Supreme Magus

Chapter 4271: Steep Cliff (Part 1)

"Then what about my armor, rings, and the rest of my equipment? Do we need to reforge everything?" Faluel asked.

"Now that I think about it, no." Solus pondered. "Ever since War learned Blade Magic and taught it to Lith, we never altered his equipment aside from normal upgrades. Without the Ears, crafting every piece of Blade equipment took too much time and effort to try something like that."

"Also, I’ve always heard of Blade Weapons. No one ever mentioned Blade Shields or armor." Faluel grunted in sheer focus as she tried to hold on to the fleeting sensation coming from Gungnir’s power core.

"I can explain that." Menadion replied. "Unless the Forgemaster is beyond incompetent or the client a total weirdo, even a common piece of equipment has a minimal degree of affinity with its user.

"The problem is that it’s never enough for a mage to draw mana from their equipment. Casting a Blade Spell that way is akin to pushing a large boulder forward. Even if you make it slide a bit, the friction stops it immediately, and the same applies to the rest of your equipment.

"Once you have a Blade Weapon, however, you have a power core that answers your call and follows your commands.

"The exchange of mana and the flow that user and weapon generate is strong enough to overcome the resistance of the second-most attuned to you piece of equipment you have, and once you tap into its power as well, you move on to the third, and so on.

"Possessing a single Blade Weapon is enough to turn Blade Magic into something akin to starting an avalanche. You only need to generate enough strength to overcome the initial inertia, and then gravity does the rest.

"According to this example, a mage’s talent represents the strength of the person pushing the boulder, the sum of their equipment’s power cores determines the size and mass of the boulder, and the quality of the Blade Weapon how steep the cliff is-"

Gungnir released a sudden blast of energy that generated a gust of wind strong enough to ruffle everyone’s hair and make the equipment of the Forge rattle.

"What was that?" Lith turned from Menadion to Faluel, noticing that more mana was building up in the Adamant spear and that the Hydra seemed clueless in controlling it.

"I don’t know, I was just swinging Gungnir around while trying to cast a simple tier one spell when-" A second, stronger wild surge of energy exploded with enough strength to damage the Forge and hurt those closest to Faluel, cutting her short.

The safety protocols of the tower kicked in, generating an energy shield that neutralized the detonation and kept everyone safe.

"If you can’t control your Blade Spell, why didn’t you move to the Firing Range before making a second attempt?" Solus narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

"Do I look like I’m doing anything?" Faluel shrugged. "I did stop after the first accident. I was- It’s happening again!"

The Hydra felt the energy going from her mana core to Gungnir and from there spreading to the rest of her equipment. The wave of mana washed over every artifact with a power core, dragging along a growing fraction of the mana they stored.

After a full sweep, the resulting mana wave returned to her core, where it was focused and amplified before starting a new cycle that drew much more power from her equipment than the previous.

On the one hand, Faluel was happy because she had learned how to sense the mana flow required to weave a Blade Spell. On the other hand, she was terrified because the third cycle had barely started, and her body was already incapable of withstanding the violent energy produced by the mana wave.

"Someone does something! I can’t hold it for much longer. It’s going to blow!"

"On it!" Solus performed a full scan of her friend with the Eyes and Ears, discovering that the previous bursts of energy were just incomplete, poorly executed cycles of the mana wave necessary to cast a Blade Spell.

The earlier blasts had released the uncontrolled energy, but the process had never stopped.

"Release the spell!" Solus said after Warping Faluel to the Firing Range. "Interrupting the cast only reduced the starting mana, but the chain reaction has already started. The only way to stop this is to let the mana out!"

Faluel trusted Solus and the power of her tower, so she did as bidden.

’I’ve seen Lith and his Sigil Demons train their Blade Spells here countless times.’ She thought. ’The Firing Range will...’

The Blade Spell that emerged from Gungnir’s tip materialized in a pillar of mana the size of a freight train. It contained so much mana, and it was so densely packed that it propelled Faluel backward like a rocket, sending her to crash against a wall.

The Firing Range neutralized the Blade Spell with ease, gauging its power to be halfway between a tier five Spirit Spell and the low end of the Blade Spell’s scale. As for the Hydra, the impact slammed her head against the solid stone and squeezed the air out of her lungs.

"Are you alright?" Lith helped her to get up while also healing her with Invigoration.

"I’m hurt only in my pride." Faluel sighed. "Damn, this thing is a real tyrant. Once it got hold of a bit of my mana, it started collecting the energy from my equipment almost on its own. Even worse, once the process started, I couldn’t stop Gungnir!"

"That’s because you lack the proper skill for a Blade Spell." Lith shook his head. "Something similar happened to me as well back when I started practicing Blade Magic, but I had War helping me.

"Whenever things got out of hand, he would stop the process and release the failed spells safely."

"I’m sorry, Lith, but that’s not the only problem here." Menadion moved to the Firing Range along with everyone else. "As I was saying, the quality of the Blade Weapon determines how steep the cliff is, and yours is almost vertical.

"There’s no doubt that your new Forgemastering method works. Gungnir is a masterpiece!" She was so happy that she briefly hugged Lith as she had always done in life with her most talented disciples before moving on to Solus.

"You did it, Epphy." Menadion held her daughter to her bosom while kissing her face and ruffling her hair. "You two were right. You used the tower I created better than I ever did. I’m so proud of you!"

"Mom!" Solus became beet red. "I’m not a huge dog nor a kid. This is embarrassing! Everyone is looking at us."

"Let them look." Menadion pinched Solus’ cheek. "Gods, I love you so much, baby girl."

"I’m not a baby!" Even Elysia was giggling. "Also, this was Lith’s idea. Why are you showering me in praise?"

"Because you helped him to develop his idea and devise this Forgemastering technique." Menadion replied. "Also, how would everyone react if I did this to Lith?"

"I’d say you are looking for trouble." Kamila grunted.

"I’m also very proud of you, Featherlings, but you are going to have a hard time from now on, Faluel." Salaark chimed in.