chapter 11

Arowen was now faced with choices, which of the 5 materials he would choose to make a weapon out of the rainbow clam pearl was already out of the equation, too showy for him and kinda gay

next one he would rule out was the sea stone, by now we already know that Arowen is obsessed with the sword, and Jeel recommended that sea stone is better for blunt weapons

the dragon spike and yellow mercury are also ruled out as well for the same reason, though he was still interested in the yellow mercury, and that leaves us with the blood vein iron, to him it was the most logical choice for a good weapon, plus he just had the feeling that it will bring him more surprises than what he bargained for so he told jeel about his choice

"I believe that the blood vein iron is perfect"

"hmm! good choice there lad, the procedure of forging it is quite complicated and i will need your help during the process, i never had the opportunity to work with it, but in the history books of my family one of my ancestors chanced upon a piece of it and forged a dagger called bloody fang for the dracule family, he recorded the process and i have been studying it since i got this chunk of blood vein iron, he recorded that the dagger had strange properties, he said that it could repair itself with the blood of enemies, and count dracule of that time reported that is he continued to use it for a long time the dagger strengthened his body as well, but it also drove him to get mad in the end count dracule was defeated by his grandson dracule von hellsing, as his madness got too wild and started killing civilians, it was reported that the dagger was cursed and was sealed in a hidden place of the dracule castle, since then no one heard of it, at least those were the rumors that reached my ancestor and he recorded it, i am not sure about the legends but i am really excited to forge a weapon with this metal, i don't care if the legends are true and i will be making a demonic weapon, my job as a smith is to forge what you do with the weapon is up to you, now we should get started, come with me i will brief on the procedure"

to say that Arowen was surprised by the story was an understatement, the times he was surprised in this shop was more than both his lifetime (just exaggerating), especially the familiar names and how it resembled a legend from his past life about the vampire Dracula count of Transylvania, and the hunter van Hellsing, it was quite similar but that isn't our story, but hearing that the weapon could repair itself, he found it to be really magical, how did the weapon even know how to do it, is a mystery to him, but let I your favorite narrator talk you through it later, Arowen was also fascinated by the story where the dagger strengthened the user as well, though the madness part worried him, but he is gonna take his chances here, and if he felt something wrong he will just abandon the weapon, there are better choices out there after all

"ok, looking forward to it" Arowen spoke with great enthusiasm

"I am sure you do" jeel replied with his lazy attitude as he picked the ore and once in the room he lit the furnace somehow, Arowen didn't see as Jeel covered it with his back and put the ore inside, then he went back to the bed sat down and started explaining

"the old records tells of a way to forge the blood vein iron but it is very complex and needs the help of the owner as well, my ancestor did a lot of research, and trial and error before he was able to figure out the way to properly forge it, in his research he discovered that the metal is highly heat resistant, it was quenched with the blood of the whale throughout its life, and the whale main food is lava from the ocean floor, the whale had high body temperature, even higher than the lava it feeds on, and the iron is formed from the poison inside the lava, its body doesn't sweat like us, that's how we get rid of poison, you can add that to your knowledge, so instead it gathers it in a special space in its heart, and as the years go on, what its body considers poison, is subjected to the high heat of its body and the pressure from its heart beat and harden, to become the blood vein iron, and when the piece of iron grows too much to hinder it heart beat and blood flow, the whale suffers from a heart attack and dies, quite a tragic way to die, the whales just keep growing non stop and have no natural predator, but that's how nature find its balance" Jeel stopped his story right here and saw that Arowen listening with rapt attention and was happy, though it didn't show on his face, it is a rule of his that before he makes a weapon for someone, he must inform them of the material there weapon is made of even if it is just normal iron, and yes he makes normal weapons, but when he sees someone special he makes him a special weapon as well

"from what I told you so far you must have some idea on how hard it is to forge this iron, and it needs high temperature that rivals the whale's body or is even higher, even more, it needs monstrous strength to shape it, unfortunately, the human body could only give out so much strength and I have grown old"

at this point, you would expect Arowen to be depressed but he was just listening, he knew that if this old man couldn't forge it, he wouldn't have brought out the metal in the first place, he had seen enough novels and anime after all, and these kinds of old monsters won't do nonsense, even if it may seem illogical and impossible to you, they always have a way to make it work, so seeing that Arowen is still following him he continued

"for the heat, it isn't a problem, the furnace there is a family heirloom, and would do the trick, but the shaping is a problem, even if I was at my peak, I wouldn't be able to shape it, the density of the material is too high, that's why I need your help"

"I would be happy to, but honestly I don't see how I could be of help, I am quite weak my self" said Arowen with a derisive smile

"hahaha! don't worry lad, you wouldn't be hitting metal, what I need from is your blood"

"my blood!!?" here Arowen was quite confused, how could blood be of help in forging, he knows that in some xianxia novels the use of blood is common to either bond a weapon, or give special properties to weapons but he couldn't see how it would help

"I see you are quite confused" back to lazy attitude

'no shit! old man, and do you have some mental problem, you changed your attitude too many times'

"well! my ancestor, cracked this problem after a lot of research and found out that if you add blood in the forging process the metal softens a little and you can shape it, the rest is up to me, but I will need a constant supply of blood, I would use animal blood normally as my ancestor did, but after pondering over the years, I think that the reason for why count dracule turned mad is exactly that, there was different blood used in the forging process and that created a chaotic will in the weapon, I know that you may find it hard to believe that a weapon could have a will of its own, but in my experience, I came across such things, even made some of my own, heck I came upon a living weapon once, barely survived" Arowen, of course, didn't call him a liar, in fact, he totally believed him, and from his time in this world he believes that the show didn't shine a light on all this world has to give, there may be more secrets he doesn't have a clue about

"I believe you, so when do we start!?" Arowen by this time was very eager

the old-timer was surprised by his answer but this time didn't show any reaction to it and continued

"Since you agree, but I have to warn you, to use the owner's blood is only a theory of mine, it may not have an effect, so are you sure?"

"yes"

"Alright then, we cannot start the forging process yet, we need to wait for the iron to heat up first otherwise the blood would not be effective, so starting tomorrow I will need you to come every day at the afternoon to drop blood, and you better bring with you some medicine to help blood regeneration, we will need a lot of blood and it is best if you don't die on me before we even started"

"ok then, see you tomorrow" and with that Arowen went back to the base with a swing, so happy that he felt himself on a cloud