Chapter 77 - Divine Imprints (1/2)

It didn't take long for Krune to arrive at the Blacksmiths Hall, he went to the counter and asked if it was possible to talk with a blacksmith at the moment.

”According to your ID you are contestant Krune, right? All participants of the Mercenary Selection this time have high priority in the requests here in the Blacksmiths Hall, I will request one of them to see you in a moment, please wait in that room.”

The attendant pointed at a door not too far, Krune went there and waited for the blacksmith to come, a few minutes later, a man who looked to be in his middle age appeared, but Krune could feel that his cultivation had definitely reached the Core Formation Stage, so he was certainly much older than he appeared.

”Hello there, I'm the Five Stars Blacksmith Marcus, you are the one who needs some advice, right?”

Krune nodded, he then took out some paper drawings that he had made and passed it over to Marcus, after taking a look on then, Marcus was impressed, it wasn't that it looked like it was hard to make or had any impressive design, the thing that surprised him was the quantity, he looked at Krune and asked.

”Hexagonal Flying Shields, right?”

”It's not hard to make, but are you sure you want this many? You definitely won't be able to control all of them at the same time, are the rest of them just spare shields?”

Krune then took out of his spatial ring Thirty-Eight spirit stones, they were just low-level ones, he threw them in the air and they start to float, he was using the spiritual energy inside and his own Divine Sense to control them, after that he started to make several different movements, sometimes they separated, sometimes converged in line, other times they formed a barrier, Marcus saw that and was really taken aback.

”What a frightening Soul Power and Divine Sense!”

Krune recovered his spirit stones back after that, the reason why he used spirit stones to practice was that they already had spiritual energy inside them, so he didn't need to charge the spirit stones beforehand.

”The control isn't a problem, so how much you think it would cost to do this work?”

Marcus pondered a bit, Krune had asked for Thirty-Eight pieces, although they aren't hard to make, there is the problem of the materials, but most important of all, it was the Divine Imprints.

”For me to attend your specs, I will need at least Spiritual Azure Steel, different from other equipment, they will need to hold Spiritual Energy, fly and attach to each other, but those can be dealt with, the main issue here is the Divine Imprint that each one of them will need.”

Krune was puzzled.

”What is a Divine Imprint?”

Marcus then explained.

”For weapons like swords, for example, the user will only need to hold them, the weapon won't be leaving their hands, so a Divine Imprint isn't necessary, but for weapons like flying swords, the user will need to control them with their Divine Sense which is greatly affected by their Soul Power, if you don't use a Divine Imprint, someone with a stronger Divine sense and Soul power can simply take control over your flying sword and then you will have no more weapon.”

Krune understood the logic.

”Then we do a Divine Imprint.”

Marcus shook his head.

”If it was just one or at most three Divine Imprints, I would ask you to simply make them straight away and put the imprint in the piece of equipment that you want me to forge, in fact, with your Soul Power and Divine Sense, you probably could use even seven or eight, but there is Thirty-Eight Hexagonal Shields, once you put your Divine Imprint Inside, it will change a little during the time of the forging, so all your Thirty-Eight Shields are bound to have different Divine Imprints inside in the end.”

Krune was still puzzled.

”And is it a problem?”

Marcus then continued.

”A big problem, the compatibility of Divine Sense and the Divine Imprint have to be the same, but since there would be only one or at most eight pieces, you shouldn't have any issues matching the compatibility necessary and control them, but to have Thirty-Eight different types of Divine Imprints and change your Divine Sense in Thirty-Eight compatible types will put a gigantic burden on the soul, even with a Divine Sense and Soul Power like yours, like I said, I reckon that you would be able to control at most seven or eight shields at once, and that is already very difficult.”

Marcus then gave him an idea.

”But you could, for example, make seven bigger shields, it would be easier to control.”

Krune shook his head.

”In that case, I won't be able to change them in several forms like I'm planning, they will also be much heavier, which will make them harder to control due to the G Force, is there no other way to keep the Divine Imprints identical?”

Marcus nodded.

”There is, you have two options here, the second option is out of question, so let me tell you the first.”

”Divine Imprints are things that we blacksmiths specialize with, if you can create a Divine Imprints on par with the level of the equipment, they will not change after the forging is done, but in that case, they must be done by yourself.”

Krune finally understood.

”Does it mean that Divine Imprints are pieces of equipment themselves, is it not just some Divine Sense ability?”

Marcus laughed after hearing that.

”Of course not, doesn't matter how strong your Divine Sense is, if you use it alone without anything else, it will disappear sooner or later, Divine Imprints are like talismans, something you make by fusing your Blood and Divine Sense into a seal that is then attached to the equipment during the forging, once the equipment is done, only the Divine Imprint owner can control it.”

”Because usually, cultivators use weapons and armors that are held by their hands and bodies, Divine Imprints aren't that necessary, even if they do use something like a flying sword, they would have one, two, or at most three of them, so even the most basic Divine Imprint is already more than enough for them.”

”Simply put, to use this option, you will need to become a blacksmith yourself.”

Krune then asked what the second option is.

Marcus once again laughed.

”The second option is out of your reach when a cultivator reaches the Divine Soul Realm or higher, they are able to use their Divine Sense and Blood to imprint an ownerless piece of equipment, in that case, the blacksmith would make identical Divine Imprint Seals and the Divine Soul Cultivator can simply bound it to himself later, otherwise, any high-level cultivator would need to become a blacksmith themselves, that is too unrealistic.”

Krune just shook his head, there is a long way until he reaches the Divine Soul Realm.