Abe the Wizard

Abel removed the decorations from the sword of a hundred skills’ handle, leaving only the metal part of the handle, hilt, and gauntlet exposed. Therefore, the gauntlet was now the only part where the magical gem could be placed. Abel placed the hilt of the sword of hundred skills into the furnace.

After a while, he took the burning red sword out with a clamp. Then, took out a hammer drill and trimmed a suitable hole. When master Bentham saw the sword, he was very pleased with Abel’s proficiency in his forging foundation.

One of the main reasons that Abel wanted to learn forging was to master his own power. During his spare time, he would practice different forging skills in the operation room. Each forging skill that he practiced had their very own unique powers. After all the training Abel did, he could control and maintain his skills firmly and steadily.

“Master, I want to forge an ice magic sword.”

Due to issues with materials, Abel had to choose between fire and ice magic weapons. In his understanding of the ice magic weapons, It could slow down his opponent’s speed alongside the damage caused by the ice magic. The finished product would be a devastating nightmare for anyone who encountered it.

Master Bentham remained silent as he nervously watched Abel took out his runes brush. After Abel dipped it in ink, he began to write the runes onto the sword.

Due to many years of using a normal ink brush, Abel’s hand muscles were very well developed. Therefore, he did not find it too hard to use these soft rune brush. However, the ink used to write runes were different from the ones normally used to write on ink paper. The process of writing ice runes on the sword of a hundred skills was a lot more difficult. With every stroke Abel wrote on the sword, he could feel waves of resistance. This was the case despite that the brush was made with wind wolf fur, which was supposed to limit the resistance force by at least half.

Sweat began to flow down from Abel’s head. Not only writing the runes required strength, but it also required high energy consumption from his heart. This was because the writing had to be done within one breath, and it could not be paused anytime during the writing. If there was a pause, the thickness of the ink would be different, and the magic being transmitted would have gone out of Abel’s control.

Despite having taken half an hour—Abel’s writing runes on the sword of a hundred skill took almost three times longer than normal writing would—ultimately, the deed was done.

Abel took out a blue gem and carefully placed it into the hole. He reinforced the hole with different tools so that if the hole began shaking, the gem wouldn’t accidentally shake or fall out.

“Let me see.” Master Bentham asked Abel for his sword of hundred skills. He carefully examined it and said, “you can write runes even faster than me. They are perfectly drawn, and the magical stone has no problem with it. I think we can proceed to the next step.”

Being able to see Master Bentham’s affirmation of his capabilities, Abel’s face began to express joy. The process of drawing these runes was difficult and it had taken a lot of Will power out of Abel. So he sat down on the ground and rested for almost an hour before he was fully recovered his energy.

Abel carefully used his will power to draw from the blue gem to the edge of the ice magic stone according to master Bentham’s instruction. An ice-cold force rushed back at Abel as he continued to use his will power.

He then began to guide this ice-cold force carefully into the strokes of each rune. This process could not be too fast, or else the ice-cold force would be left behind, thus returning to the blue gem. However, it could also not be too slow, or else the ice-cold force would freeze his will power.

On the fifth attempt, he finally successfully used his will power to guide the ice-cold force onto the middle of the rune. Suddenly, the sword of a hundred skills shined with a dazzling light. Abel seemed to hear the sound of the sword blade shattering. Without a second thought, he threw his sword of thousand practice outside while master Bentham was concentrating behind the huge iron controlling desk.

Suddenly, there was a loud “bang” sound, and all Abel heard was the sound of fragments and splinters shattering everywhere through the air. It was then followed by the sound of objects being hit with a sound of “ding ding”. After a while, the sound came to complete silence and everything was suddenly quiet.

Abel slowly poked his head out and glanced at the area where the explosion happened. The operations room was in complete chaos and disorder, the walls inside the room were filled with holes. Fortunately, the operation room was made of boulders and the tools inside the room were all made from fine quality Iron which meant that most of the equipment inside the rooms wasn’t damaged with the only damage being a large pit on the ground.

Master Bentham recovered from the scene with a shocked face. He looked directly at Abel in the eyes and the two individuals suddenly felt as if they were of survivors of a close-call disaster.

‘What’s the matter?”

“Master, are you all right?”

All of a sudden, there was a loud noise coming from nowhere. Then the door of the workshop was promptly opened, and everyone in the blacksmith shop rushed and crowded inside. That “bang” noise that occurred has shocked and frightened everyone that was near.

The room was filled with gasps and dreadful looks on people’s faces, and for a moment the crowd stared astoundedly at Master Bentham and Abel. They thought to themselves: “What they were doing here that could’ve been so powerful and devastating”.

“All of you better keep your mouth shut. Nothing happened here, alright? Now, get out of here before I make you! ”

Master Bentham roared like a bear. He was kicking everyone out. The crowd. The gardener. Even his own apprentices—Everyone.

“Why did this happen?” Abel was a little surprised by this failure because he thought he did very well this time. The process was very smooth, so why did it fail in the last moment and also caused a last-minute explosion.

Master Bentham picked up the ink carefully and examined it. He carefully sniffed it with his nose and twirled it with his hand. Finally, he said firmly to Abel, “There is nothing wrong with the ink, I have produced this ink for many years now and it was made in accordance with the same formula. There’s no way it would’ve been like this.”

“Then that means something went wrong in the process.” Abel thought back to his own production process, and nothing was missing except that it took three times longer than usual to draw the runes.

With that in mind, Abel said firmly, “Maybe the runes were drawn for a little too long.”

“Yes, after a long time, the first and the last ink may be exposed to the outside environment for too long. The ink properties of the two periods may have changed, followed by an unstable magic transmission which may ultimately lead to the explosion,” Master Bentham analyzed carefully. He had spent his entire life studying the material when Abel was making assumptions for the reason of the explosion, he had already found out the cause for the explosion.

“Can you use your Power of Will to draw the runes? Wouldn’t that be faster?” asked Master Bentham, who, as he did not possess such powers, couldn’t do anything to help apart from making suggestions.

Abel thought for a moment and answered, “There shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just that my Power of Will was a little bit depleted. It’s going to take up a lot more time for me to rest before I can use it again.”

Once again, they picked up another sword of hundred skills found from the ground and punched a hole into it for the gem. this time was much faster than the first time since Abel now acquired some experience from his first attempt.

It was time to draw the runes again, and Abel closed his eyes while emptying his mind. As he slowly opened his eyes this time, he began to zoom in on the sword with his sight. Every detail on the sword was magnified multiple times larger than it’s original size. When the runes were drawn on the sword with ink, the two continued to fuse very tightly. It created a special coating which was why the resistance was so strong when the runes were being drawn. The speed of Abel’s will power corresponded with the speed of his runes brush perfectly. There was already a night and day difference comparing this to his first attempt. The whole thing was finished in ten minutes. Abel returned from his Power of Will state, and by that point, he was already fully exhausted.

It took Abel two hours to recover from his exhaustion. Now he had gained experience of how to guide the ice-cold force with his Power of Will without any pauses or interruptions. Next time, he could lead the cold force into the middle of the runes at a much quicker and steadier pace.

The sword of a hundred skills flashed with a glaring ray of light. This time, the light was not dazzling, and the sword covered by the runes began to shine. Slowly the lights began to dim, and the rune disappeared from the surface of the sword and the sword returned and to its original appearance. In addition to the sword handle’s hole slot, there were no differences between the newly crafted sword and the original sword of hundred skills.

Master Bentham took the sword of a hundred skills with his trembling hands and tapped it with his fingers. The sword flashed a cold light, and Master Bentham’s fingers were covered with frost.

Abel saw the frost on Master Bentham’s finger and immediately asked, “Master, are you all right?”

“Ha-ha!” Master Bentham laughed wildly, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.

He began to mutter words.”I-I, agh! I never thought that I could live to see the day where one of my disciples… could be making magical swords. Finally… I can die without any more regrets.”