Chapter 1690: The Right Alloy For the Job
Wisemen say that with enough determination and grit, even the clumsiest of fools can become a savant in the fine arts.
This is only partially correct.
Despite what people say, innate talent is still something someone needs in order to be good at something.
This isn’t a bad thing, mind you, but it does help someone figure out the difficulty of their road to mastery.
A man with no talent for the blade would have to work twice to three times as hard as someone with innate talent.
In other words, a man with no talent can defeat the talented with enough dedication, but a man who has both will be one unrivalled.
-The words of the vagabond.
...
’Logos, Pathos, what the fuck am I staring at?’
<=Blast it with [Ghost Fire] and find out.=>
’Fuck it, fine.’
...
FWOOSH
"Hey! Warn somebody before you do that!" Axer yelped as he leaped away from the flames radiating heat and death in equal measure.
When this unremarkable chunk of rock was left in the library’s forge, Axer was the first to go about examining it.
In his eyes, and based on his own experience, there wasn’t anything really remarkable about it. He couldn’t sense anything with his aether, and when he tried to melt it down, the damn thing didn’t do anything other than glow red and hot. In other words, he thought it was a fluke.
However, Axer had also been around the Library long enough to understand that when Zhen Liu decided to do something weird with an object that others had written off as being unimportant, there was probably a good reason behind it.
And the fact that he was sensing a strange type of aether filling the room and saw the rock before him undergo a weird transformation proved to be a valid enough reason for Zhen Liu’s weird actions.
"Uh...am I going crazy, or is there a weird energy coming off of it?" Lythero commented as soon as he also noticed the weird shadow being cast by Zhen Liu’s ghostly flame engulfing the ore.
Little by little, second by second, the ore was transforming and refining into a type of metal that neither Lythero nor Axer had ever seen before.
"Alright, that should be enough," Zhen Liu declared moments before turning off the [Ghost Flame] and extinguishing the remaining fiery remnants. What was initially a strange, cream-colored chunk of rock was replaced with an ingot made of a bone-white-colored metal.
Despite not knowing what the new metal was, both Lythero and Axer could at least conclude one important detail: this thing was definitely the most cursed piece of metal that they had ever gotten their hands on to this date.
And that included the billets of [Malevolent Gold].
"Zhen Liu, what the fuck am I staring at?" Lythero asked.
"Underworld Bone Iron," Zhen Liu answered as he coated his hand in [Chaos] and picked up the burning hot metallic bone. As it rested in his hands, both Lythero and Axer could sense that the iron bone seemed to want to rip apart any trace of vitality in it. Unfortunately for it, [Chaos] was a powerful deterrent.
"The curators told me this stuff could only be found in a part of the Umbral Spider continent known as the Deadlands," Zhen Liu explained as he kept the metal bone in one hand and drew his [Hammer of the Dearly Departed] in the other. "In the right hands it can be used to create [Naraka Steel] or [Stygian Steel], both of which are products able to injure body and soul but in very different ways. The former burns away at one’s soul, while the other absorbs it."
"Well, that’s terrifying."
"Wait a minute," Lythero interjected. "I am fairly certain my aether attribute is sun, not underworld or death or whatever the fuck that metallic bone is aligned with. So what gives?"
"That is correct," Zhen Liu said as he held the two items and looked over the other pieces of ore and alloys that had been broken free by Lythero’s sword wave. With a wave of his hammer, Zhen Liu picked up several of the pieces with his [Chaos] and brought them over to a table alongside the original piece of Underworld Bone Iron.
"However, the products I just listed are the most common uses as made by the people who live in or near the Deadlands. There are actually a myriad of ways to use Underworld Bone Iron, but the most relevant one is something that actually aligns with your affinity...and this."
With a snap of his fingers, Zhen Liu summoned a small mote of the [Flame of Ambition], the same flame that started this entire conflict.
Needless to say, Lythero and Axer were surprised by the flame’s appearance.
"Whoa!"
"Wait, wasn’t that stuff absorbed by Serena and the [Sacred Flame]?" Lythero asked.
"Most of it, yes," Zhen Liu confirmed. "But this little bit escaped. And once it’s used for this, it’ll be gone forever."
Zhen Liu proceeded to gather up the [Underworld Bone Iron] and several other minerals known for containing traces of sun aether and engulf the lot in what remained of the [Flame of Ambition] and a bit of his own [Ghost Flame].
Axer instinctively flinched, his own training understanding that any materials with death aether or Caligos aether had a tendency to react poorly or not at all to the presence of Ignarii or Luxarii aether. This was especially the case when sun aether was involved.
However, that didn’t happen.
For reasons beyond either of their understandings, the mishmash of materials didn’t immediately explode. Instead, they started to synergize in a really weird way.
"What the fuck..."
Thankfully, Zhen Liu had been given an explanation and was more than happy to share the reason with the others.
"This may very well be lost history, but some cultures around the world share the same story, the same idea, of the sun travelling through the underworld for one reason or the other. A metaphor for death and rebirth, needing to rest, or even to just give hope to the dead. To remind them that there is still light and hope in their life."
As if to help emphasize these words, the glowing ball of molten ore started to rapidly change colors as the aura of it went from ominous to oddly comforting...with a touch of vicious judgement.
"Now, I tell you this story because a long time ago, there was another source of Underworld Bone Iron, and that source became the backbone of an empire that was once known as the Ghost Sun Empire."
"Wait, seriously?!"
"Bullshit..."
As natives to Dozing Salamander, Lythero and Axer had heard of the Ghost Sun Empire, but to them, it was nothing more than a dark fairytale or an evil myth.
The Ghost Sun Empire was a time when both the Dozing Salamander continent and Umbral Spider continent were dominated by a warlord known as the Ghost Sun Emperor.
The Ghost Sun Emperor had managed to reach the peak of Aether Demigod, but failed to make that final push into becoming a full Aether Deity.
His death lead to a near instantaneous collapse of his empire, which was then followed by a massive war that spanned the two continents that only came to an end when the strip of land connecting the two continents was sunk to the bottom of the ocean...at least, that’s what the old stories said.
Then again, they also thought the Kaijin Lord and deities were myth up until a couple weeks ago, so the Ghost Sun Empire being real, alongside that aformentioned sunken land bridge, was well within the realm of possibility.
"Part of the reason why the Ghost Sun Empire managed to maintain its power for so many years was due to their warriors being armed with weirdly potent weapons," Zhen Liu continued. "And what you’re about to see is one such alloy."
Zhen Liu kept the fire burning for a couple more moments before letting out a shout and swinging his hammer down on the molten ore.
An eerie cold wind immediately ripped through the room as the flames was extinguished and a singular dull metal ingot was left on the table.
However, to the spiritual senses of everyone in the room, this ingot felt as if someone combined the overwhelming heat of a desert sun and the chilly breath of a grim reaper that had their scythe ready to reap.
"Netherworld Sun Steel," Zhen Liu said as he gestured to the alloy. "Guaranteed to rip through flesh, spirit, stone, and metal like they’re were nothing more than wet tissue paper."
Lythero didn’t even respond to the claim. He simply walked up to the table and held ingot in his hands as if it was the missing piece to his soul.
"This...this metal is perfect," Lythero said as he turned it over and felt as if he was staring into a vast, otherworldly landscape. "Can you make this into my personal sword?"
Zhen Liu cracked a smile at the question.
"Yes, but that will have to wait until I get what was promised to me."