Chapter 123: Blade Forging

I began by drawing the primary shape of the sword I had in mind, and since I'm going to make four of them, I better have a good general idea first. The hilts are already processed and made, I'll only need to create the blades. And following the Hammer and Swords technique, the way to proceed turned out easy.

Once I had the primary curved shape drawn, I began by adding a few modifications. Since Meteorite Steel is pretty heavy, I won't need a lot of it, otherwise, it will ruin the weapon's balance. And to add a bit to the mix, I'm planning on having two of the swords be a little bit different than the other regular two.

I added a few more touches on another copy of the primary blade design and smiled at the end result, though this thing looks badass, I'll require a lot of inscriptions to make it work, but that's something I'll work on after I have the final product in hand.

First things first, I turned on the heat on the crucible and threw in the remains of the Neutron Steel Sword. The sword turned bright red, but it never melted, this didn't dissuade me, but actually made me happier. This only means that the Neutron Steel's heat resistance is pretty high and will be able to handle my upgraded hilts.

I then pressed my hands to the side of the scorching crucibles. If I had done this yesterday, my hands would have fallen off burnt to a crisp. But now, as a master of the Veridian Heart Flame, I was able to handle the heat on a whole other level. I wouldn't feel hot even if I dipped myself in molten magma right now.

So with my hands close and stuck to the side of the crucible, I imbued it with the Veridian Heart Flame. And a result, the flames inside the crucible turned a pale sheen of green, and the molten hot Sword began dripping the first drop.

It was still going to take a long time for the Neutron Steel to actually melt, but I had time.

I kept imbuing the crucible with the Veridian Heart Flame for an entire day, and just before I reached mental exhaustion, the Neutron Steel sword had fully melted into a bubbling red liquid.

I removed my hands and kept the crucible on max heat, though it was not enough to melt the Neutron Steel, it's enough to keep it in a liquid state for a long while.

I sat down and had a few Soul Replenishing pills, and meditated for an hour.

I can't be hurried in this. Following the teachings of Hammer and Swords, I needed a good mental and spirited attitude, and when I woke up from my meditation I felt fresh as new.

I poured a quarter of the crucible's content into a long blade mold, though katanas are usually made using folding and hammering techniques, I didn't need to do that, because the folding only served to remove the impurities of the material. But for me, that wouldn't be needed, Neutron Steel was already as pure as it could get, and add to it the fact that it was heated using the Veridian Heart Flame, even the thought of it having impurities would be absurd.

The pure Neutron Steel liquid poured gently on the mold and began cooling soon after. While I waited for the first mold to cool down, I went to prepare the next three molds. A couple of hours later, I had four blades that were ready for enhancements.

Each of the blades was at least two meters tall, a bit taller than me. But these blades weren't meant for humans, they were for Y. 

I pulled the first blade and placed my palm on it, heating it with my Veridian Heart Flame to make it ready to hammer down the details.

I began by thinning the edge which will be the blade by hammering it while it was hot, following the details and guides of making katanas, but also relying on the forging technique of the Hammer and Swords. Rhythmic hammering each and every part, every blow has to have the same amount of power behind it, not a bit more not a bit less. And so on, I kept hammering while heating up the blade at the same time.

The best thing about the Veridian Heart Flame used in forging this sword was the fact that I never needed to stop the heating process. Most smiths would need to put the molten steel into the fire, pull it out then hammer it as fast as they can then put it back in the furnace to heat up, the fewer times the sword goes back into the furnace, the better the quality, but that's not easy as the steel usually cool very fast and will be harder to shape. But with me continuously infusing the sword with my Veridian Heart Flame, I don't need to worry about the sword being cooled and going back to heat up again, because that usually end up cracking the material and lowering the quality, and forcing the smith to start again by trying to either repair the crack or throw away the product.

Blow after hammer blow, the initial shape of the blade was already in my hand. It was not sharp, but it already had an edge and a tip, and it looked rather grim-filled and dark. But this was just the primary shape of the sword.

Still, this thing in my hand can't be called a katana, it was still too straight. And the beauty of the katanas was in their curve. And how to make that curve one wonder, easy.

I turned around to a large vat of oil behind me and dipped the sword inside it. Now is the testament of the swordsmith's integrity and his hard work, this is quenching, and once the sword is quenched in oil, it will either crack and break, or curve and shape into a beautiful sword. The number of impurities and the disparity of the hammer blows will be the judge to the final product, the less the impurities and the more balanced the hammer blows will help the quenching process to make a great weapon.

Soon after the oil had sizzled to a stop, I pulled the blade and was not surprised to see the blade had curved nicely and elegantly while not a single crack appeared on it.

"Perfect!" I grinned then removed the half-finished product. All that was left was to grind it from grim and grind the edge to sharpness, then I can polish it and I'll be done.

I redid the same thing for the second sword, but the third and fourth, I had something else in store for them.

Once all the blades were ready, I began polishing and cleaning them, until I ended up with two katana blades that had more length than me, and their width was bigger than my palm, as for the other two, instead of a sharp edge, I made a razor edge to them. The razor edge wasn't the most interesting, but the fact that it was actually attached to a small chain that would rotate inside the sword, and with it, the teeth on the sword's edge would actually spin like a chainsaw.

I added a few inscriptions on the hilt and to the chains, and then a small spirit stone, after attaching the hilt to the sword, a single press on the 'Demon-Trigger' caused the chains to spin as their life depended on it.

I didn't have the requirement to use the full capabilities of these swords, simply because Neutron Steel becomes extremely heavy once it's introduced to Spiritual Energy, and since I don't have spiritual energy I can't display their full potential.

Once the four swords were ready and done, I went up to the white room training area and called out Y to show up.

The massive Samurai Puppet showed up in front of me and knelt down, "At your service, Master." 

"Here you go," I said as it presented him with the four blades.

The puppet took the regular katanas first, placed them inside his own sword sheaths, and then made a few quickdraws, upper kendo slices, and a few slashes.

"They are too light for my preference master. And what is this thing here?" The puppet said pointing at one of the sword's bike-break-like triggers (Demon Trigger).

"Well, press it and you'll see,"

The puppet idiotically used one hand to click the demon trigger while his other hand was already using the sword.

"The weight is slowly increasing. This might be useful but it will be awkward to battle like this, Y said as he was still pressing with one finger on the trigger while holding it with his other hand.

"You're supposed to use only one hand to press the trigger, like this," I said as I placed my hand on the hilt and trigger at the same time to show Y.

"Oh," finally understanding, Y did another round of swinging tests and was more impressed "This feels better, but the weight increase is rather slow. It will take three breaths of time before the sword becomes heavy enough for me to use, but the more I keep my hand pressed the heavier it gets and it will then become unbalanced. There is only a short period where the weapon is perfect for my use. It takes too long to reach it, but takes too little time to go past it."

"Good, that's all I needed to know, I'm still developing this, now I'll take this into consideration. Now, try and squeeze the Demon Trigger two times rapidly." I said.

Y, did as told and immediately the katana in his hand began vibrating and turning red.

"What is this?"

"That's heat conversion, since I can't have you use saint Qi, I made a spirit qi reactor, but it is of lesser quality and heats up way too fast, I linked the reactor's heat into the swords, so now each time the reactor overheats, just two presses on the Demon Trigger will transfer that heat to your sword increasing your destructive power. Though this is not even a fraction of boons compared to what you can do with Saint Qi, this is all I'm capable of at my current level."

"This…is rather convenient. I was about to bring up the concerning heat increase from my core, but this is a good way to handle it. Master, you have ingenious ways. I'm impressed."

'Damn, the ego is strong with this one. How the hell did Master Rain implant a fully functioning Ego?'

"Good, now the other swords try them."