Chapter 1103: Working Hard Together
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I guess it could be said it was unfair for those that didn't brought assistants to the competition, but it was clearly stated everyone could bring a maximum of two, each team can only have three participants each, yet some still came on their own.
I guess they can't complain if they get outcompeted by those that brought more, so far, only Horshen and Melisa came alone. Erdragon, Goldanaba, Blackeye, and Erika all bought their assistants, which were other blacksmiths, perhaps less experienced, that made their work smoother.
Well, not like those two needed helps, Horshen was amazingly quick and had Fire Spirit Magic! That by itself was amazing, and very rare, especially for a Dwarf. And then there was Melisa, her Dark Sorcery and Alchemy merged perfectly with smithing, giving her the ability to create cursed items very quickly.
Anyways, as I saw everyone working on their amazing projects, I quickly moved to do our own thing. We had one hour to make a set of armor, but I doubted it would be possible for all of us to make a set of armor completely. At most, one piece each. Ambil could do the helmet, Mark the shoulders, and I do the chest plate.
I communicated my idea and they agreed.
"Sounds good!" said Ambil. "I guess we won't have time to do the whole fusion thing, hahah!"
"Hmm, I guess I can do the shoulder pads, those sound easy to make," Mark said. "I am not as good as you or Ambil, so-"
"No Mark, you're really good already," said Ambil. "Believe more on yourself, brat."
"Yeah! You're really good, your control over fire is good too! Just pour your everything into the shoulder pads, make each one have… different and specific designs and effects! Maybe imbue your beast spirits essence into them?" I wondered.
"T-That sounds like a great idea!" he said. "And well, I'll try to not disappoint you! Thank you honey, I will do my best." He kissed my lips.
"I know you can!" I nodded, as we got to work right away.
As I had to do the chest plate, I took the chest plate mold and the materials. The available materials were Black Steel Ore and three types of spirit stones, fire, earth, and light spirit stones. There were only five of each.
After talking about it, I decided to take three earth stones and one light stone, that was enough for what I planned to make. As for Ambil, he took four fire and four light, and Mark took everything that remained.
Once done with everything, we finally began. Smelting the metals was quick and easy, and we poured the molten metal into the molds slowly, letting it rest and then using ice spirits to cool them down quickly.
Once the molds were done, we moved to shaping and reinforcing the metals, I used Alchemy to reinforce their defenses by adding several more layers of molten metal on top. There was plenty of steel this time.
However, although I could have made it heavier, I decided to stop at four layers, more than that and it would become too heavy, I wanted protection but not to weight down and slow down a person with it.
Once done with that, I crushed all the spirit stones into dust. Yep! None of them remained alive, I destroyed them into fine dust and mixed them, then, using half of the mix, I synthesize them into the armor, enchanting the metal with elements and giving he black steel a dark brown color, which then changed to golden brown.
As I did all of this, my Mana, Spiritual Energies, and Draconic Spirits were being constantly infused and permanently fused into the creation. I focused on Earth and Light Elemental Spirits, and Draconic Spirits.
As I merged them into the item, their power constantly resonated, slowly shaping the design of the chest plate, and giving it a draconian appearance. I then adjusted its parts, added chains, and then leather so it can be wrapped around the thorax to begin with, and more.
And lastly, I started inscribing many runes and magic circles into it. And that's where I took most of the time, it was an arduous thing to do even with my Runic Inscription Art Skill.
But it was really fun, and the more I did it, the more I improved and became better than before. I worked hard, without stopping for a second.
The minutes went by, and as I worked, I occasionally took a peek at my comrades, Ambil was already polishing the helmet, it looked amazing, with a draconian appearance, fiery red colored with golden colors and a small red and yellow jewel in the forehead.
As for Mark, he was still midway through the two shoulder pads, he had been infusing the essence of his spirit beasts, and it was working, but it was quite a slow process, he had to constantly shape and transform the shoulder pads as he added the infusion of essence.
I could easily give him a hand, but I think that would only bother him and make him think I was looking down on him, so I left him working on his own, slowly, forty minutes had already passed.
"It's looking good, is there anything left to do with that?" the Great Spirit said she had been mostly silent, probably napping and adapting to the many new vessels she got.
"I want to add some more things, yes. There's so much left to make it perfect after all!"
I kept adding more things to it, little details, more runes, making the perfect chest plate with the available materials. I added runes for the weight of the armor, which gave me room to add more layers of protection. I even added my divinity for a bit, a little, tiny bit of it infused and diluted with spiritual energy.
FLASH!
"I think it's soon to be done!"
As I saw the chest plate shining brightly with a radiant aura, I noticed something.
There were several ant-sized spheres of darkness floating towards us, almost stuck to the ground.
"Another attack, huh? I guess this is a competition at the end…"
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