ironwood

Waking with the sunlight, like every other day in the past years, Alex exited the stone chamber. Packing the backpacks in his storage, he shouldered the last one containing the hatchets heads, to avoid suspicion. Making his way back to the settlement, Alex was surprised to see some of the women already spreading and mixing the ground with the cooled ashes. Waving at them while passing, he caught a glimpse of relieved expression at his sight.

-You can't blame them to react that way, you did have a significant part in ensuring their survival. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Josh had already told everyone about your plan to stay and deal with the goblins.-

'I know.' Sigh Alex, as he passed the still blown gate.'But we won't stay forever. Once we take care of the surrounding lair, we would have few reasons to stay behind.'

-Will do, here he is.- Nodded CS, before averting Alex of the smith presence, already at work.

'No wonder, seeing the number of swords that snapped in the assault, they also need to refurbish the outposts, if not remade them entirely.'

Having some time to look around until the last time, Alex explored the smithy. The place was small, barely a hundred-metre square. The building on itself was made in a rectangular form, separated in two main part. The larger part, making the two-third of the place was storage. Charcoals was the principal good taking the most area, with a side of raw iron and copper ore and various other metals trace.

On the sidewall, a collection of completed work, two swords in their scabbard on a rack, three lance and few shields. To their side, a wooden case filled with the shattered sword shards. Another smaller case was half-full of arrows heads and snapped shafts, ready to be either processed or melted.

Hearing a grunt, Alex turned, facing the old gruff-looking at him.

~~~

The two stay silent, gazing at each other before the older man releases another grunt.

"What'ya want, son?"

"Advice or info, following what you know, borrow the forge for a little along with some coals and perhaps some iron to made you some steel?"

The old smith looked hard at him before nodding. Smiling at the man, Alex returned to the smaller section of the smithy. Along the wall it's share with the storage, the area had another two partitions, leaving the forge's side where the bellows were, open. In reality, the wall was made with two large doors, but it was as good as if the smithy had only three walls as they took all the length.

Looking briefly at the burning forge, he added more crushed coals, making a depression in the middle, before activating the bellows fiercely. The softly burning coal took an angry red colour, rapidly burning the additional layer.

Feeling the rising temperature through his skin, Alex took out a hatchet head, before depositing it on the centre of the depression he created. Covering them with a new layer of coals, he didn't leave the forge out of his gaze, as he plays the bellows.

Taking a light sniff for time to time, he buried the tongs the bed of coals seemingly randomly, before taking out a cherry-red piece of iron. Rather than putting it on the anvil, he left it on the forge edges, in front of the burning bed of coals.

Lightly tapping a sharp nail on it, a barely visible film of magic covered the piece of iron.

~~~

Unlike the last time, the old smith moved to the side of Alex, breathing an inaudible sigh of relief when he sees the fleeting gaze of the young, seemingly unbothered by his presence. The chance of one observing or assisting in magic smithing was notably low in one life. Even if Alex had refused the man, he would still have left his use the forge, so he kept quiet and far enough not to bother or hinder him.

Eruger looked with a gaze of absolute awe at the young when impurities seem to bleed out of the iron after a light tap of his nail on it, let alone the fact that he was touching, even briefly, the hot-red metal bare-handed!

As the impurities stopped to bleed, they vanished, throw in a bucket of water with a negligent flick of his hand. Alex crushed a lump of coal from his free hand, far from the kept hot iron he rapidly turn around regularly. Filtrating anything other than carbon out of the powdered coals, he sprinkled it like a baker would flour on his bread.

Again, he lightly touched the iron with his nail, folding it in two, the metal seemingly stuck to his finger, flattened by an unseen force, the iron spread in its initial rectangular form.

~~~

The last three actions only took ten seconds and were repeated for a complete ten minutes, producing a sixty-time folded steel piece. Quenching it after keeping it in an ingot shape, Alex looked at it, running his fingers on the smooth surface, sniffing it lightly, before nodding and turn to the smith who stays at his side the entire process.

"This is the best I have made with what I have here, better than the messy blade I made five days ago." Say, Alex, passing the steel ingot to the baffled man, unexpectedly giving it to him from his reserve. "I need to know if there is any magical metal around here and where I can find it."

Understanding the situation, Eruger nodded, relieved than he wasn't gifted the ingot. While steel wasn't such uncommon metal, Tiris hasn't the required structure to make it, much less purify the iron ore they had to extend great. This single piece of five hundred grams would be made one of the best sword he crafted until today, a perfect gift for his unique son risking his life in guarding the settlement.

"On the west of here, is a cluster of trees known as ironwood trees. The growth on the hard, rocking ground, and areas though as iron. If processed correctly, they give what is called magical steelwood." Responded him, looking intently at Alex.

The young Evans didn't need to be worded it in bold characters to understand.

"Would it inconvenient someone that some of this tree was cut down?"

"The guild keeps a close eye for it on the market and would always ask where it came from, to kept the cluster forested, they say." Grunted him already returning to his work after carefully storing the ingot in hidden storage.

~~~

-Seems the guild isn't as benevolent one would though.- Said CS pensively.

'That or they want to keep a close eye on WHO brought it. If what the name says, it would be good weapons and equipment for low-level adventurers. Correctly armed, a small group would run havoc in the dungeon and kill indiscriminately. Not only it would endanger the other Familia, but also threaten the stability of Orario. I don't think the guild would be pleased with power-play like those. But it could also be as you said.'

-Imagine what you could do with a bow made of this wood? With proper arrows made of the same wood, you wouldn't need a second arrow to take down hob-goblin.- Said Cs seriously, considering the words of Alex and understanding his previous opinion.

'What I thought exactly. While Eruger kept quiet on the process, him being a smith and it being similar to iron, I wouldn't be surprised if it would be as simple as metal refinement. The necessary carbon would be added in the iron with the burning wood, turning it into steel. The fact it magical make me think that the process may not be entirely depending on the crafter, but also of its inherent nature.'

~~~

Following the trace left by the pack passage, Alex quickly found the west trail and run along, taking a short stop mid-way to eat and cook his morning catch, just before he started his travel back Tiris. With the extensive expansion his storage had, Alex could store a larger amount of food; he still could stop time in one of the pockets he could create. Say space wasn't extraordinary, only a tenth of the global storage, but it was more than enough.

Fews minutes after his stop, the path started to widen, until it was two times larger than he had been further back Alex. He stopped once again and lightly sniffed the air, barely spotting the hobgoblins sent buried under one variant and goblins.

"They came from the same lair!" Immediatly understood Alex.

Continuing on his way, he briefly glimpses as a completely ruined outpost, two times larger than the one he passed. Frowning, he caught their smells before hearing them. Hiding, Alex stealthy approached the place, discovering the team's gazing horses left by the guild expedition.

"Captain Marron, why are we still there?" Whined who he thought to be a young woman, her voice muffled by the cracked walls. "Even if we know the lair is in the cluster of ironwood, we haven't found it even after five days!"

"You know damn well why we need to found it! Dungeon cores are worth a fortune on the black market, even goblins one, baka-Mira" A younger one chimed.

"Shut up, you flat board! I know that too, but there were three goddamned hobgoblins in the horde too! Who says there not another one hidden in there! I won't throw my life away for a barely worth 70 Valis monster guarding a stupid Dungeon core!" Shouted back the woman, seemingly effortlessly riled-up by the younger girl.

"Flat board!" Spluttered her. "Who's the flat board, you overstuffed fake!"

"Both of you shut-up!" Yelled Marron. "Sirina his right Mira, we need the core, I have already sold it to the Freya Familia." Said the captain decisively.

The short silent was rapidly broken by the sound of a chair scraping against the floor.

"You did what?!" Yelled back Sirina." How dare you sold the core without our accord, we..." He rent was suddenly stopped by a loud smack, before hearing something crashing down, probably the woman.

"You should do better than forgetting who's the captain, your little shit!" Said Marron ominously, making Alex understand what happen to the girl.

"S-sorry." Was it not for his higher hearing, he wouldn't have caught the stuttering and fearful mutters.

~~~

Taking his distance from the outpost, Alex made his way to the cluster, now following the group's sent trail left.

-You aren't going to interfere?- Asked CS neutrally.

'They are humans; they can deal with their own filth. If they try to steal the core while I had it, though, I'm not against taking care of them.'

-Wouldn't be the guild suspicious? You're the only one around there who could.-

'I don't think so. While I didn't see him, I know that the man, Marron is a level 2 adventurer, I simply don't stand a candle in front of him, in a fair fight anyway.' Say, Alex, knowing full well that they were more than one way to win a fight.

~~~

Following the trail made it easier for Alex to found the cluster, he discovers that the goblins' path he was following wasn't initially starting there.

Looking at the trees, and running a hand on it, he could tell how much those were different from others. All trees had a light shade of brown bark in the surrounding, with vibrant green leave, around 40 meters high. Had thick foliage spreading far and starting around a two-third of the trunk. Those ironwood trees, on the other hand, have a black bark, with sickly grey leaves. The foliage wasn't spreading further than three metres from them and had only branches at the very top. All had a similar height of thirty metres, straight and thicker than the other lightly crooked trees.

From the light tap, it was evident that the ironwood bark was at list five-time denser than the other trees, let alone the wood itself.

-No wonder few are cut down, even steel blades would be hard-pressed to put a scratch on those bark, forget about cutting them.- Whistled, CS, at the tree sturdiness.

"Even then, they would need to drag them back. Without a clear path to move those tons of wood, the task would take weeks, perhaps a month to bring back to Orario.