Chapter 463 Forming The Alloy



Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

At the very moment Valyr began to hammer the Refined Mithril and the Hardened Manafrost into the shapes he desired, a great portion of the audience had instantly shifted their attention towards the young man, curious as to what his initial steps were in order to gain an idea on the artifact that he wanted to emulate.

With a considerable portion of the audience being made up of blacksmiths affiliated with the Blacksmith Guild, around half of them looked at what the young man was doing with a solemn expression on their faces, their eyes now fixated on Valyr's every movement as the sound of metal clashing against metal reverberated throughout the main hall.

As for the other half of the blacksmiths and the remaining part of the audience that had no clue as to what Valyr was doing, the former group asked the more knowledgeable blacksmiths in their surroundings regarding Valyr's decision, causing almost all of them to go silent once they got an idea on how hard it would be for them to work with the materials the young man was working with.

On the other hand, the latter group mostly remained clueless, with some feigning a superficial level of understanding after listening to the more knowledgeable blacksmiths explain what the young man was doing. Nevertheless, with these people only coming to watch the forging duel as entertainment, almost all of them did not see the significance in Valyr's actions, deciding to switch between the two from time to time.

…

"Refined Mithril and Hardened Manafrost…" With the materials she had chucked first into her furnace still a couple of minutes away from reaching their optimal forging temperatures, Theraldine decided to take a look at what Valyr was doing after noticing the latter take out a couple of materials from his furnace. 

Unsurprisingly, just like how the knowledgeable blacksmiths within the crowd had gone silent after seeing what the young man was working with, the young woman's expression had turned serious as well, watching the young man hammer out the two materials into flat sheets before stacking them on top of one another with a pair of tongs.

After that, she watched Valyr hammer the stacked sheets a bit more, instantly figuring out his intent of wanting the properties of the two materials to fuse and resonate as he eventually placed the combined stack back into the furnace for it to get to optimal temperature once more.

"Is he going to make a replica of a magic artifact?" Seeing as a bit of time would pass before Valyr would make another move, Theraldine began to ponder over the possible artifacts the young man had chosen to emulate as she took out her own materials from the furnace, neatly placing all of them on the anvil.

Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

Then, using the forging hammer she always used when forging special equipment, she began to hammer the heated materials into the shapes she desired, circulating a bit of mana through her hammer as the temperature within her station gradually rose by a couple of degrees in response.

"Well, whatever artifact he may have chosen, it definitely wouldn't be as good as emulating the Infernal Hammer." With these words lingering in her mind, she proceeded to put all of her focus in bringing out the fiery energy contained within the materials, preparing them in advance for the steps that were about to come.

…

"Mngh…" With the combined Refined Mithril and Hardened Manafrost glowing a bright yellow-orange once more, Valyr went ahead and grabbed the tongs he was provided for the duel before using it to fold the stack onto itself. Though the process had become somewhat easy thanks to the materials becoming pliable under the heat, it still took a great portion of his strength, as well as a bit more heat from the furnace, before he was eventually successful in doing so.

Clang!

"I'll have to fold the material onto itself one more time before adding Purified Skysteel into it." Taking out the folded stack from the furnace and dropping it on the anvil once more, Valyr began to hammer the rough alloy into a flat plate once more, infusing a bit more strength into his every strike compared to earlier. "After that, I'll fold the material two more times before adding Purified Aquastone."

"Then, after a couple more folds after I add in the Aquastone, I'll add Purified Terra Essence, with Purified Pyresteel being the last thing I add into the alloy a few folds after the Terra Essence." Going over the process of creating the alloy he thought that would be capable of handling the energy of the four elements in unison, a wry smile gradually crept up the young man's face as he realized then and there that it would take quite some time for him to successfully create the final alloy.

"Huu…" Taking in a few deep breaths to compose himself, Valyr soon put all of his concentration into the alloy he was creating, swiftly hammering down the alloy to a thickness that would allow him to fold the alloy on itself once more.

Placing the folded and flattened alloy back into the furnace, the young man decided to throw in the materials he had listed down earlier into the furnace to get them up to optimal forging temperature in advance. With that, he also placed the materials he would need for the first step of the forging process inside the furnace, placing them closer to the source of the heat as they needed far more heat to reach their ideal temperatures.

With all of that said, Valyr began to move in a pattern that consisted of him waiting for the alloy to reach the ideal temperature, folding the alloy on itself once it did, and then hammering it down flat before proceeding to do it all over again. With the alloy being folded on itself two times so far, the young man added Purified Skysteel into the alloy after flattening it out, only to hammer the whole thing down to a certain thickness before chucking the whole thing into the furnace again.

As for Theraldine, she had fallen into some sort of pattern as well, consisting of her chucking in materials into her furnace, waiting for it to get to its ideal temperature before taking it out and hammering it out the shape she needed for the forging process. While doing so, she would use her mana to coax the energy from deep within the materials to arise, causing the temperature in her surroundings to continue climbing higher and higher.

With both sides more or less fully engrossed in what they were doing as the sounds of forging echoed throughout the main hall, the crowd watched as both Valyr and Theraldine worked on their respective items, seeing them gradually progress through it as more and more time passed.

Eventually, by the time the sun had moved past its zenith, one of the two put their hammer to the side as they looked at the item that was in front of them with a satisfied smile, wiping out the sweat that covered their entire forehead in the process.

"Finally."

"It's done."

"Time to move onto the first step."