Chapter 188: A Prodigy Blacksmith
After leaving the Ancestral Lands with a wealth of information, Elliot and Jenna rushed to the city.
Elliot spoke with Ilsen, who gave him lots of good news, starting with the fact that he had managed to get his men to infiltrate hidden areas within Clark House and discover many things.
The Clarks were not only in trouble with the organization, but their own companies were also facing many problems and needed at least to reach the final phase of the Leveled Leagues in order to sustain themselves.
However, they had a fairly strong alliance with several local guilds and more, including guilds from other kingdoms, which is impressive. The movements of that organization, Altarcitus, are simply amazing.
Their ability to convince so many guilds to unite in the same alliance is something to be studied.
The recently stolen documents cornered the Clarks, and they were eventually forced to relocate. Meetings were no longer taking place on their territory but elsewhere.
Among the city’s important figures, a strange sense of uncertainty hung over everyone. Something big was coming, and no one could understand what it was.
At the same time, the movements with the Misfits were going quite well, and Ilsen himself was supporting this, which led to the Misfits receiving more missions of that type. Little by little, the organization run by Black Leather and Jeff became very solid among the Misfits.
The money was flowing well, and the Clarks were faltering.
But that wasn’t all.
The Clarks were in trouble, but they already had a plan. Apparently, they were slightly cheating the system itself with various things in this tournament.
The Elemental Academy wasn’t really fighting for the title. In fact, they were simply trying to eliminate Angelic Wave, but when they realized how dominant they were, they lost all hope and simply transferred their forces to the Clark Group.
Their idea is for the Clark Group to reach the finals. So, the three foreigners wearing Altarcitus robes—Ruin, Sir Ruined, and Dark Cloak—are in the Clark Group, while someone is posing as Dark Cloak in the Elemental Academy.
They want to surprise whoever reaches the final by forming a practically invincible group.
Ruin and Sir Ruined already gave Elliot a bad feeling when he saw them that time. What if they suddenly join forces with Dark Cloak?
The situation would be really dangerous for them.
All three are special characters, so they had to be careful.
After learning all this, Elliot and Jenna finally went to where Andrew had prepared his surprise.
It was in his personal smithy, within the guild’s territory.
There weren’t many people here. Only those closest to Andrew.
Elliot, Jenna, Steward, and Joferth. No one else was invited.
Andrew brought a few metals today, only what was necessary: iron and pewter to make swords and some more material to make spears.
It was already clear that his surprise would involve making a pewter weapon—perhaps a decorative one or a very powerful one for surprise attacks.
Pewter lends itself to many things in this world. In addition to being a highly versatile metal that can easily be shaped into any form the blacksmith desires, it also tends to have magical alloys that allow for drastic changes in shape during battle, which can be useful for surprise attacks.
The most common use of pewter in weapons is, for example, to strike with thrusts and, if you miss, use the magical alloy to bend it backward and attack from behind without moving from your position. Therefore, when fighting with weapons made of this type of metal, keeping your distance to a certain extent is usually preferable. You never know when they’re going to launch an attack from behind and destroy your organs or neck.
He didn’t waste much time. When he saw that everyone had arrived, he started doing whatever he was doing.
The heat began to rise as the fire burned, scorching the metal. The hammer striking the metal spread the heat to the surrounding area, filling the entire room with steam.
But everyone watched intently as he was doing.
After working on the metal for a while, he began to shape his first creation into a rather peculiar bent sword.
For some time now, Steward had noticed something curious.
’His way of striking... is very different from what I remember,’ he thought.
Not only had his technique improved, but the force of his strikes was superior, and his versatility in shaping the metal was unbelievable. It was too easy for him to shape this metal.
At a certain point, Steward’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t the shape of the sword that was surprising, but its quality.
"A Level 4 weapon!" he exclaimed in shock as the magical attributes began to appear on the weapon.
Andrew’s skillful movements and the power he exuded with each move stunned everyone, but when Steward shouted this, the few spectators he had were all dumbfounded.
To create a weapon of this level at such a young age... Wasn’t that too amazing?
It required a calculated and prolonged use of energy. He needed to wear himself out too much to be able to do it, which meant that this guy was at an absurd point in his energy control.
It’s possible that he can control his energy even better than Elliot or at his level.
The energy expenditure when creating advanced weapons is very problematic. If you’re not careful, you can fall into one of those furnaces and die burned to a crisp.
That’s why blacksmiths have many protective mechanisms in case something like that happens, but even then, most of them faint when trying to create such advanced weapons.
At such a young age, Steward had never seen a blacksmith who could create such a fine weapon.
’No wonder he’s the son of that blacksmith,’ he thought.
But he wasn’t finished yet.
He wasn’t here just to show them he could make a Level 4 weapon.
He was here to impress them in every sense of the word.
Soon, he began working in a completely different way. He set aside the sword after attaching one of the handles he had prepared in advance, and he was simply waiting for it to cool.
Meanwhile, his huge hammer struck the metal again—this time with more force and power.
"Is he trying to use his technique to create a weapon?" Elliot asked, watching as his blows became increasingly powerful.
Steward remained silent. He was asking himself the same question.
So they just watched what he was doing.
Slowly, each blow was more surprising than the last. More powerful.
This, naturally, was increasing the temperature of the pewter, which meant that...
It gained that strange elasticity, even more because it came with magic.
Impressively, Andrew had struck 15 blows, but he didn’t stop. As he struck, his whole body was working in unison on this piece of pewter. He swung the hammer with one hand and tried to shape it with the other.
Each blow increased the heat in the metal, making it more and more malleable.
Soon he had struck 20 times...
25 times.
30 times.
Suddenly, he had surpassed his previous maximum and was approaching 45 times.
At this point, the hammer’s blow shook the building. Each time he struck, the windows rattled, and the entire room flickered.
But he didn’t stop.
He had soon surpassed the 50 mark, and then reached the 56 mark.
They had been so impressed watching the number of strokes he made that they didn’t notice that his other hand was also working.
Slowly, without needing to pass the pewter through fire, a beautiful spear with intricate details and a rich array of decorations appeared in his hand.
On the 56th strike, he put the hammer aside and grabbed the spear with both hands. Immediately, he took an item from his inventory and imprinted it on the enormous spear.
When one item left his hand, another appeared, and soon, the spear was covered with many curious details.
They were recreations of battles printed on metal, which slowly cooled and remained permanently on the spear. Doing this was very complicated. First, because he needed to create these very detailed battles in a material that could be firmly attached to the metal.
Of course, pewter’s versatility made it simpler, but it was by no means easy. Second, pewter needs to be hot enough to be easily moldable but cold enough so that everything printed on it is engraved correctly and stays there.
It was more complicated than it seemed.
Everyone was so lost in what they saw that it wasn’t until Andrew spoke that they reacted.
Finally, Steward ran over to him and carefully grabbed the spear.
"You... this is a Level 5 weapon!" he said, in shock.
He looked carefully at the details printed on it, and they seemed to be battles, but a little... strange.
Very familiar, perhaps?
When Elliot approached, he frowned and looked at them.
He looked carefully at each battle, and when everyone was wondering what battles he was trying to recreate there, Elliot spoke.
"These are our battles..." he said, in shock, and slowly ran his hand over the spear. "Against the Basilisk, against the Raven, against Clark, against the Academy... The undefeated..."