The tall red statue was incomplete. It had many gaps in its structure that exposed insides full of gears and pistons.
Whenever he finished what he was hammering, he would pick it up from the anvil and slot it into gaps in the giant red statue. So it looked as if he was building a puzzle.
Arthur received the vast information about forging materials from the information crystal. After receiving the information, he rubbed his forehead and said, "Maybe I should have gone to the advanced forging class."
Thor agreed. "You should have."
Arthur couldn't deny that because he realized that he could have learned a lot that would have made his project easier. But in his defense, he became too engrossed with formations and couldn't spare the time to do anything else.
From the information crystal, he learned about super alloys. These are different from alloys because they are made from only one material.
Normal alloys are made by mixing two different materials. The product of this mixture is a hybrid of these materials, and successful alloys are superior in one or more aspects to either of their parent materials.
For example, a common alloy known as steel. This is an alloy made of iron and carbon. Arthur is certain of that because the plant that Thor hybridized with the pine tree to create the silver pine tree is a blood tree, which bleeds red blood sap containing a lot of iron.
But superalloys are made from one material. These materials are enhanced through forging processes and with copious amounts of mana to create superalloys.
Examples of superalloys are Adamantium, Celestine, Mithril, and Orichalcum. They are made from diamond, gold, silver, and copper, respectively.
The conversion rate of the base material to the superalloy is abysmal. The highest conversion rate is that of 10 grabs of diamond for one gram of adamantium. The worst one is the conversion rate of 100 grams of copper for one gram of orichalcum.
The conversion rate of copper to orichalcum is very low, but he understands why. It is mostly because copper is a nominal rank 1 material while orichalcum is a rank 4 material.
The gap between the two is too wide. It is not like a diamond, which is a rank 4 material, being converted into adamantium, which is good enough to be a rank 6 material.
There are several cheaper alloys of copper that stand between copper and orichalcum. But there is no alloy that possesses the quality of superconductivity at room temperature.
Copper is normally a high conductor of electricity. But it still possesses resistance, which leads to the loss of electricity during transmission. But orichalcum doesn't possess any resistance. Electricity flows through it smoothly without loss.
Arthur learned a lot from that information crystal, but it was super alloys that drew most of his attention. He could imagine what he could achieve with the information and the special metals. It made his eyes glitter like stars.
But he didn't forget what he came for initially. He came to find a material that can insulate lightning, withstand the temperature of lightning, and also isolate mana.
The last requirement is the most important one. Environmental mana is the greatest obstacle to what he is trying to achieve.
Mana is like radiation. It interferes with and destroys electronics. Since he has taken the path of forging the armament as an integrated circuit board, he has to nullify the effects of eternal mana. Especially in his lightning transformer.
He found many materials in the information crystal that could meet his first requirement, such as wood and rubber. They could insulate lightning. Unfortunately, they couldn't withstand the heat of lightning.
He also found materials that met his first two requirements, such as glass and diamond. They could insulate lightning and withstand the high temperature of the transformer.
However, they couldn't isolate the transformer from mana. So he ditched them too.
What he settled on was ceramic alloy. It met all three of his requirements and it was cheap.
Ceramics is easy to work with. So would be able to easily apply it to every part of the armament. Most importantly, he would be able to afford applying it to every part of the armament unlike the other expensive options that he skipped.
This was what made him regret not furthering his studies in forging. He felt that if he had spent more time studying, he wouldn't have had to face the problems he encountered before, and things would have been easier.
He sighed and thought to himself, "Those who said that it was because they stood on the shoulders of giants to achieve what they achieved were not underestimating the influence of previous work on their achievements."
After lamenting for a while, he asked Thor, "What are you building?"
Thor replied with a wide grin, "I'm building my son."
Arthur thought he didn't hear the reply clearly. He asked in confusion, "What did you say?"
Thor's grin became wider when he saw that Arthur was confused.
He waved Arthur over and said excitedly, "Come. Let me show you."
Then he removed his thick gloves, threw them aside, and he went over to the incomplete giant red statue.
The giant was at least twice as tall as Thor. So Thor could only reach up to its waist. In order to reach its back, he had to tip toe and raise his hands.
Thor touched the giant's back and sent some instructions into it. The red giant received the instructions and opened up its belly.
The way it opened its belly was mesmerizing. The metal sheets that made up its belly unfurled as if they were petals of a flower.
Arthur didn't think their action was an exaggeration when he saw the large, beautiful crystal within the belly of the red giant.
The crystal was about 10 centimeters in diameter. It was white and bright. But it was also refracting light, which caused a colorful halo to appear around it. This halo was similar to a rainbow.