily, I would have kicked you out. You are correct. The basis of Reis forging is to make the structure similar to our own muscles. The individual sheets are the building blocks of this forging. They act as the muscle strands."
"But how does that help the Reis flow through?" Oscar grew confused. Reis flowed through his muscles because he actively controlled each part to allow the Reis to move, but he could not do the same for an armament. Yet, his bulwark and hammer, created by Reis forging, also conducted Reis so freely without his active interference.
"The coiling. We fine-tune the sheets so they are thin straight lines on the surface and then coil and twist them. After many experiments, this makeup of the armament allows the Reis to flow through the twisting lines as though they travel harmoniously by each layer and output through the end, unmarred by the resistance a typical solid armament might give." Rosett pulled out the crucible with the melted metal. "These materials are grade one, so you won't have to worry. But the crucial point is to form the sheets properly."
Oscar lifted his hammer, ready to strike the moment Rosett would pour.
Rosett came back to the anvil but did not pour yet. There was still much to explain. "The Reis forging is divided into three steps of its own, creating the sheets to form the layers and lines, heating it and hammering it so they compact, then twisting it."
"How do I create the sheets?" Oscar asked.
"You noticed I hammered each sheet. I used my Ein to set up proper links between the sheets, like nails through wooden boards, and flatten them thinly. The key is ensuring your Ein is maintained, not allowing the sheets to touch or stick to each other. The process is delicate and if any sheets mold together, restart."
Oscar felt a mountain on his shoulders from this tremendous task. Although it sounded simple enough, the key was his Ein control and usage. If he slipped up even once, whether his Ein was too weak in separating the sheets or his Ein was too strong in creating the links and accidentally melded sheets together. "So the Ein would be the buffer and the nail. That's a hard task."
"You'll have a slightly easier time with Ein Awaken, but it is hard. Reis forging is something no one should delve into unless they truly need it. So you must do it." Rosett did not waste more words and poured a slight bit of the molten metal onto the mold.
Oscar reacted fast and hammered down on the first sheet. The first sheet was the easiest because only the anvil was underneath it. But the true task came in the second sheet.
After the first sheet formed properly, Rosett poured another douse of molten metal. Oscar surged his Ein to form a thin protective layer to prevent the molten material from melting into the first sheet. The blue swirls on his hammer shone brightly as the Ein flowed into it.
The hammer fell onto the corner of the sheet as his Ein dug into it, puncturing through the first and second sheets and linking them at those particular spots while his protective layer of Ein ensured nothing else linked up. Oscar continued this for the other corners, following what he saw Aunt Rosett does, a nail of Ein in each corner, middle of each edge, and the center; the sheets combined at those points.
After Oscar hammered his final nail of Ein into the center, he sighed in relief and breathed out.
"Don't lose concentration!" Rosett shouted.
But it was too late. Oscar opened his eyes and saw that his Ein was lax, letting the second sheet meld into the first in several places between them, ruining the delicate balance he had set up. Oscar wanted to curse himself for being so neglectful.
"It was a good try, but a single moment can ruin everything," Rosett said. She placed the failed sheets back into the crucible.
"I underestimated it." Oscar groaned. But this was how it always went for fabricators. Oscar nodded to Rosett, who poured a fresh new sheet onto the now empty mold.
He struck his hammer down with a clear ringing of metal.
