Michael was standing with Azhul, Gharna and Runhar in the main trading square of the village, a small arsenal of hand axes, great axes, spears and halberds being shown in front of him. They were gathered by Runhar and Gharna, after the human and Azhul asked them to have some to look at.
Michael looked over the weapons contemplating curious. "And iron is the best there is for weapons?" He asked looking at the three while holding a handaxe and examining the craftsmanship.
"Yes. Tis what most, if not all, people use for weapons and heavier armor." Runhar replied as he looked over to Michael, his arms crossed. The guard captain now had for a while taken off the bandage that used to adorn his head, the wound to his face healed and now sporting a set of small gnarly scars around his right eye, that still seemed to work.
"Also, I just noticed but you don't have any weapons for long range. Do you have bows or anything as such?" Michael asked a bit awkwardly, not wanting to assume anything, but bows feel like such a natural idea in any specie's evolution that it feels silly to ask.
"Pfft. Of course bows exist, but they are of no use to us. We Tuskir are really near sighted. It is annoying, but the Hunt Father and Brood Mother blessed us with great sense of smell and good hearing so, it is not that bad." Gharna said from the spot she sat at off to the side, bent over slightly the table, trying to see if she can spot anything with the weapons that Michael might be trying to see.
"We have heard Hay-yen use them at times in night ambushes when their eyesight is best. Still, the ones that use them most are Avions." Azhul added as she huffed, leaned against a wall of the Smithy they had here.
"I see... hm... well no point on focusing on range, unless we can fix your vision problems, it is useless if you can't see what you are aiming for. But I know I can help out with making better weapons. This will sound weird, but although I am no smith, I know quite a bit. Weapon smithing, the way you would know it, is not that much of a... used profession back home, but we like to keep it alive so its more practiced for the art of it. I picked up some things." Michael said with an awkward laugh. 'At least I think i got some ideas. Watching all 8 seasons of Forger's Fire smithing competition might help a bit and searching a lot on basics of smithing back when I was crazy about it, could give some insight, maybe?' The human was confident it might work.
As the group was discussing, heavy stomps could be dully heard approaching at a high pace along with grumbling.
"What hogwash is he talkin' about makin' better stuff than mine?!" There was a loud angry oinking followed by a squeal. The sound came from the biggest person Michael has seen around here. A 6'5'' older sow, with small tusks. The fur was thinner around the arms, specifically the forearms and hands barely had any fur on them, and she was clearly covered in burn and cut scars all over. Her form was wrapped in a heavy leather apron, with a pair of thick leather gloves hanging from a front pouch.
As the voice rang out, Azhul immediately stood up as her eyes widened and she came in front of the larger one's path. "Mother! Wait, wait! Nobody was slagging off your-" The 6'3'' tuskir woman tried to finish her sentence but she found herself clashing against the larger one who seemed to basically push her backwards, Azhul's feet leaving grooves in the dirt.
"What does a furless, pink skinned scholar, with soft hands know about smithin' HUH?! I wanne see a burn scar from flying shrapnell, show me your hands boy, before I cut them off and take a look meself!" The larger sow yelled out as a vein began bulging on her temple.
Michael was already backing up slowly, as he was taken by surprise, because of the whole interaction, the yelling spooking him to a point where he might have not heard everything that was yelled in his direction. "Mother?!" Is the first thing that came out of Michael's mouth as he looked at Azhul, who was holding back the bigger tuskir, who was wielding what looked like a loop of rope with several axe heads on it. "I didn't do anything I swear! My hands were at middle to upper back level!"
That got Michael several confused oinks as accompanied by several "What?" questions, including from the large sow herself who just stopped for a moment. Azhul looked back towards Michael with a wide eyed expression as if she wished to sink into the ground.
"U-uh... when Azhul was waking me up and we were leaving my shack, I tripped and held onto her to not eat a mouthful of dirt. After I apologiesed, she told me about... your customs regarding embracing and to be careful about... that." Michael said as he could feel a bead of sweat drip down his back.
"Oh! Eh, it happens. Everyone trips, so that don't count. We got traditions and stuff, but we aren't that crazy about it." Gharna added as she was still sat aside, waving off Michael's explanation as something normal. "But, I think, Zurra here, is upset because she might have thought you were slagging off her work." The 6'1'' sow said pointing at the weapons on the table.
After both Michael and Azhul shared an inner sigh of relief due to the rest most likely buying the little white lie, the human nodded at Gharna's explanation, he then looked towards Zurra. "Uhm... Zurra, I- ?" He asked meekly.
"That is Forger Irontusk, to you pink skin!" She oinked out quickly and annoyed as her ears flicked. "Don' call me Zurra like we are part o' the same tribe or apprenticed together at the same smithy boy. You- "
Before Zurra could further rip into Michael, the young man did a slight bow, which caught her off guard. "Apologies for the misunderstanding ma'am. Although I have observed smiths at work from a distance and I have some technical knowledge, i didn't mean to say I could make something better than you could, Forger Irontusk. My wording was off. I meant to say I know of a technique that can make a better metal than simple iron." Michael said as he then stood up straight and looked the larger smithing sow in the eyes. 'Alright. You always did well with elderly people. Come on polite young man charms, work your magic.' He thought to himself as he took in a deep breath. "The weapons I have seen here are not bad due to the craftsmanship. I would say, in my limited knowledge, they look wounderfully made. Knowing we have such a passionate smith here, just makes me certain, that we can make good use of the technique of making steel out of iron."
Zurra stood a bit wordless, as she now stopped pushing into her daughter, who also eased up. Runhar and Gharna who were to the side, just enjoying the show and snickering, also looked surprised that Michael managed to calm down their elder smith, who was always known for a firey attitude, even in her later age.
Michael approached and he reached with his hands forward, presenting his palm, which looked smooth and soft for the most part. "Yes, I do indeed have no signs of intense manual labor. Most of my life I went without it, except for a few ocassions. But..." Michael then flipped his hands showing off the back of his hands and knuckles, which were covered in small scars and the skin seemed thicker where the knuckle bones were. "I do know what hard effort is. And you, ma'am Forger, you are clearly sporting your experience with pride. O-oh. Also I just wanted to say. You have a wonderful daughter. If not for her I would be dead." He said with a small smile.
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Zurra looked at him dowards, huffing quietly, as her eyes kept in contact with his, the human having a bead of sweat going down his temple as he maintained this eye contact. "Alright, child. You are fine. Urla told me in private counsel about where ya from and honestly I thought ya were just traksshitting us. My opinion got a bit better when Azhul told me of how ye two fought against Hay-yens and as an ex-hunter, I can respect what ya pulled off. I still expected to have tha deal with someone who might be a bit too small for the boots they trying to boast they can fill, but nah. You seem like a good truffle."
Azhul looked at Zurra with a slightly shocked expression. "Did... ya just compliment someone?"
The hunter's mother then huffed a chukle and snort and she gave her daughter a shoulder punch. "Oh shut it you. I always compliment people... when I think they deserve it. If I give em often, then as my brother used tha say, may he rest in the Brood Mother's Bossom, they make people's heads too big and they make mistakes." The woman said as she put on another wooden stall the axe heads on a rope.
"Thank you, ma'am." Michael said as he then turned back to look over the weapons. "Like I was trying to say, Steel would be much better, but it also needs some... strong fire, to work."
"How strong we speakin'? My forge can get pretty hot." The smith asked curious now about the prospect.
"Hmm... we might use different measurements for heat, but to put simply. Fifteen to Sixteen times the boiling point for water, i think would be appropiate. We will also need limestone and to blow a lot of air into the molten mix afterwards." Michael pondered for a moment.
"It is doable, but we are gonna need to prepare some coke for it. Why exactly do we need the limestone for?" Zurra added looking at Michael. The way she talked now felt more serious, like she would talk to someone who knew what he was talking about, if maybe a bit more pressing to see if they truly knew what they were talking about.
"Ah! We are going to need it for removing impurities. You see, steel is made of iron that has been purified and enrinched with something we call carbon. We can get a lot of it for the mix, from the burning of coke, since coke is as pure as carbon can get with what we're working here. With limestone in the mix, impurities will form into a sort of slag we can separate from the iron that we are mixing with carbon." The young man added as he contemplated how will they be able to tell if they reached the proper temperature.
"What are the benefits of it over regular iron?" Zurra asked inquisite, still pressing for details, almost like a test of sorts.
"Well... it is generally stronger, works better under tension, so it is harder to break and it doesn't rust as easily... if we manage to make steel, later on if we can get some proper money, we could also try to make some stainless steel, but that one will really be a headache to make. Still weapons and metal for structures that doesn't corrode at all, would be really useful." Michael added as Zurra looked at him with a slightly more relaxed expression. Looking at her, he could swear to almost see a hint of a smile.
"Now that I like to hear. Huh... let's see if yer little idea truly works. It does sound quite interesting." Zurra said with a snort. "But. we still got a wee bit of a problem. We will need coin for all of that. You got any ideas for that?"
"Y-yeah I do. Initially I thought about the fishing poles, but once they would be seen on markets, anyone would want to make them if we simply used wire made of plant fiber or sinew, even though sinew would be really bad because it soaks up moisture... I was thinking. I saw that you do consume vegetables of sorts that need peeling. I presume quite a few people do. If we use some iron and wood we can make peelers. They work better at getting off the top layer of skin from vegetables without wasting as much content as a knife might and it's safer." Michael would then reach into his backpack and pull out his table. Using the pen, that is usually stored in the frame of it, he then draws up some rough designs of what peelers look like.
The Tuskir around him looked more intrigued at the device, as mention of it from Gharna spread a bit about the place. After a few more minutes Michael held the table for them to see it.
"Huh... a small angled set of blades inwards that can spin in a limited manner and you can just drag it on the surface of the fruit or vegetable. That is... something I would imagine nobles to have access to only. It is a really... covenient tool." Gharna said as she looked over the drawing.
"Yup. And that will be part of the appeal of selling them. Should be pretty cheap to make over all and if we put a decent price on them, we can make a nifty profit while also keeping it affordable. If we sell them made of iron, since it is more affordable, they should be good for a while, but later on if we can make consistent steel properly, making blades that can be swapped out, out of steel, could also rake us in some more money." Michael said casually, but the looks on the other's faces spoke of quite a bit of surprise.
"That is... awfully well thought out. You sure you weren't a merchant back home?" Runhar asked with a genuine impressed tone.
"Oh no no. Trust me, by my people's standards of a capable merchant, after designing a valuable tool, I would have had to build into it flaws, that would break the tool eventually. If I was even better I would make sure only we can fix it or it would be too costly to fix and instead cheaper to buy a replaclement." The young man said with an awkward chuckle, that died out upon making eye contact with the others that were a bit speechless, the previous gaze of surprise from before being maintained.
"I can see why you kept saying there's a lot of your kind that are kind of awful..." Azhul added with a slightly cringing expression as she sucked on her teeth slightly.
"I thought Urla was truly exagerating when she spoke to me of these hoomans. Although I can respect the cunning in the tactic, I would most likely punch them in the throat if they tried that on me." Zurra said with an annoyed growl at the thought.
"Speaking of punching. I actually thought, I could use a weapon made, even if it is out of iron, it should work well. I need something we call a knuckle duster." Michael said as he began drawing on his table again.
"A weapon you say? How is it effective? Could we learn to use it?" Runhar said as his interest got brought back into the discussion, from simply passively listening. He seemed especially interested about that, most likely due to being able to be made now.
"Well... weapon is a bit... technically it is, but since I am not exactly good with any specific weapon, I thought this would be useful for me." He said turning the tablet around to show the drawing he made.
"That... just looks like a tiny chunk of metal with holes in it?" Zurra said with a snort. "Is this a joke? ... Cause it was a bit funny." The elderly smith added with a light chuckle.
"No, not really. The point of it is that it would be harder than my knuckles and it is a more consistent point to hit with. While my knuckles are quite boney and I can get a pretty decent hit in with them, with this I could even crack bones if I hit hard enough." Michael stated plainly. "The holes would be for my fingers and the thicker part at the bottom is to hold onto it like a sort of pseudo handle almost."
Zurra broke out laughing and she wrapped an arm around Michael's neck, pulling him against the side of her chest, almost into a choke hold. "I am already starting to like this boy's mind. Must be as curly as his hair to come up with such ideas. If ya got more stuff like that in yer furless nogging for me to make. We might actually get along well, boyo." There was a sort of fire of excitement in Zurra's tone and eyes, looks like making the same things over and over, can be quite boring and this might have been just was the old sow needed to get her passion for metal to heat up.
"Agh- Hack- ah- R-right. We'll need Yenna for the wood handle and support f-for ahem... the tool. We might need to do a few attempts at making the peeler's blades to get the proper angles, but we should be fine. Also, let's not make too many, we still have to test the market, so to speak. Shall we, get to it?" Michael asked, his neck semi chocked by Zurra's arm and half his face smooshed up against the side of her chest.
With an excited group cheer of agreement, the Tuskir and Michael then began preparation to start making peelers, which would also result in recruiting Yenna for this endevour to come to fruition.