It's been a lot of time since I started to train with a chain and a great sword. And today is the day where my custom-made weapons finally arrive. I ordered them three months ago, the delay is understandable since forging a chain of the highest quality possible isn't really common. And obviously tedious.
Imagine: you put around a day of work into a link, even if you can do five at the same time it still takes around 8 days to do a whole two meter of chain.
A link is about 7cm long, add to that the thickness and the link between two link and you have about 5cm of effective length.
Then quick math: 200/5=40
So, 40 links in total, by doing five a day.
40/5=8
Which means 8 days.
The preparation of the materials and the finishing should each one take a whole day. Add the great sword who should take around 3 days, you can prepare the materials and do the finishing at the same time than the chain.
So, we count two weeks of pure smithing. Then the time to receive the order, to gather the materials' and to send the order to me. I'm actually impressed that they could do it in only three months.
I can't wait. I still need to wait a lot since it's 4am right now...
I waited a looooooooooo (insert many more "o"s here) ooong time.
And now it's around.... 5am. Why must you betray me magical clock!
This clock was made by dad when sis and me requested it, people around here don't really measure time. They use the sun and that's all. And since we requested it it has 24hours a day, dad wanted to do it 20 hours since it was a round number. But hey, old habits are rather hard to kill.
It took a whole year before we could fully adjust it. And the hours are a bit shorter than earth's ones. I won't explain the tuning process since i didn't care, i already started sparring against the guards at this time and i found it way more important.
While I was reminiscing of those spars and wondering how I would fare using my chain and great sword. Sis woke up, a quick peek at the clock informed me that it was 8am now. Bless those useless reminiscences. The town’s gates should be opened by now, so the smithy might already have received my order.
I quickly gulped down the plate that was waiting for me on the main room’s table, and went on my way, my clothes were as always not much more than a sport bra and spats but who care, not me at least. The feeling of the hard stone under my soles reminded me that once more I forgot to wear shoes. By now my feet’s skin should be as thick as leather since I go barefoot more often than not.
When I reached the warrior’s district’s smithy, I cheerfully kicked the door open. Scaring the boy behind the counter.
“Hey there, my order should be arriving today, is it here yet?”
“N-no… I’m sorry but the shipment that we’re expecting for today hasn’t arrived yet. The orders should be coming along.”
I guess that I’ll just help around in the meantime.
“Fine, is there anything that I can help with around there?”
“Erm miss that’s a smithy…”
“Don’t worry strength isn’t a problem” I said going for a large poleaxe on display and lifting it with one hand, sure it was heavy but not nearly as much as a bone jaw body.
“That, can you by any chance swing that thing around”
Needless to say, that I showed him.
“How accurate can your strikes be?”
I swung the weapon toward an armor on display and neatly stopped it just before it touched the armor, I obviously took an adapted stance before as to not lose my balance. I repeated the action a few more time and then used the pointed end of the poleaxe to stab through the eyes’ opening without actually touching the armor.
“….”
This kind of reaction is stating to become redundant. Just snap out of it will you.
“Come with me please miss.”
And now his eyes are sparkling.
He guided me behind the shop part into the real smithy. The heavy sound of the hammers rhythmically pounding on the steel was somewhat relaxing. There were three sets of anvil and furnace, and I followed him to the biggest and most backward one.
When we reached it, I saw a dwarf, or it could be a demon with a dwarf-like lineage considering that we’re still in the demon kingdom. But they’re the same for all I care.
“Boss I found someone with enough strength and accuracy!”
“Huh? The missy there? ya kiddin right?”
“N-not at all”
This dwarf is pretty intimidating, he didn’t even lift his head from his work to look at us and the boy is shaking like crazy. Must be a temperamental one to be this feared.
“Hello there, I was told that I could help.”
he seemed stunned for a bit after hearing my voice.
“Princess?” he answered finally looking me in the eyes.
He had a round small head compared to his build, this coupled to his humongous beard and bald head would make him a perfect dwarf, was it not for the two-circular protrusion on his forehead. It looked like severed horns very Hellboy like. But not red, it was just like natural skin. So, he’s definitely a demon, and he must be high ranking since I didn’t really made any public appearance except for the lineage ceremony and that wasn’t exactly a very open event.
“Yup, can you give me some work to do, strength and accuracy aren’t a problem.”
He doubtfully looked to the boy at my side who furiously nodded. I don’t think that it cleared his doubts but at least he gave me a chance in form of a large two-handed hammer.
“Swing it three times here” he said pointing at his now empty anvil.
I swung the hammers three times at the exact same point on the anvil. Well, I say exact but I’m fully aware that it’s not true, my error margin should around the millimeter. He was amazed, nonetheless.
“Okay lass follow me will ya.”
I thought he had an accent, how foolish I was. The more he talked about and did smithing related things the stronger his accent became. It was to the point that I couldn’t understand shit about what he was saying while smithing.
But since my role was simple that wasn’t really a problem. I was just a human power hammer, I pounded hard and regularly to the exact same point of the anvil sometime changing a bit the angle of my hits. I soon lost myself in the regular movement, it wasn’t really an effort since Bloo did most of the work but since he’s literally a part of me I think it count.
Time fled as I rhythmically hit the hot steel. I don’t know how many blades I helped to forge, but the three smiths used me… Wait that’s a strange way to say it… let’s just say that I helped the three smiths with their swords, that’s still confusing… fuck nothing happened I just hit hot metals with a heavy hammer.
Lunch break was here in no time. And since I helped a lot, they ordered one serving more for me. I dunno what I was served but it was good, it reminded me of pasta. I’ll remember this restaurant.
I talked a bit with everyone and gathered a bit more information about this smithy, so there are three smiths: the dwarf-demon and two humans, both are monstrously muscular like those macho bodybuilders that you can see sometimes in gyms. They’re a lot of adolescent boys who are their apprentice and assistants. What I did was usually done by them but since it’s a pretty boring work they’re more than happy to see me do it, that also leave them more time to observe their teachers. And the smiths are equally happy since I fare much better than those boys. If I ever need a work I can just work here apparently. That won’t happen though, I have much greater ambitions.
But, because there’s a but, my order still isn’t here. I give them it three fully forged swords worth of time before I go search for myself. The demon capital is around one day of travel from here. I can accept three for a heavily charged carriage, still there aren’t that many possibilities of getting late.
Time flew by as I got back to hammering, and when I noticed it there were already four swords completed.
I quickly excused myself and asked for the route that they were supposed to take. They gave me a map of the Academy’s surroundings with the road marked.
I thanked them and refused their attempts to pay me, after all I trained a lot today, my error margin in my strikes reduced to nearly nothing, well that is for regular strikes, but it’s still a nice experience.
I made my way to the town’s western gate and asked for information about this carriage, since it brought materials to the Academy’s smithies every month. And i didn’t come today, while he was supposed to, it was still early in the afternoon, around 4pm judging by the sun’s position. Is still had a lot of time before the gates closed for the night so I ran out of the town to meet up with the carriage.
ghost7157· Feb 17, 2021
AriaLong· Feb 17, 2021
