Chapter 3: Forge Master
The city was as expected medieval, it smelled like piss and shit and there was way too much shit on the streams on the sides, good thing I decided to stay out of the city, better thank that Wellington guy for this. Soon we were in front of a smithy, the place was cramped but surprisingly well organized.
"Daimos where the hell has you been, I told you I needed you in the smithy!"
"I told you I was training in the ways of the sword with the master!" He pointed at me.
"Master, are you drunk again, its a woman for god's sake what would she know about a sword?" I pulled one of the swords on display checking its quality.
"I know a lot more than any of the idiots who call themselves knight in this city... I heard that you were the best swordsmith in this town but I guess I overestimated you..."
"HOW DARE YOU! MY SWORDS ARE MASTERPIECES! Just so you know I only use the best materials in making them."
"That doesn't make them good."
"And what do you know woman?!"
"How about this, I came here to acquire a sword for me, but none of these caught my eyes so let's make a bet if I can make a better blade than you I get to keep it."
"Hump why would I accept that?"
"What? are you so bad that you arent even capable of making a better sword than a woman?"
"Fine, but I will be watching you!"
[You developed the Skill bargaining (social) Lv.1]
Part one of the plan complete, now I will have a new sword for me and a foothold in this city, I secret smiled under the mask, soon we were on the back of the workshop where the production place was, there were an already burning forge, iron anvil, and the normal tools, clay and materials. I quickly started working.
"You know why your swords are bad?"
"They Arent!"
"Its because you don't work enough on the iron," I spoke ignoring his remark and started the simple but at the same time complex process of forging, picking up a good piece of metal from a pile I put it on the fire while Daimos father watched skeptically.
"What's your name anyways, to be able to make my son act all fanatical like that?"
"Shouldn't you be saying your name first, its common courtesy from where I'm from"
"My name's Alfred now whats yours?" He spoke rudely.
"Amelia," I spoke as I used a pair of tongues to remove the piece of iron from the fire putting it on the anvil, using a chisel I split the iron in 2 before folding it and started to hammer it, I could see the surprise in Alfred's face.
"Alright I will admit you have some skill but why are you bending the iron like that, isn't it easier to just make the sword already?"
"That's where you are wrong Alfred when you do this process, the more times you bend it, the harder and more flexible the metal will become, to make a really good sword, you need to make this process over a hundred times to make Damascus Steel."
"Damascus steel?" He seemed interested, good another objective complete, after that the smithy became silent except for the constant hammering of the iron hammer with the hot iron, thanks to the superhuman strength I was able to complete the refining process very quickly, making the shape of the sword was also easy.
"What a weird sword, where's the guard and why is the blade so long and curved."
"This type of blade is called a Nodachi, a blade made for cavalry use."
"That explains the length... but why are you making it do you have a horse?"
"No, but this blade is the type of sword that I am most proficient in using be it on a horseback or in the ground."
The process went smoothly and I quickly applied the clay on the backside of the blade when it cooled down enough.
"What's that for?"
"Quenching."
"Quenching? what's that?"
"The process of making the metal of the blade harder, its very simple, you just need to heat the blade a lot and quickly cool it down in cold water, this will make the part not covered in clay a lot harder, giving it a soft backside and a hard edge to the sword."
"so that's why the blades that I cooled in water were harder than the ones I let normally cool down, but that makes the blade to break easier, and chipping to happen constantly."
"That is only if you make it wrong, and of course there's always the chance of failure and the blade to crack, but the ones that are successful will be superior to any other non quenched blade."
"And Done," I spoke as I dropped the newly forged blade on the anvil it took about 6 hours to make this beauty and I was sure this was the best work of my life, even in the thousands of years that I lived I have never forged something as good as this one.
[You Developed the Skill Blacksmithing (Basic) +0.1 Constitution, you infuse strength in anything you forge.]
[You created a Masterpiece please name it (WARNING, the name you give to your masterpiece will infuse it with strong power, name it carefully).]
I lifted an eyebrow looking at the grey blade, suddenly I got an interesting idea, I lifted my hand and spoke.
"This blade I name Kori." A strange light manifested itself and entered the blade, suddenly a cold air filled the smithy and the black metallic blade become of an icy blue color.
"W-What was that?!" Alfred screamed looking at the sword changing color.
"I was lucky, the gods of the forge blessed this blade giving it great power."
"G-Gods of the forge, there is such a thing such a miracle!" He screamed approaching the blade and looking at every inch of it, I noticed him grinding his teeth.
"T-This still not proves that your sword is better than the ones I made!"
"Then let's test it," I spoke picking up the blade from the anvil, the metal was icy cold, I quickly put it on a work table, and using some wood and leather I made a hilt for it.
"hump Y-you will see!" Alfred spoke with clear unease in his voice as he went to some room and brought back a sword wrapped in cloth, the blade was shiny silver, clearly, this was an heirloom or a masterpiece he created.
"Alright test it! he put the blade up while holding."
"Are you sure you want to use that sword, it may break" He froze for a second but only noded, so I could only comply, picking up kori with both hands I swung down controlling my strength to not surpass that of a trained knight.
*clang *
*crack! *
The sound of the 2 swords colliding was heard and a blade broke in 2 of course it was the silver sword, mine was intact, but the interesting part was that the silver blade was covered in a thin sheet of ice.
"Fine, I admit defeat... Please teach me how to forge something like that!" He spoke to me, eyes burning with passion as he looked at the blade in my hands, I smiled.
"Of course for a price." I smiled wickedly under my mask.
I got back to my hut happy, looking at the sword in my new sheet, protection was necessary and this magical blade was very interesting, I had no idea how it worked but something better than that is if there is something like a magical blade, won't there be magic, like real magic! maybe my fake title of wandering mage will become something not so fake after all, but how do I do magic?"
I sat on my porch once again, looking at the night sky around me it was already dark, the moonlight was dim but I was able to see around me easily, still after a lot of thinking I had no idea of how to start the magic. I looked at the blade on my hands, maybe using it will give me a hint? I quickly got up and started swinging, feeling the cold air generated by the blade, seconds, turned into minutes that turned into hours, soon the sky was already turning bright and my swordsmanship skill got 2 level ups.
"So it's like this huh...?" on the first hundred swings I felt nothing different but something interesting started to happen I was feeling a lot more tired when swinging this sword even with my increased strength to the superhuman level I could only swing 600 times before getting out of breath and my arms started to get heavy, not only that but I felt like something was siphoned out of my body and into the blade whenever I swung the sword, maybe I can control that, but for now let's go rest...
*Bang bang *
I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door heavily, I got up from the ground, made sure I was presentable, and made my way to the front, opening the door there was a woman standing there.
"Yes? how can I help you?"
"W-well I noticed the cabin here, and 2 days ago when I passed here to collect some herbs it wasn't here so I was curious." she looked at me weirdly, was there something in my face? I reached towards my face feeling the wood, I was still wearing my wooden mask, I guess this is for the better.
"Yes, I recently moved in, not even a day ago."
"Oh, just a question why are you wearing a mask?"
"Why wouldn't I wear a mask?" he stopped confused for seconds thinking hard why I shouldn't wear a mask... probably...
"Well then what can I help you with?"
"I-It was just that because I live nearby..."
"Oh, so we are neighbors! why didn't you say so earlier? come on in, I don't really have chairs yet but make yourself at home." I spoke as I opened the door.
"Huh, n-no I was just curious..."
"Don't worry come in, It a custom from where I am whenever you move to a new neighborhood you give gifts to the neighbors."
"N-No I need to go home, its almost breakfast time." She backed off and quickly went away towards the north, what a weird girl... I sat on my porch once again and soon the 4 goons were back, goon 1 or Marcus was already covered in sweat well, it means he took my words to heart.
"Good yall are here, pick up the new swords and start swinging." I pointed to a barrel, it was filled with dull metal swords, things I borrowed from Alfred so that they could train in here.
"Are these real swords?" Goon 3 asked with a shine in the eyes."
"Blunt blades for training take that idea out of your mind." he made a weird face.
"How did you know?!" He screamed.
"I know everything I'm a Mage."
[Liar Lv.1 > Lv.2]
He could only nod his head and look at me with awe in his eyes.
"Arent you going to practice with us, I have never seen you practice before..." Goon 4 asked I could see some skepticism on his eyes, is this guy smarter than the others, wow that's a surprise.
"I don't practice during day time, during the day the world is full of Yang energy from the sun, and during the night there's more Yin energy from the moon."
"Yang?"
"Yin?" The four asked confused.
"The yang is Light energy, more suited for man, and yin is dark energy coming from the moon, that is more suitable for females."
[Liar Lv.2 > Lv.3]
"So it's better for men to practice in the daytime while women at night."
"Yes."
"ok... that makes sense?" Goon 4 spoke confusedly.
"What's your name by the way?"
"N-Now you are interested in knowing?"
"Of course, I don't care what the name is I will only be interested if they prove to me that you aren't completely useless, by the way, you will be goon 3 to me from now on, I pointed at goon 3."
"Wait what?" I ignored him and looked at goon 4.
"Bart..."
"What a weird name." I immediately remembered certain yellow character from tv back on earth Bart harumphed
"Everybody says the same thing so he doesn't like to speak his name out loud." goon 3 spoke.
"By the way my name is Virgil."
"Don't care go back to swinging," I spoke as I looked at Bart.
"You know how to write?"
"A little?"
"Good, tomorrow bring with you paper or anything you can write on, I'm going to teach you how to write my language, you teach me a little of yours."
"Your language, you are foreign?" Daimos asked confusedly.
"Yes didn't you notice the blonde hair and blue eyes thing?" I spoke as it was pretty obvious that I wasn't from this village, even the original Amelia, and not many people seem to know her, I wonder if she was someone special, but that doesn't matter anymore. time passed quickly and now the four were all sprawled in the ground panting.
"F-For how long do we need to keep this type of training?" Marcus asked while shaking his arms.
"If you want to be a master for the rest of your life if you want to be mediocre once a weak," I spoke as I got up, the sky was already orange, I picked up Kori.
"Watch carefully I'm only going to show you once, if you are able to pick up 1% it will already be good." I decided to hasten their training, normally at a dojo, it would take at least 3 months before real training but I noticed something, this system is really a marvelous thing, in just 2 days of practice they were already twice as strong, if I'm not wrong they should have reached level 1 of swordsmanship already.
I moved towards a large area, Holding the Nodachi tightly in my hands I looked at the tree in front of me, this was not only a way to teach them but me testing something, I spend most of the time today thinking of a way to create magic and I was finally able to mimic the sensation of when I use the sword and control it inside my body.
Focusing I felt something being siphoned from the area just below my belly button, the Dantian, I controlled that something to cruise my body, the feeling like there's a predetermined path on it, the energy I assumed followed my blood vessels out from my palms and into the blade, that glowed with a faint blue light, swinging a clue wave of energy flew out of the blade hitting the tree, leaving a deep gash covered in ice on the tree trunk.
[You Developed the skill Qi Control Lv.1]
[Congratulations on being the first creature in this world to develop a way to control the natural internal energies of the body, energy (Qi) is now quantified within the system.]
[Swordsmanship Lv.5 > Lv.8]
I quickly opened my system window and my eyes swam towards the new status.
[Amelia (Alexandre) (Age:16)]
[Level: 1]
[Titles: The Immortal, First System Tester.]
[Constitution: 2.7] (Class 0 Super Human.)
[Dexterity: 95% ] (Total Control over the body)
[Intellect: 1.2K ] (Thousands of years of Knowledge accumulated)
[Soul: Super Massive] (Bordering Divine)
[Qi Pool: 24/27] (11% Control)
[Skills]
[--- Common Skills ---]
[Woodworking (Basic) Lv.1]
[Blacsmithing (Basic) Lv.1]
[Qi Control (Basic) Lv.1] (Control a Small Portion of your Internal Qi)
[--- Combat Skills ---]
[Swordsmanship (Basic) Lv.8]
[Axemanship (Basic) Lv.1]
[Shaolin Kungfu (Dragon Style) Lv.1]
[--- Social Skills ---]
[Intimidation Lv.1]
[Liar Lv.3]
[Bargaining Lv.1]
So an attack like that consumed 3 Points from mi Qi pool a little expensive... I looked at the huge gash on the tree and smiled, not containing at all the excited smile in my face, it may not be magic but it's close enough, so much potential, I looked back at the 4 goons, they all had wide eyes while looking at the tree.
"Make sure to train hard, one day you may be able to do the same," I spoke while putting
kori on its sheath, I could see the fanatical looks on their eyes as I spoke that.
[You gained the Title Sword Grandmaster, current believers (5)]
Only when this message popped did I notice someone in the distance, hiding in the bushes, it was of course my new neighbor.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone