“This is already way better than I expected,” Rakna commented as he inspected the hilt-less blade in front of him.

“{Hm, interesting. This is probably the first time I’ve seen or heard about someone using Cross Sight for crafting items,}” Higure commented, intrigued. “{This is a pretty meanish blade you have made too.}”

“True. A Cao Sword, huh?” He spoke. “I didn’t know there was a specific name for this sort of… mishmash,” he uttered and opened one of the compartments of the workbench where many pre-made hilts were stocked. Old Wang had told him he could choose any of those for now before he taught him how to craft them.

He grabbed one made out of a silvery alloy and ensued to heat the blade’s tang to red again and forge it to the correct shape before inserting it inside the hilt. He then wedged it to the pommel and completed the sword.

He grabbed it with one hand and performed a few testing swings. He held it straight and squinted as he observed the 80 centimeters long blade. “Hm, I wonder how this blade even has a somewhat decent balance.”

“{…what a neat thing to say for the one who made it.}”

Rakna shrugged. “From what I know, I could try to hollow out the surface of the steel to fix it. But I’m not sure how to do it so I’ll ask Old Wang later on,” he said and put down the sword. He looked at it thoughtfully and closed one eye. “I’ll call it… Alzero.”

Instantly, the sword’s description was updated and he decided to try out what he had made that weapon for in the first place. He lifted his empty hand and closed his eyes. Tendrils of cold energy coiled around his arm and fingers began to tie themselves together as the temperature in the smithy plummeted.

Karna suddenly felt pressured. Not because of the cold that clashed against his very nature but the source of said cold that represented his greater. No flame in existence would ever refuse to bow in front of a star.

Rakna’s mind went through every step he performed in the last few hours as the tendrils swirled around each other to form the daunting sword. Once close to completion, the construct produced a muffled whistling noise and released a brief flash of light.

When Rakna opened his eyes at the cold and solid sensation in his grip, he saw himself holding a perfect copy of Alzero with the only differences being the faint blue shade and the mist it released due to the iciness of the object.

He changed his grip so that one side would be parallel to him and his eyes slightly widened when he saw his reflection on the blade. Even the sound and the weight of the blade felt like true steel.

“This is…” He mumbled and cast Appraisal on the sword.

❮ ◈ ❯

A perfect copy, and beyond, of the Cao Sword, Alzero. It was made of cold star energy and possesses every perk that the original has. It has no need of mana to sustain itself and will disappear on its own after half a day unless it breaks or the caster dismisses it.

This was only made possible thanks to Rakna Xiorra’s first-hand knowledge of how the blade was forged and its effects.

❮ ◈ ❯

“That’s… better than I thought. In other words, anything that I forge, I could potentially be able to replicate down to its every perk. It unconditionally lasts half-day as well. What about…” He trailed and concentrated on his other hand.

He imitated what he did with Alzero and imagined the steps of forging. This time, he saw with his own eyes as the tendrils of cold energy seemed to knit themselves. This was already different from his usual Star Make. But when the product was finished, he grunted in disappointment.

There was only a regular-looking sword made out of raw energy. He could feel that it was tougher than before, and perhaps was taking less mana to maintain, but that was it. It didn’t look ‘real’ as Alzero did.

Then, with a thought, the two weapons he was holding transformed into the tendrils they had been made with before detaching themselves from each other and dispersing. He looked at the vanishing particles before opening his status to see if something was different.

There was no new spell or skill but something else was there. “Oh?” It was a sort of progress bar displayed under the Star Make spell. It was about 3% percent filled.

“Alexa,” he called. He didn’t need to say it for her to understand what he wanted.

[That is the sign of a spell evolution. Unlike skills or magic, spells cannot be leveled. Though, as you know, they can be altered when the conditions are right. In addition to that, all spells have the potential to evolve into a stronger or unique version. This bar means that you have discovered one of the ‘courses’ that will end on the evolution of Star Make.]

“I see. So, I guess adding the concept of smithing to Star Make will make it evolve. But I need more than just one mediocre sword for it to happen,” Rakna summarized.

“{How interesting. I look forward to seeing what it evolves into.}”

“That makes two of us,” he replied and looked at the crates filled with different kinds of metal. “We still have a whole night before us and I could easily spend a few days without sleeping. He did say I could use more steel if I wanted to,” he said as he grabbed one ingot. “Do you mind if ask you to help me a bit more, Karna?”

The fire let out a small burst as if to express a positive answer and he nodded as he grabbed the pliers and put the steel under the Celestial Kindle’s care.

* * *

Several hours later, when the sun was already rising outside, Rakna completed his third weapon; a broad dagger. The weapon before that had been a regular straight sword; the result that he normally should have gotten when he was making Alzero.

In any case, after spending the night forging, he had filled 10% of his spell’s evolution gauge and increased his blacksmithing level by one. The two weapons had the same perks as Alzero though a bit weaker. To get a sword and a dagger with normal shapes, he was forced to ignore a few focal points. He would have to work on optimizing his use of ‘dimensional forging’, as he called it.

As he was observing said weapons, he heard the door leading to the smithy being opened and the consequent footsteps descending the stairs. “Good morning, sonny. You stayed up all night?” Old Wang asked as he went down the last stair.

Rakna nodded quietly. “I wanted to get used to the feeling as much as I could. And I was tempted to continue since one of my spells might evolve from it.”

“Oh? That’s indeed exciting news,” he said and walked to the workbench where the three weapons were placed. His eyes roamed first on the dagger and sword positioned on top of the table before widening in surprise when they landed on Alzero leaning to the side.

He grabbed the sword and inspected it from the hilt to the tip of the blade with a careful eye. He then did the same to the two others before speaking, “Fascinating… These blades are imbued with an intent I have never seen before. Is this…?”

“Dimensional power,” Rakna explained. “While I’m not sure myself what it means, that’s what my analysis tells me. One of my skills allows me to see structural weaknesses in the dimensions of an object. I tried to reduce their number while forging these.”

“I see…” Old Wang mumbled whilst tracing the blades with his fingers. “You should already know but my magic element is metal. It grants me insight into anything remotely related to metal, among other things. I can feel a strong stability in each of these blades as if a perfect arrangement had been found in their assembly. Especially this Cao Sword.”

“That would be because I disregarded shape on that one to focus on the focal points.”

“Explaining the form,” the blacksmith chuckled before putting the sword down. “From what I see here, you did a great job grasping the basics. So, is there another type of weapon you want me to guide you through before I go set up my stall?”

Rakna mused before reaching a decision. “Spears.”

“Spears, huh? Well, it’s not that complicated. I could also get you started on woodworking for the shaft at the same time. Or would you prefer to learn full spears where both the blade and the shaft are made of the same material?”

“The second I’d say,” he said. “There are two weapons that I would like to get close to as much as possible. A trident and a barbed spear. Both fit the bill for the second type.”

“All right then. You’ll need molds for the shaft and a bit of pressure handling. You make do without machinery,” Wang said as he started preparing what would be needed. “Well, it’s not impossible to forge the shaft by hand, but honestly, I don’t think anyone would do something like that unless they were a masochist,” he said before pausing. “Actually… I might know someone like that.”

“Anyhow, I’ll also have to teach you how to make the material flexible, separate it into blocks, to hollow them out in some parts, and pad to kill force. We don’t want the weapon to diffuse the full blow from the tip to the whole shaft, after all. Not only would that hurt your hands but it’ll also be quite incommodious to wield.”

Rakna nodded with a stoic face, not giving out any hint on whether he understood or not.

“I’ll set the guidelines for you in an hour or so and then you’ll practice by yourself.”

* * *

Five hours later, Rakna left the old smith’s house with two swords, a dagger, and two spears added to his storage. He had been given a spare key so he could return whenever he wanted to use the smithy. Though, Old Wang had also said that it would be appreciated if he brought his own material next time.

He yawned as he walked on the streets of Black Steel. He passed by a shop to buy some food and headed back to the Pavilion. He himself still didn’t feel particularly hungry but he was quite sure that Pronos and Tyran hadn’t eaten anything in a while.

‘Though I have no idea if undead even need to eat,’ he said internally and entered the private section about five minutes later. Immediately, his brow twitched when he saw that the two beasts were glued to the TV as they had been when he had left. Tyran had also decided to just keep his original size, or maybe he had just forgotten.

“Have you two seriously been watching cartoons the entire morning?” He raised his voice and the pair of deadly predators was startled. They were so engrossed they hadn’t noticed him. When they saw his expression, they took on a sheepish expression and looked away.

Rakna shook his head with a sigh before ultimately joining them and giving them the meal that he had bought for them. Once that was done, he opened his status and breathed in, preparing for the worse as he readied a Heart Card, and assigned a skill point to his Eyes of the Soul.