God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

However, his recent expedition made him think about it. He then came to a thoughtful conclusion.

He was not using his abilities appropriately. Specifically his {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} skill. One could even say he was disrespectful in a sense.

The skill was not only insanely powerful, but it was also very flexible and volatile, in the sense that it could be used wonderfully outside of direct combat.

In essence, he was not creative. As such, he was wasting the skill's potential. He was now aware of that.

However, that didn't mean there was no way to fix that...

Staring at the pile of shiny ores before him, Cain thought hard and long about what he wanted to do...

'Three days is the limit. If I don't come up with something in three days, then I'll drop it."

He had long had the thought of combining his ability to quickly envision and draw runes and magic circles into his abilities. After acquiring the {Neophyte Mage} skill, this just solidified his line of thought.

***

{Neophye Mage}: The power to command the forces of nature and the elements through the arcane language is just at the fingertips. One more step and this power will be within grasp.

***

The skill basically improved his already present ability to write and create runes and magic circles. It was a very handy ability during battles, but its use would shine properly if he could use it outside the battlefield.

Combining this ability with the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}, he realized he had gems just sitting in his hands, rotting away.

His metal-manipulating ability not only gave him the ability to create and manipulate metal using elemental mana. It also granted him the ability to manipulate already existing ores by manipulating their metallic essence with magic. However, this was many times harder, as not only were the unrefined ores impure, but they also contained much metallic essence, which made it much harder to control.

'However, with the {Draconic Blast Furnace}, not only can I purify the metal, but I will also be able to control the finished product better thanks to all these runes.' Cain thought to himself as he admired the interior of the forge.

'Seriously, whoever created this thing is a genius.' Although he couldn't understand a decent portion of the runes, what he could pick out told him of the structure's complexity.

'In any case...'

With an excited look in his eyes, Cain stood to his feet and picked a shiny ore from the pile.

Then removed closer to the center of the forge. Standing there, he felt a subtle connection between his body, the gigantic magic circle at the center of the ground, and the four massive dragon heads.

Apart from the regular furnace, there was also this one which seemed many times more complicated than the regular one. Even though the regular one was anything but regular. It just seemed awfully plain compared to the dragon heads.

"Time to get to work!" Rolling his sleeves up, Cain placed his hand on the furnace. Then he tried pouring mana into it.

Silence...

Nothing happened for a while, causing him to take his hands off the scratched metallic surface.

'Now that I think about it, should have gotten instruction manuals from that crazy old guy.' Cain thought to himself.

However, there was no point in crying over spilled milk, so he had to figure out a way on his own.

He tried placing his hands all over the thing, but it just wouldn't start...

In his frustration, Cain kicked the base. However, he nearly fell to the ground as pain washed over him. Even with all his strength points, he couldn't even put a small dent in the metallic surface.

'Damn it!'

Cain swore to himself and stared at the furnace with a dark expression.

'How the hell do I start this thing?'

With a sigh, he began studying the magic circles and runes, trying to figure something out. However, as he couldn't understand almost all the runes, he was left dumbfounded and even more frustrated.

However, as soon as he looked to the aide of the furnace, just below a strange knob, he found something that appeared to be a lever.

At this point, he was already pretty frustrated. Without even thinking about it. He pulled the lever.

Then a very significant change occurred. The magic circle at the center of the forge suddenly lit up.

Cain felt mana begin to leave him at a steady rate as the magic circle suddenly started to turn. Its parts moved and aligned with one another like the gears in a clock until it formed a strange symbol at the center.

Then the eyes of the four dragons lit up, and their open maws became lit with flames.

At the same time, the furnace beside him also lit up with fire.

"Well, ain't that a pleasant surprise." Shocked at his good luck, Cain turned back to the four dragon heads.

The flames coming from their mouths were the color of normal flames. However, he felt it was significantly hotter than the flames in the regular furnace.

'I guess I'll use this one for the meantime.'

Cain decided to use the normal furnace before he transitioned to the other one.

With all the materials and equipment ready for him, all Cain had to do was learn how to forge. And to do that, he immediately turned to the best helper he could ask for.

"System..."

{Replying to host: "..."}

Cain rolled his eyes, "Give me everything I need to know about forging."

Cain was ready for it. He was ready to spend any amount of system points for this.

{Replying to host: Does the host wish to proceed with this transaction?}

"Yes..."

{Purchase Successful...}

{Replying to host: Metallurgy and Forging are processes that are linked to one another in more ways than one. Metallurgy involves the extraction of the metal element and forging is the purification and shaping of these elements}.

Cain listened very attentively as the system gave him the low down. As explained, he finally got a clearer picture of his skill and the route he wanted to take were related to one another.

Metallurgy involves extraction and partial purification while forging completes the process of purification, shaping, and turning it into usable material or equipment.

The system continued to explain in detail the processes, steps, as well as rules governing the initial stages of learning the craft. He digested all of this information rapidly.

{All this information will be more useful when put to practice...}

Once the system fell silent, after more than five hours of lecturing, he understood that it was over. Despite that, he remained on the ground, immersed in his thoughts.

After a few minutes, he got up. Walking closer to the furnace, he materialized a set of iron tongs and used them to grab the {Black Tungsten} ore.

Then, he carefully placed the metal within the furnace and got to work. He placed his hand on one of the runes. The rune lit up, and he could feel a strong connection to the metal ore within the furnace. He could feel the particles that weren't part of the metal. The impurities...

Hence, he used the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy} to separate them. By pushing the metallic elements to one side, he was able to separate them from their impurities.

Doing so in a high-heat environment made it possible for him to do all this much easier. In the blink of an eye, the process was done, and he brought the ore out. However, it looked quite different from when he had first put it in.

'So this is why it has that name...'

Although it was still very shiny, it was now completely jet black, with no single hint of silver. At first, he had thought this was done by the heat acting on carbon-based impurities. However, the name of the metallic ore made him believe this was not so.

Despite how hot it was, there was no hint of redness on the metal. He carefully placed it onto the cooling station.

This step was quite easy and hard to mess up. It involved quickly purifying the metal. It would have been much harder if he was a regular human. However, with the existence of magic, it was done very quickly and efficiently.

Soon, after more than a few hours, he had purified all the metal ores.

'And there is still a lot of time.' Cain thought to himself. The only reason he had it so easy was his metal-shaping abilities. It was a useful advantage he couldn't let go to waste.

The pile of shiny {Black Tungsten} was so beautiful, but now, it was time to turn it not useful stuff.