Volume 5, Chapter 27 – Forging Magic

“Don’t be timid! Be calm and use a magic shield!”

“Right! [Magic Shield]!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As three consecutive fireballs slammed into the [Bee-Shield Forcefield], the resulting explosions instantly illuminated the cratered ground. Along with it, Tilulu’s resolute expression, hidden behind the shield, was also revealed.

As the heat from the fireballs dissipated into the cold air, the rubble-strewn ruins quickly fell silent. Fine, sugar-like snowflakes began to fall again, and darkness once more swallowed this remote, unremarkable corner.

However, if one were to look down from a high altitude, they would discover that only the spot where Tilulu stood was pitch black. Everywhere else, from the streets to the rooftops, was covered in a thin layer of snow, making it particularly conspicuous in this silver world.

—This was, of course, the result of Fia and Tilulu’s training. Spells like [Thunder Spear], [Fairy Fire], [Dragon’s Fang], and [Torrent] had all cleared the snow from the ground. If this place hadn’t been so remote, already close to the wilderness, the commotion they had created would have attracted the city guards.

As for the results of the training, although it had been less than an hour and a half, the effect was remarkable. Tilulu’s learning speed was much faster than an ordinary person’s. She could memorize a move after just three or four repetitions. And with practical application—such as what posture to take when a fireball flew at her and what magic Fia would use to counter it—stimulated by the visuals, she could completely master the entire process in just one go, with almost no need for Fia to repeat it.

Furthermore, Fia had to admire Tilulu’s ability to remain calm in the face of danger. When an ordinary person saw a grand fireball flying towards them, their first reaction would surely be to freeze in fright or run without a second thought. Only those with sufficient skill, confident that they could block the attack, could respond calmly.

However, although Tilulu had to rely on others to block the fireballs, she showed no signs of panic. Instead, she acted like a seasoned warrior, taking a stance to deploy a magic shield and calmly watching the fireball disappear in front of her. Fia couldn’t help but marvel; royalty was royalty, after all. No wonder the usurping Lionfolk were so wary of them.

Of course, Fia felt this might also be related to Tilulu’s experiences. She had been living a life on the run, and staying calm in the face of danger had become an instinct etched into her bones.

Feeling Tilulu’s body gradually go limp in her arms, Fia let out a soft breath and stopped giving instructions. After more than an hour of intense exercise, even a beastman with abundant stamina would be exhausted. If they continued, Tilulu’s legs would surely be trembling when she woke up tomorrow, and even walking would be difficult.

She let go of Tilulu, whose clothes were soaked with sweat, and took a step back.

“Alright, that’s it for today. You can go back and rest, Tilulu.”

“Eh?” Although Tilulu’s back was to her, Fia felt as if she could see the surprised look in her wide eyes. “It’s over already?”

“You’re about to collapse from exhaustion. If we don’t end it, you won’t be able to train tomorrow.”

Fia gave a wry smile.

“The progress is much faster than I imagined. In just one night, you’ve already learned the most basic offense and defense. I think we can start trying some more complex moves tomorrow. If possible, I’ll have Liti or Anastasia be the attacker to practice with us.”

“Mm… alright. I will follow teacher’s instructions.”

Tilulu turned around, but her drooping beast ears and tail told Fia that she was disappointed.

“What’s wrong? You look so dejected. Do you want to continue? Your head is already starting to steam.”

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Because she had sweated a lot, and it was winter, a faint white mist was rising from Tilulu’s head.

“Mm… when teacher was holding my hand, I felt a sense of peace…”

It’s as if I had an older sister or a mother. So now that we’ve separated, my heart feels empty.

Tilulu did not say this out loud.

However, even if she didn’t, Fia could somewhat sense her thoughts. In a way, Tilulu was the same as Fia when she first came to the World Tree Continent—without family, longing for care. Her feelings now were probably like Fia’s towards Anastasia back then, hoping to gain her approval and become closer to her.

Anyone who has been isolated for too long will treat any possible bond as a treasure. The same was true for Tilulu, who had lost both her parents.

Her current disappointment was probably because she had felt something similar from Fia. The act of letting her lean against her back must have been an extremely new experience for her. A friendly physical touch between strangers could make a person relax, not to mention this was done for her own good from the very beginning—at least, from her perspective.

Of course, there was also the fact that Fia was the stronger party. A strong person could always bring a sense of security to those willing to believe in them.

Since Tilulu was drenched in sweat, Fia had no choice but to pinch her fluffy white tiger ears as a form of comfort. It should be noted that her ears were quite elastic, and softer than an elf’s pointed ears. They were warm to the touch and made one want to hold them and rub them gently.

“Alright, alright, we can talk about it tomorrow. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly disappear. You go back first, Tilulu. I still have some things to do, so I’ll stay here a little longer.”

“Some things? What is teacher going to do?”

“Try to make some magic weapons.”

As early as when she had first arrived in Silvar, Fia had planned to learn how to forge magic weapons to assist Laplace’s Demon’s research. However, Prince Schain’s rebellion, Clark’s return, and the anomaly of the Holy Tree had caused the matter to be delayed again and again. It wasn’t until today that she finally had time to try.

“Then can I watch you do it, teacher?”

“No.”

Fia refused without a second thought.

It wasn’t that she was being possessive of her skills, but that she was a complete novice in magic forging. She had no desire for her student to see her embarrassing side, even if that student was only one in name.

However, she thought for a moment and changed her mind with a sigh.

“Forget it. We’ll go back first. It’s too dangerous for you to go home alone. It would be troublesome if you were kidnapped by those rats hiding in the ruins.”

“How could I be kidnapped by rats? I… I’m a royal of the Tiger-kin, after all. Teacher is looking down on me too much.”

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Tilulu muttered like a pouting child.

Fia waved her hand.

“The rats I’m talking about aren’t the ones living in the sewers, but the slaves and vagrants hiding in the ruins. Those people will do anything for food. A child shouldn’t walk alone at night.”

“Radric used to say something similar…”

“About children not walking alone at night?”

“No,” Tilulu lowered her head, her voice growing much smaller. “That those people will do anything for food.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“Radric also said that I could change all that, distribute the nobles’ money to the poor, so that the vagrants would no longer be homeless, and children could go out at night without fear.”

“Then Radric is a good dragon. His vision is much more far-sighted than others’.” Fia shrugged with a light laugh. “He’s right. As long as you become queen, you’ll have the chance to change this situation. Even if you can’t necessarily take the nobles’ money and distribute it to the poor, you can use other methods to reduce the number of the impoverished and improve the lives of these vagrants, so that not everyone has to live by stealing and robbing.”

“But is it really possible for me to become queen…”

Tilulu seemed to lack confidence.

Fia couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. She hadn’t said those words to echo Radric, but to push Tilulu, to make her conscious of being a queen. Yet, it now seemed that Tilulu was not without a clear understanding of the current situation.

Fia asked, feigning ignorance.

“What do you mean? Didn’t you say you wanted to avenge your people?”

“The people who are willing to follow me number less than a hundred, but Chazo is an opponent that even Radric fears. How can I defeat such an enemy…”

“Isn’t that why I’m helping you? I am The Witch of Calamity Flame. An opponent like Chazo can be defeated with a wave of my hand. As long as you want to deal with him, I, your teacher, will be your backer.” Fia puffed out her chest confidently. “Or do you not want to take revenge on the one who killed your parents?”

“No…”

Tilulu wanted to say something more, but Fia vigorously ruffled her gray hair.

“It’s already eleven at night. Let’s go back. If we delay any longer, Radric will come looking for us.”

“Alright…”

Tilulu nodded lightly, her expression lacking confidence.

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On the way back, Fia noticed that Tilulu glanced a few more times at the gazes hidden in the ruins, her expression as if she were deep in thought.

◇

After bidding farewell to Tilulu at the old residence, Fia soon found an empty, musty, and spacious basement in the residence. It was probably a wine cellar or a storage for fruits and vegetables originally. Now that the owner was gone, the things inside had naturally been moved out, making it a perfect place for forging magic weapons.

The table, chairs, and other furniture were all created with [Telekinesis], and the lighting was replaced with [Light]. Fia eagerly took out the magic items she had brought from Blossom and began her first attempt.

It should be noted that Fia didn’t plan to start with forging magic weapons right away, but to first replenish her magic potions. The lowest-grade potions could no longer satisfy the Third-Tier Liti, and Milu had been at the Second Tier for some time. She had heard that there were many high-tier monsters in the Weeping Mountains in the south of the Cold Night. At that time, she could pick a few dozen suitable ones for Milu to kill, so that she could quickly advance to the Third Tier.

In addition, if possible, it would be best to raise all her companions to at least the Fourth Tier at once, so that they would be able to protect themselves in most situations.

Therefore, the level of the magic potions also had to be raised, at least to the level of low-grade and mid-grade. As for high-grade and other special types of potions, Fia had no intention of trying them for now. The process of brewing them was too cumbersome. Without setting aside a day or two, even she was not confident of succeeding on the first try.

With her previous experience in brewing the lowest-grade potions, Fia finished mixing the mana potions in less than half an hour. Now, she just had to wait for the base liquid to be successfully brewed.

During this time, Fia turned her attention to magic forging. Besides magic, it also involved the work of a blacksmith.

“A forger needs to know the properties of various magic metals and use potions to turn them into alloys before they can begin to forge magic weapons.”

This sentence sounded simple, but it was the threshold that kept countless novice forgers out. Even for the same type of magic metal ore, the content of the magic metal would not be exactly the same, and this would greatly affect the quality of the forged weapon.

For example, although mithril was a metal with good magic conductivity and was extremely hard, it was not resistant to high temperatures. A weapon with too high a mithril content would have the disadvantage of not being resistant to fire-attribute magic, and might even bend or melt in high temperatures. Such a magic weapon was no better than an ordinary iron sword. Many novice forgers couldn’t judge how much mithril a piece of ore contained, and how much would be lost after being dissolved by the potion. This led to the weapons they made being neither here nor there, unable to even be sold for their cost, and they were eventually forced to change professions.

As for the magic aspect, a forger had to be proficient in the knowledge of magic to inscribe spells into a weapon, giving it a fixed magic, before it could be called a magic weapon. This was another profound field of study. The combination of the two made the learning curve for a forger extremely high, which was one of the reasons why magic weapons were often more expensive than magic potions.

“As for the style… I’ll choose the magic circle style.”

Fia murmured to herself, placing a clean wooden board, a meter long, on the table.

Just as magic was divided into elf magic and dragon language magic, forgers also had their styles. The two main ones were those who used runic characters and those who used magic circles.

Runic characters were a type of text that naturally had magical effects, somewhat similar to the magic characters Claire used. For example, combining a character that naturally had a fire attribute with one that had a long-range meaning would give a weapon the ability to spew flames. And if you added a runic character with a meaning like “sphere” or “wall,” it would become an effect of launching a fireball or a fire wall. It was very simple to get started.

However, this style also had obvious flaws. It had extremely high requirements for the quality of the weapon and the tier of the forger. Every time a runic character was inscribed, the difficulty of inscribing the next one would increase by a level. As more were inscribed, the weapon would eventually be unable to be further enhanced. At this point, there were only two consequences of forcibly inscribing: either the forger’s magic would be exhausted and the inscription would fail, or the weapon would be unable to withstand the high load and would be destroyed.

According to the forging theories Fia had seen in the library, the weapon with the most runic characters inscribed, a total of twenty-three, was a divine weapon given to a Holy Son by a god, not forged by the creatures of the World Tree Continent themselves. This showed the upper limit of runic characters.

In contrast, the style of using magic circles was the complete opposite in terms of pros and cons.

Since the forgers of the magic circle style had to first master the technique of inscribing them, their initial learning was extremely difficult. But due to the complexity, versatility, and reparability of magic circles, their operability was quite high, allowing them to maximize the weapon’s advantages. Therefore, their upper limit was also higher than the runic character style.

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Among the currently recorded crystal-grade magic weapons, excluding divine weapons, more than half were forged by magic circle forgers. Forgers who were determined to make a name for themselves and those from high noble families would basically choose this style.

Although Fia had no intention of becoming famous (mainly because she was already famous enough), magic circles, like magic itself, could be used in practical life. In fact, magic circles and magic barriers were the same thing, with only a difference in application. In addition, the flexibility and versatility of magic circles were more conducive to her creating extremely powerful magic weapons, so she had to choose this style.

It should be known that the elf Holy Son of the past had restrained the Elf God with an extremely large magic barrier. Even though the Elf God was in a weakened state at the time, for a mortal to imprison a god was an astonishing story that would shock countless people.

If she could also set up an extremely large magic barrier, she would have more means when dealing with gods in the future. For example, when dealing with the Elf God back then, if she had the ability to construct a magic circle, she wouldn’t have had to create that earth-shattering scene, nor would the entire city of Blossom have watched her dance.

At this thought, Fia couldn’t help but click her tongue. That had been a real failure.

Because it was too embarrassing, Fia had to shake her head vigorously to get the image out of her mind. She coughed heavily and then picked up a quill pen from the side.

“Ahem, let’s start with the preparations.”

The preparation for drawing a magic circle was similar to brewing a magic potion. One had to first mix a special ink for drawing with magic materials. For example, when drawing a fire-attribute magic circle, one could not mix in materials rich in water elements, as this would cause a conflict and greatly reduce the power of the circle, or even cause it to fail.

With her foundation in brewing magic potions, Fia finished mixing the ink in just a few minutes.

“Since I’m an apprentice, I have to start with a wooden board…”

Muttering to herself, Fia, following the content in her memory, carefully picked up the quill pen dipped in ink and began to draw a magic circle on the clean, empty wooden board. As for learning magic circles, with her photographic memory and exquisite control over her body, she didn’t need much practice to draw a pattern exactly the same as the one in the book. It was as accurate as the most sophisticated photocopier, so the most difficult part for a beginner did not trouble her at all.

After a long fifteen minutes, a complex magic circle the size of a basketball was on the wooden board. However, just as Fia let out a sigh of relief and finished the last stroke, the magic circle suddenly flashed with a dangerous red light.

Not good.

[Bee-Shield Forcefield]

Without a second thought, Fia summoned a magic shield in front of her. Then, an explosion that shook the ceiling occurred in the basement. Fortunately, the table and chairs were formed by [Telekinesis], otherwise the room would now be filled with smoke and flying wood chips.

Fia was stunned for a moment, then realized the cause.

She had succeeded, but she had also failed.

The success was that she had indeed drawn a magic circle. The failure was that she shouldn’t have started with a wooden board as the book said, because a wooden board was just a substitute for beginners to learn how to draw. It couldn’t withstand a real magic circle. So, the moment her magic circle succeeded, it exploded due to its own fragility.

What a mistake. I should have thought of that.

Fia secretly stuck out her tongue.