novelraw Chapter 449
Chapter 449
[Translator - Night]
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Chapter 449
Kkaang!! Kkang!!
[The Eye of the Divine Craftsman is activated.]
[The Breath of Metal is seen more clearly.]
Despite possessing the heart of the Machine God, doing something like this is, in truth, close to a waste of time.
As long as there are raw materials and precise information, the heart of the Machine God can transform most things into whatever form one desires, whatever molecular structure one wants.
But the phenomenon unfolding before my eyes felt somewhat different from the Machine God’s heart, which was closer to simple structural transformation.
As if… the iron ingot were alive, and that living ingot was being grown.
Kkaang!!
A neatly shaped longsword.
Soon, after carefully sharpening the blade with a whetstone and assembling the guard, grip, and pommel, text appeared before my eyes.
[Longsword]
[Material – Steel]
[Grade – Rare]
[A steel sword seemingly made by the Divine Craftsman as part of rehabilitation. It appears unremarkable on the outside, but its sharpness and durability cannot be compared to ordinary steel swords.]
[Special Option – Strength Increase]
“Hmm……”
At best, it was only Rare grade.
Without hesitation, I flung the steel sword away and tossed it onto the pile of junk.
There were already dozens of discarded weapons like that.
Cleaning them up would be a hassle… I should set aside a day sometime and just sell them all.
Even so, they were quite high quality, far beyond ordinary weapons, so they would fetch a decent price.
To begin with, it wasn’t something I had made with full intent—it was closer to rehabilitation.
If one were to ask why rehabilitation, the reason was simple.
“Damn Martial God’s Hall.”
Every time I receive the transferred memories of the Hall, the Martial God’s Hall activates and snatches those memories midway.
Honestly, even if I received the Hall of the Divine Craftsman, I wasn’t sure if it made sense for me to be adapting to the sensations like this—but there was an important reason.
Up until now… have I ever truly relied on item power?
The Demon Sword being durable was certainly an advantage, but for someone like me, who believed that if a sword broke, I could just use another, its durability merely saved me some annoyance.
If anything, I had even abandoned the Enhancement Hall midway.
However, this situation was different.
Once Isna opens the gate to the Celestial Realm, I will almost certainly clash with Michael.
Not only that, even if things there are resolved well, it would still be impossible to kill an Outer God at my current level.
Stronger power.
Stronger weapons.
Now was the time to rely on item power.
Kkang!!! Kkang!!
[Rattle]
[Material – Paulownia Wood, Mithril]
[Grade – Unique]
[A powerful rattle made by a mad blacksmith for his daughter. It is merely a toy that jingles when shaken, but when a child holds it, calm fills the mind and body, and vitality is restored.]
[Special Option – Vitality Regeneration]
[Special Option – Mental Stability]
[Special Option – Absolute Shield Auto-Activation]
“No. This isn’t enough.”
With crazed eyes gleaming, I threw the orichalcum hammer in my hand.
Orichalcum was difficult to process, but a hammer’s form was relatively simple—so I could just shape it with the Machine God’s heart.
To produce high-grade equipment, several elements were required.
Among them, the two most important were the craftsman’s capability and the material.
The first factor, in truth, was only a matter of time.
Although synchronizing with the transferred memories due to the Martial God’s Hall would take time, I would soon regain the Divine Craftsman’s skill.
But materials were not easy.
Orichalcum?
Impressive.
But the world of crafting isn’t so simple that that alone is enough.
“Sur. You’re doing well. Help me just a little more.”
—Piiik!
I lightly stroked the beak of the chick wearing a horned helmet as it saluted, and it flapped its wings happily, as if satisfied.
At first, I used Hellfire infused with the Divine Craftsman’s aura, but it turned out to be less efficient than expected.
Moreover, Sur’s heat was more helpful than magical flames themselves.
So I borrowed Sur’s power, which allowed for precise control of heat.
The result was successful.
Even now, the flames burning in the furnace looked like ordinary fire on the surface, but they were anything but.
In conclusion, using only pure orichalcum led nowhere.
The most immediate equipment I needed to prepare was something capable of standing against Michael.
The removal of hierarchical restrictions didn’t make Michael any weaker.
To clear my head, I took the rattle in my hand and left the workshop.
“Auu!!”
The moment Elpiria saw me from her crib, she opened her eyes wide and burst into delighted laughter, and my worries melted away like snow.
“Elpiria. A present.”
Jingle, jingle.
As I shook the toy in front of her, Elpiria laughed gleefully, shaking her whole body in excitement.
“Leon. What is that, exactly?”
“A Unique-grade rattle.”
Perhaps finding it absurd, Luna let out a small laugh.
“That… is that from the new memories you gained this time?”
“Yeah. Luckily, it didn’t get taken.”
“Can you make something that would be effective against an angel—no, an archangel?”
“I’m getting used to the sensations quickly, but the materials are lacking.”
Luna pondered for a moment before clapping her hands.
“Perhaps… if it’s adamantium.”
“Adamantium?”
“Adamantium is a metal that rejects all mana. And… it is overwhelmingly durable.”
Ah.
So that’s it.
I had a rough sense of it, and I had even called it that in the Labyrinthos before.
Looks like that was correct.
“If I make a new weapon or coat the Demon Sword with it, it should be effective even against Michael.”
Adamantium was a mineral referred to as a legendary metal, like orichalcum.
In fact, since it existed only in legends, it was even harder to obtain than orichalcum.
“Adamantium has a property of repelling the power of archangels.”
Adamantium particularly reacted strongly against the power of archangels.
“The problem is where to get it.”
“Shouldn’t you first check whether you can even handle it?”
“I’ve worked with it before. Even the Machine God’s heart can’t handle it.”
Adamantium possessed the power to reject all non-physical energy.
Thus, to process it, one had to approach it purely physically.
To be honest, since time didn’t flow in the Labyrinthos, I couldn’t accurately gauge it, but at the very least, the period during which I attempted to process a single piece of adamantium was unimaginably long—and the endless frustration and despair I experienced during that time proved it was no ordinary material.
Internal structure, shape transformation, processing—none of it mattered.
There had to be even the slightest scratch to investigate it.
How could one deal with a mad mineral from which even a sample couldn’t be extracted?
“Ha, what haven’t you tried?”
[Translator - Night]
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Even while looking exasperated, Luna handed me the information she knew.
“To begin with, finding adamantium in ordinary mines is nearly impossible.”
The origin of adamantium was unclear.
Since processing it was almost impossible to begin with, there were no stories of items made from it either.
The adamantium I handled in the Labyrinthos wasn’t something I had intentionally secured either.
And now I was supposed to find such a material.
Just in case, I asked Isna as well.
In essence, she was a repository of vast knowledge.
She, who had been practicing to perfectly control her authority and open the gate to the Celestial Realm, stopped what she was doing and fell into thought.
“Adamantium? Adamantium…”
Even she, lost in deep thought, seemed to have no clear answer.
“Wasn’t there some kind of rumor? Something like an extremely hard black stone.”
Isna furrowed her brows and sank into contemplation.
At that moment, Meryl, who had been quietly waiting to report something to Isna, cautiously raised her hand.
“Um…”
“What, do you know something?”
After thinking it over, she answered.
“A long time ago, I went to the Dragon Forge for a mission.”
“Dragon Forge?”
“Yes. I heard a certain rumor there…”
According to what she said, one day, a massive meteor fell above a dwarf village.
Fortunately, there was no major damage, but the dwarves retrieved a fist-sized black stone from where the meteor had landed.
“That meteor apparently completely destroyed a bunker built to withstand disasters. Thinking about it now…”
“If it’s not adamantium, that wouldn’t be possible. That’s what you’re saying.”
“Yes.”
At Meryl’s explanation, Isna looked at me.
Her gaze asked if it was true.
“We’ll have to confirm it. If it’s Dragon Forge, that’s the Dwarven Kingdom, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. And it looks like something the royal family possesses. We can’t just ask for it, and it’s not like we’d steal it either.”
Dwarves were a race obsessed with alcohol and minerals.
To such dwarves, adamantium—whether they knew its true nature or not—would inevitably be a highly fascinating material.
“We’ve identified the material, but there’s no way to obtain it.”
“Professor.”
At that moment, Ashuria Abelgard came to find me.
“Ashuria? Finished your training?”
“Yes. As you said, Professor, I succeeded in transforming the form of my circle core.”
That half-formal speech felt strangely awkward.
Currently, Ashuria was learning magic from me to a certain extent.
Of course, I wasn’t teaching her everything, nor did I intend to yet, but even just pointing out a few basics had clearly improved her achievements.
From the looks of it, Ashuria’s skill had risen far beyond what it used to be.
A genius really is a genius.
At this rate, I felt certain she would break through to the 6th Circle in a short time.
Looking at her now, Ashuria’s appearance was a mess.
It looked as if she had been rolling around in the forest for quite a while—she was covered in dirt and looked disheveled.
On her shoulder hung a small sack, inside which were fairly high-quality medicinal herbs.
“You—where exactly were you training? I told you not to go to dangerous places.”
At that, Ashuria pulled out some bread from the sack, chewed on it, and replied indifferently.
“Looking for herbs good for mages. And hunting monsters alone.”
“Don’t go alone next time.”
“Okay.”
At that moment.
Several sheets of paper spilled out from her sack.
It seemed she had been using them to wrap food…
“What’s this?”
I picked up one of the sheets from the floor.
It was a notice.
Dragon Forge had issued a large-scale request.
It stated that anyone who could completely restore the Dwarf King’s armor would be granted a tremendous reward.
“The Dwarf King’s armor?”
“Ah. They must mean the Sea Dragon Armor.”
Isna said.
“The oldest and most outstanding armor in existence. I never saw the real thing, but if I recall correctly, it was destroyed.”
“How did that happen?”
“Who knows. Anyway, it’s not just armor—it’s practically a symbol for the dwarves. But it requires such complex techniques and knowledge of minerals that even the current dwarves failed to restore it.”
This notice was likely meant to gather skilled craftsmen or dwarves from across the continent.
It wasn’t even a competition.
It conveyed the intent to gather anyone capable.
“There’ll be quite a crowd.”
“Of course. But who among them does Dragon Forge intend to entrust it to?”
To be honest, I had no interest in whether it was the Sea Dragon Armor or whatever.
Ever since I gained the memories of the Divine Craftsman’s Hall, anything that wasn’t self-made felt unsatisfactory.
A broken relic from the past?
What did that matter?
However.
The reward caught my interest.
—To the one who perfectly restores the Sea Dragon Armor, we shall grant the Dragon Forge’s greatest treasures: the Tear of Metal and the Light-Devouring Meteoric Iron.
Light-devouring meteoric iron.
It could be brushed off as just a phrase, but I knew instinctively.
This… is adamantium.
The key card for the archangel subjugation had appeared as a reward.
The problem was that the amount of adamantium the dwarves possessed would be far from enough for my goal.
“The quantity’s lacking, but still, it’s better than nothing.”
As if sensing my intent, Isna smirked and said,
“Leon. But Elpiria created bread before, didn’t she?”
“Huh?”
“Couldn’t she copy adamantium too?”
“No way.”
[Translator - Night]
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