"That bow was rather dangerous, I should probably see if I can make something that is not violent this time." Thoughtfully inspecting the array of metal bars, Jimmy decided upon a breastplate. Something nice and straightforward and beefy to swing his hammer without restraint.
Pump pump went the bellows, wrshhh roared the forge's flame. Splsh the metal bars melted like butter being taken out before they started dripping everywhere. Swinging his biggest hammer against the metal, beating it to as thin as possible, then folding it like a pancake, then making it thin again, then folding it several times and beating it. Wielding all his force and energy, Jimmy did this more, and then started dunking it into the ice-cold water. This went on for a while, the steel alloy going from white hot to red hot to shiny steel-silver hue.
Jimmy had an inspiration and decided to throw in several coins he had in his pocket and melted it all together and unleashed his strikes all over again. Every hit made the slowly forming breastplate into something more than the sum of the parts.
Eventually, he submerged the maple-leaf shaped breastplate (which had several holes for the connecting up with other armour) one last time.
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Glowing softly and yet not glowing, the piece of armour sat there. Firm and unyielding but not demanding. Jimmy picked it up and looked across the surface and saw it had two layers to it: the physical metal, and a glass-looking light field of some kind.
He hit it with his hammer and there was a dull clink, and he was happy to see - and not surprised by this point - there was no damage to it.
Calling his dad to him, he explained, "this breastplate will protect the wearer more than other breastplates, I hope it finds a good wearer it was enjoyable to make."
A little disappointed at a less flashy crafting, but still happy at something new to sell, his dad nodded and promised to find a responsible user.
Well, responsible as in wealthy.
Completely ignoring his son's recommendation, the Breastplate was sold to a neighbouring lord who lived closer to the border with aggressive orks. These orks had usually been successfully kept at bay by the guile and bravery of that lord, who actively raided and outwitted the orks. This aggression went down too much after the lord wore the Breastplate, and while he was able to easily defend the borders, the orks were able to grow without the regular raids upon them, and raided more easy pickings, which led to the defeat of an important border fortress or two.