After Nila had given Valyr a ton of information regarding the technologies that would come after the Renaissance Age, the two of them proceeded to focus most of their attention towards their respective works.
Of course, the two of them still chatted every once in a while, talking about random topics to break the monotony they were currently experiencing.
However, that did not that they had lost sight of the goal at hand, which was showcase the limits of their capabilities in terms of blacksmithing.
Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
Pushing [Zen] to full power, Valyr had arrived at an extremely concentrated state as every possible variable was taken into consideration in his mind.
Closing his eyes for a bit, he took in a deep breath before arranging the flurry of thoughts that had appeared in his mind.
Organizing and processing all of these thoughts at great speeds, the young man then spurred both his body and his mana arms to move with haste as he was nearing the completion of his current upgrade.
Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
Activating both [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] and [True Prodigious Blacksmith's Sight] during the process, Valyr doubly made sure that there were no imperfections whatsoever.
Inwardly sighing in relief as seeing the blade on the anvil be one cohesive color under his vision, the young man allowed things to take its natural course, adding on a few more touches that would finalize the upgrade.
Fortunately, it did not take long for completion to arrive as a series of notification sounds resounded in his mind sometime later.
Ding!
[You have successfully modified the weapon 'True Blade of Hellfire'.]
[Due to the immense modification done, the weapon has gained the ability to tap into a far greater expanse of power it initially couldn't, thus increasing the weapon's rarity to Epic.]
[A great number of materials have also been added to the weapon, increasing the potential the weapon has for further advancements.]
[Thanks to this change, the name of the weapon has been changed to 'Blade of Samadhi', reflecting all of the modifications and improvements the blacksmith has made to the weapon.]
[Seeing that you have reforged the item to be more in line with the artifact 'True Blade of Samadhi', the heavens have decided to reward you accordingly for the effort you have put into the process.]
[Your item has gained an additional part of the original properties of the artifact 'True Blade of Samadhi', now nearing the original artifact in terms of power.]
Briefly reading through the notifications he had received from the upgrade, a satisfied smile appeared on Valyr's face as he thought about how he was only one step away from turning the blade into an artifact.
At the same time, the thought made him think about the amount of time and effort he had poured into the upgrade thus far, recalling the multiple number of steps he had already gone through.
After he had attuned to the sword Nila gave him to the Fire element, he then set the weapon on the path of becoming an artifact by the time he upgraded its rarity to Uncommon+.
Being designated by the system as an Emulation at that rarity, he then proceeded to reforge it to become more in tune with what the True Blade of Samadhi was, improving it into an Imitation by the time it had achieved Rare grade.
Naturally, he proceeded with the same train of thought during the next upgrade, making it reach the pinnacle of Imitations once the weapon had been upgraded to Rare+ grade.
Now, with his recent upgrade, he had pushed the weapon into a bona fide Replica of the True Blade of Samadhi.
Seeing that the weapon was called the Blade of Samadhi by the system, the young man knew that he was nearing the initial goal he had set in his mind.
Spurred on by the continuous success he was having by following the guide, the young man proceeded to grab the materials needed for the final upgrade from the material cache.
After that, he chucked all of them into the furnace before keeping an eye on its temperature.
Dispelling all of his mana arms for the meantime, Valyr then took a seat on the sofa as he grabbed a few potions from his spatial bracelet.
Recalling how he had been at it for over half a week at this point, the young man then grabbed a vial of rousing from his spatial bracelet, downing it alongside the potions to refresh his body.
Feeling the potions do their thing to his body, Valyr let out a long sigh of relief as he sunk into the sofa.
"Ahh… that hits the spot."
While giving his body some time to rest, he shifted his attention towards Nila, who looked to be working on an upgrade part for the dagger he gave her.
"She still has a couple more pieces to go before she could assemble them into a weapon again," muttered the young man as multiple thoughts regarding her process came to his mind.
Discarding all of those thoughts as he knew better not to meddle in another blacksmith's forging process, Valyr soon stood up from his seat as he took a look at the furnace.
Seeing that it would take a bit more time before the materials he chucked in were ready for forging, the young man decided to laze around for a bit more, eventually recalling the conversation he and Nila regarding the eras of technology.
"Huh." Going over their conversation in his mind, Valyr soon felt a feeling of wrongness from it.
However, that feeling of wrongness did not stem from the fact that the information he got was wrong.
Instead, it was the fact that Nila had given such information to him without even giving it a second thought.
"Say, Nila," said Valyr as he tried to catch her attention.
"What is it?" asked the woman back, her attention still mostly focused on what she was doing.
Seeing that Nila was still mostly occupied by her work, the young man briefly thought about what he would say for a bit.
"Did you not have second thoughts before sharing that information with me?"
Hearing those words, Nila went silent for a bit, making Valyr feel nervousness amidst the silence.
Fortunately, after a while, the woman shook her head, allowing the young man to let out a faint sigh of relief.
"I did hesitate for a bit before deciding to tell you about it, but I eventually thought that it would be better for you to know of it in advance."
"Why?" asked Valyr in response, slightly curious of her reasons.
"For one, you're a fellow blacksmith like me. Us blacksmiths should help each other when possible," replied Nila with a slight chuckle.
"Aside from that, you're part of the Triad Gates," she added soon after.
"Even though you're still officially part of the Gates of Enlightenment, your merits thus far technically make you part of the upper echelon of the Gates of Awakening."
"Since you're a fellow member of the same organization from that perspective, why should I hesitate?"
"But if you were to ask me the main reason why I didn't hesitate…" Nila scratched the back of her head for a bit before letting out an awkward chuckle.
"Just call it me giving in to a hunch."
Before Valyr could inquire any further on what she meant by that, she continued. "After all, the fact that you know things about the Hephaista clan that someone from Veldanyr normally shouldn't already tells a lot."
"Aside from that, the fact that you're from the Zeihardt clan tells me that you're no simple being."
"It still makes me wonder where you got that information in the first place, to be honest," said Nila as she briefly glanced at him.
"In fact, we've even made sure to erase our traces with those from outside the planet, even though no one in Veldanyr has the means to contact them in the first place."
"Though, at this point, I guess there is… seeing how you mentioned the name of our current clan leader Al-croz'daal."
At those words, Valyr merely smiled, shifting his attention back to his furnace.
Seeing that the young man did not want to continue their conversation any further, Nila faintly shrugged her shoulders before returning her focus to her own matters.
"Alright."
Conjuring the pairs of mana arms that helped him throughout the upgrade process once more, Valyr proceeded to take out all of the materials he had put into the furnace onto the anvil, separating them accordingly for his mana arms to work on.
At the same time, he allowed [Zen] to do its thing, removing all unnecessary thoughts from his mind as he focused all of it towards the upgrade he wanted to do.
With both him and Nila being engrossed in their respective crafts, time seemed to pass by quickly as the young man made great strides in his progress.
Eventually, around a day or so later, the young man wiped off the sweat from his forehead as he looked at the weapon he had upgraded with immense satisfaction.
Ding!
[You have successfully modified the weapon 'Blade of Samadhi'.]
[Due to the immense modification done, the weapon has gained the ability to tap into a far greater expanse of power it initially couldn't, thus increasing the weapon's rarity to Epic+.]
[A great number of materials have also been added to the weapon, increasing the potential the weapon has for further advancements.]
[Seeing that you have reforged the item to be more in line with the artifact 'True Blade of Samadhi', the heavens have decided to reward you accordingly for the effort you have put into the process.]
[Your item has gained the remaining properties of the artifact 'True Blade of Samadhi', now becoming an exact copy of the artifact in terms of power.]
[Thanks to this change, the name of the weapon has been changed to 'True Blade of Samadhi', reflecting all of the modifications and improvements the blacksmith has made to the weapon.]
"I finally did it." Checking through the description of the artifact with the help of his identification skill, a wide grin appeared on Valyr's face as he began to wave the blade to and fro.
Though, not long after, he returned the blade to the anvil.
Taking in a deep breath to compose himself, Valyr let out a long and drawn-out sigh as he brought out more guides from his treasure trove of memories.
Organizing all of them with the help of [Zen], he picked up the Hammer of Beginnings once more, tightly gripping onto its handle.
"Alright, then."
"Now that it's an artifact…"
"I guess it's time to take it even further beyond."
