Chapter 381: Shaping Crystals

"First things first, we need to use the chisels to break off the largest chink we can." The crystal mage went up to the dummy and took the chisel in hand. He then pulled out a hammer from under his tan cloak and smashed it down on the chisel. In one simple slam, there was a head sized chunk for crystal on the ground in front of him. "Just look for a weak point and hit hard." 

Walker held the chisel he had been given in his hand and walked over to the same dummy. He looked at the dummy and soon found a small crack. He thought that it was the perfect place to hit since it was already damaged. 

Walker readied the chisel and pulled one of the dual hammers from his inventory. He aimed the flat side at the chisel and replicated the swing the crystal mage had used. However, the aftermath was wildly different. Instead of breaking in to a perfect chunk, the entire dummy fell in to ten large shattered pieces. The sound of breaking crystal was almost like shattered glass. 

The amount of laughter that rang out from the mages watching this scene were too many to count. The sudden breaking of the dummy was funny to them, but the surprised jaw dropped face of Walker was even more hysterical. 

Alma came up and surveyed the remnants of the dummy, "You could have left it in fewer pieces." 

"Next time you can break it then." The two glared at each other before laughing too. Walker was just happy that Remey and Gil weren't there to tease him about the damage to the dummy he had done.

"It's fine," The crystal mage wiped a tear from his eye due to laughing. "We can use any of those pieces, they are large enough." Walker grabbed the roundest looking chunk of crystal and had the hope that it would be easier for him to carve in to a round orb.

"Now I can't teach you to carve any patterns in to them since I am not a proper craftsman. I can only shape them to hold and expel mana which is exactly what we need them for in the city. But if you find certain blacksmiths they could carve runes in the,m to assist in the magical functions." As the crystal mage said this Walker could only think of the wandering blacksmith. 

He would be having a talk about making these orbs able to carry runes even when having their shapes change. But first, he needed to learn the crystal crafting skill. "Where are we going to start? Do I need to just start chipping away?' Walker had no idea how this would work.

"Nope, we need to use the edge of the chisel to mark out where we will be cutting. This will keep the spot that chips off when we di use the chisel to cut flat and easy to smooth out. If you just go at it with the chisel you could crack the entire thing and need to start over." This was a simple lesson and one Walker took to heart. He would hate to waste so much material by not listening properly. 

Walker watched as the crystal mage used his tools to make scratches around the sharp pointed parts of the chunk of tan crystal. It was starting to look like someone had let it be a toy for a tough toothed beast until the crystal mage changed tactics. He was chipping away with soft taps at the base of every scratch he made. There were perfect slivers of the crystal falling off making the crystal more and more round with each soft hit. 

Walker started to make his own scratches finding that he needed to use a lot more force to make them. The crystal was a lot harder than the crystal mage made it look, Walker had the sneaking suspicion that the crystal mages' crystal crafting skill made this so. 

Luckily the mages had grown silent so that he could work in focus, this was a very respectable thing since most other places would continue to work or train around people. The mages in the elf city, however, knew the value of the experiments their fellow mages did, even if they were different elements. Therefore, the mages would hold to a silent mannerism when one mage was having a challenging experiment in the training area.

Walker soon held a scratched up crystal. It had taken almost triple the time that the crystal mage had, but he was there. "That is looking pretty good for a first try. Now, remember, tap softly. If you tap too hard you might shatter the entire thing." Walker heeded these words and treated the crystal as if it was the most delicate thing in the world.

He chipped away at it slowly but surely and managed to get a few slivers to fall. "Perfect, you are much better than I expected. Now I will just watch, if I see you about to hit a delicate spot I will stop you." The crystal mage proceeded to only interrupt to give advice or change Walker's hands. Not before long, the two had a semi-smooth crystal ball in their hands.

Now we can use the earth molding skills, or in your case high earth sculpting, to smooth the outside. Just be gentle and think of it as a process that should take longer than long." This was how the crystal mage had learned to polish and how the crafting skill preferred to work. 

The two spent over an hour of softly adjusting the smoothness of the crystal balls to find a perfect smoothness. Walker had a few moments where he was worried he had started to shape it improperly but was reassured by the crystal mage. His mana was steadily drained from using the high earth sculpting skill for so long. By the time the shine and smoothness they wanted was reached he was ready for his third mana potion in the entire process. 

"The last part is the hardest. We need to use the earth elemental mana within the crystal to force the crystal itself to have a small hollow inside." Walker was worried about this part from the start. It sounded and looked challenging.

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