Chapter 185: Strange Dream (1)

The other humans made different things; some made a sword, and some made plate armor. There were a few who made something simple: armor for the shoulder and forearm.

Red furrowed his brow because what they were doing was totally different from what he did. They didn’t use mana like him; they used hammer and fire to soften the metal before shaping it. He watched a few of them sharpening the sword, using a metal wheel instead of mana.

’No, they use mana, but they use it differently.’

Red detected the mana on the hammer. They imbued their mana into the hammer. That was totally different than the thing he did to his arrow. They didn’t coat their hammer; they put the mana inside their hammer. He could sense the spark of mana from each hit. They contained the mana inside the hammer.

’Can I do it? Or do I need a specific type of weapon or materials that could contain the mana?’

He didn’t get an answer as a sharp headache hit him. It felt like something pierced his head. Maybe this was what the Elite Kobold Fighters felt when their heads were struck by the arrow.

Red fell to his knees, clutching his head in pain. Fortunately, the pain was just for a moment. It only lasted ten seconds before his head was flooded with a lot of information. It was like he was inheriting a memory, the memory of these humans.

It was the knowledge of smashing the metal. Like how long he needed to put the metal into the fire before he could start smashing it. He learned how to shape them with a hammer. He learned the process of refining and tempering.

There was a lot more information, and before he could process it all, the surroundings changed once more. He was surrounded by humans and five of his people earlier, but now he was in a different place.

There was no fire or the clanking noises this time, but he was still surrounded by the workstation. He got up and put aside the flooding information in his head for now. He looked at his surroundings, and he was surrounded by his own people now.

There were thirty of them, and each stood at their own station. Just like the humans, his people also played with the metal. The difference was obvious; they didn’t use a hammer to shape or refine the metal. They used something he was familiar with: mana.

He came closer to a station where his people grabbed a rock, a black, dirty rock. That was right; he started with a rock. He was curious what his people wanted to do with a dirty rock.

The rock floated, covered in mana. It mushed into liquid before something was separated from the liquid; dark-gray liquid was separated from the dark liquid. Then the process was over as the two liquids fell on the station.

The person working on the rock grabbed the dark-gray liquid that started to solidify. Then he threw that into a dump. Then he repeated the same process for four more rocks, extracting the dark-gray substance.

Information entered his head as he watched the process. This process was called smelting, or, to be more exact, Mana Smelting. It was to extract the pure metal from the rock using mana.

Then the extracted metal went through another process, refining. The same as before, he refined the extracted metal using mana: Mana Refining.

Red watched the whole process intensely, realizing this was an opportunity for him. He wanted to make a weapon for himself, maybe a sword that fit his size or a stronger bow and certainly arrows. He also realized he used the skills wrong.

Even though it was somehow working, he clearly used the skill wrong. He was supposed to refine the pure metal, not a made weapon or equipment.

Pure black liquid was separated from the metal, and new information entered his head. That black liquid was the waste material, the same thing as the thing that was thrown into the dump earlier. The refining process didn’t just remove the waste material, but also burned the impurities in the metal to create a stronger metal.

Then it went to the next process, Mana Forging. The hardened metal started to melt again like a liquid inside the mana. Then it started to take shape.

Red quickly realized another misuse of skill. He realized why he was having a hard time when he tried to make a spiky metal ball. He smelted the metal and tried to forcefully shape it with Mana Smelting. Here he saw how the metal was effortlessly shaped into a dagger.

The dagger was black, around half his arm in length, curved beautifully as a hilt was shaped. Even though it looked like the dagger was shaped effortlessly, it was still a long process. It took an hour before the shape was finalized.

The person in charge put the dagger down as he took a breath. It looked like the work required a lot of concentration and also mana. He took a fifteen-minute break before continuing with the work again.

A new piece of information entered his head. It was information about the next process, Mana Tempering. Tempering was a necessary process to reduce the brittleness of the dagger, which led to an increase in durability. At least, he didn’t use the skill wrong this time; the only thing that he was not wrong about.

’And there’s no way I am wrong about Mana Repairing and Mana Sharpening as well.’

The finishing job was simpler and faster. After Mana Tempering came Mana Sharpening, turning the dagger into a deadly weapon. The last finishing job was that this person covered the handle with leather.

This person released a deep breath, inspecting the dagger. Unlike the human earlier, there was no joy or excitement; it was more like he expected the result already. He just nodded and put the dagger on the side.

Red was curious about the quality of the dagger. He used Appraisal on the black dagger.

Abyssal-Iron Dagger

Condition: Perfect++

Quality: Epic+

Attribute: +1000 Dexterity, Abyssal Touch