Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"So, you want me to be your tutor." he glared at Seth and Vathon, these two rude invaders that had interrupted his beauty sleep. They had just explained the reason for their visit. The old blacksmith looked Seth up and down with scrutinizing eyes.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot." Seth said and held out the scroll he had gotten from Venturi, the vice-master of the adventurer guild. Leery of Seth the dwarf took the scroll and read it. It had the official seal of the guild and Venturi's signature

"He guarantees your skill and mentioned that you were quite fast with repairs in the field. Hmm. Alright, I will give you a chance. Come to the back with me. You stay out!" he said pointing energetically at Vathon.

Seth entered a big workshop. It was similar to his <Soul Smithy> with all kin of different tabled for different aspects of the job and several forges of different sizes. Master Tored even several magic power hammers. It made sense that the dwarfs, who were also known as engineers, could come up with something like this.

Tored went through another fortified door and stood in the middle of a big storeroom. The shelves were filled with all kinds of materials. He grabbed a simple steel ingot and closed the door in front of Seth′s nose.

"Here, take this and make me a simple dagger. Nothing fancy, just simple and functional. You can use my smithy or the portable one you used on the quest. I will simply watch."

Seth nodded. The next moment Tored's eyes bulged when he summoned the spectral < Spirit Smithy>. This was the man Seth wanted to win as a tutor, so he would not keep this a secret. Seth put the ingot into the spirit flame and started working.

----Tored's POV-------

He usually didn′t take in anyone. Every time he took in apprentices, they would soon become arrogant and haughty. Their skills grew fast under his tutelage, but unfortunately, he was not skilled enough to make them proper people.

Even those he judged to have a good heart would become insufferable idiots under the influence of their environment. That′s why he ended up throwing them out, each and every time. Even those he agreed to tutor would start bragging about it as if they had suddenly become a talented master. He had long lost hope in teaching anyone.

The young man struck him as a little different. He did not come in flaunting his mediocre skill and talent in an attempt to impress him. God, he almost forgot to give him his references! Venturi that old fart actually praised him. He also complained that he talked about money during an emergency, but Tored could only judge this as a good sense for business.

He decided to test this Seth′s skills. Anyone who dared to look for tutelage could make a simple steel dagger and watching him make it would tell him everything he needed to know about the young man's skills. That was what he thought and then the young man waved his hand and summoned an illusory smithy.

In a pale blue almost white flame, that burned without smoke or fuel, the steel quickly started glowing brightly. The young man circumvented the tongs and simply grabbed the metal with his bare hand from the fire. Before the dwarven master could have doubts about the speed at which the metal heated up, the young man pulled out a big hammer. It looked like the mix of a war hammer and a smithing hammer, was this really ok...?

He calmed down when Seth started forging the metal into shape. At least his motor skills were normal. He could read the experienced movements and accurate hits, even with such a big hammer, he looked quite skilled. It fit his claim to be in the latter stages of the adept rank.

But his speed was really overwhelming. It was not just that he could quickly reheat the blade in this weird fire, but he seemed to need only one hit, where others at his level might need three or four. Within 15 minutes he had shaped the dagger′s blade.

He ground it into a more refined shape using the grinding wheel he had summoned. In another 10 minutes, he had forged a simple guard and pommel from pieces he had split off the ingot beforehand. He fit the still malleable red-hot guard snuggly to the blade so it would not rattle once he assembled everything. There was nothing special about the handle, except that he did a good job with it.

The last step before the assembly was heat treatment. Instead of quenching the blade in oil and normalizing it, the young blacksmith got the blade up to temperature and quenched it in the barrel of water he had summoned. Next, he sharpened the blade on the same grinding wheel and proceeded to merrily assemble the dagger. Was that all? Quenching was all he did? And he sharpened it on that simple grinding wheel? How could the dagger be sharp without using any whetstones?

But when the young man came before him with a smile and handed him the dagger he made, Tored could barely believe his eyes.

<Sharp Dagger

Common

Damage:52

Durability:100

A sharp dagger made by an aspiring blacksmith from simple materials. +10% chance to cause bleeding>

The description spitting in his face! Yes, the dagger was sharp, a a razor to be honest, but the question was HOW?! And that durability was also weird, for steel that was quenched in water and didn′t go through a normalization cycle.

He glared at Seth and then at the Spirit Smithy. It had to be because of this weird smithy, right? Right?

"Hmm, this smithy seems quite unique." the old dwarf went and got another steel ingot.

"Can you try using by facilities instead?"

The second round was more or less as Tored expected. It took about double the time. The young man made no mistakes, probably because he was using <Blueprint> but he was obviously not used to things like giving the blade time to normalize or sharpening with whetstones. The outcome was slightly worse than his first try.

< Dagger

Common

Damage:40

Durability:79

A dagger made by an aspiring blacksmith from simple materials. +5% chance to cause bleeding>

But it was still a passable dagger.

"Alright, I have seen enough." the young blacksmith looked up, upon Tored's words. He seemed a little nervous.

"I will give you a chance if you can fulfill one task. You came here with the recommendation of the guild and you entered this place by being a B-Rank adventurer. You still have to prove yourself as a blacksmith. 2 Weeks.

I want you to open a shop like everyone else and make it successful in this time frame. Don′t smile yet, I know it should not be a problem with your skill. However, I have a condition. You have to make the items you sell in this store using a normal forge and workshop.

You rely too much on this spooky smithy you summoned. I admit that it has great perks, but I will teach in my facilities. So, I want you to get used to working without these perks. Do you agree?"

Seth thought about it. Working in a normal smithy? Maybe what Tored said was true and he did rely a little too much on the skill's perks. He had felt a little embarrassed when he had to use <Blueprint> for a simple dagger, just to know how to sharpen it on regular whetstones. He might not always be able to hide his skill if he had to. This might be a good opportunity.

Tored smiled when he saw Seth nodding with a determined face. Others might have started to complain. Many actually had, as if they knew better than someone close to becoming a grandmaster blacksmith.

The dwarf had become a lot more approachable after he had seen Seth work, so he finally had the chance to bring up that he mostly wanted his tutelage in <Goldsmith> and <Enchantment>. When Tored heard that he was perplexed at first, but he was relieved when he heard that Seth was still an apprentice in both.

He had no idea what weird quirks this "spirit smithy" had in those departments and he was glad that he could have Seth learn normally instead of retraining him.

When they left the smithy, they came before a dismayed Vathon. The poor guy had actually waited for several hours alone in the showroom. Seth apologized and even Tored looked a bit guilty. They both had completely forgotten the young dwarf′s existence.

It was past noon and Seth decided it was a great time to invite his Vathon and his soon-to-be teacher to a scrumptious meal! After all, he had learned: A dwarf′s friendship deepened the more free food and alcohol you put into it.