章節 103: The Forge
"You sure you're okay?" Ruby asked, gently holding his left arm like it was going to shatter at any moment.
"Yes, I'm fine, it's already getting better" he chuckled; now, you want to help professor make the blade? I won't be able to help until this is more stable" he asked, still feeling pins and needles running across his entire arm as the bone fragments continued to fuse together.
Ruby seemed to break from her worry as she released Arthur's arm, her eyes sparkling as she remembered her main reason for coming to the forge today, "Weapon! Right!" she quickly sped off next to Professor Mulberry who was busy creating a blueprint from Arthur's sketches, regularly chewing on the end of his charcoal piece every now and then, uncaring for the taste of it.
"It's a decent weapon, versatile, and powerful enough, and with this stuff it's going to be a masterpiece" Harold chuckled as he patted the four large chunks of Omukadite on the desk, "What say you Ruby? As good as Crescent there?" he grinned.
"What!? No! Never! Nothing is better than my sweetheart!" Ruby began to coddle and caress her scythe like it was a baby, even gentler than she had Arthur's arm, "But this is very cool, I mean just look at it! Add some spikes along the blade and it would be a saw! Saw spear! Ohhhhh I want oneeee!" she began to fantasize about the idea of a saw spear, not noticing the odd smile Arthur had thinking if only she knew.
"Aight, Arthur, let's get a few things out of the way, what do you want made from this?" he said patting the ore chunks once again, "The blades and the gears right?"
"For the most part I just want everything that could break from the dust to be made from those, I don't want to use it once and have to be picking out chunks of shattered metal out of the gears every time I want to transform it" he explained.
"Right, simple enough" Harold muttered and began to rummage around under his desk looking through various moulds, every now and then pulling one out and comparing it to his blueprint, before passing it to Ruby who began to calculate how many of what they would need to make it.
"I've already got about ten of those rods over there, no dust in em though, we'll start with something less volatile…" he muttered to Ruby, once he got all the moulds and dyes out, "Like gunpowder, and then diluted blast dust and so on"
"Right, also, Arthur, I'm only helping with making the part, you're gonna figure the jigsaw out on your own, no good huntsman doesn't know the ins and outs of their own weapon" he explained to Arthur, as he picked up three of the Omukadite chunks whilst Ruby grabbed the last one.
"Don't worry, I'll help you, though, he is right" she happily giggle, "Now come, we've got a weapon to make!" her voice turning somewhat into that of an insane person seeing something they wanted
"Yes, coming dear" He chuckled, following behind her towards the bright orange at this point more of a blast furnace, forge that had been specially designed for just using this metal.
"You sure its not to much of a problem having this thing?" Arthur asked, staring at the massive forge which was causing his sweat to evaporate the moment it left him.
"Yeah, it's fine, this things a massive improvement over that last hunk of junk, got a few dozen high power furnace dust crystals a bunch of charcoal, accelerants, that big bastard of a bellow" he nodded to the large glass case filled with a large shining green dust crystal, "And! I can control the heat near perfectly!" Harold began to shout, the sound of the air passing through the raging flames sounding like the roar of a hundred lions.
"It's a beauty!" he shouted one of his hands diving into the flames grabbing a large piece of glowing orange charcoal, completely ignoring the fact it was causing his hand to smoke, "That should be hot enough" he muttered throwing the charcoal back into the forge where it promptly disintegrated from the heat.
Soon throwing the three chunks of ore directly into the charcoal whilst also grabbing a large shovel which he used to throw the charcoals over the ores to even out the heat distribution, "Just throw that one into the crucible there Ruby, you know how!"
Ruby quickly ran to the other much smaller 'forge' next to the main one which also looked to be much hotter, inside the smaller forge were a bunch of fire dust crystal which sent spouts of flames over the edge of the rectangular crucible that sat in the centre of it, a small spout on one end whilst within the crucible a white liquid was resting, that being the already melted Omukadite that professor Mulberry had over after making the gauntlet, surprisingly not glowing hot like everything around it.
Throughout this Arthur was squinting covering his eyes as he tried to watch what they were doing, but only finding himself blinded if he even hoped to open them, "Here!" Ruby shouted to him, standing on her tiptoes she placed a pair of steampunk looking welding goggles over his eyes which immediately darkened everything around him including the blinding orange light of the forge, bringing it down to a slightly less blinding orange light.
"Thanks" he replied, chuckling when he saw Ruby tapping on her lips, "Yes, thank you" he said once again leaning down and giving her a slight peck on the lips, before pulling away, "Keep an eye on the metal, you've got to remove the slag" he laughed and walked over to the crucible, inwardly commenting that even Ruby with ridiculous goggles on was still cute
"There's actually not a lot of impurities in the metal, just some parts don't melt as well, but you just poke those down into it and their gone" Ruby explained picking up a long metal spike with a pair of blacksmithing tongs and pushing the half molten chunk of ore into the already molten parts.
"Which mould you want first?" he asked her
"Large gear, we need two of them then we can mould the smaller gears with what's left, this should be enough for everything" she muttered, intently stirring the molten metal with the spike waiting until there wasn't any more of the ore left unmolten.
Once it was done Harold came over to keep watch over Ruby as she picked up the tungsten holder for the crucible and lifted it out of the forge, quickly bringing it over to the well-used gear mould and poured it in until it was just full enough before moving onto the next equally sized mould and filled that up as well before returning the crucible to the forge as the metal had already begun to cool.
"Good, don't need to keep watch here, well done Ruby, ever the smith, not even splashing, good going" he laughed, watching as the white molten metal quickly began to solidify, "Fun thing bought your metal Arthur, it doesn't retain heat that well, so it's a right bastard to forge into a proper shape" he grumbled.
"Don't get me wrong, I love working for hours on end, but this stuff is a nightmare if you just want to get something done quickly" he complained, "Well anyways, this is your first time in an actual smithy yeah?" he asked.
"Yeah, I've watched videos on blacksmithing but I've never actually done it, though I do want to actually do it at some point, it looks like a lot of fun" he replied.
"That it is that it is! Come let me show you the basics of hammering, trust me, seeing it in person is so much better than videos, you actually get to see and touch whatevers being made, I'll even let you try the power hammer, just, do keep your hand out of it, I am not dealing with lil Peridot nagging me about another kid with a shattered metamawhatsamajigit… and, I've had enough pay cuts this year…" He added in a whisper not low enough that Arthur couldn't hear.
'We started like two months ago! How many students have been maimed in here!?' he internally screamed, suddenly noticing a dark splotch directly next to the power hammer sending shivers down his spine.
Following behind Harold Arthur came to stop in front of an anvil about the size of Arthurs upper body, "Right, this is an anvil, I'm sure your smart enough to already know the rest, but incase you're not, this is a cross-peen hammer and this is a Mistralian hammer and this is a sledge, for now, we're using the sledge to form the ore into ingots, move to the cross peen once we've got it into an ingot then the Mistralian hammer for making the blade, got it? Okay? Good!" He explained, grabbing his tongs before Arthur could even say yes as he quickly pulled out one of the chunks of ore, quickly placing it on the anvil, before pulling out his sledge, raising it above his head and bringing it down on the chunk denting it slightly.
Seeing this Harold couldn't help but let out a wide smile, as he raised it again, bringing it down with another metallic 'Clang!' filling the smithy, after five such hits the metal cooled enough that it had become to hard to forge, so he returned it to the flames and pulled out the next, repeating the process on it as well as the third.
Soon returning to the first which he continued to mould into a rectangular ingot, getting enraptured in his own world where only he, his hammer, anvil and the metal in front of him existed, each strike sending sparks throughout the forge as metal hit metal, slowly denting and deforming with each strike, becoming longer and thinner with each strike.
Ruby having long since wandered next to Arthur watching the enrapturing sight of Harold causing her heart to flutter in excitement at the mere thought of being in his place moulding the metal that would later become a new weapon.
Soon Harold came to a finish with the forging of the three now rectangular blocks which now remained within the fire only a small, flatter piece of the metal remaining out of it for his tongs to pick up.
Harold begun to spin his right arm, stretching the muscles in it after nearly thirty minutes of constant hammering, "That's what I call a metal! Gyahahaha!" he began to laugh grabbing his tongs once again, pulling out a single block, placing it atop his anvil, now swapping to his cross peen hammer, beginning to flatten the block down into a long thin bar, getting it about 1cm thick and 5 cm in width.
"Ruby! Fuller!" He shouted, quickly getting Ruby into action as she grabbed a large, thick chisel like tool with one flat edge and a handle in the centre of it, Ruby placing the edge of the fuller ofce the centre of the bar, Harold bringing the hammer down on the back of it with enough force to go through about 3/4 of the bar before he turned it over and began to fold it over onto itself to create a two layer billet of the metal.
He repeated this process another eleven times for a total of 4096 layers, repeating this with the other two ingots as well, "Huh, I didn't think he'd go for Damascus, will this even work with it?" Arthur muttered as he and Ruby began to watch him shape the billets into the thick blades that would make up the parts of the spear.
"I have no idea… don't see much point to it, it already gets that cool veiny effect after cooling, maybe it'll do something to that?" she thought aloud, "Or, he just really likes making it" she said, staring at professor Mulberry's mile wide smile, "Yeah… he's having fun"
Harold continued to shape the metal for nearly two hours straight, sweet pouring down his entire body, the first of the two blades having been formed, a particularly thick blade at that, getting much sharper the closer to edge whilst the spine of the blade curved slightly inwards to allow space for the two dust launchers as well as the barrel for the rifle.
Lifting the blade up to eye height turning it around as he inspected every part of it to ensure it was how he wanted, "Hope this grinds well" he mumbled to himself placing the single blade off to the side to let it continue cooling as he returned to shaping the other ingots.
"What does he need the third bar for? There's only two blades needed for it" Arthur asked Ruby.
"No idea, maybe he wants to make something else?" she also began to ponder the need for the third bar.
Yet, they would later come to know, he was making himself a new hammer using the third bar, "A smith is only as good as his hammer, that, and this metal is denting all of my current ones, so hopefully this'll fix that problem" he told them.
"Right, here's the two halfs" Harold said, lifting the two 'finished blades over his shoulders and laying them onto his desk, putting them side by side on top of the to-scale blueprint in the place of the outline of the blades.
"Looks about right, what do you two say?" he asked, getting quick affirmations from both, "Good, cause now we go onto the fun part, grinding, give me twenty minutes, I need to grab some sturdier belts and some higher grits, I have no doubt these beautiful bastards are going to wreck at least a few dozen" he muttered and walked away towards the storage area, soon returning with a large box of high grit sanding belts, one of which he quickly threw onto his belt sander, replacing his older, lower grit one.
"Right, Arthur, let's teach you a bit about grinding" he said, dragging Arthur over whilst Ruby giggled following him, "First, never touch the belt when it's on, the flesh and blood messes with the quality of the work and ruins the belt" he deadpanned, "I've lost too many paydays to idiots thinking 'oh, it's not going to hurt', so just don't touch it, the dust belts are expensive"
Arthur began to awkwardly chuckle at the professors seeming lack of care for health and more for his equipment and pay, "Second, don't hold the blade like a vice, you're just asking to lose a toe, face, knee and your manly parts, hold it gently, and never force it onto the belt, you are merely the guide that holds it in place, not a baboon that learnt a rock can break open nuts, most of which you will lose, if you ignore me" he once again deadpanned, Ruby giggling the entire time.
"Third, make sure the belt still has grit, it's better to swap them before they wear down, fourth, go with the grain, keep the blade pointed down, less likely to impale your heart that way and I've found it makes sharpening much easier"
"Fifth, if the belt starts shaking, you start running because that's coming off whether you like it or not, if you're fast enough you can turn it off. Sixth, always check the belt if it's one you've used before, make sure to check for any possible damages, last thing I need is another pay cut cause you get your face slapped off by a rapidly spinning belt grinder that snapped in half due to negligence on your part" he went silent, "You get that? Good, now let's see if this bastard grinds" once again not giving Arthur a chance to reply before he put a respirator on and pulled to thick gloves on before turning the grinder on.
Picking up the first half of the blade he inspected each side of it searching for any uneven spots on either side searching for which ones he should deal with first, once he had done this he lifted the arm length blade with both hands, one near the tip of the blade whilst the other was close to where the handle would go to provide stability for it.
As he brought the side of the blade against the grinder, hundreds upon hundreds of orange sparks began to burst front the bottom of the sander, which slowly began to grind down the incredibly tough, untreated metal, the process taking another hour per side of the blade, bringing it into an incredibly fine point before he shut the large grinder off and moved to a thinner one with a smaller belt on it which he used to smoothen out and fix the spine of the blade taking another fourty minutes before he was happy with it.
Shutting off the grinder professor Mulberry took a step back, his goggles coming off as he held the blade steady in front of his eye, looking down the entire thing for any warps or unsharpened points along it, a smile beginning to form on his face when he saw none of such things.
"Grinds like a beauty as well! Oh, I am in love!" he laughed once again laying the blade atop his shoulder while turning to Ruby and Arthur, chuckling when he saw Ruby's head had begun to slump as she was getting tired after nearly an entire two days of restlessness due to her excitement to work on a new weapon with a new material.
"Well! Would ya look at that, it's already ten!" Harold noted looking to the clock above the entrance to his personal workshop, "Seems lil Ruby there needs some rest now, so how about I just show you the heat treating and etching then you can call it a day?" he asked
"Actually can you do that? I'm getting sort of tired myself now, and if we're lucky there should still be something left in the dining hall by now" Arthur yawned himself getting a chuckle from Harold.
"No problem kid, I'll have these two done by tomorrow, oh, by the way, the rifle is coming in tomorrow so you should be able to start assembly by tomorrow evening, I'll get everything ready for you, just got to get the bolts and screws moulded then everything should be ready, I'll see you tomorrow then" He said, grabbing the other blade and quickly returned to grinding.
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"Well hello there handsome, aren't you awfully… sooty" Yang tried her best to sound alluring as she trailed her finger over Arthur's chest after he laid Ruby down in her bed, failing miserably as Arthur snorted at her attempt.
"Really? Sooty? That's the best you could come up with?" he chuckled, his gaze wandering over Weiss who was sitting on her bed under Ruby's precariously hanging bed reading some form of book. Whilst Blake was blushing every time she looked to him, her bow still twitching, missing the sensation of him gently caressing the ears underneath, 'I really need to speak with Blake sometime, she's been avoiding me' he sighed to himself.
"Yeah… not my finest" Yang sighed, "But hey, least I can do this now" she said, tossing her arms around Arthur, whilst one of her legs hooked behind his as she forced her chest onto him, "We can do so much more if you just say, yes" she whispered into his ear, whilst also nibbling on it slight, Arthur gulping as his heart beat slightly faster.
Weiss quickly brought her book over her face in an attempt to hide her own blush and break line of sight with Yang, and Blake, who seemed unable to even hide her envy as she struggled to even pull her eyes away from her partner's awfully intimate act and words, which only she and Arthur heard.
Arthur closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, getting himself into his usual Yang/Coco response mode, a grin forming on his lips as he thre one hand behind her, gently trailing a circle on her lower back just above her butt, Yang twitching in response, her face flushing a bright, almost Ruby red.
Turning even redder when she felt Arthur trail his lips down her neck leaving a small mark on her collar bone, her arms soon falling away and instead loosly grabbing onto his one hand which was trailing up her belly, "How about…" Arthur slowly shispered to her, making sure to anunciate every word he could whilst leaving his last word up in the air for a few seconds, his palm soon falling flat on her belly.
"Later!" he said pushing her backwards causing her to stumble and fall onto Blake's bed, her lower lip trembling, her legs unable to hold herself up anymore, as she watched Arthur quickly bolt from the room.
Blake gulping at the sight of the dark red hicky on her neck, feeling slightly envious at the thought. Soon realization dawned up Yang as to what happened, the pink hue that filled her mind soon disappearing as her eyes turned crimson as she screamed.
"Goddamnit! Arthur! Not again!" she cried, awakening Ruby with a start as she mumble "Hwa! What happened!?" whilst wiping drool from her cheek, and Blake who was now foaming slightly at the mouth from being near Yang when she screamed like that.
"Why am I so bad with that! Goddamnit!" she grumbled to herself, her heart still beating rapidly whilst her hand trailed over the mark left on her neck, still sensitive, "One day Arthur, one day, I will have my revenge" she vowed to herself.
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Alternate Chapter names: [AWE] [Yang's vow] [Yang response mode: Engaged] [Grinding, just someone else is doing it for you, you lazy bastard] [One beautiful bastard of a metal]
So I want to start increasing my word totals for the chapters, normally I get around 1950 words a chapter and I want to get to around 2700/3500 per chapter, so hopefully you can expect longer chapters from now on.
Also gonna add a word count meter at the end of each chapter from now on.
Words total: 3650
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