Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

Carmen pressed her foot against the pedal, sending a surge of ethera through the machine and activating the grinder. The attached belt had been made from leather covered by ground dragonstone, creating a fine grit that could grind down the most stubborn of metals.

Not that such a belt was necessary for her current material. It was called True Steel, which was just a fancy name for a high-carbon steel that had been through so many rounds of Refine Material and Ethereal Infusion that it effectively become a new type of metal. Still, it was only Low-Simple, meaning that while it was many times better than Crude-Grade steel, it wasn’t anything truly special.

One thing it did have going for it was its lack of rarity. The mines of Ironshore were predictably littered with ferrite, and it wasn’t that difficult to add some carbon to that ore to create steel. After that, it didn’t take much for the city’s Blacksmiths – all much lower-level than Carmen – to do the necessary work to prepare the resulting ingots.

They weren’t good enough that Carmen trusted them with the final product, but they could handle that much at least. Perhaps in the future, they would progress their classes far enough to work on final products. It was more than just levels they lacked, though. Most of them had been unprepared to choose the class in the first place, meaning that they lacked the foundation to put their abilities to good use.

One day, maybe.

By comparison, Carmen had spent years studying for her doctorate, focusing on ancestral studies. Much of that time had been spent at a forge. Blacksmithing was only a part of a much larger whole, but that experience had given her the foundation that had helped her stay ahead of most other crafters. Was she the best Blacksmith in the world? Probably not. But she felt confident that she was one of the highest levels, and she had the skills to put all that power to work.

She leaned forward, and the moment her current project hit the belt, sparks – both orange and blue – flew into the air. More importantly, the rough and durable belt had no issues grinding the forge scale from the piece. Once that was done, she started in on the fine shaping.

There was only so much one could do with a hammer, and using skills like Shape had a habit of degrading the quality by contaminating the purity of the metal with the wrong flavor of ethera. So, as much as it would’ve been easier to use the ability, it would likely result in a slight decrease in the piece’s power. And considering that the material was already a little deficient, she didn’t want to take that chance.

So, she did it the old-fashioned way, grinding excess metal away and shaping the piece to match her vision. Fortunately, with the high-quality of the dragonstone belt, it didn’t take long before the piece was finished. Mostly, at least. She still needed to sand it, then polish it, and finally, engrave it. But that would wait until all the rest was done.

With that goal in mind, Carmen retrieved another billet from where she’d left it in the forge. It glowed white hot – True Steel needed to be a much higher temperature than its mundane cousin – and she immediately went to work with her summoned hammer. With every blow, she used Ethereal Strike: