Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 399: Transmutation

Chapter 399: Transmutation

Transmutation was a huge multi-step process. What Kazi did and explained was only a small drop of his great feat.

To change from fire to water was absurd in so many ways. One aspect was the concept and effect. For example, applying the concept of burning to cold water. With a magic circle, this was possible to do for an amateur. But to do it with no magic circle? To switch and add concepts and transform them the way he did?

Absurd.

"From lightning..." He closed one eye, smiling. He turned up the intensity, the heat! The particles changed! He could feel it!

Intuitively recalling what the journal of a certain sorcerer in the past said, he replicated a multi-step process that ordinarily took years of practice and study and, most of all, a wand or staff to supplement further.

Kazi did it with his bare hands. With nothing to support him. Pure comprehension of what he was doing.

"...to Earth! And from Earth...to steel!"

Bssshkkk!

A piece of stainless steel officially hung in the air. Kazi exhaled lightly, then shot out a Fire Dart, increased the temperature, shifting it to lightning, earth, and then steel again.

"This is what the Steel Sharpener did." Kazi saw him in action. Witnessed how he effortlessly turned cheap materials into steel of so many kinds. All Kazi needed after seeing it was to understand it. By understanding and seeing, he could copy.

Copy then replicate it for other materials.

"Fire Dart."

He shifted the fire directly into earth and then dirt. Following the dirt...

"O Earth, O Allah, I am a Companion of the Woods. Bless with your might so that I may bring change." He spoke in an old Arabic that naturally sang poetry. Unlike steel which he witnessed transmuting, this was something he was doing and seeing for the first time. He needed an incantation. He needed the power of incantations; the way that it materialized in image in his head and spoke to reality itself.

Calling upon gods and nature did that. It lightly encroached on reality. Asked it for permission. It was the safest, most efficient way to cast specific details of spells.

And it worked.

He conjured and transmuted over and over again. He practiced and practiced and practiced.

He turned fire into steel. Fire into steel. Fire into steel.

In sports, an athlete could train their ability to do free kicks for hours. But when push came to shove and it came time to apply, they often couldn’t replicate that success. It was the same in academics. Some individuals simply choked during exams.

Kazi did not.

He learned faster than anyone else. Better than anyone else. And now, he needed to apply this understanding on a much grander scale.

A forge.

A place where blacksmiths—not just any blacksmiths, but masters—could work their craft. Husnü, the man he trusted to bring this vision to life, needed more than just a structure. He needed tools, precision, power. And for that, Kazi needed the finest materials, the most advanced construction he could conjure.

But not yet... not quite. Magic metal—the kind he dreamt of building this forge with—was still beyond him. The transmutations he had mastered were precise, yes, but magic-infused metal required a level of understanding and power he had not yet attained.

There was only one type of magical metal in his arsenal: an absorbent steel type he saw the Steel Sharpener create.

Kazi closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, letting the air fill his lungs, his hands raised as he felt the pulse of the dimension around him. The land here was his to shape, his will to manipulate, and the power coursing through him would allow him to craft from nothing but his will.

"From earth... to stone."

Calling upon the earth beneath him, the etherparticles shifted as he funnelled his mana. He chewed up the dirt and used it as his own. Slowly, the ground began to ripple, as though responding to his command. Kazi lifted his hands, and the ground followed—slabs of smooth stone rising from the soil, forming the foundation of what would soon be the forge.

He shaped the stone, transforming it into a solid, flat platform. Flooring, put simply. The texture of the stone was flawless, as if it had been chiseled by the finest craftsman, though it had been formed by Kazi’s magic alone.

Not just that but...

"Change."

The absorbent type steel. That was perfect for flooring. The sparks of fire would never spread.

The forge required more than just a foundation, though. He would need a furnace—one capable of heating materials to temperatures far beyond what conventional forges could reach. His mind wandered briefly to the Steel Sharpener, recalling the way the man had bent cheap materials to his will, turning them into gleaming steel with a touch of mastery Kazi had emulated and absorbed.

Time to do his own thing with what he emulated.

"O Fire, O Flame, bend to my will."

The fire burst forth from his palm, a swirling vortex of heat and light, licking the air hungrily as Kazi fed it more mana. He didn’t need a magic circle for this—fire was his to command. He molded the flame, wrapping it around the stone, carving out a large furnace in the shape of an anvil, its core lined with steel that he had transmuted moments before. The furnace roared to life, embers glowing hot, though there was no wood or coal to fuel it. Kazi’s magic alone provided the heat.

"Hm...I wanted it long term but...it seems it will only last for an hour."

For now, it had to do.

A chimney emerged from the back of the furnace, crafted from stone and iron, guiding the heat and smoke upwards, out into the open sky of the dimension.

Kazi surveyed his work. "Not perfect," he muttered to himself, eyes narrowing slightly.

He wasn’t done. The tools—those were just as important as the furnace. Kazi summoned iron from the earth, his fingers twitching as he manipulated the raw material. He transmuted it, shaping it into hammers, tongs, and chisels. The work was laborious, requiring intense concentration, but it was precise—every tool had to be flawless.

He crafted the workbenches from steel and oak, surfaces silver, smooth, and polished. Kazi could almost imagine the clang of hammer on metal, the sound of steel being forged into weapons.

The stronger the image and the louder the sounds, the better grasp he got of the workbenches.

The space expanded as he worked, the forge growing into a workshop that spanned the full width of the clearing. Storage racks lined the walls, each ready to hold materials and finished products. Kazi even conjured shelves to hold books—manuals on metallurgy, spellcraft, and weaponsmithing—so that whoever worked here would not just be a craftsman, but a scholar of the craft.

His breath quickened as the forge took shape, the final piece of his plan coming into place. This was what he needed—what Husnü needed—to make their partnership a reality.

But there was one last thing.

Kazi stood before the center of the forge. He could create the tools and the space, but the heart of the forge—the place where magic and craftsmanship met—required something special.

Something Kazi Hossain could not accomplish with his own merits.