Chương 437: 437

Mark stood on the lawn, watching Isoko flit through the air with his new sword, striking through elemental after elemental with quickness and speed. Fire elementals 10 meters high swirled with angry flames, roaring brightly, and Isoko stabbed them with casual cuts, flying beside them and then up into the air, barely striking. The elemental diminished. It was suddenly 3 meters tall. The adamantine sword had the most profound effect on fire elementals.

Isoko moved on to the water elementals, who sort of burbled apart at the touch of the sword, and then she carved through the stone elementals with adamantine strength. The sword did nothing against the stone elementals. They were still outside of the Green House. This testing zone hadn't taken much to get set up. Mark had asked for help with sword testing, and the butlers had gotten the elemental summoners from yesterday's Sword of Empire display.

All three of those guys bowed deeply and stayed that way, once they got out here. Their power sunk into the soil, into the air, into the heat, and the elementals were repaired. Mark had barely talked to the guys, and that's how they seemed to want it. Sally looked on, excited, but also jealous, as Isoko swept through the stone elemental again and lopped it almost in half that time. The cut still hadn't been deep enough. Sally cheerfully called out, "Hit 'em harder than that, Isoko!"" You'll get your turn!"

Isoko called back, already high in the sky, her voice almost lost to the wind. She added, "And I'm pulling my punches! This is just a sword test!"" Hurry up! I want a turn!" There had been some discussion about who got to test out the blade first, which mostly amounted to Isoko getting there first and Sally pouting about it. Uva was gone now. She had hopped onto the tram even before the summoners had showed. Sally hadn't talked about her new 'girlfriend', and she didn't want to.

Mark was pretty sure it was just a one-night stand, but he had no real idea. Right now was technically a good time to talk to Sally about all of that, but Sally had already begged off of a conversation about it with Isoko. Mark would ask about Uva later. Somewhere with more privacy. Rylan, Tulo, and Andria were all out here, all with screens in their hands, all of them checking out readouts from scanners that the butlers had gotten. Eliot had even installed some new scanners into the workshop.

Addavein was upstairs in the Green House, also reading those readouts, but most everyone else was out here, watching. Shawn and Lenny wanted to play with the sword next, but Sally was next in line. Tartu asked Andria, "How much power is Isoko actually putting into her strikes?"" Just physical strength," Andria said, and then she clarified, "Maybe 2x? Most everything here says she's flying around with Sky Shaper and testing out the sword itself." Tartu hummed, looking at the sky, trying to hide his excitement.

He wanted to pull that sword apart to figure out what Mark had done, exactly, and he knew Mark would let him, too. Eventually. Not right away. Mark was excited about what Tartu would find when he pulled it apart, too. Mark called out to Isoko, "How's it going out there?"" I'm holding strong!" Isoko said, flying around and down to the ground again, the four summoned elementals all focused on her.

The wind elemental almost grabbed her, though, causing her to zag and then zig fast, burning power to race forward, laughing a little, saying, "Almost got me! Ah ha!" The wind elemental was mostly invisible and just behind her, chasing her fast, threatening to rip the air from her body and kill her dead. Isoko and Mark could sense the monster just fine; others needed special equipment, or even just an infrared camera, like those that Eliot had provided. Isoko was flagging, though. She wasn't as fast as usual.

She wasn't cutting well, and then she got too near the fire elemental again, going for a deep kill, and the fire elemental twisted into a hollow, into a swallowing sphere, even as Isoko stabbed the black sword into the fire. Fire engulfed her completely and Mark's heart beat hard, even though he wasn't truly worried. The fire elemental popped like a soap bubble, reduced from 7 meters tall to half a meter, and then it gutted completely like someone had turned off the gas on a gas powered stove. The air put-put' d.

Isoko twisted in the air, laughing, racing at the stone elemental, saying, "I figured the sword out! It's a piece of Union!"" Duh!" Tartu called out. Mark snorted. She barrel-rolled away from the stone elemental and rose into the sky, stalling out. The wind elemental raced onto her pale, un-Powered body, platinum nowhere to be seen. It caught her, completely, and then it burrowed inward, and Mark almost reached out with Union to save her. He pulled back that instinct, though he could not stop his voice." Isoko!"

Mark yelled. But she was fine. Isoko held the sword aloft, even as air pulled out of her lungs, a bit of blood flowing with it, Union inactive, Platinum Body off, but the sword was flickering with golden veins on absolute darkness, and Isoko pulled at the wind elemental with all of the sword's strength. The elemental would have had a good chance at winning if Isoko hadn't figured out the sword better. As it was, Isoko drained the elemental dry, and what had been a rush of invisible, killing wind became a breeze.

The wind elemental became a windy 'corpse' flowing away on Isoko's much greater Sky Shaper. Blood ran from her eyes, mouth, ears, and nose, and who knew where else, but she looked thrilled as she settled down to the ground, finally releasing her Union, thrumming the sky as she suddenly healed to full. The blood remained, for now. The other elementals were going after her, too, water and stone racing at her— Mark glared at the elemental summoners, and they got the picture.

The elemental summoners, as one, raised their hands and then lowered their hands, and the remaining stone elemental and water elemental became a pile of rocks and a pool of water already settling out on the grass. Isoko came down to the ground, already turning the sword over to Sally's grabby hands, saying, "Don't be too long about it! We gotta go to the spa today." Sally grabbed the sword and raced out onto the field, saying, "Maybe if you didn't take so long!"

She called out to the summoners, "One lava and one stone elemental! 5 meters!" Mark sighed in relief and then he nodded at the summoners, who had been looking to him for confirmation. The summoners obliged, each of them bowing and then raising as one, hands grabbing the air, stone rumbling into shape out on the field, as Sally grew just a few meters taller, sword not growing in her hands at all.

As the lava elemental manifested from the former stone elemental, burning heat spilling out of cracks in the stone, Sally muttered a small curse to herself about interfacing with new magical objects even as she dodged backward. And then the lava elemental took a big swipe at her. Sally dodged, but drops of burning lava hit her front and arms, burning her clothes. She yelped, and crystal-clear Retribution lightning shattered out of those drops of still-clinging lava leaving holes in her shirt and pants.

Her face scrunched in realization that this wasn't going to be that easy of a fight. Sally was 4 meters tall now, but the sword Mark had made was still 1 meter long, so she was basically holding a 'knife'. Sally called out to Mark, "Next time make it variable-size!"" I don't know how to do that!" Mark called back, and then he added, "Behind you!"

Sally had had her eyes too-focused on the lava elemental, but she yelped an 'oh shit' and she dodged out of the way of a very large boulder-hand, and then she came back up onto her feet 15 meters away, chuckling a little. Mark wasn't worried. Isoko said, "She'll get it. It was quite easy once I realized what I had to do." Tartu asked, "It's just like holding a magical item that you attune to, right?"" Yup! It wants to do one thing… well? Two things. So you have to figure out how to aim it how it wants to be aimed."

Isoko added, "Very smooth, though. Smoothest magical weapon I have ever used."" Elaborate?" Andria asked, standing there and tapping at her screen. Mark glanced at the screen and it had a bunch of hot and cold zones on the weapon taken at different times, including 30 minutes ago and between every swipe of the blade through different enemies. Quark had much of the same information in Mark's visuals, and a lot larger.

The sword seemed to 'go active' more in the last 5 minutes, and especially after Isoko claimed to have figured it out, meaning more hot spots. It seemed to naturally brighten and activate when it was fighting against something that was hurting the wielder with a disruptive technique, as most shown against the fire elemental. Isoko said, "When I fought against the stone elemental the sword was still adamantium so it worked fine for cutting stone, but it did nothing for me when the stone elemental hit me back.

I think it gathered up some sort of charge when that happened, though… not sure about that. However, when I hit the fire elemental, or anything that had a disruptive environmental effect, including the air elemental, then the sword was constantly, strongly active. When the fire elemental hit me— Oh! She figured it out!"

Sally dodged away from a spray of lava, fires blossoming on the ground, and then she tapped on the soil with her feet and launched forward, sword in one hand, and then the sword suddenly grew 5 meters long. She double-gripped it like she was wielding a bat, slicing upward, clipping through the entire elemental's molten body. The contact of sword and lava elemental was like the crackle of water on a hot pan, times a thousand.

The lava elemental suddenly cooled, shattering outward, steam and stone sprayed everywhere by Sally's upward swipe. And then she was through the elemental, landing on the ground, grinning as she held the sword in one hand, looking at the golden veins pulsing around the open fuller of the sword, and at the little hands on the crossguard. And then she laughed, and held it up to her face and stuck her tongue through the hole in the sword, waggling it at Mark. Mark scoffed. Isoko laughed.

Andria called out, "Didn't you do enough of that last night!"" Ugh!" Mark called out, "Less of that! More testing!" Mark pointed at the stone elemental right behind her. Sally laughed again and then she casually swiped at the stone elemental even as it struck at her. It was like she had taken a baseball bat to a whole cabinet full of dishes. The elemental exploded into a thousand pieces, scattering across the open lawn.

All that remained of both the stone elemental and the lava elemental were some stone feet where the elementals had been standing. Sally shrunk down and shrunk the sword with her, saying, "It's a good sword, but 120 million? Not even close. Addavein was lying to you to make you feel better." Mark scoffed.

"It's my first real try!"" And you should keep trying," Sally said, now standing a few meters away. She handed the sword to him, hilt first.

"I want this one, but only when there's a way to prevent it from being stolen from me." Mark grinned, feeling good as he took the sword, saying, "There are trinkets that do that."" Anti-theft trinkets are not acceptable trinkets when it comes to an object like this," Rylan said, to the side, shaking his head.

"Might as well hand it over to Tartu and let him break it down."" Yes! I agree with that," Tartu said." You should only give that to someone who can keep it on their own," Tulo added.

"Once you get to a certain level of craftsmanship, the main issue with being a crafter of that caliber is selling the right weapon to the right person, because if they can't keep it then they can't have it, because if you sell it to them what you're really doing is selling it on the black market and killing the person whom you sold to." Rylan nodded, completely agreeing. Tartu nodded, too. Mark frowned, knowing there was a lot of uncomfortable truth to those words.

Sally smirked, though, as she said, "Gotta make something worth more than its base materials anyway before you can think about that!" Mark rolled his eyes.

"Yes yes, I know I know." Isoko snorted. Andria nodded a little, but she moved on fast, saying, "We've got to go, girls. Sofri'Ether awaits!" And then Sally and Isoko were excited for other reasons, both of them telling Mark 'good luck with crafting' as all three of them hurried down the walkway toward the Green House to get ready. Pretty much every girl was going to the spa, including Lola, who was standing near the house and happy that the girls were finally coming back inside.

She liked to be prompt— I should make a sword for Lola, Mark realized. Her Body Power had been broken years ago, and she had been getting by on Union since then. Mark looked at the sword in his hand, and knew that he couldn't give this to her, but maybe something else would work well? … Or maybe Mark could completely heal Lola's broken Body Power, if he got to learning how to Skill better. If anyone deserved better things in life, it was Lola. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen.

Please report the violation. In fact, Mark should make a bunch of stuff for Inquisitors everywhere… Mark looked at the sword, and he remembered another Inquisitor who he hadn't seen in a few weeks, but who had been there with them all throughout Endless Daihoon. The guy even delivered Mark's orichalcum to him, because Mark trusted him and there was an entire chain of command to get him his orichalcum, which came first from Citadel Freyala, and whatever sources they had.

Sure, that guy had even almost slipped Mark some shavallian at the Collective's request, but David was a good guy, and a good Inquisitor. Addavein had even suggested that this sword was something you'd give to your top speedster. Mark said, "Quark. Send a message to David. I have a sword for him if he wants it."" Yes sir. It is done." Tartu winced, but he accepted it. Mark went to the summoners next and said, "Thanks for coming, and please convey my thanks to Walaria, as well, for all of the scanning equipment."

The summoners bowed, and departed. Tartu almost said something, but then Eliot called out from the house that they were starting, whatever it was they were starting. More legal stuff, if Mark wasn't mistaken. Soon, Eliot and Tartu and Tartu's team were in the house, discussing the magical vines that both of them were invested in. So Mark handed the sword to Tulo and Rylan, wondering which one of them would take it from his hand, even as he asked, "Any ideas where I can improve?""

Several," Tulo solidly said, as he took the sword and started looking at it deeply. Rylan's hand flexed, but Tulo had the sword now, so Rylan said, "There's one main thing that you should focus on, and it is this: Bindings can be replicated in metal and latched onto by a user, allowing for simple activation of the contained spell. This is how many beginners get started, but they start with simplified Bindings. You took a whole Binding and turned it into an item.

With this entire Binding enshrined in adamantium, this has had a multiplicative effect to the final working that is not replicable if you do any simplification at all. You even managed to keep the Binding intact through dissemination of the Binding into the direction you desired it to be used, with this distinct anti-environmental-hazard direction—"" That dissemination is a good thing," Tulo said, turning the sword over in his hands, looking at the open fuller and at the crossguard.

"You should hide the hands and shapes more."" Quite so. Hide the Sigaldry better next time. Under mithril is a great option," Rylan said, and then he continued, "So it's a very powerful sword. But it's not a Sword of Empire, and it never will be, because Swords of Empire can grow with the wielder, and that sword is adamantine and unchangeable."" Over time, it will calcify," Tulo said, handing the sword to Rylan. Rylan took the sword and started looking at it carefully, deeply.

Tulo watched for a moment, then told Mark, "It's metaphysically mobile right now but it has no mithril so it will eventually calcify completely." Mark frowned a little.

"Shit."" A solid, unchanging weapon is not a bad thing, especially when the sword is adamantium," Tulo clarified.

"It only means that this won't grow with the user, and that is what truly stops it from being a Sword of Empire. Swords of Empire are classified by meeting two criteria: Really big effects, and possessing a major capability to adjust and grow with the wielder, or wielders." Rylan was still looking at the sword as he said, "Including mithril into the working will require a fair amount of either cooperation with Andria or someone similar, or figuring out how to create mithril growth plates yourself.

If you make it yourself then that will be an ordeal considering how intricate you've made everything else here."" Won't be that hard, Rylan," Tulo said.

"There are ways and he is an Adamantiumkinetic." Rylan wasn't convinced. Mark saw a long road ahead of him, and he started with, "I don't even know what a mithril growth plate is."" It's a surrounding cap of mithril that coats the places where you want growth to happen, and does not coat where you do not want growth to happen," Rylan said, "Sort of like bone growth plates."" Ohhhh," Mark said, "I know about growth plates… Well. Medically, anyway. Did not know that you put that stuff into Swords of Empire."

Tulo wanted the sword back, to look at it more, and Rylan caught his eyes for a moment… so Rylan gave the sword back to Tulo, and Tulo went right to the crafting building. He was probably going to stick the sword into some of the scanners that Eliot had installed, which was fine. Mark walked that direction, asking Rylan, "So how do growth plates work in weapons?" Rylan shook his head a little as he walked with Mark, saying, "Very complicated.

Not really necessary to know at this level of crafting, and for multiple reasons. But the short version is this: mithril growth plates are mirrored and transformed parts of Bindings that can become different in ways in which the sword is used by the wielder. Think of a proper growth plate for weapons as overlapping a different setting on the original craft of the weapon, but it's a lot more than that, because it's a plethora of options all at the same time, and yet limited to however the user grows the weapon.

At their most basic of functions, a growth plate simply stops the underlying magic from breaking apart, allowing for a good recharge rate." Mark wasn't sure what he meant by that, but now was not the time to ask clarifying questions. Rylan continued, "For the sword you made, you've got this base functionality to protect the user against environmental effects, and with a draining effect on enemies struck."

A theoretical growth plate could be to control the direction of that flow, and adding a reservoir of 'health', allowing the user to strike enemies, keep power in reserve, and then to tap their friends with that healthiness by reversing the direction of flow of power. I doubt such a functionality would be more than maybe… a slight refreshment? Not actual healing, but something close to first aid."

Another theoretical growth plate could be an extension of the sword's striking capabilities to allow the user to manifest the draining and healthy capabilities through their own astral body, potentially allowing for a much wider capability. Like if you wanted to use the sword, and then hit someone with your Adamantiumkinesis and drain them that way."

Mark's eyes went wide and then narrowed as he made a few leaps of logic, and asked, "Sounds like such a 'Sword of Empire' would just be another Binding if it allows you to extend your Power through your astral body." Rylan, instead of being surprised or dismissive, simply nodded and continued, "More or less correct. A lot of magical weapons and trinkets function to overlap and connect with the astral body of the user… I think you used a spellbreaker for a while, for the Protect functionality?

That is pretty much the same as including a mithril growth plate in a Sword of Empire to create an effect that extends into your astral body… Well. It's not ' the same', but mithril is involved in both, because mithril flows and connects." Rylan warned, "But mithril cannot make a good sword on its own. You know that sword we saw yesterday, Lancing Needle? That sword is 95% mithril and that is why it burns up the user, eventually breaking their Skill and breaking them in turn.

That Sword of Empire is broken as hell on the inside, but it's mithril, and the broken pieces still function just fine for their greater purpose." They arrived at the crafting building where Tulo had the sword in a jig. Scanning lasers danced across the glinting dark metal. Screens populated with information, and Mark barely understood any of it, but he was pretty sure, based on the fragments of Sigaldry and shapes and how the machine was putting them together, that Tulo was dissecting the 'Binding' of the sword.

Rylan continued, "The original Lancing Needle was a true Sword of Empire, but all that mithril caused its eventual corruption. So more adamantium is good. More mana crystals and enchanted steel made with mana crystals of whatever types and gold and whatever, are all preferred to too much mithril, or orichalcum for that matter." Without turning from the readouts, Tulo said, "Rigidity means fewer failure points. One wrong hit on a mithril sword and it could be fucked forever— An enchanted sword, anyway.""

A plain mithril sword still makes a really good sword, when it is forged properly. 80% steel, though."" 98% steel," Tulo said, without reservation. Rylan scoffed, and then he said to Tulo, "65% mithril is even preferable."" The cost per-kilo is entirely wrong and the flexibility is too high when you go with that rate."" Hunters can afford it, and they do, often! And you're not getting a sword-using hunter without them having TT anyway, and so they need cutting power more than they care about cost.

Mithril lasts forever."" If you think hunters don't care about costs then you aren't talking to your hunters. Cost is the number 1 concern. A lot of these kids go out there with sticks half of the time. And it works!" Rylan and Tulo investigated the sword while they bickered about the ethos of smithing for quality versus smithing for price.

It was something both of them dealt with all the time at the settlement, with Tulo as the armsmith for the settlement, with his requirements to arm every warrior in the settlement with basic gear, and Rylan as the guildmaster for the Builder's Guild with his mostly-bespoke-requesting clientele who had worked their way out of Tulo's basic gearing options. Mark hadn't realized that particular push-and-pull between them until now, as they looked over the sword he had made.

Mark realized that Rylan and Tulo liked to talk about this stuff a lot, and they seemed like they were actual friends, too. Not just work buddies. They eventually came around to talking about weaponry again, and then about phase transformations in steel and other materials, but they also talked about phase transformations in adamantium and orichalcum as they got to the golden parts of the sword.

At that, Mark had to interrupt, "I thought I didn't have to worry about phase transitions and martensite and tempering or stuff like that with adamantium, right?" Rylan hummed, noncommittal. Tulo paused. They looked at each other, both of them sizing each other up for an argument about that topic. Rylan started off with, "Yes and no.""

Mostly 'no'," Tulo countered, "But there are concerns about the parts that are orichalcum versus adamantium, and that is a transition you can make better so the sword doesn't snap in the midpoint."" That would be why I said 'yes' and' no'," Rylan countered the counter. He explained, "You've joined the orichalcum completely with the adamantium, and so the metals are all at a very high PL. A 94! So that's crystallized adamantium, for sure, even where the orichalcum is present. But!

A person could strike the gold parts and harm the sword a lot easier than if they strike the black parts."" That's a basic issue of orichalcum itself, which is just the nature of the game," Tulo countered, "And you're not going to hand this to someone with less than 95 in Body anyway, and the TT to back it up." The conversation meandered, much of it outside of Mark's crafter's knowledge base, but a lot of it was adjacent to fighting monsters, which is what Mark really loved and understood.

Mark would go over Quark's recording of the event later, the next time he was researching weaponsmithing, in order to understand everything better. But for now, he listened—" Sir," Quark said, "David has responded to your message. He says thank you but give it to someone else, for he can already do everything the sword can do."" Ahhh… Yeah. I suppose he can. Then…" Mark trailed off, wondering if this was something he could give to someone, at all. Maybe Yoro, back at the settlement?

He was Aurora's spymaster, a speedster, and Wind Shaper. He could probably use it. Maybe someone here could use it, too? Maybe the person who was using Lancing Needle could use this one as a backup weapon? Lancing Needle was killing that kaiju killer with every use… Actually, yeah. That seemed like a good idea. Mark would sleep on it. Mostly, he was embarrassed that someone would even want to break it down for its base materials, though.

Might as well just hand out money at that point, and then what was the point of that! It was downright humiliating, really. For now, Tulo was taking the sword through a normal set of tests, including sharpness and balance and a bunch of other normal tests, and talking all about where Mark had gone wrong in his normal swordsmithing.

He proved it every time, too, by taking the sword and trying to cut paper or wood with it, showing how the adamantium wasn't sharp enough in this area, or the angle of attack was too wide, or too narrow. There were so many issues with how Mark had made the blade that Mark began to wonder if he had made trash."

Now this wavy pattern here on this part of the blade, under the microscope, is only present here instead of everywhere, or not at all, which means there's some underlying issue, which we identified with this scan over here. It's a minor issue, and it's an adamantine blade—"" It's not breaking there," Rylan interrupted." If it's going to break anywhere it's going to be on the crossguard and open hilt area."" That's a whole other issue…" Tulo got deep into the nuances of swordsmithing, right alongside Rylan.

By the end of it, three hours later, Mark was absolutely sure that he had made trash. Expensive, useful trash. At least Tartu was going to be happy when Mark eventually told him.