Finally reaching the blacksmiths shop to sign the soul contract, Cloud enters. The Staff lady pointed him to the back room, where the signing preparations should be done as Cloud was 2 minutes late for the appointment. He didn’t realize how much time he spent in the book store as well as how slowly he was walking while reading the skill descriptions, Since he is used to doing that when walking and looking at his smartphone, so he doesn’t bump into someone or something. As he enters through the door he feels a mysterious energy which resonated with his soul and another kind...

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POV Cloud.

As I enter, a cool and refreshing feeling bubbles up from my soul, which I never thought I could feel, I guess it’s similar to when you go to a faraway place where there are mountains with a lot of greenery,rich oxygen and away from any city, buildings or people. With a breath-taking beauty which captivates your mind and probably soul.

But that feeling sent alarm bells in my head. Such a feeling felt…, artificial, which sent cold sweat down my spine, when I realized the differents ,my souls reaction was the same. It felt cold,pressuring and dangerous, like at any given moment my whole being, mind and emotions will be squashed and erased from one small mistake.

Then I felt another energy resonate. Deeply entangled with me and my soul. Entangled or more like, naturally made things in nature, resembling something I am familiar with yet, don’t remember what it is. Deeply connected , yet forgotten. It feels like it’s protecting my soul, as if, It will die if my soul is gone, but risks being destroyed by doing that.Which made me angry! Angry at the what is threatening me and my close but forgotten energy which is risking everything to protect my soul, I am angry I can’t do anything in the meantime.Then ,my soul grew and I felt energy course through every part of my being. I can only guess that is how the system manifests and gives different abilities and what I am feeling is the manifested ability.

System engaging defence to the pressure.Pressure reduced by 70%.

Strength of soul is increasing due to pressure from the Aspect of souls and strong emotions negating the rest of the pressure. Unknown energy detected. Analyzing….. Unable to identify. System feels close relation to the energy. Attempting to merge….. Unknown energy resists. Attempt failed. Further analyzing done. Results; System and Unknown energy are incompatible.

So it’s not the system?It’s unknown by the system and something I know but have forgotten...I don’t think I will be able to solve the puzzle until I can see what else it can do except attempt to protect my soul.I realize I have been frozen in place and covered in cold sweat, because of all the different things I just experienced at the almost same instant and reading the messages the system gave.I enter like nothing happened at all even if it is obvious to the Dwarf something did happen, because of his raised eyebrow was a dead giveaway. Looking around I see a round light, blue blob floating atop of an intricate round engraving made on the light but dense wood I assume from the texture I see on the surface.

It is exactly that blob I feel the pressure from, still feeling angry, I say nothing. Next to it floated an ever changing string of numbers and letters I have seen written by Jo when he was writing the letter. I assume that is the system or what creates the systems. Seeing that everything is apparently done , I turn to look at the Dwarf.

‘’So is there anything I should know before starting this contract? I have never signed one like this.’’

The Dwarf looks at me not surprised and starts talking in a serious tone. With his deep voice, it makes you take everything he says seriously.

‘’Yea there is, firstly and most importantly greet the witnesses ,which are also the enforces of the contract we will sign.’’

‘’Secondly, soul contracts are really painful as they engrave the contract on your soul and an extremely small part is taken, to enforce the contracts terms if someone does not abide by them.

All I know is they take a small part to know if the terms are being done and kept. I do not know how. Since we are both system users I decided to call the Base System which creates the different sub-systems and can take a system away, in case the systems are being put into a contract.

If we don’t die by some miracle from breaking the contract term, our system will be erased and all skills and abilities we have gained through or with the help of the systems will also be removed.

Meaning the one who doesn’t keep their word even if they survive will be system-less with the removal of basically all his skills and abilities. In case your descendant breaks the terms,then he or she will be the one that bears the consequences not the original party.

Any questions or objections can wait after greeting the two of our guests’’

The pain part is concerning…. But I will be able to learn blacksmithing from a legendary at least in my world dwarf. Who are excellent blacksmiths….Lets see how it goes….

‘’Hello. Aspect of Souls and Base System… My name is Cloud…. I think I am 16 to 18’’

Not sure which one I should tell. In my character info it says 16 (18) *Cloud imagines a crying meme)

‘’I have a special system.. I think that’s about it. Please take care of me.’’

I bow 45% and go back up after 1-2 seconds. Give a cold glance at the Aspect of Blobs and look at the Dwarf… I still don’t know his name…Then a strange disconnected voice comes from the blob.

‘’I can not,....do...this...contract…. That boy…..Weird… Strange force protecting his soul…. Can only witness but not enforce’’

Then another same type of voice comes from the number/letters, string….

‘’I can witness and enforce, But only through the system. Unique case. Acceptable?’’

Dwarf looks at me and scrutinizes me with his gaze. I give a blank look like I know nothing which is basically true. He sighs and turns to the system

‘’Yeah it’s acceptable. I don’t think the kid will do something like breaking a contract. Aspect of Souls If you wish to stay as a witness you are welcome to do so. If you wish to go, please don’t let me keep you.’’

‘’Until next time, … If… there….is. Kid...explore...this force..will help...you..’’

While I’m watching the blob it disappears. Leaving me with those words, I was planning to anyways, strange blob thingy… The Dwarf claps twice and points me to the chair I first sat on previously.

‘’Now. The contract we are signing,will not be on magical contract paper, or on anything at all. Basically we just need to say what each party is giving, and the conditions behind it. Then we both accept our conditions.

Next the system comes in but since this will be rather different, I’m not sure what it will do. I would guess it will monitor the data from the systems it’s connected to somehow. Let it do, what it will.’’

As I listen. I understand that this type of contract isn't a first for this Dwarf, since he know the original process. Kinda of worrying he isn’t worried about the unique part …. I mean both of us don’t know what the system will actually do….

‘’.... I’m, kinda worried that we don’t know,what will actually happen and what about my ‘force’ what if it interferes and I die...’’

The dwarf looks at me, not impressed by what I said. Then looks at the system.

‘’Please explain, how this contract will be done as he did make some good points.’’

‘’I will implant a 0.000000000001% to the power of 55, of myself, into your systems, which will establish a bigger connection between me and the systems, which will not contain any information ,bonuses ,ect. Which will record the information with key areas of the contract that can be tracked and made into assumptions if anything is amiss. As the enforcer I will ask the sub-systems, and verify if the terms are broken or some situation has happened which made the data as to seem they are broken.’’

‘’I see that lets me be at calm as always.’’

Dwarf looks at me and raises his eyebrows as to ask me ‘alright now?’. Ugh... yeah it does sound completely safe….

‘’Yeah, okay, let’s do this’’

‘’I’ll start. First of all I am Offering an SSS+ crystal’’ I take it out of the inventory.

‘’In exchange. I want this type of forge the other party has here. As well as any Upgrades he thinks or invents in the future to be installed in my own forge equivalent to 500 SSS normal crystals.’’

‘’Lastly to teach me everything he knows in blacksmithing’’

I look at the Dwarf and nod to him. To signal that is all and for him to start his part.He nods back and starts...

‘’I accept. On the conditions that, he does not teach anyone ,except his own kin any of my secrets and techniques and the same restrictions and contract to be made to his kin in the future. The consequences will be. Loss of the system of the party that does not abide the terms. As well as the loss and abilities gained thought,and with the help of the system.’’

The Dwarf nods at me to accept as well. I nod back.

‘’I accept.’’

‘’I have witnessed the exchange,terms and conditions of the contract between both parties. I as the witness will also be the monitor and enforcer of this contract. Now I ask both parties to relax and accept, whatever you feel without resisting’’

Said the system and 2 blue specs of dust come out of it, one to me and one to the dwarf.

I don’t feel anything when it enters me but I stay relaxed.

Box- You have made a contract. Do you accept the system to be all the mentioned things?

>>Y/N

Box- Small part of the main system is now integrated. System isolates all data except the data needed for monitoring the contract. Isolation successful.

‘’The contract is complete’’ Says the main system. I look at it and nod in thanks then look at the Dwarf and we nod at each other.

‘’Thank you. So when will you start teaching me?’’

‘’Tomorrow. Come at 8 am. Also the forge will be done after 2 months.It takes a while to build one like mine. So, until then, we will be using everything that’s here to teach you.’’

‘’Great. Thank you very much. Here I found something very valuable.’’ I hand the blacksmithing book to him and continue’’Read it, you might get something valuable out of it. Give it back to me when you’re done.Please be careful, it’s not in the best condition after so long.’’

He looks at me and opens the front page where the introduction is.

‘’Thank you. I don’t think I will learn anything from it but it does have value to me as well. I never told you my name have i? You can call me Vince. Vince Grayfang’’ He nods at me.’’Don’t be late tomorrow. I want to start from the basics and see how you progress.As well as how good you are with a hammer’’

‘’No problem. I will be there. I need to mention I will be starting to study in the Academy in a months time. So after that I will not have as much time to learn from you. When I have the time I will come and learn. I hope that’s okay’’

‘’It’s fine. It will just take longer to learn everything I know.’’

I stand up and give my hand for a handshake… He shakes my hand

‘’ I will see you tomorrow, I can’t wait to get your book’’ I smile. I turn around to leave after.

‘’I will give it to you after I see what you can do’’ I freeze in place. Crap. At least I know, blacksmithing from my world... But it’s only from videos and documentaries… *crying face*

‘’No problem. I look forward to it. See you.’’ I continue and exit the shop.

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Cloud exits the shop and heads to a restaurant. To get something to eat. He gets the specialty again.

After finishing he heads home. To rest and to recall information on blacksmithing. After 2 hours he decides what to do.

He looks at the Cheat Shop and Searches up, in the search bar. ‘’Ore Identifications’’

Which shows him the different abilities.He takes a liking to a particular one.

Box- All ore Identification and Analysis. Grade A Cheat. (Active)

Ocular ability. Lets user see through all the impurities and see what is important. Based on what the user sees the system will analyze the data and give you information.

This Ability lets the user Identify the Ore. The information given will include Purity of the Ore, the composition of the ore, the percentage of the different things inside the ore. Percentage on the oxidation of the metal(s)The grade of the ore based on the main material and oxidation.

Very useful Ability if you plan to start blacksmithing. It is important to be able to judge the ore you will be using as a blacksmith. To know what is inside the ore. What the ore is. How good the ore is.

Once bought,will be listed as an ability grade SS in the Identity badge. Will also show the cooldown is random. Such abilities can be very expensive to hire. You can find a job as an elite identifier of ores. Information can be modified as user wishes.

Duration 6 Hours. No cooldown.

This costs 2 A tickets.

He looks at the price and description. ‘Not half bad. I guess it’s expensive because all the magical metals which are absurdly expensive. If someone gets cheated somehow it will be a big loss.’ Being satisfied with the ability he looks at the exchange rates for tickets.

Box- To exchange for higher grade tickets rate. Godly<10 SSS<5 SS<5 S< 4 A<2 B<2 C<2 D<2 E

To exchange for lower grade tickets. Godly>5 SSS>3 SS> 3 S> 3 A> 3 B> 2 C> ect.

‘So i will get 3 A tickets for my 1 S. Not bad. I can get the skill and still have 1 A ticket left. System exchange my S ticket and buy the Ability.’

Box- You have gained the ability-All ore Identification and Analysis. Grade A Cheat. (Active)

Done, you have 1 A and 1 B tickets. Would you like to use them?

‘Not yet. I might need some other abilities plus I still don’t know all the system options, I’m a bit busy with thinking about the blacksmithing and the academy and what skill books to buy next time. To check everything so for now save them.’

Box- Okay.

Cloud continues to try and remember the exact methods of smithing he’s seen from his own world. For 2 hours. ‘Okay this should be good enough hope my hands don’t fail me….I need to go to the market a bit early and look at the ores they have….’ Cloud looks at the clock on the wall and sees it’s 9:30 pm. ‘ Since I need to get up early I better get some good nights sleep’ He moves from the chair to the bed and tries to sleep. After half an hour turning and trying to fall asleep, he dozes off and enters his dream world. Where 1 method of smithing in particular from his own world is being played like he is watching it right now.

After waking up he doesn’t remember what he was dreaming about. But recalls the smithing method of his world in more detail than yesterday. He writes down the process he remembers, scared he will forget it after his thoughts wonder in a different direction.

While writing, he gets fully awake. After he finished it. He went downstairs to wash his face. Coming back up he looks at the clock and sees it’s 6:30 am. Needing 40 min to get to the market without needing to rush, he doesn’t dress in a hurry since he only needs around 30 min to look at the ores, or so he thinks.

Cloud finally starts walking to the market fully ready at 6:45 am and reaches it at 7:25 am after stopping by a clothes shop and buying some cheap but sturdy clothes for his blacksmithing.

Finally reaching the market and a ore merchant, he activates his ability and looks at different ores.

Box- Iron ore. Grade B

20% iron,70% impurities,10% other metals

90% Oxidation on all metals

Other Metals: Titanium Oxide 2%, Copper Oxide 4%, Aluminium Oxide 2%, Vanadium 2%

‘Exactly what I need. But it’s hard to find the ones I need after searching the ores for 20 min I only found 2 ores and they are quite small’ Cloud then decides to buy the batches he found with the oars he was satisfied with.

Batches were in 60 cm tall wooden buckets. Which have a 30 cm base and the top is 50 cm.

After buying the 2 batches he stores them into his inventory. Which categorised the ores for him. He had 15 ores he wanted. Then sold back the ones he didn’t want back to the merchant for 30% less than what he payed.

Now finished with his business he heads to the blacksmithing shop which was just 2 min away and was right on time.

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Vinces POV.

‘Hmmm. the kid is still not here. Doesn’t he know it’s good to be at least 10 min early.’

‘While I wait, let drink a coffee.’’’Silvia. Go get me a coffee. The usual no sugar.’’ Silvia looks at me with disapproving glare which I ignore ‘’It’s not good to drink so much coffee.’’ She tells me. I laugh at her. ‘’Haha. Do you prefer me to drink some beer instead?’’ I ask sarcastically.

She once again gives me a glare but doesn’t say anything. She then stomps off to get me my coffee.

‘I only stopped drinking beer in the morning because of her. Now she wants me to stop my coffee. I don’t know what I find more amusing. That I stopped drinking beer the moment I woke up or that she is trying to stop me from drinking coffee in big quantities. She should have just grown up and found a husband already’… *sigh*.

‘Where is that kid? It’s 7:59 Am.’ I narrow my eyes in displeasure and disapproval. ‘The only thing that gives me a favorable impression is the fact that he doesn’t care about money. Also that he doesn’t act arrogant… Also that he is respectful… Gave me a great book on blacksmithing… … … Is thoughtful….’ I realize I have quite a good impression of the kid after thinking of his good points. Which makes me less annoyed at him for not being early.

The clock just turns 8:00Am and someone enters. It’s him. Wearing the same suit as yesterday. ‘Is he planning to blacksmith with those….?’ I ask myself. ‘I’ll have to send him to buy himself some less expensive clothes if he doesn’t have any.’ I muse to myself. He wipes his sweat from his forehead and catches his breath, looks like he ran for some reason.

‘’Why you out of breath boy?’’ I ask interested. ‘Looking at his hair it doesn’t look messy like he just woke up. So he must have done something.’

‘’Ah,hah,ha,ufff. I was looking at ores at the nearby ore merchant. I spent over 25 min and was nearly late. Luckily i made it just on time looking at the clock there’’ He points on the clock near the reception desk with a smile which annoys me. ‘Looking at ores?’ So he knows how to pick ores I raise my eyebrows in surprise. Finding the ore one needs and wants, is a hard and long road full of errors that will be made even if you have years of experience.

‘’Let me see what ya picked up’’ I demand in a stern voice. I want to see how far he has come in this path. As surely he hasn’t gone far in blacksmithing judging from his pale skin and soft hands. He takes an ore out of nowhere like he takes out the mana crystals. ‘I wonder what kind of storage that is.He doesn’t seem to need much concentration to find what he wants.So spatial rings and pouches are out. Personal Space skill?No mana fluctuations... ‘ He passes 2 ores to me for me to looks at.

I look attentively and see that it’s Iron ores. Quite Oxidised. Looking carefully I can see very little titanium which isn’t good if he is making steel. Some copper that can be forged out. Overall I would give it a C-B grade. I rise my eyebrow and look at him.

‘’Why did you pick this grade of ores. I can see both are pretty much the same in composition as well. If you are making steel the more Iron the better. But you picked up ores with only around 15-25%.’’ I stop wondering and just look at him expecting an answer.

‘’Oh, don’t worry about it.You do have a crucible right?The round thing you put ores in and melt them. I will also need some glass.Oooo and I didn’t see any coal anywhere in the shop I need some.’’

He continued asking for different thing. Glass?Coal? For the crucible? What in the world of blacksmithing is he going to do?Ah whatever. Let’s see.

‘’There is coal in the ring on the table.Also glass….. There is glass sand in there too.The crucible, you should know about ,you saw the forge description for yourself. Also you don’t plan to forge with those clothes on right?’’ He looks at the ring on the table. Then turns to me and shows me some cheap clothes.

‘’Ah by the way can you take out the coal and glass sand please. I don’t know how to use rings… I have a storage ability’’

Ugh… Even if you have a storage ability you should at least learn to use a ring.

‘’Fine I’ll take them out, how much do you need of each?’’

‘’Umm 3 coals. Around 500grams of glass’’ I take them out for him.

‘’Go and change your clothes Go through the door next to the one you entered from there’s the stairs case. You can change there or upstairs.’’

‘’I’ll change at the stairs’’ He heads there. ‘So he plans to isolate the the ore from the oxygen with the glass that will form. But what is the coal for?’

After 2 minutes he is back. But those aren’t exactly blacksmithing clothes…..’After this I should get him to go an buy some real blacksmithing clothes… those will do for today… I hope’

‘’I will start now. If that’s okay? Also can you help me with the forge and machines?Please’’

‘’Yeah sure. Just tell me what you need. ‘’ He smiles at me and he goes to take a hammer. Then to the anvil and starts breaking up the ores he has. Then collects them in a dragon scales tray.

‘’Please start the forge I need to completely dry these.’’ So I start the forge at 300C. He puts them inside the forge and he goes and picks up 1 coal. With the hammer he makes it into dust and collects it into a clay cup. He takes another 2 cups and fills them with glass sand.

He looks at the ores in the forge and stays by it for another 3 minutes. He puts on thick dragon leather gloves I usually use and takes out the dragon scales tray. He goes and grinds all the ores into dust.Which is much less than before. He probably burned off some of the impurities to have more pure iron. Cleaver.

‘’Start the bloomery hearth. With coal no magic or anything. Please’’ I sigh and light up the hearth with coal with the help of the magic array to start it up and stop it after that.Yeah he is making steel so coal is necessary but no one knows why.

‘’Done.’’He then goes and puts a bit of the iron dust in. Then we add coal after a while and then iron dust again. Doing that for a about 5 hours and we finally finished the iron dust. Now we need to only collect the blooms.

We collected the blooms and crushed them into pieces again and puts them into the Fire dragon egg crucible I have. Then he puts in the coal dust and shakes it up a bit. Then the glass sand is put in just 1 cup shakes again and puts 1 coal then the glass and then the other coal on the very top.

‘’You have some clay that won’t crack from the extreme heat if you don’t just put graphite in. You know the black stuff you can use to write with?’’ as he asks that he puts a handful of leafs inside. Why did he do that?

‘’Yeah. Here you go. Why did you put leaves at the end?’’ He looks at me and smiles.

‘’This way the iron will need a lower temperature to melt. I forgot the reason why that is but dont worry. It will need around 300-500C less.’’ He takes the clay I gave him and seals the crucible.

‘’This will also allow you to save energy when smithing hence you save gold’’ I stay silent and think over it. It’s good to conserve energy. Especially when using the crystal he gave me in exchange that thing is priceless. Since no one has seen one in 800 years.

‘’Good,good. But how did you know it reduces the temperature needed?Or more like from whom?’’

‘’Secret.’’ He finally seals the crucible.’’We need to put it in a furnace now. It doesn’t matter how we heat it up now. I need a temperature of 1400,1500C. It needs to gradually increase around 2 and a half hours. When it reaches that temperature we leave it for half an hour and then stop it. Wait for it too cool down naturally. When we get to that I will tell you the next step’’ Hmm not sure why he needs it to reach such temperature so slowly…

‘’Okay. Put it in the furnace there.’’ I point to my furnace that’s right next to the forge.After that I go to the furnace again and put my hand to it. Thanks to the array I invented I can make it do things in sequence and can detect the temperature of the crucible while it’s working. Which makes for very precise melting of metals.Good thing I added a time function as well. I add all the information needed for this to work like how he described and start it.

‘’Now we wait’’ ‘’ You can go have something to eat we’ve been here for 6 hours already. I’ll go crab something to eat too.’’ I tell him.

‘’Lets go eat together. Since everything is set up already. I think we will need to continue this tomorrow. It will take a while for it to cool down enough for us to take it out with only gloves.’’

I think about and yeah it does make sense. It’s already 2 now. It will take at least 9-10 hours for it to cool down well. I don’t plan on doing nothing for 10 hours. There isn’t a point for the kid to wait either.

‘’Sure kid. Let me take you to the place that sells the best beer and stake.’’ So I decided the brink him to the Crow. Beer and Stake

‘’Great I haven’t had beer in a while…’’ We go and I get a bit drunk the first hour. The kid seems to have finished eating. So I order another beer for him.

‘’No , I’m gooood, that beer is a bittz ssstrong.’’

‘’Haha if you can still talk so well you can handle 1 more at least.’’ The kid can hold himself well for such an age and being human. I haven’t had a drinking buddy for a while, I forgot how fun it is to see others get super drunk for just a little beer. I give him the pint of beer….

‘’If you don’t drink with me we will go back and wait for your lump of steel to melt and cool down. Then I will let you leave. Drink or wait for 10 hours doing nothing.’’

‘’Ahhh, fine,fine, I Will hav one moree. But then I aaam goiing hoom!’’ Haha he believed me I would have just stayed here while he goes home. Such a naive kid.

After the kid drunk 3 more I let him go home. I hope he can walk to his house hahaha. Now to have 1 more small barrel.

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Next day. Clouds POV.

‘’Aghhhhhh. My head's killing me. How much did that damn dawrf make me drink?!’’

I get up slowly and go to the well and submerge my head in the ice cold water. ‘Ahhh Fucking cold…. But better at the same time’ I take my head out and take another breath then Submerge it again. Doing that for about 10 min, Feeling a lot better I go upstairs and dry my hair with the old towel…’I should really get a new one.’

I look at the time and its 6 am. ‘I did go to bed right after I somehow got up the stairs. I guess it was around 4-5 pm…’As i think about yesterday I suddenly have a huge urge to piss and go to the toilet. Which I didn’t see last time because it’s a hole…. Good thing is, they have toilet paper. No Black Knight stuff.(if you have seen the movie)

Having finished my business I dress with the cheap clothes I bought and go to the blacksmithing shop.

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Cloud arrives at the blacksmithing shop and enters.

The Dwarf smiles at him. ‘’How are ya feeling kid? Also you came quite early it’s only 7:20 am.’’

Cloud scowls at the dwarfs smug smile. ‘’I woke up early with a fucking splitting headache. So I had to dump my head in the ice cold water from the well for a while. Since I was fully awake I came to finish what I started yesterday.’’

‘’Hahahaha’’ The Dwarf laughs at Clouds sour face. ‘’I drank another 2 small barrels after you somehow went home. I thought you would sleep in the street from the way you walked.’’

Cloud just ignores him and heads to the forge and take out the crucible egg out from the furnace with the gloves he used last time it wasn’t hot enough to burn them anymore. But it was still hot.

He took a thin chisel and hammer and opened the seal he made. Looking inside he sees 2 coals at the top. 1 smaller than the other.

They were used as Oxygen detectors as well as carbon supplements for the steel. If they were completely gone that would mean that oxygen got in and the steel would not be as good a quality. Smiling Cloud flips the Crucible and the Steel cake falls out. One of the many good points about the egg. Nothing sticks to the inside.

Cloud looks at the result. It Doesn’t have any bubbles or cracks the glass seal seems good as well.

He looks at the Dwarf ‘’ I need Iron Oxide and to put this in for 30 hours with the Iron Oxide at 1,100C. Then we can start forging the actual weapon. At the moment this steel is to hard and there is a possibility it will crack if we try to do anything.Which is not good for the weapon. It needs to be a whole piece not Folded a bezilion times.’’

The Dwarf frowns at Clouds explanation. ‘If it cracks doesn’t it mean that it just has impurities?’ he thinks. But doesn’t say anything so far he has made a high quility steel at lower temperatures than he himself usually needs. This will save him a lot of mana crystals and money in turn. So he decides to see what the kid is capable of anyway.

‘’Kid here is the blacksmithing book, you gave me. Also my personal one which I wrote for you. Read them today and tomorrow. Leave the rest to me I can do the thing you said. 30 hours in Iron Oxide that’s fine. 1,100C’’

‘’Right.’’

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Next day afternoon.

Cloud read both books in the 30 hours. It had a lot less information than he thought. It didn’t have much science behind the forging. Just experiences and forging techniques. Which will come in handy today he thinks. He didn’t get the skill from reading them. He used both his chances on the books he got previously from the skill Bookshop.

Cloud enters the forge for the 3 time now. It’s finally time to forge a weapon. He couldn’t feeling giddy he would do something so interesting he has only seen in videos and movies.

‘’So the steel should be good to forge now. But we will need to heat cycle it first. So we can reduce the grain and the internal stresses. Do not ask me what a grain is …’’ Cloud makes an awkward face not knowing what the grain is from the video he is copying the process from. But know it needs to be done otherwise cracks will form.

‘’Fine fine. So what exactly is this process?’’

‘’Basically we put it in the forge in an out, around 5-6 times but I think it would be better to just do it 7 just in case. The process involves heating it and letting cool down then heat it back up and so on. It needs to reach just above the temperature that it loses its magnetic property and let it cool down. To make sure we do this correctly we will need a magnet. Do you have one?’’

‘’Luckily I do. I use it to pick out the Iron sand from the iron ore when I crush it. It should do the job right?

‘’Yeah that’s perfect!’’ Cloud make a relieved smiling face since he won’t need to eyeball it.

‘’Well let’s do this.’’ The Dwarf is starting to get impatient 3 day to make s sword it a bit too long for him.

‘’Okay it should take around 3 hours to do this.’’ Cloud starts up the forge and that he’s seen and knows how to operate it. Just inserting mana and making commands on the temperature and length of time it should be on.

So he starts the thermal cycling of the steel cake. After 3 and half long hours it’s ready to be forged into something deadly.

‘’Okay can you show me how to use that, mana powered hammer. I want to make it the right leanght and shape before I start beveling the edge.’’

‘’Just press the metal bar at the bottom and the mana will start flowing into the hammering machine. You need to be careful with how much you press down because the more you do the more powerful the blow will be. If you want to change the stamps for bigger ones you need to do it manually. The biggest one is right next to the machine’’

Cloud makes and O shape with his mouth and nods at the Dwarf.

He goes and checks the size. Thinking back to the video the stamps where the same. So he desides this one is good. He presses on the metal on the floor and it sinks down a bit and the machine starts hammering slowly and lightly.

‘Perfect’ Cloud thinks. Next he heats up the cake to a bright yellow in the forge and goes to the power hammer. He taps it lightly and turns it at 90 degrees angles when he thinks it good to do so.

When the metal start getting dark red, he returns it to the forge and waits for it to become bright yellow again. He continues to do this for hours because of the initially brittle nature of the cake, not wanting any cracks or if they do form to be filled with the softer iron outer shell. He did that to make sure any cracks that do come appear would be filled with the softer material and then carbon would be infused into it while smithing and hammering from the inner high carbon content.

Finally having the shape he wants. He stops for a breath of fresh air and to cool down.

‘’So what do think so far? Am I doing well?’’ Cloud asks the Dwarf and his now teacher what he thinks

‘’Well your methods are weird but it looks pretty good not it all depends on your actual strength,technique and creativity ’’ The dwarf doesn’t say anything bad but nothing actually good. At least he thinks the steel cake he made look good Cloud supposed since the dwarf didn’t say what seems good.

After 10 minutes break Cloud enters the forge again and pick up the hammer. Around 5 Kg He supposed but felt like 8-9 when he took it by the end of the handle. He heated up the long piece of metal and started hammering the edge of the metal where his blade will be which he remmembers was called bevelling.

Bit by bit cloud made the edge best he could for his first attempt. Heating the metal at different parts and hammering then until he gets the result he thinks he want. After a torturous 3 hours of doing that he heats up the whole sword and does one final hammering session.

He gets a file and removes the oxidized outer parts. Goes to a mana fueled grinder and straighten any edges and uneven spots he has.

He once again heats the sword to a glowing yellowish orange and crosses his fingers the blade doesn’t snap. He dumps the whole blade into oil. To harden and temper the whole sword.

He takes it out after 10 seconds and looks for any bends which should be removed and can be removed before the blade fully consolidates. He looks at it at different angles and sees just a small bend in the center. He goes to vice and straightens the blade trying not to bend it to much.

After this tense moment he take a final look at the blade. Looking good in clouds eyes he smiles.

Now it’s time to heat treat it once more to relieve the stress the tempering caused. Heating it at 400C for 2-3 hours. He takes a bite to eat and something to drink, chugging down a whole bottle of water.

Cloud comes back and takes the sword out letting it cool down. Then goes to the grinders to finish up his first work.

After another 6 hours of grinding with different stones and asking which is the next finest grinding stone, Cloud finishes the rapier/sword. Without the handle and handguard.

Finally Cloud puts it into a mild acid to see if a pattern which he is aiming for shows up. He leaves the sword in for 20 seconds and neutralizes the acid with water and then polishes it with and oil soaked cloth.

The pattern is perfectly showing.

Box- New skill created. Making and forging genuine Wootz damascus steel. Lv2 [2/20

Box- Unique skill created. Otherworldly Ancient Blacksmithing Lv2 [2/200]

Box- New skill earned. Forging edged weapons Lv 4 [4/100]

Cloud looks over the boxes and smiles. Low leveled but that will change once he starts making a lot of swords. He passes his near finished sword to the blacksmith dwarf.

He looks at the edge and pattern on the blade. He examines it for 10 min. Edge,thickness,smoothness,sharpness,straightness. Everything he can without actually testing it.

He takes a wooden broom from a corner of the shop, swinging my sword at it. It cuts through like butter. No dents or chipping on the blade. In fact it vibrated and flexed after the cut but that's a good thing. He then goes and checks it’s flexibility on a vice. Bending it at 45 degrees and letting it go. It goes back to its original straightness without problems.

‘’Not bad. I can stay this is a top quality sword. Flexible, hard edge, strong,sharp. Looks good. But I have never seen this kind of pattern on a sword forged this way. It’s usually made by folding different steels together. But this one is one whole piece.It’s unique.’’ He scratches his head. Wonder why that is.

‘’So kid how did you do it. Was it the plants,the heat cycling,the forging process?’’ Cloud smiles.

‘’None of those. It’s because of the ores I used. It has something very rare and special. It’s called vanadium. But that’s not the only thing it’s because of the process I did that the pattern was able to show itself. If i did one wrong move while heating,forging or cycling the pattern would not come out like it did.’’

‘’We need to go to someone to Identify it. From what I can tell it will give decent stats. If it does we will need to find an appropriate handle. I will forge the Handguard. You don’t seem ready for such precision work.’’ The dwarf berates clouds skill.