Vivi crafted a new two-runed greatsword for herself as a warm-up.

The sword was nothing special. She used a cheap iron root and a green mithril root, shaping simple but effective veins. For the runes, she chose a swiftness and a strength rune. For the metal, she used red hardsteel again. It was quick to forge. Nothing was impressive about the metal, but there wasn't anything wrong with it either.

This was the type of sword Vivi could easily mass-produce if needed. The sword was solid, requiring around ten hours of labor to make, but it wasn't so valuable that Vivi would be sad if she lost it. She intended to use it roughly and to its absolute fullest. If it broke, she could just make a new one.

Mostly, she just wanted to replace her katana. After fighting with Abyss Destroyer and the two-runed katana, Vivi had decided that greatswords matched her fighting style better. They carried a lot more weight behind their swings, allowing Vivi to snap opponents' blades. She wasn't good at wielding a lightweight katana. The largest benefit of Vivi's runeswords was their pure strength. Greatswords allowed her to make the most out of that power.

With the greatsword done, Vivi stretched and picked up another ether root. It was time to craft the real weapon. "It's been a while since I've crafted anything but a sword. But I think I've solved the amalgamations."

"What are we making?" Lucius asked, tail wagging slowly.

"A hammer," Vivi said.

Lucius tilted his head. "A hammer?"

"Not a blacksmithing hammer," Vivi said. "A war hammer."

"What's that?" Lucius asked.

"Well, that's a fancy word for a gigantic hammer," Vivi said. "We're making a giant chunk of metal stuck to a stick. You know, the type of weapon that giants swing in stories. War hammers are impractical and way too heavy to be used for real, but nothing can carry more weight into a swing than a good hammer. Grandpa made one as a test once."

"You mean, you've never made one?" Lucius asked.

"I've crafted swords almost exclusively," Vivi said. "Swords are simply the most practical way to make use of runesmithing. You can cram a lot more ether into a sword than you can into a spear, for example. Swords are a lot easier to craft as well, especially with inside-carving. A sword is the perfect shape for vein-shaping. Most runesmiths have never created anything but swords. But inside-carving works for every weapon as long as you can fit an ether root inside."

Vivi twisted an iron root into the vise and said, "Go fast tempo. We need as much ether as we have. Just like we did with the root javelin."

"Got it," Lucius said.

"That one will be used for the shaft," Vivi said. "If the shaft isn't strong enough, the hammer will just snap in half."

While the iron root was growing, Vivi moved another vise next to the first. She twisted another iron root on the second vise. "Can you control two roots at the same time?" she asked.

"If it's just simple iron roots, sure," Lucius said. "But don't we have to use different ones?"

"The shaft and the hammer are separate. The roots won't touch. Iron is the most heat resistant and the strongest root we have. It'll work perfectly. For this one, we can move slower. I'll need to focus. Tell me if the shaft starts moving sideways."

"Okay," Lucius said. He closed his eyes and initiated the second root. He floated between the two ether roots and focused on keeping them active and stable.

Vivi let the stalk grow on its own for a few minutes. She closed her eyes and formed a vision of the weapon she wanted to create. She imagined the amalgamations being crushed to bits, burned alive with molten magma.

She opened her eyes and got to work.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

The head of a hammer required an entirely new shape, but it still followed the same fundamentals. Ether had to be evenly distributed through the metal.

Vivi separated the main stalk into two, leaving a hole for the hammer's shaft. The separated stalks grew around, while Vivi focused on keeping them symmetrical. She added short branches, making the veins prickly.

Quickly, Vivi fell into concentration. The project technically wasn't supposed to be difficult. She was crafting a single-runed hammer. But Vivi had never crafted a hammer before. She was essentially improvising, following the theories she knew.

She concentrated hard. But she wasn't in the zone. Something about the situation placed her on edge. The smithy was large and open. Vivi was used to working in cramped cell-like smithies. And the smithy was too clean. It was as if some ghost lived here. It didn't feel like a real smithy with personality. Not to mention monsters could spawn here. Vivi definitely didn't want to start a three-runed sword attempt here.

The two stalks were reaching the face of the hammer. Vivi took a deep breath and prepared herself for the difficult part. Unlike with swords, a hammer didn't end on a sharp tip. Instead, Vivi had to concentrate most of the ether into the hammer's face.

Right before the hammer's face, Vivi separated both stalks again, creating four. She guided each stalk sideways, moving parallel to the face of the hammer. Lastly, she connected each of the stalks toward each other in an X shape. The four stalks met in the middle, crashing against each other.

Ordinarily, a branch touching another part of the veins meant the project was dead. This time, Vivi purposefully crashed the stalks together. Each of the four stalks cauterized, creating a strong seal.

Vivi assessed her work and nodded. "This should be good."

Lucius admired it curiously. "It almost looks like a hammer. A framework, at least."

"The X-shape at the face should give it a strong impact area," Vivi said. "Now, let's carve the runes."

While Vivi had worked on the hammer, the root for the shaft had run out of material, growing as long as it could. It reached around seven feet, looking nearly identical to the root javelin Vivi had crafted. She heated up the crucible furnace, placed in her metals, and picked up the carving knife she'd borrowed from Rensfig.

Vivi carved strength runes into the shaft. She would have loved to add a swiftness rune to make the hammer more pleasant to swing, but a strength rune was almost necessary so that the shaft wouldn't snap in half. The strength rune would only strengthen the shaft, as the hammer and the shaft were separate from each other.

For the hammer itself, Vivi had something more interesting in mind. A strife rune.

Strife was the same rune that kitchen appliances used to generate heat. Stoves, ovens, and even some furnaces used strife runes. When the goal was to heat something up with runes, a strife rune was always used.

Admittedly, Vivi wasn't entirely certain how the rune worked. Scientists claimed it generated heat with friction and a burning reaction. Nobody seemed to agree about the theory behind strife runes.

In practicality, however, the rune generated heat. And by adding a strife rune to Vivi's hammer, she could quickly heat up the metal as if it had been tossed into a forge.

With the runes carved, Vivi placed the hammerhead into the crucible, then spent the next fifteen hours finishing up her work. She was barely awake by the end of the session, having been awake for over a day straight. She required Lucius's ether just to stay focused. Lucius expressed his concerns, saying that Vivi could fall ill if she continued abusing ether. She was nodding her head back and forth, trying not to fall asleep.

But the hammer needed to be finished. Vivi placed it into the forge and began smithing. She barely remembered the latter part of the process. She continued hammering, forging the weapon, putting the war hammer together until eventually…

*

Vivi snapped awake in Paradise. She looked around her grassy surroundings in confusion before the smell of metal all over her face brought her memories back.

"The hammer!" Vivi said. "Where is it? Lucius, bring us back. I need to finish the weapon."

Lucius sighed. "Vivi, you can be such an idiot sometimes…"

"What?"

"The hammer is completed. You worked on it for over twenty hours. You were muttering nonsense by the end of it—I don't think you were even awake. But you somehow completed the hammer. Then you fell asleep with your head on the anvil."

"Oh…" Vivi said. "Can you show it to me?"

"You'll need to register the weapon as your possession for me to take it here," Lucius said. "We need to put it into spatial storage. You were too out of it for me to operate it correctly. I can't do that while you're asleep."

"Wake me up, then. I want to see it."

"No, I am not waking you up," Lucius said. "You've been asleep for two hours now after an over twenty-hour runesmithing spree. You're dehydrated and recovering from abusing ether. You seriously need to rest." Lucius crossed his paws, frowning at her.

"Put me to sleep, then," Vivi said. "Being in Paradise slows down rest, does it not? Let's sleep fast."

"And what about channeling ether?" Lucius asked.

"We'll do that later," Vivi said. "I need to assess my hammer now. If it's faulty, we need to make changes."

Lucius stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "Vivi, I can't believe you. I told you a dozen times to take a break. You refused every time. Are all runesmiths like this? You—"

Lucius flinched. The angry expression turned to concern in an instant. "Oh. Oh no."

"What is it?" Vivi asked.

"A monster just spawned in the smithy. Wake up Vivi! Quick!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.