It took quite a while before Ryu got what he wanted. He got information spanning centuries about every moment the sword existed before he finally reached far enough to see how it was created.
He saw a mysterious figure take out several different souls before hammering them into the shape of a blade, creating a blank canvas that could embody any ability that the user's soul contains. Truly a perfect weapon, or at least a perfect idea.
The first question that came to Ryu's mind was how did the figure get those souls? Did he go around the area and simply kidnap them? He was surrounded by the soul of the dead, after all. And Ryu took a wild guess and assumed no one would willingly turn into a sword instead of reincarnating.
Also, creating a sword purely of souls is good as a base, but it lacks specialty. Sure, a sword made to embody any ability can do its job, but if one were to add materials that could empower the sword into a specific duration it would be far more powerful. For instance, if someone's soul contains an ability compatible with frost, then mixing in something like a kiss of frostbite would amplify the effects of the sword several times over.
Not to mention that the quality of the souls used is also a big part of the sword's quality. If Ryu's guess was correct and someone just took these poor souls and turned them into swords, or Zanpakuto as they were called, then its quality will be quite poor when compared to a different Zanpaktuo made from more powerful souls.
Overall, these Zanpakuto were just default swords meant to rely on their owner for power and potential. Whoever this mysterious creator was, he was basically spitting in the face of his own craft.
A sword's goal is to strengthen whoever wields it to its highest capability, no matter who wielded it. But with these faulty Zanpakuto, there was too much reliance on a genius owner.
And Ryu's opinion was proven true by looking at the Zanpakuto he was examining. It was such a weak sword because its owner was an incompetent idiot.
Ryu's pride as a blacksmith couldn't let something like this slide. To produce such weak creations with such a powerful blacksmithing technique irked him. And so Ryu knew what his new project would be. He'll master this technique and make it his own. If the creator of this technique didn't understand the potential of what he created, then Ryu would show him.
And maybe he'll take care of this place. Ryu already planned to set up shop in the area since it looked like all the troublesome people wouldn't come here, so it wouldn't hurt to help the people while he was here.
But first, he needed to find a good place for his smithy. He didn't want it to be in the middle of the street since it'll attract too much attention amongst the flimsy wooden houses, but he didn't want it to be so far off that no one would come to visit. After a bit of walking, Ryu found a good place near the edge of the housing area. Just on the border with a forested area.
Although it had houses, no one was living in the area. Ryu presumed that because it was a relatively isolated area the people there were murdered.
With a thought, Ryu conjured a large smithy made out of wood from Yggdrasil. He was about to do some intense experiments, so he needed a building that could handle that amount of stress.
Now, standing in front of his forge, Ryu was faced with a problem. What kind of soul should he use? Unlike the figure that made those awful Zanpakuto, Ryu could choose what souls to use since he could simply create them.
'Well, let's start off at maximum effort,' Ryu thought as he conjured the soul that belonged to one of his amalgamation Shinobi. It was a soul of a god with thousands of years of experience and skills, as well as several powers from different dimensions. It was the perfect material to forge with. But the was one thing Ryu didn't take into consideration.
The soul of a god... It was incredibly powerful. And combining several souls? Reforming them into a weapon was difficult beyond measure. Of course, the result would be astounding, but Ryu needed to reshape them first.
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A deafening sound rang throughout the surrounding area as Ryu hammered at the souls again and again, each blow strong enough to shake a building made from the World Tree.
'This is more difficult than I thought, the figure made it look easy' Ryu thought. Even though he gave it his all, he was pretty sure this attempt would end up as a failure. Unlike how he learned from Brok and Sindri, this time he didn't have direct access to the source. Meaning that although he knew the technique that was used to create the sword, he didn't gain the experience of the smith that created it or any of his tips and conclusions.
Well, it's not like Ryu couldn't gain said experience himself. He had all the time in the world, after all. And keeping with that thought, Ryu's hammers continued to hit the souls.
An hour, two, three. Ryu continued to mend the souls together to his desired shape, but to no avail. Ryu managed to shape the souls somewhat, but it was far from enough. It was clear that the lack of experience in this field affected him. But Ryu wasn't feeling down, he knew it would happen. If anything, he was excited to learn and perfect something new.
But taking a quick look outside, it was quite obvious that his rather loud activities caught some attention as three kids peeked around the wall of his smithy curiously. Seeing that Ryu spotted them, the group quickly hid behind the wall, only to peek again once they noticed that Ryu didn't yell at them.
The trio was beaten and bloody. Their clothes were practically ripped apart. It saddened Ryu's heart, especially since it hit him so close to home. Back in his original universe, children were made into weapons or abused all too commonly. He didn't want it to happen here too. Ryu already had his mind set on helping his surroundings or those who came to his smithy for help, so he made his move.