— Aster —

The next day I found myself outside of the ‘Broken Smithy’. A small little shop on the outskirts of the town. I had chosen this smithy for two simple reasons. At first, I didn’t want a crowd like most of the warriors who chose to do blacksmithing. I didn’t want to answer a lot of questions or compete. The second was the smithy specialized in the delicate; more interesting works. Blacksmith is more of a general term as they do create weapons and armor out of metal, but they no longer use hammers like in the old days. They use mana to heat and forge and cast everything. But everyone still thinks they do. The hammers blacksmiths use channel raw force and mana into their creations.

Entering the smithy, I saw a small crystal tuned to Shadow Cat. Immediately, I stopped all my energy flows focusing, ensuring none of my energy leaked. Then I remembered I wasn’t on a mission so the crystal would not react. In the six months, I had learned to split my energy flow eight ways and was slowly adding energy to all my gems, I seemed to grow tired faster ever since I started doing this.

I wanted the strongest skill I could create. Most people don’t know what the crystals are. I had run into one in the field and asked Delilah. She told me that they detect certain classes when on a mission and glow when they are near. She pulled out a beautiful silver crystal, that glowed two different shades of grey, one darker than the other.

“This one is tuned to a rogue, and shadow cat. ” She explained “You have seconds to flow energy to your tattoo mark to hide it. Keep a low-level flow to it to keep smaller crystals from detecting but the bigger ones need a stronger energy field. Crystals can be tuned to many different classes at a time. So you’ll also need to learn to filter out your shadow cat energies on certain missions.”

It took a while before I could focus fully on the mark, oddly enough I found that doing this would also hide the tattoo from sight. I had gotten into the habit of just covering at all times.

Back at the shop, I walked up to the person at the anvil “Hi I would like to become a blacksmith.” The person with the muscular back was not wearing a shirt, just a blacksmith's apron, and some pants. They were holding a bright red piece of metal and seemed to be staring at it.

At my voice “Please hand me that.” Pointing toward the crystal. I gulped now terrified since I had no idea what would happen if I actually touched the crystal, even not on a mission, but I grabbed it and handed it over to the smith’s outstretched slender hand, that I now realized was a woman. She took a look at the crystal and looked at it then tossed it on the bench.

I was remembering that most people don’t know about the crystals and asked “So what is that?”

The woman just kept staring at the metal, then with her gloves she began to shape the metal as though it was clay. Every stroke of her fingers elongated the metal throwing sparks everywhere. I just watched as she began to shape it into a large ring that was at least four feet in diameter. When she finished “Custom order.” Taking her gloves off “Now you want to learn to smith?”

I nodded excitedly “Yes!”

She stood up and put the ring in the corner of the sandy floor where it seemed to steam on the ground. “So here are the facts. My smithing is level fifty. As you know at twenty you can impart your own knowledge. You should also know I specialize in the…delicate, and odd, for lack of a better term. Because of this, I charge a hefty fine. I don’t believe anyone not willing to work can’t learn by me.”

“So how much is it?” I nervously asked

“Two gold.” She said offhandedly

“TWO GOLD!?!?” I nearly bit my own tongue “What about rich nobles?”

“I was getting to that, your mission count must be above two-thousand.”

A wave of relief fell over me to most people that would seem insurmountable. In fact, I was only able to get two gold after six months. “Now what do I get for two gold?”

“Smelting, smithing, metal shaping, mineral knowledge, little mining, intricate molding, mana endowment, and a few other things.” She counted the things on her fingers. “Also I will provide you with a hammer and apron. You will also be able to do blacksmithing quests given by the adventurer’s guild.”

“What’s the catch?” I think I might be a little jaded.

“You will have to obtain your own gloves, anvil, and tools after instruction. You will learn my process and techniques. They can be used for normal smithing but if you don’t want to specifically create these types of items, then go to a different smithy.”

I thought about this for a while or at least gave a show of thinking on it as I had chosen this place a few months ago. When I delivered a package to the shop and was in wonder at the items this smithy had created. All around me were daggers, swords, rings, chakrams, and every other weapon you could imagine, but there was a difference with these weapons. They all contain highly intricate carvings. The rings were paper-thin, hard armor that draped like cloth. They all looked like they were grown rather than forged. Everything was almost organic, in the way it was created. Then there were the delicate things. The impossibly delicate things. Armor that lucked as though they were outlined in wire beautiful and strong. But looked impractical. Gauntlets and rings. It was like someone took glow rope and shape the impression of armor. “I would like to learn.” explain the items

She looked at me a little surprised. I think she thought I would be scared off. “Two gold, and your book please.”

I pulled out my rogue book and handed it to her “One moment for the gold.” I took out a small pouch and counted out the gold in coppers, and handed it over.

When the smith looked at the book her eyes widened “Two-thousand Seven-hundred and fifty completed missions.” She was shocked, she asked for such a high number because most people only did around two hundred in a month and even overachievers tended to do only around four hundred. Even then the cost was so high they would have to do a ridiculous amount of missions or have rich parents, but I had done so many that she realized that the money she was being handed must have been almost all of it.

“Okay now we will be getting started shortly first a few things.” she pulled out a hammer and an apron handing them to me. “First these are yours.” She then pulled out a book that looked similar to my Rogue book put but with a big hammer on the front. “Here is your Smith book for commissions.” she handed it to me “Now do you have a room for the next two weeks?”

My arms were full when I answered “Yes!”

“Good. Now if you need a crucible show your book to any smithy they will allow you to use their equipment, for a fee.”

I continue to nod as I took off my coat and scarf to put the apron on. “To rank up you must complete fifty commissions and pass the test given by The Guild. You must do at least five commissions a month as a type of dues, until you are ranked two then there is no longer a quota.”

She went around and grabbed all her tools and put them in front of me “Now please have a seat.”

I sat with my new hammer in my lap she asked “Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Let's begin.” A new blue screen appeared in front of me.

Would you like to learn “Organic Smithing”?

Yes No

This was the first time I had been asked if I wanted to learn rather then automatically starting. Mentally I thought yes.

Primary Pathways Software found

Checking Current Pathways… Rogue Pathways Found.

Checking Rogue Pathway … 100%

Checking Available SubPathway… No Pathway found.

Confirming Compatibility….Confirmed

Checking Authorization… Authorization Confirmed

Installing SubPathways...

The haze swallowed me as she showed and demonstrated. As she spoke images of small needles, delicate-looking yet unbelievable strong armor, weapons with intricate designs, some which looked like glass. All deceptive each was their own hidden compartment, armor with hidden compartments, things meant to break to reveal traps, strange weapons that look like giant rings. A technique to turn metal like rubber, how to make miniature weapons, even how to make a bow with a solid steel string and so much more. I learned how to mix metal, strengthen each, and channel magic through metal to shape it. I learned the limits of shaping with energy. I learned how to adapt raw metal and how to set gems. It was all very complicated and the skill required was very high. I learned it all, even the most interesting. That once you reach the end of the limits of mana shaping you need an anvil to fully finish a piece. The hammer would bring out the true shape of the metal. Items are not finished until they are hammered. All of this past in my dream Haze and I was amazed.

Installing SubPathways…..Complete

As I snapped out of the haze she pulled out three buckets filled with ore. “Now get to work.” As soon as the headache subsided I got to work melting the iron ore in the crucible making three iron ingots. Only one was usable as it was free of impurities. I then melted copper and tin to make bronze, I made six ingots of bronze, two were the correct mixture and suitable, the others were too soft or too brittle. Next, I mixed charcoal and iron in an attempt to make steel. I had made nine ingots but each failed with either too much carbon or too little. I made more ingots each one becoming easier to make than the last but once the bucket was empty I only had thirty usable ingots.

Next, I began to heat the ingots in my hands by circulating energy through them heating up the metal, once it hit the right temperature I began to shape it into three swords, two Daggers, eight throwing knives, and four chakrams, using all the ingots. I had destroyed fourteen by putting too much mana through it causing them to melt in my hands.

Once I completed the basic shaping I proceeded to hammer the metal. At first, I used too much strength destroying the sword with one hit. I broke another two swords and two knives before remembering about the ‘delicate part’ and began to channel mana through my hammer. As I did my eyes began to see shimmers on the blade. It was as though a river of the matter was flowing out of the weapons.

I began to strike the Shimmers and the weapon did not break but began to take their final form. The shimmers faded and changed quickly. I broke all the weapons but succeeded in creating one bronze sword. Once I finished tempering the bronze blade I channeled magic into the blade sealing any leaking energy. After twelve hours of work, the woman told me

“You are done, go home and rest. Also as a student, you may come and use my smithy anytime. Congrats on your first sword.” she pointed towards the Scarecrow “Why don't you try it out?” I took out the sword-swinging it not expecting much. Once the sword hit, the scarecrow was nearly cut in half. “This is the difference between those factory-made weapons and handmade. Once you learn to control them you can control the effect. Now, look at your blade.”

I pulled out the blade and looked, there was a huge gash in the middle of the blade. “It would fall apart if used again. Huh?”

“Once you become better at endowment you will not have that problem… as much, on a side note I'm the only smith who teaches it, no one else has endowment high enough to teach.”

I put away my single-use sword “Thank you.” I left the room and headed back to the hotel room with my friends.