Lightning Is The Only Way

Gravis had been smelting for a couple of days now, trying out different materials, different amounts of Spirit, and different amounts of concentration. However, he had to take breaks now and then. Keeping the form of the weapon inside his imagination while doing the calculations was very demanding on his concentration.

In over 90% of cases, Gravis pulled the ores apart too soon, breaking them in the process. 5% were too high, while the remaining 5% were just right. After seeing the results on different materials, Gravis noticed that he nearly always pulled the material apart too soon.

After a couple of days of smelting, he went back to trying only one material. This material had a rank at the Initial Unity Realm. A material like this should be just right for him. After all, he was at the Initial Stage of the Unity Realm. Of course, he went back to this material because he found out the answer.

Gravis had tried some materials for the Early Stage of the Unity Realm previously. Smelting them was many times more difficult, surprising him quite a bit. He even had to move some of his other centers of power into his Spirit to keep going.

While trying out these materials, Gravis noticed that he was wasting a bit more Spirit than concentration, which required him to increase his Spirit. Judging by the time, his concentration would be about half empty if he finished his weapon. Sadly, that calculation wasn't accurate. After all, Gravis didn't know how much concentration the other steps would take.

Surprisingly, his calculations had been pretty spot on while smelting materials at the Early Unity Rank. Gravis quickly tried to find out the reason for why his calculations had been so off, but it took him a couple of more failures to finally find the answer.

When he found the answer, he facepalmed. "Of course," he said, "my Spirit is way more tempered than the average cultivator. Everyone else breaks into the Unity Realm immediately without further tempering their Spirit due to the equalization problem, but that's not all!"

"I also have a more powerful Will-Aura, which allows me to concentrate more and for longer periods of time. Yet, the impact that concentration has on the material in comparison to Spirit is not nearly as strong. After some adjusting, I should be able to reach the standard that the calculations are based on."

His father nodded. "So, you found the answer. Good."

Gravis also nodded. "My Spirit is about three times more powerful than the average cultivator's. Thus, the malleability felt way easier since my Spirit has more force. I judged the temperature according to the described usage of Spirit. Yet, my Spirit is more powerful, making me misjudge the temperature. My concentration is also slightly more powerful, but that doesn't have much impact."

"That's correct," his father said.

After that, Gravis went back to a material at the Initial Unity Rank. He quickly shoved about 70% of his Spirit into his lightning to make his body fit the standard that the calculations were based on. He moved a little more than necessary to counteract his heightened concentration. Like this, Gravis found way more success.

By now, he was hitting the perfect temperature around 95% of the time. It was actually pretty easy to find the correct temperature now. Without the calculations' help, this would become way harder.

Sometimes, Gravis lost his focus, and the material would change into the wrong shape. Luckily, Gravis just had to regain his focus to try again. After doing this for another couple of days, Gravis was quite good at keeping his focus. Sadly, he also found an issue.

It was very difficult to pay attention to the outside while forging a weapon. Right now, this wasn't an issue, but in the future, this could become troublesome. Gravis was safe in this room, but he couldn't guarantee his safety in the middle world. Creating a weapon would be a risky affair, leaving him open to assassinations.

But that was a problem for another time.

By now, Gravis was pretty good at creating and keeping the shape of a weapon-embryo. Since he mostly used the same material, he also didn't need to calculate anymore. He had developed the feeling that the material should have when it was ready, allowing him to save a lot of his concentration.

After these couple of days, Gravis tried to create a cutting edge on the sword, but that proved more difficult than he had believed. For starters, Gravis didn't try the compression method for the edge. He first tried the grinding.

Yet, even this relatively simple method was proving difficult. The lightning needed to become more powerful to grind the weapon, but that also increased its heating effect on the weapon. If the material got too hot, it would change its composition, making it different.

These materials were specifically selected because they were perfect for creating weapons, and any change in the materials would reduce their effect. If the composition of the part that would be cut off changed, it wouldn't be bad. After all, that part would just get grinded off.

Yet, the new grinding would damage more material. At some point, the flaw in the grinding would damage the core of the edge. If Gravis didn't gain full control over this, he wouldn't be able to forge a weapon. Sadly, there were no calculations for this.

There were almost limitless ways of forging, and a guide for materials couldn't describe a suitable usage for every forging method. Creating the weapon-embryo wasn't difficult or varied. It just had to be heated and molded into a form. Nearly every element or forging techniques worked the same in this way.

Yet, it was different for the edge. That's where the techniques started to walk on separate paths. Some people used hammers. Others used their elements. Some people also just used a different form of Energy or specific Laws.

So, without the calculations, Gravis could only slowly get a feel for the material. Another difference to merely heating the material was that Gravis wasn't infusing it directly with lightning anymore. While creating the edge, he was diagonally shooting the lightning at the weapon.

Based on the angle, different amounts of lightning would get reflected, similar to light. Therefore, the angle and intensity had to be in sync. To find that perfect balance, Gravis had to practice a lot.

Thus, a whole month passed.

To get the feeling for the first material took Gravis nearly two weeks, but, obviously, that wasn't enough for him. If he only knew how to make an edge for one material, he wouldn't progress as a whole. Thus, he tried different materials.

The more materials he experimented on, the faster he was gaining the feeling for them. By the end of the month, he wouldn't require more than five tries to hit the threshold perfectly.

By now, a small mountain of finished weapons without Formation Arrays lay behind Gravis. Cooling the weapons down wasn't hard. The cooling time and method were very specific for each material, and water was most commonly used. With the bottle that his father gave him, he only needed to follow the instructions.

After a while, cooling the material down correctly had become a habit. The cooling really wasn't complicated at all. There were basically no issues.

After completing his 1000th weapon, Gravis laid back. Then, he sighed as he closed his eyes for a second. "This should be about enough," he said.

"Five failures for the edge for every new material is okay," his father said. "In the future, you should try to reduce that number even further. After all, sometimes, you only get enough ore for a single weapon."

"I know," Gravis said. "I stopped because getting even better at it will require a lot of time. The closer I get to one, the longer it takes."

"Try to get to a perfect record while still being in the Nascent Nourishing Realm," his father said. "You might fall behind if you don't keep practicing."

Gravis nodded. "I won't. I might not find as many materials in the middle world to practice, but I'll search for them."

"Natural Worlds are worlds only filled with beasts, Gravis," his father said, "they don't make weapons or armor. I'm sure you'll find enough materials. After all, there is no competition."

Gravis' eyes widened. "Yeah, I forgot about that. Nearly no beast should care about some ore, at least, not in the sense that they would use it. Some beasts might get attracted to an ore vein with specific characteristics, but they won't destroy it."

"Exactly," his father said. "So, the next and last point on the agenda is Formation Arrays."

Gravis sat back up again with furrowed brows. "What about the compressed edge?"

"You'll learn that naturally when you get a perfect record for grinding new edges. Learning it now won't help you much, and you wouldn't be able to use it. You would need to spend years trying, and I don't think that's what you want."

Gravis took a deep breath. "You're right," he said.

"So, Formation Arrays, yes?" Gravis asked.