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Chapter 242: Metal
🕑 Added 2025-04-01 00:56:53 +0000 UTCChapter 242: Metal
More days passed. Enough for it to go from Blossom to Scorch. The days became hotter as the pages drifted by.
Mercury took care of the garden. He practiced smithing and runecarving, as well as his magic, nabbing a couple levels here and there. His <Ice Magic> improved from level 5 to 6, and his persistent plan of setting himself on fire netted him a level in <Hydration> and greatly enhanced resistance.
He found it only a little funny that he literally did have the whole “burning blood” thing that hydras sometimes had going on. But it still didn’t let him get the understanding of metal he wanted.
It was frustrating, like banging his head up against a wall. Apparently, just getting heated up and getting quenched wasn’t quite enough for him to get the forging process. Slowly, though, another brilliant idea was bubbling in his mind. A few, actually.
To get closer to metal, he could just… eat it. What if he ate a bunch of it?
“Why are you chewing on my nails, Mercury-kun?” Yasashiku asked.
All in all, his voice really was surprisingly measured. Mercury’s teeth were very hard, but not quite harder than metal, so they chipped a little as he ate, then regrew stronger. He could have reinforced them with mana or stamina, of course, but it wouldn’t feel quite honest. So, instead, he leaned on the natural strength of his body, and his Skills. <Nutritional Preservation> and <Bite> in particular.
[<Bite> has levelled up! <Bite lv. 5 -> 6>]
Case in point.
“Trying to understand metal better by integrating it into my body,” Mercury explained.
Yasashiku stared at him for a long, unending moment. Mercury looked back, mouth full of metal nails. The old man slowly brought a hand to his face and massaged his temples. “Okay,” he said. “You… do your thing.”
The mopaaw continued chewing nails happily.
Bite gained another level over the next couple days, but other than a mild tummyache and slightly stronger teeth, Mercury didn’t feel too different. Of course, he was not yet out of ideas. With more iron in his nutritional storage, he could pull on it with <Hydration> and even <Shift>.
This little combination of maneuvers could let him create biological flesh-iron constructs to strengthen his skin. Which was fun, but by itself didn’t much other than make him look like some kind of cyborg thing.
It did have a use though!
“I need you to hit me with a hammer,” he told Yasashiku.
The old man blinked. “This is getting ridiculous,” he said, giving a long, suffering sigh.
“Have you never done something seemingly idiotic in pursuit of a Skill?” the student asked.
Unfortunately, Yasashiku did not have a rebuke. “I have,” he said, mournfully. “Fine then. Get into the forge.”
Eagerly, the mopaaw did just that. His smithing teacher turned on the fire, working the bellows, and Mercury really got the full metal experience. He felt the way the flames billowed around him, pulling at the metallic sheen wrapped around his fur, the way his body took in the heat and yet kept functioning.
His heart moved boiling blood through his veins, and he could feel the way the heat rippled through him, from his skin to his flesh and bones. He’d gone through it a dozen times over by now, and bit by bit, that familiar softness set in.
That, too, was something he could resist by now. He could shift and adapt to make his bones remain sturdy, but this time, he allowed it. It was necessary for what came next. Iron flooded his insides as his biology shifted to include a vastly increased amount of metal.
And then, when his fur went from silvery, to red, then to white hot, he was pulled out of the forge and placed on the anvil. Yasashiku tossed his forging hammer up and down once, his eyes inscrutable behind the crow mask. “You’re sure about this?” the smith asked.
Mercury just nodded.
“Fine then, have it as you must,” the smith said.
And the hammer came down.
The first blow sent Mercury’s entire world reeling. It crashed into his side, into his ribcage, and he felt the sensation of his whole world bending. His bones, malleable as they were, simply dented inwards, as did his metallic skin. His fur was flattened down to a thin plate.
It felt bizarre, but also like he understood something. There was a clarity building behind his eyes, growing even more near as the second hammer-swing came down on him, impacting him a little further up. The shock went through his heart, shifting it slightly, but it still beat without trouble.
All Mercury felt was an internal pressure, slowly relieved by the heat. Things moved, but everything moved in tandem. With purpose. Another blow to shake him, this one landing on his hind leg, pressing the base of it flat against his torso.
How bizarre. It was so, so strange.
But with the iridescent heat, with the glimmer of the forge, he slowly started to get it. Metal was useful for tools. It wasn’t meant for that purpose, but every which way that society interacted with imbued it with purpose. Naturally, the substance itself didn’t mind either way, it simply had properties beneficial for shaping.
The ability to move and hold a new construct, to be hard when needed and soft when put into extreme conditions. To bend and not break. It made sense.
Another hammerblow, and finally, the picture was complete in his head.
Metal was, in and of itself, just another material. But associated with that came qualities. With the way that it had been passed down in tradition and practice for hundreds of years, there came ideas. To be tough as nails, for a sword to cut straight and true, for a shovel to dig dirt. Metal was one of the cornerstones of civilization.
It was, in a lot of ways, the very burgeoning seed of creation.
Now, passed through years of practice, he found himself in that place. Where he was the metal, the cornerstone, his own creation in a lot of ways. Mercury was shaped by his own mind, by his own ideas of what he should be, and he could be reforged as often as it took to become what he wanted to be.
That was what metal meant.
To suit his own idea of what he wanted to be, step by step, with a promise that no matter what, he could try again. Bending, but never breaking, always finding his way again.
[The individual has acquired the ability <Metal (lowest)> through a specific action.]
[The individual has acquired the Skill <Tempered Body lv. 1> through a specific action.]
Mercury breathed. The next hammer strike rang out against him… and rebounded. He knew what he was about, and no one but him would forge him anymore.
With a deft application of <Metal>, <Shift>, <Tempered Body>, and <Hydration>, Mercury snapped back to his regular shape, the metallic glint on his fur disappearing. The heat bubbled off of him in a moment, sliding away like dirt under a summer rain.
He looked at his teacher, at Yasashiku, and dipped his head a little. “Thank you, teacher,” he said. “This was enlightening.”
[<Clarity> has levelled up! <Clarity lv. 9 -> 10>]
[<Fast Learner> has levelled up! <Fast Learner lv. 5 -> 6>]
[<Clarity> has met the necessary qualifications for evolutions. Evolve? (500 Skill points)]
Mercury smiled at his notifications, as Yasashiku shook his head. “Of course, Starlight-kun. Let me know if you require help again. Hopefully you can finish this piece soon, then?” he asked.
With a quick look at the metal, Mercury smiled. He understood now. “It’s tongs, isn’t it? I’m supposed to make tongs.”
The old man nodded approvingly. “That’s right, yes. It’s a more difficult project, and you need to split the block in two then rivet it together. Well, unless you can more directly shape the metal, of course.”
“I think I can make it in a single piece,” Mercury said with a smile. Well, not entirely, of course. But he wouldn’t need to make the rivet as its own thing at least. But first, he was curious about his new skill and evolution.
[<Tempered Body>: A Skill meant to increase raw physical might of the wielder. Every point of strength, every point of vitality, now counts as more. It is a multiplier to something already formidable, making you tough and strong as steel. Temper your body and shape it to your will.]
Kinda what it said on the tin, then. While <Hydration> promised adaptation, this one promised strength. Every level would make his muscles and bones and everything else about him more powerful. From his snout to the very tip of his tail. He wondered what the limits were. Could he, at some point, deflect a sword on his eyeball?
Maybe. But it also required him to temper himself, which he didn’t quite understand. Really, it probably just meant taking hits and training. Letting <Hydration> adapt himself into something permanently more powerful, so on and so forth. Maybe forging himself with his own rijn?
The effects were already obvious even just at the first level, turning him far tougher than he’d been. Well, as long as he wanted to be. Every bit of his body’s flexibility was retained, so when lost, his muscles and fur were still soft. Though he could turn his fur hard and spiky as steel now, turning him into a budget hedgehog.
Actually, his fur was probably sturdier than any hedgehog’s needle, so really, he made all hedgehogs look like budget Mercurys. But that was besides the point.
<Clarity>, one of his old companions, was finally ready for evolution. It was a part of his build that let him actually understand the mind bending patterns and similarities he regularly dealt with. Hopefully, once he understood it, getting a grip on fire would be easier.
While he did now grasp the essence of metal and what it meant for him, he had yet to fully understand fire. It was kind of funny to think about. He used to be, and probably still was, rather hot-headed. He had things that made his anger flare up instantly. And yet, fire remained out of reach.
Well, for now, he could just as well focus on evolving <Clarity>.
[Evolution confirmed. Engaging. Please pick an option to evolve the Skill into. The price will be the same (500 Skill points), no matter which you choose.]
[1. Lucidity
2. Resonance
3. Eidolon]
Curious names. He liked them.
[<Lucidity>: This Skill allows the individual to see as though awake. The world is a dream stacked upon a dream stacked upon a dream. You peer into essences, into truths that those who sleep cannot fathom. Burn the truth into your mind, and hope its incandescence doesn’t turn you to ash.]
Very ominous. Mercury smiled. Given its name, the fact that <Lucidity> retained to dreams did make sense, and also made him immediately more drawn to it. Dream magic was, after all, kind of his specialty, and peering past those dreams sounded a whole lot like seeing the <Dreamweave> for what it was.
Plus, of course, the general boost to understanding the Skill seemed to provide. It sounded like a strong choice.
[<Resonance>: Increase your resonance with concepts. Let their essence ring through you and crash into the world. Manifest them in rippling waves of power.]
This one sounded rather combat-oriented… well, not quite. It was focused on the expression of power, rather than the acquisition of it. A boost to what he had rather than what he could have.
In a lot of ways, this one most closely fit <Rainfall>. After all, that had come about when <Breath> resonated with him as a person. If he grabbed this, it would probably increase that power even more. But…
Did he need that?
In a lot of ways, it felt weird. To draw things into himself like that. It felt almost invasive, an unnatural resonance. Sure, it made him more suited for it, but Mercury didn’t think he wanted something like “wrath” to resonate with him at all.
With a small smile, he placed the Skill aside. It was strong, yes, but it would only ever do what he already could with a little effort. No.
[<Eidolon>: Through a flicker, see the whole. An eidolon categorizes, it is the image that you catch a glimpse of, the idea of a thing that everyone knows yet is always out of reach. No longer. Reach for the image and find it, encompass the knowledge. Once you catch a glimpse, see the whole.]
A curious description that puzzled him a bit. Seeing the whole from a glimpse. But that did mean he first needed that glimpse…
Oh. This would probably let him level up his concepts faster? Taking something from lowest to low a bit faster, stuff like that.
Huh. That was interesting. It wasn’t an effect he could create by himself… except when he could. He’d done it for <Grief>, hadn’t he? That one rang out closer to himself. It made sense.
So, with this, he would level them faster. In a lot of ways, that felt kind of odd. These concept hinged on his understanding, his experience of them. Understanding them fast, was that robbing him of experience, or granting it faster? If he wanted to experience more, he could just up his zeyjn again.
Four minds were plenty, especially since he didn’t need sleep and could still overclock them. No, thank you.
He picked <Lucidity>.
[Evolution selected.]
[The individual has acquired the Skill <Lucidity lv. 1> through Skill evolution!]
His Skill points went from 2000 down to 1500. That was okay though. The world lit up for a moment, then settled back down. <Lucidity>, as a Skill, slotted nicely into his build, into the way he used ihn’ar and <Seeker of Secrets>. It suited him the best out of all the options.
As the way he was able to look at the world shifted a little bit again, Mercury smiled. Yes, it really suited him.
It was a tiny glimpse, only the faintest idea, but he could swear that it was there. That the <Dreamweave> that let him create something from <Nothing> in his dreams was also there in the mortal realm. It was stunningly real, the realm powered by so much mundanity that it was impressive. But it was, nonetheless, magical.
Somewhere in there, Mercury could probably find existential dread, if he went looking. If this place was a dream, was he real? Did anything he cared about matter? At all?
But he didn’t go looking.
Instead, he let that impression fade. If he was a dream, then he would simply eventually weave himself into reality, no trouble. If he was real, then he was real. So, no skin off his back either way.
Not that it would be easy to take skin off his back. With <Tempered Body> and the ability to integrate the things he ate into himself, Mercury could probably become tough as steel in a little while. He just didn’t really want to? Eating metal wasn’t quite his idea of a good time, after all.
Well. It wasn’t that bad, to be honest, but still.
Tempered body was about becoming what he envisioned himself being. And he did not envision himself as the embodiment of “You are what You eat.”
He’d happily leave that for other people. There were plenty of Skills for that out there. No, he’d continue using his entirely overtuned digestion abilities for eating herbs and spices and other tasty foods. Like a normal person.
- - -
Lucia knocked at his door.
“No,” Mercury said.
“C’mon,” she asked. “It really is good practice for my Skill!”
“I’m not letting you set me on fire today.”
“It doesn’t even hurt you,” the priestess protested. “In fact, I believe I have greatly helped you in the acquisition of greater abilities for yourself. So much so that I think you owe me a little.”
Mercury looked at her for a long moment. “You’re not letting this go, are you?”
She tilted her head a bit, smiling. “I don’t currently plan to. I could, probably, be convinced, but frankly? It really is a good outlet. It helps you train, it helps me train, it is an emotional outlet… I believe that it fulfills almost all criteria of spending quality time with each other.”
The mopaaw gave her a leveled stare. “Right,” he said. “Okay. Fine. Sure. In fact, I’ll get Zyl in on it when he’s back.”
He did, after all, still need to learn fire properly. The burnings continued.
- - -
Mercury was at the forge, standing on a chair so that he was at the right height to see the anvil. His mind was a hammer, and the metal acquiesced his request, same as he listened to the metal.
There was a strange interplay there, almost like a song. A harmony of when to strike, and where. Mind ringing on metal, the anvil rebounding some of the strike.
It was a little amusing, feeling rebound on his rijn. It wasn’t affected by gravity, after all. The construct was simply wherever he imagined it being. Which meant that with his faster mind, he could sling it through the air at instant speeds.
Though the was it transmitted force was also weird, more reliant on how much force Mercury imagined transmitting, and his willpower to enforce it on the world. There was no real “speed” for his rijn, and no real “mass” to it either, so sadly, his classical newtonian equations wouldn’t be of much use.
Instead, he leaned on his instinct, and the things he’d learned and knew. His rijn moved, smashing into the metal, singing a ringing note of shaping and creation. The block of steel bent, deforming. And then it was hit again, and again.
Focus coursed through Mercury, leaning forward, senses trained on the metal. He looked at it, willing it to fulfill its potential, both as a gentle request and as an order enforced by his mind. It was a strange dichotomy, but it did what he intended it to do.
Parts of the metal pulled and moved as if alive, writhing to form bits he could not have created through forging, while others, where he needed to do a lot of shaping, were simply hammered into shape. Strike by strike, the thing took shape.
He created two handles, two gripping surfaces, partially with ridges, and a rivet for the hinge. Except, of course, that he simply beckoned the hinge to emerge from one of the handles, the glowing metal shaping to meet his desire, and placed the second handle atop it. Then, with a single strike, the rivet was bent into place, and the tongs were finished.
Mercury quenched them with <Force of the Hecatoncheires>, the Skill still very useful for delicate or forceful work. It didn’t require as much imagination on his rijn, but was also more limited in applicability. And that was fine, for now. Maybe he could meld them someday? An amusing thought.
“Good work,” Yasashiku praised. “A solid pair of tongs. We still need to finish and anneal it, of course.”
The mopaaw nodded along, pulling them out of the oil as it stopped smoking.
When they did the rest of the process, first hardening the steel further, finishing it, making sure the pieces fit perfectly, Mercury was there. His newly gained budding understanding of metal was helpful, letting him watch and assist it in the processes.
In fact, with all of his perception-based skills, he could almost feel the structure of the metal. Not just in the way the grain flowed, but in the way that the micro-crystalline structures were oriented. There was something to be learnt there, so he watched closely.
There were pockets of perfect crystalline alignments, and then jagged gaps where they weren’t aligned. Of course, turning the entire tool into a single crystal lattice would be a horrible idea. Far too rigid. It would be hard and brittle. Meanwhile, creating many smaller pockets would make the steel soft and bendy.
Amusingly, by seeing these, he could reasonably manipulate the properties of the metal if he controlled the bits of grain. If he were stronger, maybe he could even control each atom, though that was a pipe dream for now.
Instead, Mercury simply asked. Parts that bent were made to bend more, parts that needed to be hard and heat resistant were asked to have their grains meld together. And the metal listened.
During annealing and finishing, the workpiece did as he asked, the grains flowing, and melding to suit the way they would best serve their purpose. And after a day, it was finally done.
“Congratulations,” Yasashiku said with a clap. “You’ve made your first tool.”
Mercury smiled, happily. “Yeah. It’s awesome. But I can’t exactly use it, can I?” he asked.
“Of course you can,” the old smith chided, eyes crinkled in a smirk. Mercury thought there was an edge of cruelty in them. “You learnt how to swing a hammer by meditating on it, right? Now, you got tongs.” He waves his hands. “Go meditate. Figure it out.”
Dang it. But fine, Mercury would learn. And then, when he was done, his rijn would be ready to grab things. His toolbelt shalt be ever-growing.
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