Chapter 248: Star Core
Chapter 248: Star Core
The Forge, an artificial world created by Draught for making weapons and equipment. Inside this world, there is an unending sea of molten liquid lava flowing.
Despite the endless molten lava everywhere, the environment is still safe for ordinary people to breathe. As long as people could withstand the heat, ordinary people could live inside this artificial world.
Still, Unlike the real world, the Forge didn’t have a sky. Once people look up, all they see is nothing but darkness. On the horizon, there is also nothing but darkness. The only source of light is the molten lava sea.
Getting out from the cave, Draught waves his hand, and a platform made of stone appears in front of him from the molten lava sea. *GRRTT*
“Come, follow me.” said Draught as we walked toward the platform that kept appearing from the lava sea, making a sort of bridge.
Despite the endless sea molten lava, they didn’t feel the heat at all since the amulet Draught gave before protected them. As they walked through the stony bridge, Angus and the others could see a few blinding lights inside the molten lava.
Unlike the light from the lava, these balls of light are brighter than the lava and radiate a mysterious aura. Looking at these balls of light, Angus and Gilford begin to realize something using their passive [Analyze].
“T-This is… Items. There is an item below the lava sea.” exclaimed Angus.
“Wait.. That’s not all. They seem to keep being refined. Don’t tell me, this world is not only artificial but also a sort of self-sustainable and working continuously.” said Gilford.
“Kahahaha.. As expected, the heir of the Ancient King. It seems you get the ancient power and blessing about knowledge. You are right. This is not an ordinary forge but a self-working forge. You could also say it as an automatic forge.” said Draught.
“However, this is not an ordinary self-working forge. Although this world is artificial, I design it to be able to create things as natural as possible.” added Draught as he waved his hand and caught fire flakes in the air that seemed alive.
Looking at this, “Woaahh.. The fire is alive. Fireflies!!” exclaimed Anna, who was trying to catch the fire flakes dancing in the air.
“Anna, don’t run and jump around. You could fall into the lava.” said Jayna worriedly.
But Anna kept running and jumping around chasing the living fire flakes.
“Don’t worry. I designed the platform to come out from the lava as long as you are still wearing the necklace. Hmm.. If I am not wrong, it should be here.” said Draught as he stood on the edge of the platform. *GRRTT*
The lava sea below split open and revealed an entrance to go underground. Then, a staircase made of stone platforms appears at the entrance. From the entrance, everyone could feel the heat despite being negated by the amulet.
Looking at Anna still playing with fireflies, “Ilgor, wait here with Anna.” said Angus.
“As you wish, master.” replied Ilgor respectfully.
“I will also stay here. I doubt I will find any interesting things down there.” said Jayna.
“Alright, then. Make sure not to let Anna make trouble.” said Angus.
Then, Draught, Jade, Gilford, and Angus begin to descend into the entrance. The more they go down, the more heat they feel. Gilford even needs to cover his body with mana not to be affected. Soon, they found inside the tunnel with a wall made of flowing lava.
During the journey inside the tunnel, “Sentient items couldn’t be made in a normal way like any other item. In ancient times, sentient items could only be produced by nature. To make it artificially, there is a lot of effort and work to be done without a single error.”
“Because of this, I created this artificial world to help me create sentient items. The world will keep refining the item continuously without stopping. However, like any other item, few basic rules need to be kept.”
“Angus, as a fellow crafter, what is the most important thing in creating an item?” asked Draught.
“If we didn’t conclude the planning phase, it should be the ingredient or raw material,” replied Angus.
“Excellent answer. Then, what next after you get the material?” asked Draught.
“Next, should be the tools for processing the material.” said Angus.
“Right, there are a lot of tools for processing the material. For creating weapons, the most common one is to melt by fire before fusing the material together. In this world, there are many kinds of fire. But, as I said before, sentient items used to be made by nature.”
“So, the next question is, what is the best natural fire for making sentient weapons?” asked Draught as they reached a black door made of unknown material.
Hearing Draught, Angus and Gilford begin to realize something yet still have some doubt. Seeing everyone’s reaction, Draught smiled and tapped the door in a certain rhythm. After a while, the door opened. From the inside, a gust of heatwave comes outside.
Fortunately, everyone has a certain degree of heat resistance to withstand it. Otherwise, they will become drying corpses now. After the heatwave went away, everyone could see a circular room with a lava wall.
In the middle of the room, there is a ball of light similar to the one outside. However, this ball of light keeps releasing a heatwave towards the surrounding area.
Seeing the ball of light, “T-That’s… impossible.” said Gilford.
“Kahahaha… yes it is. What’s a kind of natural fire better than the core of a star itself?” said Draught.
At this moment, Angus becomes speechless at the ball of fire in front of him. Using his [Analyze], he could find countless runes and enchantments placed on the ball of fire to prevent it from destroying the world.
His instinct tells him that the thing in front of him is hazardous yet also very natural.
‘Damn, the old man is really crazy. He could even contain the core of a star.’ thought Angus.
The core of the star is not only just a ball made of fire. It is one of the greatest natural fires in the world. It is the source of life yet also hazardous. First of all, is their temperature and heat. Normally, no one could ever approach or touch this core since it is immensely hot.
According to Angus’s knowledge, the star core should also release radiation. Be it heat radiation or other dangerous radiation. Sometimes it could even explode and turn everything in the surrounding into ash.
In his previous world, the most destructive explosion was not a nuke or atomic bomb but the supernova explosion of the star that could affect the entire galaxy.
Yet in front of him, he could see the star core being compressed and used by a crazy mysterious old man like a plaything.
Other people in this world may not realize. But, Angus knows if the thing in front of him explodes, there is not even a place to hide from it. Seeing the solemn face of Angus and Gilford, old man Draught couldn’t help but feel pride at his work.
“Kahahahaha… This star core is my pride and joy. It also could be said as my masterpiece. It took me a dozen years to create and stabilize it. Then, it takes another dozen years before I could use it to create sentient items.” said Draught.
“Unfortunately, despite having all of these. I still can’t make the sentient weapon for you Angus. As a great weaponsmith, it is a shame not to be able to create the most proper weapon for its user.” said Draught dejectedly.
Hearing this, Angus begins to understand a bit of the difficulty of creating his sentient weapon. Not only the materials, he at least needs the help of the star core or something better.
‘I hope I can find another alternative way in the future. Otherwise, It will be impossible for me to get my sentient weapon.’ thought Angus while staring at the star core in front of him.
“Alright, enough starring. Now, Jade. It is time for your part. Whether the sentient weapon could be successfully created or not is based on your performance.” said Draught waking everyone from their stupor.
“Me?? What should I do, old man?” asked Jade.
Although Jade doesn’t know what the star core is, his instinct and experience tell him that the thing in front of him is hazardous. Just feeling the fire energy contained inside of it, he already feels like going to be burned.
“Relax.. Don’t be so tense. As you know, a sentient weapon is part of the user. Currently, the weapon is nothing but a combination of material.”
“It didn’t have a shape, form, ability or any attribute. You need to shape it, give it form, soul, and make it part of you. You need to give it part of you and claim it.” said Draught.
“Part of me?” asked Jade back.
“Yes, but it is not just like flesh or blood. It needs something unique. It could be your blood, flesh, or anything. The more it represents you, the better the weapon it will be.” said Draught.
“Represent me??”