Cultivation Through Artifacts

Chapter 77: Star Steel

“?”

While Khal listened to the voice in his head with a rather perplexed look, Bazz opened up the counter on the side and gestured at Khal, “Anytime you want.”

“…”

“Umm… hello?” Bazz noticing that Khal was not reacting to his call at all, glanced at Nate on the side questioningly.

“Hey, are you okay?” Nate hit his friend on the shoulder gently causing Khal to come back to his senses and nod, “Yeah… I am fine. I was just surprised seeing such a huge metal.”

“Haha! Huge? This is the smallest chunk of steel we have. All the others are way bigger than this baby here.” laughed Bazz merrily as he patted the iron on his side like it was his best friend.

“Baby? Even bigger than that?” Khal didn’t know how to react at that at all and instead tilted his gaze at Nate, but the only thing he got was the same smile he always showed.

“Sigh… Sure. Let’s get it done.” sighed Khal helplessly and grabbed the piece of metal from the stall.

[Notify! Scanning high-quality material!]

Instantly as the voice sounded in his head, Khal felt as the bracelet on his wrist started to tremble slightly and a second later stop.

[New material, ‘Star Steel’ recorded!]

“…” Khal listened to the voice in his head in silence as he picked up the chunk of metal called Star Steel from the counter… Or at least tried it but failed miserably.

“The… Fuck?” blurted out with surprise as he almost fell over the moment he raised the Star Steel; he wouldn’t have belived it would be that heavy.

“Haha! Just carefully kid! Maybe I brought it here with ease it doesn’t mean you can do the same.” chuckled Bazz, but his eyes told otherwise; he was kind of disappointed.

“Not being able to pick up Star Steel which had a medium weight… Things don’t look quite bright for this kid…”

“Do you want me to help?” asked Bazz with the same smile as he stepped toward Khal ready to help, but was abruptly stopped.

“No, thanks… I’m doing perfectly fine…” hissed Khal through his teeth and started to walk toward an anvil in the middle with shaky legs.

“…” Bazz watched Khal’s struggling figure with a blank stare and didn’t know how to react. This was the very first time in his entire life that he saw someone struggling this much with a Star Steel that it made him speechless.

“Well… At least he has willpower.” thought Bazz with a helpless sigh and followed Khal from behind in silence.

However, what he didn’t know that Khal didn’t struggle because he was weak and couldn’t carry the iron, but because his legs were insanely weak; they didn’t even heal completely from the numbness before and now he needed to carry this piece of scrap.

How perfect! Now he truly looked like a weak and pathetic idiot for sure!

*THUD!*

Putting down the Star Steel on top of the anvil, Khal stepped a meter back and exhaled the air from his lungs slowly.

“Let’s see… How should I start?” pondered Khal but suddenly the voice appeared in his head once again.

[Do you wish to use ‘Creation Mode’?]

“Creation Mode? What the hell is that?” wondered Khal, but his question was answered instantly.

[‘Creation Mode’ is a special function that can be found inside the ‘Artifact Creation’ Status.]

[‘Creation Mode’ makes ‘Owner’ learn how to forge Artifacts with greater success!]

“!”

When Khal heard this his jaw almost dropped to the floor. Learn how to forge Artifacts? Did it mean it will teach him how to forge, refine, temper, and use other methods to create Artifacts and weapons? Was that what the voice implied?

“Well… There is only one way to find it out.” thought Khal and nodded his head, “Yeah, I want to use it!”

[Understood!]

[Notify! Activating ‘Creation Mode’!]

“!?”

Immediately after the voice disappeared from his mind, all of a sudden Khal felt a burning sensation appearing inside his right wrist and like some kind of strange toxin, it started to spread all over inside of his whole body.

“What… is this?” asked Khal as his eyes turned round while the sight before him change drastically.

The Star Steel before him turned half-transparent showing strange threads with different sizes and lengths inside it, while before him, exactly 3 hologram figures made out of small pixels were around the place. The first one was exactly right before him, imitating as it picked up the Star Steel, the second one brought the chunk of iron before the fireplace while the third one placed it into it.

“It shows me what to do?” thought Khal with awe and tilted his gaze at Bazz and Nate.

“Just whenever ya want to start. Or do ya need my help to show you how to begin the process?” asked Bazz as he was ready to walk next to Khal, but to his surprise, Khal stopped him once again, “No I am okay. I was just pondering a bit.”

“I see…” nodded Bazz mildly and stepped back, continuing to watch Khal from the sides with a calm gaze.

As this happened, Khal was now even sure about it; he was the only one capable to see the hologram figures before him and no one else.

“So the figures show me what to do. Then let’s follow the instructions.” thought Khal and picked up the Star Steel from the anvil and brought it all the way to the fireplace.

The fireplace was small, just about 2 to 2 and a half meters in diameter surrounded by curved crimson brick walls from both sides and behind. At the bottom of the right wall, a bellows was placed, probably for the reason to help in the heating process while a long and thick chimney was placed at the top to bring the smoke out there.

“So I need to put the iron into this? The angle must be important too as I see.” thought Khal as he watched the final hologram before him, placing the Star Steel onto its side with an angle of 45 degrees toward the east.

However, when Bazz saw the method Khal put the Star Steel into the fireplace his expression didn’t look as concentrated as Khal’s or as indifferent as Nate’s, but changed to shock as quickly as silver.

“This kid… How could this be? It’s too obvious that this is his first time doing refining so how did he know how to put the Star Steel into the fireplace? Was it just a coincidence?”

While Bazz was trying to find the answer to his questions in his head, Khal walked next to the bellows and after placing his hand on their hold he started to use it.

*SHHH!*

*SHHH!*

With each push he did, a huge amount of air was blown out from the end of the bellows while the fire became hotter and hotter, turning its color from crimson red to orange-red hue.

“This… Can’t be,” murmured Bazz with bewilderment, unable to believe to his eyes. Right now, Khal before him wasn’t pushing air non-stop onto the fire like an idiot, but slowly and in a rhythmical manner. Although his movements looked kind of sluggish, but in his opinion he definitely wasn’t someone who looked like it was his first time doing such a thing.

“Did he just pretend to be an amateur? But why?” pondered Bazz with squinted eyes, this time with noticeable suspicion in his gaze.