Mack pondered over the matter if he should change his battle style, but still could not make a decision.

‘What is my major weakness?’ Thought Mack, trying to follow a more logical approach to the problem.

He remembered all that happened during the fights and concluded that his two major weaknesses currently were, “I almost can’t use ranged attacks and if that gun shot that pierced my shoulder had hit my chest all my runespells would stop working, even if it didn’t hit my heart, i would be dead in a matter of minutes without my runespells”

Since the day that Mack had reshaped his runespells and created paths that connected to his chest were he put the essence congregation circuit, all the triggers and designs he made in both his hands now connected and went there, Mack had to cut off his own arm to discover that the runes carved on his skin would not appear on a completely new limb, after a few days of experimenting with this in the tower, he concluded that the runes carved on his body would only be permanent if a single part be it from the runespells or pathways were still intact, that’s why he chose to carve pathways in his entire body and the ‘core’, the essence congregation circuit, at the center of his chest. Because if someone almost killed him, he would just need to run and recuperate and if given time, his runespells would be back again.

That’s was one of the reasons Mack thought blood of warlocks was most mystical than it appeared. It was like it could carry information on its own. Limited, but it could.

“Focus Mack! focus!” Said Mack aloud to stop thinking of things he already knew, and re-focus on the problem in front of him. His weakness.

“Since my major weakness today is the essence congregation circuit at my chest, I should try to protect better that area. If that shot had hit my chest, I would be a corpse now.”

Even knowing that he was not the best at hand to hand combat, Mack knew that he could protect his vitals in close combat, the problem was spells or things like that gun shot in the arm, things he could not predict or were too fast to be able to defend.

“The second one is that I barely have a way to use ranged attacks during a fight, this I can solve using something like what the old man suggested”

Thinking about those two problems, Mack started to draft designs in his head, as if trying to figure the best route of action.

If he truly were to melt the swords, he better use every single drop of that metal. The only advantage of that metal was that it had the effect of ‘negate’ the will of essence. In other words, spells could affect it, nor runes, nor gun shots made by essence, nothing, only brute and physical force could break it.

It was indeed the best material for defensive gear and for attacking weapons, because it could pierce spells like a defensive barrier. And that was the major advantage that Mack currently had. He could not lose it.

But thinking of all this, Mack suddenly thought of something that he never even questioned himself before.

‘Old man, why is that I can carve runes in my flesh and use my blood in rune circuits, but it will not work with the swords?’

[Took you long enough to ask this. This is because of the process used in creating the metal. They boil the blood until there is only iron with a special fire, a fire that has the properties to negate will. They call it Ether Fire, and is extremely rare. In this process, it’s as if the ‘will to negate’ is imprinted on the iron]

“Ether Fire…. so many ‘magical things out there”

[But as you know, the problem is not finding this fire, but finding enough warlock blood to create a small piece of iron as each human being has an average of 4 grams of iron in its body, and during the process of boiling some are bound to be lost, that’s why the ‘warlock farms’ were created, to continually provide a small supply of warlock blood to the mage families.]

Rethinking of this Mack suddenly came to a conclusion, and said in his mind, ‘So….. There are more weapons out there forged with warlock blood, this two swords are not some mythical weapons, they are just rare.’

[Yes, until a single warlock is alive, they will never stop forging this kind of weapon or creating elixirs, as thousands of years passed since the end of war against warlocks, the warlocks farms importance surpass any kind of wealth a mage family can have]

Hearing that, Mack gave another look at the swords and think that he should use his advantages to the maximum. He should not be emotionally attached to them, or some day, he may lose his life to someone using the same kind of weapon.

[You have decided?]

Mack brows furrowed as decisive gaze formed on his eyes, and he said, “Yes”.

[Good, I will contact a blacksmith I trust and will arrange for you two to meet. Those cubes would not work with the metal in the swords. It will need to be done in the old way, by hammering]

“Thank you” Said Mack aloud, but refrained to ask more questions or prolong the talk. He still had to think in the exact details before he met with the blacksmith.

Barely Mack finished saying his thanks a he heard a bell ring by the side of the door. It seemed someone was asking for him to open the door.

Mack suddenly remembered of the agitated overseer leaving in a hurry and thought that maybe a new problem had arrived at his doorstep.

He grabbed his swords and walked to the door, pressing the button to open it.