Lucas was stunned at the amount of knowledge Valentine had. He had almost infinite knowledge due to him being around for a very long time. Each of the Hearts was interested in different walks of life, but all of them had one common trait. They never gave up no matter what.
He too carried the same trait, and whatever trails he faced in his life, he never gave up. He always found a way to overcome the situation, and this was how he had grown to be a good Blacksmith.
He never called himself a Great Blacksmith, as he knew that there was always someone better out there. He was learning and improving his skills every day, and the notebook was one of the ways to better himself as a blacksmith.
He began to draw the circle as he told his father to bring him the branch he had. he was sure that a piece of it would be enough to make the staff, as he didn't know how large of a branch they were talking about.
He was sweating as he was drawing, as he was told to inject his Aura as he was drawing. This was a method taken from the Elves, and they injected Mana as they drew. But Lucas was well versed in Aura, Valentine told him to do so.
Right after he finished the drawing, he looked at it with a smile. He then wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at the time he had taken to draw it. It cost him twenty minutes in the portal, which means it had cost him nearly three hours in real-time.
The fatigue from the drawing was making his breathing erratic, and he quickly began to use his breathing techniques to recover his stamina. His father was back with the branch, and he was dragging it behind him.
Lucas saw the piece and his eyes widened in shock. The branch was as thick as an elephant's foot, and its length was a whopping thirty meters. His his father was pulling the tree branch with just both his hands was a mystery to him.
"Maybe the stats he gained using the system are retained even after passing it down? If that is a possibility, I wonder what kind of numbers dad had", he thought as he watched his father pull the branch with ease.
After placing it down, Lucas was expecting him to huff and pant. But all he saw was him wiping the sweat off his forehead with his index finger. He flicked it off like he was doing it after a heavy workout, unfazed.
Lucas was amazed by the strength his father possessed, and he was now curious about the weapon that was crafted using the branch. He was about to ask as he needed to study that to make sure he didn't make any mistakes.
Right when he was about to ask, a sword appeared in front of him. Lucas jumped in joy and he got it from him.
"You are not allowed to use [Inspect]", said Ben right after he gave the sword to Lucas. He sighed as he began to study the mixture in it, as it looked like the sword was made of steel.
His insight was indeed true, but at the same time, it was false. The reason the Elves used the branch from such an old tree was that they could turn the wood into any materials they wished for. That was what the formation was all about.
Lucas now had all the information needed to process the branch. But he didn't need a whole branch. He looked at the branch and pulled out his sword. He covered it with Aura and used the slash he had used back at The Banishment Test.
The slash made a small dent in the branch, and Ben's eyes widened in surprise. He didn't expect him to put a dent in the branch, as he was sure that it would not damage it one bit.
"That is quite an improvement. He is going to play a crucial role in averting the crisis that we are facing now", he thought as he pulled out the Elven sword he had brought with him.
The part which Lucas was trying to cut was not much compared to the size of the branch. It was a mere six inches thick, and he was sure that would be more than enough for him to make two samples out of it.
After the cut, he asked his father to cut it once more in the middle, making it two circles. Lucas rolled one of the circles right into the middle of the formation.
After placing it down, he began to think of how to use the shapes on the side to make a staff out of it. The Magic in the branch was immense, and to compress it into a staff was something that he was going to try for the first time.
"Father, if I lose control, I want you to help me gain control of myself. I am ninety percent sure that I will lose control and go haywire", he said as he looked at Ben. He had a lovely smile on his face.
"Glad I could be of help, son", he said as he placed his hands on Lucas's back. He was going to help him guide the immense amount of Magic inside his body and back to the reshaped branch, which will begin to take shape.
The Magic was the only way he could carve the Mana Channels that he needed, and almost an hour was up for the preparations. During this time, Ben had finished his announcement and returned to assist him.
Lucas took a deep breath to steady his wildly beating heart. He then activated the circle, and a deep red hue covered the entire space he was in.
His heartbeat began to get faster, and he was now thinking of the next step. He needed to activate the shapes on the side, and for that, he needed to chant a spell. "Activate Formation -o Smithing!", he chanted and he felt the circles in the middle make the sound of gears turning.
He then began the process of draining the magic out of the piece and using his body as a medium to hold in all the Magic. Within a few minutes, he felt his body bursting open. Right when he had that feeling, he felt a soothing sensation on his back.
The Magic he was trying to hold in was shared with Ben and now he could hold in more Magic than he had planned. He never thought of the idea of using his father as a vessel to hold the Magic, and it was working well for now.
After a few minutes more, he felt the Magic he was sucking from the branch had weakened. He then began to shape the circle.
As he needed a staff, he was sure he needed to pick up a square and make it an elongated version. He just needed to think of it, and the circle did it for him. Right after he thought about the rectangle, he saw the circle being lit up with a laser.
He thought of placing it in the middle, and it happened. He derived from this that the circle worked on thoughts, and he began to do his thing.
In a few minutes, he had a smooth staff in the middle of the circle. He began to next step of the process, and that was to infuse the Magic he had taken out from the branch.
He began to do it, and the smooth staff began to glow with a sky blue hue. Veins were popping all over the staff, and he kept thinking about the crystal sockets and the Mana Channels.
He was sure that if he kept his thoughts of the final product clear, it would bring out the same thing he was thinking. The veins were now pulsing and the anxiety in his heart was growing intense.
The pulsing began to slow down now, and the staff settled down as he and Ben both felt the Magic sucked out of them. They began to pant and Lucas was drenched. He lay on the floor and was looking at staff.
His eyes were filled with an unknown feeling, as he went towards it step by step. Each step he took towards it, he felt his heart beat faster.
He placed his hand on the staff, expecting something to happen to him. But he felt nothing. He began to spin it around and saw that it was extremely light.
"And here I thought I would have to make some kind of spell to make it light when I saw the size", he thought. The staff was still pulsing as he was holding.
There was a crack in the center, and he opened up in two, and he saw the things he thought about. The place for the crystals and the Mana Channels.
Two hours had passed, which meant it was time for the plan to begin. He took out the Mana Channels and began to make the Staff, and he placed the Crystals in the places that were needed.
After the process, which he had done in a few minutes as the Channels had been carved with his thoughts precisely. But this method did not apply to any other material than Elven ones.. He was disappointed when he learned that fact.