Chapter 43 - The Knife

Determined to get the minerals, Alex began to make an iron pickaxe, since the rock that surrounds the minerals is very hard and his skin is not so hard as to withstand the impact of his strength, if he decides to destroy the rock with his hands, possibly the ore is not affected since Caos broke one of his claws while he was trying to destroy the ore under Alex's order.

Alex kept the shattered claw quickly before it was absorbed by the dungeon, since the system had already considered its claws as a mineral when he accepted the mutation of magic claws, apart from which he believes Caos's claws are the same as his beast form.

It took half a day for Alex to make a totally iron pickaxe since he had no wood or the right tools to make the wooden handle.

The system quickly notified Alex that his creation was mediocre, since the weight was not well balanced, among other details, but this could not matter less to Alex, since the pickaxe in his hands was light for him, so much so that he doubted that it was able to withstand his strength.

Without hesitation or thought, Alex hit the ore with all his might.

*Craack!* The impact created a strong recoil that made Alex's arms numb from the impact of his blow, but to his joy, the blow had been more than enough to break the ore into two pieces, the ore that comes out of the ground and the big piece that managed to break.

<I feel a tingling in my arms, but at least I know that I can break the ore... although apparently only the mineral maintains its characteristic> Alex looked closely as the rock surrounding the minerals of the piece that he broke, it lost its dark color and turned light gray, showing that it lost the ability that prevented Alex from getting it with just his hands.

Once Alex managed to separate the minerals from the earth ore, he was able to break the stone that surrounded the minerals and thus keeping the ores that had different sizes, from a thumb to the size of his head.

Shortly after Alex dedicated himself to tearing apart all the ores of the place until he ran into the floor of the dungeon that no longer allowed him to break anymore.

In his inventory, he accumulated 49 ore of Irocle and 21 ore of Flamium, after mining for two consecutive days in the direction of the exit. Alex finished with the numb arms of so much mining.

Alex also collected a large number of river rocks and clay that he had to dig when resting on the side of a river.

Alex collected stones from the river, but not just any, they have to have a specific color, yellow, red-orange or gray-blue. This knowledge came when he obtained the profession of blacksmith and Alex did not hesitate to look for these stones since they would be useful as sharpening stones, and they are necessary for him to make his weapon, otherwise, his weapon would be incomplete, like his current knife, the which only has the shape of a knife, but not the sharpness of one.

He did not fight anything, Caos was in charge of eliminating or chasing away the beasts while Alex dedicated himself to his things as he is now making some clay tools.

"Mmm... I never thought that being a blacksmith would take up so much of my time and so many things... I thought I only needed an anvil and a hammer ~nya" Alex complained as he looks at his dirty hands that remained like that for making the molds for the lingots and the forge that in the end, he need to do.

All because when he melted an ingot, it slipped from his hands and his mana could not hold the melted iron, which ended up on the ground scattered and becoming useless to him.

"How awkward it is to be human... I thought I would miss it or feel somehow better for being human, but now I regretnya" Alex lay on the floor while waiting for the clay to solidify.

"I want to be a cat again and sleep under the sunlight ~nia" Alex got up from his place while thinking out loud, shortly after Alex dedicated himself to building another wooden box the same size as the others, it was 2M cubic, the reason that the box is not larger, it is because the maximum measure that he could put in his inventory, if something exceeds 2 meters in any measure, the inventory rejects it, unless he has a way of doubling it and make it take up less space like the leather folds that he has in his inventory, some of them measure more than two meters by how big the beasts he has killed before.

After a few hours, Alex proceeded to shape the water stones he got, since they are not flat enough to be used efficiently.

Alex used a hammer and two different types of chisels, one to guide the cracks when making small indentations and once with the separate piece, Alex used a more normal chisel to cut or break the pieces that are not necessary, and once it remains half flat, Alex used the loose pieces to smooth them by tapping them against each other to wear them out.

Time passed while Alex prepared his tools and when he felt he already had the tools in his best possible form, he began to make his knife again.

By the time Alex had completed his blacksmith equipment, he went up to level two, no matter how much experience was missing and filled almost half of the next level, since Alex completed forged his equipment and didn't buy it or get it with the help from a third party

Alex greatly appreciates the knife, as it is an indispensable tool when cooking, so in an instant, Alex installed his entire Blacksmith Kit.

Five large barrels filled respectively with, Clean Water, Irocle, Flamium, Iron and Gold, because of these five barrels Alex had to make more boxes to store them in the same slot of his inventory that classified the two boxes as a Blacksmith Kit.

Alex quickly held an Iron lingot and a small piece of Flamium, for shortly after putting his hand with both materials inside the forge, where once with his hand there, Alex raised the temperature of his hand by releasing heat with his mana, a red flame left the forge, once the minerals turned completely red, the Flamium was the first to almost reach its limit and became a bit pasty, at that moment, Alex took advantage to mix both materials and start hitting the ingot to that both materials combine and when he felt that they got together enough, he put the mixture back into the forge to reheat it, as soon as the mixture turned red hot, Alex placed it on the anvil and used the same clamps to hold the mixture to be able to hit it comfortably with a special hammer which has two faces, a flat with oval edges and the other side a flat shovel, very different from the previous hammer that he only uses for apply more strength.

Alex began to hit the hot mixture with a moderate force to flatten the square piece of Irium, the jungle was filled with the sound of how Alex hits the hot Irium against the anvil, so it took a few hours until Alex managed to shape his knife, it became completely straight with the curvature of the side that will not have sharpness, resembling the Santoku knives, a knife that Alex can remember by videos that he watched in his free time in his previous life, he always wanted one of those but handmade and now he is achieving that old dream.

The knife took shape, but Irium left over, which Alex cut with a blow of his hammer and threw the hot piece towards the forge where Alex's mana continued to raise the temperature, to be able to heat the knife when it was necessary to continue molding it.

Alex made the knife measure about 25 centimeters only the blade and not counting the handle of the knife, which Alex dedicated himself to making it very carefully wood since it was very difficult to make a hole in the Irium which showed great resistance to be drilled, but Alex had enough tools and strength to make three holes in the Irium-handle where he would place a piece of wood on each side and make them hold in place with small pieces of Irium that he took from the remaining piece.

But before placing them, Alex let the knife cool and dedicated himself to using the leftover Irium, to make two Irium sticks that can serve as skewers and as tools to move the food that he stews in the future, these were much easier to make for Alex and he finished them on the second day, since the day before he lost him by hammering the knife and punching it.

It took 4 days in total for Alex to finish Irium's sticks and his knife which took three days to complete, one to shape it, the second to sharpen and the third to give it a heat treatment and fix any imperfections it showed as Also make the wooden handle.

"It was very tiring to make a single knife, but I feel it was worth it and the effortnya" Alex raised his knife high when he finally considered finishing it and as if the system also understood, the knife was surrounded by a halo of reddish light to soon explode in rays of lights with the knife in the center of everything that happened.

Alex's knife lost all traces of dirt and began to release some mana, the new aspect of the knife was the same, black wooden handle and the color of the knife was reddish and silver.

[/// [Custom Kitchen Knife] ///]

Classification: B +

Effects: +15% Acuity, +5% Durability, +5% Magic Control with fire element, [+5% Durability]

Skill: [Heat up] (When the user inject its mana into the knife, it raises the temperature), [Cutting Expulsion] (Ability to store energy and release it to make multiple cuts)

Created by: [Novice Blacksmith]

Information: The knife achieved two skills thanks to the influence of an external mana when it was being created and thanks to the Blacksmith's dedication, the knife obtained a bonus in its durability, making it even more resistant than its peers, cutting the iron is not A dream with this knife, only if the user has the appropriate physical abilities and technique.

Although it was not created for combat, the knife's capabilities make it suitable for use in combat.

[///////]