Chapter: Path of the blacksmith

"That's about it!" Rugrat said in a happy voice as he patted Erik on the back. They'd been looking over a map that Rugrat had been updating and working to mark all of the positions of the different boar glitters that were around the town.

Even though they had been hunting for three days straight, they would only kill some forty boars a day, there were hundreds if not thousands in the surrounding area and they were moving closer to the town everyday.

Today it was Erik's turn to lead out a group to the forest, Rugrat was heading off to the smithy to learn more skills and help in building up arms for the town.

Erik could only shake his head and wave him off.

"Go and play with your metal, buy what you need from the auction house."

"Don't get lost I don't want to have to come and find you!" Rugrat said.

Erik flipped him the bird as Rugrat left the main town square, he followed the familiar path to the barracks and the attached smithy.

He saw guards training the town folk, they were shaky, but they were improving quickly, this was after all lessons that could help them defend their homes.

He walked up to the smithy where Taran was working on different crossbow mechanisms.

Rugrat waited until he had finished one before he cleared his throat.

Taran looked up with a frown on his face, his eyes caught Rugrat and his frown turned into a smile.

"Finally get free from hunting?" He asked.

"Erik told you?" Rugrat said.

"Yeah, let me know last night that you might be coming around to help em with the smithy," Taran said, stretching out his back. "So, what do you know about smithing?"

"I have a good grasp of the concepts but I just haven't got any of the basics."

Taran nodded and waved Rugrat over.

"In that case I'll start simple, we'll make one of those spear heads first," Taran took an ingot of metal from the side and placed it into the burning coals. "Do you know what the stages of refining a weapon are?"

"First, sourcing the materials, from the ores, where were they located, under what conditions did they appear. Then refining the materials, combining them and tempering them with other items to increase their power, strength, durability or innate abilities. Then there is the forming of the items, taking the refined materials and using different techniques to turn them into a finished and final product. This is broken down into shaping and tempering. Then if it is possible, the final stage is actually placing an array or formation on the weapon to give it further enchantments or abilities," Rugrat said.

Taran grunted in agreement.

"This iron ingot here isn't anything special, but we're not making anything advanced and to be honest, what we need to focus on is heating up the iron so that we can forge it into what we want. Taran turned from heating the ore, then brought it out, using his tools and hammer to shape the metal, putting it back into the flames to keep it red hot and then worked the steel again.

Rugrat watched as Taran formed the iron under his hammer. First he flattened out the ingot into a long strip, then he started folding the iron over at one side, using a metal rod he formed the socket of the spear, heating and hammering as needed.

Once that was finished he moved to the actual spear head, shaping it out and then hammering the edges.

He let the spearhead cool and the red glow disappear before he tempered the spearhead, quenching it and pulling out the finished product.

Then he let it rest on some coals for its final tempering.

Rugrat watched Taran and thought on the information he had gained through the different books and scrolls he'd looted from the warrior's body and the bodies of the Wilfull sect disciples.

Taran wiped some sweat off of his forehead as he looked at Rugrat.

"You think you've got the handle of it?"

"I've got some of it down," Rugrat said.

"Well, with smithing one doesn't learn just through reading and watching, have a try," Taran said.

Rugrat nodded, he selected an ingot and started to warm it.

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Taran started to heat up his own iron as he needed to work on more crossbow mechanisms.

Rugrat heated up the iron and pulled out a hammer he had looted from a Willful sect disciple.

He moved to one of the anvils and started hammering, with his strength he was able to shape the metal faster than Taran.

He put it back in the furnace to keep it cherry red, he focused on the metal and the rhythmic hammering as he and Taran worked.

He flattened out the iron and then started on the socket, he made it too thin and it failed.

Rugrat put the iron into the furnace, to melt it down. He pulled out another iron ingot and started again.

Rugrat failed three more times before he was able to complete his first spearhead.

He studied it and put it to the side, then he grabbed his first ingot and hammered it into the first shape he wanted, he started again.

He finished his second spearhead and went to the third, he stood in front of the furnace for a few seconds.

He was reflecting on the failures that he'd had, the successes, then the final product. He pulled up his notepad that he had been writing on as he read through whatever manuals he had been able to read and his knowledge from Earth.

Rugrat pulled out the iron ingot and started on his next spearhead. He circulated the mana in his body, directing it through the open mana gate in his hand, his hammer glowed as his blow hit the iron, a bit of the mana being absorbed into the iron.

That's it, that's the feeling I'm looking for!

Rugrat finished the spear and picked up the next iron ingot in a rush, his blows were powerful and sure, his eyes didn't move from the metal as he hammered on it, red and blue sparks flew from his hammer as he worked, making Taran look over in shock.

Rugrat finished the spearhead in record time but he frowned, tempering it and putting it to the side as he worked on the next and the next.

Rugrat felt that he was just out of tune with the metal, as if there was a barrier between them.

Unconsciously he pushed more mana into the metal, he was using simple organic scan without knowing it after healing for so long.

As he worked, his mind worked through what he knew, it created an outline in his mind.

Rugrat moved to his seventh spearhead, all else in the world had faded away as he had turned into a forging machine.

He placed the iron ingot into the furnace, not noticing how the spell around his hand, holding the tongs and the red hot metal had changed.

A look of understanding and shock filled his mind as information seemed to explode in his mind, he could see the form of the iron, its very makeup.

Rugrat perfectly tempered the iron, taking his time to understand this ability to see through the metal.

He placed it down on the anvil, his hammer blows rained down, the metal was singing as a wide smile appeared on his face, mana was stirred up in the air as it was forced through his body, through his tools and into the iron, he was actually changing the composition of the iron slightly with the infusion of mana.

A blue mist had appeared around the other spearheads, but now faint tracings of blue could be seen in the spearhead.

"Mana forger," Taran said, shaking from shock as he watched Rugrat's gleeful expression. He had forgotten where he was as he watched Rugrat work.

Rugrat lost the concept of time as he continued to refine the spearhead and temper it completely.

Finally he put it down as he felt drained, he closed his eyes, it was as if he had opened a doorway, connecting the information in his mind to what he was doing before him.

Already the spearhead in front of him was an inferior product as he was thinking of ways to improve the iron ingot with different materials, he reviewed what he had done wrong, what had gone right.

He didn't open his eyes for some time, when he did he found the smithy was silent as Taran was staring at him with shining eyes.

"Taran?" Rugrat asked, feeling something was off.

"A mana forger, I didn't think that I would live to see the day!" Taran said quietly.

"Mana forger?" Rugrat asked.

"One that uses not only physical means to shape their metal but also mana, able to call out deeper innate abilities in metals, in rare cases able to actually add formations, enchanting weapons," Taran said.

Rugrat hadn't heard of a mana forger before.

Taran seemed to be stuck deep in thought as Rugrat checked on his notifications. Then it was his turn to look shocked.

He had made it to level nineteen in smithing, it had to be known that he had only made it to level three before this.

Also he had learned the spell simple inorganic scan.

"You mustn't waste your talent, I can't teach you anything here, you must fight to reach the fourth realm, it is the land of war and smiths," Taran said, but even his tone it seemed he felt that such a task was incredibly hard.

"What else can I do?" Rugrat asked.

"You would need to find a mana forging teacher, or technique books to increase your depth of knowledge," Taran said.

Rugrat's mind moved to the auction terminal. He wanted to look if there was anything there, but he didn't want to waste their hard earned gold on something that might not even help them in the coming fight.

"What are the advantages of the mana forger?" Rugrat asked seriously.

"All I know is that they can create incredibly powerful items and even draw out greater strength from the items that they do make," Taran said a sour expression on his face as he felt his information was lacking.

Rugrat nodded, he was interested and excited but now wasn't the time to be wasting gold on smithing technique books. As long as he could create spearheads and assist Taran that would be enough.

Rugrat looked at some of the complete crossbow mechanisms, he walked over to them and put his hand on them.

"Simple inorganic scan," he muttered as he was able to see into the mechanism, understanding its shape form and function.

After a few minutes he stopped and looked up at Taran.

"Would you be able to make a crossbow mechanism I'd be interested in learning," he said, now that he had learned how to make spearheads he wanted to learn to make more.

The crossbow's mechanism was simple, but it was smaller, the stresses were greater and it had to be exact or the crossbow would fail.

Rugrat watched as Taran worked, as he asked questions, Taran was stunned and he actually adjusted how he was working. With Rugrat and Taran talking as Taran worked, his process and speed improved.