Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

The monster didn't argue with that, as it started stamping over the big piece of ore, creating a flash of sparks each time its hooves hit the ore. Arthur knew this might take some time, as the piece of ore was of higher grade then the last one.

However he was content with the efficiency of the rhinoceros, acting as his forging hammer.

He then took out the wooden cart from his ring, and started making runes non stop. He showed Madly how to make these runes, as he warned:

"This is a very dangerous secret of making a good ring or equipment, so never do this in front of anyone, and never tell anyone about this."

"Hmm," she nodded, understanding the importance and risk in this knowledge.

Arthur mage eighty one runes' groups, each consisting of nine ores. Each ore had either the word, Seal, or the word, Expand, with three additional groups had the name Fortify.

After finishing all that, using the blood of his scorpion, Arthur then went to the monster, and checked the ore. The hooves of this rhinoceros were sturdy enough to sustain no damage at all from a fire of this extent, and that was enough to make Arthur feel relieved he used it not the hammer, or else it would take ages for him to finish the ring.

On the side of the ore, he could notice minute dark particles, with the remnants of fire inside them, sparkling from time to time. These were the impurities which were forcibly expelled under the insane amount of strength that rhinoceros forced upon this ore.

When the color of ore started to be pure, with some luster in it, Arthur pointed to it as he softly muttered:

"This is the stage where you use the runes."

He then started to let one rune group fall one after another. Strangely enough, when one group fell, they got stuck on the surface of the ore like there was a glue there, then they would sink inside the depth of the ore, until they all vanished.

One after another, he let them go down, leaving the last three groups he made in the end. After he finished doing this, Madly noticed the change of the color of the ore, like it was beaming with innate energy, about to explode.

However she noticed the calmness, even the look of satisfaction on the face of Arthur, so she reassured herself that everything was fine.

Arthur didn't do anything more, as he waited, patiently, until the hooves of this rhinoceros stopped sending any impurities out.

"See? No impurities, it's ready," he said pointing out to the ore, "stop and retreat now," Arthur said, as he let the huge monster stay beside the ore, and he stood behind it, as he warned:

"Get your rhinoceros out, and stand behind it like me."

Madly did as he said, without any delay her pet appeared, and she instructed it to do exactly the same as Arthur's monster.

"Listen up, there will be a huge fire, so stand still and endure the pain. Later on I will reward you handsomely," Arthur spoke to the two monsters, and before Madly could ask anything, he took out the explosive oil, letting it appear in the air above the ore, and fall on it in a splashing manner, with a huge tongues of fire extending many meters above their heads, like huge pillars.

He stopped, until the fire died a bit, and then repeated it again, again, and again.

"Are you smothering it?" she asked, as this was a rare technique her grandpa Regil spoke of once, but he didn't know it. from his description only, she could recognize it.

"Good eyes, yes, and it's also a way to turn this ore into an obedient mould," Arthur said, as he continued to spread the oil over the ore.

This delicate, and extremely dangerous part lasted for a whole half an hour, before he sprayed oil on the ore, and nothing happened anymore.

"Good, it's ready now," he said, as he went outside the protection of his pet. Madly, who just followed him, was shocked to see the current state of the ore… it was in a semi liquid form, with much vapor extending from its shiny surface.

"Great," Arthur nodded, before adding, "now watch how to separate the ore into different, separate sizes, to be able to forge whatever you want." He then took out the oil again, a few drops this time, and let them fall on the surface of the melted ore.

The areas which were touched by the drops got slightly brighter, and with more drops falling on it, it started to create deep lines, separating itself into small, rounded balls, each was the size of a thumb.

"Good, now we are ready to shape it," he said, before looking at her and asked, "how can we do that?"

Madly was startled by the sudden question, and even she was jolted, involuntarily, from the sudden tension she felt.

"I- I- I think we use the oil," she stuttered before her mind gave an answer to her, which she blurted out without any thinking.

"Brilliant, that's right, we will use the oil drops to make the shape that we wanted to do," he said, as he started to drop oil drops over the piece of the mould.

He suddenly transformed from being a blacksmith, to be an artist, brilliantly controlling the drop size, and fall location, and even the pattern and amount of them on one spot, until he finally made one rind, hollowed from the centre, plus even some decorations along its rounded body, which rendered Madly speechless.

"I will never reach the same level as you," she muttered, with a gasping face, as she admitted her defeat in front of this monster.

Arthur heard her, but said nothing, as he jumped to another mould, then another, then another. Finally, he had nine rings, all had the same pattern, with slight differences in them… they had numbers from one to nine.

"Perfect, now the last step is?" he asked, but she was already mesmerized by the fine level of his craftsmanship that she couldn't even speak. He sighed, as he took the about to be finished rings into his ring, as he touched the side of them, sustaining some non-avoided burns in the process.

Inside his ring, he easily manipulated them to fall on top of the heavenly treasure, with a loud splash sound when each one of them touched the extreme low temperature icy treasure, releasing a thick cloud of smoke, until the ring would turn faint red in color.

"They are ready," Arthur muttered with great sense of pride in his creation. He was limited by many things, the level of ores for example, but he was very satisfied by the end result he just had.

Madly, on the other hand, was in another world of her own. Arthur noticed that, as this was a known state back at his cultivation world… a breakthrough state.

"Good girl, really good girl," he just nodded in satisfaction, before he moved out while saying to the two big monsters:

"Protect her, and let no one come here or disturb her directly at any cost."

Breakthrough moments were very rare, and each represented a great fortune in itself, and a huge risk if the owner was disturbed midway. The greater the prize, the greater the cost, and it wasn't rare for the backlash of these moments to cause someone to lose his life, or get crippled.