Leon wanted to throw himself directly into his work.  He had the iron he’d received as payment for Sunlight, and he had a few other metals to alloy it with, but he still needed a host of other tools and materials if he were to ever hope to create his armor as he’d envisioned.  So, after speaking with the Thunderbird, he returned to the physical world and headed back into Occulara to do some shopping.

First on his list of needs was a better crucible.  If he wanted to alloy his iron not only with other metals, but also with his power, then he needed an enormous amount of heat—enough, he was told, that normal, non-magically treated iron would probably boil under the heat he required, and all of his crucibles, while sturdy, weren’t quite up to the task of handling that kind of heat.  Neither was his workshop, but that was another thing entirely.

First off, he needed a new crucible.  He met up with several of Emilie’s assistants upon arriving at her tower around the Hexagon.  Emilie had gotten quite settled into her role as Chief of Acquisitions, and always had time to make sure that Leon had whatever materials he required.  All he usually needed to do was to place an order for certain materials, and if Heaven’s Eye didn’t already have it in stock, then he’d get a priority shipment for relatively cheap.

In this case, the kind of crucible he needed was already something that Heaven’s Eye had in reserve.  For every blacksmith like Sid, Heaven’s Eye had many tools available, and to ensure that they could always do their work, those tools were often copied.  Leon’s crucible was something that was already present in Sid’s workshop, but after a quick word with Emilie’s assistants, he bought one of the reserve crucibles.

He wasn’t worried about diminishing their supply; it wouldn’t take long for another crucible to be manufactured and held in reserve, just in case Sid’s or anyone else’s ever broke.

His new crucible was as big as a large bathtub.  It was made of ceramics that, after being specially treated, looked almost like obsidian.  Along with that alchemical treatment, the entire outside surface of the crucible had been inscribed with thousands of runes to increase its strength and heat-retention properties.  Leon made sure to give all of these enchantments full inspections both before and after his purchase; he’d only get one shot at forging his armor before leaving for the wyvern hunt, and he didn’t want to screw this up and have to wait until after it was over for his second try.

But for all that anxiety, these were not the runes that had Leon most worried.  Those that inspired most of his nervousness were the ones that he’d devised with the personal assistance of the Thunderbird, and which he’d have to apply himself.  They were primarily light enchantments, but with a few water runes in there as well; a blood magic enchantment, designed to greatly aid the infusion of his power with the metal that would go within the crucible.

Leon picked up a few more specialized tools and less important materials, but then returned home, where Valeria had finished up with the labor golems.  Leon left his brand new crucible in the center of his workshop, ordered the golems to start moving most of his tools and other materials to the edges of his workshop, and then began inspecting the ward scheme he’d placed upon the building.

He’d need extreme heat for this project, enough heat to boil iron.  He had no earthly idea how dangerous gaseous iron was, but he decided to err on the side of caution and assume that the danger posed was beyond extreme.  The heat, at least, he could more easily guess and prepare accordingly.

For several hours, he devised a new enchantment scheme to place upon his workshop that should control the iron fumes, while also protecting the rest of his more sensitive equipment from the extreme heat.  He’d need some time to actually apply it, but that could wait.  For now, he needed the most important material for this project: his own blood.

To that end, over the next few days, Leon spent his time relaxing in his villa with Elise, Valeria, and Maia, spending as much time as he could with them as a way to apologize for being so distant while he was working on Sunlight.  At the same time, he was chugging potions brewed by Helen to stimulate blood and mana production in his body and reporting to a Heaven’s Eye healer every three hours for a blood magic ritual that would extract mana from his body.  The vat the mana was stored in was kept within his soul realm, and he only let it out when it needed to be filled; he didn’t want his mana leaving his control for even a moment.

When all was said and done, though, Leon had enough mana for his purposes.  He had a vat full of about twice as much mana as was in his body.  Bleeding that much, even with Helen’s potions and the skill of the healer who performed the extraction operation, Leon was still laid out for a few more days, resting from such bodily strain.

As he rested, he still had the strength to apply his new enchantments to his workshop, ensuring that as soon as he felt better, he could begin immediately.

And he couldn’t wait.  Adamant, he could almost taste the word on his lips.  The strongest and most powerful material in the universe.  It was metal infused with the blood of a living being, becoming almost like an extension of their being, and being damn near impossible to destroy, to boot.  As a happy bonus, adamant was an extremely versatile material, able to hold and retain enchantments from all elements with ease.

To create such a fantastic material was still beyond Leon’s abilities—it took a far more intensive ritual than the Thunderbird had taught him to create it, but he’d still be able to create something similar.  ‘Half-adamant’, he’d joked, and the Thunderbird had almost agreed, only refraining because the term implied something that the material wouldn’t be.  There was no such thing as half-adamant, what Leon would create would be something different, but with similar, if weaker, traits as adamant.

Leon finally began in his project a week after finishing Sunlight, and he couldn’t have been more excited or nervous.

---

As Leon stared at the crucible, its lip now glowing the blood magic enchantment that would infuse the power within his mana with the metal he was about to produce, the Thunderbird whispered soothingly into his mind.

[It’s all right,] she said.  [Even if you fail in this, is there anything stopping you from trying again?]

[It’s a lot of time to invest into something that may not work,] Leon replied in a shaky tone, feeling slightly more nervous than excited now that the time to begin had finally come.  [I just don’t want to mess this up and have it all be for nothing.]

[Even if you regard what you do today as a great success, in a century, after your skills improve, you’ll still look back on what you make today with derision,] the Thunderbird stated.

“That’s not guaranteed,” Leon responded aloud, hoping his voice would calm his nerves somewhat, “but I get your point.  After all of my preparations, investments in both time and money, I just don’t want to screw this up and then have to wait to try again.”

[I suppose that makes sense,] the Thunderbird replied.  [Just don’t be afraid of mistakes.  Own them, learn from them, but don’t fear them.]

Leon took a deep breath and nodded.

His two new labor bronze golems stood nearby, awaiting instruction.  They’d serve as forging assistants for this project, their enchanted bronze frames ideal for working in the harsh conditions that his workshop would soon be plunged into.

Valeria stood nearby, watching him with a grim expression.  “Ready for this?” she asked.

Leon nodded, and with a wave of his hand, the golems standing by began to fill the crucible with the alchemical iron from the Sunlight job.  His other materials were nearby, lying just outside of a thick circle of runes that would help the intense heat of Leon’s metallurgical production from destroying everything else in his workshop.  As he watched them work, Leon put on a simple silver necklace and felt its enchantment spring into effect.  It was a simple enchantment, but it was going to be vital to his safety: so long as he wore the necklace, the fumes from his metalworking would be unable to interact with his body, as if he were surrounded by a protective bubble of clean air.

Valeria walked over to him, kissed him on the cheek, wished him luck one more time, and then left him to his work.

Leon took a few more deep breaths as the golems finished filling the crucible with iron and began to fill it with other materials.

First was a crushed charcoal-like substance that would alloy with the iron to form steel when all was said and done.  After that came powdered crystalline dust that glowed with faint white light—quintessant sand, which carried quite a bit of light magic.

There were still two more materials, but they were to come later.  After the golems finished with the quintessant sand, he ordered one of them to pick up a huge enchanted ceramic rod taller than Leon and prepare to mix everything once the heat started to liquify it.  Then, with a wave of his hand, the vat he’d filled with mana appeared next to the crucible, and Leon ordered the other golem to pick it up and prepare to slowly pour it into the crucible.

And he needed it done very slowly.  There was a ton of magic power in all of that bright red mana, and it had to be carefully controlled if he was to succeed in creating a pseudo-adamant material.

It was at this point that he needed to start taking a more active role in the process.  With the golem holding the vat standing by, Leon summoned his fire magic and activated the powerful fire enchantments below the crucible.  Bright orange fire erupted from his fingers, surrounding the crucible and heating it extremely quickly.  In less than a minute, the crucible and its contents had already reached the point where the quintessant sand near the edges of the crucible was glowing red, but Leon knew this wasn’t even close to the temperature he needed.  Using his fire magic to control the heat, he increased the enchantment’s power and kept all of that heat firmly trapped within the crucible.

He was helped in this endeavor when the enchantment covering the outer surface of the crucible started to glow with arcane light, the runes filling with magic power when Leon channeled some of his spare power into them.  Using some of his own power, Leon sped up the process; fire poured out of him, and soon enough, the mixture in the crucible was almost entirely liquid.  Seeing this, Leon ordered the mixing golem to begin its work, and it diligently stuck the ceramic rod into the glowing liquid and began to mix.

Leon took a deep breath as fire streamed from his body and covered the crucible.  The enchantments he’d placed upon his workshop to protect it from this process were already hard at work, but he endured this heat all on his own, his fire magic ensuring that a truly hellish amount of heat would be needed to cause him serious harm.

[That’s sufficient,] the Thunderbird said into Leon’s mind as he continued to heat the crucible.  [Begin pouring your mana.]

Leon relayed her command to the vat-carrying golem, and it tilted the vat slightly over the crucible, letting Leon’s magic-infused blood drip into the metallic mixture only a few drops at a time.  With how large the vat was, Leon knew he was going to be here for a long time at that rate, but that was the price he had to pay to forge his armor from the best materials.

As the mana began to drip into the molten mixture, sparks of silver-blue lightning began to erupt from the metal’s surface.  Without missing a beat, Leon activated the blood magic enchantment on the crucible’s lip, which contained his power, preventing it from escaping from his blood.  He needed it infused with the steel, not released all over his workshop’s ceiling.

Drop after drop descended into the mixture, and hours passed.  Leon maintained his concentration as best as he could, but a few more lightning burns were added to his ceiling as proof that he slipped up a few times.  His mood was greatly buoyed when, as he continued his stream of fire, he thought he saw for just a moment a hint of black within his flames, but he blinked and it was gone.  He might’ve thought it just a trick of his imagination, an expression of the yearning that he felt for the Great Black Dragon’s power and the frustrations that he’d yet to learn anything new in the past ten years, but just as those thoughts entered his mind, a few black sparks burst from the metal in the crucible as a few more drops were poured in.

Leon tried his best to recreate that, but after a little while, he was forced to stop.  He needed his attention fully on the production process, he couldn’t let himself be distracted by anything, even if it was as great as the Great Black Dragon’s power manifesting for a moment.

Hours later, as the last drops of his blood dripped from the vat and into the crucible, the Thunderbird whispered, [Good, things are looking very good so far…]

Leon, thusly encouraged, smiled, and let his fires finally die down.  The crucible itself had received enough of his fiery attention to glow red, but the shining enchantments covering its surface did their job, allowing it to hold strong against even Leon’s prodigious fire magic.  He marveled at it for holding so strong even from that hint of black fire, but then he saw a miniscule crack in the ceramic.  It wasn’t damage enough to cause this process to fail, but it was something Leon was going to have to keep an eye on if he ever did this again.

[Keep your magic power under control…] the Thunderbird cautioned, pulling his attention back to the metal instead of the crucible.  Leon knew that she didn’t mean just the power in his body, but the power in the mana that had been poured into the crucible, as well.  He could still sense it, still control it if he needed to—it was still his mana, and the power contained within it still responded to his will.

But if he didn’t keep his mind in the game, then that wouldn’t last for long.  He could feel the mana flowing along with the steel mixture in the crucible, not quite mixing as he wanted it to.  So, in what was undoubtedly the most difficult part of this process, Leon redoubled his efforts to keep the blood magic enchantment working, while simultaneously forcing the mana within the crucible to bond with the molten metal.

It wasn’t easy; his mana tried to reject the bonding.  He could feel his own skin start to burn as if he were within the crucible, even though at his level and with his mastery of fire magic, he was practically immune to heat like this.  However, he kept pushing, envisioning his magic power like a hand that was crushing and compressing the mana and molten steel until they became one material.

Unfortunately, even with all of his preparations and power, he wasn’t quite able to control his power well enough, and some of it grew unstable and was lost as sparks of silver-blue lightning that rose from the molten mixture like fiery embers.

With a scowl, Leon focused everything he had on bonding his power with the steel.  He could feel the quintessant sand doing some work here, too, helping at least some of his mana bond to the steel almost like magnets, but he still strained.

The crucible began to shake, Leon’s actions putting more strain upon it than it had been under when he was heating the initial mixture.  The floor of Leon’s workshop, made of heavily reinforced concrete, weathered the shaking, but many of his tools and equipment in the workshop began to fly around like the workshop itself was being shaken by a callous giant.

Another bolt of lightning suddenly erupted from the molten metal, arcing up and over the rim of the crucible and striking the floor, taking some of the metal with it.  The metal cooled almost instantly, and the crucible was left with a long metal arch sticking out of it.

Leon gritted his teeth at the waste, but there was nothing to be done about it at this point, he could only focus on not wasting any more.

Within the crucible, he could feel the lightning magic he’d filled his mana with bursting from his mana, separating back into blood and magic power.  Great arcs of silver-blue lightning danced around the inner surface of the crucible, and he could hear the ceramic starting to crack even more.  It was designed for high temperatures, but this was a bit much for it to bear.

[It’s working!] the Thunderbird called out, and Leon wondered if it was just to encourage him.  He certainly needed it, for his forehead was wracked with sweat, and he was starting to feel uncomfortable in the immense heat spilling off the crucible.  His climate controls could only do so much, and it seemed that they were being overwhelmed from the sheer heat contained within his work area.

But he kept going, straining to control the fire, the heat, and the magic power within the metal.  Silver-blue lightning arced across the surface of the metal, dancing between the licks of nearly-white hot flame that sprouted here and there, a few of them black.

The process of bonding his magic power to the metal took more than three hours, and by the end, Leon was left panting and exhausted.  The metal in the crucible was still molten, but it had transformed into an almost marble-like substance, being primarily white with long streaks of black running through it.  It seemed to have an almost glassy surface, and faint arcane light shone from deeper within the metal.

With one last command, Leon ordered the golems to add the final two materials to the metal, which it would absorb as it was left to cool.  The first was silver dust, which Leon hoped would increase the pseudo-Adamant’s ability to channel magic power.  The second were the petals of as’si, a deeply unpleasant noxious flower whose stench hit Leon like a sack of bricks even though the petals had been soaking in manticore venom for more than a year—something which was supposed to make them safer to handle and dampen their stench.  The petals were disgusting things, but they’d float upon the glassy surface of his pseudo-Adamant as it cooled, slowly dissolving, and ensuring that his magic power remained bonded with the metal.

Finally, Leon had the labor golems put a lid over the crucible, creating a magic seal over it that would keep all foreign magic power out of the crucible until the process was complete.

And when that was done, Leon collapsed on the dirty floor of his workshop, his enchantments practically whirring around him as they handled the fumes and heat from the project.  Even with all of his eighth-tier power, it had taken him more than twelve hours of constant focus and expenditure of magic power; he was drained of energy.

[Well done,] the Thunderbird said from his soul realm, her voice practically bursting with pride.

“Thank you,” Leon whispered aloud.  “I can’t help but think that this whole process would’ve gone much more smoothly had I any skill in earth magic, though…”

[Of that, there’s no doubt,] the Thunderbird replied.  [An earth mage skilled in metallurgy can turn mundane ore into processed bullion without even needing heat.  If you were able to use more than the barest amount of earth magic, then you could’ve likely cut the time this process took in half, and that’s a conservative estimate.]

Leon nodded and half-groaned, half-hummed in agreement and appreciation.  “I’ll keep trying to get it down, but it’s damn difficult…”

Earth magic was essentially the polar opposite of all but darkness magic, in a certain sense.  In order to create elemental magic, a mage had to make their magic power flow through their body in ways that are reminiscent of the properties of that element.  To summon his lightning, Leon had to compress his magic power and then release it, letting it arc around his body like bolts of lightning.  For his fire, he had to gather his magic within his chest and let it radiate throughout his body like heat.  For water, his magic power had to flow through his circulatory system like a river, while his wind magic had to be like a gust of wind, circling through his body like a cyclone.  For light, meanwhile, his magic had to ‘shine’ through his body, something that Leon still found fairly difficult to grasp.  Darkness was similar, with his magic having to suffuse his body and cover him like a shadow.

All of these elements, with the sole exception of darkness, were essentially active and energetic uses of magic power.  To use earth magic, however, Leon had to slow down his magic, almost stopping its flow entirely.  His magic power had to imitate the stillness and solidity of stone.  It was heavy and ponderous, and it flew in the face of almost every single instinct and habit that Leon had built over his years of practicing fire and lightning magic, the most energetic of the elements.  It didn’t come at all naturally to him, and even after ten years of Sid almost literally beating the concepts into his head, he still struggled to so much as transform a pebble into a keeps piece.  Using earth magic to hasten metallurgical production was a long, long way in his future, assuming it was even there to begin with.

Leon eventually hobbled over to the chaise lounge he kept in his workshop and retreated into his soul realm.  The pseudo-Adamant had to sit for several hours as it cooled, and in that time, Leon had other things he needed to do.

He walked over to his worktable where the Thunderbird was already waiting.  Nestor’s ruby was nearby, and he could feel the dead man’s attention as he strode closer.

“Intriguing designs,” Nestor stated as Leon reached the table.  “I think they’ll do their job well, assuming you apply them properly.  Even a single miscalculation in size will ruin the whole—”

“I’m well aware of that,” Leon interjected.  To an outside observer, his worktable was in absolute chaos, with notes strewn everywhere and huge sheets of paper torn, cut, and taped together could be seen.  However, he could see the method behind the madness, and without a word, he sat down with several sheets of blank inscribing paper and began to painstakingly copy his completed designs onto them.

When he was finished, these sheets of inscribing paper had to burn their glyphs onto gemstones small enough to fit into slots on his forearm.  He couldn’t let them be too big, or they’d be cumbersome and vulnerable, so the gems were each roughly the size of the last digit on his pinky finger.  This meant that he had to write extremely small, and make sure that he was doing so in a way that the enchantment, which was written on a flat piece of paper, could be properly applied to the surface of a three-dimensional gemstone.

He'd been preparing for this for a long time, however, and his notes were extensive.  The stones he was using were perfectly spherical, making his measurements easier, and he’d made many measurements in the past ten years as he slowly came up with the designs for his new armor.  He was confident that he’d get this right.

As the minutes turned to hours, Leon steadily worked.  He didn’t finish before the Thunderbird eventually laid a hand on his shoulder and pulled him out of his work trance.

“Your metal should be ready,” she said.

Leon wordlessly nodded and set aside his work.  A moment later, he was back in front of the crucible as the golems lifted the lid and revealed the crucible’s contents.

Leon was more than a little startled to find that the crucible was almost entirely empty.  He’d known that the metal was going to shrink and compress itself, and some of it would likely boil away or otherwise be lost, but this was a little more drastic than he’d anticipated.

However, sitting on the bottom of the crucible was a large lump of pitch black, dirty-looking metal about the size of his torso—a tiny amount compared to the amount of iron he’d started with.  All the marble-like qualities appeared to have been lost as the metal cooled, but Leon could still sense an enormous amount of power within the lump.  It was dirty and dark to his physical eyes, but to his magic senses, it was like the crucible contained a fallen star, aglow with magic power.

More than that, if he concentrated hard enough, Leon thought he could feel the lump almost as if it were a part of his own body.

With great care, Leon reached into the crucible and pulled out the lump of metal.  It was tremendously heavy for its size, but with his eighth-tier strength, he could lift it without problems.

When it was brought out into the light, he realized that not all of the marble-like vein patterns had disappeared; there were a few vein-like patterns just barely visible below the crusty black outer layer, and he figured that after the metal was shaped and polished, more of those patterns would be revealed.

With a deep sigh, he laid the lump down next to his forging equipment.  He still had a few weeks left to get his armor made, and from what he could sense from this lump of metal, he was going to need every damned second.  He took just one more moment to prepare himself, and then he launched himself back into the forging process.

He wasn’t going to stop until he was finished, and he either had a new set of armor, or some very expensive scrap metal.

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