Finn’s eyes glowed orange, his fire mana responding as he looked at the nearby pool of lava, feeling the waves of heat radiating against him even at this distance. Then he glanced back at Julia. “I’m going to have to figure out how to forge this stuff.”
Chapter 19 - Inspired
Bilel’s Journal – Entry 82
Several of the novices were more than interested in taking part in my research. Ambition is alive and well among the mages, I see.
After repeating the procedure many times now, I have discovered that damaging the Najima is easier if the mana is first drained from the node. If left undrained, the cluster of mana will regenerate at a considerable rate, which may explain my initial failures and the need for more extensive local tissue damage. To this end, I have begun draining the test subjects as part of administering the procedure – rapidly creating a rather sizable stockpile of mana crystals. Extracted this way, the mana is exceedingly pure and dense, forming rather potent gems. I have no immediate use for the crystals, but I anticipate that they could be sold or traded to further my studies.
Even more intriguing, I was able to corroborate my findings many times over. It is now clear that the loss of the Najima directly increases the body’s physical attributes. This is not limited to a specific limb, nor is it unique to a specific person. It is as though mana somehow physically weakens the body.
My hypothesis is that the complete destruction of a person’s Najima might offer a substantial increase to their physical traits, perhaps having a multiplicative effect if applied to someone who had already undergone intense training. The possibilities are intriguing, particularly for those with naturally weak affinities. Although, I suspect few would be willing to undergo such an extensive procedure.
***
Finn might have been a little overconfident when he claimed he was going to forge the strange dark metal – or at least that was the thought that kept echoing through his head as he stared at the heavy clump in his hand. After he slowed down and took some time to consider his idea, there were a few problems with it.
For example, how hot did he need to get this stuff to melt it?
Finn rose to his feet and paced toward the nearby pool of lava. He was forced to stay several yards away to ensure his robes didn’t catch on fire. A frown flitted across his face as he stared at the glowing surface in thought. Would Imbue Fire be enough?
Or was he going to need to pull out the big guns like the worker ant – maybe use the molten lake to help heat the metal? Which begged the question, if he needed the lava to melt down the ore, how was he going to get close enough to use the magma without “re-forging” himself into a puddle of burnt flesh? And assuming he somehow managed to solve those problems, how was he going to shape the metal?
Which, again, was putting aside yet another glaring problem: what shape was he even aiming for? He ideally needed something light enough that he could lift it with Imbue Fire, but strong enough that it would pierce the ants’ armor – or at least the regular chitin on its joints and underbelly.
He let out a sigh of frustration, pacing back through the cavern. Then there were the broader questions looming in the back of his mind. Were they going to have to fight through an entire ant colony to get out of here? How long would that take? How much progress had the other champions made? Why the hell had the Seer urged him to take that tumble down into the Abyss? Assuming that’s what her cryptic message had even meant…
He could feel himself getting overwhelmed quickly, each question tumbling through his mind and leading to a dozen more. The tasks seemed impossible – the mountain insurmountable. Finn could feel despair welling in his stomach, a sickening, gut-wrenching thing born of hopeless frustration.
It was in that moment that a telltale flash of auburn hair and familiar eyes swept through his mind’s eye. He could remember the weight of the hand on his shoulder in the Seer’s tent, and Rachael’s whispered words – her breath hot on his ear. He felt his heart lurch, his hands balling into fists.
Could he really win this and bring Rachael back?
Finn shook his head, forcing himself to stop his racing thoughts and tamp down on the endless stream of questions. Rachael had always been so good at moments like this. He often tried to sprint before he could crawl, but she had been his center. That calming voice of moderation. She took his boundless enthusiasm, helped him channel it, and broke down a problem into manageable steps. And then she set him loose.
“Just focus on one problem at a time,” she would urge him if she were here.
Finn took a deep, wavering breath. “Okay, so what’s my first problem?” he grumbled as he glared at the lump of metal. “Probably how hot you need to get before you melt or at least get to the point where I can mold you into something else.”
That was something he could answer. Maybe.
Finn set the lump of ore down on a nearby boulder and took a step back, his fingers twining through the gestures of Imbue Fire. It occurred to him that he could kill two birds with one stone – testing the melting point of the dark ore while also experimenting with his spell’s new secondary effect.
How many “heat levels” does it take to get to the center of this strange, dense metal? Finn thought, chuckling to himself at his own joke. If Rachael were here, she would have laughed too. She had always enjoyed his stupid sense of humor.
As the spell completed, the metal was suddenly engulfed in flame. The most straightforward approach would be to use the ambient heat of the nearby lava to shape the metal – assuming he could move it. Although Finn was skeptical that he could raise the dense metal. With a twitch of his fingers, the ore trembled and then slowly rose into the air. Finn could feel the resistance as his mana surged.
Then he let it drop back to the ground.
Guess it’s too heavy, Finn thought to himself. Go figure.
The next step was to test the heat ranks of his Imbue Fire. Under the default effect of his spell, Finn’s standard iron and steel weapons heated up nicely, which tended to hurt the durability of the weapons in the long-term. However, his basic Imbue Fire usually wasn’t hot enough to soften those metals to a point where he could mold them. Even worse, he suspected they likely had a lower melting point than the ore.
That gave Finn a thought, and he dropped the spell, stepped forward, and tapped a finger to the lump of metal. Only slightly warm. If anything, the ore seemed strangely cool to the touch. Perhaps it conducted heat extremely well? That would make a certain sort of sense and might help explain why the ants coated their backs in the stuff.
Okay, time for attempt number two.
Finn cast Imbue Fire again, but this time he maintained the channel. His fingers continued to wind through a rapid series of gestures as he poured even more mana into the spell. Daniel updated his UI dynamically, a flame symbol appearing in the corner of his vision with a ‘x2’ icon beside it. At least that would make it easy to track his heat level.
The flames engulfing the ore lengthened and stretched into the air, burning fiercely, and the metal began to take on a faint reddish hue.
But it didn’t seem like nearly enough.
Finn dropped the spell, and the metal cooled rapidly, losing the crimson glow. It seemed he had been on to something with his heat conduction theory. He waited a few seconds, allowing his mana to fully regen before he made his next attempt.
As soon as his gauge had refilled, Finn began again. Flames engulfed the metal, and as he hit heat rank level 2, the ore began to glow softly once again.
Then Finn poured even more of his mana into the spell, feeling the energy course through his veins in a fiery river. The flames around the ore surged and then seemed to hit a tipping point as he reached heat rank level 3. The fire abruptly curled back in on itself, reducing in size and taking on a blue-ish hue. The metal was now glowing a bright, vibrant red.
Finn saw he could maintain this single channel for quite some time, the cost just barely surpassing his total mana regeneration. If
needed, he could likely add a second channel, but that would start eating into his pool swiftly.
He rose to his feet and approached the small clump of ore, shifting the channel to one hand and grabbing a nearby rock. The heat was almost palpable. It radiated away from the ore in waves, causing fresh streams of sweat to curl down his forehead and cheeks. Finn ignored the heat, stooping and smashing the rock against the ore with little ceremony.
Then he dismissed the spell, and the fire whisked away.
Finn stared down at the ore and saw that he had made an impression with his blow.
Okay, so I can get it hot enough to work with it, but it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to mold this into something serviceable.
Despite the minor victory, Finn grimaced and slumped back onto his boulder. He could heat the metal, but he didn’t really have the tools to work it. He wasn’t sitting in a blacksmith shop – he was stuck in this hellhole a few thousand feet underground. What was he going to do? Beat it with a rock a few hundred times? That process could take days – time they just didn’t have.
Maybe he should try again. If he held the spell for longer, maybe it would soften the metal further and make it more pliable.
Finn rose, and his fingers raced through the requisite series of gestures.
Flames soon engulfed the ore, and he ratcheted up through the heat ranks, the multiplier icon ticking up quickly in the corner of his vision. As he hit heat rank level 3, he held the heat there, maintaining the channel for several long minutes. The ore did indeed glow more brightly, but then it stopped – perhaps he’d hit a temperature ceiling due to the enhanced heat conduction, creating a limit on how hot he could get the ore.
Either way, it didn’t seem to make any significant difference.
Damn it.
He glared at the ore again, feeling frustrated anger surging in his veins. Why the hell did this world keep throwing these impossible tasks at him? Dangling this carrot just out of reach every freaking time?
Finn’s fingers jerked, and he lashed out with his arm. He expected to just roll the hyper-dense metal into the nearby lake of lava.
He wasn’t prepared for what happened next…
The ore rocketed across the room, smashing into a nearby wall with tremendous force and causing a small avalanche of rock and stone to tumble down into the room. Abruptly, the spell effect ended, leaving him standing there and staring at the wall, frozen in shock and his mouth hanging open.
“What the hell was that?” Julia shouted at him, running back from the other side of the room. Finn also saw Kyyle messaging him through the in-game chat. Apparently, even the earth mage had heard the crash from down a nearby hallway.
“Uh… I’m sorry. I was just testing something,” he murmured, staring at the crater in the wall where the ore had struck.
“Maybe warn a person next time,” Julia offered in a sarcastic voice. “We’re a little on edge since we’re setting up camp inside a fire ant colony.”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” Finn murmured, waving at her distractedly.
She just rolled her eyes and wandered back off to deal with the fire mana crystals.
He felt like smacking himself. He hadn’t considered trying to move the metal while it was superheated. Maybe his control increased in proportion to the heat of an object? That would certainly make sense, but it also had some interesting possibilities…
Finn’s frustration had now transitioned to excitement, his mana crackling and hissing in anticipation. An idea was tumbling through his mind – suddenly recalling the way that the fire mage had shaped the small ingot of metal during the purge procedure. What else did that heightened control let him do? Could he wield it like a hammer? Smashing the lump of superheated ore into a shape of his choosing?
He moved forward and grabbed another fist-sized clump of ore and walked through the same process again, waiting until the metal was engulfed in blue flames. He let those flames linger, the metal beginning to glow with a bright-red light. Finn maintained the channel, letting the glow grow until he hit the temperature limit again.
Then Finn did something different. He inverted his hands, maintaining the channel, and pressing his palms together in a swift movement.
It was like an angry giant stepped on the chunk of ore. The metal hissed and sparked, crushed by an invisible force. It held for only a moment before flattening out into a roughly circular metal disc. Then Finn dismissed the spell. The metal tumbled to the ground with a solid thunk and quickly began to cool despite the sweltering heat of the Sauna. Within seconds, it had returned to a familiar dark black.
Immediately, a notification popped in the corner of his vision.
New Skill: Flameworking
With great heat comes great… control? You have discovered that your ability to control heat-imbued objects allows you to manipulate certain substances and metals, molding them into a more useful shape. Masters of this skill can create works of art in mere moments – a deadly arsenal of flame and steel that will have your enemies quaking in their boots.
Skill Level: Beginner Level 1
Effect 1: 10% increased power when shaping objects subject to Imbue Fire.
Finn swiped away the prompt, and his eyes skimmed back to the clump of metal.
He chewed on the inside of his cheek in thought. He could work with this. His initial idea was beginning to blossom into true inspiration, his fire mana flaring into a full-fledged inferno that coursed through his veins. Finn whirled, and his eyes swept the cavern, searching for the ant’s corpse.
He strode toward the beast with purpose, walking over to its head. Then he stooped and examined its mandibles. They were two large, ridged limbs that jutted from the ant’s head. The surface was worn and dirty, but they still glimmered softly. He could see that he’d been right when he had told Julia earlier that the mandibles were super hard – much like diamond. They formed a serrated, almost saw-like row.
His eyes skimmed back to the flattened disc that still lay on the ground nearby.
If he could combine the two, could he create a weapon that could pierce the ants’ armor? One that Finn could then superheat and send racing through the air with his Imbue Fire? He might be able to create something similar to a diamond-tipped spear.
He hesitated at that thought.
Actually, a spinning motion would be ideal with the way the mandibles were serrated…
An excited smile tugged at his lips as he looked back at the ant’s corpse, his fingers already tracing the connection between the mandibles and the ant’s head, searching for a more fragile joint that would make them easier to break free. He wasn’t sure this would work, but there was only one way to find out.
And besides, what did he really have to lose?
Chapter 20 - Experimental
Bilel’s Journal – Entry 86
I experienced another breakthrough today.
While administering the mana purging procedure to one of the novices, an accident occurred. During the process, the novice convulsed, unintentionally destroying a crystal infused with air mana. This was a clumsy mistake, and I resolved to update the safety protocols for the procedure at once. Perhaps physical restraints and a sedative or paralytic might help reduce injury or mishap.
Yet, from folly sometimes comes revolution! The novice undergoing the procedure was within the radius of the crystal’s detonation. However, the air mana didn’t damage the man’s arm, or, at least, the damage was minimal – only minor burns. Even more interesting, for a fraction of a second, his damaged limb appeared to “absorb” the properties of the air mana. I honestly have no other word to describe what I witnessed. The man’s skin and bone turned to crackling energy before my eyes!
The question is, why? I will need to conduct additional experiments immediately…
***
Finn set down his new creation gingerly upon a nearby boulder.
It had taken him longer than he cared to admit to build the thing – a flat disc of metal ab
out the size of a dinner plate. There was a rough line of glimmering chitin rounding its edge, a gift from their deceased worker ant.
Crafting the disc had been relatively easy once he figured out how to shape the metal. It was the mandibles that had proven to be the real pain in the ass. Somewhat ironically, he didn’t have anything that could cut through them easily. So, he’d been forced to heat the dark ore and send it crashing against the ant’s jaws until they finally snapped – creating a series of smaller, fragmented pieces.
Although, that process had been enlightening…
Finn’s eyes skimmed to the glowing blue graph that was projected into the air beside him – a line tracing the data from his many attempts to smash apart the mandibles. The dark metal appeared to be more brittle at lower temperatures… a rather counter-intuitive trait.
Finn had been surprised to find that the metal would break apart much more quickly at room temperature. Heat rank 1 and heat rank 2 showed an almost-linear increase in tensile strength. However, moving up to the heat rank 3 had the opposite effect, softening the metal enough that it would start to break apart on impact. As a result, he’d discovered an inflection point around heat rank 2 – indicating that this was the optimal temperature to maintain the durability of the metal.
Which would likely explain why the ants maintained the faint aura of flame. Apparently, they had adapted well to this environment. They might even be using the flames to help lift and move the heavy metal, which would explain why the worker’s movements had slowed once the fire aura had extinguished.
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