Luke sighed and concentrated as hard as he could on the next step. He then gathered 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 figure was burned completely, and the smoke poured from top to bottom until again, there was nothing but ashes.

This demonstration of raw force power surprised even more Ezra, who had never even heard of this kind of use for magic incantations. Manipulating the attack after it was cast was already common, however, controlling poison spells in this way was something he had never really heard of.

This created a quick doubt in his mind, he was curious if his master Hephaestus had ever experienced this kind of use of the combat spells that are present within a magic weapon.

‘Better ask the master that. I’ll see after Luke leaves’ Ezra thought, as he made notes on his notepad.

‘Luke, tell me then. What is your final opinion regarding Sleepy Rain?” Ezra said, watching Luke. The boy was ready to write down every sentence the half-wolf uttered, every word of that feedback would be necessary and relevant to his learning.

Luke was scratching the back of his ears as he thought about how to explain what he had understood from the sword. It was something hard to put into words, it was a kind of gigantic feeling of mastery over that weapon.

p

The half-wolf then brought the sword close to his face. Holding it in both hands, Luke was looking at his reflection, which was shining with the sword’s brightness. It was possible to see his face clearly, as if it were a kind of mirror.

“I’ve never used magic swords before, at least not in this way. It’s really evident the balance that those other weapons had, but this one, the Sleepy Rain, it’s uncomfortable to use” Luke said.

Ezra frowned, he was not annoyed by the half-wolf’s comment. In fact, he was just annoyed at his own inability, he hadn’t made a weapon good enough that Luke could feel completely free using it.

This comment made sense to the little blacksmith, it was obvious that that weapon was too complex. After all, before Luke, no other swordsman had been able to masterfully use that weapon. The test the half-wolf had made not only took full advantage of the qualities of a sword that seemed to be practically useless, but also exploited functions that the experienced blacksmith who made it himself had no idea were possible.

“I loved that discomfort, I want my sword to be even more complex than Sleepy Rain. Try to use as many different enchantments as possible, create a confusing yet versatile system. I want a sword that no one else will be able to use, no one but me” Luke said, looking the little blacksmith in the eye.

Luke’s face was emitting a kind of bloodlust. The half-wolf’s eyes were violent and sharp, it was as if he was experiencing at that very moment, real combat.

These sharp eyes scared Ezra for a moment, but he soon realized that this fury was not meant for him. It was as if Luke was already visualizing how to use Ezra’s weapon in combat, the half-wolf was visualizing the fight in front of his eyes.

“I want a unique weapon, something new that you have never seen before. It doesn’t matter if it takes you months to produce this blade, just create something capable of cutting Gods and Demons” Luke said.

[Luke, are you okay?]

His eyes suddenly returned to normal, Balance’s voice brought him back to the present moment. He had lost himself again in a thirst for victory, just as had just occurred in the training room.

“All right! But can you explain to me a little better what you did in the last test?” Ezra questioned, stepping forward close to Luke.

“Sure! I’m sorry, I got distracted again” Luke said, now with his routine look.

“Regarding the balance of the sword, did you feel any more change in the last test?” Ezra said.

“Controlling the flow of mana had already made it much more balanced. However, as I added mana to the sword, I felt a change in the overall weight of the weapon. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but ideally the magic circles should be distributed in the same place… That way the sword would always be balanced” Luke said, while scratching the back of his head.

The two magic circles on the sword were misaligned from the design of the sword. One of them was positioned closer to the inside of the blade, while the other remained about six inches away and a little closer to the blade.

Luke had decided that he would order a Katana for Ezra. This type of weapon needs to have a stable center of gravity, after all, as much as the curvature of the weapon makes it naturally align the control of the blade, it was still necessary for the sword to possess a balance to facilitate accuracy.

This created a doubt in Luke’s mind, who soon proposed a test to Ezra.

“Since Sleepy Rain had this problem in mana manipulation, I could easily figure out where the magic circles of this sword were positioned. On the others I tested it on, it was as if I simply didn’t need to know exactly where it was” Luke said.

“How so?” Ezra questioned.

“It was as if to control the magic circle I only needed to direct my mana to it. Whereas in Sleepy Rain I needed to really master all three circles, let me check the other weapons, just to make sure the others have the magic circles lined up” Luke said.

This test was essential, after all, if this Sleepy Rain problem was also present in the other swords, that means the problem was in the way Ezra was producing his swords.

So Luke and Ezra retested the other swords, channeling the mana into the weapons and checking how the flow of mana was happening. This process was much faster than in the first tests.

With that, the two finally got an answer.

“All the other swords have the magic circle lined up. They are working perfectly fine” Luke said.

“Could it be that the problem was me? I mean, to produce a magic sword you have to wedge a magic circle inside the boiling iron. It makes sense that Sleepy Rain’s problem happened because of me” Ezra said, his face showing a clear annoyance with the situation.

“Try talking it over with Hephaestus, I don’t understand forging. I’m not the one you should be discussing this with” Luke said, letting out a short laugh. The half-wolf then extended his hand up to above Ezra’s head, he then released the weight of his hand and began to shake the little blacksmith’s hair.

“You are right, thank you very much Master Luke!” Ezra said.

“By the way, I believe it is best to leave the forge for today. I will go back to my room and rest some more, we can talk about my weapon another time” Luke said.

The half-wolf then finished giving feedback to Ezra and returned to the academy dormitory. It was just any afternoon for Luke.

However, for the little blue-haired blacksmith, what happened that day, after Luke had left, would be one of the most important memories of his life.