Dozens upon dozens of scrap weapons and other objects were scattered across the dark and snowy pit.
Sounds of hammer strikes resounded time and time again before it stopped all of a sudden.
Thomas, holding onto the handle of a cyan hammer gazed down at a beautiful six-pointed cyan star and sighed.
"It's Another Special grade 4." Thomas gave a quick look before throwing this beautiful piece back into the pile without even bothering to look at it's stats.
Reaching out with his hand towards the artic wind above the mountains. As if attracted by a mysterious power, the cold air of the mountains rushed to the bottom of the pit.
Shiiiiiiiii!
Thomas grabbed towards cold air in a single, quick motion and upon opening his hand revealing a big chunk of cyan crystal with the size one's hand.
His eyes shone as he gazed at the crystal. No matter how many times he did this, it would never get out.
Ever since he accepted Prometheus' Final Quest six days ago, Thomas has been marveled by the Elemental Blacksmithing he was taught. Simply put he could take anything from sand to particles of water in the atmosphere and make it into rocks, ores and and all kinds of unique materials perfect for the art of craftsmanship.
Right now, making the Cyan Crystals with the cold wind of the snowy peak was his limit. But, given enough time, even the time spent tempering and refining the crystal would be unneeded as he would make weapons and armor out of air, fire.
At this point Thomas even fantasied about capturing a whole atomic explosion and making it into an artifact. It would surely be as powerful as Zeus' Thunderbolt if not stronger.
After multiple tries, Thomas stopped. Looking at the pile of artifacts he left, Thomas wasn't sure if he could really complete the quest.
Currently, he could forge many kinds of artifacts. From simple ones like an augmentation for his wrist computer, flying boots with a weight limitation of 10kg. But even so, none of his artifacts had effects on the level of the luminous ark.
True, the hammer technique taught to him was a great replacer and helped him make many peak Mortal Artifacts, even some of special grade. Only the Divine Artifacts were very far away.
"Making an artifact from zero is too hard. It would take years for me to master this technique." Storing everything in the spatial storage, Thomas held his hand and brought forth a rusty spear with little golden luster still remaining.
[Spear of Ares(Damaged)]
Description: An old weapon used by the God of War, Ares. Can only be wielded by those with the heart of warriors.
Composition: Spirit Wood (68%) Imperial Iron (20%) Celestial Gold (10%) Unknown (2%)
Attack Power: 108 Durability: 15/5.520.000
Sure enough, he could now see things he wasn't able to in the previous time now his blacksmith has become more and more proficient.
It turns out the spear used to have a whole 5 million of durability!
The abilities it possessed are still unavailable, but it made sense since it only had taken too much damage, and losing most of it's functions.
Thomas really wanted to fix it, but he knew his skills all too well. Even if he were ten times more skilled, it would be impossible to restore this artifact without running the risk of making it worse.
As a already finished product made by another a master artificer, it's too hard for his mind to comprehend the methods used in it's creation, much less know a way to restore it without changing it into something else.
"Wait, maybe there is another way to use it..." Though Thomas while inspecting every inch of the spear.
....
Days and more days passed and Thomas didn't leave the pit other than to gather materials. His body become thinner than before but the hours spend in the forge made up for that adding perfectly sculped muscles under his shirt.
Hammering down repeatedly, Thomas immediately stopped then went ahead to polish the object in hand.
Once polished he lowered the item very carefully to not let it damage. Releasing multiple spirit threads in the air, Thomas cleansed his mind of any thoughts and simply drew on the surface of the item.
The runes are part of a set of seventy two runes that together would form the level 3 rune formation, Black Void Reaper.
It was inside if Thomas could complete the formation. In the middle of work, noises coming from afar took away his concentration and the runes broke into pieces.
"Argg!" Angry with the failure, Thomas went outside to see what was happening and suddenly froze. From the showy peak he slaughtered the lizard-man he could see it, rows upon rows of reptilian beasts marching in tandem.
Anything could see it wasn't just a huge group of beast but an army, a very well trained one. The numbers were still unknown, but Thomas counted over twenty thousand and they were all stationed at the ruins of the former city of Glamadon.