After agreeing to meet Tersk back at his forge in the next hour or two, the first thing Jason did was check his Status. Sure enough, his mana fatigue had completely recovered during the night, and he was full up on both mana and stamina.

Knowing he was about to embark on something that could very well fatigue him a second time, he made a snap decision to dump his remaining stat points entirely into Spirit, raising it to 24. He watched with satisfaction as his maximum mana shot up another 100 points.

Jason didn't feel that that was enough to justify a least potion to top off, however, so he left his mana to regenerate on its own and left the Lodge.

Apparently, the girls had waited for him.

“What was that all about?,” asked Kera.

“Sorry. I had a question for Tersk, which has now sort of ballooned into a whole thing,” Jason said. “It looks like I’ll be spending a good chunk of the day with him, working towards getting us some high-end magical alloys, and with any luck we’ll be forging gear with it for everyone.”

Lumi looked interested. “Stuff like mithril exists here?”

“All sorts of stuff, apparently,” Jason confirmed. “I’m actually pretty confident Tersk and I can come up with some kind of alloy of a few different things. I’ll need some supplies from the house first. I’m pretty sure the shards I need are among the stuff that survived. It’s too bad I don’t really have the time to refine them.”

“We could always help speed that along,” Lumi said.

“You are going to see Flora before you do anything else,” Kera ordered firmly. “Your ribs are still hurting; don’t think I didn’t see you trying to hide it. You heard Aurion. It’s a doctor’s visit and lots of rest for you today.”

Lumi muttered something under her breath. “I hate being idle,” she complained. “I’ll be fine.”

Kera gently poked Lumi in the side provoking a yelp of pain as the other girl danced away from her, clapping a hand to her side with a look of outrage. Kera leveled a stare in her direction, arching one eyebrow in a passable imitation of Ravs.

Lumi looked at Kera’s stern expression and gave a defeated sigh. “Fine, fine…” she grumbled. “You made your point.”

“Good,” Kera said firmly. “Let’s go, then. See you sometime later then, Jason? Are we on our own for dinner?”

Jason gave a start at being addressed, pulling his eyes back to Kera’s face. Lumi’s slight jig there had nicely revealed the fact that apparently she hadn’t actually yet put on her…

Focus, man, he thought firmly at himself. What’s with me today and all the wandering eyes? A single invitation is not a license.

He cleared his throat, face burning a little. “Uhh, I guess maybe?” he said aloud. “It sort of depends on how much of a difference Mana Catalysis ends up making, and how much I need to spend. Its possible I’ll run dry early on and come home early. Or not.”

“Up in the air, huh?” Kera replied, not noticing his embarrassment. “Ok then. I guess if we get hungry we’ll stop by Arn’s, and then bring you something afterwards?”

“Sure. I’d appreciate that.”

They parted ways, and Jason hurried his way home. He had a few things he wanted to prepare before heading to the forge, namely the production of additional arcane powder. Unfortunately, his supply had been one of the the things that had crashed to the floor during the earthquake, breaking apart a number of vials.

It might be a good idea to start reinforcing the glass with alchemy, he considered. I have that density trait I was using on my shotgun shards. Might have one or two other options as well.

There was also the fact that Jason didn’t really want to also reveal he could make eternal potions to anyone if it wasn’t strictly necessary. He trusted Tersk, at least mostly, but he wasn’t sure he trusted him that much. The metal-forging was bad enough. Fortunately, Jason was pretty sure he could outright bribe Tersk with a small tithe of whatever they ended up with. It would shock Jason right down to his boots if the old dwarf wouldn’t give just about anything for a supply of high-tier metals.

Jason opened the door of the house, where he was greeted by enthusiastic Echo. After giving the rockhound some very careful back rubs, he went upstairs to his lab.

First he assessed his supply of Arcane Powder, sorting through the vials, seeing what was salvageable and what wasn’t. Thankfully, it appeared that while many of the vials had cracked or broken, none if it had managed to become contaminated with other ingredients.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for his supplies of elemental fire, which he assumed was a component he’d need for seratite. That had fallen to the floor along with vials of several other traits, no doubt ruining the contents. Worse, the crucible that had fallen over was now broken as well, and that was a key component in synthesizing new fire shards; it wasn’t like he could just light a pot on fire.

Or could I…? He wondered. It would be risky, but why couldn’t I use an artifice-made container full of, say, lamp oil? As long as I didn’t wander off, and used mana catalysis to speed things up…

Jason frowned in thought.

I did promise Kera I’d make a proper fire extinguisher, too. Hell, older models back home were basically pressurized tubes of baking soda, right? Which I need to make baking powder, which I want to do anyway. Why not just kill three or four birds with one stone…?

Jason nodded to himself. Yes; first he’d get the things he needed to take with him together, then he’d see what he could whip together. It would be a good test of the cost of mana catalysis, as well as its effectiveness in how it functioned alongside his various skills.

That meant his first order of business was to make some new mana potions; he was nearly out of them after last night's battle. Jason cleared a space on one of the tables, and got down to work, frowning with annoyance when he realized that he was getting quite low on any sources of Restore; he was going to need to pay another visit to Flora. He again lamented that he simply hadn't had the time to play around with finding efficient means of speed-growing plants. There was always something else that was taking priority for him.

A few quick batches of mana potion later, Jason had assembled a few high-strength potions, a dozen lesser, and an array of least tier ones. These were added to a small wooden crate lined with straw.

Next Jason pulled together what elemental shards he currently had on hand. Since he didn't know what exactly he'd end up trying to synthesize, he simply took all of them. Those were added to the crate alongside a supply of various refined trait powders, which was followed in turn by most of Jason's remaining arcane powder supply.

Satisfied he had just about everything he thought he might need, Jason turned his thoughts to making some additional fire shards.

Forty-five minutes later, Jason found himself sliding a batch of snickerdoodles out of the oven. It had shocked him how efficient [Mana Catalysis] was at assisting him with chemical processes. Sources of ammonia and carbon dioxide were trivial to obtain, mainly from compost, and he had the equipment already to filter gases. The rest was basically salt and water and heat, plus time. Time which became functionally nonexistent because of his skill.

An expenditure of roughly fifty mana, and Jason had ended up with more sodium bicarbonate than he’d need for weeks.

Since he had far more than he now needed, Jason swiftly assembled an improvised fire extinguisher using a hollow steel tube, some spare parts, and a wind-element shard to power a storage projecting enchantment. Then he went ahead and whipped together some baking powder as well, thanks to having previously aquired the cream of tarter from Arn. A few days ago during a break in his constant crafting, on a whim Jason had paid a quick visit to the inn in order to ask the man if he could have the leftover ‘useless scrapings’ from the inside of one of his wine barrels. Arn had no idea what Jason wanted it for, but since Jason was offering him a bit of money for the priviledge, he readily agreed. At the time Jason had just been thinking ahead; he hadn't really expected to be making baking powder anytime soon.

Once he had the baking powder finished and had triggered the synthesis of a pair of new fire shards, Jason realized he now had everything on hand to actually bake some proper cookies. And then it occurred to him, why not reward himself for managing to successfully build a real fire extinguisher out of nothing but scrap metal and some simple enchantments?

He could always bring Tersk some to apologize for being slightly late. Everybody liked apology cookies.

Jason slid the cookie-laden baking sheet onto the counter beside him. With a long-practiced flick of a spatula, he popped the snickerdoodles off the sheet and onto a cooling rack so their undersides didn't scorch, and then turned to check the two lit pots of oil beside him. They were still burning merrily away, and the large shard of crystal growing within had taken on a decidedly reddish hue.

He heard Echo bark once, followed by the door opening.

“Oh my god that smells heavenly,” came Lumi’s voice from the den. “You wonderful man, are you seriously bak — why the fuck are the dishes on fire?!”

Jason laughed, turning to look at the girls from the doorway to the kitchen. “Its not dishes,” he said hurriedly. “Just multitasking. I’m making a pair of fire shards before I leave.”

He picked up the plain, black-metal canister from the tabletop. “Took precautions too. Here’s your fire extinguisher, Kera.” He gestured to the small inverted cone on the front. “Point this end at a fire, press down on the Wind Shard on the back, and voila. You’ve got a bog-standard kitchen extinguisher for B and C class fires.”

Lumi approached and peered into the ‘pots’ Jason was using as containers.

“Well, OK, I guess you get points for not being reckless this time,” she said. Then she grinned at him. “But I’m still taking a cookie tax for you scaring me!”

Jason rolled his eyes at her. “Help yourself, but don’t eat em all. Also be careful, they're hot and just —”

She was already shoving one into her mouth and blowing steam out of her mouth while she tried to chew without burning her tongue.

“… came out of the oven.”

Lumi made a sound of pure happiness. “Dun care,” she mumbled with her mouth full. “Hot cookie is best cookie.”

After taking a moment to actually chew properly and swallow, she gave him a grin. “Besides, high fortitude right? I don’t burn that easily.”

Ignoring her lack of manners, Jason considered that tidbit for a moment.

Shrugging, he turned to offer Kera a cookie as well, but when he turned to do so, he stopped when he saw the thoughtful look on her face as she studied the cookies sitting on the tray.

Suddenly, she burst into a cloud of mist, collapsing downwards into her mistwolf form. She reached her head up to the counter and then inhaled deeply through her nose. Wispy tears sprang to her eyes she suddenly sat down hard.

“So good….” she whispered.

Lumi and Jason just looked at Kera, slightly dumbfounded, but before either of them responded to Kera deciding she needed to smell fresh-baked cookies as a dog, Lumi gave a small start as she was enveloped in a slight blue glow..

“Are these mana cookies?!” Lumi exclaimed.

Jason grinned at her. “What else would they be?”

“Boo, that means I can’t eat too many,” Lumi grumbled. “I had to get more healing.”

“There’s non-mana infused batter in that bowl over there,” Jason said, pointing.

Lumi threw her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder in a spontaneous hug. Amused, Jason returned her hug before disengaging himself.

Kera put her paws up onto the counter, stretching upwards.

Jason gave her a light, playful thwack on the head. “Don’t teach Echo bad habits,” he admonished. “No being a dog while filching food off the counter.”

“Aww, but I’ve never eaten cookies as something else before…”

“Then have Lumi get them for you,” Jason replied firmly. “And be careful giving any to Echo, for that matter.”

Kera scrunched up her face, a expression that Jason found extremely comical on a wolf’s face, and then she collapsed back into a puddle of mist. She quickly reformed back into her kitsune shape.

“I’ll do that some other time,” she said, snatching up a cookie and blowing on it to cool.

“Well, you two can feel free to enjoy yourselves,” Jason said. “I'll be taking most of this batch here, but everything is already set up to make more: cinnamon and sugar are in that bowl there, batter there, and the oven is at the right heat. Just needs baking for 10 minutes for each batch. Or if you'd rather not do that, it's fine to just put it in the freezer.”

He check his two pots. They looked finished. “I need to get down to the forge," he said. "I’ll see you two later?”

Tersk was suitably impressed with Jason’s baking, though Jason hid the true nature of the mana restoration effect, instead claiming it was just a simple variation on the ‘normal’ potion process used by Enchanters. Tersk seemed slightly skeptical of that idea, but didn’t press.

After handing out a handful of cookies to everyone present, Tersk sent everyone else home for the day, claiming it was a ‘matter of chakan’, whatever that meant. Jason guessed it was a cultural thing, because not a single dwarf argued, and they all got serious looks on their faces and bowed gravely before leaving.

After that, Tersk had Jason change into some more forge-appropriate clothes, which apparently he’d had Jerrik whip up, as Jason’s thick, flowing coat and heavy leathers were highly inappropriate for the heat of a forge.

While Jason changed into lighter clothes, Tersk gave him a bit of a rundown on the basic formation of magically-significant metals.

“So you already know a bit about seratite,” Tersk explained, “And how it’s found it hot regions. Gold is fairly common in volcanic systems, which just so happens to be the base material, so that’s why you find a fair bit out in Pelean.”

“Mithril now,” Tersk continued, “that only forms when platinum is exposed to the light of the moon and stars in a high mana environment. Needless to say, that’s why the stuff is so bloody rare.”

Jason pulled the apron on, tying it around behind him. “How good is mithril for armor and weapons, compared to other materials?” he asked.

“Well, that’s a matter of debate,” Tersk replied. “It’s extremely light, far better than steel for sturdiness, and holds an edge fantastically well, but when it comes to magic it depends on what you’re looking for. See, unlike most of the other special metals out there, mithril doesn’t boost the power of the enchantments in it.”

“Really?”

“Nope. Instead, it acts as… a kind of channeling aid. Magic flows through it quite well, meaning it makes enchantments cheaper and easier to use, rather than making them stronger.”

“Increased mana conductivity…?” Jason asked. “That’s got potential, then. One of the things that’s slowing me down is I can’t actually fit enough separate enchantments into things.”

He laughed. “My first attempt at my gauntlet literally melted thanks to that.”

Tersk shook his head. “You were lucky. I hope you learned from that.”

“Oh I did,” Jason said ruefully. “It taught me the very valuable lesson to not even attempt to [Improvise] an enchantment on something I’m wearing, in addition to some standard safety practices.”

“Good.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have any example pieces of any of these metals, would you?” Jason asked as he pulled on a pair of thick leather gloves that covered his forearms.

“I do indeed,” Tersk replied. “Figured you’d ask, so I pulled out a few bits and bobs I never had the heart to sell.”

First Tersk passed Jason a small wooden box which was inlaid with something that looked like it was halfway between brass an bronze. And ornate clasp made of the substance sealed the box midway on one side.

“Now, that inlay there goes by a few different names, but us dwarves know it as orichalcum. It’s not so rare as other metals, as it forms from ordinary copper under the right pressure as long as certain other metals are found nearby, and the mana saturation of the area is high enough. It doesn’t care too much about the specific aspects either, so it’s left behind in the wake of slain dungeons with a fair degree of regularity.”

“Properties?” Jason asked.

“It varies a bit. Usually boosts some sort of protective magics, though. Takes a bit of experimenting to find out, usually.”

“That’s a bit inconvenient,” Jason replied.

Tersk shrugged. “Eh, not really. A good enchanter can work it out just by taking a look.”

Jason examined the runes inscribed into the metal.

Rune Learned: Impact

“Sweet, learned a new rune!” Jason exclaimed. “So this thing is enchanted to resist heavy blows, huh? Something fragile inside?”

Jason popped the clasp and opened the lid. He was delighted to discover that the box was in reality a clockwork music box, which began playing an airy tune. In the center a figure of a dancing kitsune woman spun gently in a circle.

The figurine was crafted of painted wood, except for the woman’s hair and tail, which had been finely wrought from a red-gold metal, partially transparent, which shined with an inner light like that of a captured flame. The work was so fine and delicate that Jason feared to touch it, lest he accidentally damage it.

“That there’s Seratite, of course,” Tersk said, Jason thought he sounded a bit embarrassed. “A noblewoman commissioned that piece some many years ago, but… well… once I’d finished it, the wife liked it so much I gave it to her, so I refunded the noble’s money to her because it was the only piece of the stuff I’ve ever gotten my hands on.”

“Its beautiful,” Jason said softly, watching as the woman spun slowly, hair and tail trailing out behind her, as if leaving behind cometary trail. The motion was slightly hypnotic: a perfect, never-ending half-circle of fire.

He activated his [Arcane Sight], and studied the figure for a few moments, before deactivating his skill and carefully handing the box back to Tersk.

Clearing his throat, Tersk closed the box and set it aside. “Yes well. Let’s see. Ah, here it is!”

He handed Jason a lump of white-silver ore. Jason accepted it, and saw that it wasn’t just one color, but rather the silver was a result of just how reflective it was, while the color came from a miniature rainbow of tiny grains, all different colors. He tilted it back and forth under the light, and marveled at it, watching it glitter. He suspected if he looked at it under a magnifying glass, it would be formed of tiny crystals of many different shades, reminiscent of an LCD screen.

“Mithril, I assume?” he asked.

“Correct. I’ve got a few pieces lying about.”

After a short examination under [Arcane Sight], he handed it back to Tersk. In return, Tersk handed Jason a bare-bladed dagger that looked to be made of the darkest metal Jason had ever seen. It positively drank the light around it.

This time, Jason got a system description when he examined it, even without his skills.

[Fang of the Urdral] - This unique abyssium dagger holds an edge so sharp, it is fabled to possess the ability to carve a man’s shadow from his very body, leaving him a pale imitation of his former self.

Jason held the dagger very carefully away from himself, looking askance at Tersk, who saw his expression and laughed.

“Have no fear, lad, it doesn’t really do that. Yon dagger is nothing but a showpiece with a darkness enchantment. And a tracking spell. It’s my little joke to guard against thieves, see? No stealth-and-shadows type worth their salt would pass that kind of weapon up, and if they’re trying to steal from me, well that means they’ll conveniently have a nice little tracker on them while they try and figure out how it’s supposed to work.”

Jason laughed. “It’s just a massive troll then?” He corrected himself at Tersk’s confused look. “Trick, I mean to say.”

Tersk grinned at him. “Aye.”

“So what’s abyssium formed from?” Jason asked.

“Silver.”

“Huh. So silver for the darkness metal, and gold for the sunlight metal? Appropriate.”

“I’ve always thought so,” Tersk concurred.

A thought occurred to Jason.

“Hang on a second…”

He wracked his memory, trying to work out what it was about silver and gold that triggered a fleeting feeling like he’d forgotten an important detail.

“Got an idea?” Tersk asked?

“Maybe,” Jason said. “I’m trying to remember… hang on.”

He brought up his status screen. He’d been planning on spending his skill points anyway. He had six remaining, and several skills at Rank 3. He knew he was forgetting something about alloys, so he quickly put two points each into Chemistry and Engineering. For good measure he put the last two into Clockwork.

“What were we just talking about again?” He asked the dwarf as he closed his status.

“You were commenting about the how it was appropriate—”

“Yes! That’s it! Now I remember. I need some parchment. Or something to write with, anyway.”

Tersk beckoned Jason further into the building, where he produced a quill and a piece of scrap hide.

Jason leaned down and started jotting down a few different proportions of several metals. He showed it to Tersk afterwards.

“Recognize this?” Jason asked.

The dwarf scanned Jason’s hasty scrawl. His brow furrowed for a moment. “This looks like a blend that’s meant to produce electrum, but why…?

“It is electrum.” Jason said with excitement. “If you mix copper and platinum into it in small proportions, it improves the properties of the alloy.”

“I don’t see…”

“Yes you do! You literally just showed me all the ingredients!”

Tersk’s eyes widened. “You mean… mix all four as if we were trying to make electrum out of their base components?”

“Exactly! And with the mithril in there as our platinum substitute, it will be extra susceptible to mana infusion, and I brought loads of arcane powder.”

Tersk began to laugh uproariously. “That.. that just might work! But where…?”

“We’ll just make it! You’ve got the mithril right here, so the platinum’s taken care of, right?” Jason gestured over towards the small wooden crate he’d brought with him. “I’ve got everything else needed for seratite and shadowsteel, I’m pretty sure, and it sounds to me like orichalcum should take just about anything. We can totally do this.”

Tersk gave Jason perhaps the widest grin he’d ever seen, and they both set to work.

With the exception of the mithril, which was already prepared and seemed to be a pure ore — that is, relatively free of anything that wasn’t actually mithril — Tersk had a ready supply of the materials needed. Jason remarked that he was surprised Tersk even had gold bouillon lying around in a place like Arnvale, to which the master smith had just grunted without replying.

Jason followed Tersk's instructions in order to help him bring each smelter to the proper heat, and then watched in fascination as Tersk simultaneously managed the melting point temperature of each separate metal through a complex mechanical setup of overhead levers and chains that opened and closed various valves. As he did so, the dwarf cautioned Jason that when mixing alloys, it was imperative to begin with metals which were the coolest and least mixable and working your way up. This was news to Jason, who’d just figured they’d do one metal at a time, transforming it from its base state to it’s magical variant, and then adding it to some kind of pot as they went.

Tersk told him that that was a great way to lose his eyebrows, and probably a lot more.

Instead, he made Jason attempt each metal synthesis one a time while he maintained a steady melting temperature and worked to keep the resulting metal free of impurities.

Jason started with the copper first. If anything, it would be the simplest from the sound of things, so he sank himself deep within his mind while he began to pull out ingredients, trusting to his crafting trance to guide his hands.

He found himself pulling a considerable quantity of the mixed alchemical powders he’d swept up from the floor of his lab; on a last minute whim he’d boxed it up and added it to the pile to take with him instead of disposing of it, since he wasn’t to keen on simply dumping it somewhere. Who knew what effect that might have?

Now he was glad he kept it, as it seemed that the synthesis of orichalcum simply required aspected mana without, as Tersk theorized, being particularly picky about the kind.

Jason considered that it was entirely possible that it required multiple kinds of aspects.

Somehow, Jason managed not to set himself on fire while adding his mixture of alchemical and arcane powders into the molten copper. Frankly, he was relieved the powder didn’t catch fire and explode in his face, and by some miracle it didn't cause the copper to boil and splatter, either.

Instead, as Jason muttered a quiet command over the mixture while Tersk poured it into a new basin, there was a purple-white flash of magic that sparked through the air from Jason into the smelter, and Jason felt a significant amount of mana drain from of him.

He sagged slightly, suddenly tired, and checked his mana levels.

It had cost him almost a third of his mana. But he straightened and gave Tersk a thumbs up.

“That cost me quite a bit, but it looks like it worked!”

“You sure?” Tersk grunted. “Hard to tell while its still hot. Metals all tend to look somewhat similar at this stage. Can’t pour it to ingots yet, we’d have to reheat it if we did.”

“Just keep it hot. I’ve got this.”

Jason ate a cookie to regain some mana, but immediately got to work readying the next set of ingredients: grinding up Shadow and Ice shards, two of each.

This work repeated in a fairly steady fashion for more than two hours. Jason ground up shards, or mixed powders, or both, while Tersk continually managed the temperatures of the smelters and crucibles. Periodically, Jason would down another mana-cookie or two, and once he was more than two-thirds back to full, he’d activate his synergy skill.

Soon, it was time to attempt the alloying process. This time, Jason asked Tersk to wait until he’d topped off his mana reserves. Something told him he was going to need it.

It was a good thing too, because the moment Tersk began pouring the first two metals together, Jason knew he was in for one hell of a ride. He stepped forward and held out his right hand, activating [Mana Catalysis]. Much as before, an arc of pure mana crackled from his fingertips, but this time it didn’t end with a single spurt. It pulled and pulled, and Jason felt his mana tanking rapidly. In a panic, he snatched up another mana cookie and then washed it down with an actual mana potion. His head swam as mana flooded back into him, only to continue its plummet back towards zero.

He felt himself start to panic further as his vision began to darken, but with an effort of will, forced his fear down. He knew he could do this. Keeping his skill active, with one hand Jason began yanking out potion after potion, barely pausing between downing one and using his teeth to yank out the cork of the next.

Tersk looked at Jason with grave concern, and looked like he might stop the process, but Jason shook his head and yelled at him to keep going.

After what felt like ages to Jason but was in reality only two or three minutes, Jason’s legs gave out right as his skill shut itself off in a sudden, final surge. He fought a wave of dizziness and nearly blacked out, but managed to climb back to his feet and stagger his way to a bench, where he sat down heavily. He downed another least mana potion, which made him feel slightly ill, and Jason knew that that one had better be his last.

“It’s ready,” Jason told Tersk. “Pour it.”

Tersk yanked a chain above his head, which opened a channel on one side of the crucible, causing the molten metal to flow down a channel and into a series of casts of various shapes and sizes. Jason was more than a little surprised at the sheer volume they’d ended up with. Admittedly, Tersk had suggested they make enough of this electrum alloy to use up his supply of mithril, which hadn’t been negligible, and which wasn’t more than single percent of the total mixture.

No wonder it had required so much mana. Jason resolved that next time, if there was a next time, it would be very small batches only. A handful of ingots at time, tops, and he didn’t care if Tersk complained about needing to clean out his smeltery for such small amounts. Assuming that was a thing that even happened; Jason wasn’t too clear on that.

The smaller ingots took only two minutes to cool enough that Tersk could remove it from the cast and dunk them into water to be cooled. Jason simple waited on the bench during this process, trying to catch his breath. It wasn’t easy in the heat of the forge.

Another minute or two of cooling later, and Tersk pulled one of the ingots from the water, and set it down where he and Jason could both take a look. It looked nothing like electrum, which ranged somewhere between pale gold and off-color silver, depending on the proportions used. They’d gone roughly even between the two.

Whatever they’d made, it wasn’t any shade of gold. On the contrary, it was lustrous, metallic blue, not unlike someone had added a small amount of blue dye to the vat in the middle of smelting a bar of pure platinum. Not that that would actually work, but it was what Jason thought it might look like.

“Eye For Detail: Analyze Metal,” Tersk commanded, sharing the results with Jason.

[Arcanite Ingot] - This mystical alloy of several rare metals almost hums with vast quantities of infused mana.

Special Properties:

Enhanced Tensile Strength - Mk IV

Enhanced Impact Strength - Mk IV

50% Weight Reduction

15% Mana Cost Reduction

+2 Enchantment Threshold

Elemental Attunement: Special. Material takes on unique properties when exposed to a variety of elemental-aspected runes.

This information was followed by a series of technical data points that Jason didn't really understand, though he guessed it was a readout of things like the amount of stress the metal could withstand, its weight by volume, and other metrics that would be useful to a master blacksmith.

Tersk grinned hugely clapped Jason solidly on the back. “Looks like you did the impossible, lad! Congratulations, you’ve just helped forge a material that looks to have all the best properties of all four metals, and then some! What say we forge you a suit of armor fit for a king?”

Jason gave the old dwarf a sly smile. “For the right price, of course?”

“You’re definitely learning. Take a breather, make sure you aren’t suffering from any ill effects. I’ll call the family back in now that your part is over.”