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THEORY OF THE CRAFT (I)

Stacks of papers lay scattered across several thick, wooden tables lit up by the furnaces on all four ends of the rectangular room . Papers depicted various designs of armors, tools, and even greater structures, yet there seemed to be no order to the way they were arranged . Standing around the tables were Lino, Eggor and Primul, all basking in silence, looking through the parchments slowly .

"... no, none of this is it," Lino mumbled, sighing faintly . "It’s a reiteration of already existing phenomena . "

"Well you make shit up then, fuckin’ bastard," Eggor growled angrily . "Do you know how hard is it?!"

"Tsk, of course I know!" Lino growled back . "If I didn’t, I’d have done it myself already..."

"... let’s just start at the base," Primul said, taking a deep breath . "We are trying to transfer unique, natural phenomena into an item – we observe the phenomena and try to replicate it within the controlled environment, right?"

"Yeah . " Eggor and Lino nodded .

"However, we also have to scale down the phenomena and usually tinker with it to make it useful," Primul added . "Normally by arranging arrays, combining different materials, and changing the overall shape of the item . Wouldn’t creating something denote the same process? Just without the observational and recreating parts?"

"—easy to say," Lino mumbled . "But, shooting blindly by arranging materials, shapes, and arrays in entirely random ways... is just a waste of time and resources . "

"Why don’t we give it a whirl theoretically?" Eggor suggested . "Say we decide to craft a longsword . We have the base, right? So, what do we want it to be like? Flexible? Sturdy? Balanced?"

"Let’s go with [Anxi’s Tendons] as the core, wrapped up in [Shadowed Ore]," Lino replied after a few moments of silence . "It’s extremely light and flexible, but also as sturdy as glass . We work off of the base attributes – but, creating a uniquely new phenomenon would still require us to just... guess . "

"... why not call in Tim and Anna?" Eggor asked . "Perhaps their perspective will be useful . "

"No, they’re still not that ahead in their research," Lino shook his head . "They’re yet to synthesize a material from components . "

"... back to a drawing board then, I guess..."

The three fell silent once more, each withdrawing to their own corner, taking out several parchments of paper while throwing the ones scattered into the furnaces . The latest battle had proved to Lino once more that he’d have to update his arsenal – as well as the fortress’ in general, especially when it came to offense . The only reason the fortress operated so well was because it was Ella at the core of the formation, but that was only due to a necessity as nobody else had managed to master the Orbiter . Ella operated the stack of formations purely through sheer force and quantity of Qi rather than actually understanding the nuances .

Even with that, Lino realized that offensive capabilities relied too much on who was operating the formation rather than being effectively similar regardless of the range . There was little they could do to the stack of arrays themselves as they were hard-locked, which is why he suggested forming an entirely new and unique offensive system, in addition to crafting several weapons he’d personally use to make up for his glaring weaknesses .

The reason why he wanted the new offensive system to be unique is simply due to the fact that it would be much harder to counter – similar to how Tim, Anna, and their team were developing a stealth technology that wouldn’t rely on Qi, which would make them effectively invisible to the world . The challenge, however, proved to be much harder, even with the three of them brainstorming for days now... all to no avail .

"—maybe we’re coming at this from a wrong angle," Lino proposed suddenly . "We are still thinking of the natural process of crafting, effectively turning materials without agency into conduits that perform certain activities due to the surface-level manipulation . Why not do something similar to gene modifications I read about?"

"... reconfigure the materials at their core level?" Primul mumbled . "Wouldn’t that just destroy the purpose?"

"—no, what I mean is not just materials – but approach everything with a different mindset," Lino said . "For instance, there are two ways to bind incompatible materials together inside a single item – either by arrays or natural binders or neutralizers, such as herbs . Why don’t we just bind them... literally . "

"... what do you mean?" Eggor asked, frowning, disliking where the conversation was going .

"Use the method I used to craft Titus’ ring," Lino said with a grin . "Press them together and hold them until they just... become one . "

"... isn’t that incredibly dangerous and, not to mention, incredibly stupid?" Primul quizzed .

"Yes, yes it is," Lino nodded . "We’d effectively have to craft in another reality, and by we, I mean me because both your asses would be fried to the clouds if something went awry . "

"All the more reason we shouldn’t do it," Eggor protested . "It’s fine to take risks occasionally, but this is still just shooting blind, Lino . What if it backfires? Take [Frosted Quartz] and [Phoenix’s Stump] . What if, when you press them together, instead of containing, you become the victim of their natural rejection? It’s an explosion equivalent to a full-blown strike by the fortress with Ella at the helm . "

"Well, yeah, I mean, it’d hurt like a bitch, no doubt," Lino said . "But I wouldn’t die . "

"Wouldn’t the effects still remain the same, however?" Primul asked . "Stump and Quartz when bound otherwise just subdue violent bursts of energy within the vicinity . The results through your method shouldn’t change that drastically, right? At least not to the point where we can’t adjust to them through arrays . "

"—I don’t know," Lino shrugged . "But, we have to start somewhere . Brainstorming is clearly not taking us anywhere, as it’s difficult to predict stuff we never tried before . For instance, Amadeel told me to stop crafting items through density-method as it could potentially create a black hole . The poor lad doesn’t know I already sort of did . If we limit ourselves because something’s too dangerous or unpredictable, hey, we may as well just craft sticks and stones and throw ’em at people . "

"You didn’t even bother asking me whether you could borrow an anvil," a newcomer shocked Eggor and Primul while Lino merely sighed . "Humph, little bastard . I told you – that was a one-off offer . Never again . "

"Fuck, don’t scare me like that Vy," Eggor growled angrily at the fiery mirage floating above the desk . "I’m not a young man anymore . "

"The hell you’re not," Vy scoffed . "If you’re old, then what in the loving fuck am I?"

"An ancient relic that should just drop dead and give me the anvil?"

"... yeah, because that’s how you get others to lend you stuff . " Vy grinned . "Insult them . "

"—ah come on, aren’t you at least a bit curious as well?" Lino asked with an exciting smile . "Ever since ’crafting’ was perfected, nobody took a jab at it! Nobody! What does that tell you?!"

"That the crafting was perfected?" Eggor, Primul and Vy replied at the same time, causing Lino’s eyebrows to twitch visibly .

"... you planned that, didn’t you?"

"You’re just that predictable . "

"... yeah, fuck you," he flipped them a quick one before continuing . "This isn’t something I just thought up on a spot, you know? Ever since I crafted my first Soul Item, I realized that we’ve self-imposed certain limitations on ourselves . Soul Items, by their nature, break every conventional understanding we have of the crafting, don’t they? They are sentient existences made from inanimate, dead objects . They are accidents . Nobody can craft a Soul Item on a whim . Yet, I dare you tell me that our ’perfected crafting’ actually procures better end-results than a Soul Item of the same tier . "

"... what? You want to invent a way to craft Soul Items with intent?" Eggor frowned, seeming somewhat displeased .

"... why not?" Lino said, glancing at him . "For instance, my [Dragon Slayer] . Technically speaking, it has base sentience, yet is not considered a Soul Item . Why?"

"... because it is still reliant on you for everything," Eggor replied . "It’s not self-aware . "

"Exactly! Yet, despite that, it’s probably unmatched in the tier when it comes to raw offensive capabilities . What if we could consistently reproduce the same results? We’re taught that the Soul Items are produced in the moments of absolute emotional attunement... but, do you really buy that crap?"

"..."

"What do emotions have to do with crafting?" Lino continued . "Nothing . Sure, you can be passionate, but so you can be apathetic and reach the same results . The underlying point is that your emotions don’t just spontaneously combust life into an inanimate object – something inside the item itself triggers a reaction that morphs into a sentient being . I know you’ve already realized this, old man . Why are you fighting it?"

"... I don’t like that you’re suggesting a dispassionate form of crafting . " Eggor said .

"Uh, I’m not," Lino looked at him dubiously for a moment . "I love crafting almost as much as I love seeing Hannah naked . That doesn’t mean I don’t want to optimize it, on the contrary . I want to forever search for the pinnacle . Soul Items may not be it, but they are the next step . Get to the bottom of what reaction specifically causes them and why – especially because they aren’t tier or even material-reliant . It’s the reaction at the core points of materials, of arrays, or in how they combine together that triggers it . The reason I didn’t say anything until now is that I simply never met a smith who was also high enough of a Level to observe the minute changes at such a scale in real-time . "

"... it’s an interesting idea," Primul nodded suddenly . "It’s actually similar to some of the early theories of how people become ’living’," he added . "By the time I was born, it was common knowledge that sentient babies don’t just pop into women after sex, but we still didn’t know the exact logic behind pregnancy . One of the theories was that, because pregnancy isn’t guaranteed, a specific set of circumstances is required to trigger a reaction . "

"... fine," Eggor surrendered with a sigh in the end . "We’ll bastardize the eons of beautiful tales of Soul Items because you can’t be content . "

"Tsk," Lino clicked his tongue at him, grinning faintly . "Fine . Keep up the veil of a forger . I’ll take on the ’blasphemous’ award while you hide behind me, you equally-if-not-more-interested bastard . "

"... . I don’t know what you’re talking about . "

"Sure you don’t . Anyway, Vy, how about that? Are you willing to lend us the anvil now?"

"... alright," Vy nodded, clearly interested himself . "This ought to be spectacularly interesting . I really hope it blows up in your face . "