Mario prepared all the materials needed for crafting the gun, John concentrated and starter the furnace by lighting it up using his black thunder hell flame, he placed the metal and ten of the highest quality materials of each element and melted it one by one inside the furnace.
He made a small cut on his finger and drew several drops of his blood essence and mixed one drop to each material.
After refining the materials John started hammering and molding the parts of his weapon.
He pounded the metal with his hammer, every hammer strike dragon silhouettes is seen. The metal would follow the will of his hammer with every strike, like a fine work of art, the gun is slowly taking shape.
John has his full attention and focus on his work that he forgot all that is happening on his surrounding.
He pounded the metal and materials together and use rune etching technique along with his hammering.
These runes are so small that it's barely visible to the naked eye, even warriors sharp eyes would not be able to discern all the runes he added with each part. The gun's barrel rifling is embedded with the ten materials of different elements. Same with the barrels chambers.
The other blacksmiths are in awe as they watched him perform his crafting, what John is doing is a very high-level crafting technique, it requires precise control over the elements and a very powerful soul force to accomplish. John being able to do it only proves that his attainment in metal element control and soul arts is about the same level as Mario.
Beads of sweat dripped all over his body, the twins and his guards felt worried for him, he has been hammering for a day now.
After completing the final shape of the weapon, a long big barreled revolver has finally got its final form, John relaxed his tensed muscles and quenched the burning hot metalic parts using space frost.
John started to assemble the parts and carved a wooden handle from a branch of the world tree. He etched the wood with runes his blood essence and attached this last part to the revolver.
The first natal weapon revolver he has ever made is finally done.
It's blue-silver in color with rune etching giving it the perfect color contrast; thirty inches long with a huge barrel one inch wide; the cylinder is four inches long and four inches wide, with six chambers one inch wide and four inches long.
The handle is made from a branch of the world tree, this serves as the guns core.
Mario and the other smiths clapped their hands in excitement, their hard work paid off, John completed his creation of their very first natal weapon gun.
If his binding is successful they could finally start producing it for the empire. They examined the gun and carefully checked every part, they were all like children examining their new toys. Mario even jumped in joy upon checking John's work.
"Hurry, bind it now, let us see if we did succeed with our theories" Mario urged john
"Grandfather let me take a breather" he softly said
"Oh! My bad" the old man suddenly remembered that his disciple has just conpleted his forging. He scratched the back of his head and chuckled in embarassment.
This almost made the crowd laughed out loud.
John focused his mind and started to recover his spirit and stamina. He also wanted to complete the binding process, howevery he knew that its not going to be that easy.
After eight hours he woke up from his meditation and held the revolver with his hands. John is praying hard that the binding would be a success.
He made a cut on his finger and let his blood essence drop into the gun handle but the gun didn't have any reaction. He made a larger. Cut on his wrist and let his blood flow into the handle, but the gun didn't even budge.
Johns face is extremely pale, the twins were nervous as they saw the haggard look of John. Even the guards are tightly gripping their fists, but they couldn't do anything, Mario is feeling guilty when he saw the fatigue of John, with this much blood essence lost john might even have his cultivation lower by a level.
John didn't want to give up now, more than half of his blood essence is transferred to the gun. He is bow planning to stop, he has poured in more than three fourths of his blood essence to the gun, when the whole gun buzzed and lit up brightly.
But after a while the gun lit up and floated above John's head, he sat in meditation trying to recover the lost blood essence, to his surprise after the gun got activated, it slowly returned John's blood essence preventing his cultivation to fall.
Then three bolts of tribulation lightning hit his weapon and finally it flew into his heart absorbing the blood, mana, element, and soul force. The new weapon is name destroyer same as his first partner.
John opened his eyes, there was excitement projected in it. He willed the gun to appear in his hand. He stretched out his arms and pointed the gun in one direction, then he played with it for a while, spinning it on his five fingers and letting it pass through his body, arms, legs, and neck like playing with a stick weapon.
The guards looked at John's movements closely and decided to practice the same tricks john did, it looks very cool. They couldnt wait to try it themselves.
Mario along with the other blacksmiths cheered as they celebrated their success, finally it's completed the first-ever gun natal weapon.
…
"Merlin" he called
"Yes your majesty" he knelt in one knee
"Kindly tell my parents to not worry, i will meet them after im done forging my weapons."
Then Merlin left without a trace. John sat crosslegged and meditated.
...
Jonathan and Diane is with the ladies and Diana when Merlin came "what message did you bring Merlin?"
Merlin knelt in one knee and reported "Your highness, the prince would like me to inform you not to worry. He plans to finish forging his weapons and meet up with you after."
"Haist... John just won't rest. He has been out for so long, and when he returned he got back to work" Diane sighed
"Hows his work?" Jonathan asked Merlin
"The prince succeeded in making his first weapon, he is preparing to complete his second." Merlin replied
Jonathan's eyes sparkled, he knew that in order to survive his tribulation, John sacrificed his natal weapons and injured his soul.
"Good! Tell him to take his time and continue what he likes to do. I seriously wanted him to relax and enjoy his youth!" he sighed
Merlin felt the king's dilemma, but he knew that their Prince is just like that, a perfectionist, and doesn't want to idle. He has idolized John ever since his first encounter with him. At a young age, John made all the empires top brass to recognize him.
His brains, talents and skills, everything is perfect. He doesn't rein his men thru fear and dominance, but thru respect and recognition.
He swore to serve and protect his prince and be his sword and shield. Not just him, he shares the same feelings with his comrades.
"Father, mother is my big brother alright?"
"Hahaha... Your brother is fine, he just won't sit down and relax a bit" Jonathan replied
"When I grow up, I want to be like a big brother" Diana blurted out, her eyes are sparkling with pure admiration and worship for her big brother
Diane giggled and hugged her daughter tightly.
The ladies stayed silent as they listened to the conversation. They felt admiration for their fiance, the pressure on them is heavier than before.
'With how talented the prince is, he won't have just few women who would want to be with him' this is what they all thought
...
A days rest and John felt his body and spirit has recovered.
He went back to the furnace and started to created his second natal weapon.
Before he started this, John is in a dilemma if he would recreate his ax and hammer. He thought of a very risky plan, 'ill try to make four natal weapons or even more' then he grinned evilly
It's a very risky plan indeed, the reason why natal weapons are limited to only two is because binding more natal weapons consumes too much blood, mana, elements and soul force.
Natal weapons and equipment are growth type, they feed on the host blood, mana, elements, and soul force to grow. Having too many may cause the owner to slow down his or her cultuvation, or may have their cultivations regress in the process.
But to John who has abundant amount of these four, thanks to his flawless body refinement, plans to take the risk and try to experiment on his theory.
'Grandfather won't get mad with me right?' he thought
...
He plans to make his first life weapon of choice the katana. However, he wanted to make the longer version, the odachi.
Heating up the furnace, he used the hardest divine grade heavenly metal and soft metal as the main component.
He melted the soft metal and incorporated all the remaining ten element materials he had on the soft metal core.
He wanted to try and see if he could use his blood to strengthen his connection with the blade. He recalled a technique of the bloody immortal. This technique absorbs the blood and essence of his target.
However, any method that absorbs blood and essence is condemned anywhere thus he decided to use his natal weapons as medium to activate the technique.
Unlike destroyer, where the blood essence is used is to establish a connection to the user, the purpose of using his blood essence is to increase his connection with the weapon prior to nurturing it within his body.
John forged the metal into a blade. Hammering and folding the metal, using the traditional way of making a katana he learned from an expert swordsmith from Japan. He incorporated runes with every strike of his hammer.
Mario who has been watching on the side, mused with the forging method of John. This is a new technique he learned. He felt proud of his disciple, not only does he tries new things he is also very proficient with his original forging technique. He couldn't count the amount of rune John added to this blade. What made him more amused is that the runes would overlap after each fold. 'Genius' this is all he could say.
The other blacksmiths are the same, they felt the gap between them and John. This young prince dares to try new things and applied all that he learned in his forging. Even if they have a huge age gap they truly idolize John, not only because he is a genius, but his magnanimity and selfless attitude towards his people.
The final product is a 80 inch long single edged odachi, with two inch wide blade that has a bloody glint on it's surface. The runes etched on the blade runs along with the silhouette of waves on the metal.
It is beautiful blade, even Mario is in awe of the final product.
It's handle is 20 inches long, using a branch of the word tree. The handle is keenly knitted with red leather made from dragon hide. With it's square shaped hand guard made of a hard gold.
The scabbard is made from a branch of the world tree dipped in dragon blood giving it a bright red stain.
"Wonderful! This blade is the first ever I've seen in this world! The technique you used made the edge razor sharp, it can slice of metal as if it were butter.
This blade fits your fighting style" Mario explained his analysis
John nodded his head and smiled, but he is a lot more paler than before.
He closed his eyes and meditated, it took him one and a half day to complete this odachi, he felt disappointed, he could have made it faster. However his elemental manipulation is still weak, hard metal is more difficult to manipulate.
If Mario and the rest were to hear him they might grapple him. How can he not be satisfied when he is already this fast?
He rested for the rest of the day and when he woke up from meditation, John bound the blade. It took the same amount of essence as his destroyer, he felt his consciousness slowly fading. His weapons are greedy for his blood, 'damn it! This feeling of being completely exhausted feels uncomfortable.
Lightning struck the odachi and his essence slowly returned to him. He named the odachi Mayhem.
Unlike destroyer, mayhem is created by compressing massive amounts of metal, this he could change its shape willfully. He initially wanted to create another ax and hammer, but he decided not to. By using a technique of compressing massive amount of metal, he is able to manipulate the original shape of mayhem and change it's shape according to his will.
He wanted to focus on his attack power and strengthen his body, even more, to be impermeable to attacks. After the last tribulation, he knew that his body is not as strong as he imagined it to be, he needs to find another way to make his body even stronger.
Mario and the blacksmiths are watching John's creation of mayhem and are surprised by this type of discovery, they have another topic to add in their discussion.
Using mayhem he could channel the blood manipulation arts and could absorb the blood and essence of his target thru his blade, giving him a perfect cover for his technique.
The amount of blood lust emmited from the blade made everyone shiver, the blade is like a wild beast thirsty for blood.
...
There are still many more materials left, iJohn decided to create a shackles for himself, he asked Mario to lend him, hundred tons of liquid gold and elemental crystals. Mario tossed everything that John needed and watch his disciple work, he didn't mind it at all, what he owns belong to John.
John started compressing eight, one-ton liquid Gold, and he hammered it and made eight ring shackles, using his superior soul force he made precise cuts to the elemental crystals, but the crystals were sliced into small microscopic ones using his black thunder hellfire. He embedded the eight shackles with it along with the remaining materials with ten elements, giving it a different kind of glow under the light. Then he hammered the shackles and embedded rune markings on them. After the shackles are quenched he dropped his blood essence on it and he successfully bound the shackles, unlike the normal shackles it's a natal weapon as well, thunder fell on the shackles and attached itself on both his wrist and ankles.
Then he used the remaining liquid gold and materials to make an three snakeskin necklace and two earnings a single hoop earing and a cross tassel eating. After binding the accessories John wears the necklaces and placed the cross tassel eating on his left earlobe and the hoop eating on the upper helix of his left ear.
After he completed his work the people looked at him with fervent eyes, 'shit! Just adding the accessories the prince's charm multiplied several times than before, he looked more roguish' the twins felt even more infatuated as they looked at his appearance, he looks more handsome than before.
Mario on the other hand applauded John for his ingenious designs and accessory function, each accessory has a protective and element amplification and sensing effect, it can also be used as a weapon. He and the blacksmiths had gained a new idea that is not written on the legacy book. They also planned to experiment on making their own accessories.
Just like that he spent two days completing his accessories.
"Boy! You always surprise this oldman! Hahaha…" mario cheerfully laughed and tapped his shoulders.
In these past few days, Mario and the blacksmiths enjoyed watching and discussing John's designs and theories.
"What effects does adding these accessories have on your cultivation and body?" he asked
"The shackles proved to be of no effect to me anymore," he sent a soul transmission to Mario
"Grampa, once a barbarian reached the heaven stage of the BGBTA the shackles won't provide any resistance to our bodies" he honestly said
Mario knew that John has high attainment on his BGBTA, but it took him by surprise when he claimed that the shackles won't have effects on heaven Stage. It only means he has reach the same level as him but on the BGBTA.
He felt proud but held it to himself, since he used soul transmission it means that he wanted to keep it private between master and disciple. He could feel Johns trust by sharing this secret with him. As his only disciple, he felt very proud and happy for John, he is the youngest heavenly immortal ever known, and a body tampering immortal at that!
...
John did not end his forging, he spent the rest of the week forging accessories.
He took out several materials and crafted six special bull rings, and 197 plainly designed bull rings with a blue crystal centerpiece.
One has two hammers crossed with each other, embedded with flame crystals and the handle is made from a part of the world tree. He crafted a small red jade box and a replica of the rings emblem on the lid.
Everyone watched John place the ring on the red jade box. They didn't know what he did during the forging of the ring, when John sent them a message the ring is done and he placed it inside the box.
John walked slowly towards Mario, he knelt with his two knees and bowed "grampa, thank you for all the things you thought me, the blacksmith, this John Gold now is all thanks to your unending care and effort.
I may have been able to reach this stage without any help but it would not have been this smooth. As a disciple I can't ask for any better master than you. Thank you is not enough to compensate all you did to me."
Mario is already crying when he heard his disciples touching words. He didn't teach John much, he could learn all after a single lecture. He completed all the theories the legacy book contained.
Thus, he let the boy forge and guided him throughout the process and corrected the errors during the actual forging process.
This may sound simple to others but Mario doubts that anyone can do it other than John. Only his disciple can progress while forging, even he himself can't replicate this feat.
Mario quickly held johns shoulders and helped him stand. "Hurry, hurry, stand up. Stupid disciple, look what you did to me! Are you embarrassing your master!" he shouted, but everyone knew that the old man is shy. However the happiness and pride that sparkled from his eyes are genuine
John stood up and reach out his hand, "grampa, this one made a ring, not just any other ring..."
Then he gave it to Mario. The old man cried, this is the very first gift John made for him, he couldn't ask for more from this disciple of his. All the love and care he showered john is reciprocated several times.
He may have not have any son or grandson. But his only disciple who he poured all his love and care has never failed him and made him really proud. He showed the old man the same love and respect to his parents and blood related grandfather, what more can he ask for.
Mario nervously took the box and slowly opened it as if it were the most precious treasure in the whole universe. What he saw was a bull ring with a full hammer emblem, just from the looks of it, the ring is a treasure.
Indeed, the ring is no ordinary bull ring, it is a space ring several times bigger than his own, what is special about it is not the space but its the ability to carry living beings.
This is the ultimate space ring that is described in the legacy book of blacksmiths. But the content on how to make this ring is not clear as the last pages were destroyed. But his disciple completed it! His only disciple! Mario felt very proud at the moment.
"Grampa, the ring has a million square kilometer capacity, but if plants are placed depending on the level of materials the space limit will also change however it can carry up to a million types of living plants.
If living beings are placed, depending on the strength of the creature it could house ten heavenly immortals, but the creature must be unconscious before you could place it inside the ring. Or else you can't successfully contain them inside the ring.
It's a different story after you nourish it with your blood, elements, mana and soul. In time it can carry more living beings." hearing his explanation they are all lost for words, what concept is this, unbelievable, a miracle above all miracles.
Mario immediately bound the ring and lightning struck it with him, "hahaha... Look at this, a perfect ring for me hahaha..." he proudly exhibited his ring, the rest of the blacksmiths also wanted one but we're shy to ask the prince, they all have a look of jealousy
"Don't worry, I promise all ten of you, that during the official establishment of the guild all ten of you elders will each have a bull ring created by me personally, but you will all have to prepare the materials needed for its creation" hearing johns promise the blacksmiths are excited, they are now checking their rings for the materials that the prince used, and plans to search and trade for the other missing materials.
"My disciple, grandson... Hahaha... You only know how to make this old man happy"
John felt his masters joy, he felt very warm inside. He is very thankful to have been reborn surrounded by these people. The love he didn't experience from a family in his past life was shower unto him in this life.
Then John called Merlin "merlin!"
Merlin reported and saluted in front of him then he reached out his hand and gave him a jade box. Merlin held the small box with trembling hands,
"Open it now" he ordered Merlin
What he saw is a silver bull ring with a gun and katana crossed with each other. Merlin blood dropped his blood essence into the ring binding it to him, it's a natal accessory but not a growth type one, however, it's divine grade accessory.
"This ring is the proof of your status as one of my three leading generals. The ring has functions for defense against five full-blown attacks from a heavenly immortal and it has a million square feet of space, and it could contain living plants but not other creatures or humans." Merlin felt proud of himself, this ring is a symbol of authority and recognition from the prince.
Mario and the rest of the blacksmiths grouped together and discussed about the process of making the space ring using Mario's ring as their guide. They forgot that they have guests within their guild. "Be careful you fools! If my ring got damaged I'm gonna let you rest in bed for months!" scolded the old man
Then the two other boxes were the same as the ones he gave Merlin, he gave them to the twins. The three of them have gained his approval and proved to him their capabilities by maintaining their position after all these years.
Then he distributed the one hundred and ninety-seven bull ring to the rest of his guards, the emblem is engraved inside the crystal center piece.
"If you want to have the same ring as the three of them, hurry up and get stronger, "
"This ring is the proof that you are one of my John Golds men, you can do anything you want, but I won't tolerate any abusive actions from my own men! Do you all understand?" he asked them
"Yes your highness!"
"Among you three, Elise, as the head you will be responsible for the team as a whole, any faults made by your men, all responsibilities shall be yours to bear!
Eleanor, you are more proficient in spying, data gathering, and espionage so you will be in charge of the spy network of the group!
Merlin, your meticulousness, honest, fair, and careful personality, starting today you are the disciplinary enforcer and chief of the logistics division."
Then John took out another ring but this time it's gold in color, with the same emblem, made with finely made blue crystals. All their rings resonated with Johns, "all our rings are now in complete synchrony. It can be used for communication with a million-kilometer range. Within a thousand-kilometer area, you could detect your brothers who are in disguise and feel each other's presence."
The ring is not just for the status but for recognition, the rest of the guards is determined to raise their level and attain the same level as the three.