Chapter 59

“Damn, I mean we talked about Aether before, but I never thought you were quite this masterful. What I saw was not someone just learning about it, that was something else altogether.”

“Come on man, your ability to see Aether is better than mine, I rely mostly on feeling, similar to mana. Ok, let’s try again. Feel as the Aether is entering you and try to take a hold of it.”

As I speak, another thin stream of Aether enters his forehead. I can see clearly his attempt to grasp it, but for now, the system’s interference is enough of an impediment that even his more successful attempts don’t result in any reaction. When it comes to wielding Aether, it's like starting the skill at level minus 10, not a percentual reduction of capability. Until you hit level zero, even the lucky trows won’t provide any feedback as no action took effect. That doesn’t affect more experienced users much, but it does make the jump from exponentially more difficult.

An hour later, he is still failing. Though with my feedback and his talent there is progress. His attempts were getting stronger and more controlled.

I part ways after an hour of talk and training, each to our respective plans. He however is absolutely ecstatic, truly over the moon. As I learn he has been trying to suss out any information on wielding Aether, but the pickings were very slim.

We don’t broach the subject, but it’s clear we both know who the other is, at least on a general level. I wonder if all the other kids coming to Pando can also see Aether and if they will be able to develop anywhere close to his speed.

Either way, just being able to see Aether might be a slight boom.

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I enter the smithy, now more optimistic than in the last few days, given my progression. I really want to unlock level 5. Sitting beside the forge my mana heads for the plate even before the next weapon forging begins, not like it will hurt to be fully concentrated when he begins.

The very flow of Aether is a little smother after spending a little time with Alex. It was not about me being off any other day, but teaching him has changed my outlook on details and relaxed me in a way I hadn’t expected.

As always, Aether flows through me, and I think of only a very smooth and perfectly consistent mana flow. Minutes go by, and I keep there fully concentrated. Usually, nothing gets through to me, but this time is different. I hear the clinking of the hammer. An urge comes over to me. With no idea from where, and without making sense, as each of the hammer strikes comes, I send a slight spike of mana, and the result is nearly total chaos. I manage to get things under control in a few minutes and attempt again things go a little more smoothly, but still not great. Soon, I’m trying ways.

Instead of a strong pulse, I try more smooth approaches. What works best is a sine wave. Ever so slightly increase the mana when I hear the noise and decrease just after. Exactly like a wave.

Just as soon as this mental image comes to mind, I know I'm onto something. Not because everything goes smoothly, that doesn’t happen, but I can see a path.

A tale of waves. Rise and fall. Rise and fall. The movement is ever smoother. Almost like a single continuous stream, except it goes up and down. When I’m starting to get the hang of it, the bangs stop. I’m left a little off base, but I continue the movement even without the steady rhythm. Sometime later, the hammer strikes continue.

Whether by coincidence or design, they perfectly match the peaks of my waves. Though, as time goes by, I go back to following the incredibly steady clock-like rhythm.

I pay attention to the Aether around me and start to send the thinnest of streams in the very path my mana is taking. While it doesn’t seem to do anything, it isn’t hindering it either. The nonliving nature of this forge makes sure, I don’t lose any of this Aether.

The waves soon become all-encompassing. They are all I can see, and even the slow and cam thoughts I have sometimes are all replaced by this simple flow.

I’m abruptly taken out of my meditation, as someone drags me outside the forge. I look around and try sending my mana inside to the mana plate, which is within my range, but my mana can’t go through the opening for the door.

Speaking out loud with Jack and Wei Li:

“Never noticed that there are protections like this on the shop.”

“We neither. We only heard about the town hall having such protections, but the thought of testing it just never crossed our mind.” Says Jack while Wei Li nods.

“Never mind let’s go in, and see what he will be forging.”

Hearing that they both smirk, but don’t say anything, and hope blossoms in my heart. I hurry inside and soon see a stark difference. Unlike his usual demeanor, very serious, the smithy is smiling from ear to ear as he polishes the blade after sharpening it.

He never polished a blade before. Once in a while a +3 or +4 blade he buffeted a couple of times just to clean anything from it. Not spending a minute or two polishing it up.

What he has made, is a spear. Almost 6 feet in length and with intricate patterns all along the shaft and something different about the blade. He then interrupts me as he presents it to me.

“Come on, inspect it.”

At the prompting, everyone does exactly that and the results absolutely floor us.

Well-made Spear of Agility

A basic spear made by a master blacksmith. It is the first creation of its kind on the instance and has received a bonus for that.

Attack +5

Agility +5

Almost speechless I start to ask:

“The agility bonus…”

“Well, it is higher than usual, but any +5 weapon will have something similar. Though it is usually around +2 or +3 stat points.”

“What about the other one?” Thinking of the first forged item.

“That is rubbish compared to this. It barely qualifies as a +4 weapon. It took a while for you to get o the rhythm of the forge, but when you did...”

“Yeah, I felt something different this time.”

“I couldn’t say too much, but you actually learned the wrong way, the proper way is sending mana just like you did today. I’m just glad you managed the transition so smoothly.”

“Is the other method a dead end?”

“Kinda. Before +5 the difference is moderate but manageable. It’s rare anyone chooses the wave method. A constant stream is so much more straightforward. But after +5 the difference becomes much larger.”

“Will these ‘restrictions’ still apply when we leave the instance?”

“In some ways yes, though any decent inscriber can make a device to take care of the mana instead of needing someone dedicated to it. And it’s not nearly as important. The skill level and how you use them become much more important, just like forging before the system. Temperature control will also become a little different.”

“That is expected. It’s strange how artificial some aspects are.”

“Partially, the hotter forge is not actually bad. But these details we can always discuss later. For now, let’s talk about what +5 has unlocked for you guys.”

With those words, he moves to a big cabinet on the side of the forge he has not opened a single time till now, near where the ingots are stored. Before us, are ingots from metals we never heard of till now. There is even a small ingot of Mithrill. Just the expected value of that single ingot is truly mind-boggling. At least compared to anything the village has handled financially. If we continued to grow at our current pace, we would hit that eventually, and it wouldn’t even take several years.

In total there are about 150 ingots of various metals, though 100 of them, the ones on the lower shelves, are all the same. To my side, I hear Jack.

“Holy shit, is that?”

“Yes, these are the metals you will be able to work with from now on. You haven’t found any of them by yourselves so I couldn’t even broach the subject of anything beyond normal steel and copper. The others we can leave for another lesson. Let's focus on a single step above. Deep steel.” As he says that he takes 5 ingots from the lowest shelf.

“What is deep steel?” asks Wei Li.

“It’s an alloy, the usual formula is normal steel and just a bit of orichalcum. About 1%, by weight. It changes the structure of the steel and makes it denser, much stronger, and a decent mana conductor. It can also be found as a mineral. If you do, extracting pure orichalcum from is almost impossible with the techniques available on the instance. Although it has its uses, pure Orichalcum is not a good metal to forge weapons.”

“How much does this ingot cost?” I ask curious at the availability of the metal.

“Twenty copper coins a bar.” Hearing the answer Jack whistles and speaks.

“That is expensive for a base metal.”

“You could say that.” Continues the smith. “But for most people, it’s well worth the price. I know you will probably focus most of your efforts on finding a mine of your own. But for now, it will be worth using mine, even at the steep price. It provides a baseline of what the metal should feel like. The first batches of any new metal you guys make are not going to be as good as these mass-produced ones.”

We all stay silent for a little while as he starts working. With a little flux, he welds two bars as he starts working. We all pay attention as he explains plenty of details we never knew on how to work, and while most of it is focussed on the deep steel, I have a feeling a good portion of his notes can also be applied on normal steel.

“Using deep steel, along with the technics most of you will be able to forge +3 items with a +1 attribute bonus. Jack and Nash could probably do +4 items.”

“I thought that the attribute bonus we saw on the weapons hanging in the walls, was only for stronger weapons.”

“Nope,” continues the back smith to the question. “It is about forging with these new technics I’m showing you. Just send the mana in on each of the strikes forming the pattern you wish, and boom, you are done. Though inherently stronger and better metals will allow for bigger bonuses.”

Something we didn’t talk about but was starting to bother me more and more comes to mind and I ask.

“Will you start teaching us about Armour, or do we need to keep doing it at night.” Referring to the fact he had yet to show us how to forge anything other than weapons, though, the efforts from the guys at night clad a good portion of the city in metal armor.

“Finally you ask that.” Hearing this and seeing our faces he continues. “Some restrictions are looser, but even now, there are a few things you need to prompt me on before I can mention them.”

Hearing that we all start to throw things at the wall to see what sticks, until Ryan, the new guy says: “Does that mean we can now buy the weapons and armor in the wall?”

Hearing that, the Blackwood gives a wide grin and nods.

“For now only the +5 ones, but that does demonstrate another advantage of reaching Lv. 5. There are 20 weapons and 10 armor sets. They are expensive, so for now, you won’t even be able to buy them all, but for a little while, the bottleneck won’t be the production. Now Nash before you leave, here 10 silver for your work on the plate.”

I take the 10 silver and ask in return.

“And how much will the equipment cost?”

“Weapons around 50 silver, and armor around 1 gold.”

Hearing that we whistle. That is expensive. The village may be doing well, but I doubt there was 20 gold laying around. Most of our money would be in assets we traded no the relatively slow transportation. This and much more he explains gives much food for thought.

Anxious to work on the new metal, I start to forge another staff.

Things progress even faster than I was expecting, but instead of spending all my money on new materials, I do something similar to last time, except I use deep steel, and a copper alloy richer in silver. This time as melting the coins, I notice something strange, but it's too brief to take proper notice so I put it out of my mind.

I think of splurging more, but Blackwood said in no uncertain terms that we should get used to forging deep steel before trying anything more expensive.

Let’s see what I can do with this.

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I finally found Nash’s house., I have no idea why it was so difficult to find it, but either way, I found it on time. It’s just sitting in the middle of a big clearing. Whatever the copper tubes were for, someone spotted them laying on the ground, and a search in the general direction they pointed to led straight to his mud hut.

As night comes around, I leave the village. All the indications are that the attack will come tomorrow at noon, and that means this is my last letter going to Max’s village. I include where is Nash’s house, along with a few details we managed to glean about Charlie’s plans, and the latest addition of magic walkie-talkies, along with the massive mana consumption they require.

Along with that, I confirm the village spotted their scouts coming. It was always an open-ended debate about whether Charlie and Co. knew or not of it, but I managed to confirm.

I feel great satisfaction of finally crushing Nash, too bad I won’t be able to be there in person to witness it. There are a couple of tasks for me along with a small team of trusted individuals. About a dozen people that would, when the time was right cut the mana connection from the main battery to the city walls, along with disrupting a few key posts. Communication was key for their success, and just dealing with messages for a minute would be the difference between victory or chaos. And chaos was not a good state to be in while defending against a much larger force.

Too bad I didn’t have more people I could trust. Though it was already good I found this many, even among the people wanting to overthrow the guild’s rule, there were few antagonistic toward Nash. Few liked him, but they would prefer to maintain a neutral attitude. His early successes and the total lack of political ambition blinded them about the threat he was, but I could see clearly.

You will go down Nash. That I can promise you.