Volume 3, Chapter 21 – A Magic Weapon Inscribed with ‘Weak Electricity’

After all the adventurers in the mansion had left, Yisi, with nothing to do, returned to the second floor. It seemed the Flame Conquerors had been ambushed by a rival adventurer guild, and a big fight had broken out. Now, Clementine was leading a group to get their pride back.

Yisi had originally offered to help, but Clementine said it was their own business and that underage girls shouldn’t go to dangerous places, so Yisi gave up the idea of helping.

She pushed open the door.

Tiffany was in her human form, kneeling on the bed and yawning.

Taking off her coat and hanging it on the rack, Yisi walked to the well-lit bedside. Perhaps afraid of being discovered, Tiffany had drawn the curtains.

“If you’re sleepy, Tiffany, you can go to sleep first. I still have some things to do. I’ll be back in a little while.”

“Just woke up.”

As she spoke, Tiffany began to put on her clothes—a light green short dress. Yisi had originally wanted to get Tiffany cuter clothes, but Tiffany’s identity as a slime meant the simpler the clothes, the better, so she only had this one light green dress.

“You’ve already had a nap? But why are you getting dressed?”

“Together.”

“You want to go out with me?”

“Mm.”

“Hmm…”

Yisi hesitated. She was going out to try forging a magic weapon. While forging itself wasn’t a secret, the [Advanced Teleportation] she needed to use to get there couldn’t be easily revealed. It wasn’t that Yisi didn’t trust Tiffany, but she was worried Tiffany might accidentally let it slip in conversation.

“No. Tiffany, you stay here quietly in the room.”

“Stingy.”

“It’s not a matter of being stingy,” Yisi waved her hand at Tiffany and took a black cloak from her storage. “Don’t run around, Tiffany. If there’s a problem, go find Camilla and Mary next door.”

Gently closing the door, Yisi teleported directly into the wilderness. Considering a place that wouldn’t cause a forest fire and wouldn’t be easily discovered, Yisi chose a secluded spot by Antonio Lake.

“Blocked by such high rocks, no one can see this place even from the city walls.”

The vast, empty Antonio Lake was eerily silent. The sound of the night wind blowing through the forest reminded Yisi of a graveyard. Coupled with the cold, deathly aura hanging over the lake, Yisi had the illusion of having come to the land of the undead.

Flap, flap.

Something wet was walking towards her.

Yisi became vigilant and glanced towards the source of the sound. At this time of night, the only creatures remaining in Antonio Lake, other than monsters, were one other kind—the undead.

Yisi had noticed before she arrived that due to the vast number of dead creatures and the Church’s failure to purify the area in time, Antonio Lake was filled with undead.

“But their levels are too low. They’re no match at all.”

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They were mostly zombie fish and crustaceans, hopping around on the dried lakebed. Yisi casually used a holy-element spell and purified a large swath of them.

“Their appearance has gotten strange, though.”

Some zombie fish had even grown legs. It was less terrifying and more in the style of a comedian. If it were holding a spear, Yisi might have actually laughed out loud.

She wondered if there were any large, four-legged fish in this world.

Smiling to herself, Yisi began to prepare the forging platform.

For a blacksmith, a platform that could maintain a stable temperature was crucial. Before leaving the shop in the Noble District, Yisi had toured the old man’s forging room. This world relied heavily on magic for fire. The way to increase the flame was not by installing bellows, but by injecting magic power into a magic circle inscribed on the platform.

For Yisi, while she had no worries about insufficient firepower, there was the problem of not being able to multitask. It was impossible for one person to process equipment while controlling magic output. Since she was alone, Yisi chose to use equipment from “Ragnarøk.”

[ Foundry Furnace – Tier 4 ]

A fiery red foundry platform, about the size of two pianos, appeared before Yisi.

In “Ragnarøk,” players who chose the blacksmith profession only needed a foundry platform and some materials to start learning weapon forging and processing, greatly simplifying the tedious real-world process.

“Since this is my first time forging a weapon in the real world, I should start with simple equipment.”

The first piece of equipment to make was an iron sword.

“A true apprentice would probably start by hammering iron ore.”

For a blacksmith in this other world to forge an excellent weapon, they first needed a sufficiently strong iron ingot. The source of the ingot was to stuff high-quality iron ore and charcoal into a small furnace and ignite it, thereby reducing the impurities in the high-quality ore.

From Yisi’s modern perspective, this was essentially burning the iron ore and charcoal with insufficient oxygen, allowing the large amount of hot carbon monoxide produced to strip the oxygen from the iron ore, leaving behind the reduced solid wrought iron.

But this solid wrought iron wasn’t actually strong; it was a soft and porous sponge iron, which still contained many impurities because the ore hadn’t melted. Therefore, the blacksmith had to repeatedly forge this sponge iron to remove the pores and impurities, only then could it become an iron ingot suitable for making weapons.

That was why iron weapons were so precious, to the point where most soldiers could only afford spears with an iron tip.

For Yisi, however, it wasn’t nearly so troublesome. Not only could the [Foundry Furnace – Tier 4] refine iron ore into an ingot of any shape in one step, but even without the furnace, Yisi could use high-level fire magic to directly melt the iron into a liquid.

Although the pig iron formed after the molten iron solidified was brittle and couldn’t be made directly into a weapon, it could still become steel or an iron ingot after being forged and carburized.

If I had started as a lord, I might be improving the steelmaking process right now to kickstart industrialization.

Yisi shrugged.

Tossing the iron ore into the [Foundry Furnace – Tier 4], Yisi injected magic power into it. The furnace was T-shaped, and the upper part of the horizontal section was made of a special transparent material, allowing Yisi to clearly see how the ore was changing.

The moment the golden flames ignited, the ore began to melt, quickly becoming a pool of molten iron. With a somewhat clumsy motion, Yisi stopped the magic output to the magic circle. Since she had set the furnace to produce steel from the start, under the magic cooling, it took her less than five minutes to obtain a qualified ingot, a raw material that could be used to forge a longsword.

“Next is to turn the ingot into an iron sword.”

Placing the ingot in the center of the magic circle on the platform, Yisi then placed her hand on a magic sigil carved with the symbol of a longsword.

This was less forging and more magic shaping. Under a shroud of blue light, the ingot disappeared, replaced by a double-edged sword reflecting a metallic luster, about half of Yisi’s height in length.

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Yisi picked it up and weighed it slightly—it was lighter than a normal longsword. To confirm its toughness, Yisi took the sword to a nearby tree trunk.

Whoosh.

The sound of a sharp object cutting through the air.

Thunk.

Limited by the weapon’s strength, the iron sword couldn’t cut the trunk in half, but it still embedded itself a finger’s depth.

“It’s sharper and stronger than a normal iron sword.”

An ordinary iron sword used by an adventurer could at most leave a gash on the tree.

It’s probably better not to casually take out the [Foundry Furnace – Tier 4] in the future.

The next step was to add a magic formula to the weapon.

According to the information Yisi saw in the forging book, there were generally two types of formulas for magic weapons. The first was a high-difficulty technique where the formula was inscribed inside the weapon during the forging process. The second was a common technique where the formula was inscribed on the surface after the weapon was forged.

In terms of effect, there was no difference between the two types. For example, ‘Strength Enhancement’ inscribed on the surface and ‘Strength Enhancement’ inscribed inside had the same effect when used. The reason for the distinction was firstly, the pride of high-level blacksmiths, and secondly, the difference in durability.

A magic formula inscribed inside a weapon was not easily destroyed in battle, while a formula on the surface, although not so fragile as to break at a touch, could easily lose its effect if the weapon’s surface became damaged.

No one wanted their magic weapon to suddenly fail in a fierce battle, so warriors preferred the type with the formula inscribed inside, which naturally came at a higher price.

What Yisi was about to do was the cheaper, simpler kind of magic weapon.

“Inscribing a magic formula while forging is too unfriendly for a novice like me.”

Once again, Yisi placed the iron sword back on the foundry platform.

“First is to use a carving knife to engrave the magic circuit, which is the foundation of the magic formula, on the weapon. Well, it’s the same as drawing a magic circle.”

Engraving the magic circuit was an extremely important step. The quality of the circuit determined the efficiency of magic flow. If the circuit was carved crookedly, with varying widths, the magic would naturally have a harder time flowing through it. This was where the difference between a novice and a veteran blacksmith was most apparent.

Yisi first waved the magic carving knife the old man had given her, then set it aside. If she used the knife, she had no confidence she could produce results in one night. Engraving was a skill that required accumulated experience and couldn’t be mastered in a short time.

As usual, Yisi chose to let the foundry furnace do the work.

“Although it’s not automated, its advantage is that it can be controlled by thought.”

A magic carving knife controlled by thought naturally wouldn’t have a shaky hand. After Yisi injected magic power into the platform, a slowly rotating blue magic circle appeared above the sword. As usual, she just needed to close her eyes to enter the magic circle’s perspective.

A thin golden line shone on the sword, and a small hole was melted through the blade.

Too much magic output.

Yisi tried to calm herself. The next step required intense concentration.

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After adjusting her focus, the engraving work became much simpler.

The magic formula Yisi wanted to inscribe was a spell called [Weak Electricity]. This was the simplest and most basic magic formula described in the book. When a weapon inscribed with [Weak Electricity] hit an enemy, it would cause a slight paralysis effect.

Since the formula was drawn in the book, Yisi kept making mistakes when copying it onto the sword. But then she thought of a simple method—place the paper over the sword and trace it directly with the magic laser.

“Speaking of which, that blacksmith didn’t tell me how big this magic circuit should be.”

Did it have to be a 1:1 replica of the size in the book? Or was any size fine as long as the proportions were correct?

Since Yisi only had one sheet of paper with the ‘Weak Electricity’ formula, she decided to make a few copies herself first, then use the copied drawings to cover the sword and trace them.

“Let’s give it a try.”

The process of copying the drawings could be solved with magic. Yisi soon had several sheets of paper of different sizes but with the same pattern.

“I’ll choose the largest drawing first.”

She fixed the long strip of paper to the sword with [Solidify] magic and then began to trace it with ease—the process took less than five minutes. A magic circuit, as standard as an electronic printout, appeared on the blade.

Yisi proudly patted her chest. She was definitely a genius for thinking of the tracing method.

“Next step, mixing the magic liquid.”

A magic circuit alone couldn’t form a magic formula, of course. The circuit was like laying pipes, and only when water flowed through the pipes could the magic truly circulate.

Besides the stability of the circuit, the quality of the magic liquid also determined the strength of the formula. A magic circuit formed from high-quality magic liquid would naturally be stronger, and in turn, the quality of the magic weapon would be higher.

The quality of the magic liquid depended on both the mixer’s fine control of magic and the quality of the raw materials.

Yisi’s control over magic was a given; considering only magic output, she could be precise to 0.1 units, so the problem lay with the raw materials.

She reviewed the forging book again.

“…A magic core from a lightning-element monster and any of its body materials will do?”

According to the book’s examples, the minimum requirement was the [Magic Core of an Electric Slime] and the [Skin of an Electric Slime]. A step up would be the [Magic Core of a Thunderbird] and a [Thunderbird’s Feather] or [Thunderbird’s Talon].

She frowned in difficulty.

“I don’t have either of those.”

She searched the Omniscient Map, but neither of those two monsters was nearby.

“Since it’s a combination of a magic core and a body material, it should be fine to substitute it with other monsters, right?”

Yisi took out a bluish-purple magic core that required both hands to hold, and a horn that was over three stories high.

They were the [Magic Core of a Giant Thunder Dragon] and the [Horn of a Giant Thunder Dragon].

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“Hmm… I only need a tiny bit of the horn. I’ll keep the core.”

Even Yisi couldn’t cut the [Horn of a Giant Thunder Dragon] with her bare hands. After cutting off a small piece with a weapon, Yisi began to mix the core and the horn into a magic liquid according to the procedure.

Although cutting the magic core caused a small-scale thunderstorm midway through, and because the core was so large, the resulting magic liquid was enough to fill hundreds of barrels, Yisi still overcame all the difficulties. She poured the magic liquid, which had a current so high it made her fingers numb, into an inkwell. Then, she dipped a quill pen in it and traced along the magic circuit.

“Alright! All done!”

She felt a sense of relief, like finishing homework that had been accumulating for over ten days.

Yisi placed her hands on her hips, looking at her masterpiece.

Then.

CRACKLE!

CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!!!

As if the apocalypse had arrived, countless dark clouds suddenly appeared in the sky. They gathered and stacked on top of each other, forming a vast sky above Yisi that seemed about to bring down divine punishment.

A fierce wind, strong enough to break trees, ravaged the land. Even boulders trembled. As if entering a domain of lightning, twisted electric serpents intertwined in mid-air, each flash leaving a scorched mark on the ground. All the monsters in the forest burrowed into their nests at this moment, shivering deep underground.

The scene, like the descent of a thunder god, filled the air with tension.

“Wait…”

Completely unaware of what was happening, Yisi looked up and subconsciously deployed a defensive barrier.

But this worry was clearly unnecessary. Only a gentle blue pillar of light descended from the vast sky. The pillar, about two meters in diameter, enveloped the iron sword Yisi had forged. Nothing happened, and after about half a minute, it disappeared.

The apocalyptic scene also returned to normal.

“What was that?”

With a head full of question marks, Yisi put the foundry platform back into her storage, then picked up the iron sword that had fallen on the ground. Just as the book said, once the magic formula was complete, it would disappear from the object’s surface, just like a magic circle. Yisi tried to scratch the place where the engraving had been with her fingernail, and five claw marks appeared on the blade, but the magic formula inside was not damaged.

Very sturdy.

Yisi raised the longsword above her head with one hand.

“I went through all the trouble to make it. I have to try it out myself.”

Then, facing an open area, she injected magic power into the longsword and swung it forcefully into the empty air.

ZZZZZRAAAACK!!

—A thunder dragon, hundreds of meters tall, tore through the night sky, and the world turned as bright as day.

Translator Note

sigh.. =w=)