"...." The dean was speechless, this was the first time he heard Alex make a joke.
Realizing it was such a rare occasion, the dean suddenly laughed, "Haha... you brat, before this you were very formal and polite when you were with me. But now you dare to make a joke like this?"
"I'm sorry," Alex felt bad for making that statement.
"I'm really glad you have become like this. This means you are now more relaxed around me. I'm glad and you don't have to feel sorry for it. I like it if you behave this way, I never have a family so talking like this with you feels like talking to my son," the dean said happily.
"I..." Alex didn't know what to say after hearing the dean's confession. But he also felt the warmth in his heart.
After a while, they returned to their lesson.
"Let's try with the harmonizing of these two metals first," the dean handed Zingi and Lore Metals to Alex.
Alex received these two metals and he quickly made two low-temperature flames for each one of them. The energy from Zingi Metal and Lore Metal started to be refined.
"Raise the temperature for Lore Metal slowly," the dean said.
Alex tried to infuse a bit of Mana continuously to raise the flame's temperature slowly. Zingi Metal's energy started to become mellow and this was the sign that Zingi Metal energy could be fused. On the other hand, the Lore Metal was almost complete since Alex managed to refine the energy bit by bit. But he noticed something, the energy contained in Lore Metal became a bit disarray for a while and soon it became mellow.
The two energy ready to fuse and Alex used his flame as the medium to fuse these two energies. Alex felt the energy start to fuse with each other, but he also noticed the energy became a bit disarray like before and it soon fused.
"After the energy fuse, you can start refining the metals. Heat them with your flame and fuse them with your hammer," the dean then explained.
Alex followed what his teacher said and he raised the temperature, the metal started to melt bit by bit. Then, he picked the Lore Metal and placed it on top of Zingi Metal. He started hammering them and soon these two metals started to fuse. After fifteen minutes of hammering, the two metals merged into one.
But Alex felt that the energy after the two metals fusing became disarray. When the metal cooled down, he could see that the metal didn't mix completely, there were a few yellow spots which were the original color of Zingi Metal while the main color was greenish-blue. In this case, blue was the original color of Lore Metal. Alex frowned when he saw what was happening.
"This is a failure. If the two metals fuse completely, the color will become one. In this case, the color of the metal should be this color," the dean pointed at the greenish-blue color. He then asked, "Where do you think you make a mistake?"
Alex pondered a bit, he felt that the Zingi Metal he refined didn't have any problem with it. However, when he refined the Lore Metal he felt the energy become disarray for a while, and then it refined itself, "I think it's the Lore Metal?" Alex said hesitantly.
"Yes, you are right, the problem is in Lore Metal. And what do you think the mistake is?"
Alex didn't know what mistake he had made even when he tried to summarize his experience when refining them. He recalled his teacher only told him to heat it slowly but he didn't know how slow it was supposed to be, "The mistake might be my speed when heating it?"
"Yes. You need to be slower when heating it. Compared with your speed just now, it should be two-thirds of your speed," he corrected the mistake Alex had made.
Alex nodded, but he was still confused as to why his teacher didn't mention it from the beginning.
Noticing the confusion in Alex's face, the dean knew what his student was thinking and he said, "If you want to ask why I didn't explain it from the beginning, that's because I want you to feel it yourself and then correct the mistakes you make. That way, the learning process would be so much faster. For the heating up process, you need to feel it yourself and figure it all. I can't give you an exact number for the speed."
Alex now understood why his teacher won't give him full instruction and he nodded in response. But he secretly thought, 'It's nice to have a digital thermometer, then. I can see the temperature easily.'
"Alright, these are the two metals. I want you to try to fuse them again," he handed Zingi Metal and Lore Metal again to Alex.
Alex tried to recreate the process just now. But this time, he carefully infused his Mana to Lore Metal so that he could control the speed to become two-third from before. After a while, he started to melt and fuse them. This time, Alex didn't feel the energy become disarray. After the metal cooled down, the greenish color of the metal came up without any yellow spot. Looking at this, Alex was relieved because it meant he succeeded.
The dean nodded to see Alex's improvement, "You succeed for these two metals. Today we will try a few combinations of energy like torrential energy with overbearing energy, etc. But we should experiment with the other two energies first."
The dean then took out Gend Metal and other metals for the practice, "As you know, this is Gend Metal which has overbearing energy while the other is Sliv Metal which has gentle energy."
Alex grabbed the two metals, he used a low-temperature flame for the Gend Metal and a high-temperature flame for the Sliv Metal. The Sliv Metal immediately started to be refined. As for the Gend Metal, the energy started attacking his flame.
"Continue with the low-temperature flame, don't be bothered with Gend Metal's energy attacking you," the dean reassured Alex he was doing okay.
Alex kept doing what he was doing after hearing that. He continued for a few minutes. It was true what the dean said, the energy from Gend Metal that attacked him slowly stopped its attack. After a few minutes, the energy started to be refined.
"It's time, raise the temperature now," the dean instructed further.
Alex infused his Mana immediately and the flame suddenly became a scorching flame. It burned the energy and the metal at the same time. The energy from Gend Metal became disorder.
"The energy is already disordered. Try to refine them, after you refine them then fuse it with Sliv Metal."
Alex refined it carefully, making the disordered energy to be mellow. On the other hand, Sliv Metal was ready to be refined from the start. After all of the energy from Gend Metal was refined, Alex put Sliv Metal above the Gend Metal and started hammering them. After a few minutes of hammering, he succeeded in refining them.
The purple-colored metal cooled down. This time, there were no different colors spotted on the metal surface, so he was sure he had successfully merged them.
"You succeed for this metal," the dean confirmed it by nodding his head.
Alex looked at the two metals he succeeded in merging. He asked his teacher, "Can I fuse them?"
""No. They are already cooled down, so the energy that has fused with the metal is already a mixture of two metals. If you fuse them in one process (altogether) from the start, then you can."
"But, isn't this a bit of a waste?" he looked at his teacher.
"Haha, I already planned it before. These two new metals can be made to a rank 4 magic weapon. But for today, you will try many combinations first like Zingi with Gend Metal or Lore with Sliv Metal or a combination of the three metals. Even though the feeling will be the same, you need to familiarize yourself with them first."
Alex just agreed to whatever his teacher said and he tried many combinations for the rest of the day. Since the process didn't take too long, Alex had tried all the combinations suggested by the dean.
He came back to his room feeling exhausted. Though he was exhausted, he didn't put it on his face to not make Alicia worried.
The next day, his daily activities went as usual. He continued his leeson with the teacher at his workshop.
"Teacher, can I make the weapon now?"
The dean thought about it a bit and nodded, "These are the metals you need, there are four metals for this weapon recipe. This will make a fire type weapon. First, you have to fuse Zingi Metal and Fire Stone, after that you need to fuse Star Metal, and the last you have to use the Sliv Metal."
Alex looked at these two new materials, his teacher already explained about weapons the other day. The ingredients might not be metal but a stone. But the process and feeling were the same. He tried to feel the Fire Stone and Star Metal, these two were fire attribute materials. But surprisingly, the fire attribute energy became submissive when Alex touched them.
"Teacher, why are they becoming like this?" he asked. He was referring to the Fire Stone and Star Metal he needed to fuse.
The dean was also surprised to see it, but he already had the answer, "Do you forget what your element is? You have Pure Fire Element, it is the king of fire."
Alex forgot about this, he then tried to feel the metal again, it seemed they were ready to be processed immediately.
Alex tried to fuse Zingi and Fire Stone. The process went well without any problem. The Fire Stone didn't need any special treatment and he did it with a scorching approach right away. When he fused Star Metal, the process was the same. These two fire attribute metals become like a Sliv Metal, they only need to be fused. Since he didn't need to purify the metal, this process only took half an hour for him to finish.
"But Teacher, why do we need to use so many metals? Can't we just forge a weapon from one metal?" Alex asked.
"You can," the dean nodded in response.
"Then why do we need so many metals?"
"Sure you can if you want to make a fire attribute weapon. You might only need to use Star Metal or Fire Stone, or any fire attribute metals. but the product will be the same rank as your metal. Look at your Fire Stone, this is rank 3 fire attribute material. If you only use this, then the weapon will only become a rank 3 weapon. Or when you use this rank 4 Star Metal, then you will only get a rank 4 weapon.
But because high-rank materials are hard to get, many people researched combination types of materials. With lower rank materials, we can make a higher rank weapon. Take these four metals as examples, we only have rank 4 Star Metal and the rest are rank 3 materials. But if you manage to combine all of them, you can make a rank 5 fire attribute weapon.
Of course, you can't mix them blindly. This is the product of two thousand years of research. Though this can be said as something complicated, the product is worthwhile. But if you manage to get a high-rank material, just use them completely. There is still no progress in rank 7 above materials combination.
I have a rank 7 fire attribute staff and I only make it from rank 7 Sten Blaze Metal. The only rank 6 weapon research consists of two rank 5 and three rank 4 materials. That's how rare are high-rank materials."
"That means we can make a rank 5 weapon from this? Is that true, Teacher?" Alex pointed at the metal he just fused.
"You can. I will guide you when making the weapon now. First...."
Alex followed each order, he heated the metal and shaped it with his hammer. His teacher guided him where he needed to hammer it. He continued to refine it for a few hours. They kept practicing until it was almost midnight. The sword shape has been made and a red-colored sword blade was on top of the anvil.
"Ha....ha..." Alex was exhausted. This was the first time he made a sword, on top of it he made it in just a few hours. It took tolls on his body, but he still smiled satisfyingly.
The dean examined the sword blade, he was also satisfied by Alex's work since he could make a sword blade of a rank 5 weapon. "You have succeeded. You can go back for now. We will continue tomorrow to make the handle and scabbard."
"Yes, thank you so much, Teacher."
The next day he came back once again. The dean already prepared the materials for the blade's handle and scabbard. The blade handle was from a rank 5 tree called Mista Tree, while the scabbard was a combination of a few metals. Of course, he needed to refine them first like the sword blade.
He fused all the metal for the scabbard and started to shape it. After two hours, Alex managed to do it, he could successfully make the scabbard. He continued to the blade by sharpening the sword blade he made yesterday. This process took another two hours. This process was the last one and he didn't need to do anything else. He united the handle and the sword, decorated it a bit according to his teacher's guidance.
Rank 5 fire attribute sword was born, it was a red-colored sword with a thin body, 6 centimeters in width and 120 centimeters in length including the handle.
"Now, you need to name your sword," the dean said. He was guiding Alex from start to finish.
Alex was thinking for a bit about the name of his first sword and he said, "Star Blaze. This sword's name will be Star Blaze."
"Star Blaze? I guess, it's a good name," the dean agreed with the name his student gave.
Alex smiled satisfyingly, "But Teacher, is forging a sword this easy?"
"Of course not, shaping the sword is easy but the hard part is when you purify the metal and merge their energy. You only fuse a few energies from low-rank metals. If you try to handle high-rank materials, you will know the difficulty."
"But, the high-rank materials don't need to be merged from a few metals, if there is only one metal as the ingredient, I don't think it would be that difficult, right?"
"The difficulty lies in their energy, especially rank 7 or above materials. Each of their energy is unique, when you try hammering them, you will get a reaction from the metal itself. It's like they have a consciousness. Each metal would need a specific treatment. In short, the higher the rank, the harder to deal with the energy."
Alex just nodded, he didn't understand because he never saw high-rank material himself. But he was sure he could handle it in the future.
"Let's take the sword you just made as an example, do you feel any difference when you merge the sword and when you merge the materials for the scabbard?"
Alex pondered over this question a bit, "I feel a bit different when the energy was merged."
"That's right, since the materials used and the process from both aren't that much different. That's why you don't feel a huge difference between them. If you make a water attribute sword, you will feel a big difference when handling them. The biggest difference would be your Mana control. As for how much the difference is, let's see tomorrow when we start making it. I will tell you a few combination recipes for many attributes. But for now, you should just take some rest first."
"Yes, thank you, Teacher."
They ended today's lesson and each of them got back to their respective room to rest.