Heavy Metal

"This is actually… fun!"

"Isn't it?"

Rusty nodded as he settled before the workbench and grabbed a nearby polishing cloth. With careful motions, he began to rub the surface of the blade, removing any rough spots and smoothing out imperfections. As he worked, he couldn't help but be immersed in the process of crafting, something that he felt he could spend days on. There was something about creating things with his own two hands that was quite fulfilling.

The bronze began to gleam under his touch, reflecting the light of the forge in a mesmerizing display. Rusty found himself lost in the rhythm of polishing with his mind focused solely on the task at hand. Once he was satisfied with the blade's appearance, Rusty set it aside and turned his attention to the task of sharpening.

"Good, now you can either use a whetstone or the grinding wheel. While the whetstone will offer you more control and precision, it will take a lot more time, that's why I'd propose a combination of both, start off with the wheel but finish with the whetstone."

"Alright!"

To make things easier he had a sort of assistant, who was the old hero. At first, the orb's tone was harsher and the old hero was slightly annoyed by the fact that he was reduced to a blacksmith. Eventually, his tone became softer and more encouraging. Rusty's enthusiasm and determination were quite contagious, even the old hero couldn't help to start enjoying this new process. His new student was quite responsive and he did everything instantly without asking any questions.

Rusty followed the Hero's advice, using the grinding wheel to help sharpen the blade, and switched to the whetstone when the time was right for finer sharpening. It took time and patience, but eventually, he achieved the desired result - a sharp, keen edge that gleamed in the light.

"Great, It's almost finished, now you just need to assemble the hilt, this is just a bronze knife so it won't be anything fancy, but it'll get the job done. You can fashion a simple handle using some leather or wood, whichever you prefer."

Rusty nodded while looking at the now sharpened blade of the hunter's knife. Thanks to the mold this tool had been mostly created as a singular piece. It didn't require much fancy work and could be finished by wrapping the hilt up with something like leather. However, considering that this was his first creation, it was better to fashion a proper handle.

After selecting a piece of wood from a nearby rack and began to carve it into shape, using the drawings in the blacksmithing guide as a reference. Even though his hands were made of metal, he found them to be rather dextrous. It seemed that he was given some type of boost to his crafting skills once inside the soul forge. With the help of some drawings from the blacksmithing guides for reference and the help of the hero, the process was eventually finished.

The wooden handle was carved into a comfortable shape that fit well in Rusty's metallic grip. He then secured it to the blade using some twine, wrapping it tightly to ensure it stayed in place. Once he was satisfied with the handle's placement, he was left with admiring his handiwork.

"Not bad but…"

"Is something wrong?"

While Rusty felt a sense of pride for his first creation, the orb of light started to scrutinize it. After floating down, the hero started examining it from all directions before finally speaking out.

"I'll rate this around a C… C+ at most..."

"Oh, a C+? Wait… that's not that great…"

At first, Rusty was overjoyed by the rating as he was only an F-rank monster, so anything above that ranking was quite good. However, soon he realized this wasn't that good and just slightly above average with the letters B and A being still above it.

"Don't feel bad Rusty, this isn't bad for a first attempt, you could probably sell this knife in a store to adventurers. But don't get too complacent, thanks to the Soul Forge you don't need to worry about getting the smelting process wrong. Usually, other blacksmiths have to worry about impurities and inconsistencies in their metal but here the ingots will always be pure."

"Ah, I see…"

Rusty nodded in understanding. It was true that he was still lacking in many aspects of blacksmithing but with time, he knew that he could improve upon them. With the advantages that this Soul Forge space provided, he could also focus purely on the creation aspects and leave some things to the magical machines.