Age of Gods - A VRMMO Story

After thinking for a bit, Thomas decided what he wanted to make first. He grabbed one of the heart steel ingots and looked over it. He glanced at Snowlily as he asked, "Instead of 'heart' what do you think of the term 'Origin'?"

Snowlily was laying down on the floor and just tilted her head a bit to look at him for a moment. Then lay back down as if it didn't matter to her in the least. Thomas shrugged his shoulders and looked at the ingot in his hand, "Origin Steel. I like the sound of that."

He tossed the Origin Steel into the forge and began heating it up to temperature. There were other ways he could do what he wanted to do but he felt like doing it the 'old fashioned' or 'proper' way. Once he had the Origin Steel up to glowing orange, he plucked it out of the flames and used one of Hekrin's hammers and a hot cut tool to cut it in half. He picked one half to start pounding it into shape. He first squared up the Origin Steel ingot and got it into the general shape he desired.

Once the base work was done he began reshaping the ingot into a tool, the most important tool for a blacksmith. As he used Hekrin's hammer he started to form the ingot into the basic shape of a cross peen hammer. He needed to make his own hammer, a tool that would be personalized to him for his use in making his items from now on. He always found it funny when he used a hammer to make a hammer.

Once he had the bulk of the material pounded into the proper shape he began working more on gettings the details right. He paid special attention to symmetry and balance. If the weight and feel of the hammer weren't proper it would affect his work. He heated the hammer head back up and selected a punch and drift that he would use to form the adze eye for the handle. Once the ingot was ready he set it over the pritchel hole in the anvil and started pounding the punch into it. Once the starting hole was punched through, he used the drift to widen the hole. He also used the hammer to help keep the cheeks of the hammer in proper shape after it was deformed from the creation of the handle hole.

With the hammer head nearly completed he placed it back into the flames of the forge. With it in the flames, he went over to where Hekrin stored pieces of wood. He dug through them a bit until he found a piece that reminded him of hickory. Hickory was an often used wood for hammers since it was tough and could dissipate shocks rather well. He honestly had no idea about the wood he'd selected for his hammer. Since this was for the hammer he intended to use for a long time he decided to forgo his usual practice of not asking.

Carrying the wood with him he stepped out of the shop and made his way over to Hekrin. He held out the wood and asked, "Would this make a good hammer handle?"

Hekrin plucked the piece of wood from Thomas's hand and looked it over for a bit then handed it back, "That's ironwood kid. It makes excellent handles. It's got a bit of flexibility so it doesn't snap very easily."

Thomas nodded and went back into the workroom after thanking Hekrin. Seemed like his instinct about the wood was correct. He set it down and looked it over. He placed his hand on it and activated his 'Transmutation' ability. If the wood was good as is, what would happen if he made it into 'Origin Ironwood'? There was only one way to find out so he started channeling his ability with the intent of purifying the wood. His mana shifted colors and sank into the wood. He could feel his mana moving through it but it felt... empty.

Whenever he'd used his 'Transmutation' to make Origin Iron or Origin Carbon he could feel it picking out the pieces and combining them into their whole purified forms. With the wood, he felt nothing but emptiness. Even after a few minutes, he felt nothing changing within the wood. He stopped using his ability and checked over the wood. There had been no changes to it at all. He frowned and thought about why that might be. He'd used the ability on plants before and it had worked just fine.

It took a little thinking but the conclusion he came to was that the plants he'd extracted the hearts of before were 'fresh'. They still had liquid inside of them and were still potent. The Ironwood he had selected was long dead and completely dried out. Perhaps if the Ironwood had just been cut from the tree he would be able to turn it into Origin Ironwood. Since he couldn't purify it there was nothing else to do but start cutting and shaping it.

He grabbed a couple of chisels with different widths. He started by cutting the wood in half lengthwise. The base width was far too much for his needs. With a smaller piece to work with he began to chisel away all the excess material, removing at least a quarter of it in the process. With the bulk work done he used smaller chisels to work it down to a shape that was closer to resembling a finished product. He finished the work using files to grind and sand off the rough edges and finish the handle. As the last step, he cut a slit into the handle at an angle.

He picked up one of the scrap pieces of Ironwood and started carving it into a wedge shape for use later. With the handle finished he went over to the forge and heated the head back up until it was glowing orange. He set out one of his barrels of quenching oil and dunked the scorching hot hammer head into it. The oil hissed and spouted out flames as the metal was dunked into it. Thomas moved it up and down for a bit before retrieving it from the oil. He smiled as the hammer head issued a steady stream of smoke.

With the Origin Steel hammer now hardened he needed to temper it a bit. Though hardened steel was excellent it was currently a little too hard, even brittle. One wrong move and it could easily shatter like glass. He brought it over to the forge again and carefully warmed it back up. Tempering it would loosen it up a bit and make it much better for the work he intended to do.

Once he finished tempering the hammer he brought it over to the workbench and went through the process of fitting the handle into it. He had to do a little work reshaping the top of the handle a bit to get it to fit. Once it did he flipped it over and picked up the wedge of wood he'd carved. He set it into the slit he'd cut and used a wooden hammer to pound it in. The wedge would push the slit apart and create pressure to hold the handle in place. Thomas lifted the finished hammer and smiled.

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