Supreme Magus

Bloom Forge was the polar opposite of Necro Forge.

Instead of creating a perfect pseudo core from the start and merge it with its host, Lith would create a small pseudo core and the mana pathways necessary to prevent it from dissipating at the same time directly inside the hammer.

It was supposed to require less focus and mana compared to Necro Forge. The mana pathways would allow Lith’s energy to mix with that of the mana crystals during the Forgemastering process.

It would reduce the resistance that the pseudo core experienced when interacting with the mana vessels, and by starting small, all mistakes Lith might make could be tweaked as he shaped the core. Bloom Forge was far from perfect, even in theory.

Lith had already predicted that the more the Forgemastering process progressed, the more difficult things would become. Neither the pseudo core nor the mana pathways could exceed their ideal form.

Bloom Forge had a threshold past which any mistake would mean an unredeemable failure.

Necro Forge’s difficulty peaked at the very beginning of the Forgemastering process, when Lith was at his prime, and decreased as the pseudo core merged with the item. Bloom Forge, instead, would start easy and become harder with every next step.

The second issue was that taking care of the pseudo core and the mana pathways at the same time would require a lot of focus from Lith. Since he would only grow more tired with time, he would face the most delicate steps while he was at his weakest.

"Are you ready, Solus?" Lith asked.

"Ready. Commencing to power up the mana circle." The space around their Forge was surrounded by a blue pillar of light. It was made of the world energy Solus extracted from the mana geyser below them.

Lith positioned the Orichalcum WellMert hammer on the center of the obsidian table that was his Mana Forge and then placed his open hands at the sides of the hammer’s shaft, so that his palms touched a mana crystal each.

He used true Forgemastering to create a pseudo core the size of a pinhole and several mana pathways as thin as hair. At the same time, he activated Invigoration to check the development of his experiment and be able to look at his own mana core, using it as a blueprint.

’So far it’s much easier than I expected and better than Necro Forge.’ Lith thought.

’I just need to take things nice and easy. The core has already started to exchange mana with the crystals, making it easy to expand.’

By simply taking his time, Lith discovered that developing the core was the easy part. As its energy grew, so did its affinity toward the hammer. The process required a steady flow of mana, but it would not encounter any resistance.

Giving the core the right shape was quite difficult, instead. The lack of resistance made so that the slightest slip of the mana would create a bump or a cavity, making the pseudo core defective.

To make matters worse, if he developed the mana pathways too slowly, the core energy would disperse. If he developed them too fast, the mana coming from the crystals would flood the core and deform it.

Lith used his knowledge of mana cores to find a workaround. He would treat the pseudo core as a developing mana core and the mana pathways as its host body. He would first grow the core until it gave signs of instability.

Then, he would strengthen and enlarge the pathways until the pressure they exerted almost compressed the pseudo core. At that point, he would focus again on the pseudo core again, rinse and repeat.

’Bloom Forge is even slower than Necro Forge, but it allows me to enhance the power of single enchantments better. Necro Forge, instead, is limited by the massive resistance it encounters during the early steps, but by shaping a complete pseudo core from outside, it allows me to harmonize multiple enchantments.’ Lith thought.

’It seems is quality versus quantity.’ Solus pondered.

’For now, yes. Consider that so far, we only created one of the simplest pseudo cores for the hammers. We have yet to see how the hammer itself changes the rules of the game.’

When even the second hammer was ready, Lith was once again covered in sweat and tired for the repeated use of Invigoration. The only reason he was still able to stand was thanks to his bond with Solus.

The mana geyser empowering her would also send energy coursing through his body and grant him uncanny recovery abilities. He was still hungry, though.

"Damn, I skipped lunch. It’s a good thing that yesterday I had a full night’s sleep, otherwise my experiment would have failed." Lith said.

He took a quick shower before consuming a full course meal and napping for an hour. Before using either of the hammers, he needed to rest enough to let Invigoration bring him back to his peak condition.

Ever since Lith had refined a blue core, he would absorb world energy through his nose and skin with every breath, like a much slower version of Invigoration that didn’t lower his max energy cap.

Also, as long as he was inside the tower, the effects of the mana geyser would make him both physically and magically stronger. The two combined effect made so that even a single hour of sleep would greatly rejuvenate his body.

Solus spent that hour weighing and caressing the hammers. They were quite ugly, yet everything about them was oddly familiar to her. Lith had already imprinted them with his mana, but she could use them because their bond made their energy signatures almost identical.

"By my maker, I wish there was something, anything, I could Forgemaster." She sighed.

"Unfortunately, with a deep green mana core I’m too weak. I can manipulate the energies of the tower and those from the geyser, but they are not my own. I want to infuse my essence, using anything else would be pointless."

She took the adamant Forge out of her pocket dimension, hitting it with the Orichalcum hammer in frustration. The silvery sound they emitted scratched at the wall in the back of her head, the source of her recently found memories.

She froze, staring blankly into space. Then, she hit the Forge again as the echoes of the impact caused her body to shiver and purple flames to fill her mind. Another hit made her remember something.

A delicate hand inside a black glove, holding a much better looking silvery hammer with its surface covered in runes of power. There was something she was working on, but it was blurred behind recognition.

Something silvery as well laid between the hammer and the blurred object. Purple flames danced inside a furnace, but Solus couldn’t distinguish any of its features. The furnace was too far and it became more distant by the second until she snapped out of her reverie.

Solus hit the Forger multiple times, but the memory was lost once again and no matter how many tears she shed or how much effort she put into hammering, nothing could bring it back.

***

When Lith woke up, he was still very tired, but now Invigoration had recovered part of its effectiveness. He found Solus to be quite dispirited despite their earlier success.

"Is everything alright, Solus?" He asked.

"No."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not now, thanks."

Lith decided to not pry further. After reassuring Elina he had missed lunch only because he had been engrossed with his work, he went to Zekell’s blacksmith.