Stronger Together chapter 176

My everything hurt. Badly. It had been nearly twenty four hours (my  sadistic master had at least allowed me to stop and call home so they  didn't worry) and I had made over forty daggers. Every time I made one  Brokkr would point out half of my mistakes and then make me spend five  minutes studying the thing and meditating on my process at the end  before starting the next one. If I repeated one of the mistakes, either  one he mentioned or one he didn't he would smack me, then tell me what  it was.

I was  beginning to see burning metal when I closed my eyes. If my brain  wasn't half metal at this point I'd probably be delirious from lack of  sleep, luckily between my godsteel body and constant blows to shoulders  (he'd stopped hitting me in the head without explanation and focused on  my shoulders and back, personally I think he didn't want to chance  knocking me out) there was no chance in hell of me falling asleep.  Constant pain is the best alarm clock.

I  glanced sideways at the pile of daggers as I walked over to grab a new  bar of iron from a chest that honestly should have been empty by now,  and began the heating process. I had five minutes to evenly heat the  metal or I got a smack. Each dagger was slightly different, but there  was a marked change every other blade I made. Brokkr would give me new  specs and then guide me on how to apply them, then the second dagger  would serve to test my intelligence and skill as well as my ability to  listen.

Most  of the tips he gave me without smacking me were specific to the type of  blade, and the ones he expected me to find then hit me for the next time  were more general blade smithing abilities he mentioned to help me with  all the daggers, Odlly, this little hell training seemed to be working,  I wouldn't call the most recent daggers pretty exactly but they were  decent enough looking that you could probably sell one at a pawn shop or  something. They were functional blades for the most part if a bit ugly.

I  was learning, if slowly compared to my magic training. I'd already  learned enough about smithing that I suspected I could apply it to an  ingot sized piece of godsteel and make a very nice dagger. When I said  so I got another smack and the usual "Fool!" Before my master reminded  me we hadn't moved onto tempering or grinding or quenching or any of the  various ways smiths improved the quality of weapons. I didn't really  have a response for that so I just shut up and got back to work.

Finally  Brokkr called a halt to me making daggers. "Alright boy, you've  improved a bit more than expected. So I'm going to let you lay down on  the bed over there and take a short nap, and when you wake up you can  eat and I'll instruct you on a few more basics of metalworking before  you start again on making the other sixty daggers." I must have grinned  because he smirked viciously back at me "Don't be too happy boy. This  means the next sixty are going to need to be properly quenched and  tempered."

Getting  to sleep was easy enough considering how exhausted I was, and i didn't  have any dreams I remembered. Once I woke up and had some bread and  cheese Brokks had me right back over to the anvil. "Now, since you have a  basic understanding of working blades it's time to learn a bit more how  to treat the metal. Keep in mind I'm teaching you metalworking skills  that apply across all types of smithing, there are specific techniques  for blade smithing but you'll get to those later. Now the two  disciplines I'll be teaching you now are hardening and tempering, and  both are of paramount importance."

I  nodded, relieved it was only two things this time. "Got it. Now the  others were sort of situational do I need to do these in any specific  order? Are they dependent on each other or are they separate operations  that can be used in different situations. I had a vague idea what  tempering was but I didn't know anything about hardening and the last  thing I wanted was another smack to the head if I did it wrong or out of  order or something. I'd learned over the past day of pure hell it was  better to ask questions before doing something than just risk getting  hit over trying it of your own initiative.

Brokkr  stroked his non-chin again "A decent question. They aren't  interdependent though they are related. Sometime you may need both,  sometimes only one. We start with hardening." He gestured for me to  reset a new dagger, heating and lengthening a new bar before telling me  to begin making a misericorde. The style required mostly chasing with a  small bit of flanging and was easy enough to do. He gave me the usual  pointers, and I was curious when we would get to the actual hardening  part but I wasn't stupid enough to ask.

After  I got it to about the shape he wanted it he finally nodded. At this  point I usually just shoved the thing into a bucket of water and called  it a day but this time he had me put it back into the forge to re heat.  "Now, hardening is about quenching gradually using the repeated  contraction and expansion of the metal from the waves of heat to force  air and imperfections from the iron. To proceed, forst add salt band oil  to the water, it's over there. It slows the rate of cooling. Then you  slowly dip the blade in an inch or so at a time until its fully cooled  and then reheat."

He  had me do so and glanced over the misericorde before nodding  grudgingly. "Now, at this point you can simply call the blade finished  at this point, or, though it isn't a necessity, tempering can actually  be useful in telling how well you've hardened a blade, as well as in  doing a different kind of hardening if you choose not to use the first  method at all. First you polish the metal until it shines." He gave me  polishing directions and had me repeat it until the dagger was up to his  standards. When I got it there he nodded "Now re heat the blade again."

I  put it back in until it was heated to a red hot glow again Brokkr  stepped forward "Good, now observe the metal. The glow is not even. You  can see based on the color which sections have more impurities and air  trapped inside. Now at this juncture you can either leave it as is, re  polish and try again, which will itself affect the blade and may change  things, or you can try the original hardening method and re temper to  see if that makes a change. For larger blades folding is also an option  but this dagger doesn't have enough metal to be worth the effort even if  you had the skill, which you do not."

He  had me quench again and set my dagger off to the other side and start a  new pile, then begin on my next sixty. Hours flew by as I got smacked  some more and learned some more and gradually the pile grew, though if  he felt I hadn't learned or improved he had me throw the dagger in the  old pile. As I went he also had me gradually pushing energy into my arm,  storing it up to make godsteel at some unknown time. I'd been doing it  since we started and already had some in there so I was building up a  decent store.

All  the learning seemed to be considered an activity that expanded my soul,  which i could understand, it was certainly an emotional experience.  Once I got another forty done we moved onto other lessons. Welding,  riveting, bending, shrinking, punching, finishing grinding, heat  treating,drilling, forge welding, so many techniques it made my head  spin and I had to make a dagger at least with each one. He would  randomly demand I use a previously learned technique on a new knife as a  pop quiz and if I messed up of course I got smacked with that fucking  stick.

It  took two more days, during which I was thankfully allowed a pair of four  hour naps before I finally finished all one hundred daggers. The last  twenty even had hilts on them. They looked...good. Like professional  blacksmith grade good. He'd taught me some actual blade smithing  techniques as we went too, and I'd incorporated everything without even  noticing. I'd been in such a haze of pain and concentration I missed how  much I was improving and damned if it didn't show results.

Finally  when the last one was done, he turned to me. "This is of course merely  the first step on your journey. However, as a test of all you've learned  and to prove to you that this isn't a waste of time you will forge one  more dagger. This one of your godsteel. You know how metal feels when  you strike it, how it is supposed to give and move, how the temperature  shifts as you quench it. These things have been branded into your mind  by repetition. Manifest your metal and allow it to follow the path  you've trod so many times. Then decide if you will continue."

I  nodded and conjured a chunk of godsteel the size of the ingots I'd had  before. Despite the increased cost my reserves had improved enough in  the last year to store that much. I also realized why he'd set the time  limit on the daggers, godsteel would set if you left it too long. By  teaching me to control my timing he'd give me a chance to actually pull  this off. As soon as I manifested the ingot I got to work, I knew I had  not time to waste. I was able to control the rate at which the godsteel  heated and there for the temperature for the first step and finished it  in only three minutes before moving on.

Just  like I had done a hundred plus times I lengthened the metal, and like  Brokkr had said every hammer blow felt like it distributed the force  perfectly. I knew the way it should move and give and so it did.  Sometimes during the original forging process I would feel a blow and  know it had hit exactly right, that it was the perfect strike, but then I  would lose it. This was like that, but all the time. I was in the zone.  I knew it didn't count because I was controlling the metal with my mind  but I also knew this would help me do better work in the future.

As  long as the magic was in the metal I could make it do anything I  wanted, and I did. I followed the steps exactly, adding style choices  and flourishes from the different dagger styles to make a knife that I  felt was perfect for me. It took me twenty minutes, and I expected to  lose the magic, but as I went I was somehow able to add more power to  keep it in that state longer, and when I finally finished hardening and  tempering, I added the hilt and wrapped it in the best leather he had  before staring down at my creation.

It  was...perfect. Beautiful. Everything I imagined every time I made one  of those other blades but couldn't manage. Despite how amazing it was I  knew that this was just the most basic thing I would learn here. Acting  on instinct and before the magic faded I pressed the blade against my  godsteel arm and the metal skin parted like paper, metallic quicksilver  blood oozing out only to be absorbed by the knife. The magic in the  blade flared brightly then winked out and the weapon looked finished. I  turned to Brokkr "I want to learn more." He just smiled, and we got back  to work.