*

Ezra and Luke were still talking about the Sleepy Rain feedback. The half-wolf commented on his idea to test the combination of the two magic circles.

“I was curious what the result would be. Maybe it would be possible to electrify the smoke” Luke said.

“Theoretically that is possible…” Said Ezra, scratching the back of his neck as he looked at his notepad.

[Luke, I don’t believe it’s possible to use these two incantations together]

‘What? What do you mean?’

[I was just thinking, maybe it’s not possible to use just these two incantations]

‘What do you mean by that?’

[Not just these two. Try controlling the smoke with the external sword incantation. Controlling it to become a better electrical propagation medium]

‘I see. Then I would need to use all three at the same time’

[Exactly. I’m almost one hundred percent sure that the function of the external incantation is not just to stabilize the sword’s mana]

​ ‘Got it, thanks Balance’

[Relax, now go ahead and test that]

–

‘Ezra, I still want to test a few things before I move on to the last sword. I’ll move on to the testing room again. Is that okay?”

“No problem, I’ll just activate the ventilation system again. Good luck, Luke” Ezra said, still centered looking at his notebook. The little blacksmith then went about trying to find the right lever with his hands, touching the different levers and buttons that controlled the test room.

When he found the airflow lever, again he activated it to the maximum. He did this without looking ahead, just trying to tell by touch which was the right one. The boy was completely focused on his notes, he was in a very intense flow of thoughts, and with that, he didn’t want to lose the line of reasoning.

‘Theoretically to produce Luke’s sword I will need to re-read the books that Hepha lent me last summer. It will require balancing the elements of the sword… But how am I going to do that?’ Several such thoughts were floating through Ezra’s head, who was watching the notebook while biting down on a pencil.

Luke walked into the room, wielding the Sleepy Rain. Now his goal was to test the advice made by Balance, after all, if this sword had been designed by Hephaestus, there was probably some trickery that Luke had not yet realized.

Wielding that purple sword with both hands, Luke again channeled his mana to the maximum. Gradually the smoke from that weapon began to gather around the blade.

This time, Half-wolf’s first objective was to energize the edge of the sword. The incantation that was engraved on the iron of the sword began to glow in a faint shade of purple. The moment this glow began to emit, Luke felt a strange sensation in his body.

Again, the mana that was coursing through the sword regrouped into a straight line connecting the three points. This sensation was somewhat confusing to the half-wolf, after all, it was as if the sword was pulling more mana from his hands than before.

After the brief scare, Luke started trying to connect the two internal incantations of the sword. But for some reason, he was unable to get Sleepy Rain to release electrical sparks while possessing that toxic smoke around its blade.

Luke remained casting mana into the sword, confident that he would be able to control those two enchantments. He was paying attention to the details of that weapon, it was as if he was watching a river in front of him, and depending on how that stream of water fell, everything could change.

That analogy was just how Luke tried to perceive and understand that weapon. However, this was not being efficient enough to help the half-wolf in this task. He was not being able to control that weapon, this a much more complex task than he had imagined.

‘I’ve already aligned the two energy streams, theoretically that’s all I needed to do no?’ This thought crossed Luke’s mind.

Balance had already solved the problem in her mind, she knew exactly how to guide the half-wolf to the correct path. However, this time she decided to go about it in a different way, she was going to remain silent.

The reason? It was an extremely simple answer. Luke needed to learn how to solve this kind of mana manipulation problem on his own, after all, this was what would make him mature and learn how to better control this gigantic amount of energy that was inside his body.

There was also the issue that at some point, Balance would leave Luke. Maybe that would be sooner than she imagined, so she couldn’t let him be too dependent on her.

The two had grown very close over the past few weeks. This closeness was something Luke had grown accustomed to, he knew that for every thought he had, there was always a companion to help him and talk to him.

However, he shouldn’t take this kind of support for granted. Surely Luke would always have a woman by his side supporting him, but this presence within his mind, was something temporary.

Luke kept walking back and forth while swinging with his sword, he was testing the aerodynamics and weight of the sword. Giving small strikes in the air, the half-wolf was getting used to the feeling of using that weapon.

His head was processing everything that had happened and after a few minutes Luke began to test again the use of the sword’s magical functions.

Then the half-wolf again drew his sword and positioning one of his feet forward, Luke entered an attack position. He was watching the various test dummies in front of him, again, he was focused on his goal of eliminating the targets using both poison and electricity enchantments.

“Electricity needs a medium to propagate, I remember hearing Megan say that. If I use enough mana, lightning will come out of my sword and harness the air to flow to the target. By controlling my mana, I can control the lightning.” Luke was reviewing everything he knew about that sword and even the basics of magic, speaking aloud.

Soon his eyes widened. He had finally understood how to begin his task. Channeling his energy, he concentrated first on energizing the magic circle on the outside of the sword. This time, he went about controlling his mana to manipulate that enchantment.

‘The function of this circle is to control mana, it serves both to control the flow inside the sword, and to control the shape of the attacks. So, it should also be able to control the smoke…’ Luke’s thoughts were aligning, so he finally concluded this riddle.

After completely channeling his energy into the external incantation, Luke began to visualize that magic circle as a kind of sword commander. He then proceeded to use it to manipulate the toxic smoke coming out of the weapon.

That smoke was changing shape, initially it stopped the production of particular electrics. But now, with the control of the half-wolf, finally that smoke was letting the sword create those little sparks of energy.

Slowly a gigantic amount of purple smoke formed around Luke. Just far enough away to make the half-wolf able to breathe quietly.

*sigh*

Luke sighed and concentrated as hard as he could on his next move. He then grouped all that smoke in front of him. Pointing his sword at that toxic cloud, Luke channeled his mana and shot a single bolt of lightning at it.

The smoke completely held back the electricity, the vision Luke had in front of him looked like a fully energized cloud during a thunderstorm. He then began to control that attack using the sword’s external incantation.

Taking the form of a dragon, that cloud flew at high speed towards the wooden figures. The moment the dragon got close enough to the head of one of the dolls, Luke snapped his fingers.

That smoke bit the test dummy’s head and then exploded. Several bolts of lightning began to spread over each of the targets, completely burning most of the targets’ torso.

The toxic smoke kept eating away at those wooden dummies, so that there was practically nothing left of those targets. The combination of these two spells was surprisingly efficient, in fact it was as if the electricity was even more powerful now that it was moving through the smoke.

Luke had finally understood how he was supposed to use that weapon, now was the time to practice as many attacks as possible. Swinging his sword, the half-wolf launched a fast attack, in a single slash.

A purple attack shaped like a half-moon flew out of the sword blade. The sound was like that of a blade cutting the air, however, it was also possible to hear a sound of electricity flowing with the attack.

That half-moon decapitated one of the dolls that was behind the ashes of the previous attack. The face of that wooden puppet was burned completely, and the smoke poured down from above until again, there was nothing but ashes.