Chapter 49: Forging a longer piece of scrap metal

Rohan was standing in front of the anvil. In his hands, there was a large and heavy hammer, and tongs that were holding a piece of hot metal in front of him.

Today was important, and that was the case for two reasons. The first one was what he was trying to do, while the second one will be for tonight.

What he was trying to do wasn't a dagger as he had the habit to do every morning for a few months, no, he had passed to the next level. He hammered, again and again, hitting here and there when he judged it was necessary.

On the side, Horim was watching with great concentration. Sometimes he would groan of satisfaction or displeasure, but he remained silent and didn't say anything.

Rohan wasn't the same rookie as before, and even though he was far from being a master blacksmith, he still knew what he was doing.

He hammered, flattening the piece of hot iron before he folded it on itself. He was now capable of doing two to three folding in one go, without putting back the iron inside the furnace.

Compared to before when he could only barely do one before heating it again, it was a great improvement. But even so, Rohan still wasn't capable enough to reach the 20th folding and was forced to stop at the 16th one. Horim, watching from the side, couldn't help but shake his head, it was good, but far from great.

After reaching the 16th folding, Rohan didn't put the iron back inside the furnace and instead put it near it to keep the heat as long as possible. Now, it was a run against time.

He took out another piece of iron he had put inside the furnace some minutes ago and began to work on it. But the form of the two pieces he had worked on wasn't like he had the habit to do. The first one was in the same shape as a dagger, but larger with a pointed edge taking almost half of the piece. The second one was only a rectangular form, the same size as the first one.

The same way as he had done, he folded the orange-yellow iron on itself again, only to reach the 15th one. The quality was worse than the first one, but he couldn't do anything about that apart from frowning.

He put this one near the tip and took out the third piece of heated iron to make the same job. And a fourth one. This one, which was the last, also comported a thinner part taking half of the piece: the tang.

He had worked on these pieces the fastest he could, but he wasn't happy at all and knew that he had taken too much time. He could even see his master on the side refraining himself from exploding and yelling at him.

But anyway, he could only continue his job. He took out the two first pieces and put them inside the furnace to heat them. Then, after a few minutes, he took them back.

Horim wanted to yell at this mudhead right now. Couldn't he do so a few minutes ago to not lose so much time? But he shook his head, this day, he would not say anything.

Rohan took out the two pieces as well as another thin one he had put with them and began the tougher job he had to do. He connected these two metal parts. He stuck them together, before putting the other metal on it to weld the two pieces.

The operation was a delicate one, but he still needed to hit with a precise and great strength for the two sections to be welded into one.

What made this step the hardest was that if he hit with too much strength, then it would fragilize the iron in the long term, and it would risk breaking at the slight shock. But if he didn't put enough strength into each of his blows, then the two pieces wouldn't be connected correctly and of course, risked breaking at any moment.

But even once the two iron pieces were connected, it was only the beginning, and from now on, it would be more complicated. He put the third piece in the furnace as well as the longer one he had just done. For this one, he only put the edge where he would connect the two parts. Too much heating on the area he had already finished would further fragilize the iron he was forging.

Like that, in less than an hour, he finally connected all the parts he had independently forged, and before him was a long orange piece of iron.

The blade had now reached its last step. Rohan carefully observed each joint of this blade centimeters by centimeters. He was in a hurry, but he still would be careful in what he was doing. Being sure that everything was done correctly, the time to verify the result had now come.

Without wasting more time, as Rohan felt his heartbeat harder and harder, he headed toward the large bucket of cold water near him. Now, was the moment of truth. He put the hot iron fully inside the clear and still water, creating a large smoke engulfing the whole place.

The heat was extreme, and Rohan felt his whole body cooking inside his leather apron since he had started to forge this blade, but he was still able to bear with it, his constitution was still much more developed than a normal human.

If he wasn't a warrior, it would have been impossible for him to finish his job in only one day.

He waited for a few more minutes, and as the fog was clearing out while the hissing and bubbling sound of the water had disappeared, the young blacksmith took out the future sword from the bucket.

But at this moment, like a wolf pouncing on his prey, Horim couldn't wait anymore and snatched the blade. He peeked at the iron while almost sticking his face against it, watching every mark on it.

All pieces of work in the world were unique, and this uniqueness was coming from all these marks, each hit, that could be seen on the blade. Only the most experienced blacksmith could precisely read and understand them.

It wasn't a good blade. Some pieces were with sixteen foldings while others were with fifteen ones, creating a bad balance in the sword. Because of this non-homogenization of the whole sword, the connection between each part was undeniably flawed. Honestly, he would never sell something like this, but still, it wasn't a bad iron.

He gave it back to Rohan after nodding to him and letting him finish what he had begun. He still had to sharpen the edges of the blade and the handle to make it after all.

A few hours later, a resplendent sword was in front of Rohan's eyes. Even he could tell that this sword was mediocre, but he was feeling satisfaction that was second to none. He had forged his own sword!

More than a meter long, a double-edged sword was resting on the table in front of him. The handle was made of brown leather and the handguard was another piece of metal crossing the blade. The pommel was also a simple one he had made himself.

Actually, it was even the hardest piece of the sword, as he had the great idea to make a spherical form.

Forging a piece of metal into a small ball was one of the hardest work a blacksmith could do. And since his master didn't want to help in any way for this sword, Rohan had then forged his pommel. It wasn't smooth at all, wasn't even completely round, and in the end not even aesthetically good.

But still, he was happy to have done his job.

*sigh*

Rohan turned his face toward his master, to see him with a complex expression. They both knew that the time for them to say goodbye was approaching at a great speed, and that this sword would probably be the last one Rohan would forge.

"Let this sword you have done here, I'll keep it for you."

Rohan tilted his head to the side, why did his master want to keep it? And what would he do if he traveled without a sword? He had indeed experience at fighting with nothing more than a scabbard, but if he could restrain himself from doing so, that would without a doubt be great.

Horim, seeing the expression on the face of his disciple, suddenly felt like punching him with all his strength. But since it would probably kill him on the spot, he controlled himself for not doing that.

"Stop looking at me like that you mudhead! Have you forgotten who I am or what? Of course, I'll make you a sword before you leave. Now get out of here, you have much more important things to do right now!"

Rohan bowed his head to this man after thanking him. This scary and mad man was a good one, and he hoped that one day he would reach his goal. After all, Rohan wasn't stupid.

For a man like him to spend all day forging and forging, he was without a doubt trying to do something. What exactly, Rohan didn't know, but he expected his master to achieve it.

In any case, the time wasn't to be lost in such trivial thought, and Rohan turned around to head toward the stairs. The second reason for which this day was an important one had come, and from today onward, he would be a powerful rank 5 Beginner Warrior.

But that wasn't all. He would also become a rank 1 Beginner Wizard.