To cool the stone crucible, I let air do the job so that the sudden cooling won’t make it brittle. It takes maybe a minute for the outside to stop glowing, at which point I remove the conjured cup and let it dissipate. When the inside stops glowing, I stop spinning the crucible, and put it down on the ground a bit later.

All right! The melting technique works wonderfully, and has earned me [Mana Forging]. I had hoped it fell under [Mana Crafting], but at least the ability counts for the [Artificer] class. That also means I don’t get the [System] assist unless I swap my abilities or classes around. That said, I have found that practicing an ability while it’s not equipped can be enlightening, and it might even helper level up faster. At least the ‘Skill Level’.

…I just realised I don’t even need the crucible, not here anyway, but if I make a magic forge it will come in handy. For now, let’s melt the metals. They’re just bits and pieces of scrap, but since I’ll melt them down anyway it doesn’t matter. Wouldn’t think it to be as hard as it is to get some metal. I mean, I found websites where I could order metals online (creatively named just that), but in the local area? Buyers, yes, sellers, no.

In the end I followed a tip at some forum and just called areas where they work with metals to ask if they could give me any scraps. The first place I called said that’d be fine as long as I came by during work hours to pick it up. Steel, aluminum, copper. Well, for now let’s just melt it all to ingots instead of all these bits and pieces. I should probably separate different alloys if I can.

As best as I can determine there are at least two different steel alloys and only one of the others. I want to turn them into something more manageable, so I intend to make it into ingots. To do that, I take a mana stone from my artifice kit, and conjure a somewhat flat block around it, which I make four ingot shapes in. With the mana stone I won’t need to constantly feed it mana, so I start melting the metal pieces, starting with the aluminium, which has the lowest melting point.

Five aluminium and steel ingots, and only one copper ingot, with leftover metal for about half a copper bar and a little bit extra steel and aluminium. The aluminium is light, and nice for building, but not very suitable for armor or weapons. I don’t think I can make anything of that kind with copper either, but it could be useful for artifice.

Steel… It’s what I have the most of, by weight, and while I don’t know the exact alloys, as modern steel they should work quite fine. The distribution is three ingots of one alloy, one of the other, and one which is about seventy percent of the first, thirty percent the second. There’s a visible split where the two alloys meet, but they aren’t that different.

Now, to actually make something. I put the copper back into my bag, and take the small piece of aluminium. I could use a larger piece, or start with the steel, but this will do fine for practice. As for what to make… How about a canine tooth? Aluminium is quite soft, so I heat it up, to the point where it starts to melt, then start shaping it. I first mush it into a ball, then start pulling out from the center, kinda like pinching clay. I ensure the material is smooth, forming a spike, then bend it.

That was easy. For harder metals I probably can’t shape it like clay, so I heat it up again, this time completely melting it. Once it’s a molten glob, I form the general shape, then let it cool down, continuously pushing and pulling on it to keep and improve the shape. Good, that works as well. I already know I can cast metals, so I don’t need to try that. Hmm, next up would be something akin to forging with a hammer and anvil, then.

But for that, I should use steel. And probably a full bar. I also need an anvil, but I can conjure one. On that note, now would be a good time to test storing conjured objects in their own cores. It won’t be the same as what I have done so far, where I store conjured objects with their core. In other words, the goal here is to have the core absorb the conjured object’s mana, and somehow ‘remember’ the shape it held.

That took longer than necessary. But it gave me several ideas, one of which is metal as hell, and the other will hopefully earn me money. The solution ended up being imbuing the shape into the mana core. So now I have a small mana stone which I can turn into an ingot cast with a little bit of mana. I also have a large anvil, and I had to use a mana crystal for its core since it’s so big. Still very light, though. Before I try hammer forging, let’s see if the anvil can take the force of hammer blows.

I don’t have any hammers, but I have magic, so I cover my hand in a thick layer of Earth, then smash my fist onto the anvil, ‘Hulk smash!’ style. The conjured anvil seems to be holding, so I do the same to my other hand. Time for a stress test. I hit with my right hand, then left, and get into a nice rhythm. After a few hits, a loud ‘Tsing!’ sound rings out, and the anvil shimmers, tiny pieces falling off like dust. I don’t think of stopping my hand before it’s too late, and when it hits the anvil-

Flash of light. The sound of something large breaking very quickly. Several things impact me.

My body hits the ground. I blink the flash out of my eyes and feel more than look over my body. The Earthen scales seem to have protected me from the worst of it, but the ones on my right hand (which broke the anvil) are shattered, some even gone.

"What." I stutter as my brain plays catch up. "The." I look down my body. "Hell?!?" Moving my fingers makes me wince in pain, so I put it in my lap and accelerate the healing with my abilities. My shirt is torn. My shirt is torn. Heh. I conjured an anvil and beat it with my fists until it exploded, and that's what my brain gets stuck on?

That was too close. But now I know my silk has excellent defensive properties, even when I didn’t actively try to make it that good. My hand is healed enough, and I slowly remove the Earth from my body. Aii, there’s cuts on my hand. Did shrapnel get through the centimeter of Earth? It hurts, but at least I can move it, so probably no permanent damage.

Okay, let’s not use a conjured anvil. Actually, where’s the core? I look around, but the crystal is nowhere to be seen. Wait, are those…? I stand up, reaffirming that I am fine, and take the two steps needed to get back to where the anvil (and I) was. Tiny crystal fragments and dust… The core itself broke? Either way, I shouldn’t use conjured materials, at least not with cores, for defence. In other words, I should get rid of the shields.

Time for an anvil plan B, then. Ehh, let’s just raise a pillar of rock and use that, for now. I lift my foot, then stomp it down, raising a small cone. From there, I do a lifting motion with my hands, pulling up more rock to form the pillar. I think I’ve figured out how to best use [Lithokinesis] now. Rock is prone to cracking, so I should harden the top. Hmm. An enchantment should do.

The rock is part of, well, the ground I’m standing on, so I had to limit the area of the enchant, but considering how the top can take {Mana Spikes} at decent power, it should work fine. I take on the Earth scales again, and having changed my opinion, grab one of the aluminium ingots. This time I do not make a vacuum around it, instead heating it directly in the air.

Once it gets to the point where it softens, I move it to the impromptu anvil. I cover the small scales in the palm of my hand with a layer, a barrier, of mana, and slap it. Using what little I know of blacksmithing theory, I start at the outer edges, to elongate the ingot. I keep applying heat, a luxury you don’t have in traditional blacksmithing, and it slowly changes its shape to that of a somewhat flattened rod.

I keep up with the work, hitting the sides if it gets too flat or wide, and [Force Magic] lets me deliver more or less force, depending on what I need. After a few minutes of slapping a hot piece of metal on top of a small stone pillar with my bare hands, I have the very rough shape of a sword blade. It’s no longer very hot, and the aluminium makes for a terrible weapon. But this is just for practice, which aluminium swords are suited for, exactly because they kinda suck, but still feel like real swords. In order words, with this I can try to get a sword fighting ablity. On that note, I should make another so that I can actually spar with someone.

All right! Two straight swords the length of my arm. Or rather, just the blades and crossguards. I’ll make the handles from wood, maybe wrapped in silk. The blades look like real sword blades, but the edges are very dull. Making the parts increased the power level of [Mana Forging] to 4, and the skill level to ‘Skilled’, making it the first ability where the two levels have increased at the same rate.

I wonder if that’s because I apply the knowledge of existing abilities, or because it’s not really equipped. It counts under the tertiary class, which aside from contributing to my stats doesn’t actually count any of the abilities as equipped. Perhaps it’s exactly because it’s in the tertiary class. Either way, the skill level is pretty high.

I swap the [Artificer] to my secondary class slot, replacing [Kineticist], to ensure the ability is definitely equipped. That means [Mana Manipulation] no longer counts as an active skill, but I think I can do without it. It’s the ability I’ve used the most, only behind [Aspect Magic], since it forms the basis for almost every other magic skill I have. And if not having the ability actively equipped means my skill level will rise faster, then that’s just better.

And now, it’s time for some real forging. With the [System] no longer actively assisting [Mana Manipulation], I take a minute to familiarize myself with how manipulating mana works. It’s harder, taking a lot more focus, but I still have the knowledge, be that from experimentation or the knowledge granted by the [System]. Actually, do the [System] grant knowledge beyond the little bonus when you first unlock an ability? I would not be surprised if it makes it easier to learn from using abilities…

Steel bar: Check! Fists of Earth’s fury: Check! Anvil pillar: Check! Mana control: Check! All systems, ready! Operation: ‘I hope this turns out well and will be badass’ is a go! (Self note: Get better at naming.) First I quickly move some seawater to the pit left behind from the creation of the pillar (cursing myself for not doing it before I effectively unequipped [Hydrokinesis]), and then I start heating the ingot.