Magic Forge

It was a cloudless night and the moon was nearly full, shining brightly on the ground below.

A gentle wind blew across the forest, agitating the flames of a campfire, making it throw ever-changing shadows on the one sleepless face.

Gerald sat in front of the campfire, his eyes staring emptily forward while his mind was lost in thought.

Then, with a stronger gust of wind and rustling of the leaves, he woke up from his dream-like state and rubbed the ring on his finger. An Orc's corpse appeared soundlessly before him.

"Let's begin…" he whispered.

He closed his eyes and started refining the body, extracting every little drop of Essence he could.

About an hour later the entirety of the body disintegrated into dust and was scattered in the wind. Gerald looked at the seven black walnut-sized Essence Orbs in his hand and sighed, "Only seven… That's only around 200kg, from an Orc Elite nevertheless! Sigh, this is such a waste! More than 95% of the Essence was lost because my Mana Rank is too low!"

He felt physical pain in his heart just thinking about it. But there was nothing that could be done! Eating the Orc was out of the question for its taste was truly revolting, and extracting the Essence was the only thing he could do.

Now only the metal armor remained on the ground, and even that was sort of useless. It was bent, cracked, and with a gaping hole through the breastplate and backplate. A pile of scrap iron!

Gerald picked up a fist-sized piece and focused his mind on it. But as iron wasn't exactly magic-friendly, he could do much with it. Telekinesis could move it, but reforming it just with his mind was out of the question. He might as well try doing it with his hands.

"Unless…" Gerald suddenly got an idea. He threw the piece into the campfire to warm it up and loaded a few more branches on top of it. A few minutes later the iron chunk was glowing dark red, but the campfire wasn't hot enough to heat it up more than that.

So he took control of it with Telekinesis and brought it out, using his own Fire magic to envelop the piece in scorching-hot flames.

He compressed the fire until it was shining bright yellow and held the piece of the iron inside. While he started sweating from the heat, the piece became brighter and brighter, until it was almost about to melt.

That's when Gerald focused his mind to its peak and used Telekinesis to squeeze the piece of armor into the desired shape. A sphere!

Actually, he made two from the material available, two perfectly round spheres approximately the size of a golf ball. He then slowly released the flames and let the metal cool down gradually.

The metal ball then landed softly on his palm and Gerald brought it closer to observe it from all sides.

"Hmm… It seems viable…" He opened the cannon barrel and placed the ball in. It fit perfectly. "Okay, that's one problem solved… Now, I wonder if I can…"

He focused his mind on the cannonball inside the barrel and it suddenly disappeared. He lifted his eyebrows slightly and with a thought, the ball reappeared inside it once again.

Gerald grinned confidently and stored the cannonball once again. He then moved further away from the camp and took out a pile of scrap metal, drank a Greater Mana potion, and started reforging the iron into a more appropriate shape. He spent most of the night before a scorching blaze, working his butt off while the girls slept peacefully in the darkness.

***

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Sera woke up to the sound of explosions. The sunrise was a few hours ago already, but the forest was still somewhat shadowy and dim.

Soon Elly and Xilia woke up too and they rubbed their eyes sleepily.

"What's happening?" Xilia asked while yawning, still half asleep.

"Um," Elly placed a finger on her lips, "It seems like Gerald is training with...something? Is it new magic or a weapon?"

The other two shrugged their shoulders and they went to take a closer look. Indeed Gerald was training with a weapon. With his cannon to be precise!

He just figured out an amazing trick! Because of the Ring he got from the King, he could summon the items that were inside it with just a thought, and they could appear anywhere he wanted in a certain radius around him.

And guess what? He could summon the cannonball inside the cannon! And because it was entirely made out of silver, he could use Explosion magic inside the cannon also!

Gerald was grinning from ear to ear while firing the cannon like a machinegun. The recoil was so great that he had to keep a steady footing to keep the balance.

With each explosion, there would be a pillar of flames shooting out of the canon's mouth for an instant, and the trunk of an old tree not far away would explode into pieces.

"Power, unlimited power! Wahahaha!" Gerald laughed madly like a certain character from an old movie, as he fired his weapon ceaselessly. Though he used a different kind of power.

"Hey!" Someone tapped on his shoulder from behind, resulting in Gerald stopping firing his weapon and turning around.

"What?" he asked while looking at Xilia who was covering her ears. The girl's mouth moved but he couldn't hear a thing.

"Oh wait, one sec…" He released the Sound Barrier at both sides of his head so he could hear her. "What'd you say?"

Xilia took a deep breath through her nose and shouted, "I said 'What are you doing?!'"

Gerald's face scrunched up, "You don't need to shout, I can hear you just fine."

"Can you? It didn't seem like it before."

Having his eye twitch slightly, Gerald snorted lightly, "Alright miss Know-It-All, how is your Rockslide spell coming along?"

"Like this! Ta-dah!"

She summoned her ride and showed it off, making Gerald wipe a fake tear from his face with a smile.

"Beautiful! Sniff, they grow up so fast," he said in an overly expressive voice.

Rumble! Bam!

"Haha!" Xilia lost her concentration because of Gerald's exaggerated acting and fell on her face. And of course, Sera burst out laughing like a maniac immediately after.

Meanwhile, Elly looked at those two with concern before gazing at Gerald. He returned the look with pitiful eyes full of disappointment and shook his head, sighing.