Michael closed his eyes and visualized the flow of mana in his mind. And in his mind's eye view, he could see the square chunk of Damascus Steel right in front of him as if it was an empty void ready to be filled.
Then, with careful precision, he guided a string of elemental mana into the Damascus Steel.
The microscopic fuzzy balls of energy entered through the microscopic gaps in the Damascus Steel's atoms until they became infused with mana! Suddenly, the Damascus Steel began to absorb more mana from Michael until it was fully saturated.
Using his Supreme Skill: Mana Gathering, he was able to see the true state of the Damascus Steel. Since it was infused with mana, it felt like the Steel itself became mana too!
With the help of ChatJK3, Michael was able to create Mithril on his very first try!
He opened his eyes and saw the substantial change in the Damascus Steel.
The previous gray and black color of the metal had changed completely, becoming translucent, like a crystal.
For this first experiment, Michael had infused the Damascus Steel with only Fire mana, which meant that the Mithril became like a crystal with a reddish glow from the inside.
He continued with his experiments, having eight different Mithril pieces with each containing a different elemental mana.
Michael picked up the Mithril with a slightly bluish glow from the inside of its translucent crystal-like body. This was the Water-element Mithril.
And as soon as he picked it up, a notification flashed through his vision.
[Strength of Water-element Spells increased by 30%]
[Mana consumption of Water-element Spells decreased by 50%]
[Casting time of Water-element Spells decreased by 10%]
Michael couldn't believe his eyes. Just by touching Mithril, casting a Water-element spell became so much more improved!
With this Mithril, a simple 2-star spell could have the same power as a 3-star spell!
Holding a Water-element Mithril increased the effects of a Water-element spell!
Is this the true effect of Mithril? It's much better than I thought, Michael thought to himself.
He tried it with the different elements and they all gave him the same effects. Each Mithril improved the effects of a spell as long as the spell used that specific element.
He could then confidently conclude that Mithrils could effectively increase a mage's magic output by at least half!
This was a breakthrough he didn't know he was going to get.
Michael could only wonder what kind of reaction Seberus would have once he told him of this discovery. The old man would probably drown from shock again!
He continued his experiments with the Mithril, combining two different elements into one Damascus Steel to see what kind of effects they would produce.
Strangely enough, combining two elements didn't necessarily increase its effects.
He put equal parts of Water and Earth mana into the Damascus Steel to make it a new kind of Mithril.
Theoretically, Water and Earth were supposed to be complementary to each other, meaning that they meshed well together in spells.
However, when he cast a 1-star spell [Water Ball] while holding this new Mithril, he found that its effects weren't as great as when he held the pure Water mana Mithril. It was worse by at least half.
It was the same when he cast a 1-star Earth spell.
However, when he cast a 1-star spell called [Muddy Quagmire], which needed both Water and Earth mana, the effects were a lot better than normal!
From this, Michael could conclude that the combination of mana into Mithril was only good if the spells being cast used those combinations of mana elements. Otherwise, it was better to just have one element into a Mithril.
And as he continued to experiment, he suddenly had an idea to put all elemental mana into one Damascus Steel.
He wanted to replicate the GodForge.
That material was rich with all elements that coincided with each other without canceling each other out. Because of that, it was able to release a tremendous amount of pure energy that resulted in a fire that could melt everything in its path.
Michael, knowing that he was playing with something a little bit dangerous, decided to experiment on a smaller piece of Damascus Steel, about the size of his palm.
He pulled the elemental mana out of his cores and slowly instructed them to infuse into the Damascus Steel.
To be cautious, he put one element at a time. He infused it with Fire mana, then Water mana, then Air mana, and so on and so forth.
There were now seven out of eight elements inside the Damascus Steel, and nothing had gone wrong as of yet. He just needed to infuse it with Light mana and he would be able to make a Mithril that contained all elemental mana.
As the Light mana left his hands and entered the Damascus Steel, the usually tame and docile elements inside suddenly reacted violently, as if a beast had been awoken.
The Damascus Steel, unable to handle all the energy from the fusion of all elemental mana inside it, burst into a million pieces and created a tremendous explosion that turned everything close asunder.
Michael's Absolute Unity Defense activated automatically, protecting him from the explosion.
The counteracting force of his defense was able to quell the explosion and prevent it from spreading outwards just in time.
If Michael hadn't suppressed it, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the explosion would have destroyed Michael's entire house and all the houses near it.
A couple of seconds later, a few of his trusted allies came bursting through the door, alarmed by the shockwave that emanated from his house.
"Boss! Are you okay?!" Lolo asked worriedly.
"Master! I'm here! Who's the enemy that dared to assassinate you?" Fudge said, jumping on Michael's head and performing some martial arts movements in the air.
"What happened? Are you okay, Boss?"
Even the Chief of Law Enforcement Centaur had been alarmed and rushed to Michael's aid.
He had to explain to everyone that he was fine and that the explosion was an after-effect of an experiment gone wrong.
After this explanation, they finally heaved a sigh of relief and went back to their daily lives.
Fudge, on the other hand, stayed behind and asked Michael about his experiment.
Once Michael explained it to him, the rogue slime immediately requested for Michael to create a Kunai dagger made out of Mithril, which of course, contained Dark mana inside and increased all dark-element spells he would use.
Fudge's words gave Michael an idea of how Mithril could be used in the future…