My Servant System

Kat PoV

Sitting back and watching the six women testing the knives, I couldn't help but sigh at how enthusiastic all of them seemed; even Lady Lorelei was seemingly giddy as she expertly butchered the poor training dummy standing in front of her, slashing and stabbing it over and over again to 'test the edge'.

I think she was just a bit stressed, but who was I to say something..?

Leone seemed to agree with me though, her cheeks slightly red as she sat beside me and watched as well, her eyes lingering on her Mother before moving towards her Mom, who was taking a more measured approach.

But, just like with Lady Igna, the two women's latent strength was just a bit too great as they stabbed the dummy's and sunk their hands into the fabric covered chests, doing more damage then the blades themselves and making them both freeze for a moment before they tried again.

The Marquess wasn't far behind, frowning as she stared at the blade in her hand before taking a measured strike at the dummy's chest and shearing through the fabric, managing to control her strength enough to not destroy the dummy, but at this point the damage had already been done, so who knew if she got to actually test the weapon?

Anput seemed to be the only one who was truly testing the blades, though that came as no surprise considering she was the one who forged them.

The Jackalkin was striking a metal plate with the dagger rather aggressively, and after the third hit she pulled away and inspected the knife's edge, looking for damage and determining the quality of her work, even as the others around her seemingly played around instead.

Jahi was the closest to being an actual tester, but it wasn't like she knew exactly what she was looking for as she mimicked whatever the Jackalkin did, only to stop and watch as Anput approached Leone and I, handing the knives to us and saying "I want you both to cover the entire weapon in your mana to test how the alloy reacts to mana, and if they're conductive, absorptive, or something else. Regulate it as best you could, please."

We nodded as we looked at the weapons, before Leone asked "Start at this amount and go up gradually every few seconds?"

She held her hand out and shrouded it with mana, creating a soft red haze around it and showing me the power that she wanted to start with, getting an okay from Anput as the Jackalkin took a look at the amount.

Nodding, I let the blade rest atop my palms and began to bathe it in mana, pushing my Ice Mana out and letting the ethereal blue mana wash over the alloy, its dim gray surface beginning to glimmer as my mana continued to flicker around my hands.

Focusing on the weapon, I watched it closely and raised a brow as I noted that the blade was absorbing some of my mana, 'eating' it and making the amount that I was shrouding it with slowly diminish over time.

As I pushed out more mana, the blade kept up at the same pace, continuing to cover it and observe how much of my mana was taken over the next few seconds.

Reaching a certain point, I stopped pouring out my mana and allowed the dagger to absorb the remaining mana in the air, noting instantly that the blade was now glimmering a nice blue, all of the mana from earlier stored inside the blade.

"That's interesting. Is this the scale or the bone?"

Anput looked towards me and raised a brow as she stared at the bluish blade in my hands, answering "Bone. Leone has the scale, and as you can see...it isn't absorbing the mana as well as the bone, but it is still absorbing the mana quite well... interesting. You'd think the scales would be more absorptive?"

"Not necessarily, since the bones were inside the body and seemed connected to the Core in more ways than a normal mortal's bones are. That silvery hue as well; those bones aren't normal. Besides, this seemed to be a Fiend who was rather mixed with its offensive capabilities; physically and magically strong, so maybe the bones needed the mana to keep the body intact?"

I nodded at Leone's words, while Anput pursed her lips and looked between my bluish blade and Leone's slightly red one, likely thinking of the use for these alloys even as we barely scratched the surface for their capabilities.

"Alright, let me see them both; I want to just enchant them with a basic battery enchantment, see if they are just absorbing the mana just to absorb it, or if these alloys can react excellently to enchantments thanks to their mana absorption."

Leone handed me her blade without hesitation, and Anput nodded as she watched me sit down and begin to focus my mana, harnessing the wild, arctic flow and bringing it under control easily as I started pushing it into the blades, beginning to enchant them and test out just how good this alloy was that Anput had made.

While I was doing that, Anput began to do the tests for the others as well, getting a better understanding of the bones and scales of the Fiend that had decided to try and kill us just a week or so.

The enchantments went on smoothly, and after the second one I opened my eyes and inspected them both, feeling the flow of mana inside the metal and passing them to Leone as I said "The bones amplified the enchantment, its absorptive properties enhancing the flow of mana inside the alloy, while the scales reacted rather neutrally to everything. Not great but certainly not bad either."

The Vampire nodded in agreement, feeling the same things I did before looking towards the Jackalkin, asking "If this is just with basic iron, then what would the alloys that used the more mana conductive metals like silver or bronze? Wouldn't that be great?"

"Well, remember, the tradeoff is that the silver alloy is softer than the iron, and bronze might not be that much better than the iron. We'll see though. I certainly think that we should keep some of the bones and scales for when we have some even better metals. Especially if we can get some metal that is extremely conductive? We could make accessories with that kind of alloy; something that would protect or heal in lieu of one of us?"

"We certainly could... but that depends on Mom honestly. Perhaps she'll want to purchase the materials and use them for the greater good of the Knights?"

That made me sigh, but I nodded, understanding that that would be a great use for the materials, but still wanting to keep them for myself...