The more Bev worked, the more she realized she needed. A workbench for one. Kennon made a list of all the other things he needed for his alchemy lab and went to buy them.

  Using metal mold to forge was, odd. It almost felt wrong to forge without her hammer. The spell worked exactly like earth mold. It made metal malleable enough to mold with her hands like clay. But it did have differences.

  The direction of the grain for one. It took Tutor an hour to explain the basic principles behind getting the steel grain right with metal mold. Apparently it was less of a problem with higher tier metals. But she couldn’t really afford those yet.

  She only barely understood how it worked. And if you had asked her beforehand how it would work she would not have guessed this. But she apparently had to knead the metal like bread. Thoroughly mixing it all to have the correct structure. Apparently the spell had some automatic feature that sorted the grain as it was mixed? Honestly she just understood that it worked. Tutor said that proper understanding would come with future lectures.

  Bev couldn’t wait.

  After the metal was mixed she stretched it into roughly the correct shape, then she let it harden a bit. It was time for the fun part! See, she needed the hammer less. Not none. She had to force herself not to hit too hard. But it was soon properly shaped.

  Then came the best part of metal mold. Less hammer and fire was annoying. But she could sharpen the blade with a single slice of her knife. And not using a grinder was a blessing!

  Letting metal mold go Bev noted that it had nearly drained her mana. She had even been gathering a fair bit during the process. Apparently metal mold was a hungry spell. It was a complicated one too. It took her almost two minutes to cast it. She would be inscribing it before nightfall.

  The hilt was part of the steel, it would have a leather wrap eventually. So the next part was the inscription. And again she ran into her old enemy of conditional runes.

  The sonic attack was easy. But determining when to let it loose, and what direction to fire it was more complicated.

  In theory she could have left that to the user. But in her mind and dagger that needed an instruction manual wasn’t a good one. Either that or it was one of the best ones ever.

  And with proper application of will someone could still control the release manually. She made sure that the control array was weakly attached enough it could be overridden.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  It took five hours of explanations of rune based trajectories and penetration theory to figure out how to calibrate the control array. Though she wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting any of it.

  She had noticed that as soon as Kennon created his perfect memory skill her memory became practically perfect as well. Most skills only bled over a little. But they already had the weird thing where if one learned something so did the other. So it was probably connected to that. Maybe she learned it, so he learned it, he remembered it perfectly, so she always knew it?

  In any case after the control array was done there were only two runes left. “Store” to hold the mana. And “reverberate”. The user probably wouldn’t hear anything. At least not from the blade itself.

  It would tear apart the flesh of whatever was hit. Literally shaking it apart. That probably did have a sound. But she didn’t care to guess.

  It would also be effective against things too hard to cut. Making this the first dagger Bev had heard of that would actually be useful against a stone elemental without insane sharpness or strength.

  When she was done she appraised it.

  Mana enriched steel sonic dagger - dagger - T1

  Made of mana enriched steel, this dagger has average cutting and stabbing abilities. However it has also been enchanted to store a sonic blast that is directed into its victim one contact. This allows it superior penetrating power. Even if the affected target is not actually cut.

  This dagger was made by an initiate.

  Enchantments

  Directed sonic attack, mana storage(200)

  Bev was very happy with the result. She hadn’t actually expected it to have that high a capacity. That was the same as four fire balls! If it had the same power then she felt it would be more than worth the lack of sharpness and durability. Especially if it was used as a backup weapon.

  Frankly she wanted to add one to her kit. Even though she knew it didn’t really match her fighting style. And Kennon was going to be spending mana like water in fights now. So it wasn’t for him.

  She was curious what it would sell for. It had cost her about ten silver in materials. So maybe twenty was good?

  She sent the appraisal to Senec. He swapped contacts with them and said to message them if they needed help settling in.

  She rested a bit, then got started repairing their house. She could have finished it that same day. But the idea of a new project was too tempting.

  An hour after she sent the message she got a reply.

  Senec: Is this real? Did you really make a directed sonic attack dagger that has a storage of 200?

  Bev was confused. She said she did. Did he think she was lying? Or did she do something wrong?

  Bev: Yes. Why? Should I have lowered the storage for more typical enchants? Is twenty silver too expensive? It is twice the cost of materials.

  Senec: You really don’t understand do you? This may be the best ranged fighter backup weapon I have seen for its tier. Anyone with decent mana control would want it as a primary weapon as well. I need to take you to the guild store tomorrow. Show you what your dagger will be "competing" with.