Chương 436: 436

A good 5 master chefs set up in the main ballroom for breakfast, creating a buffet of everything from shellfish to desserts, and from omelettes to meats of all kinds. Mark ate from a big plate of food with a little bit of everything on it as he sat in the sun, checking the schedule for the day, while everyone talked of this or that all throughout the room. Uva had spent the night and she was sitting beside Sally at breakfast, which was weird for a lot of people, but it was what it was, which was 'fine'.

It was Monday, and the schedule for the day was open for most of them, though the girls were all going to some spa in a few hours. Mark had asked a passing question about security concerns, but Andria and then Uva put those concerns to bed, talking about the safety and security of the High City, which was one of three major Kingdom Districts to the south of Domal'Takela, and how the Witches Welcome was still everywhere in Crytalis.

Nothing ever happened at the High City, and especially during this time of year, and if it did, then it was rapidly solved. They had a speedster security force. So Mark was looking for something to do today, on his own. 330 invitations to meet sat in his inbox. They were all various plans, everything from a simple lunch, to tea and cookies, to straight up solicitations for sex and, ahem, 'bloodline security', which Quark had clarified were sexual solicitations for any number of purposes.

Mark freaked out a bit about those invitations, but apparently they were 'normal'. Eliot was already racking up a lot of those, though Mark wasn't sure if he had taken any up, or not. Probably not. Mark might not know about relationships or have much capability to Unionsense sexual feelings that well… or at all, but he could tell that Eliot was purposefully not looking at Sally or Uva, and his libido was pretty much crushed… maybe. Sally and Uva, by comparison, were having a great morning. …

Mark decided he was going to avoid all meetings, and do his own thing today. When he finished breakfast, Mark went to a blacksmithing room located behind and to the left of the Green House. All of the guest houses of Domal'Takela had every sort of amenity that anyone could ever want, and though Mark hadn't been planning on doing any smithing or enchanting here, he was gonna. This place was outfitted well. Rylan and Tulo had been in here already, along with Andria and Tartu.

The remnants of their own minor projects were mostly cleaned up, but the crucible wasn't sparkling clean anymore, and the hammers were a little disheveled from where they hung on the walls. No one had brought their main tools from the settlement, and everyone was using that set of hammers. So nothing was special right now. No enchanted hammers for specific magics, no personalized anvils meant for working with specific mana formations in specific metals.

Just space, open and inviting for guests to use, if they wished. Temporary guests, though. If someone were to stay here for a long while, they would obviously have personalized tools and they'd fill up those open shelves over there with work, and those open racks on the other side of the main room would hold aprons and face shields, and all sorts of gloves and junk. Mark didn't need any of that. He was going to do an experiment in adamantium based on some of the things he saw yesterday.

Most specifically to do with the Sword of Empire known as Blazing Heaven, because that sword seemed like the easiest one to make… if Mark's theory was correct. He had spoken with Addavein, Rylan, and Tulo before breakfast about the Swords of Empire. That hour-long conversation was easy to boil down into a few facts.

The main issue with making Swords of Empire was always power, and failing that, which most people failed all the time, the other way to make a Sword of Empire was with an application of skill that reached heights almost no one ever reached. The skills involved were honed over a smith's lifetime, and based in many different facets of magery. Did you know Sigaldry? Did you know manawork? How good were you with goobersmithing?

Tens of other necessities needed to be checked off before anyone ever even attempted making a Sword of Empire, and there was no single capability that was more important than the others, except, perhaps, repetition. Compared to the experts, and even most of the novices, Mark was pretty shit at all of those categories, and he certainly hadn't kept up on his studies, but Mark had them all beat in the ability to keep going. Mark was literally made of money, and with enough money one could get many, many things done.

If you set your bar low enough, you could also get a lot done. So that's where Mark pinned his hopes for today." The most useful thing I saw out there was not turning the sky to fire," Mark said, as he began twisting his right hand and arm into adamantium ingots, even as he healed his arm back to full, "It was how the force guy was immune to the splashes of Force magic that he crashed around himself, and how he was immune to his own 'force poison', which I still have no idea how that worked.

Blazing Heaven was immune to his own fire, too. Pillar of God was able to hold his pillar and not be moved. I can't replicate the big effects, like the Size Manipulation or the 'World of Fire', but maybe the smaller effects are doable, and I know Sally would want to be immune to fire, for sure." Sally didn't talk about it much, but she was still reeling from her exposure to the molten titans of Nobody Important.

Probably had some trauma about being Second Baptism'd inside of an Endless Daihoon layer of molten rock and fire. Fire hurt, and the memory of that pain stayed with you even past the healing. Quark asked, "You're trying for a sword of fire protection?"" Or maybe a shield?" Mark postulated.

"Not sure. A shield for Sally, and a sword for Isoko. The basic working is the same for both, though the final expression is different. It's mostly a lot of heat-resistance and immunity and the ability to breathe even flames if that's all you had; Secondary Powers that make primary Powers like Fire Shaper work at all."" Can I help you, sir?"" Sure! Bring up the sigil-sequence for fire protection, and the sequence for temperature regulation… Actually, I know most of those, but bring them up anyway."

Holograms flickered into Mark's vision, to the side of the room, forming a series of hand gestures and directions starting from the heart, the gut, and the mind. Quark wrote out a hundred different lines of Sigaldry, because there were as many ways to protect from heat as there were to speak about such an action. That plurality was one of the many reasons why Swords of Empire were hard to make; there was no cheat code that was specifically for heat protection… or immunity… hmmm. Mark had a thought.

Back when Addavein was Addashield he had spoken of the Color Drop treatment Mark had taken and how it was made of Keywords. Actual words, put down into alchemical form. Mark had assumed, later on, that those keywords had been Sigaldry. But the last time he had tried working with adamantium he had made a cursed poison dagger and he had breathed out a miasma of 'Poison', using Union to do so.

He had gotten pretty far with his creation though it had been 'cursed', but the nature of such a cursed item was impossible to know without actual investigation, and the guy Mark had been making it for might have been just fine with it… But Mark had destroyed it as directed to because it was better to be safe than sorry.

So maybe if Mark tried something like that again, and he worked on the Form and Function of a sword meant to protect the wielder and shunt all disruptions to that protection outward into targets, in a 'Union' but in sword-form… Mark recorded himself saying, "Theory: I can do that Union of Homeostasis and Agitation that got Sally through her Second Baptism, but in a sword form, and she can use it against enemies, maybe…" Mark made a decision, "I'll do that one, first. Maybe.

If it works then Isoko can get something, too… hmm. Could I use some blueprints for Powers in my soulhouse for this? Those things have a lot of Secondary Powers to them, and one of them has to have synergy with a fire-protection weapon? Actually, yeah. Let's try that." Mark closed his eyes and stepped into his soulhouse, rapidly appearing before his Binding Extraction room. With a thought, he opened the filing cabinet, looking for a Power he could base this sword around…

And he realized that he had no fire-based Powers. Ah, shit. So… What else could he use? Mark changed his plans yet again, looking for something that he could actually cannibalize into a sword. Mark found his target almost instantly, but…" Strength Unending is so good! It's basically Dynamo but for a fighter. If Sally or Isoko had this then they could fight forever… But… I'm going to fuck up the first attempt. Let's save this for later." He went looking for other targets. He had almost no options."

Healthy Body it is! Got 4 of those." Mark grabbed a blueprint for Healthy Body, which was sort of like Homeostasis/Agitation, and he… Well. He wasn't sure where to start. So he started with the obvious option. Mark crushed the blueprint into his hands, turning it into putty, and then he molded it into a simple sword." There we go. A pre-made sword I can bring into the real world through adamantium." He opened his eyes and looked down at some ingots of adamantium.

With a quick Shaping, Mark brought forth the weapon from his soulhouse into the real world. Instantly, he knew he had done wrong." That looks wrong, sir," Quark said. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident." Yup." The 'sword' was a splash of sigaldry, and something that was kinda like paper." So that's the blueprint, huh."

Mark dove back into himself and the trash of his failed sword was sitting on the porch, looking rather like someone had taken a bunch of sigils and piled them up while also twisting them this way and that. Mark grabbed the failure and, with a thought, destroyed it completely. Back in the real world, Mark turned the mess of a 'weapon' back into a few different ingots. It didn't resist recycling, so Mark felt good about that. Not cursed materials yet!" Three more tries!"

The second try Mark brought the blueprint out of the filing cabinet and then he opened his eyes to the real world, and he made a basic sword in the real world. When the sword was 'good enough', Mark dug out the fuller and part of the handle, and then he Unioned with Homeostasis and Agitation as he held the handle in his left hand. The sword was adamantium, and he was the sword; that's how his body worked, when he wanted it to work that way. And so, Mark had a sword for an arm for a moment.

His heart beat, and soft black pulses throbbed the sword, his heart beating in the sword itself. Mark flickered his dreamsight on. He stood on his porch in the dream, both hands empty, while he held his sword in real life in his left hand. He grabbed the blueprint in the dream of his right hand, while in reality he grabbed the air.

With an attempt at crafting far beyond his capability or understanding, Mark brought his dream and reality together, hands holding swords and not, other hands holding blueprints and not, and then all of his hands held both at the same time, in one two-handed grip. Tiny hands and Sigaldry shapes burst from the open spaces in the fuller and the hilt, and Mark smoothed them out mentally, but he could already tell it was a failure.

The sword flexed and distorted and broke apart into two pieces, the sigils of the Healthy Body blueprint breaking reality with a realized dream. Mark tried Shaping the sword back into a sword-shape, but the adamantium fought him in a way that only magically-realized adamantium could fight. It threw off his Shaping, registering as not-adamantium-anymore to his Adamantiumkinesis. It was like watching a parasite taking over his flesh.

Mark focused and he crushed the offensive transformation, shredding and breaking adamantium, and then he kneaded the adamantium, trying to turn the adamantium back into a virgin state. It took a minute to attain the consistency of chocolate chip cookie dough, with hard bits and pieces that resisted more than the rest. More kneading later and Mark was back to smooth adamantium. Mark said, "I think I need some orichalcum for this."

So Mark reached into his belly and took out the remnants of the orichalcum orb he had been digesting. He had a briefcase full of orbs and he had been 'eating' a new one every day and a half. This one was only a few hours digested. It was still basically 4 kilos of red/gold metal, but with a few black pits where his blood remained. Mark peeled away the black with his Adamantiumkinesis, rejoining the black bits with his flesh, and then he remade the sword.

He spent more time this time making the sword into a proper weapon. It was a meter long, absolute black, and double-edged. Mark removed the fuller, part of the handle, and also the crossguard this time. Then Mark crushed the orichalcum into the fuller, the open part of the handle, and the crossguard. Soon he had a black sword with a golden core. Mark grinned as he held the sword up to the light, the red/gold orichalcum looking kinda amazing in the black, all beaten and shiny. This felt right.

Once again, Mark Unioned with the sword as though it was his own body— The golden core flexed and settled, and then it began to pulse in time to his heart, the gold separating into the sword like veins crawling everywhere, threading in and out of the metal. It never did that inside of him but… That was fine. Mark continued with the project.

Mark opened his dreamsight and began moving another blueprint of Healthy Body into the empty space of the sword, adjusting his Union of Homeostasis and Agitation as he did so, Calling to the weapon Keywords of Power, saying, "Homeostasis to the Wielder, Agitation to the Enemy."

The blueprint slipped into the sword like cotton candy into water, instantly becoming part of the weapon, becoming part of the golden hands and sigils that crystallized through the open fuller and spilled out of the crossguard like so many protective and angry hands. It was like he had shaken a bottle of soda, except instead of tiny bubbles crashing out of the soda it was tiny hands and sigils crashing out of the gold. Mark had no idea what he was doing but it was amazing, both in reality and in the dream.

In the dream, Mark watched reality change. Orichalcum crystal shifted with black, becoming tarnished and then fully subsuming into little more than gold-touched sigils. All the while Mark kept Calling to the sword, telling it what it needed to be, imbuing it with what Mark hoped were Keywords of Power, the blueprint for Healthy Body seeming to become one with the sword, and then aligning how Mark was making it align.

After three minutes, Mark felt he could probably stop; the sword hadn't done anything new in 30 seconds. So he stopped, and he set the sword down on the counter. Mark turned and asked, "Did I actually make anything?" Addavein had been watching for a few minutes. Mark asked, "Or was it all a delusional dream?"

Addavein's tail swayed as he walked inside, saying, "The lines between creation and delusion are not as simple as you would think when it comes to properly magical objects, and there is some proper magic in this blade. I can tell that much already." He picked up the blade and shivered as he gripped the hilt, hand tightening, the black length of sword shimmering gold in the edges.

Addavein turned it over in his hand, looking at it, and then he held it in both hands, looking at it from a different angle, eyes shimmering, as he said, "There's no such thing as an Identify spell, though there is an Identify Power, and the System labels our Powers with actual words, so certain things are identifiable under the System's ideology, but the full scope of what humans can create are not categorized by the System. Many magical items fall outside of this scope." This one, though…

This one is easily labeled, and quite intricately at that. You had already half-digested the orichalcum, and the sword was literally part of you, and there's some Healthy Body in here making it all come together easier than it should have… Hmm. Yes. I see." Addavein smirked and set the blade down, saying, "That's beautifully done." It's no Sword of Empire, capable of killing kaiju, but it is a weapon that any warrior of normal means would carry for the rest of their lives, no matter what heights they achieved."

I would call it a Sword of Offloading. You could give it a fancier name if you wish, but the functionality would not change from that simple description. A warrior using this against a monster would find himself strengthened and the enemy weakened with every blow, so 'Sword of Offloading' is adequate enough. I imagine anyone holding it would find themselves a lot healthier, as well, and the sword seems capable of causing a baseline of Healthy Body, but when it is used against something it does more than that. Ahh.

Yeah. That's more correct. Maybe I'd call it a Sword of Health?" Is that what you were going for?"" Yes, sort of." Mark frowned a little. It seemed like Addavein was telling him that it wasn't as amazing as he thought it might be. Mark asked, "Did the Homeostasis and Agitation get through? I tried to work in some astral-joining theory, too, like with a Protect spellbreaker artifact… Did that work? I don't want it to get used up.""

Most of that got into the working, yes," Addavein said, "It'll function when it is powered by the astral body of the wielder, and that functionality will greatly strengthen in active combat, but it's an enchantment in a dead item. It cannot function as well as the Healthy Body Binding in a soul." Mark was undeterred.

"Okay. I guess it's a failure?" Addavein huffed, then said, "Don't destroy this one! It's truly something that someone would hand down through the generations." Mark scoffed a little.

"The base metal is worth more than the sword."" Sure, but not by much." Mark arched an eyebrow."

'Not by much'? That's… that's really good? So what, this is a 5. 5 kilo sword, meaning 150 million goldleaf sword?"" It's a very good sword, Mark. Not a Sword of Empire, but it's what you'd give your top speedster so that they never run out of strength in a fight. 150 million is too much, but 120 million seems more correct. Yes, the base metal is worth more, but not by much.""... Oh!"" Yes," Addavein said, seriously.

"It's a good sword."