Abe the Wizard

When Abel activated his “static field” spell, Johnson didn’t even bother to use the multi-surfaced spheres. From its understanding, this spell was pretty much harmless. And rightly so. The static field quickly disappeared after it made contact with Johnson. It didn’t even feel anything, let alone get damaged by it.

That should end the testing right there. Abel put Johnson back into his portal beast ring, then took out the portal bag that Flying Flame got him. Obviously, he didn’t forget to give Flying Flame its reward. He got it an extra bottle of ration potion, one that was flavored with an extra amount of blue howling rabbit meat.

As he looked inside the portal bag, he realized how disorganized its original owner was. There was even daily necessity stuff in it which, given how small portal bags usually were, was not very common for most wizards.

Abel shook his head at this. There wasn’t much that was valuable to him, so he threw most of the stuff into the inferno flame. It’s not like he wanted to turn the Rogue’s Encampment into a dump, but throwing anything that he didn’t want into the fire was a pretty convenient way to sort things out.

The only thing that got his attention was a magic staff with the “ice blizzard” spell on it. Apparently, the spell could be used three times a day, and they could be all cast immediately without spending time to read out the spell enchantments. There were also some rune patterns and magic gemstones, but he didn’t have much use for them.

Abel looked deeper into the portal bag. He realized that there was a box with something in it. It was an empty magic staff and crystal ball. This is what he was looking for when he decided to kill that red-cloaked wizard.

As he picked up the crystal ball, Abel saw that there was a black spiritual beast that was howling on the inside. He wasn’t sure what kind of beast it was. Apart from the more common creatures, he didn’t know much about the biology of different spiritual creatures. Nevertheless, he took out a parchment paper, then started sketching the black spiritual beast as well as he could. When he was done, he took the crystal ball into his portal bag.

As for the empty magic staff, there wasn’t really anything special about it. It was just newer than the one Abel got from the fallen wizard. From its appearance alone, he could tell that it was made of newly-furnished materials, and with that, he decided to put it inside his portal bracelet.

Then, he went out of the dark world and back into Lord Ivan’s yard. By this point, all ten thousand metal spheres were gone. However, because of how many there used to be, all the flowers and trees there were kept here were pretty much squandered.

“Abel! You’ve finally come out!” Bernie ran up to Abel, “Where did you put all that metal spheres?”

Abel pushed Bernie away as he got way too close to him, “Good to see you there, Bernie. About that, can you let me use the furnace here first? I’ll tell you what I did once I’m done with something.”

“Oh! Yeah, sure. Well, if you’re trying to make new equipment, do you mind if you, uh, let some of my colleagues watch you work? Think of it as their reward for having made you the metal spheres.”

Bernie wasn’t asking that for himself. While his family members would compliment him for helping Abel out, the other blacksmiths that made the metal spheres weren’t going to let Abel go without giving anything back. He might be a grandmaster, but it wasn’t like he could just order them around to do stuff for him.

Abel changed the subject, though, “Hey, Bernie, mind if I ask you something?”

“Uh, what is it, friend?”

“It’s about something that the dwarves are famous for. I know they can make ballistas larger than the ones that are for guarding forts. Do you, um, think it’s possible for me to get my hands on one of those?”

“Oh, ho ho, you slimy bastard!” Bernie started pointing his finger at Abel, “You must be talking about one of them king-sized ballista’s! We use them to attack flying mounts that attack from a high altitude. They are very hard to make, you know. It takes about ten years to assemble all the parts together. So far, there are only three that are inside the Moon Guardian City.”

As reluctant as Bernie appeared, he knew that Abel had agreed to let the others watch him work. It was not exactly the best deal he could get, but all opportunities to watch a grandmaster blacksmith work would be very much appreciated.

Abel smiled as Bernie just gave him a detailed explanation of what a king-sized ballista was. He knew that he was not actually mad at him.

Bernie raised his arms in the air, “Fine, fine! Just once, though, you got that? What do you need a king-sized ballista for, anyway? How are you even gonna use it? It’s a lot bigger than most ones you’ve seen before.”

Bernie wasn’t joking about that. The king-sized ballista was about five meters wide if it was fully stretched. Without the right amount of space, it would be impossible to deploy it at your enemies. Besides, it was also extremely hard to pull. Given how powerful the rebounding force of the string was, every single part was made of metals.

Abel still didn’t answer, though. He just kept on changing to the next topic, “By the way, Bernie. I need you to help me with something. Do you recognize this spiritual beast?”

Bernie replied as he saw the sketch that Abel did on his parchment paper, “Yeah. It’s a lightning howl beast if I’ve ever seen one. If you’re trying to fight one, I suggest that you don’t. It’s a high-tier lightning spiritual beast. Just one is enough to take down an entire army. Even the advanced wizards have a hard time fighting against it.”

“Wow, really? That’s pretty impressive,” Abel replied. He didn’t know how Wizard Cliff got the soul of a lightning howl beast to begin with, but the stuff was under his possession

now.

Once the two finished their talk, Bernie started to order the others to set up a workshop for Abel to use. And after everything was ready, some of his family’s blacksmiths came around to watch. The whole thing took about half a day, and during this time, one of the king-sized ballistas was delivered to where they were. It was also included with ten king-sized arrows.

Abel asked as he pointed towards a giant furnace, “So, this is the place you’ve prepared me.”

Bernie raised his nose in pride, “Yeah. Pretty impressive, isn’t it. It’s big. It’s got all the materials that you are looking for. Most importantly, since I own the place, you won’t be charged anything for it.”

Abel shook his head and smiled, “So much for being a businessman. Very well, my friend, I’ll make a knight’s big sword for you once I’m done with this. Before that, though, I need a lot more than just one furnace. Make it ten, and I’ll start getting into my work.”

“You got it!” Bernie giggled, “Don’t fool me with a normal one, though, you got that? I want one of those sick ones with magic on them. Once I do, I can show it off to everyone that I know.”

Abel replied as he looked around, “Yeah, okay. Alright, time to start. You might want to tell your colleagues to come closer. I don’t like it when people watch me from a distance.”

“They are on their way!” Bernie smiled.

Soon, a bunch of dwarfs started walking in. It didn’t take them for them to fill in the entire workshop.

“What….”

Abel didn’t expect there to be so many. He expected a dozen spectators, not close to a hundred

“Please, Grandmaster Abel, start when you are ready,” Bernie said. Since the others were here, he didn’t want to make a scene by referring to Abel by his name.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll start now,” Abel said. He felt cheated that he had so many people watching over him, but to be fair, Bernie did help him a lot before, so he was pretty okay with it.

Once a hematite iron was thrown into the furnace, Abel took out the 700 pound hammer from the conference from his portal bracelet. After that, he showed the others his infamous “one skill for one hit” technique.

There were some skeptics amongst the crowd, but when they saw Abel doing this, they all became dead quiet. They might not be able to mimic what he was doing, but simply watching was enough for them to learn more than those who didn’t.

After thirty minutes in, he had made a knight’s giant sword. To add a final touch to it, Abel punched holes on either side of the hilt. He was using the traditional technique in the Holy Continent, of course, and not the technique he learned in the dark world.

Next up was the rune. As he took out his rune pen, he finished drawing two sides of the rune in just a total of forty seconds. After that, he took out two perfect blue-gemstones to stuff inside the punched holes of the sword. He just made a double-faced ice magic sword.

Normally, a regular ice magic sword could only have a one-sided rune pattern on it, but since Abel could make a 300 skill base with his super-heavy hammer, the metal he was using was pretty much turned into a fine iron piece.