"A glaive? Are you sure? Let me see your mark." Charles rushed to check Jason's hand. And indeed, there was the mark of a glaive.
Seeing my father's shocked face confused me as I never thought it was all that special a weapon. "Father why act so exaggerated? It is just another weapon, maybe slightly more rare than a sword or saber" I asked.
You do not understand. Our family uses a Tree of Harmony because only the soul knows what's best for you. most small clans like ours will never be so lucky to be told what their weapon is and so will need to guess. But the bigger issue is that your very soul cried out for a bladed staff or glaive. Only eldritch knights feel drawn to such weapons. Your ancestors natural weapon was a reaper's scythe. The Marquis is an eldritch knight with a double bladed polearm."
"So I was always ment to be an eldritch knight? Is that not a good thing father?" I asked in confusion.
"I do not know to be honest. I've never heard of anyone with a mortal body or without a supreme mana talent ever succeeding on the path of eldritch knights. And those foolish enough to try with those circumstances will die when they turn thirty-five, if the last that long, because they can't advance to knight tier. But this is also the first time I've heard of someone with such poor talent to be called to a bladed staff as only the eldritch knights are. Spears are the only staff weapons that a regular knight will be called to all others have been deemed the purview of eldritch knights. Our ancestor was an eldritch knight who wielded a reaper's scythe, and the Marquis Jeremy who's land we are in uses a double bladed polearm. This is just not a situation I can understand. We must go to the patriarch and see if he can help us."
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"Patriarch, my son's talents may be a little low but he has a god given strength and his soul yearned weapon was a glaive. We ask that the clan fully supports him as he could become the first eldritch knight of Clan Kovar since the passing of the ancestor." Charles respectfully asked.
"I hear your pleas and while I hope the boy can reach such hights, the truth is while his innate strength might be high his body tier is far to low and his magical abilities while good are nowhere near powerful enough." Said Patriarch Michael, "But because their is a chance you have authorization to hire the best masters of staff and saber in the barony. If he shows a modicum of talent then I will send for my friend the Blood Devil Sam to come and teach him how to transform those techniques into that of the glaive. As for resources to cultivate he will receive the same as any other who is walking just a single path. He is allowed to spend fourteen thousand gold on the purchase of his first weapon, and only that much because a decent glaive is harder to find than a more common weapon. Has he chosen a proffesion and found a master yet?"
"Yes patriarch, he has chosen to be a runemaster like myself and I shall be his master." Charles quickly replied.
"Good, good, with you teaching him we shall soon have another one star runemaster." Smiling the patriarch replied. " You may go now. Make sure to have the boy go to register as a blacksmith at the guild tomorrow as for inscriptions I will send it to them once he can place at least one rune. "
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"Ok listen up you weakling. To register at the guild as a blacksmith you must forge one mortal steel sword withen two years and it most be of excellent quality. All who fail we be kicked out. If you reach the age of 7 before you can forge it you will be kicked out. If you think this is unfair then go be a mortal working as a mortal blacksmith. We are here to train tiered blacksmith not p*ssys who complain about fairness." Shouted one of the orc instructors. "For now everyone come here and grab a hammer and let's see if you can properly handle ore."
Hearing that all the boys and girls stepped forward and grabbed a hammer each hammer weighed the same at 8 pounds. The children mostly looked like five or six years olds, but in the world were most five year olds had the strength of the strongest 20 year olds from earth this was considered the norm for them. One boy set his hammer down after testing it's weight, seeing the orc from earlier he headed over to ask," Sir may I have a heavier hammer mine was to light." Hearing him the other kids looked over those new to blacksmithing agreed with him as eight pounds really was to light, while those who had practiced before looked at Jason like he was a fool. Eight pounds may seem light but add banging that hammer down for hours on end without rest because even when you heated the metal you had to work the billows. Most of the kids failed the first task which was to define three ingots of steel much less forging even the shoddiest of blades.
"Haha Haha, ok boyo, here is my hammer let's see you wield it. If you give up though I will beat your a** for wasting my time and acting arrogant." the orc said passing on his hammer.
"What is Boss Rodriguez doing? That's a sixty pound hammer, even if the boy can lift it with one hand there is no way he can wield it to crack the ores so they can be refined. Hell most humans at the swordsman tier can barely wield it and it's only cause he's an orc that he can wield it at the squire tier.
Reaching forward to grasp the haft of the hammer I felt for its weight. It was extremely light but had enough weight that I could still properly swing it. Seeing that I looked at the orc smiling and said thanks, before rushing over to free the ore. after roughly 3 hours I had enough freed ore that I could smelt 4 or 5 ingots.
Before going over I crushed a few pieces of charcoal into as fine a powder as I could manage before mixing it lightly with the ore to provide the carbon I need to turn the iron ore into steel.
As I waited for the ore to melt I prepared an ingot mold to transfer it to. noticing my flames were not high enough I began to work the billows after checking the chimney.
After filling the mold I set it in the cooling formation marked for steel. Once I finished cooling the steel properly I moved to the forge. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the orc who loaned me the hammer was preventing a few other instructors from coming over and stopping me.
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"Boss, he is a new student he is only supposed to refine a steel ingot of poor quality today." argued one of the men.
" You all know I hate those intitled brats from the powerful clans. They are all arrogant fools who refuse to listen. That being said he will be able to retake the test tomorrow. Also if he can forge anything that is even useful for training I will give him the right to call himself a mortal blacksmith already. You all know my temper but also know I'm fair. "
Obviously still uncomfortable with the idea, they still nodded their heads. As long as the boy could retake the test it was ok. They never even considered whether could forge a training blade much less a battle blade. What a joke a five year old who can on his first try make a usable blade?
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Heating the steel until it was a cheery red I began to rain blows down upon it at a steady pace, never to slow nor to fast. Every few minutes I would return it to the forge to reheat it. After a few hours it began to look like a sword. For this blade I decided to fold the steel ten times, so I knew I would be here a while. Seeing as I had no helpers I had to maintain the fuel and billows myself but it reminded me of my childhood in my last life.
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"Boy, you look strong enough and you whor* mother sold you to me. I am a blacksmith by trade. I use the old method to make blades for cultivators as that is the only way to give the blade the ability to handle ki. You will handle the billows and tend the fuel. If you work hard I will teach you the trade after you are older."
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Shaking off the memory of the brash old fool who was like a father too me, I went back to the blade I was crafting in memory of him. It was styled after the single hand Swiss saber, the first blade I ever saw him make. after working non-stop for nineteen hours I had to take a rest.
Looking around I noticed all the five and six year old students have left and only the staff are left. In fact the staff was looking at me weirdly. All of a sudden this old man appeared near me. The shocking thing was this man was all of nine and a half feet and built like a mountain hell his forceps were as wide as most men's waist. " Boy go rest on that cot and finish your blade in the morning, don't worry you have not failed yet." the man said his voice loud and rumbling like an avalanche. If I was a little less tired I might have noticed how terrified the rest off the staff looked but all I could think of was how much I needed to lay down.
As the morning light came over the wall I woke up and moved over to the blade I made yesterday. All I needed to do was sharpen the blade polish it and put the handle on it. I noticed two pieces of a bright velvet wood already shaped perfectly for the tange of the handle. Looking around I searched for who might have left it. Seeing noone near by who could I decide to use them anyways.
As I put the finiahing touches on the blade, the old man from last night appears and asks if he can test my blade. I offer it to him and he brings us to a large wooden block with lines marked on it. Taking a firm stance the man swings at the block. My blade makes it to the third line but fails to go through it. The old man looks at me in shock before handing me a blade and a token, on the token is a giant with a mountain on its back. "You are now my disciple come here next Friday and I shall begin to train you to be a tiered blacksmith."
"Sir my father ,Charles of Clan Kovar, has already taken me in as his disciple. I appreciate your kindness, but i must refuse." I stated nervously.
"Show the token to your father and patriarch and if the still wish to train you then ok I shall let it all pass." said the man with a smile.