Wudang: Legends Of Qi Earth 90 Forge I : Design

The portable forge machine was a marvel of technology, Alex's was luckily a spirit grade forge, which meant to some extent it has a consciousness of its own. It was a common consensus that equipment and tech in the spirit grade developed spirits of their own, or rather souls, and the higher the level of equipment, the more conscious it would be. By virtue of such an existence, it becomes that much more easier to design weapons with the forge, especially since this particular forge already has a design program uploaded into it.

Much of the cultivation world still preferred to do things the old fashion way, but this was because cultivators live for a very long time. And even though they're able to propagate change, many of them would be unwilling to bend and adapt to certain advancements. But never the less computers very much exists, and they became the basis for the spirits of many equipment. Sure not all equipment can have computers, it would extremely redundant and stupid to put a chip or create an add on computerized tech to a sword or spear.

It could work for a shield, or a weapon that needs a certain amount of calculation and computing to activate. Either way these were all things that were a part of further advanced studies for Alex. Blacksmiths was just a general term for engineers also, and scientists too. They all fell under the same category; but once you add Qi or Mana into the mix, they become Qi engineers or Mana engineers.

After choosing the ores and metal he was going to use, Alex fed them into a port on the machine, before moving to it's left where a screen lit up. At the side of the screen was a light pen, this used the blacksmiths Qi to help draw out the design for whatever weapon he hopes to forge, and sometimes it could be an entire set of equipment. Another practical application of the portable forge was the fact that it could make multiple pieces of equipment at the same time.

Of course hammering and the injection of Qi was still required from the person forging it, but mortal grades can forged up to two pieces of equipment at the same time, while the spirits grades can make up to 10 pieces of equipment at the same time. The super rare, super expensive and very limited edition immortal grade forges could make enough armor sets to outfit a squad of five men, even their weapons. So with that being said, Alex would be able to design both Yun Fao's Autumn Dao and Louis's rapier at the same time. Besides this was going to be very fun Alex anyways, he is the son of a painter after all, art lives in his blood.

So the first thing to focus on would be the designs and then on the materials that would be used, Alex already skipped the design part and fed the materials he needed. Now he was going to have to go back and design them, which wasn't bad, he just got a little enthusiastic earlier. As Alex was about to begin, he felt a weight on his shoulder, he turned with a smile as Khan poked his head over, staring intently at the screen in front of him.

*Chiririri?*(What's that/What are you doing?)

"Just watch little guy." Alex replied to him as he went work.

The first weapon would be Yun Fao's Autumn Dao; though the weapon might be a saber, it was not as thick or as long as normal ones, and this was because an Autumn Dao was built for speed and shredding, it's serrated edges were a testament to that. However Alex knew Yun Fao always made power moves, so even if the Sabre could not be as thick or as long as others, it has to have just as much crushing power. So the first thing that needed to be done was the specifications of the weapon's body.

Alex made it half a pinkie finger thick, and a little bit longer than a meter. But to meet up with such demands, he'll need more mythril and Silver steel. His design had the mixed products of both metal forged into numerous thin strips, that would in turn be melded into each other. The blunt side of the blade would be thick enough to knock someone out, and the sharpened edge would be even more extravagant and Alex made two layers of serrated teeth for the edge.

He drew his inspiration from the shaving sticks people use to shave off body hair, most of those shaving sticks have two blades, some three. Using such a method, Alex made the first layer extremely thin and sharp and popping right out the center of the next edge.

The distance between them both was no more than a centimeter, but it gave the weapon even more cutting power, and added a new style to Yun Fao's method of attacking, now he could shave people into thin slices of meat…...Alex shuddered at the image in his head.

There was a groove running from the base of the sword to it's tip, that way blood won't cling to the blade, and just above the groove was a circular hole where the still unidentified diamond was going to be placed. It could serve as the basis for future wards and runes to be amalgamated into an array for the weapon. As for the hilt, Alex also planned ahead for that. Back on Earth, specifically from the dark continent, there was a tree known as the Iroko tree. It grew really long, with a particular species being almost 300 meters tall, and the worse part being these trees were no wider than a simple talking drum. The Nine grey vine Iroko tree was a species that had a very good absorption and distribution of Qi, it was flexible, supple and resilient, and it is one of the most favorite kind of wood that Carver's prefer to use.

It would be the hilt, and since sabers don't have cross guards there wasn't too much of a problem for Alex there. The sabre looked good and aesthetic enough to make people give it a second glance, and once he's ready to inscribe and array on it, Alex knew it would look even more dazzling. But that was it for Yun Fao, the next person on the list was Louis, and even though he's might seem simpler, Alex knew it was not.

Rapiers were thin, light, and st.u.r.dy. You make it too thin and it would break in a flash against a weapon of equal grade, and Alex didn't want that. Mythril might be one of the strongest of metals in all of creation, but it was not really at the very top. It was just known for it's incredible ability to hold magic power and release it, but it was a whole lot stronger than silver steel, which was more flexible and could absorb Qi. Alex was hoping to use both their strengths to cover for each other's weaknesses, and make them stronger.

He used the same method of designing multiple thin strips and the melding them together, making an extra later of protection. Funny thing was that the strips were about as much as those placed in Yun Fao's sabre, so Alex would spend a lot of time and Energy trying to hammer it into shape and making sure it becomes small and light enough for use. A groove and a hole as also added to the base of the sword, but it's hilt was made from silvers steel. It was more durable and flexible than mythril, so it could be forged into an extravagant hilt that wrapped around the hand of the swordsman, just like most rapiers are forged. The edge of the blade was extremely thin and sharp, it was to the point where a strand of hair would be cut in two if it fell on the edge, it had even more cutting power than the Autumn Dao.

The difference between the two weapon being that the sabre while built for speed, was a power weapon designed to seriously injured in a single cut. It could even break bones as most sabers would, but the rapier was built for speed and quick killing. It's edge might be sharp, but it's point was it's main advantage. Rapiers were stab, stab, stab, stab…..or so it goes, while sabers were cut and cut and smash. Autumn Dao's just adds the element of lightness and speed most Sabers are missing.

And with that the design's were done, and Alex was ready to begin the forging in earnest. First he took a moment to relax and return all his energies to the peak. Then he pulled out his fire mask, he had every intention of using both Qi and Spirit energy in this forging, and even more so special flames as opposed to the norm. And he's plan was to use the newly discovered windfire flames that the fire mask now had control over, it would be tasking as truly this particular flame needed both Qi and Spirit energy to work, so Alex knew it would be quite tasking on him. Maybe it wasn't wise to be combining different energy properties and energies together to make a weapon, however Alex would happily just chalk it up to ignorance and experiments. This was his first time forging and he was sure to go a bit overboard and improvise, like when he first made the healing balm.

Which begs the question, why would you read books if you know you're not going to follow the instructions given.

There wasn't a guarantee itself that Alex knew the answer to that question, the young boy however was quite excited about this whole forging experience, but as for his friends, they were happily keeping their distance, because even they knew that things could very well go boom.