Chương 25: 1.2.03 - Storm Steel

I held the claw in my hand as I channeled lightning mana through it, studying it in my limited capacity. The claw's propensity to retain lightning mana and also allow it to flow through was unlike any of the materials I had worked with so far. This is likely due to the claw coming from a Storm Runner, one of the rare beast species that did not possess a common affinity. I recalled the peddler's claim about its magical effects as I held the claw.

The peddler probably had no idea that I was familiar with enchanting, and there was not a single rune that I could find inscribed on the talisman. The only thing magical about this trinket was the markup to its price. Garrick still grumbled several times throughout the ride back to Hollow's Reach about how I overpaid for the necklace.

I had rationalized the 50 small silvers I paid as an R&D expense, and considering the time it would take before I could potentially come across another suitable material, it was a small price to pay. I briefly recalled the entry in the beast compendium but had just mentally noted it as a beast to avoid at all costs considering its resistance to my spells due to its lightning affinity core.

While there were still some tests I had to conduct, I was pretty sure that I would need to find a way to hunt this beast despite my type disadvantage. Garrick was kind enough to drop me off back at the orphanage directly, and just briefly reminded me of our agreement as I jumped off.

"Don't worry old man, I'll remember more than just our agreement. This is a favor I'll remember" I replied as I got off. I only arrived at the grotto after lunch the following day. I had to head into town to buy some additional supplies first. I had bought some molds, along with a crucible and crucible tongs. While I did not have a forge, I could sort of replicate the same process with the kiln I built if it was just to melt metal.

Before trying to melt the claw down however, I had to do some initial tests just in case my hypothesis about the claw being metallic in nature was wrong. I did the usual mechanical testing such as hardness, tensile, and impact tests. While I did not have the full equipment, I just wanted to confirm that the material durability was higher than copper or iron. After all the testing I could do in its limited form, I proceeded with melting the claw in the kiln.

I had a mold for a small plate prepared so that I could shape the melted claw into what I needed. I heated the kiln with the claw and crucible in it, making sure to give enough buffer time to fully melt the claw. When I finally retrieved the crucible with the tongs, I held my breath as I tilted it over the mold. I kept my eyes peeled as I gradually tipped it over, and sighed in relief when molten liquid poured out of it.

The disappointing part was there seemed to be some material loss during the melting process, so the plate made from Storm Runner claw would be thinner than expected. It was likely due to some organic material burning off during the melting process. I decided to move the mold into the cave and let it air cool as I wanted to leave it soft enough for me to inscribe the enchantment runes. I also needed to get additional tools from town considering the additional hardness of the material.

I had structured the enchantment tests I needed to run in a progressive manner. The first test was just a basic Storage Rune on the plate. I had fashioned a copper plate of the same thickness and size with the rune in the same position. I infused both with Lightning Mana and watched with Electro Perception as the mana leaked from the plate. I ran the test again but only got the same result. The retention property I felt on the ride home was gone.

Probably burnt off with any organic material during the reforging process. While it was still better than a standard copper plate, it was only marginally better in terms of capacity and leakage. Considering the material rarity, it would not be worth it to replace the battery design with Storm Runner bone. Besides, Mark I's problem wasn't in the battery. The second test I did was conductivity, I inscribed additional runes and connected the plate to copper coils and did the usual water heating test.

I could tell with a marked difference that the heat generated when I passed electricity through was significantly less than if I had used copper. Adding on to the same set of enchantments, I increased the intensity of the enchantment and added Discharge Runes to fire off the Lightning Mana as a simple spark spell. I kept increasing the intensity until I could see the copper plate version starting to heat up and the enchantments starting to deform.

I added another two Intensity Runes to the Storm Runner bone version and tested it. I was glad that it held and did not deform, and while I would like to add more runes to the plate, I had already run out of space. Additionally, I could not afford to destroy the only plate I had as I still needed to do one last test. I replicated the test I conducted on the claw to ensure that it had not completely lost its durability and was delighted that it largely remained the same.

This was it, the two issues I had with the barrel would be solved with these bones. I had decided then I should name this material instead of referring to it as Storm Runner bones. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I should call this Storm Steel", grinning widely at my superior naming sense compared to the Weave's. I had brought the beast compendium with me and looked again at the Storm Runner entry, this time reading through every detail as this was no longer a beast I had to avoid, but one I had to hunt. I started out making notes on an empty section of the page, highlighting the key points that would be important to me. The first would be their habitat.

These runners tend to be deep forest predators, and rarely wander near the edge of the forest. They might tolerate hilly mixed pine forest where the canopy is thick enough but tend to avoid open plains, coastlines, and volcanic areas like Cinder Peaks. The Storm Runners, for lack of a better word, looked like raptors with porcupine spikes glued to their back. Dinosaurs apparently still existed in this world, but in smaller sizes.

They were mostly solitary hunters, though occasionally paired with a mate during breeding season. Even then, it was more overlap of territory rather than always being paired together like the Glimmerwasps. Which worked for me as I could not imagine how I would hunt a single one, let alone two. The biggest problem for me was not their lightning attacks, but the fact that with their hide and conductive bones, they were all but immune to lightning spells. Probably only finding them a mild inconvenience.

Best case was my Lightning Bolt would mildly tickle them, worst case was they could absorb it. The compendium did not really list more details on that as no one with a Lightning Affinity was stupid enough to try and find out. I went over the list of what was available to me: Lightning Bolt, my single biggest advantage since coming to this world, had been made redundant. Lightning Infusion, good for getting me out of the way of its claws.

Electro Perception, would be useful during scouting as the Storm Runner would probably light up like a Christmas tree in my vision. Lightning Brain was not useful at all in this situation, as its strength lay in automating my spells. Lightning Adaptation might allow me more resistance against any lightning based attacks launched by the Storm Runner. Adaptive Soul was even more useless in this situation, as I had no control over when it would activate, and might only be useful after I had killed the beast.

And lastly, Nature's Constitution just gave me muscles. I decided that while I thought through how I should take the beast down, I should track one down first. The book mentioned these beasts stayed deeper in the forest, and that meant it would be rougher terrain and more dangerous beasts. I decided that it was more efficient to eliminate the need for the one hour trek to the grotto and one hour back every evening.

"So um.... I was thinking of camping out for a few days" I raised the topic with Marta during dinner that day.

"Camping out doing what?" Marta raised an eyebrow.

"Erm you know, for better control" I said, leaving the second part blank.

"Oh, why can't you just go out and come back every night?" she challenged.

"Erm...." I had expected Marta to agree like some of my previous requests and failed to come up with a better excuse. She just narrowed her eyes as I started sweating in my seat. I was mentally preparing to give up, ready to make some adjustments in my timeline when she just sighed and said.

"Just make sure to come home if there's a storm, and take some dried meat and bread with you" I just looked up at her as she got up and started putting away some of the dishes. I quickly finished my food and helped her with the chores to keep her mood good, lest she changed her mind later. I had brought in some spare straws that substituted for bedding and the rations that Marta had prepared for me. She was also kind enough to lend me an extra pot so that I could make stew if I wanted.

I had also reapplied the beast repellant around the grotto, especially since I would be staying the night. The repellant had proved that it worked as I had not encountered any beasts wandering too near in the weeks since I had claimed the cave. I began drawing a simple map in the section of the cave, marking the river and the approximate location of the cave.

Considering that the Storm Runner would be inhabiting the deeper parts of the forest, I had no need to look near the edges where the Red and Orange cored beasts lived. The plan was to use the grotto as a launch pad, expanding deeper using the cave as a central location. It was not ideal because of the river but there were sections where I could cross using tree branches and large rocks in the middle of the river.

I would cover a portion of the forest each day and mark my findings, and only proceed deeper if I had exhausted the area nearby. I was not sure if there were any Green beasts living in this forest but I did not want to unnecessarily increase the risk of accidentally encountering one. I would also need to be more careful when traversing across the forest as the ground was more treacherous and there were more Yellow beasts about.

While it might be possible to take them down, it was not guaranteed I could take them all down without alerting other beasts in the forest. I ran the plan again in my head against what the compendium had given me. They were most active at dawn and dusk. I needed to get to their potential hunting area before then and hole up to observe them. I marked two potential areas on my rough map. They hid away during thunderstorms, ironic considering their name.

My guess was that wet conditions made it more difficult to target their lightning attacks. While they were highly resistant to lightning attacks, I doubted shocking themselves would be a pleasant experience. The information on their diet was the useful bit. Due to their solitary nature, they did not go after bigger targets and only hunted smaller game like hares, ground birds, or any forest critter really. Those tend to go down easily with a single discharge through their claws or quills on their back.

Efficient, and effortless. While they did prioritize smaller prey, some had been seen occasionally scavenging left over carcasses left behind by other beasts. Something to keep in mind when I considered the forest areas to be covered. I headed out and started the scouting in the first marked area. It had been three days since I started scouting. I had to go slower and take detours around other Yellow cored beasts I came across. There were a few close calls where I detected the beasts too late.

This resulted in more time to cover the same ground in the outer forest. But I could sense myself getting close as I could feel the static in the air. In my Electro Perception vision, I had spotted something lighting up a few hundred meters away. Author Note: This is the work of Josh Shoniix. This work of fiction will only be published on Royal Road and Space Battle for free. If you're reading this on another site or paid through Google Books, this work has been stolen.