Vol. 7 - Power - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

With the left-hand glove mostly completed, he took it off and set it down. He needed to do an experiment before he decided on the final route he took with the gauntlet. He had two possible paths and this test would let him know which he would be taking. The hunk of Anti-Magic Ancient Lead was retrieved from his inventory. The crystalline obsidian-like exterior of the ore glittered in the light of the sun and flames from the forge. He rolled it around in his hands before setting it on the anvil to conduct his test. He knew that directly using magic against the ore was pretty much useless but what about indirectly?

Thomas lifted his hand and channeled his mana to summon his Magnetic Magic. This would determine if he would go a magical or mechanical route for the next step of his plan. The magnetic field around his hand began to change and bend to his will. He guided it to the lump of lead sitting on the anvil and attempted to use the magnetism to lift the lead into the air. His hope was that indirectly manipulating the lead with magnetism wouldn't be canceled out by the anti-magic properties of the lead. After all, this was a game and there should be at least some semblance of balance within it. Nothing could ever be truly perfect.

Unfortunately for him, it seemed like the lead truly was immune to even indirect applications of magic. The magnetic field he generated couldn't even budge the metal a single centimeter. He tried for a few more minutes before completely giving up. Clearly, once the Ancient Lead was purified into the Anti-Magic Ancient Lead it was completely immune to any form of magic he could conjure. There might be something about ranks that could affect it but his rank clearly wasn't high enough, if rank mattered at all. It was all speculation. What wasn't speculation was that he had to use the mechanical option for what he wanted.

The anti-magic lead was tossed into his inventory once more. It was pretty much useless for anything but testing ideas on it. While he was inside of his inventory he pulled out a bit of Ancient Lead, one of his larger pieces. This he could still work with at least. With that in mind, he also retrieved his Mithril sledgehammer and a pair of tongs. The treated lead could not be heated up and had to be carefully worked while it was cold. He spun the hammer in his right hand while gripping the lump of lead carefully with his tongs in his left hand.

Light sounds of metal hitting metal chimed through the room as Thomas tested the rigidity of the lead with his hammer. Slowly the light sounds became heavier and harder until it sounded almost like claps of thunder when his hammer slammed into the lead. The force needed to move the lead was somewhat significant but not more than Thomas could bring to bear. People who knew what he could do might wonder why he chose to hammer the lead instead of simply just transmuting it into the shape he wanted. There were two simple answers. First, it was just plain fun to beat metal with his hammer. Second, he only had so much mana and plenty of stamina and strength to burn. The lead was a pain to transmute as it was a terrible mana conductor even before purification. He'd rather beat it closer to a shape he could use and have an easier time transmuting it after that point.

As the blows of his hammer rained down on the metal it's shape changed from a lump to a rectangular ingot shape. From there he started to hammer it out flat. It took him nearly an hour of non-stop hammering to spread the lead out into a sheet that was just a few millimeters thick. An impressive feat for any blacksmith to do by hand. Though the rigidity and durability of the lead actually made it somewhat easier as the lead was less likely to allow the hammer to leave deep marks on it. Once the lead reached a thinness that he felt he could work with, Thomas stopped hammering it. He let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat dripping from his brow. He made it look easy but working with this lead was really draining.

He'd only been working for a few hours but he decided he needed a break to recover his stamina. Snowlily perked up as Thomas sat down next to her and stroked her snowy white fur. She knew what this meant... SNACKS! She was, naturally, correct. Her eyes practically glowed as Thomas started pulling out various pieces of street food from skewers to things on buns or in something similar to a taco shell. All the food was hot and fresh as if he'd just gotten it from the vendor a moment ago. Along with the food came some drinks, water for her and a big bottle of mead for himself.

The two happily munched on their food and drank their respective drinks. The mead had a low alcohol content so Thomas wasn't worried about getting even slightly tipsy. He would need to drink the entire bottle to get a good buzz. The few sips he took were nothing. They enjoyed each other's company with the good food for a while. Once Thomas had recovered his stamina and mana he climbed to his feet and returned to the anvil.

After rubbing his hands together in excitement, he placed them on the sheet of lead and began to channel his mana. His Transmutation was activated to the maximum while he channeled it into the stubborn lead. As he worked he swore to try and find an easier way to deal with materials with low mana conduction like the lead. As his mana flared and was fed into the lead it slowly began to change to the shape he was willing it to become.

The lead slowly changed shape, first, the flat squarish sheet changed into a round disc. Once it was a perfect circle it began to separate into thin triangular sections all of the same sizes. The circle shifted into twenty identical slices held together by just a needle-thin spur of metal. Meanwhile, the very center of the circle was hallowed out leaving it clear. With a deep breath of relief, Thomas stopped channeling his nearly depleted mana and looked at what he had done. The lead sheet now looked somewhat similar to a ceiling fan, though with more than the usual four to six blades and instead had twenty barely separated by a centimeter.

It took a bit of effort but he was able to snap all twenty pieces apart and transmute their edges smooth. When it was all done he had twenty pieces that looked exactly the same. He shifted his focus to the thinner end of the triangular blades. This spot would become the 'hub' of the whole plan. What was the plan? A foldable anti-magic shield of course! He planned for it to collapse into a single blade shape and rest on the bracer section of his gauntlet. When needed he would deploy it to block incoming magical attacks. He had hoped to be able to manipulate it with magnetic magic but since that wasn't an option he had to go a different route.

The thinner sections would be the hub that connected to a steel spring and cylinder that was locked in place. He'd use magnetic magic to release the spring and to rewind it and collapse the shield. To facilitate this, he began to reshape the ends so that they were slightly curved and had two holes for metal to be fed through to lock them in place. It would be a bit difficult to get right but he was working it out in his mind as he worked on the metal. He placed all his focus on shaping the pieces of the shield perfectly. When they were to a good point he set them aside, the final touches could be done on the fly as he worked on the mechanism to expand and contract them.

To make the mechanism he selected some of his purified Mithril. It was a good material and great for balancing the weight of the lead. He made three parts from the metal, a cylinder with slightly angled steps, a cylindrical spring of flat Mithril, and a locking bolt. The stepped cylinder was designed to rotate and lift the blades so they would all be level with each other instead of at different heights. Since they were so thin they didn't need to be lifted much individually but in total it came to about one hundred millimeters since each blade was five millimeters thick. The spring was a simple clockwork spring that would be tensioned as the shield was collapsed. The locking bolt would lock the cylinder either opened or closed.

He set all the pieces on the workbench in the room and collected some more Mithril. It didn't take much of his mana to reshape a good portion of the ingot into a bracer that would cover his arm from his wrist to his elbow. He used his own arm to help him form it to the perfect size for himself. He lifted up one of the blades and held it against the bracer to judge where it wanted it to fit. Each blade was only fifteen centimeters long giving the shield a total diameter of thirty centimeters. Not exactly a massive shield but it would fit his purposes.

Once he lined things up he started to morph the bracer to create a sunken section that could fit the blade of the shield and the mechanism he planned to install. It couldn't be too deep since it needed to rest comfortably on his arm. To counteract that he raised up the edges to form some walls it could sit comfortably inside of. Once the form was set he started on the assembly. Each piece was held in place at first to measure and make adjustments. Once he felt things were in a proper spot he would either fuse them together and add the next piece.

The folding shield was built layer by layer and held in place by two rods instead of bolts. He used rods so that the blades could move up and down vertically and align themselves properly into a flat shield. As he worked he checked to make sure the blades of the shield could move easily and would lock into place when they unfolded. Being made of several pieces inherently weakened the shield physically. Luckily, that had nothing to do with blocking magic. Even with how tough and durable the Anti-Magic Ancient Lead was it would still be the height of stupidity to use it to block weapon attacks.

Once he was satisfied with the movement of the shield when it expanded and collapsed, he disassembled the whole thing and set the blades to the side. Next was going to be a bit of work so he took another break with Snowlily. This time it was a proper lunch break and not just to relax. Half a day and he hadn't even completed his first gauntlet. Then again if he was just making the armor and nothing fancy he'd have been done hours ago. The Anti-Magic shield was going to be one hell of a fun surprise to anyone that tried to blast him with a spell. Worth it.

After lunch was finished it was back to work for Thomas. He picked up the first blade of the shield and channeled his mana. His Transmutation was activated to the maximum once again so that he could begin the process of purifying the Ancient Lead into Anti-Magic Ancient Lead. His mana flowed over the lead and sunk into it. It was only a brief moment before thin streams of black smoke began to leak off of the surface of the lead. As more and more of the impurities were removed the matte black lead slowly took on a gleaming pitch-black crystalline look. When it was fully purified it looked like a large piece of perfect obsidian.

He moved from piece to piece to purify them all. Thankfully, they lost minimal mass when being purified. It seemed like the mana crystals were the worst when it came to mass loss during purification. After the first nine pieces of the shield were purified he had to take a break to recover his mana. Each piece took just a bit over ten percent of his mana to purify so it took him two full breaks before he could finish purifying all twenty pieces. When he was finally done he was presented with a beautiful sight. All twenty pieces of the shield glimmered in the light reflecting it in their darkness. He honestly found them breathtaking and was already worried about the first time something would scratch one. He would never be able to repair any damage done to them, as far as he knew.

With all of the pieces of the shield finally purified, he began the slow process of assembling the pieces of the shield together. He worked carefully and tirelessly during the assembly process so that he could make sure that every last piece of the shield was perfectly aligned and in the right spot. When pieces were properly aligned he fused them together while leaving the Anti-Magic Ancient Lead pieces alone. Not that he could magically fuse them to anything anyway. Getting the assembly right and completed took him just over an hour or meticulous work.

When everything for the shield was assembled, Thomas attached the bracer to the glove with a hinge similar to the ones used for the finger pieces. This step completed the basic construction of the gauntlet and gave it an intimidating look. The hand section was made of gleaming ridge Mithril and lead to a similarly gleaming bracer that had a thick section of angular black on it. He picked up the gauntlet and slipped his hand into the glove. The bracer section still needed some straps but for now, he had something to test.

Before enchanting it he needed to do the testing manually. With the shield currently collapsed, he channeled his Magnetic Magic and used it to pull the locking bolt out of the slot in the spring-loaded cylinder. The powerful Mithril spring immediately got to work spinning the blades around the cylinder to spread them out. As they spread the angled grooves in the cylinder guided the lower layers up to the same level as the topmost piece. Loud clacking sounds echoed through the room as the shield sprang out and unfolded to snap into place.

Thomas couldn't keep the grin off of his face as he held up the thirty-centimeter wide magic-proof shield up. Mages were going to shit themselves when they found out about this!