kscans

Chapter 19 - Preparing Weapons

Having considered the basics of food, clothing, and shelter, Yuri decided to think about weapons next. The catalyst was his recent fight with the boar, the Mudderboar. It had been a sudden encounter, and he hadn't been sufficiently prepared, which led to him panicking disgracefully in the beginning. Yuri had thought about it and concluded that one reason was that he had no weapon on hand. After all, what he held in his hand at that time was a single digging tool for gathering plants. It might have looked somewhat like a dagger, but it was not something that could be used as a weapon. After switching the digging tool for a billhook, he had felt a little more at ease.

Considering these things, he would need to carry some kind of weapon at all times. Preferably a long-handled one. Having to get close to take down a giant magical beast was bad for the heart.

"But..."

However, a big problem stood in Yuri's way.

"I don't have any iron for materials..."

That's right. When the previous inhabitants of this abandoned village left, they took every usable thing with them, so there was an absolute lack of resources here. Metal resources, in particular, were almost non-existent. The current situation was that he was using Earth Magic to somehow repair broken pots and pans and bent knives.

"In light novels and stuff, they could easily extract iron and what-not with Earth Magic..."

This world, it seemed, was not so kind.

Earth Magic in this world excelled at making soil, a mixture, flow, deform, and harden while keeping it as a mixture. On the other hand, it was poor at changing substances by adding or removing elements, such as removing oxygen from iron oxide to turn it into iron. That was the domain of alchemy. For example, even if he obtained red soil containing iron oxide, he might be able to separate the iron oxide from it, but reducing it to iron, let alone refining it into steel by adding the right amount of carbon, was difficult with Earth Magic alone. In other words, as a practical matter, it was impossible for Yuri to create steel with Earth Magic, at least for now. Though that might change if his level increased.

"In that case, I have to use the iron I have carefully. I guess I have no choice but to create a stone-like material with Earth Magic and make weapons with that..."

Due to these circumstances, Yuri's everyday weapons were decided to be a spear-like object made with Earth Magic and a dagger-like object also created with Earth Magic. After many prototypes and improvements, he found that he could increase the strength of the finished product by making it with soil that had impurities removed and was ground as finely as possible. He ended up making not only weapons but also kitchen knives and sickles with Earth Magic. Incidentally, since he tilled the soil with Earth Magic, he did not make farm tools like plows or hoes.

....

As he made and used blades and tools derived from Earth Magic over and over again, Yuri noticed something.

"Hmm, it seems the hardness increases a little when I use it with magic power flowing through it."

The blades Yuri made with Earth Magic were good conductors of magic power, or perhaps they were just compatible with it. By channeling magic power through them, he could increase their strength and sharpness.

"This doesn't seem to happen with iron. I wonder if it's a characteristic of blades made with Earth Magic."

That was a little different.

Yuri thought it was a common thing, but this was a characteristic unique to the "stone tools," or perhaps in this case, "Magic Stone Tools," that he had created. In the first place, creating something with Earth Magic that could serve as a substitute for a kitchen knife... a normal Earth Magic user wouldn't put so much effort into such a thing. They would just seek out an iron tool. The reason Yuri didn't do so was solely because he was in a special environment where he couldn't. But as a result, it had honed and refined Yuri's Earth Magic to an unparalleled degree.

At that time, Yuri had no way of knowing that the things he made with Earth Magic would later be treated as "Phantom Stone Swords."