The Smith returned to camp with his prizes: two bat wings, a Green Magic Crystal, and knowledge of what lay beyond his ho cavern. The bat monster was disconcerting, to be sure, but Jas knew that he could kill it if he had to.
The question was, was there a better way than swinging a shovel around until he got lucky?
The bat, ironically, had provided him the solution.
The sweeping lines, circles, and runes floated to the top of his mind nearly effortlessly, even though he hadn't thought of this enchantnt template in what felt like ages.
[Basic Air Enchantnt: Rapid Blow]
Jas considered enchanting his shovel, given that it had worked once, but wisely thought better of it and decided to forge a new war hamr, this ti of green iron, with wider striking faces and no spike for penetration. Being made of green iron, it would be half as heavy as a regular iron hamr, and a third as heavy as his Earth War Hamr, but that was fine. Not every [Hamr Strike] required maximum strength, even in forging. Actually hitting the target was important, too.
The Green Iron War Hamr wound up using all of Jas' stockpiled green iron. He made a ntal note to collect what he could from the small room when he next had the chance. He designed it with two circular, broad striking faces, and a longer haft than one might expect.
[Appraisal: Green Iron War Hamr, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15]
[Substrate Analysis: Forged Green Iron, Essence Contamination 0/?]
Squinting at the slightly green black tal, the Enchanter looked for any little swirls of color that didn't belong. Thankfully, there were none.
The enchantnt template was clearly designed for a sword. It was far longer than it was wide, and most of the lines were across the short end, rather than the long end. Jas guessed that it was to allow swinging a sword faster.
But he had a hamr.
Once again, he altered the enchantnt design, arranging the lines to flow along the top face of his hamr, stretching from one striking face to the other. Using his chisels and files, he carefully etched the design into the hamr. His hands were steady and precise, making full use of the double bonus to dexterity from his classes. Once he as satisfied, he sat back and gazed upon his work.
[Smith] Class Skill: [Filigree] has been acquired.
For once, Jas paused and actually focused on the intrusive thought. He'd never even heard the word "filigree" before. He guessed it had sothing to do with what he'd just been doing, but was his Class just making up words now?
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He decided it didn't really matter. Even though everybody in the world had Classes, nobody really knew how they worked or why they existed. They just did. At least Classes and Skills had the decency to use words, unlike Magic which, in his experience, was just entirely arbitrary and often frustrating.
He reached for his mortar and pestle, but stopped just short. Rembering the last ti he had enchanted a hamr, he stopped and took the ti to forge sothing between a small bowl and a cup for the Aqua Magia.
Now he continued with his enchanting work. He ground down the Green Magic Crystal to fine dust, filled the new small bowl with Pure Water, and turned it to Aqua Magia. The process was smoother this ti, his mana responding better to his will the more he used it. He took a short break, then applied the dust to the enchantnt etching on the hamr. Despite the hamr being round, as he applied the dust to the etching it remained in place, even though normal dust would have fallen out. Then, taking his brush, he applied Aqua Magia to the enchantnt on the hamr. Finally, he set his brush down and held his hands over the hamr and stirred the mana within himself, heating it to loosen it up and forcing it through his hands and into the Aqua Magia, affixing the enchantnt to the war hamr.
He channeled his mana into the hamr, feeling it fill each etch and groove, blessedly unhindered by essence this ti. But sothing felt off… The enchantnt felt weak and tenuous in places.
Just after he realized this, the hamr flashed bright white with just the slightest hint of green, and the enchantnt was set.
[Enchanter] Skill [Enchantnt Design] has reached level 2.
Jas appraised his hamr.
[Appraisal: Green Iron War Hamr, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantnt: Rapid Blow (4)]
"Four?" Jas said aloud.
He continued to examine the hamr, analyzing the enchantnt. Whereas during the enchanting process it had felt weak and tenuous, now it felt like his other enchantnts, just smaller.
Stepping away from his work station, Jas channeled mana into the enchantnt and gave the hamr a few test swings. Then a few more. The enchantnt was definitely drawing mana, though not as much as he would have expected. And the hamr swing was faster, but it wasn't as fast as his Earth War Hamr hit hard. Testing the hamr without using [Rapid Blow], Jas found that the enchantnt increased the speed of his swing, but not by much. Maybe sowhat less than half again as fast? He continued testing, eventually swinging the hamr dozens of tis.
[Smith] Skill [Product Testing] has reached level 2
[Enchanter] Skill [Enchantnt Testing] has reached level 2.
[Synergy] Skill [Product Testing] has reached level 2.
[Enchanter] Skill [Enchantnt Analysis] has reached level 2.
Jas stopped there. At any rate, he could swing the hamr faster than he could swing a shovel, and he could use [Hamr Strike] with the hamr.
By this point, Jas was worn out physically and ntally. He ate a al of porridge and monster at and a little bit of sauerkraut, stored away the smoked monster at and hides from earlier in the day, and went to sleep.
He woke after a dreamless sleep and, as was becoming his habit, checked the wards. No monsters around that he could see in the gloom, and he topped up the magic power in the wards.
After a breakfast of just porridge, he turned to the bat wings he had cut off the monster the day before. Now it was finally ti to create sothing he had sorely missed during his ti in the slave camp and even up until now.
It was a crude design, mainly overly thick tal clamped around the wing pulling it taut and held in place with rivets, but even his [Appraisal] skill recognized what he had created.
[Appraisal: Bat Wing Fan, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 4/4]
Additionally, he could now store them in the magic bag, unlike when they were just monster parts.
Now Jas could fan the flas of his forge and slter, reaching hotter temperatures. It hadn't been much of a problem so far, but it would definitely speed things up.
Feeling satisfied, Jas once again scanned around the cavern. The ever present soft breeze continued to blow, and the cavern was blessedly free of monsters.
Jas once again donned his Green Iron Armor and prepared for another excursion. First, to mine out so more Green Iron Ore. Second, to explore more of the cave system.
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