Uru Metal

The poison in Mizukawa’s body was nothing difficult to deal with.

At least, not for Shimizu.

A single Delicate Illness Extraction Technique cleared the toxins from Mizukawa’s body.

The slightly troublesome part was the hidden injuries within him.

The next day, Shimizu personally performed a minor operation on Mizukawa, using Medical Ninjutsu to treat most of the relatively manageable hidden injuries in his body.

As for the more troublesome ones, Shimizu prescribed medicine tailored to his condition and instructed him to recuperate afterward.

In theory, they could be cured directly with a combination of medicine and Medical Ninjutsu over a few weeks, but that would take too much time.

This method would still treat seventy or eighty percent of Mizukawa’s hidden injuries. Letting him live another decade or so would not be a problem, and if he strictly followed Shimizu’s prescription for a year, he could basically make a full recovery.

Hanzo watched with some envy. He also wanted Shimizu to treat the hidden injuries left by his many years of battle, but he did not speak up.

Mifune had effectively been traded for with the Kusanagi Sword, but what about him?

Even allies had to pay a price if they wanted someone to treat them, didn’t they?

Not to mention that, for a ninja, their body concealed a great deal of intelligence.

Hanzo’s physical condition and the poison sacs in his body were all matters that required caution.

He also had to consider whether these Medical Ninjas might secretly harm his body without him realizing it.

Without sufficient trust, no ninja would hand their body over to someone else.

Hanzo did not know how much he would have to pay to earn that trust, or whether that trust would even be worth it.

Before leaving, Mifune specifically invited Shimizu and Hanzo to the Land of Iron three months later to attend his succession ceremony as general.

Although his injuries had mostly recovered and his strength had returned somewhat, he still decided not to continue serving as general.

At his peak, he had still been defeated by Hanzo. He had been roughly at the level of an ordinary Kage. Previously, weakened by age and old injuries, his strength had nearly fallen below the Kage level. Like Rasa, he had been at the bottom of the Kage tier. In another few years, it would have been hard to say whether he would drop below that level—or whether his body could even withstand those old injuries.

Even now that he had recovered, he believed Mifune, who was still in his prime, was better suited to serve as the Land of Iron’s general.

He had long planned to pass the position of general to Mifune within the next year or two.

Marvel World.

Wade Manor.

Shimizu ate breakfast with wolfberry tea while listening to Watos deliver the morning news.

"Have they all been sent off?"

While eating breakfast, Shimizu asked George, who was clearing away the plates.

"They have all been seen out, but Young Master, I suggest you exercise some restraint. Even superheroes need to take care of themselves, no matter how healthy they are."

The butler shrugged.

Last night, Shimizu had held a party at his manor to celebrate successfully acquiring Blizzard Entertainment.

The kind with plenty of female models and actresses for company.

Later on, Shimizu had taken seven or eight actresses and models into his room and spent the whole night at it.

That was why George had added wolfberry tea to his breakfast.

"Oh, my body is in excellent shape. The kind where I can take on ten special forces soldiers by myself—maybe even more. Even if I competed in the Olympics, I could win ten gold medals. Or rather, I could win every event I entered. I’m serious."

Shimizu tilted his head as he spoke to the helpless butler.

The latter gave Shimizu a look that said, Do as you please, then left with the plates.

"Watos, did Ancient One answer the phone?"

Shimizu turned to the speaker on the table.

"Apologies, sir. Mr. Ancient One has not responded."

"Fine. Leave him a message. He can kick the planners’ asses anytime now. And if possible, have him beat up Kao Dick, Blizzard’s former ceo who already left the company. It would be best if he got into a car accident or fell from somewhere high."

"Sir, I must remind you that premeditated murder is illegal."

"It’s fine. I don’t want to kill him. I just want him half-paralyzed or completely paralyzed. Anyway, just do it."

"Yes, sir. The preceding statement has been recorded and sent to Mr. Ancient One."

"Oh, right. Has that batch of materials delivered last night been processed?"

"The impurities have been removed with lasers. They are currently in the high-energy reaction furnace awaiting casting. The furnace has forty-seven percent power remaining."

Over the course of those few exchanges, Shimizu had already reached the entrance to the underground laboratory and opened the access door.

The first thing he saw was a somewhat cluttered array of equipment arranged in a specific order, followed by two sets of Electric Light Armor displayed inside glass cases.

The Mind Stone Scepter, glowing with a soft blue light, lay quietly on a scanner. The section at its tip that housed the gem had already been dismantled.

Beside it were several design blueprints hand-drawn by Shimizu with the aid of the System Panel and Watos.

Farther away stood a temporary compartment separated by heat-insulating materials. Inside was a high-temperature furnace over three meters tall.

Next to the furnace was a large Arc Reactor more than a meter in diameter, continuously supplying it with energy.

The furnace was heating Vibranium and several other metals.

Besides acquiring Blizzard Entertainment recently, he had also spent a substantial sum to purchase additional Vibranium.

Together with the three ounces he had bought before, he now had roughly a pound and a half.

The metals had been placed in separate slots inside the furnace. Every metal other than Vibranium had already been completely melted.

Among all the metals in the Marvel Universe, Vibranium was unquestionably one of the finest extraordinary metals. Only a handful, such as Adamantium and Uru metal, could compare to it.

In terms of properties, Vibranium was very similar to Nth Metal from the DC World. Both were nearly indestructible and possessed energy-absorbing properties.

There were differences, too. For example, Vibranium actually had low density and was very light. Compared to Nth Metal, the energy it absorbed was more easily activated and reflected.

To maintain contact with the outside world, Wakanda in Africa sold limited quantities of Vibranium abroad each year. Its official price was ten thousand dollars per gram, but all of that limited supply was controlled by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Other factions and private buyers could not get even a scrap.

No farsighted regime would allow such strategic resources to flow out freely.

Even with Shimizu’s current status, he could not buy Vibranium at ten thousand dollars per gram. If he went through official channels, he could only rely on connections and purchase it from the military—the small amount of Vibranium America acquired from Wakanda basically ended up in only two places.

One was the military, and the other was NASA.

Buying it from the military was expensive, required favors, and came with strict purchase limits. The amount available was also far too small.

The other channel was Ulysses Claw, an African warlord who also had a small amount of Vibranium flowing through his hands.

His supply was somewhat larger, but the price was higher as well.

Shimizu’s previous three ounces had been purchased from him.

You could get ideas about him, but only if you had the strength. Ulysses Claw was an African warlord, the local tyrant of the Salva Region—a fictional African region in Marvel similar to Wakanda. He possessed considerable influence and had interests tied to many places around the world.

In Africa, even the three major permanent members would struggle to eliminate him without paying an enormous price.

It was not worth it.

As for other countries and factions, they more or less lacked the ability to do so.

Without that strength, Ulysses Claw would not have been qualified to deal in Vibranium.

But processing Vibranium was a difficult problem.

Like Nth Metal, the energy it could absorb had an upper limit. As long as the force applied to it exceeded that limit, Vibranium could be damaged.

To reach that limit through one’s own power alone would conservatively require Sub-Celestial-level strength.

Shimizu did not know whether he could manage it at full power, but he estimated that he still fell short.

Unless he could master more powerful magic and offer more sacrifices to multiversal gods such as Vishanti to cast it.

Or until one day when he could wield the Mind Stone’s power to a much greater extent.

For now, he could only use the stupid method.

Heat it, and slowly cook it.

He had designed this furnace himself. The oversized Arc Reactor supplied it with energy, while high-energy lasers irradiated the metals in different compartments to raise their temperature.

The theoretical maximum output of an Arc Reactor was three billion joules per second. A palm-sized one could provide power at full output for fifteen minutes.

That was only a theoretical figure. Only Tony Stark could turn that theoretical figure into reality. The Arc Reactor Shimizu had manufactured with nanobots had slightly lower hydrogen saturation than the original, and its energy output design had been created by Ivan Vanko after receiving Stark’s guidance. It could not possibly reach that theoretical limit.

But it could still output more than 2.5 billion joules per second.

The Arc Reactor currently powering this furnace was over a meter in diameter and twice as thick as a standard Arc Reactor. Equipped with four energy-output systems, it produced over ten billion joules per second and could sustain full-load output for thirty hours.

What did ten billion joules per second mean? Its generating capacity was roughly half that of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station, the world’s largest hydropower station.

Of course, it could only last thirty hours, while the Three Gorges Hydropower Station operated permanently. Still, it was enough to show just how absurd the Arc Reactor’s energy output was.

Likewise, it also demonstrated just how difficult it was to melt Vibranium.

This batch of Vibranium had been heated for a full sixteen hours.

By the time he went to bed last night, it had already been heated for six or seven hours and had only just entered a red-hot state.

Now, it was basically melted and ready for casting.

He had no idea what kind of black technology Howard Stark had used to process Vibranium and create that shield back in the 1940s, given the technological standards of the time.

The metals inside the furnace were not just Vibranium. They also included part of the Mind Stone Scepter that had been dismantled.

Ancient One’s evaluation of the Mind Stone Scepter had been mediocre. First-rate materials, second-rate workmanship, and second-rate effects. In order to lower the threshold for using the gem’s abilities, its maximum output could not even reach half of the Mind Stone’s power.

The first-rate material referred to the part at the scepter’s tip used to house the Mind Stone.

It was made from Uru metal.

This metal was no less hard than Vibranium or Adamantium. It also had better energy affinity and an extremely powerful enhancing effect on magic and similar forces.

Both Kamar-Taj and Asgard had mature methods for processing and utilizing Uru metal.

The Eye of Agamotto, which housed the Time Stone, along with top-tier divine artifacts such as Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, were mostly forged with Uru metal as their primary material.

Therefore, melting and processing Uru metal was actually simpler than Vibranium. He could use other substances as catalysts to accelerate its melting.

Of course, he was going to so much trouble in order to forge a magical artifact of his own.

He could use a scepter like this, but it did not fit his own fighting style.

Kamar-Taj had thousands of years of inheritance. The Sorcerer Supremes of every generation had accumulated considerable experience forging magical artifacts, as well as a certain degree of experience in utilizing the Infinity Stones.

Only after digging up the relevant materials from the library and consulting Wong, known as a walking magical encyclopedia, did Shimizu decide to forge his own magical artifact.

He had already run simulations in the System Panel. It could indeed wield more power than the Mind Stone Scepter.

Time to get to work.

"Watos, notify George to prepare meals for the next three days. During those three days, do not let anything interrupt my work. If there is a truly urgent matter, tell him to inform you directly, and then you can pass it on to me."

Shimizu rolled his wrist, removed the watch from his left hand, and gave the order.

He planned to make two items.

The first would use Uru metal as its core, supplemented with a small amount of Vibranium, to create an artifact similar to the Eye of Agamotto—one that could better help him use the Mind Stone Scepter’s power. The second would use Vibranium to forge a blade, creating a weapon with exceptional armor-piercing capability.

It was not that he did not want a suit of armor like the White Warrior’s, coated in Vibranium on the outside. It was simply that this little Vibranium was nowhere near enough, and Shimizu’s Vibranium-processing techniques were not as mature as Lex Luthor’s methods for Nth Metal.

Scalding molten metal flowed from the laser furnace and poured into the molds.

Standing to one side, Shimizu continuously fine-tuned the high-tech molds through mechanical arms according to the monitoring data on the computer, while also using Chakra to cast spell after spell in support.

This was essentially ancient-style forging through a combination of high-tech and magic.

The molten metal was poured into the molds in batches. The moment the final drop entered, the last set of ceramic-based molds immediately covered it, carrying out the final shaping process—Uru metal and Vibranium were too hard to be ground or machined.

If he wanted to make a bladed weapon, he could only do it while the metal was still hot.