Magic_Smithing

Ch: 64

General Emily Pitz’s Point of View:

Like a specter, I glide across the rocky ground, hugging the canyon wall. The loose terrain doesn’t slow me down in the least as I climb the steep canyon walls.

I’m nearing Scholl’s camp as I come up to the first lookout position I scouted before they arrived. I personally searched for the best vantage points for our scouts to use while keeping in mind they might need an escape route should they be discovered.

Our scouts and Scholl...

Ch: 63

Kervin’s Point of View:

"We finally made it!" I cry out as we enter the inspection line to get into Teeburn. A few people passing by give me odd looks, but I don't care right now.

We traveled light and never stopped moving, and it still took us eight days to reach the city. We did break a record, though; we were attacked by bandits three times this trip. They swarmed us like flies, almost like they could smell the gold I was transporting.

I look over my shoulder at my good...

Ch: 62

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” I scream as I wake up within my soul.

I twitch on the simulated forest floor as pain overwhelms my entire being. I reach up and try to strangle myself and slam my head upon the ground, trying desperately to stop the pain in any way possible.

The forest around me is bubbling and shifting as it absorbs large whisps of experience that are floating throughout my soul.

The ground cracks, shatters, and mends itself countless times over.

“Make it st...

Ch: 61

"I'm going to run a little longer," I tell mother as she’s about to walk into our house.

Mother looks back at me, and I watch her face cycle through a wide range of emotions. Unease, doubt, worry, compassion, understanding, mother's eyes convey so much before she settles on a small smile. "Are you doing, ok?" Mother asks me in a soft voice.

I step forward and give her a big hug. She strokes my back and whispers, “You can talk to me if you need to,” In my ear.

“I’m ...

Ch: 60

"Staring at everything isn't going to magically attach them,” master jokes behind me.

“I know, I know,” I wave my left arm in dismissal in master’s direction, without taking my eyes off of the individual parts of the arrow in front of me.

A beautifully black dellinium arrowhead, the smooth tannish kaglese shaft, and three fechin feathers all lay next to one another.

When I woke up this morning, I was excited at the prospect of finishing the arrow, but now that I'm re...

Ch: 59

"I'm glad to see you are doing better; you had me worried yesterday." Mom fusses over me as we stop running.

“I’m sorry I made you worry,” I apologize profusely. The last thing I want to do is give mother a reason to worry about me.

"You can tell me anything; you know that, right?" Mom looks me in the eye while trying to catch her breath.

“I know,” I tell her. “And I promise to tell you everything after I finish the arrow for the general.”

My reassuring t...

Ch: 58

"Why…Won't… You… Break!" I slam my hammer down on the black rock as hard as possible and am only rewarded with a pebble-sized chunk of material chipping off.

For the last twenty minutes, I've been working on the mysterious black ore Mr. Grey traded to me, and I'm starting to realize why other smiths didn't want to purchase it. The damn thing is almost impossible to break even with my Strength stat.

“You can step in anytime, yeah know,” I give master a desperate look.

Ch: 57

“Are you sure you don’t want to stop by the village before you go?” I offer Reel the chance to rest before he returns to Drey.

“I have to get back to Kervin,” Reel quickly shoots down my offer. “Have you recovered?”

I stretch my arms across my chest. “I’m still a little sore, but I should be back to full strength by tomorrow.”

“Good,” Reel nods his head and turns around to start heading back the way we came.

"Thanks for running with me," I call ...

Ch: 56

Gods, my head hurts!

I roll onto my side, only to roll back again when my body tells me that it didn't help. Turning once more, I cringe when the skin of my arm touches something freezing. The sudden cold sends a biting sensation through my muscles, breaking my mind out of its haze. With my head clear, images of me raising my hands to activate my spell run through my mind.

The blanket wrapped around part of my body suddenly becomes more confining than comforting when I remember wh...

Ch: 55

“I’ll take that one.”

“And that piece.”

“That’s a good one right there,” I exclaim.

I move between crates, picking out the samples of ore that have the highest content of kaglese. The size of the sample doesn’t matter; as long as the rock has a higher content of the ore I need, I set it off to the side in a pile.

Once I pick out the best samples I can find from each crate of ore, I further narrow down my ore choice so that I’m taking back only the b...

Ch: 54

“May I get you something to drink?” Our waiter asks everyone at the table.

“Bring us a bottle of dragon blood wine and your freshest juice for the lady.” Mr. Grey orders for the table.

“Right away, Master Grey.” Our waiter gives us a crisp bow and leaves our private room.

“Is this the first restaurant you’ve been to?” Grey asks from across the table.

"The first one ever since I was born," I make sure to phrase it like that in case he has a lie-detecti...

Ch: 53

As I trail behind Kervin, we reach the double doors making up the entrance to Silver Herd’s Drey branch. Both doors are made from thick slabs of wood with no seams, indicating the doors were cut from a huge tree. Carved into the doors are etchings of bivol pulling wagons.

The bivol in the design is inlaid with a silvery metal that I haven't seen before. Sense Mana tells me the metal isn't silver itself, but I wouldn't put it past the person who designed this buildin...

Ch: 52

“I didn’t think you would have friends.” I playfully poke at Kervin.

“I wouldn’t call him a friend, more like a drinking buddy. I met Maz when I first started trading in Drey. His family owns a good bar that I frequent when I’m in town, and he noticed me from our lines of work. We usually spend time complaining about our jobs and drinking ourselves under the table. I can't think of a time we've hung out, and we weren’t drinking.”

I'm surprised ho...

Ch: 51

“How do you deal with having a sore ass all day?” I roll onto my side and complain to Kervin.

“My cushion helps a little, but you eventually just get used to it.” He tells me while keeping his eyes on the forest path.

"Maybe I should invest a few stat points into Endurance," I grumble under my breath.

“That won’t help you in the least.” I turn over and face my new unwanted best friend. Reel chuckles at the murderous look I give him. As usual,...

Ch: 50

Taking steady steps forward, I swing my sword in a horizontal slash.

Camden brings his sword up and blocks my strike. The sound of our wooden swords clashing reverberates across the village.

Our swords stay locked together, both of us looking for an opening.

I lean in and use my strength to push him back. Camden clenches his jaw and tries to match me. He takes a step back, and I gain the upper hand.

I take a step forward and swing my sword in a chopp...

Ch: 49

Sitting on top of my bed, I look at the various magical tools scattered across my sheets. I have my three best sketches of the runes I found in the light hat pinned to the wood to my left on the wall next to my bed. 

Since Kervin brought me the magic tools a week ago, I've been too busy to analyze them properly. I've already injected mana into each of them, and mother was thrilled when I showed her the water purifier and the enchanted knife.

I brought home ...

Vote For What You Believe In

I noticed a few people say that they aren't fans of the multiple pov changes. I feel that I should explain why I started focusing more on other people's pov.

This part of the story is mostly Aaliyah training her skills and crafting for the army. Instead of skipping straight to spring, I wanted to show people how she's affecting the world around her.

I have a lot planned for her when the seasons change but skipping right to it seems like a disservice to the st...

Ch: 48

“What’s the rush?” Master questions me as I pull him through the trees still surrounding our village.

I scan our surroundings for any hidden beasts and try to spot the abnormality I witnessed earlier.

Whatever caused the mana to react the way it did must have already vanished amongst the trees. Usually, I would be sad about missing a possible magic material to work with, but I have bigger things to worry about right now.

“Something happened with yo...

Ch: 47

“You guys know the plan, right?” I whisper to master and Ronald. Leaning around the tree I’m hiding behind; I use Sense Mana to confirm the chameleon spider hasn’t moved.

"We're ready to cover you," Master says from a tree to my left. I look to my right at Ronald, and he gives me a nod of confirmation.

Here goes nothing.

I stealthily make my way closer to the hidden magic beast. This would be incredibly dangerous by myself, but with master and Rona...

Ch: 46

Kervin's Point of View:

I snap the reins controlling my bivol, ushering them to pick up more speed. Bivol are brisk walkers on a good day, and it's only due to the selective breeding the Silver Herd Company experimented with in their early days that mine are trained to keep a steady pace.

Depending on what happens in the next few hours, I might be promoted and awarded some of their prized bulls, or I might be looking to buy my own after being fi...

Ch: 45

Del-Razen's Point of View:

"What do you think, Master?" I hear Aaliyah's voice next to me.

I pretend to wake up and slowly open one of my eyes. In her hands are two ingots that are 1'' x 1'' x 4''. Both of the ingots are steel mixed with pieces of chameleon spider carapace.

"I think I improved the ratio a little bit better." Her smile is so bright I'm forced to close my eye again momentarily as she shows off her achievement. "This one has ...

Ch: 44

Kervin's Point of View:

"From road to road, from trail to trail."

"Merchants roam, searching for a sale."

"Everything has a price, anything for gold."

"Our carts are full; everything must be sold."

"How did that sound?" I glance at my two guards Lurte and Ryiba.

"We're nearing Teeburn. It would be wise for you to remain quiet. We need to listen for Scholl spies that could be hiding nearby." Lurte warns me from my right wi...

Ch: 43

"So, now that I have an empty pen, what do I fill it with?" I ask Master Del while I clean up our work station.

Master turns his head to the side, watching me clean up. He took up his usual position on his favorite bench after finishing my engraving pen. "Magic stuff." I'm amazed he can say that with a straight face.

"I guessed that much already. I mean, what is the ink I'm supposed to use made of?" I might have been angrier at his evasiveness towards my questio...

Ch: 42

Author’s Notes:

Updated Ch:41. Tried to make the transition in the beginning easier. Also, the contract was changed slightly. Let me know if it sounds better with the update.

**********

“See you tonight, mom.” I give mom a hug goodbye and walk outside our house.

For once there aren’t any dark clouds looming overhead. It’s rare to get a clear sky this early in winter. The sun rays of early dawn bounce across the snow-cover...

Ch: 41

“How is the processing of the chameleon spider from this morning coming along, Nicolas?” Everyone in the drawing room turns to Camden’s son.

The poor man wipes a bit of sweat from his brow and straitens his posture before he answers his father. “Because the creature was slain on the outskirts of the village, I gathered as many spare hands as I could to dismantle the beast. The carapace and salvageable materials are being set aside as we speak and should be rea...

Ch: 40

Focus.

I feel my mana envelop my body. Mana Skin activates and I focus my senses on how it conveys the mana to perfectly cover my frame. Mana Skin has been stuck at level 40 for three weeks now and I need it to reach the next level.

I’ve tried compressing the barrier Mana Skin makes but the barrier only weakens after I compress it a certain degree.

I took today off to give myself the extra time needed to pass the test. Things have been hectic over these ...

Ch: 39

“Damn! They spotted us,” I shout. 

The three of us rush towards the headman’s house. We circled the forest surrounding the village so we could drop the materials from the chameleon spider off at Del’s house. We were hoping without being weighed down by the materials we could easily make it to Camden’s house without being spotted.

None of us wanted to interact with the nervous villagers after the tense four days we spent in the forest.

Ch: 38

Notice:

I want to apologize for my last two chapters. It was pointed out in a comment that it seemed like I hadn’t done my research for my crafting. I admit I fell through with my research. I spent the day watching some of the videos people pointed out to me and I have to say, I have a new respect for archery. Thank you, for pointing out the flaws I had in my work.

I can’t perfectly change everything because I’m dealing with the fantasy as...

Ch: 37

Authors Notes:

New!: Changed the spear crafting a little and the reason why Aaliyah is having trouble with the sword.

So, I got a lot of feedback on the last chapter. It felt like people were evenly divided between liking the chapter and the other half giving me excellent advice on how I should tackle future pov changes. I want to say that I appreciated everyone’s comments, immensely. I said it once and I’ll say it again t...

Ch: 36

Silvia’s (Aaliyah’s Mom) Point of View:

I make my way over to the headman’s front door after I give my husband a farewell hug and kiss goodbye.

I knock on the door three times before I turn my head to see my husband and daughter vanish out of my sight. Be safe you two.

The door swings open and Nicolas’s eyes go wide when he sees me here. “Welcome Mrs. Silvia… what do I have the pleasure of helping you with today?” He still lo...