Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 18: Ophelia - Crafting [Retribution]

Ophelia parried Tanda’s thrust of her spear, as she kicked out with her leg. She expected to hit her leg unprotected to knock her off balance, but Tanda’s flap infused with auril blocked the blow.

Ophelia flapped her wings to dodge Tanda’s followup attack, but she pressed with a flap of her own. The two’s spears met, each of them trying their hardest to best one another. Ophelia wasn’t using her technique, but Tanda was able to use her auril, making their match more even.

Ophelia knocked Tanda back, then asked. “Did you figure out which Technique you’ll be getting? You don’t want to hold off on buying it for too long, you know. It takes a lot of work to progress it.”

Tanda frowned. “I know, but I still don’t know what things will be like once my hearth wakes up. The one that can aid in turning my melee attacks into ranged ones was attractive, as it makes me able to keep up pressure at any distance easily. When I start cyclic resonance, this becomes quite attractive.”

Ophelia nodded. “I can see that you don’t have much choice until the seed blooms. Fhesiah’s Hearth lets her use small amounts of mana, and if you could do the same, that will help give you a number of options. It’s hard to imagine how that will work, though. I have a hard time using my mana and your auril over energy sharing at the same time. It’s like your heart beat disrupts my intent when forming my runes.”

Tanda smiled as she looked at Ophelia, her tail wagging. “I know you’ll figure it out, Ophelia! Or, Jake will. He has a few ideas, he said that runes filled with mana in his armor wasn’t disrupted as much. If I can just enhance myself that way with mana, that should be enough to be valuable!”

Jake was practicing with Bloodberri, still working on his Runebound states, while she practiced with her runes. Blood and Berri were getting very close to the advanced stages, which would soon allow them to do group casts by themselves.

The utility in combat was significant, allowing the two to accomplish area of effect spells much more easily. Some of the more powerful control spells used many runes, and being able to cast them together would be an excellent tool to have.

Fhesiah was in her cultivation chamber, pushing herself to finish her bloodline transformation. It would aid her to switch in combat much faster, and she had wanted to complete it before trying her yin-yang body tempering.

Ophelia just shook her head at the idea that having fun would lead to Fhesiah becoming even more powerful. A match made in heaven, that mystical technique and that girl. Still, Ophelia couldn’t help but become a little excited. Of course, she enjoyed those activities with Jake too!

They continued their practice for a while longer, her thinking about what they had to do next. In her last major battle, her weapon had failed her. Ophelia had everything she had needed to be successful, except a good weapon or armor.

They finished their practice for the day and ate, and Ophelia immediately headed for her Hearthtree Forge, which was also sort of Tanda’s room and shrine to the Celtic god and goddess.

Tanda smiled as they walked into their refuge. “Are we finally going to make your spear? I can’t wait to help!”

Ophelia chuckled. Tanda seemed to enjoy accompanying her for just about any activity. Jake’s other girls were all helpful and would work hard when you needed them to be, but there was something different with asking for help from Tanda offering, and for her to enjoy it so much.

Tanda was all smiles as they entered, Ophelia matching her mood. Their sanctuary within their Refuge was something truly special. The air was filled with life, the area peaceful. Tanda had selectively added various creatures and critters to live within, to create a self-sustaining ecosystem, and without pests that they would find overly annoying.

Tanda helped her prepare her workspace, setting everything up around the Hearthtree Forge. She would need Jake later, but for now she had other pieces to work on.

When she had made her lance, she was proud of what she had crafted. She had used all her knowledge and skill, and the best materials they could afford at that time.

Unfortunately, it was just that: all that they could afford. Their Credits and CP had significantly increased since then, increasing the numbers of possibilities. Then, they had some more time to purchase more rare materials, which took more time to arrive.

The Epic+ store had gotten her enough materials for the lance’s head, and the metals she planned on using for her armor and the spear shaft had finally arrived as well.

Tanda said, “It’s too bad there aren’t any more auril metals out there. I just know they’d be perfect for your spearhead.” Her ears went flat on her head. “I know if you had my spear, it wouldn’t have broken. You even had to protect me with your shield.”

Ophelia said, “It’s fine. That moment was important for you, and despite how it was terrifying to die, it was important for a lot of reasons. Jake wouldn’t have learned about his Runestates, and then–”

Ophelia was hugged by Tanda. “I thought I was ready to die fighting for my people. But when I faced that enemy champion and nearly died, I was so afraid, and angry. I felt that same thing when that eye turned on me. When your shield appeared in front of me, it felt wonderful knowing you were there to help. I don’t know how you did it without hesitation. Thanks for protecting me and Jake, Ophelia.”

Ophelia hugged her back, and gave her a smile. “You’re welcome, Tanda. Let’s make armor and a weapon that won’t let that happen again.”

Tanda nodded. “Right!”

While Highland’s auril metals were undoubtedly special, Valtor had helped her identify a metal that should work well enough in its place. Perhaps even better, for Clan Hart’s purposes. She had planned on using it as part of an alloy, as on its own, it was not overly strong.

[Harmonium] was known to be able to transmit most energies, and Valtor was able to confirm Auril was included. Then, mithril was both strong and was excellent at holding mana. Neither was expensive for the amounts she would be using, and some of the latter was used in her original spearhead.

The new material, a single ingot had cost nearly 5000 CP and 50,000 T1 credits from the discounted Epic+ store was called [Seraphite]. It was highly compatible with Ophelia’s holy mana and her flames of Hestia.

Valtor and Amara suspected that it was one of the main metals used in her shield’s construction, but it was a combination of metals forming an alloy that was well beyond what a frontier sector had access to.

She’d love for her entire armor to have [Seraphite], but it was beyond their ability to afford, for now. She would have to use [Radiantsteel], which was simply a refined version of magical steel combined with mithril. Ophelia could make some now, but purchased some to save some time.

Ophelia and Tanda gazed at the Hearthtree Forge.

Tanda said, “It’s grown a lot since last week! It’s really happy here, I can tell.”

It had grown a lot from Brigid’s gift, but Ophelia thought it had grown even larger, the hearth flame more powerful than before. She had done some trials before today, and was more than happy at how it helped her forge magical metals.

Ophelia looked over to the deathly tree of Cernunnos. It looked like a ghastly willow tree from out of a swamp of nightmares, but she didn’t feel any danger or ill will from it. Somehow, it had even moved a distance from the other trees as it grew.

Ophelia asked, “What about that thing?”

Tanda looked over at it with a wry smile. “It’s happy too. I don’t know why, as there is not much death here, but death is like the other side of the coin for life. The hearth must be supplying it with the deathly energies. Cernunnos punishes the wicked in the afterlife, perhaps it is feeding off that within the world, since the Refuge is docked here?”

Ophelia shrugged as she placed each of the four metals in a crucible, and put each inside the Hearthtree for now in order to melt them. Here, they would gather the energies contained within the forge. While too much magic would break down forged metal, while it was in the melted state this was not a problem.

The excess magical energies would be released as the metal cooled, the oils meant to quench the metals absorbing them to accomplish this.

Once the radiantsteel melted, she began the process of combining the mithril and harmonium metals to create her alloy. This process had many steps, adding magical alloying agents and removing the impurities.

Tanda meditated, finding harmony in their refuge. She drew the spare auril of the area, which were just as significant as deep within their jungles of Highlands. She infused it into the metals as they were forged, and Ophelia smiled as she could tell her new alloy could transmit the energy well.

It was not quite as good as Tanda’s original spear before the upgrade, let alone after, but it was definitely at the level of the wood or bones used for many of their weapons. She completed many ingots, needing the metals for both her armor and the shaft.

Tanda wiped down the sweat from Ophelia’s brow with a towel, causing her to smile at the raven-haired woman. “Thanks. The heat coming out of that tree is immense now. To think it was like a candle before.”

Tanda said, “No problem! It got hotter as I added the auril. Look at the leaves.”

Ophelia looked, and was surprised to see they had certainly brightened. She thought it would look amazing in the dark, and so she dimmed the fake sun in their refuge.

The tree became like a lantern in the dark, with thousands of orange and red flames floating, and flickering in the air.

“Wow! That’s really pretty. We don’t have anything quite that bright in our forests,” Tanda said.

Ophelia nodded, then turned the lights back on, and began melting down many ingots together. It was time to make her plates for her armor.

She would be making a lamellar plate armor. This was similar to ring or scale mail, but different. The rows, or bands, of overlapping rectangular plates would be stitched together using threads. Because of the overlap, the threads were difficult but not impossible to be attacked, but the movement of the plates thanks to the threads allowed for better range of movement than full plate.

However, hers would be a hexagonal, or honeycomb grid of plates tapered at the top where the bindings would go through.

Bloodberri would thread it together later, using thread created from enchanted auril leather strips. There would be several larger plates stitched over her upper chest, which Jake would then enchant, hopefully creating a powerful effect.

The smaller plates around her belly would be hardly larger than a coin. But they would be many times thicker, more than enough to stop a blade when overlapping.

Forming tiny plates was hardly a job for a smith’s hammer, but she had to implement various techniques when forging this alloy before punching out the hexagonal plates and the holes for the stitching.

She poured the melted alloy into a thick sheet, not overly different from the ingots she started with. Then, she retrieved her final material, the [Quakeshell Carapace].josei

The quakeshell was a crustacean-like creature with a massive, heavily armored carapace that was studded with crystal-like protrusions. When threatened, it could vibrate these crystals to create a defensive barrier that can deflect or absorb incoming attacks, making it a nearly impenetrable fortress.

It would be impossible for her to create this barrier due to not being attuned to the monster’s essence. But the properties of the crystals, the hardness while being able to vibrate, meant that it should work well to increase the metal’s compatibility with auril. Unlike harmonium, it would increase the overall capability to hold an enchantment, as well as make the metal stronger.

She heated the crystals with her own flames, reheating the sheet in the process. Tanda aided once more with gathering the auril, as Ophelia latched onto the essence of the quakeshell carapace with her mana, using the skill: [Essence Transfer].

The crystalline structure was not quite melted but made more malleable, but her mana latched onto this and increased that aspect even further. It nearly became a liquid, allowing her to mix it and merge it with the superheated alloy.

As she stirred the monster material with the alloy, her [Essence Transfer] skill pushed the crystalline liquid toward being a much more homogenous mixture.

Still holding onto her skill, she poured her first plate mold, for the little hexagons to be punched out. The mold was resting on a special press. It was the shape of the billet, and had thousands of needles on it. It was like a block of needles, and the press dropped onto the hot metal.

The needles inserted a miniscule amount of mana at those predefined points and depth, creating an even spacing of pockets within the metal. Then, she added a thin layer of hot metal, and did it again.

Then, she folded it in half onto itself, and brought it to her anvil. She hammered it while infusing her mana into her runic smithing hammer, hammering out the billet until it would be the correct shape and size for the mold once more. Impurities were released in the form of sparks as she hammered, the mana pockets being infused and homogeneity being increased.

While normally smiths would dip the metal into a mixture that kept a metal from oxidizing or drew impurities out, her magical smithing skills accomplished this instead. As she hammered or moved around the billet, it was covered by her mana and her intent, her focus on magical metallurgy skill, as well as her essence transfer skill.

She repeated the process of pressing with the needles and folding the billet twenty times in total. She moved through the steps rapidly, her body supernaturally quick. Ophelia controlled the temperature to keep things optimal, allowing the steel to be shaped in seconds with her magical strength.

The billet was dipped into the magic oil that drew out excess magical energy. As it was, she finally let go of the [Essence Transfer] skill. As the monster’s crystalline essence cooled, the crystalline structure expanded and formed what she hoped was a uniform connection within the metal.

Ophelia brought over the billet about the width of her body and height of her midsection, and set it on her other special tool: a laser. Rather than punching out the hex grid, a laser would perfectly cut through the metal. Unable to leave the refuge, she was happy to have such a tool to speed up this process for her.

Tanda asked, “You really had to fold that twenty times? Is there really a difference?”

Ophelia smiled. “This way, the metal is as homogenous as possible. Over a million mana pockets were created, and even the essence of that monster’s crystalline structure should be spread out evenly.”

The laser moved rapidly from end to end of her billet, cutting through a perfect grid of tapered hexagonal shapes, complete with their holes for threads. Very little material was wasted, but the remainder was put into another crucible and added into the forge.

She picked up the resulting metal shape and infused her mana into it, the outcome causing her to smile. She could feel how well the mana flowed through it, and how strong it was. Ophelia ran her holy mana through it, and the result was the same.

Ophelia handed it to Tanda, and she pushed her auril through it.

Tanda smiled. “It worked! I feel like I can hear a light hum, too. It’s not as good as my spear, but it’s at the level it was before it was upgraded. That’s amazing!”

Tanda hugged Ophelia from the side with excitement. Ophelia was quite happy with the result, but she still had much work ahead of her. She’d have to make nearly a dozen of the billets to cover her entire upper and lower body, complete with shoulders, greaves, gauntlets, and helmet.

The threads would be connected to an auril wool that Bloodberri was working on right now, allowing them to be singular pieces worn.

Tanda didn’t know it yet, but she was making enough for three sets of armor.

They continued their crafting, Tanda watching sparks fly with a smile. They took a break about three quarters of the way through it to have a snack.

“Phew, I’m famished! Good thing Jake makes sure we have plenty of auril meats, huh? I’m even going to take an auril pill, I’ll need it if I’m going to make it for the spear shaft! Still, don’t we have enough hexagons by now? I feel like we can already cover you twice over by now already.”

Ophelia smiled. “There’s some overlap! Besides, it won’t hurt to have a little more. We’ll use up the rest of the metal.”

Tanda’s smile was beaming, and her tail wagging. “Okay! This is really going to keep you well protected, I can tell! I bet this armor would have stopped that guy’s sword! Let’s get this done.”

They continued until they were nearly done, when Bloodberri arrived, the snake women smiling a proud smile.

Berri said, “They’re all done! I’m really happy with how they turned out!”

She placed the auril bone and hide hauberks and other armor components on the ground, and held one up.

Tanda frowned. “Why’s there three of them?”

Ophelia laughed. “One’s for you and Fhesiah. How could we leave you unprotected? I may be able to protect you, but you’re part of Clan Hart now. Of course, we’d make sure you have protection.”

Tanda was awed. “Thank you so much! Wow…” She then looked sad. “I wish I could make you guys something.”

Blood frowned, as she looked at the hauberk. “What are you on about? You helped us with all of this. The end result is in thanks to your help, you helped mold and twist the bones, as well as empower the leather as it was cured. One could say that the end result wouldn’t have been half as good without you.”

Tanda laughed. “Oh yeah! I can’t wait to try this on.”

Ophelia returned one of Tanda’s many hugs with her own, “You’re a big help, Tanda. We really couldn’t have done it without you, thank you.”

“I’m happy to help! This was a lot of fun. This stuff you’re making is really neat. I do want to make something like it someday, even if it’s with help…”

Blood said, “You may be able to later. Your druid powers can probably make special things with auril plants or woods, then there are other things in this world that appear interesting. The Naga had those odd weapons made of ocean stones, then the coral armor covering their bodies. Perhaps you could even work with those things.”

Tanda nodded. “Thanks, Blood. You’re right, even if I don’t make armor or weapons, there are plenty of neat things for me or us to craft with the help of the Framework.”

Berri said, “I know you’ll figure something out. Let’s get stitching!”

Ophelia watched as Blood floated some needles, and Berri had a number with her spools of auril wool thread. She watched on in near confusion, at how easy Berri’s large hands held the tiny needle, but with precision and ease thread it through the small holes rapidly.

Blood did the same with her telekinesis. The two made quick work of wrapping the hexagons around the hauberk. Mostly to get the size appropriate for each girl’s shapes, as she had already accomplished this for these.

Ophelia returned to what she was doing, finishing up her last billets, as Blood and Berri worked on their task. After she completed her last billets, it was time for her to work on her lance head.

She had decided to shift from the winged lance now that she would always be using her weapon two-handed. Slashing attacks became much more attractive than just thrusts, and so she would make a lance with an axe blade, like that of a halberd.

The lance, or spearhead portion would be more pronounced than most, but she figured she could manage the odd balance of the weapon thanks to her control over her momentum with [Ride of the Valkyries].

The weapon would be similar to Tanda’s, only that her blade wouldn’t curve inward, and there would be only one. There would be a hook on the opposite side of the blade, allowing her options to capture or direct an enemy’s weapon.

She made her alloy once more, this time with seraphite instead of the radiantsteel and quakeshell carapace. The latter would actually decrease the effectiveness of the seraphite, it being far superior of a material. Most likely, they would need a powerfully rare Tier 2 corpse to benefit from inserting the essence.

In a way, Seraphite was a Tier 2 material. At the peak of the Tier, things tended to blur somewhat. It was a Tier 1 material with a rarity far above most Tier 2 materials, but without being empowered by a superior mana source, it could not bring out most of its power. This weapon would still be powerful well into their second Tier, as they powered it with their powerful cores.

The harmonium she added was minimal, as it would weaken the overall alloy. But when adding the folding technique, it would have a large effect, making the seraphite more compatible with auril.

She finished her folding to form her block of a billet, finding the seraphite more difficult to fold or hammer into shape, without her infusing holy mana into it. With it, the molten ore became much more pliable and easy to work with.

Her folds completed, it was time for her to hammer it into the desired shape. Holding onto it with her holy mana and magic metallurgy skill, she hammered on it at a rapid pace.

She kept the metal hot with her runic forging flame, never stopping her blows. She pushed with her mana to mold the block billet into the desired shape, using both her holy mana and the hammer’s blows to accomplish this.

Ophelia created the shape of her halberd-lance-head, forging the metal around the magical focus; a high-quality gem.

She kept the metal warm, waiting for Jake to arrive. Bloodberri and Tanda waved at his arrival, but they knew from their communications that he needed to act. He reached out to the odd halberd head and activated his skill, [Manaweave Reinforcement], while pushing the flames of his Divine Hearth through it. As he did, she pushed her own flames of Hestia into it.

She watched and felt with her magical senses in amazement as Jake’s flames met her own, each pushing their love and affection they had for one another into it. Jake too had been affected by her weapon failing, and he pushed hard with everything he had to empower her once more.

Something within the material shifted, and her hold over the mana within the item did as well. The object grew brighter as it pulled mana and auril from the surrounding area, and she pushed what remained of her flames of Hestia into the item, along with Jake pushing more flames within.

Ophelia quenched the head in oil, cooling it. Excess mana was released out of the item, but the rest was trapped inside.

Jake whistled. “That metal did feel special. Not quite as good as our Mythic items, but close. It was easy to reinforce the structure using the mana within. I should be able to put powerful runes on it now.”

Jake moved on to use his skill on the other metals. He had only needed to be there to reinforce this metal during forging, as it was special. Jake was able to latch onto the inner structures, and reinforce them on a different level.

Their Mythic-level equipment already had this step done to well beyond his own skill.

The lamellar plate coats were finished, being fitted over the leather hauberks. The hexagonal plates created overlapping bands covering the chest and neck, and creating a sort of skirt to protect the thighs all the way to almost the knees. There, greaves were worn, the space between covered by chain mail and the auril beast hide underneath.

There were shoulder plates, and a long armored gauntlet would leave only a small gap between the shoulder to the elbow, which was covered by chain mail once more. The armor had a path of hexagonal plates connecting the pieces, allowing the runic pathways to connect. The interlocking mechanism was something they could engage or disengage while they put the armor on.

Jake said, “You really outdid yourself, Ophelia. These are amazing. They weaker than our Mythic equipment, but they are probably as close as you can get without using the borderline Tier 2 materials.”

Berri said, “These are really cool! You girls are all going to match.”

Tanda hugged Ophelia. “Thanks so much for making this for me! It’ll take me some time to get used to the armor, but I know it’ll be worth it.”

Jake said, “I got a lot of enchanting work ahead of me. About the only way you girls can help is by drinking mana water, except you, Tanda.”

Ophelia still had some sharpening to do along with finishing attaching the head to her shaft she had crafted prior. An amberwood core, covered by a thin layer of radiantsteel. Her runic functions were carved into the wood and metal near where the head connected, allowing her to connect her functions to the magic focus like Jake’s.

Tanda asked, “What are you going to call your new weapon? It definitely deserves a cool name!”

Ophelia shrugged. “I might only use it for a few months at the pace we’re going. I’ll name it [Retribution].”

Berri said, “Can we play for a bit first? I’ve been crafting and training all day. I think I’m going to see runes in Blood’s dreams.”

Blood groaned. “I’d be dreaming about them because teaching you is like Ophelia’s smithing. I have to hammer them into you repeatedly until they take shape.”

Tanda stretched. “You can see her dreams? You two are so weird. What will we play?”

Ophelia looked at them fondly as they talked about choosing a game, and looked at her new armor and spearhead. She would make Jake a new shield as well, improving the materials shortly.

Like her father, she would protect her family even in this way. She would now be able to protect her family better than ever now, their equipment no longer being insufficient for the task.