What is the difference between a magic staff and a sword that can cast magic?
It's simple, as for the sword it is not the sword that cast magic. But, it is the magic circuit that imbedded into the sword.
This is what commonly known as magic sword.
Its simple and it is really cheap to produce. But, even though the demand is high, it's production is only on a small scale. That means it costs a lot of money for whoever buys it. And make a lot of fortune for whoever sells it.
As for magic staff, it is a much simpler concept of the same rule.
But instead of embedding magic circuits into a regular staff, they just put a magic crystal on top of a usually wooden or metal staff and called it a job.
It's far easier process than needing a specialist Craftsman to modify an existing sword.
Both of them however have their upside and downside respectively.
A magic sword may be expensive, but it is still created as an edged weapon first then magic tool second. A skilled swordsman could still use the sword even if with the magic circuit broken while in a battle.
The magic staff however is a different story. It's cheap. Like it's really really cheap.
And the thing you need to know about magic staff is that it has this very common type of crystal as a chunk of mineral material.
What's the problem with that you ask?
The problem is because cheap crystal minerals will become more fragile as it's channeling more and more mana or raw magical energy.
When you try to cast magic, it will be like fighting while holding a staff with an egg tied on top of it.
Try to fight with that wooden stick when the magic crystal shattered.
Even if you are a really gifted magician, I will still not recommend you to using this kind of magic staff in a fight.
That is the type of magic staff that was mass-produced and well known in the market.
The reasoning is again, not only for magic weapons but also magic tools in general, they need a specialist to maximize the potential of its material.
Those mass-produced staff is created by normal people without advanced knowledge in the nature of mana and magic flow.
This is also why, as a specialist, we still could make some money while there is a lot of competition.
It is a higher price in exchange for a higher quality product.
-----------------------
"So?"
Naomi asks while standing next to my work table.
"Well, It's all was the problem with the nature of crystal when it's in contact with magical energy."
"But, that is already been solved right? I mean, it is already been solved for magic weapons."
"Yes, you're right. For the longest time, it is considered to be solved. They embedded the crystal for the magic circuit in the form of magic dust, in a continuous string-like shape. You could even say engraving, embedding, or even coating."
"So, if you already know about this. What are you trying to solve?"
"Well, this problem has been solved. And it is the go to solution for this past 2500 years history of blacksmithing."
"Are you implying that you created another method for solving this problem?"
"Heh, aren't you a fast one? Yes, What I've created is this."
I place small chunk of metal material on the table and show it to Naomi.
"What is this?"
Naomi ask.
"I've never seen this material before."
She continued
"Well, this is the new material that I and my acquaintance created."
"..."
"This is the mix between iron dust and magic crystal dust. Unlike the old method which only embedding magic circuits to the already existing material. With this method, the entire material is magic circuits."
"Oh my..."
"Yes, this is the material with 100 percent magic efficiency. It is almost the same as if the material is a living magical beast."
"This is too good to be true. With that kind of advantages, there must be a drawback right?"
"Well, yeah. The thing is, this method probably has a really big flaw."
"A big flaw? Like is it fatal for the user?"
"No, it is not that kind of flaw. It's flaw is flaw as a material, before it becomes a weapon."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, this is an artificial material after all, this thing would never exist in nature. So the thing is, that this material is a pure magic circuit and that it will 100 percent absorb and channel raw magical energy, so...."
I use the usual magic to reshape the material that I usually used.
Nothing happened.
"See what I mean?"
"It absorbs magic!?"
"That's not exactly right."
"Huh?"
"The magic that we, blacksmiths use is this unique kind of magic. Unlike the normal magic, when we cast extraction, filtration, or transformation. The magical energy did not take another form and still in the raw mana state."
"And by that you mean..."
"Yeah, the shaping needs to be done manually. And it might take us longer time to do."
"Huh, that's it?"
"Well, that's not exactly it. The problem is not about the material but about the process."
"So?"
"So, what do you think would happen if the process did not finish until the deadline."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
The realization. She probably did not expect the problem would be so basic. Well, either am I at that time. But, it is what it is.
With one whole month already lost in simplification of the making of this material. There is no way I would use another method.
What left is probably just to believe in ourselves and pray to the god so that we could finish this on time.
