An hour later, Sage was standing in front of a forge. To the side was a huge stack of Fire Stones, ready to be put to use heating the forge to more extre temperatures. For now, there was a mundane fire simring within the forge. The huge pile of coals was maintained by an apprentice that stopped by every few hours. While this forge wasnt anywhere near as well equipped as those back in the Holy Fla Sect, it was nonetheless one of top quality for a place like Plum Lantern City. It was probably one of the top three workshops in the city, and was equipped to handle every problem a Blacksmith might face.
On the other hand, the equipnt was nowhere near as refined or powerful as the ones back in his sect. The differences between a crafting sect and a large business were apparent. Thousand Treasures shared access to a high quality set of workshops that would put most small or diums sized sects to sha, but it was also just a business. Of course their workshops wouldnt match those of a massive and powerful sect of craftsn. Still, this workshop would serve for Sages purposes. Given the capabilities of the Universe Ring, Sage wouldnt have even needed a workshop if he had stopped at the sect before coming to Plum Lantern City. His standards had just been too high to settle for any normal workshop equipnt, wanting to instead get the good stuff.
Sage first perford a thorough examination and test of all the equipnt in the workshop, not being stupid enough to assu anything about their performance. Next, he brought out all of his planned ingredients and started to test them as well. Not every material was created alike. A piece of tal from one mine might be very different from one from another mine, even if they were both the sa type of tal. The differences between living creatures was even more pronounced, so more ti was given to testing the Grimfire Gryphons talons, the Enigma Silk, and the sky bison horns.
Hed never actually built a set of matching flying swords to use in a Sword Formation, but that didnt an he was helpless. Knowing the theory behind their creation, Sage first brought out a set of similar, but lower leveled materials to practice with. Spirit Steel instead of Cloudtal, Manticore claws instead of Grimfire Gryphon talons, and Spiritworm Silk instead of Enigma Silk. These materials were much cheaper, but similar in style and also from singular sources just like his other materials.
It was a little tip he had picked up from a book back in the sects library. It was a general knowledge blacksmithing book so it didnt go into specifics, but he saw a small introductory passage on creating item sets. Sets of items were an uncommon creation among smiths because of the increased difficulty and consumption of resources. For this reason, it was a mostly ignored art excepting in certain special situations. The important tip, and the one he was following now; was that an item set would be many tis more powerful than normal if each item in the set was crafted from the sa source materials. Not just the sa type of tal or beast, but the exact sa source. One large lump of ore from the sa spot, parts from a singular beast, etc. The more congruous the ingredients were, the more unified the resulting set would be.
Sages plan was to extend this concept not just to the ingredients, but also to the forging process. He was going to forge each of the swords in a set at the sa ti, forging them step by step and side by side. This was bound to lead to problems keeping each blade in a similar state, dividing his attention in so many directions and inviting problems. This was the main reason hed purchased practice materials. If it were just creating items from the high leveled materials, hed just need to get more to make up for a few initial failures. Instead hed purchased more than double and planned to make twice as many swords as was necessary for the set.
As for the practice materials? He had enough to forge over a hundred swords. Drawing in a deep breath, his Qi compressed the air into his lungs and with a slow exhale, the flas blasted heat outwards. Divine Breath was being put to its original use once again. Sage slapped a spirit stone onto a fire stone and tossed it into the forge, instantly enveloping the room in a surge of raging heat. Using a huge crucible he slowly refined the rough ore, sifting out the impurities with a few rounds of treatnt, eventually pouring it into a sand mold in the shape of bars. Spirit Steel was already a refined product, but Sage wanted to bring the tal up to his standards. It was, after all, just ordinary steel with powdered spirit stones mixed in. Sending it through a second round of refinent let him understand its current condition and also gave him an opportunity to increase the quality by a level.
Before starting any work, he started the process over again, this ti using the Cloudtal and the special charcoal that it required. This coal was essentially a secret product, nad rely Cloudtal Charcoal and it had only a few suppliers. It was only used to strengthen and alloy Cloudtal into Cloudsteel, but it still cost a pretty penny due to its limited source from only a few suppliers. The Cloudtal Consortium had a monopoly on Cloudtal Charcoal, so they happily charged exorbitant prices for it. Sage perford the sa process of lting and refining the Cloudtal as he had done with the Spirit Steel. Then he perford the special process of adding the Cloudtal Charcoal and transforming the Cloudtal into Cloudsteel. He was very careful and cautious during this process, aiming to get a result consistent with that of the Spirit Steel. The closer the two sets of tals were, the better it would help his tests.
The next day, Sage stood in front of two pyramids of tal bars. With a thought, a boy with white hair and a pot belly appeared beside him.
Oh great, Tao Ba. What do you think of these tals? Have I made them uniformly enough for an item set?
He was no longer within the workshop and instead had taken the finished tal bars into the Universe Ring, asking for the opinion of the powerful existence that lived within.
Hmm about seventy percent pure, and eighty percent homogeneity between the bars. Not a horrible result. Theyre passable, for such low quality items at least.
Sage refrained from cursing at Tao Ba about his standards, instead convincing himself that it was a good thing this helper of his had such a high bar. It ant that hed be able to keep getting help, far far into the future. He just had to put up with an arrogant little brat it was a price he could pay.
With the main ingredient properly prepared, Sage also asked so advice from the haughty boy about his plans for the array formations. Showing the simplified symbols hed planned. There was a delicate balance he had to maintain. The more specific the symbols he chose the less flexibility there would be in the Sword Formations, but it would also increase the power. The most extre option would be to engrave the Heaven Destroying Sword Formation that Song Lu Tian used into the swords as their main formation. While that would boost their effectiveness, it would also an they would be nearly useless for anything other than employing that specific formation. If Song Lu Tian later switched his main formation, or wanted to use them in normal combat he would need other swords.
Is that it? What a puny Sword Formation. Here, just use these.
Tao Ba flicked his fingers and beams of energy flew through the air, forming array symbols in mid-air. The many strokes and slashes hovering there in the air for Sage to study. He quickly brought out his mory Forge and copied down this vision in the sky. Tao Ba looked at him like he was admiring a pet.
Is it so surprising? Those are just so higher level array symbols. No need to specialize them, just use the strongest. Sword. Destruction. Heaven. Power. Speed. See, easy.
For so reason Tao Ba just made people want to smack him, while at the sa ti overwhelming others with his imnse knowledge. Sage could only flatter him, showering him with praise and brewing him a pot of tea. Afterwards, he returned to the workshop and got to work!
Reviews
All reviews (0)