Chapter 21
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The city palace was a lot more luxurious than Abel had initially imagined. In the center of the garden, there was an enormous fountain. Its spring water danced as mysterious beams of orange light sparkled upon its surface.
Every servant in the city palace who guided the visitors were dressed in all black uniforms with impeccable manners. The surrounding guards were all dressed in half-body armor holding a long sword in each of their hands. They all gave out the imposing manner of a professional with level 4 or above training in combat qi. The place was manifesting the extraordinaire of the royal viscounts.
There were three main occupations in the city palace: warriors, knights, and assassins. Regardless of class, their training was centered around practicing their combat qi, which had the potential to bring out some very extraordinary abilities.
Warriors were among one of the most common occupations, mostly because they took a large proportion of combat qi practitioners. They were well trained to use almost any weapons including swords, hammer, and long spears.
Knights harnessed the greatest fighting ability out of the three occupations. Their resourcefulness enabled them to receive well-rounded training at a young age, allowing them to receive the best equipment there was. Unlike the other classes, they would ride on war horses and wear helmets on top of their heads.
The least common occupation was the assassin because, on top of the practice of combat qi, they also needed to practice large amounts of hiding techniques. Assassins have the most intense combat qi explosion. However, it would often take a toll on their stamina.
It was hard to earn a title in the Duchy of Carmel. Every generation of kings continued to suppress the number of nobles through a series of regulations, such as the prohibition for females to inherit powerful statuses. Another big one would be the rank lowering of lords who did not possess their own lands. For every time that a title was inherited, a landless Lord every title inherited would be lowered by one rank. Worst of all, however, was the claiming of territories of heirless Lords who have passed away. Due to all sorts of interferences by the nobles, many lord families have ceased to remain to this day.
There was only one condition to attain a title, and that was to do a great service for the duchy. It was especially hard in peaceful times like these, so that's why countless nobles would be willing to be on the frontlines whenever it was called for.
In recent years, tensions were strained between the king and the nobles. Major noble families continued to increase their power, while the king looked for every chance he could to execute anyone who dared showing his desire to seize power from him.
If you want to know how low the status of nobles was in Duchy of Carmel, just compare it to the city owner of Harvest City. Such an enormous city could be owned by a viscount, while other similar-sized cities such as the neighboring Duchy of Thunder were at least owned by someone with the title of a duke.
Of course, these things were still way too far fetched for Abel, and Knight of Marshall had already gained his fiefdom through his outstanding military service, so he did not care about things such as a title. When they were on the horse carriage, he only casually mentioned it to Abel out of interest while they were on the topic of the city owners.
After Abel had seen the guards in the city palace he couldn't help but remember how the Knight of Marshall had told him that the major nobles were becoming more powerful to resist the king. Every single one of the hundreds of warriors here was a professional. Even the ones with the lowest ranking, one hundred of them could easily be just as capable as an army of one thousand.
The crowd had gathered in the hall. However, Abel was disappointed with the food offered by the city palace. Because it was winter, the buffet table was only filled with cakes and roasted meats, but the wine was only supplied adequately.
Before the cocktail party officially began, Viscount Dickens stepped out and commenced his speech. Even though the hall was crowded with people, viscount Dickens was able to deliver the sound of his speech to everyone's ears through the power of his combat qi. According to the knight of Marshall, this annual event was a way for the viscounts to showcase their wealth and military power, and that they were well capable of managing this enormous land.
It was the most boring cocktail party Abel had ever been to. He did not know a single person here. After the knight of Marshall had introduced Abel to a few of his friends, Abel soon returned to the corner of the hall quietly looking over this top of the world gathering. No wonder there was not much food prepared, most people only stood around chatting with a wine glass in their hands, rarely did anyone shown interest in the food.
Abel had dashed around the streets all day, and all the dreary chatters in the hall just sounded like a lullaby. By this point, Abel's eyelids were getting heavier and heavier and slowly he drifted asleep. It was only after the party had ended that Abel was woken up by the shake of the Knight of Marshall.
Knight of Marshall continued to make fun of Abel as they were going back to their temporary house. A level 5 novice knight had dashed around the streets all day and fell asleep during a cocktail party, how could any knight believe this.
Early next morning knight of Marshall took Abel on the carriage to return to Harry Castle. As the housekeeper Robbin was sending the carriage out the front gate, Abel stuck his head out and waved goodbye.
It was at that moment, the spying servant who had been frozen in the courtyard for the entire night realized Abel was about to leave. So immediately, he rushed back to his owner to report.
"What? They are heading towards South Gate? Are you sure?" Said Joshua after he heard the servant's report, "If it's true, immediately gather the men"
Joshua's father was a lord because he was good at managing businesses. He owned more than 10 stores on the main road of harvest city and held more than 50% of the shares from the harvest city clothing market. He was a true royal businessman. Because of this large amount of wealth his only son, Joshua had been able to receive the highest quality of education. At age 19 he was already a level 4 novice knight, and father had always dreamed that he could one day win a battle and gain a fiefdom.
Because of this, Joshua's father was never hesitated to invest in Joshua's development. For example, just look at the sword of a hundred skills his father bought him for his education, and upon losing the gambling bet, Joshua had no intention to tell his father. The first thing that came to his mind was to seek revenge and then find a chance to tell his father in the future.
He gathered 12 of the most powerful servants in the family, each equipped with their own warhorse and long sword. Joshua was on a blazing red warhorse, and they set off to strike in a team of thirteen.
The Knight of Marshall sat in the carriage, enjoying the wine his friend gave him during his time in Harvest City. Despite the vigorous movement of the carriage, the Knight of Marshall was able to move leisurely, so the wine glass did not budge a single bit. Abel, on the other hand, was trying his best to copy this knight's riding position. However, the carriage these days were just too shaky. There was virtually no means for any sort of shock absorption. When the seats began to vibrate, Abel had no ways to stop the wine from falling out of his cup. Still, the boy was not going to be demotivated by a small drawback such as this. Instead, he observed the Knight of Marshall as closely as he could, meanwhile preparing to imitate the same kind of skills that were displayed right in front of him.
The carriage horse was old and slow. Its speed often did not coordinate with the speed of the carriage. Therefore the 13 men had caught up to the carriage in no time. A malevolent smile began to emerge from Joshua's emotionless face.
"Interesting, our carriage is being followed," said the Knight of Marshall. He lowered his wine glass with a cold smile on his face.
Abel had also felt something odd from the vibration of the ground. He looked at the Knight of Marshall. Since he did not bring his long sword to the cocktail party, he could only put arrows on his bracelet and use it as a bow.
"Go ahead, stop the carriage. I'll take care of the people inside" Joshua ordered the 12 servants.
If Joshua saw the carriage from the front, he would have noticed the royal engraving and would not have proceeded with his plan.
The twelve servants raised their long sword and charged towards the carriage, the carriage driver knew that Knight of Marshall was inside so he was no worried. He only shouted, " this carriage was owned by the Harry family, attackers will not be punished lightly."
However, the 12 servants did not know that Knight of Marshall's surname was Harry. Therefore, they continued to charge and stopped the carriage.
After Joshua had caught up with them, he saw an eye-catching white unicorn engraving in the front of the carriage. It sent shivers from the back of his spine to the top of his head. He realized he had attacked a noble's carriage and from the calm expression of the driver, he knew the other party must have held great power.
By this point, Joshua was on the road of no return. Nothing could change the fact that he had attacked a noble's carriage. The desire to kill continued to rage in his heart, if he just killed this driver and that little blacksmith inside, who would have guessed he was a murderer.
"Kill them all," Joshua spat out the words viciously.
The twelve servants hesitated. They never killed someone, and they didn't have the will to. The most they've done were things like abusing their master's adversaries, maybe chopping off their limbs if things went bad. However, since it was a direct order from their master, these pitiful souls had no choice but to charge on with their long sword in hand.
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Chapter 22
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In a blink of an eye, a dark figure holding a long sword suddenly burst out through the waving curtain of the carriage—It was the Knight of Marshall. The second before the servant's swords made contact with the carriage driver, a powerful flash of combat qi shot out from his sword, cutting the servants and their horses into two. Fresh blood exploded from their bodies meters above the ground. The place was raining in blood, and the few servants up the back were drenched.
The servants were terrified, yet the Knight of Marshall did not show mercy. He hopped from the carriage and slashed a servant head off with his long sword in mid-air. Before the servant even had time to react, his brain had already flown out his skull and landed in front of Joshua's horse.
Joshua was stunned by this horrific scene. His body started to feel weak, and he fell from his horse on the spot.
In a split second, the Knight of Marshall had already annihilated 10 servants. The other 5 were no longer on their horse holding their long swords, but shivering on the ground. Their opponent was an official knight that understood how to use combat qi. After witnessing the fighting power of a knight, these everyday servants would remember this traumatic experience throughout the rest of their lives.
Abel was also stunned by the Knight of Marshall's viciousness and directness. Normally, the Knight of Marshall always wore a smile on his face, but what had just happened gave Abel a completely new impression of him.
"Sir…. you are a great knight. I am the eldest son of lord Joel. I demand to be granted the title of Noble prisoner of war," stuttered Joshua to the Knight of Marshall.
The title "Noble prisoner of war" as a way to treat nobles who had committed war crimes during that period.
According to the knight's system of rule, winning or losing a battle was not the most important factor. What mattered was that they gave their best performance and faced their opponent with glory. Therefore, being a prisoner of war for a knight was not such a shameful thing.
On top of that, most knights held great economic and political power. After they became a prisoner of war, all they need to do was to pay a ransom to be released. For example, if a higher ranking knight high-level lord had been captured, the lower lever knights were obligated to turn themselves into hostages in exchange for ransoms.
Lastly, these battles were common back in the days, so being captured as a prisoner happened often. Therefore prisoners of war were often treated kindly and released only on based the condition of a ransom.
Knight of Marshall sneered at the hopeless novice Knight who was shivering on the floor in front of him before even giving a fight. The Knight of Marshall wondered if he should deal with this situation according to the noble treatment of granting him the title of noble prisoner of war.
"Joshua?" Said Abel as he hopped off the carriage. Looking at Joshua on the floor, Abel never could have guessed this noble brother had gotten people to attack him because of such a small conflict.
"You know him?" Knight Marshall asked. He had vaguely sensed the reason for this attack, but even if there were conflicts in the city, a knight would rarely gather a bunch of people and planned an unexpected attack.
After thinking to himself for a while, the Knight of Marshall decided to let Abel have the say on what happens to Joshua. It would also be a good chance to trained his decision-making skills, or so it was intended.
"Able, how do you want to deal with him?" asked the Knight of Marshall.
Abel didn't care if Joshua was dead or alive. Whatever the decision was, there wouldn't be a benefit in harming this pitiful prick. That being said, Joshua wasn't completely useless. Abel decided to take advantage of this, and by "take advantage, " he was hoping that the Knight of Marshall wouldn't mind him making some extra money.
"Let's bring you back to the castle, Joshua. I'll let you enjoy the title of noble prisoner of war"
After the Knight of Marshall had heard Abel's word, he gave out a faint smile of satisfaction. Abel did not act according to his anger but decided to take advantage of Joshua's wealth to contribute to the development of the castle.
Abel's train of thought was pretty simple, Joshua's flighting abilities were miles behind him. If Joshua was a real knight and was able to pose a threat to him, he would have chosen otherwise, because an enemy is always better when dead.
Abel then took the 5 surviving servant's belts off their waist and tied it around their hands.
Other than that unlucky horse who had been chopped into 2 pieces by the knight of Marshall, Abel and the carriage driver threw Joshua and the captivated servants on the 11 surviving horses. After the horses had lined up, they began to move while Abel sat on Joshua's blazing red color horse following from behind.
Joshua was tided to the first horse in the line. Although his belt had also been taken off much like the other servants. Abel internationally did not use it to tie up his hands. This is because if he tries to escape, his pants would fall off. But Joshua was not stupid, he would not dare to escape in front of an official knight.
It was only until now Joshua had realized he had attacked the owner of Harry's castle, and that person whom he called "little blacksmith" would inherit all of Harry's castle. At that moment Joshua knew, the first thing he would do after he returns to his castle was to kill the servant responsible for spying Abel.
After they returned to Harry's castle, Abel gave the captives to Lince the housekeeper. Housekeepers were responsible for settling the ransoms. Other than that, they would not question a single thing since it was the noble's problem. All they need to do is to identify the captive's status and negotiate the amount of money they need to pay with the other party's housekeeper.
Soon, Abel had resumed his daily schedule. Every morning after breakfast, he would exercise and forge metal at the blacksmith shop. At night, he would return to the castle to practice the knights breathing techniques and follow with a good night of sleep.
Just like this, another month had gone by. Abel had forged over 5 long swords of 100 skills only using the technique of this world. He did not use any special carburization or dipping fire techniques. This is because the only rule of forging in here was to make master Bentham happy. No matter how good your secret techniques are, the fundamentals were the most important. Thus, through Abel's respect for fundamentals techniques these past months, he had been greatly praised by master Bentham.
One morning when Abel was at the blacksmith shop, he was called by master Bentham to go to the master's private office.
Abel followed master Bentham into the room within the office, and from the top corner of the room, master Bentham took out a thick heavy book from a metal box. "My teacher was the dwarf forging master, master Robin. During the time dwarfs and human allied to combat the Orc, thus every day I was sent off to practice forging with the dwarfs" said master Bentham.
Master Bentham's eyes began to sparkle as he recalled the good old days. It seemed as though as he was mumbling to himself as he told Abel the stories about his past.
"Those were the best days of my life, every day I could learn something new. The dwarfs were some of the most gifted beings when it comes to forging, and through thousands of years of perfecting their forging techniques it is was truly unlike others. Legend has it the most powerful dwarfs were used to responsible for making artifacts for the gods."
"Other than making normal weapons, Master Robin could also make magical weapons. I remembered when I saw magical weapons for the first time. I knew I would dedicate my life to be a blacksmith. I remember telling my self that, one day, I would also want to make weapons like this."
"I tried very hard to master all the things master Robin taught me, and only on the day I mastered all of it, I asked master Robin if he could teach me how to make magical weapons. he rejected me without a second thought, said I didn't have the talent for it."
Master Bentham got a bit emotional from his speech, "However, master Robin did give me one last hope when I finished all my studies, and that is this magical weapon forging guide."
"After I searched around in the guide, I realized that the reason why I could not make magical weapons is because of spiritual power. A person's spiritual power is the main thing when it comes to unleashing the magical force within a weapon. Yet, most people who possessed spiritual power would become a wizard. No one would want to be a blacksmith… until I met you."
Abel had suddenly been moved by these words from master Bentham. All this time, he had been seeking information about wizards, and it is the first time he had heard a person directly talk about magic to him.
"Abel, I am already old. I know I could never be able to forge a magical weapon in this life, but you are my student, I hope you can one day be able to forge a magical weapon." Said master Bentham with eyes full of hope.
"Master, I will try my best" Abel nodded earnestly.
Master Bentham picked up that enormous Magical weapon forging guide in an almost ritualistic manner and passed it on to Abel's hand
The book felt heavy on Abel's hand. Just like the legend has it, even though dwarfs were short, they always believed they were the descendants of the giants. Therefore they tried to make everything as big as possible, and this book is a beautiful manifestation of that.
When Abel opened the book, he realized the information was very straight forward. First page: fire magical weapons. In the middle of the page, drawings were depicting both sides of a sword. On the top, there were strange markings, while on the handle of the blade there was a concave area with marking saying "put fire magic gem here". At the bottom of the page, there was information about the function of fire type magical weapons. Fire potion's formula and the fighting power of the weapon.
The second page: ice type magical weapons. The layout was the same as the first page. Drawing of depicting both sides of a sword in the middle, and explanation and formulas about ice magical weapons at the bottom.
The third page was about lighting magical weapons, and the fourth page was about toxic magical weapons.
There were only 4 pages in this book. Abel thought to himself self "the dwarfs are ridiculous, they must be stupid to make such an enormous book with only 4 pages of information." But looking back at master Bentham's sincere expression Abel did not say it out loud.
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Chapter 23
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"I have all the materials you need. Although I had been collecting them for many years, it is only recently that I've found the perfect fire magical gems and ice magical gems." Master Bentham said. Meanwhile, he opened a box that contained all the things that he had just mentioned.
"Is this it?"
Within those materials, some somethings looked very familiar to Abel. It was three red gems and three blue gems. He took the six gems out of the box and inspected them carefully. They were the ones he sold at Harvest City earlier.
"These are the fire magical gems and ice magical gems I was talking about. It was so hard to find such perfect ones like these, but luckily I had found these in Harvest City." Looking at how excited master Bentham was, Abel wondered if the price of these gems were much higher than the price he had sold them for. If he mistakenly sold magical gems as normal gems, what would be the actual value of magical gems?… but Abel decided not to ask. He did want to regret his decision even further.
"Your task in the future will be sketching out those runes, make sure the angle, force, and the thickness of the strokes are the same." Master Bentham repeatedly emphasized as he took out a brush from a box.
"Is this an ink brush?" Abel was shocked once again. Ink brushes were one of those things that Abel was all too familiar with. From the tip of the brush to the body of the brush, this brush that master Bentham was holding looked exactly like an ink brush from Abel's original world.
Master Bentham explained as he handed the rune brush over to Abel, "Ink brush. Hmm. I like that name, but it's called the Rune brush, boy. The body of the brush was made out of a kind of wood that is resistant to magic, which prohibits other external magical force interrupting the Runes writing process. The tip of the brush was made out of the softest handful of fur located in the very back of a wind wolf's head. The wind property of a wind wolf allowed the brush to deliver runes ink more efficiently."
"This rune brush is very difficult to master. There are lots of training and learning you need to do until you can draw the lines of the rune correctly. Here, give it a try." Said Master Bentham to Abel as he took out a bottle filled with normal ink. He opened the lid and placed it on the table. Then, he took out a piece of lambskin parchment and also placed it on the table.
Abel held the rune brush by gripping it between his middle finger and the ring finger, while his thumb pressed against the body of the brush. He then proceeded to dip the brush in the ink bottle and gently whipped off the excess ink. A glanced at the runes in the book, in one take he wrote down the entire first page.
Master Bentham was stunned as he watched by the side. The master himself had been practicing to use a rune brush for more than 20 years. Yet, his position and control of the rune brush were not even as good as Abel's first attempt. Even basic things such as grasping the amount of ink the brush needed to be dipped, had taken Master Bentham countless trial and errors. Although there was still a bit of disparity when it came to Abel's replication of the runes. He was able to recognize when the lines should be smooth, straight or curled. These runes were no worse than the ones written by Master Bentham. As long as Abel kept on practicing, he could have surpassed his master in no time.
Master Bentham could not help but feel the waves of jealousy sprung up from within as he lamented on the god's bias from the inside. He had never heard of a person of Abel's age becoming a fifth-level novice knight. He had also never heard of a person who was able to forge a Sword Of Hundred skills after only a month of training. Even The Power Of Will he had so deeply desired was possessed by Abel.
Now when it came to writing runes, Abel had also excelled. His first attempt was already on par with those who dedicated decades of effort. Master Bentham could not take it anymore, he waved his hand at Abel and said. "Ok, You can go back to practice by yourself now"
As that been said, Master Bentham took Abel out of his room. He needed time alone to lament with his injured soul.
After Abel sensed that maybe Master Bentham dissatisfied. He packed up all his things and went back to his room in the castle. There was not a quiet place in the blacksmith shop for Abel to practice writing runes in peace anyway.
If Abel knew what Master Bentham is thinking, he would have told him "oh no, you are overthinking it. I only know how to use an ink brush, and this amusing thing is a rune brush." In Abel's previous world, he had been systematically learning how to use an ink brush since the beginning of elementary school. Even after he got a job, he did not give up on this hobby. From time to time, he would take out an ink brush and wrote down a few characters to enhance his mood.
After a week of training, Abel was able to completely master the four magical rune characters. The sizes and proportions of the strokes were perfect. However, during the process, he also realized that the fire magic rune character seemed very familiar to him.
It looked very similar to the 8#Ral rune in Diablo 2. However, there were a lot of connecting lines in this fire Magic Rune. Some were responsible for connecting to the hilt of the sword, and some were responsible for connecting the entire body of the sword. Overall the structure of the rune as a whole still very similar. The purpose of the 8# rune was +5, -30, fire damage, which was also similar to this fire magic rune.
Could it be that the rune of this world was related to the runes of the Dark World? Legend has it the Dark World's rune system had been long lost. To create a rune system, the only way was to use an ancient Runestone to realize the power of each rune. Therefore, since the runes still existed in this world. If one had mastered more runes in the future, maybe they could also turn all the rune of Diablo 2 come into reality.
But for now, it was still too early to say. Abel had only mastered 4 runes. To establish a rune system, it required the combination of the entire 33 rune characters within Diablo.
As for the four runes Abel had mastered, after careful analysis and identification, Abel had corresponded them to the runes of Diablo 2. They were individual, the Fire Magic 8# Rune, Ice Magic 10# Rune, Electric Magic 9# Rune, and Poison Magic 7# Rune.
However, there was 1 rune system that Abel could remember from memory. If it wasn't because this runes system was generally ranked at the top, out of the many rune systems, Abel wouldn't even remember that it had even existed. The rune ability in this rune system was terrible in Diablo 2. It wasn't even as good as any ordinary low-level dark gold. This rune system was called The Ancient Vow.
The Ancient Vow:
material required: 3 Kong shield
rune required: 8#+9#+7#
Ability of the final product:
General defense +50%
Ice defense +43%
Virus defense +48%
Fire defense +48%
Electricity defence +48%
10 % of damage could be converted to magical power
Abel though it might be doable. Although its attributes were not that good in the game, it would be a powerful shield in reality. So Abel had decided after he had mastered all the single rune weapons, he would proceed to make this shield.
The next day, Abel returned to the blacksmith shop with the rune brush and the ink bottle. He found Master Bentham and said, "Master, I have mastered the four runes, I want to start making magic weapons today."
By this point, Master Bentham had been shocked by Abel's speed of mastery way too many times. He had become completely immune to It. Even if Abel were to master the rune brush a few more days faster, he wouldn't be any more surprised.
Master Bentham took out a sword of a hundred skills that had Abel forged a while ago. This was because the Knight of Marshall had stipulated long ago that Abel have the right to possess all the weapons he forged himself. Since Abel would one day inherit the castle, he should be able to use the iron as resources as well.
Upon completing these swords of hundred skills, Abel would often carelessly leave them in this operation room, which was assigned by Master Bentham as Abel's private room. If an ordinary person had entered this room, they would go insane. The floor was scattered with more sword of hundred skills than all the weapons store combined in Harvest City. There were only 3 masters with the ability as high as Master Bentham, supplying their weapons to the weapons stores in Harvest, and Master Bentham could only forge 1 sword of hundred skills in a month at most. Therefore, the limitations of masters can be clearly seen. To progress from forging 80 skills to a hundred skills weapon, if one did not possess The Power of Will, the only way was to rely on experience and a large number of mental calculations. Masters would normally start from 80 skills, and slowly forge 1 or 2 more skills on to the weapons each day.
Only a blacksmith who possessed The Power of Will such as Abel could forge a weapon from 80 to 100 skills in one take.
However, these days, master Bentham no longer needed to send his weapons to another weapon store to sell. This was because, in exchange for Joshua, Lord Joel had given The Knight of Marshall a weapon store, located in the most prosperous part of the Harvest City. While as for the five captured servants, they had also been generously sent back.
That weapon shop, which was worth more than tens of thousands of gold coins, was now bringing more than 500 gold coins per month to Harry Castle.
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Chapter 24
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Abel removed the decorations from the sword of a hundred skills' handle, leaving only the metal part of the handle, hilt, and gauntlet exposed. Therefore, the gauntlet was now the only part where the magical gem could be placed. Abel placed the hilt of the sword of hundred skills into the furnace.
After a while, he took the burning red sword out with a clamp. Then, took out a hammer drill and trimmed a suitable hole. When master Bentham saw the sword, he was very pleased with Abel's proficiency in his forging foundation.
One of the main reasons that Abel wanted to learn forging was to master his own power. During his spare time, he would practice different forging skills in the operation room. Each forging skill that he practiced had their very own unique powers. After all the training Abel did, he could control and maintain his skills firmly and steadily.
"Master, I want to forge an ice magic sword."
Due to issues with materials, Abel had to choose between fire and ice magic weapons. In his understanding of the ice magic weapons, It could slow down his opponent's speed alongside the damage caused by the ice magic. The finished product would be a devastating nightmare for anyone who encountered it.
Master Bentham remained silent as he nervously watched Abel took out his runes brush. After Abel dipped it in ink, he began to write the runes onto the sword.
Due to many years of using a normal ink brush, Abel's hand muscles were very well developed. Therefore, he did not find it too hard to use these soft rune brush. However, the ink used to write runes were different from the ones normally used to write on ink paper. The process of writing ice runes on the sword of a hundred skills was a lot more difficult. With every stroke Abel wrote on the sword, he could feel waves of resistance. This was the case despite that the brush was made with wind wolf fur, which was supposed to limit the resistance force by at least half.
Sweat began to flow down from Abel's head. Not only writing the runes required strength, but it also required high energy consumption from his heart. This was because the writing had to be done within one breath, and it could not be paused anytime during the writing. If there was a pause, the thickness of the ink would be different, and the magic being transmitted would have gone out of Abel's control.
Despite having taken half an hour—Abel's writing runes on the sword of a hundred skill took almost three times longer than normal writing would—ultimately, the deed was done.
Abel took out a blue gem and carefully placed it into the hole. He reinforced the hole with different tools so that if the hole began shaking, the gem wouldn't accidentally shake or fall out.
"Let me see." Master Bentham asked Abel for his sword of hundred skills. He carefully examined it and said, "you can write runes even faster than me. They are perfectly drawn, and the magical stone has no problem with it. I think we can proceed to the next step."
Being able to see Master Bentham's affirmation of his capabilities, Abel's face began to express joy. The process of drawing these runes was difficult and it had taken a lot of Will power out of Abel. So he sat down on the ground and rested for almost an hour before he was fully recovered his energy.
Abel carefully used his will power to draw from the blue gem to the edge of the ice magic stone according to master Bentham's instruction. An ice-cold force rushed back at Abel as he continued to use his will power.
He then began to guide this ice-cold force carefully into the strokes of each rune. This process could not be too fast, or else the ice-cold force would be left behind, thus returning to the blue gem. However, it could also not be too slow, or else the ice-cold force would freeze his will power.
On the fifth attempt, he finally successfully used his will power to guide the ice-cold force onto the middle of the rune. Suddenly, the sword of a hundred skills shined with a dazzling light. Abel seemed to hear the sound of the sword blade shattering. Without a second thought, he threw his sword of thousand practice outside while master Bentham was concentrating behind the huge iron controlling desk.
Suddenly, there was a loud "bang" sound, and all Abel heard was the sound of fragments and splinters shattering everywhere through the air. It was then followed by the sound of objects being hit with a sound of "ding ding". After a while, the sound came to complete silence and everything was suddenly quiet.
Abel slowly poked his head out and glanced at the area where the explosion happened. The operations room was in complete chaos and disorder, the walls inside the room were filled with holes. Fortunately, the operation room was made of boulders and the tools inside the room were all made from fine quality Iron which meant that most of the equipment inside the rooms wasn't damaged with the only damage being a large pit on the ground.
Master Bentham recovered from the scene with a shocked face. He looked directly at Abel in the eyes and the two individuals suddenly felt as if they were of survivors of a close-call disaster.
'What's the matter?"
"Master, are you all right?"
All of a sudden, there was a loud noise coming from nowhere. Then the door of the workshop was promptly opened, and everyone in the blacksmith shop rushed and crowded inside. That "bang" noise that occurred has shocked and frightened everyone that was near.
The room was filled with gasps and dreadful looks on people's faces, and for a moment the crowd stared astoundedly at Master Bentham and Abel. They thought to themselves: "What they were doing here that could've been so powerful and devastating".
"All of you better keep your mouth shut. Nothing happened here, alright? Now, get out of here before I make you! "
Master Bentham roared like a bear. He was kicking everyone out. The crowd. The gardener. Even his own apprentices—Everyone.
"Why did this happen?" Abel was a little surprised by this failure because he thought he did very well this time. The process was very smooth, so why did it fail in the last moment and also caused a last-minute explosion.
Master Bentham picked up the ink carefully and examined it. He carefully sniffed it with his nose and twirled it with his hand. Finally, he said firmly to Abel, "There is nothing wrong with the ink, I have produced this ink for many years now and it was made in accordance with the same formula. There's no way it would've been like this."
"Then that means something went wrong in the process." Abel thought back to his own production process, and nothing was missing except that it took three times longer than usual to draw the runes.
With that in mind, Abel said firmly, "Maybe the runes were drawn for a little too long."
"Yes, after a long time, the first and the last ink may be exposed to the outside environment for too long. The ink properties of the two periods may have changed, followed by an unstable magic transmission which may ultimately lead to the explosion," Master Bentham analyzed carefully. He had spent his entire life studying the material when Abel was making assumptions for the reason of the explosion, he had already found out the cause for the explosion.
"Can you use your Power of Will to draw the runes? Wouldn't that be faster?" asked Master Bentham, who, as he did not possess such powers, couldn't do anything to help apart from making suggestions.
Abel thought for a moment and answered, "There shouldn't be a problem. It's just that my Power of Will was a little bit depleted. It's going to take up a lot more time for me to rest before I can use it again."
Once again, they picked up another sword of hundred skills found from the ground and punched a hole into it for the gem. this time was much faster than the first time since Abel now acquired some experience from his first attempt.
It was time to draw the runes again, and Abel closed his eyes while emptying his mind. As he slowly opened his eyes this time, he began to zoom in on the sword with his sight. Every detail on the sword was magnified multiple times larger than it's original size. When the runes were drawn on the sword with ink, the two continued to fuse very tightly. It created a special coating which was why the resistance was so strong when the runes were being drawn. The speed of Abel's will power corresponded with the speed of his runes brush perfectly. There was already a night and day difference comparing this to his first attempt. The whole thing was finished in ten minutes. Abel returned from his Power of Will state, and by that point, he was already fully exhausted.
It took Abel two hours to recover from his exhaustion. Now he had gained experience of how to guide the ice-cold force with his Power of Will without any pauses or interruptions. Next time, he could lead the cold force into the middle of the runes at a much quicker and steadier pace.
The sword of a hundred skills flashed with a glaring ray of light. This time, the light was not dazzling, and the sword covered by the runes began to shine. Slowly the lights began to dim, and the rune disappeared from the surface of the sword and the sword returned and to its original appearance. In addition to the sword handle's hole slot, there were no differences between the newly crafted sword and the original sword of hundred skills.
Master Bentham took the sword of a hundred skills with his trembling hands and tapped it with his fingers. The sword flashed a cold light, and Master Bentham's fingers were covered with frost.
Abel saw the frost on Master Bentham's finger and immediately asked, "Master, are you all right?"
"Ha-ha!" Master Bentham laughed wildly, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.
He began to mutter words."I-I, agh! I never thought that I could live to see the day where one of my disciples… could be making magical swords. Finally… I can die without any more regrets."
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Chapter 25
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Abel used a few normal gems to redecorate the big sword's handguard so that no one could see the internal magical power of the gems held within the long sword. He repolished handguards, along with a curved decoration strip made as well as adjusting the small and shattered gemstones of the sword. This transformed the sword from a normal sword of hundred skills an ultra-luxury, deluxe edition of an Ice magic sword of hundred skills.
The explosion that occurred on the other day had dispelled Abel's plan to create The Ancient Vow rune. The defense power he possessed was nowhere as strong enough to withhold its power. It would be very dangerous if it exploded again during his second try.
Time flew, and in a blink of an eye, three months had already past.
Nowadays, Abel was living a very fulfilling lifestyle. He has already forged over twelve swords of a hundred skills, one of them being the ultra-luxurious, deluxe edition of the ice magical sword of hundred skills. He even produced five shields of hundred skills, made of rough iron. These shields were made as preparations for his future plan to make The Ancient Vow in the rune system.
It was already April, and the weather was becoming warmer and warmer. People who worked in the forgery had already begun forging weapons right from the morning.
"Abel, you and I are going to the Blacksmith's union in Harvest City today." Said Master Bentham as he looked towards Abel who was still recovering his energy to make another one of his One Hundred-skilled bases.
"Why are we going to the blacksmith's union at Harvest City, and what are we doing?" Abel questioned Master Bentham with a strange look on his face.
Master Bentham replied to Abel's question with an excited tone; "After you made the magic sword, I have requested a swordmaster from the blacksmith union to assess your sword. I got the news from the blacksmith's union yesterday, and they notified me that they will be assessing you tomorrow."
"Congratulations, master!" Abel knew Master Bentham was only called the blacksmith Master Bentham by the locals. Being able to make a hundred-skilled rough iron was only the fundamentals of becoming a master. In order to truly be approved by the blacksmith union as a Blacksmith Master, one would need a very diverse and profound skill set. Therefore, Master Bentham was only a competent master, but not a blacksmith master.
"Why are you congratulating me?, I am only the person who helped you apply." Bentham gently padded Abel's head, "For my entire life, I have been trying to forge magical weapons. I will never succeed to make one, though, and that's why I could never become a real Blacksmith Master. However, the fact that you can make magic weapons, it shows that you are already worthy to surpass what I'm capable of."
At first, Abel doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in becoming a Blacksmith master. However, when he realized that he could learn more runes if he becomes a master, as well as on the strong recommendation from Master Bentham, he agreed and said: "I will go and prepare now."
Abel loaded nine normal swords of hundred skills, and one luxurious, deluxe edition of the fire-magic sword of hundred skills onto Master Bentham horse carriage from his private operating room. Abel decided to leave 2 of those normal swords of a hundred skills at his own "Harry's Weapon Shop". The rest of them were being sold in Edmund's Boutique Shop for money. If all the swords were being sold through Harry's shop, it would hugely impact the prices of those swords in the local market, which would also lead to suspicion from other weapon shops. Ultimately, this could bring a huge disadvantage to his shop in Harvest City, which was just taken recently off the hands of Lord Joel. One of the main advantages of trading it to Edmund's Boutique shop was that they have distribution shops all around the country. This meant that they could easily sell off the seven swords. The luxury sword, on the other hand, could be auctioned off by the boutique shop which would generate a large amount of profit for Abel.
The carriage trip to harvest city was bumpy as usual. Abel already had plans of crafting a vibration-damping carriage so that the ride won't be as bumpy. At around 10 am in the morning, the horse carriage finally arrived at the Blacksmith's Union which was located in the center of the town.
The Blacksmith Union was a multinational organization in the mainland. The organization was created three thousand years ago by a couple of humans and dwarfs, who were all blacksmith elders three thousand years ago. After all these years, even the Orcs have joined the organization. This ultimately formed the blacksmith union that was known today. The unions mainly assessed the blacksmiths' ability and handed out medals according to their skill level. However, they also provided protection for those blacksmiths who had joined the organization.
The moment Bentham and Abel entered the Union's hall, a dwarf with a large beard walked towards them. This was the first time that Abel had seen a dwarf in his life. He tried his very best and controlled himself from not staring at the dwarf.
"Bentham, my old friend, the union notified me to host as soon as they heard about your application." The dwarf then held his arms wide opened and Bentham lowered his body to give him a hug.
When they finished hugging each other, Bentham laughed and said, "I can't believe the union is telling you to host the assessment, I still remember the days where we were being taught by Mr. Robin. After so many years, you still look so young."
Abel was a little speechless as he looked over at the dwarf with his face covered with his large beard. He couldn't imagine what Bentham meant when he said that his dwarf friend was young.
"This is my student, Abel, and Harry." Bentham pointed at Abel who was standing on the side and introduced him to the dwarf.
Bentham then turned around and said to Harry, "This is master Sorin Oakshield, a junior who studied with me."
Sorin Oakshield jumped in and yelled, "I am your senior, mind you! "
"Back when we studied together, when I was a young adult, you were still a child. So, of course, I am your senior." Bentham laughed.
"Oh, I am older than you, yet I was still a child?" Master Sorin yelled as he waved his fists around.
Abel finally understood the argument between the two of them as he watched from the side. Dwarfs generally had a longer life span, usually about 500 years. But normal humans could only live for around 100 years, so that's why they were having this banter with one another.
Master Sorin knew that there wouldn't be a point to continue to dwell on this topic, so he quickly turned his head and began talking about Abel, "So is this the person that will be assessed to become the new blacksmith master? he is way too young! You only have one chance in your lifetime to apply for an assessment to become a blacksmith master and you gave it to him?"
These questions clearly showed that Sorin did not trust Abel's ability. Every skill that a blacksmith acquired, needed time to perfect and master.
I am almost 60 years old, and I am losing my essence, I am afraid that I cannot become a blacksmith master anymore. I would never have the chance to use this application, but-," Master Bentham looked directly towards Abel and said: "Ever since Abel became a student of mine, he had created miracles again and again. I believe that he has the ability to become a Master Blacksmith, and that's why I brought him here for an assessment."
"Ok, up to you, then. Let us begin the assessment," Master Sorin lead both of them into the workshop. There were 3 mirrors placed on the wall, there was a blacksmith workbench in the middle with all the tools that they need and there was also a blacksmith furnace on the side that was burning.
Sorin then took out 6 red gems and placed them on the notch of the wall. All of a sudden, the mirror's surface began to shake. Three figures including, a dwarf and two humans began to emerge.
Master Bentham then proceeded to bow to the three figures in the mirror, "Hello masters. Sorry for interrupting your time."
Abel seemed to be quite amazed and shocked at the same time. Then, Master Sorin began to explain the procedures of the assessment to him. Master Blacksmiths had 5 chances to apply for a grandmaster assignment. A top tier blacksmith was a once in a lifetime chance. After the application was passed, there would be a grandmaster here to be the witness, and the other 3 will be remotely assessing the processes of the procedures through a magical array.
This type of magic array was made by the Array master of the elves. It could only transfer images, but it cannot transfer sound.
"Let's start," Master Sorin said to Abel after explaining the rules and procedures.
Abel remained silent, he first bowed to Master Sorin and the three masters on the mirrors.
The raw materials on the workbench were very high quality. Abel took a piece of the material and threw it into the furnace. After a short period of time, he took out the material and hammered it back and forth. Due to his highly trained proficient skill and speed, it only took a little over 2 hours to forge the material to the 80 skills. Now he only needed to further forge them from 80 skills to 100 skills
Since he was using up his Power of Will, the speed of him forging the material from 80 to 100 was even faster than before. Master Sorin began to look at Abel in a new light. The skillful use of his Power of Will when it comes to forging was not very common among the masters. Instead, most masters would use their experience to forge the martial from 80 skills to 100 skills.
It didn't take long for the materials to be forged to 100 skills. After taking a small break, Abel began to shape the sword. The time flew past quickly, and the sword has taken its shape. Abel did not stop there. He proceeded to use the chisel to open a small indent on the handguard.
This move suddenly grabbed Master Sorin's attention. He immediately turned to Master Bentham with a look of doubt. But Master Bentham nodded back to Sorin confidently, confirming his belief in his student.
Master Sorin knew that although Bentham had been trying to forge a sword like this for his entire life, Bentham had failed. However, now it seemed that his student was able to complete his cherished desire.
The moment Abel took out his rune pen. Master Sorin's confirmed his suspicions. Magical weapons were some of the highest tier weapons. It was considered precious even from the master tier weapon perspective.
Seeing That Abel was in a state of deep focus as he drew the runes. The 3 masters in the mirror immediately knew what weapon it would be. Therefore, they began to pay even closer attention.
The final process of embedding the blue gem and the guidance of The Power of Will went smoothly. Soon, an ice magical sword was completed. Although it was not decorated, the masters agreed—this ice magical sword was fabulous, and it had well surpassed the blacksmith master examination standards.
Master Sorin turned around and looked at the 3 figures in the mirror. After all the masters nodded in confirmation. Master Sorin took out a medal from his chest directly and spoke to Abel with a serious tone, "Congratulations, Abel Harry master, you are now the 36th blacksmith master in the blacksmith union."
After these words, Master Sorin placed the medal in front of Abel's chest. He then stepped up and gave Abel a hug. Just like Master Bentham, Abel also bent down to return Master Sorin's hug. This gesture of kindness shown that Master Sorin was now treating Abel as an equal.
The three masters from the mirror have also bowed at Abel. As soon as Abel finished returning the bow, the figures vanished from the mirror.