"With Magic, of course!" Harry grinned at her before he made sure the string was the proper length and then made it taunt. He used the string to draw another perfect circle around the hexagon and then removed the pole and string. "There we go. I should be able to use this a few times before I'll need to re-draw it."
"You don't think it'll work the first time?" Penny teased her boyfriend.
"I've never done a Compound Transmutation before; so I'm half expecting to fail." Harry admitted with a shrug. Penny kissed his cheek.
"For luck." Penny smiled at him. Harry hugged her before she stepped back and he went to get his materials. He gathered ingots of Oulm and Sylvuan and weighed them each one by one. If he wanted this Compound Transmutation to have any chance of working then his materials had to be the proper amount by weight. When he had the ingots weighed he then turned to the ingots he'd added to his collection. Though to be honest all he'd done was let Vitris Auri cool and solidify. The golden ingots were all weighed separately and Harry noted their weights.
"Alright then, so these three Sylvuan ingots, these two Vitris Auri ingots, and this one Oulm ingot." Harry spoke as he gathered up the proper ingots and then carefully, so he didn't mess up his Transmutation Circle, placed them inside the perfect circle in the center. Stepping back just as carefully, Harry gave a bright smile to Penny as he kneeled down and placed his hands flat on the floor. With only the tips of his middle digits making actual contact with the Transmutation Circle, Harry poured his mana into the Array.
The array slowly lit up in a bright blue light. Small sparks jumped from the Circle to the three metals. All three of the Magical Metals began to glow with their own Magic in response. The Sylvuan glowed a white color, Oulm an orange color, and Vitris Auri a yellow color as the Transmutation began. The ingots began to fuse together into one as Harry fed more of his mana into the Circle. Once all three glowing ingots fused together the glow became brighter as the three colors blended together in a tri-colored rainbow. Then the three colors merged together and a new color emerged. The resulting color was a slate-gray as the new metal formed in the magic sparks of the Transmutation Circle. Harry felt some kickback from the Circle and stopped pouring his mana into it. The blue glow faded away and the lines returned to their previous chalk white. The slate-gray glow persisted for a bit before fading to reveal the new material.
"Did it work?" Penny asked as she looked at the fairly large ingot that had been formed from the six previous ingots.
"I'll have to check." Harry replied as he carefully removed his creation. He still didn't want to mess up the Circle incase he'd failed and he needed to use it again. Looking over the new metal he didn't see any lines or striations that would have formed from a failed Transmutation. That was a good sign already. As he examined the ingot for any malformations or discoloration his hope began to grow. Taking a small hammer, Harry held the ingot in his left hand and then lightly struck it. The sound was clear, a good solid sound; that meant the metal was uniform. He tapped it a few more times in various spots; listening for any differences in tone. Placing the hammer down on his work table Harry fed some mana into the ingot.
"It glows?" Penny tilted her head as the ingot glowed with the slate-gray color again.
"It glows." Harry nodded with a large smile breaking out across his face. "It worked! It's Zeclatite!" He cheered at his success! He was fairly certain his first Compound Transmutation was going to fail! "Now I just have to get it hot enough to melt and use it for the Rune Base!"
"So how are you going to do that, exactly?" Penny asked and when Harry smiled at her she cut him off. "Don't say Magic."
"Fine." Harry pouted as his girlfriend stopped his gag. "Remember how I said Zeclatite had high Magical conductivity and transference?" Penny nodded to him. "Well I'm going to basically cast a Fire Spell into the Zeclatite until I hit its melting point. Once it's that hot it'll take a bit for it to cool down, if I had a lovely assistant to help me with keeping it hot, I'll be able to fill in the Runic Arrays and upgrade my tools." He smiled at her and Penny shook her head with a giggle.
"Of course I'll help." Penny agreed easily. "Better that than you trying to do it all yourself."
"Indeed!" Harry nodded sagely. A ball of mana popped against his head and he chuckled. The two set up a vessel for the molten Zeclatite to fill and set the ingot inside it.
"Okay, here I go." Penny held out her hand towards the Zeclatite and focused. She was using her mana to cast a fire ball. She'd done it plenty of times before. The only difference this time was where she was forming and gathering the heat. The blonde narrowed her brown eyes as she focused more of her mana into her spell. She needed more power, more heat, and she needed to maintain that heat for long enough that Harry could fill the Runic Arrays of his tools.
"There we go. You're doing great Penny!" Harry encouraged his girlfriend with a bright grin. The Zeclatite was slowly turning red, after a minute it was a bright orange, Penny and Harry began to sweat as the temperature of the Magical Metal continued to rise. Finally the metal softened and deformed. The ingot began to lose shape and became a pool of molten metal in the vessel. Harry beamed at Penny for her assistance as he filled his Alchemic Pen with the molten Zeclatite.
✨ Want to read the next chapters early?
Unlock 20+ advance chapters and get exclusive perks by joining my Patreon!
🔗 Join here: 👉 NIXERION
---
💎 Patreon Tiers
🥉 Tier 1 — $10
📖 Access to 20 advance chapters
🥈 Tier 2 — $20
📚 Access to 30 advance chapters
🎁 Extra exclusive benefits
---
🔥 Patreon Benefits
📚 Read 40+ advance chapters early
👥 Join a private fan community
📝 Access exclusive unreleased novels
🚫 Enjoy a 100% ad-free reading experience