Benvari Mountains (Emerilia Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  He rubbed his tired eyes, conjuring blades within his right hand and destroying them in a few moments. He conjured Mithril, taking a good few seconds even for a square inch and a good third of his personal Mana stores.

  He collapsed it, getting back half of his power, and repeated the process over again. He could conjure most things on a whim now. Legendary and above items at higher than D class quality were a lot harder to do, but anything less he could do with barely a thought.

  His smithing and understanding of different materials had changed everything.

  He held up a new piece of Mithril he’d conjured.

  Party Chat

  Dave > Malsour, how do you move metal with magic?

  Malsour > I use a spell called Metal Bending. I can send you a book that will teach it to you, if you’re interested?

  Dave > If you could, that would be awesome. While I can conjure things, once I have it in its final form, I have to destroy it again before I change it. I want to see if I could alter it once it’s conjured using Metal Bending.

  Malsour > Sending Trade request

  Trade Request: Malsour

  Malsour would like to trade:

  1x Spellbook – Metal Bending

  For: -

  Do you accept?

  Y/N

  “Yes.” The spell book transferred into his inventory. Dave looked to the inventory bar at the bottom of his interface and selected it.

  The spell book floated in mid-air. Dave grabbed it and read the first page. The pages moved faster and faster and he knew how to cast Metal Bending.

  The book turned to dust and floated away.

  New Spell: Metal Bending

  Effect: Bend metal to your will.

  Cost: 10 Mana/s

  Affinity: Earth 5, Dark 5, Fire 5

  “Wow, that’s quite a few Affinities it needs in order to work. Going to need to figure out how to use it with Touch first before I can cast it at a distance.” Dave conjured a piece of iron and focused on turning the sheet into a ball.

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” Dave smiled as the sheet bent inward on itself, forming a ball and sealing together. It was hard to control and it would be some time until he could get it to be as fine as he wanted it to be.

  Maybe it will work better if I use soul energy?

  Dave concentrated on his soul energy, forcing it into the spell. Runes started to form on the ball. They were small and detailed on the inside and outside of the ball.

  “Hmm, well, it’s a bit rough, rougher than what I would be willing to accept, but it is much more detailed than I would get with just using my regular Mana.” Dave rolled the ball around in his hand as he collapsed it and then started on a piece of steel, replicating what he had done with the iron.

  “It seems my knowledge of the different materials has an effect on the quality of my metal bending.” He used soul energy to bend the steel, turning it into a perfect ball as runes formed on the inside and outside of the metal.

  For hours, he sat there, using his soul energy and adapting his knowledge of smithing to metal bending. It was like conjuring but with the ability to alter the creation. He still needed to work on the Mithril, but after so many failures, he was taking a day to relax to think things over.

  ***

  Jesal looked in on Dave, watching him forming swords out of nothing.

  That boy has some incredible gifts. She shook her head. She was about to walk away as she saw runes form on the outside of the sword with silver metal that Dave had conjured, moving as if it were living and filling the engravings.

  Jesal’s eyes went wide as she extended her senses into the room using Aura sense. She saw Mana as a silvery color when being used, but the sword and the silver wasn’t silver; it was gold.

  “He’s using soul energy to form it,” she whispered to herself, squinting at the blade in his hand.

  Steel Sabre

  Quality: B

  Damage: 68

  Abilities: Soul Trap

  Charge: 10/120

  Durability: 29/29

  Materials: Ebony, Steel, Silver, Gold

  As Jesal had come to know weapons more, her appraisal skill had allowed her to not only see the information on a weapon without a person’s permission, but she also knew what materials went into forging the material.

  That is rather complex. She didn’t see the ebony on the outside of the blade, meaning that it must’ve been hidden in the center. The runes on the outside were not perfect—there were a few mistakes here and there—but for being formed without tools, they were excellent.

  The kind of mental control it takes to get soul energy to form runes of that quality—I doubt many others could replicate it. It probably has to do with how he conjures items. He needs to memorize so much information that now it’s much easier for him to think of all of those details.

  The silver finished filling the sword’s runes.

  Dave looked it over and spun the blade in his hand as if checking out his work.

  It evaporated into thin air as a piece of silver appeared a few moments later. It turned into what looked like a tower with a flat bottom. There were words and letters on the side with windows at the top of the tower.

  Jesal would never know that she was looking at a model space rocket, though she could see the detail and skill that it took to form such a thing, gold and steel being added in to represent different contours and lines.

  “Using his understanding of the material in combination with his ability to imagine—is this his smithing art?” Jesal stood there, watching as he made a half-dozen different things before he looked up and noticed that she was there.

  “Sorry. Was just trying something new out. Haven’t been having much luck with the Mithril.” Dave looked sheepish.

  “Don’t be. A smith needs to know when to work and when to take a break to collect their thoughts. You won’t make your best blade when you’re half asleep and brain dead from working for seven days straight.” Jesal walked into the smithy.

  “Thanks. It’s just that it’s being such a pain. I know what I need but it forms its bonds so quickly that I don’t have the time to keep it in a bendable state.” Dave sighed.

  Jesal had a thoughtful look on her face as she looked at Dave. “How long have you been playing with that alteration spell?”

  “The metal bending?” Dave asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “A few hours. I realized that only having the ability to form something without being able to modify that form afterwards would make it a pain in battle. Having to form and reform blades just because I want an extra few inches of metal? Kind of annoying.”

  “I want you to try something new. Do you have a spell that deals with heat?” Jesal asked.

  “Deals with heat in what way?”

  “Makes it so that you can put your hand into something really hot, or to touch something really hot.”

  It was Dave’s turn to look thoughtful as he scratched his beard. “Well, I could use the Fire ability and make a kind of glove that would allow me to push heat away from my hand. I don’t know how good it would be for touching, though. Don’t really have something that would keep the heat from my fingers.”

  “What if you conjured a piece of bonded Mithril onto your finger?”

  “That would work.” Dave nodded. “Why?”

  “I want you to try to use Metal Bending on Mithril.”

  “I was just playing around with it. I don’t know how good it would be with that,” Dave said.

  “Who’s the teacher here? Try it out.”

  Dave didn’t say anything for a few moments before he shrugged. “Fine, might as well give it a go.” Dave pulled out his distortion gem and focused his soul energy through it.

  Soul energy was hard to deplete as long as you had big stores of normal Mana and a high Willpower, though its toll on the mind was heavier as you were using power from what held your consciousness together. Using too much could lead to headaches. In extreme cases, peopl
e had passed out and others had gone into coma states for a few days to recover from the overuse of their soul energy. Dave had been training his soul energy and keeping away from spending too much of it in one go, building up his tolerance and allowing him to use more and more.

  It took a few minutes before the bonds were destroyed.

  Dave quickly put the rough breastplate and unformed ingot into the forge. He had about five minutes before it started to re-bond. With the added heat, it would become as pliable as heated steel and increase the time he could form it from five minutes to ten. Dave shifted the breastplate and rough ingot around in the forge, making sure it heated evenly.

  “Now, don’t pull it out. Instead, I want you to reach in there and touch it, using your Metal Bending. With it in the forge, you should get a few extra minutes before you need to break the bonds once again,” Jesal yelled over the forge’s noise.

  “Okay!” Dave yelled back, clearly doubtful.

  They waited a few more minutes as the Mithril went from silvery white to gray.

  Flames sprouted around Dave’s hand, a piece of conjured Mithril on his forefinger. The flames around his hand made a channel of cool air, cycling it through while keeping the other flames at bay. Dave closed his eyes as he placed his finger on the rough Mithril breastplate.

  Jesal felt the hair on the back of her neck rise as Dave’s aura went from blinking silver to glowing silver, channeling Mana to make the rough changes on the Mithril. In the forge, the Mithril twisted and formed.

  His silver aura showed gold flecks in it as he started to use soul energy for some of the finer details.

  Standing next to Dave was like standing next to a magical furnace with all of the energy that was pouring off him.

  “Abscondita.”

  Jesal barely heard the words as Dave’s armor appeared over his clothes.

  The room seemed to shake with the magical and soul energy that he expended now. The Abscondita did a good job of hiding it but there was too much for even it to hide.

  Dave looked like a new star being formed. Gold outlined his body, with a silver shadow around it. His tattoos lit up with the mix of soul and Mana energies.

  Jesal saw them through his shirt and lighting up his neck from underneath his armor. They were brightest down the length of his arm and into the furnace.

  Dave’s eyes snapped open, twin glowing silver orbs as he looked at the transforming Mithril that was trying to fight him and reform its bonds. “Form.” The single word was quiet, but the power behind it felt as if it could shift mountains and divide seas.

  Jesal watched as the Mithril obeyed Dave’s commands.

  The aura around Dave slackened as Dave pulled his finger off the thin sheets of Mithril. He stepped back from the forge, his legs shaking before he fell to his knees.

  “I think…I’m going to… take… a nap.” With that, Dave’s eyes rolled back and he fell to his side.

  Jesal caught him before he fell all the way.

  “Heavy bastard!” she complained, holding him by the collar of his breastplate as she lowered him slowly to the smithy’s floor.

  “Well, aren’t one to do things by half-measures. Let’s see what you’ve done.” She moved to the forge, blinking to try to clear her eyes of the silver and gold outlines in her vision. Her eyes widened in shock as she blinked a few more times, as if trying to understand what she was seeing.

  She quickly grabbed two tongs and stuck them in the forge, pulling out four connected pieces of Mithril. She pulled them out, the Mithril already cooling now that it had re-bonded. Not even the hottest fires could get it to melt without breaking those grid-shaped bonds first.

  She held them all up. There were two back and breast plates. Each one looked as though it were form-fitted. She glanced from the largest breastplate over to Dave’s chest.

  “Well, I think that we’ve found your smithing art.” She smiled, turning the breastplates over, and looked at the fine runes that had been carved into the Mithril. They were written out in boxes instead of circular formations, lining up with the grid format of the Mithril.

  She might not understand it, but to a coder on Earth, it might look oddly familiar but with different characters than they were used to.

  Jesal put the Mithril down on the bench. “Gorrund!” she yelled through the smithy, toward where Gorrund was working with one of the Dwarven master hopefuls.

  He finished talking with them as Jesal traced over the runes. The Mithril was just five millimeters thick.

  “By Anvil and Fire.” Gorrund moved around Jesal and looked at the front and back pieces of armor.

  “He found his smithing art.” Jesal looked to Gorrund. “He’s a Soul Smith.”

  Gorrund looked at the cuirasses’ interiors, flipping them over. It looked simple on the outside, smooth and well formed. Only the well-trained eye could see it was not simple, but exquisite. The metal had been spread out perfectly, no area with more or less; it was even brighter than other pieces as it was as smooth as malachite.

  “I’ve seen Mithril not this well formed after months of work,” Gorrund said.

  The soul energy and limited amount of time that a smith could work with the material meant that it was hard to not only make Mithril into a shape, but to give it a quality finish. Even roughly formed Mithril was worth five times its weight in gold simply because it could beat nearly any other weapon.

  For a while, they just simply looked over the four pieces in front of them. Smithing was a passion and a way of life to them. When seeing the piece that Dave had created, they didn’t feel jealousy—they felt pride in Dave’s accomplishments and excited to try to beat his efforts.

  “Well, I think when he gets up, it’ll be time to give him his last metal and his invitation,” Gorrund said after a few minutes.

  “Couldn’t agree more,” Jesal said proudly.

  “Loren, Mox—come pick Dave up and take him to his room!” Gorrund bellowed.

  The two hopefuls wandered over. Their eyes widened as they looked at the Mithril pieces on the workbench.

  “Get him checked out by the healers and in bed. Make sure you do it right and I might even let you have a look at his final exam piece,” Gorrund said.

  “Yes, Master,” Loren said.

  “Get his legs!” Mox quickly moved to grab Dave by the shoulders.

  “Be gentle!” Jesal warned. She turned to Gorrund. “Well, it looks like we have a ceremony to prepare.” Jesal grinned.

  “’Bout time we had some new blood in the council.”

  Chapter 31: A Quest of Anvil and Fire

  Dave woke up and looked around his quarters.

  “Shit, I must have passed out. Knew I was using too much soul energy, even when I was drawing from Abscondita. Hopefully the armor was a bit better than the last three times.” Dave sighed and looked at the ceiling.

  His notifications were blinking, so he opened them.

  Active Skill: Builder

  Level: Master Level 1

  Effect: 85% speed and efficiency. Creations’ material cost is reduced by 5%.

  Required: Tools

  Active Skill: Smithing

  Level: Master Level 3

  Effect: 91% improved quality of smithing creation. 15% Chance to imbue metal with skill. Able to analyze items made of Stone, Iron, Steel, Silver, Malachite, Gold, Ebony, and Mithril.

  Active Skill: Soul Manipulation

  Level: Master Level 1

  Effect: Tools you make to manipulate souls and their energy are 85% stronger. Able to use Soul energy to fuel spells. 5% increase to soul energies’ reserves (can only be used for spells, does not act as extra Willpower points).

  Cost: Dependent on creation.

  Level 62

  You have reached Level 62; you have 295 stat points to use.

  Stat Increase

  +3 Intelligence

  +5 Willpower

  +3 Endurance

  He was impressed with the different notifications. His eyes lingere
d on the Building skill notification the longest.

  “I wonder if that will carry over to conjured items?”

  Even with these thoughts, he didn’t want to get out of bed, knowing that he would have to come face to face with his latest Mithril failure. Not going to do anything just lying here and looking at the ceiling. He pushed off the bed and got to his feet.

  “Shower and then down to the smithy to see what the hell I made.” Dave wandered into the shower and washed off the grime. For the last couple of weeks, he had practically lived in the smithy. He pulled on new clothes and tossed the old ones into a garbage chute that the Dwarves used throughout the mountain. He numbly ate some jerky as he headed out into the mountain.

  “I really hope that I get to show Deia inside one of these places once.” Dave looked at the different levels as Dwarves moved around everywhere, going about their day as trains, carts, and elevators moved constantly, shifting people throughout the mountain.

  As he walked, he studied his character sheet.

  Character Sheet

  Name:

  David Grahslagg

  Gender:

  Male

  Level:

  3

  Class:

  -

  Race:

  Human/Dwarf

  Alignment:

  Chaotic Neutral

  Unspent points-290

  Health:

  2,600

  Regen:

  2.20/s

  Mana:

  1,460

  Regen:

  6.55/s

  Stamina:

  720

  Regen:

  3.40/s

  Vitality: