Now that I had Axel’s measurements about his new weapon, I brought the head over to its handle. I used some Body Manipulation to get it properly fixed in and secured in place. There was little else to do to it besides that, some polishing, and a bit of sharpening.
To polish the weapon, I made what basically looks like a toothbrush and imbued the bristles with some iron to make it stiff. Then I used some good old fashioned elbow grease to get rid of the soot. It didn’t work as well as I hoped, so I tried a more magical approach to shining it up.
I brought the axe down into the furnace chamber again. I think at this point I’ll just have to call it my workshop. I held the axe with a rocky puppet I made away from my main wooden one. It was time to sand blast it, but I didn’t want to damage the puppet I cared about.
I gathered some mana and pressurized a pocket of air by trying to condense it. Then I threw in some coarse dirt into the mix and aimed it at the axe. I started with a low pressure, then slowly built it up until it was ideal for my purpose. It removed the black outer layer and gave the metal head a beautiful shine. I stayed away from the parts made of wood since those bits were fine.
My sand blasting technique got the job done in just a few minutes. Now it was time to start sharpening the blade. As a test, I brought out a root to try slicing. I made a very light cut, which did way more damage than I thought it would.
Damn. Maybe I don’t need to sharpen it after all.
I ignored the cut, seeing as it was healing already. The absolute last thing I needed to do was imbue the handle with iron and it would be finished.
That process didn’t take long, and when I was done, I received a notification.
You have learned the skill [Blacksmithing (C)]. By creating a high-quality weapon on your first try, [Blacksmithing (C)] will be upgraded to [Blacksmithing (U)].
Well, that was unexpected. And awesome. I wonder how the rarity will affect the quality of the stuff I make. And better yet, did making the knife not count as blacksmithing? I guess I didn’t use any techniques along those lines. Actually, I guess it would be more woodworking, no?
I decided to do some more woodworking for the rest of the night until the Laughing Vipers woke up. I made two more copies of the knife I made for Archy, which I would give to Axel and Aspen so they wouldn’t feel left out. I think it would be a nice group memento type of thing.
I almost want to try making Aspen a magical staff since I made an axe for Axel, except I have no idea how that would work. If she wants a staff to smack Orc on the head with, I could definitely do that, but I don’t have any idea of how to even start making something magical like that.
As for Archy, I could offer to make him a bow, but it looks like his is probably better than anything I could do at the moment. I might ask him before they leave if he wouldn’t mind me checking it out some. If I can make a bow to compete with his, then I would definitely offer him one as a gift.
All this thinking about weapons had me thinking about my own weapons, mainly my magic, and specifically, my mana. So far, I’ve just been doing what feels right with it and going with the flow. I’ve done very little experiment with mana itself, though. I think it’s time I change that.
One of my skills, Mana Circulation, lets me increase the circulation of mana in my body, which basically increases the potency of all my uses for mana. It was a vital component for when I was grinding the giant into dust as without it, I don’t think I would have been able to finish such a herculean task. Its existence has me wondering what else I can do with mana inside my own body.
I decided to start with a root. I used the root that was all the way down under me that grabbed all the iron for the axe handle and created an offshoot that stretched for about 50 feet in the direction of the road. At the end of the shoot, I created a large wooden box. There wasn’t anything special about the box, just that it was made out of my root material.
Once it was around a 3-foot cube, I started by just throwing copious amounts of mana into it. I could feel it start to leak mana out into the ground a little, but it still held most of what I put into it. After a few minutes of doing this, the mana in the box started to leak out faster than I was putting it in. At that point, I stopped and watched.
Mana kept leaking out for several more minutes. Once it reached a sort of equilibrium, I examined the root for any changes. Somehow, it felt more wet. I checked back and forth between it and a few randomly chosen roots, and they all had the same liquid consistency, but this one had a new texture to it.
I focused on bringing out that wet feeling up to my main body and down to one of my vines. As the wetness hit the vine, I could suddenly feel a lot more from it. It wasn’t necessarily a painful or pleasurable experience, but I was definitely experiencing more from it.
I brought the wet feeling to the tip of the vine and tried pushing it out. What came out was water, but most certainly not water. As the wet feeling exited my body, the water dripped down and fell to the ground. Where it dropped, I could feel a concentration of my mana.
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New skill [Mana Condensation (R)] has been learned.
Oh. That’s interesting.
This little experiment of mine cost me about 10% of my mana pool, so while I wanted to experiment with it some more, I plan on only trying it out 2 or 3 more times at most. I would try again when I’m back to full, but that’s my current limit that I’m comfortable with for now. I don’t want to be running on empty and be attacked by another mystery giant.
Two more times I tried, and two more times, I got the same result. A drop of liquid mana ran up my root then down my vine and dripped onto the soil at the base of my trunk. It was honestly an addictive feeling.
When I finished the third attempt of making the mana liquid, I was starting to get a feel for exactly how much mana I would need to concentrate it so much. As I started the fourth attempt, I made sure to focus on condensing it rather than just shoving as much as I could into a contained space.
As I pushed more mana into my cubic root, I put more effort into containment. I didn’t want to waste as much mana as the last few times. It seems to have worked, as this attempt cost only half as much as the previous three times, and came out with a similar drop of liquid mana. There was very little mana escaping the confinement of the root which made for little waste. It still cost 4% of my mana pool to make the single drop of water happen, but I still think it’s progress in mastering this new odd skill.
Through careful practice and precise mana control, you have learned the skill [Mana Efficiency(R)].
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!
I really could have used this skill a few days ago with the giant fiasco, but I guess late is better than never.
Realizing I still hadn’t checked out the description of the first skill, I pulled up descriptions for both skills I learned this night.
Mana Condensation (R): Active. User forces mana into a super condense form, resulting in liquid mana. Liquid mana restores the consumers mana at an incredible rate. Liquid mana does not dissipate, and is a valuable alchemical ingredient.
Mana Efficiency(R): Passive. User needs less mana to perform magic. Upgrading further reduces the amount of mana needed.
Okay, both are freaking AWESOME! It looks like I’ve been wasting a precious resource that I guess I should have been storing.
I quickly created a secondary hollow root cube directly under my trunk and made another drop of liquid mana. Rather than lead it to a vine and drop it into the soil, I guided it to a root that hung above the container I made and let it drop in there. This drop only cost 3% of my mana, so I made a few more before calling it good. Each drop I made gathered in the small container. As I added more drops, it would eventually fill, giving me the perfect backup source for mana if I ever ran into a situation like I did with the giant.
The next hour was spent meditating and enjoying the night as my mana refilled. By the time the sun rose and the Laughing Vipers were awakened, I was able to add a few more drops of mana into my battery.
Axel was the first one up, naturally. He ran out of the little abode I had made for them and immediately sought out my wooden puppet. Not finding it anywhere, as I had left it in the cave with the axe, he started shouting out for me. I guess he forgot that I was literally the giant tree in front of him.
“There’s no need to shout, my friend. I finished the axe last night, and I’m bringing it out now. See?”
I brought him the axe and he took it with a reverence I had never seen in him before. It was like a priest accepting a holy object, except his was an instrument of war.
Axel accepted his weapon and, after giving it some words of praise, started test swinging. The arcs of his weapon sliced through the air, some causing a vibration that could be nothing but a skill. It looked like a ‘wind cutter’ spell from most anime I used to watch in my old life.
Yah know, I should start taking more inspiration from anime. I feel like I’ve wasted too much magic on basic science stuff and should try some more outlandish stuff. Meh, that’s for another day.
I still planned on experimenting with pure mana for today, and possibly this week. Since I got such amazing results after a single night of testing, I should keep the momentum and try some more before I call it quits.
Before the Laughing Vipers left for their daily hunt, I asked Aspen about the mana capacity skill I thought about before.
“I’ve heard of a few skills like that,” she said, “but most of them involve storing mana in the body to be accessed at a time of emergency. Other than that, I can only think to increase your level.”
“Well, I already have the resource berries, which is pretty much the same thing as you described. I guess I’ll just stick to what I have for now.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Anything else you want to ask before we have to go?”
“Yeah, do you know anything about objects possessing magic power? Like your staff for instance. How does your staff work?”
She looked surprised by my question, then a flurry of thoughts crossed her mind that were too fast for me to read. I got the general impression of excitement, but her answer surprised me.
“We can talk about that tonight. It’s more of a long conversation than a short answer. But if I had to give one, then a person, or tree, would basically be forcing their will upon a magically retentive object with a specific outcome in mind. There’s more to it, but that’s the gist.”
I see. So, if I want to give her an improved staff, then I would need something with a magical affinity. But, uh….
“What does magically retentive mean?” I had an idea, but I was still ignorant about a lot that they might see as common knowledge.
“It basically means that it has the capacity to hold mana for a long time. Like a mana-soaked rock might be turned into a more mana retentive material over time due to saturation. Rocks in dungeons are a lot more mana responsive than rocks out in the world due to them existing in an area of high mana concentration.”
“Then what about your staff? How does that work?” I feel like that was a smooth way of asking without giving away my intentions. But I also had to resist the urge to ask about dungeons. They were a fantasy staple that I would never get to experience due to my stationary stature. I mean, I was perfectly happy with my current life, but an ex-weeb has to dream, right?
“It was made from the wood of a living tree, similar to you, actually. It’s a family heirloom that was passed on to me from my mother when I came of age. She got it from her mother, who got it from her mother, and so on for around 9 generations now. The original owner, my great, great whatever grandmother did a favor for the tree who rewarded her with this. It’s held up great over the years, but I think I will need to upgrade soon. It wasn’t made very well, but it works great for a beginner staff.”
Well, that’s the perfect excuse for me to give her an upgrade. I still need to know the specifics of it, but that can wait for tonight when they get back.
After we finished talking, the Laughing Vipers set out to hunt some Orcs while I continued my mana training. I still had a way to go before my battery was full.
Should I keep skill names in bold, or let them be as normal text?
