Forging

A moment of silence for the dead dwarf that…

"What are you doing there you fool! Do you realize the mistake you committed?!"

What?! He's still alive?!

[This is great I thought you were dead! This is really good…]

"Hell no! There is nothing great there! At all!"

Wait, don't tell me he is suicidal and wanted to die? Ah, maybe he just doesn't enjoy visits, who knows.

"Because of you, the entire process failed! Now, this piece of scrap is worthless!"

Wait, he means he didn't get to cool the metal? That one is totally on him!

[Then why did you jump so far away?! Couldn't you have just kept working?!]

"How was I supposed to know that you were there?! That surprised me!"

[How was I supposed to know it would surprise you? I tried calling you a few times!]

"Of course I need to focus on forging!"

[That's why I was just chilling in the pond!]

"Why are you even here in the first place?! This is my house!"

Wait, he lives in a volcano?! This is so metal! Get it, forging, metal. Of course, you do haha.

[The old ghost sent me here to get a weapon.]

"*Snort* That old guy. I'm so going to beat him up the next time I see him!"

[I'll help! Just tell me how!]

He looks at me appreciatingly. Did our common hatred just bring us closer? Isn't this a very beautiful thing?! I would definitely agree.

"Why did he even send you here in the first place? A weapon was it?"

[Yes, he taught me swordsmanship and now I need a sword to go with it.]

"Oh? How did the training go?"

[Horrible. He is a sadist!]

"He totally is! He is annoying as fuck too!"

[He really is!]

"Did he force you to learn etiquette?"

[How did you know?]

"He tried that in the past. He wanted everyone in the forest to learn about it. Good thing Yggdrasil intervened."

I knew it! My friend is cool.

He wouldn't screw with people like that.

"Alright, I'll forgive you for before."

[Nice!]

He nods at me and I nod back. This is how a friendship between men begins.

"Still there is no way I can give you a weapon. It would be contrary to my beliefs."

[What do I have to pay?]

I do understand. Money makes the world go round. Profiting from someone's hard work without ever supporting is a trashy move.

So of course I'll get him some materials or something to thank him for his effort. I'm assuming he will forge me a custom-made weapon.

Then in the future, I will become an adventurer. The weapon itself will become my trademark. For instance, with a white sword, I could be called the white flash.

Maybe with a bastard sword, I could be called the bastard hero! Actually, that last one sounds kinda bad. I would really need to be careful with nicknames.

You don't want to end up with something like caped bald… haha.

"It's not about money. It's about tradition."

[Tradition?]

"You will have to forge one yourself."

Ah fuck. I'm really fed up with the training arcs. Couldn't we go an instant power-up way instead? I'm a bit tired is all. How about a small break?

You know a bit of slice of life for a little while. Apparently not. Then again maybe this will involuntary help me in my mission. Who knows, maybe I will turn out to be a genius.

Thus starts a profound lesson on forging. It all sounds super complicated and really is too. If I had to summarize the whole process it would be: Melt the shit out of the metal. Hammer the hell out of it. Cool it so it becomes solid again.

Of course, it's far from that simple. Just the smelting process is more than I can handle. What the old dwarf does is he takes a forge out of nowhere. Yes, somehow, he is able to do that.

I ask him to teach me space magic excitedly. I obviously want to learn that awesome power. He tells me with a straight face that he doesn't know any.

At first, I think he's just messing with me but no. His power is related to the art of forging itself. It is an ability he slowly developed. One that can only store items related to his craft. He says he can't use any conventional magic.

I ask him how the distinction is made. Apparently, it just works for some stuff and doesn't for others. He thinks it is linked to his convictions. He has no clue how the whole power works precisely.

Oh yeah, we kinda skipped the whole part about surviving lava, didn't we? Seems to be because of a technique used to ward off the flames to protect the body. Why it even works against lava is a mystery. So we have this forge I'm supposed to use it to melt some ores.

The energy will be coming from the flame creature. It can legit spit lava in it to add heat. Somehow, I am supposed to control the heat of that thing. To get the perfect result.

Except there is no thermometer. Nor any clear indication for me to rely on. His words are simply to look at the color. Dude! I am color blind! Okay, not really. But incandescent red is red. Slightly more incandescent red is still red! Same for small changes. I really can't see it.

The more this goes the angrier he gets at my uselessness. It usually goes like this:

"Look at the damn color!"

[I'm fucking looking it's been the same all this time!]

"You fucking dimwit, it keeps changing! Look at the tone of the color!"

[Fuck you!]

"Fuck you too!"

[Fuck the ghost too for telling me to come here!]

"Yes, fuck that guy!"

That's when we usually make up.

*sigh* Friendship is a beautiful thing.

This reminds me of earth. There were many countries that had good relations based on the common hatred of a third party. It is kinda ironic when you think about it.

So, turns out I have no talent whatsoever for smelting ores. Now I'm supposed to go a step further. How about I give up right now? Yep, let's just do that. There must be other ways to get a weapon, right?!

How do I break him the news, however?