Firing his new revolver, Vicente almost forgot his fatigue as he opened his eyes in interest to see his creation working perfectly.
Then he decided to test it again, this time using his mana, putting in the same amount that he and his men had already found to be the maximum of their weapons, which were assembled with components made by a blacksmith of the Martell Village.
Bang!
After loading his revolver with another bullet, he immediately squeezed the trigger and infused mana into the shot.
The shot became many times stronger than the previous one, easily destroying a part of the wall of this underground area of Vicente's house.
His weapon remained intact, so Vicente immediately decided to shoot again, this time using twice as much mana, the most he could do before he exhausted himself.
Bang!
Boom!
He managed to fire another bullet, but his gun exploded in his hand right after the shot!
Fortunately, Vicente's magnetic ability was already much stronger than the last time he had to deal with shots of this speed.
The moment one of the fragments of his gun went towards his left eye, Vicente's ability immediately showed itself and made that and other fragments stop before hitting him.
However, he was still injured by the gun fragments that hit his hand holding the revolver.
But looking at the spot where he had been hit, Vicente ignored the pain in his hand. He saw that even though he had used twice as much mana as in the previous shot, the damage of this last shot was about 3 times more than the previous one!
In numerical terms, if the first shot with mana did 100 of damage, the second shot did 300. The mana used in the first shot was 10, equivalent to the power of a Junior Apprentice. In contrast, the mana used in the second shot was 20, equivalent to the starting power of an Intermediate Apprentice.
Considering this, Vicente didn't even care about the pain in his hand, as he felt he could kill even a level 1 Acolyte with this shot, even if such a person defended themselves with all their might!
A smile formed on his face, and Vicente saw the path to power in his hands!
"This is fucking awesome!" He vibrated with excitement. 'If I can develop weapons that can withstand the full power of the Senior Apprentices, I believe I will be able to threaten the lives of even level 3 Acolytes, maybe even level 4!'
The higher the level, the greater the difference in mana density, elemental understanding, and the number of spells and skills. These things greatly changed one's combat proficiency, not to mention one's magical talent and form.
Even if he thought about what it would be like to use even more mana than he had just used, Vicente didn't expect to reach the end of the 2nd stage with his weapons.
But even if he achieved a little less than he thought possible, it would still be an important step forward for his group. He just needed better weapons to transform his team!
Vicente looked at the blood dripping from his hand and immediately used his skill to remove all the metals in it.
Such a wound was not small, and he could even see his bones. But he endured the pain and quickly bandaged his hand before leaving his house in the middle of the night.
...
"Master, I am here. I have finished reading the books you gave me." Vicente knocked on Benson's door minutes after leaving his house, eager to get more materials and advice from this blacksmith.
Benson was still working, and when he heard the voice of his newest student, he immediately looked out of one of the windows of his warehouse-like home.
When he saw the black-haired young man standing in front of his house, he pressed a button inside his clothing, and the metal dummy of his residence quickly went to Vice.
Upon entering his master's residence, Vicente rushed over to where his master in the art of forging was and soon saw this unique figure.
Seeing Vice, Benson looked at one of his student's hands and noticed the bloody stripes on that part of his body.
"What happened to your hand?"
"I injured it while testing something I created... Anyway, master, the most important thing is that I have completed the initial training. I believe I am already a 1st stage blacksmith!" Vicente said in an excited tone.
He did not want congratulations from this man but new books, and, who knows, advice.
However, Benson wasn't in a hurry. As he removed a 1st-grade recovery potion from his storage item, he said. "Recover from this first. You must have seen the message I left on the hammer, right? Don't be in such a hurry. You have reached the minimum level to be called a blacksmith.
You will only become a true 1st stage blacksmith when you pass the association test. Until then, you are just a beginner blacksmith, capable of making artifacts that are minimally useful for their purposes."
Vicente took the potion and felt it would help him, so he drank it immediately.
When he felt his right hand burning under the potion's effect, Vicente looked at Benson and said. "I am eager to learn more and reach a relevant level. What do I have to do?"
Benson was pleased to see that this young man was not like some who, after advancing, thought they had conquered the world and became negligent.
He said. "I will give you some new books to study later and more materials. As much as your skill makes it easy to manipulate matter, not everything can be done with metals, and there are things you need to understand first with the simple techniques of forging.
But before we go any further, I want to see what you can do, Vicente."
Benson walked over to an area of the large forge where various minerals were at hand.
"Before you go back to training on your own, I want you to use your skill to extract the metals from some of the minerals I have here and use them to make a 1st-grade artifact." He said as he sat down, facing the part of this large forge where his lower-level disciples usually trained their skills.
Benson judged that Vicente's ability would make him capable of extracting metals from minerals, giving him an advantage over blacksmiths from all over the continent, who usually had to spend hours extracting the metals they wanted from ores.
Vicente immediately made his way to that area, thinking he could do it, even though he had never thought of such a thing until that moment.
It was definitely easier to move pure metals than those in ores, where there were other types of non-metallic materials, often in the form of substances.
Vicente then looked at a stone the size of an adult human and activated his ability, quickly changing the expression on his face as he realized the difficulty of doing what Benson suggested.
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