Chapter 51: Chapter 51:Day 7
Day 7
"So, what do you think, huh?" Rael asked Xaphxan. His face was wet with sweat and blackened from prolonged exposure to smoke as he gazed into a blazing pit. A large slab of rock was layed across it, supporting an oddly shaped excuse for a sword.
Xaphxan studied Rael for a moment, his expression bleak, before shifting his gaze to yet another forged failure.
"It’s... huh, not bad. You’re getting closer, boss."
Rael slanted his eyes at the comment. He knew, obviously, that this was another failed attempt at making a proper weapon but was he to blame? Maybe a little. He was a slow learner in any craft that wasn’t battle, and the lack of proper blacksmithing tools certainly wasn’t helping. He could only make do with the crudest methods of forging techniques he’d pulled from the Hephaestonian scrolls.
The method itself was primitive ,digging a deep, narrow pit, setting it ablaze, and raising the temperature to an absurd degree,then placing a slab of rock across it, and carefully carving a bowl-like hollow within the slab. Then the metal which was limante, in his case was placed inside, while he’d wait for the rock to turn white-hot from the heat. That alone had taken him two whole days to achieve. Of course, it could have been much easier if he possessed a forging manuscript capable of increasing flame temperature at will, but he had to make do with what he had.
By his seventh attempt, he’d managed to melt a small portion of the limante, wasting countless pieces of precious metal in the process. But melting it wasn’t the true problem. The real issue was removing the impurities within the metal ,something that required proper tools ,a skimmer and a chipping hammer of which he did not have, so he decided to get creative by using a shovel blade to scrape off as many impurities as he could. The result, unsurprisingly, was a batch of defective products.
Rael walked over to the slab, picked up the oddly shaped sword, and tossed it into a corner where a pile of scraps had already gathered.
"Take the defects to Iyvre. I’m sure they could make use of it while setting up their traps," Rael added. He knew full well the sisters had been creating a dead zone around his territory, filled with booby traps. So anything sharp would come in handy. Besides, it was also an excuse to give Xaphxan a break from the unbearable heat of the House of Forges, one Xaphxan couldn’t endure the way he could.
"Ooh okay boss!" Xaphxan beamed with excitement, quickly scooping all the scraps into his magic pouch before rushing outside and slamming the wooden door shut.
Rael blinked, staring at the space where Xaphxan had been only moments ago. He even caught an ecstatic "yes!" from outside.
"Tsk, lazy bone," he hissed, his expression shifting into something thoughtful.
’Hmm... I already know how to melt it and shape it,but how do I purify it?’ he contemplated.
His only option was to comb through the Hephaestonian scrolls again and see if he could find a solution. Now you’d think he would’ve known everything in them by now but you’d be mistaken. He hadn’t even skimmed through half of them, let alone understood their contents. That alone showed just how dense and overwhelming the knowledge within was.
There were nineteen scrolls in total with the first and sixth being the only ones considered beginner-friendly, and hopefully contained a solution to his predicament. Each of the scrolls have sections of knowledge within with the first scroll having seven in total.
So he skimmed through the sections
[Section 1]
The concept of metal is a main..
"No." Rael skipped ahead.
[Section 2]
Necessary tools to forg—
"Not here."
[Section 3.]
[Section 4.]
[Section 5.]
"Nope... argh, come on, something useful."
[Section 6]
Infusion of aether into forging flames often results in catastrophic explosions, of which I was a victim of countless times. So what could be done?I wondered ...]
"Okay, this one might have something," Rael muttered hopefully, only to be crushed by the very next lines.
[Nothing. Yes, nothing could be done. It seems obtaining a forging manuscript is the only way.]
Rael scowled, laying curses at the Lord of Forges, who seemed disturbingly adept at using tantalizing words to raise one’s hopes only to dash them in the very next line. Still, he stopped himself since the section wasn’t finished.
[But when have I ever been one to give up so easily? Though I can’t wield aether like those annoying spellcasters, I should be able to direct it somehow. My brother did say that was the core of every forger’s manuscript to wield your aether not like rune masters who only know how to draw. Tsk, a useless profession by the way. No, but to wield it like a hammer. So yes, that’s what I’m going to do... well, at least try.]
"Hmm... direct aether. But how?" Rael wondered.
He wasn’t really surprised at how expressive and childish the Lord of Forges seemed to be in the early scrolls. After all, the Lord of Forges had been just twelve years old when this scroll was written something he clearly loved to remind readers of at every opportunity.
Anyways, Rael knew that pouring his brutish aether directly into the flames wasn’t an option. He’d tried that before, hoping to replicate what forging manuscripts did. Only for it to blow up in his face. Still, that attempt had surprised Xaphxan who finally accepted that his boss was not a bronze ranked warrior after all drawing out aether while still a Rank One warrior was no small feat.
But what if, instead of the flames, he directed his aether into the molten metal itself while shaping it into a blade?
’Aether can coat a weapon... but can it refine one?’
His gaze fixed on the red-hot slab.
"Well, won’t know if I don’t try."
.....
Xaphxan stepped out of the compound, crossing the ditch dug around its perimeter. He searched for the sisters while carefully following the marked paths they had laid out, making sure to avoid the traps they’d set.
"Lady Iyvre," he called, scanning the treetops with none of them in sight.
"Lady Ayobe?"
"Where the hell did they run off to?" he mumbled.