Ryan hammered the finishing touches to the shield with a small ball peen hammer. It was the second to last piece that he had agreed to smith for the others. Everyone had been busy crafting over the last five days, experimenting with the knowledge acquired through the Interface, finding the best ways to apply it practically. They had discovered that the Professions had a lot of overlap, Alchemist had several Skills that were similar to those of the Herbalist, specifically with respect to identifying active alchemical properties of plants. In other respects the two Professions differed significantly.
The various smithing Professions also provided near the same basic skill set, but allowed for specialisation in certain areas. All the Smiths had Metallurgy as a Skill, granting knowledge on how to identify, mine, extract and alloy various metals, although the knowledge was basic. They all had Smelting as a Skill. If needed, Ryan could cast bullets, but Carmen’s Skills associated with Ammosmithing allowed for a far greater rate of production and conformity. However, if she made the moulds, Ryan could fill them easily and complete her work. Carmen, between Ammosmithing and Alchemy, had re-discovered how to create blackpowder, although they struggled to obtain sufficient raw materials, specifically a derivative of saltpetre. Stephen, with his Runesmith Class, had the most esoteric Skills, specifically those that covered engraving and imbueing runes. Although his templates were very basic they provided great utility by energetically imbuing the materials to create a variety of improvements over the base metal such as increased hardness, creating a thin energy shield over the material or creating an energetic edge on a blade. His Class and Profession combo greatly increased the effectiveness of their otherwise crudely crafted implements.
More so than any of the other crafters the Smiths and Leatherworkers had been inundated by requests for commissions, all in some form of armour and melee weapons. They had struggled mightily but in the end had managed to kludge together at least a basic kit for everyone. The hides obtained from the Voracious Bovine and the Armoured Rhino had been utilised in their entirety, mostly thanks to the excessive amount of wastage. They had also cannibalised all the leaf springs from the various vehicles to make bladed weapons although Ryan had kept some in reserve for his experiments surrounding his bows, for which he hadn’t found further time.
Ryan had also somehow find some time to instruct Miguel on the usage of a bow, a skill Miguel picked up very quickly thanks to the Ranged Weapons Skill he had as part of his Class Skill set. The Wild Scout had eventually chosen Bowyer as a Profession and was experimenting with various materials to try and craft a laminated bow. Their ammunition situation was dire and Carmen could definitely not supply enough to keep all their needs covered. So a bow was a decent ranged weapon for a Scout.
Lizzy had called everyone for a meeting the evening before in order to discuss their findings on their various Profession Skills. It quickly became clear that most everyone was stumbling around in the dark, trying to find a way to properly utilise their Skill sets. Only those that had plenty of prior knowledge in their chosen Profession were making any meaningful progress. Everyone agreed that they would need to find some sort of instruction because the assistance given by the Interface with respect to their Skills, specifically in crafting, was not comprehensive enough and often seemed to assume some base knowledge or skill. This was in stark contrast to the Class Skills granted by the System which often were significantly more comprehensive. John had argued that the System was probably coded for less technologically advanced societies where instructors for the crafting professions could more readily be found.
Which made some weird kind of sense to Ryan, as the entire System that had been implemented was a confusing melange of conflicting methodologies. Nonetheless, it was what it was and he shuddered while remembering the absolutely embarrasing results of his attempts to smith usable bladed weapons. Although he had some basic knowledge regarding smithing Ryan found himself unable to smith a balanced blade. In the end, he had copied the form of the panga and smithed a heavier and slightly larger version for everyone. He wasn’t proud of them, but they were functional, sturdy and most of all wickedly sharp after Stephen had ‘runed’ them. The armour Leah, Ryan and Mike, who had by now also chosen Leatherworking as a Profession, had crafted was also hideous, but everyone now had a hardboiled leather cuirass, greaves and bracers. Their attempt to craft boots had been woefully unsuccessful, but Ryan had hope for the future. Helmets too were clearly beyond their ability for the time being.
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He hefted the shield he had finished just now, it was a heavy round buckler made from mild steel with several reinforcing rings welded on the inside. It wasn’t smooth, it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t exactly a hundred percent round but it was a solid piece of steel with suitable grips for wielding it and a sling to carry it. Now, he had to duplicate it as both Mike and William had requested a shield and definitely needed one if they were to defend the group in their chosen roles.
So Ryan got to work, cutting and hammering out the round form from the square steel plate. It was very hot work, the large sheet radiating a lot of heat. Forge-welding two blocks of steel to the inside, to later be morphed into grips was exhausting, specifically because he lacked proper flux and oxidisation was a problem. The welds would hold, for a time at least. The reinforcing rings were bent rebar rods, shoddily forge-welded to the inside of the shield in progress. Once he was more or less satisfied with the welds and the rough dimensions he cut out the inside of the two blocks serving as grips. Next he started shaping the iconically convex shape of the buckler by hammering the heated shield with a smaller peen hammer millions of times over the rounded boss of the anvil. The process was far faster than the first time he had attempted it and the rough shield was ready for further work within two hours, for now only needing the finishing touches, which Ryan knew to take at least another hour or two. He had decided to forego tempering the shield, leaving the steel soft to avoid even the slightest risk of it shattering from an impact during combat due to incorrect tempering of the steel. He knew it wouldn’t hold up to abuse that well as a result, but wasn’t confident on tempering it correctly. As a result, he was less than happy with the piece, but it couldn’t be helped for now.
In opposition, he was near delirious with happiness that at long last he wouldn’t have to bear the heat of the forge any longer. Although it seemed to be affecting him less and less the more time he spent in front of the forge the heat had really ben wearing him down. He was actually looking forward to filing, sanding and connecting the pieces of leather. It was boring work but the relief from the heat was welcome and he diligently finished the shield while the sun was slowly moving towards the western horizon.
Once he was done with it he carried the shield over to Stephen who by now was long done engraving the first shield and waiting on him to finish the second. Stephen handed him the first Shield which he had engraved but not imbued yet. They had discovered that Ryan’s Imbue Skill, chosen as a reward for an achievement, provided better results than Stephen’s, most likely due to the fact that he had a far larger pool of available Energy than Stephen. Being able to feel the flow of Energy from his core to the runework probably helped as well. Ryan had observed Stephen imbuing his runes and told Stephen that the flow of Energy was wonky but they hadn’t found a way to improve it. Together, they agreed that Stephen would need to prioritise unlocking his core to facilitate better imbuement.
Although Ryan was ravenous, he elected to stay and watch Stephen work and, when the time came, to assist with imbuing the Runes of the second shield with Energy. It took Stephen way less time to engrave the runes than Ryan had feared, but by the time the two were finally done the sun had set and they could hear the Fortress getting ready for dinner.
Ryan was longingly looking forward to it but had another step to take before being allowed to partake. Naturally, Katrina wouldn’t let him despoil dinner with his sweaty and sooty presence, so he and Stephen would need to take a dip in the pool. The previously festering pit of scum and algae had thankfully been modified by Mike and John to allow for regular drainage on Katrina’s insistence, who wasn’t happy that they were using the water for her precious garden to wash of blood, grime, sweat and various unmentionables. The two had also bypassed the electrical geyser so the showers were once again back in operation, although they were only cold water for now until they could build a proper warm water donkey.
Soaking in the pool, Ryan considered his plans for modifying ‘his’ compound bow tomorrow, which was the last opportunity he would have before the combat group would head to town to obtain more goodies and tackle the situation with the two gangs they had observed. The latter plan of action was the result of the decision that was near unanimously taken by the group after Ryan and Miguel had reported on the abominable situation of the ‘slaves’ in town. It made sense to liberate the people and simultaneously remove a potential future threat. The council had not stated the latter explicitly when they called for a vote, but rather focused on the moral outrage of keeping slaves and Ryan agreed with the approach. Many would have balked at the necessity of removing the threats if the actions of their targets hadn’t been so morally reprehensible.