Dawn of another day slowly came forth. The bright sun shined across the landscape of mountains with forest, and plains across the horizon. A small river by a side of the Zigmund house was glowing with light as well. It was twisting through the forests into a bigger river, into the nearest town.

 

It was already morning, but Allan was already outside. Doing his exercises early, so he could begin to do something special, since yesterday. He had no order. Only some schedule in his mind to make it easier.

 

A thousand push-ups, pull-ups, and run were done in a matter of hours, with the latest being not finished, but only half was enough. Allan worked hard on himself, yet he was not sweating at all in the warm sun of the spring.

 

Sarey was also not that far away. She liked to check on him regularly, as she was getting used to his practice. Although there was no way to rush it, he kept this routine from the very beginning, so that is about 10 to 12 days of all-out war against the exercises.

 

He could feel a surge of power deep within him. His vitality was once more improved from pumping and warming his muscles.

 

“Phew. Finished with the last pull-up.” Allan took the wooden pole into his hand beside a tree where he did the pull-ups and walked toward Sarey.

 

“Already finished? You didn’t even flinch.”

 

“What do you mean? I feel fantastic about my performance.”

 

“You are more of a madman than I assumed.” Sarey bluntly said.

 

“Is that praise? Very nice of you.” He said as he sit by her side.

 

“Will you help me with the stuff I told you yesterday?” Alan asked.

 

“Sure, have you considered summoning 36?”

 

There was still a lot to consider with 36's summon. She thought that making simple discussions a day would help too. From what she remembered, 36 could be summoned every day for a limited amount of their time.

 

Although, he told them not to be so impulsive with his summoning, why not use every opportunity and not waste more time? On another hand, 36 would lose months' worth of time sitting in front of his table and brainstorming through the countless problematic variables.

 

“There is a time for it, but why not wait a few days? How about 3 days from now?”

 

“Whatever, I am getting impatient and nervous.” Sarey sighed.

 

Allan forgot about doing anything much after this. He already had plans to do. The only thing that was left was his spar with Zigmund, which he was unsure of where it would be. At night? After lunch? He never told him anything.

 

“Can I grab some food and get ready for some forging?” He asked after not bothering her about her feelings. There was no need to be impatient, but Allan did not know the reason for those feelings.

 

“I will grab something for you. Go to the forgery and prepare whatever you want.” Sarey gave up on her persuasion since it was mainly his decision.

 

Getting up from the ground, she stretched her arms and upper body from sitting too long. Seeing Allan in such a relaxed manner did not help her as much as she thought. Her weird feelings of impatience were not something common. Perhaps she had too much on her plate.

 

Allan was oblivious to any of her concerns, because he could read the atmosphere through the hearing. She always sounded normal to him, yet her frown, smile, and anything in-between was something he was never aware of.

 

“Alright then.” Allan got up as well, and with stability through the pole, and a strong body, he walked in the direction of the stable's door with his pole. He walked unbothered by anything as he laid his pole aside from the furnace and took chunks of prepared firewood into it. Starting a fire is the easiest part, the rest is a challenge.

 

It was something he did hundreds of times. He did not need eyes for this.

 

“Smells good.” Allan closed the lid below and made sure it was getting some air from other parts of the furnace. There was a small chimney, which would move the smoke away, and cause the right temperature inside with the right use of lids. The same was from the few sides of the fuel down below, and Allan knew them as well. They were very similar to the ones his father had in his official forge, so he can work with them easily.

 

The heat was getting up. Flames rose inside the furnace with rising heat in the room. It would still take some time before he could even begin.

 

“Alright. What now? Should I try to destroy the hammer emblem?” Allan considered, while remembering the last day.

 

“Not for now. 36's knowledge would be more sufficient. I could wait for 36 and do it while he is watching. He said it like it is hard, so I shouldn't be too excited.” Allan kept himself close to the fiery furnace. He already prepared some metal ingots beforehand. It was prepared for easy forging. It will be long and narrow but needs heat and a hammer. Allan was planning to make a regular blade. Nothing fancy for the beginning.

 

It can be enough to see any difference after a long time off the forging, and how it feels.

 

After some time of waiting, Sarey walked inside with a basket of bread, sausages, dried meat, and some fruits.

 

“How warm. I can feel it from the distance. Is it how the forgery feels like?”

 

“Is it? It feels normal to me. Heheh.” Allan laughed it off.

 

“Here is some food. Take it or leave it. I will watch from somewhere else.”

 

Sarey put the basket on his worktable and decided to watch from the far side of the stable. She did not want to distract him with her presence, but it was caused by the high heat of the furnace that she disliked.

 

“Thank you, feel free to watch.” Biting in quick motion to get some food, after the workout, he found the right place in mind to start the forging in a land of the dark.

 

After having his fill, he went straight into the forging. He put the metal into the furnace with heavy, one-handed tongs. A stroke of flames danced inside and tried to escape. It did not, of course, since Allan make use of the lid, and felt the rising heat from his experience.

 

He knew what he was doing, after all.

 

“10 or so minutes inside should be enough. It is not that big of a piece. How should I work around it? With feelings alone?” Allan asked himself out loud to sort his thoughts.

 

Although Sarey provided him with an hourglass, it still was very much useless to him.

 

“Sarey? Can you tell me when the 10 minutes limit is over?”

 

“Time? Is it that important?” She lazily asked as she lay on the ground by a side of the horse. She had already moved further away after Allan opened the lids of the furnace.

 

“Of course. Or do you have some way to craft custom hourglasses? I guess you can make them open so I can stick my fingers inside to see how much sand is gone?”

 

“Making the lids removable? Sounds clever and easy, but also an easy way to screw up the sand itself. Do you think it is worth the effort?” Sarey asked after thinking about it for some time. Although there were plenty of custom things people needed, so that means there are workshops in the Griontesse city that are readily available to make any kind of custom design pieces.

 

Be it from wood, metal, or both. This was one of the normal such requests, where the already made hourglass would be modified by any skilled woodworker in a couple of hours.

 

“I will deal with it later. For now, you will have to deal with yourself and try this by yourself.” Sarey said in return, since it was clear to her that Allan said that things will be done much better alone.

 

“Alright then. Let me start with the very beginning, while I will wait 10 minutes within my mind.”

 

Grabbing a small wooden slab. He wanted to do the handle, but was stopped by one glaring issue. He had to first make the blade. Allan couldn't make the physical plan for the handle like this, and doing it inside his head was not optimal.

 

“Slower and steadier. Alright, this will be significantly slower than I am used to.” Allan couldn't help but go with this method. One thing at a time.

 

He waited by a side of the furnace. He was feeling the heat and felt warmth in his bones. It was weirdly comforting, but he would not say it out loud.

 

After some time of his made-up internal clock of guessing the time limit, Allan took the metal out of the furnace with pincers and placed it onto a big anvil. Around 60 centimeters long, and 20 wide. It was quite massive and heavy. It took some work to put it here, and it would most likely never go away.

 

In his home, Clayton used this too, but he also had an enormous slab of metallic rock for big pieces of blades and metals. It was at least 2 meters big and sat on the floor. Tons of kilos was the basic idea that Allan thought of as a strange, anvil-like thing.

 

Allan discovered its value after one of his spying nights. It was similarly not something anyone could buy. Yet Clayton placed it in his official smithy. It was probably not something too extraordinary, so Allan did not think too much about it. Mere convenience through the use of hammering on top of it made things obvious that this thing was incredibly helpful for weapon making.

 

Especially the longer blades. Even handles for spears and glaives, or pole-arms alike.

 

It never got damaged all the time Allan saw his father use it.

 

After checking the right sides and softness of the scorching metal, Allan grabbed his new hammer and started to hammer the metallic piece down with his right hand.

 

 

Hot sparks and heat spread from the impact. Only a meter or so, away. Fortunately, Allan was protected by a thick leather attire against high temperatures.

 

He kept going relentlessly, without a stop. Allan felt stronger and sharper than ever. He could feel through the hammer that the soft metal was getting into a thinner shape. Occasionally changing the direction of the hammering, a long and narrow piece of metal that still radiated the heat was in his mind. Looking the same as the one on top of the anvil.

 

“Impressive. Did I improve that much? It felt so fast and steady.” Allan wondered. He did not know what sort of changes he went through, but he would be a madman if he complained about this. It was both his training, physical changes, and mental attitude that is the cause for the massive spike in improvements, and it would take a long time until he would realize that.

 

He took a long piece of stone slab and put the blade on top of it. He checked the shape and how straight it was with a small piece of metal wire. Placing it with both hands, he could feel it through the bumps with his fingers. The same was with the slab, while he dragged the metal vertically on it, in a try to feel the rougher edges.

 

“Good shape! I will need to reheat it for some time and go for the second round. I will do another adjustment for this and also a handle.”

 

This time, he did not need any time teller. He could feel the time when the blade was ready through his experience.

 

Meanwhile, he prepared an iron basin with some oil substance he learned about from Sarey. Interestingly enough, they were using special and different methods while forging in this world. Although it was all around the principles, he knew about. It was still something new to Allan. It was around the basic premise of oil.

 

Allan placed a slim, and tall structural iron basin around the furnace with iron pipes that would heat the oil through the furnace. It was a technique that he knew very well.

 

A normalization.

 

After some time of dealing with this, he returned the scorching hot blade back on top of the anvil. It was not longer than before, so he hammered it in certain places. He had to make sure it was straight, so he worked slowly and checked it more often.

 

Soon, the edges of the blade and its shape were complete. It had a place for a one-handed handle, but that was the hardest thing to accomplish without eyes. It needs to be something he could do, and actually finish, so it took almost 20 minutes till he was satisfied.

 

Checking it once more, he tossed it into the slim iron basin with oil, which was already hot enough.

 

A sizzling sound spread around with some flame around as well.

 

Sarey watched all of it with some interest. He had seen some work done by blacksmiths before. Even though it was her first time examining it that close, she still found this impressive.

 

It was worth the praise.

 

“How does that look?” Allan put it into the air. The blade was facing the floor. It was no longer that scorching hot. Steam is still around its surface.

 

“Passable.” Sarey ironically said.

 

“Then wait a bit, I will make it shine through the roof!” Allan jokingly said in return with an exaggerated tone.