The rise of the pervert primordial

While the girls from the blacksmith peak went to the kitchen area to get their dinner served, Aster walked towards the exchange monolith where Erick and the others were waiting, because he still had to get one last thing for the blacksmithing lesson, a forge.

Now, the model that was available as of current was a simple side-blast forge, whose design reminded the one of the bloomery furnace, because it was basically a large brick box with a pipe inserted into one of its sides.

The difference being that the brick container extended to the sides instead of upwards, also it lacked a roof unlike the furnace, and the bellow that came with it was adapted to be used with the foot, instead of by hand, which made sense since the forge is used to heat up the metal in order to hammer it, meaning one’s hands will be busy.

Anyway, the reason as to why Erick and the others didn’t bring it without Aster, is because the brick container was mounted in a heavy metal structure, which had the capacity to adjust its height, it even included a bell so that the smoke flowed upwards properly, and a thermometer too, in terms of size it was actually larger than the furnace, probably to allow the processing of many pieces of metal at the same time without them interfering with each other and preventing the blacksmiths from having to move around to another forge, if he they had the capacity to work in multiple pieces at the same time.

‘The blue flaming board sure is strangely considerate in some aspects’, thought Aster as he bought the thing, the trial forced them to work on many things from scratch but they were still provided with the tools needed for advanced jobs.

With Aster’s cooperation Erick and the others carried the forge all the way to the temporary smithy that Aster had set up, they then left to get their dinner, luckily the girls from the sect had already started gathering in the vicinity so the waiting line was getting shorter with each second.

So, Aster directly filled the furnace with charcoal and started the fire, to get things going, a few minutes later, the whole group from the Myriad Occupation sect was sitting in different rows, with equal visibility of the smithy.

Naturally the girls from the blacksmith peak were sitting at the fore front row, very much to Alice’s complains, however when she was reminded of having gotten the first turn for later, she closed her mouth and sat down at her assigned seat to enjoy the show.

“Okay, looks like everyone is here, so I’ll start with the lesson, I’m going to show you both how to process the ores and how to turn the result into metalware, the one assisting me will be elder Riley’s disciple, Blair”, said Aster to the girls that were sitting at a perfect distance from him, their dinner which consisted in boar soup, with a side of fruit and a piece of grilled fish was placed on top of a thin wood board that rested either on top of their legs or on the ground in front of them, it was an amusing scene as if they were watching a play or some other media for entertainment.

It’s worth mentioning that even the mare, her son and her niece, as well as Guardian were accompanying the girls from the sect, the lynx was especially looking at the human cooked dish that she was served, since the horses basically were eating the grass directly from the ground, though they had a serving of fruit as well.

“For starters, in order to process the ores, we needed a fuel capable of providing the sufficient amount of heat, in this case charcoal which can be obtained from wood was the best choice, since it works as both fuel and a material needed to make steel out of the iron ore that we obtained”, said Aster as he pointed at the materials in question, namely the charcoal that the girls from the sect made through the day and the hematite that the exploration found yesterday.

“This chimney-like object is called a “bloomery furnace”, it can be considered an old predecessor of mortal blacksmithing, thus what I’ll show you can be considered an outdated blacksmithing method to a certain extent, since nowadays they use blast furnaces with other technologies that actually don’t need the help of spirit energy to operate, we won’t deepen much into that, but I want to take advantage of the moment to point that this furnace is out of the ordinary, it was built in a way that the process could be shortened a lot if used properly”, added Aster as he pointed at the second furnace which had flames coming out of the top.

“Before the lesson started I filled it with charcoal and then lit it up beforehand since there was nothing that was especially needed to be mentioned about that part, the next preliminary step on the other hand, is important”, said Aster.

“Crack”, the observers were drawn towards the sound of something being hit by a heavy object, the origin of it was Blair who was crushing the hematite in smaller pieces at one of the work tables near Aster.

“Normally, when it comes to spirit blacksmithing, breaking the ore to process it will lower the quality of the result, for that reason there are spirit furnaces that could fit a whole mountain inside of them, like the ones in the selected planets of the Blacksmith Peak”, said Aster to then add.

“However, for mortal blacksmithing crushing the ore into smaller pieces before processing it, not only is a need, but it also comes with series of benefits, for starters by doing so we can directly eliminate large impurities before the process even starts”.

Blair cooperated as his assistant by showing the public, nail sized impurities that she then threw into a bin next to the work table, only then did Aster continued with the explanation.

“Besides eliminating obvious impurities, crushing the ore into smaller pieces increases the surface area exposed to the heat and to the “substances” that help us process it, which come from the charcoal, thus it will take less time for it to turn into what we need, not to mention that by crushing it we eliminate moisture and volatile gases that might be trapped in the ores which could lead to them exploding in the furnace”.

“It’s worth mentioning that the first of the two types of ores that we obtained, which is called “hematite”, normally has a proportion of 60% to 70% of iron into it, but after a closer inspection with the help of a reagent courtesy of Mylene, it was determined that what we brought back has an minimum of 70% of iron and a maximum of 80% contained into it, which might sounds like not that big of a difference, but that extra is enough to make a dagger for all of the presents, if we would have been limited to use hematite as our iron source”, he said as he beckoned at a certain pink-haired girl who was in the middle of munching on a piece of boar’s meat, when she was assaulted by countless thankful gazes.

Having had enough of teasing Mylene who was staring daggers at him, Aster continued with the lesson.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean all the hematite in this place is like that, the pieces the exploration team brought back were roughly tested and then selected, which added an extra hour of work more or less”, he said.

Aster wasn’t divagating, he wanted to make sure that the ones that will be using the metalware result of the work of the blacksmiths knew the effort that was behind of it.

“Continuing with the process, after being crushed and somewhat sorted so that notorious impurities are discarded, we can toss it into the furnace, so long as it has already reached the proper temperature, originally thermometers weren’t included in these kind of furnaces, but this one had one integrated into it, which makes our work way easier, since we only need to make sure that the temperature reaches the green area marked in the thermometer”.

“If needed we can accelerate the heating process by feeding air into the furnace with the help of the bellow that comes with it and like I mentioned before, this furnace is made so it facilitates our lives a lot, so reaching and maintaining the proper temperature is incredibly easier than it would have normally been”, he said as he pointed at the respective complemental parts of the furnace, in fact he pumped air into it to make the temperature raise a bit, though it still remained within the green area of the thermometer, at around 850° to be precise.

With Aster’s greenlight, Blair tossed the crushed iron ore into the furnace through its top and then closed the lid.

“To finish with the part of the lesson regarding the first furnace, the ore will slowly travel down through the process, while the majority of the slag is separated from it”, he said to then walk towards the second furnace where the ore that the girls from the sect, prepared for him was about to come out, not without giving credit to the ones that deserved it.

“Originally, I asked miss Valentina to prepare a separated furnace so that I could make a demonstration for our fellow disciples from the Blacksmith peak, but they noticed it and took the matter into their hands, saving me a part of the process, which is what allowed for the current lesson to be open for everyone to see, since the time needed was shortened, so don’t forget to thank them”.

Of course, the previous made those girls blush as the others clapped and cheered them on, since they were enjoying the show so far.

“Now, onto what happens after the ore has been inside the furnace for a certain amount of time, the slag goes to the “slag bowl” which is at the bottom of the furnace, while the result piece of unrefined metal also called “bloom” is taken away to be further processed”, said Aster as he grabbed one of the different tongs out of the working table to then introduce them into the furnace’s opening.

“Can you see it, that mass of “spongy” metal is the bloom I was talking about”, he said as he retrieved the object in question, a weird looking mass that didn’t match what any of the presents expected of a processed metal.

For a good reason, when an ore is processed in a spirit furnace, it comes out in the form of an ingot, already devoid of any impurity and ready to be used for blacksmithing, which made Aster chuckle.

“Not all the slag gets separated in the process, thus we need to give it one last push, with a hammer, now, normally the bloom has to be reheated in the forge to then beat it up, but our furnace has an excellent heat retention property, so we can directly go for it, in the meantime please lit up the forge Blair”, he said.

While Blair did as she was asked, Aster placed the bloom on a piece of a trunk, which made some flames appear, but there was no problem, both Blair and himself were using heatproof gauntlets and a leather work apron as well as safety glasses to protect themselves.

That being said and to the majority of the observer’s surprise, Aster has yet to show even the slightest sign of being surrounded by high temperatures, while even Blair who is a blacksmith has sweated a bit at this point.

It’s for a good reason though, just like the little wyrm, he maintained the natural properties of his dragon lineage even without any spirit energy, and the three of them, namely Lilia, Alice and Aster had really high resistance against both low and high temperatures by innate, Espi was the same and according to the book about dragons that he got from one of the Luan girls back then, not all dragons have that capacity, since the generic one is skin with a high physical defense instead.

In other words, Aster could be practically naked here and he would still show no discomfort, however without access to any spirit energy nor his powers, he couldn’t do things like directly grabbing the bloom which was making the wood trunk produce flames with contact, which he would have normally been able to.

‘Tsk, it sure is a hassle having to use tongs again, but I guess it’s part of the fun’, thought Aster as he hammered the bloom in order to make the slag attached to it crumble apart.

“I’m doing it by myself for the sake of the show, but it will be more efficient for two people to work together, one using the tongs to constantly change the exposed part of the bloom while the other hammers it”, he said.

Aster had no trouble to go from the tongs to the hammer, because he was strong enough to hammer with a single hand, but the girls from the sect will get tired faster if they did it like this, so for efficiency it was better for them to work in pairs.

Amidst the continuous clinking sounds, which made Aster smile as he basically confirmed that he had achieved his goal, the sun disappeared from the sky and night came, and then Aster who has been continuously placing the bloom in the forge to then “gently” hit it with the bloom, slightly increased the pace as he flattened it being careful to not extend it too much, the result was… sparks that beautifully spread around Aster, giving the process a pretty visual effect, as the slag was removed.

“Ahem, there are different tests that can be done to determine whether we obtained the steel we wanted or the iron which would be the normal result of using a bloomery, among them there is a difference in the sound when hammering it, steel will produce a sharp and resonant clinking sound, while iron will produce a muffled and deep sound”.

“The piece of metal that senior brother is hammering sounds like a bell, so… it’s steel, right?”, asked one of the girls from the blacksmith peak, she didn’t want to doubt whether the one she admired had failed, but ultimately managed to gather the courage to do so, since that was the objective of the lesson.

“Yeah, thanks to all of you maintaining the correct temperature and handling the ore properly before the process started, the iron properly took the carbon from its surrounds, which turned it into steel”, he said with a smile, which made the girl who asked cutely nod in response.

Of course, the previous encouraged the other girls to ask the questions they had, without caring whether their questions could be considered “dumb” or not.

“If that’s the case, couldn’t we add way more charcoal so that a lot of the “carbon” mentioned by senior brother mixed with the iron?”, asked another girl, it was the same one that asked if they could use spirit techniques by replacing spirit energy with oxygen earlier.

“Mortal blacksmithing doesn’t work that way, you see they have to put much more care in “balance” than spirit blacksmiths, it is possible and in fact some of you will probably obtain steel higher in carbon, but while that might sound better that’s not the case, sure higher amounts of carbon will increase the hardness of the steel, but in exchange it will become brittle”.

“Though there are heat treatment processes such as tempering and annealing which can be used for the previous, the ideal is to have steel that has a balanced amount of hardness, flexibility and durability”, he said to then add.

“But you all don’t need to worry about that, regardless of the kind of result you get, I promise that if you follow the process properly, your work will contribute to the creation of the metalware that we need”.

Naturally he wasn’t just trying to cheer them who had shown signs of feeling nervous, as the question “What would happen if I don’t obtain steel”, appeared in their minds, Aster really meant it, he couldn’t watch over all the furnaces at the same time to ensure those girls will obtain steel of the quality needed for decent weapons.

However, he could make their results work thanks to the experience he had, that was his responsibility as the one leading them, not to do everything in their stead.

“Mm~”, with a happy nod in unison, those girl’s minds eased, if their senior brother said that no matter what results they obtained, they will be usable, then they believed him.

By the time the previous exchange finished, Aster had removed all the slag from the bloom, the result was a slightly silverish piece of metal, which weighted around 2.3 kilograms.

“A lighter gray tone is also a sign that what we obtained is steel, but a much more accurate way to assert it is the “bend or split” test”, since we get to see how their structure works”, he said as he grabbed a chisel to make a weak point at one of the extremes of the now extended roughly rectangular shaped piece of steel, to then place it into a press and secure it at the height where the weak area was made, to then bent the piece of steel downwards by hitting it with the hammer.

The result was that the steel bent and slightly separated on the weak area that was created with the chisel, however there was no delamination nor fractures on it, the inside was smooth.

“If this was iron, the structure would look fibrous and there would be splits on it, lastly there is the spark test”, he said as he gave the thing a couple more hits separating the piece he had marked with the chisel from the rest of the body.

It was a piece of around a third of the total length of the piece of steel, which Aster then weighted in a scale, the thing weighted around 750 grams more or less, so yeah it was basically a third of the total material, as to why Aster went for this, it’s because that should be enough to make a proper usable weapon out of it, a dagger.

But before we get to that, Aster grabbed a knife which he had bought in the exchange monolith, which as previously stated was made with iron and then nodded at Blair who manually powered a belt grinder.

“Iron will produce way less sparks if you use the belt grinder on iy, as you can see”, said Aster as he pressed the backside of the knife against the belt grinder, producing a few sparks.

“In contrast, steel will produce way more sparks, of course this method is not as accurate as the one in which its structure is tested, but it’s a good indicator as well, because you’ll be using the belt grinder when you get to the refining part of the process, since we are using a “rough” method, there will be times when the resulting steel will have a varied amount of carbon in different parts, so with this you’ll be able to see what part of the steel should be used for what”, he said.

Luckily, though human powered they still had a proper belt grinder, which would make the refining part of forging sharp weapons way easier, but Aster was still far from that step, he grabbed the piece of steel with a shorter and smaller pair of tongs which could be manipulated with a single hand and a smaller hammer as well to then go to the anvil.

He was finally in his element, since as much theoretical knowledge as he had, the truth is that he hadn’t refined steel from scratch before, he did a lot of practice with mortal materials which he bought back at the Azure Sky planet before changing to proper spirit metals combined with his blood, but the process always parted from the anvil and onwards, so now things will go smoother.

“Since we can buy survival knives from the monolith, I’ll go for a dagger which is better for combat, from here on out, I won’t go into detail because seeing it is better than listening to it, also I won’t use the manual I bought from the monolith, nor my usual style, but a basic dagger making style of from a mortal organization called Silver Edge school, which is simple but efficient”, said Aster to which the eyes of the girls from the blacksmith peak sparkled in response.

A spirit blacksmith does learn theory from “public” resources, but they mostly consist in records from past disciples of the same master or their masters in their young days, because they are always taught by a master and learn the methods of their master’s style from the very beginning, for non-custom mass-produced works, formations are used, just like it happened in Aster’s shop.

So, none of the present blacksmiths, including Blair knows how to make “generic” weapons, amusingly enough even if they were to try, the result will be downgraded versions of the styles they have learned, which would suffer from a lack of refinement and efficiency, because the techniques they had learned aren’t meant to be used in such a way.

In a sense, they were overqualified for the job, and that was making them suffer from headaches now that they had to learn mortal limited methods, from the very beginning, which is why Aster was going to show them the closest to that he knew of, which was a generic style, meaning they will be able to apply the basics shown by Aster regardless of the manual they took, well so long as they will be making daggers or similar weapons of course.

Seeing the girls with spear, arrow, shield or armor manuals, pout with unconvinced expressions on their pretty faces, Aster softly laughed as he started hammering the piece of metal, to then say.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’ll give an example of each type of equipment we’ll be making, that’s in part why there won’t be an exploration tomorrow”.