The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 106

Chapter 106: Forging 101: Successful Evolution
Reid spent the next two hours engraving rune after rune on both the forged beast and its core.

Having theoretical knowledge was a lot different than actually putting it in practice. The process was delicate—one wrong engraving could disrupt the entire circuit, rendering the Forged-Beast unstable or even useless.

By the time he finished the last engraving, his fingers were sore, and his head buzzed with exhaustion. He leaned back, studying his work. The runes embedded on both the wasp’s frame and core emitted a glow.

“Not bad” Garrick commented.

He reached for a small containment box and pulled out a second core—a higher-tier energy source, far beyond what the wasp’s original frame had been built for, a gold tier one. He placed it beside the newly engraved Forged-Beast.

“Time to see if your inscribing works,” Garrick said, “Merge the cores.”

Reid took a calming breath and picked up both cores slowly moving each towards the other. As soon as they were close enough, the runes on the orange core started glowing golden and visible streams of energy moved from the other core to the inscribed one.

A couple of seconds later, the gold tier core was completely drained of its energy, leaving behind a glass like spherical ball.

The orange core on the other hand, produced a much brighter glow than before. A scan from Evo revealed that all the previous wasted energy had been replenished, bringing the core back to gold tier.

This was the expected outcome but the next step was the hard part, making the frame adapt to the upgraded core.

If even a single rune was left out, the entire frame could collapse under the strain of the upgraded energy flowing through the incomplete runes.

With crossed fingers, Reid carefully placed the core into the wasp’s frame.

The moment the core settled into place, the runes embedded on its frame produced a bright golden glow that covered the entire forge lab.

A couple of seconds later, the glow receded, allowing Reid to witness the wasp evolving in real time. This was vastly different from evolving his Forged Beasts in Evo’s lab, so he hardly blinked, determined not to miss a single moment of the process.

The metal of the wasp’s body shifted—wings expanded, its stinger elongated, and its previously rigid form became more streamlined. It almost looked nothing like its previous form as it was now a lot bigger.

The eyes of the wasp produced a red glow again as it came to life. Its wings let out a soft hum as it rose from the work desk.

The wasp wondered where all this new power came from, but it quickly adapted to it.

After all, the runes streamlined the process, making sure the wasp didn’t explode from all the energy being passed through a frame previously built to handle core energy that’s a lot lower.

“Let’s see how much it was evolved” Garrick said, as the forged beast scanner came up for the second time.

{Forged Beast scanned successfully

Species: Flame Hornet

Rank: Gold tier

Abilities:

Basic Flame projectile —–> Inferno Barrage: unleashes a rapid-fire stream of explosive fireballs. Each fireball detonates on impact, dealing AOE damage and leaving behind lingering flames.

Flame sting —-> Scorching Sting: coats the its stinger superheated venom. Upon impact, it causes deep internal combustion, making wounds spread fire beneath the skin. The burn effect ignores resistances and can escalate over time if untreated.

Molten Pollen —-> Pyrospore Storm: releases a cloud of ember-infused spores that ignite on contact with air. They also stick to a target, causing chain explosions upon movement of the target. Can also be remotely detonated.

Warm Glow —> Radiant Core: It’s core now emits intense thermal energy, creating a Heatwave Aura that drains moisture and oxygen from the surrounding air, rapidly exhausting enemies}

Reid’s lips curled into a smirk ‘it worked’.

The evolution process in Evo’s lab was always automated so evolving a forged beast with his own hand gave him a lot more satisfaction.

“Now this… this is a hell of a lot better than expected,” Garrick said, running a hand through his beard, his eyes gleaming with approval. “Good work, kid. This proves your theory actually works.”

This was the first evolution of a Forged-Beast Garrick had ever witnessed firsthand.

He hadn’t technically evolved Ethan’s Forged-Beast—he had simply used the knowledge from Reid’s research, combined with his own expertise in runes, to create an artificial core that could function with the translucent green liquid-metal frame.

“I’ll ask again, kid” Garrick’s voice took a serious tone “are you sure you want to hand this research over to me?”

“You belong to one of the great families” he continued “research like this would put them above the other great families, so why are you just handing it to me?”

Reid knew the old forgmaster’s words were right. Any other member of any of the four great families would just hand this knowledge over to the family just to gain merits.

And Reid knew that if things had been different, he might have made the same choice. Maybe if his family hadn’t abandoned him, he would have handed this research over without hesitation—just for the opportunity to prove himself worthy of being the family head.

Even though he had said that he was willing to give his father a chance, the truth was, he still held a bit a resentment towards him. He couldn’t just forget everything he had gone through.

So, empowering anyone in his family that’s not his mom is out of the question. But he couldn’t tell his master all that, so he decided to go with his other reason.

“I could do that” He started “but then, only my family would have the knowledge of evolving forged beasts.”

“Isn’t that good for them?” Garrick asked with a raised brow “That would ensure that your family remains ahead of the others.”

Reid knew that this question was a test. The old man wants to know if he is no different from the few members of the great families he had previously met, and Reid’s answer would decide how the old man treated him from this moment.

“That’s exactly the problem,” Reid said, leaning back against the workbench “If my family hoards this knowledge, they’ll use it to cement their dominance over the others”.

He took a short pause before continuing, “And while I don’t care about the power balance between the four families, what happens when Primals far stronger than what we’ve faced start attacking?”

Garrick let out a low hum, tapping his fingers against his arm. “You want to level the playing field?”

“I don’t care about ‘fairness.'” Reid shook his head. “But survival? That’s another thing entirely.” He glanced at the Flame Hornet, still hovering beside him, its eyes fixed on Reid as he spoke. “If tamers across all levels can evolve their Forged Beasts, then when the time comes, we won’t be relying on a handful of elites to save us. Everyone will be stronger. And that means fewer people dying.”

Garrick studied him for a long moment before letting out a chuckle. “Hah. You really are different from the usual brats born into the great families.”

“You remind me of an old friend.” He continued, his expression softened for a fraction of a second before hardening again. “Alright, kid. You have my word; I’ll make sure your research reaches even the tamers that live in the Scrapyards and not even the military can hoard it for themselves.”

“Thank you, master” Reid said in appreciation

Before the moment could drag on, Garrick clapped his hands. “Alright, enough of that.” He spoke.

“We’re done for the day, so get out of my forge,” Garrick said in his usual gruff tone. “You’ve got a fight in a few hours, don’t you?”

“Thank you for the lessons today master” Reid thanked the old man again as he changed out of the forging clothes and into his military uniform.

Garrick simply grunted in response, already turning away to put back all the materials used. The wasp was put in a metal case where it remained inactive until it was handed to a tamer.

Garrick had promised to make sure he got the best amount of credits possible from the military for the forged beast. So, Reid didn’t have to negotiate its price with the military himself.

“And don’t you dare lose the fight,” the forgemaster’s voice came from behind just as Reid reached the forge’s door.

Reid smirked but didn’t turn around. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said before stepping out of the forge and into the shop.

“See you later, Ember” he said before exiting the shop.

{You too, apprentice Reid} The AI’s reply came.

Stepping outside the shop, Reid squinted as the midday sun hit him. He had been in the forge since early morning, so absorbed in his work that he hadn’t even noticed time slipping away.

“Let’s go find my team,” he said, tapping his watch to check their location—only for a low rumble from his stomach to stop him. He paused, realizing he hadn’t eaten since morning.

“I guess finding them will have to wait for now,” he muttered, adjusting his watch. With a quick glance at the map, he set off toward the nearest cafeteria.