Chereads / The Craftsman / Chapter 12 - SF (Pt.2), Blacksmith Contest

Chapter 12 - SF (Pt.2), Blacksmith Contest

As he began Daedalus started by lighting the fire, then after five minutes and it was up to heat he threw the Uru into the fire to heat up. While the Uru was heating up Daedalus began to carefully carve at the Ebony with a thin but long scalpel like knife, with an immensely sharp edge.

The ebony he was using was a thick piece of wood from the base of a two thousand years old Ebony tree that his family had purchased at an auction for a lot of money.

As he began to carve into it the audience and even some of the other craftsman around him were bewildered and enchanted by the techniques gracefulness and delicacy towards detail. Daedalus' techniques seemed to flow as the Ebony began to take the look of a great shield as big as Daedalus himself.

The shield had taken a wonderful shape though it was clearly not finished, the people where curious, but he continued carving in patterns of beautiful lotuses, Majestic Phoenixes and awe inspiring dragons. Daedalus had seen many pictures of all these things and he thought it would make his shield look amazing after the final touches. All of these images seemed to revolve around certain trenches in the wood.

Daedalus after finishing carving all the details in finally looked back towards the Uru that was smelting. Daedalus saw that it was now in a liquid state so he grabbed the container that the liquid is in with his tongs and began to pour the liquid onto the Ebony shield. As he poured the Uru it began to follow the trenches that he had carved earlier this forming the pattern of a raging black void dragon roaring at the heavens.

Waiting for a short while the metal hardened, so Daedalus began to sand it down removing lumps. Then he began to carve once more this time using an incredibly sharp chisel and his hammer. Slowly but surely the dragon made of Uru became more and more life-like to the point that it's imposing might was nearly palpable to the onlookers, of which at this also included all the other blacksmiths who were partaking in the contest.

Daedalus then put the finishing touches on the shield making the void dragon feel and nearly project its magnificent roar towards the heavens. Finally Daedalus begins appraising the beautiful creation of his before saying "Wonderful." with a nigh palpable pride in his voice. As he said that the audience and the blacksmiths began clapping and cheering wildly.

In the background a man walked forward saying with an indifferent look on his face "My master would like to purchase this shield and that armour and sword too. We will give you one hundred gold for all three."

Daedalus hearing this immediately became enraged saying "You think a meer hundred gold is enough to buy not one but all three of my masterpieces, you're out of your bloody mind. Even if I did want to sell them it would be for at least ten million for just the work alone let alone the material, you can go climb up your father's ass for all I care!"