Very early the next morning, I was back to the shop, only to find the place in a mess. Whatta hell? There were sheets of paper all over the place, books scattered all around, and that was without mentioning some materials also scattered on the tables and floor, and, very dangerous liquids on the edge of the tables, just about to fall.

And in the middle of all of that, sleeping on a pile of papers, the Witch was with a happy expression. I slapped my face and sighed in exasperation, and walked through the mess, taking care of the liquids first, so as not to fall. These things stink! Jesus!

I put them back in the places I had seen yesterday, and started to look through the sheets of paper. At least, with my title of [Focused Freak], together with my new skill [Quick-Response], reading through them wouldn’t take too much time. Hopefully.

And really, it didn't take too much time, but simply because the Witch was very responsible, she put the Title of what the paper referenced to at the top. That helped a lot, so I just needed to read said title at the top, and search for the other sheets. As well as the number of the pages at the bottom. At least that.

The papers had information on certain monsters, specifically the materials they could offer. Oh yeah, the second book also stated about monster leather as a useful thing to make Artifacts as well. All the information on the papers I was gathering was about the bones and hard leather to make gauntlets. You would be surprised about how many leathers as hard as metal exist.

While I collected everything, and cleaned up the mess in the room, the Witch woke up and was staring at me.

“Hi.”

I said that and helped her get on her feet, and kept cleaning the room. And about 1 hour later, I finished the cleaning. I searched for the books I was reading the other day, and opened the third one, and would start reading.

Kasumi and Amara were out of my shadow, and training their skills. Amara was changing through women's appearances, one to another, until she reached something that she liked, while Kasumi was training her [Dark Fox-Fire] skill.

As I was about to start reading, the Witch got on her own table, prepared a purplish mix of something, and downed it in one go. I eyed that with a strange expression, since the thing she drank looked more like poison than anything else.

I shrugged that off, and started the reading section.

The third book was about the Magic Circuits. And my god, there were thousands upon thousands of ways of making such circuits. The most common one was by using Magic Powder, which is made by using Magic Crystals.

No, not Magic Cores. Better change it. Monster Cores and Magic Crystals are different things. There, better.

Magic Crystals, is a light-blue crystal, with a beautiful glean to it, is how the book showed. There are variations of it, like red, green, yellow, and a whole lot of colors. Each one was used to give the enchantments on equipment.

The red one was for [Fire and/or Lava Magic], Dark-blue ones were for [Water and/or Ice Magic], green ones were for [Forest Magic], yellow ones were for [Wind, Light, and/or Lightning Magic], and the list goes on.

Incidentally, there are Black crystals, but they are used for another purpose. As for the use of [Shadow and/or Darkness Magic], they actually use a certain kind of precious gem. The Black Pearl.

“This is interesting. The Black Pearls are used to craft Artifacts with such effects. Especially for [Necromancy].”

It’s what the book said. There are other crystals, but they are very hard to find, such as the Brown, Golden and Black crystals. Brown is for [Earth and/or Metal Magic]. Golden is for [Life Magic], and Black is for [Death Magic].

There are other crystals, but their use is really low. You can also use Monster Cores to make the circuits, but they are highly unstable, and can result in… Catastrophic results.

“So Monster Cores are used as the catalysts?”

Monster Cores are located at the top/bottom of wands, staffs and other weapons, shields and even armors. People made more use of them as pendants than anything else.

You could also use Magic Crystals in the place of the Monster Cores, but they would consume too much mana, and waste a great portion of it. Even the effect of the spells would be random, being sometimes super strong, or super weak. So no one used Magic Crystals on this anymore.

“Wow. Didn’t know Magic Crystals and Monster Cores had different uses.”

“Well, you could use the Cores as a power source, but not the Crystals.”

The Witch interrupted my thoughts, speaking about them.

Cores are usually used as a power source, such as the Goblin’s Core. They are used to power the lights on the capital. You could use other types of cores, but they could get unstable, since the Output, usually is bigger than the Input of the circuits.

“And, if you try to do that, needless to say, they will explode.”

“Okay.”

I had in Kasumi’s [Shadow Storage] a few cores that I will use in the future, so it might be a good idea to discover their Output.

Now for the fourth book.

This one was more about Alchemy as a whole. It explained about the different Magic Circles, how to compound certain substances, and even specific details on a series of materials. In fact, it showed a plethora of Magic Circles, not only for Transmutation, but also for other purposes as well.

There was one for Teleportation, for peeling(yes, for fruits and as such), useless uses, and of course, the one I had some time ago, the All Purpose Circle. In short, the A.P.C, is a circle that you can use for anything. It is not useful in precise operations, but in a desperate situation, is quite useful.

Two things though. The book didn’t have the circle for the Philosopher’s Stone, nor Human Transmutation. I mean, the Animes I watched with transmutation as a focus, had this kind of thing about them.

It had information for the Philosopher’s Stone, but not how to make it, nor the ingredients. But I’m sure it isn’t something that can be easily made. There was even the Magic Circle to make a Slave Collar. This one might be useful down the line, if I need to deal with someone really shady.

As I read about the Slave Circle, something came to mind. Can you make, instead of a collar, something else? Like an armor, a crown, a ring, bracelet, or anything else? As the book said: No, it is impossible.

There were cases where people tried, but it wasn’t that successful. They either broke, or didn’t work fully. And as I kept reading, I’ve found out why. They simply made the circle in small size.

A Magic Circle has a lot of information. It can have lots of layouts, designs, images, even languages that are different. But some things are necessary, such as the purpose of them.

Take the Teleportation one as an example. It had the full incantation of it, as well as images and a language that could reduce the amount of words. In fact, it had only 7 words, and 13 small images.

You could also use Astrology to do so. Yep, you could use the power of the stars to make the circle work. There wasn’t as much info as the other method, but they were useful. Alas, they were only found in dungeons or so. There were ruins around the world which also had them, but they couldn’t reverse engineer them. It was impossible for this world.

As for the Slave one, I could simply pack it inside the HUB, and then use the circuit in the remainder of the ring/pendant to have all of its usefulness. In fact, I could even create more than one HUB, with all of the information on it.

“Hell, I could create the sketches, and use the circuits to substitute the Circle part, making it like a square. Or I could create a HUB in the shape of a circle.”

The possibilities were gigantic. And that, finished the four books.

“Once again, you didn’t even hear my voice, did you?”

“Oh, right. But I finished the two books before lunch.”

“You know, most people who read these books usually take a month! To discover what they are explaining. And you simply finished in two days? And each one for a certain period of time, to top it all off!”

I shrugged, and took once again the soup with meat chunks. This time though, the soup was more salty than from yesterday. Kasumi also had the same soup, and Amara had… the same soup, but with more vegetables. Like, a lot of vegetables.

“Now… Since you finished that, I will send you a little errand.”

“I’m an apprentice, not an errand boy.”

“Yeah, I don’t care.” You bit-. “Anyway, that is to gain a little bit of money. I need you to travel to the city close to a mountain in the south. There’s a monster there, with a certain Core, which I can use for days without much problem.”

“Let me guess, the Krakagator.”

“You know about it?”

“It was in one of the many sheets of paper surrounding you, this morning.”

The Krakagator, is a giant Alligator with the capability of using [Magma Magic], the evolved version of [Lava Magic]. Although he could use it, it had only two capabilities. First, in between its scales, was pure lava. Second, its internal temperatures were more than 2K on the Celsius scale.

“I’ll need a special metal then.”

“For what?”

“For killing it. And also, to not simply melt.”

“You could use Black Caidrum, no?”

“No. It wouldn’t be enough. Although the metal is basically Chromium with mana, it won’t be enough. I’ll need something else.”

“What exactly, then?”

There was only one metal, which had the highest melting point back on earth. Yes, Black Caidrum was easier to find, but I needed another one.

“I’m gonna need Tungsten.”

“What now?”

And so, I started to explain what I would need to kill the alligator. Oh, and I also showed her my gun.

“What is this… Tungsten you mentioned?”

“Simply put, it is a metal with the Highest melting point in my world. It has a high hardness, and also can be transmuted into a certain alloy, which has even a higher hardness than before.”

As I was speaking, the Witch had dismounted my gun, and was analyzing it. She was impressed, once again, since I used only steel in its construction.

Alas, when I was building it, the steel I kept using, were of varying compositions. In fact, if someone with a steel sword was to brandish at the gun, it WILL break. That I’m certain. And just as I thought about that…

“It has a lot of flaws. It is very easy to destroy. Even an Iron sword will destroy it. It isn’t as good as the gauntlets.”

“That I know. That was a prototype, to be honest.”

“What would you want to make out of it?”

“What? You're gonna lend me the materials to make a new one?”

“If it will help against that monster, why not?”

A grinned with her statement. And also…

“You could also give a name to it, since it is an Artifact, nonetheless.”

“Naming?”

“Yes. I would pass you the book with that information after you completed this errand, but now…”

She took a thin and small book, about 20 centimeters in height. Very small compared to the encyclopedias I read before.

“Here. It’s very easy to understand, so you can finish rather quickly.”

I took the book, and started reading right there. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but I didn’t care. I’m a bookworm too, you know?

The book basically explained that naming an Artifact, might make it stronger, have a special effect, and oh so on. That was something interesting to know. Thank god I didn’t name the gun with these shitty materials.

“Finished yet?”

“Yep.” I gave the book to her. “So, which materials can you provide?”

“Mythril, Caidrum in both colors, and Krelium ore. Those are what I can provide.”

After she summarized, I started to think.

Mythril is indeed light, but for what I want to build? It’s the worst option. Mythril has a high mana conductivity, but also a high resistance against magic. So for what I was thinking, it wouldn’t be good.

Caidrum, depending on the color, had both pros and cons. The white was out of question, as for the black one? Also a no. Yes, it would be useful against the Alligator, but not for long. Everything has a limit.

As for Krelium ore… this one would be the best for what I wanted to do, but it doesn’t have a high hardness. In fact, if I could put it on the Mohs Scale, it would be in between 5 to 6. It wouldn’t be enough.

“This is a difficult one. Don’t you have anything with more hardness?”

“Hmmm… You really piss me off.”

I didn’t understand what she had said, until she put a dark blue ingot on the table. It was, of course, Adamantite.

“Just this one. Nothing more.”

I glanced at her, and to the ingot.

“Perfect.”

“I’m gonna see you building it.”

I nodded, and started working on it.

First of all, Adamantite had a higher resistance than Mythril, for both magic and physical attacks. Compared to an ingot of steel, it was slightly heavier, but not as much that I couldn’t maintain on my hand for a long period of time.

In fact, Adamantite is quite light, if compared to Orichalcum. Orichalcum is around 2.5 times heavier than Adamantite. If I could compare, it would be like the comparison between a Titanium ingot and a Steel ingot.

Orichalcum would be around 9.7 in the Mohs scale, if my math was right. As for Adamantite, it would be on the 9.1. As for Mythril, it would be the same as Tungsten, 8.

“Maybe…”

“What is it?”

“There is a certain alloy back in my world, that is quite hard too. Titanium is around 6, but if I make it’s alloy, it can reach basically the same hardness of Adamantite. But what if I change the Titanium with Adamantite?”

I was talking about Titanium Carbide, which in the Mohs Scale would be between 9 and 9.5. But what if I made Adamantite Carbide? Was the question on my mind.

“If I remember correctly, the atoms were in the shape of a diamond structure, or cubic structure.”

I tried with a thin piece of the Ingot, and some charcoal the Witch had on stock. I broke the thin piece of Adamantite in four, and took the Charcoal.

“If I remember correctly, the structure was interspersed between a carbon atom and a titanium atom.”

I had four tries. And of course, if I failed, I would change the structure to Tungsten Carbide, which is much more different.

“Speaking of which, can you search on the market for the Tungsten?”

“What?”

“I will need it nonetheless. If you don’t know how it is, it’s a dark gray color in its pure form. As for the ore, it is much darker than the pure form. In it’s impure form, it is very brittle. Can you do it please?”

“Fine. I’m curious about it as well.”

“Here. Take these.”

I gave the pouch with the gold coins. It had a bit more than 50 coins. I think it has 69 coins? I did use some for a certain experiment.

“Fine. I’ll be back.”

As she exited the shop, I started working on another thing. I wouldn’t be able to see if my experiment would be right without my scan. Remember that card, my phone and the pouch? Yes, now was the time.

Taking them out of the pockets on my clothes, I put them on another table. I would need my phone completely disassembled for that, so…

“Obey my will, and open thy self. |Disassemble|”

With that, my phone completely disassembled. With some difficulties, but a success nonetheless. I took the PCB, screen, touchscreen, some buttons, and other small things.

“I won’t need wires. I think.”

I did the same for the card I received before, and started to make a sketch. It would have the appearance of a normal phone, with some differences here and there. I also made a sketch with the information I would need to put in the circle. This wasn’t a normal Transmutation, it was something that I don’t know if this world would have either.

But…

“There’s too much information to put on it. Even if I make images, the circle won’t be big enough to hold it. Wait. I can understand [Spirit Language] right? So what if I do the same with it?”

And so, I made a ‘PCB’ with a sheet of steel as a sketch board, and tried over and over. After the 7th time, I succeeded in making something with it. How did I know that? Instinct?

Anyway, after I did that, I took the card, which was a crystal clear card, with very few circuits on it. Gotta say, it isn’t as I imagined as it would be. The card had the circle in the middle, with another 4 circles around it, all connected by a small trail of powder.

“I see. That’s how they made it traceable, huh? How simple.”

It was too simple. A circle in the middle with a big image, and 4 other images around the main circle, which was the one that did the job of making the status appear and record it as well.

My PCB of steel had images and words in [Spirit Language], as well as new enchantments I put on it. I made a circuit for the Scan I had, and even a new system, which Scan didn’t have. Yet. It was an enemy scan that would scan the surroundings and detect anything on the camera.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any space for the Digital Inventory. Thanks to [Technomagic], I could use {Data Generation}, together with the pouch I got from before, and then make a Digital Inventory on the phone. But I would need more space.

“Then, how about I make a Memory Card only for that?”

With that Idea, I looked at the board again. The small board of Steel had a very small space to it. Sufficiently enough for what I wanted. I then made the part of it, and then I made a much smaller steel plate, and put the circuits for the Digital Inventory. And it worked.

“With this, it is completed.”

I took a Mythril ingot that Witch had left on the table, and started to make the board with the circuits. I used the wires of Mythril on the build of the circuits, and that helped a lot. After that, I took the small plate of Mythril I made and the small pouch together.

“I hope this works.”

I focused on the {Data Generation} sub-skill, and started to fuse the two together. It started working and I stayed very focused on the [Mana Manipulation].

To tell you the truth, 90% of everything I was doing was an instinct guiding me. I had the understanding of some things, but if compared to this world understanding of magic and all of that, mine was basically meaningless.

With the Mana coursing through my hands to the two objects, dark blue pixels surrounded the plate, and the pouch. I made sure to take everything from inside the pouch before, so no dangers there. The pixels started to make the Pouch shrink, and it broke into strange purple pixels, and after a minute or so, the pouch was gone, and the really small plate of Mythril had a strange symbol on it, with a few Spirit words around it. All in purple color as well

“Phew. Next is this thing.”

◙ THE SKILL DIGITAL MAGIC LVL 1 HAS BEEN ACQUIRED! DUE TO THE USER HAVING A HIGHER SKILL, THE SKILL DIGITAL MAGIC HAS BEEN INTEGRATED INTO TECHNOMAGIC! ◙

I took the phone carcass and the screen, touchscreen, the PCB and the buttons. After mounting everything, I gave some of my mana, and started the process from before.

Instead of Dark blue pixels, these were white. I focused more, and the pixels became the dark blue color from before. It needs more mana, huh? I kept doing it, and after more than 5 minutes or so, a bright light filled the room.

“Aw, shit.”

I expected a giant explosion, but. No. After the light died out, in front of me, was a strange device. It was completely transparent, with the edges in dark-blue colors. At the back and top right corner of it, was a small thing, which I presume was the camera.

“It worked?”

I pointed towards the ingots on the table, and….

“It works. I have my scan back!”

“And quite the materials you used.”

“Oops.”

“Sigh… What did you do this time?”

“A… What should I call this thing? A Multi-Purpose Device?”

“A what?”

“Oh! I know! An MPD!”

As I finished that phrase, the device shined once again, not as bright as the one from before, but it shone a bit.

“What ha- Hey!”

The witch took the device from my hands.

“This thing… What?”

“What is it?”

She grabbed a magnifying glass, and gave it to me. Oh, this is an Appraisal tool.

“Look at it.”

I used the Tool at the MPD, and it showed me what it does.

“Huh?”

► MPD (Multi-Purpose Device) ◄

A Device made By a tech freak.

It has all the Capabilities of the Sub-Skill Scan. It also has the capability of storing 1000 Different Items, and it can scan the surroundings to find enemies and ores. It also has an upgrade system, which will detect what is needed to upgrade it, and can absorb it to evolve.

This is not a Relic, nor an Artifact, but something Unknown. It will only work when the creator uses it.

Creator – Kenji

“What the hell?”

“Those are my words! How can you make something that isn’t either a Relic or an Artifact?! That should be impossible! No, wait! Why did you make it anyway?!”

“I would need it to see if the composition of the metals was right. I couldn’t simply make it out of nowhere!”

“Makes sense. But… No, forget it.”

Well, even I was surprised with the ending result. I wouldn’t think that a super tool would be created.

“Oh! I know! Since it’s not either an Artifact nor a Relic, how about calling it Relifact?”

Aaaand the MPD shone it once again.

“YOU!”

“Uuuuh… oops. Well, did you find it?”

“Sigh… That. I don’t know. Here.”

She put on the table some ores, and ingots. I took the MPD and used Scan on them.

“Silver. Oh Titanium! Silver. Steel. More silver. Damn. Did you use all the money I gave you?”

“Yes. There were a lot. But most of them are all silver, huh?”

As I kept using the MPD, I found two raw Tungsten ores, which were wolframite, thankfully.

“Here it is. Also, I can make Holy bullets.”

“Holy Bullets?”

“Yep. Silver is one of the many weaknesses of Vampires.”

“Oh yeah.”

There were a total of 10 Silver Ingots, 2 Titanium Ingots, 3 Steel Ingots, and 1 Tungsten Ingot. As for the raw ores, there were 6 Silver, 1 Titanium, half of Steel, and 4 Tungsten.

“Now this is something else. Thanks. I can start working right now.”

“What? It’s nighttime already.”

“Is it? Can I stay and work on them?”

“You don’t need to sleep?”

“I mean, I can, but I have the [Tiredness Resistance] skill, so.”

“Do as you please.”

And so, my quest of making an Adamantite Carbide, has now started.