The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Oscar followed the large fabricator, his proctor, past the large furnace, viewable from the entrance. They passed through a series of gray stone doors that shook dust and residue everywhere. The heat was getting worse as they delved deeper inside the Foundry.

Oscar noticed that the inside of the Foundry was surprisingly well organized despite its outside appearance. The corridors were clear, and there were signs with directions. If only they had cleaned it properly, then it would have been comparable to the Palace of Whirlpools.

"Here we are." The proctor stopped.

In front of Oscar was a small door labeled 'Forge 46'. There were 100 individual forges for use by the one-star fabricator students, 50 for two-star fabricator students, and private ones for the elders and masters. It was not a mystery why there was so much smoke spewing out from the Foundry.

Oscar entered the room, finding the basic setup of a workshop. A furnace, anvil, crucible, kiln, and various tools. He tapped his hammer on the anvil, getting into a rhythm, and nodded with satisfaction.

"This anvil is good." Oscar praised.

"You have your hammer?" The proctor looked at Oscar's hammer in interest. The blue swirl patterns on its head and oak handle incited his desire to test it out. However, he kept his senses and opened a box on the bench.

He pulled a yellow ore, a sharp bone of an Exalt Beast, and a red core. He placed them on a side table for materials. "This is amberglass, an ore used for grade one armaments. This is the tusk of a Grade One Razor Boar. See how its tusks are not only sharp on the tip but have these sharp edges. This is also its core. Create a grade-one sword for me. You can retry if you fail at any step, but we only have three cores, including this one. We do not try to waste resources since overhunting beasts for cores is less than ideal."

"As fabricators, we try our best to make the materials shine without the disrespect of failure." Oscar tapped the hammer to his chest in acknowledgment.

The proctor nodded in satisfaction. "Correct. You have the right spirit. Begin."

Oscar grabbed the amberglass ore with tongs and heated it in the furnace. He kept watching over its changing state. The yellow ore heated until it was orange on its surface with red veins. Oscar judged this was the right time and removed the ore.

The hot ore hissed when placed on the anvil. Oscar raised his hammer, enveloping it in Ein as the blue swirls glowed, flowing Reis through its unique structure, and brought it down on the amberglass.

Oscar didn't know the exact structure that made the hammer flow the Reis so well, but it was like Reis traveled through air with no resistance. The amberglass had a large dent in it due to his powerful strike.

The proctor was slightly shocked as his shoulders trembled. 'What kind of power is this? No matter, let's see how he handles the later parts.'

Oscar slammed his hammer multiple times until the amberglass was half its height. Then he tapped lightly on it, resonating his Ein through to get a feel for the formation within. Then his hammer twitched slightly.

"Here it is." Oscar hit the correct spot on the amberglass, unraveling a node. His hands worked fast, tapping away at the amberglass before going for a large swing.

'He's good. It's not the fastest of the genius fabricators, but his speed is commendable. He's analyzing the formation and hitting accurately.' The proctor watched with a smile. As fabricators, they were always attracted to seeing others at work.

With a final blow, Oscar pounded the amberglass into a plate. But to the proctor's shock, Oscar hit it once more.

'Is he crazy? That's too reckless! It would have been fine as it was. If he had an appropriate anima, it could have worked. Also, his Ein isn't moving correctly.'

Then, adding to the proctor's disbelief, the amberglass did not crack or break but relented before Oscar's hammer and lowered itself. Oscar resumed another time, inducing more sparks of impurities out of the amberglass.

The proctor came closer to see what Oscar was doing. His eyes were wide under his helmet and sparkling with wonder.

Oscar did not mind the proctor coming so close. It was simple curiosity, and he understood that feeling like when he witnessed Draven's forging. Besides, the fabricator shouldn't be able to know he was using 'Shattering Wave' to supplement the refinement.

His brows perked up, and he halted his hammer, seeing the amberglass was very thin now.

"This is enough." Oscar placed the amberglass into a large crucible, letting it melt while he moved onto the Razor Boar's tusk. He traced his hammer against the sharp edge down its length. It was about the size of half his arm and was as sharp as a blade. "Interesting."

Oscar tossed the tusk into the furnace to heat it up, pulled it out of the flames, and tapped to read its inner formation. Once he found the likely weak spot, Oscar raised his hammer, readying himself for the inevitable backlash.

A fierce squeal resounded through Oscar's head. He could feel something sharp trying to fight against his hammer. "You're stronger than the turtle, but it's useless."

Oscar exerted more force, and the resistance crumbled. His hammer fell on the tusk, cracking it. It was just a remnant will of a Lower Apprentice Exalt Beast and not a threat to Oscar at his top shape.

With more hammer strikes, the tusk was littered with cracks before one final blow reduced it into a fine powder. Oscar gathered the powder and poured it into the kiln; the fires within blazed fiercely to welcome the new substance. Then he poured the bucket of glacial oil provided to quell the flames until they died down.

Oscar stepped back to let the smoke run itself out. Once it was done, a large slag formed at the bottom of the kiln. Oscar broke it apart, taking out the small pellets of tusk to be used for the armament.

'His refinement is fast but also keeping to high quality. Even if he fails to make an armament, he would be a valuable asset for refining materials.' The proctor peered down on the mound of tusk pellets before Oscar took it away.

Oscar dumped the pellets into the crucible to melt with the amberglass; they began bubbling and steaming out smoke. Then he glanced at the core, held it, and gave it a cursory glance before dropping it in a boiling pot of water. He fanned Ein into the pot, closed his eyes, focused, and traced through the core's formation.

Inside the pot of water, the beast's core had faint blue lines slowly brightening. It was Oscar's Ein.

Every bit of ground his Ein gained was followed by a fierce roar of a beast. Oscar saw an image of a large white boar, touting its snout, with two blade-like tusks and large black cloven hooves stomping around. It charged powerfully at Oscar, but Oscar surged his Ein forward, clashing against this boar within its core.

His Ein shot out like stakes that stabbed into the boar, forcing it to retreat. Oscar's Ein flooded in more to take up the newly gained ground in the formation. As his Ein enveloped more of the core's formation, Oscar understood more about the creature.

But the beast was not finished.

The Razor Boar brandished its tusks and set out to slice its way through Oscar's Ein. It flailed its head around, swung its tusks like swords, and took slow steps forward, slicing some of Oscar's Ein.

"I'm too lax on it." Oscar thought about conserving his Ein, but the beast's will in the core was vastly different from its body parts. Drawing a deep breath, Oscar went for the final blow; his Ein flowed like a raging fire instead of the steady stream it was before. "Be gone!"

Squeals and frantic sounds resounded from the red core of Razor Boar. Inside its core, more of its will was attacked and broken apart. It stared straight at Oscar with furious red eyes, but it was no use as the rest of it crumbled into pieces, fading into the void.

The last cry of the beast echoed through the fiery workshop, but Oscar and the proctor were deaf to its woes. Its steaming red core was removed and placed on the anvil, glowing brightly with patterns on its surface.

Oscar extracted the formation that showed itself on the core's surface, laying it flat on the anvil. Oscar was entranced by how it looked every time; various points glimmered like stars linked by a bridge of light. Some had one, two, three, or more bridges.

Oscar's fingers glowed with his Ein and acted as a scalpel. He carefully cut around the section of the formation he learned was the part on the Razor Boar's sharp tusks.

"Phew." Oscar wanted to avoid making a mistake in cutting it, or else the effects could be worsened. "The rest should be all melted."

The crucible was full of molten material. Oscar poured it into a mold for a flat plate and allowed it to cool to harden slightly.

"Now, how will you create it?" The proctor smiled in anticipation.