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Chapter 6

I stand up out of my desk chair and stretch my arms a bit before closing my eyes and taking hold of the gate to the Soul Forge, causing it to appear in the room directly in front of me. I reach forward and grasp the handle, twisting it and pulling on the ethereal door, opening it, and stepping inside.

I glance around the Soul forge, seeing nothing unusual I then walk quickly towards the forge in the corner, reaching it after a few seconds of speed walking. I inspected the forge again, looking for specific tools that I will need, checking them off my mental list as I went along. Five minutes later, I had found everything that I needed to make a good ring, along with some that I didn't even think of, like polish and a magic powered grindstone, for making the finished product look half decent.

I mentally reviewed the new information on blacksmithing carefully. I would need to do a lot of practice to actually learn what to do for myself, but I think I can make something good enough to enchant with what I got. The blacksmithing knowledge that I gained, didn't fit with the little I knew about it from my old world, but I never really took the time to learn to do blacksmithing. I doubt it would have helped much anyway as from the blacksmithing I had seen, it had incorporated a lot of power tools, of which I only had some magical counterparts.

Once I had reviewed the steps to make the ring a few times, I felt confident that I could start my first try. It wasn't as if I lacked time to make a passable ring after all, I could always melt the materials back down and try again.

I start to heat up the forge, setting one of the dials to the correct temperature, causing a flame to start to spread within it, slowly heating up the temperature inside the stone forge, casting a flickering yellow glow onto the surroundings and making a cheerful crackle as it did. I watched the forge heat up, while basking in the heat that it was giving off, the heat was currently nowhere near what it needed to be and it already felt at least one and a half times average room temperature is.

Over the next half an hour, it grew steadily hotter and hotter, making me start sweating at around the first fifteen minutes, until finally a light above the temperature dial blinked on, telling me that it was at the right temperature.

Ok, it's time to heat up the mythril until it's malleable… I take a set of tongs and carefully grip the bar of mythril that was lying in the table close by, and carefully swing it over to the forge, placing it partially inside the forge, into the depths of the roaring fire to soak the end in the heat.

I watch carefully, waiting for the metal to heat up enough to be split into something that I can use for a ring. Just less than five minutes later, when the mythril bar is glowing a nice deep orange, I reach over and take hold of the tongs. I carefully but quickly stretch out the tongs and grasp the mythril bar firmly and extract it from the furnace, placing it on the anvil in one, less than deft, movement.

I place the tongs down quickly releasing the mythril bar. Grabbing a chisel and a blacksmithing hammer, I step in front of the anvil hurriedly, watching the metal cool quickly, knowing that within less than forty seconds it would be too cold to work with.

That is the thing with working with most non-mortal materials, they were insanely hard to work with. An example of this is the speed at which the mythril is cooling, compared to the time it takes to heat up.

I place the chisel on the end of the mythril bar, holding it tightly with one hand, while my other raises the hammer into the air and send it crashing down onto the chisel, making a shallow indent into the metal. I repeatedly struck the metal for a few seconds before stopping because it was just about too cold to keep working with.

I had barely managed to get half an inch through the bar, during the first heat. This could be taken as a good or bad thing because realistically, if I was an average child my body’s age than it would be an incredible speed, but with all my new blacksmithing knowledge, I knew that I wasn't as fast as I could have been and I had hesitated and nearly messed up quite a lot during the process, along with the fact that I was basically superhuman for my physical age, that was pretty abysmal.

I take the tongs and grip the bar of mythril, placing it in the same place in the forge as before as quickly as possible so it wouldn't need to take as long to heat back up. Judging by the rate I was working at for the last time, it would take probably around two more heats to separate the small chunk for the ring, which could take anywhere from five to ten minutes.

Two minutes later the end of the metal was glowing strongly once again, so I took the tongs and maneuvered the bar to the anvil. I happily note that it was still quite clumsy but slightly better than the first time. I grasp the hammer and chisel and position them once again, bringing powerful strikes and bending the metal with every one of them.

After thirty seconds or so, I could tell that the metal was close to separating, so I took one mighty swing and… I missed it, sending the hammer clanging against the anvil. Immediately afterwards the metal reached the point that it was too cold to work with. “Damn it! I was so close!” I yelled out, tempted to hit the anvil again but resisted the temptation as I needed to put the bar back in the forge once again.

I quickly do so and I wait for it to get to temperature once again while sulking. I knew I was lucky that I hadn't hit my hand, but I was too angry at myself to feel very lucky, I had wasted an extra few minutes because of a missed swing.

Three minutes later, I finally split the small chunk of mythril off of the main bar. I carefully move the bigger chunk of the mythril bar away, towards the edge of the anvil. I then start to hammer the rectangular chunk, to try and draw it out into a more cylindrical or a rod type shape.

After a few heats, I managed to make a rod that was roughly six inches long and just less than an inch in diameter. ‘Now I have to split it into segments about half an inch, lengthwise.’ I think to myself, mentally reviewing the next step. I take the rod and push it about four inches into the forge, just enough so I can separate at least four sections from it when it is heated.

About a minute later, it was heated enough, so I took the tongs once again and placed the rod on the table. It would cool even faster now, so I had to be fast. I grabbed the hammer and chisel and made two deep indents that went over half way through the rod before it was too cold again and I had to reheat it up. After waiting for it to heat up for another minute, I brought the rod out again and made two more deep indents along the length of the rod.

Now onto one of the easy parts. I watched it cool down and then once it was cool enough I brought over a clamp onto the anvil and placed the rod inside, with only the top section above the first indent above the clamp. I smiled, this is the fun part! I grab the hammer again and lift it to the side, swinging at the rod in the clamp, causing the piece above the first indent to go flying off. I placed the hammer down and went to collect the piece of the rod, running over to where it went, I saw it quickly and picked it up, inspecting it.

It looked alright, I would need to smooth it of course but that was a given anyway so whatever.

I speed walk back to the clamp on the anvil and place the piece beside the clamp on the metal face. I repeated the process on the other three sections and I ended up with three thin half inch cylinders. I took the remaining piece of the rod along with all but one section and I put it beside the main mythril bar on the table, I then put the clamp back and grabbed the leftover section of rod with the tongs and put it into the forge to heat up.

I needed to flatten it out a bit, before adding a hole, so this step was pretty simple. I just took the section out of the forge and set it on the anvil then hammered it to be flat on both sides, just in time to be reheated again for the next step.

While the metal was heating up, I brought a new tool, namely a punch that I measured and found to be just a little too small, then I brought out another, which turned out to be too big. At the fourth punch, I had finally found one that was the right size and placed it on the left side of the anvil, opposite to where I would put the metal disk and directly beside the hammer.

As soon as I had placed down the punch, I checked the small coin sized disk and found that it was just about heated up so I went and grabbed the tongs, and brought it out quickly and carefully setting it above the pritchel hole that immediately shrank for the heated metal to be placed on the anvil face, with the pritchel hole now just hidden under the edge of the disk.

What was responsible for the pritchel hole shrinking was in fact the anvil itself. As a level one Magic Anvil, it had several abilities that make it a very useful addition to any forge. One of these abilities are that the pritchel hole, when a small metal object is placed above it that would fall into the hole normally, would change size to prevent it from falling in and making it very useful for small objects that needed to get punched, like a ring.

Wasting no time, I reached over and grabbed the punch and the hammer that were lying on the anvil, and positioned the punch precisely in the center of the coin shaped piece of metal. I brought the hammer down on the punch and started to make a deep indent into the piece of metal that went deeper with every stroke of my hammer. I spent the next three heats doing this same thing until finally, it was deep enough.

When I reheated the piece of metal again, I put it upside down this time. I needed to remove the slug of metal that was trapped between the anvil and the punch, so I started hammering the punch on the same point I had started, just on the other side. One more heat later, the slug popped out through the new hole I had made. I waited for it to cool for a minute before picking up the slug and putting it beside the Mythril bar to be rejoined after I made the ring.

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I then walked back to the new ring and picked it up and examined it, noticing that the hole was really straight and that the size was just a little too small for my ring finger, but that was a good thing as I had not yet grinded it down or added polish, not that I was planning to polish it, that was pretty unnecessary. It totally wasn't because I didn't have any polish.

I spent the next fifteen minutes grinding away at the ring, making the ring actually comfortable to wear, taking off the sharp edges and causing it to take on a nice silvery reflectivity and shine.

“Huh, that went well.” I said out loud after finishing the filing work. I carefully examined the ring that I had made, looking for any damages. I find nothing but I start to feel proud of my work, my first work as a blacksmith. I put it on and found that it fit quite well and was really comfortable. I decided that I should check what the system had to say about it, ‘Appraisal’ I thought to myself while staring at the ring in my hand. The blue box spirals into existence in front of me saying “Common Middle grade mythril ring”

“It tells me the rank now? Huh, is that because I made it? Or is it because the tools that came in the soul forge dont fit in the ranking system or something…” I wonder out loud after reading the appraisal screen.

The fact that the system shows the ranking of objects now is very important as it shows the progress of skill and classifies the object within seven main ranks: Low, common, uncommon, high, ultra high, legendary and mythical. These ranks are then separated into three subgrades: Low, Medium and high.

To put the rankings into perspective, low grade objects would be similar to an ancient rusty sword.

Common grade would be like a new mass produced machine tooled sword made of iron.

Uncommon grade would be like a brand new sword made of steel that was treated to be even stronger or damage resistant that could have a weak enchantment on it.

High grade would be like a sword made of extremely high quality tungsten or titanium that was treated to make it even more high quality or a well made enchanted uncommon grade sword.

Ultra high grade would be like a sword made of extremely high quality tungsten or titanium that was treated to make it even more high quality and enchanted or a powerfully enchanted high grade sword of non mortal materials.

Legendary grade would be like a well made sword made of non-mortal materials with a complicated, difficult or powerful enchantment.

Mythical grade would be like a sword made of high quality non-mortal materials that was processed to become even better than normal with a very powerful and very complicated enchantment.

Of course the ranks that would be granted to an item could vary depending occasionally but you get the general idea.

Anyways, I was honestly impressed by myself, a common middle rank on my first creation, that was akin to a ring made by a robot, was in my opinion pretty impressive. Admittedly having all the blacksmithing knowledge from another universe helped a ton, but I was still happy.

I looked up from the ring that I was examining still and specifically to the table, where the other unfinished rings were sitting, calling me to finish them. I sigh, even if my first try was pretty impressive and most likely able to hold a good enchantment, I should try and make some backups now. I rose to my feet and shoved the ring in my pocket, it was blacksmithing time.

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Half an hour later, I was sitting on the stool by the table in the Soul Forge, inspecting the “Common Low grade mythril ring” in my hand. I had made two Common Low rings, like the one in my hand, and another Common Middle ring. These would have to do for my first enchantment.

I put the ring away in my pocket and looked around for a good place to enchant a ring. I need someplace comfortable to sit on or collapse on, possibly. I don't see anywhere that would be a good place to enchant in the Soul Forge, obviously stone floors and walls won't work, they won't be a good thing to fall on if I have to, or sit on either. I think that safety wise, my room in the orphanage is best. On the other hand however, it would be really bad if someone walked in while I was enchanting.

I weigh my options carefully before deciding that my room was the best choice, safety takes priority… Nevermind, I don't want to think of what would happen if the ring that I am trying to enchant explodes in the orphanage. I will do it in the soul forge. I will also bring in the blankets and pillow that is on my bed in the orphanage to sit on.

Ok, lets go. My legs are getting tired from standing for so long.

I walk to the doorway and then open the door. Once I stepped inside and glanced around to make sure everything was how I had left it, they were exactly the same, I went up to the bed and tore off the blankets and pillow and tied it into a bundle before walking back inside the Soul Forge to get ready.

I set the bundle of blankets up in the center of the soul forge and unwrap it, to act as a cushion, and place the pillow in the center. I sit on the pillow with crossed legs, I need to arrange my thoughts and know my plan by heart… I forgot the plan on my desk.

I get up, annoyed at myself, and jog back into my room to get the plan. I look at my desk for the paper with my plan… it's not there… “Oh, shoot. I had better not have lost it…” I whisper to myself panicked before looking around the room for it.

I spent the next five minutes searching my room for it but I didn't find it, trying to remember where I put it the entire time until finally I remembered, “Oh, I put it inside my desk didn't I?” I walk to my desk and open my drawer, finding it sitting innocently on top of the other papers. “You have got to be kidding me… What a waste of time…” I grumble to myself, grabbing the page and jogging back to my cushioning in the Soul Forge.

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Ten minutes later, I had learned the entire page by heart. It was pretty easy to remember it word for word, because of the Perfect Recall ability probably, but I still took the time to thoroughly understand it and the intent behind it perfectly on command.

I placed the page with my writing down beside me and took out a ring from my pocket, the first “Common Middle grade mythril ring” I had made. Because of its slightly higher ranking, thinking that it might have a higher chance to be able to handle the enchantment better.

I started sweating, this next step was very mentally and physically taxing and if anything went wrong… Well I didn't want to think about it. I think that I will be fine, but still just knowing the possibilities would make anyone nervous. Doubly so for their first time.

“Come on, Ardika, you can do this!” I say out loud, half comforting and half trying to hype me up. I then start to close my eyes to enchant the ring.

I focus inward, feeling my soul, the energy flowing out and throughout it… I concentrate my entire will onto holding my spirit energy that is flowing inside of my soul. I gasped out loud, it was painful, it felt like every part of my body was being pushed down and all of my muscles strained to keep holding on to the energy flowing inside me, causing microfractures all over.

While I was in pain, I never let my concentration slip on the energy pushing to escape. It was comforting to know that, while it hurts a lot, the pain was a good thing. You see, all the pressure of keeping the spirit energy inside causes the energy to leak into the body, strengthening it while causing the body to become a little more healthy while causing strain on all muscles all over the body that was more strain than a full three hours of intense exercise for every minute I hold the energy inside.

I hold the energy inside for agonizing minutes, feeling my soul stretch with the amount of pure spirit energy it is holding inside. It is almost time to start the next step… Ok, it's time…

I now channel the energy to flood inside the ring, filling it with my intent as I let it out as slow as I can.

“A ring that when put on, activates a spirit aura energy attraction system that affects an area of one foot cubed around the ring, for while it stays on the wearer, that only pulls the specific aura of the wearer into the ring, for temporary storage that can be drawn on by any other enchantments on the ring.” I begin to shakily chant the words in elvish in a deep throbbing base tone, imbuing the energy with the pure intent of my words.

I feel the energy flow out of my soul, out of every part of my body to surge inside the small ring in my hand. The ring starts to lift into the air, filled with flowing power, making strange glowing red shifting shapes float into the air and into the small shape of the mythril ring floating a foot from my straining body, being gently pushed and shoved in random directions by the red energy impacting it.

“When the first effect is activated, it activates the second enchantment, which causes a invisible and intangible spirit aura energy barrier (Density depending on energy available) to fill the space between one inch and 2 inches away from the skin of the wearer at all times and moves with the body, that keeps the specific spirit aura of the wearer inside said barrier, not letting any of it go through, while also pulling any spirit aura of the wearer, back into the inside of the barrier, not affecting any other type of energy in any way.” I continue, willing the energy to flow into the glowing red ring floating in front of me.

More red shapes that resemble runes impact the ring, throwing the ring three feet away before being pulled back by my will. The silver ring now had red lines throughout its body, coursing with power, with a halo of glowing red surrounding it.

I feel my energy quickly depleting and so I continue quickly. If I run out of energy before the enchantment is fixed, it will explode… Let's not let that happen…

“While the barrier is activated, a third enchantment is activated that makes the spirit aura flow around the inside of the barrier in a random pattern.” I chant quickly, my voice straining with the words, squeezing the last few drops of spirit energy out through my body.

The red runes flow out of my chest, glowing strongly, shooting straight at the glowing red ring. It impacts, this time causing no movement in the ring but causing the glowing red lines to condense, solidify and stop moving. The glow starts fading and getting absorbed into the ring, which is slowly turning back to its natural mythril silver color. It floats back into my hand slowly, the glow to fade while it does so. It lands in my hand, a dull silver ring with new dull red lines that are glowing extremely faintly in the light of the Soul Forge.

It is done.

My body relaxes, still very sore but recovering quickly, and I laugh out loud, cackling into the Soul Forge loudly. “I did it! Watch out world, Ardika Ekia is here, and he is here to stay!” I shout to the heavens in delight.