novelraw Chapter 128 - 127 - Forging
Chapter 128 - 127 - Forging
Lind was sweating heavily with his top half exposed. It was cheaper to not replace his robes every time he suffered failure so he simply wore durable pants that still needed regular replacement, but it was cheaper. After his success in his testing over 3 weeks ago, he assumed it would just come to him in this new profession, but he was very wrong.
He had mimicked the 2 items he forged before. The sword was a custom job that he could try to fulfill by characteristics and he did so very well. The mid-grade 2 staff was a knock off of his current staff only.
Without a clear example, Lind found forging to be a trying task. Grade 1 metals melted as easily as before and Delenn had praised his skill there as Master Cain once had, but after that he ran into failure after failure.
The issue was he was trying to put too much into the grade 1 metals. Alloys could hold certain abilities better than pure metals, but Lind far exceeded that capacity. He had asked to skip to grade 2, but the cold smile on her face told Lind he had to start at the beginning.
He recalled his mother explaining grade 1 pills sometimes tripped up alchemists because they did not start until they were in the Soul Realm. They were used to infusing elements rather than pure Qi. Back then he had not really understood since elixirs came so easily to him, but now he did.
Lind had been in the Soul Realm since he was 11 years old. He had never really grasped that he was cultivating in the Body Refining Realm. His grade 1 elixirs were based on the essence of the ingredients and Lind had already been experimenting without realizing he had been so it came naturally to him.
Forging, on the other hand, took understanding metal ores in ways he had never studied. Delenn had been hammering away at his lack of comprehending them quite a bit and then lecturing him more and more.
It had been enlightening, but Lind was not making progress.
He had succeeded in manipulating ores into the shapes he wanted but she warned him that metal was easy. Wood and other materials would be more difficult. Lind was not sure if he could make the deadline of the contest a little over 2 months from now.
"What am I not grasping? I know gold, iron, steel, and so forth. Mistress Delenn has taught me so much in such little time but they still fracture or explode when I try to forge them, why?" Lind was laying on the cool stone as he reviewed his most recent failure. Explosions were becoming rare, but fracturing was still common.
"Are you done taking a break?" Delenn was working on something in her own area but spoke with her back turned. He had no doubt her Immortal senses were able to watch him at the same time as she worked on her project.
"Yes, Mistress." Lind got up and cleaned up his mess. It was not like inscription where failures gave him nothing, but it was reaching the same level of frustration for Lind in the last few days. It mostly stemmed from a feeling.
Lind felt like he could get more out of the materials but he could not bring that feeling into a concrete focus. It was too vague but if he could grasp it, maybe it would stop failing.
Ling picked up a lump of iron. He had stopped trying to be fancy with alloys or more precious metals, but he delved into the ore with his full tier 8 aura. He was trying to find the feeling but the pressure behind him made it hard to concentrate.
"Iron, an elemental metal. What was it, 25 or 26?" Lind began to think on Earth. He had been inspired before but the intense training had been a lot to digest until the current moment. He recalled with clarity his highschool lessons in chemistry for the first time in his current life.
"Wait, atoms?" Lind suddenly froze. Atoms, the basic building blocks of all matter. In all his studying of material in this world, he rarely came across atomic theory. It might, in part, depend on when the reincarnator came from, but the few modern Earth items replicated here told him such things should have been looked into already.
"What are atoms?" Delenn now looked at Lind curiously as she heard his words. He jumped but then had to think about how to explain it. Words existed but even the most entertaining wordsmith would bore someone explaining subatomic particles coming together to make up all of existence. He then recalled how TV did it.
He summoned his Qi to make the simplest diagram of the atom, Hydrogen. The core with a single electron floating around it appeared and then he expanded it to the atoms he could recall and easily display.
"So you are saying that what we see is only the surface of all matter?" A smile spread on Delenn's face as she saw Lind nod. She then reached out and made the iron ore float as it slowly fell apart. Lind was still looking it over and he was stunned to see it was not being destroyed but deconstructed in front of him.
"H-how are you doing that?" Lind could only equate what he saw as the bonds being broken to make the iron fall apart. Delenn knew atomic theory?!
"I never knew what it was called, but when you reach my level, you understand there is more to the materials you can see. You already know something that only grade 6 Forgers begin to discover." It was like a thunderbolt struck Lind's mind. He had done this before!
"I once made a peak Heaven grade 2 elixir under enlightenment." Delenn lost control of the iron ore that was left. It was allowed to fall to the ground as she looked deep into his dark green eyes. She could no longer easily read his mind but that fact had been hidden by Younger Twin so she had not seen it.
"No wonder you are struggling. Forging is tied deeply to your comprehension of materials. You are trying to make Heaven grade 1 with metals that are not of the heaven realm." Lind finally grasped it. He was not just trying to make grade 1 items, he was trying to bypass the entirety of the Mortal Realm.
"What can I do?" Lind was stumped. He was instinctively grasping at the atomic level. His knowledge might help but it was in a vacuum compared to his current lesson. He was not sure he could tie the 2 together easily.
"It would seem I need to revise your training. Normally, I would not address this issue until much later in your training, but your unique circumstance changes things." Lind realized he could never return here if he broke through to the Sky Realm but the World Realm was already a high bar in front of him.
If this knowledge was meant for the Heaven Realm then he would never have learned it from Delenn if he was not reborn.
"Tell me all you know first and we will start from there." Lind bowed and had to refrain from smiling at the irony of giving a highschool lecture to an Immortal.
****
Delenn looked on as Lind concentrated on iron, gold, and silver ores in front of him. She had been stunned at the depth of his knowledge concerning the interior structure of matter. Heaven Realm refiners and forgers knew something of this truth but only Immortals truly grasped the secrets of Qi and matter.
Lind had no knowledge of Qi's contribution until she taught him, but his knowledge actually improved her own grasp of Forging. The world he came from had delved into secrets cultivators usually ignored. It was difficult enough to cultivate and defy the Heavens, studying such an obtuse area without a benefit left it ignored.
She wondered if cultivators were wrong as she looked at Lind. He had struggled for weeks but now he seemed to be lit like a bonfire again. He was strange but she did not dislike it. She had been trapped in this limited realm for thousands of years.
She had seen so many impressive cultivators leave this realm behind or die before they could rise, but all treated her as a resource of benefits. She liked teaching the next generation but she saw it in their eyes that they were moving forward without looking back. Lind was not like that.
He seemed steeped in his past but not buried by it. He looked at her in earnest desire to learn but she had caught him staring at the engraving time and again. He was not filled with pity or arrogance that he would 'save her' one day. Instead he seemed drawn to the engraving itself.
He reminded her of her brother. A frown flashed over her face but it was gone quickly. It had been a very long time since she remembered her days as a mortal. Her family had been prestigious Forgers. Her brother had not inherited the gift but he worked hard to support the family.
His skills in refining were unparalleled. Any issues, he came to her despite her complete inability to use inscriptions, he liked bouncing ideas off of her. The Celestial Fields were a vast layered world compared to the mortal realms.
Humans were not the dominant power but one of many. Delenn recalled how her brother had offended a beast clan. It had been an accident and he had gone to apologize with a present to compensate for the dishonor. Given their family's prestige, no one had been concerned until his head was sent back.
The shock on his face was burned into her heart forever.
It was the start of her journey to become an Immortal. She had become relentless until she had avenged her brother. In the process she had compromised her morality so long as she achieved her goals.
The result was a jilted man banishing her using her family's descendants as fuel for the engraving. She had withheld the details from Lind but for some reason, she felt he knew something. He was sensitive to things most cultivators became immune to as they neared the World Realm.
His skills were terrifying but he was still a 6 elemental. They were an oddity she never truly understood. Their dantians sprang into existence with all the elements and a flame that was not fire at the center. She had learned about them but Lind defied all her experience.
His cores were nearing high tier 9 while he suppressed his foundation somehow without harming it. His revelations on the elements had been dispersed widely and were getting faster as time passed. She herself had been amazed at his insights. It barely made any difference to her but she knew he might break the limit.
The World Realm was a watershed for cultivators. Even in the Celestial Fields, that breakthrough to the World Realm would dictate all that followed. If one was haphazard or incomplete, then the foundation would be strained or damaged. Their path would be stunted.
If they perfectly broke through with all their cores, then there was a high chance of reaching the heights of cultivation. The tribulations at Gold and Diamond Tier were trials that forged that path as well, but the initial breakthrough dedicated their odds of survival.
She wondered about why they existed since elements could be learned and added at the Heaven Realm. The major reason she was deficient about 6 elementals was due to the simple fact they were not born above the Mortal Realms.
The mystery of 6 elementals had been trapped in all Mortal Realms since they could only exist there. Delenn wondered if Lind was the hope or just a stepping stone for all those cultivators. Only time would tell.
She was about to turn back to her current project when she froze. The 3 metals had liquified as Lind seemed to be lost in something. The 3 molten metals rose and began to take various shapes. The iron became a wrist guard, the gold a necklace, and the silver a headpiece.
Emerald flames covered all 3 until the shapes solidified and settled back on the ground. She moved over and smiled as she inspected them.
"Peak grade 1 on your first try." The wrist guard was dull but effective. Delenn could tell it would resist impacts easily up to mid tiers of the Soul Realm. The necklace enhanced the flow of Qi in the body, speeding up Body Refining Realm. The headpiece seemed to protect the mind which Delenn was stunned to see.
Mental artifacts were rare but he had made one at grade 1!
"Good, now make 30 more before the week is over." The smile on his face vanished as hers spread. Success once was an accident. Success 30 times was mastering it. She turned back to her work as Lind went to get more ores.