Omnitrickery

So when heroes absorb a material, they tend to get the variation of the base form. But there are some exceptions. For example, Kizuna absorbing bones tend to give her darts despite the base form being a fishing rod. So for example if Clara absorbed a shell, she would get a pot, while absorbing claws could give Jim tongs.

"There, try again."

The witch poked Jim's arm again and he felt his mana recover. He was trying to cast a simple fireball spell, but was having trouble actually forming it.

Moving mana was actually a lot easier than Jim thought. After the instructor pushed her own mana through him, he had an easy time understanding what he was supposed to do. It was as if his arm that was asleep for a long time suddenly was in peak condition.

However, moving mana around was half the spell. Turning mana into a spell required an insane amount of concentration and understanding, as well as the memorization of the spell itself.

"By the power of the… world, and the will of the hammer… spirit, bend the mana… to my will. Fast Fireball!"

Jim tried to throw as much mana as he could together, and just for a moment the tiniest flame flew from the fingertip of his fingers.

"I… I did it… I DID A THING!" Jim yelled, jumping up and down from happiness. The flame hit the coal in the furnace, but it flickered out just as fast as it appeared.

"Is it true that your world didn't have magic?" the woman asked. Jim found out from Egrevaht that her name was Evandel.

"Yeah. We don't have anything like magic. I guess we have technology, which sometimes achieves the same effects and is often considered magic by less advanced societies, but we don't have magic in the way you guys do here," Jim replied, moving the coals away so that he doesn't set everything on fire.

"Well, I suppose that's enough for today," Evandel replied, closing her book. "You should continue to practice fire magic on your own. Also I would recommend that you practice supporting magic as well. Here is the second tier magic for when you're ready."

The magic instructor dropped the two books on the table, the cover title written out of silver letters instead of the one with bronze ones that Jim was learning from.

Jim thanked Evandel and watched her leave. He raised his hand towards the furnace and tried to cast the fireball spell again with what little mana he had left.

"By the power of the world, and… the will of the hammer spirit, bend the… mana to my will. Fast Fireball!"

This time the result was slightly better, now at least flying a meter and lasted for a few seconds before burning away. Jim continued to practice his chant and wait for his mana to replenish to try to fire off the spell again and again.

]—

"Fast… Fire… ball…" Jim gasped out. After almost two hours of blasting fireballs and recovering he was physically and mentaly exhausted. It became easier to chant and maintain focus when casting, but it was incredibly tiring to recover and empty his mana over and over again.

The fire ball, instead of dropping to the ground, rushed forwards and slammed onto the coals. With a fury fury, it began devouring the fuel and warm the furnace. It took a few seconds until Jim finally realized what he did.

"IT WORKED! FINALLY!" Jim yelled, dropping to his knees. "I GOT MAGIC!"

With revived motivation he began to heat up metal and craft away.

]—

Egrevaht walked into the throne room and was met with the king, his advisor, and several nobles and knights looking at him.

"How's his progress?" the king asked, looking at the blacksmith. Egrevaht was holding the sword and two bows made with the Thunder Fenrir bones from yesterday and was called to report on them.

"I'll give it another two weeks and he will reach the level close to the best blacksmiths in the world," Egrevaht replied.

"I don't need him at the level of other blacksmiths, I need him to go past that!"

"I understand your majesty, but I'm already cramming months of practice into days. I don't think I could go any faster without sacrificing quality," Egrevaht shook his head and put the weapons on the table. The king nodded to someone and a woman with a bow around her shoulder walked forwards. She took the two bows and pulled them back.

She first took Egrevahts bow and shot a few arrows into a raised shield on the wall. Several sparks bounced off of the arrows and struck the shield. A few sparks hit the flag next to it and lit it on fire, but someone cast a water spell and put it out before it could spread.

"Not bad."

She then picked up the one made by Jim and looked at it curiously. She began to move it up and down as if weighing it. She then fired off a few more arrows from the second bow, not getting as many sparks, before putting it down.

"What do you think?"

"The first bow is obviously of better quality, and the thunder arrow effect is much stronger."

"I see," the king said, lowering his head in disappointment.

"However," she began, making the king raise his hand again. Everyone seemed to turn their full attention to her. "The second one feels a bit lighter and is easier to pull back."

"What does that mean?" one of the nobles whispered. Others, including the king, also looked around in confusion.

"It means that the level requirement is lower," Egrevaht said, stepping forward.

"But how can that be? Didn't you both use the same materials? Yours is of higher quality as well!" the king exclaimed, looking at the two weapons. The archer held one bow in each hand and continued observing them.

"Quality can boost the stats of a weapon, and even has a chance of adding a special effect to any weapon. However, the level requirement depends on the materials used," Egrevaht explained. "And this rule continued to exist for as long as I was a blacksmith. Meaning that the crafter hero can not only learn blacksmithing at an accelerated rate, but also possesses the power to lower the requirement level of crafted equipment. I understand you all know what this means, correct?"

Some people nodded, some just continued to look confused, others shook their heads.

"It means that if the crafter hero continues to power up the way he is right now, he could potentially make level 100 gear equipable for a level 10 person. And the best part is this means that gear made for level 101 and higher level requirements will be within the range for our knights who are capped out at 100!"

This got a reaction out of everyone. The knights seemed eager to see what kind of powers such high level equipment could give them, the nobles thought of the higher quality jewels they could get, and the king was thinking of the power his troops could have.

"Have him practice making magic staffs and accessories. And get the old schematics out of the royal vault when the time comes. I want him to remake the old weapon," the king said, hiding his grin under his beard.

"What about armor? Shouldn't we prioritize that sinc-," Egrevaht tried to say. But the king cut him off.

"That is an order," the king said, sending the blacksmith away. "Now get going. You have a pupil to teach."

Egrevaht knew there was no point in arguing and picked up his weapons.

"Leave them. We will give them to the knights," Herbertus called out, waving at his servants to take them away. Egrevaht sighed and left the throne room, closing the two double doors behind him.

That man has no patience.

Egrevaht sighed heavily as he walked towards the hero's room, his old hammer on his waist. He stopped at a nearby statue of a previous crafter hero and sighed. His shoulders slumped as he looked over the name of the hero.

Let's hope the newbie will make it through this hell.

]—

"GOD DAMN IT!" a scream rang out, shaking the windows of the room. The ring bearer launched the metal jar across the room and fired off a magic blast from his ring. The jar crashed into the nearby wall and was stuck in place by the blast.

The ring bearer breathed heavily as he paced back and forth around the room.

"Sir, is everything alright? I heard screaming," the royal knight walked into the room and looked around. The ring bearer looked between him and the jar for a few seconds before calming down.

"Pick up that jar for me and tell me if it changes your stats at all."

The ring bearer watched as his knight pulled the jar out of the wall and turned it around in his hands. The knight's eyes widened as his status expanded and he looked over at the ring user.

"It took a lot of my attack and a bit of speed, but I got a lot more defense and magic defense in return."

The ring bearer groaned and slammed his hand onto his table.

"So it's just an inconveniently shaped shield then," he muttered. When he equipped the jar it took his attack away and it refused to tell him its upgrade method. Looks like he couldn't use otherworld weapons with the ring.

Suddenly he stood up and turned to the knight.

"Catch this!"

The ring bearer raised his hand and shot a small magic bullet at the knight, who wasted no time raising his new weapon to block. The bullet itself was weak, so it didn't do any damage once it hit its mark.

"Well, at least it blocks that much."

The ring bearer turned to his desk and was about to dismiss the knight, when the knight seemed to make a discovery.

"It filled up a bit," he said, opening the jar. At the very bottom of the small jar was a few drops of a white glowing liquid. The ring bearer took the jar and poured the liquid on the ground. However once it exited the rim, it turned into a small beam that crashed into the floor, leaving behind a burn mark.

A smile seemed to spread on the ring bearer's face as ideas crawled into his mind. He tossed the jar onto his desk and turned to his knight.

"Go hire a blacksmith and tell him to make me a large wide jar. Oh, and give him the materials from our stash to make it. Here's the payment. Tell him to get it done asap."

The ring bearer handed his knight a bag of coins and the key to the storage room of his castle. The knight bowed and left the room while the ring bearer continued to observe the jar, now gaining a new outlook on how the weapon worked.