Once the large block of steel was properly heated in the forge, Thomas removed it with a pair of tongs and set it on the anvil. At the moment the steel was a large rectangular shape about a meter or so long. For the sword he was envisioning, it needed to be longer and thinner. He started hammering the block of steel to lengthen it and thin it at the same time. Over the course of several heats, the block of steel became nearly two meters long, twenty centimeters wide and six centimeters thick. He looked over the dimensions of the soon-to-be-sword and smiled to himself. It had a significant length to it that made it almost look too thin but he didn't mind it.

Once the steel was heated again he began working on the edges of the sword. This would widen the sword further and make it look not-so-skinny as the metal was spread wider. He hammered the edges of the steel block and slowly angled them into a sword edge. Oddly, he chose not to taper the sword to have a tip at the top, instead choosing to leave it flat. The only role this sword would have would be slashing attacks. Well, more like bashing attacks since it wasn't going to have a razor-sharp edge. While greatswords were called swords, in reality, they acted more like hammers and were used to crush things more than cut them. This sword was just taking that and running with it.

Over time, as the edges were shaped, the sword doubled in width from twenty centimeters to forty centimeters. This change made the weapon look significantly beefier. He also took the time to hammer the tang of the weapon out. As it was a particularly long and heavy sword, Thomas made the tang seventy-five centimeters long and rather thick so that it wouldn't be likely to break under stress. He could have made the tang shorter and just relied on his Power attribute to easily lift the mass of steel but he chose to go slightly more practical so it would be easier to wield.

With the edges and tang formed on the sword the hammer work was done. The next step was to grind the steel and true up the edges, top, tang, and everything else to bring the sword closer to being completed. This step proved to be a bit annoying for him. Though lifting the sword was easy, handling it at odd angles with the grinding wheel to grind each surface was a bit of a pain in the ass. The sword was massive while the grinding wheel was almost miniature in comparison. It was long annoying work that took him several hours to complete. Once he was done though, the sword looked magnificent and dangerous with the ethereal flames dancing along its shining surface.

The ethereal flames emitted by the ingots had never disappeared, though they had been almost impossible to see when the steel was glowing orange from the heat in the forge. They only truly reappeared during the process of grinding. Now, with the shining metal revealed, the ethereal flames took on a brighter look and coated the blade from the flat top to the tip of the tang. The aggressive-looking shape of the sword combined with the ethereal flames covering it gave the weapon a rather domineering look. He couldn't wait to finish it and smack some trolls around!

With the grinding phase completed he stuck the sword back into the flames of the forge and left it there for a moment. The sword was far too big to fit completely inside of the barrel of quenching oil. He grabbed some wood from some empty crates and started to use his Transmutation to reshape and bind the wood together to make a long trough that was deep enough for the whole sword to fit inside of. Thanks to his ability it didn't take much time or effort to make a watertight trough that he could quench the sword in. Once it was built he dumped two barrels of quenching oil into it to fill the whole thing. The quench was going to get messy. To make sure there would be no accidents he moved the quenching trough into the middle of the room so that there was no risk of flaming oil splashing on anything and starting a fire.

With the quenching area ready, he moved to the forge and channeled his mana into the blower. He patiently waited for the sword to come up to temperature until the entire blade was brightly glowing orange. He'd specifically left the tang out of the flames so he could leave it somewhat soft and flexible while also giving himself something to grab to quench it. Just to be on the safe side he coated both of his hands in metal magic before grabbing the tang. The tang was hot to the touch but not hot enough to burn his hands. Swiftly he carried the massive sword over to the quenching trough and dunked the glowing metal into the oil.

The instant the glowing steel sank into the oil, the oil started hissing, spitting, and caught on fire. A couple of small flaming drops of oil popped out of the trough and landed on the ground where they burned out without causing any harm. Thomas watched the process closely and pulled the thick sword out of the burning oil to examine it. With how beefy the weapon was the chances of it warping were rather minimal and indeed there were no signs of warping at all. The smoking sword was carried over to the anvil and the tang was stuck into the hardy hole to allow the blade to finish cooling. Seeing the whole process a few of the guards clapped after enjoying a good show. Not one to let his fans down, Thomas turned and gave a somewhat regal bow to the guards.

While he left the sword stuck in the anvil to cool, Thomas made his way over to the supplies and started looking for a piece of wood that was long enough to act as the handle of his sword. He didn't really buy any wood so he had nothing worth using in his own supplies. He dug around until he found a nice large piece of wood that reminded him of mahogany. The total length of the wood was about two meters long so he cut it in half as that would be more than enough for his sword. With the wood in hand, he started using the woodworking tools in the workshop to carve the wood into a proper shape.

By the time he finished carving the majority of the handle the sword had ceased smoking and was cool to the touch. Even so, the metal, blackened by soot and oil, with the ethereal flames wrapping it looked even more menacing than when it was polished. Seeing that, Thomas really wished he had the proper chemicals to stain the steel black. As he looked it over he decided against cleaning and polishing the blade. It would look rough and dirty but he felt that just added to the domineering quality of the weapon.

With his decision made, he pulled the sword out of the hardy hole and lay it down on the anvil. He measured the width of the tang and created a drill bit with the same circumference out of metal magic. The remote drill bit started to spin and dig into the center of the wood for the handle. There were some hand drills on the wall but their bits were far too short to drill through the handle and he didn't want to make it out of several pieces. The drill bit chewed through the wood with ease and every now and then he would pull it back out to remove the bits of wood that built up inside of the hole. Once he drilled completely through the handle he dismissed the drill bit and smiled.

He checked to make sure that the tang of the sword fit with the hole he drilled. It was a little tight, which was perfect. After adding some glue and mushrooming the tip of the tang, the handle was properly secured to the sword. He didn't even bother with a crossguard. The sword was so wide that it rendered the need for one moot. The sword wasn't completed just yet as there was still one thing he needed to do, enchant it. He retrieved his enchanting supplies, including the purified mana crystals, and got to work.

Making the enchanting mixture was as simple and easy as always. He may have run out of mana crystals for a while but he always made sure to keep a good stock of the alchemist's oil. It was an inexpensive and commonly available thing so he had loads of it inside of his rings. Honestly, when it came down to it, he was more of a Blacksmith/Enchanter than a Magitech Engineer. For now, at least. Once everything was ready he took a breath and started to visualize what he wanted in his mind. The enchantment had to be fire-based for sure and it had to make up for the weak cutting edge of the sword.

As he leaned over to begin carving the enchantment into the flat of the sword he stopped. After thinking for a bit he set the tools down and dug inside of his inventory until he found one of the thin books on enchanting. He flipped it open and started going through the various runic formations within it. Though the way he'd been taught enchanting was more free form he decided to go with using the runic enchanting for the time being. He already had a habit of making his enchantments look like the lines on a circuit board and he wanted to distance his creations from himself while he was with the pirates. It didn't matter for now but in the future, when his style was more widely known, it could come back to haunt him if people found out he was forced to work for pirates.

For a man that didn't care who he worked for, it might seem odd to care now. He had a reason though. Snowlily. She was currently his only real weakness and he couldn't afford to let that weakness be well known or associated with the name Thomas Darkrose. Right now the pirates only knew him as 'Cain' so his identity was a secret. He was certain that in the future 'Cain' and 'Snowlily the white wolf' would vanish. Snowlily should be able to take on a human form, eventually, probably. Once that happened his weakness would vanish along with the past here. However, if his style was revealed then it might be possible for them to track him down and figure out Snowlily's identity and use her against him again. It was a small, almost insignificant, possibility but he had to minimize it as much as possible. Of course, he had something much more distinguishing, his guns, but those could be easily hidden and as much as he liked them they weren't necessary for him to fight.

To make sure that his real style wouldn't be associated with the name 'Cain' for a long while, he chose to use the runes from within the book. After browsing through it for a while he picked a pair with descriptions that went well with the image he had for the sword. After he copied them down on a sheet of paper and arranged them to match something he found aesthetically pleasing, he got back to work. He mimicked the runes as he began carving out their patterns on the flat of the sword. The first rune was a pretty obvious choice as it supposedly translated to mean fire. The second rune he chose a bit more carefully and it translated to mean blade. The image he had in mind was for the flames to wrap around the entire sword while focusing their intense heat into a thin blade at the edges of the sword. The sword would not be used to cut but the flames generated by the enchantment would!

Though he was specifically making this weapon to decimate the trolls on the third floor of the dungeon it had the added benefit of being suitable for crushing monsters on the fourth floor as well. A floor filled with treants and dryads. Who didn't know that fire was excellent against wood? The symbol for fire was the first one to be completed and looking at it made Thomas question the wisdom of the game's creators. The runes he was carving reminded him of the symbols used in languages such as Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. Though he was certain they weren't the exact symbols from one of those languages they seemed to share a similar design philosophy with them. Still, they were unique and he actually found it to be a bit of a challenge to copy them.

Time passed slowly as he engraved the symbols into the flat of the blade. He took his time and made sure that every strike of the hammer on the engraving tool left behind a deposit of the pure mana crystals. With the materials and effort he put into making this sword, he had no doubt that it would reach Uncommon rarity. He just hoped it didn't reach the next level of Rarity after that. With a final tap of the hammer, he connected the last section of the blade rune and completed his work. The massive sword let out a bright red light as the ethereal flames danced excitedly on the blade.

System Notice: You have created an Uncommon rarity Greatsword. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 664 Magitech Engineering experience. Weapon Type: Greatsword Rarity: Uncommon Quality: Excellent Description: This massive beast of a sword is made from Origin Steel infused with pure Fire magic, enhanced with Fahrentite Ore, and enchanted to produce even more fire. Clearly the creator of this sword wanted it to produce flames and produce them it does! When mana is channeled into this sword it produces flames that converge onto the edges of the sword and drastically increase its destructive burning might!

+150 Power (Attacks with the weapon only)

+50-500 Additional Power based on the amount of mana infused into the blade (Attacks with weapon only, fire-based damage)

+Additional Durability based on the amount of mana channeled into the Origin Steel