I spent the next two days preparing for my visit to the continent. I was going to head there using a ship transporting the occasional minerals to the continent. I would have preferred to fly there but I was going as a diplomat. The ports were controlled by the gnomes hence this was going to be the first area I would visit. The gnomes together with the dwarves were known for their talents in working as artisans. I learnt more about them from Zari when she was around. The difference was that the gnomes preferred to live in flat areas and then build gigantic structures to act as their homes while dwarves preferred to live I mountainous areas and burrowed caves. The dwarves were also physically denser when compared to gnomes. I boarded the ship on the third day and began my journey to the island. The ship was not what I was expecting. I assumed that we would be sailing on the sea but instead the ship was flying high above the clouds. "Is this our technology?" I asked a fellow sailor. "No this is gnomish technology. First time on board?" she asked. "Yes. I did not think such a technology existed." I answered. "Ha-ha you will be shocked when you see their city. It makes Capel's Capital look like a slum." She said. Well now I am more interested in seeing their city. I think once things cool down, visiting new places will be all that I do. The journey was very boring and took ten hours. Only clouds were seen all around us. "Hey. By the way is there a reason why we do not travel by sea. I have not seen such a method of travel before." I asked. "Yes. The sea is filled with dangerous monsters. In the early days about 600 years ago sea transport was used but due to the high level of casualties suffered it was abandoned. Trade with the Yaran continent restarted two centuries ago after the development of ships such as this one." She answered. Monsters that could capsize entire ships. They must be enormous and powerful. I was to meet with Zora in Katarak the nation of gnomes. He was in charge of leading the dragon's army activities in the region. Zora and some representatives from Katarak met with me when I landed. "Are you some kind of a bigshot?" The traveler asked. "Yes. Perhaps you have heard of me. They call me White Eagle but my name is Chrono." I answered. The traveler recovered quickly and thanked me for saving the homeland. "Chrono. Nice to see you my friend. All of my kin are now well I gather?" Zora asked. Our thirst for knowledge had led me into a deep friendship with Zora. I asked questions and Zora was always happy to answer them. We were alike in that manner. I had evolved Zora a few weeks ago and his mana reserves were now at 800,000. Seems weak compared to his siblings but he was not really interested in strength. This should not be confused with his fighting ability however. Zora was a genius in fighting techniques. Zora and Zurin would spar now and then every few centuries. The result was always a close win for Zurin despite having as much as twenty times his brother's mana reserves. Now that he controlled both fire and light magic, he was at the apex of fighting ability. The only person who could win against him was the emperor dragon Zurin. In a few centuries after honing my skills maybe I could be his equal and in a millennia I was guaranteed to win but for now I was too green. Zari had never beaten his brother in a fight. She had explained that they had dueled over a hundred times but he was too much for her. I was told that he had a secret technique which if I wanted to find out what it was, I was to challenge Zora. Of course I declined the offer. I had never beaten Zari before so I was not going to challenge her elder brother to a fight."It is good to see you too Zora. Yes everyone is well taken care of." I answered. We shook hands and then he introduced me to all those who were present. The various diplomats of the fae, gnomes and dwarves were here. We all introduced ourselves to each other and then entered a horse drawn chariot. This was kind of a letdown because I expected some motor vehicle contraption. The airship base was packed was far from the city. It was cloudy so I did not get to see the city from above. The journey took twenty minutes and in that time Zora and I were chatting about the vampires. The vampire lord was referred to as the Blood Origin. His name was lost to history long ago thus the moniker was his identifier. "Do they have a leader who can be reasoned with?" I asked. "NO. They do not listen to reason. Their leader is particularly strong in fact I fought with him a century ago." Zora said. "Did you win?" I asked. "No I lost. He was at least half as strong as my brother was before you evolved him. His fighting techniques are the best I have ever seen. He employs strength, speed and illusions in ways that I have never thought about." Zora added. So like half before evolution. That is like 2 million in mana reserves at least. "He must have trained for a long time." I murmured. "Of course he is pretty old himself. He mentioned that I was as skilled as my great grandfather when we fought. That is almost eighteen millennia ago." Zora added. "That is crazy. Eighteen millennia ago. How old is he then?" I shouted. Zora chuckled a little. "You know I have a feeling that during our match he was holding back. His speeds were abnormal. He would taunt me instead of attacking when I made a mistake. Our fight only ended after he grew bored of it. Show me something new next time he said and simply vanished." Zora said. What is wrong with that lying dragon? She has a very bad habit of downplaying things. These vampires are not simply weaklings as she said. "How about the other vampires, are they as strong as their leaders?" I asked. "No, but the top 20 are formidable in their own right. They refer to themselves by the numbers they bear." Zora added. I was looking worried now. There were only two of us in the carriage so we could speak freely with each other. "Do you think we can win with the numbers we have?" I asked. "They don't stand a chance. We are dual wielders of elements and boast quite a bit of strength. I am confident that I can currently win in a rematch." Zora said. The light attacks are fast yes but I don't think that adds much advantage. We finally neared the city gates. The walls were high. Easily over 30 meters. I could see buildings that rose far above the walls. The gate was a gigantic metal structure that slid vertically to open. It was covered with murals that Zora told me were to enhance its defense. We soon entered the gate. I was blown away with the magnificence of the city. The streets were paved with marble and spotlessly clean. Inside the city was a healthy dose of greenery unlike the semi-arid conditions outside the city. The population of gnomes was also very high. We passed through a market where other species were observed trading. There were fae, dwarves, humans and other races I didn't know about. It was evident that the main commodity on sale was weapons by the gnomes and foodstuff by the other races. The infrastructure in this place was well thought of and planned. "Wait that looks like a windmill." I shouted. "Oh yeah that. I also asked about it the first time I saw it. They bought the schematics from a baron a few months back." Zora said. Damn that fool. Selling my work without my consent. "They apparently use it to pump water from underground." Zora added. They managed to adapt it to pump water. I am very impressed. "You know. I am the original designer of that contraption." I said. Of course original designer in this world and not on earth. "Perhaps you can share with me the inner workings of the mechanism later on. The gnomes declined to divulge the secrets. It is said that they paid a very high price for the schematics." Zora said. I greed to his request and a short while later, the carriage came to a stop.We arrived outside a grand building. It reminded me of those old giant churches back on earth. I was welcomed by the council of Katarak, these were the people who were responsible for ruling this area. "Greetings Sir white Eagle. We are the council of Katarak. It is an hour to meet you." An elder representative said. "It is an honor to receive such a warm welcome. My name is Chrono Silva the White Eagle." I said. After my success in battle, father insisted that I take the family name Silva. I did not see a problem with it so I adopted it. It was evening by now. I was led to a large hall where a banquet was held. I got to meet various leaders and prominent people there. They were all curious as to how I managed to save the dragon kin. I explained it to them very vaguely that I destroyed their bodies and rebuilt them anew while infusing with them with magic. They looked confused so I tried that with an inanimate object. "Can I borrow that spear from the soldier." I said while pointing. The soldier was motioned to bring the spear closer. I took the spear and disintegrated it to fine floating powder. I then infused the spear with a small amount of fire magic and rebuilt it. I then gave it back to the soldier and asked him to swing it. The result was that it was now a magical weapon capable of producing fire provided the wielder had mana. "Amazing this is an even more efficient technique to make magical weapons." "I know. We usually spend a week infusing magical elements continuously to make one." Said another. "How do you do it?" I sked. The answer I got is that the weapon once is made, it is placed in a mana rich area where it is infused with a specific attribute continuously by the fae. I used my phoenix eye on the fae species here and their mana reserves were between 30,000 and 50,000. Not really impressive on dragon standards but to the gnomes who rarely had over 1500 in mana reserves they were god sent. All the species here started asking for my help in weapon manufacturing in unison. I am not really planning to stay here for long so I decided to try something where we could each help each other. "I will try disintegrating another spear and the fae can try infusing it with magic and then I will restore it." I said. Despite the informal setting here, this was a de facto military meeting. Only the ruling class and the military were present in this event. I had no problem aiding their course. Another spear was brought and everything I said was done. The result was that now the spear was a magical element infused with the wind attribute. The crowd was ecstatic. I never really thought about using magical weapons myself but maybe I should ask for or make a custom weapon. A weapon with a high mana capacity as me if possible. The weapons that were infused with magic today were all of less than 3000 in mana capacity. Once the mana inside of them was exhausted, they would use the wielders mana. They gave an advantage in that a wielder may use a different attribute from the one he had. This was provided that mana was present.The event ended late into the night and was ushered to my room. The next morning, a strategic meeting was held to determine the next path forward. I was asked to stay in Katarak for a little while to provide aid in weapon making. The main fighting force in this battle was the fae. The gnomes, dwarves and humans provided supplies. The humans provided food, gnomes provided weapons and the dwarves made armor. This was the arrangement that they had all come to agree on. It was also decided that the gnomes were going to perform air raids with their airships if the fey requested for their assistance. With the meeting adjourned, I stayed in Katarak for one month and helped their weapon industry. There were spears, bows, daggers and many other weapons that we completed during that time. I could disintegrate hundreds of spears at a time and have the fae infuse them with magic. All the weapons that the fae had were now magical in nature after a month. Now I decided to make my own weapon. I was not really sure what kind of weapon to choose so I asked the chief weapon smith for some help. "It is possible to make a weapon that changes forms according to the wielders desire. The only problem is that I lack enough Orin to make the weapon for you." He said. If I was going to make this weapon, I needed a large concentration of Orin, a mineral found in very small quantities. That was no problem for me because I possessed dark magic hence changing forms of minerals was easy. At least that is what I thought. Turns out turning normal minerals to Orin was a very slow and mana consumption was very high. It took one week to make two kilograms of it. Normal magical weapons contained few grams of Orin. I decided to make at least 25 kilograms of Orin while taking lessons on how to make my dream weapon. I was in to stay here for at least 2 months. That is what I did.In the two months I lived here, I got a chance to spar with Zora outside the city walls. In the first month, he limited himself to avoiding and blocking my attacks. "Not bad." Zora said after I landed my first punch in three weeks. We were practicing in human form and not using any magic attacks. This was to improve my fighting ability at close combat using strength, speed and other innate abilities. Vampires would not really be fought in dragon form unless there were no people in the surrounding area. This was because a dragon's breath attack was so dangerous that it could harm both allies and foes if used in a populated area. In the second month, I was to avoid and block his attacks. He was very skilled. On the first three days, I did not manage to avoid or block any of his attacks. He expertly used faints on kicks and punches. I would block his right punch only to have him kick my ribs with his left leg. It was brutal. No barriers or membranes were allowed because it would not be an effective lesson. Every day I ended up with broken bones which I healed without a problem at the end of the training session. In the final two weeks, I was to fight back and now it was a proper session. I was stronger and faster than Zora which was the only saving grace. I could avoid and block 10% of the attacks but I never did land a hit on him on the final two weeks.I had learnt the procedure of making my dream weapon for the last two months. The procedure was the same as that of making normal weapons except the tools and forges to be used were different. The weapon also had an aspect of a blood covenant where drops of my blood would be poured over the molten Orin. The forge to be used was capable of supporting a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees. It was very difficult to use Orin because of its high melting point and its availability in very small quantities. The forging of the weapon promptly began. It was extremely difficult to melt the 25 kilograms of Orin. I resulted in using my fire based attacks on the forge to meet the required temperatures. After a few hours, the Orin was in molten form. I pricked myself and let blood pour over the molten metal. The molten metal glowed red and started moving like a worm.
[Yes, the weapon that will be forged here will develop a will and acknowledge you as its master.]