Chapter 1689: Picking the Right Rock
Pathos said with evident pride.
=Because of the fact that he uses ideas and technologies from his old world in weird ways?=
=Probably.=
=Meh. I wouldn’t worry too much. Our Lord is going to have an opportunity to incorporate such power in the future. Provided everything with the Stormsingers go his way.=
...Now back to Zhen Liu...
"If you want Lythero to pick a sword to base his own fighting style around," Axer began to explain as he led Zhen Liu and Lythero deeper into the Library’s force. "then you gotta start with the materials first. The style of blade comes after, not before."
Despite only being a guest, Axer had settled in quiet nicely into the Library’s forge and had already made use of the quirks of the building to turn the place into his home away from home.
Well, maybe his permanent home given all that went down in Rainbowden.
Regardless, Axer led Zhen Liu and Lythero to the portion of the forge where he had stored all of the materials Zhen Liu had marked for crafting purposes and not kaijin purposes.
It took him a matter of moments to pull out several chunks of unrefined ore, fully formed billets, and alloy bars that were much greater than the sum of their parts.
The innate aether properties of these components were actually so potent that they had to be kept in special bubbles made from [Chaos] to keep them in check.
"When did you learn how to do this?" Zhen Liu asked as he grabbed one of the bubbles and noticed that the [Chaos] composing it was a close match to Axer’s aura.
"I have been dropping in on those lessons that the curators organized for the kids," Axer explained. "So I learned how to use [Chaos] to an extent. It’s a lot...weirder than aether."
"Kind of the point."
"The curators also helped out. They made sure that each bubble was made to exacting circumstances and would only react to certain stimuli. Whatever that meant."
"Oh boy."
"Hmmm."
Lythero wasn’t paying attention to the banter happening around him, as he was more focused on the myriad of materials floating before him.
He had a tangential idea of what to do, but he still asked the forge master himself to see if his gut instincts were correct.
"So...how do I pick out which material is right for me?" Lythero asked. "Do I just grab one and say it’s good? Or is there like some kind of ancient ritual?"
"Well, for starters, you’re going to need to pop the bubble. Like this."
Axer proceeded to stand where Lythero was and began channeling [Chaos] into his fist. With a swing, he released a wave of energy that washed over the bubbles and caused several of them to pop.
The freed materials then fell to the ground, surprisingly unphased by the sudden change in conditions.
"If you take a close look at the materials I just popped, they should all have dense Ignarii aether structures mixed with a little Aquarii aether," Axer said as he picked up a bubbly-looking piece of ore. "See?"
The ore Axer had picked up was known as [Bubbling Bismuth], a minor grade aether ore used in the production of [Boiling Bronze], an alloy favored by those who happen to wield both Ignarii and Aquarii aether.
A quick scan of the other materials confirmed that they were of a similar nature to [Bubbling Bismuth], or were materials that could enhance the unique characteristics of the aforementioned metal.
"So, all you need to do is blast a wave of aether or [Chaos], whatevere you’re comfortable with and pop these bubbles," Axer elaborated while waving a hand and rebubbling the materials he had just freed. "This initial test should help us figure out what kind of materials you’re compatible with first before we move on to picking out what you need the most."
"Okay..." Lythero nodded as he shook his arms and legs in preparation.
After doing so, Lythero began to concentrate a mix of aether and [Chaos] in his hands until they formed a visible ball of energy.
Once it was condensed enough, Lythero let out a shout as he released a wave of energy similar to Axer’s...and popped absolutely nothing.
"What..."
"...the..."
"...fuck?"
Needless to say, all three of the people present for this moment were confused as fuck.
"Did I not concentrate enough power or something?" Lythero asked the others as he stared at his hands. "It definitely felt like I did."
"That was definitely a bigger wave than what I produced earlier," Axer concurred. "Maybe it’s something else?"
Zhen Liu was quiet for a brief few moments before, surprisingly, providing an answer.
"Hold up...I think I know what’s wrong," Zhen Liu declared while walking over to a barrel of weapons.
As part of a shopping spree in Rainbowden, Zhen Liu and his friends also bought a whole bunch of regular weapons and trinkets that the former wanted to use as materials for...basically everything.
Making aether treasures from mundane objects, seeing what kind of zakos pop out, kaijin materials, that sort of thing.
"No...no...ah! This should work."
From the barrel, Zhen Liu pulled forth a simple scholar sword done in the Roaring Tide style. It was one of those blades meant to showcase grace and technique moreso than brute force.
"Here. Try doing that wave thing again but with this," Zhen Liu said while tossing the blade in Lythero’s direction.
Quick as a wink, Lythero grabbed the sword from the air with practice ease and weighed it in his hands for a couple of moments.
Once he had settled the blade in his grip, Lythero did as instructed.
This time, there was a noticeable difference.
The amount of aether and [Chaos] was the same as before, but the power behind it somehow seemed denser and grander.
When he swung the blade and released the energy wave, this time, a whole mess of bubbles popped one after the other.
Lythero looked confused over this sudden shift in results, while Axer looked enlightened.
"Damn, I knew you were a swordmaster, but I didn’t expect you to be that hyper specialized," Axer commented.
"Weh?"
"This was one of those lesser known things of cultivation, but when a warrior starts to focus on a particular style of combat, their ability to leverage their aether in other ways start to weaken," Zhen Liu explained after receiving an invisible intelligence primer from Logos and Pathos. "However, the hyper specialization also makes them really powerful when leveraging arts and techniques that focus on that particular style. In other words, if we give you a sword, you could probably punch several times above your weight class. But if we ask you to fight without one, you’re going to get your ass kicked."
Lythero stared at the sword in his hand after this comment, fully realizing just how handicapped he had been up until this point.
It was a damn good thing his [Astra] took the form of a sword.
"Okay, but now that we know what we’re dealing with, that makes making your sword an even greater priority than before," Axer commented as he started to look over the materials. "Huh...weird. Most of these materials got a heavy emphasis on Ignarii aether but they’re all...mixed with stuff. I guess it’s an influence from your masters? This might make making your sword harder than—"
But before Axer could finish his comment, a singular bubble a few feet away from his suddenly popped and dropped it’s content directly to his right.
This delayed popping caught the attention of everyone in the room due to just how...random it was.
The identity of the material then threw them for an even greater loop.
"Is that...a rock?" Lythero asked.
"Yeah, I’m going to be honest, the curators established the bubbles for most of them. I just know how to reapply them when needed. This one had a really thick bubble for some reason," Axer admitted. "Despite me saying that it was worthless."
The aforementioned rock didn’t radiate any power that Axer or Lythero could notice, and was picked up by the others during the Rainbowden spending spree as part of a bulk box purchase. However, Zhen Liu could sense that this rock was more than meets the eye. It just needed the right stimuli.
"Anyways, I think we can just poke through the rest of the—"
[Ghost Flame: Chaos Edition!]
"Bwah!"
Before Axer could finish, he was interrupted again.
This time, by Zhen Liu blasting the rock with ghostly green flames.