C6 TO FORGE STEEL WITH MAGIC

People and creatures in this world could somehow manipulate and create a Neutronium chain reaction which can produce varying effects, such as fireballs and freezing arrows, and even fiery napalm breaths.

While the technology was queer in my view, but it worked, and the people here seemed to swear by it and called the ability Magic.

The fire magic by the Magus Cartelle completely melted my Dragonslayer, and although it was not particularly strong or durable, and was unbearably weighty, it was the only offense I had, and it ended up deformed because of my attempt to save the Magus.

Cartelle wasn’t an unreasonable person nor was he ungrateful, and he knew too well that our sudden unannounced meddle in his battle with the scorpion was timely and to his favor, so he wanted to compensate me and replace the lance he destroyed, which of course I gladly accepted.

Cartelle gathered the bodies of his dead companions and wrapped them in linens and pointed his hands to the corpses on one hand, while the other touched an amulet on his neck, and suddenly the corpses vanished into thin air.

I was both surprised and amazed at what he just did as he disintegrated the corpses in an instant ashless cremation.

“Is that the way to cremate the dead?” I asked Cartelle to which he explained to his unlearned barbarian friends, “I merely stored them in my space locker”.

The explanation further baffled me, because if it was true that the corpses were sent into an invisible locker then the Magus had demonstrated the elusive technology of material teleportation, which was far more breathtaking than the instant disintegration and cremation of matter.

“I’ll explain later if we have time but it’s dangerous to be here now. More scorpions may come, so we need to move soon”, Cartelle said to us.

So, we followed him to a small desert oasis town called Abiru, where he arranged lodging for us and paid for it, and I didn’t think more of the teleporting device for now.

The town wasn’t large, which was much smaller than Kamini’s village but there were many wooden and stone buildings while the village was more like a nomad’s camp.

The town was a resting station for traveling merchants on their way to Magisandria, so there was a thriving market where caravans came to trade and replenish supplies before they continued their journey.

On the next day, Cartelle brought me to the nearest ironsmith to make me a new lance, but their furnace’s temperature couldn’t be raised to more than 800-degree Celsius, which was although capable to produce most iron tools it was not what I had in mind.

After I witnessed Cartelle’s fire column the day before I had an interesting idea, so I borrowed some magic from the Magus to craft for me a magical lance.

Cartelle couldn’t comprehend what I requested from him, nor did he appreciate why, but he owed me my lance and his life too, so he went along with my silly request.

There was nothing in his Grimoire that fulfilled my needs, so he took out a pen and drew some strange hieroglyphs and patterns on a piece of paper and crafted his own spell.

While he prepared his magic I went to the merchants in town and bought some necessary materials.

As the furnace in the forge fired up, Cartelle opened the parchment he just drew and raised his hand toward the furnace, and a bright circle appeared inside the furnace, and a column of intense flame mixed with gushes of wind coiled in a helix, were dropped from the bright circle, which raised the temperature inside the furnace to over 2000-degree Celsius and melted a mixture of iron ore, lime, and other minerals I bought earlier.

As the iron mixture melted, the gushes of wind mixed in pressurized oxygen which reacted with the molten iron inside, which oxidized the impurities and turned the iron into steel.

After scraping out the slags and impurities, the molten steels were poured into molds, which the ironsmith later forged into a long-hooked lance.

When the lance cooled, the ironsmith was astounded with the creation of a magical weapon that almost doubled the strength of the iron he usually crafted.

Thanks to Cartelle’s magic, I’ve created this world’s first steel and my new “Dragonslayer” which was much lighter than my old lance, but stronger and more durable.

“Even Trerarim couldn’t make it this tough”, the ironsmith said to the smiths around referring to the legendary city famed for its forges and smiths in Ouamua.