Noah was feeling excited right now. Despite all the unknowns around, he felt more alive than ever in a way. Everything felt new, unique and brought out curiosity within him to learn more about it.
Something exciting was going to happen now and he didn't want to miss a single moment of it.
He refocused on the master of the smithy heading towards the huge forge.
"This will probably be the first time many of you will be formally introduced to the world of Blacksmithing. It is tradition here at Anvil Artisans that masters display their skill at the introduction. It serves both as a goal to aspire for and to ignite the interest of the apprentices. After all, at the end of the day, Blacksmithing, like many of the other arts is mostly dull and repetitive to learn. To find interest is necessary for one to excel in any Profession. Remember, this is a demonstration. I will try to explain the steps as I go through the making but it is more important you find the passion to truly want to tread on this path." Master Ralvol said while taking out his tools from the side of the forge and placing them on the anvil.
The master then touched various metal panels around the forge and twisted certain nobs here and there. Gradually, the engravings started to light up on the forge. He continued to speak while preparing the materials.
"Many people think Blacksmithing only revolves around forging i.e. hammering the metal. It doesn't. Make sure to get it in your minds. We will get to it later."
He slammed a trunk he picked from the back near the anvil and then looked up at the apprentices. His eyes were lit up with both excitement and literal light, brightly reflecting the glow from the forge.
"Listen here now kids, Master Blacksmith Dalir Ralvol is going to present you with the steps in the creation of a mana blade crafted from Artificial Mythril alloy. Hopefully, you lot will enjoy this old man's craft. Enjoy the sight."
He turned back to the trunk and opened the latches which produced clicking sounds. He then pushed open the cover and took out bars of different colored metals.
"First rule of Blacksmithing, know all that you can about the metals, woods and ores you would be working with. You can't start making things unless you know which material will be needed where."
He pulled out what looked to be a bar of steel.
"This here is an ingot of high-grade steel, a low carbon-iron alloy. Most of the metal creations use this as a basis. This is the best you can get without involving mana or stupid amounts of money. Now, steel is very essential to your craft in the early stages of your Blacksmith career. You should know how steel is made and its properties so you could decide how and where to utilize it when creating your crafts. Just a slight change in concentration of carbon in the iron ingot could turn it into something entirely else like cast iron or wrought iron, both of which have their own uses. But steel is much better than the other two when working with blades and weapons."
He put the steel ingot in a metal bucket and used the long handle on the bucket to pull the entire thing up. He then placed it in the forge letting the ingot melt.
"Heavy grade Mythril, if you didn't know, is basically Magic Iron. It is much stronger than your normal iron or steel and vastly more mana conductive to the point it shouldn't even be compared to each other. It naturally occurs in mana-rich ore deposits of Iron. Knowing the rarity of those deposits, you can guess they are quite expensive for the common folk. Noble and rich people are primary consumers of Mythril. Master Professionals and some Elite Advanced Professionals, like the Knight Commander and the Knights Captains are also one of the groups using it. They also use it properly for their armors and weapons, unlike the others who may even use it for a tableware set." Master had a look of disdain when he mentioned the tableware part. Anyone could tell he didn't like the way Mythril is used by the rich.
"Since it is so rare and expensive, people had tried to create it artificially. What we then got ourselves was called Artificial Mythril. Granted, it isn't as good as the original but it can be mass-produced and it is also much cheaper to produce."
He took out the bucket from the forge to show that the ingot had turned into molten slag.
"This took much less time than usual to melt because of the forge. This beautiful creation here is my Mana Forge." He patted the Mana Forge and continued to explain it proudly.
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"Powered fully by Fire crystals, the inside of this thing is covered in a mix formed from Fire salamander scales which were magically treated. This helps in keeping all the heat trapped inside the furnace while the temperature inside easily could go as hot as the surface of the sun without you feeling like boiling outside. At least that's what the Artificer who created this told me. Regardless, any basic forge would take half an hour at least to melt the ingot down into molten metal."
He then ducked down to bring out a small luxurious looking box. Master Ralvol then placed his hand on it which lit up the engravings on it. A second later, the box opened with a click. He then put his hand inside and took out a shiny piece of metal from within the box.
"We can create Artificial Mythril alloy by mixing molten normal steel with a shard of Truesilver and adding mana to fuel the synthesis. The shard acts as a catalyst here but it also mixes to form an alloy where the finished product is much better."
He said dropping the piece of metal inside the metal bucket. Then he held the handle of bucket and placed it inside another part of the forge. This part was fully enclosed with a single opening through which he opened to put the bucket inside. He followed it by detaching the handle from the bucket. He then pulling down a hatch effectively sealing the bucket inside the compartment.
"What I did just now is what we call the Refinement process. This is a bit advanced for you but the basic idea is to improve upon the basic ores and metal using mana and magical refinement. I just now put the molten Steel with a shard of Truesilver in the Refinement chamber. There it will be fueled with tons of mana and the synthesis process will be magically controlled to form our desired Artificial Mythril Alloy." Master Ralvol was pulling different levers and touching panels while giving his speech.
"This will take some time to finish. So, we will focus on another part of the blade we will be creating, the handle. Let's look at our blade first." He took out piece of parchment from a drawer and folded it open on the table next to the anvil.
"You will not be able to see it normally but fortunately for you, this one is a magic blueprint. Let me just turn it on." Master put his hand on the parchment and it lit up like the box before.
Sounds of awe and amazement came from the crowd as they witnessed a magical scene. Blue light emerged out of the parchment which gradually took shape in the form of blade in the air allowing everyone to take a look at the blueprints.
"Amazing, isn't it. Makes forging looks way more magical and allows me to focus on making stuff instead of just looking at the blueprint every so often." Ralvol smiled looking at the amazed looks in the apprentices. He had acted no different from them when he saw this scene for the first time.
"Now, focus here. We have the material we need for the blade being synthesized right now." He said pointing at the blade. Ralvol then waved near the parchment and the blade part dissipated leaving only the hilt. Making another gesture, he made the handle part magnified allowing everyone to make out the details.
"The hilt of the weapon is no less important than the blade. Therefore, proper materials are required. We can go a variety of ways here making the handle out of wood, alloy or even something like monster bones. It boils down to what fits the weapon best. Here, I am going with treated oak wood. The base will be formed and then reinforced with the alloy we are making." He stated while taking out small blocks of wood from shelves at the side.
Placing them on the table, he said to the group.
"You don't have to be ultra-precise with the design. You just need to be good enough. You will see that in this field, half of the things are done on intuition. Of course, that doesn't you can just forgo the dimensions of the creation. They are there for a reason and you should follow them to a certain extent. More important is to check for who you are making the weapon for. Every person is different and therefore requires different handles. You need to account for that when making something custom order."
He then got to work again. Taking a woodblock, he took it one side with numerous long blades and screws. pulling a lever turned the machine on and the screw started rotating making drilling noises.
Master Ralvol took the block a started drilling a hole. He had to shout now for the apprentices to hear him because of the noise.
"THIS DRILL IS GENERALLY USED TO CREATE HOLES AND FIXTURES WHEN REQUIRED. I AM USING THIS TO DRILL A HOLE IN THE WOODBLOCK FOR THE BLADE TO FIT IN."
The noise continued for another minute or so before he pulled the lever again stopping the drill and the loud noise.
"I use wood for handles mainly because of personal preference and feel of it on hand but you can try other materials. You can even just extend the blade when forging and cover it in leather to form the hilt." Master Ralvol then took out leather gloves from the tools and put them on. The gloves then shrank automatically to fit on his hands.
"Now, our alloy should be ready." He said rushing straight to the Refinement chamber. He then pulled open the hatch and attached the handle back to the bucket. Taking it out, he placed the molten glowing metal alloy on the anvil.
"We will now put the molten metal in a basic mold and set the entire mold in a cooling compartment for the alloy to form." Saying this, he took out a mold from another section. He placed it on a bulky metal stand.
Next, he picked the bucket using its handle and carefully poured the entire alloy inside the mold. The molten metal bubbled and splattered around during this process. He then sealed it shut using a similar mold. Then he took the thing and placed it in what could be the cooling compartment. It was similarly shut sealed like the Refinement chamber.
After some twisting and pulling near the compartment, Master Ralvol took a seat on a chair placed next to the table. Turning towards the crowd, he smirked and said.
"Wait a few minutes for the alloy to become somewhat cooled and then we will move on to the real smithing."