' this was not what I thought of a workshop' asta thinks as he looks at the mechanical hunk of metal about 4 stories tall, there is queue that goes for hundreds of meters at it's front gate. Hesitatingly he walks beside the queue and tries to go to the front, a bulky arm stopped his way as a six and half feet guy with some armor on his body turns to asta. "Do you think this queue is for a joke? Even nobles don't dare cut the line here." The guy says to asta as a nerve bulges on his bald forehead as grabs asta's collar, " I am not here as a customer... So keep your arms and frustration to yourself. " Asta says as grabs the guy's arm and lifts him up before smacking him down onto the ground.
Everyone got side and asta got to the side counter and knocked, a small dwarf half his height comes and looks at him before saying " Who are you? I don't remember seeing you in our workforce or interns?" " I am Ragon's disciple. He told me to come here." Asta hand the dwarf a letter which he opened up quickly and skimmed through. His expression turns to one of delight and happiness as he gives Asta a pat on his shoulder (the dwarf is standing on the table.)
" Ragon's pupil hahaha, he bragged a lot about how you became a advanced runesmith at 15 and he ran out of knowledge for you... Come in from the side gate." The dwarf goes in after pointing at a left side of the building, asta nods and just as he turned around the corner, he saw a lockless gate of full metal. The crowd however was in disbelief, a 15 year old advanced runesmith who just smacked a 6.5 feet ki user onto the ground was not something the city sees everyday.
'I used a little too much force on that guy, I just put some pressure but he felt Lighter than feather.. they aren't gonna arrest me are they?' Asta meanwhile is panicking inside while maintaining a calm face on the outside. Soon the door lifts to reveal a pair of stairs leading in, he climbs soon finds himself in a fuming forge with multiple dwarfs, humans and Orcs working on metallurgy and a few expert dwarfs showing rookies the basics or intermediate runesmithing. The small dwarf he met at the counter comes with his eyes covered by a pair of goggles, "Why are you just standing there? Why don't you show the rookies how it is done?.. leave your items to me, I will put them on 3rd room on the fourth floor." The dwarf takes Asta's bag and leaves the room and asta just stood there all confused with his hand raised to stop the dwarf.
"So you are Ragon's brat? I am argon and that punk's brother.Did that punk stop smoking yet?" From behind asta a bald dwarf with a beard which has its ends tied into knots and a hammer in hand walks towards him. The dwarf circles around asta slowly and observes him, he mumbles to himself and soon says "Come with me. We need atleast a test run to prove your identity." And gestures him to follow. Asta complies and soon is led to a bunch of people observing a older dwarf making a intermediate rune enchant on a shield. "Listen here ya maggots, your senior here is gonna show you some advanced enchants."
Argon gestures asta to go as he hands him a order written on a paper, through hesitant asta accepts and soon brings out his hammer from the grimoire and walks towards the materials on the shelf. A scythe made of red scaled steel enchanted to cut through hot surfaces and skin was what Asta had been told to make so he picked up a bunch of salamander scales, a few ingots of pig iron alongside a few bits of tungsten.
Asta crushed the scales to powder with his hammer and put them alongside the pig iron and tungsten in the smelting furnace, he begins supplying wind with magic while checking the heat from the surrounding temperature, soon the ingredients begin smelting and melted into a black liquid. Asta poured the alloy into a ingot and just as it cooled to a solid level, he moved it onto the anvil.
Hammering the alloy then reheated it again and again, each time the piece got smaller and smaller while eventually taking on the shape of scythe blade. After a lot of hammering to bring the width and length to his need asta heated it again and then quinched it. The scythe blade looks like charred wood with dust on it but asta didn't care and begins polishing it, soon the blackness fades to reveal a crimson red metallic scythe blade shining under the light of the forge, then the edge was sharpened and atlast the wooden part was added from ash wood that grows in volcanic area with rich mana.
'Flawless, not a single mistake from composition of materials to structure and heat. He is truly Ragon's disciple but the real deal begins here.' Argon says as he watches Asta from behind, alongside him are the bunch of interns and new workers. After a deep breath Asta begins the process of Runesmithing, Creating runes from dust of condensed mana right above the item and then ingraving it deep into the metal itself, one by one he added the runes, first beginner runes then intermediate runes and atlast advanced one like a pyramid where the lesser ones are the supplier and support and the highest ones are the ones gathering the power of lower runes and amplifying it further while also granting it the attribute depending on the highest rune.
'Not enough. NOT ENOUGH' Asta roars in his mind as a sense of imperfection comes to him, a raging foreign obsession takes over him as keeps going even after the advanced runes have been placed, a feeling that he can go higher takes over his mind. Argon quickly realises that something is wrong and guarded the newbies behind a mana barrier, the next second asta begins hammering beginner runes again and even faster while instead of the normal one rune there are now two runes and soon it turned to three, it fell back to two when asta reached intermediate and one when he reached advanced but the speed didn't low. After the foundation was rebuilt stronger than ever, Asta created one final rune 'Mend'.
A bright flash filled the room as mana was sucked from the surroundings and into the scythe, Asta has a content smile on his face while his eyes show satisfaction. 'Huh? What was doing?' Asta comes out of his daze to finds the scythe changing into a golden-crimson colour with the wooden shaft being pure white like ash, the edge is now shining as if asking for a battle. Argon shakes asta and asks "HHOW DID YOU DO IT? A MASTER RANK RUNE AT AGE OF 15" Argon roars at him and the memories of his forging process and the weird obsession and satisfaction he experienced comes flooding into Asta's mind, he falls onto the ground his mana reserves drier than sand. Noticing the boy's condition argon quickly has him carried into the room with his luggage for a rest.
****
'Huh what is this noise?' Asta comes back to his senses to find himself staring down at a endless desert while standing on a tower. He looks around and says 'What is this place? I will just-... Why can't I move?'. The next second Asta finds himself turning around and looking at a person kneeling in front of him with a sword in hand and the edge pointed at his neck and says "My prince I will not let you do this, you are the kingdom's hope. Even if costs me my li-", "Shut up" was all asta heard but his mind became even more confused. 'I didn't say anything then why-.. THE HECK IS THIS?' Asta screams in His mind as his view turns to his right arm, it is fully made of some sort of black metal with extreme amount of mana coming out. "Calowis... Do you really think if I don't stop the invasion then the entire southern wastelands will fall to the demons?" Asta? Says as his view turns to the desert again. The knight sheaths the sword again and bows with his head on the ground and begs "I know but you are far more necessary for the survival of the alliance.. please retreat My king Jassen."