“JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU MAGGOTS DOING TO MY CUTTING TRIANGLE?” Jarken both verbally and physically pounces on us as Anoobis almost drops his sword in shock.

“USING IT TO CUT OF COURSE” Anoobis answers delightfully…he’s going to get killed.

“DON’T GET SMARMY WITH ME MAGGOT. BUT AT LEAST IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING, THIS TIME”

So he wasn’t angry?! I have no idea; it’s hard to tell when he’s constantly shouting.

Not sure whether he complimented us or something, we continue to smelt our next iron for Ravenna this time round if I have to guess.

“Um Jarken” Anoobis bounds after Jarken

“WHAT IS IT? MAGGOT” He really likes that word doesn’t he…

“I need to sharpen this; do you have a sharpening stone or something?”

“UPSTAIRS THERE’S A GRINDER” His light chuckle is still quite booming. Apparently no one’s asked about one before…wow we’re all a bit scared of him aren’t we.

Anoobis disappears off upstairs and I keep an eye on the bloomery while Ravenna begins hammering her fifth of iron off.

We’re all using 1 iron bar and a fifth of the spare one to make the hilt/add on a little extra if they’ve got a longer arm.

Peeking around, sure enough everyone seems to be doing the same, albeit it looks like some people don’t have as much ore as us…well that isn’t good for them.

*Whoosh*

Oh, the bloom is ready.

Opening the hatch, I take out the bloom with the tongs and place it straight into the forge, bellowed by a dead tired Nekineki…I mean we have been doing this for 6 hours now…

While Ravenna gets to work with the bloom, I grab some iron ore and begin removing the impurities.

Before, we just crushed and chucked it. Now we make sure to only put the iron granules into the bowl for the bloomery, the rest goes to the floor.

I’m sure Jarken does not like any of us right now with the mess we’re making…

Maybe 30 minutes later, after making sure to keep check on the bloomery every few minutes to keep it going; I’ve finally ‘purified’ 1 piece of iron ore.

It takes forever…it only took us about an hour and a half last time because 2 of us were doing it and were slightly less dead on our feet.

Though thankfully Anoobis comes strolling down with a sharp looking sword…though it doesn’t have a hilt?

He talks to Jarken, words not carrying over the din of hammering, and both go upstairs again.

Dammit, I need the help!

Pretty literally just dropping the hammer onto the ore now, I watch things break slowly, ever so slowly.

After another 30 minutes, I can still hear the slowly dying grunts of Ravenna as her body glistens with sweat, some flying off as she swings the hammer with her entire body following through.

Keep going, you can do it! Once you’ve made your sword it’s all done.

Anoobis walks back down with Jarken, sword in hand, now actually looking like one with a leatherbound hilt.

He makes his way over to us.

“Look guys, look” He waves it around excitedly. “Perverse thine eyes with this glorious blade, crafted from the inner workings of my sou-”

“QUIET MAGGOT” Jarken interrupts his speech (halleluliah) “YOU’RE NOT DONE YET, AND NEITHER ARE THE REST OF YOU” His eyes gaze towards a group of fish-ladies who are ‘oohing’ over a rough sword one of them made.

Everyone hunkers down once again.

…

“I’M DONE” Nekineki raspily shouts as she covets her new, rough looking sword a sort of charred black colour.

Everyone in my forge is done now, even me! And it only took us a totally of 8 hours

…

..

.

For swords…

“RIGHT, ALL YOU MAGGOTS WHO ARE DONE LISTEN UP. ALL WHO AREN’T DONE, STILL LISTEN UP AND EVERYONE DON’T FORGET TO KEEP YOUR FORGES RUNNING!” Jarken stands in the center of the room with his large white sack.

Thankfully we’ve smelted all our iron now so we don’t need to keep the bloomery running.

Its Anoobis’ turn on the bellows, so he gets to it; heavily panting with each squeeze of the contraption.

“FOR THOSE WHO’VE MADE A SWORD, IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S NOT UTTER CRAP” A compliment?! “SO NOW WE’LL MOVE ON TO SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE COMPLICATED…ARROWHEADS AND SPEARHEADS”

So they’re the same thing essentially? I mean that’s what I’m guessing since he’s told us we’re doing both…

“BOTH THE ARROWHEADS AND SPEARHEADS CONSISTS OF TWO THINGS” Looks like it “THE TIP AND THE BASE” He takes out a spearhead from the sack, pointing at the tip of the spearhead and then the empty cylinder at the back, so the base then.

“How do we make the base?” Braxus asks, hope in his eyes

“DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO MAKE A CIRCLE?” He sneers joyfully towards Braxus…he’s really enjoying playing with us.

“NO SIR” Anoobis shouts out from the bellows.

Jarken’s mouth twitches slightly.

“ALRIGHT, ONE PERSON FROM EVERY FORGE OVER HERE NOW” He points to a nearby forge and I go for my group, mostly since I’m the first over there…

He takes out a small bar of iron from the sack he brought down with him, putting it into the forge to heat it up.

“RIGHT SO YOU NEED TO FIRST MAKE A FISHTAIL” he takes the heated iron from the forge, and hammers away at it, flattening it and making what does actually look like a fishtail.

“NOW TO CURVE IT” Heating that up once more, he turns it on its side and starts hammering down, actually curving the metal as he ever so slightly turns the metal round as he hammers.

Within what feels like moments, the fishtail transforms into an empty cylinder.

“THAT IS HOW YOU MAKE THE BASE” He holds it up for all of us to gasp gloriously at it.

Imagine if he had us try figure that out on our own…I never would’ve thought of this.

“SO TO MAKE THE HEAD, YOU JUST CUT OFF A LITTLE BIT UP AND MAKE EITHER A TRIANGULAR SHAPE LIKE THIS” He shows us the spearhead, like a long triangle but with curved edges “OR LIKE THIS” the arrowhead triangle is actually a pyramid with a rectangular base? Surprised I actually know that, since math wasn’t exactly my strong subject…

Happily, I return to my forge and Ravenna takes out a piece of iron from the forge…where’d that come from?

Wait, where’s my sword?

…

..

.

Oh…

Well I guess we don’t have any more iron so that was the only way we were going to make something else…and we’ve still got to make 4 more things each apparently.

“Where do we get more iron?” someone asks in a nearby forge…not yet figuring out

*clang*

Sounds like Jarken whacked whoever it was over the head with their own sword…yup that’s exactly what happened.

Right, so fishtail first…surprisingly not as difficult as it first looked…

I did have to reheat it 3 times since I’m not as fast or masterful as Jarken so I had to take a lot more care in making it a good cylindrical shape.

Maybe 5 minutes passed and it’s done, Nice!

Heating it up and cutting off the metal at the length of my finger, I get to making this pyramid shape.

Once again quite simple; just a lot of light hammering, turning and so forth, along with re-heating over and over again.

Took me less than 10 minutes, that’s amazing!

Looking at my arrowhead, I notice that Nekineki had actually watched me make mine and was just completing her cylindrical base.

So my arrow is as long as the distance between the end of my index finger and my wrist…which is actually pretty long.

Though the arrowhead itself is only as long as my index finger, but still that’s quite a long bit of metal going into you if it does.

Switching with a half-collapsed Anoobis, he gets to hammering, having Nekineki gladly show him how to make a fishtail.

Apparently 8 hours of hell together really brings out the best in people.

She, he and then Ravenna finish their arrowheads all with ease while I continuously bellow, eating some bread mid-work.

Thankfully Jarken is coming around with some bread to keep us all alive, so everyone’s got a stack to eat now…

Ok, so spearheads now.

Spearheads are exactly the same process as before, but for the tip I flatten it out creating a decently rounded edge, but make sure that there’s a mostly untouched middle bit…since that’s what Jarken’s spearhead had and I’m sure it’s used for something…or to just stop it from breaking easily.

Ok, so spearhead done and that’s me done.

This time I’m on melting duty; putting part of the swords into the forge and letting them heat up and bind together when they cool down (apparently they cut the swords up while I was busy learning about fishtails).

Within an hour…we’re all done.

We’re 60% of the way!

“MAGGOTS, SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE ALL NOT USELESS FOR THESE THINGS. NOW YOU ALL MY BE WONDERING WHY THESE ARE MORE DIFFICULT THAN SWORDS?” I was actually “THEY AREN’T; I WAS JUST LYING TO YOU SO YOU’D DO A HARDER THING FIRST” He laughs

…

..

.

I’m actually not surprised about him doing that.

“ANYWAYS, NO MORE KIDDING AROUND PLAYING WITH CHILDRENS TOYS, BECAUSE NOW THE REAL SMITHING BEGINS, AXES” He takes out an axe from his sack.

Quite a few people crowd towards him, guess they like axes…or are just interested nonetheless since I’m one who crowds towards him.

“AXES HAVE THE HEAD AND THE HANDLE” He points to the sharp metal head and then the handle. “I SUGGEST YOU MAKE THE HANDLE FIRST” He gives us a smirk…well guess time to try things out till it works then.

I go back to my forge and while Nekineki handles the bellows, I continue melting and the other 2 start thinking.

Those 2 definitely have the brains to figure this out, so I’ll let them.

“Ok, so first we’ll make a handle the length of our forearm” Anoobis begins planning out verbally while Ravenna grabs some heated metal from the forge and begins hammering away.

“Baila come hammer” she grunts towards me mid-swing.

I do so and we both hammer on the metal, hammering it together, then heat it up so it melts together becoming one piece rather than just two hammered together pieces.

Then we continue hammering it with Anoobis’ instructions to make a handle which is a rectangular oval (?).

I did ask him why that sort of shape and the reason was because it’d be easier to grip.

Fair enough it is actually not that difficult to grip, and not too uncomfortable either (though it’s still just metal, not exactly smooth either…).

Finishing that, I’m back to melting metal and then hammering it back into bars.

Oddly enough the whole reverse engineering the iron has worked for us so far which is a godsend…but I’m sure there’s a downside to re-using the metal…apart from the time to remelt and reshape it...

While I do that, I watch Ravenna and Anoobis silently work yet somehow still mentally on the same wavelength as literally wordlessly they heat up both a bar and the handle.

Taking them both out, he turns the bar on its side and then Ravenna hammers the handle about an inch from the end, digging it into the iron bar.

Reheating and doing that multiple times over, they get the handle through, it slightly poking out the other side I notice as they hold it up (they hammered it over the hole in the anvil, smart people).

Then Anoobis turns the head of the axe (still an iron bar, but with a handle through it now) and starts hammering (after heating it up) the end of the bar, flattening it after many many reheatings.

Well now it looks pretty odd; it’s flat at the front and then just suddenly jumps up in thickness a little bit back.

He doesn’t seem done with it though as he continues to reheat it and starts leveling the rest of the bar, giving it a gradual increase in thickness.

Aha so that looks more like an axe now!

Finally finished after about 30 minutes, he holds it up for all of us to see.

That is quite nice.

To be honest none of these have been very difficult, albeit all our weapons look a bit rough…

But now it’s my turn to make it so let’s hope it’s not harder than it looks.

…

Phew, done!

Tiring work, having to hammer over and over and over again…literally have just collapsed and am now lying on the floor watching Jarken head over with his sack one more.

“RIGHT LISTEN UP MAGGOTS” Everyone looks round, though I can still hear more than a few still hammering away. “YOU’VE SEEMED TO MAKE LIVABLE AXES, EVEN TRIED TO MAKE A PROPER THING” I believe that was a compliment(?)…but it sounded a lot like an insult.

Peering round to see what the others seem to be thinking, I spot someone with a rough double-headed axe…oh is that what he means? Oh then that’s definitely an insult to the rest of us (and the one with the double-headed axe too probably)!

“SO INSTEAD OF LETTING YOU WALLOW IN YOUR OWN PRIDE, LET’S MOVE TO MACES.” He takes out what I’m going to assume is a mace “THIS IS A MACE” correct! “AND LIKE THE AXE IT IS MADE OF THE HEAD AND THE HANDLE…GO FOR IT”

He takes out a tall stand from his sack (seriously how much stuff is in that?) and places the mace on it, allowing us to see it even from our forge (though not very well).

I let Ravenna and Anoobis take over on figuring out how to create it and I crawl over to the bellows, dropping my body weight onto it.

While I do that, Ravenna and Anoobis come back to the anvil and begin breaking up our axes to re-melt and reuse them.

The process takes about 20 minutes to get a single bar and then Ravenna begins hammering while Anoobis and Nekineki continue melting more.

She hammers and hammers and hammers, till it’s flat…ok? No idea what she is…oh she’s curving it?

About another 20 minutes passes of this odd shaping and Anoobis actually begins on his own.

“Phew” Ravenna wipes off a layer of sweat, letting it drop to the already quite soaked floor, putting down the hammer momentarily to pick up her work instead.

Looking away from Anoobis’ oddly shaped bar I see that from above, Ravenna has made a longish cylinder (about 2 fists length).

Why did she do that?

Not finished, she heats up more metal and begins hammering that into a forearm length rod, leaving a slightly thicker part about a third of the way up for reasons unknown to me.

Finishing that within a good 10 minutes, she then heats both parts and slots the rod through the…oh no the rod is too thick.

She thins the rod a bit more before trying again and this time successfully slotting the rod through the cylinder.

Well that’s a mace I guess?

But she doesn’t seem to be done as she heads back to the forge and takes some more heated metal.

She starts creating arrowheads? Oh they’re going to be used for spikes!

Creating the arrowheads, the only difference is that the bases aren’t cylinders; they’re thin spikes which I guess will make it easier to hammer it into the metal.

And that’s exactly what she does after heating her ‘mace’ up.

Letting those cool down after only a few minutes of work, it’s done.

Well that is a mace and a half…and even if the 12 arrowheads (4 columns of 3 apparently) are blunt, it looks pretty damned dangerous…

She looks mildly happy with it and gives it a couple of swings, a devious smile rising on her lips.

Oh looks like we have a mace lover here.

Nekineki takes over and is given quick whispered instructions towards how to make it, before Ravenna takes control of the forge.

Unluckily, Anoobis is done shortly after, his mace quite different indeed: His head looks sort of like a cross from above and the sides of the jutted cross are like half hexagons which looks quite good actually.

Nowhere near as deadly looking as hers…but that’d definitely break some bones.

Plus the head is a decent amount bigger than hers.

With him done…oh no it’s my turn.

I decide to ask Anoobis how he made his since he took less time, plus I don’t think I’m much of a mace woman.

Apparently he just thinned the bar, then started hammering on the one side he put on the anvil while the rest hung off of it.

Turning that round 3 times it began making a cross shape, which I find out soon enough.

From there it’s just lengthening it, shaping it with bit of light hammering and then making the rod and smacking that through.

Huh…smart way of doing it and it seems to work pretty well.

He may be an asshole, but he’s smart, got to give him that…

Well at least we’re all done now! We’re blacksmiths now! Only took us 12 hours…only (compared to leatherworking it took less time!).

“MAGGOTS, LISTEN UP”Those who are finished like us huddle around him expectantly “NOW THAT YOU’VE MADE YOUR MACES…YOU ARE DONE”

“WOOHOO” Many shout out, using the last vestiges of their strength.

“WITH PRACTICING”

…

..

.

Excuse me what?

Jarken gives us a big grin “YOU WILL NOW START FROM THE BEGINNING AND FORGE A WEAPON OF YOUR CHOOSING. I WILL PROVIDE THE WOOD NECESSARY FOR A SPEAR IF YOU ARE COWARDLY ENOUGH TO MAKE ONE” He gives us a merry snort “ONCE YOU BELIEVE YOUR WEAPON IS WORTHY, GIVE IT TO ME AND IF IT IS WEAPONSMITH’S CREATION, YOU WILL BECOME A WEAPONSMITH”

…

..

.

From the beginning???

...

“C’mon Baila, you can do it” Ravenna gives me a soft pat on the shoulder she shakily takes away the looser impurities of the iron ore by hand.

“I can’t move my hands” I try not to sound whiny, but after 15 hours…15 HOURS straight of blacksmithing, my body is simply just not responding.

“Hammer” Nekineki raspily repeats, more to herself than to anyone, as she keeps dropping her hammer onto the iron ore.

“Guys once we’ve done this it’s all over!” Anoobis somehow still quite cheery, lies across the bloomery, not really caring about the heat blasting his body.

Finally, we’ve finished making 3 iron bars…in 3 hours…We’ve literally slowed down to a third of our ability…and I’m amazed we’re even that fast.

Only 2 more iron bars to create

…

*Clang…Clang…Clang*

Anoobis hammers away putting his full body weight with each swing, slowly shaping the metal…

He looks to be going for a sword, not the hardest but not the simplest either.

We’ve been at this 17 hours and we’re reaching the 18th hour…I’m not even standing anymore.

Being given forge duty, I’m just putting charcoal in from the floor (lobbing it over the side) every so often, keeping it going and listening the crackling fire.

*Clang*

Ravenna begins her mace once again on the other end of the anvil. Thank Aiag we have two hammers or we would be here forever.

I have no idea how either of them are still standing with such strength, such determination…maybe they really really want this skill.

Well I do too but seriously standing up is just not going to happen right now.

“There’s the blade” Anoobis holds up his blade and narrow grip, letting the fire’s reflect off the dark grey metal.

Shuffling over to the forge, he takes out some heated iron, and begins creating a guard.

Within 30 minutes of slow going work…we pass the 18th hour and he slowly clangs the sword through his guard, having to reheat it over 8 times in the process…

“Jarken” He takes his sword and starts shuffling over with quickened breath and a lot of vigor for someone almost worked to death.

He stops gazing over the wild looking elf’s shoulder and turns to Anoobis.

“Leather for grip and sharpening stone?” Although many people are working, no one is putting enough force into their swings to drown out speech.

Jarken takes him upstairs once again.

Guess it’s my go…

Dragging myself over, I have to literally pull myself to my feet, leaning onto the anvil once up.

Taking an iron bar, I push myself off the anvil, tripping towards the forge and grabbing onto it before I fall over.

Heating the metal, I push back towards the anvil and begin…making the handle for an axe.

Before I know it, an entire hour passes of my dropping my hammer onto the metal, ever so slowly shaping it…till it’s finally a handle like shape.

Took me an entire hour…an entire hour!

Ravenna has finished 3 arrowheads by now and is slowly making more, her hammer too just falling on the metal.

“EVERYONE” That doesn’t sound like Jarken.

Turning my head towards the voice, I take a moments respite from hammering myself to death.

It’s Anoobis shouting…

“LOOK AT THIS MAJESTIC BEAUTY THAT IS MY CREATIOAA” He trips as he shakily saunters down the stairs, almost hitting the ground before there is a dark flash, blinding me and everyone else in the room.

Woah, what was that?

Blinking a few times to get my eyes working again, I look towards the stairs…but Anoobis isn’t there. Huh? Where did he go?

Peering over to Jarken…he’s looking as confused as I…so it wasn’t his doing

…

..

.

Just what hell happened?

Well to be honest don’t really have the mind to think about that right now…plus I don’t exactly like him so whatever's he's done is not my problem.

Turning back to my metal I begin dropping my hammer on it once more

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Voila! And that's weaponsmithing 101!

ok so slight change in me writing chapters: will do 1 every 2 days due to people being round and taking away my time. but they're only here for like 2 weeks (so i'll still get a good 7 chapters out!)

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD