Chương 1307: 1306. The original cause

"Why not?" one of the administrative heads asked, surprised by her certainty.. She must have had a reason to outright shoot down the "scientific method". But it wasn't the princess that answered, but Simon.

"Because the original cause of the mountain's awakening was a source of fire elemental energy hidden in its roots. eating away at its flesh and creating this "magma chamber" you mentioned. However, even with the formation gone, the danger should have been dealt with;" the priest ended his explanation with a slightly ambiguous comment.

"The formation was never supposed to suppress anything. The formation was meant to siphon off the power of the source and dissipate it across the mountain, so it would calm down. That is why the climate here is still mild, despite being the highest peak of this mountain range." It was Leana who answered their questioning looks this time.

"Even if it is destroyed now, the original power source should have been mostly distributed across the land. There shouldn't be any sign of change this quickly. Unless someone changed the premise entirely," she added mysteriously.

"So, Chrona didn't just sabotage the magic formation, but they also did something to restart the volcano," Seth concluded based on her words. He doubted Merkraut Sar created a natural volcano in such a short time, so the cause had to be magical.

"Most likely," Simon confirmed.

"Before we can act, we would need to determine what they did," Leana stated the obvious.

".. and we currently have nobody qualified to find out?" Mary asked, depressed. If they had someone like that, Leana would have probably already taken action, and the initial report would have been more than a notice of disaster.

"At least nobody I know is available. The only one on Urth that can get close to the source at this point would probably be Seth, but whether he can find the cause is questionable. No offense," she quickly added to the blacksmith.

"None taken, but I could still go take a look. Even if I can't find the source, I have never taken my time to look at a volcano up close, and I have the proper clothing for the occasion," Seth referred to his items that were immune to fire damage. Nothing could stop him from taking a dip in a magma pool if he wanted to, especially not the potential of being seen skinny dipping. „But before I go up the mountain, I want to finish my current project.

You can try to hire an expert from the Pathworks in the meantime," Seth added, after giving it some thought.

"Maybe Majdi Barr or Guildmaster Bryce could help with that?" he suggested, but he doubted this was any news to Mary or Leana. After all, they were the ones interacting with other factions for the most part. Maybe it wouldn't be as easy to get a proper expert since they lost their connection to Chrona, but they still had good connections to the Adventurer Guild and the Auction House. Arguably, the Adventurer guild had even better connections than Chrona, they just couldn't boss them around as readily.

"Alright, we will see what we can do. What are you currently working on, and when do you expect to be done?" Mary asked for a rough time frame. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I will be ready in a day, probably. As for what it is… that's a surprise," the blacksmith estimated with a smile and a shrug. He wasn't going to reveal it yet, especially since the tempering would take a while, and he had no specific receiver in mind yet. With this, Seth finally left the late evening meeting that had stolen him from his soft bedding and returned to their sweet embrace. To the flickering screen of his TV, he fell asleep an hour later. … Seth appeared in the workshop, first thing in the morning...

after washing up and getting breakfast. He was ready to finish this, and the horn was, too. The horn was refined and ready to become a weapon. At this poin, t the measurements of the gemmy horn had shrunk to slightly less than two meters. It was the diameter of a large dish at the base, tapering evenly to a sharp point on the other end. In this shape, it was like a smooth club, with a mean thorn below the handle.

The blacksmith had to admit that he was tempted to leave it like that, as it resembled a piece of art with its look like polished smoky quartz. Nonetheless, he wa slooking forward to how it would look once he was done with it. Enthusiastically, Seth began his work, relying on <Energy Circulation (3)> lv. 6 and the power of Charon's Obol to forge any material. In addition, he used <Advanced Reinforce> to strengthen the material in the process.

As the hammer strikes became rhythmically, Seth's voice began filling the workshop with the sound of the feasting ballad. It had been a while since he had used it, but it felt like a visit to an old friend. It was one of the first ballads he had learned and an experience he shared with Tored and Al'Zalsar. Even though this ballad had to direct demon it tried to pander to, it was still strengthened by Seth's skills as an Infernal Scald, which was why he felt no remorse using it on legendary materials.

It was nice, not having to resist the pressure of a demonic presence when forging an item. It allowed him to concentrate on <Energy Circulation (3)> and <Advanced Reinforce>. The first step, once the horn became malleable, was to straighten it before he drew out the body of the horn. Moving material further toward the base of the horn, he created a 2-meter-long pole of even thickness with a lump of material at the end. He left the former tip of the horn as a fearsome thorn at the butt of the shaft.

At this point it was obvious for any onlooker that Seth was working on a polearm, but the current cudgel shape was only temporary. In the next step, the blacksmith started shaping the lump, drawing out three protrusions. A hammer head, a spike, and a sharpened spike, like a claw. That's right. The weapon Seth had to think of, when trying to come up with something that could maximize the properties of the <Aura of Destruction>, was a variation of the Raven's Beak, or bec de corbin.

This kind of war hammer was a cruel weapon built to rip into the enemy, no matter their defense. Seth had used this kind of weapon for a short while after returning to Urth. It had worked wonders against Sarkists, quasi-immortal cultists that boasted about their naturally grown callus armor. The bec de corbin had done quick work on those guys. Although Seth still needed to use his own soul-related skills to ultimately end their lives.

As long as he could strengthen the material to withstand the impacts, this would be a weapon that could deal irreversible damage with every hit, no matter the opponent. Even if it got damaged, with the feasting ballad, it would gain a certain ability of self-recovery in addition to the strengthening effect. Forging the smoky quartz, Demonic runes conjured through his song kept infusing into the material with each hammer strike.

Not always would a demonic ballad cause the material to visibly change, but the feasting ballad almost always had this effect. The translucent part took on a slight reddish tint, like wine, while the smoke inside turned even darker. The final shape of the weapon's head quickly took shape, with a large sharpened "beak" opposite a mean hammer head and a long spike on top. Although the individual parts became a little bigger than in the blueprint, Seth didn't separate off any material.

He used the whole horn on the Raven's Beak. With the weapon taking shape, Seth's song fell silent. It had barely taken him an hour to finish the body of the weapon. This was the easiest part, despite working with a legendary material. With the finished blank at hand, he stepped to the enchantment table.