Charles POV:
I suppose I should fill you in on what happened a short while ago after I blurted out a piece of my dark past.
After young Miss Lilith heard my leaked out thoughts, I used a bit of memory-wiping magic to make her forget what she heard moments ago. A very useful trick I learned from one of my associates in the Intelligence wing of the Coalition.
Anyways, I had her beat up the stone statues. All of them were shattered to pieces in less than thirty seconds.
Which is surprising since I half expected her to go overtime.
Seeing that she has most of the basics down, I had her practice smashing a few more statues before I dismissed her for the afternoon.
The young lady protested.
"What? The sun isn't even setting yet! I want to practice more!"
"Miss Lilith, I am glad to see you in such high spirits and eager to learn, but one must know when to rest."
"But I-"
"You probably a bit of work piled up for you, don't you?"
"Ugh."
Using teleportation magic, I dropped her off at Babylonia before I headed back to the forest, more specifically, the mountain area where I captured the troll.
If I remember correctly, the area is abundant in several precious metals like mithril, adamantine and orichalcum. I distinctly remember making a cage out of those materials.
I closed my eyes and scanned the area with mana.
Monsters.
Dirt.
Rock.
Monsters.
Eureka!
I slashed at an area of the mountain with my sword, causing a large swathe of it to be obliterated.
Beneath the rock were several glistening ore veins.
Blue-green orichalcum.
Glistening dark adamantine.
Silvery mithril.
I could spend the rest of the day going on and on, but I have so much to do.
Using magic, I removed the three aforementioned ores above. The amount I gathered was enough to buy a small kingdom back in Solaris. I'm surprised the citizens of this world haven't monopolized this place yet. Maybe they're just to weak to deal with the monsters around these parts like Lady Vera said. Oh, well! Guess it just means more for me.
After gathering the ores, I proceeded to fashion them into weapons and armor.
How am I able to do this without a forge you ask?
With magic of course!
More specifically, Transmutation magic! A branch of magic and spells dedicated to transforming metals into useful equipment and materials.
How does it work? Just imagine the item you want and the material you have will be shaped into the object you desire! Very simple!
Now you might be thinking to yourself, isn't Transmutation magic quite overpowered? Can't I replicate as many powerful relics and artifacts of the past as I want if I have the necessary materials?
Yes and no.
Yes, you can create a replica body of Vorpus, the legendary sword said to be able to cut apart the fabric of reality, but you can't replicate its feat of ignoring the laws of reality.
Transmutation magic shapes the materials you have on hand into the object you have in mind, but you can't make it have the ability to shoot Fireballs or anything of that sort. That lies within the magic branch of Enchanting.
For the rest of the day, I kept making weapons and armor.
Spears, Maces, Axes, Swords, Daggers, Bows.
Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Light Armor.
I kept creating until I ran out of ideas for all the possible weapons and armor I can make.
Alongside some of the most common weapons and equipment in warfare, there were additional weapons inspired from various exotic far away countries.
The scimitar from the warring southern states of the dark-skinned Turkmans.
Katanas from the honorable warrior nation of Yamato.
A boomerang from the wild savage desert island nation of Auslia.
And many others just to name a few.
*Phew!*
I'm all done! there aren't anymore weapons I can think of!
I looked at the sky and saw the sun setting.
Well, guess I'm done for the day.
*Yawn!*
Wow! I'm more tired than I thought. I suppose going three days going without sleep will do that to a man.
Using magic (again), I carved out a space in the mountain to act as my temporary sleeping quarters. Once I stepped inside, I sealed the entrance behind me and laid on the stone floor, taking a well-earned rest.
The next day, I woke up and went to pick up Lilith. Worried about my hygiene and breakfast aren't you? Don't worry, as the Sword of Ishta, my body is always in peak condition thanks to her blessing, so no bad breath or odors coming from this old man. I also still have quite a few of those Golden Apples I received as a gift from those cafeteria fairies a while ago, so I won't be starving for quite some time.
After bringing the young lass back to the forest, I presented her with the weapons I had forged.
When her gaze laid upon my creations. She flipped out.
"Holy crap! Is that a full set of mithril armor!?! OMG! That sword looks absolutely priceless! How on Lunara did you get these things!?!"
I smugly stroked my moustache and smiled.
"I'm afraid it's a trade secret."
It's not, I'm not a Transmutation master, it's just a skill I picked up since I sometimes ran into shortage problems back in my early military years, especially with equipment. War tends to drain a nation's coffers.
Well, it's not like Miss Lilith is interested in knowing that as she is currently absorbed in looking at all the weapons and armor, I laid out in front of her. Her eyes shone with a clear desire to touch them but not daring to.
Unable to bear it any longer, she turned to me and asked.
"Sir Charles, may I touch them?"
"Of course! Feel free to test each of them out! Give them all a few good swings and pick the one you like most!"
The raven-haired girl picked up a one-handed sword and took a few practice swings. Hmm, seems like she has some experience in martial arts. No problems as far as I can tell. Whoever taught her must have been a skilled warrior.
And that's saying a lot coming from me, one of Solaris' greatest swordsmen. Normally when a student learns swordsmanship or some other martial arts from their master, they often copy their master's flaws.
However, like I said before, there's no in her basics, meaning either she's extremely or she had an excellent teacher. Possibly a combination of the two. I should ask her about it sometime in the future.
After swinging a couple of times, Miss Lilith asked me to create some dummies, to which I happily obliged.
Moments later, the dummies lay in pieces. All cut apart by her sword, she swung it a few more times before returning the one-handed sword back to the neat pile and picked a different weapon.
The testing went on well past morning and into the early afternoon. Finally, she decided on a black two-handed longsword, made from Adamantine. During the selection process, I noticed that she tended to favor bladed sword weapons and wouldn't even give a glance at any others, like axes, maces, spears, etc. This made me believe her teacher was also a master swordsman such as myself. A tidbit which may come in handy in the future. For now, I must divert my attention to her training.
Having selected her weapon, it's time for her to choose a set of armor.
Compared to the time she spent choosing her weapon, the time she spent looking at the armor sets is much shorter. Not that I'm complaining mind you. Compared to armor, a weapon is every soldier and warrior's lifeline, lose it during battle and your chances of survival are slim. So picking out the most suitable weapon you're apt at using is very important.
Immediately after I told her to pick out an armor set, she walked over to a set of light mithril armor. (Very interesting, I thought she may have chosen one of the heavier sets I made.) She only wore the most basic pieces which covered her vitals, elbows, knees, shins, feet, shoulders, and a pair of gauntlets, protecting both her hands and wrists. All pieces worn on the outside of her gym uniform.
She tested out the mobility of her new outfit, by smashing apart the dummies I created from the earth. Seeing the amount of time she took to slice apart the dummies was no different than before, she nodded with satisfaction and walked over to me. Ready to receive the next set of instructions.
"I've picked out what I want. What's next?"
"Next, I teach you the second technique, Imbuement. Since you've already had experience with Reinforcement, Imbuement should be much easier.
You're already familiar with how Reinforcement works, correct?"
The raven-haired girl nodded.
"Yes, it's circulating mana within my own body, right?
"Good, Reinforcement is similar, but different at the same time. Rather than controlling the mana flow within your own body to make it stronger, you're directing your mana into an object. More specifically, your weapon, so it can have greater sharpness, durability and power.
Try casting a spell again this time."
Miss Lilith casted a Light spell, the familiar yellow circle appeared once more, struggling to completely materialize.
"Can you feel the flow of mana going into the spell?"
"Yes."
"Direct it into the sword you're holding. Imagine the flow of your mana as a stream flowing into the small pond that is the Light Spell you're casting, imagine diverting the stream as though you were digging a ditch which eventually leads to the farmland that is your sword."
In less than a minute, the light spell faded, and her sword suddenly gained a grayish tint to it.
"Wonderful! You've successfully imbued your sword with mana! Now let's test it out, shall we?"
With a snap of my fingers, I created another dummy, but this one is different from the previous ones which were all made from a mixture of rock and iron. This one had a bit of Orichalcum and Adamantine mixed into it to give it extra hardness. Only ten percent of the dummy is made from those materials, the remaining ninety percent is just typical rock and iron. However, ten percent is enough to make it five times harder. No. Ten times harder than the previous dummies.
Apparently Miss Lilith noticed the dummy was different than the last ones she wrecked, so when she brought her blade down, she put extra force into it.
*Slash!*
The dummy got sliced in half along the torso, which flopped to the ground.
"Excellent work! Now let's see how long you can Imbue your sword for."
Two minutes, that's how long she held it for.
If you think this is a bad score, think again.
Previously, I explained Imbuement uses much more mana than Reinforcement as mana is being transferred outside of the body and to another object. During the transfer, a good portion of it is wasted.
Average recruits who can Reinforce their arms for five minutes and their whole bodies for one can maintain Imbuement with a weapon for roughly a minute. Meanwhile, Miss Lilith can maintain it for two minutes. Now it's true that different materials have different absorption levels, which lessens the amount of mana wasted, but it's still quite significant.
Anyways, for the rest of the day, I had her practice Imbuement and made her review Reinforcement for the rest of the day before sending her back to the Academy for some shut eye. She's going to need it for tomorrow's final test.