Chapter 332 - Red naga (Patreon)

"By the way, was there a projection in the yellow room too?" Hera asked.

"Yeah, the four naga showed up, did that greeting waving their hands, and then just the yellow one stayed. They talked for a while, gestured towards the racks of scrolls, then drew a spell circle in the air before vanishing. We took a page of Alex's idea and recorded the whole thing," Bonnie replied.

"Then Bonnie made us take pictures of every page of those tomes. It was more boring than doing a school project," Blue sighed.

"You could've stopped at any time. I told you that," Bonnie shrugged.

"Yeah, but then I would do what? We had three people watching a snake fight the air and two people taking pictures of books. I didn't want to be the lazy one."

"And I appreciate the help. I'll buy you dinner later," Bonnie smiled to Blue.

Seeing that the conversation was over, Hera pulled Silah to the side, "Sorry, I kind of left you. I hope it wasn't too boring."

"Don't worry. I had fun," Silah smiled.

"Fun?"

"Ok, not fun, but it wasn't that bad. The spell circles they use are kind of interesting. Like, I couldn't tell much of what they were actually doing, but unlike what Orgyn and the other mages taught me, they are more simple. I kept thinking how maybe I could use that format to enchant equipment. It gave me some ideas," Silah said with a smile.

"When we are done here, we can stay back in Boothudurn for a while. It's the least I could do," Hera smiled.

"You say that, but I bet you will want to go to dungeons in other rooms," Silah chuckled.

"See, you know me so well already," Hera joined in the laughter.

The six arrived in front of the door with the red naga and pushed it open. Unlike the other rooms, this place was pitch black, and there was a strong smell of metal in the air. Silah perked up and stepped forward.

"Is everything ok?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, it's just. I recognize this smell anywhere. I think we are in a forge," the blacksmith took a step forward, and a large furnace lit up on the back with a green flame. The four naga appeared once more and did their greeting, waving their hands in a U shape. A moment later, three out of the four vanished from the area, leaving only the red naga behind. They started hissing while walking around, pointing at the different tools that were around. Silah kept following them, telling the group the name of each tool the naga was pointing at. Despite it being from an ancient civilization, the dwarf knew enough about her craft to recognize the objects, even if the shape was different from what she was used to.

The naga continued and started walking to each station while showing how to create something. Bonnie already was expecting something like this to happen and was recording ever since they entered the room. Silah, on the other hand, was watching the naga intently.

For everyone else, it didn't seem like whatever was going on was that much special. Aside from Silah, no one was well versed in forging blades. However, the blacksmith was enthralled by the performance. Not only the naga was doing things in a different order than one should, but they were also adding some materials that normally wouldn't be part of the process, like coal, sand, and some oils. The most impressive thing was that Silah could see why the naga was doing all that even without understanding what they were saying.

By mixing the sand, coal, and oils at the right moment, they would mix, be compressed, and eventually create a thin layer of something in the process of becoming a diamond, which made the blade several times sharper. When the projection vanished, Silah looked around and found that all the material needed to replicate what the naga had just done.

"Do you guys mind if I forget something here? I want to see if I got what they showed us," Silah turned to the group.

"I'm fine with that," Hera replied.

"Same here. We have to wait anyway," Blue shrugged.

"Are you making a blade? If it works, can I ask you to make one for me later? My daggers are good and all, but I honestly think that I should get something with a bit more reach," Alex asked.

"Sure, not this one, though. If it works, I need to have something for a test project. I'll make you a new set of weapons when we get back home. I promise," Silah gave Alex a warm smile.

"Well, then I'm going to try to translate those texts," Bonnie shrugged.

"How did you take the pictures? Did you use the infrared camera?" Helena turned to the researcher.

"I did. I asked everyone to use that deep scan picture thing that we have in our tablets. It's the same thing Shane was using to read the hidden text we found in other ruins," Bonnie nodded.

"Ok then. Let me help you, I might not know the language, but I know a spell circle when I see one," Helena smiled.

"Do you need help, honey?" Hera asked.

"No, I'm ok. If you want to go someplace else, I'll be fine," Silah didn't even look back. She was too focused on the idea of crafting something new.

"Hell no. I'm not leaving you here alone. We don't know what might happen," Hera replied.

"You know what. Alex, can you help me? Let's get a bunch of pillows and make a place for us to wait by the door," Blue walked back to the center of the temple.

The group set up a small place to rest in the corridor in the middle of the door. That way, if something triggered, everyone could help Silah or jump inside the room for cover. For a few hours, they talked, ate, rested, and tried to understand more about what the naga had shown.

Alex and Blue even took a moment to go back to the constellation room and record what the blue naga was saying as well as take pictures of the star map on the ceiling. It took Silah about three hours to finish forging the weapon, but the end result was beautiful. It was a long dagger, almost like a short sword, and the hilt was just a thicker piece of metal wrapped around some cloth, but that wasn't the focus at the moment. What Silah focused on was the blade. She used a grey metal that looked very much like steel, but because of the coal and sand treatment and the higher number of times she tempered the metal, a unique pattern was revealed when she sharpened the weapon. At first, Silah thought she had made a mistake. Tiny cracks appeared on the blade, but on a closer inspection, those cracks were, in reality, weak spots of the metal were reinforced by the diamond particles created during the process. Those cracks would shimmer in the light, making it seem like the sword had lightning inside it.

The attributes of the weapon were also nothing to scoff at. Although Silah had made much more powerful weapons before, this one had a unique trait that usually required someone to make the blade in a specific way to get it.

Happy with the result and knowing that she had understood the technique, Silah walked to Hera with a proud expression, handing the blade to her, "Here, Take a look."

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Hunting knife

A weapon made by a genius blacksmith using a long-forgotten technic passed down from the naga.

Attribute scaling:

Agility: x 3.5

Strenght: x 2.5

Additional effects:

Weapon breaker:

When this weapon strikes another weapon, be it natural or not, the weapon it struck will receive more damage than usual.

Durable 3

Mana catalyst

If this weapon is wielded by someone under level 34, the additional effects and the attribute scaling will have no effect to protect the wielder.

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"Wow, this is amazing. The scaling is great!" Hera gasped.

"What? No, that part is trash. I wasn't worried about the level, so anything under 5 sucks. The important things are the effects," Silah replied.

"Really? Weapon breaker is that good?" Hera asked.

"Yeah! You have to make something in a specific shape to get that effect. Not to mention that weapon braker is really hard to get. Usually, you get like, blade breaker or claw breaker. Something more specific, not this, that would affect any weapon. Like, in theory, it could even break a hammerhead or, I don't know. Anything that is not made out of metal. The other two are kind of nice too, I can usually make up to durable 5, but I wasn't focusing too much on that," Silah grabbed a piece of cloth to wrap the blade.

"And the mana catalyst? What's that?" Hera asked.

"Oh, it just lets you put mana into the weapon. Like, not as a storage, but to make your attacks hit harder. It's good, but it's a bit of a waste if you can use something like your mana reinforcement. Too much effort to put this on the weapon when you can use those materials, and time to put something else," Silah explained.

"Can we see it?" Alex chimed in, curious about the blade that Silah had just finished.

"Sure," Silah showed the blade to the group and started talking about how the process worked, as well as how the coal was supposed to be set up. She couldn't be sure about it, but when the red naga was explaining that part, it showed some other minerals, and maybe they would give different effects when used during that process.

The group kept talking for a while until they heard voices coming from the center of the room. Everyone kept quiet and stared at the central room, waiting for whoever was coming. Not that they were worried about being some random person, but because they recognized the voices. It was Mylo and Shane.

"... then the wall went to the side, and a huge tree appeared. I had to infuse mana on it to make it grow. I think that part of the test, like, it was teaching me how the legacy worked before I even got it. Or at least seeing how well I would synergize with the legacy, you know," Shane had an excited voice that made Bonnie and Blue roll their eyes.

"Hi everyone," Mylo waved to the group.

"Hey, Mylo," Silah replied.

"Soo… I got the legacy," Shane smiled.

"Good for you. Does that mean that Hera and Bonnie passed that test or whatever?" Blue asked.

"Yeah…" Shane nodded.

"Great, now let's get out of here. I have my own things to do," Blue got up. The rest of the group followed her without saying anything to Shane.

"Can you guys wait just a minute?" Shane turned to the group.

"Why? Aren't we thieves? We have people to rob," Alex replied without looking away.

"I didn't mean it like that. I just worked for so long to get this that I got paranoid," Shane tried to apologize.

"Don't care. Apologizing doesn't fix this," Bonnie replied.

"Girls, I understand you are upset, but we are still in a place filled with monsters. We need to work together. Leaving all this resentment bottled up is a recipe for disaster," Helena stopped the group from walking.

"You want us to apologize to her?" Blue yelled.

"No, I want everyone to talk about your feelings. Just so we won't kill each other before we leave," Helena asked, "Look, we have a comfortable area here. We could sit down, eat something and talk. Would that be ok for everyone?"

"Please. I really need to apologize to everyone. I know how much of an ass I was back there," Shane asked.

"Are you serious? You want us to have a group therapy session?" Alex turned around with an angry expression.

"Yes. You might not enjoy therapy, but it helps. Also, I rather not get in the middle of a shouting match in the middle of a fight," Helena explained.

"Fine, but I'll only stay while we have food. Then I'm out of here," Blue sat back down on the pillow by the red door.

Everyone else sat down, but Shane and Mylo still had to go back to the man room and pick some pillows for them. When they got back, Helena started speaking, trying to clear the bad air among the group.