After he set the bones to boil, he headed home to grab the work orders for the day. The processing of the beasts that morning only took a couple of hours so it was not even midday yet, as Mark had noticed by checking the position of the sun as he headed to his house.

'There will likely be a few weapons that need repairs from the growth, probably a few tools related to skinning and tanning as well. Other than that, I should have taken care of most of what is needed for this time of year since the harvest is long past.'

Mark thought to himself as he considered what he would be working on for the day.

When he got to his house and grabbed the work orders, he found that his assumptions were correct as he bundled up the spears and the few tools that needed to be worked on before heading back to the forge.

'James hardly ever used the fifth step to reinforce these blades, I guess he didn't enjoy the forge as much as I do but maybe it had something to do with the sadness that took over him when mom died. . . either way, I am going to reinforce these blades so the villagers have more reliable weapons to slay the beasts with. This should also make it easier for them to kill the beasts since a condensed blade should not only hold up more easily but also have a harder sharper edge that would be better for cutting the thick hides and bones of the beasts.'

Mark was thinking more about the villagers than he normally did since he had seen so many of the guards get injured during the growth. He would typically just be glad to have some work to do at the forge but now he was actually considering the wellbeing of the villagers. The growth typically got him thinking more of the villagers for a few days afterward and it also made him realize that his crafts need someone to use them so he knows if he made them as good as they could be made.

'If I can make them more powerful, then I could spend more time working at the forge instead of trying to prevent this village from going extinct. . ."

Of course, it was all about getting more time at the forge.

More than making the villagers more powerful, reinforcing the weapons and tools they use with the fifth step would extend the life of each of them significantly. If Mark continued to reinforce everything that was brought to him he would eventually have much more free time than he normally has.

While Mark thinks this is a long-shot idea, he still finds it to be a nice thought since he would be able to spend more time doing his research.

When he got back to his forge, he placed the weapons and tools that people wanted to have repaired on his queue table and got his coals burning. Then he considered the order he would do the repairs.

"I might as well do all of the tools first then the spears since the tools just need some heating and bonding to repair the cracks and imperfections. Then I can etch the patterns and add some metal to the spears before letting them cool and then I'll use the fifth step."

Once the coals were at the right temperature, he set all of the tools in the fire to let them heat up. When they were ready, he pulled them out and hit them with the hammer to see if they needed anything more than some reshaping, and for the ones that needed some extra care, he would pour a bit of the bonding catalysts or some metal sand, or both, and hit them again until they were fixed.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

While the maintenance of the tools would not pull Mark into his trance, he did find it refreshing to finally be hammering on some metal. He had been under a bit of stress recently and he was able to let some of it out as he got in the mood to do some real forge work.

After the tools were ready, he put them aside and then set the spear blades in the fire to heat up as well. While watching the blades heat up, he let himself get lost in the dance of the flames as he tried to decipher their secrets once again. He started to feel himself melt into the flames as he lost track of time. A feeling of his soul becoming one with the fire overwhelmed all of the other senses and Mark started to forget about all of his stress and worries. Another feeling of power started to take root in his solar plexus as he focused on the flames. The glow of the flame with the shadow it produced and the slight crackle the coals gave off all seemed to add up to something but he could never quite figure out what it was.

Before he was able to understand the secrets of the flames, he was brought out of his trance by the special glow of the metal which meant the spear blades were ready to be worked on.

He proceeded to systematically reinforce each blade of each spear and after a few hours, he had completed his work. With the blades done, he just had to put each spear back together and ensure the shaft of the spear would not be the next reason it was brought back to his forge.

With the spears and tools completed, Mark gathered them all together and dropped them off for the villagers to come by and grab them near his house.

He still had about half a day to do whatever he wanted so he headed back to his forge to see what he would do with his new materials.

He had a few bones from the wargs and chimeric panthers but the leathers from the beasts were still tanning which would take a couple of days at least. The fangs and horns of the various beasts he had killed were also possible crafting ingredients that Mark wanted to test out.

He was especially interested in the chimeric panther horns. He had four of them and each one was harder than any non-metal material he had ever worked with.

"I wonder what those panthers will taste like when their meat is done drying out. . ."

Mark got a little distracted mentally before proceeding with his experiments.

His first course of action was to check just how durable the horns were. Since he had four of the horns he could spare the weakest-looking one for the necessary experimentation, so he grabbed the less pristine horn of the smaller chimeric panther and set it on his anvil.

As he set it on his anvil, he realized that there was no good side of it that was actually flat enough to keep it from rolling around which would hinder his ability to do some of the testing he was most interested in doing to the horn.

"It could cause me some problems if it is rolling around, and if I hit it too hard it could end up getting shot out of the forge. That would just be a big pain in my ass. . ."

Mark once again took to talking out loud to sort through his problems.

"I guess I can cut it with my spear. I already removed them with the spear and the ends have a smooth cut so I already know it's not going to be as impressive as this alloy. . . I bet if it's impressive enough, though, then I could make a good trade with the caravans. Maybe they have some cool metals I have never seen before or maybe they could have picked up some of the purple or orange ores!"

Mark had to force himself back to work as he thought of all of the possibilities that good materials could result in. Of course, his greatest interest was making better alloys at his forge so he could make superior crafts.

With his internal debate settled Mark grabbed his spear and proceeded to cut the horn in half long ways by stabilizing it in a vice-grip type contraption that he regularly used for this type of procedure.

Once the horn was flat on one side, he placed his first testing half back on the anvil which was satisfactorily stable on the block of metal.