What the actual hell? Why isn’t this damn metal bending?

  I had been trying to shape the lump of iron for almost an hour now. I was going to bring it back down to the oven I had cooked the giant in and use that to reheat it, but that method required a high degree of concentration as it required the use of three different magics: Earth, Fire, and Air.

  I theorized that I would need to balance Fire and Air Magic to get the flame at just the right temperature to soften the metal enough to work with it, but not so hot as to melt it completely. When I thought back to my memories of using the metal puppets, I didn’t realize how much my mana was working towards keeping the metal in a somewhat solid state. It was basically liquid and holding shape due to my force of will, which was probably why it was so mana intensive. But I would find out in the morning. For now, I was trying to work the metal while it was still cold.

  That reminds me. Is there such a thing as Ice Magic? I guess temperature is more a concept to describe energy, so if I used my mana to instead calm the molecules down instead of exciting them then shouldn’t that just be ice?

  Meh. Another experiment for tomorrow.

  I worked at the metal for a few hours until the sun rose with no sign of success. As I tried various ways of bending it to my will, I thought back to various blacksmithing tidbits I heard in my old life. There was the show ‘Forged in Fire’ that I watched on occasion. They made some great weapons and gave some awesome information on how to make weapons. I’d be using some of that information to help me make a proper weapon for Axel after he left for the day to go hunt with Archy and Aspen.

  When the Laughing Vipers made their way out of their rooms, I started a small fire for them to cook one of the Orc bellies they love so much. It still felt wrong to me, but I guess they’re spawned monsters, so it doesn’t matter.

  “When you finish your breakfast,” I spoke directly to Axel, “I’ll try using fire to soften the metal and try working it then. I have a few ideas of how to work it into possibly being steel, but it’ll take a bit longer. Are you fine waiting?”

  Axel eagerly agreed, “I can wait a day or two for a stronger weapon. I’ve been using some fallen branches so far, so I can keep that up for now.”

  I thought for a moment before offering to make him a spear. “It’s no axe, but it’ll probably be better than using a random fallen branch. I could also let you use the wooden axe as a temporary weapon as well. Wait, no. I need that as an example. I could make a second one really quick, though. The balance won’t be the same as a metal weapon, but it would be better than nothing.”

  He quickly agreed to me making a second wooden axe and I gave him a spear made out of a hardened root to go with it anyways. It wasn’t much, but it would be a good backup weapon if he needed one.

  The trio ate their breakfast, lounged around for a bit to digest and fully wake up, then headed out soon after. Now that they were gone, it was time for me to get to work.

  I walked the rocky table back to the tunnel and chamber I had crushed the giant in and prepared to get to work. Directly outside of the entrance to the chamber, I built a bowl and filled it with water. This would be where I quench the axe head when I was done forging it. I can do the rest of the work in the chamber.

  I guess I should start calling it my forge now though, huh?

  Once the metal was in place, I started the flamethrower spell and started tweaking to make a flame that I thought was sustainable enough to work with, but not so demanding that I would run out of mana before I was done with the forging process.

  As the metal started to heat up, I added a steady supply of mana to it directly. I kept trying to shape it, but it was still resistant. Only when it started to glow did it start to move as I commanded it to.

  After hard work and repeated successes, you have learned the skill [Metal Magic (R)].

  Achievement [Elemental Sage] has progressed.

  Sweet.

  As soon as I got both of the notifications, moving the metal became a lot easier. The fire I was making also flared a good amount, partly due to fire magic receiving a boost and partly because the amount of air I was pushing into it increased as well, since both received some benefit from the achievement ‘progressing’, whatever that means.

  I regained control of the fire and the metal and started folding the metal in on itself multiple times. It had a small amount of bone dust residue in a pocket in the middle of the lump, and I wanted to get that evenly distributed throughout the whole thing.

  From what I remember, Vikings used to forge the bones of their fallen enemies into their weapons, thinking that their spirits would strengthen them. They were partially correct, except it was the carbon in the bones making their iron weapons into steel weapons. So, using the bone powder of the giant in this way should make the lump of iron into a lump of steel. I folded in an extra quarter pound of bone dust just to be sure, as I wanted the weapon I was making to be as strong as possible.

  I kept kneading the metal over and over for a full hour. Thanks to the achievement, I was barely in the negative in my mana usage right now, so I could keep working like this for a while. I was currently at 83% mana, and it was going down very slowly.

  After an hour of working the metal like that, I removed just enough metal plus about a pound to make the axe heads. The extra metal was just in case I needed to grind some off later. When I had the right amount, I started shaping it.

  I made the basic form then started shaping it to be more along the lines of what Axel wanted. I beefed it up a bit with some of the extra that I grabbed since I underestimated how much metal I would need. I compared what I had currently heated to the wooden version that Axel agreed to, then started making adjustments. I curved the blade at the edges, shortened out the top, added a wavy bit in the edges, pushed out a bit of extra metal, and finally finished it.

  The result looked like a respectable axe. I could have stopped here and been happy with it. I know that Axel would be happy to have it as it is now too, but I wanted to go a step further.

  I took the idea from the name of their group, the Laughing Vipers, and created a design. I used a bit more of the extra metal I had prepared and shaped it into two viper heads, adding fangs and scales to it to make it look more realistic. Once they were forged, I split them, both in half down the middle of their faces then welded them on to the blades. It was less of a weld though, and more a merging of metals from two pieces into one, times four.

  I then carved scales along the faces of the axe blades to give the full thing a reptilian look to it. I examined the blade from all sides and determined my snake addition was too wide and would probably hinder Axel’s attacks, so I flattened out the design a bit more before calling it good.

  Finished with the forging process, I turned off the fire and let the axe head cool. As it cooled, I enhanced my vision and zoomed in to the axe. Usually, forging stresses out the metal from all the hammering and blunt force trauma. That makes the metal brittle and breaks easily. This is fixed by heating the metal to a critical temperature and letting it cool down slowly a few times.

  The way that I made the blade prevented all of that though. I didn’t use blunt force, only magical and mental force.

  The steel looked pretty normal, with very few stress points that I could tell, so I let it cool down once before reigniting the flames. I then brought the temperature up hot enough for the metal to start glowing then turned it off again.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I used Earth Magic to create a crude rock puppet that was little more than a pair of legs with an arm sticking out the top. I then piloted into the still hot chamber and picked up the axe head carefully. I stuck the arm through the hole where the handle will go and brought it outside quickly before the metal started to cool down.

  Once outside, I dunked the head into the pool of water, and it immediately started steaming. I used Water Magic to continuously bring in new water to replace the water that boiled off.

  Once the water stopped boiling, I used Air Magic to bring in a cool breeze., letting it blow for around an hour. I left it at such a low intensity that I was actually regenerating more mana than I was using, which was enough to top me off to 100% mana capacity. I only wanted to replace the hot air with cold air, after all; it wasn’t like I was creating another tornado.

  Now that the metal was fully cooled down again, I brought it back into the furnace and started the flame yet again. I didn’t wait for it to get hot enough to glow again, but waited until it was about hot enough to cook on. I felt like that was a solid tempering temperature.

  I turned the flame off for the last time and examined the blade. Everything looked good, there were no warps in the blade, no scratches or other oddities that I could see. I let it cool off again, but this time much more slowly. I left it alone while I worked on making the handle.

  While I could just use my regular wood to create the handle, I felt something earlier that I wanted to experiment with before I rushed into making it.

  When I discovered my Parasitic Takeover skill, the tree changed to become more like I did, even without my direct intervention. That included its bark taking on aspects of my Iron Bark skill. I felt its bark harden as the skill came into fruition, and I think I can replicate and enhance it if I were to see it again. But to do that, I would need to steal another tree.

  I looked around the various trees in my domain and chose one that was close to me and had my roots fully surrounding it already. I checked it for sentience before replicating the way that I took over the first tree, forcing my roots into its roots and injecting my nutrients. As my mind entered the tree’s body and started absorbing its mental capacity, I focused on its connection to its body. As mine took over, the tree started to shift to become one with mine.

  I paid special attention to the bark. The nutrients I was sending were doing a lot to the tree, including bringing in metal minerals that my body naturally absorbed from my roots into its body and melding it with the other tree’s body. This gave it my classic grey bark look.

  My revelation came from the fact that when I learned the skill, I didn’t absorb metal to take on its properties. My grey look came automatically when my Hard Bark skill upgraded from taking a beating. So theoretically, I could sift through my nutrients in my body and attach some loose iron to my bark and make it even stronger than it is now.

  I started this process in one root. As I drew in minerals and dirt in from the ground, I sifted through it and took the heavier bits that were most likely to be metal. Every time I found a piece that qualified, I brought it to the outer portion of the root and melded it in with my bark. It was a strange and slow process, but one that was definitely working.

  Slowly but surely, the root was stiffening and becoming tougher. The biggest downside to doing this was that it greatly reduced my mobility. When I had enough to convert an inch of my root to the new iron bark, I decided I had to stop. It took me an hour to get to this point, and I wasn’t a fan of how stiff it was becoming. I thinned out the root above the part that was metal and used a bit of Earth Magic to bring the root up to the surface.

  Yah know, I could add some more to it and make a pretty good dagger like this. It wouldn’t be the most grand thing, but I could probably make it work. Who am I kidding? If I make this into a knife, I’ll make it into the best damn knife I can! Later though. One project at a time.

  I abandoned the idea of upgrading my Iron Bark skill with actual iron and moved on to just making the handle.

  I shot a root out from the ground and smoothed it out, taking off all the little fibrous hairs and giving it a nice shine. I copied the look of the model axe I made for Axel, which was pretty standard, but decided to add scales to it to match the axe. As I was engraving it, an idea came to me.

  While I might not be able to upgrade my body with iron, I can probably upgrade the handle in a similar way.

  I dug deep with my roots, looking for a more prominent source of iron. I took a single root and forced it straight down, using up a large amount of stamina in making it. I also used Earth Magic to soften the ground and make it easier on my stamina reserves, which worked wonderfully. At a depth of 200 feet, about twice as deep as I am tall, I started to find a lot more metal than plain dirt. A quick Identify told me that it was more iron.

  I used a combination of my roots and Metal Magic to bring the iron up to the surface. I brought up just as much as I would need to completely replace the handle with metal before stopping. I made sure it was more than enough, as I had some ideas as to what to do with the extra. I still wanted to embed it into the axe head before I finished the handle since I had a feeling it would get a lot harder to work with once that was done.

  Instead, I decided to work on the root knife I wanted to make. I discarded the old piece for now and started a new one. I formed a basic knife out of a new root that I grew once I was back above 80% stamina. I made it a simple bowie knife design, with a slightly clipped tip to make it sharper. I made the blade 9 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. The handle for it was separated by a small guard that curved towards the grip, giving solid protection. I made the grip 5.5 inches, and added a loop to it to allow for a string attachment. Unfortunately, I didn’t know anything about how to make a good sheath for a weapon, so whoever ended up with this would have to deal with that elsewhere.

  Now that the designing was done, I started making it iron imbued. I used the extra metal that I brought up and melded as much raw iron into it as I could. Once every bit of wood was merged, I thinned out the remaining attachment to my main body and used a bit of Earth Magic to bring it out of the ground. Honestly, I probably should have done that first, but oh well.

  I piloted my puppet over to the knife and picked it up. It was heavier than I expected, but it was made of iron, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. I tested the edge of the blade against the finger of the puppet, and it carved a small chunk out with ease. A quick mixture of a health berry, body manipulation, and wood working was enough to seal the wound.

  Now all I had to do was wait for the group to come back, and I’d be done. Thank god that didn’t take long.

  When Axel first entered the clearing, he immediately ran up to my puppet that was still playing with the iron imbued knife and asked about the progress.

  “I need to see it! I don’t see any infernos blazing about, so that means you’re done, right? Can I see it? What’s it look like? How heavy is it?”

  He sounded like a kid in a toy shop ready to spend his allowance. I made a quick rock puppet to go fetch the now completely cooled axe head and brought it out for him to see. I hadn’t brushed it or anything yet, so it was still completely blackened with soot, but that would be remedied after I finished the handle.

  As soon as he saw it, he ran over to take it from my dirt hands. He practically tore it away from me, which I thought was rude, but I also get that he was super excited.

  “It’s beautiful! Where’s the hilt? I want to try it out now!”

  I brought him over to the root I had prepared and told him my plan.

  “I’m not done with it yet, but if the three of you don’t mind a bit of noise throughout the night, I can probably have it ready by the morning. How’s that sound?”

  Axel looked over to Aspen and Archy who both rolled their eyes at him then smiled.

  Aspen said, “Go for it. If it means this meathead can get back to fighting like normal, then I’m all for it. We had way too many close encounters today for my liking. Orcs should not be getting that close to me.”

  “I’m fine with it,” Archy commented. “I’m not a heavy sleeper, but I’ll be fine since I know it’s coming.”

  “I also have a present for you,” I said to Archy. “I had to wait for the metal to cool by itself, so I had some free time to experiment. Let me know what you think.”

  I handed the knife over to him, and he gawked at it.

  “This is beautiful. How did you make it?” He examined the knife, flipping it over. After a few moments, he grabbed a stick out of his bag and used it to test the sharpness of the blade. They had been collecting their firewood while they were hunting, grabbing a few fallen branches and tossing them in their magical bags as they went. It made for the perfect initial test.

  The knife sliced through the wood like any other knife. For all intents and purposes, it was a regular, sharp knife. I guess I could have tried doing this with the steel I made, but it hadn’t crossed my mind at the time.

  I explained to him the process I used to make it and followed up with, “Since it’s made of wood and iron, it won’t be nearly as durable as a regular steel knife, but I thought it looked cool at least. If it breaks or anything, let me know, and I might be able to repair it using some skill.”

  “It might not be as durable,” he commented, “but it’s so much lighter than a steel knife would be. Here, compare the two and you’ll see what I mean.”

  He handed me the knife I made as well as a knife from his back holster; it acted as his backup weapon. I accepted both and weighed them in my puppet’s hands. It was difficult to tell the weight apart like this, so I reached down with a couple of vines and picked them up that way. The trio jumped a bit at that, as I rarely interacted with them directly anymore with my main body. Most of my interactions with them have been through the puppet.

  Archy was right. The steel knife was a lot heavier than my knife. That surprised me greatly, as I thought my knife was heavy. Archy’s knife weighed something like 2 pounds, whereas mine was closer to half a pound. Sure, his was slightly bigger, but it shouldn’t have accounted for that much weight. I guess my knife came with some advantages, then.

  After we finished comparing blades, I let the trio have their dinner and get to bed. I still had an axe to finish.