Leor leaned forward and glanced over Alina's hastily scribbled plan, tapping his chin in thought.
"This is going to need an inscription. A common carpenter isn't enough. I think we should go talk to Slag," he suggested.
Alina raised an eyebrow.
"Who is Slag?"
Leor casually collected Alina's plans and ushered her to follow. The three quickly made their way to the recently reopened metalworking building. As they approached, they noticed that the inscriptions around the chimney were glowing brightly. That could only mean the forge had been activated, and the smoke was being filtered through the chimney's inscription array.
The doors of the shop were wide open, so they walked inside. As they did, a wave of heat washed over them, and they were greeted by a shirtless Slag. The muscular elf moved through the space, cleaning dust from the equipment, with a tall flame burning in the forge behind him.
Slag glanced up from his work as he saw the others entering, his eyes lingering on Alina for a moment longer than on the others.
"Those are some fierce eyes you've got there, girly! They remind me of the forge. I like you already. Ha ha ha!"
Alina's brow rose as she glanced between Slag and her companions. Leor stepped forward and provided introductions.
"Alina, this is Slag. He's going to be running this metalworking shop from now on. Slag, this is my companion, Alina."
"I know who she is! There are only two humans on the whole damn planet, boy. Did you think she could fly under the radar?" he quipped, before glancing down at the plans in Leor's hand. "I smell a job offer coming! What happened to there being no metal? Wasn't that the last thing you said?"
Leor grinned as he slapped the plans on the freshly cleaned workbench.
"There is still no new supply of metal, but this is too important to wait. We will scrounge up the scrap for this job. If we have to steal every pot, door hinge, and broken weapon in the fortress, we will make it happen." Leor gestured toward the drawings as he spoke. "This is what we need. Can you make it if we bring you the raw materials?"
Slag held the parchment up to his face, giving it a shake to straighten it out as he rubbed his stubbly chin.
"Mmm. Sure. That's simple enough."
"What about inscriptions? You're a weapons and armor smith, so you must be able to lay at least simple inscriptions. Can you make this work like it's explained in the plans?" Alina asked.
"Aye," Slag slowly responded. "Like I said, it's a simple job. Go get me what I need. I'll have it finished by sundown tomorrow."
Slag shooed the visitors out as he got back to work cleaning the shop.
Drelk headed back to his home to keep an eye on Rynn, while Alina and Leor began to scour the fortress for metal to scavenge. They collected rusty old weapons, broken furniture, old chains, and anything else they could get their hands on. Finally they hit the mother lode when they remembered the large cage where Rynn had been kept in Drelk's workshop.
The cage was ruined from the time Rynn escaped anyway, so there was no use keeping it. Drelk happily parted with the broken item, and the two humans hauled it down to the metalworking shop.
Slag let out a whistle as he saw the humans dragging the large cage to the front of his shop.
"That'll do nicely!" he said, slapping his soot-covered hand against the thick bars of the cage. "Say, you don't mind if I keep any of the leftovers, right? Call it my fee if you like. I'll end up going stir-crazy without at least a tiny pile of metal to play with on my own."
Leor waved his hand dismissively as he heard the request.
"Yes, you can keep the spare materials. I never planned to put you to work for nothing. Anyway, I intend to find a source of high-quality materials for your forge soon. I'm still looking forward to that hero's blade you promised me."
Slag wore a heavy grin as he nodded, then said farewell before getting to work on his new task.
It was getting late, so Alina headed off to do her body training treatment, while Leor went home and studied his cultivation manuals.
By now the fortress gates had been closed, and all the members of the budding community were getting ready to rest.
Leor's bedroom was nearly entirely empty, the only item in the room was the bedding lying on the floor in the corner. That suited him just fine, because the empty space could be used for his training. He stood at the center of the room, focusing on the most basic set of Unarmed Combat circulation methods. He needed to master those before moving on to anything else in the manual.
He relaxed his mind, getting into a quasi-meditative state as he felt the flow of Will in his body. The natural circulation of his Will was simple and efficient, but it wasn't well suited for combat. Taking a slow and deep breath, Leor began attempting to create the Willpower circulation that would empower his strikes to a much greater degree.
For the next hour, he threw strikes one after another into the empty air, a heavy sheen of sweat covering his brow from the constant exertion. As he continued to throw one punch after another, he began to judge the quality of his circulation by the sound of the air moving over his fist.
He was still terrible at the methods that Master Calder taught in this manual, but he was a little better than he was this morning, and that increase in proficiency gave Leor a great sense of achievement.
After an hour and a half of Unarmed Combat training, Leor wiped himself down before turning his attention to the Draconic Fire manual. This one would be a much greater challenge. Leor knew that he would eventually master the Unarmed Combat methods, but he wasn't quite sure how far he would make it with the Draconic Fire.
As he read through the manual, he memorized the beginning instructions by heart. He needed to create a symbol in his mind that would become his archetype of fire. This symbol was incredibly important for the training, because it would flavor and shape any flame that he eventually created.
For example, some dragons would use a fiery volcano as their archetype of fire. When these dragons eventually gave birth to flaming Will outside their bodies, that flame would be explosive and powerful, like a mighty volcano itself. If instead, they used a glowing campfire as their archetype, their flame would be stable and controlled, perfect for wielding in complicated ways.
Leor had been thinking about this issue since the moment he first skimmed through this manual, and he eventually decided to do the obvious and use the flaming torch of the realm of light as his archetype. The symbol was incredibly meaningful to the young man, and that would greatly increase the odds of success.
For an already difficult cultivation method, he needed every small advantage he could get. But also, Leor was sure that the flaming torch would create a powerful and useful flame. How could it not? The torch was the symbol of the great light of creation itself, the very first and greatest flame to ever exist.
Leor sat down on his thin sheets, crossing his legs as he began meditating on his chosen symbol. It felt familiar and new at the same time. He had meditated on the sacred torch at least a thousand times, but the focus of that had always been a simple generation of ethereal Will in his mind. Now he would place the focal point of the flaming torch in the center of his Body of Will, and as he meditated on the torch, he would need to imbue the symbol with the essence of fire, as well as compress and empower the Willpower around it.
Eventually, if this training was successful, Leor would be capable of quickly converting his normal Willpower into flame whenever he saw fit to do so.
As Leor began the process, it was difficult to stop his mind from wandering. He couldn't help but wonder how the process of learning to wield flame was different in manuals designed for humans. There were, of course, a great multitude of human Willpower Adepts who trained in the control and use of flaming attacks, so methods obviously existed to allow humans to wield flames. If those manuals had been accessible here, Leor would not be forced to try his hand at cultivating the draconic version.
Quickly forcing his attention back toward the task at hand, Leor continued to visualize the beautiful holy relic in his chest. The flaming torch was a godly item, after all. He had grown used to seeing its splendid form, but it truly was a gorgeous item. A long, thin bronze torch, with ornate embellishments so intricate that they could only have been crafted by the greatest master, and a proud white flame radiating from the top.
It wasn't hard to imbue this particular fire with great meaning. As the Willpower in his chest whirled around the flaming image, Leor felt the gentlest heat begin to rise inside him. A smile crept across the young man's face as it did. It simply meant that his initial steps had been done correctly. It didn't tell him anything about his ability to actually cultivate the technique successfully.
Still, Leor cherished every ounce of progress he achieved.