The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 707  Just Karl Things

Forgemaster Granite shook his head. ”Those tables werenʼt intended to be consumable items. First off, how did you shatter an Overlord Rank barrier with a Monarch Ranked crafting failure?”

Karl shrugged. ”It likely pulled the mana out of the enchantment when I didnʼt have enough to feed it.”

What none of them could have known was that a single bolt of black lightning had hit the park overhead at the moment that the blade disintegrated.

Karl began to draw another inscription. ”This one is a bit less overblown. Can you get me a blunt weapon? A maul or a war pick of some sort, preferably. I will try to enchant this one to add both durability and large amounts of impact damage to strikes.”

It was a much less obnoxious enchantment than the other, and it would fit easily on the head of a hammer. An assistant came in with a cart holding a freshly crafted maul, still warm from the forge. Karl grabbed it to set it on the table, then froze halfway as everyone screamed in terror.

”I havenʼt even started yet.” He complained.

”No. That maul, how are you alright?” Ambrose asked.

Karl looked at the hammer for a moment, then realized that the warmth on his hand was actually flesh melting heat to most people.

”Oh, that. Itʼs fine, that wonʼt hurt my hand, itʼs just hot. But that makes it easier to carve, if I can find the chisels.”

They seemed to have been obliterated by the aftermath of the last failure, so Karl used [Earth Barrier] to make himself a new one and set about carving the runes.

This time, when he was almost done, Karl decided to add a bit more flare, and added a small side note about melting armour on impact. A small homage to Hawkʼs love of fire, and the heat held in the hammer.

Extra impact force and armour damage, or possibly armour ignore, depending on how the weapon interpreted it when used, should make for a suitable level of enhancement.

Karl began to add mana to the hammer, and watched in awe as the head of the weapon slowly turned a deep crimson, while the runes went from Bronze through silver to Gold.

”What is the mana compatibility of this weapon?” He asked as the weapon approached the Royal Rank.

”It should be close to that of the first weapon, higher than pure silver.” Forgemaster Granite insisted.

”Alright, then we go all out.”

Karl pushed the weapon to the Royal Rank, and the coloration changed. The head of the hammer turned deep amethyst, while the runes shone silver.

Then, the Runes went back to Gold, and Karl kept pushing the quality up.

It appeared that the alloy had been enhanced, changing in core quality, while sucking the mana out of the Runes.

That was interesting. He certainly hadnʼt expected it, and this might make for a much more powerful weapon than he had planned.

The whole head of the weapon glowed purple when it reached Royal Rank again, and then the purple hue began to fade, turning to an opalescent sheen on the metal similar to the maul that Karl had in his possession.

The runes finally turned Monarch Rank red, and then the process stopped as it reached equilibrium with Karlʼs power level.

”And done.”

The worker who had brought in the hammer gasped at the changed appearance. ”That is incredible. Why did it do that, when the ones before it did not?” He asked.

Karl shrugged. ”Well, one of them blew up. But the first one, the one that Forgemaster Granite created, was already at a much higher quality level. If I am right, then this should now be an Exceptional or Epic Ranked weapon. But the blade that was used for the first weapon was already an Epic item before being enhanced.”

Forgemaster Granite nodded as he stroked his long black beard. ”Yes, it should be considered Epic Grade. All that it was missing was mana to get it there, as the Weaponsmith missed multiple steps in the imbuing process.”

The worker looked terrified at the prospect of what the Forgemaster was going to do to correct such an oversight. They should all have been masters at their craft here, there was no real excuse for forgetting steps that would improve a weaponʼs quality to such an extent.

It was sad news for Karl, who realized that the improvement was not actually from his skills, but just finishing the work that the previous craftsman had skipped. But the result was an item that should be of more than sufficient quality for their purposes.

Duke Ambrose cleared his throat, as they were back to his departmentʼs specialty.

His petulant voice instantly annoyed everyone around him, but his idea made enough sense that they still listened.

”Perhaps we could have a less powerful user test the weapon, to determine the scalability of the Rune work.

While the first round is going to the Overlords, should they be suitable, this craft will eventually spread to all of the Special Forces.” Forgemaster Granite held his hand over the Maul, checking the temperature, then picked it up and hefted it carefully to test the balance.

Granite was a Commander, so he would be able to put a decent amount of force behind the attack. Plus, it was a Dwarven Rune, so there might be a bit of extra affinity for him.

The Forgemaster collected another similar maul from the pile of completed weapons, as a baseline for their tests, and led the way back to the testing room.

”This will be so much fun. I havenʼt gotten to hit anything but work in far too long. You should try it too, Fizz. Itʼs quite therapeutic.”

They both excluded Duke Ambrose, who was a Common Rank human with no noticeable powers.

That would be closer to comedy relief. Assuming he could even lift the maul.

Karl charged the barriers in the training room again, while Granite set the new weapon on a table at the side of the room. Karl wasnʼt sure what sort of combat skills a Forgemaster might have, but there should be something for swinging a hammer, and that was what this one was designed to enhance.