Chapter 371: Forging

Andre did not answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed upon the two materials sitting on the table, though each held his attention for a different reason.

Kael had expected a reaction to the Malachor Jade. It was Epic-grade material and, unlike most equipment he had dragged out of the Tower, it remained raw crafting stock. To a smith, that probably mattered more than a finished sword ever could.

The Porphyrite-Gloom Ore received a far more cautious response. Andre slowly set his wine aside and leaned forward, his thick fingers hovering over the dark mineral without touching it.

[ ITEM STATUS SCREEN ]

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ITEM NAME: Malachor Jade Ingot

RARITY: Epic

[ MATERIAL PROPERTIES ]

TEMPERATURE FLUX:

Heating increases physical impact.

Chilling elevates energy conductivity.

LIVING MEMORY:

Possesses an organic spatial memory. The ingot forcefully resists physical deformation when hot, and elastically snaps back to its forged shape when cooled.

[ LOG LORE: ORIGIN ]

"Born where the veins of the earth bled into a ruptured abyss. The jade is calcified magic; the dark whorls are the echoes of the tear. It remembers the disaster that shaped it, and it hungers to twist back into what it once was."

==============================

Beside it sat the far less impressive-looking ore, at least until someone inspected it.

[ MATERIAL STATUS SCREEN ]

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ITEM NAME: Porphyrite-Gloom Ore

RARITY: Rare (Unrefined Mystic Mineral)

[ NATURAL PROPERTIES ]

THERMAL MASS CONVERSION:

The ore absorbs thermal energy and converts it directly into physical mass. It does not grow hot; it grows heavy.

[ LORE ]

"Deep beneath the volcanic shelves, where hellfire meets the crushing dark, Porphyrite drinks the heat of the earth to anchor itself to the world’s core. A smith who tries to melt it in a standard furnace will quickly find their anvil collapsed into the basement, pulled down by a stone that grows heavier with every spark."

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Andre inhaled deeply before pointing at the Gloom Ore. "Where in the Nine Hells did ya find these? Especially that."

"Vanitas." Kael smiled and shrugged beneath the dwarf’s stare. "I had the pleasure of experiencing the place a few times."

Andre narrowed his eyes. "How many is a few?"

Kael raised one hand and extended three fingers.

Andre stared at them. "Three Vanitas invitations before Floor Eleven?"

"Yeah. Technically below ten."

"That makes it worse." Andre leaned back and studied Kael for several seconds before sighing. "That’s more than most Climbers see in thirty Floors."

"I know. Someone explained it to me."

Andre rubbed one hand across his face. "Three invitations in fewer than ten Floors. Yer one unlucky bastard."

Kael glanced toward the ingots. "Got some good stuff out of it."

"That doesn’t make ya less unlucky. It only means ya survived being unlucky."

"Fair."

Andre finally picked up one of the Malachor Jade ingots and turned it beneath the forge light. Dark whorls shifted within the otherwise jade-like material as his thumb traveled along one edge.

"For most Climbers, this would be wasted on a weapon," he said.

Kael raised an eyebrow. "Wasted?"

"Aye. They’d turn it into jewelry—rings, pendants, channeling trinkets, mana conductors. Maybe a focus if they had enough." Andre tapped the ingot with one fingernail. "The conductivity alone makes it valuable."

His attention shifted toward the Porphyrite-Gloom Ore, then toward his forge. Whatever possibility had entered his mind disappeared almost immediately.

"No."

Kael frowned. "No what?"

"I like my forge," Andre said as he looked around the workshop. "I’d like to continue owning it."

Kael understood. "You can’t forge the Gloom Ore."

"Oh, I can forge it." Andre pointed toward the floor beneath them. "I just can’t forge it here."

"Because it gets heavier when heated."

"Aye."

Kael looked at the ore. "How heavy?"

"Enough."

"That’s not a measurement."

"It’s the measurement that keeps my forge above ground."

Kael laughed, but Andre did not join him.

"You think that lore is exaggerating? It isn’t." Andre folded his arms. "Get that ore hot enough to work properly and its mass starts climbin’. Then ya need an anvil that can take the weight, a floor that can take the anvil, and a forge capable of maintaining enough heat while the damned material tries to bury itself."

Kael stared at the Porphyrite. "Okay."

"A normal smith heats that thing without knowing what it is, and he’ll spend the next day digging his equipment out of whatever room is below him."

"There isn’t a room below you."

"Exactly." Andre pushed the ore toward Kael. "So we’re not forging it here."

Kael drummed his fingers against the table. "What about Brokk’s Hammer? I shaped the Reclaimer metal with it and changed its correct form, so why wouldn’t it work on this?"

Andre’s eyes moved toward Kael’s inventory. "Different problem. Brokk’s Hammer can force material to remember a shape, and it can change properties if ya understand what yer asking it to do."

He tapped the Gloom Ore. "But this is raw ore."

"So?"

"So ya can take the Hammer and beat this into something shaped like a gauntlet if ya want." Andre waited until Kael’s expression shifted. "It’ll look like a gauntlet, but it’ll be shit."

Kael frowned while Andre grinned.

"Maybe very expensive shit."

"Useful explanation."

"Then listen." Andre picked up the ore. "Some properties exist naturally. Others need proper refinement."

He placed it back on the table before continuing. "Porphyrite converts heat into mass because of what exists inside the mineral. Right now, all of that is locked inside impurities, layers, pressure channels, and whatever else formed around it."

"So it needs smelting."

"More than smelting." Andre leaned forward. "It needs to be worked properly. Heated, hammered, folded, and refined. Then ya heat it again and hammer it again. Every cycle brings the property forward instead of burying it."

Kael glanced toward Brokk’s Hammer inside his inventory. "And Brokk’s Hammer skips that. It can shape the ore, but it can’t refine it."

"Exactly." Andre smiled. "Maybe someone who understands that hammer far better than either of us could do more. Right now, though, ya’d be forcing the metal into shape without waking what makes it valuable."

Kael leaned back. "So I need a better forge. Where do I find one?"

Andre did not answer immediately. His attention drifted toward the far wall before he finally spoke.

"Floor Thirty."

Kael’s eyes narrowed. "What’s there?"

"An old dwarven forge." Andre’s tone changed, losing most of its humor. "Old even by my people’s standards."

"You’ve used it?"

"A few times."

Andre reached down and knocked against one of the metal supports beneath his chair.

Kael followed the movement toward the dwarf’s legs, or what remained of them. Andre still possessed both legs but neither foot. Kael had noticed long ago that he moved differently, relying heavily upon reinforced stubs and crafted supports secured beneath the ends of his legs.

Andre caught him looking. "I can’t make the journey."

Andre shook his head. "I’m a smith now, and I don’t got the legs to take me there anymore. Not to mention the thirtieth isn’t exactly a friendly stroll."

Kael looked back toward the materials. "So my options are to wait until I reach it or pay people strong enough to escort you there."

"That second option would be expensive," Andre warned.

"And probably dangerous."

"Aye."

Floor Thirty was far enough away that Kael saw no reason to rush. He stored the Porphyrite-Gloom Ore and tapped one of the Malachor Jade ingots still resting upon the table.

"Fine. We have another material, so we use this."

Andre grinned. "Now that I can work with."

"For the gauntlets."

"Aye." Andre picked up one of Kael’s damaged hands and inspected the steel plates. "Atrax has served ya well."

"It almost became two pieces."

"Means it’s time."

Kael watched him turn the damaged gauntlet beneath the light. "You can replace it?"

"I can do better than replace it." Andre looked toward the ten Malachor Jade ingots. "I can rebuild them."

Kael smiled. "How long?"

"A while."

"How long is a while?"

Andre pointed toward the chair. "Sit down."

"I am sitting."

"Then stay sitting."

Kael sighed, and Andre laughed.

The work began that same day, though not at the forge. That surprised Kael. Andre made no attempt to throw the Malachor Jade into the flames and begin hammering. Instead, he cleared an entire table and brought out more paper than Kael expected any sane smith to possess.

Kael watched the dwarf flatten the first sheet and begin drawing. "What are you doing?"

"Making yer gauntlets."

"That looks like drawing."

"That’s because ya think smithing starts when the hammer comes down." Andre did not look up from the page. "It starts before the metal ever reaches the forge."

Lines spread across the paper, gradually forming the gauntlet’s exterior before revealing everything beneath it. Andre drew individual finger plates, knuckle joints, the limits of wrist movement, and the supporting structure beneath the armor. Then he began adding sockets.

Kael leaned closer. "Those weren’t there before. You’re adding more?"

"I’m fixing yer old mistakes."

"I made those. You also helped"

"I know." Andre smiled when Kael looked offended. "The old gauntlets were made around what ya knew at the time. Now ya’ve got more Runes, more combinations, and apparently a habit of punchin’ things strong enough to crack the metal."

"Only happened once."

"It’s Floor Eleven. It shouldn’t have happened at all."

"Fair."

Andre redesigned the entire internal structure. He placed some rune sockets closer to specific channels and moved others farther apart so conflicting energy types would not continuously bleed into one another. Some would be accessible through Kael’s fingers, allowing him to click, activate, and release them, while the ones most dangerous to trigger accidentally would sit deeper within the forearm.

"Can you make them modular?" Kael asked.

Andre stopped drawing. "How modular?"

"I want to change Runes quickly." Kael clicked two fingers together to demonstrate.

"No." Andre stared at him. "I’d like yer hand to remain attached."

Kael laughed. "So that means you’re going to try."

Andre muttered something unpleasant and began modifying the design anyway.

The elemental cores came next. Andre planned the internal channels around Fire, Frost, and possible future additions instead of simply placing the cores wherever space remained. He reinforced the joints, added more protection around the wrist, and designed overlapping plates to cover seams the old gauntlets had left vulnerable.

Throughout the entire process, he kept returning to one property of the material.

"Living Memory," Andre said as he drew another line. "The hotter it gets, the harder it fights deformation. Cold makes it better at conductin’ energy."

Kael looked from the plans to his Fire and Frost Runes. "Oh."

Andre smiled. "Aye."

Fire would increase the physical impact and resistance of the material, while Frost would improve its conductivity. Kael already used both constantly, making the Malachor Jade almost absurdly suited to him.

"What happens if I alternate them?" he asked.

Andre stopped drawing and slowly raised his head. "Don’t."

"That sounded interesting."

"That was fear."

"So it could work?"

Andre sighed and returned to the design. "We test it after I finish making the damned things."

Most of the first day went into planning. The second finally brought them to the forge, where Andre placed the first ingot into the heat.

Kael expected Malachor Jade to behave like steel. It did not. The material changed slowly at first, its jade color deepening as the dark whorls beneath its surface began to move. Andre watched until some condition only he recognized had been met, then removed the ingot and held out a smaller smithing hammer.

"Hammer."

Kael looked from the tool to him. "You want me to use it?"

"Ya."

"I came here so you could forge it."

"Aye."

"So why am I forging it?"

Andre shoved the hammer toward him. "You need to learn. So hit."

"Where?"

"There."

Kael struck the indicated spot.

CLANG!

The shock traveled through his arm. Andre immediately shook his head.

"Too hard."

Kael stared at him. "I punch monsters."

"That’s the problem." Andre took the hammer from him. "A forge isn’t a fight. And I already taught you this"

He struck the ingot.

CLANG.

The sound was the same, but the effect was entirely different. The metal moved only slightly, yet it did so cleanly.

"No wasted force." Andre returned the hammer. "Again."

Kael struck.

"Less."

He adjusted and tried again.

"Angle."

Another strike followed.

"Yer wrist."

Kael corrected it and brought the hammer down once more.

"Stop trying to murder the metal."

Kael looked at him. "It’s resisting."

"It’s supposed to."

By the end of the first hour, Kael understood why smiths developed shoulders that looked as though they had spent their lives fighting mountains. By the end of the first day, Andre finally explained why Kael was involved in the forging at all.