“I think I should tell you now that you are living in Orion. Orion was once a follower of Nergal, the God of Death.”

Peter was looking at him like Rhax was going to sprint out of the door, but Rhax honestly didn’t understand the importance of the statement.

“I’m sorry, but why is this important and why are you looking at me like I will sprint out of the door at any second?” Rhax asked, he was honestly confused, he understood what Peter said. The God of Death, this was not something light, this probably didn’t make Orion very popular in the area. Because from what he knows about the cultures that worship a God of Death they think dying is just getting back with their God. So, they are not afraid of dying, and he doesn’t think that any kingdom would like a neighboring kingdom with an army that doesn’t care if they died or lived because if they died then they would reunite with their God.

Peter was startled like Rhax said something stupid that everyone should know, but then he calmed down, and murmured something under breath that Rhax fortunately caught. “Right, lost memories.”

Rhax celebrated internally, his lie did actually pay off and it would not look too suspicious to Peter if he didn’t know about things in the world that are obvious for the inhabitants.

Peter took a deep breath and started explaining, he started with the story that made the tension between Nergal and the other Gods peak. The story happened Around 500 years ago from the main timeline, a huge hurricane started on the north side of Orion, it was called Nergal's Wrath because of how many people it killed. The king at the time Aurelius Orion III was helpless but an adviser of his called Masac, who will after this incident be known as Masac the Terrible, a very high priest in the Neriun Church and the high priest stationed in Orion advised Aurelius that Nergal's wrath happened because he hadn't received a sacrifice in all of Aurelius' reign which was 15 years at the time. So, Aurelius prepared a grand sacrifice, he got 332 males the age of 16 and 332 females the age of 16 and sacrificed them making the total 664 souls, he then with the convincing words of Masac brought his youngest son and daughter, Sirna and Flanders who were 15 and 16 respectively and sacrificed them, because in Masac's own words, which was written in his journal that was published to the public after his death: "The Great Nergal will not be satisfied with the souls of these ants, he gave Orion to the Orion family and it is their duty to give their children back to him." With that sacrifice the count came to 666 souls, and as Masac said, the hurricane disappeared the next day. But the consequence of what Aurelius did always follow him as the Queen at the time, Diana Orion killed herself because of her grief for her son and daughter. Aurelius would rule only for 2 years after that and then will be killed by his own son, Aurelius IV as a revenge for his siblings and a way for him to take the throne. The country of Orion would have peaceful times in the time of Aurelius IV. But the tension between the religion soared through the skies, the tension was strongest between Terran and Neriun.

Peter sighed after the story was done. “You see, Nergal is the God of Death, so he requires sacrifices and a lot more things. This was Orion before Tera, Bless her name, came into Orion and changed it all. The Terran Church abolished all of the human sacrifices that people had to do to please Nergal. This incident is considered the worst event that occurred in Orion’s ground throughout its history, but it is nothing compared to the other lands who were following Nergal. That is why we don’t talk about him or his Church.”

Rhax was disturbed, this was plain evil, and from what he understood then everyone in the Neriun Church is as vile or worse than Masac. He hopes that he doesn’t meet any of them in the future. But then something bugged him about the way Terran became the main religion so he asked. “How did the Terran Church replace the Neriun Church? Did the Neriun Church fight back?” It just didn’t make sense, why would a whole religion just leave a kingdom on a whim.

Peter laughed at that, he smiled big and answered in a cheerful tone. “Well, they didn’t have any other option as they were attacked by all of the big 4 religions in the world. They were originally 5 big religions in the world, but 300 years ago the other religions were fed up with Nergal and his followers so they all brought their armies and attacked every Neriun Church in the world and ended the religion. That is how the current King’s line came into the throne, the last king of the main Orion family bloodline was a fanatic and was a firm believer in Neriun and that was what got him killed.”

Rhax hummed in understanding, it was like an old Christen crusade. ‘So, you are telling me, that a mass sacrifice happened, betrayal, a war which exterminated a religion and probably a war among Gods, all happened in the span of 500 years?! This world is amazing!’ He was feeling his mind getting all of these crazy ideas of traveling the world and uncovering the history behind it. But he stopped his line of thoughts before it got too wild. He was not a wild man, he maybe likes to swing giant swords into things, but this was only one side of him. He was not a man who will abandon everything just for a goal he has, he was not a Shonen protagonist from the early 2000:s. He was a normal human, a man with only one goal in mind at the moment, have fun!

“Now enough of this history shit! I need your help with something.” Peter waved his hand gesturing to the anvil that was a few meters away from him. “You see, I got to work on that sword over there,” he pointed at the metal in the shape of a sword to his left, “and I could use your help with something.”

Rhax nodded, he wanted to be useful.

Peter stood up and picked up a hammer from the table to his left, he then handed it to Rhax. “I usually do this myself, but this is the first time you are working with metal if I’m not mistaken?” He asked a little unsurely.

“You are not wrong.” Rhax confirmed.

Peter nodded his head like he was expecting the answer. He then went to the right side of the shop where a door was present, he opened the door and Rhax saw that it was filled with steel and other materials.

Peter picked out a kind of small piece of steel, it was only the size of a palm and then came back to Rhax and handed it to him. “Here.” He said while handing him the palm sized steel.

Rhax looked in confusion at the man in front of him, he held the steel in his palm and asked. “What do I do with this?” He absolutely had no idea.

Peter smiled at him. “I want you to make a knife.”

“Huh?” Was Rhax’s only answer.

“Peter, I just said, this is the first time I work with metal and steel. How am I supposed to make a knife if I don’t know what to do?” Rhax was waving his hand and trying to make Peter see reason.

Peter waved him down. “Calm down, you freak out like Julia. Listen, it is very easy, and a knife is one of the easiest things to make.” He picked up two metallic things. One was a bucket, and the other was a template that had the shape of a standard bayonet, but the shape was only for the blade.

“Now listen to me carefully and save these words in your mind. You start the furnace, it is already on now so you can skip that, then you put the steel ingot I gave you inside this crucible and then put it inside the furnace. When the ingot is melted, you take it out and then pour it inside the template right here. You let it rest until it is cold and the steel is solid again. Then you take it out, and then put it inside the furnace, when it reaches the color of cherry red, you take it out and put it on the anvil and start hammering it with the hammer. You do this process until the knife is perfect in shape and doesn’t have a dent side or a crack in it. Then when you are satisfied you put it in the water inside that bucket. This is all, and don’t worry about the handle, I will take care of it. Start when you are ready.” Peter winked at him and went to his place beside the first furnace and started heating the sword he was working on.

Rhax was breathing heavily, it was a lot of information, he fortunately catched them all. It sounded so easy when Peter said it, but he knew, he just knew that it would be one of the hardest things he did in his life.

He swallowed, he noticed that his throat was dry, from nervousness or from the heat he didn’t know. He wore the gloves Peter left for him and picked up the crucible, he put the steel ingot in it and then with the help of a metal hook, put it inside the furnace. His forehead was sweaty from the heat but he ignored it and focused only on the steel ingot that was melting by the second. After a few minutes he was looking into a beautiful ocean of molten steel.

Shakingly, he was afraid of burning himself, so he took out the crucible with the same hook. Then using another hook, he directed the crucible to the template. He then poured the molten steel. The sound of molten steel hitting solid steel rang through him, he was aware of the sound of Peter’s hammer hitting against the sword he was making, he tried to tone him out as much as possible.

After the pouring was done and he put down the crucible in the place Peter mentioned. He sat there all sweaty waiting for the steel to solidify, he was tired, not physically, but mentally. The stress of knowing that he is holding a matter that can burn his skin and muscles into crisp in seconds is too much. He wondered how Peter could do this everyday.

He was watching the molten steel for probably two hours before it was solid. “Here comes the hard part.” He murmured under his breath while using a metal tong to put the weird looking bayonet inside the furnace. He stood still for a couple of seconds watching the color of the steel change from the metallic color rising to orange and then becoming a pretty bloody red and then getting darker. ‘This is it!’ He mentally screamed.

He found the perfect temperature. He immediately took it out of the furnace and then put it down on the anvil, then holding the hammer in his right hand he started hammering. He hammered the dents that were made from his lousy pouring of the metal.

When it was not hot enough, he put it back inside, and then did the same thing when it was hot enough. He could feel the burning in his right arm but instead of making him feel pain, he only felt pleasure.

He was so engrossed in what he was doing that the clanking of Peter’s hammer was filtered out of his ears, the only thing in his eyes was the bayonet.

After God knows how many hours, he spent on hammering the bayonet, he felt like it was done. So, he did what Peter told him and put it inside the water bucket. The sound of water sizzling because of the heat was like music to his ears.

He took the bayonet out and looked it over, it was a thing of beauty, it was around 16 cm long, gray in color but looked blunt. Which was expected. But the tip was what Rhax spent hours at, it was perfect, Rhax was sure that it could pierce a lot of animals, or humans.

Looking at the bayonet in his had Rhax felt pride and joy, he was proud of himself for doing this beautiful bayonet and joy because he really enjoyed making it. Even though his shoulders were burning from overworking.

While he was studying the bayonet a blue screen appeared in front of him.

[Player gained two points in Dexterity]

Then after five seconds.

[Player gained one point in Strength]

Then after another five seconds.

[Player gained two points in Stamina]

Rhax did the math mentally and realized what was happening but the blue screen that appeared in front of him confirmed his suspicions.

[Congratulations! Player reached Level 4!]

Rhax bumped his fist into the air, he knew it was not a mistake taking the job of being a blacksmith. In only one knife he got a level, this was amazing!

“4 down, 6 left to go.” Rhax murmured under his breath, he was excited to select a class, maybe he can become a sword master or something cool like a berserker.

He looked down at the bayonet blade in his hand and smiled. “Until I can become a warrior, I will be making things with metal, well lucky me because it is very damn fun indeed.”