The Smith returned to camp with his prizes: two bat wings, a Green Magic Crystal, and knowledge of what lay beyond his home cavern. The bat monster was disconcerting, to be sure, but James knew that he could kill it if he had to.
The question was, was there a better way than swinging a shovel around until he got lucky?
The bat, ironically, had provided him the solution.
The sweeping lines, circles, and runes floated to the top of his mind nearly effortlessly, even though he hadn't thought of this enchantment template in what felt like ages.
[Basic Air Enchantment: Rapid Blow]
James considered enchanting his shovel, given that it had worked once, but wisely thought better of it and decided to forge a new war hammer, this time of green iron, with wider striking faces and no spike for penetration. Being made of green iron, it would be half as heavy as a regular iron hammer, and a third as heavy as his Earth War Hammer, but that was fine. Not every [Hammer Strike] required maximum strength, even in forging. Actually hitting the target was important, too.
The Green Iron War Hammer wound up using all of James' stockpiled green iron. He made a mental note to collect what he could from the small room when he next had the chance. He designed it with two circular, broad striking faces, and a longer haft than one might expect.
[Appraisal: Green Iron War Hammer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15]
[Substrate Analysis: Forged Green Iron, Essence Contamination 0/?]
Squinting at the slightly green black metal, the Enchanter looked for any little swirls of color that didn't belong. Thankfully, there were none.
The enchantment template was clearly designed for a sword. It was far longer than it was wide, and most of the lines were across the short end, rather than the long end. James guessed that it was to allow swinging a sword faster.
But he had a hammer.
Once again, he altered the enchantment design, arranging the lines to flow along the top face of his hammer, stretching from one striking face to the other. Using his chisels and files, he carefully etched the design into the hammer. His hands were steady and precise, making full use of the double bonus to dexterity from his classes. Once he as satisfied, he sat back and gazed upon his work.
[Smith] Class Skill: [Filigree] has been acquired.
For once, James paused and actually focused on the intrusive thought. He'd never even heard the word "filigree" before. He guessed it had something to do with what he'd just been doing, but was his Class just making up words now?
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He decided it didn't really matter. Even though everybody in the world had Classes, nobody really knew how they worked or why they existed. They just did. At least Classes and Skills had the decency to use words, unlike Magic which, in his experience, was just entirely arbitrary and often frustrating.
He reached for his mortar and pestle, but stopped just short. Remembering the last time he had enchanted a hammer, he stopped and took the time to forge something between a small bowl and a cup for the Aqua Magia.
Now he continued with his enchanting work. He ground down the Green Magic Crystal to fine dust, filled the new small bowl with Pure Water, and turned it to Aqua Magia. The process was smoother this time, his mana responding better to his will the more he used it. He took a short break, then applied the dust to the enchantment etching on the hammer. Despite the hammer being round, as he applied the dust to the etching it remained in place, even though normal dust would have fallen out. Then, taking his brush, he applied Aqua Magia to the enchantment on the hammer. Finally, he set his brush down and held his hands over the hammer and stirred the mana within himself, heating it to loosen it up and forcing it through his hands and into the Aqua Magia, affixing the enchantment to the war hammer.
He channeled his mana into the hammer, feeling it fill each etch and groove, blessedly unhindered by essence this time. But something felt off… The enchantment felt weak and tenuous in places.
Just after he realized this, the hammer flashed bright white with just the slightest hint of green, and the enchantment was set.
[Enchanter] Skill [Enchantment Design] has reached level 2.
James appraised his hammer.
[Appraisal: Green Iron War Hammer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Rapid Blow (4)]
"Four?" James said aloud.
He continued to examine the hammer, analyzing the enchantment. Whereas during the enchanting process it had felt weak and tenuous, now it felt like his other enchantments, just smaller.
Stepping away from his work station, James channeled mana into the enchantment and gave the hammer a few test swings. Then a few more. The enchantment was definitely drawing mana, though not as much as he would have expected. And the hammer swing was faster, but it wasn't as fast as his Earth War Hammer hit hard. Testing the hammer without using [Rapid Blow], James found that the enchantment increased the speed of his swing, but not by much. Maybe somewhat less than half again as fast? He continued testing, eventually swinging the hammer dozens of times.
[Smith] Skill [Product Testing] has reached level 2
[Enchanter] Skill [Enchantment Testing] has reached level 2.
[Synergy] Skill [Product Testing] has reached level 2.
[Enchanter] Skill [Enchantment Analysis] has reached level 2.
James stopped there. At any rate, he could swing the hammer faster than he could swing a shovel, and he could use [Hammer Strike] with the hammer.
By this point, James was worn out physically and mentally. He ate a meal of porridge and monster meat and a little bit of sauerkraut, stored away the smoked monster meat and hides from earlier in the day, and went to sleep.
He woke after a dreamless sleep and, as was becoming his habit, checked the wards. No monsters around that he could see in the gloom, and he topped up the magic power in the wards.
After a breakfast of just porridge, he turned to the bat wings he had cut off the monster the day before. Now it was finally time to create something he had sorely missed during his time in the slave camp and even up until now.
It was a crude design, mainly overly thick metal clamped around the wing pulling it taut and held in place with rivets, but even his [Appraisal] skill recognized what he had created.
[Appraisal: Bat Wing Fan, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 4/4]
Additionally, he could now store them in the magic bag, unlike when they were just monster parts.
Now James could fan the flames of his forge and smelter, reaching hotter temperatures. It hadn't been much of a problem so far, but it would definitely speed things up.
Feeling satisfied, James once again scanned around the cavern. The ever present soft breeze continued to blow, and the cavern was blessedly free of monsters.
James once again donned his Green Iron Armor and prepared for another excursion. First, to mine out some more Green Iron Ore. Second, to explore more of the cave system.