Andrew wanted to make use of the new ingots for this project, they needed testing and their considerable supply of ingots wouldn’t last forever, especially given that these 'brute daggers' were meant to be relatively disposable. He started with the two black ingots streaked through with silver and red. These were the ingots produced from the metal accumulated soil that was melted completely and finished in a fire dispersal circle. They were by far the simplest and most material efficient ingot to produce, but were almost entirely earth mana, with little bits of metal and fire mixed in. Andrew had two, so he decided to try and treat the first like a typical ingot. He heated up the forge, cleared the anvil and readied his tongs, keeping a close eye on the ingot as it heated up. The earthy material tended to melt quicker than the silvery metal mana, and he didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes before it was glowing orange. He pulled it from the forge and brought his hammer down on the ingot as he normally would. The struck end of the ingot exploded with a popping sizzle that sent pieces flying out away from the anvil. Little pieces splashed against his forearms and chest and he hurriedly brushed them off, ignoring the pinpricks of heat as he looked around to make sure no one else was hit.

Tyler and Rowan were standing about twenty feet off, half crouched and looking at him with distinct 'what the fuck was that?' expressions. It didn't look like any of the pieces hit them, but he could see a couple little patches of smoke rising up from the grasses around the nearby clearing. "Sorry about that! Testing out some new materials, you uh, might want to take a couple steps back. Oh and if you ever get a chance, fire resistance is pretty handy. Heh heh, but seriously, you should probably keep you distance for a little bit. " Andrew said, waving an apologetic hand to them as he scooted around the clearing stomping out a number of little nascent forest fires.

He returned to the anvil and looked over the rapidly cooling pieces that remained. The glowing orange material shattered into a bunch of globs that were cooling to black, but Andrew could see several half solid bits of silvery material that were speckled along the edges of each break line. The orange material wasn't what exploded, it was the silvery imperfections in the material that weren't fully heated that created fracture lines in the material, causing it to shatter outwards from the heavy hammer blow. It also looked like there was more silver on the inside of the ingot than he initially thought. He activated Mana Sense and looked it over again. It had more fire mana than before which was an expected consequence of the mana forge, but it also had more metal mana than before as well. He pulled out the other unworked ingot and compared them. The original ingot had eight parts earth mana to four metal and one fire. What was left of the heated ingot was five parts earth mana to three metal and two fire. Overall more fire mana, but quite a bit more metal mana as well. It seemed like the composition of these ingots changed pretty quick when heated up in the mana forge. They also would be pretty much impossible to work in their current state as well, given the difference in heating temperatures.

Andrew gathered up the remaining pieces of the ingot and piled them up in a fresh crucible, then set that in the active forge and started another one up. The additional fire mana was clearly converting the solidified earth mana material into the metallic equivalent, which was actually quite useful. It did mean that ingots created in this way would need more processing though. Andrew set the unworked ingot aside and pulled out his second testing material. These two and a half ingots were mostly black and red, with streaks of silver running through them. They were made from the excess earth dredged out of the metal infused stone and Andrew predicted they would react in a similar way when heated up, so he opted for a different approach. He took one of the ingots and placed it into a crucible, then put that crucible into the forge.

He left the forges to cook for a moment as he picked through the nearby clearing until he had a collection of stones a little smaller than his head. He grabbed his chisel, powered it up, and used it to start shaving the stones down. Several of the stones cracked along internal faults as he worked and he tossed the broken bits into the metal accumulation circles. Eventually he was left with three suitable stones, channels carved into each in the shape of little triangular blades about six inches long each with a tang at the end. They had relatively wide faces to facilitate later rune carving. Andrew set the three knife molds on the anvil and went to check on the two crucibles. The process had taken him around an hour and he wanted to see what the extended fire mana exposure did to the materials. The first crucible filled with exploded ingot material was entirely liquid and distinctly more silver than orange, Andrew pulled it out of the forge so he could check it over with Mana Sense.

It was now one part earth mana to three parts metal three parts fire. It would require a fire dispersal circle to cool, and it would end up having little streaks of black through it. There was less material overall in the crucible than before as well, as though some of the mass was burnt off, or condensed or something. He put it back in the crucible. Turning the black ingots into pure metal would just take more melting time overall. Andrew pulled out the other ingot, and saw that it had a whole lot less silver metal within despite a relatively similar starting point to the other ingot. Andrew looked closer with Mana Sense. The little pockets of silver mana mixed freely within dense rivers of fire mana, with earth mana filling out all the places in between. As he watched, he saw a little bit of the silver mana brush up against the edge of the fire mana river, pulling a small bit of earth mana along with it as it swirled. The earth mana stuck to the silver mana, and as soon as it broke free from the mass of earth mana it rapidly shifted into silvery mana and mixed into the swirling streak of silver.

Hmm. I guess the difference here is that this ingot started out with a whole lot less initial metal mana. Metal mana is a result of earth and fire mana mixing, but it doesn’t mix very quickly on it's own, it needs a 'seed' of metal mana to latch onto to facilitate the process. I wonder if I can do this artificially?

Andrew put the crucible back into the forge, then started up the third forge. He grabbed the 1/3 sized ingot of pure silver-red material and heated it up in the forge. It took a handful of minutes before it was fully heated, so he took the opportunity to spy on what Tyler and Rowan were doing for a moment. They had absolutely massacred a log for materials, and were putting together what seemed like a couple of different shield designs, each one quite a bit larger than they typically used. They had an earth accumulation circle set up nearby, probably so that they could fuse the boards together into one solid piece. It seemed like they were making decent progress. He checked on the silver-red ingot cooking in the forge, it was properly heated, but looked to be loosing it's shape a bit. Andrew hurriedly pulled the drooping ingot from the forge and set it on the anvil, activating mana sense as he did.

Of fucking course, extra fire mana into these things and they're going to get liquid a whole lot faster than a traditional iron ingot.

The ingot wasn't cooling very quickly, so he did his best to stuff it back into an ingot mold and threw the mold into a fire dispersal circle. Then he laid a hand on the anvil and activated auto mana inscription rapidly carving a new fire dispersal circle into the face of the anvil. When it was finished he powered it up and dumped the slightly more solid 1/3 sized ingot out onto it. Then he grabbed it with his tongs and started to hammer it out within the fire dispersal circle. It was very malleable, but rapidly cooling and solidifying within the circle. He drew it out to about a foot long lumpy mass before he put it back into the forge to re-heat. Wiping the sweat from his brow after. The dispersal circle didn't eliminate the fire mana, or the heat it created. It just pushed it out of the circle, right at him. The next time he pulled the half-formed ingot from the forge he was ready, hammering it out inside of the fire dispersal circle until it formed a smooth, pure-silver, one square inch thick, foot and a half long stick. Andrew used Auto Inscription to carve a little break in the fire dispersal circle, deactivating it with a pop as the circle broke. Then he used his tongs to pull the exploded ingot crucible out, checking it with mana sense. It was entirely metal and fire mana now. He carefully poured it out into the three knife molds which sat within the original fire dispersal carved into the nearby dirt. He powered that circle and set the crucible aside. Then he grabbed the other crucible of melted material, it was still primarily earth and fire mana, with a little more silver mana within than before. He set it down in the dirt, then grabbed the silver metal mana mixing stick and swirled it around inside the little crucible. A wake of silver bubbled up behind it as he stirred and the mixture rapidly shifted from bright orange to shiny silver red.

[Alchemy Skill Created]

[+ 1 Intelligence for creating a mana based skill]

[+ 1 Wisdom for creating a mana based skill]

[Mana Smelting lvl 8 -> 10]

[Alchemy lvl 1 -> 2]

[Runic Artisan Level up]

[Runic Artisan Level up]

Huh, well I guess I was doing something right then. I'm definitely able to make a lot of this stuff. Still need to find out if the silver metal itself is strong enough to make equipment out of though.

Andrew pulled the silver stick up from the crucible, it was about three inches shorter than before.

It definitely has some issues in the fire resistance department. Enough concentrated fire mana and it'll just melt in my hands. Certainly not going to be able to make Kalan a sword out of this stuff.