Change of plans 8

Smithing has been a way to relax himself. Every time his hammer hits the metal, John is like dancing, yes dancing! He is like performing while he hammers the metal.

There was a time when John was seen smithing, his parents, immortals and saints saw him hammer the metal. They were in awe of his movements, it was very natural, elegant and refined. He was like performing, like a musician performing his piece, his movements is very smooth, every strike of the hammer produces a sound akin to a song. The sound is very melodious, they never thought that smithing could also be like this.

When John finished his refinement, he was surprised to hear the thunderous clapping of people. He felt very embarrassed, he regained his composure and bowed at them. His parents were smiling from ear to ear, feeling both proud and happy for him. 'I could never ask for more, ah John you are my pride and joy!' his mother thought.

His father Jonathan is clapping so hard and whistling by his mother's side, he didn't mind his image and boisterously cheered for him. No one commented or looked oddly at him, not that he is the king, but they knew if they were Johns father, they as well would act the same.

A thunderous shout is heard as the crowd has gone rowdy. "Whats with the commotion? Can't you even make one focus on their work?!" an angry shout is heard from Marios work shop.

The old man rushed to Johns's working area and saw many people surrounding his apprentice. He got flabbergasted as he saw the number of people around.

'Why are they so noisy? Shame on their names as immortal!' he thought

Her his friend "what is happening here?"

"Ask your apprentice to repeat his performance?" Alfred replied

"John, my boy, repeat what you are doing. He ordered" John nodded and took a piece of iron ore from his space ring

When he saw the refined ore on the furnace his eye brows raised, thinking 'what is he doing, the iron is already refined perfectly?' but Mario remained quiet as he watched John

When John placed the iron at the working table and started hammering it using his two-handed hammering technique. Mario had his eyes opened so wide and his mouth almost touched the ground. He himself saw the abnormality his disciple has done.

'This is insane! To think that there is a method of hammering!'

Bang bang bang bang

"Hahahahaha... My apprentice is a genius, wonderful, truly wonderful! This is my Mario's one and only apprentice!" he loudly proclaimed

He is so loud that his voice resounded throughout the island.

"Beautifully done, amazing! A natural born blacksmith!"

He can't seem to stop praising his disciple, the way he refined the iron is simply wonderful, like a work of art. He had been a black smith for so long, and reached the pinnacle of his profession. However, his only disciple outstripped him and has improved the million years legacy of their school.

Most of the audience are warriors and only very few are blacksmiths, having seen Mario lost his composure in front of everyone, and gearing his praises, they knew that what John is doing is exceptional. Who is Mario? He is the best blacksmith of their race, even on the entire world, he is considered to be one of the best. He has very high standards and only few were able to gain his recognition.

The moment he stopped hammering, Mario grabbed him by his armpits and spin John around. He hugged his apprentice and cried in happiness.

"Never in my life would I thought that I could ever accept such an exceptional genius as my only apprentice!" he said

"Boy, I your master will make sure to nurture you to be a blacksmith, more amazing than your master!" he proclaimed

"Hahahahaha" Mario boisterously laughed

The crowd smiled as they saw the old man hugging the child.

"Boy, with this refined iron that you created, we could create a standardized gun, that is one hundred times no a thousand times cheaper and sturdier." Mario said

All the blacksmiths agreed, while Jonathan and the rest were surprised of what they heard. This is one of the best news they heard so far, with this refined iron, not only the guns even regular weapons of the empire would have a significant upgrade. As you all know, not everyone is a barbarian, this, not everyone of the empires citizens could wield a natal weapon.

They left the master and apprentice alone to talk.

"Boy! How did you come up with this hammering technique? And why are you using a half kilogram hammer?" he asked

"It was accidental gramps" he honestly replied

"At that time, I only wanted to save time switching from both hands in hammering using the ten thousand hammering technique. I also learned from the other blacksmith gramps that the reason for you giving me a lighter hammer is to improve the precision, control and power of my ten thousand hammering technique, this I level up the difficulty using an even lighter hammer."

"Hai!" Mario sighed

'I thought it would take me about a year before I could teach him the different techniques of smithing. To think that only a few months passed and he has already mastered the ten thousand hammering technique, and made it his own.'

By using a very light hammer while using the ten thousand hammering technique, the metal has been refined thoroughly by removing the microscopic impurities. It helps the metal from being too brittle, preventing it's destruction, by the slow and gentle method of John's hammering. Using a heavier hammer makes tempering of the metal faster, but Johns method, though is slow the metal is being hammered in precision using the ten thousand hammering technique, slowly removing the impurities one at a time. This also helped John to polish his technique.

"Have you tried using a heavier hammer?" he asked

"Yes gramps, I felt that this method is very slow thus, I experimented on different methods." then he paused

"I noticed that initial refining of the raw metal, using a heavier hammer removes most of the impurities, and the smaller the impurities on the metal the lighter the hammer should be. By using the metal element manipulation arts, I could determine the purity of the metal this I was able to determine the weight of the hammer that I would use. To save more time, I used my soul force to move the metal for hammering and controlling the flames" he stated

Mario didn't know how to react, 'he discovered this technique by accident, because he wanted to save time?'

"Unbelievable! Starting today you need to finish refining this iron ores, then after you are done with the iron only then will you start to refine other materials; at night you will craft under my supervision!" Mario said

"Gramps, aren't you crafting the new gun?" John asked

"I failed multiple times, in order to make a natal weapon out of it, the material should have a soul. I tried infusing a soul into the weapon, and using materials infused with a soul, but after the gun is finished, it can't be bound. Thus, I have concluded that in order to make a natal weapon gun; I need to remold a bound natal weapon." he honestly said

"But who would like to have their natal weapons remolded, to remold a natal weapon only means that one needs to refine the weapon from scratch!" he added

"Gramps! Experiment on mine." John blurted out

"It is possible but are you sure?" he solemnly asked

"Yes grams, I'm sure!" he resolutely replied

He asked John to take out the weapon he wanted to remold. John brought out his axe, Mayhem. He felt a pang on his heart, he loved this weapon of his, but no one wanted to have their weapons remolded.

"Lets start, this is very painful to the soul. Be ready boy!" Mario reminded

He touched mayhem and said "buddy I would like to remold you into a new weapon, your appearance might change but we will still be together!"

He felt warmth on his soul as if mayhem is saying he understood him.

He took mayhem and fed it to the furnace, John felt hot inside, it's like his soul is burning. Then Mario started melted mayhem he looked at his apprentice. John is in meditative position, but beads of sweat started dripping from his body.

After an hour Mario started molding mayhem, he slowly hammered and made the individual parts. John on the other hand felt so much pain, it's as if he is the one being melted and hammered. Mario didn't notice him, he is now focused on his work, johns body is burning hot.

'Ah if I knew that this would be so painful I should have asked for details before agreeing to this' he thought

He gritted his teeth, his soul is being hammered ten thousand times, over and over again. He lost consciousness after 3 hours of torturous pain.

"Hahahahaha..." Mario boisterously laughed

"Finally I was able to create the very first natal weapon gun. Boy! It's done, your new weapon!" no one answered, when he looked back at John he was very worried when he saw him drenched in a pool of blood. He panicked and sent a message to his friend alfred. He checked his pulse and found out he is alive but fainted. He heaved a sigh of relief 'ah how stupid could I be, forgetting that my disciple is just a two year old!' Then he hammered his head for his stupidity, if john ever had an accident, he is a sinner of the race, and he would have regretted it having to kill his very own apprentice.

Alfred came in an instant with Jonathan and Diane. Diane and Jonathan rushed to their son, when they saw the bloody pool surrounding him, Diane almost fainted. When she felt that his pluse is ok and just fainted, she felt relieved.

Alfred on the other hand, took out his axe and slapped Mario with the handle.

Bang! "Stupid old man, are you trying to kill your apprentice?"

Mario didn't retaliate or replied he knew he made a mistake and regretted agreeing with John, good thing nothing happened! Or he would have been a sinner of the whole barbarian race.

Diane is taking care of John, she bathed him and changed his blood clothes. She carried her child on her arms. Diane looked at Mario sharply, like a tiger protecting her cub.

Before they could retaliate John woke up, "gramps? Did we succeed?" he weakly said

Mario cried as he heard his apprentice talked. "Boy we succeeded!" then he took mayhem and gave it to John.

The gun is 2 feet long, pitch black in color, it looked like a beretta, its bore is 1 inch in diameter, the bottom part of the barrel is like that of a fore-end of a shotgun, a half-moon blade attached at the bottom and on the position of the front sight. It looked like a small mayhem, his axe, and a handle without a magazine.

He checked the internal components of the gun, the springs are not there anymore, instead complicated runes can be found. This are all runes passed down to blacksmiths of the barbarian race.

He touched his gun gently and as if it is alive, it flew above his hand and transformed into an axe the same size as mayhem. The spear tip disappeared and is replaced by a barrel, the handle straightened. John felt glad that his teacher succeeded. He asked his mother to let him down and walked towards the exit.

Outside the workshop John transformed mayhem to pistol mode, the half moon blade turned into a front sight, the bottom blade turned to a bayonet. Then he fired mayhem, BANG! The area where the bullet landed exploded, he pictured out the size and shape of the bullet and mayhem is the one responsible for making the prohectiles. The bullets are reinforced using his lightning technique and fired rapidly, he didn't incorporate his lightning on the bullets, this is a secret.

He asked mayhem to elongate the barrel and turned it into a 6 feet long rifle, the bottom blade turned into a stand, he aimed at the same area he previously fired at.

Bang!

The area of explosion is ten times more than before, he shot at a distance with out any aim. Then the bullet landed at around a thousand kilometers, then he shifted back mayhem to it's pistol form and shot at a distance, the bullet landed 100 kilometres from him.

Then he turned mayhem into an axe and swing it back and forth. Then he widely smiled and hugged Mario, "gramps you did it, thank you! Let's do it with destroyer!" he blurted out

His parents and Alfred we're shocked of what they heard. 'Whats got into johns mind?'

"After refining mayhem, my soul force got stronger, it's has been refined along with mayhem. And mayhems soul developed its own mind!" Then he showed it to them

"Mayhem, transform!" he ordered, and mayhem turned back into his pistol form

"Aim at the that tree" he pointed at the tree nearby and it aimed and fired.

"I could also telepathically order it!" he excitedly said