Chapter 185 - Mass Release

Lucas began to first separate the parts as they needed to be carefully done. A gauntlet has a lot of joints in the fingers which needed to be forged delicately. He then looked at the Mana Channels that he had planned on adding to it. He also had a different design for the pellets. 

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The gauntlet's length was from the fingertips to halfway up the forearm. The design had lost delicate parts from the fingers to the wrist. After making out the parts and marking from where to begin, he took out the metal and began to heat it. 

Mana Channels had to be made using the crystals, and it was a very delicate process. One must have very steady hands and a great amount of patience. He left the metal to heat up, as he still needed to remove the impurities in it. He took out the crystals he had gotten from Tobias and began to melt them in the furnace.

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Right after melting the crystals, he took a minuscule amount of it and began to add silica sand, soda ash, and limestone into it. This was to make the process of making a channel quite easier, and it was also the raw materials used to make glass.

He began to melt them again, and this time the temperature was raised than before. It was at a firing of 2150 degrees Celsius, and the mixture was bubbling. Lucas kept close watch as he pulled out his tools and put goggles over his eyes.

After a few minutes, he pulled out a cast from the side, and he poured the mixture into it. While pouring, he placed a long rod in it and closed the cast. He had made this cast specifically for this gauntlet's Mana Channel, and the work he had done was just the beginning.

He began to blow into the tube he had inserted, which began to make the liquid mixture bulge until it hit the end of the mold. He kept blowing, as he was sure that it had reached the desired shape.

He opened it up, and he saw the Mana Channel glowing orange. He needed a Kiln, a place where he would let the glass cool off for the next 24 hours. 

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The Kiln was a container in which people would let glass cool off at a heat of 900 degrees Celsius. It looked a lot like a fridge, and through the heat that was generated from the back, it was evenly spread throughout the Kiln and allowed it to cool off slowly.

The glass needed a hot environment to cool down, and that was why a Kiln was found. If let to cool down at room temperature, it has a very low chance of succeeding and turning into glass. 

The mold he was using was slightly different from a normal mold, and it had a magic circle underneath it. The magic circle would reset the mold into a block, and he would have to begin carving all over again.

Although one would say this was time-consuming, it had its advantages. Each Mana Channel mold doesn't suit some others, and each has its unique purposes.

And thus, one mold could only be used for the same thing over and over. And if he could reset the mold and make a new one out of it, this was an investment worth it for him. He let the Channel cool outside for now and called for Emilia.

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He quickly showed her the plan and made her make a Kiln out of Earth. She followed the plan and made a Kiln as shown. Lucas thanked her and get back to work. He placed the Mana Channel in the Kiln, and he had to make five more Mana Channels.

The metal was all heated up, and the impurities need to be removed. Lucas began to hit the metal, and the impurities began to fall off as it cooled down. He put the metal back inside, and he lowered the heat to cool it down slowly.

He made another mold and did the same process again. It was repetitive, but it was needed and thus he didn't slack off. After placing all six pieces into the Kiln, he took a seat in the chair. He was sweating buckets, and his breath was quite off due to all the blowing.

After an hour of rest, he began to pour the metal into molds of different shapes. There were four hexagon-shaped molds and five molds that looked like nails on a finger. It had a sharp end and was thin. 

There were other shapes, and each and everything was a part of the gauntlet. He was making two pairs, as one was for the showcase in which he would show his works to the customers of the future. 

He allowed the metal to cool down, and after that, it was the process of shaping every piece. He wiped his forehead on his sleeve, and he huffed out loud. 

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"This is going to be hard to make. I just hope that the staff is much easier to make, even with the Mana Channels that I have planned to insert. And that crystal, I need to find it", he thought as he took a break.

A grumble from his stomach was heard, and he rubbed his tummy. He was famished, and he still needed to keep an eye on the things that were on cooldown. He looked at the Mana Channels he had placed in the Kiln, and one of them had begun to crack.

Lucas sighed loud. The one that had cracked was none other than the one that was left at room temperature to cool when the Kiln was being made. He still kept it inside, as it could be used in something else in the future.

He began to make the same mold again and hoped that this time none of them cracked. After placing them in the Kiln, he left the room and went back home. He was hungry and needed some rest. The metal needed time to cool down too.

By the time he had left the Smithy, it was dinner time. He had missed lunch and was working through the whole afternoon. Emilia had made some dinner, and the days were going by smoothly for them.

Lucas was still worried about the attack that will be made in the future, and he was thinking about the options he could take to make the people safe. 

"There are the tunnels that lead to a temporary underground city that we have built, but what will become of the people in the outskirts of the kingdom? We need to save everyone we can, and then fight the war. What is Father thinking right now?", he thought.

He was formulating a plan, and if only he knew the time when the enemy mounts an attack. If he can calculate the timeframe it would take for multiple expert Earth magicians to build underground cities in the nearby places around the Kingdom, that would lead to them saving a lot of lives.

"But the loss of lives in war is inevitable. That is what Master always said to me. I just hope that they are people who fight the war, and not the people who are bystanders", he concluded his thoughts as he began to gobble down his food.

Emilia had noticed the worry on his face, and she wanted to reassure him that everything will turn out okay. But she wasn't sure if that was her place to say and ended up keeping it to herself. 

Right after he had his dinner, he went to his room. He was still getting used to the fact that he was living with a woman in his home, and the feeling he had in his heart was strangling him. He was sure this was something related to his hormones, and thus ignored it completely.

He had a lot of things to think about, and right now his feelings were the least of his concern. He bottled it down and began to draw a map of the whole kingdom on a large sheet of paper.

He knew some of the Royal Court Magicians were at the Expert Level, and if they joined their hands together, many of the lives could be saved. But he also knew that they never cared about the people, as they lived in their world of glory and pride.

Right after he drew the map, he began to mark the places where Underground Cities had been built, and the places that were closest to it. He had to make sure he remembered a great amount of detail, and that he did.

After sketching the plan out, he began to draw tunnels that were already available, and those that needed to be dug out for the sake of survival. As a Prince, it was his duty to save as many lives as he could.

The tunnels had been sketched out, but now the manpower was lacking if the Kingdom needed to execute this plan quickly. Just as he was about to wrap it up and lie down, he felt his pocket vibrate.

He pulled out the phone that was given to him by his father and saw a single text on it.

"They're coming.. ETA 5 days", it read.