Chapter 11.2

Chapter 11.2

That was to be expected of such a task. It expended a large amount of mana to the point where even dwarves required several at once to perform the ritual. For forging as well, a large amount of mana was required. It could be seen as the second wall in the forging and refinement skills. Therefore, it went without saying that if you had no enchanting skills, even if you could excavate, you could not manufacture nor refine it. It was precisely because this metal sucked a seemingly endless amount of mana out of you that it was dubbed “magic iron”.

This time around he was making alloy with mythril, but as the amount of magic iron was more than that of the mythril, the necessary mana was larger as well. Incidentally, for this world, the greatest characteristic of mythril was that it could prevent alteration. Of course the same went for rusting, and it would also prevent things like being cursed from exposure to miasma. That was why laying enchantments on it was frightening and difficult, and especially in the case of completed products, it was impossible to enchant it with the average skillset. In the current composition, the endless magic-eating characteristic of magic iron was suppressed, making it difficult for it to take any curses, but on the flipside, it made enchanting somewhat easier as well as upped its resistance to miasma. Once you heated it up, the mythril would further solidify.

「……Looks like I managed to pull it off.」

Taking out a cooled, hardened ingot, Hiroshi scrutinized the particulars and breathed a sigh of relief. To be quite honest, he did not have absolute confidence that he could do this.

「It was that close of a battle？」

「Yeah, can’t say that I’m the most suited for the kiln.」

And even without that, this was the metal with the troublesome nature that had barred off anyone not in the intermediate level. Though he had indeed remodeled it via magic, he had refined it via a second-hand furnace, so even with all of Hiroshi’s skill, he had not had absolute confidence. In actuality, he had managed to create an alloy higher in quality than the kind that the dwarves refined with all of their equipment, but from Hiroshi’s viewpoint, he apparently still felt some discontent.

「Now for everyone’s eagerly anticipated forgin’.」

「Although I’m pretty unsure as to if you have enough tools……」

「Well, aside from the kiln, hammer’s definitely out. Guess I’d better make an anvil first.」

Casually saying that, he applied heat treatment to the extended alloy with magic, he built up a polished alloy with a special magic whetstone. He lay the small heated ingot on top, spreading excess mana through the forging hammer and began hitting it.

While having her eyesight blocked by the sparks that scattered around with every hit, Elena shuddered at the mana being swallowed by the material. Even if she were in Hiroshi’s shoes, when she contemplated whether she would be sane or not with pouring all this mana in, she felt a chill down her spine.

「Well, I guess that’s that……」

When it was beginning to look like a hammer, Hiroshi muttered with a sigh as he cooled it once with time acceleration magic.

「Is it done？」

「Only roughly. After this I need to apply heat to it and then make it into the right shape. Didn’t we do the same thing for yer rapier, Haruna-san？」

「Mm, yeah, that’s true.」

As they chatted about that, Hiroshi glared with sharp eyes at the heated hammer as its color began to change. His expression was completely different from his usual pushover one. He maintained it at a temperature where novices couldn’t really tell the difference, but when it got to a certain point, he dipped it into an unknown liquid. Making a flashy sound, the liquid evaporated and the hammer cooled.

「What’s that liquid？」

「Oil for heatin’. Figured I’d use it eventually, so I distributed it ahead of time. It specializes with the magic iron type. Although I really didn’t see myself using it so soon.」

「You need something like that？」

「Depends on the thing. With some things ya can git good results by just usin’ water.」

While answering Rayna’s questions, he ended the heating cooling process, which was the most crucial part of forging. If you were to apply too much heat, it would become too hard and brittle, and depending on the occasion it could even break on the spot. If you failed at heating and cooling, there was always the possibility of not being able to resolve the brittleness, instead making it all the more brittle. That being said, if you didn’t heat and cool it, most of the metals would become too brittle and unfit for battle. There were times when you would purposefully skip the heating process, but at the very least, the metals he was using at this moment needed proper heating treatment to function as weapons.

In actuality, all metals in processing are far more delicate than how society in general views them.

「Alright, this should do it.」

Gazing at the hammer head once its shape looked right, he gave a nod. He proceeded to separate the hammer head he had used previously from its handle, exchanging it with the one he had just completed.

「……Wooow.」

「Hm？ What’s up？」

「The old hammer over there……」

「Oh, well that was the sort of hammer that’d lose any day with how soft it is. I used it more than I should have, which left it all jacked up.」

Hiroshi’s words made logical sense. However, even so, if you were to look at a hammerhead that had a large amount of cracks inside and out, it wouldn’t be hard to sympathize with Haruna’s loss for words. To add further, this hammer was a specially-made product that Hiroshi had enchanted with Auto-Repair. It could take some damage and still heal on its own. Now that it showed no signs of repeating that process, it was made very clear what it meant to use a lower-level tool to make a higher-level tool.

「Time to end the openin’ performance.」

After applying some more enchantments to the completed hammer, Hiroshi proclaimed that with an unbelievably manly expression. Even his thick eyebrows that usually served to amplify his incompetence had served a momentary role to make him seem even more manly.

「Opening performance? We just going to continue like this？」

「I agree, Hiroshi-sama! You have been using quite the volume of mana up until now！」

「Well, if ya compare it to manufacturin’ God Steel, this ain’t nothin’.」

Making a statement that made everyone around him speechless, he moved on to the main objective: the manufacturing of the two daggers. As they watched him, Aearis instinctively looked to Haruna. Seeing Aearis’s face and making a small bitter smile, she fished through her pocket and took out something.

「Hiroshi-kun.」

「What？」

「I believe you when you say it’s not necessary, but at least for Elle-chan’s sake, just drink that much.」

「Hm？ Oh, gotcha.」

Smiling wryly at Aearis’s worried demeanor, he gulped down the Level 5 mana potion that Haruna had thrown to him. Normally it would be more reassuring if he were to drink at least one more, but in the case of mana and stamina potions, if you were to drink more than three within thirty minutes, you would get fully addicted. It was quite the phenomenon, so he elected to not drink too many of them. Incidentally, in the span of 24 hours, the limit was 20.

「Kay, time to git back on track.」

Though it was but a drop in the ocean, he did manage to regenerate some mana. Assuming once again a firm expression, he heated the ingot with pliers and then set it on the anvil. Without letting out a voice, he swung up the hammer with spirit, driving in the first hit.

Earnest, as if praying. Fierce, as if challenging. Hiroshi continued hammering the iron. As if conversing with the unidentifiable mass in front of him, sometimes softly, sometimes firmly, he made the sound of the hammer ring out loud and clear. Just like before, with every strike, he continued to pour in a fearsome amount of mana, and when that previously-unidentifiable mass had taken the shape of the blade of a dagger, he at last made the mana that he had been pouring in overflow, holding nothing back.

「Alright, I finished processin’ the first one.」

He declared, moving on to forging the second one. Just like earlier, his was spectacular, showing how much he had trained. As if praying, as if conversing, he continuously swung down the hammer, once again causing his mana to overflow in order to firmly end the forging of the dagger. Furthermore, in actuality, there was no need to make your mana overflow in order to manufacture magic iron. He simply knew that being too carefree could lead to potential flaws.

「First we finish heating and shaping it, and now I guess we’re at the balance regulation part？」

With that being said, the skilled labor that Hiroshi provided was one that was based off of the user’s physique and figure. There was no way that it would become such an unbalanced product. It was the same for Haruna before, and with polishing and a bit of adjustments, her unease had managed to go away.

「Try swingin’ that a bit…Then again, I guess it ain’t the precise capacity for ya……」

「True. Plus my body’s different.」

It was a simple, yet pretty haft. The sheath, too, had no elaborate design whatsoever, and yet it somehow managed to attract the eyes of all who watched. After attaching the haft to the blade, sheathing it, and handing over the dagger, the princess’ siblings looked at it with troubled expressions. Seriously, just how unreasonable were Hiroshi’s requests?

「Well, I’ll figure it all out, so just try to swing it.」

「Okay.」

「I’ll do my best！」

Encouraged by Haruna, the two of them mimicked the basic movement from their memories outside the atelier. Aearis had but begun yesterday and today, so she was honestly a bit too eager in terms of balance, but she still got the gist of it.

「They’re daggers after all. Pretty sure this suffices？」

「Indeed.」

「Yeah.」

The two knights agreed with Haruna. It wasn’t like they were assassins, and they wouldn’t even fight a genuine fight with these ordinarily. Daggers were only really used for catching someone unawares with a stab or to kill oneself.

「Balance seems alright. They hard to carry？」

「That’s fine too. It fits so well that it practically sticks to my hands.」

「It is very easy to carry.」

「Then I’ll carve names into ‘em and make some finishin’ touches, so lemme see ‘em for a bit.」

They handed over the daggers they had just received back to Hiroshi.

「Finishing touches？」

「The main part is finished, but there ain’t no one worth their salt who’d cross blades like this. So I’mma attach some magic tool functions.」

「……I sort of feel like I heard something I wasn’t supposed to. What now？」

「Well, let’s just leave it at that. Time to get workin’ on the finishin’ touch.」

He said, making a mad smile. Hiroshi lines up the over-abundant line of monster-related materials. It would drive anyone mad to gather this much. Though she was honestly a little put-off, Haruna understood that there were no options other than what Hiroshi had said, so she decided to not make any unnecessary comments. Afterwards, when the completed products were unveiled, Aearis’s eyes glinted at all of the ridiculous functions, whereas the other four ended up regretting not blurting out their opinions. Let us leave that between us, however.

——-

「Ran into a bit of trouble, I’d say.」

After her return from the unveiling of the completed daggers, Makoto said that right off the bat without even taking off her armor.

「Trouble? Like what？」

「Honestly, I’d like to also get My Lord in on this. Can you contact him？」

「Sure, I can. But be it that important？」

「A hellhound and evil tiger appeared in the middle of Spirit Spire Mountain. If that is a trivial issue to you, then I suppose I don’t have to discuss it.」

「……I say, that is quite important.」

Making an earnest face upon hearing that, he was about to call Julius when…

「Hm, seems that he himself is coming.」

Skilled at searching for enemies, Mio spoke up, having picked up the presence that she felt appear at the entrance to the workshop. They had used transportation magic.

「Suuup. Apart from Jul-san, I brought two others with me. But hey, you got some free time or what, Ray-chi?」

「Like hell I do！」

Rayna retorted violently in response to Hiroshi’s rude comment. The bell rang, drowning out her voice. First sending off Douga for reception, Hiroshi proceeded to inspect the solmizen. Honestly, this was the main goal, whereas the search of Spirit Spire Mountain wasn’t even an extra objective.