Chapter 675 Bad Trantion


    Karl carefully opened the book and looked at the first page. The letters were unfamiliar, but the more that he looked at them, the more sense they made.


    He assumed that the system would do all of the tranting for him, the way that it did with spokennguages. So he simply waited, and examined the first page until it began to make sense.


    It didn''t.


    At least, not in any meaningful way. But most of thenguage was based on Runic, so Karl was slowly able to make out two thirds of what he assumed that it was saying, and then guess at the rest.


    "Can you read that?" One of the clerics asked as Karl flipped to the second page. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Mostly. It''s not anguage that I would im to know, and I get the feeling that I am missing a huge amount of context to the words as I read them. But I can follow the descriptions well enough to at least tell what it is talking about.


    Now, when we get to the technical parts, that may be much more difficult. As I said, I am missing a lot of context, so as I read through the more detailed sections, I''m going to miss even more."


    The first few pages were mostly just an introduction, and a crude glossary, as if the writer had assumed there would be no need to flip through the book to find a particr section, and that the reader would simply read it cover to cover until it was memorized.


    That might be possible. That was how the mine bosses wanted them to treat thepany handbook. But a professional tradesman wouldn''t be quite as arrogant, Karl assumed.


    [For a true Dwarven Master Smith, the quality of their alloys and forging process is the key to everything. But the same cannot be said for a Dwarven Runemaster. While a runic Dwarven weapon will always be a vast improvement on the original, greater rtive gains cane from weapons that are further from the peak of perfection.


    As long as itsts, the Runic inscription will be just as effective on a low-quality de as a master crafted one. However, it is worth noting that a poor quality de, or an inferior blend of alloy will simply shatter if too much power is directed through it by a Runic Array.]


    None of that was a shock to Karl.


    What did shock Karl was the fact that it was immediately followed by a list of alloys by quality for Runic Weapon making, due to theirpatibility with high mana flows.


    Of all the things that he had expected it to say, he had not expected the author to put pure silver near the top, just under Mythril and a few alloys that Karl had never heard of.


    What did shock Karl was the fact that it was immediately followed by a list of alloys by quality for Runic Weapon making, due to theirpatibility with high mana flows.


    Of all the things that he had expected it to say, he had not expected the author to put pure silver near the top, just under Mythril and a few alloys that Karl had never heard of.


    Obviously, it was a lousy metal for making weapons on its own, as it was soft and wouldn''t hold an edge. But with Runes, that could be ovee, while the high mana capacity and essibility made it more viable than any of theplex alloys on the list.


    Karl made notes as he tranted, in hopes that he would be able to go over themter and glean some additional meanings that he had missed the first time that he read through the book.


    Karl flipped the page, and found that the foreword to the novel was only that one page long. As soon as the introduction of the best metals was over, the author dove straight into the important parts of how to use the craft to improve your work.


    [Now, if you are short of a proper Dwarven forge, as may be the case while travelling, you will need to know these basics to make the tools of the less advanced species viable for use.] The next page began, before being filled with scrawling and scattered Runic symbol clusters in various shapes for different objects.


    They all appeared to be designed to enhance the strength and durability of metal objects, but the author had not just included the runes for strengthening.


    That seemed curious, so Karl wrote out the Runes, separated into theirponent parts, and started trying to decipher what they all meant, and what part they yed in the overall inscription.


    It was not going to be an easy task, Karl realized. Instead of using a spell effect as the building blocks of his work, with the strengtheningyered over top, the Dwarf had used a paragraph - long rant about how humans couldn''t tell impurities from rare alloys. Then it went on about how they were too frail to stand next to a forge long enough to heat metal for shaping, and too poor to afford oil for tempering.


    "What does it all say?" The cleric asked.


    "It appears that the dwarf who wrote this was not a particr fan of the other races'' crafting. It''s an entire rant about how the humans can''t make a decent de, with a strengthening effect tacked on top."


    The Cleric looked confused by what he meant, so Karl went and grabbed a pair of knives from the breakfast cart. It took him the better part of five minutes to write out the runes on the butter knives with a fine tip marker, but the clerics simply remained silent and waited for him to finish before they asked any more questions.


    "See this? That''s the base metal strengthening rune group. This one is what the book rmended to strengthen a human made de. I don''t know if there is actually any difference in the effects between the two." Karl exined, gesturing between the knife with a simple rune on the handle, and the one that was entirely decorated.


    The cleric shrugged, then activated the runes with a gentle flow of mana.


    "See what it takes to bend them. The kitchen will forgive us a few damaged butter knives." He suggested.


    "The second one sure is pretty, though." One of the other clerics noted.


    "Yes, gorgeous Rune work. I can see why they would have done it that way. Even if it provided a marginal or negligible increase, it is much more pleasing to look at, and the Dwarves were known to be vain about their handiwork."


    Karl picked up the simple strengthening rune marked de, and forcibly bent it in his hands.


    Then he repeated the process as the Clerics sighed in regret at the loss.


    Strangely, the second de did appear to be significantly stronger, despite not having any other activation runes in the inscription.