Vol. 5 - Journey - Chapter 27 (Patreon)

Once they entered the shop they just made their way into the smithy past Darla. Once Rockbeard spotted Thomas, he made his way over to greet him, "Mornin' kid."

Rockbeard glanced down at Snowlily as she was being pretty conspicuous in her behavior and trying to show off the new collar. Since he was so short he didn't need to kneel down to get a good look at the collar wrapped around her neck. The black leather contrasted nicely with her pure white fur and set off the clear glittering gems. Rockbeard looked at the gems and smiled, "So you got her a collar made with Frozenite ore?"

Thomas looked down at the gems in the belt that was acting as a collar and then back to Rockbeard, "Frozenite ore? Those gems are ore of some kind?"

Rockbeard nodded, "They're not very high quality so no one would use them for anything but decoration. You need medium to high quality elemental ores for creating things above Magical grade. Elemental ore of low quality can sort of be used but it takes a fair amount of them for a small upgrade." He gestures to Snowlily's collar, "Those twenty or so ores would only increase ice magic by a small amount. Just a moment."

He turned and jogged over to one of the large cabinets lining the walls of the room and filled with materials. He pulled a box out of one and jogged right back. He looked up at Thomas while flipping the lid open and grinning, "This is a medium quality Fahrentite ore."

Inside of the box was a hunk of ore that looked like a bright red lightly glowing gem. Thomas could feel the wave of warmth coming from the gem. It felt like the warmth of the sun on a hot day to him, though in reality, the ore was putting out a temperature of about 150°C. Rockbeard closed the box back up and held it out toward Thomas, "This is just a medium quality one, take it."

Thomas didn't stand on ceremony and accepted the ore from Rockbeard. At the same time that he stored it away, he plucked one of the purified orc mana crystals from his inventory and discreetly held it out toward Rockbeard, "Here, take it."

Rockbeard quickly snatched the mana crystal and hid it from sight with a concerned look. He growls in a low tone, "Kid you really need to stop pulling out such rediculous stuff!"

Thomas smirked, "I'm only getting started with rediculous. But I promise to keep it down around your guys so I don't cause any trouble."

Rockbeard grunted and walked away to get back to his own work. Thomas laughed and went over to the forge he was using and set his blower in place. With the forge lit and everything set up, he placed the steel he'd been working with the previous day into the flames and got to work. He'd forge-welded all the layers together properly and folded it several times already, now it was time to shape it into a weapon. Once the metal was plenty hot he pulled it from the forge with a pair of tongs and set it on his anvil.

As a big lump of metal, most of the work was already done. He just needed to get it into a uniform shape and add some extra touches. He went to work with his hammer. The sweet rings of metal colliding with metal echoed through the shop from not just his work but the other blacksmiths as well. He shaped the metal into a rough rectangle. With the first round of shaping complete, he picked up a punch tool and used it to pound a hole clean through the center of the steel brick. He pounded the punch completely through the steel brick. The punch was left inside of the brick as Thomas hammered it into shape to keep the sides even and the whole thing squared up.

When the metal started to get too cold to hammer, he extracted the iron punch and put the block of steel back into the forge to heat up once more. When it was up to temperature he pulled it out and pounded the punch right back into it to continue shaping the steel. Once he felt that the steel was in the best shape he could get it by hand, he stopped hammering it and let it air cool for a while. While that was happening, he made his way over to Rockbeard, "Hey, do you have any wood that would be good for making a handle for a hammer?"

Rockbeard looked up from his work then gestured to the back door of the smithy, "Go out back and into the shed with the blue door. All the wood is stored there. Just take what ya like."

Thomas found the shed easily enough and was surprised by the variety of wood stored inside. He was no arborist so he couldn't tell what any of them actually were. He could just spot the difference in the bar, wood color, and graining of the wood. After looking around for a bit he found a block of wood that caught his attention. The block of wood was nearly pitch black with close-knit grains that felt smooth to the touch without even being sanded or polished. When he pulled it from the rack he found that it was nearly two meters long and weighed far more than he would have expected. It seemed like a very dense wood.

He brought it into the shop and caught Rockbeard's attention, "I think I'll use this."

Rockbeard stroked his magnificent beard and nodded slowly, "Ironwood. Good stuff. It's extremely hard so you'll have a bitch of a time cutting and shaping it into a handle. It's worth the effort though. Despite how hard it is it's also somewhat flexible making it excellent for handles and especially bows."

Thomas looked over the black wood for a bit and studied it a bit more. He'd dealt with Ironwood of various types in other games but this was the first time he'd heard of flexible Ironwood. Most times it was just hard as iron and used to make things like lances, shafts for spears, or shafts for other polearms. He turned back to Rockbeard, "Got a suggestion for cutting it?"

Rockbeard pointed to a well used and well-maintained axe in the corner of the room, "Have fun."

Thomas picks up the axe and carries it and the wood back outside. There's no such thing as a sawhorse in the smithy but there's a nice large stump sitting in the yard. He sets the axe down on the ground and leaves it there while he sets the Ironwood on the stump. He lifts his right hand with his index and middle fingers extended and the rest of his digits folded into a fist. Mana gathers and soon there's a loud hissing sound as the air in front of his fingers forms a thirty-centimeter long blade.

The very air around the blade hisses as he moves his hand and the blade closer to the Ironwood. The Ironwood is about ten centimeters wide by ten centimeters tall and nearly a meter long. He eyeballs about thirty centimeters down from the top and places the edge of the wind blade against the log. Immediately there's a loud screeching sound, thin whisps of grey smoke and the smell of burning wood filling the air. The windblade at the tips of his fingers is wind accelerated to supersonic speeds that is slowly slicing through the Ironwood like a chainsaw.

The Ironwood really is extremely dense and very sturdy. No matter how much smoke the windblade causes there's no fire started. It slowly and unceasingly cuts through the Ironwood. Even with the use of magic, it takes him nearly half an hour to cut through just ten centimeters of the wood. The wood was unbelievably hard and almost didn't seem worth the effort. However, if he made the handle well he would be able to reuse it in the future. Unlike a normal hammer that would require a wooden and metal wedge, he could just use his Transmutation to expand the wood for a tight fit and contract it to remove it.

Thomas returned the excess Ironwood to the woodshed and carried the piece he'd cut off into the smithy. It took him until just before lunch to chop, cut, chisel, and sand the Ironwood into a decent handle for the hammer he was working on. The Ironwood was a total pain to work on but the final product was well worth it. The handle looked like a gorgeous piece of ebony and was as hard as iron while still being slightly flexible. He made sure the top of the handle would fit nicely within the hole in the hammer so only a little Transmutation would be needed to make it a tight fit.

After a quick lunch with Snowlily, Thomas returned to his work. He hadn't expected to take so long just to make the handle but he felt the time was worth it. At this point, the hammer head was stone cold. He placed his hand on it and activated his Transmutation. The glowing mana wrapped around the Origin Steel and slowly adjusted the outer layer of the steel. All six sides became perfectly flat with sharp corners. It looked like nothing more than a large metal brick with a hole through the center. No aesthetics, no pretty designs, just boring straight edges. Obviously, he couldn't leave it like that.

He took the metal brick over to the grinding wheel and used the lowest grit wheel to grind off all of the sharp corners. He carefully ground all the corners off at a nice angle to add some depth and character to the hammer head. Once the bulk grinding was done he used Transmutation to smooth it out. He didn't want to use his ability on too large of a scale and risk messing with the internal structure of the weapon, but using on the surface didn't bother him much at all.

With all the surfaces clean he walked back over to the anvil and set the hammer head down. After picking up the Ironwood handle he worked it into the hammer head until it was flush with the top. It was already a tight fit so just a little tweak with his Transmutation bound the handle and completed a very basic hammer. He gripped the Ironwood handle and lifted it up. The several ingots or Original Steel and the Ironwood gave it a nice heft that would definitely deal some damage just with pure physical strength. That wasn't quite good enough though.

Thomas retrieved all of his enchanting tools from his inventory and quickly made up some enchanting medium with a purified orc mana crystal. He opened his blueprint system and went to the file for the gravity hammer he'd thought up on the way to town. The plans had evolved from the original concept into something wholly different. He started by carefully using the engraving tool to place enchanting medium into lines along the angled corners of the hammer. They were modeled after simple filigree. He wasn't much of an artist so they looked rather basic.

With those four lines carved he turned the hammer so that he could carve on one of the faces. The four filigree lines from the angled corners were extended onto the face of the hammer and connected to each other to form an X on the face of the hammer. He flipped the hammer over and repeated the same process on the other face. The four filigree lines were now completely connected and form a continuous interconnecting loop around the hammer. For the next step, he lays the hammer down on its side and begins to carve a spiral pattern of filigree around the ironwood handle from the very bottom all the way to the hammer's head. He finished it by connecting the filigree line on the handle with one of the lines going across the length of the hammer's head. Carving the patterns takes several hours but he feels it will be worth every last bit of effort.

For the final phase of the enchantment, he makes sure to line up the image he pre-drew within his blueprint system with the top of the hammer. The pattern was complex, the most complex one he'd ever designed for any single enchantment. This was also a bit of a gamble but from what he knew about enchanting it should work... maybe. He started to slowly carve several swirling patters that spiraled down into several nodes, similar to the ones for his hot-swap enchantment experiment. Each node was made to be the exact same and there were a total of twenty-five of them spaced out on the top of the hammer.

When the nodes were completed he carved a single line to connect the grouping to the filigree lines. With that everything was completely connected. It took him six hours and ten orc mana crystals to draw the complex enchantment onto the hammer.

System Notice: Please state a name for your creation.

Thomas simply whispered two words, "Gravity Hammer".

System Notice: You have created an Uncommon rarity Gravity Hammer. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 390 Magitech Engineering Experience. You have gained 97 experience.

System Notice: Your title "Magical Crafter" has been upgraded to "Uncommon Crafter".
Uncommon Crafter: When you craft an Uncommon grade, or higher, item you gain 20% additional experience for the associated profession. Additionally, you gain 50% of the experience for that item as regular experience.