Chapter 123: Runecraft (1/2)

Half an hour after his chat with Flavia, Rakna was back at Old Wang's place to continue practicing his forging skills. This time, he was hammering a smaller piece of steel to make one of the throwing weapons he handled the best; chakrams. At the same time, he was trying out a new technique.

”Still a bit too much,” Old Wang commented as he saw the mana spread out of the hammer's face when it struck the steel. ”To properly forge magically reinforced weapons, you have to fill every gap in the metal with a very precise but minute amount of mana.”

”Easier said than done,” Rakna huffed.

”Haha, well, it'll come to you soon enough. Trial and error; experience and luck. They're keys. It's all about fine-tuning. I can see that you have a very good mana control but it's not all you need for this. As a matter of fact, my mana control isn't very high, as you probably have seen, but it's not what makes mana forging possible. It's more a result of your blacksmithing proficiency.”

”Basically, what you're trying to say is just 'practice until you get good'?”

”Yes.”

Rakna sighed and channeled his soul power as he brought his hammer down in order to make his mind as calm and empty as possible. It was a nifty trick that his soul power allowed him to do so that his concentration would be sharp and unbreakable.

He tried several different doses of mana to pour into the hammer, all ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 mana points. Ultimately, he discovered a good spot and an hour later, he had a sharpened and finished circular-edged weapon in front of him, bringing his blacksmithing up by one level.

Rakna picked it up and made it spin around his finger. He skillfully lobbed it to his other hand without breaking the spin and hummed as he tested the weight and balance. The nice thing about chakrams was that the only thing they needed was their blade and so, for the most part, it had been easy to make it.

Additionally, since he had used mana to do so, it was a lot stronger than Alzero for instance. Sadly, he hadn't been able to take advantage of the focal points as much as he would've wanted since if he had injected the strings with mana by mistake it could have shattered the weapon.

Old Wang inspected the chakram with squinted eyes. ”Hm, it seems your magic element has been merged with the steel. You must have quite a unique affinity, unlike mine that is specifically meant to affect metal.”

Rakna snorted. ”You could say that.”

”Well, since you made a chakram, how about I teach you a useful skill?” Old Wang declared and drew something in midair with his finger. It looked like a weird jagged letter and when he finished it, it ignited itself and produced a short-lived flame.

”{Runecraft,}” Higure remarked from back within the soul realm. ”{What a coincidence.}”

”This is runic magic. It's one of the best and most simple ways you can have to give special abilities to a weapon. Normally, to make a weapon powerful, you can either pour as much mana as you can inside the weapon over the course of days, weeks, months, and even years. Or you can use special materials like mithril, bones, gems, blood, silver, etcetera. But, for the more mundane, you use enchantments or runic carving.”

”With runes, you could for example make it so that your weapon would return to your hand after your throw it,” the old dwarf explained. ”So? Wanna try?”

”{Devourer, allow me to manifest,}” the lioness said. Rakna didn't mind and he mentally agreed as her ghost appeared in the smithy, though with a smaller size. Old Wang's eyes widened at the sudden appearance of a soul, but other than that, he didn't seem to be too shocked.

”{You seem to be used to this. Have you dealt with ghosts before?}” Higure asked as she created a telepathic link between the three of them.

”Not exactly… but some weapons tend to develop spirits and I encountered a few.”

”{Ah, fair enough. Anyhow, I am a soul sharing Rakna's own, I'm here to tell you that I would like to train him myself at runecraft since I had reached Demi-God level when I was alive.}”

”Oh!” The dwarf exclaimed in awe as he stroked his beard. ”A master of runes then. It's an honor to be meeting one.”

”{Thank you for the praise but runes were never my specialty, to be honest. I had a lot of free time you see; that's what centuries in seclusion does to you,}” she said with a laugh.

”{I heard your conversation with my devourer and I wanted to extend to you a proposition. From what I understand, you have learned some runecraft because it was useful but never expounded on it because you thought your blacksmithing in itself was better than whatever it may be able to achieve, am I right?}”

”You would be correct.”

”{Then, hear me out. I will teach you runecraft at the same time as Rakna as thanks for guiding him through the steps of smithing. My runecraft is more advanced than most and I know some runes that will prove themselves invaluable to your work.}”