Vol. 7 - Power - Chapter 10 (Patreon)

While Thomas was working with the Ancient Lead, Snowlily had found a nice spot as far from him as she could physically get. The acrid acidic scent of the alchemical mixture might have been bad for him but for her, it was tens of times worse. She even went as far as to lay on the ground and cover her nose with her paws. The only saving grace for her is that when he wasn't actively bathing pieces of Ancient Lead, he stored the container inside of his inventory and gave both of their noses a break. Though every time he retrieved the container it was like a fresh new hell for her nose.

Thomas was kind enough to open the two windows in the forge and use the blower to circulate the air in the room. He did so by aiming the blower out one of the windows. This simple action sucked the air out of the forge and blew it outside of one window while fresh air flowed into the room from the other window. It wasn't perfect but it offered some relief for the two of them. It didn't completely end until Thomas had finished smelting and bathing every last piece of Ancient Lead inside of his inventory. At first, he only planned to do enough to work with but he changed his mind. He didn't want to have to deal with the nasty bath ever again.

Despite his best efforts, it still took several hours for him to smelt and bathe all the pieces of Ancient Lead that he had collected. Looking at the amount he had, he estimated that it was his second-largest haul of raw ore from the pirate caves. It was only beaten by the amount of Icebound Platinum he had. As for Mana-Touched True Silver and Sunshine Gold, he didn't have much of either. He wished he could get more, especially of the Sunshine Gold but he didn't see anything close to it when the was shopping.

Once the lead was all prepped, he stored the alchemical bath inside of his inventory where it could no longer harm anyone's nose. With all the lead taken care of, Thomas checked the time. He had about an hour left of his six-hour rental and nightfall. It was time for him to begin making his new set of tools. The first thing he intended to make was a short-handled sledgehammer. Something that could move a lot of material with each blow. From there he would make smaller hammers for more detailed work.

He retrieved his cross peen hammer from his inventory and smiled. This was the first hammer he'd made so long ago and he'd barely been able to use it. After he made his new set of tools, he would never use it again. Still, he planned to keep it for posterity. He spun the hammer in his right hand while retrieving a piece of Ancient Lead from his inventory. He could, very easily, Transmute the lead into the shape he wanted. However, he wanted to experience working with the Ancient Lead the old fashioned way before he took any shortcuts with it.

After setting down the Ancient Lead ore, he grabbed a pair of tongs and finally put hammer to metal. The delightful sound of his hammer hitting the cold lead rang through the room. Snowlily perked up at the sound and watched Thomas as he worked. Deep inside she wished she could take on her human form and help her companion as his assistant. She didn't know anything about Blacksmithing when she was born but in her time watching Thomas she had at least learned a little bit. Maybe she couldn't make anything but she could at least use the tongs to hold the metal in place for him or run the blower to the forge. Something, anything, that would let her work side-by-side with him.

Each blow of the flat-faced cross peen hammer moved the lead and slowly reshaped it. He wasn't making anything overly complicated. Essentially, he was turning the chunk of ore into a lead brick. This would be the core of the hammer and give it the weight it needed to do a proper job. Mithril by itself was simply too light and would require too much of a change in his usual swinging patterns to compensate for the lightness. That would lead to a decline in the quality of his work and that was unacceptable.

Thanks to the treatment from the Alchemical mixture, the Ancient Lead was as soft as normal lead at the moment. It would remain that way until it was placed inside of the forge and heated back up once more. Making a brick out of the lead didn't take a whole lot of effort and was soon completed. Of course, it wasn't perfectly rectangular, but it was close enough. With the feeling of working the lead, he felt he could finish it the easy way. Mana flowed through his hands and wrapped around the mostly completed lead brick. Quickly the edges became perfectly flat and the corners became sharp. At the same time, a hole opened up in the center of the brick that would accommodate the handle later.

Once he finished refining the shape of the lead brick, he set it inside of the forge and increased the temperature by feeding mana into the blower. From what he understood, it was actually impossible to melt the Ancient Lead using plain coal. The same applied to more materials that he would work with in the future. There was a solution though. Mana infused coal. It wasn't as easily found as common coal and cost quite a bit more but it was able to reach much higher temperatures. He'd probably never use it though. Once he could design his own U.L.T.R.A. he would build a more modernized forge that could reach higher temperatures.

After a few minutes, he plucked the hot Ancient Lead hammer core out of the forge and set it on the smallest anvil in the room to cool. While it was cooling down he pulled out one of his purified Mithril ingots and looked it over. His next step was to simply layer the Mithril over the Ancient Lead to complete the hammer's head. He set the Mithril down and pulled something much larger out of his inventory. Thanks to being able to feed mana into it himself, his Inventory had been increasing constantly. It didn't have specific dimensions just a specific amount of volume to store things inside of. Thanks to that he was able to pull out a three-meter long log of wood.

The log of wood didn't look all that impressive. Similar to a nice quality piece of oak. In fact, that's the price he paid for it and the other two similar logs inside of his inventory. However, appearances could be extremely deceiving. His eyes flashed blue as he examined the log once again.

Item Type: World Tree Sapling Log   
Rarity: Epic   
Quality: Above Average   
Description: This log was made from a sapling grown from one of the seeds of the World Tree. Sadly, it only managed to grow for a few hundred years before it was cut down. It's still capable of channeling large amounts of mana but it's incomparable to a fully grown ancient World Tree.    

Thomas grinned as he read the description again. The shop he'd bought it from had no idea what the log really was. It had been stored sitting right next to similar-looking regular oak logs. He only had to pay a total of seventy-five gold for the three logs. He didn't know how much they were worth but he was damned sure they were worth far more than twenty-five gold apiece. Without his eyes, he wouldn't have been able to see that they were so different. His eyes were such a cheat letting him pick up an Epic rarity material for such a cheap price!

He set the log down and conjured up a large circular saw blade with sharp teeth. The blade caught Snowliy's attention as it began to rapidly spin in the air. It reached such a high speed that it began to whine before it even touched the log. Thomas carefully looked over the three-meter long log and decided to cut off just twenty-five centimeters. It seemed a bit long for a hammer handle but he would prefer for it to be a bit longer so it could be trimmed to a perfect size rather than too short. Once the spinning blade touched the wood, sawdust started to fly through the air.

The log was as tough, if not tougher, than an oak log but the sharp teeth of the saw blade easily chewed through it. He moved it slowly so he could keep the speed of the blade up. Just a few minutes later a large section of the log was trimmed off. He now had a twenty-five-centimeter long piece with a diameter of about forty centimeters. It was more than enough to make several hammer handles. He kept the piece he cut off out and stored the remainder of the log back inside of his inventory.

The saw blade continued to spin as Thomas started to cut the round sides off of the log piece to make it into a squared shape. When he was done cutting the sides off of the log it became a square with each side being approximately twenty-five centimeters. From there he cut the square into twenty-five centimeter long and five centimeter wide planks. Lastly, each plank was cut into five centimeter wide pieces. When he was done he had twenty-five pieces of wood that could be used for handles. Each piece being five centimeters wide and tall while being twenty-five centimeters long. Still a tad big for a handle but sanding it into shape would reduce it in size.

He stored away twenty-four of the unshaped handles and kept the last one to use with the hammer. Once he moved over to the grinding wheel, he began to shave and grind the handle down to shape. With the World Tree logs, he felt like using his Transmutation to reshape it to his needs would somehow be disrespectful. He was also worried that messing with the grain pattern of the wood might disrupt or even ruin the mana conduction of the wood. As he ground it he channeled some mana through it and was shocked as how easily the mana went from one hand to the other through the wood. It was exactly what he needed for his hammers.

To shape the handle he mostly just founded it with a slight taper to what would, eventually, be the front of the hammer. With the handle mostly to shape, he stopped and returned to the anvil with the Ancient Lead sitting on it. He checked the temperature of the lead and felt that it had cooled to room temperature. The lead was carried over to the Mithril and set on top of the Mithril ingot. Mana flowed through his hands into the ingot and began reshaping it. The Mithril moved like mercury and flowed around the lead at his command.

Soon the Mithril completely covered the lead in a bright silver coat that drastically increased the size of the hammer's head. The two faces of the hammer were shaped to be octagonal without any sharp corners that could leave deep marks on his work. He left no sharp edges on the hammer. Every edge was rounded and smooth. As his mana was withdrawn the Mithril returned to a hardened state that nestled a solid core of Ancient Lead. Picking it up, Thomas could feel a nice, heavy, weight located perfectly in the center of the hammer's head. A simple check showed him that the head was almost perfectly balanced.

He conjured another saw blade and used it to cut a slot in the top of the handle where the wedge could be fit. He carried the head and handle over to the grinding wheel and used it to carefully grind the top of the handle so that it could fit snugly into the eye of the hammer. Once the top of the handle fit in nicely, he cut off a piece of wood from the scrap wood made when he turned the log into a square. He cut and ground the piece into a nice wedge and hammered it into the slot gently. This applied pressure that would keep the handle firmly in place.

For the final step, he pulled out another ingot of purified Mithril and reshaped a small section of it into a small ball that he snapped off. The small ball was then reshaped into a solid staple and driven into the eye of the hammer to hold the wedge in place for good. After the final hit of his hammer to drive in the staple, the newly completed hammer flashed with a blinding white light.

System Notice: You have created an Epic rarity Blacksmith's Sledgehammer. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 2,165 Magitech Engineering experience. You have gained 2,165 experience.       

System Notice: You have created your first Epic item. Your title Rare Crafter has evolved into Epic Crafter.       

System Notice: Epic Crafter: When you craft an Epic grade, or higher, item you gain a bonus 80% experience for the associated profession. Additionally, you gain 200% of the experience for that item as regular experience.       

Item Type: Blacksmith's Sledgehammer   
Rarity: Epic   
Quality: Excellent   
Description: A custom made sledgehammer style blacksmiths hammer. Made with rare materials, having a nearly perfect weight, balance, and excellent mana conduction, this hammer will be used to produce amazing works. Any blacksmith would give their nondominant arm to own such a hammer.