Beginnings
It was a hard process that was called smelting. By heating up the ore you can separate the components and you can extract the iron from it. Arno explained the basic steps and then went to the forge and told Orion to watch carefully and remember every step he makes. While working he explained different things to Orion.
-“The job of the smelting furnace is to reduce the metal from its original combined state to a metallic state. Iron is a reasonably common substance in the earth, but as would attest, most of the time it takes the form of rust, iron oxide. In the smelter, iron oxides and other combined forms of iron have their bonds broken. This allows the iron part to combine into a mass of metal. Rust goes in iron comes out.
The smelting furnace has two tools to bring about this transformation: heat and carbon. Smelters, like all furnaces, burn carbon fuels to produce heat. That much is obvious. But burning is never complete, and the hot gases within a smelter are rich in carbon that is chemically active. Hot carbon has a strong affinity for oxygen, and the oxygen atoms are literally stripped away from the iron by the gaseous carbon. Left without any chemical partners, the iron atoms form a mass of nearly pure metal.”
Orion was surprised by the knowledge Arno has. It seems that the dwarf knew some chemistry and extra knowledge that Orion thought NPC’s didn’t have. Arno kept explaining.
After showing him how it’s done it was Orion’s turn. He repeated the same process and realized that it was harder than it looked. The most difficult part was the heat. After using up all the ore they finally had some iron to work with. Then with a serious face he started explaining how to make a knife. He explained the most common method since from this one every bladesmith creates its own method.
Arno started explaining how to make a sword
-“There are many different ways that swords are made but here is an overview of the steps for the most common sword making process.”
Forging A bar of the desired metal or combination of metals is heated in the forge and then it is hammered into shape. This hammering process can take a long time. This is called drawing out the sword. The sword is worked on in sections. Usually around 6 inches in length and repeatedly hammered and heated until the sword comes into the desired shape. This process is repeated and the sword is often heated then allowed to cool without hammering. This is required by the metal to keep the desired properties of strength and flexibility.
Annealing When the final shape is complete the total sword is heated and then allowed to cool very slowly. It can take as long as 24 hours and this process is called Annealing and this makes the sword soft and easy to grind.
Grinding Now you use a grinder to work out the edge and point of the sword. This would also be when any engraving is added. This is not a completed sword yet. It is still much too soft.
Hardening Now the sword is heated to a very high temperature and then placed into a quenching tank. This quenching allows it to cool quickly and evenly which will harden the metal.
Tempering Again the blade is heated and quenched. But now the heating is at a much lower tem temperature than was used at the hardening. This heating/quenching cycle may be repeated several times. This tempering allows the blade to be strong but not brittle. It will have a certain amount of flexibility yet still retain its sharp edge.
Completion The sword blade itself is now complete. Now the additional parts will be added such as the pommel the guard and the hilt.”
Orion was suprized by how hard it is to make a sword. He thought that it was just like in the other games. You just need ore and the sword is done in a few minutes. But it seems that bladesmithing was though and a good word can be sold for 5 gold. Just for reference Arno mentioned that a rare sword can be sold for around 50 gold. They are also very hard to make so many are looking for them.
After finishing telling the details it was time to show how to make it. For the next two days using all his abilities Arno crated 10 knifes. Out of those ten, 6 were common, 3 were uncommon and one was rare. Since it was a knife he could sell the rare one for 10 gold and the uncommon ones for 3 gold each and the common ones for 50 silver.
Orion absorbed all the knowledge and finally it was time to test himself. He wanted to create 10 knifes just like Arno. He repeated the same process as described and demonstrated by Arno before. He tried to do it like the dwarf but he didn’t have the same level of strength and he also didn’t have the same precision. And to make it worse the heat was slowing him down.
Finally after 3 days he finished the 10 knifes he planned and he also finished all the water he had and most of the food. He was a bit disappointed in the result. All the knives were common class but he only succeeded in making 2 knives that were close to the level of the common ones Arno did.
Arno was watching the whole process and all he could think of was
„Monster. After only explaining the steps and showing him how to do it he already reached a level i reached after years of training. I finally saw a monster like the ones my teacher used to tell stories about.”
But he didn’t say any thing out loud, instead he just said.
-„Good enough. You can now practice on your own. When you feel confident in a piece, show it to me. And if i see that you are capable enough, you can start making actual weapons.”
-„I understand...Do you need the forge or can i keep using it?
-„I have enough stuff that i still need to sell so you can use it for as long as you like”
Even though it was in the contract Orion still asked since Arno was a good teacher. He was admiring him for being able to do so well. He didn’t even sweat when making the knives. It was like breathing to him. Orion on the other hand became exhausted very fast and sweated a lot. Since he sweat a lot he needed to hydrate and used up all his water fast.
He left the store while Arno was opening the shop again and went to buy more food and water. While shopping he relaxed a bit in the cool wind. While walking around he was approached by a beggar.
-„Would you be so kind as to give me some coin?”
Orion looked carefully at the beggar and had an idea.
-„If you are able to answer my question, and I like the answer i will help you with more than one coin”
The beggar surprised by this answer he carefully asked
-„Go ahead, kind sir”
-„You are approached by two people. They both tell you a piece of information. The two pieces of information contradict each other. How do you know which piece of information is correct?”
The beggar pondered for a minute before responding
-“Can’t I tell from how they act?”
-“No. They act exactly the same”
-“I would assume both are lying and then I would get another person involved and see what he says. If he has the same information as one of them then the other one is lying for sure.”
Orion smiled and looked at the beggar in front of him better. He had long hair, ragged and dirty clothes. His brown hair hid most of his face but he had a round face. His right hand was shaking a bit and when looking more carefully Orion saw a large scar on his arm.
-“Good. What is your name?”
-“Brock.”
-“How would you like to work for me Brock?”
-“Work for you sir? What does that mean?”
-“If you accept I will tell you”
-“Very well sir. I accept”
-“Great. I would like you to be my eyes and ears in the town.”
-“I’m not sure I understand sir.”
-“I would like you to gather information. About everything and everyone you can.”
-“I will do everything I can to help because you are the first person to acknowledge my presence. You have given me something to live for and for that I thank you”
Orion held out his hand and told Brock “You will gather information for me. You cannot reveal anything about me to anyone. You cannot lie to me. In exchange I will give you my support, my aid and friendship. Do you accept these conditions for the contract?
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Brock took his hand without hesitation and a window appeared in front of them.
PactA contract between Brock and Orion has been formed.
Details:
Brock will gather information for Orion.
Brock cannot reveal anything about Orion.
Brock cannot lie to Orion.
In exchange Orion will support and aid Brock.
Not obeying this contract will result in severe punishment.
Both parties have agreed to this contract.
Now that they were bound by contract Orion gave 10 gold to Brock and told him.
-“Here, take this. It will help you get started and gather more information. You can also get people to help you. Choose carefully since they might betray you for money.”
Brock was then staring at the gold in his hands. He never held so much money in his life. However before leaving, Orion decided he needed to do one more thing. He took Brock’s hands and on his right wrist using mana paint he drew three small black lines. The two on the outside were the same length and the one in the middle was a bit longer.
-“If someone approaches you, shows this symbol to you and asks you ---Tell me a story. --- you need to respond with ---Do you know the story of the stars---.Remember, that person works for me and you should consider him or her a friend and offer your assistance if asked and in return you may ask as well.”
-“Of course. I understand.”
-“Before I leave remember that everything might be important and if you see me, unless you have an emergency ignore me and I will do the same. If I need something, me or a friend will find you”
Orion feeling satisfied with the results he headed back to the forge. He went and told Arno he would sleep for a while and then he would continue his training. Orion went to his room that Arno prepared for him and went to sleep.
Jake got out of the pod and was quite tired. He went to bed after eating and the next day he worked out a bit. He felt tired after a few minutes but then was felling refreshed. He took a shower, ate and went back into the game.
Orion woke up and went straight to the forge. He first melted all the knifes he made and then started the bladsmithing process from the beginning. While training he gained a few stats and after a week of continuously melting the knifes then creating them from scratch he checked his stats.
Status WindowName:OrionAlignment:NeutralLevel:26Class:PactioTitles:Bane of banditsFame:0-Health:215/215Mana:320/320Strength:155Agility:172Attack:100Defense:84Wisdom:100Intelligence:120+100 MP
+50 HP
+100% MP and HP regeneration rate
All his stats increased. The strength increased a bit more than some other stats so it was easier to craft the knifes. After a week of training he finally created an uncommon class knife that was close to rare.
Iron knifeAttack:55Durability:70/70Rank:UncommonLevel requirement:NoneA great iron knife made by a skilled bladesmith.
Special: The knife will always be as sharp as when it was created.
By now he was as fast as Arno but his skills were still not quite there. He melted the knifes again and started making a single knife, focusing entirely on it. It took him 24 hours but after finishing and inspecting the knife he finally crafted a rare knife.
Sharp Knife Attack:75Durability:100/100Rank:RareLevel requirement:5A sharp knife made using all the focus and skill of the bladesmith.
Special: The blade durability will never decrease.
Feeling proud of this work he showed Arno the knife. After inspecting it Arno smiled and nodded
“You are ready to learn the next step”
This time he repeated exactly the same steps as before but since the blade of a sword was larger than that of a knife he increased everything. After finishing the weapon he showed Orion the finished product. Orion took it and inspected the sword.
Iron Sword of Flame Attack:105Durability:100/100Rank:UncommonLevel requirement:15A sword that thanks to the skill of the bladesmith has received the blessing of the fire.
Special:
The blade does fire damage.
Increases health by 5%.
Orion handed the sword back and now that he had a reference he started to make his own sword.
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