Chapter 168 - Shaping
Under the effect of Thaw, the block of Earth Fiend Bronze turned into a pool of metal liquid which shined with black and red glimmer.
The next step was to shape the liquid into something he wanted. After that, he could use Condense to fix the shape.
Angor froze up when thinking about this step.
“How to shape the liquid?”
Angor just realized he only considered how to melt the material. He never thought about how to create a shape for it.
He remembered something from Basic Alchemy : Use mana to shape melted material and fix the shape with Condense.
Use mana to shape something?
Angor was speechless. Humbly? Oh, come on.
“Go ahead, young man,” said Dave. He was still looking at Angor with an “old man’s kindness”.
Angor took a deep breath to suppress his urge to leave immediately. “I just want to know, once I turn material into a liquid using Thaw, how do I shape it?”
Dave froze up when hearing the question. “Wait, what? You learned how to use Thaw?”
Angor repeated his question, “The book says that I should use mana to shape something. But when I channel mana in the liquid, it did nothing. I came to ask why.”
Dave’s face was now like a painting palette with different colors. Frustration painted in green, shame painted in red, anger in yellow, and sadness in black.
Dave was silent for a long time before speaking in a sad tone, “You really learned Thaw?! It’s barely half a month! How??”
“Um…” Dave’s exaggerated expression proved to Angor that his learning speed was far quicker than other people. Angor carefully arranged his words and said, “Maybe my talent is really good?”
Dave slumped on the stairs from receiving too much shock. He seemed to be doubting his reason to be alive now.
Dave thought about his own learning experience. With Master Prome’s teachings, he spent an entire year to know how to cast Thaw spell. Now, he was struggling with level-1 Tooling cantrip, Smelt. And he had made zero progress in it.
But Angor only spent half a month! The world was so unfair!
“I think I’m ill… I need to sleep,” said Dave. He climbed up from the stairs in a stiff manner and walked into the shop slowly.
“Wait!” Angor called.
Dave turned back with a really sad face.
“So um, how to shape materials while using Thaw?”
Dave struggled in his mind about whether he should tell Angor an answer. “Devil Dave” and “Angel Dave” fought inside his spirit, using envy and friendship as weapons.
“Alright, I’ll tell you,” Dave sighed in the end. He added, “The mana mentioned in the books isn’t the mana you usually used. It’s a level-0 cantrip called Hand of Spell.”
Dave waved a hand at Angor. “You already got your answer. I’ll just go cry—I mean, sleep.”
“Thanks,” said Angor. He was sincerely thankful for his help.
Dave stopped again and curled his lips. “Any wizard with alchemy experience can tell you that.”
“But I don’t know anyone else,” said Angor. He smiled and added, “Thank you, really. Otherwise, it’ll take forever for me to figure it out.”
Dave remained expressionless. “You don’t have to. Your talent will surely take you far on the path of alchemy. I just hope you can help me in the future.”
Angor revealed a big smile. “That’s not a problem.”