A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Several hours later, Erik once again found himself in the smithing hall. He was not alone, but it was neither Eira, nor Elora who was with him. Instead, it was Astrid.

"So…" Astrid chuckled with a light smirk. "It's finally time to start forging, and now you need me to be your little power source, right?"

"Basically" Erik grinned unapologetically.

"Which means you want me to just stand there with my metaphorical dick in my hand, while you spend the next few days creating something that only you and Eira can use, right?" she continued laconically.

"Well, I also need you to constantly circulate your sun affinity to fuel the forge," he shrugged casually in response.

"…" Astrid stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"…" Erik stared back with a casual smile.

They stared silently at each other before Erik grinned again. "I'll make it up to you?"

"You better," Astrid rolled her eyes before taking her position next to the forge and sighing, preparing herself for a few days of grueling boredom.

Of course, their interaction was just for fun, as Astrid was more than happy to help him, but Erik was fully prepared to spend some time sparring with Astrid, either on the fighting stage or in bed, to make it up to her anyway.

"By the way," she wondered curiously after a small sun was burning away in the forge. "Are you going to be creating an armor for me one of these days as well?"

Astrid was a direct woman, and did not see the need in waiting for Erik to offer instead. She wanted it, so she would simply ask.

"Well…" Erik chuckled as he placed stacks of both the light-blue wintercrystal and the cloudy-white stormsilver in the forge. "I have some plans for a wedding armor, in lieu of a wedding ring… But you'd have to marry me first."

Astrid narrowed her eyes at him, "Now you're just playing unfair…"

"Am I?" Erik grinned while watching the ingots heat up. "We both know its just a matter of time before you agree anyway, armor or no."

Astrid mumbled some curses under her breath, but turned her gaze away from Erik, as she couldn't find it in her to refute his words.

"But if you do decide not to marry me, I'll make the armor as a farewell present," he suddenly mumbled softly, and a little sadly. His words caused her eyebrows to twitch. Despite her hesitance to marry him, she didn't want to say goodbye either.

For the next few hours, Erik worked while occasionally engaging in small talk with Astrid.

Currently, he was experimenting to find the best alloy composition for the two metals he had chosen: the ice affinity metal wintercrystal, and the lightning affinity metal stormsilver. With the latter having a slightly misleading name due to the affinity of storm.

Unfortunately, the alloy would not exactly be a fusion between ice and lightning, meaning it would be inferior to a metal with the thundersnow affinity. But that was fine for now. This alloy would still have many of the properties Erik needed and would allow his thundersnow affinity to easily travel through it.

He expertly used some of the Frostvolt techniques he had learned only yesterday, first allowing two molten metals to blend and mix together, than cooling it with thundersnow, ensuring the alloy remained as strong as possible by using the lightning component to smooth out the internal structure.

As he worked, the small sun at the forge's heart cast a pale, intense glow, stark against the dark stone walls. Its light did not flicker like fire but burned steady and unwavering.

After almost half a day, he finally had a large stack of the alloy he dubbed, stormcrystal. Now, it was time to create the framework.

For this, he needed Elora, however.

After waking her up, the fairy appeared in her smaller form with a yawn, her face looking ever more exhausted. "Time for the framework?" she asked in a tired tone of voice.

"Yeah," Erik nodded while looking at her exhaustion with a little concern. "Everything you need is stacked up over there," he said while pointing at a stack of gray colored ingots and blue leather.

The ingots were simple iron, while the blue leather was leftover hunting spoils from their time on Söl, and they once belonged to a water-affinity beast. It was only a second-rank material, but that was fine. The leather was just intended for comfort and cooling purposes.

Not wanting to waste any time, as she wished to return to her hibernation, Elora quickly flew up to the stack of materials and began to draw a sigil around them. Find your next read on mvl

Meanwhile, Erik started working on the third rank, water affinity metal: aquaferrous. Because of its affinity, this metal was not only a little more flexible than others, making it perfect for serving as the framework, but also very good at conducting most other affinities, especially ice and lightning.

After the metal was heated to a point where it could be shaped, he took it out, and used the same electromagnetic hammering technique as before to shape it into the form he required, while ensuring that the hammer didn't touch the metal. At the same time, he used thundersnow to engrave various runes into the metal.

He could feel the fine vibrations of the hammer's field, while shadows danced quietly across the room, thrown by the silent hammering of the technique.

As he worked, his mind briefly wandered to the battles ahead. Taking down Sigurd, rescuing Astrid's mother, punishing Frostfang, rescuing Katya's brother, finding Edda, his mother, and perhaps Audumla. Plus whatever else was waiting for them along the way.

He realized this armor was going to see a lot of use…

At some point, he felt Elora merging with his body and returning to hibernation, meaning she had finished her task.

Erik remained focused on what he was doing, however. He created the framework as various round and straight metal bands with special fittings that he could use to bind the bands to each other through the use of a Frostvolt technique called thermal shock bonding.

Some of the fittings were simple, while other were meant to act as very low-friction hinges, where the metals were smoothed out through the use of lightning.

When a piece of the framework was done, he would temper it by using the same thundersnow technique he used before during the alloy creation.

He became so absorbed in his work, that he barely noticed as time passed. He didn't feel tired, or worn out. He enjoyed himself. This was a joy that managed to empty his mind of all other thoughts, and one that he only found through fighting, smithing, or sex.

He worked with no rest, and it wasn't until a full eighteen hours later that he finally put down his hammer and sighed heavily with a wide smile on his face. 'Man, that was fun…' he thought to himself. 'Exhausting, too, but I finally managed to complete all of the pieces of the armor's skeleton framework.'

He looked up, and noticed someone had brought Astrid a pillow and table, as she was now sitting on top of the table and pillow, using this time to meditate and advance her ranking, while still providing Erik with sun fire.

He smiled slightly, 'I really was an idiot back then, huh… ignoring a woman like this… if I could meet my younger self now, I would give him the beating of his life,' he chuckled softly.

'Anyway, let's not disturb her. It's time to assemble the framework…'