276 Zi Jiao's Challenge - Part 5

After Zi Jiao's voice echoed through the messy little room, no sign of life was seen. But some time later, the door on the other side of the room was opened and a balding old man with a long beard appeared, he was surprised when he saw that there was someone in his room.

"What are you looking for?" The old man's voice was rather husky.

"I'm looking for a person named Smith," Zi Jiao replied in a hoarse voice.

"I know you're looking for Smith, otherwise you would not be here. My question is why you're looking for me. "Old Smith was not looking at Zi Jiao and every word had a tone of indifference.

"I need you to forge a weapon for me"

"Forge a weapon? Why do you think I'll forge a weapon for you? "

"Are not you a blacksmith?"

"Yes, I am a blacksmith, but I am not obliged to forge a weapon for others"

"What do you want in return to forge my weapon?"

"I do not need anything. In relation to the weapon, forge yourself, the materials needed to forge a weapon are all here, you just need to use its"

Zi Jiao never thought such a thing would happen, she finally realized the reason for the stranger's odd way of getting in the way. At the same time, she was happy because she could create a weapon that was the way she was imagining.

"Fine, I'll forge my weapon myself, sorry for the inconvenience"

After Zi Jiao agreed to forge her own weapon, old Smith left the room again. Zi Jiao began tidying up the place, she was arranging the mess first before starting to forge. It took a few hours for everything to be straightened out.

When finished cleaning, Zi Jiao began to heat the oven to a certain temperature. Although she had no experience in forging weapons, she knew one thing or another.

The coal began to burn and turn red, the temperature began to rise inside the room. Zi Jiao took out a large piece of iron filled with impurities, using a sword, she cut the piece of iron in half.

Throwing the first piece in the oven and then warming, even more, Zi Jiao was burning the iron and the impurities. This process took a few hours before the iron turned completely red.

Taking a sledgehammer and an anvil, Zi Jiao began to knock to remove more impurities. But Zi Jiao controlled her strength by hitting the sledgehammer, she did not know if she could destroy the iron block or not.

She repeated this process several times until the iron block was only half its size and then putting it in a mold and tossing it in the oven again to keep the oven.

After that, Zi Jiao grabbed the second iron block and threw it into the oven to warm it up. She waited for some before the iron turned red, the beat process was the same, finishing to reduce the iron block, Zi Jiao put in a mold and threw it into the oven again.

There was a paper in the mold explaining about each of them, finished reading, Zi Jiao chose the mold that had the largest, widest and thickest. The mold could hold a rectangular block of stone if it were placed inside.

Picking up some more materials she had bought, Zi Jiao began to do the same process, burn and hammer, burn and hammer. She spent several days inside the room working, to avoid fatigue, Zi Jiao had to ingest some pills and elixirs.

After seven days of refinement, Zi Jiao finished removing some of the impurities contained in the two iron blocks and completely removed the impurities in the smaller materials.

After that, she left the items in the oven to keep them warm. Zi Jiao grabbed a forge guide that was in the room and began to leaf through, she was looking over how to forge heavy weapons.

There were books about basic to advanced, but as Zi Jiao only needed a weapon that did not need a sharp blade, she read only the basics. After that, she took the book on heavy weapons and how to forge.

...

Having made all the preparations, Zi Jiao began to forge her sword, before making the body of the sword, she would have to make the handle first, because if it was not resistant and strong enough, the cable would break on the first swing.

But the moment Zi Jiao was about to get a mold for the handle of the sword, a voice is heard.

"You're doing it wrong." The voice was from old Smith.

"Old Smith, what am I doing wrong?" Zi Jiao had doubts about this, she was following the things that were written in the book.

"To make the handle of a heavy sword does not have to be large, what is needed are only sturdy materials that carry the weight of the weapon"

Zi Jiao was in doubt about this, as there was none of it in the books she read. She began to think that this kind of information could only be obtained through tests and more tests.

"To create a good sword shaft you need materials that have a lot of earth element, the items that have a lot of that element are the most resistant. You do not have any item from the earth element, those that are in the oven are all common metals, how would you forge a weapon with these items?"

"Well ... I did not do much on the forge, the only thing I learned was to create improvised weapons using random things that could be found in the forest." Zi Jiao was a bit embarrassed by the fact that she had just bought random items to forge a weapon.

"Take this and that. Refine for me. "Old Smith picked up some items and threw them toward Zi Jiao.

She did not ask why and just tossed it in the oven before she began to refine. Old Smith was looking closely at the blows that Zi Jiao was giving, there was a surprise on his face. It took a few hours for the materials to be refined.

"Watch closely"

Old Smith took the refined items from Zi Jiao and threw them into the oven, he began to throw charcoal to warm even more. In a few minutes, the temperature of the room multiplied several times.

Drops of sweat could be seen falling from old Smith's face, while Zi Jiao was still wearing the black cloak, it was not possible to be if she was hot or not.

After removing the items from the oven, they all turned into a kind of liquid, placing each one in a single shape that looked like a small stick thirty centimeters and a diameter of five centimeters.

"Melt all the items you brought and put the liquid in that special shape." The old man began ordering Zi Jiao.

"Fine." Realizing that the old man was giving advice, Zi Jiao dared to be negligent, she began to do the things that were asked for.

Throwing more charcoal in the oven and raising the temperature, it took a few minutes before all the items refined by Zi Jiao were melted and then thrown into a shape.

"You can go now, come back in three days," ordered the old man.

"Thank you." Zi Jiao just thanked him and walked out the door she entered earlier.

After she left, the old man just threw both forms into the oven and threw charcoal until he filled the oven. Both forms were under the coal, using a blower, old Smith began to increase the power of the fire. In a few minutes, the coal began to burn.