Eternal Forge: Starting with a SSS Rank talent and a Myth Rank Class

The Forging Trial began with full momentum. All fifteen participants were forging to the best of their ability, each one fully immersed in their craft.

Leo glanced around at the others before beginning his own work. He placed his hands on the cold surface of the Starfall Iron once more. With some effort, he lifted the massive piece from the cart. Once again, he was struck by just how incredibly heavy the ore truly was.

Gathering all his strength, he hoisted it up and positioned it near the anvil. The stone was nearly half his size, imposing and unwieldy.

So what should I do now? he wondered, momentarily confused.

Heating and hammering it directly seemed impossible given its massive and distorted shape. The only viable option was to toss the Starfall Iron into a large crucible.

He then summoned the eternal flame and allowed it to flow into the crucible alongside the ore. The entire vessel began to glow with a brilliant golden light as the eternal fire burned with intense power.

The flames roared to life, climbing higher and hotter until the air around the anvil shimmered with visible waves of heat distortion. The temperature inside the royal smithy was already elevated from all the participants heating their materials, but the addition of the eternal fire caused it to spike dramatically.

"What the...?" Gandalf muttered from two stations over, his body turned sideways to shield himself from the extreme heat radiating outward.

Even with this extraordinary level of flame, the Starfall Iron showed no sign of melting whatsoever. Leo pressed both palms firmly against the ore, letting the golden flame fully embrace it.

Yet still... nothing happened.

The ore did not glow, did not soften, and did not even warm noticeably.

Is it resisting me? Leo thought.

He increased the intensity of the flame. The eternal fire surged powerfully, and the golden light grew so bright that its core seemed to shift from gold to a white-hot brilliance. He recalled the description of the iron: Primordial Grade. Memory of Creation. It remembers being born in the universe’s first light.

So it’s as ancient as the universe itself? Leo mused.

Let’s see if you can withstand the full power of the Eternal Flame.

He gritted his teeth, his forehead already covered in sweat. His arms trembled from the sheer exertion.

Still, the stone showed no reaction. Undeterred, Leo pushed even further. The golden flame screamed upward in a towering blaze. Every head in the smithy turned toward Leo.

"What is that fire?" Lady Silva whispered, adjusting her spectacles with a mixture of awe and concern.

Master Kael leaned forward intently. "I’ve never seen that color in a Flame before."

Elder Thrain’s expression shifted from curiosity to something deeper—recognition. "That boy..." the dwarf murmured, "is using Soul power to amplify his flames unknowingly."

Freya watched in silence, her astonishment evident. Even she could sense a vague but unmistakable danger emanating from the flame Leo was producing.

All the judges’ eyes were now fixed on the Starfall ore that Leo was desperately trying to melt.

"Is that..... a fucking Granite?" Ironhand Bjorn squinted, peering closely.

"Yeah, it looks like common Granite," Lady Silva said with clear doubt. "Why is he struggling so much with it?"

Elder Thrain, however, had noticed something unusual. His frown deepened by the second. "Something’s wrong here. That ore should not be able to resist this high intensity of heat."

Master Kael squinted his eyes and added, "Look closer. The surface of the material is flaking."

He had barely finished speaking when—

Crack....

A hairline fracture appeared across the surface of the ore. Its outer shell began to flake away rapidly, revealing the true metal hidden beneath. A brilliant crimson red light flashed from within the cracks.

Everyone watching froze in place.

"That’s not granite," Elder Thrain said in utter disbelief.

"What... what is that?" Bjorn whispered, his voice filled with shock.

Master Kael voiced his thoughts, though barely audible. "I have never seen such metal before. The energy signature it’s emitting... Its quality is extraordinarily high and its old... ancient."

He added with growing amazement, "How did this boy find such a thing when all of us missed this material for so long?"

Lady Silva removed her spectacles and polished them nervously. Her hands were visibly shaking. "The palace vault has held materials for millennia. How did we miss this?"

"Maybe we didn’t miss it," Elder Thrain said slowly, his tone thoughtful. "Maybe it was waiting.... For the right person."

Leo, who had been exerting everything he had to melt the Starfall Iron, suddenly felt a different kind of warmth spreading through his body. It was not from the fire but from the metal itself.

Huh??....

Memory of Creation. It was remembering being born in the universe’s first dawn.

The metal beneath Leo’s hands pulsed as if trying to resonate with the universe around it. Leo finally sensed the true property of the metal—its universal resonance and memory of creation.

As he continued working to melt it, he suddenly experienced a vision he had seen before. A group of star constellations shimmering in the void. He did not fully understand what it signified, but he could feel that the ore was deeply linked with those constellations and could draw power from the stars themselves.

It was only a brief flash. The vision passed quickly.

Leo gave the ore a thoughtful look and finally succeeded in melting it completely. The ore transformed into a flowing crimson liquid. All foreign objects and impurities were burned away by the eternal flame, leaving only the purest Starfall Iron liquid. Leo carefully poured it into a rectangular mold.

The purity had already reached an astounding 99.9%.

He moved on to the other materials in the same meticulous fashion.

Next, he took the Asgardian Ironwood—dense, dark-grained, and heavy enough to qualify as metal. He placed it on the anvil and directed the golden flame toward it. The wood did not burn; instead, it transformed gracefully.

Impurities rose as thin wisps of smoke that curled upward before dissolving into nothingness. What remained was a solid bar that looked like polished mahogany but hummed with the deep resonance of steel.

Then, just as he had done with the Starfall ore, he tossed the remaining elemental ores into separate crucibles one by one and melted them until no impurities remained.

The fire elemental orb became a liquid that glowed like golden magma.

The wind elemental ore transformed into a shimmering liquid metal with pale green, transparent air currents swirling within it.

The water elemental ore purified into a liquid that rippled gently like the surface of a calm pond.

The earth elemental ore melted into a liquid that seemed to absorb surrounding light.

The light elemental ore, once white and radiant, became a liquid glowing with soft luminescence.

The dark elemental ore, once black as the void, transformed into a liquid that appeared to drink in the surrounding light.

Finally, the legendary metal adamantine—which was nearly indestructible and would normally take a blacksmith a full week to process—had been turned into a liquid within mere hours, alongside the rest, gleaming with a white-silver light as if it were ordinary metal.

He poured all of these liquids into separate rectangular molds. After they had cooled completely, Leo now possessed nine metallic bars of different types.

Nine bars sat proudly on the anvil: Starfall Iron, Asgardian Ironwood, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Light, and Dark Elemental Ores, and Adamantine. Each one had been purified to an incredible ninety-nine point nine nine percent.

The judges stared in stunned silence.

Elder Thrain activated his advanced sensing technique, carefully scanning all nine bars. His hands trembled noticeably. "Ninety-nine point nine nine percent purity," he announced, his voice barely above a whisper. "All nine materials. Every single one."

Gandalf dropped his hammer as he heard the judges voice as he was near them. The loud clang echoed through the now-silent smithy. Everyone looked at him but soon returned to their work.

Lady Silva removed her spectacles again and polished them vigorously. Her hands were shaking. "That’s not possible. Not in this timeframe. Not with that level of control."

"Yet here we are," Master Kael said quietly, his eyes never leaving Leo’s station.

Ironhand Bjorn, the dwarven judge, leaned forward. His voice was rough with disbelief. "He purified adamantine. In under an hour. That’s... that should take weeks."

Captain Freya said nothing. She simply watched with an unreadable expression, her eyes sharp and focused.

"Now, before I mix them, if I carve the energy channel runes first, then melt and combine them, will something happen?" Leo thought aloud.

He picked up his carving pen, which resembled a thick needle. He started with the Starfall Iron. As the needle touched the metal, lines of golden light followed its path, glowing brightly as they formed. Energy channel runes—designed to allow the metal to conduct heat, force, mana, and any type of energy—began to take shape with flawless precision.

He carved the exact same runes into the second bar, the Asgardian Ironwood, and continued through the third, fourth, and fifth, all the way until he had inscribed every one of the nine bars.

The judges watched the entire process in complete silence.

"What the heck is this kid doing?" Lady Silva whispered in confusion. "He’s inscribing the runes before completing the forging? Won’t the runes be damaged by the heat during forging? What the heck is this kid thinking?"

"That’s...." Master Kael muttered in a daze, "That’s not a standard procedure at all."

"Hmph, nothing about this boy makes sense," Elder Thrain muttered under his breath.

"His presence here already doesn’t make any sense," Freya replied, releasing an exasperated sigh and shaking her head.

Leo ignored their comments entirely.

He arranged the nine bars in a very specific order: Starfall Iron at the base, the elemental ores arranged in a circle around it, Asgardian Ironwood in the center, and Adamantine placed on top.

Then he did something that caused the judges to lean forward with heightened interest. He placed all nine bars back into the crucible.

"What is he doing?" Lady Silva whispered. "He already purified them. Why melt them again?"

"Watch," Master Kael said quietly, his voice filled with anticipation.

Leo directed the Eternal Fire at the crucible. The golden flames engulfed the nine bars completely.

The metals began to soften, then melt, and soon became fully liquid. All nine bars turned into a swirling mixture of liquid metal: crimson-silver, golden-brown, red, green, blue, brown, white-gold, black, and gleaming silver. Nine distinct colors danced together in the crucible.

Leo channeled his energy into the fire. His hands moved in slow, deliberate circles, guiding the flames and directing the heat with precision. The liquids began to mix thoroughly.

The judges continued to watch in rapt silence.

Then something impossible happened.

The energy channels—the runes Leo had carved into each bar before melting—were still present. They floated within the liquid metal, connected and glowing with power.

"That’s not possible," Lady Silva breathed. "Runes dissolve when metal melts. Every blacksmith knows this."

"Then explain what we’re seeing," Elder Thrain said, his voice hoarse with amazement.

The runes pulsed steadily in the liquid state. Energy flowed seamlessly between them, creating an intricate network that spanned the entire crucible.

The nine colors began to merge, swirling together and blending into a single, extraordinary hue: crimson-silver with flecks of gold, red-silver interwoven with hints of green, blue, brown, white, and black—a color that should not have existed.

Leo’s hands moved faster now. The energy channels responded to his will, guiding the fusion process and ensuring the metals merged perfectly. The runes were not merely decorative; they served as a living structure. They held the liquid together, prevented separation, and kept the nine materials in perfect harmony.

"He carved the runes first," Master Kael said slowly, his eyes wide with realization. "Before melting. Before shaping. And now... the runes are guiding the fusion."

"The runes are alive," Elder Thrain whispered in awe. "In liquid state. Alive."

The liquid metal pulsed once, twice, three times with powerful rhythm.

Leo hurriedly poured the unified metal into a mold specifically meant for a hammer head. It began to cool rapidly and naturally, as if the metal itself knew precisely when to solidify.

Leo lifted the fused bar from the mold. It was a single, magnificent block where nine materials had merged into one. The energy channels glowed beneath the surface, interconnected and pulsing with soft, steady light.

He set it firmly on the anvil.

The judges stared in collective astonishment.

"Nine materials," Elder Thrain said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Fused at the molecular level. Runes carved before shaping. A balancing network connecting emergent patterns."

He paused for a moment, letting the weight of the observation settle.

"Forged using the Rune-First Approach—a method that has never been recorded in the history of Asgard."

Leo stepped back slightly. He studied the fused bar carefully with his Forge-Sight. There were no cracks, no voids, and no impurities. The combination was flawless.

"Now shall I start the real forging," he said as he stretched his body, preparing for the next phase.