Alex proceeded to try this technique out with many different alloys and metals and the result was the same.

He was feeling discouraged and opened a few forging books he brought with him to see if he could find where he went wrong.

The book was on Tvastar, the god who introduced the technique in the first place.

Alex skipped through most of the pages and found nothing relevant, but a single line intrigued him.

"Tvastar used only Divine Iron for his greatest masterpieces."

'If he described the epitome of forging as using Faith Energy, and himself used it on Divine Iron, then perhaps the latter can withstand the technique...?' Alex tried to rationalize and come to a conclusion.

In truth, he didn't gain much insight, but he realized that the only way to proceed was to try it out himself.

'I should be able to procure some Divine Iron with connections if this fails.' Alex motivated himself and took out the silver-like metal.

He ignited a fire again and increased the temperatures.

To get an even more extreme temperature, he incarnated into Hephaestus and heated up some rock into magma, and placed it into the furnace.

Even for him, the ambient temperature was becoming uncomfortable, but he bore with it and proceeded.

In a big bucket, he reluctantly put several ingots of the Divine Iron and laid it inside of the furnace.

The metal took an unusually long time to melt, but when it reached a desirable temperature, he started the folding process.

He removed Incarnation because he wanted to try out how his own Faith Energy would influence the finished product, and Athena's Essence also granted him dexterity that would be very useful.

*BAM* *BAM*

The sound of the hammer and the plate folding the divine metal together resounded.

Fortunately, the folding worked for the weapon, and the body of his desired weapon took shape.

He would make a spear, as that was the weapon he was the most used to.

'I hope this goes well....'

Alex continued folding the near-liquid metal until it was impossible to do it more without making the end product brittle.

Before trying out the risky technique, he also received an idea.

He took out a glowing red ruby from his pockets, and looked at it.

'I wonder how embedding this extremely high-energy ruby would affect the spear?' Alex couldn't restrain his curiosity.

He embedded the ruby into a corner of the shaft, and the unbreakable crystal didn't react whatsover.

Then, came the moment of truth.

'Here goes nothing....' Alex infused his Faith Energy into the metal and strongly bit his lips.

'Should I pray to myself?'

Alex looked at any signs of a reaction from the metal, and strangely, there were none.

He continued inserting Faith Energy and the metal sucked it out like a dry sponge.

Alex also hammered the body of the spear simultaneously and kept his attention on the metal.

"This metal is taking up a lot of Faith Energy." He was starting to feel a bit drained, but he pressed on anyway.

There was no reaction whatsoever, and he lost a bit of hope.

However, just as his reserves of Faith Energy felt drained, the metal rejected his energy like a saturated sponge.

Suddenly, the hot metal changed shape from a shaft to a...

"Ball?!"

Alex simply looked on at the transformation, and the metal turned into a red, metallic ball, with the reflective ruby still embedded into it.

He then tried hammering it back and heating it up, but no matter what he did, the metal no longer changed shape.

"This is a failure, isn't it?" Alex murmured under his own breath.

He put the ball in a bucket of ice water and waited for it to cool down.

Then, when it fully cooled down, he took out the metallic ball.

"For a failed product, it sure is beautiful and smooth..." Alex commented when he was the mirror-like finish of the silver ball.

Suddenly, a system interface popped up on his retina.

(This item is an unnamed divine product)

(Do you wish to name it?)

"Divine? I wonder what's divine about a glossy ball..."

Alex nonetheless pressed on the floating words and pondered for a bit.

'I'm the god of humanity, and I forged it, but naming it Alex would be too over-the-top...'

'How about...Prometheus?' Alex ultimately went with this proposal.

_______________________

(Prometheus)

Quality: Divine

State: Great

Additional Information: A weapon crafted by the God of Humanity, Alex. Just as humans adapt to their every environment, this divine weapon adapts to its wielder. A source of great evil and a divine metal supply the strength of this weapon, yet the wielder uses that abhorrent evil to commit good deeds, earning it the attribute of repentance.

__________________________

'What a long and incomprehensible text!' Alex never saw a tab that long with any of the objects he's ever produced.

He was confused about how this ball, could be categorized as a weapon.

He examined the ball carefully, and nothing about it seemed weapon-like.

Alex was starting to think he only got his hopes up, but he didn't want to put the valuable ruby and Divine Iron to waste.

He tried to infuse Faith Energy into the weapon, and unexpectedly, it worked.

In his hands, the ball turned into a liquid and drastically changed shape.

Under the surprised stare of Alex, this went on back and forth until it turned into a solid again.

He was now wielding a strange weapon.

It looked like a gorgeous, silver, heavy spear, but a further look exhibited strange additions.

Unlike most spears, this one had a hilt, and it was in the shape of two wings, that reminded Alex of the wings that Hermes had.

There was a sharp spearpoint, but on its two sides, two hammerheads also gave the weapon a blunt capability.

'It's almost like, it incorporates aspects of all of the Essences I have...'

The wings, from Hermes.

The heavy spear, from Athena and Ares.

The hammers, from Hephaestus.

The beauty, from Aphrodite.

The adaptiveness, from Alex.

'This is exciting!' Alex wielded around the strange weapon masterfully.

There was, however, an inquiry that he still had.

He incarnated into Athena and infused her Faith Energy into the strange weapon.

As he expected, it changed shape again.

Soon enough, Prometheus turned into a very light and flexible armor, a heavy spear, and a shield.

'So, it does adapt to every Essence that I have!'

Alex thought it was funny that the weapon still followed laws of conservation of mass, and it simply turned into a less dense material for the three weapons and armor.

There was probably much more he wanted to experiment with, but right now, he simply wanted to show this masterpiece to Hermes.