Mage of Creation

After looking around the train cart for a few minutes and finding nothing that could be called a weapon, Ezren reluctantly decided to try and create a weapon using his skill.

He had thought about doing that as soon as he started searching for a weapon, but he would've really liked to avoid spending his mana on a weapon.

'Now that I have no other choice, I will have to create a weapon using my skill anyway. I am no weapons expert, and I don't trust my mana control enough to make a bladed weapon. Heck I couldn't even make a remotely smooth sphere! How the hell am I supposed to create a sharp and stable edge?

The best choice is probably some kind of blunt weapon like hammer or mace. As for the materials, I would assume that steel is the best choice.

But I have no idea what kind of steel to use if I want to create a strong hammer. My knowledge about steel in general is very limited. I know that Steel is an alloy made from carbon and iron, but I have no idea what percentages of either are usually used to create steel.

On that topic what kind of steel would my skill create if I try to use it? When I willed my mana to turn into iron there was no issue because iron is an element. Steel on the other hand describes all alloys created from iron and carbon thus there are many different kinds of steel.

No way to find out other than experimenting.'

Ezren proceeded to extract a tiny amount of mana and tried to turn it into steel.

Nothing happened.

He tried again this time specifying in his head that he wanted the steel to be 80% iron and 20% carbon.

Nothing happened.

After a few more minutes of trying different approaches, Ezren came to the conclusion that he was unable to create any kind of steel.

There seemed to be restrictions on what kind of matter he could create using his skill. Considering that he was a curious young scientist, he wanted to explore the limitations of his skill by creating all kinds of materials.

But doing so would have exhausted his mana without helping him with his current predicament. So, he reluctantly decided to delay the exploration of his abilities until he was in a safe environment.

Yet he still needed to perform one more test before he could plan the creation of his hammer. He tried to turn his mana into wood, he needed to create a handle after all.

After a few minutes of fruitless labor, he had to admit to himself that he was also unable to create wood. He felt kind of disappointed since his skill had turned out to be far more restrictive than he had anticipated.

Well, being able to create anything he wanted as long as he had enough mana did sound a bit too nice to be true now that he thought about it. And he might still achieve this level of ability in the future. His skill was only level 1 after all and while he didn't know how to increase the level of innate skills yet, he would surely find out how to do so in the future.

'Since I don't really have a choice, I will have to create the whole hammer including the handle using iron. This is actually kind of convenient since I don't have to figure out a way to connect the handle and head if I just create the whole thing in one piece.

The next question is how much mana I am willing to use to create the hammer. I already noticed that I regain mana passively, but the process is rather slow. I didn't pay very close attention to it, but it seems I regain around 10 mana per hour.

I currently have 80 mana left after the experiments I did previously. Based on the size and cost of the iron spheres I created earlier it will take around 40 mana to create a one-handed hammer with decent mass.

That will leave me with 40 mana which is way too little for my taste. Sadly, going out of here without a weapon is not an option. Neither is waiting for my mana to regenerate since any other survivors would have either died or left by the time I regained a significant amount of mana. I already wasted a lot of time experimenting anyways and I also fell unconscious for an unknown amount of time when my class changed.'

Ezren took a quick glance outside the window to look at the sky. He could not see the sun that was hidden behind the ever-present veil of clouds and barriers. Yet he could make out that it was probably late morning based on the brightness of the sky.

'That's a relief I must have been unconscious for less than an hour. But there is still no time to waste!'

After going over his plan once more in his head Ezren got to work and extracted 40 mana from his body.

Once the mana left his body, he suddenly felt weak and tired. It was like the exhaustion one would feel after a long day of work. But he did not allow this feeling to disrupt his focus.

While constantly exerting pressure on the mana to prevent it from dispersing Ezren started to shape the extracted mana into the form of a simple hammer.

This time he exerted more force on his mana thus forcing it to shrink and become denser than it usually was. He hoped that he would be able to recreate the correct mana density needed for the creation of iron from his memory.

A few seconds later when Ezren was satisfied with the shape his mana had taken, he started to transmute the mana to iron. The process was completed instantly and the blink of an eye later he held a hammer-shaped piece of iron in his hand.

This time his mana had indeed been way closer to the correct density required for the creation of iron, but his mana still had been quite dense enough. This caused his hammer to shrink a bit and slightly deform when it was transmuted to iron.

The surface of the finished hammer ended up being quite rough just like the spheres had been before, and Ezren was sure that he would wound his own hands if he held directly onto the rough metal handle while using the hammer.

After a few seconds of consideration, he had an idea.

He then went over toward one of the corpses that were lying in the train cabin and ripped off a big piece of cloth from their shirt.

While doing so a splash of blood hit him in the face and yet Ezren still felt eerily calm, but in his mind, he knew that he was supposed to feel disgusted. In that moment he swore to himself, that he would never forget how he was supposed to feel in a situation like. He made this vow to himself because he was afraid that he would truly stop being human once he forgot what he had felt when he was still a human.

After regaining his composure, he focused on finishing his hammer. He wrapped the piece of cloth around the handle of his hammer and created two small iron rings to hold the cloth in place using a bit more Mana.

The finished hammer was about 40cm long and had a hammer head with two blunt ends. Aside from the cloth around the Handle it was made from solid iron. For its size it was rather heavy, weighing almost 7kg.

He had honestly underestimated how heavy the iron would be. He had planned to make a hammer that could comfortably be wielded in one hand. But his hammer had turned out to be too heavy for that and he would have to use two hands to swing it around effectively.

Having finished his hammer, Ezren swung it around a few times to get used to its weight. After he felt comfortable with the weight of the hammer, he grabbed his backpack and prepared himself to leave the train cart.

Ezren had to climb out of the shattered windows above him, since the train cart was still lying sideways beside the train tracks.

Looking around he saw a dozen train carts all lying around, some in better condition than others. Some carts still looked rather pristine while others were embedded deep into the ground. But none of the train carts were severely damaged despite the crash happening at an insane speed no normal train or car could hope to reach, even the train carts that had suffered the most only had a few broken windows and slightly dented walls.

'These relics from the time before recorded history really are nigh indestructible compared to the stuff we create nowadays.'

Just when he was thinking about where he should start searching, he heard a shrill high-pitched scream. The scream came from behind a train cart which laid a short distance away from him. He took a deep breath, gripped his hammer tighter a then started sprinting toward the sound of the noise.

When Ezren got closer, he also started to hear the sound of cracking and breaking bones. He remembered all too vividly where these sounds came from. There had to be at least one mutation and one human there.

After running around the train cart, he could finally see what was happening. There he saw a delicate woman who looked to be in her early teens. She had disheveled blond hair and a round face that would usually look quite cute. But currently her face was contorted by dread and fear, tears were rolling down her cheeks. She had a horribly broken leg and was crawling away from an approaching mutation while crying out in fear and desperation. The Mutation which probably used to be a rather old man, had survived the train crash with rather small injuries and was walking toward the woman with unsteady but fast steps.

It would soon reach the woman.

In that moment Ezren's thoughts cleared and he made a horrific discovery. He had no desire whatsoever to save that woman it was as if he did not care if that woman died or not. But what might be even worse was that he did not emphasize with her at all, he was supposed to be scared for her, feel sorry for the pain and fear that she had to endure. But the only thing he felt when witnessing this scene was his own fear of the mutation and his desire to kill it and increase his level.

'Was my theory, right? Can no longer feel emotions towards other humans? Shit. That… that doesn't matter right now I have to save her, or she will die!'

Usually, he would have reacted way faster and made the decision to face her based-on instinct. But now he had to consciously remind himself that he had to save her even though he felt nothing towards her. That was the reason why his reaction came way too late.

But it did not matter.

Because in the next moment a tall and slender woman Ezren had not noticed before intercepted the mutation. The mutation tried to grab the woman's torso, but she managed to dodge to the side and brought her hand down on the abominations neck in a chopping motion.

Ezren did not know what she wanted to achieve by doing that, but then just a moment later his question was answered.

The woman's hand half-sliced and half-tore through the mutation's neck beheading it with a single strike.

Ezren was very confused. That was not supposed to happen when a human hand hit something. He would expect a result like that if someone used a dull sword to behead a mutation. But the woman had only used her hand to achieve it.

How had she done it? Was it a skill of hers? Ezren was really excited about finding out how the woman had managed to do that. He took a deep breath and took a better look at the woman.

The woman was very tall standing taller than Ezren himself, she had to be almost 1,90 meters. The woman had pale white skin which was nothing unusual since almost everyone on mars had white skin, but her skin was very pale even for mars standards. Her hair while being full of dirt and dust right now was also white. And her eyes had a crimson red color. Those features on the other hand were very unusual, Ezren had never seen someone with white hair or red eyes.

Even the other woman with blond hair was a rarity since most people on mars had brown or black hair with brown or green eyes. Ezren himself looked rather plain in comparison. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and his height was average at about 180cm.

Ezren had to admit that while she did not quite fit his taste, the white-haired woman looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Ezren froze. He had just thought that the woman was beautiful. It had happened subconsciously without his active involvement, which meant that he could still have emotions and feelings towards other humans after all.

But what was it then? What part of his feelings exactly had changed after becoming Sentient Mana?

He was not entirely sure yet and still needed a bit more time to figure it out, but he already had a few theories based on his observations thus far. His thoughts were interrupted by a melodious yet commanding voice.

"Who are you?" the white-haired woman asked while looking at him.

"My name is Ezren" he answered still too preoccupied with his own thoughts to focus on the conversation.

"Nice to meet you, Ezren. My name is Alexia." Then she looked at the blond woman who was still in shock and asked, "What is your name?"

"S- Sa- Sarah"

"Nice to meet you too Sarah" Alexia said and gave the woman on the floor an encouraging smile.

Ezren just couldn't wait any longer and asked

"How did you kill that mutation. Did you use a skill?"

After being quiet for a second Alexia answered

"No, I didn't use a skill, or I guess I kind of did but not really. I used my life force to create an edge around my hand. So, I technically didn't use a skill, but the ability to use life force is connected to the skill 'Basic Aura Control' I acquired."

'Using life force to create an edge under her hand…. If I assume that life force is invisible it would all make sense. Since I couldn't see her life force, to me it looked like it was her hand that cut through the mutation when it was really the life force covering her hand.

That's really interesting and since she used the word 'acquired' and not some other word like 'gained' the skill is probably an acquired skill which means that everyone should be able to learn it. Well, everyone but me since I don't have any life force to control…'

"That is very interesting thank you for answering my question. May I also ask what your class is?"

Alexia answered without hesitation

"Sure, we need to know each other's capabilities anyway, if we want to increase our chances of survival.

My class is…