A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 928 Amnur's Forge

"Mmm..." Boran mumbled, looking at the arc of lighting between the two icicles Eldrian had produced. Impressive as it was to triple cast Tier 6 spells, even if two are simple ice spells, Eldrian's spell certainly lacked finesse.

Though, given he had only spent a few days learning lightning spells, that was to be expected.  It was abundantly clear to Boran that nearly all of Eldrian's focus was on the lightning spell.

As a hybrid element, it was extremely strong. But it was also one of the hardest to control, not quite as hard as plasma—the most extreme version of fire magic—but certainly up there.

Like all fire spells, lightning had the tendency to run wild. With the caveat that it all happened in the blink of an eye. A second of focus drop meant the spell was completely lost.

Not only that, but lightning also tended to follow the path of least resistance. Attack someone in full plate, and it was almost certain that the bolt of lightning would deviate to hit the armor. Which would then act as a faraday cage and prevent much, if any damage, to the target.

Keeping the lightning on track to say, hit between the gaps in armor, is one of the hardest feats a mage could master. It was basically impossible for Static casting, unless one could shift between dozens of spell modules in the matter of a second. For Eldrian, and other Dynamic casters, it might be possible, though still incredibly difficult.

Of course, one could brute force things. Send enough mana and the lightning might melt the armor. But it also made controlling it harder, so it might dive towards the earth before even reaching its target, or rebound onto nearby allies or oneself.

Eldrian's solution was clear. Instead of spending all his mental powers on controlling the arc of lightning, he instead created a few focal points which he would use to manipulate it. By having the lightning jump between them, the image he had to keep was simpler, and he could even manipulate the surroundings at the focal points. Making the lightning 'want' to jump to them.

Boran himself wasn't capable of dynamic casting, yet. He had been learning the skill. He could control his spells far better than ever. Runic magic, in particular, he had nearly mastered. And it was what he favored more than any other type of casting method.

While slower than the others, its power was unmatched, and its control was superb.

"Smart." Boran said, opened the doors to the forge as he did. A magnificent sight, to be sure. As soon as their talk had shifted to the weapon, he had suggested they move to the forge so they could experiment as they talked.

"This is Lord Amnur's personal forge. Before leaving, he gave me special permission to use it, and I thought it best to have your weapon be the first thing I craft with it." Boran explained, a proud smile playing across his face.

The forge was unlike anything Eldrian had ever seen. Actually, he had seen similar concepts in movies before, but never done like this. Magma flowed behind the forge, and it was channeled upwards and let pass in a specialized channel at the back of the forge. A little behind where the hearth normally sat.

It was not the primary heat source. After all, placing metal in magma would most certainly be foolish. Only magical metals would survive, and given the temperature, even they might melt and become one with the magma.

Instead, the magma acted more as a sort of backdrop. And after Eldrian pried his eyes from it, he saw the Magic Crystal embedded in the forge's chimney—where the magma flowed from. Below the crystal, and before the magma, was a small flame. Reminding Eldrian of a gas burner.

Naturally, the heat in the room was sweltering. Eldrian was already sweating, even though he had cast Aeraki to lower the temperature around himself.

"Let me show you how it works first. It is quite an interesting concept, to use magic like this and ignore coals entirely." Boran said, fiddling with a dial at the right of the forge.

As Boran turned the dial, the flame grew in size, making Eldrian think the dial was a gas valve. However, according to magic sense, he knew there was far more going on here than just that.

"The dial is only really used when mass producing items, normally. Lord Amnur would always control the strength of the flame with magic. However, since I'm not quite possible to handle that, Amnur added a few other features onto the forge."

Boran went on to explain them. They included changing the direction of the flame, adding more, bringing the magma forward or moving it further back, having the magma form cast items, and much more. The most interesting to Eldrian was that the composition of the flame could even be changed. The composition of the magma could also be controlled, to a frightening degree.

While the two last part fascinated Eldrian the most, Boran shifted the topic back to his weapon. "Let's confirm what you want first. You already said you don't want a new spear, nor a sword or anything like that."

Eldrian nodded. Not only didn't he fight in melee that often, he still had Crystoi and his new Tier 8 sword. Which he had only  really used once—to aid in killing the lich. Swords weren't really his thing, but they worked when thrown and controlled with ether. Tough that usage was atypical at best.

"First, the spell you showed us. Would what you want it to be something like this?" Boran asked, taking a few pieces of Black Steel and adding superficial runes to them. The sight of which made Eldrian's eyes grow wide in shock. He thought he was the only one capable of that.

Letting the runes activate, the ingot broke off into thirteen segments, each about the size of a finger. Boran then added a few more superficial runes to the segments and threw them into the sky, where they floated.

Eldrian noted the runes similar to the ones he had added to the sled, having to do with air control and ether manipulation. However, there were four others he couldn't pinpoint.

Boran then drew another rune in the sky, one pertaining to lightning—that much Eldrian could tell. Though it had a bunch of extra smaller auxiliary runes added that made its purpose less clear to Eldrian.

? Seeing Eldrian's astonishment, Boran smirked. And just as Eldrian was about to work through the shock, Boran snapped his fingers.

*Zzzt* *Zap* *Bzzz Bzzzzz*

Lightning sprang to life. Jumping from one segment to another.

"This is amazing!" Eldrian exclaimed, and Solvi nodded in agreement. While Boran hadn't actually made an item, only cast a Runic spell, it had hardly taken him a minute to do so. And he could now manipulate it as he willed.

"When did you master Runic Magic?" Eldrian asked, watching the lightning bolt dance around for the hundredth time. It was quite an entrancing sight.

"I haven't mastered it. But I got pretty competent. It was especially useful on the battlefield. Especially when laying traps for the enemy."