Chương 138: 138

Mark stepped off of the stairs and turned right, to face a closed bulkhead door with the words 'Weapons Department' scrawled onto a piece of wood and then slotted into position over the door. A scanner held to the side, and Mark passed Quark over the scanner. The lights turned green and the door opened inward, and Mark stepped into Tulo Khava's domain on Floor 3, C-7, in the middle of the ship, toward the back.

It was a normal set of rooms that could be switched out for anything, and which had been switched out for an armory and small forge. This was a war chest. Racks upon racks of guns lined up in locks on the walls in one room. Heavy-looking boxes laid on the floor, labeled 'AMMO' with numbers to indicate what type of ammo they were, and what guns they matched.

Mark had never paid much attention to guns because they were only useful for so much, but he imagined that some people would really be interested in all of those shooty-things. Mark also imagined that the mithrilkinetics on board were being tasked with making more actually-good ammo, because Mark saw one crate of 'mithril ordnance' that could actually kill something properly. Would they ask him to make adamantium bullets? Maybe they'd take Addavein's adamantium to make bullets.

They wouldn't sell it, but turning it into shrapnel to fire at enemies… might be a good way to 'wash' it? Or not. Mark wasn't sure. One room over there was alchemy equipment and big dispensers labeled 'Powdered Silver' and stuff like 'Ingredient A' through 'Ingredient G' on the rest of the shelf. It was an alchemical silver station. Mark imagined that someone could make alchemical silver there, if they knew how. Mark didn't know how. To the right were the actual weapon rooms; the weapons that Mark cared about.

Rows upon rows of swords, shields, and martial weapons of all kinds. And in the middle of all of it, at the back of the room, were two giant swords, each of them four meters long in total and with mithril cores, but edges made of absolute black. Adamantium edges. Kaiju blades.

Those blades were probably not the most expensive things on the ship right now, but if the settlement encountered a monster that couldn't be cracked by normal means, then those blades were the difference between life and death of most everyone on this ship. Mark simultaneously felt the kaiju blades were both too hidden, because in case of emergency one needed to get to those blades fast, and also too easily accessed. It was just one weak door and ten steps to get those blades.

Someone could steal those blades and then rob everyone in the settlement of their futures, and maybe even lives. Of course, there was a person in the room with the blades. Some younger dude in army green was in there sharpening weapons and otherwise maintaining them, it seemed. They glanced up at Mark, and then went back to doing their maintenance. Mark imagined that person was either a capable guard for the blades, or just a stumbling block to the theft of those weapons… But it was probably fine.

Mark walked on, and some woman stepped out of a room and was suddenly there. She had been in the side room, but she had only just realized that there was an 'intruder' in the hallway, so she had jumped out to see who it was. She gasped as she saw Mark." Mark Careed?" she asked, excited for some reason. Mark said, "That's me! I have a 2 PM appointment with Tulo Khava."" Yes you do! Tulo is—" A voice erupted from the back of one of the rooms down the hall." MARK IS HERE?!"

If Mark didn't know about people with Giant's Strength, like Sally and others, then he would have called the man who slid into the hallway a giant. As it was, Tulo was just a very large, heavily tanned, 40-something man, with big curly blue/black hair strapped down in a tight tail, and wearing a tank top, an apron, and shorts. He looked comfortably muscular with black tattoos wrapped around his arms and up his neck. Perhaps it was his big smile that made him look comfortable instead of dangerous." Mark!

I am glad to meet you! Yes!" Tulo came right up to Mark and clasped his shoulders, smiling right at Mark.

"I am very glad to meet you. I am Tulo." He let go.

"Let us talk in my office!" Mark couldn't help but grin a little.

"Nice to meet you, Tulo." Tulo's office was right down the hall and mostly empty, though there were papers on the walls filled with diagrams and the desk was layered with sketchbooks. Other than that, and a few tablets haphazardly resting on charging stations to the side, there was nothing in the office at all. One of the tablets was showing 8% power and it wasn't actually charging at all; it wasn't properly seated on the charger. Suddenly, Mark realized something.

Mark didn't know much about Tulo, but he had already formed a few opinions about the guy. Mark asked, "You must be quite busy."" I am, I am!" Tulo sat down on his chair and gestured to the other one.

"Sit, sit! Let us discuss important topics— Oh! The door. Hit the button, too." Mark slipped the door shut as he sat down. He pressed the button labeled 'silence' by the door, and the door's enchantments flickered on. The sounds of the rest of the ship mostly vanished. Mark said to Tulo, "I assume you got the adamantium. Aurora had some runner run it down here?"" I did! I cannot wait to work on it." Tulo plucked out a sketchbook from the pile and slapped it in front of Mark.

"But blades made of biometal need guidance to work properly. I need to understand the spirit of the metal before I can make the sword. Usually I get that understanding by looking at the corpse of the monster it came from, but in your case…" He smiled.

"I can just ask you. Now! Which of these sketches do you like best?" Mark had no idea what the guy was talking about. Adamantium was just a type of crystallized mana, wasn't it? But… thinking of adamantium as crystallized mana did make it seem like knowing some intent, or whatever, might make the sword-making… easier? Mark was unsure of everything right now, so Mark picked up the sketchbook and looked at the sketches. Tulo stared at him, his vector fully focused on Mark, as Mark flipped through the pages.

Now Mark appreciated a good weapon. He really did. But these were all sketches of swords. They were nice swords, of course. They weren't particularly interesting to Mark, though. There was the standard 3 meter blade, no adornment and a simple handle. Another option was a flamberge; a wave blade. Mark kinda liked that one, but dismissed it as impractical. Another sword was curved, and Mark liked that one just because a kaiju blade had to cut, and a curved weapon did that the best.

The point of a kaiju blade was to part the scales or other hard material in order to open the path to actually killing the beast. Mark flipped back—" Ahh… None of them, huh? This is troubling," Tulo said, sitting back in his chair, thinking. Mark was about to evade the accusation that he didn't like any of them… but then he said, "I like the curved shape for cutting open a path forward, but honestly I prefer the spear. A halberd. Glaive. Bardiche.

Even a naginata is nice, though it's kinda hard to wield a spear with a katana at the end of it, but it's still nicer than a sword for most of the work that I do. Any weapon with range and a cutting head; that's what I prefer." Mark added, "Also… Do you really look at corpses to figure out how to make a kaiju blade?" Tulo hummed as he considered Mark's words, looking at Mark, thinking. Mark waited.

Eventually, Tulo said, "Kaiju blades are swords because the Tactical Telekinesis of a brawny is best delivered across the edge of adamantium by them holding the shaft and holding onto a little bit of the adamantium, lined down the shaft. All of the mithril behind the edge of adamantium is merely there to support the depth of a proper TT, to focus it toward the edge, to make sure that the world parts before an edge of absolute purpose, followed through with grace.

Kaiju blades usually don't even have guards because they need all the edge they can get." A spear is, by its very nature, not all edge." Tulo asked, "Do you see the issues I have with making a spear? Spears cannot be made as strongly as a sword. The amount of adamantium that needs to be run along the length of the shaft in order to connect to the smaller cutting head is a waste. Simply a waste."" Uh. Well…? I can make more of the stuff? The amount of adamantium you're going to have is not an issue."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Tulo shook his head.

"This is bad form. A blade needs more than just edge."" Ah. Well? Okay." Mark set the sketchbook down on the table.

"I like the katana-shape, then."" It's a good choice!" Tulo said, smiling.

"Not many kaiju blades are curved, but the curved shape is fantastic for cutting." He said, "It was good to meet you, Mark." … Was he dismissing Mark? Er... No. Mark nodded, and then said, "I'd like to learn how to make weapons myself, so that I can make full-adamantium weapons for my friends and myself. Can we do some sort of exchange of information? Some learning programs, or something? I plan on giving more adamantium to the settlement, or through you.

I'm not sure what Aurora has planned, exactly, but that's where I'm at right now; what I want." Tulo breathed deep, reassessing things. Mark waited. Tulo said, "Aurora told me of this desire… And I had hoped that it was a fleeting desire. I would want to help you directly, but I cannot. I am busy, working on custom weapon orders for the majority of the settlement and maintaining the weapons systems of Grey Whale.

I can hand you off to someone else to give you more personalized instruction, or I can set you up with an online course and answer some questions every week. Maybe show you how to hammer some steel and the best ways to crystallize biometals when you run into trouble." Tulo dropped the ball into Mark's court, and Mark wasn't sure how to proceed. After a moment of thinking, Mark decided, "What sort of online courses do you recommend?" Tulo happily spoke for a while, writing stuff down for Mark as he did so.

Apparently there were hundreds of people forging their own weapons and armor online, and quite a few of them were competent at what they did. A few arcanaeums around the Two Worlds, and particularly in Crytalis, which they were headed toward, had an 'open information policy' on weaponcraft and defensive measures. All of that came with a big caveat, though." Adamantium is fucking difficult, Mark," Tulo said, having become comfortable enough to curse rather soon, in Mark's opinion.

"But you should be able to adapt most of the same lessons from mithrilwork. It's all different, of course, and mere Shaping can't get you super-hard edges, though I was impressed to see how hard of an edge you were able to get with those sticks."" Thanks. I practiced… and I'm pretty sure that Shaping can get you hard edges?"" Well… There's the thing. I never even heard of an adamantium blooded Adamantiumkinetic, so…" Tulo smiled.

"Your experience might not be the same as the historically recorded experiences of Adamantiumkinetics. Perhaps you might become as good at weaponcraft as the mithril blooded. Just in a different sort of way, of course." Mark was struck with several questions at once. He asked, "So you know the history of adamantium blooded people? I haven't been able to find much aside from the zoos that dragons kept, and the bloodlines they tried to breed and mostly failed.

Monsters were much easier to breed for adamantium blood than people. No one really talks about adamantium blooded people. I think there are some hidden histories that are just not written down, though." Mark had seen Addashield's name quite a few times when he was doing that sort of research, too, which kinda put him off of doing too much of that research. Mark added, "What sort of Skill do adamantium blooded people usually get?" Tulo thought for a second. And then he said, "I'm not a Talker…

And I don't think you know what that is?" Mark shook his head.

"I do not."" Hmm… Where do you think I am from?"" I honestly do not know. Some Australian city, would be my guess, but there are no Australian cities on that continent in Daihoon, right?" Tulo nodded, and began, "I am not from Crytalis, and I am not from the Big Island, either, which is what my people call your Australian continent. My people are islanders, in what you would call Southeast Asia, or northern Australia.

We used to simply call ourselves 'The People' but that notion proved obviously untrue when it turned out we were not alone on Daihoon." Until the Reveal we thought we were the last surviving people. I wasn't alive for the Reveal, but my grandparents were. I grew up half in Crytalis, half back home. We Water People travel a lot, just like the Settlers of Xerkona, and we tell stories. The Talkers tell the most stories."

I graduated with a Mastery in Technology and Weapons from Calmhaven on the coast of the Empire, and those people on those channels I told you about helped me immensely to secure my apprenticeships and future. They can help you, too. I'll add another one." Tulo wrote down another name on the sheet he had given Mark, saying, "Biometal History. It's a good one." Long tale told short: Adamantium blooded are as varied as weapons, which is not that varied, from a certain perspective." Weapons all injure.

They carve or smash or stab the world into the shapes the wielder desires. Adamantium blooded people are weapons personified, and their Skills usually mirror this action. It's usually a Body Skill, but it could be literally anything. The only constant is that the adamantium blooded person expels adamantium in some way, and that expelling is usually how they are an edge to cut the world." Actually being Adamantiumkinetic and adamantium blooded at the same time is rare."

Almost all mithril blooded are Mithrilkinetic, of course. Mithril is a Shaper-oriented metal. It flows in the muscles and the veins like ghosts, and a Kinetic can manifest it or hide it at will. You never know how much mithril a mithrilkinetic will have on them. It's one of the natural functions of mithril; to flow and be flowed. Grace personified." Tulo paused for a moment, as if he wondered if he should continue.

Mark kinda hoped that Tulo would speak about orichalcum blooded people, too, but he had no problem just letting Tulo go wherever he wanted. Mark had never heard of 'The People' before. Tulo continued, "Conflating Skills with the person who has them is a sometimes-uncouth thing to do. Not everyone who has Poison Body wants to kill people, and not everyone who wants to be Big Waver… Uh. Glorious Man is probably more familiar. The point is that not everyone gets what they want, or what they think best suits them.

Sometimes the Skills that a person develops are not what they want to develop." But mana still influences how it influences, and most metal blooded are influenced by their metal in all ways. The orichalcum blooded are the Speakers of the True Gods. The mithril blooded flow like water, never being touched and yet always touching when they wish. The adamantium blooded are the bones of the world that break the rest." Judging someone based on their mana type isn't done in Polite Society…

But even still, people develop Skills based on certain factors that are inalienably tied to who they are, as a person. So an adamantium blooded person usually develops the ability to impose, to harm, to carve and dominate." So to ask me what sort of Skills an adamantium blooded might have? I would say anything that crushes and disperses your enemies in the most solid ways you can imagine. Or, any Skill that makes you untouchable by normal mortal means." Silence. Mark said, "Well that was…"

For lack of other options, Mark said, "That was a lot of new information. Thank you! Uh." He stood up.

"So I'll be handing off more metal to you for the protection of the settlement, then?" Mark was about to plop another kilo of black lines onto Tulo's desk, but Tulo softly shook his head." Unnecessary at this time." Tulo had an easy smile as he stood.

"I'm working on the third blade now, but even having two is a blessing, so you can do whatever you want with your own metal, Mark. I and our people are forever grateful for your creations." He bowed.

"Thank you for your service." Mark felt a little uncomfortable at Tulo's obvious deference, or whatever it was he was doing, but also kinda really good. Mark tried not to think about how hot his own face was at being thanked so honestly, so he said, "Of course. Of course. I'm gonna live there too, you know!" Tulo rose with a smile.

"And we're glad to have you. Now you go watch some of those videos and when you hit a block, you call me up and I can talk shop. You can get pretty far by self-teaching, so you should do that first." Mark smiled a little.

"Then that is what I will do."