Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne-Chapter 83: New Skill

He didn’t know if he could reveal this. Even if they were his friends, he still needed to have somethings he didn’t tell them. If he told them about it, it would eventually lead to his parents, who he wasn’t ready to face yet.

So, he just shook his head lightly as he was about to answer, and the girls didn’t push it, they too had things they hadn’t shared.

They simply weren’t close enough, and they had all experienced Jon’s friends’ betrayal. It wasn’t right to just start saying everything.

It became a little solemn until Jon just continued,

Day 4

-After you have gathered the materials, you can start to plan out the design of your sword. Now, that is where the ’Mind world’ comes into play. For a beginner, it is best to start with the simplest thing you can think of, the goal for now isn’t perfection, but understanding.

’So, I have gathered the material, formed the weapon in ’Mind world’, time to start.’ Jon thought as he recalled the step by step process the book described about blacksmithing.

-Throw scales or bones into the fire to heat until it turns yellow. The yellow color means it has reached perfect crafting degrees. There really isn’t a particular time limit to wait for, so you have to watchful when the metal changes color.

Following the book, he threw bones and scales into the fire that was still burning hot.

At this point, he were getting familiar with the different scales. Not that they had met so many monsters in the first instance. For example, they hadn’t fought any water or ice-based monster or lighting yet. However, they were getting ideas from what they had. The huge poisonous snake Jon had killed on the first day of the general increase in the camp’s strength, the flaming defense beetles, web spiders, the earth bears, and the rest.

Ideas on abilities that could appear on the weapons were made. And these ideas were also among the things they would apply in the ’Mind world’. Imagining the scale, they would be able to make adjustments on what they wanted.

Noticing the change in color of the scale, he pulled it out.

-Now it is time to shape the material. After removing the scales or bones from the fire. Set the heated work flat on your anvil and shape the corner into the shape of a sword using a hammer. Make sure to taper both sides of the steel evenly.

So without wasting time, he began to hit the hammer on it.

CLANG...CLANG...CLANG 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He didn’t try to use mana to reduce the heat being produced in from the furnace, he accepted it and kept hitting the scale. Until it began to take shape, it was beginning to look like the sword had imagined.

-Now, flatten the Sword Blade. Bevel the edges of your scales with a hammer to create a cutting edge on either side of the sword. Once you have hammered one side, flip the sword on the anvil and hammer the other side until both are even.

He followed the part too.

"Heat it again." Old Mason told him to place the scale in the fire again. Jon obeyed; he knew he couldn’t act arrogant in these kinds of things and besides he wasn’t wrong.

-Heat again. Once you have the shape of your sword established, reheat it to normalize the scale. Grip the steel with your tongs and bring it to room temperature. And once all the red color has left the scale, place it back in the forge and repeat this process three times.

And after heating the scale again, he began to hit it again. He realized something, the second time he dipped the scale into the fire, it actually helped in shaping it a little. And he did it again.

Though it still took over an hour, he finally finished and dipped it into water.

-Then sand the sword to smooth out the edges on a belt sander or by hand. Once the sword has been beveled, normalized, and sanded, reheat it and dip it in oil until it reaches room temperature. This process is known as quenching and it hardens the steel to strengthen your sword. Make sure you transfer the blade from the fire to the quenching as quickly as possible. If you are too slow, the sword blade will not harden properly.

- Slowly reheat your quenched sword in a forge to a lower temperature. This will relax the brittleness and stress induced by the quenching process.

These last two processes were like the final touches to make the sword stronger, harder and sharper and he did them.

And the final step

- Carefully sharpen your sword blade until you are satisfied.

"Hmm..." he nodded at the first weapon he created. Just as he had wanted, maybe because he had used a black scale, it turned out just he had pictured it in his ’Mind world’, It was a plain black, two meters one handed blade. And though it wasn’t perfect, it was something, especially for his first try..

"Mm...try again." Old Mason acknowledged it and told him to try again.

Like that, throughout the fourth and fifth day, he kept perfecting skills by creating different swords.

Day 6

The first thing he saw as the day began was,

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED UNRANKED SKILL ’BLACKSMITH’]

"Finally," he displayed happiness at the message. He had been anticipating the message since he had started and was beginning to lose hope.

Old mason had already gotten it as his main skill and also chosen it as his first realm class, so it was just Jon.

"Oh, you got it, Congrats." Old Mason smiled at his success. When a person put effort in something, it was only right to be congratulated, especially when you really worked for it.

’Nothing really comes easy,’ still smiling at his success, he was beginning to see that effort and risk were what really made one strong.

During the start of the fall, he just wanted to survive. But after fighting the spiders and beetles, he realized that maybe surviving wasn’t just enough. Like he had taken the risk to still fight the leaders of the monsters, he came back stronger than his previous self.

Looking at the screen again, he checked its description,

[BLACKSMITH (UNRANKED REALM) LEVEL 2: YOU NOW HAVE THE BASICS OF BLACKSMITHING.

SUCCESS CHANCE OF CREATING AN UNRANKED WEAPON: 40%]

"Forty..." he mused at what he was seeing. ’So if I increase it to level 3, it increases to 60%’ It wasn’t bad the way it was going and before he knew it, he would begin to create black realm and the rest.

"Not bad..." Without wasting time, he continued. However, before he could continue, his ’Mind world’ shook.

’It expanded again.’ Though it sounded like he was complaining, he was happy about it. Who would reject anything that could help them?

Without wasting time, the next weapons he wanted to create was a shield. It was the next easiest thing after a sword. So he began the process,

After forming the sketch in his ’Mind world’ he began.

He first needed a wide scale, and after heating and hammering it, he layered another heated scale. This was the process to create a sturdy shield. And for this shield, he used the beetles scales,

However, he was met with his first problem. It wasn’t melting in the fire.

However, they had the solution, so following the guide in the book, they threw an unranked core at the fire and then,

SHWAAAAAA

The already very hot room suddenly got hotter. The flame size rose up and increased in its intensity. But Jon was just grinning at the spectacle. He still didn’t even cover his skin at the increase of the fire rather, he basked in the feeling and heat.

And the beetles scale immediately started melting. So, without any further delay, he began hammering the flat scale and stacking more on it. And maybe because he had just gotten the skill, he was able to form it under two hours.

Looking at the shield, it was round but not a perfect circle. It was black, just like how the beetles looked. And he was able to retain their red flaming defense, albeit a little. Little red flames could be seen flickering in and out in the middle of the shield.

And finally, his first weapon brought a message.

[’REDAK SHIELD’ (UNRANKED): CAN BLOCK ATTACKS FROM LEVEL 25 AND BELOW. USE 10 POINTS TO COAT SHIELD WITH FLAME DEFENSE

DURABILTY: 300

DESCRIPTION: UNABLE TO BRING OUT FULL POTENTIAL OF BEETLE]

’Level 25...’ Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen any unranked weapon that could block from level 25 and below. Even his black realm rod was level 25 or less, he didn’t think an unranked would be like this.

But reading further to see the part ’he couldn’t bring out the full potential’, it finally clicked in for him. The beetles’ scales were already into the first realm and a deep one at that. The weapon he was supposed to create was meant to be a black realm at least. However, maybe because the scale was too tough, he couldn’t just lose its hardness.

And the only way to improve was, to make more.

So he went straight for his next list. A dagger, it was supposed to be the easiest because of its size, but a dagger particularly needed more effort especially in its look. Apparently looks mattered a lot for daggers, and asking Old mason, he agreed.

The technical parts of a dagger was in its, handle, sharpness and the blade itself. It had to have good grip not to let loose in any way, it’s sharpness couldn’t be stressed enough, who would ever use a blunt dagger. And the blade itself, a dagger isn’t meant to be straight and plain like a sword, but curved a bit.

Without thinking of anything else, he began the work. And for this dagger, he chose to use the claw-toothed tiger. When he, Jenny and Cynthia had fought them, he remembered their white, long and sharp teeth that stuck out of their mouth. It was really the perfect material because it was already sharp and curved. What he need to do was flatten the tooth and cut it.

Though what he had to do wasn’t much, it still took four hours of extreme focus and concentration before he finished making the dagger.

"Whew..." He wiped off the seat that marred his face and looked at his work. The dagger was silver in color and was about 20 centimeters long. And for the handle, he used the pelt of the tiger. Since he was using the tooth, he decided to just se its body too.

And immediately he created the dagger,

[BLACKSMITH (UNRANKED REALM) LEVEL 2—> LEVEL 4]

BLACKSMITH (UNRANKED REALM) LEVEL 4: YOU NOW HAVE MORE OF THE BASICS

SUCCESS RATE OF CREATING AN UNRANKED REALM: 80%]

[’CLAW-TOOTH DAGGER’ (UNRANKED): CAN PIERCE THE DEFENCE OF CREATURE BELOW LEVEL 25. SUE 25 POINTS OF MANA TO DRAW CLAW IN THE AIR.

ATTACKING POWER: 320 DURABILTY: 300

DESCRIPTION: UNABLE TO BRING OUT FULL POTENTIAL OF TIGER]

He smiled at his progress and finally got down to the rest.

For the remaining time he had, he and Old Mason would create weapons for the leaders.

A scythe for Cynthia, a sword for Jenny, a bow for the pair archers, a pair of gloves for Alexa, a hammer for Gar’al, and various weapons for the rest. And since he didn’t need a weapon now, he just went with a dagger for himself.

Afterwards, they would create as many as they could for the rest of the leaders. So without waiting they got down to business and began creating as many weapons as they could.

Day 8

After the continuous repeating process of making a weapon, Jon now only needed about thirty minutes to create a weapon and Old Mason needed only ten minutes.

It was a situation where, the more they created, the more ideas came and more styles and little by little, Jon was getting a hang of drawing out the potentials of the monsters.

Though he wasn’t told, he had a feeling the moment he is able to draw out the full potential of a monster, he would take the skill to the first realm.

Not to forget his ’Mind world’, any weapon he had formed in this mind world didn’t just disappear. No, they were all there for reference and for booting his experience in blacksmithing. Because of that, his ’Mind world’ expanded and the limit of his mana sense. And though he hadn’t leveled up at all during this ten days period, with his continuous hammering, his strength had increased, his limit of his mana sense increased.

Just by blacksmithing, he was confident he would defeat his previous self.

At the end of the day, he and Old mason had created about 200 weapons.

Day 9

"So, it ends now." Old mason was greeting him. He looked a bit sad that his blacksmith buddy was leaving, but he couldn’t hold the leader down.

"Hey, don’t worry, you will soon have people joining you. And you will be getting more supplies from now on." Jon smiled at the old man. After thanking him, he took the weapons they had created and left the room.

Today was the last day, and Jon had told everyone in the camp to rest today.

They were supposed to rest for the second phase of the plan. Due to reason, it was starting earlier than usual.