"Are you trying to make fun of us with your jokes brat!"
"I'm not lying! They really are damaged from my flames!"
Seeing Luke's unchanged expression and confidence, Holdok didn't dismiss his claims outright, but didn't fully believe them too.
"Alright! I believe you for now. show me the Imoogi materials then!"
Luke pulled the huge black mana stone, the scaled Imoogi skin and the two fangs out and placed them in front of Holdok.
He thoroughly inspected the materials and nodded in approval.
"Alright brat! I'll pay you two thousand golds for all the materials, cutting the repair costs!"
"Huh! You couldn't even pay a few hundred gold coins a few days ago. How come you have thousands now!" Luke asked skeptically.
"This brat!!" Holdok gritted his teeth in fury. "That's because I had spent them on buying materials, just like how I am buying from you now!"
"This is the best price you'll get in the market Luke! Father doesn't like haggling, so I'm telling you this!" Marilda said with a smile.
"If it's coming from you miss Marilda then I have no doubt in that!"
"Do you mean to say you have doubts in me you brat!!" Holdok yelled in anger.
"Calm down father! This behavior of yours is the reason customers fear to come to our shop!" Marilda rebuked Holdok.
"I don't care if they don't come! They don't deserve my gears if they don't even have the courage to face me!" Holdok scoffed and moved inside with the materials and Luke's gauntlets.
"Follow me brat!" he called for Luke as he paced inside.
Luke and Marilda chuckled as they looked at each other and followed Holdok inside.
Holdok moved inside his personal chamber inside the smithy, passing the numerous blacksmiths hammering away in the wide hall.
He put the materials on the table and picked up his hammer. He lit the fire in the furnace, put the gauntlet inside and started using the blower for the heat to rise.
After the gauntlet was piping red hot, he pulled it out with the tong, placing it on the anvil, and started hammering them hard.
As he kept on hammering, he was growing visibly frustrated. He frowned and put the gauntlet back in the furnace again. He pulled them out and hammered them again, but his frown deepened.
He picked them up and drowned them in the water placed beside in a bucket.
Sizzling sound along with steam rose up from the bucket. After they were cooled down, he pulled them out and started looking around the gauntlets carefully.
After his careful inspection, Holdok found dark red vein like structures throughout the gauntlet.
"Hohohoho! You're quite the lucky fellow brat!"
"Why is that?" Luke asked. Surprised and curious at Holdok's remark.
"Your blood has seeped inside the mana veins of the metal and transformed it into the rarest form of weapon that only a lucky few can have!!…the blood armaments!"
Luke's eyes opened wide in surprise. He didn't know how that happened, but he never imagined them to transform into the blood armaments.
"It has formed just the seed by itself, but to complete it requires an experienced blacksmith! Lucky for you brat!! You have one right in front of you!" Holdok smirked with a proud face.
"It can't be forged in normal fire now! It's refusing to bend! We'll need your mana fire now. Keep releasing your fire in the furnace and I'll do the rest!" Holdok said.
"I can't project mana outside of my body! I've still not learned that!" Luke said embarrassedly.
"What!? How the hell do you fight then? With your body!?" Holdok roared furiously.
"Yes!"
"Hoho! This brat has quite the talent of annoying and making someone angry!"
"Calm down father!" Marilda intervened seeing Holdok about to burst. "It's not that difficult Luke! I'll help you! Close your eyes and feel the mana in your circle!" she calmly asked Luke with her usual smile.
Luke did as she asked and closed his eyes. He focused on his chakra.
Slowly, his consciousness drifted inside his inner mind realm. He opened his eyes to find himself floating in front of a huge amber chakra.
Below his feet was an endless expanse of water like the sea, but it was calm and still, not a single ripple affected its stillness.
He was shocked to find himself in his mind realm for the first time. He had never tried focusing on his chakra before and when he tried now, he was greeted with its grandness.
The chakra was grand and enormous like the sun. spinning slowly and releasing small embers of fire from its edges from time to time.
Luke was enthralled by its grandness and holiness. Unknowingly his legs moved up and he sat cross legged in mid air. His hands moved and rested on his knees, thumbs curled to touch the index fingers and he went into meditation.
The book of samsara appeared and opened itself in front of him. The pages started turning by themselves and stopped at a point. The letters started arranging themselves and started glowing bright.
A red chakra with four petal like patterns around the circumference of the runic circle appeared on the page with the word 'Muladhara'.
Inside the smithy, Holdok and Marilda stood shocked with their mouths wide open.
Luke was floating crossed legged, his mouth closed but ancient humming of mantras was reverberating in the air. The smithy had transformed into the wide cosmos and a translucent red chakra along with the amber chakra started spinning behind Luke.
The prana in the air was sucked in towards him like a black hole and his whole body started burning with amber flames, with a few red flames in between.
"Marilda! Cover the room with silence magic and cast a protection shield on the room and also, on yourself!" Holdok yelled at her as the temperature in the room started rising.
It had become so hot that both Holdok and Marilda were sweating buckets and their skins had turned red from the heat.
Luke had turned into a giant fireball as flames were gushing out of him in the surrounding. Marilda moved far away, unable to endure the heat.
Holdok picked the bucket of cold water and poured it upon himself. He took the anvil and placed it in front of Luke.
He slammed the gauntlets on the anvil. He took the scales of the Imoogi and placed it near the gauntlets. The flames and heat from Luke started turning the gauntlets and the scales red.
Holdok didn't miss the opportunity. He used the scales on the gauntlets and started hammering. He was using the flames to craft the gauntlets at that moment.
His body turned red, sweat turned into vapor as steam rose from his body, but he kept on hammering.
The only sound reverberating in the air were the hums of the mantras and amid that was the clinking sounds of Holdok's hammer striking the gauntlets.