'He wasn't joking when he said I would work on the same thing until it's up to standard.' I thought, looking at the hunk of metal knife in my hand. Something I have been hammering for the last 13 hours It just doesn't want to take shape. How the hell?
"Sigh, this is annoying," I said, grunting in annoyance, putting the small blade back into the furnace to heat it again.
After waiting a few seconds, I pulled out the red hot knife before taking the small hammer on the anvil beside the furnace.
I placed the small knife on the flat top side of the anvil. I slammed down onto the knife with the hammer, making a small dent in the knife and stretching it out a bit again.
"Stan said this is enough to make a sword, but swords are mostly like 70 centimeters. This thing isn't even 17 cm," I said, annoyed, slamming the knife again, this time with more power, something I regretted instantly as the point of the knife broke off.
…
….
…..
"That's the 26th time I did that," I said out loud, putting the broken pieces in the crucible again to start over from scratch.
"Starting over again?" The dwarf next to my furnace said, I was looking over his anvil.
"Yeah, hit it too hard again."
"You have too much strength to work with this sort of metal, why did he give it to you?" The dwarf said, not expecting an answer, and I wasn't planning to give any as he had asked it many times before.
'How can I be so bad at it?' I thought, putting the shitty metal in the furnace for a second before taking it out again and throwing the melted metal into the mold I had on the side of the furnace.
"Now I just need to wait a few more minutes for it to cool down," I said to myself. To remind me not to try and pick it up before it was ready, or else I would make the same mistake I did four other times. Hitting it too hard was one thing, but making it run out of the mold a few times was another thing, and I wouldn't say I liked that very much, a mistake I don't want to make again as it destroyed one pair of shoes already.
After it cools down, I chuck it in the water just for insurance so it won't run away from me in the furnace.
"Sigh, let's try this again."
[72 hours later]
"Is this really all you could do in 3 days" Stan said, looking at the 31 short swords on the table.
"Well, yes, I struggled to keep my strength back," I said, shrugging.
"Struggle to hold back?" The dwarf said, looking up at me confused.
"Yeah, my strength is almost 3000," I mentioned, not thinking it would be vital for him.
"How old are you?"
"15."
"Level?"
"I don't need to answer that, but I got an excellent class," I explained, narrowing my eyes at the dwarf.
"Right, it makes sense why you struggled so much." The dwarf muttered, nodding with closed eyes, not caring that much, it seems.
"So what now?" I asked, tilting my head at him.
"You go on. You will be working with a lot of metal when you work with Steve, and this will be one of them. So go on." The dwarf said, giving me another box full of metal ingots on his desk.
"Fuck well, at least I can experiment on everything." I cursed, looking at the box, a bit annoyed but excited.
"Hmm, though, I just said to try out the impure metals as well." The dwarf said, putting another box onto his desk, this time full of scrap metal.
"Okay, and how do I work with that?"
"Heat it, treat it, and fold it. It will be able to take more of a beating than the steel, but if it flakes, it's useless." The dwarf explained, making me nod in understanding.
"Fold it? Okay, so, like, I made my weapons." I muttered thoughtfully.
"Folding metal to make blades only works when you work with impure metals. Remember that, okay? Don't use this for pure metals, as it will become weaker." The dwarf explained, looking me in the eyes and making sure I was concentrating on what he was telling me.
"Huh, I see, so pure metals don't need to get folded, but impure ones do?" I said it again, nodding.
"Yes, it makes it stronger on its own. When you fold pure metals, they get stretched out, so they get weaker, but if you heat treat them, they get denser." Dwarf said with a small warning in his voice.
"So when I fold impure metal, they will actually be combined with each other because they are impure."
"Yes, just like that." The dwarf said, snapping his fingers before shooing me away from his desk.
"Alright, then, I am getting back to work," I said, putting the two boxes in my inventory.
"Good, come to me when you have made 50 impure weapons and 50 pure ones. Of course, these 30 don't count." The dwarf goes back to his paperwork.
"All alright, will do."
"Close the door when you leave," Stan said, pushing the weapons I made on the floor as they were apparently in his way.
[Steve Pov]
Knock knock
"Come in."
"Brother, I have brought you something interesting," Stan said, opening the door to my office and holding a box.
"What is it?" I asked, looking up from my paperwork to see Stan holding short swords. One thing that confused me was that none of them had a handle on them.
"Why did you bring this unfished product to me?" I asked, looking at the pieces of short swords he put on my table.
"Well, these unfinished products are made by your 'disciple'," Stan said sarcastically, calling her my disciple.
"You gave her steel to work with first?" I said, surprised at how dumb he was.
"Yeah, it was the best one to start learning at," Stan said, shrugging.
"Yeah, if you have little strength, but not for her," I said, slamming my desk, annoyed at him.
"Yeah, I realized that I made a mistake, but look, it took her 4 days to make 30 of these. She learns really quickly." Stan explained, making me take a second look at the swords.
"Well, she is Stacy's daughter," I approved. They were amazing, but they were worth above-average prices.
"Adopted."
"It doesn't matter. Those two are from the same bloodline, and I am sure they know that."
"I don't know. Anyway, I let her start on impure metals now." Stan explained, making me nod in agreement. She needs to understand what the difference in strengths really is between the folding method and just heat-treating metal.
"After that, let her go straight to Adamite. She doesn't have a lot of time."
"That doesn't make sense, so even though she doesn't have a lot of time, she still needs to learn the basics."
"She will get them done in one day."
"What?"
"All 100 weapons will be done in 24 hours."
"when she took 4 days to make 30."
"She knows now how to control her strength better. She will do it in one day."
"Tsk, whatever," Stan said, clicking his tongue and storming out of my office.
"There is a reason why I am the Smith King brother," I muttered, looking at the intermediate short swords. It's very impressive for a newbie blacksmith and someone who doesn't even have a class for it.
[Kitsu Pov]
"Right, impure metal is weaker than pure metal," I said, seeing the katana split in two. I was confused by that, though. I have been making my weapons like this all this time, including my guns.
"Didn't I fold it enough? Or did I fold it wrong?" I muttered, inspecting the metal closely.
"You folded it wrong. It was uneven. Some places had six folds while others only had one or two." The dwarf on the other furnace explained
"Huh, you serious, I messed up that badly?" I said, laughing awkwardly.
"Yes." The dwarf said this, looking straight at me.
"Haha, alright, let's start over," I said, invigorating myself to continue.
"You can't just melt it and start over, Fox." The dwarf said, glaring at me.
"Then how do I reuse this?" I asked, looking at him for an answer.
"Sigh, give it here. Let me show you. Remember, I am only going to show you once." Sighing, the dwarf took the broken pieces.
"Okay, thank you. Sorry, but I haven't even asked your name. My name is Kitsuna." I said, holding my hand out to shake his.
"I will keep on calling you Fox. My name is Giga." Giga said, not even looking at my hand.
"That's fine with me," I said, shrugging, not caring too much what the guy was calling me.