Chapter 42: Iron Spear
On the Planet, Rust was working on his new invention. He had been theory crafting with the elder and other smart dwarves around the village on what they could use his new invention for. No one really had any idea what it was, much less what it could be used for, so there were many who simply couldn't give an answer.
Rust was not deterred and even resorted to asking some of the guards that patrolled the lands outside the crack. It was here that inspiration struck him, not because of something the guard said about his new invention, but because of what he said after that.
Guard: Man, Look at our commander over there! He is fighting with a rank 1 star beast and he still isn't losing ground! Tsk. Too bad his weapon isn't hard enough to even pierce that things skin.."
At that moment, Rust had an epiphany, it struck him like lightning! He had to make better weapons with his new material! So Rust started on his path to making a better weapon, coming across and adapting to the hurdles that were endlessly thrown his way.
The first thing he did was take a stone and slowly chip it down till it was the shape he wanted for a tip in the weapon. Then he made 2 stone basins with a hole at the top. He put the stone inside the basin and then filled it with mud and a special slimy substance the scouts had found.
For now, Rust was just calling it "Mud-Slime". He was simple like that. After sitting in the hot sun for an entire day, Rust took off the stone basins and cracked open the mud-slime mixture. It had hardened considerably, and Rust knew from past tests that this sun-fired method made it resistant to the temperatures required for his Iron.
Now the mud-slime had the imprint of the stone, he placed the stone in storage, just in case he needed it again, and continued with the rest of his work.
Rust then had to take a tutorial class in both leatherworking and craftsmanship to be able to continue even building. Of course, once he, the new chief, came to a class, he was immediately taught whatever he wished to know.
After spending some time learning more about those trades in a deeper sense, Rust came back to the weapon project. Now Rust had all the knowledge he needed to complete this new weapon.
Finally he got to the production stage.
Rust took a large branch and slowly whittled and chiseled out the sides and with his forge rock, he slowly and methodically straightened it out, not losing his focus even once.
Rust then went to the next task, setting the tip mold. He slowly went through the process of collecting the iron from the ceiling and then smelting it down in his upgraded but still make-shift furnace. Rust took the melted down Iron and slowly let it sink into the mud-slime mold that he had made previously.
After putting it into a less hot furnace, he let it "cool" for a few days while he worked on cutting, screwing holes, and finally polishing the handle.
Rust then cracked the mold once more and finally he had the tip of the weapon. He quickly got to sharpening its point and its edge. He thought about making it have divots in it, kind of like teeth, but scrapped the idea. He went with a pure and slightly curved style that could effectively pierce or slice an opponent easily.
After sharpening and polishing the tip, Rust knocked it into the precut holes and then added more of the mud-slime in between the holes.
Rust looked at it for a moment before thinking,"It needs more tightness if it wants to stay together.. Hmm.. can I push like small wooden blocks into these small gaps? If they won't fit I'll have to hammer it in.."
Seeing no other choice now that he had gotten this far, Rust grabbed the small bits of wood and used the back end of a chisel to hammer in the small wood pieces. After about 30 minutes of hammering, Rust then let the unfinished weapon bake in the sun for a few hours.
When he came back to it, it was looking much more clean and well put together. It looked ready for the final stages of building the weapon.
Rust then went and made several leather "straps", one of which was extremely long and had come from a beast that was on the verge of stepping into Uncommon rank with its core. The monsters were truly starting to get more and more powerful as the years dragged on. That was why he was so passionate about this project.
Everyone was supportive of his endeavors as they knew that he had been collecting knowledge in an attempt to build "something" but no one knew what. Rust wanted to keep them in suspense so he didn't tell anyone, not even his wife. n))o).V).e/.l).b.-1)/n
Rust wrapped the long piece on the opposite end of the Iron tip. He would use just the slime as a weak sticky substance for now, and used it to stick the leather directly to the shaft of the weapon.
Rust placed a few small pieces of leather here and there for where he believed needed extra padding as it was a commonly used area when using the weapon. This was just his intuition speaking here, as he had little actual combat knowledge.
Finally after letting it sit in the remaining 3 hours of sunlight left in the day, Rust had finally completed his project!
Rust looked down at his new weapon, which seemed to glow with a slightly green tinged light. It was in this moment when he saw the shine, that he now knew that he had succeeded and he rushed to have this prototype used in actual combat!
[Notice: Tech Advancement [Iron Spear] and [Iron Level Weapons] has been unlocked and will now be easier for other sentients to understand in the future]
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