Abel was currently hard at work making the Solar Longsword. He had already made the 2 Viper Stiletto's as it was the smallest and easiest weapon to make. Although it wasn't a perfect result, it was pretty good nonetheless, and working on higher leveled weapons increased his forging proficiency greatly.
He had swung by the blacksmiths guild to purchase some higher-grade pommels as well as a hilt for this new sword and came back to the forge straight away. They were more expensive than the low-grade hollow wood pommels he had on him but it was worth it for this equipment. Although he only had a single set of materials, he was confident in making decent weapons with his first attempt. They would certainly serve him well for when he reached level 10.
Bang
Bang
Bang…
Even though he wouldn't be able to equip it for another 2 levels, he was confident he would level up much quicker now that he wasn't only killing low-leveled rat monsters. Stonebinder's Cavern may have aided him immensely in making some wealth and raising his skills but the monotonous killing and skinning of the same monsters was getting stale.
In fact, the increase of his level suffered just to make some money but it was a worthwhile trade off in his perspective. He had heard that many players were enthusiastic in attacking this "new" dungeon due to the easy coin they could make.
Abel shook his head to get rid of these idle thoughts after he finished tempering the blade. The longsword only required a single tempering, it was still too low-leveled to need more than 1 quenching and tempering process, though the higher-grade material certainly helped as well. If it were iron ingot or even steel, then he guessed he'd have to temper it 2 or 3 times to get the same result.
'I really hope it isn't too bad of a result. It shouldn't be, my basic forging skill is on the edge of entering Adept…'
The blade cooled down and he got down to grinding the edge and polishing the flat side. He took his time ensuring he did a good job as he didn't want to mess up in the final stage, not after the 40 minutes he'd spent normalizing, shaping, quenching and tempering.
Once he attached the hilt and peened the tang into place, he saw his forging skill break through to Adept. It was the first of his skills to reach Adept stage, even before his basic sword mastery!
+800 forging proficiency points
+400 EXP
'Just like the daggers, it doesn't matter whether the weapon is big or small, creating higher-leveled equipment than my own level would definitely increase my rewards.'
"Inspect"
[Solar Longsword]
Attack: 55-58
+4 STR
+5 AGI
Durability: 47/47
Special: 5% chance of causing 100 burn damage
Description: The solar longsword is a special design created by an esteemed blacksmith. The magma-steel alloy gives the user increased speed and strength as well as the chance to inflict burn damage onto enemies. Though it hasn't reached its peak result, it is adequately forged by Xiang.
'It's a pity… but it's still more than enough for level 10. I'll make another attempt in Stormwatch city if I have the chance.'
After he placed the longsword to the side, he pulled up his depleted stamina and mana. He wanted to create the armor next. He felt a little jittery as he lacked confidence but he took a deep breath and prepped himself up.
'There's no reason I should lack confidence, sure I've never made an armor in either lives but that doesn't mean I'll fail. I just have to pay attention to the details, concentrate... Yeah concentrate… alright, I should make the mold first.'
Armor was a little different than weapon forging, the tapering stage at the start would use a mold and the assembly stage at the end would require a punching or drilling machine, it also required an annealing stage while shaping the metal further to increase its durability, very similar but still different to the quenching and tempering stages. Abel used the sand pile on the side, probably there to make molds for ingots and armors. He added water to slowly make a rough mold in the shape of a chest piece.
The forging skill for a Battlesmith would encompass more than a traditional blacksmith profession. The latter would have to specialize in weapons or armor unless they had a special class that would permit them to do both. In addition to that, there were several subskills a Battlesmith's forging skill had access to from the beginning such as leatherworking and clay crafting which would aid in creating armors and molds.
The leatherworking and clay crafting subskills would differ from the sewing skill a tailor would have or the pottery skill an artist could gain but it was enough to make a simple attachment for armors or molds for ingots. They didn't have any levels to them and would just give him prompts when making use of these things in his forging, it would prove useless if he tried to sew complete leather armor or make pottery pieces.
After making a rough mold in the shape of a breast plate, he left it to dry out so he could place another layer of mold on it. Thankfully, it didn't take long to dry so he moved it onto a base of sand and saw a prompt requiring oil.
'Hmm… what's this. Oh, it's just like real life, I need to put some oil so it can prevent the mold from sticking to the metal when I pour it in. I wish I knew this when I stepped out to get the pommels and supplies.'
After releasing a sigh, he stepped out of the house and went to the closest shop. He got a gallon of cooking oil for a 20 copper coins and headed back to the forge. He placed the ingots into the forge to melt them down and got to coating the mold with the cooking oil he just bought.
Once everything was ready, he poured the molten metal into the mold and saw a timer starting to countdown. He had to wait an hour so he figured he'd go read a couple of books in the meantime. Whenever he got started reading in the study, time would pass swiftly and before he knew it, the mold had apparently finished solidifying. He headed back to the forge and started braking up the mold he had made.
The armor looked absolutely horrible but he wasn't done yet. He washed it thoroughly to clean off any remaining bits of sand and mud, and then took the ugly-looking blank chest piece and began the process of shaping. He slightly heated it up and began hammering to shape out the desired curvature and contours of the chest piece. Abel was giving it his full concentration as this was a meticulous process that required both skill and precision.
Bang
Bang
Bang…
Although armors in-game would refit to their user's size, he had to make sure the edges and overall outline of the armor were correct or it would result in a failed attempt. It was during this shaping process that the metal could become hardened and brittle. To counteract this, Abel had to periodically heat the chest piece and allow it to cool slowly in a process called annealing to help relieve any internal stress and improve the overall toughness of the equipment.
Fortunately, the blueprints prompt aided him immensely. Unlike the Eagle Beak Dagger, he was sure he would fail in armor forging were it not for the timely system prompts telling him where to hammer, when to heat it and when to let it cool down.
Generally, armor-smithing was a much harder than weapon forging. Even after getting some much-needed practice in creating armors, Abel wouldn't change his mind as the entire process was more nuanced and required more concentration and attention than weapons. Of course, there were occasional weapon types that would also be complicated but they were rare and not really in demand.
Once he was done with the final shaping and annealing, Abel brought the piece of equipment to a specialized machine to drill some holes. This was done to allow for the attachment of straps, buckles and other fittings for more comfortable fit when worn. The holes were strategically placed to ensure the overall defense of the armor doesn't diminish for comfort.
He was extra cautious as this was the first time he had done such a thing, Xiaowen had never made an armor before even though he knew the general steps. They weren't desired as much as swords and daggers in the other Earth and even then, they were mostly used as decoration within homes. It was a super small, niche market where the customer would usually customize the decorative piece they wanted.
After he was done placing all the holes in their correct placements, he put the armor piece back into the forge to undergo another round of annealing to relieve any stresses introduced during the shaping and drilling process. This final heat treatment was applied to improve the hardness and strength of the metal, in other words, its durability.
After it had cooled down, Abel took a close look and it admittedly looked much better than before. He hadn't realized it but the chest armor seamlessly blended its rugged look with an aesthetic touch of beauty.
'Now for the final part.'
After admiring his near-finished work, he got to the final stage which was the fitting and assembly. He had divided the Ogre leather into different straps, one major rectangular piece for the inner lining of the armor and another eight small pieces to tie and connect it all together.
His dexterity stat helped a lot with this stage as it required dexterous use of his fingers to have the inner lining stay stuck to the armor piece without leaving a gap behind. It was quite difficult at first but after the first two straps, he got the hang of it and deftly finished his work.
+1200 forging proficiency points
+500 EXP
'At least this shows it isn't a failure but I still hate making armors… the gain in forging proficiency is much more but the EXP gain isn't much greater. Hopefully, it'll get easier in the future.'
"Inspect"
[Titanheart Chest Armor]
Defense: 38
+8 TGH
Durability: 59/59
Special: Stalwart Defense -prevents user from being knocked back or suffering fatal attack.
Requirement: Level 10
'Everything is lower…'
Abel let out a sigh after seeing the end result. While it wasn't a complete failure, it wasn't as good as the weapons he'd forged. The defense was lower by 2, the increase in toughness was also lower by 2 while the durability decreased the most by 6!
'At least the special effect is still there… but I think that might have to do more with the material than the forging.'
While he wasn't certain about the reason behind a special effect, he suspected it had to do more with the materials used than the schematic. While the design would definitely influence added effects, the materials would play a larger role.
He still remembered the Eagle Beak Dagger he made, the design added the special effect of 5% chance of causing bleed damage, perhaps if he had used another metal instead of iron then that chance would have greatly increased.
'It's a little past midnight back on Luminara… I should log out to eat dinner and get some sleep, I've been forging here all day.'
Other than a couple of supplies he went out to buy, he had been forging ever since he logged on after affixing the new rug pad. He was mentally drained and absolutely exhausted in spirit, he hadn't even logged out for a bite to eat ever since his light lunch earlier in the day.
Abel called up his Panel and logged out, he needed to get some rest.