Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

Elder Li and I stood before a wooden door with a sign of a pickaxe and a mushroom, the entrance to the old mine.

“Although the Dragon Veins are nearly exhausted, and what remains isn’t worth collecting, the stone around them is great for creating magical constructs of all kinds.” Elder Li said as he opened the door and urged me to step inside.

The old mineshaft was fairly small considering the Cultivators were so large, and the Elder had to bend down at certain places. I followed with wonder through the old corridor until we came to a larger room where green glowing mushrooms were growing on a bed of rotting logs, mixed with the exhausted magic ore.

“Here’s a little plantation of Psilogrin Mens mushroom, careful not to disturb them.” Elder Li warned.

The Psilogrin Mens was a special kind of mushroom that was often used in mind-altering pills for inspiration or when one was too distracted to properly Cultivate. They helped many to break through to a higher Realm. I carefully stepped over them and followed Elder Li to one of the sideways tunnels.

We walked for quite a while along the winding path carved into the mountain when the Elder stopped.

“This should be good enough.” He said, placing his hand on the gray rock. He then handed me a small pick-like tool and a storage pouch. “Fill this up and then come to the workshop. I’ll prepare everything in the meantime.”

I looked at the metal pick in my hand and then at the stone wall before me. Elder Li already left and so I used my Arcane Eyes to look at the rock around me.

I already expected it, but to personally experience my sight getting blocked by the rock itself, was a humbling experience. It was as if a layer of static was painted over the stone and I couldn’t see anything past it.

Elder wasn’t kidding when he said your Spirit Sense would be blocked in the mine. Luckily there was only one way back so I couldn’t get lost, but being blind, so deep underground, even with magic, was scary.

Well, at least the stone was not that difficult to break, is what I thought at first. In the beginning, I tried to break it apart just with my fingers and then the golden claws, but the stone didn’t budge. It was… well, rock solid.

Even with the pick in hand, I had to put significant effort into chipping away small chunks. It was so weird since the stone was so brittle on the surface, but then I remembered that massive Spirit Veins ran up the mountain all around me, bathing the rock in immeasurable amounts of Qi, probably for millennia.

I just sighed and got to work.

Piece by piece I carved out chunks of stone and threw them in the pouch. The work was slow and difficult, but I persevered.

And then I suddenly wanted to bash my head against the wall when I realized the weird indentation on the pick, the one I thought was just a decoration, was actually a holding place for a freaking Spirit Stone!

As soon as I placed one inside, I felt the tool come to life. With a single thought, the metal head began glowing white, and with a single strike, the sharp end sank into the stone as if it was soft clay.

[Are you fucking kidding me?!]

I wasted at least an hour manually pounding on the rock, barely getting anything done. The Elder probably thought it was funny not telling me this. Or worse yet, he forgot to tell me, because it was so obvious to him.

I wondered what other common knowledge I was missing just because people didn’t think it needed saying. Well, I needed it. I was new!

Okay, almost new. It was already nearly spring, so I was in the Sect for about six months already. Considering most people became Core Disciples only after many decades, I had it really easy. I just had to nearly die a few dozen times, haha! No pressure.

Anyway, with the working tool in hand, the work went quickly, and just as another hour went by, the pouch was full. I removed the Spirit Stone from the pick and realized it had just about 10% of its energy missing. It most likely couldn’t be used as currency anymore. Oh, well…

I returned back to the main branch and exited the old mine. I found the workshop fairly quickly and stepped inside where Elder Li was already preparing a… It looked like a big metal barrel that kind of reminded me of an industrial tumbler. Actually, that’s exactly what it was.

“Alright, toss the rocks in here.” Elder Li said as he poured a bucket of water inside. “We need to smooth the rocks a bit first and remove the loose stones. It will also help clean them so they can be easily worked on.”

I did as he ordered and emptied the pouch. He then touched a metal plate of the machine that was full of Runes and it began slowly spinning on its own. Without touching anything, mind you. The barrel was levitating. It looked really weird.

“Excellent. Now, as we wait for that to finish, let’s get you familiarized with the process first.” Elder Li said and brought to light a thick book. It contained countless Runes and their meaning, most of which I have never seen before despite having already studied them at length.

“This is the basics of what you will have to learn-”

[All of that?! It’s going to take me months!]

“Ah, no, you are mistaken. Most of these Runes are a combination of other, Basic Runes. It’s not that hard to learn when you know the trick. They are used to save space, considering a simple Formation…”

He took a folded piece of parchment and opened it up. He unfolded it at least six times, revealing a piece that was a few meters across, covered with countless symbols that somewhat reminded me of a chip under a microscope with all those lines and connections. Only these were Runes on a piece of crystal instead of electrical connections on a silicon wafer.

“…is about this big. And I’m afraid to say it, but good luck stuffing all of this on the surface of a Beast Core. Or a metal magic artifact, in some cases.” He gestured towards the tumbler doing its thing.

I was already starting to reconsider learning the art of Runecrafting. When I first came into contact with it, the thing looked way less intimidating, and you could even say fun. But now I felt as if I had just mastered elementary math and was suddenly about to start learning differential calculus.

I was not afraid of pain, but this was something else. This was… nightmare fuel.

I felt completely out of my element. And it clearly showed since Elder Li found it funny.

“Don’t look so down, it’s going to be fine. We will start with something simple first.” He took a much smaller, more manageable piece of parchment and placed it on a table. “Come, let’s get you familiar with the basics.”

I absentmindedly nodded and pulled a chair closer and sat down.

“Alright, so, first things first…” – Insert a 5-hour lecture on various Runes – “In conclusion, the best way to remember it all is with just simple repetition. Go through it every day for a few weeks and you should be good.”

[Aha…] I nodded while barely holding back a headache. I remembered it, I remembered it all, but that wasn’t the problem. Understanding was much more than just simply remembering. But I needed to sleep it off and I would be good. My mind had to organize the mountain of information I had just received.

“Alright, let’s take a little break. The stones should be ready anyway.” Elder Li waved his hand over the table and all the papers, charts, and books disappeared. He then went to the tumbler and stopped it.

I came over and saw the inside was some sort of gray sludge. Seeing my questioning gaze, Elder Li took a large metal strainer and placed it in the even larger stone sink on the floor.

“We need to wash the stones. Here you have some water.” He pointed at two wide wooden barrels with opened tops that were full of cold spring water.

I nodded and took the barrel of gray sludge and poured it into the strainer and then took a bucket to fill with water. The gray sludge already drained off by the time I came back, leaving behind dirty stones ready to be washed.

It took about five buckets to get them sufficiently clean and they appeared somewhat like river stones. Not round, just big and chunky, with smooth edges.

“Hmm, good, good…” Elder Li examined the stones in his hand and nodded in approval. “This should make a nice golem.”

[But Elder…] I asked. [Can’t we make a golem out of normal rocks? Why the need to make it beforehand?]

“Ah, well, yes… Technically we could, but those are very weak compared to their manufactured counterparts, not to mention that they use a whole lot of energy. This ore, even though it is already exhausted, is still much better at conducting Qi than a normal stone.” He tossed the stones back into the pile and clapped his hands.

“Now, I got here something to temper the material further.” He took a bottle of some kind of paste and handed it over. “Make sure to coat each of the stones evenly. They will soak in this stuff until they can’t anymore, and that’s when you know they are ready for the next step.”

He also handed over a brush and gestured for me to begin.

[Is this really going to be enough?] I looked at the bottle skeptically. It couldn’t be even a liter of the stuff inside while I had about a cubic meter of stones to paint.

“More than enough. I doubt you will use more than half of that actually. Just dilute it in some water, it’ll make it easier.”

[Okay.]

I took the bucket and filled it with water, after which I took the weird paste and poured in half of it. The mixture was a watery gray paint, which I applied to the rocks slowly. The stone really absorbed that thing, though not quickly. I kept painting the rock over and over, yet it was still not satisfied.

[This is going to take an entire day…] I grumbled. I had been painting for at least ten minutes, and that was a stone the size of my head. I had dozens of those and hundreds that were smaller.

“Well, yes… Usually, it takes a few weeks or months to create the real thing. If you want it to last, of course. Any dumbass came cobble together a beast made of normal stone, but those have to be constantly repaired or replaced. It’s much better to do it this way, in my opinion.”

I hummed in annoyance. It was logical, of course, but also so incredibly boring.

[Elder, does it matter if the stones get too much of this… paint?] I suddenly asked as an idea was born in my mind.

“Not at all. The stone will take as much as it needs to until it is saturated. You can simply wash off the excess.”

[I see, thank you.]

I then took the stones and just dumped them in the bucket and then waited. I occasionally took them out to see if the stone was still thirsty, and if it was, I put them back inside.

Glancing at the Elder, I noticed a hidden smile forming on his lips behind his bushy facial hair. He slowly stroked it as he imperceptibly nodded. I secretly celebrated. I knew there had to be a trick, and he gave me just enough hints so I could figure it out.

The new way of work cut the time required down by at least ten times. The stone still needed time to soak up the stuff, but it was nowhere near what it would have been had I continued painting it with a brush. It was not hard to guess that this was a part of some secret test to see if I could think for myself instead of just blindly following orders.

Elder did mention that there was a lot of experimentation and self-study in the art of Runecrafting. At least I knew I was on the right track.

A few hours later, I was done. The gray water was used up, and the stones were full.

“Excellent! Now that the preparations are done, we can truly begin!” The Elder took the stones and shoved them into an oven and then lit it up while offering an explanation. “They have to bake for a day, but in the meantime, I’ll teach you the most important part. Now it’s time for you to learn the ancient art of crafting Runes!”