Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 13. Schemes and Living Steel. (Part II)

“Done with your chatting?” Duaran asked impatiently, barely bearing with the fact that his working time was being wasted on a lecture. Were it not for Laien’s sake, he would have long since put an end to this crap…!

The skinny man smiled. At least one person in this room was reacting as he liked… ah, what a relief!

“I think I get the gist of it, thank you… umm…?” Laien scratched his head. “I’m Laien, nice to meet you, I guess?” he said with a chuckle, but the skinny man frowned and looked away from him.

“This skinny man here is called Zaniear, he came here from the far north of our Starlight continent. He supplies me with rare materials from time to time,” Duaran introduced and using the chance, got straight to the matter before Laien could ask about anything else. “So, you’ve brought me something, right? Show it, then we can agree on a reasonable price,” he said strongly and gestured for Zaniear to show what he has.

“It’s something I’m sure you will be interested in,” Zaniear raised his hand, a small sack appearing on top of it. With a smirk, he threw the sack on the table.

It landed… fairly normally. Duaran opened the sack carefully, without lifting it up. He knew Zaniear long enough to know to be cautious around him. His sense of humor tended to be rather… ugh... However, when a snail-like metallic creature slipped out of the sack, Duaran couldn’t contain a cry of astonishment and it wasn’t because the thing was a badly cracked joke of his old friend’s.

“Heavens! It’s Living Steel! The real Living Steel! Where in the world did you get this from?!” Duaran yelled, his face turning bright red from all the excitement.

From within a sack, a mass of metal, roughly the size of a hand, slowly flooded out. It started moving through the table as if it was some kind of a snail. Looking at it, Duaran’s face became red from excitement.

“What’s so amazing about this Living Steel? I’ve never heard of it,” Laien asked curiously. If this thing was so incredible, then maybe he could get Duaran to make a weapon for him for this… snail-like thing… or maybe he shouldn’t, after all?

“Kiddo, if a weapon is forged with Living Steel as its core, it will be utterly incredible! Not to speak of the overall increase in quality, it will also be able to regenerate on its own if broken! Of course, there are limits to this ‘regeneration’ and the quality will fall if a large piece of the weapon is lost, but it will nevertheless be better than almost any top-grade weapon in the world!” Duaran uttered almost fanatically. For a smith, there was no greater pleasure than to work with the very best materials and to create a weapon which would live in the annals of history!

“For you, another bonus would be that a Living Steel weapon will be able to increase its size without losing much of its quality, so it would literally grow alongside your body… although I probably shouldn’t get your hopes up high. This one chunk is worth more than you could imagine. Not even ten Living Steel weapons or armors exist in the world, you know!” Duaran said with a laugh and gave Laien a consoling look. He wasn’t sure if he could afford to purchase this piece Living Steel, not to speak of Laien!

“So, how much do you want for it?” Duaran asked very seriously, a flame of desire shining in his eyes as he gazed at the snail-like metallic chuck of steel sliding around his table.

“It’s simple. Forge a greatsword for me with this Living Steel and I will give you a good deal for the remaining half. Just one thousand crystal coins,” Zaniear replied bluntly, perfectly aware how large the sum he demanded was.

Hearing the outrageous price, Duaran’s eyes widened in fury and helplessness. Not to mention a thousand crystal coins, he wouldn’t be able to produce even one hundred right now! He might be able to amass one thousand if he liquefied all of his assets… but then he would be left with nothing! There was no way he could afford to pay up one thousand crystal coins.

“You know fully well that I can’t pay you this much, don’t you?” Duaran asked and raised his hands in a helpless gesture.

“I can give you half of it for free, if you finally agree to come back with me,” Zaniear said with a smile, hoping to finally get Duaran to come to the north. With his skills, he really was wasting away in a place so little suited for smiths like this Sarkcente Kingdom. They hadn’t even given him a nobility title here, while in the north he would be revered as a Grandmaster!

“No can be. Even for the sake of getting my hands on Living Steel, I won’t betray my country. If that is your only offer, you can go back to the north and have someone forge it for you there.” Duaran said sourly, not pleased with Zaniear’s suggestion in the slightest. He was about ready to storm out of the room and go back to work when Laien spoke up.

“I will pay thousand crystal coins, so sell it to me,” Laien said lightheartedly, then looked at Duaran. “Uncle, I will also add whatever is needed for the additional ores, so could you forge a Living Steel weapon for me? It would be good if you could do it today, if possible… I kinda need a spear for tomorrow morning,” he concluded with an awkward laugh, not sure how long would it take Duaran to forge such a weapon. He wouldn’t want to come out as someone who despite his ignorance makes unreasonable requests.

For a period of time, a complete silence filled the room as the two men stared at Laien with disbelief. Duaran was speechless, but Zaniear was shocked out of his mind. He had only thrown a random, outrageous price to Duaran; he never expected it to be paid as he never truly intended to sell the remaining half of Living Steel today. Yet, this brat was actually saying that he would give him one thousand crystal coins for it…?!

“Kid, do you even know what we are talking about?” Zaniear asked, so flabbergasted that his usual arrogance couldn’t be heard in his voice. “One thousand crystal coins; crystal! It’s one million gold coins! Even if you are Rudford’s disciple, do you expect him to pay up in your stead just because you ask him?” he asked again, slowly beginning to think that Laien was one of those young masters who had been spoiled since birth and knew little about the value of money.

“That’s right, Laien kiddo, you shouldn’t be saying things like that carelessly,” Duaran reprimanded gently, thinking that Laien allowed his new position to get a little over his head. “Even if your master is rich, he won’t just pay for you because you want a new… a new…” Duaran stuttered, seeing the large bag of crystal coins which Laien slammed onto the table with a cheeky smile. There was so many of them…! Good gods, there really might have been one thousand crystal coins there…!

“One thousand crystal coins,” Laien said with a chuckle. He would have withdrawn the money from his interspatial ring sooner, but he needed a moment to properly round up one thousand from what he had, what ended up being a little less than half of his overall resources. “As for the other metals, will two hundred be enough?” he asked with a smile and produced a large pouch with two hundred crystal coins, then gave Duaran an amused smile.

“That’s… That’s…” Zaniear rubbed his eyes, unsure whether they weren’t playing a trick on him. With so much money he would be able to screw all his responsibilities and live his whole life luxuriously if he so chose! His first thought; kill Laien and Duaran, then make run for it with all of the Living Steel and the boy’s interspatial ring which surely held much more treasures!

However, he quickly rejected this option after thinking it through. What kind of relationship did Laien need to have with Rudford to receive a huge amount of money from him just like that, the first day he became Rudford’s disciple? If he killed the boy here, Rudford would undoubtedly learn of it. He might have been able to flee the Sarkcente Kingdom without being caught, but even then he would live out the rest of his life in fear, being pursued by a Great Master and likely with a huge bounty on his head. In compassion, sealing the trade with Laien was a way better option!

“Sold,” Zaniear said and waved his hand over the large bag of crystal coins, pulling them all into his interspatial ring. He glanced at the pouch with two hundred coins in it and groaned quietly. Was it too greedy to want to make some more profit?

“Duaran, I can provide you with enough Cold Steel and Grakan Steel to make boy’s spear in exchange for these two hundred coins, why do you say?” Zaniear suggested, barely restraining himself from grabbing the pouch at once.

“Cold Steel?” Duaran asked, the subject of metals distracting him enough to bring back his ability to speak. “There is only one kind of Garkan Steel, the one mined in the far north. However, by Cold Steel you can’t mean…?” he asked, excited no less than by the sight of Living Steel.

“Yeah, the steel from the Forbidden Lands,” Zaniear said with a wry smile. He had been quite lucky to acquire this rare kind of Cold Steel. It wasn’t that Grandmaster smiths like Duaran weren’t capable of creating Cold Steel on their own, however… the one from the Forbidden Region had an unrivaled degree of purity. Given how dangerous the Forbidden Lands were and that trade with it was practically nonexistent, this kind of top-quality Cold Steel would always fetch a horrendous price on the market.

“If we mix the Cold Steel from the Forbidden Lands and the Grakan Steel, then use Living Steel as the core…” Duaran murmured to himself, clearly thrilled to forge weapons from one of the best, if not the best materials in the world. “The product with without doubt rival the 81 Heavenly Treasures…!” he said excitedly, feeling a chill run down his spine.

“Fine, we have a deal. Take the money, give me the materials and follow me!” Duaran said in a booming voice and gave Zaniear an urging look. Forget about money; that kind of thing he could earn on his own! However, to be able to work forge something out of true Cold Steel, Garkan Steel and Living Steel all at once…! It was like a dream coming true!

“Here you go,” Zaniear produced a middle-grade interspatial ring and handed it to Duaran, then swept the pouch of crystal coins for himself. If he were to trade the same amount of Cold Steel and Garkan Steel normally, he would have at most gotten one hundred crystal coins, so he was quite happy to have made the deal with Duaran.

“Go with you? Will it be ready today, uncle?” Laien asked as Duaran stuffed the snail-like creature back into the pouch.

“Creating best weapons from best materials doesn’t usually take long, at most a few hours,” Duaran answered readily, happy to tell Laien more about the art of blacksmithing. “The difference is that instead of working on purifying the steel from contamination like you would usually do, you focus on the fine details and pour your heart into your creation. The preparations themselves will take a while, but the process itself shouldn’t be longer than two hours,” he explained, already leading Laien and Zaniear outside the main building.

“Dan!” Duaran roared, spotting his son leading an empty cart away in the direction of warehouses. “Get those pompous bastards who call themselves ‘the great six’ to my smithy! I don’t care what they are doing right now, tell them to drop it all and come immediately!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, making the nearby people’s ears ring.

“I’m pretty sure they already heard you, dad!” Dan shouted back, not losing all that much in volume.

“And what if they didn’t?! Go make sure! And while you are at it, get your ass over to me, too!” Duaran yelled once more, the little exchange between him and his son effectively putting halt to all work in the core section of the Steel District. Most of those people worked here since their early childhood, they were all very familiar with Duaran and the various smiths around here. To see their strict ‘Grandmaster’ tell the six master smiths under him to drop all the work and come help him could mean only one thing; something very amazing was going on!

Zaniear frowned, not too happy with all the attention. If wrong people connected the dots, he would very well end up being robbed on his way out of the country. It wasn’t that he was weak… but there were enough powerful people who would go mad with desire over the sum of a thousand crystal coins or more importantly, weapons forged from Living Steel.

“Those of you who are wasting their time,” Duaran roared angrily, making the few hundred of his currently present subordinates go back to work even before he could finish the sentence. “Get me all the senior apprentices who are around to come here. I don’t want anyone disturbing our work, ANYONE! Understood?! Even if the King himself were to arrive, tell him to wait!” he yelled, his voice resounding through the greater part of the core district.

“Good, now we can go back inside,” Duaran stated energetically and gestured Laien and Zaniear to follow him.

---

“Sit in the back and do not make any noise,” Duaran instructed to the three; Laien, Dan and Zaniear. He pointed at the steel boxes, making sure that the three won’t chose a place that would actually get in his or his aides’ way.

“Laien, what for good Heavens is going on?” Dan couldn’t help but ask quietly, but right afterward he shut his mouth tight under his father’s scornful gaze.

“Everyone,” Duaran spoke up, sweeping the six master smiths under his orders with a quick glance. “We have received orders for two special weapons. A greatsword for this skinny bastard over there and a spear for my son’s friend,” he began explaining, getting somewhat annoyed that the six were paying more attention to Laien’s appearance than to his own words. He coughed angrily, causing the six men to straighten up and look at him obediently.

“The materials we will be working with…” Duaran smiled and waved his hand over the steel table at his side. “Are these,” he said and withdrew the bars of Cold Steel, Garkan Steel and the metallic snail-like creature from his interspatial ring.

The six master smiths gasped for air and so did Dan. They have never had a chance to work with either of these extremely precious materials. At first, they had been a bit angry at Duaran from pulling them away from their work, but now they were extremely grateful to him!

“Prepare the furnace for me, it will need to be constantly replenished with coal and heated up. That will be your job, just follow my instructions, as always,” Duaran said to the six and as for himself, produced two large pitch-black blocks of stone and placed them on two separate steel platforms.

“The Black Stone blueprints!” Dan said excitedly and seeing the questioning expression on Laien’s face, quickly explained. “The Black Stone doesn’t melt even at extremely high temperatures and doesn’t interact with metals. It would be perfect for creating blueprints if not for how rare and fragile it was. It cracks really easily and after four or five uses becomes pretty much worthless. Father used the Black Stone blueprints only once in the past, but now he took out two of them! No wonder though, given what you guys gave him to work with,” he smirked at Laien, expecting his friend to later tell him the whole story. Even now, despite speaking as quietly as he could, he could tell that his father was growing angry with him.

“If you two want to change your orders, it’s the last chance,” Duaran looked at Laien, then at Zaniear. “After Living Steel merges with the form, it will be capable of changing the size and making small adjustments, but its basic shape will remain the same. You won’t be able to change a greatsword into a longsword or a spear into a sword,” he warned, mainly with Laien’s choice in his mind. From what he knew, Laien had only been using a sword so far. He was still young so changing his weapon of choice wouldn’t be much of a problem, but once the Living Steel weapon was made, it would be impossible to re-use the materials for something else.

“Do you even need to ask?” Zaniear replied with a laugh. He had always been using a greatsword, why would he want a different kind of weapon now of all times?

“I…” Laien thought about it again. In truth, he never even tried to wield a spear. Rudford said that his body is suited for it, but could he be sure that he has the necessary talent? He closed his eyes, thinking about the matter deeply; hesitating. Then, an image of ‘him’ slashing with a glaive flashed before his eyes. He trembled, for some reason feeling extremely attracted to the prospect of wielding a long weapon. A spear, or a glaive…? He didn’t understand why, but he felt a stronger pull towards the spear.

“I won’t change it, I want a spear,” Laien said confidently, deciding to trust his instincts. Whatever would happen next… was up to the fate.

“Good,” Duaran nodded and turned around. “Make the fire, we are melting these two bastards,” he roared energetically and took out two Black Stone pots, then carefully placed the bars of Cold Steel in one and the bars of Garkan Steel in the other.

The six men roused their Qi simultaneously, making even Laien feel extremely surprised. Four of the six were actually at the first Realm of Heroes, while the remaining two were just a step away from it! He never knew that the six master smiths under Duaran were so powerful!

Standing three on each side, the six men stomped with their feet and pulled down the ceramic plates, revealing six pairs of finger-sized holes in the great furnace. They put their hands to them and poured their Qi inside, transforming it directly into flames and instantly causing the tons of coal to start burning with a powerful blaze.

The chimney on top of the smithy burst with hot air and masses of black-grey smoke, signaling the beginning of manufacturing.

“You know what to do, the stronger four keeps a steady flame, the other two use all their strength in the beginning and later start taking care of replenishing the coal,” Duaran instructed, covering himself with the protective layer of Qi and stepping up to the middle of the furnace. He placed the two Black Stone pots in the hole in the floor, then grabbed the pole and shifted it forwards. The two pots moved into the furnace and after Duaran pushed the second steel pole, they were raised up into the very middle of the burning hell which raged inside.

“Now for the hardest part, getting this old lady heated up enough to actually melt these bastards,” Duaran chortled and stomped at the ground. He put his hands to two small holes directly in front of the pots and roused his Qi, controlling it carefully and making the air inside the huge furnace start to slowly circle around the Black Stone pots with the bars of steel inside them.

Instantly, the flames inside the furnace changed their color from bright yellow to pure white and at the same time, the temperature in the room began rising by the second.

Laien didn’t understand much about the fine details of controlling a furnace, so all he did was to cover himself with a thin layer of water-element spiritual energy to not sweat too much. He glanced at Dan, who appeared to be completely absorbed in watching his father, then at Zaniear who seemed to be preparing to take a nap. “Oh well…” Laien mused silently and instead of wasting time, decided to meditate for a bit and try gaining some new insights into the Aspect of Tranquility, what shouldn’t disturb Duaran in any way; in contrast to his normal spiritual training routine.

As time passed, Laien began falling deeper and deeper into a trance-like state, allowing his thought to wander freely as he engulfed himself in the essence of the Aspect of Tranquility. He began reminiscing the most recent vision he has had a few days ago. Ever since then, he had attempted various means to try manipulating water to turn it into ice, just like ‘he’ did with ‘his’ magic, but ended up failing each and every time.

However, he could tell that the Aspect of Tranquility was in some way connected to the ice magic. The problem was his lack of understanding of the properties of water itself. He couldn’t quite get the idea of what he needed to do with it to change it into ice as simply adding the Aspect of Tranquility wasn’t enough. He felt that he was really close to reaching an answer, just a few centimeters away from grabbing it… but couldn’t quite get this one spark of enlightenment needed to make the final step.

“It sure is hot here, some ice would be great,” he thought ironically, but then his eyes snapped open as he was hit with a thought. “Ice is cold, it’s colder than water…” the idea began sprouting in his mind, finally taking a proper shape. He stared at the tongues of white flames inside the furnace, a delighted smile sneaking up onto his face.

“I didn’t know how to change water into ice, but if it’s possible to make a flame hotter by adding more energy… then shouldn’t the opposite be also true?” he mused, but was met with another problem. Adding energy or taking it out… was it really as simple as using less or more Qi or spiritual energy? No, it wasn’t! But then, how did it work?

“One last push, it’s right about fully melted!” Duaran shouted, he and the four master smiths at the Realm of Heroes pouring an additional portion of Qi into the furnace. In response, the white flames blazed even stronger, the temperature within rising up by a good few hundred degrees.

“It’s not Qi within those flames,” Laien realized all of the sudden. “If it was just Qi, then why would the coal be needed? Both of those flames merge naturally and grow stronger, as if apart from fire… there existed another kind of energy within them!” he breathed in, the mental breakthrough allowing him to sense something he had previously failed to perceive, to distinguish another kind of energy which existed within the fire…! Within everything around him!

Zaniear woke up from his nap very abruptly as a sense of imminent danger overwhelmed him to the brim. Without thinking, he grabbed Duaran’s son by his clothes and pulled him away from Laien, jumping back by a dozen meters at once.

“By Garkan’s balls, what is going on?” Zaniear uttered in shock, seeing the air around Laien scorch and twist under the immense heat. He could sense the unbelievable amounts of natural energy swirling around the boy, to the point of making him certain that had he woken up a second later, he would have been turned into dust despite being a martial master of the fifth rank.