Chapter 36: Chapter 35 – Crafting a ladle.

Roland put the crafting instructions to the side, he had gained the knowledge about how to craft a blacksmith’s ladle that was used in forging. He didn’t think that something like this would be his first piece of work. He also needed to inscribe a rune on the metal tool before he could consider it finished.

He looked at the tool rack and started picking out the tools and resources that he would need for this task. He didn’t come unprepared, he had gone through many crafting textbooks. He even examined how the other smiths were doing their work while out in the city.

He even tried paying a few to give him some lessons but they weren’t willing to show him their trade secrets. They mistakenly thought that he was someone spying from another smithy. Roland didn’t want to ask the Manager for help so he settled for only watching from afar. That didn’t last for long as he was removed after being spotted after a couple of days.

He nodded to himself while he started placing the items and tools that he would require to forge this ladle. First came the blacksmith's hammers which were the staple of the craft. Next came a pair of shears meant for cutting thinner pieces of metal. A punch to make the holes that he could then attach the round ladle end with, rivets and some other things. He managed to find everything in this small smithy.

He gazed at the tools on the table one more time, it was time to get to work. First, he needed a thinner piece of sheet metal, he grabbed the resource from the side and started cutting. He realized why strength was such an important stat for a blacksmith even cutting this was quite strenuous as the metal sheet wasn’t all that thin.

He managed to make an almost perfect circle but it wasn’t quite there. He placed it into a vice, then he took out a large file to smoothed it out. After he was finished he placed it to the side next he grabbed a swage block.

This tool was mostly a heavy block made from iron or steel. It had various holes in different shapes and sizes. The one that he grabbed was already prepared beforehand as it was a cupping swage design used for spoons and ladles. He also grasped tongs as the forge would finally be going to be used, the previously cut out circle needed to be heated up.

He had to concentrate now as fire was involved, keeping it controlled was a must. Too little heat and the metal would be too hard to forge and more prone to cracking. Too much heat and he would burn or melt the metal making it useless in the process. The amount of oxygen in the fire was also important as too much air lead to increase oxide which was also known as ‘scale’

This he needed to avoid. The fire temperature and oxygen control played a huge role in how easily a blacksmith could forge. The type of fire a blacksmith got also relied on the type of fuel he was using. Charcoal, wood, and even magic fire which was considered the best as it burned at a more stable rate. Luckily the fire he was working with here was magical and he didn’t need to light it up himself.

He opened up the forge and made sure to hold the metal piece with the tongs snuggly. If the tongs didn’t hold the metal tightly, the metal could become a very hot, very dangerous projectile when hammering it. He placed the heated metal on the cupping swage that was on the anvil and got to work.

Roland held the round piece of metal with his tongs. His other hand was now holding a rounding hammer and he began dishing out hammer blows. He started from the center of the circle and continued working his way out in a spiral pattern. He worked with overlapping hammer blows as he smoothed the base of the ladle into a rounder shape.

This took him some time, this was the first time he was crafting as a smith. Luckily his dexterity also played a moderate role in this so he was able to land the blows in all the correct places. The blacksmithing skills were also helping him out with what he was supposed to be doing. He managed to finish up with this part and moved onto the next one, for the next step he needed an iron rod.

This would be the handle and would probably require the most hammering work. He heated it up once again in the furnace and began tapering one of the ends on the far side of the anvil with full-face hammer blows until the taper was at the length that he wanted it.

One of the basics of blacksmithing were the types of hammer blows. They varied based on how a blacksmith was hammering the metal in relation to the anvil: full-faced, half-faced, and shearing. All of these blows could be done on any part or edge of the anvil as well as at any angle to isolate and fuller the metal.

With a full-faced blow, the metal is fully pinched between the hammer and anvil. Such a blow was used to taper, draw, and smooth the steel. With a half-faced blow, the metal was forged only partially on the anvil to either create a shoulder in the metal or to protect another area from being forged. A half-faced blow could also be used to fuller and isolate metal more efficiently. With a shearing blow, the hammer does not hit the anvil at all. It is used to bend steel and could be done over the edge of the anvil, the horn, or on some other tool.

He started curling the end of the handle’s taper over the rounded far edge of the anvil. Then he began shaping it which was also called scrolling. He did it by holding the rod flat on the anvil and continued hammering back towards himself. This would give the handle a nice curved shape and was apparently a requirement for this type of ladle.

His hand started to get tired and his stamina points were going down. He continued bending the handle until it managed to turn into a proper scroll. He then continued by bending the end further approximately 45 degrees to one side over the far side of the anvil to create a ring at the end. He placed the little loop in the anvil’s spike and finished up the handle shape with some more hammer strikes before quenching it.

With the handle now finished he moved onto the other end to which the oval ladle would be attached too. The sounds of a hammer hitting on metal continued while Roland sweated, after some time he managed to finally get the other end into a somewhat good shape, now he needed to punch some holes through it.

The tool for this was also called a punch and it did just that. It was just something that looked like a larger nail but was more spherical and with a flat or round spot to hammer at the end. With a couple of well-placed blows, he had two nicely shaped holes for the rivets he was going to use. He also needed to do the same for the ladle part as he needed the rivets to go through both of those parts.

He assembled the ladle and handle together as they were now ready for the rivets. This was the most common way to fasten two parts together as a regular blacksmith. Welding was possible with some runic equipment but it drained a lot of mana so it was limited to high-level people.

He was lucky enough that this virtual smithing workshop came with premade rivets so he wouldn’t have to make them himself. He placed the ladle ‘head’ on the outside of the anvil with the handle resting over it. The rivets were heated up before the hammering process.

He looked at his creation and frowned a bit, it did look somewhat like a ladle but it wasn’t finished quite yet. If this was the regular blacksmith class that would be it but he still needed to place the lesser fire resistance rune on it.

Roland turned to the hourglass and could tell that it was already more than half empty. Smithing took a lot longer than scribing and this was something that he realized. Now came the runecraft, this process was not that similar to the scribing one. Magic ink wouldn’t be required but he still needed to use the hammer he was provided with.

What he needed for it was his full attention and a lot of mana. Runecrafting or inscribing just consisted of forcing your mana into the desired object. The process was a lot rougher than scribing though as you needed to transfer your mana via hammer strikes to the metal. The metal needed to be softened by heating it up. You could try forcing your mana directly without a hammer but this was a lot harder, it also demanded a massive amount of mana and concentration.

The runecrafting skill changed the properties of your mana slightly and allowed it to seep into the metal by force. It was finally time, there would be no second chance to do this and he knew it. Even if he was able to inscribe the rune fast he wouldn’t be able to reforge this ladle in time again.

‘Here goes nothing…’

He even considered praying to Solaria for a moment before placing his hand on the handle. The whole item was heated up once more, the color shifted from dark to red quite fast. He wouldn’t be hitting the tool hard enough to make it bend. He just needed to transfer his energies into it and forge the rune structure.

The hammer he was holding started glowing as he moved it above his head and slammed it down. The ladle shook slightly and mana seeped into it while creating some of the magical runic pathways and components in the process. Just by the first hit, he noticed that this would be really hard. His mana points dropped by a staggering number and he barely started.

He repeated the process several times, each time he struck the iron object blue sparks of magical energy flew. The runic symbols started appearing on the handle bit by bit as he continued. He finally stopped after one of the runes was practically finished, half of his mana pool already gone at this point.

He finally understood why unless you were a tier 2 class you had practically no chance of doing a thing like this. Even with his oversized mana pool, he was already running low. Luckily the process of runecrafting could be broken up as the mana pathways weren’t created by magic ink. He looked to the hourglass and waited, he needed to recover his mana before continuing. If his mana dropped too far he would have trouble concentrating and he could even pass out.

When more than three-quarters of the sand was gone he resumed his work. The first part of the rune was done which was responsible for the fire portion. He still needed to inscribe the one that was meant for resistance and also cover the whole ladle with thin magical pathways. Unless he placed the traces over the whole length the item would not function correctly.

The sand continued to run out and he started feeling dizzy. Even while waiting and having recharged some of his lost mana he was slowly reaching his limit. He needed to dip into his reserves even more. His face became pale and he felt like someone was inserting nails into both his ears but he continued hammering.

Ladle of lesser fire resistance [Lesser: Lowest, High ]

He managed to last till the end without passing out and received a strange rating for his item. It had both the lowest and high grade. The lesser part was probably the rank of the item which was low due to it just being a plain iron ladle. There was probably one reason for this type of rating, the rune he forged was of high quality but the ladle as an item was barely passable.

He was brought back to his room after managing to pass his second-tier 1 class change. He was now a Runic Blacksmith. Before he could celebrate though he had to grab his waste bin. He placed his entire head into it before puking his supper out into it. His mana had dropped all the way to 1%.

He quickly wobbled over to his spatial bag and pulled out a mana potion which he promptly drank. It tasted terrible but it was just the thing he needed in a matter of minutes he managed to recover over 200 points of mana which took care of his migraine. He crawled over to his bed that had improved within the year as he had switched to a more expensive residence.

‘Will all of these special class changes be like this?’

He barely passed the scribe class change and it was the same with this one. This was the punishment for crossing over tiers, his stats weren’t quite up to par. He already was fearing what a tier 2 class change would have in store for him as he was barely making it through tier 1’s.

He checked out his skills and what the bonus for the runic variant of the Blacksmith class would be. The usual blacksmith bonus was only to increase the stamina, he was even getting a boost to his mana.

The bonus related to inscribing runes was similar to the scribe class but it probably didn’t work on the spell scrolls anymore. He also lost the mana regeneration bonus that class was giving him. Roland would have to test out which class was better for crafting later as he could switch his secondary class once a day.

He was tired, he barely made it through this class change. If he didn’t have both of his classes and his large mana pool he would never have made it through. The only thing he wanted to do now was sleep. In the morning he would go talk to his boss and ask for a place to train his craft. He was a bit dejected about how bad he was, he was barely able to make a crude spoon…

……..

“What, already?”

“Yeah, don’t worry I’ll keep making scrolls just like the contract stated.”

It was the next day and Roland was looking at a surprised Gnome. Not a day after he talked with his elven worker about this youth's quick progress he had already managed to change classes. He wanted to examine him with his skill but the trinket that he lent him even worked on someone of his caliber.

“Give me a few days… I’ll see what I can do.”

The manager didn’t have any reason to deny Roland. He was still a promising worker and if he could craft more things then it would be good for his business. Still, it was a shame that he was going to take time off scribing to create crude blacksmith tools. He was still unaware of Roland’s special class.

‘Think there was an unused small warehouse, could give it to the kid…’

The manager thought to himself. He had promised in the contract to provide Roland a place to work but it didn’t say how well equipped it had to be. The kid could just spend his own money to get the more expensive stuff or just buy the materials from his store. He would just provide the bare minimum iron tools.

While the new place was being prepared Roland headed out. He knew how this gnome operated as he wouldn’t even give him a good deal on the materials. The thing he was mostly interested in now, was runic equipment. He needed to get some rune diagrams designed for wearable gear instead of the runic spells this time around.

Finally, his life as a smith had begun. He just needed to stick with it and work hard. With time he would probably be able to match the newbie runesmiths. If he could earn money making flame resistant spoons was still out for debate.

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