The most important reason for why he wanted the runes he will engrave onto the warhammer is because the base weapon is a rank 4 weapon, not some rank 3 weapon.
He felt that it would be a total shame to spend so much money and time on it just to create an ordinary rank 3 level enchantment.
He was not aiming to create a rank 4 level enchantment. His main goal was to create the best kind of rank 3 formation engravings, but he was going to see if he could engrave rank 4 formations.
After all, if he doesn't try, he won't know if he can or not. So rather than rush, he decided to spend more time on the matter of formation engraving.
He wasn't hoping to create a formation treasure that could instantly or quickly activate an immobile formation. What he wanted to create was a weapon that was invincible in the third mortal coil.
In order to achieve this, he spent a month of his time on enchanting the weapon. This was twice as much time as he had spent on the design and forging of the weapon.
When he was done, the black hammer was full of blue and purple engravings. Its whole surface had been covered with those runes.
The runes on the surface of the weapon were alive. They were in a dormant state, but they were all working without his energy input.
This phenomenon was not normal. The runes were alive because the material they were on was also alive.
The external foundation within the core of the hammer was still pulsating like a beating heart. With each beat, mana went into the hammer. Then the mana was expelled in a cycle.
The special state of the hammer made it easy to observe the activity and structure of all the runes. What could be seen showed that the runes were connected in one large network of circuitry.
Energy from the external foundation was compressed into a smaller volume, passed through the circuit of runes, enhanced through a runic transformer, and then distributed into every rune.
Since not every rune was active at the moment, the distribution of electricity wasn't uniform for the runes. The extent of their interactions also couldn't be fully observed.
But Arthur, as the one who engraved the runes, knew that they would all work together seamlessly if need be.
He had fallen short of forging a rank 4 item due to the lacking formations. He had the knowledge, but he couldn't engrave rank 4 runes because his divine sense and cultivation weren't powerful enough.
Rank 4 runes were bottomless pits of energy and focus. Each attempt at engraving then always made him faint during or after the process.
Even when he managed to engrave one, it was too big, had too many errors, was inefficient, and couldn't be made to work together with the other runes. So he gave up on them.
The finished hammer turned out to be a half rank 4 artifact because of the high quality of its base material and top-notch engravings.
It was disappointing that he couldn't forge a true rank 4 item, but he was only a little bit disappointed. He recovered from his disappointment quickly because he could also try again in the future.
The hammer could always be scrapped and reforged in the future. This is something he has to do in the first place when the external foundation within it becomes more powerful.
Without disappointment, all that remained was pride. Arthur gazed at the hammer with immense satisfaction and pride.
He said, "This will have to do for now."
"I am Lightning Tyrant, and you are my hammer. I will call you Lightning's Descent because every move of yours is accompanied by the descent of lightning. Together, we will bring the tyranny of lightning to all our foes."
"I'm sure that many will resist the gospel of lightning that we bring to them. But not to worry, I will be there with you. Together, we will be unstoppable."
Then he rolled his eyes and fell asleep. He was too exhausted to think for another moment.
He could have taken a pill to recover his mental state, but he didn't want to do that anymore because his head was aching.
Not even concentration pills could ease his headache because the foundation of his mind has been fatigued beyond his limit. This was because of his numerous attempts to forge rank 4 runes.
His mind had been stressed too much by those runes. His mind stretched so much that it became more powerful, and his divine sense expanded.
This increase in the power of his mind means that he has a divine sense that is more powerful than those at the same cultivation level as him. This is without considering the enhancement of the Mountain Karma divine ability.
But the enhancement also came at a great cost. That cost is that he needs to sleep to recover. That is hours of his time that he has to spend doing nothing but sleeping. It is indeed a great cost to him.
After waking up, he sent the hammer to Thor just as he promised. He went there himself this time to chat with Thor about the hammer.
The two of them talked for hours. But good times had to end. Thor went back to cultivating, while Arthur went back to the inner sect to cultivate too.
Arthur and Roar spent their time cultivating for the next ten years. During that time, very little had happened.
The most important thing that happened was that many people wept after hearing that Arthur had reached the ninth transformation of the third mortal coil.
Concerning the bet, since he wasn't dead yet, there were only two people who were going to earn something from it if he advances. These two people were him and a lady who had bet that he would reach the peak of the third mortal coil.