Ice Magic Greatsword

Abel removed the decorations from the hilt of the Hundred Refinements Greatsword, leaving only the iron grip, pommel, and guard. That meant the only place to install the Magic Stone was in the guard.

He put the hilt of the Hundred Refinements Greatsword into the furnace. After a while, he used tongs to pull out the red-hot greatsword and used a hollow chisel to carve a suitably sized socket into it. Master Bentham was also greatly pleased with Abel's mastery of the basics of smithing.

One important reason Abel had studied smithing was to master his own strength. Whenever he had free time, he practiced various smithing techniques in the workshop. Each technique required a different application of force, so after this period of practice, Abel had mastered these basic skills thoroughly.

"Master, I want to make an Ice Magic Greatsword." Of the four types of magic weapons, Abel could only choose between a fire magic weapon and an ice magic weapon because of the material constraints. In his understanding, an ice magic weapon could slow an opponent down, and combined with the damage from ice mana, the finished product would surely become every opponent's nightmare.

Master Bentham said nothing. He watched nervously as Abel took out the Rune Brush, dipped it in rune ink, and began drawing runes on the greatsword.

Abel's hand was steady. Years of practicing calligraphy with a soft brush had made him adept at using the soft-tipped Rune Brush. Unlike writing on paper with ordinary ink, writing with Ice Element rune ink on the Hundred Refinements Greatsword was extremely strenuous. Every time the Rune Brush moved even slightly across the sword, Abel felt waves of resistance. That was despite the Wind Wolf hair on the brush reducing some of the resistance.

Sweat began to run down Abel's head. This required not only physical strength but also tremendous mental effort, because the writing had to be done in one continuous motion without stopping midway. If he paused, the ink would be unevenly thick, and the flow of mana through it would produce unpredictable consequences.

It took a full half hour. Drawing these rune lines with rune ink on the Hundred Refinements Greatsword took nearly three times as long as Abel's usual practice sessions, but in the end, he succeeded.

Abel took out a sapphire and carefully placed it in the socket. He then reinforced the socket with tools, making sure the sapphire would not shift inside or fall out.

"Let me take a look." Master Bentham took the Hundred Refinements Greatsword from Abel and examined it carefully before saying, "Your drawing process was even faster than mine. The runes are perfect, and the Magic Stone is embedded properly. I think you can proceed to the next step."

Seeing the certainty in Master Bentham's expression, a faint smile appeared on Abel's face. Drawing the runes had consumed a great deal of his mental strength, so he sat directly on the floor and rested for nearly an hour before he finally recovered.

Carefully, Abel used his mental power to enter through the edge of the sapphire—the Ice Magic Stone, as Master Bentham called it—following the rune lines inward. As his mental power entered, a frigid force surged along its path. He cautiously guided the force toward the center of the runes. He could not move too quickly, or the cold force would fall behind and return to the sapphire; but if he moved too slowly, the force would freeze his mental power.

After several failures, on the fifth attempt, his mental power finally guided the cold force to the center of the runes. The Hundred Refinements Greatsword suddenly emitted a dazzling light. Abel seemed to hear the sound of the blade shattering. Almost without thinking, he threw the greatsword away and pressed Master Bentham, who was absorbed in the process, behind the enormous iron workbench.

With a tremendous boom, Abel heard fragments tearing through the air beside his ears, followed by a series of clang, clang sounds as they struck various objects. After a while, the noise finally stopped, and everything fell silent.

Abel slowly poked his head out and looked toward the site of the explosion. The workshop was a complete mess, with small holes blasted all over the walls. Fortunately, it had been built from massive stone blocks, and all the tools inside were made of refined iron. Aside from the large pit in the floor, there was little damage.

Master Bentham also recovered from the terrifying scene. After exchanging a glance with Abel, they both felt as if they had narrowly escaped death.

"What happened?"

"Master, are you all right?"

"Master, are you all right?"

"Young Master, Young Master!"

A burst of commotion came from outside. The workshop door was thrown open, and everyone from the Blacksmith Shop crowded in. The noise had alarmed them all.

The horrifying sight in the room made everyone who entered gasp. For a moment, they stared at Master Bentham and Abel in astonishment. What were the two of them making that could possess such destructive power?

"Don't say anything. Don't ask questions. Get out!" Master Bentham shouted as he drove everyone away. Even his apprentice, Gaden, was sent out.

"What could have caused it?" Abel was puzzled by the failure. He thought he had done an excellent job, and the entire process had gone smoothly. Why had it exploded at the very last moment?

Master Bentham picked up the rune ink and examined it extremely carefully. He smelled it, rubbed it between his fingers, and finally said with certainty, "There's nothing wrong with the rune ink. It was made strictly according to the formula. I've been making this ink for many years. It's unlikely that anything went wrong."

"Then the mistake must have happened during the process." Abel recalled what he had done. Aside from taking three times longer than usual to draw the runes, he could not think of anything else he had done incorrectly.

At that thought, Abel said with certainty, "The rune-drawing process may have taken too long."

"Exactly. After such a long time, the ink applied at the beginning and the ink applied at the end may have changed in nature from being exposed for too long. The mana transmission became unstable, and it exploded." Master Bentham analyzed the situation. He had spent almost his entire life researching this material, so when Abel raised the possibility, he immediately realized what had gone wrong.

"Can you use mental power to draw the runes? Would that be faster?" Master Bentham asked. He had no mental power, so he could only ask Abel about it.

"It should work. It will just consume quite a lot of mental strength, so I'll need to rest longer before guiding the mental power afterward." Abel thought for a moment before answering.

Once again, he found a Hundred Refinements Greatsword from the floor and carved a socket into it. The second attempt went faster than the first because he now had experience.

Next came the rune drawing. Abel closed his eyes and emptied his mind. Then he slowly opened them. At that moment, there was only the sword before him. The long blade seemed to expand in his vision, and every detail on it was magnified many times over. As the Rune Brush moved across the sword, the rune ink fused continuously with the sword's surface. That was where the resistance came from. This rune ink, specially made for weapons, could adhere tightly to the sword's surface and form a strange substance between them. Guided by his mental power, Abel's strength and the Rune Brush worked together perfectly. His drawing speed was now worlds apart from before. After a little over ten minutes, he succeeded. When Abel returned to his normal state of mind, he was already utterly exhausted.

This time, Abel rested for two hours before recovering from his weakness. During the following process of guiding his mental power, his previous experience allowed him to proceed without any pauses. Neither too quickly nor too slowly, he guided the cold force into the center of the runes in a single attempt.

A flash of light swept across the Hundred Refinements Greatsword. This time, the light was not dazzling. The runes covering the blade began to glow, then slowly dimmed until they vanished from the sword's surface. The Hundred Refinements Greatsword returned to its original appearance. Aside from the socket in the guard, there was no visible difference between it and the original Hundred Refinements Greatsword.

Master Bentham accepted the Hundred Refinements Greatsword with trembling hands and lightly tapped the blade with his finger. A cold gleam flashed across the sword, and a layer of frost formed over the surface of his finger.

"Master, are you all right?" Abel cried out when he saw the frost on Master Bentham's finger.

"Hahaha!" Master Bentham burst into wild laughter, tears continuously spilling from the corners of his eyes. He murmured, "I never thought I'd live to see one of my disciples make a magic sword. I can die without regrets."