Chapter 68 Original Magic

Azi conjured his magic tethers from his arms, as they extended, they began glowing a brighter color of blue, white that made Nosuri and Ougi squint at the bright sight. While somewhat uncomfortable to look at as they shined more in the confined space of the workshop, they could see what Azi's tethers were doing.

The tethers that came from each of his hands began to split into smaller lines of blue light that then connected to the 15 individual square pieces that were now attached to their weapons on the stone worktable.

"This will only take an hour so please be silent as I work."

With those curt words, Azi closed his eyes and focused on infusing magic into the square black pieces. The rune on each square piece began to glow and soon magic power began to circulate through the internal structure of their weapons.

Nosuri and Ougi stared on in great curiosity, they have been all across the lands of the Empire and they have never seen a crafting, forging, or thaumaturgy technique that was like Azi's They deduced that Azi had likely taken numerous different techniques and made them into something he could call his own.

What Azi was currently doing was what he did before with Shizu weapon but was a temporary and disposable method of handicraft and runecraft thaumaturgy he came up with. At first, he thought he could have added wax to the bow to bind the cracks as a temporary measure but felt that this would be insufficient as Nosuri and Ougi would be protecting someone like Rulu.

Wanting to ensure that they could defend Rulu adequately he opted to take more creative liberties with their weapons. The black square pieces were meant to act as a kind of disposable talisman. It was small so it could not hold much magic energy for any attack spell, but it had enough energy capacity to power a reinforcement spell made with a rune.

Usual spells needed the user to chant the magic script to cast a spell, a rune allowed the activation of spells through the input of magic energy.

This reinforcement spell was similar to how soldiers in the army would fortify their bodies to help weather battle for long periods of time.

With his knowledge of the basic fortify spell, he used the rune meaning "reinforce" to help evoke the effects onto an inanimate object rather than a person. The effects would be activated from the user's input of magic energy.

Usually, the reinforce rune was only used on buildings and walls that needed an extra kick when it came to structural integrity. It could work for weapons, but it was cheaper and less taxing to just buy another weapon as runecraft was a specialized service that thaumaturges could overcharge for. Azi offered this usually overpriced service as he was prioritizing Rulu's safety as Shizu's love for her sister made it his priority as well.

Additionally, other thaumaturges would have drained themselves dry of mana just trying to apply his techniques to one weapon as Azi was putting an unusual amount of detail in his thaumaturgic work. Touma could possibly manage the feat but would need a considerable amount of time and stamina potions to get at the level of control and detail that Azi gave.

Halfway into the process, Rulu and Kajima had entered the workshop with a tray of refreshments and snacks. Azi had been working on Nosuri's bow and Ougi's sabers for quite a while and it was almost time for lunch.

Noticing the blue light, Rulu was stunned by the sight of it as she had never seen such a mystical scene before. Rulu had seen court thaumaturges cast spells as a demonstration to King Ozen, she had not seen a practical application of thaumaturgy in her life. Kajima also looked on with a curious eye but prompted Rulu to keep silent as she looked like she wanted to ask him a question.

After an hour passed, a slight burst of blue light caught everyone's attention and soon the glow from Azi's magic tethers began to dissipate. In a few seconds, the tethers had completely disappeared. What was now left on the stone worktable were a regular long bow and two sabers with black square pieces attached to the handles in a line of 5.

Picking up the bow to examine it, Azi looked through his goggles to inspect the internal structure. He now saw the magic channels that were made by his engraved runes and found no issues.

Pulling the bow string back, he tested the bow for its rigidity and flexibly. After he made a few adjustments to the bow strings tightness, he drew it back one last time and nodded in satisfaction.

Taking the two sabers he did much the same, but this time tested them by having his glowing veins invade the internal structure of the sabers. Azi was able to sense and examine the flow of magic with the tethers and glowing veins, he did not understand why he could do this but found it useful when he needed to examine the quality of items.

Nodding in satisfaction, Azi returned the weapons to their rightful owner. As he was handing them over, Rulu spoke up.

"Excuse me, but were you the one that made the black breastplate Shizu sent me?"

As he was taking his goggles off, Azi answered as he moved to grab something from a pile of prototypes he had stored in one of the crates on the shelves. The wooden crate was filled with unbroken or broken breastplates, gloves, goggles, and hammers.

These were Azi's numerous failures that he had built throughout his time in Kajima's workshop. Grabbing the most recent prototype breastplate he tossed it over Rulu.

"You mean one that looks like this?"

Catching the breastplate, Rulu's suspicions were resolved.

"So it really was you. You were the one Yashimu talked about. Tell me, just what was that blue light when we broke my breastplate."

Azi thought back and explained that it was a piece of equipment requested by Shizu. At first Shizu wanted to make a regular breastplate, but Azi added that he wanted to add something to it to make her gift more special and with added functionality. Azi got the idea to make it with an infused healing spell when it broke as he thought it was a good idea to ensure the life of the wearer.

Shizu aided Azi in testing his prototypes and within a week Azi was able to complete it. The breastplate had substantial durability and strength, but also provided an adequate heal when broken but could only be activated once. As Azi finished his explanation on the origins of the breastplate and how it works, Nosuri added.

"So that's why you were trying to break it and what that light was."

Nodding, Azi then pointed to the breastplate he had thrown to Rulu.

"For now, you can use that one. The spell's effect is less effective, but the breastplate should suffice as armor."

"Thank you, hmmm? Wait how do you know that the spell's effect will be lessened, don't tell me you tested these yourself."

Nodding in affirmation Azi added.

"Your sister helped, and she called it "defensive" training."

Kajima laughed and added.

"Hahaha, I remember that. You got smacked around by Shizu when she requested you to make that breastplate for Rulu. It's a good thing your spell went off every time."

"*Sigh* Well it at least got results in the end."

Rulu paled at the exchange Azi and Kajima were having. She felt as if it were her fault that Azi had to go through such a violent experience and as she was about to apologize, Azi interrupted her.

"Anyway, let's go test these weapons out. My recollection of Shizu's "defensive" training made me think of a good idea on how we can test their weapons."

Wiping his hand and grabbing a few old prototypes from the wooden crate, Azi motioned everyone to the clearing outside the house.

Exiting, they saw a large expanse of flat land that had a few craters, fallen trees, and broken boulders. About 20 paces from the house was an enormous great sword that was stuck in the ground.

Nosuri, Ougi, and Rulu recognized it when they first arrived at Kajima's house but did know why there was such an odd-looking weapon embedded into the ground. When they asked Kajima, he just told them to wait and see as he grinned and chuckled his way out into the clearing.

Seeing Azi walk up to it, they recalled that Azi had talked about a sword he used for training.

"Surely not." Said Nosuri. "My brother and I together could not pull the sword out. How can...?!!!"

Her words trailing off, Nosuri, Ougi, and Rulu witnessed Azi pull the oversized greatsword from the ground with only one hand. The veins on his arm glowed in its usual blue white color and a practiced motion he shouldered the oversized sword.

Swinging the sword with a few soft grunts, Azi began warming up his body with his usual 100 practice swing with each arm. Taking a kendo stance he drew the greatsword over his head and swung it down. This caused a small gust of air to displace some of the loose surface snow on the ground.

At the side, a few paces away, Kajima could only laugh at the now dumbfounded expressions that Nosuri, Ougi, and Rulu had on their faces. They eventually recomposed themselves and Ougi asked Kajima.

"Just how can he lift that sword?"

Grinning Kajima explained plainly.

"I have no idea. When I first saw it, Azi and Shizu were drunk and were having a fight about who was stronger. The boy straight up asked for my biggest sword, and I delivered that. Never expected him to actually use it. When we tested out if Azi could wield it sober, we found out that Azi has been naturally fortifying his body when he handles weapons or tools."

"Interesting, he could possibly lift very heavy items. Quite the skill." Said a bemused Ougi.

Kajima laughed at Ougi's jest of downplaying Azi's unique strength to a simple skill such as carrying or lifting heavy items.

After finishing his practice swings, he then approached Nosuri while shouldering the greatsword with ease.

"Alright, hold out your weapon. I am gonna smack it around a bit."