Leveling up the World

Chapter 715: Improved Forging Ma

It had been ages since Dallion had improved a sword. The last weapon he had actively leveled up was the training stiletto that his mentor Vend had given him back in Nerosal. That had stopped once Dallion had reached the magic material barrier. Although there was constant talk of people improving something to sky silver, it turned out that there was more fantasy in that tale than reality. The truth was that despite some individuals being able to achieve the feat, there came a point after which an item simply could not be improved. The level would increase, but the material would remain the same, stuck at dark platinum.

The weapon that Phoil brought was by no means as advanced. Dallion could recognize the iron silver alloy brought to him. It was a popular combination, preferred by nobles in the last century or so. The weight made it impractical for ordinary people, but an awakenedeven a childcould handle it with ease.

Heirloom? Dallion asked.

Its not screaming, is it? Phoil said, avoiding the question. In all probability, the weapon had been procured from some dubious merchant such as the General.

And you want it changed directly to

Silver glass, Raven finished the sentence for him. Both seemed rather impatient.

In different circumstances, Dallion would ask what was so special about the material, but he doubted hed receive an honest answer. Also, he was the one asking the favor of Raven, so it was in his best interest not to ask too many questions until he got what he wanted.

Carefully, he took the sword and placed it on the floor.

You might want to take a few steps back, he said.

Why? Phoil asked.

In case it doesnt work.

You said that

Hes not a Moon, Phoil. Raven made the smart choice. Accidents are always a possibility.

I knew that. The large boy grumbled, then stepped away from the weapon.

Dallion smiled.

Here goes nothing. He placed his hand on the blade.

ITEM AWAKENING

A green rectangle appeared. The surroundings blinked, replaced by reflective metal walls.

Too soon, Dallion thought, brushing away the subsequent rectangles that emerged. Anything mirror related was still giving him urges to go all out and shatter it to bits. Sense anything, Nox? Dallion asked, making his way to the single archway leading outside the large room.

Nope, the familiar responded in yawny fashion. Just you.

That was good. It meant things would be simple. Dallion reached out to summon his harpsisword, but then stopped. Using magic was more beneficial. As Nil kept on repeating, he had to start thinking as a mage from now on.

There were over a dozen combat spells he could use, half of them rather well. In the end, he chose to go with aether projectiles. Purple markers appeared. Visible only to him, they floated near his hand, indicating the symbols he had to draw to execute the spell.

The moment Dallion stepped in the guardian chamber, the spell was cast, obliterating the unfortunate creaturea male silver colossusbefore the red combat rectangle could emerge.

Sorry, Dallion whispered, knowing hed have to do the whole thing again moments later.

COMBAT INITIATED

TERMINAL HIT

DEALT DAMAGE IS INCREASED BY 1000%

The rectangles emerged, catching up to events. The combat was over. Now it was time to focus on changing the material.

Dallion burst into instances, reaching out to the improvement rectangle with his magic. All the time spent training the discipline had let him be a bit better than initially, though not enough to perform the selective improvement without instances.

SWORDs level increased

The SWORD has been improved to QUICKSILVER

The realm attempted to eject him to reality. Dallion concentrated, triggering a second awakening before the first could end. As a result, he remained where he was, facing a quicksilver colossus.

Sorry again, he said, and recast the projectile spell with each hand.

Three rectangles flashed in rapid succession. Dallion concentrated on the last. His instances plucked the endless stack, pulling out materials the sword could turn into. A hundred and fifty options crossed Dallions hands, yet none of them were silver glass.

Crap!

Not losing his calm, Dallion chose a silver alloy he was used to, then let himself be brought back to the real world.

Whats the holdup? Raven asked as Dallion slid his fingers along the blade.

Give me a moment, he grumbled.

No air bubbles or structural weaknesses seemed to have formed on the weapon. The sides of the blade remained adequately sharp. Only the color had slightly shifted, though not to a degree that the others would notice.

Attempting four improvements in a row was generally not recommended. There was always the chance that an item could become distorted. Improving it four times in immediate succession could well be devastating for the guardian as well.

Are you hanging on in there? Dallion asked.

That was rough, the sword replied.

Yeah. Sorry about that.

Only now did it cross his mind that all of this could have been avoided if Dallion had acted the way he had back in Nerosal. As much as he hated to admit it, he was still obsessed with defeating guardians just as much as achieving the result.

I should have asked you to surrender, Dallion said, using his music skills to appease the sword guardian.

You should have.

If I do now, will you agree to it?

You want to improve me again? There was more surprise than fear coming from the sword. Why? Do you really think you can achieve what they want?

I take it Im not the first to try?

Heck, Ive stopped counting. Youve better than most, but no different. Its impossible to create silver glass. They said it themselves.

That didnt sound at all good. Yet, if that were the case, why hadnt Nil mentioned it before? And why was he so adamant that it was nothing special? If the people behind the echoes had invested so much time and effort, there had to be a reason and it was more than having a shiny sword.

Hold that thought, Dallion said.

PERSONAL AWAKENING

Reality changed, this time taking him to his own realm. To little surprise, Nil was nowhere to be found. However, GenDallions first echowas there.

I knew youd try that, the echo said. Even before you thought of it.

He turned, looking in the direction of the realms library.

Theres nothing there about silver glass. Ive gone through all the scrolls and tomes I could find. And when I was done, I sent Ariel to check. If there ever was anything on the topic, Nil must have destroyed it.

Dallion wasnt surprised. Fortunately, there was one other expert when it came to metals he could go toone that didnt hide that he was feeling neglected lately.

Lux, Dallion said. The firebird appeared, surrounding him in blue flames, then flew him right to the bay, or more specifically to Ondas new tower.

The nymph hadnt spared any effort into an even greater masterpiece than before, which in his view meant making it as close to a futuristic cyberpunk building as one could imagine. Given the races affinity for magic, and the artifacts they had created, Dallion was starting to think that they were a lot more technologically advanced than they let on.

A small magical portal formed in the air a few feet from Dallion, then flashed out of existence, replaced by Gem.

Hello, boss Dal! The aetherfish greeted. And boss Lux.

Boss Lux? Dallion asked. He dreaded to think what the firebird had taught the newest of his companions.

Bos Lux told me thats the proper way to address beings of a higher level. And since Im just a level one

Figures. Dallion sighed. Onda! he said loudly. I need to talk to you.

Nothing but the sound of wind and distant waves replied.

Onda?

Yeah sure. You only think of me when you need something! A reply came from within the tower. Will you ever forge anything? When I joined you, I thought youd make masterpieces, instead

Do you want me to leave? Dallion was in no mood for whining. It wasnt that the guardian was wrong. Dallion had been somewhat neglecting the inhabitants of his realm while focusing on progressing in spellcraft and magic.

In dallions mind there was a fifty-fifty chance that Onda cursed him off. Then again, the guardians desire proved stronger than his apathy. A section of the tower opened, letting the gearpunk nymph emerge.

Whats bugging you? he asked, giving Dallion an unmistakable glare.

Whats silver glass.

The nymph whistled. Jumping to the big leagues?

I thought magic metals were the big leagues. At least that was what Dallions understanding was. Back when he had acquired his forging skills and had chosen his first hammer, hed received lots of grief choosing an ability he wasnt ready for.

Nah, thats basic stuff. Thread forging, magic forging, those are the big leagues. Youve got a good boost, but youre far from forging silver glass.

Technically, Dallion didnt want to forge it, but improve an item to it. That made matters even worse. If that was beyond the improvement barrier he could make a thousand attempts and none of them would work.

Whats so special about Silver glass ?

How much time do you have? Onda smirked. A tendril of water emerged from the sea nearby and made its way to the nymph. Whats this? he asked as it watched changed form.

Onda, I really dont have the time for this

Want my help? Tell me.

Dallion felt like using a spell or ten on the guardian. Of course, that would hardly speed things up. Besides, for all his current attitude, Onda was a child and helpful, as hed often described himself.

Water in the shape of a cube, he said.

Nope. Onda tightened his grip round the object. Instead of splashing, the water disappeared. Its nothing. Because he paused. Almost nothing can cross realms.

Nice save, Dallion thought.

Silver Glass is one of the materials that can cross realms. Not have an identical copy in the realm, not have some other item to bring it in. Silver Glass allows an item to pass on its own.

And what can that make it useful for?

There was silence.

You dont know?

Hey, I know plenty! Its just it cant be used for much. Quicksilver is unstable. After a few months, it reverts to some other material. Steel or silver alloy, or something. It never had any practical usage, just people used to show off.

That made even less sense. Dallion had grown accustomed to Nil hiding certain facts, but now that Onda had confirmed it, he was at a complete loss. There was no question that nobles were vain creatures, but not to this extent. Besides, the current time was the worst to be showing off. With internal and external wars raging, the last anyone would be interested in was the glow of someones weapon.

Anyway, can you teach me how to create it? Dallion returned to his original line of questioning.

Thats tricky. Only otherworlders can create it, he said. For some reason, that didnt seem as surprising as Dallion thought it would be. I can still offer advice, though.

Any suggestions on how to improve something it?

Concentrate on it? The guardian shrugged.

Not the best advice by any means, yet it was better than nothing. Leaving his realm, Dallion went back into the sword. This time, he intended to take an entirely different approach. Upon entering the guardians chamber, he didnt cast any spells, nor did he attack.

Hey. He waved to the colossus. Ready for another go?

No fighting this time? the guardian asked, iron muscles tensed up.

No fighting, Dallion said. Have you ever been silver glass?

The guardian shook his head. A moment later, a blue rectangle emerged.

The SWORD guardian has admitted defeat.

Do you accept his surrender?

Dallion accepted, then used combat splitting to transform him into quicksilver. That step was easy, just as before. From a hundred possibilities, five offered the option. Now it was time for the next attempt. Although the guardian hadnt mentioned it, Dallion knew this would be the last improvement attempt.

Concentrate on it, Dallion thought.

It would be nice if he could simply will things into happening, but improvement didnt work that way. Or didnt it? An idea came to mind. So far, he had been so focused on getting the result that he hadnt considered that he might become the driving force.

The second time the surrender rectangle emerged, Dallion didnt immediately accept. Walking up to the guardian, he placed his hand on the entitys biceps. Magic treads emerged from his fingers, establishing contact. Then, he pressed the thumbs up icon with his free hand.

Hundreds of rectangles filled the air. They were like skills, at the same time not like skills. Each was attached to the guardian, and each held the name of a material.

Wow, Dallion thought.

That was the proper way of improving, not the brute force method that hed used so far. In this instance, there was no chance, no luck, nothing but certainty. There was no telling whether the mage had tried to subtly guide him to this or even he had been so focused on old tomes and theories that didnt know better.

So much for learning all the probability trees, Dallion said to himself. Through this method, he was able to bypass everything and pick the result he wished for.

Splitting into instances, he skimmed through the cloud of rectangles. After a while, he found the desired goalone single rectangle with the words SILVER GLASS on it. There was just one among a thousand, glistening in the light, that identified it as being from another world. The odds of finding it by chance were a tenth of a percent at most.

Lets see what happens now, Dallion said, and extended his magic to the rectangle.

SWORD level increased

The SWORD has been improved to SILVER GLASS

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