Chapter 44 Strongest Sage, Teaches Augmenting

 

Ruli mastered the way to refine dungeon wall in only 30 minutes.
The purity isn't that high, but it's good enough to make weapons.

"Then, let's secure enough iron to make one weapon for now."

The metal we have on hands are around 200 gram iron and 5 gram mithril combined. Iron has 10 times the volume of mithril but 40 times the weight. Mithril is light.

"One weapon.... Which means we'll need 10 times this amount?"

"That's about right. Well, I'll be helping you. Let's create a lot of dungeon crude ores and then refine them."

"I...I'll do my best!"

I smash the dungeon wall while saying that.
After smashing around 200 kilogram wall, we started the process to refine the dungeon crude ores.

Ruli's refining speed is about half of mine.
It's partly because she's still inexperienced.... But also because she's a bit too careful.

"You can be more haphazard when creating the crude ores. Since raising the purity comes at a later stage."

"I, I understand!"

Her speed slightly increased.
And then, we finished turning all the dungeon wall we smashed into dungeon crude ores.
I solidified the soil and put it somewhere to prevent it from obstructing the way.

"And then, um.... Ei! This magic is a bit hard...."

"Well, that's cause it's not production-type magic."

Ruli gathers the dungeon crude ores using magnetic magic.
Her control is quite poor.... But output is all she needs to gather the ores anyway.
To begin with, magnetic magic isn't of production type, the First Crest isn't good with it.

"Next, we just need to refine all these.... Wanna try doing them all?"

"Yes!"

Ruli puts her mana into the ores, activates flame magic and turns the dungeon crude ores into a lump.
The flame magic I used is the normal attack magic, but the one I taught her is of production type.
It has a short range and it's hard to increase its power, but it's easy to manage and control precisely. And best of all, it's well suited for the First Crest.

"You're doing well, keep at it!"

"Yes!"

Ruli repeated the recrystallization process many times and eventually, she got 2kg of iron and 50gr of mithril on her hands.
Some of the metal seems to have been shaved off at every recrystallization, but they're enough to make a sword.

"Looks like you've learned how to handle most metal now."

"I can't believe I did all this...."

Ruli becomes teary eyed. Cute.
But today's coaching isn't over yet.

"You probably have guessed the way to create the sword right?"

"Creating swords.... Are we perhaps making the sword by molding it with mana?"

"Yep, exactly. ...Ah, you should mix some mithril with the iron rather than having it pure iron. Use about half of the mithril we have now."

"Mixing it with mithril?　...I'll give it a try!"

Ruli mixes the mithril and the iron and turns them into the shape of a sword.

"....Doesn't it look bent?"

"That's normal for the first try."

The sword Ruli made is slightly bent to the left. Well, turning metal into a precise shape using mana is a matter of experience.

"This should be already far stronger than a sword made from iron. Try using that sword to cut this. The sword has no blade though, so it's more like smashing than cutting."

Ruli slashes at a block of wood I took out.
The block of wood is cut in two along with a sharp sound.

"Huh? Is this maybe stronger than the swords they sell in the city....?"

"Yea. Metals are basically stronger when they're in alloyed form. There's other techniques to this.... But for now, try to augment that first."

"It's augmenting at last!"

"Aa. ...That said, augmenting isn't really hard once you understand the basic of chantless magic. For now, look at this."

I take out one piece of paper from Storage magic and give it to Ruli.

"Is this... Magic circle? I've never seen one this complex...."

"It's a magic circle for 【Brittle Fracture】 and 【Toughening】. I'll teach you the way to compose magic circles once you've gotten accustomed to augment magic."

It's easier to learn the way to make magic circles once you've tried many different augments and grasped the feeling to do it.
I'm not saying that learning magic circle math beforehand is bad though.

"Dual augment right from the start!?"

"【Toughening】 isn't that complex, and this is actually one of the simpler dual augment magic circles. First, make a space to put in a magic stone on the sword and carve the magic circle using your mana."

I give a hermit crab magic stone to Ruli.
It's the best material for practicing since we have a lot of it and it doesn't fetch a high price.
Also, it should be big enough for dual augment.

"Err, first you make a space...."

Ruli changed the sword shape a bit and put in the magic stone.
And then, her mana slowly and carefully moves as the magic circle is getting carved into the magic stone.
However....

"I finished the carving.... I think, but the magic sword won't activate...."

"There's some parts where they shouldn't be connected. Try to reduce the amount of mana you put into it a bit more. Put a lot of mana into the thick lines, and little mana into the thin ones."

"Yes!"

I take out a huge amount of hermit crab magic stones I stocked and give them to Ruli.

She succeeded this time.
The performance is quite low for an augmented sword, but magic dwells on it at least.

"I-It's done! But the atmosphere of this sword felt quite different...."

"That's because you skipped mana conditioning. You should put your own mana into the magic stone and the sword before the augment. And once the mana settles down, do the augment. The performance will be better if you do just that."

Ruli completed a magic conditioned magic sword with the third hermit crab magic stone I gave her.

"This one feels similar somehow!"

"Try hitting the wall with it, you'll see how good it is."

"The wall.... Ei!"

Ruli's magic sword broke the dungeon wall.
This sword is augmented not for combat, but for mining the dungeon.

"I-it broke! And they said even the national treasures couldn't do it...."

You can't count on the national treasures.
We're in a world where that rip-off sword (the time needed to augment it; 5 seconds) is one after all.

"It's a success. Then, let's keep refining the dungeon at this pace!"

"Yes!"

--Later on, Alma came back carrying a huge amount of hermit crab magic stones, saw a part of the dungeon getting smashed and turned into swords, and shouted "What's happening here!?" in confusion.



















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