I nodded when I saw that Imiya had selected a gem shaped like a cat’s eye. It had a vertical line running through it, and it was aptly called a “green cat’s eye.” Adding an eye gem to the eye design for an accessory, in hopes of adding a tracking effect, made sense. I’d been planning on making a similar choice, so we were able to proceed without even having to talk to each other. I had to melt the ingot, pour it into the mold, cool it, then buff it up. Imiya was already cutting the green cat’s eye. The work proceeded smoothly, and each time I had a spare moment, I looked over at Ren.
With more clanging, his hammer was beating on the heated katana, further working it into shape. At a glance it didn’t seem much different than before, but then I noticed the top was thicker . . . it was taking on a design like a bird. Then Ren started to rework that, trying to return it to normal. I tapped him on the shoulder and wordlessly signaled for him to leave it. He snapped back to himself with a nod and then restored that thickness.
I wasn’t sure myself, but this did look like the right shape for a weapon using Filo’s feathers. It had a bird-based feel now and looked like it would move pretty fast—but it didn’t look like the easiest weapon to wield either.
Imiya and I continued our work, watching Ren while making our own accessories. Watching mine cool, picking my moment, I proceeded with the buffing and discussed the plating and other techniques to use with Imiya. Eventually we were finished.
Glawick Ingeye
quality: excellent
Cross Glawick Third Eye
quality: excellent
“Next, magic imbuing,” I said. “First we should try them out and confirm their effects.”
“Okay. Just adjusting the output during magic imbuing can create all sorts of changes. This really is a deep and complex subject,” Imiya replied. Imbuing an accessory with magic could provide additional effects, but we had discovered that using a hero’s weapon could noticeably change the effects from before and after the imbuing. If the effect we wanted was already there, it wasn’t worth the risk of losing it.
That was good enough for the prototypes, anyway. We moved on to making multiples of the same accessories in order to increase our chances of creating desirable effects. As we went about our work, a wind suddenly whipped up inside the forge. I looked in the direction it was blowing from to see the katana that Ren was shaping taking on even more wind than before.
“Looks like it’s working,” I commented dryly.
“Try to calm down!” Ren shouted at the blade, not at me. All that wind gusting around made it look pretty hard to hold onto. “I haven’t even sharpened you yet!” He had a frustrated look on his face. The wind continued to whirl around the weapon. It was like the blade was out of control; that sounded pretty rock ’n’ roll to me. The wind katana continued to blow up a storm, completely ignoring the commands from the one who had created it. I checked it over and saw that it had definitely changed to a better product overall—just one that seemed even harder to handle. Failing to listen to anything people said sounded a lot like the one who had contributed her feathers to this endeavor. That would make sense. In which case, I had to calm it down. I moved my face closer to the weapon.
“If you don’t quit right now, I’ll have you reforged as a naginata and give you to . . . Motoyasu,” I murmured. The weapon seemed to shake on the spot, and the wind immediately dissipated.
It was like Filo herself had become the weapon.
“Wow. That seems to have totally changed its attitude,” Ren said.
“I only tried it because you said you used Filo’s materials. I didn’t really expect it to work,” I replied.
“That’s a big help, anyway. If I can follow through on this, it should be the best weapon I’ve ever made,” Ren said.
“Good luck,” I told him. He replied with a firm nod.
It didn’t take long after that for Ren to finish his katana made from Filo’s materials.
Heavenly Wind King Katana
quality: excellent
imbued effects: Demon Dragon’s protection, power of the four heavenly kings, filolial blessing, agility increase, wind blades, quick charge
I was lucky that appraisal worked on it, maybe because of Filo’s feathers. It also seemed Filo’s new role as the heavenly wind king was superseding her role as a filolial. “Wind Blades” apparently allowed blades of wind to be fired off just by swinging the weapon around, while “Quick Charge” allowed the user to charge up power more quickly.
“Looks like a pretty good katana to me,” I said. “What about the stats on it?”
“Not quite at the same level as the weapons Master made from the Spirit Tortoise or Phoenix,” Ren admitted. With the Demon Dragon blessing and by channeling my rage through the Demon Dragon and Filo, I might be able to push them a little higher. That wasn’t bad.
“Go ahead and weapon copy it, Ren. Then we can give it to Raphtalia and see what kind of abilities it gives her,” I said.
“I’ve copied it already,” he told me. He changed his sword to the Heavenly Wind King Katana. The original had a strange shape, but for some reason, his had turned into a far simpler blade. “The equip effect allows for the use of wind magic. It has haikuikku too.”
“That’s all Filo stuff,” I said. When Ren had this sword equipped, it would expand the range of magic he could use. As it was an equip effect, he wouldn’t be able to use it with anything other than the Heavenly Wing King Katana, but it was still a super high-spec weapon.
“The techniques inside . . . it has charge reduction and a bonus to agility when leveling up,” Ren reported. The focus of the weapon was definitely placed on speed. “There’s also a skill called Wind Cutter Whistle.”
“What does that do?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t sound like anything I know from Brave Star Online. I’ll just have to give it a try,” he said. A new and powerful skill at this point would make things a lot easier in the battles ahead. My expectations were rising a little. We left the forge and Ren unleashed the skill in a spot with no one else around.
“Wind Cutter Whistle!” Ren shouted. His sword started to glow faintly. Maybe he had applied some kind of element to his weapon. Ren could already use Magic Sword, so this probably wasn’t going to be all that useful after all. Ren proceeded to gingerly swing the sword, and we heard a high-pitched whistling noise.
That was when the filolials passed the forge, chattering happily about feeding time. There was a strange atmosphere in the air . . . like something surreal. The voices of the filolials almost started to sound like crows.
“Any effect?” I asked. He swung it a few more times, and I could tell the sound was changing. “I bet Itsuki could use that to cast magic just by swinging it,” I commented. Once he had played music on a leaf to cast magic. Maybe a weapon like this could trigger his sound magic.
“Sorry. I don’t get along well with instruments,” Ren replied.
“This could just be a dead skill,” I said. But it might also turn out good for something. At least Ren was making good progress as a blacksmith. “Let’s check the accessories we made,” I suggested. We spent the rest of the day conducting tests around the forge. I also had Raphtalia copy the Heavenly Wind King Katana, and she ended up with pretty much the same stats as Ren. She also got a skill called “Wind Wing Cutter,” which was a quick draw skill to be unleashed in the air. The blade took on a winged shape and launched a powerful vacuum blade in a straight line—a perfect re-creation of one of the heavenly wind king’s moves. I could see Filo throwing a typical hissy fit if she saw this, like she was being told she was no longer needed. Now Raphtalia could do the same things as she could. Her dissatisfaction at being made one of the four kings were already hard enough to deal with.