As Borin placed both of the pieces of the broken katana into the forge, he positioned them side by side, into the hottest parts of the coals.
"Forging, folded steel isn't like regular welding. All of the layers need to align perfectly; if even a hair's width is off, the blade's integrity is gone, ye cant just heat the hammer like some fool."
Kamish's eyes traced every movement, the way that Borin adjusted the pieces, even the angle they sat in the coals, the warm heat of the flames.
The steel began to glow.
Orange.
yellow.
Yellow white.
'There,' Borin thought, as he began to speak harshly.
"That's it, the color, where the flux activates, and the steel becomes soft,"
Even though it didn't melt, there was a clear difference between earlier and now; the blade was as soft as butter.
Borin pulled both pieces out simultaneously with the two sets of tongs that were in his hands, moving at a speed that didn't match his age.
In one fluid motion, he pressed the broken edges together, ontop of the anvil.
"Now comes the hard part."
Clang!
The sounds of metal clanging off each other could be heard.
Clang!
A strike bore down on the Blade.
At the same angle from before, Borin kept hammering at the softened blade.
If he struck it too hard, it would destroy the layers; if it was too soft, it wouldn't bond together. The rhythm also mattered.
[Progress: Understand the tempering process: 0/1]
But the blade still was not complete, as Kamish noted that the tempering must come later.
Borin continued to work with the metal, like a song, the rhythm of the metal hitting each other played out.
When the blade became too hard, he would soften it by re-heating it twice more to ensure the weld was compelte, each time he checked the color of the fire, each time, the yellow-white blazed.
Finally, he held the blade up to the light.
It was done.
The blade came to light.
But
It wasn't complete. It was time to temper it.
He moved to a long, rectangular, through-filled with oil
Boring began the act where all amateurs ruined everything, Quenching.
Borin demonstrated with a practice piece first, showing how he lowered just the edge into the oil.
He waited for the exact moment.
Then he submerged it even more.
[Progress: Comprehend the quenching technique: 1/1]
It clicked inside Kamish's mind. He could see it now, the way the steel responded, the way the color changed, and the slight warping that happened.
But now, it was time for the real blade.
Borin heated the katana one final time, watching the color shift across its length. When it reached that color, yellow-white, He started the quenching.
He slowly lowered the edge into the oil.
HISSSSSSS!
steam erupted out, like a campfire, cooking its meal, the oil bubbled violently, but Borin never wavered, his hands kept still, he held the blade at the same angle, steadily waiting.
He counted under his breath.
As he reached ten, he lowered it even Further then before.
The Blade began to harden. It spread to the blade. like flowing water.
It began to spread. As he submerged the katana, he further, then he pulled it out after exactly five more seconds.
The Blade steamed in the cool air of the forge.
It was time, Tempering.
He placed the blade in a smaller forge, one that kamish hadnt noticed before. This one burned at a much lower temperature than the other one.
"Quenching made it more brittle, but tempering reduces the hardness slightly, but it increases toughness for a blade, ye want it about 400 degrees for two hours."
Borin explained quickly. As he finished, he put the blade carefully on a rack inside.
[Progress: Identify the 22-fold steel pattern: 1/1] [Progress: Understand the tempering process: 1/1]
[QUEST COMPLETE: THE UNFINISHED MASTERWORK] [Reward: Skill - Basic Blacksmithing (Beginner) (F)]
....
"It's really been three months already?...."
I thought to myself, as I brought the hammer closer to the heated metal.
Clang!
The sound of hammering steel was heard throughout the forge. The flow was natural, like it became second nature, my hands moved without constant thought,
I began shaping the steel into my desired form, each strike slowly changing the shape.
three months,
It's been ninety days since i firsted steeped into borin;s forge, ninty, day, of pure hell, with many broken blades, and me getting yelled at for acidently apllying to much strength, destroying most of the steel I worked on.
It was a long ninety days of learning how to properly forge a blade. I had to apply the littlest amount of strength I could produce. And if i didnt....
Crack!
'umm, I did it again...'
The blade cracked under the pressure small shards of steel shot out towards Kamish.
Kamish reacted. He moved towards the side as the shards began to shoot out, like a cannon.
Thud.
The small shards of steel shot out, landing on the wall.
[DING!]
[Skill: Basic Blacksmithing (Beginner) → Basic Blacksmithing (Intermediate)]
[You have acquired new skills!]
Temperature Reading (Rank: E) Hammer Control (Rank: E) Metal Identification (Rank: F)
I wanted to smile, but if I did, it wouldn't end well for me.
"Oi, Dragon. What did yer just do!?"
Borin's voice cut through the forge like a blade. It cut through my own thoughts.
As I turned slowly, I thought of the expression that he always had whenever I would do this.
Was it anger? His red face, bluged, with bulging veins, his left eye that would twitch when ever i broke a Expensive piece of steel.
"I..."
"How many pieces have you broken this week?"
"Five? Six, please tell me...?"
My strength control was absolutely garbage, in my human form, as it restricted my strength to a level that is acceptable for the body to bear, but it didn't make my strength go away. It only lowered it.
"Yer need to learn how to control your strength, you brute."
Borin slapped my back in a playful gesture. This had been a normal occurrence, since i a dragon, and was in a human form, it made doing everything pretty new to me.
My past lives, experience, of being a human, didn't really do me any wonders. There was no muscle memory; everything I did, I had to re learn.
I knew the concepts and how to do it, but how can I know what I need to do, but not be able to do it?.
"Yer striking too hard on the left, do it right next time."
Borin's voice cut through my own thoughts, explaining the issue. that I constantly had.
I picked up the shattered fragments carefully, extremely carefully, and depostited in the scrap bin.
[Current Broken Steel Cost This Week: 180 Gold]
[Total Cost This Month: 520 Gold]
Five hundred and twenty gold.
Ektosh had stopped commenting after the first month. My disciple just watched from his corner as he occasionally helped Borin with chores around the forge, when he reached his limit.
Which was often.
"Again..."
Borin said as he handed me the expensive piece of steel that he just grabbed.
"This time, pretend yer holding an egg and if the steel breaks, the steel would too. understood?."
Understood.
An egg.
Right.
because that mental image has worked so well for the forty-seven other times.
I picked up the hammer. My irritation was Clear upon my face.
But I picked it up and continued. i postioned the heated steel on the anvil. as i postioned it.
huff....
I took a breath. I had to control it. the mistake. was not going to happen this time...
The hammering began.
Crack!
The strike laned to hard.
And the steel cracked.
"DRAGON!"
***
"So it's really been three months. It feels like I just came here a day ago."
i wispered to myself, as I moved back in fourth, intill i made it here.
The tavern was loud, honestly, too loud. It was filled with the desperate energy of people trying to forget about their problems through alcohol.
Besides me, Ektosh was on his second drink, his mismatched eyes scanning the room with wariness in his eyes as he began to speak.
"Master, we should leave by tomorrow."
He spoke quietly, making sure that Kamish was able to hear what he had to say.
"I know,"
i repsoned while pointing to them, they reeked of it, that potent, nauseating feeling.
"Before those guys wake up."
"Ektosh."
"I know."
Ektosh fell silent, but the worry in his eyes was evident.
Ugurivaf.
The word hung above us like a death sentence, like a guillotine being ready to be hung, and we were awaiting the blade.
Thirty Dragons....Maybe even more. were starting to gather. in one place. This was the first time in history since that time.
The issue was, they weren't fodder. Even I could sense their mana from here, which meant only one thing. They were, in fact, all Dragon Kings.
Was it finally time, the council deciding the full fate of humankind, the start of the era
The era of Dragon Slaying.