How much time do we have? Vivi asked.

"Around two days," Lucius said. "Should be more than enough."

Let's hope so, Vivi thought. She was carving runes into the veins, while the crucible smelted her metals. But at this point… I almost don't care about the competition.

"What?" Lucius asked. "You were so determined, and now you don't care anymore?"

We completed the veins. That's more important than anything.

Lucius furrowed his cat-brows. "You make no sense, Vivi."

Vivi smiled and kept carving the runes. Her carving knife moved nervously, engraving a swiftness rune into the first set of veins. Vivi had initially intended to create a heavy sword, but the process for this sword had been so gracious that Vivi didn't think a mass rune would fit. She wanted to create something pleasant; something she could pick up during her worst days and just perform practice swings with. The final runes she decided upon, in order, were, swiftness, flow, sharpness.

A flow rune was a weird one. It didn't specifically add any special effects. It just made ether pass through the sword better, enhancing the existing runes. It definitely fit.

That was especially true when taking into account the metal Vivi had chosen. It was a rare metal never seen on the surface that Grandpa placed into the category of mythical metals that probably didn't exist. She'd found some in a random store for five hundred ether per ingot.

Botanic adamantite. It was one of the oddest metal mixtures created by nature. If adamantite roots somehow ended up deep in the levelstone, in areas abundant with pressurised ether—specifically, nature's ether, the same wisps that grew plants—the adamantite roots could crack into growth. If left alone for a few thousand years, the root's unstable adamantite would eventually solidify into metal. Botanic adamantite was essentially just adamantite grown like a plant with nature's ether.

In practicality, the metal was softer than adamantite, but far more accepting of ether, making it a popular metal for high-end runeswords.

More importantly, the metal was said to be vaguely translucent. When treated properly, it had a beautiful floral orange color. For Vivi's showcase sword, good looks were arguably just as important as the veins inside.

The clerk who sold her the ingots also reminded Vivi that botanic adamantite was a nightmare to forge. Its melting point was incredibly precise. Too much heat, and the metal would apparently start acting up. Not enough, and the metal was brittle and prone to breaking. Botanic adamantite was really intended only for runesmithing. Without ether, the metal was awful.

I really should have chosen an easier metal… Vivi thought. If she destroyed her project during the blacksmithing process, she would never forgive herself.

But the vision in Vivi's head required botanic adamantite. Really, the metal was the perfect fit for her project. The metal was conductive and smooth, and beautiful on top.

With the runes carved and the metal melted, Vivi summoned her forge, returned Angall's vise, and turned her vein-shaping station into a blacksmith's forge.

The runesmiths around her were more confused than ever. "Well, she did say she was going to craft her own base sword," Angall said.

Vivi smiled. "Just watch and learn."

With her veins melted into the metal, Vivi broke the crucible. Freshly cooled down, the botanic adamantite was far from beautiful. The metal looked like some rough untreated ore that trapped Vivi's best ever veins inside.

She heated her forge precisely to nineteen hundred sixty-seven kelvins and got to work.

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It quickly turned out that a precise melting point wasn't the only difficult thing about botanic adamantite. The metal stuck to its shape stubbornly, refusing to bend to Vivi's hammer. She had to place the metal back to the forge for what felt like every other hit of her hammer just to keep it at the correct temperature.

It was the most tedious blacksmithing process she had ever performed. Usually, finishing a sword at the forge took her no more than ten hours. With botanic adamantite, her project still looked like a clump of unidentifiable ore after a full day. The shape had changed, but only slightly.

She actually had to sleep in between. Twice. Days five and six were spent entirely on blacksmithing. Forging luckily allowed for breaks, unlike vein-shaping. She could simply heat the sword back up the next day to continue forging.

By day seven, the clump of metal finally looked like a sword. Almost everyone around her had already finished their projects. Some had joined Angall's workstation to watch Vivi work instead. All sorts of rumors were spreading across the low split workstations. The most amusing rumor said that "the Slum Smith has invented inside-carving."

Everyone laughed at that, treating the possibility as some sort of joke. Vivi smiled each time she heard someone laughingly say it.

By the end of day seven, top split's announcer had become active again. His voice took attention over the sound of Vivi's hammer. Apparently, a fierce battle was happening between Zack Vanhammer and some guy called Tobias Fing. Both were competing to craft three-runed swords, using the timer last minute. Crafting a three-runed sword in a week was unheard of with outside-carving. If either managed to complete a sword in time, they were bound to win the competition.

Vivi was already smiling, imagining the crowd's reaction to her rise from low split. She knew her sword was strong. Far stronger than any outside-carved sword these dwarves could come up with. But just how thoroughly would her sword dominate the competition?

"Fifteen minutes remaining!" the announcer's voice said.

"Careful now, Slum Smith," Angall said with a funny smile. "You still have to carve the veins."

Runesmiths around him laughed, as if Vivi was performing some sort of play. Her sword was still red-hot from the forge. It didn't look like a runesword.

Vivi hit her hammer for a few more minutes, perfecting the shape and finalizing the hilt she'd prepared, until finally, she wiped her forehead, placed her hammer into spatial storage and said, "That should be enough."

She picked up the sword from the hilt, inspected it, and nodded. The shape was good. The veins inside had stayed solid. Hopefully. The weight felt right. Vivi quenched the blade in cold water.

When she raised the sword from the water, the runesmiths around her went silent. For the first time, the botanic adamantite showed its colors.

The sword's surface was a deep tangerine. Vaguely translucent, shining by the flow of ether inside. And as Vivi has hoped, the veins were visible inside. The network of smooth curves amplified the metal's color. Every loop she passed, every branch she formed, they were all visible.

Vivi felt chills as she held the sword. The sword didn't bend reality like the venerium of Abyss Destroyer. The sword was just comfortably beautiful, like a cup of perfectly brewed tea for a bright summer morning.

Running ether through the sword was a satisfaction unlike any other.

The sword's presence wasn't oppressive or overwhelming. It was strong like a drug, but not in a way that tried to eat her alive. The sword felt more like the sun itself. Warm and fulfilling, but also deadly to anyone that stood under its heat for too long.

Vivi could tell from feel alone that the sword was insane. Ridiculously so. The sharpness runes were no joke. If she dropped the sword now, it would have pierced the ground.

Around her, one of the organisers was already collecting finished swords for the next phase of the competition. Vivi stopped admiring and moved onto finishing touches.

She added a layer of lacquer to protect the runes and quickly wrapped them in a roll of white obsidian. A more elegant solution for the hilt could possibly be figured out later. She summoned a sharpening stone and gave it a quick finish.

She was still working when the announcer called, "Time!"

Vivi placed her sword on the table and sat next to it with a wide satisfied smile.

"Vivi…" Angall said, looking at her sword. "Did you… actually create an inside-carved runesword?"

The question spread to everyone around him, it seemed. The runesmiths had stopped spouting rumors or insults. Everyone could tell Vivi had created something special. They didn't understand what it was, but it was clear from their expressions.

"Who knows?" Vivi said with a funny smile. "You think it'll make it to top split?"

Angall stared at her. "I… don't know. I have no idea, Vivi."

"Time's up!" another man shouted near Vivi. "If anyone is caught carving, they will be disqualified!"

Swords all around were being collected. Runesmiths around Vivi returned to their stations to register their swords.

A few minutes later, the organizers came to Vivi's station. It was the same man that had declined a backup vise from being delivered to Vivi. He frowned at her project. "Vivian Runeblessed from The Lost Raindrop. Is this your sword?"

Vivi nodded. "All finished."

"You don't seem to have carved veins," the man said.

"It's a runesword, and fully operational," Vivi said.

He looked at her doubtfully. "And its name?"

Vivi paused for a moment. "The name… Blossom. Its name is Blossom."

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