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MAZE - Chapter 1035 - Making a new weapon
🕑 Added 2025-03-28 02:06:47 +0000 UTCHera didn't start trying to reforge the gloves right away. She did several test runs together with Forge over the last couple of days before feeling confident in continuing with the repair of her glove. During that time, she also participated in a couple of dungeon runs but was unable to befriend the Jarnak as she hoped. Meaning that she was unable to get another set piece. At least that wasn't the case for the rest of the groups.
This time they found another earring and the second piece, a circlet. One that didn't increase the poison resistance of anyone who was wearing it but instead made it so poison resistance skills had an increased rate of progression. In a way, it was somewhat similar to the bracelet that Hera had received from Risli. The bracelet that she still wore every day since getting it, but just a lesser version of it.
The most interesting part was the reveal of a couple of the effects of the set. For one, whoever was wearing it would have an additional poison resistance. They still didn't know the values since the 2 piece set only revealed the names of the skills. The other skill was called Poison Reduction, and the last was Poison Impermeability. Everybody more or less agreed that this last effect should be the one that they were really looking for. The one that would allow them to be immune to poison even for a time.
But that information, knowing what the set effects were, was more than enough to give everybody a renewed motivation to continue searching for the rest of the drops.
However, today, Hera had a different objective in mind. After almost a week of practice with random items created by her blueprint skill, she was finally ready to fix the bladed wire gloves.
There was a part of her that wanted it to just work to make sure that the final result was powerful and good enough for her to use and eventually become a title blade. But there was another part of her, a greedier part of her that was hoping the item would end up as bound to her since that would immediately make the familiarity become 100%. This would speed up the process and allow her to leave her private room with a new member of her court. .
Unfortunately, she would need to give up one of her courts members to do that as she was still unable to increase the maximum amount of blades she had. Then again, they all understood that her current Court was not going to stay for very long. They were already showing their differences in attributes, and every time she got anxious or upset, the blades only amplified those negative feelings. It wasn't so much of a problem for now, but it wasn't a pleasant experience nonetheless.
Hera and Forge were going to work together, the two of them being able to enter almost a trance state once they were working. There was no need for thoughts between them. they just simply shared their will with each other and started working. The rest of the title blades were also there to help.
Viper and Lurize were in charge of bringing any tools that the Crafters might need. Crimson and Livy were responsible for gathering any large objects or anything that asked for more strength to be made, with Nimbus making sure no one was hurt during the process. They were not dealing with any large and volatile components, but there were a couple of aspects to the process where the risk of getting hurt was real. Be it either due to hitting something the wrong way or in the final step when they were going to connect a pair of delicate spells to the wire gloves.
Daskka was also there to help with any more intricate work since her mist snake form could reach almost impossible-to-reach places. Although the likelihood of needing that help was slim at this moment.
In addition, all the guides that Hera called to help her also wanted to be around. They knew this process might take a few hours, but they wanted to see the final result. However, Hera made them all promise that they wouldn't say anything while she was working. If they started to chime in with suggestions or ideas about how they should go about one thing or another, it could distract her and potentially cause them to not perform as well as they could have otherwise.
They agreed, and that let Hera and Vulcan prepare the forge. They didn't want to simply attach the bladed string into the gloves. Their intention was to weld it using the remains of the original thread still present on the weapon as the material to be melted and connect the two new pieces together. That way they could make a stronger, sturdier connection at the base of the strings. They double and triple-checked everything before starting.
The materials were all there, including the gem that they chose to break down to engrave between grave a specific sigil on the bladed string. It was something called an Space Peridot. A gem from earth that the ancient Egyptians considered to have originated from the sun. And the thread which was made from the silk of a monster called Cosmic Moth. The creature was gigantic and only existed in the hard mode of a dungeon far away. But Hera was able to buy it. Just like the gem, the thread didn't have any properties by itself, aside from its beauty looking like the arms of a galaxy.
The real value of those items were in the mana signature they possessed. Which the Ophidianite was only able to confirm thanks to the guides who went to check if the mana would match with the cloak pin.
Forge had also spent a good amount of time practicing micro engravings on pieces of rice, that way he could use another one on the bladed wire itself. He was confident that he could do that without destroying the material, but it was a process that would take time due to the amount of care required to do something like that. On the same vein, Hera spent the last few days practicing her sewing skills to make sure everything was absolutely perfect.
Once they were set up and everything was ready, including listening to all the advice the four guides and Tara gave them about the creation of this new weapon, the Empress and Vulcan started to work. At the same time, Nimbus hit play in a playlist was a mixture of Lo-Fi beats with some electronic music and even a few classical pieces in the mix. Nothing of the regular classics like Beethoven or Bach, but more modern versions that were soundtracks of movies or video games. Hera and Vulcan had set that up together to help with their focus.
The first step in the process was preparing the pieces. Forge grabbed the Shapeless Bladed String and unraveled it before splitting it into 10 pieces. Eight of them had roughly the same size while two of those pieces were longer as they were the strings connected to the thumbs. As they had come to understand that was the requirement for a wire glove to work properly. The idea was that, if the gloves were pointing down, letting all of the wire fall, every single one of those strings needed to have the same length. That was the most optimal way of working.
And then came the hard part. Forge had to carve the set of runes in each of the bladed strings. This was something that he had discovered during the experiment phase of this process. If they were to attempt to write the spell circle or a large rune using all of the wire together, it wouldn't work. And in certain cases, it would only serve to block any mana that was trying to pass through the weapon.
On the flip side, if you were to inscribe the exact same runes in the exact same position on every single wire, the effect would not just trigger but become even stronger than what he initially expected. On a surface level, that wasn't impossible even if it was difficult. There was some leeway with the difference of size and at which length each of the runes was being written, but the moment the strings connection, their position would change and that process became significantly more difficult.
This happened because the way things worked were not straightforward. He couldn't just write the sigil on the halfway mark of the bladed wire. Doing that wouldn't work because the strings connected to the thumbs wouldn't be aligned with the others. But at the same time, if he just pulled the runes back, the magic wouldn't behave properly since the amount of string before and after the sigil wouldn't match what with the others.
So he had to slowly and meticulously find the sweet spot. A point where both it could align all the runes in the same row and make sure that the entire string had the same amount of at the same percentage of string before and after the runes. It took several of them, but he had finally found a proper location in a practice run and made sure to measure it numerous times before attempting this.
Thanks to a tiny help from Stewart, who created a marker where he could place every single one of the strings and it would indicate the location when he needed to inscribe the sigil, Forge slowly started that process. According to the machine guide, once they understood what was going on, they already knew the exact dimensions that were required for the project. But they couldn't say anything about that until Hera and Vulcan reached the correct conclusion. It was one of the annoying situations brought by the system who refused to let the Guides help too much.
But once the values were established, they were free to assist by making that strange measurements device. Hera was on the other side of the table with and both gloves in front of her, and she was slowly starting to sew a specific pattern on one of them. Just like Forge, she had to make the exact same sigil in both hands. But she had a bit more freedom to chose the location. And that's why she was sewing the first set of runes on the back of the right glove while the second would be on the palm of the left glove.
That way, if the end result was an attacking skill, the gloves would be able to use from both directions. The two sigils that Hera and Vulcan were preparing were related to the sphinxes. With the gloves also being related to riddles. They made sure to create those specific runes because they blended very well with the mana signature of her cloak pin.
As a matter of fact, the pattern that Hera was sewing in the gloves fit so well that when the brooch was placed inside that sigil, even the Guides had a rough time understanding if the mana was coming from the item or from the runes. Both Hera and Vulcan continued their work for over an hour. While Forge had to create something smaller, it was also more numerous, and Hera was measuring everything she was doing a number of times before adding another stitch.
Even if she didn't have to worry about position all that much, if she was able to replicate the sigil on both gloves with not just the exact same size and rotation but also the same number and location of stitches, the effect would be improved by a considerable margin.
Nana Mittens, Noxis, Stewart, Zhao Ye, Veridallion, and Tara were all impressed by the display. It didn't seem just like an well oiled machine or a group of crafters who worked so well together that they could predict what they would need from each other. But it was as if they were watching one single entity moving. It wasn't an army of ants creating a bridge but an octopus using out its limbs to perform a task without delay between actions.
The hours passed and Hera was the first to finish her part of the job. She was almost able to make a perfect replica of the sigils on each hand. But unfortunately, there was one particular line that had one too many stitches. Small mistakes like that were the kind of thing that downgrade an item from legendary to unique oriented. But still, it left them in that upper echelons of creations. With that over, she started to redo the fingers. Just creating a small opening on the stitching to allow her claws to pass through.
After it, the Ophidianite started preparing the extra string that would be used as a welding. She separated them and placed each in front of one of the fingers of the gloves that rested on top of the workbench. Forge took another 30 minutes to finish this part of the job, but unlike Hera, he felt confident he would be able to make a perfect copy out of every rune on the strings.
They took a 10-minute break to recover their strength, and to allow Hera to do the mundane things that a living body required. Or that was the plan. In reality, they were too excited with the possible results of their work to stop and rest. They almost immediately started working again once Hera was out of the bathroom.
Now the last step was connecting all together and making sure that the sizes of the strings were perfectly equal. After all, if they messed this up, the entirety of Vulcan, and Hera's effort would have been for naught. They soon started working and this time even put the current song they were listening to, a soft beat made to relax, on a loop so they wouldn't get caught off guard by a sudden change of beat.
Nimbus was right by their side as this connection could cause the two runes to have a strange reaction and create a minor explosion.
On the side, the Guides were talking to each other the entire time, discussing what they believed to be the end result of this project in a way that only they could hear.
"Say, do you think they're going to be able to make a legendary item?" Noxis asked.
"I don't think so. Legendary items usually only are created if there are absolutely no mistakes in the process and the Crafters who made them usually have various skills to make their weapons even better. As much as I like her, I don't think Hera is on the same level as someone who could do something like that," Zhao Ye replied.
"But what about Vulcan? He is a forging hammer. Few would say they are more crafters than him," Stewart added.
"But still, they are remaking a weapon. Isn't that supposed to be hard? I mean from what I understand, you're usually lucky if you don't lose a grade or something? Especially since she broke the original," Tara chimed in.
The Guides looked at the ancestor for a moment before nodding. "You know that's fair. I didn't consider it. This is something that would probably work against them," Veridallion nodded.
"What do you think, Nana?" Noxis asked and they all turned to the cat Guide who was just watching the empress work.
"I think we will only know what's going to happen when it does. Aside from that, there's not much we can do but wait," she gave the most neutral answer she could, but at the same time, it was hard not to root for who was quickly becoming one of her favorite explorers. "Then again, our little Hera might surprise us. It wouldn't be the first time."
They continued watching, and not long after, they saw Hera and Vulcan limping back into their chairs, both breathing heavily with a smile on their face. They had finished the gloves, and by the looks of it, the results were better than what they were hoping for.
