It certainly wasn’t as bad as Terry had originally thought. He had expected the Mercenary Guild to have tried to poach him, but it seemed they were borrowing him for the time being. As long as a contract wasn’t signed, it was fine. 

Jack had made a fair amount of coin too, though Terry recalled one of his promises to Sir Anthony before he had slain the man. He’d need to speak with Don as well, but that could wait for the time being. They ate together for the evening and then they each went to their respective beds to sleep. 

Jack made his way to the guild, seeing the giant building. As he stepped inside, he noted Alba and the others, who threw him a glance and then went back to their conversation. He sighed and quickly moved to Jane. 

“Good morning, Jack,” she said, smiling down at him. 

“Good morning, miss Jane. I’m here to inform you that Smith Terry has returned and that I’ll be training under him.” 

“So soon?” Jane said, frowning slightly. “Oh dear.” She sighed, but she knew it was probably best. Since he was leaving, she supposed she could tease him a little. He looked down at his face, seeing him smiling at her. “Don’t be too much of a stranger, alright?” She smiled and reached over to poke his nose.

He looked up at her, a little surprised at her action. “I won’t,” he said. 

“You should leave before Don finds out,” she said, smiling to herself. “He might end up crying in front of everyone if he knows you’re leaving so soon.”

“Then for the sake of Don’s honour, I’ll leave.” Jack smiled. They said their goodbyes and Jack made his way to the smithy. The smithy seemed like a foreign place to him since it had been a while since he last stepped foot inside the building.

He could already hear the sound of something striking metal, and when he rounded the corner he saw Merri currently working a hot rod into shape. He decided not to greet her since she was concentrating, instead heading to the door. He was about to knock on the door when Terry opened it. 

“Good morning,” Terry said, nodding his head. “You ready to work?”

“Good morning,” Jack replied, nodding his head in return. “I am.”

“Good. I’m going to check if you still have what it takes. I want you to create ten daggers made from one part cobalt. I have twenty rods in a pile, and only half of them which are one part cobalt, the others are two part cobalt. If you accidentally use a rod which is two part cobalt, I’ll consider it a failure. I don’t mind if you fail the actual forging, though.” Terry raised his brows. “Understood?”

“I understand,” Jack said excitedly. He smiled wide and then followed the smith to the pile of bars. 

“Call me if there are any issues, like if you run out of usable rods, otherwise don’t bother me.” Terry sighed. “I still have some business to attend to still, so I’ll leave Merri in charge while I’m busy.” Terry returned back to the building, leaving the pair to their work.

Jack went over to the pile of rods, grabbing three of the rods and then checking them against the grindstone. He noted that each were one part cobalt, and he grabbed one and placed the others to one side. 

He then started to heat it up and began to work the iron rod into the general shape of a dagger. His thoughts weren’t entirely focused on the task at hand, but soon he moved into the flow of it all. The rhythm helped him focus, with each strike of the hammer against the hot metal slowly shaping a dagger. He focused on the singular dagger, taking it one step at a time. 

Nearby, Merri watched him every so often between her own smithing. She was making a longsword, which would take close to the entire day. She was working on a rod which was one part cobalt too, though creating a longsword was a little more difficult. 

She wondered why her father had taken an interest in Jack. There was even an issue on the road, but he had informed her that they needed to be more careful with Jack and that they had to make sure he succeeded in becoming a decent Smith. 

He wasn’t even that good. He had just started training and was no match for someone like her. She shook her head to focus back on her work, losing herself in her own work, slowly reaching the state of Absolute Focus, though it continued to evade her. 

Jack felt as though time was passing quickly, and by the time he came back to attention, he realised that his dagger was almost entire done. Other than polishing the dagger, he was basically finished with it. Seeing that he was almost done with it and it was still day out, he grabbed another rod and then went to heat it.

Merri noted that he had grabbed another rod, smiling at the fact he had already failed one of the rods. If he continued to fail then they could easily send him back to Bloodwall. They didn’t need one of their kind here, they were just fine without them. What use were nobles? Even if he did learn from his privileged upbringing, there was no way that he could catch up to her so quickly unless he had a level of talent which was unmatched by others. Seeing that he was a noble, that may have been the case, but whatever he had learnt was probably due to the Smith, Kanders, from Bloodwall. 

Jack heat up the rod and then started to work it again. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to create the dagger the same, but he decided that it would be best. There was no point in adding anything flashy since he could fail smithing the dagger.

The rhythmic pounding continued throughout the day, and eventually Jack found that he was close to finishing the second dagger. He decided to make a third dagger since he had enough time and didn’t feel too tired. He grabbed a third rod and then began to heat it up. 

Merri was struggling on her long sword, barely managing to shape it correctly. Cobalt was harder to work with due to the fact that one bad hit would ruin the entire item. It was best to tap gentle and slow, but many were too impatient, and working too slow could ruin the blade at the end since it would have been tempered too poorly. It would have been a fine enough weapon, but it wouldn’t hold the same quality one would expect. 

Jack finally finished the third dagger as Merri finished her longsword. She was exhausted, covered in sweat as she dropped down to sit. She wiped her brow and then looked down at the cobalt sword. She had been lucky today, she had managed to make a decent enough sword. Her father would need to double check, but she felt good about it. 

Merri looked to Jack, noticing him polishing the dagger. “So you finally made one?” she asked, smirking up at him. “I made a longsword.” She leaned, but looked at him in such a way that she was looking down at him. 

“It just needs an hour of polishing and it should look fine,” Jack said, not understanding her point. 

Merri managed to find the strength to drag herself onto her feet and then shambled her way towards her father to have him check on her work. Though Jack was feeling tired, the polishing phase of forging allowed him to rest up. His forearms were arching, but it was a dull ache, the kind of ache which signalled a job well done. There was a warm feeling deep inside him, one which he could become addicted to. 

When Terry arrived, he saw the look in Jack’s eyes. “So you managed to make one?” Terry said, walking over. He held out a hand and Jack handed it over to the smith. “Needs a bit of polish and sharpening, but otherwise it’s good.” He nodded as he returned it. “Managing to make one is quite impressive.” He smiled. “You managed to figure out which rod was correct too.” 

“Check out my sword,” Merri said, growing impatient. 

Terry rolled his eyes and walked over, noting the pair of daggers which were barely shaped. One in three was pretty good, though he was more impressed that he had managed to shape two and still have the time to finish one. It wasn’t as though he found the problems early. He checked the longsword first and ran his eyes along it. It was fairly rough, but well made. “It’s acceptable,” Terry said, reaching down to ruffle the girl’s hair.

“Will you also check my other daggers?” Jack asked. “I think I shaped them well, but I’m not sure if they’re up to your standard.”

Terry looked to Jack, raising his brow. He walked up to the daggers and lifted them up, examining them. He raised his brows in surprise and then turned to Merri. “Come here and polish this one up,” he said, handing her the dagger and then grabbing the third.

The three of them polished the daggers and sharpened them over the next couple of hours before they finally saw the patterns on the blades and how shiny the daggers were. They were near identical, but most importantly, they were all fine weapons. They weren’t made to the best standard, but more than acceptable. 

Terry looked to Jack and raised his brows. “Tomorrow we’ll work you on fifteen percent cobalt. One part seems to be too easy for you, though it could use some refinement.”

Jack’s ears perked up and he smiled. “Just some refinement?” He didn’t expect them to be so good. He wasn’t entirely sure if they were fine, but hearing Terry’s compliments made him smile. 

‘This kid is a monster,’ Terry thought. Would he even be able to handle him? What other surprised did he hold in store?

I'm three chapters ahead now! Should be more by the end of the night!