Chapter 104

What wealth and glory am I trying to gain with this crazy hammering?

In truth, there are more urgent matters…

Right.

What’s urgent now is ‘evolution.’

Since I decided not to raise my level until I turn eighteen, I needed to discharge the saturated magical power as soon as possible.

‘Evolution’ – detaching my magical power to create beings that never existed before. Just like I created Iron Blood, I needed to discharge my overflowing magical power.

Even now, my body was boiling with magical fever. It was because I still hadn’t discharged the massive amount of magical power obtained from defeating the magical beast. With a body temperature exceeding 60 degrees, it was insane… Thanks to my complete transformation, it didn’t cause discomfort in daily life… but if I kept failing to discharge magical power, my temperature might reach a hundred degrees.

Yet still, I wanted to gain even more magical power. That’s why I got excited when I discovered the divine tool. Even though I didn’t have the ability to handle it!

Mad greed. It reminds me of the monkey that gets caught by hunters because it can’t let go of the grains in its pocket.

It’s like that even now.

Since the magical powers already had excessive expectations, it wouldn’t have been a big problem to disappoint them a little…

But I picked up the hammer again. I didn’t want to disappoint the magical powers. I wanted more of their attention.

It can’t be helped. That’s just who I am.

* * *

The divine hammer broke down materials at the molecular level.

But if the speed was even slightly inconsistent, or if the hammer’s bottom surface wasn’t perfectly vertical, the breakdown wouldn’t happen properly, and instead, a tremendous recoil would come.

If the hammer’s speed was just a fingernail short,

Boom!

My body would be thrown backward,

“Aaaaargh!”

And my shoulder would crunch as it collapsed.

If the hammer tilted even slightly,

“Huuurgh!”

My body would spin and slam into the ground, and my shoulder would make a tearing sound as if about to break.

For 12 minutes that felt like 120 hours, I swung the hammer and screamed.

[Simulation Ended]

I opened my eyes.

I wasn’t sure whether to be happy that the hellish practice was over, or depressed that the real test was now approaching.

A steel sword melted like ice cream lay before me.

It was a do-or-die situation to return this monstrosity to its original form.

I lowered my tense shoulders.

The divine hammer isn’t swung with muscles. It must be swung with ki (energy).

I gripped the hammer handle with the magical joint attached to my thumb and index finger. Not gripping tightly, but with a feel of pressing it firmly.

Then I transformed my Ki-blood. The magical power that constitutes Ki-blood is specially called ki(energy), and ki can freely change its form and properties to create various structures. Currently, the ki in my arms and shoulders took the mechanical form of pulleys and bowstrings, adapted from a crossbow. It was solid and rigid.

‘Alright. Let’s break it down.’

There’s no need to hesitate since I can rebuild it anyway.

Creaaak.

With a sound like leather being stretched, the tightly woven Ki-blood loosened up softly.

‘This time I’ll make it long and elastic.’

I reorganized the loosened Ki-blood. In the form of an elastic rod extending from the wrist to the shoulder. I applied Yuria’s Bullet technique. This way, I could control the hammer most naturally.

Now I had done all the preparation I could.

I stared at the lump of iron.

‘With constant acceleration. Perfectly vertical!’

Using the elasticity of my newly created Ki-blood, I brought the hammer down flexibly.

‘Huh? Is it too slow?’

As I swung the hammer, a sudden fear came over me. Cold sweat dripped. In that brief moment, countless thoughts flashed through my mind. It might be my imagination, but the hammer felt a bit heavier, and my shoulder seemed a bit stiff. This slight subtlety could snowball and shatter my shoulder. But…

‘No. I believe in myself!’

I closed my eyes tightly and pushed the hammer with the original rhythm.

Then, without any resistance, the hammer descended smoothly,

Tap-!

It struck the anvil. The iron lump between them scattered into bright light particles. The scattered lights stuck to the hammer and stretched out like sticky rice cake.

‘Good!’

I lifted the hammer and visualized an image. A smooth, well-balanced blade. A steel sword with iron-symbolizing mana and carbon-symbolizing mana harmoniously mixed!

Tss-tss-tss-

The light mass that had stretched like sticky rice cake gradually took shape and solidified. A steel sword gleaming with dark gray.

‘Success!’

I barely held back the cheer that was about to burst out.

The evaluation was still pending.

In the first hammer strike, I had failed so miserably that the magical powers were about to be disappointed in me. Could I make up for that failure with this successful second strike?

I swallowed nervously.

Please be lenient and let it pass, okay?

After practicing for just about 10 minutes, shaping it this well is pretty good, right?

-Hmm… was that earlier failure really just practice?

-See, it was just practice after all.

-I’m not so sure…

The magical powers muttered.

In truth, objectively speaking, there were quite a few issues to point out. The carbon distribution in my steel wasn’t even, the blade lacked elasticity, the weight balance was off, and the sharpness of the edge was insufficient.

But still, please…

-Hmmmm…

The magical powers examined the steel sword, and eventually accepted it with indifference.

-Well, at least he knows how to do it.

I could feel the magical powers withdrawing their disappointed feelings.

‘Thank goodness…’

For something practiced for just 12 minutes, I had managed to defend myself reasonably well.

Wiping away cold sweat, I sat down.

My body was a complete wreck. Especially the Ki-blood in my arms and legs was in tatters. Should I call it Ki-blood ache rather than muscle ache? A pain deeper than bone pierced through me.

Afraid the magical powers would dislike it, I couldn’t show my pain and just closed my eyes.

‘It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt. I’m fine.’

Sigh… what wealth and glory am I trying to gain by pushing myself this hard?

No… perhaps it’s not for wealth and glory, but out of fear?

Sneaking.

While I was just lying there sweating coldly, suddenly Iron Blood began moving around my limbs, stitching up burst blood vessels and muscles, and reinforcing the loosened Ki-blood. Ah, that feels refreshing. Now I finally felt like I might survive.

‘Iron Blood really is the best. It would be great if I could make something else like Iron Blood here.’

I felt wistful again.

‘The Anvil Itself,’ which could rearrange molecules, was indeed amazing as befitting a divine tool.

But it was of no help at all for ‘evolution.’

‘Evolution’ was achieved by injecting magical power into special objects with ‘consciousness,’ like Iron Blood.

Wiping away cold sweat, I thought.

The most urgent thing now. The most regrettable thing.

‘I had secretly hoped to find hints from the divine tools… Sigh, why won’t the Stone of Wind evolve?’

For ‘evolution,’ an object with ‘consciousness’ was needed.

And I had two more such objects.

One was the lich I had sealed in my laboratory. But since there was no way to control the lich’s mind, that was out of the question.

And the other one was the Stone of Wind.

Even now, I vividly remember the moment Han Se-hoon used the Stone of Wind.

‘Ah, how sad! Even you, who was once the most free, have become a fossil. I grant you flesh and breath for a moment, so please dream of a fierce storm.’

Judging by that incantation, which was almost like a funeral ode, it was certain. The Stone of Wind must have originally been a being with ‘consciousness.’

But no matter how much I tried to ‘evolve’ the Stone of Wind, it didn’t respond. As if it had really become a fossil…

Was my theory wrong?

Or was my approach incorrect?

Because these concerns filled my mind, the ability of ‘The Anvil Itself’ to rearrange materials at the molecular level was inevitably disappointing.

It would have been better if it was a tool that could help ‘evolution’ succeed…

The most urgent thing now is ‘evolution’!

‘Should I quickly master the anvil and obtain other divine tools? Or should I give up and focus on other research first?’

While I was deep in such thoughts, a flash of lightning struck in my mind.

‘Huh? Wait… Perhaps…! Could it be?’

I opened my eyes wide.

I jumped up and activated the primordial incantation.

[T-rans-por-tay-shun!]

My Circle uttered <Transportation> in a ridiculous pronunciation, and as space distorted, three books appeared. These were books Pan-Dalus had given me to research ‘evolution.’

<Special Materials and Special Results>

<Seven Great Unsolved Combination Problems of the World – Unproven Combination Formulas>

<Historic Failures: Combination Magic Edition>

Among them, I quickly flipped through <Special Materials and Special Results>.

“Here it is!”

————————

<Combination of High-Purity Mana and Natural Magic Stones>

Ordinary mana coins or mana bills have a very high impurity content. However, by repeatedly refining them with expensive materials, there’s a slim chance of obtaining high-purity mana.

This high-purity mana can be combined with natural magic stones. If the combination succeeds, the activation magic inherent in the natural magic stone is strengthened.

Natural magic stones were famous for not combining with any materials, but recent research has revealed that they uniquely react with high-purity mana.

However, the reason for this remains an unsolved problem in combination magic.

————————

When I first read this passage, I had scoffed.

As someone who could see ‘mana,’ the expression ‘high-purity mana’ seemed ridiculous.

Where’s the purity in mana? Everything in the world is mana.

But!

“There must exist special components that collect and store the formless mana scattered in the air. It makes sense that the purity of those special components can be high.”

And now I had an omnipotent anvil that could instantly refine any material.

I took out handfuls of mana coins and mana bills from my pocket and piled them on ‘The Anvil Itself.’ After emptying my pockets completely, I’d gathered about 1.5 Morning.

In Earth money, that would be equivalent to about 1.5 million won, a considerable sum.

‘What’s my current magical power state?’

Good. Not perfect, but recovered enough to swing the hammer.

‘Alright, alright, stay calm. Let’s practice first.’

I ran [Simulation] again to practice.

Taking a deep breath, I swung the hammer confidently.

Tap-!

The mana coins scattered into light particles and stuck to the hammer. As I rhythmically pulled the hammer away, the particles stretched like cheese, then fell off, separating into a pile of impurities and a rice-grain-sized opaque jewel.

Success!

“…Is this it?”

I pushed aside the pile of impurities that contained no mana outside the anvil and examined the rice-grain-sized jewel that was heavily saturated with mana.

Just as I thought.

Though barely perceptible due to the minute quantity, the small jewel was slowly absorbing mana from the air even now.

This is the core component of mana coins!

“Huh…? But the color keeps changing? Wait, is this…?”

The color of the opaque jewel kept changing between red, blue, green, white, and black.

The amazing thing was, it turned white when there was a lot of white magical power around, and blue when there was a lot of blue magical power.

“Wow…”

Until now, I was the only one who could see the colors of magical power. But a jewel that responds to the colors of magical power…?

“Mana grass, which is the raw material for mana coins, is a relatively common plant… but the refined material is so mysterious. The property of storing mana is interesting, and it even shows the colors of magical power? If we use this, couldn’t others see the colors of magical power too? Amazing. No wonder people mistake it for mana itself. Hmm… the current purity is about 60 percent? It would be even more amazing at 100 percent.”

Though my skill was lacking and the purity was quite low, it was already very interesting at 60 percent.

“Good. Let’s research the details slowly later. What’s important right now is finding out how it reacts with natural magic stones.”

I took out the Stone of Wind from my chest and placed it next to the rice-grain-sized jewel.

I recalled the passage I had just read.

‘High-purity mana can be combined with natural magic stones. If the combination succeeds, the activation magic inherent in the natural magic stone is strengthened.’

‘Natural magic stones uniquely react with high-purity mana.’

Natural magic stones.

Stones containing the power of nature, treasures with special activation magic.

And the Stone of Wind was a type of natural magic stone.

‘If this jewel strengthens activation magic… it means it affects some being sleeping within the Stone of Wind. Then couldn’t I use this jewel as a medium to awaken the Stone of Wind? If so… wouldn’t evolution be possible?’

Of course, there wasn’t much evidence. Maybe I was just running happy circuits in my head.

But… all discoveries begin with sudden ideas.

My heart raced.

A good feeling.

‘Calm down, calm down. I can first check with simulation… just stay calm.’

I slowly calmed my breathing and was about to start [Simulation].

But at that moment, my chest trembled and Lanciel’s Cube flew up. It seemed the cube had woken up after being unconscious for about half a day.

“Ah, you’re awake?”

Despite the rush, I greeted it happily. I had decided to treat it well.

But the cube didn’t answer and flew over the rice-grain-sized jewel and the Stone of Wind, hovering curiously.

It examined them for a while, then asked me in a surprised voice.

-Philosopher’s Stone? Though it contains many impurities, there’s no mistake. An item whose production was banned after the early days of creation… where did you get this, Administrator?

…Huh?

-And how did the Wind Spirit next to it end up in such a state? It’s dried up like a desiccated fruit, with only the shell remaining. Terrible. Is it being punished right now?

…Oh?