Chapter 158 - 157 The True Way Of The Forge (Experimentation)

Heading to his room after he spent some time catching up with Lilia, after entering his room Marcus actually turned back into a ghost and exited the manor.

Floating outside of his manor, Marcus made his way over to his forge that was on the premises of his estate.

Passing through the door, Marcus entered the interior and resolidified before heading over to his work bench and collected his forging tools.

With his tools collected, Marcus headed over to the largest furnace he had and lit it up using a few magic cores as the fuel source.

While his furnace was heating up Marcus took out a small amount of the celestial platinum ore and using his spectral arm held it inside the furnace.

Allowing the ore to heat up, the rock that was around the platinum began melting as it had a much lower melting point, and it was not long before all Marcus had left was the celestial platinum.

Taking a few minutes, Marcus molded the platinum into an ingot before trying to figure out how to use it for enchanting.

Of course, he knew that if he waited a bit and learned everything from Thabon he would not have to struggle with this part, but a part of Marcus really wanted to see what he could do on his own.

'I guess I will just etch the enchantments into item first without imbuing it, then add the platinum, empower the enchantment, and hope that it comes together.'

Coming up with this method that without the platinum normally ended with the enchantment exploding since it would normally become unstable if it was not infused with mana during its creation or at the very best would come out much weaker than otherwise.

It was basically the technique that was used by inexperienced or untalented crafters and made lower quality works.

Pulling out a mithril ingot, Marcus quickly heated it up using his control flames spell and separated just enough to shape into the item he wanted to try making.

Taking the mithril he had separated, Marcus formed it into the shape of a bracelet and after smoothing it out, started boring a hole in it where he could place a magic core.

Once that was done Marcus pulled out a magic core from one of the trolls that he had killed, and after condensing it placed it as the focal point of the bracelet.

'Now time to etch the enchantment and hope it does not blow up in my face when I activate it.'

Etching the formation of his tier four healing spell persistent healing into the bracelet and tying it to the core of the troll already imbedded into the bracelet Marcus was hoping to make a powerful healing item.

'Okay the hard part starts now. I have to somehow get the molten platinum into the etching without ruining the formation or warping either of the metals. Yeah, there definitely had to be a better way than this but I am already committed, and I can always find out tomorrow.'

Taking the ingot of celestial platinum he had refined earlier, Marcus heated it up until it began melting and collected it in a crucible that was made out of crimson ore which was the material that had the highest known melting point.

Taking the crucible that was now full of molten platinum, Marcus tried to carefully pour the platinum into the etching, but even with his high stats he found him pouring out to much and covering the bracelet in excess platinum.

'Fuck. This one is pretty much already ruined now. I am going to have to melt it back down and start over from scratch.'

Sighing, Marcus melted the bracelet back down before going through the process of getting it to the point of adding the celestial platinum again.

However, this time instead of trying to pout the platinum by hand Marcus brought forth his shadow tendrils using the ability for the first time in order to prevent the platinum from spilling over the etchings.

'I cannot believe that this is how I am using this ability for the first time, but the fact that it is working is the dumbest part. There is no way I am doing this right since most people would not have an ability like this to help them guide the platinum. The only other way I can think of is to make a guard out of crimson ore for every single item I make, but that would be incredibly expensive and time consuming. Oh well, I wanted to see what I could do on my own and this is the best I can come up with for now.'

Finishing pouring the celestial platinum into the formation etched onto the bracelet he had made, Marcus quickly smoothed out the platinum and made sure that the formation was still intact.

Once that was done, he then began pouring mana into the formation and magic core used as its focal point.

Astonishingly the item did not explode or shatter, and Marcus watched as the celestial platinum absorbed the mana greedily before sinking into the mithril and becoming a part of it leaving no trace that it was ever there.

'So that is how it works and why I have never seen the platinum on any enchanted items. It works as a buffer for excess mana that would warp the enchantment making it so you do not need expert control and can even strengthen an enchantment further. Damn now I wish I had known this from the beginning, I spent so much time perfecting my control over the output of my mana when it was unnecessary.'

With a deep sigh Marcus picked up the now completed magic bracelet he had made out of mithril and activated the enchantment in order to see how well the item functions.

'Shit, I must have warped the enchantment when pouring in the platinum. It took me around four times the amount of mana I would normally need to cast the spell myself and its effectiveness is only around thirty percent as well. Now how many times can I activate it before it needs to recharge. Hm just three times, not really that great it should have been at least five for the materials that I used. I could have easily made a superior product just with my previous method, but I suppose that the failure rate of this one is much lower.'

Taking the somewhat of a failure magic bracelet he had made, Marcus decided to sell it at the shop attached to the Blazegram Forge and if he was lucky, he might get around a hundred gold.

After his attempts at using the celestial platinum, Marcus was satisfied with learning its effectiveness and was anticipating how Thabon was going to teach him.

Waiting in anticipation, Marcus did numerous inventories of his supplies making sure he had numerous different materials that he could use since as soon as the sun came up, he planned to go to the forge and finally learn the true ways to forge.

'Time to go, I cannot wait to see what special techniques Thabon has to show me. I hope he is not to mad that I was not able to obtain as much ore as I could, but a normal person could never have escaped that hell hole.'

With his preparations complete and the sun just coming over the horizon marking the start of the day, Marcus floated back to his manor and into his room, before making a show of exiting his room since his maids and Lilia had started to get a bit worried about him not getting enough rest.

Walking downstairs, Marcus found that Leah was already up and cooking breakfast making a type of oatmeal along with eggs and bacon.

Impatiently waiting, as soon as Leah had finished making breakfast, Marcus ate it at and unprecedented rate shocking everyone around him, before he told everyone that he was going to the forge and to not wait up on him.

However, before he left Clara asked if he had already written the letter to Duchess Ophiria causing Marcus to grumble slightly and quickly write a letter accepting her request to a meeting whenever she was free.

After that Marcus said goodbye to the maids and Lilia, swiftly leaving the manor before anything else came up.

Calling Blitz over, Marcus mounted onto his magical beast and giving Blitz the mental command, began bounding towards the Blazegram Forge.

Speeding across the city streets Marcus arrived at the forge only a few minutes after it had opened and saw that a number of the other early risers were arriving.

Walking in Marcus gave his greetings to the other members of the forge and began making a beeline for Thabon's personal room when the apprentice that was manning the front desk stopped him.

"Ah Lady Irene, I am glad to see you have gotten back from your trip. A number of customers came and specifically asked for you for commissions, though when most of them heard you would be absent for an extended period of time, they switched over to someone else. However, three of them were adamant about only having you and they left letters for when you came back."

The apprentice named Sully then retrieved the three letters and Marcus gave them a quick glance over and was about to put them away and deal with them latter until he saw the last one that was signed by one of his friends.

'A letter from Adrianna, I wonder what she wants me to make for her. She already has a good mithril sword but maybe she wants some armor. I suppose there is a chance it could be for Clarissa as well.'

Holding himself back from rushing right to Thabon, Marcus walked into a corner of the room and cut open the letter deciding to prioritize reading his friend's request before anything else.