Thomas placed his foot on the blower and channeled mana into it to make the flames in the forge hotter. Feeling how slowly the blower was draining his newly improved mana pool brought a smile to his face. He would definitely be able to work a lot longer without breaks now. Even so, he wanted to increase his mana pool further and get it to the point that he could work for a full day straight without taking a break to recover his mana. If he currently had that much mana then he could start raising his other attributes the next time he went to the dungeon. For today his plan was to make the new weapon quickly and head back into the dungeon for the remainder of the day to get as much experience as he could.

He withdrew the first ingot once they were hot enough to work with and left the rest in the flames. The first thing he had to do was to make them all into embryos before he forge-welded them together. He briefly wondered what might happen if he made every ingot into a different element then forged them all together. It seemed like an interesting experiment so he filed that thought away for use later. This weapon was going to be a single element, fire. He set the ingot on the anvil and channeled fire mana through the tongs and hammer while observing the mana with his 'All Seeing Eyes'.

He started to mercilessly beat the ingot with the hammer to trap as much of the fire mana inside of it as possible. The once pristine Origin Steel ingot soon turned into an ugly lump of metal. Thomas worked fast and as efficiently as he could but as time passed he started to grow worried. He had to channel more and more mana into the ingot over time as it continued to grow colder without showing signs of completion. He only had so much time before the ingot would become too cold to work and it would be a failure. He practically glared at the lump of metal as he watched it take more than double the amount of mana that the iron ingots had required and it still wasn't complete.

Within his sight, he could see a dense cloud of stagnant mana that had been forced to stick around by his hammering. At the same time, he could see literal streams of mana flowing out of the smashed ingot. Just a rough estimate on his part but he figured that around seventy-five percent of all the mana channeled into an ingot was wasted and lost. The remaining twenty-five percent is all that would get stuck inside the metal with each blow of the hammer. He felt that he had no choice but to work faster, hit harder, and pour in more mana to get the ingot to its saturation point before it became cold. Just as he was giving up and planning to try again the Origin Steel lump he was hammering gave out a blinding flash of bright red light that filled the entire workshop.

When the light cleared Thomas, and the guards, were all staring at the lump of metal on the anvil. Though each ingot he'd previously made an embryo from had given a flash of light on completion, this flash was magnitudes brighter. Even more surprising was the metal itself. It had been growing cold for quite some time now but sitting on the anvil it was surrounded by small flickering flames. The metal itself was emitting the flames without any mana being channeled into it by an outside source. Thomas looked closely with his 'All Seeing Eyes' and saw the fire mana trapped within the metal moving around energetically. Curious, he moved his hand toward the metal but he only felt the residual heat that was left from its time in the forge. The flames themselves weren't harmful and emitted no heat at all.

Thomas moved his hand through the flames and couldn't feel them at all. They were purely a visual effect representing the sheer amount of fire mana contained in the small lump of metal. Thomas smiled and calculated that if he were to sell just the ingot it would fetch quite a high price. Then again, it was made with a priceless base metal... He set the ingot to the side and checked his mana reserves. He was rather annoyed to find that almost sixty percent of his mana was gone. He was simultaneously annoyed and grateful. If he had attempted to make an embryo out of Origin Steel before heading into the dungeon it would have never succeeded. He simply wouldn't have had enough mana to pull it off.

He sat down to use Serenity to recover his lost mana. The whole point of entering the dungeon was to avoid doing this. He was certain he could easily make embryos out of plain iron now but special metals like the Origin Steel would clearly require even more. Looking ahead it seemed like it would be a never-ending battle between his Magic attribute and the materials he was working with. Once he fully recovered his mana he went back to work. The ingots were reheated and the second one was plucked out to be bashed into oblivion.

The guards remained silent and watched Thomas as he worked. The incident with the flash of red light had been reported but no one really understood what it meant. They did see the flames being emitted by the, now cold, metal and reported that as well. Everyone was curious about it and what it might mean but no one bothered to ask Thomas. He was busy working and they felt it was unlikely that he would answer anyway. A few of the guards had actually become somewhat excited to have the job of watching Thomas work. It was somewhat entertaining and he always seemed to do something different. Many were curious about what he would make or do next. To some of them, Thomas had become a form of entertainment.

Over the course of several hours, Thomas hammered each of the ingots into lumps until they emitted the nearly blinding flash of red light. Though it only took minutes of hammering the ingots to fill them with mana, he had to take a break to recover after every ingot to be able to make the next one. All-in-all it took about thirty minutes per ingot totaling three hours for all six. When he was done there were six misshapen lumps of metal sitting together and emitting ethereal red flames. He picked up the first one and set it in the forge. The next step was forming them into somewhat uniform planks that could be forge welded together.

It took Thomas two hours to hammer each of the ingots into a flat metal plank that was approximately one meter long, twenty centimeters wide, and two centimeters thick. Each one weighed in at a little under thirty-two kilograms. With all six of the planks together the weapon, before grinding a bit off, would weigh about one hundred and ninety kilograms. Quite beefy but hardly anything with his current Power attribute. It would still require a bit of special-use as the completed weapon would weigh more than him and try to fling him around with its momentum.

With all the ingots turned into planks, Thomas brought them all up to temperature inside of the forge. The next part was going to be a bit tricky. He dug around inside of his inventory and rings until he found a small wooden box that had been given to him by Rockbeard. Inside of the box was a familiar crystalline looking ore known as Fahrentite. According to the books he'd read, Fahrentite Ore could be added into any metal but would only have an enhancement effect on metals containing fire mana or enchanted to add fire effects. The size and purity of the ore would determine the bonus enhancement it would provide. Since he only had a single piece of ore the size of his fist he didn't have a whole lot to work with. He was curious about it though and since this weapon was going to be purely fire-based it seemed like a good time to test it out.

While he continued to heat the planks up he pulled one of the books on forging out of his inventory and double-checked the entry on the Fahrentite Ore.

Fahrentite Ore (Also known as Fahrentite Crystal)

Fahrentite Ore is a rather peculiar material that could be considered both a crystal and an ore. While cold it is rather brittle and easily shattered or ground into powder. Once heated it behaves more like metal and can be hammered into any form desired. To be able to hammer it the ore must maintain a high temperature as it will turn brittle and shatter with a single blow if it becomes too cold.

There are multiple ways in which Fahrentite Ore can be used and combined with metals. Once combined with a metal that contains Fire mana the Fahrentite Ore will enhance the temperature and effects of the flames produced. The methods to combine Farhrentite Ore are...

The rest of the entry listed a bunch of ways to combine the ore with metals, the one Thomas chose was the simplest. He pulled out the mortar and pestle he used for Alchemy and started to grind the Fahrentite Ore into a fine powder. He planned to apply a super thin layer of the material between the planks of Origin Steel. To do so he needed to grind it into a super fine powder and use magic to apply it. As he only had the one piece of ore he deliberately chose not to try to purify it. He had no idea if purifying it would shrink its size or not. If it did he wouldn't have enough of it to work with and would need to do something else. He also wanted to try to avoid having this sword breach past the Uncommon Rarity level. He simply wanted his title to remain where it was so he could reap some benefits from it until he was ready for the next level of rarity.

He ground the Fahrentite Ore into the finest of powders, even using a bit of magic to help crush it into the smallest particles he could manage. With the powder ready he took a deep breath to calm himself down and mentally prepare for what he needed to do next. He pulled out the first Origin Steel plank and set it on the anvil while maintaining his grip on the tongs to prevent it from falling off. He held the plank in place with his left hand while he lifted his right hand and conjured a small vessel out of metal magic. The vessel was no bigger than a shot glass with walls as thin as a razor blade. He used it to scoop out a small amount of the Fahrentite Ore from the mortar.

He chose to use metal magic as it would be solid even if it was incredibly thin. Additionally, none of the powder would be wasted as any powder that clung to it would fall off once it was dispelled. It was perfect for making sure as little powder was lost as possible during the process of moving it. With the vessel filled he floated it over to the metal plank and upended it to set the powder on the plank. The vessel morphed into a squeegee-like shape that was used to spread the powder onto the glowing metal in a paper-thin layer. Thomas paid close attention and tried his best to make sure that the layer of powder was as evenly coated over the steel as possible.

Amazingly, the powder had no immediate reaction to being spread over the high-temperature steel. Once he finished with the coating process the powder started to change. It was pretty resistant at first but once the heat started to affect it, it started to slowly turn into a clear liquid. Thomas couldn't risk wasting any more time watching the changes. He pulled out the next steel plank from the forge and placed it on top of the first. He repeated the process of placing down a layer of powder then a plank over and over until he was out of powder and steel planks. For a bit, he felt like he was making a layer cake out of the materials.

Once all the layers were set he carefully held them together and set them back into the flames. They all needed to be hot enough to work with. Once the stack of steel planks was glowing orange he carefully removed it from the forge and set it on the anvil. He took a deep breath and began. His hammer rang loudly as it slammed into the stack of steel over and over. Slowly the stacks pressed into each other binding the Fahrentite between them. Once the metal was too stretched out for him to easily work with he went to the next step.

With the steel glowing orange, he used the hot cut tool to cut most of the way through the steel before flipping it over and hammering it back in on itself. He was careful and paid close attention to what he was doing. He feared that the steel would split apart and introduce weakness into the weapon. Several of the guards were fascinated as they watched Thomas handling what they could only describe as a huge slab of metal. They weren't surprised that he could handle the weight of it but how he was handling it and hammering it.

Over the course of two hours, Thomas worked on the metal to bring it into a homogenous mass of steel. Throughout the entire process, he'd been watching everything with his 'All Seeing Eyes'. Thanks to the fire mana he was able to see any gaps that might have been formed while he was folding the steel. Through the process of folding the steel, the Fahrentite Ore had been thoroughly turned into many thin layers between the steel. With the base completed, he set the steel into the forge. The next step would be to form the edges and tang for the sword. He smiled and poured mana into the blower to heat up the steel once again. He was looking forward to what the final product would be like.