Chapter 164: A Promise to a Friend

"After receiving the containment chamber, your father announced that he was going to enter the portal alone."

"Why would he go in alone?"

"He didn’t want to arouse any suspicion about the metal. So he entered by himself, without anyone accompanying him."

Siegfried continued.

"I sent people to monitor the portal from outside. The Association did the same. Their job was to detect any major disturbance in the mana coming from within."

"Your father cut his way through the portal, and by the time he reached the central region, several of the stronger creatures attacked him at once."

"He killed everything that stood in his way, and eventually, he reached the boss."

Siegfried’s expression grew more serious. "The battle lasted for hours. Your father was strong, extremely strong. Don’t misunderstand that."

"But strength still has limits."

"By the time he reached the boss, he had already fought through hordes of powerful monsters. Even then, he managed to defeat the boss.

Though he couldn’t completely kill it, he retrieved the material, sealed it inside the containment chamber, and made his way back."

Siegfried fell silent for a moment.

"Hours later, when the portal reopened, your father came out covered in blood. There was barely a part of him that wasn’t wounded."

"One of his arms was broken, several ribs were cracked, and his mana pathways were severely damaged. He had come dangerously close to dying."

"But even in that condition, just before he lost consciousness, he looked at me and gave me a small smile."

Siegfried’s gaze lowered slightly. "That smile was enough for me to know the mission had succeeded."

"But I couldn’t feel happy. Seeing my friend almost lose his life for something I had spent decades chasing made me question everything."

"For the first time, I wondered whether I had made the greatest mistake of my life."

"When he finally regained consciousness, I asked him ’WHY.’"

Siegfried looked at Zac. "I asked him, ’Why would you risk your life for the ridiculous dream of an old man?’"

Zac remained silent, waiting for the answer.

Siegfried met his eyes. "He smiled. And then he said, ’You’re my friend. How could I sit still when I knew something was troubling you?’"

Siegfried paused. "It wasn’t some grand speech or some profound quote."

"But that was your father."

"That was how he had always been. He was the most genuinely good-hearted man I had ever known."

"Kind even when he had no reason to be. Loyal long past the point where anyone could have blamed him for walking away."

Siegfried gave a faint, bitter smile.

"Maybe that was his greatest strength..."

"...And maybe it was also the reason he’s no longer here."

Zac’s head snapped up. "What does that mean?"

Siegfried immediately waved his hand. "Nothing. Nothing we should discuss today."

"You can’t say something like that and then..."

"I can. Now stop."

Zac stared at him.

[Very smooth.]

"Shut up."

Siegfried sighed. "Don’t ruin the story by starting another argument. Just consider what I said removed from our conversation."

"Easy for you to say," Zac thought.

"Anyway, as I said, your father survived. And I started experimenting on the material."

"Of course you would; why not just leave the object producing impossible readings safely inside the chamber?"

"Then how would I ever learn anything about it?"

[Scientists and smiths share the same terminal illness.]

"I spent weeks testing it. I kept it inside the chamber, of course. There wasn’t a single instrument on Earth capable of properly analyzing it, but that didn’t stop me."

"I kept trying every method I could think of."

Siegfried’s expression gradually darkened. "But eventually, my patience ran out, and my recklessness got the better of me."

"Let me guess, you did something incredibly stupid."

"Sigh..."

[It seems he really did.]

"I constructed a much larger containment chamber so I could experiment on the material more openly."

"But because I rushed the construction, there was a microscopic flaw in the containment system that I didn’t notice."

"The moment I opened the smaller chamber, the surrounding space began collapsing toward the material."

Zac’s expression changed.

"Everything nearby started being pulled toward it."

"I immediately fled the building like a coward because I knew I had no way to contain it anymore. And the pressure continued to increase."

"It wasn’t simply heavy. Its density was distorting the space around it so violently that even light began bending toward it."

Zac stared at him in shock. "Like a black hole."

Siegfried nodded. "Exactly like one."

"Then how are you still alive? And why is the planet still here?"

"Well, fortunately for me, and for this planet, your father was nearby."

"Yeah...What can he do? Sorry for my language, but it’s the fucking black hole we are talking about."

"I know, that’s why I thought everything was over. But your father, who was still recovering from the portal expedition, sensed it immediately."

"So, what did he do?"

"What he always did."

Siegfried sighed. "Something stupid."

"Your father entered the room and used a drop of his ’Blood Essence’ to force the material back into containment, stopping what could have become an annihilation on a scale I still can’t properly estimate."

"I swore to God whatever his blood contained, it was out of this world. Pushing something that almost reached the level of a black hole, maaa...n, I sometimes wonder if he is really a human.

"Well, he was not, at least not completely."

He looked at Siegfried. "What is Blood Essence?"

"Blood Essence is concentrated blood within the core of the heart. Unlike ordinary blood, the amount of blood essence a person possesses is extremely limited. Usually only around three to ten drops."

"It is the very essence of a person’s life force."

"Using it can temporarily amplify someone’s power several times over, even to an extraordinary degree. But once the effect ends, the damage remains permanent."

"Using Blood Essence damages the user’s life force and can permanently reduce their future potential."

Zac simply stared at him without saying anything.

Siegfried’s expression grew heavier. "I know what I did was stupid."

"My recklessness, and the idiotic behavior I kept calling passion for blacksmithing, nearly annihilated the entire world and permanently harmed my friend."

"I felt like absolute shit for what I had done."

"Even though I know it’s not gonna change anything, I still apologized to him for days."

Siegfried lowered his gaze. "But do you know what made it even worse?"

"Your father never complained. Not even once."

"I didn’t know how I could ever repay what he had lost because of me. So I made him a promise."

"I told him that I didn’t know when I would finally be capable of forging that material. But whenever that day came, whatever I created from it would belong to him."

Zac stared at him. "You think that could compensate for his loss."

"No, but that’s the best thing I can do for him."

"You nearly destroyed the planet trying to inspect a piece of metal. Now I’m starting to understand why Armani warned me about you."

"After that incident, any sensible man would have locked the material away and never touched it again."

Zac looked at him. "But you’re not a sensible man, are you?"

"Watch yourself, boy."

Siegfried’s expression hardened slightly. "The danger frightened me, yes. The guilt over what happened to your father ate away at me, yes. I had nearly caused an annihilation simply by exposing that material for a few seconds."

He paused.

"But now, I knew exactly what I was dealing with. Knowing how dangerous it was didn’t kill my desire. If anything, it only made it stronger."

"You are crazy!"

[Everyone with indomitable passion is.]

"You can’t blame me; I wanted to ease the guilt I carried over from what happened to your father by giving that weapon to him."

"So instead of experimenting directly on the material, I spent my time trying to figure out how I could work with it under suitable conditions."

"And eventually, I identified three problems I would have to overcome if I ever wanted to accomplish the impossible."

"The first was its mass." Siegfried’s expression became serious.

"The material is unbelievably dense. According to the best calculations I was able to make, its mass and size placed it dangerously close to what scientists call its ’Schwarzschild radius.’"

Zac frowned. "Isn’t that the radius where something becomes a black hole?"

"More or less, yes."

"So taking it out of spatial containment and trying to work on it normally was practically impossible. Before I could even think about shaping it, I needed some way to suppress its effective gravitational influence."

Zac stared at him. "Well, the first problem already sounds impossible enough. What are the other two?"

"The second problem was heat."

"There is no furnace or flame on Earth hot enough to melt that material for smithing."

"I even tried several extraordinary flames recovered from portals, but I still couldn’t heat the material properly."

"And finally, the third problem." Siegfried’s expression became more thoughtful. "The material’s nature."

"It’s nature?"

"Yes. Every material has its own nature."

He picked up a small piece of dark metal and tossed it toward Zac.

"This metal reacts aggressively to mana. Weapons forged from it tend to favor destructive techniques. Fierce, unstable, and difficult to control."

Then Siegfried picked up a pale silver-colored material. "This one is almost the complete opposite. It accepts mana smoothly and disperses excess energy, making it far better suited for defensive equipment."

Zac looked between the two materials. "So when you say ’nature,’ you’re talking about the inherent properties of the material?"

"Properties, affinity, temperament. Call it whatever you want."

"Some materials amplify fire, while others favor cold. Some assist healing, while others strengthen the wielder. Some corrupt mana, while others react to emotions."

"There are materials that are naturally violent and others that are almost unnaturally calm."

Zac looked at him. "But what about this one?"

Siegfried shook his head. "I had no idea. And I had no way to properly test it either."

"That was what worried me the most."

"More than the black-hole part?"

"Exactly."

"With enough knowledge, physical problems can eventually be solved. Weight can be suppressed. Heat can be increased."

"But the nature of a material becomes part of the finished weapon, and something this powerful wouldn’t possess an ordinary nature."

"If it turned out to be destructive, bloodthirsty, or corruptive..."

Siegfried shook his head. "I don’t even know what would happen once the weapon was finished."

"I feel like every part of this story is way out of my league."

[I applaud to you awareness.]