Wood-Shift Dagger

"Since you get it, you must realize that by being lazy, you're only negatively affecting your own future. If you truly want to succeed Rubella, keep in mind what we talked about today." Minos said as he dismissed Rubella.

"Don't worry master! I promise I'll be more disciplined from now on." Rubella said in confidence, as she ran off to work on her talisman strokes.

Minos nodded in appreciation, however whether Rubella was genuine or not could only be known in the future.

Seeing Rubella fully focused on her own work, Minos returned his attention back on his weapon refining.

His first failure was due to Rubella's interruption, however this time he was confident in getting things right.

With his faith renewed, Minos jumped right back into it. The heating stage passed with no hitch, and soon Minos was back to hammering.

This time, without any interruptions getting in his way, Minos managed to finish hammering in one smooth go, revealing the outline of a dagger.

While the dagger had yet to completely take shape, Minos had completed the most difficult part, and now he just needed to grind away until the dagger took the proper shape.

This process was not one of strength, but rather patience and skill. While Minos had an abundance of patience, his skill in such a foreign technique was naturally limited.

While he managed to complete the basic iron dagger, its shape was awkward, with bumps and ridges all over, destroying its normally sleek design.

This was a reflection of Minos's poor control and mastery. While Minos wasn't completely content with his final result, he understood the process of weapon refining wasn't something he could master in a single go.

With the abundance of cheap practice iron Minos had bought, he proceeded to make daggers over and over again.

He decided he would master the dagger fully before moving on to the other weapons, after all, in Minos's mind, it was better to be amazing at one thing, then just okay at a lot of things.

There were no shortcuts to mastery, so Minos delved full heartedly into his weapon refining, Rubella similarly investing herself into training her talisman strokes.

With the two fully focused on their training, time passed quickly, the days turned to weeks, and weeks to months.

…

Three months had passed in seemingly no time at all. Rubella had long since managed to create her first Shining Talisman, reaching Minos's expectations.

It seemed Rubella had truly taken Minos's advice to heart, and these past three months she had been fully focused on learning.

Minos was happy to see Rubella with such a mindset. It meant he wasn't wrong when he first scouted her, and she truly had potential to go far.

Similarly while Rubella was successful with her first talisman, Minos had also become incredibly skilled in his dagger refining.

His daggers were now indistinguishable from one you'd buy from a master mortal weapon refiner, even a little better in terms of quality.

While it may not seem much when compared to a spirit weapon refiner, one should know those mortals invest decades to reach such a level, yet Minos had done it in a few months.

Now that Minos was confident in his basic skills, he felt he was ready to move on to the One-Moon Wood-Shift Dagger.

As a spirit weapon, the Wood-Shift Dagger was naturally far harder to create, but Minos felt like he was in peak condition, so he decided to use this vigor while it still existed.

"Rubella, what I'm about to do requires absolute silence, so go outside and play for a few hours." Minos said to Rubella, who was fully focused on training.

"For real? Can I really play?" Rubella said with excitement as she jumped up.

While Rubella had taken Minos's advice to heart, her true nature was hyperactive, so these past few months have been incredibly suffocating for her.

Fortunately she managed to redirect some of that energy towards her learning, but even then, she had an abundance of energy just waiting to explode.

Hearing the okay from Minos was like igniting a fuse, causing Rubella to blast out of the cave in happiness.

"Don't forget to watch out for danger, and use the talisman's I gave you if you ever feel unsafe." Minos said.

"Okay!" Rubella shouted back, as she disappeared into the woods.

With Rubella gone, Minos could fully focus on his next task. Igniting the furnace, Minos began waiting patiently, occasionally measuring the furnace's heat with his hand before continuing to wait.

After a half hour of waiting, the furnace reached the proper heat, at least according to Minos estimations.

Tossing the Ten-Fold Steel into the furnace, Minos began slowly turning the ore with his metal tongs, allowing all sides to get properly heated.

Minos had become incredibly sensitive to heat over these past few months, and just by standing near the furnace, he could tell exactly how hot it was inside.

With this refined sense, he managed to complete the heating stage with no problems, pulling out the red hot Ten-Fold Steel that was ready for hammering.

Ten-Fold Steel was naturally much harder then the cheap ore Minos used for training, so the requirements for strength went up multiple times.

This was already a material most mortal weapon refiners would never be able to work with due to the power required to properly hammer it.

However with Minos at the Fifth Layer of the Mortal Renewal Realm, it was no problem. Without a moment's delay, Minos began hammering away.

The loud clangs of metal colliding filled the empty cave, sparks flying all over the places, occasionally singeing Minos's skin.

Minos ignored the slight pain, fully focused on his craft. The sweat dripping off his forehead slowly turned to steam from the heat building up in the cave.

Months of experience paid off as Minos finished up hammering, revealing the outline of his Wood-Shift Dagger.

The process from this point forth didn't worry Minos much, and he got through them with ease, quickly arriving at his final polished blade.

Holding his finished project in the air, Minos spent a moment appreciating it. The blade glimmered with a refined sheen, a reflection of the skilled work that had gone into its creation.

Of course, the blade had yet to be given its handle, so it was still too early to call it a day.

Working on the handle was much easier, and just required Minos to slowly sculpt the Hundred-Year Wood until it took the proper shape.

Had it been in the past, Minos would have had to invest some time into learning how to sculpt, but coincidentally, his final days spent with Tinka were mostly spent sculpting under her guide.

While he was definitely far from being a true master, his skill-level was at least high enough to get this job done.

Pulling the log of Hundred-Year Wood from his spatial ring, Minos used a dagger to slowly carve away at the wood, slowly revealing a pristine handle.

While sculpting, Minos couldn't help but think of Tinka, a smile forming on his face unconsciously. Time passed quickly under this state of mind, and Minos was soon finished.

Taking the handle, Minos began polishing it with a special cream to seal the wood and give it a better appearance.

With everything done, it was finally time to put the two pieces together and create the final weapon.

Securing the blade tightly in place, Minos began hammering the handle in, slowly forcing the two parts together.

Soon enough, the two were firmly secured together, and Minos picked up the dagger, appreciating it in its entirety.

Compared to before, this was the true Wood-Shift Dagger. Minos swung the dagger around a few times to get a feel for it, before doing a real test.

Taking out a mortal dagger, Minos secured it to a table before slashing at it. The two blades collided, causing sparks to fling everywhere.

Minos pulled back his Wood-Shift Dagger, inspecting it for a moment. A quick glance revealed that the blade was still in perfect condition.

Minos then turned his attention towards the mortal dagger, and almost instantly noticed the slight dent where the two blades impacted.

While it seemed like it was still far from being destroyed completely, it was still proof of the large quality difference between the two daggers.

One should also remember that the Wood-Shift Dagger is only a One-Moon grade weapon, had it been Two-Moon, it may have sliced through the mortal dagger in a single swing.

Overall, Minos was happy with the quality of this weapon. While there were still certain parts of the process he thinks he could further refine, it was a good job for his first attempt.

Minos did a few more tests before putting the Wood-Shift Dagger away. Having accomplished his goal, Minos felt a bit directionless for a moment.

Of course, given how dense Minos's objective list was, it only took a moment for him to decide on his next direction.

With his new goal established, Minos quickly got to work. Naturally before any of that however, he needed to call Rubella back.