Putting the 6 layers on top of each other into the furnace, Allan pulled them into the very middle of the furnace with a long metallic stick.

According to his memories, he should be careful for the first time hammering it down, and the time as well. They should remain in workable condition, and hammering should be easy at first. Most mistakes will happen in these brief moments when the metal is pulled from the furnace. The following hammer was then the second important thing.

Allan's reasoning was the tension within the furnace could lead to instability. Thus, affecting the overall method of this mixing was a rather complicated problem than any kind of forging method that he knew of. Allan never found the answer to these kinds of problems from many pages of the first order of mixing. Not even the memories of books in Clayton's forge, or his father's actions, helped with it.

He wasn't sure about many things, but the only answer that could help was to experience them. Skill and knowledge would come later.

15 minutes went by, and the 6 layers began to melt together. Each plate was around half a centimeter thick, 10 centimeters wide, and 20 centimeters tall.

Allan wished he could see the reactions inside, and as he feared, he had no clue. Not that he wouldn't ask Sarey for help. It would be hard to explain it to her. That, or the basis of asking her for help was... rather complicated. Little reluctant, Allan had chosen not to do so.

He sat in front of the furnace, while the residual heat caused no discomfort to him even after the next 20 minutes.

“I bet the time is up,” Allan mumbled and pulled the heated metallic slug from the furnace with scissors like a tool. In all senses, it did look like a regular metal for all purposes.

A rather flat-looking slab or singular mass was all there is. No notice of the layers was visible at all in the heated surface, but Allan had no way to know that. Unless he found a good way around it with his touch and other senses. So, he picked a small and thin knife in his right hand, and then pulled it across its thin surface. Close to the layers, he wanted to feel the tension or the feelings of them.

With his head closer, Allan was listening with his ears and feeling the tension of the surface through his touch. This could be rather a difficult endeavor to accomplish, and it ended as such. Allan sighed for himself as he was left disappointed by the result. He couldn't tell shit from the star. No clue whatsoever or what that could even mean. All he could tell was the singular mass of this slag.

This indicated more than enough heat was transferred and he could begin the tempering. So, there went nothing, and Allan picked his hammer and tweezers to put this slag to the anvil. “Oh, well,” he uttered, as he banged with his hammer down. Bang! Tight and sharp noise spread from the impact. A rather strange dent was made in the slab, which was immediately noticed by Allan. He felt the ease of the hammer that struck this metal. It was a bit too much, so he wondered if this was wrong or not.

Noticing the strange dent, Allan put the hammer aside.

“What is this? Why the density of this slab is like this? Did the process go wrong with the mixing, or the temperature was a bit too high? I doubt it's either of these things, but still...”

For the lack of knowledge, or to quench his curiosity, he poked the red metal with a knife. It showed nothing strange apart from the ease the knife was put into the metal.

“It is unevenly heated?! How come?” Allan wondered and felt disappointed by this potential rookie mistake. Although it was hardly something that would any rookie blacksmith encounter. This was a mixing problem that was part of this process. Allan knew that some things and situations could become strange. It's all about mixing methods, while certain techniques made a few mixing patterns.

This one included one hard and a second type, which was a softer type of metal. They should have pulled themselves together into one chunk with enough heat. Tempering within the metallic mass would then come to the hammering.

Upon discovering this problem, which in truth wasn't that big of a deal, Allan went back to the furnace. This metal could still be saved, even though the methodical crafts of this chunk may become worse. It was the method he had chosen that wasn't the brightest.

Both metals had to have enough time and heat to go through the fusion. An extended, heated moment could either span from half an hour to a few hours, depending on the mass, which, in this case, wasn't as high as it should. He was unsure of the right time, but it may solve another heat. So, with the additional 30 minutes with a bigger flame, Allan hoped to fix it.

“When I think about it, It could also be a problem with one of the metals. One of them could be flawed and further worsened when put together under lower heat.”

30 minutes later, Allan pulled the chunk out of the furnace once again. The mass of the metal still looked the same, the mass was the same, and nothing from its interiors could tell its faults.

Putting it on the anvil, Allan checked it once more.

“Hm? Still rather soft, but it should be normal when it comes to these materials. The Scorching ore isn't that dense and hard. That one should be the cause or the reason for this.”

Allan scratched his hair and then picked up the hammer once again. Swinging it with his arm beyond his head, a hit struck the hot piece of metal.

Beng!

Another dent went through the metal, but the kind which was less obvious than the one before. One which was still not that normal when it came to regular forging. Every hammering should cause some form of a dent, since it was the main thing that hammering could do. Making the blade required hardened and purified metal, which went through hundreds or thousands of hits. After all of that, could metal be called strong, resilient, and usable for a strong blade. The density and shape through the hammering was another kind of order that master blacksmiths mastered.

Though, the case of the hammering was nothing special in any sense. It was more than normal for mortals since the forging has a long history. This may be one reason for this strange turn of events where the dent was more pronounced than normal. Well, it's the source of mixing, which was a thing that wasn't known in the current times.

“It could very well be the cause of the mixing of those two types of metals. The first order talked about some inconsistencies and irregularities when it comes to some metals. There was never something specific, so I guess this is that? Unfortunately so, this isn't even included in what father ever did.” Allan though, but still returned to the hammering.

Beng! Beng!

He kept hitting it as he held it within the tongs

12th hit.

15th.

20th.

The metallic slug was quickly deteriorating with each swing, which made it flatter as Allan hit its surface. There were always some surface-level tensions, and some parts of the slab always fell off from the chunks. Those were the kind of losses one would expect when forging, as not 100% of the metal used would end up in the sword. Not including the sharpening, a lot of metal is scrapped off when forging the finishing piece.

“Wait as the second.” Allan stopped his next 29th swing. “This is somewhat familiar to some mention of the mixing technique I've read about.”

Holding the metal slug within his things, he lifted it into the air and hit it just a little bit with a hammer.

“Right! How could I forget to do something so crucial? Mixing isn't about pulling some moves and tossing two metals together and hoping for the best! It needs some twists and folds. Like the layered waves I've seen that are anything but irregular.”

Finally, discovering the next error on his part, Allan picked another source of work for this slug. Then he began the smoothening process by hammering it for it to be as flat as possible. Stopping until the slag was about 3 centimeters thick plate with a rough shape like some kind of plated armor. This didn't need some sort of precision, so Allan hammered with all his strength to make it flat as fast as possible. All he had to do was fold it across itself. Making 6 layers, 12. He could also twist it with vice and a swirling motion would further improve the density of the metal, but that wasn't something Allan would be able to do.

Folding what he used, in this case, was much easier, but only initially. He had to continue to fold it at least thrice and the more he did, the dense and harder the metal would appear.

This was one of the core teachings of the mixing, but Allan wasn't the least bit proficient with it. He didn't use this kind of thing in his first experiment. Simple use of two kinds of metals in Clayton's shop was more than enough. It was so essential in the art of mixing that he couldn't help but be disappointed in himself for forgetting about it.

Bang!

Bang!

Allan hammered the folded piece of still soft metal on the anvil. It resembled the letter U with its shape, but it was becoming clearer to reach the limits of folding. Once more, and he would have to end.

In another 50 hits, Allan chose to forfeit the next fold, and reheat the metal in a still-hot furnace. 10 minutes should do until he folded the plate once again. But, this time, in a different direction than previously. Preventing the issue of reheating and making the folding uneven should be enough of a twist for this sort of technique.

“Huff. Huff.” This is getting harder and harder for me.”Allan complained, but still kept going until the 4th fold. It ended in the tough-looking plate, which was very hard to work with.

This could be now called an alloy, to be exact. One which went through the tempering and improvements, then regular metals in every blacksmith's hands. Though, a mention of the Mixing called those metals that, and Allan was far from knowing that. Metal was metal. Ore was ore, and the alloy wasn't the kind of word in his dictionary.

Although it was anything but a normal kind of metal. It involved techniques unique to Allan and his father. It was unknown to him if this sort of forging technique was something out of this world or something that his father knew by some luck. As far as he knew, there was never a mention of mixing metals in the library of Wann city or any of his own research. Asking 36 was also a possibility to get to know whether that was the case, but he had a lot on his plate already. Allan rather waited it out.

Focusing more on himself and his training with forging on a side was about his last 10 or so days. Today was an unexpected harvest of his long-awaited mixing. In the shape of a rough-looking metallic blade. It resembled more of a short sword than any kind of knife, which was caused by Allan's hesitation. He used 6 sheets of those 2 metals and decided on this later when the mass decreased with his hammering.

“Huh... This is pretty interesting.” Allan poked the metal plate in the shape of a rough plate on his anvil with his hands. Still hot, he rather did so with a piece of a stick.

Being over 40 centimeters was more than enough to call it a short sword, but its width was more than he wished.

“This won't end like a knife, for sure. I will have to wait for the results of the sharpening if I want to call it that or this. The main issue of the mixing is out of the picture though. The folding seems to hold well, and layers weren't coming through either. Chops, irregularities or anything from my first one is not present here.” Allan thought with a strange-looking metal plate in hand.

He couldn't see the color or anything which could indicate any problem visually.

Only his touch could assume some problems, while not even his ears picked anything up when he pinched it or flick it with a metal stick. Though he did the pulling with a sheet of metal across the rough surfaces dozens of times. It was for the feeling of the layers, and the surface seemed smooth as far as his hammering went. So, Allan discovered nothing wrong with the seemingly singular piece of metal which felt like any other. The only difference was the abnormal density and weight that came when he worked with the hammering. Pulling it with his tongs wasn't the easiest piece, and Allan figured it was the case of the fusion of the metals.

Outside of his view, Sarey glanced at everything in the same manner as many days before. This time, she had no anticipation of jumping into his work. She assumed this one to be quite different from his previous kinds of work. Allan's mood and aura were also different when he worked on something completely unknown to her.

|The basic of folding those plates was nothing extravagant, but that went still to a surprising sight for Sarey. She looked at his work as he brandished his hammer and used it more and more with the ending product being the reddish-looking blade. That one was quite intriguing, as it was no longer as hot as before. The metal long cooled down since the hammering can be done for an extended period of time. It would be until the metal would end up cold completely.

This kind of work had piqued her interest to the bitter end, but she hold herself back. There was no need to jump to the conclusion that she wasn't needed. Not like she didn't mind being part of this at the moment. It looked that Allan was better off alone, as his focus was concentrated on his current task.

“He does look somewhat different than usual. I wonder what causes this.” Sarey thought to herself as she kept her face between her palms which rested on the window. She was looking into the room from outside for quite a while, and enough for her to see everything.

After a while of cooling down and a quick quench, Allan tossed the newly forged metallic sword from hand to hand. Hitting it, smacking it, touching it, you name it.

It was now time to figure out the significant things about this blade and the mixing itself. Since the course of the forging was done, and successful, another important thing will happen next. A goal of his, that he promised himself to seek out. The many years of his discoveries and spying on the strange methods of his father stemmed from that. It would not escape his mind, and he would forever be sure of it until the very end of time. A true masterpiece and promise to forge something extraordinary. Something that no ordinary blacksmith could. That was the dream and decision of a young Allan, who had a broad mind in his head.

“Toughness is top-notch as I wield it. It should be around 8 kilos which is massive, considering the small amount of this mass. That is worth guessing, that the major fusion of the metal was great, and the whole 6 plates were roughly around 10 kilos. That adds some loss since some chops in hammering are normal. As for the weight, it feels heavy, even though it is a shorter kind of sword. If it would be longer, I wouldn't be able to work with it. This was about the limit of the optimal length, considering the 4th folding I did. Maybe it would be around 50 to 55 centimeters with 3rd fold? It adds a lot of strain, density, and power to hammer it down was quite an ordeal. The power to make a normal sword with this would be godly, but hammering that would be impossible. It's about weight and mixing... Right... It should be tight together.”

Allan was in a little bit of a dilemma, while he wondered deeply about the last couple of hours. He could continue working on this and figure out more about this blade with the sharpening and making of the handle.

He was sure that his work and wonders would be perfect with his black whetstone. It would work wonders on this kind of experimental blade.

“Yes... Yes... Calling the mixture an alloy according to the First order would be the true word for this kind of work.” Allan guessed, and went through the memories of the first order of mixing many times over. Finally deciding on the right term was a good start.

“It kind of resembles the most expensive kind of metallic ingots in my world. Ones which could be made by the most famous craftsmen. Father talked about it and taught me about them as well. Not everything expensive could be all that great, but some metals are better than others. That is common sense, after all.”

“Oh! I know! There was also a moment when he purchased one of those ingots and used it with one of his own in his forge.” Allan suddenly remembered one particular style of blade from his memory. Long blade with significant thickness in the lower part of the handle, which went further up into the curved edge. It had a terrifying appeal to him at that time. It looked big and deadly.

At that time, those sights were nothing but impressive, while they had no real value for the Allan of the past. Unbeknownst to him, the current Allan found this knowledge as important as everything else that he gained in his life.

“I don't remember the entire process of those creations, but the complete processes are in my diary. I am sure of that.” Allan clenched his fist as he picked the new blade to his worktable.

Resting for a moment to restore his mind, he decided to continue since it felt right. Allan had few opportunities to decide on. Using his black whetstone was more than certain.

It was its usage that may change with the following options.