Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 14. Precious Gains.

“The steel is…!” Dan uttered, watching how the steel box Laien was sitting on started turning red and in the span of mere seconds, began melting away.

“What a monster,” Zaniear shook his head. He now understood what a Great Master like Rudford saw in this kid to accept him as a disciple and to bestow him with so much wealth. He had no idea what kind of breakthrough Laien made, but one thing was certain; with a potential like that and with a powerful master to look over and protect him, the kid had a limitless future ahead of himself.

As Dan and Zaniear were watching Laien in shock, unexpectedly Duaran and the six master smiths failed to notice what was going on behind their backs. They were all completely focused on the task at hand; since they have just managed to melt the Cold Steel and Garkan Steel, they would now need to proceed to the hardest part, to adding the Living Steel to the mix.

Duaran took out the two Black Stone pots from the furnace making use the same mechanism which had served to put them inside around two hours ago. In addition to protecting himself with his fire element Qi, he withdrew a thick pair of gloves from his interspatial ring and grabbed the pot with Garkan Steel, then carefully poured its content into the one with Cold Steel from the Forbidden Lands.

For a blacksmith, such an act would have normally been an extremely foolish one. Creating an alloy almost always required one of the ingredients to be the main one, making up to ninety percent of the final product’s mass. However, due to the unique properties of the extremely pure Cold Steel from the Forbidden Lands, it was possible to ignore the matter of proportions and still achieve perfect results. It was a trait only the extremely pure Cold Steel had; the ability to merge into any other kind of steel in any proportions. For any smith, it was a material of dreams to work with.

The Cold Steel was already a very high-quality material to begin with, but its true value lay in its ability to create alloys and thus enhance the quality of the final product.

In case of mixing the Cold Steel and Garkan Steel in equal proportions, one would create the extremely rare Mountain God’s Steel. The Garkan Steel was extremely durable, but it lacked flexibility. The pure Cold Steel was flexible, but not as durable. As the mighty-sounding name of the alloy suggested, the Mountain God’s Steel was considered one of the best, if not the best alloy of steel by the northerners, who lived by the steel and breathed the fire since the ancient times.

As the two kinds of liquid steel were slowly mixing into the Mountain God’s Steel, Duaran produced the pouch with the Living Steel. He grabbed the metallic, snail-like creature with his large hand and took a deep breath. He had once seen a Grandmaster working with Living Steel and ever since then, dreamed of the day he would be able to do the same thing.

He closed his eyes briefly, focusing on the life force of the creature in his hand. He shivered with excitement and trembled with nervousness at the same time. The process of adding Living Steel to an alloy was simple. You needed to ‘only’ have an appropriately large piece of Living Steel and needed to ‘only’ grasp the right time to… stop.

“Here it goes, all or nothing,” Duaran murmured and allowed the snail-like creature to fall into the pot of liquid steel. The snail began wiggling and trying to jump up as if it was in pain. However, it was unable to get out from the pot and but a second later, it ended up being shoved back into the flames of the furnace.

“It should take around three minutes, right?” one of the master smiths spoke up in a quiet voice, his gaze fixed on the metallic creature which struggled to keep itself on top of the liquid steel in the pot.

“Idiot, do you think our furnace is as hot as the Grand Furnaces of the northerners?” other of the six said scornfully, wondering how could his friend be a master smith and still display such a level of stupidity.

“Just observe it carefully, try to sense its life force. It needs to be taken out only when it’s on the verge of death. Not sooner, not later,” the man reminded, having learned Duaran’s words by heart.

“Shut up,” Duaran bellowed angrily, not taking his eyes off the Living Steel for even a second. The six men re-focused, refraining from any idle chat.

Meanwhile, at the back of the room, Laien was unknowingly sitting in a small pool of liquid steel; even the stone floor itself was beginning to melt, slowly turning into lava.

“So that was it, the energy…! It’s in the air, in the water, in the fire… It’s in anything and everything!” Laien smiled at the thought, focusing on sensing and understanding this new type of power he has discovered. “It’s not like Qi or spiritual energy at all. It doesn't seem to be like any of the elements, either…” he mused, this time paying close attention to the varying levels of energy in his surroundings.

Once again, he thought back to the last vision he has had. Back then, he couldn’t comprehend how ‘he’ managed to turn a fire-element magic into something akin to the ice element, but now he understood.

In his surroundings, there were areas where energy gave off a feeling of a blazing sun, but there were also places where it was more or less neutral… and if it were to go further in the opposite direction, closer to the cold and ice… then it wouldn’t be a positive energy anymore, it would be a negative one…!

Dan and Zaniear, the only two people who were currently aware of Laien’s breakthrough gasped in shock when the air around the ten-year-old suddenly stopped blurring from the extreme heat and instead, became completely and deathly still. As the temperature fell, the puddle of lava Laien was sitting in cracked, solidifying back into steel and stone, submerging below a layer of frost.

Moreover, a small amount of mist began flowing down the floor from the place Laien was sitting at, but soon enough dissipating due to the heat in the room.

Thankfully, Laien’s cultivation base was merely in the mortal realm; had it been much higher, the area influenced by his enlightenment wouldn’t have been limited to the mere few dozen centimeters around him. Surely everyone in the room, perhaps the whole building… or maybe an even greater area would have found itself burned to the ground, only to then be frozen into oblivion.

“This kid… he isn’t a fire element practitioner?” Zaniear swallowed heavily. He looked at Laien with a mixture of awe and jealousy; himself, he had never had experienced any great enlightenment despite having had trained hard his whole life. It couldn’t be helped that he felt rather jealous and frustrated more than a little bit.

“What kind of enlightenment did this kid suddenly gain?” Zaniear wondered silently. He had some knowledge of the secret insights of the Great Master, yet despite that, he couldn’t identify what exactly Laien was gaining insights into. He, however, understood that it wasn’t anything as simple as comprehending some properties of fire or ice; it was something much more special. Truly, for a ten-year-old to have so extremely high comprehensive abilities… he had never seen or heard of anything like this.

“The positive energy, the negative energy… how far can they go?” the question popped up in Laien’s mind. Without wasting any time, he proceeded to try looking for an answer in practice. He was now capable of manipulating the energy itself, albeit only to a limited extent.

His eyes still closed, his mind in the trance of enlightenment, Laien wished for the energy to shift into the two extremes, curious how far the positive and negative energies could be pushed in order to have more powerful effects.

“Even more natural energy is flowing to him?” Zaniear smiled helplessly, seeing how the air in the close proximity to Laien began growing restless and chaotic. The previously frozen layer of steel and stone began going through melting and freezing all at once, licked by the tongues of unimaginably hot and extremely cold air which swirled around Laien.

“Whoa…” Dan stared with his eyes wide open. The scene was frightening, but also incredibly beautiful in a very captivating sense. Yet, he soon returned his attention to his father and to what was going on with the Living Steel in the furnace. He would follow in his father’s footsteps in the future and hopefully prove to be a worthy successor to his father. There was no way he could afford to miss the live details of handling something as uncommon Living Steel.

Since the moment the snail-like creature of Living Steel was put into the pot of liquid steel and then into the furnace, around four minutes passed. The seven men’s eyes were bulging out as they were giving their best to perceive how much strength and life force the creature still had.

“Master…!” one of the six men called out in a low voice when the movements of the creature became dull and slow. From what he could tell, it was about to die of exhaustion, unable to keep itself alive under that much heat.

“Not yet,” Duaran said calmly, keeping both of his hands of the steel poles of the mechanism, ready to take the pot out of the furnace at the moment’s call.

The six master smiths pursed their lips, feeling extremely worried. If the Living Steel perished, not only would it be a humongous waste of money, the alloy would also become contaminated and basically impossible to purify again. They were aiming at no more than three-second window, just as the creature would lose what it had of its own mind and would be about to perish as a living being for good. Any slip would be disastrous; it was natural that each and every one of them would rather be too hasty than too late. After all, the process could be repeated as many times as needed, right?

The thing was, that in this little aspect Duaran had always been under a huge misconception. Yes, the Grandmaster smith Duaran had watched and listened to said that the process can be repeated if finished too early, however... he didn’t mention that taking Living Steel out too soon would result in the creature absorbing the liquid steel it was swimming in to recover its energy and thus, all the materials would be wasted!

For a Grandmaster, it wasn’t a matter worth much attention due to the amount of wealth he and all other Grandmaster smiths possessed. Failing two of three times wouldn’t be a concern to him, even if he were to be using the Mountain God’s Steel. In the end, it would still be more than worth to create a Living Steel weapon or armor!

That one time in the past, however, the Grandmaster succeeded at the first try. Thus, all the way until this day Duaran was oblivious to the consequences of taking the creature of Living Steel out of the furnace too soon.

“Is it now?” Duaran bit his lip, seeing how the creature ceased all movements and began slowly sinking into the liquid steel.

“Master!” four of his disciples raised their voices in panic, wondering why in the world had Duaran still not pulled the pot out. Did his mind freeze because of stress? If so, then it would be a disaster…!

Duaran said nothing, instead watching the pot with a gaze which grew increasingly calm. He even smiled a little, what made his six disciples go mad with worry.

One of the six even went as far as to jump up to Duaran and try to pull on the steel poles on his own, but ended up being shoved away by Duaran… well, maybe smashed down to the floor with a backhand blow would be a more accurate description.

“Stop panicking, idiots,” Duaran said with a wry smile. A second later, his eyebrows went up slightly and his smile grew wider.

The five men instantly turned their eyes back to the furnace and without exception, hauled in a large breath of air. The snail-like creature which they thought to be dead actually surfaced again, wiggling and struggling more desperately than before! How… how did Duaran know?!

“A few more seconds…” Duaran mused aloud. He smirked, apparently amused by the peculiar behavior this particular piece of Living Steel Displayed. He pulled the poles, putting the mechanism in action and withdrawing the pot from the Furnace.

“Why now?” the six men, including the one who managed to stand up after receiving a blow from Duaran, asked themselves that but dared not to question Duaran again. In their eyes, the creature was still healthy and energetic. It was moving a lot and didn’t appear to be dying yet… but could it be that it was just its final struggle, which they failed to recognize?

“Perfect!” Duaran said contentedly, gazing at the snail-like creature which wiggled about just barely. A few seconds later, the creature’s basic instinct for survival which remained despite its mind having been literally burned out of it made a simple decision. The creature didn’t have enough strength to trigger the absorption process and if it did nothing, it would die anyway. So, instead, it allowed its body to turn liquid and merge with the steel it was swimming in.

The six master smiths along with Dan, who stood in the back of the room, looked at Duaran with almost worshipfully. They quietly thanked the Heavens for allowing them a chance to study under a person of Duaran’s caliber and reaffirmed themselves in their resolve to work hard and to achieve great heights, just like the man who was standing before them.

“Now only to pour it into the forms, the Living Steel will take care of the meticulous process of shaping the weapons for us,” Duaran said with a laugh and turned to look at the three who were supposed to be sitting in the back, then frowned in confusion as he spotted Zaniear and his son standing in the corner of the room and Laien… sitting on what appeared to be a bowl of liquefied, then cooled down steel…?

“Nothing much I can do, my understanding of this energy isn’t high enough to push it beyond its limits,” Laien thought, regretfully parting with his state of enlightenment. His consciousness slowly returned to normal, the masses of natural energy around him dissipating in split seconds. He opened his eyes, at first wondering why everyone was staring at him, then realizing that something was wrong; why was he sitting so low?

“No time for that now,” Duaran clicked his tongue and picked up the Black Stone pot. He approached the forms for a greatsword and a spear and one after another filled them with the liquid Mountain God’s Steel to the brim. “Good,” he nodded to himself. “Now, can someone explain to me what happened here?” he asked, giving the three a questioning look.

“Uh,” Laien smiled weakly. He could guess that it was his sudden insight which caused this small-scale disaster, but couldn’t decide how to go about explaining that to Duaran.

“The kid experienced a breakthrough, it was nothing important,” Zaniear spoke up and exchanged a meaningful glance with Duaran. The smith might have usually been pretty slow on the pick-up, but he wasn’t stupid. He also knew Zaniear well enough to quickly realize what the man meant.

“Right, it was nothing important,” Duaran agreed, then swept his six disciples with a stern glance. “It should be obvious, but the truth about what exactly we forged here today needs to stay a secret. I don’t want to have anyone speaking about… that, either,” he added with a suppressed sigh, pointing at the spot from which Laien stood up with a glance.

“Yes, master,” the six responded in unison, after which Duaran gave his son a look. Dan nodded strongly, confirming that he understands not to spread the information.

“Master,” one of the six disciples spoke up. “How could you tell that the Living Steel wasn’t dead when it stopped moving and sank into the steel? And how did you know it was about to die when it was still being so energetic?” he asked, very much desiring to hear an explanation and make the technique his own.

“You know how I always say to put your heart into your work and to understand the heart of the steel?” Duaran said with a slight smirk. After the six men and Dan nodded, he followed through. “What I spoke about are not just empty words. Today, I was finally able to sense the heart of the steel. This way, I was able to easily tell if the Living Steel was about to perish or not,” he explained proudly, knowing that he had finally mastered an art exclusive to the Grandmasters of the north.

“The steel’s heart?” Laien repeated quietly, his gaze shifting to the form inside which a spear for himself was forming. He sent out his spiritual sense in an attempt to feel out this ‘heart’ of the steel, but the moment he did, he trembled and severed his connection as fast as he could.

“Laien? You fine?” Dan asked, seeing his friend’s expression turn ugly as he grabbed his head with one hand and supported himself by the steel box with the other.

“No, it’s nothing,” Laien replied weakly, feeling as if his head was about to split apart. For a split second, he felt that he was actually very close to gaining another insight, but ended up failing and receiving a powerful backlash.

“Should be about ready,” Duaran approached the Black Stone form for the greatsword and with a ‘humph’ forced it open, revealing a steaming, silvery blade and hilt formed by the Living Steel from the Mountain God’s Steel into one, perfect whole. “It sure cools down fast when Living Steel is involved,” he said with a laugh, then produced a large piece of high-quality leather and dropped it onto the greatsword.

To everyone’s amazement, the greatsword absorbed the leather and formed a coating for its hilt. Why and how this worked… even the Grandmasters didn’t know. They only suspected that the form of a weapon held a special meaning to its existence, which caused Living Steel to act in this strange manner without the man’s influence.

Duaran repeated the process with the spear, but this time he used a much larger piece of leather. In contrast to a greatsword, which needed to only have its hilt fixed into a handle, a spear had a whole long shaft to be covered with a layer of leather. Naturally, it required more of it.

“Go pick them up and try imagining the details of the size and shape you want, you can also make it change colors, blade and leather alike,” Duaran instructed with a smile; the little conveniences Living Steel offered to its wilder were really quite numerous.

The two didn’t need to be asked twice. They walked up to their respective weapons and picked them up from the forms.

Laien smiled. His first thought was that the spear was a bit too heavy for him to handle properly. What surprised him, however, was how the weapon adjusted its weight, going down from around sixty kilograms to around forty-five. It was still too much for the current him, but it certainly got lighter.

“So it can even do that, although there appears to be a limit, huh,” Laien mused happily, then closed his eyes. What kind of shape would he want? Standard would be the best. Length? He was around one meter forty centimeters, so something around one sixty, one seventy would probably be best for him. The colors? His clothes were white with some additions of crimson red, so why not keep it in this tone, too?

The spear recognized Laien’s will and shrunk to the length of one meter seventy centimeters. The leather covering it remained simple in appearance and according to Laien’s wishes turned white, with a few rune-like red patterns appearing on it at the same time.

“Cool,” Laien chuckled, admiring his new weapon. Just by holding it in his hands, he could tell that this spear was suited to him. He somehow knew that it would be easy to wield and to learn the techniques involving it. The whole gut feeling was pretty similar to the situation when a master of the sword would recognize whether a sword is good or bad for him just by lifting it up, without the need to swing or fight with it.

“Big thanks, Uncle Duaran,” Laien said with a broad smile and stored the white spear in his interspatial ring. To say that he was satisfied with what he got for himself would be a large understatement; he was totally brimming with happiness! He not only got a great spear, he also managed to make an important breakthrough!

“It was my pleasure, it doesn’t happen often to be able to forge a Living Steel weapon with the Mountain God’s Steel as its base,” Duaran said and laughed boomingly. He wasn’t even over-exaggerating as the benefits he gained from working with Living Steel exceeded any amount of payment one could have asked for forging two weapons. From now on, his prestige as a smith would only continue rising.

“Okay, I think we all wasted enough time by now,” Duaran clasped his hands together. “We need to go back to work. I think you two can find the exit on your own?” he asked, not meaning anything bad despite the rather unfortunate selection of words on his part.

Laien chuckled, while Zaniear smiled helplessly. Both of them realized that Duaran was just this kind of a person, so they obediently headed to the exit.

After exchanging a few more sentences, Duaran, Dan and the six master smiths all went back to work. It was already late afternoon, but there was so much they needed to do before evening. The adults felt quite a headache coming at the thought of all the orders they had put off and would now need to catch up on. Dan, on the other hand, was in a good mood; he managed to escape around three hours of working and unlike his father and the others, wouldn’t need to work overtime to make up for it.

“Kid,” Zaniear said quietly as he and Laien were walking through the corridor. “Take care of yourself, it would be a pity if you got killed before spreading your wings,” he went out of his way to give an advice, having been impressed by the youth enough to consider doing something so out of character for him.

Laien frowned a little, not too thrilled by the perspective of finding his life in a true danger for whatever reason. “I will try,” he said with a sigh. He might have seen it as being overzealous, but he would mention the matter to Rudford sometime during the next few days. It couldn’t hurt to be a bit cautious, after all.

Zaniear wasn’t sure if Laien truly understood the position he was in, but also wasn’t aware of Laien’s situation with the Valius and Cail families, so he didn’t push the subject. It simply wasn’t that often for disciples of the Great Schools to be assassinated, unlike the prominent members of the noble families who more often than not would find themselves in a considerable degree of danger.

“I wonder where I should go?” Laien pondered briefly and after some thinking, settled his mind to head over to Rune and hang around with him for a bit. He felt mentally tired after going through his enlightenment and then receiving a backlash from attempting to gain another one, so he would probably give up on the spiritual training for today. As for the martial one, it could be done in the evening… with Rudford, if possible.

“Right, I made the name ‘Aspect of Tranquility’, I should also come up with something for my new insight. I can’t keep calling it ‘this energy’ or ‘that energy’,” Laien smirked at the thought. ‘This energy’ was very different from the Aspects and it was nothing like the elements either. Instead, it felt more like a… rule of this world, or something akin to it. Something that existed everywhere and affected everything without exception.

“Hm, the Principle of Energy,” Laien murmured, then smiled to himself. “Yes, that sounds good enough. I will go with it,” he decided swiftly, then started running ahead towards the Valius mansion as to not waste too much time on walking.

He didn’t exactly sprint, but as a martial practitioner of the fourth rank, he wasn’t all that slow. What would have taken well over forty minutes to travel while walking, he ended up covering in merely five. The additional bonus was that this light exercise washed away most of the mental fatigue he was feeling, making him feel much better.

“Maybe I do need to spare some time for a spiritual training, huh,” he wondered, choosing not to go the long way around and instead to enter the grounds through the main gate. With his new position, there was no reason for him to shy away from the ‘unwanted attention’ of the more prominent members of the Valius family.

However, before he could enter the grounds, he heard a familiar voice calling out to him from behind.

“Genzie, hey! What’s up?” he asked loudly, wondering why Genzie appeared to be in so much hurry as to be running up to him.

“There’s something we must talk about,” Genzie said with a very serious expression on his face. Truthfully, it wouldn’t be a lie to say that both his own and the siblings’ future was fully up to how this one conversation with Laien would go.