"This road's a mess," Reisen Riou grumbled, hauling a basket of iron ore.
Ritou Shrine's paths were smooth dirt, but after rain, they turned to slop. Drainage ditches lined the sides, but shoddy tamping left muddy pits. Reisen Riou trudged ahead, reinforcing the path with Geo elemental power.
Using Geo meant he led the pack.
Yesterday, the town magistrate informed him his commissioned forging tools were ready. He took a few junior mikos to check, but the haul—sacks of fire-resistant clay, baskets of iron ore, an anvil—was too much. He sent the mikos back with lighter tools and hired porters for the rest.
A predawn shower made the mountain path a slog. Reisen Riou, rarely out, hadn't seen it this bad.
No matter. He and the porters reached the shrine, offloaded the goods to the near-finished forge site, and settled their pay—8,000 to 10,000 Mora each, based on weight.
In Teyvat, fire elements simplified forging. No charcoal needed; plain wood hit scorching temps. Add Fire Slime gel or Flaming Flower stamens, and it got hotter.
Furnace designs were solid science. Forging, not metallurgy, left little for Reisen Riou to tweak, so he focused on user experience.
Using fire-resistant clay, bricks, and regular bricks, he built a sturdy furnace, Geo-refined to theoretical perfection.
He fired it up, reddening iron ore, and began forging.
Activating his brain's image-data analysis, cross-referencing Forging Basics, he grasped the craft fast.
Forging Theory LV4 (1.2/100), Forging LV1 (96.2/100)—his day's haul.
He had a knack for forging, or rather, for repetitive, data-heavy tasks with low reaction demands. Sensitive to patterns, he never repeated mistakes.
His data analysis predicted errors—like an iron block at X thickness and Y temperature cracking under Z force. Unless the material changed, Z was the max force. Thickness, temperature, and force could interplay.
In three days, he went from a cocky newbie to a competent smith—Forging LV2 (12/100)—crafting decent farm tools and standard weapons (1-star).
Per Raiden Ei, mastering Forging Basics would yield fine weapons (2-star).
He'd forged a Training Spear, Training Greatsword, and Worn Blade.
The Apprentice's Notes wasn't crafted—it was a blank notebook that, with spellcraft study, absorbed knowledge, gaining minor magical boosts.
It was weak, fitting its apprentice-grade status.
He also self-taught weapon enhancement, extracting "memories" from ore via refining—a complex process yielding purple crystals called Mixed Refinement Ore.
Mixed Refinement Ore enhanced 1-star (standard) and 2-star (fine) weapons.
Enhanced weapons gained tiers: 1-star refined once to Tier 2 (LV20); 2-star refined thrice to Tier 4 (LV40); 3-star (exceptional) refined five times to Tier 6 (LV60); 4-star (epic) refined five times to Tier 8 (LV80); 5-star (divine) refined five times to Tier 9 (LV90).
Star ranks set initial tiers—2-star started at Tier 2—but power gaps weren't absolute. In skilled hands, epic weapons could grow to rival weaker divine ones.
Back to Reisen Riou's forging: a competent smith, he still puzzled over Forging Basics' nuances.
While gathering data, he eagerly awaited Raiden Ei's return.
A month later, his Forging LV2 (99.9/100) teetered on the edge. Forging one 2-star weapon would push him to LV3, but that 0.1 stumped him. Three days of cross-referencing past-life scraps and book tidbits couldn't elevate his weapons to "fine."
He'd hit a wall.
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