Novel Full Chapter 165 - Artifact Forging
Wallace wasn't aware of the train of thoughts of those other examinees.
He was focused on learning the forging method and finding a way to complete the task.
The first spell that he imprinted on his Mana Body was the Spirit Flame. After all, it is the core of the magic.
He recalled the information to pass this last examination.
Based on the instructions included in the memory crystal, once the Mana Arrays within this room detected that he imprinted the 'Weapon Artifact Forge' spell on his Mana Body, the materials to forge a simple knife will be sent here. After that, he needs to use whatever he has learned to forge those materials using the new method. Also, the knife must possess Spirit Channelling to consider it as a 6th gen mana artifact and pass the test.
'Then... I can probably skip the other spells. Let's see... Three more spells should be enough. Living Furnace's Touch, Spirit Channelling, and Weapon Artifact Forge should do it.' Wallace thought after making some considerations.
In the meantime, Material Appraisal can be replaced by his Necklace's exclusive skill, Glimpse of the Mind. For the Mage Cover spell, its purpose was to protect him from harmful materials, he'll just do his best to protect himself without this spell in case there really was a need.
As for the Soul Imprinting spell, it wasn't required this time so he could skip it for now. The Living Furnace's Breath on the other hand can only be learned after mastering the Living Furnace's Touch, so there was no point in learning it's magic formula for now.
"Alright... there's no time to hesitate. I can only move forward."
He immediately started to control his internal Mana to simulate the magic formula he learned in the memory crystal. The process was similar to the Artifact Forging step where the magic structure crystal was being placed to a material to act as the core or brain of the Mana Artifact. But instead of placing the magic formula into a material, it was being imprinted to their Mana Bodies.
The process was slow and requires full concentration. During this imprinting process, the AOTL breathing method must be continuous and can't be interrupted. Apparently, it was this breathing method that makes the magic formula stay within the Mana Body, and without this, the formula would just immediately vanish or dissolve like normal mana. Of course, the spells imprinted won't be permanent on his Mana Body as well.
Wallace couldn't think of anything else after he started another round of imprinting process.
He wasn't aware of how many hours had passed and only stopped after he completed the imprinting of the fourth and last spell.
"How much time had passed this time? Avalon, how many hours left?" Wallace asked after confirming that the fourth spell was imprinted successfully.
Since they were underground, he doesn't have a concept of time and only relies on Avalon. Although he have pocketwatch with him, it's more convenient to ask it.
[ 47 minutes left. ]
"Guh! It's almost time?!"
Wallace immediately looked at the floating sphere beside him, he was about to ask if it was serious but remembered that it's an A.I. and it wouldn't tell a joke at times like this.
"Let's try this then..." Wallace can only begin forging the artifact.
He looked at the materials that have suddenly appeared from a secret compartment of the desk.
The drawer just suddenly opened and within were neatly placed materials for the knife he had to forge.
'Glimpse!'
Wallace thought after pouring Mana to his necklace.
[ Daedric Steel - Ten times stronger alloy of standard steel. It has mysterious energy. ]
[ Ebony Wood - Sturdy yet springy wood. It has an extremely high cold resistance and corrosion resistance. The wood will continuously emit heat unless it was isolated from Mana. It has mysterious energy. ]
The Daedric Steel was just a lump of metal at the moment while the Ebony Wood was a piece of log. The latter seems to be used for the handle of the knife that he was about to make.
'Continuous heat... A mysterious energy, huh.'
After pondering for a bit, Wallace started to feel his Spirit Flames. Anyway, the materials provided were enough for 3 sets, so it would be fine to fail 2 times but he had to hurry.
This first attempt would be his method to feel out all the skills so it wouldn't hurt even if he failed.
The Spirit Flames appeared on his two hands, it was blue in color as it dances beautifully on his palms.
'This feeling is a bit weird.'
Wallace commented after using it. The Spirit Flames feels so different compared to the standard magic spells being cast through Mana Artifacts and the formless Mana he normally controls.
After he got used to the Spirit Flames, with Wallace's fine control, the two materials started to float. This time, he activated his Living Furnace's Touch as he molded the materials to his envisioned item.
It wasn't hot in the room due to the Mana Arrays stabilizing the temperature but drops of sweat can be seen coming from Wallace's body.
Clang!
The Daedric Steel dropped on the floor as it caused some noises. For the Ebony Wood, it was caught by his foot.
He failed to mold the material.
"I envisioned it correctly, but using the Living Furnace's Touch spell is really causing a problem."
Wallace grumbled upon noticing the difficulty of controlling the spell since after touching it and molding a bit, he had also used Weapon Artifact Forge spell to seal the deal but it wasn't working. It was causing conflict in his mind as he was multitasking. It was very difficult.
He stopped for a moment after failing once. He can't just repeat the same process. He had to do something different on the second try.
He contemplated for a while as he realized his weakness.
"Multitasking is tough. If only my brain capacity was better than now... oh."
During the critical part of the forging process where he had to refine the steel and wood to make the knife form, his brain had to process a lot of things and he couldn't take all of it so he could only fail.
As a magician, their mental capacity was already high above compared to non-magicians. Unfortunately, the difficulty of the process seems to be set too high even for him unless his senses were further improved from his current capacity.
Wallace could only pull out his pocketwatch this time.
'Well, he said that we can use whatever trump card we have.'
He checked it's details before activating the artifact reward by the Pathfinder. He never really planned to use it at first as he wanted to save it in case of an emergency or something like life and death matter but he had no other choice at the moment.
[ Fervor Timepiece ]
A pocketwatch containing mysterious energy.
Effects: Protects the user from the magic that affects the human mind.
Skills:
Brain Burst - Allows the user to accelerate brainwaves for 15 seconds.
Cooldown: 24 hours
Physical Burst - Allows the user to accelerate physical activity for 15 seconds.
Cooldown: 24 hours
Dual Burst - Allows the user to accelerate both brainwaves and physical activity at the same time for 10 seconds.
Cooldown: 48 hours ]
[ Due to the manner that the mission was completed before, the user still has 2 usages left for Dual Burst which can be used without affecting the cooldown. ]
Wallace started again with the second set of materials, the previous materials had been corroded by his Spirit Flames, although he could still use the materials since it hadn't completed its form, it would still take an hour for the corrosion to be removed naturally.
'Mhm... I must aim to succeed in this second attempt.'
[ 24 minutes left. ]
"Don't remind me of the time until 1 minute was left."
[ Affirmative. ]
He couldn't be disturbed during this 2nd attempt.
A few moments passed and he was already on the part where he failed the first time.
But as soon as he reached this part, he activated the Dual Burst, it would only last for 10 seconds but it was more than enough.
The world slowed down and he could clearly see the minute changes of the two materials in his hands.
He carefully molded them and realized that the materials have a very tiny foreign energy within causing chaos during the forming process. The energy was purple in color and it doesn't seem to be harmful to people. Its effects seem to only affect materials. Wallace then realized something.
'Right! Is this the mysterious energy? Did they place this? Didn't they want anyone to pass the examination?'
Wallace thought quickly. He was amazed that Sir Slaine or Clyne would still place this hurdle to them. His Divine Sense was not able to detect this minuscule energy before, so it was a bit tricky.
For now, since he was still in the dual burst mode, he carefully isolated the foreign energy and placed it outside his Spirit Flames. It then dissipated like it was never there.
'Success!'
Not only was the foreign energy causing problem has been resolved but also the knife form itself.
Only one last step was remaining, Spirit Channelling.
He took a deep breath and started to apply the magic spell to his knife.
[ 1 minute left. ] Avalon reminded but it doesn't matter now.
"Done!"
Wallace completed his very first 6th generation Mana Artifact.