Chapter 640: The Aetherium's Submission [Part 1]
"Where have you been? That red witch has been giving all of us hell because she's looking for you!"
One of the students yelled as he spotted Northern coming out of a corner.
He came closer, putting his hands casually on Northern's shoulders.
"Lael, man, please don't leave her side, so the rest of us can breathe forever. It's too hot without you around her."
Northern's eyes shifted down to the hand with a grim expression.
"Ah, sorry... the rumors were true. You certainly don't like being touched, ha ha." The student shifted away from Northern with a slightly pale face, forcing a short smile.
He didn't know what happened, but his throat felt itchy and his hands trembled, even as he took them off Northern's shoulders.
Northern nonchalantly walked forward, leaving the boy behind. It took a couple of seconds standing alone-dazed and pale-before he eventually got hold of himself and ran to the forge.
Eleina folded her hands, watching furiously as Northern calmly strolled into the forge. Her expression was slightly tense but hidden so much that only her fiery anger radiated.
"What do you think you are doing? Storming out of the smithy and being gone for over ten minutes?!"
Northern bowed his head slightly. "I am sorry. There was something I had to take care of urgently."
"I don't care whatever it was. Get back and start working on the damn mineral before I change my mind."
Northern chuckled, smiling with his eyes while suppressing the viciousness that was left from a few minutes ago.
Not like Eleina was someone he could hurt even if he wanted to. As long as he had so much to gain from her, she was still very useful to him.
And he really did need to work on the mineral ore.
A couple of minutes later, Northern stood before the Aetherium, staring down at it with a hammer in his right hand.
He clenched his hand tightly as he assessed the mineral with Chaos Eyes.
"This is going to be difficult," Northern muttered.
He paused, squinting his eyes as he gazed and gauged the ore.
After which, Northern lifted his arm. He didn't lift it up too much; what he wanted to do was crush it to small bits, but first, he had to be sure that the resistance of the ore was not going to be destructive.
Over the past few weeks, one of the things he had learned in theory was that rift resources, especially mineral ores, have a certain resistance to hammering and heat. Usually, depending on the level of resistance, methods of hammering differ.
He himself had experienced something like that with the red crystals. He only got to realize this while the instructors were giving a general lecture about it.
The red crystals' bloodlust was its own defensive mechanism, the mineral's way of desperately resisting being removed from its home.
Usually, they saw that miners face a more vicious resistance mining ores than blacksmiths who crush them. It was one of the reasons why a mundane human could not be a miner.
Northern was curious to see how the Aetherium was going to resist being crushed, or at the very least lash out. He had observed it with Chaos Eyes and had seen a delicate helix structure of ligatures, quite unique. It was something he had never seen before, and it made him even more sure that rift resources have a will.
One could classify them as a living being. It was just that they didn't exactly breathe. But they can grow and have a will. Their resistance to being crushed is, in fact, proof of this.
Northern was speculating that with the Void Creation mechanism that he knew, he would be able to use soulforge in conjunction with minerals more resourcefully.
Perhaps, he could start by finding the arc to awaken Grengar.
With his mind rising optimistically, Northern raised the hammer slightly, not adding so much power as he swung it down on the mineral.
Immediately, with a cloud-ripping sound resounding in the heated air, several threads of lightning violently discharged, weaving through the air.
Although Northern was unarmed, the discharge seemed to have even ripped the metal table in subtle places.
Almost everyone turned their heads in the forge, eyes slightly widened.
"What is that sound?" Someone murmured.
"I could swear I saw a light just now..." another murmured from a far angle.
They glanced at him and murmured even more before returning to their respective works.
Northern narrowed his eyes. 'No one saw that?'
It seemed to him that no one had exactly been able to capture what happened, except for the thunderous sound and sharp flash of light.
No one except him had seen how the lightning had whipped across the air around him and even torn the table in small holes like sword chips.
Northern exhaled deeply, his fingers tightening around the hammer as he examined the mineral.
The Aetherium seemed to hum faintly, its subtle sparks resembling a heartbeat. It resisted him-alive, stubborn, and unwilling to yield.
His Chaos Eyes flickered quickly in and out of appearance as he focused on its structure once
more.
The helix of ligatures pulsed, reinforcing themselves against his attempts.
Northern reached out, brushing his fingertips against the mineral. The faint static jolted up his arm, sharp and deliberate. His Chaos Eyes caught the subtle shift in the mineral's structure, almost as if it were daring him to continue.
'So, you don't want to submit, do you?' Northern thought, a grim smile tugging at his lips. 'Let's see how far your will goes.'
This time, he didn't raise the hammer immediately. Instead, he summoned the Void Aura that lingered within him, letting the faint chill seep into the air around him. The forge's heat wavered, and a few nearby smiths looked over, rubbing their arms as if struck by a sudden
cold.
Northern's voice was low, almost a whisper, as he spoke to the mineral. "If you're alive, then you'll feel this."
With a swift motion, he brought the hammer down again, the Void Aura swirling around his
arm.
The impact sent another surge of lightning whipping through the air, but this time, it was
different.
The Aetherium didn't just resist-it retaliated.
A shockwave erupted from the mineral. Northern tilted his head backward to avoid the sparks and arcs of electricity that lashed at him.
Eleina, who was coming towards him, was immediately gripped by fear. Her fiery anger was
replaced by a flicker of alarm. "What the hell did you do?"
Northern's lips twitched into a smirk. "It's fighting back."
"Fighting back?" Eleina snapped, stepping forward, her gaze locked on the mineral. "Aetherium has resistance, yes, but they don't fight back. What did you do?"
Northern shrugged, "I have no idea. Would it hurt its pride to just give in?"
Eleina slapped her face softly, lowering her head. "Oh Fach, what in the world has this nut job
done."
She observed the mineral and shook her head slightly. After a couple of beats, she said:
"Taming a mineral is not about proving which is stronger. It's about respect. You don't just take your hammer and lash it out at them. Didn't you learn this at Instructor Galanar's class? It starts with a subtle tap with the hammer. Not harmful, your approach is not forced but rather tamed. Then hit after hit, the frequency is raised. Until one final strike breaks them
apart."
Northern tilted his head a bit.
Seeing him, Eleina's eyes flared.
"What?"
"It just seems rather unsettling that I have to show respect to a mineral."
"So, what? You want to keep hitting it and destroy the entire forge or get yourself killed."
"Things like this should be subdued by pure might. I am the blacksmith, it's the mineral that will work to create my art. What deserves respect is a perfection born out of my skill and sweat, not a mineral that grew on some mountainside."
Eleina stayed silent for a few moments. In her mind, she knew Northern was right. A blacksmith's job was to subdue a mineral and mold it into a weapon.
It is the weapon that deserves his respect, not the mineral. The mineral should only be
subdued.
She had once had this ideology; it wasn't new. It could work for some mineral ore.
But a tier five rift resource like an Aetherium. No, that was impossible.
It would kill one before they are able to shatter its will.
She sighed, "Lael. Just do as you are told."
"No," Northern refused, a stubborn light in his eyes.
"Are you disobeying me right now?"
"If you are going to be mediocre, then you probably do not deserve to be my teacher."
Eleina's eyes widened. Half a second later, her brows furrowed, flames of anger viciously burning in the depth of her gaze.
The entire forge paused whatever they were doing, watching from afar as disagreement boiled between the anger and the student.
Northern lifted the hammer to Eleina's face. "Watch me prove you wrong today. A mineral you subdue into submission is far better than the one you trick into submission."