It is a philosophical treatise on the metaphysics of craft. I will gain a fundamental understanding of how to invest a "soul," a "purpose," and a "history" into a creation, transforming a high-quality product into a true artifact. This skill enables an intuitive, concept-based approach to creating any item.
This package introduces the two fundamental pillars of legendary blacksmithing:
Intuitive Perfection: A passive effect that exponentially increases the probability of my creations achieving "masterpiece" status. During the creation process, my actions are subconsciously directed toward achieving ideal harmony of form, material, and function.
Conceptual Enchantment: An active process allowing me to "weave" a single, unique conceptual property into an item's essence. This weaves and activates the moment I apply my personal signature or stamp to the product.
The Art of the Blacksmith: The Harmony of Form.
A discipline focused on achieving absolute creation quality that transcends standard engineering tolerances and calculations. It provides theoretical foundations for:
The Flow of Mastery: The ability to enter an intuitive "flow" state while working, where my hands and tools act as one, performing thousands of microscopic corrections inaccessible to conscious control.
A Quality Beyond Calculations: The ability to create products that, despite being made from identical blueprints and materials as mass-produced versions, exceed them in reliability, efficiency, and ergonomics. They become not merely tools, but extensions of their owner's will.
The Master's Seal: The Weaving of Essence.
A metaphysical discipline that views signing as a ritual endowing items with conceptual power. Over time, I will master:
The Concept as a Catalyst: The theoretical foundation for selecting and forming a single, powerful concept to invest in an item (for example: "Impenetrability," "Accuracy," "Stealth").
The Signature as a Conduit: An understanding of the principles by which my personal signature or stamp acts as a metaphysical "channel," permanently binding the chosen concept to the product's physical structure.
The Manifestation of the Property: Knowledge of how the woven concept manifests as a passive, constantly active property that amplifies the item's primary function. The quality and power of this property will depend directly on my initial mastery of creating this type of product.
This is another missing element for me, especially considering the recently obtained technomancy skill.
As for this momentary amusement: a skill directly tied to the blacksmith's craft comes to me just as I'm about to handle this world's legendary ores. The universe wasn't just hinting at something; it was screaming in my face. Of course, this knowledge won't help me with the fundamental research into vibranium's chemical structure. But Conceptual Enchantment... Oh, this changed absolutely everything. One signature. One stamp. And the item acquires a soul. It's almost like runic magic, only less functional, yet somehow more elegant.
Thoughts flooded through me in an unstoppable stream, each idea clinging to the last and generating even bolder concepts.
Could I create a pistol with the "Accuracy" concept? A weapon whose bullets don't just fly toward the target, but are destined for it, bending their trajectory through probability itself? That would be amusing.
And what about the "Impenetrability" concept? What if I wove it into Captain America's shield? Yes, it's already considered almost indestructible, but Thanos, Sentry... everyone and their brother break it. But what would happen if its physical properties were backed by a metaphysical absolute? Would it become an object that was impossible to break in principle, because its very essence would resist it?
But why stop at passive defense? What about Gwen's suit? Besides all the electronics I planned to build into it, I could add the "Elusiveness" concept. And that would be it. Literally, nobody would be able to catch her. I imagined it. The suit would react almost instinctively to threats, shifting her body by millimeters and tensing the necessary muscles a fraction of a second before Gwen herself even realized the danger. It would work alongside her senses, not instead of them. This wouldn't simply be armor. It would be a symbiotic amplifier of her spider reflexes.
And what about my own suit? The Chimera was due for a significant upgrade, and now I knew what would become its heart. What concept should I choose for myself? "Efficiency"? "Adaptation"? Those were too obvious. What about "Superiority"? It would be a concept that let the suit function at the absolute peak of its theoretical potential at any moment. It would ignore external damage and internal failures alike. It would constantly strive to be better, stronger, and faster than its opponent. It was too straightforward, but it sounded damn powerful.
And the weapons... The vibro-gloves were, of course, unbalanced, but now they seemed like crude instruments. With Technomancy and this new gift, it was time to think about creating a true "uberwaffe." A standard sword or spear would only limit me. I needed something universal. A living symbiont weapon? Or an elegant staff capable of analyzing, memorizing, and storing any spell I'd seen within its structure? And if I added the "Synthesis" or "Evolution" concept to it? A weapon that wouldn't simply copy the magic, but would combine and improve it, growing stronger with each new battle...
Ugh, dreams, dreams... I mentally shook myself, returning to reality. All these grandiose plans, all these future artifacts... they would all start here and now. They would start with a piece of unprocessed metal on the laboratory table.
Interrupting this flow of grandiose thoughts common to any creator, I forced myself back to the laboratory's reality. Yes, unlocking the "Legacy of Munetika" was my next priority. Fortunately, only 1000 points were required, and I already had 380. But that was for later. Right now, there were the ores.
I had no reason to doubt the S.H.I.E.L.D. records regarding Adamantium. But one key question kept nagging at me: Why was it called an 'ore'? As far as I recalled from my meta-knowledge, Adamantium in the Marvel universe was an alloy, the pinnacle of human materials science. What had gone wrong here? S.H.I.E.L.D. had tactfully skirted this issue in their documents, which meant I would have to figure it out myself.
I deployed my improvised analytical station. A box materialized from my inventory, and from it I took the smallest piece of the so-called adamantium ore, though it was still hefty. I ran nuclear magnetic resonance, chromatography-mass spectrometry, and simulations on the automated reactor. It was a complete toolkit for uncovering the secrets of matter.
The very first results from the NMR spectrometer made me raise an eyebrow. This was not metal. It was not an alloy. It was a chemical cocktail waiting for its moment, a highly complex mixture of synthetic resins, iron-based catalysts, and a host of unidentified polymers. And all of it was in a completely inactive state.
Hundreds of simulations in the reactor only confirmed my suspicion. This wasn't forging. It was baking. The key to Adamantium's incredible properties was not in its composition, but in its process. Upon reaching a strictly defined temperature and pressure, according to the S.H.I.E.L.D. records, an irreversible, cascading polymerization was triggered. The molecules, like soldiers on command, aligned into a perfectly stable, interconnected crystalline lattice. Once hardened, this structure was impossible to destroy, because the energy required to break those bonds exceeded that of any known physical force.
The conclusion was unambiguous. Adamantium is the pinnacle of materials science, but judging by the chaos and redundancy of its components, it was achieved purely by accident. It was a happy accident. Its indestructibility is the result of ideal molecular geometry. It is absolutely inert to magic and spiritual energy because, at the molecular level, there were simply no hooks for these forces to latch onto.
Now I understood why Fury had so easily revealed to me the secret of its processing. I could shape it during that brief window while it remained liquid, but reproducing the actual "recipe" for this random chemical soup was the real challenge. Fury knew that. As for the toxicity, well... The S.H.I.E.L.D. records contained no information about it, and my own analysis hadn't detected even a trace. I supposed the problem lay in the bio-integration of already processed Adamantium. Consequently, rushing ahead with the Adamantium nanobots wasn't worthwhile just yet.
Still, why had the System classified this as an ore? Perhaps it followed its own logic, one currently inaccessible to me. I decided not to rack my brain over it for now.
Next in line was the Vibranium. Its processing was a far more complex task, and a couple of hours definitely wouldn't suffice. Therefore, I limited myself to a superficial analysis.
The scanning electron microscope, the X-ray diffractometer, and the universal testing bench became my assistants. I began to methodically "bombard" the piece of metal with various types of energy, from kinetic impacts to thermal pulses, and observed the reaction of its crystalline lattice.
What I saw was mesmerizing. At the micro-level, the metal had a unique, almost living, honeycomb structure. It had no analogs among Earth metals. When exposed to energy, it didn't reflect or block it. Instead, its entire structure began to vibrate in unison. It didn't simply absorb the energy; it sang at a molecular level, effectively transforming and dissipating the incoming energy into insignificant quantities of heat and light. True, in its ore form it was unstable, and part of the energy still broke through as destructive vibrations.
The conclusion was obvious, but now it was backed by data. Vibranium is an ideal passive energy absorber. Its ore is a raw, unstable form. The essence of processing it obviously lay in stabilizing this unique lattice to bring the absorption efficiency to one hundred percent.
Immediately, I hit a dead end. The metal was obviously alien in origin. The meteorite, Wakanda, everything converged. But how? How did a primitive jungle tribe without any modern technology manage to process a material that required the most precise impact to stabilize its structure? And why did this metal, which was essentially just an ideal shock absorber, allow them to rise so high? It doesn't produce energy. It isn't a superconductor. It simply absorbs vibrations. That isn't enough to build the planet's most technologically advanced nation. There was another mystery here, one whose answer I probably wouldn't seek out right now. Some semblance of peace had finally appeared in my life.
But there were answers I desperately needed! It was time to concentrate on the last sample. It was the most enigmatic one. I extended my hand toward the gray, unremarkable ingot of metal that nevertheless emanated a barely perceptible, ancient power. It was Uru.
I threw my laboratory's entire arsenal at it. First, the classical approach: science. I performed every possible and impossible test I could think of. And this unremarkable piece of metal endured with dignity, leaving me with a mass of mutually contradictory data. Its elemental composition, as expected, contained isotopes not found in the Solar System. Its micro-level structure was porous, almost like a metallic sponge. But its physical properties were utter chaos. In one test, it behaved like an ideal shock absorber, absorbing kinetic impact completely. In the next, it reflected the same impulse with almost one hundred percent efficiency. Under energy exposure, it sometimes heated up, and at other times remained icy. It didn't obey the known laws of physics. From the standpoint of pure science, this was an unstable, unpredictable, and absolutely useless material. Science here wasn't simply powerless. It was meaningless because it was trying to measure with a ruler a phenomenon that existed in another dimension.
When science fails, its strange sister comes to its aid.
Strange Science, however, had also offered little benefit. I noted only that the Reishi particles surrounding the Uru behaved chaotically and unpredictably, as if caught in a metaphysical storm. This merely confirmed the obvious: the Uru was a magical metal. That meant it was time to resort to the primary instrument. It was time to employ Essence Smith.
I touched the metal, and the world narrowed to a single point.
This was incredible.
I had expected to feel invested power. I had expected to feel hidden purpose. I had expected to feel a special ability. But the Uru was above all of this. I felt nothing, and yet, simultaneously, I felt everything. I felt a pure, absolute, and boundless potential.
It was empty. But this was not the emptiness of absence. It was the emptiness of infinite possibilities. Its fundamental concepts were Affinity, Conductivity, and Symbiosis. I felt its... desire. It did not want to be merely a tool. It yearned to become part of something greater.
Inspired and stunned by this discovery, I deconstructed the phenomenon. The contradictory scientific results... now I understood. The Uru had reacted to my intention! It had reacted to the finest fluctuations of the energy fields in the laboratory! It was not an object of the experiment. It was a subject of it. From this, a fundamental law followed. The Uru is a passive, metaphysical amplifier and conductor.
The final conclusion crashed down upon me, making me recoil from the table.
Uru is a spiritually saturated, porous metal. Its true nature lies in its ability to absorb within its "soul," store in its "heart," and multiply and amplify any concept or energy invested in it. This includes magic, Chi, or cosmic force. By itself, it is inert. All of its legendary properties, its strength, its lightness, and its ability to return to its owner are not its own. They are a direct consequence of the magical "programs" "written" into it at the moment of forging. To work with Uru, you don't need to be a blacksmith, but a mage. And ideally, you need to be a Technomancer.
With the "Legacy of Munetika," Essence Smith, and my Technomancy... It was scary to imagine what this metal would become in my hands. I still needed to figure out its processing principle. Ideas were already swarming in my head, but this entire cosmic forge could wait. Again.
Now I needed to act. I needed to act quickly. I needed to act with maximum effectiveness. I needed to enhance myself. The Extremis. Resolving this question was long overdue. For it, exotic components were needed, and deliveries through S.H.I.E.L.D. were excluded. They would immediately start investigating. That meant I had to go through Lucas. But here a problem arose.
Earlier, when I'd been a nobody, I could have called him, and there would have been a non-zero chance the call would go unnoticed. There would have been minimal digital hygiene, but his channel was protected. But now? After everything that had happened, I could almost physically feel the hypothetical gazes of hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D. analysts, and, worse, Hydra analysts, upon me. Every piece of my information would be under a microscope. Before I could do anything, I needed to resolve the communications problem. I needed to create a defense system that would allow me to call anyone, here and now, without fear of wiretapping. And the wiretapping would exist.
I rubbed the back of my head, running through my options. I could use sophisticated quantum encryption systems, satellite relays, or digital "ghosts." But all of that required time I didn't have. Perfect is the enemy of good. I needed something simple, elegant, and that would work immediately.
The idea came on its own. It wouldn't be encryption. It would be an illusion. It wouldn't be a lock. It would be a mirage. It would be a two-tier system. There would be a hardware module to protect the conversation itself and software to mask the metadata. The second part could wait. The important thing was that nobody could hear what I was saying.
Instead of encrypting the signal, which could be intercepted and tortured for hours by supercomputers, I would create a device that distorted the very source of the sound. It would distort my voice. It would turn it into an audio-CAPTCHA in real time. It would be understandable to the person on the other end of the wire, but unreproducible chaos for any recording equipment.
I immediately pulled up the holographic CAD. My fingers danced in the air, weaving the housing and custom FPGA chip architecture from light. This would be a small module that would connect directly to the phone's port and have its own high-quality microphone.
Then I began to 'teach' the chip to lie. In real time, its algorithm would do three things to my voice. First, it would constantly and chaotically shift certain frequencies by fractions of a percent, creating an elusive 'floating' timbre for the machine. Second, it would add layers of sub-harmonic and ultrasonic artifacts to the signal. It would add audio garbage that the human ear would filter out, but that would drive any digital analyzer crazy. And third, the cherry on top, it would create microscopic, constantly changing echoes. These would make precise determination of the sound source impossible.
The person on the other end of the wire would hear my voice, possibly with some barely noticeable distortions, like a poor connection. But any eavesdropping system would record only white noise. Any attempt to 'clean' such a recording would only destroy it completely.
The housing came off the 3D printer. The chip emerged from the photolithography machine. I quickly wrote the firmware implementing the acoustic chaotic illusion algorithm and flashed it. The hardware was finished. The advanced software... I would handle that later. There was no time. It was already almost two p.m.
As soon as I set the finished device aside, the System immediately registered my creation.
[Device "Acoustic Scrambler" created. Complexity: Low. Received +150 OP!]
A hardware module that applies a chaotic illusion algorithm to the user's voice in real time. It makes speech unreproducible by digital recording systems while maintaining intelligibility for the human ear.
I returned to the lobby, connected the scrambler to the phone, and, without wasting a minute, dialed the number.
"Hello, Lucas," I said into the module's microphone. "This is going to be the biggest order of your life."
On the other end of the line, silence reigned. Then an absolutely impassive, professional voice spoke, one that nothing in this world could surprise.
"I'm listening."
Over the next couple of minutes, I dictated, or rather described, exactly what I needed. There were just two components. One was the most important, and it was very expensive. I needed a strain of the Metallosphaera sedula archaea, extracted from hydrothermal vents at a volcano on the floor of the Mariana Trench. It was an ideal foundation for the thermostability genes. And I needed purified Ghost Orchid extract. It was an ideal biological stabilizer that would prevent cancerous mutations.
"Thirty-seven million," Lucas summed up. His voice didn't waver. I perfectly understood that ninety-nine percent of this price was for the tiny sample of life from the ocean floor. "The delivery will take one week. If you need it today..."
He fell silent. This pause wasn't for calculations. He was weighing the feasibility of obtaining something similar quickly, without dispatching an expedition that would likely include meta-mercenaries.
"Forty-two million," the updated price finally came through.
"Today," I agreed through gritted teeth. The figure stung, but this was just a pittance compared to the billions a stable Extremis would be worth.
"Good. Send me the coordinates. You'll have it by the evening." Lucas concluded the call just as matter-of-factly as if we were ordering pizza.
Okay. That gave me several hours until evening. It was finally time to call Frank. And at last, I needed to thoroughly consider the nanobot architecture and the materials for Extremis.
//=================//
Chapters on Patreon progress: Currently at;
1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 183
2.Marvel: Cosmic Forger of Infinity = CHAPTER 114
3.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 170
4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 41
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