Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 215: A Glaive Mistake

Compressing the material proved to be a difficult, time-consuming process. In the end, I had to restart more than a dozen times because my focus had slipped, causing the shaft that I had already prepared to deform. Deep in this cave, I had no idea how much time had passed, focused singularly on the task before me.

Eventually, I managed to create a small, heavy mass of black… stuff. Yeah, that’s really all that I could call it. Since it was just projected ki, it wasn’t really metal, or any other kind of proper material.

Throwing away those distracting thoughts, I began the process of forging the blade for this glaive. With my previous experiments on the longsword, this part was actually not that difficult, and just required me to maintain razor-sharp focus.

Once I had the material ready, I was able to construct a blade on my first try, and attached it to the prepared staff. Theoretically, this could be called a complete glaive. However, I felt that it was lacking. I did a few swings, and the blade rattled with each one. I retrieved a log from my inventory to cut, and the blade itself just snapped in two when it bit into the log.

My eyes widened at this, glad that I had decided to test the weapon before handing it over to the client. With a grunt, I restarted the process from the beginning, now far more familiar with the individual steps. However, when constructing the blade’s edge and the connection of the two parts, I analyzed the details as closely as I could. The blade needed to connect perfectly to the staff in order to prevent the rattling that I had previously noted.

As for why it had become so brittle… that I didn’t understand. The blade was plenty sharp, and the material had been evenly spaced out enough that it shouldn’t have had any structural weaknesses.

Still, when I tested my second glaive, I found more problems. I had fixed the mounting point to prevent it from rattling, and the blade didn’t outright shatter. However, its edge did take considerable damage from chopping into the wood, showing that this was also a failure. Even if I added a self-repair feature, it was only a matter of time before the weapon completely broke.

Thus, I restarted again. And again… each time, I would either encounter old problems, or face entirely new ones. The blade sliding off the staff and flying into the wall, the staff breaking under the weight of the blade being swung, the blade's edge curving to the side. All of these were problems that I had to fix.

Thankfully, most of these problems could be understood by referencing the books that I had read. I began to tie the mounting point with black straps to add an extra layer of support. I carefully adjusted the weight of both the staff and the blade. However, the matter of the edge’s brittleness was something that troubled me.

It wasn’t until I tried to change my thought process that an answer occurred to me. Typically, the grinding of the blade to increase its sharpness happens after the final quench. For me, the quench was when I finalized the skill’s usage and hardened the weapon. Would I still be able to grind the blade after that?

I tried, repeating my crafting method without grinding the edge of the blade. I merely hammered it as close to shape as I could. Then, after putting it all together and tying it together, I had an unsharpened glaive.

To sharpen it, I used Shadow King to create a dense wheel of projected energy, akin to a grindstone, and tried to use this. However, the blade that I had created was stronger than the grindstone, preventing me from being able to grind away the material on my first attempt.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to go through the process of completely remaking the glaive, and just needed to improve the grindstone. I condensed it further, creating small abrasions along its edge to help it do its job.

This time, when I pressed the blade to the grindstone and made it spin, I felt it biting into the material of the blade. I watched the blade closely, making sure to evenly grind it until the blade was nice and sharp all along its edge.

Then, it was time for the tests. A few simple practice swings, and I didn’t feel any rattling. The blade was firmly attached to the staff. After that was the log, which was split cleanly in two. Checking the blade, I was pleased to find no chips or deformation.

In almost every respect, this could be considered a resounding success. There was only one small issue. After I created the weapon, it didn’t have any enchantment slots on it for me to attach the requested effect.

I had made the blade, but had no way to give it the ability that the foxfolk man had wanted. With a sigh, I stored the finished glaive in my inventory, resolving myself to try again. Unlike some of my other failures, I didn’t just want to destroy this one.

With a fresh success under my belt, creating the next one became even easier. I shaped it, put it all together, and even used the edge of the grindstone to carve decorative patterns on both the blade and the staff, thinking that the extra craftsmanship might help me with getting an enchantment slot.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. I now had a fancy glaive with no slots free. At this point, I was starting to understand why I wasn’t getting the blacksmithing skill. I wasn’t doing true blacksmithing, not at all. I was simply adding extra steps to the activation of a skill to refine its effects. This all boiled down to me using the Shadow Forge skill, which did not by itself create items with extra slots.

That was not to say that I was giving up. Quite the opposite. Because, you could add extra effects to weapons created with Shadow Forge, if they were channeled with the creation of the weapon itself. This functioned similarly to enchanting, but was more difficult because it had the possibility of ruining the weapon as it was created, and could only be done by the crafter.

So, once again I crafted the glaive. I had already been using Shadow King together with Shadow Forge, so the extra channeling didn’t really require extra focus. I just had to keep it firmly in mind the entire time that the staff was meant to extend and retract.

This proved to be the correct answer, because the next glaive I made was almost perfect. The only problem with it was that the entire weapon extended together, causing the blade to elongate, which was not my intention. Still, that was an easy fix.

Finally, after another forging, I had my goal. Holding the glaive in hand, I focused on retracting it until the shaft was only as long as a sword handle. This turned the glaive functionally into a short sword. Then, I extended it out, the blade shooting forward to stab into the rock wall.

Satisfied, I put the final glaive into my inventory and sent a message to Diane. I finished the weapon, so you can let the Player know he can pick it up.

It took a few minutes before Diane responded, making me wonder if she was busy. However, eventually a message arrived. Have you been working nonstop? Get some sleep first, and I’ll let him know tomorrow.

I blinked in confusion, uncertain why she was saying that. How long was I working?

We had the meeting with him about the weapon two days ago, and we haven’t heard from you since. Diane answered more quickly this time. Bella and I wanted to message you, but you said you needed to focus, and we didn’t want to break your concentration at a critical moment.

Reading this message, my eyes widened slightly, and I began to feel the results of two nights of missed sleep creeping up on me. With my focus no longer wholly consumed with the creation of this glaive, it was suddenly getting harder to think.

Give me a few minutes. There’s something I want to do first, I managed to type out before teleporting away. I appeared in a small shop within Fallcry, startling a familiar dwarf.

“Well, if it isn’t our dear king! Heard you been busy lately,” Hammerhead said, surprised by my sudden visit.

“Yeah,” I answered, my eyes closing for a moment before darting open. “I want you to make something, and I’ll provide the materials. Think of it like an experiment. Just… give me a second to think.”

Taking a deep breath, I focused again, forcing my skills to activate. Using the methods that I had trained over what was apparently the last two days, I created three compressed balls of black material in different sizes, as well as a length of cloth. “I want you to see if you can make anything out of these,” I explained, my legs starting to feel weak. “Whatever you want. Just let me know when you’re done.”

“R-right,” Hammerhead looked at the material, and then at me. “You’re not looking too good, kid. You okay?”

“Just need rest,” I muttered. “Finished my project to help Diane. Going to rest now.” After I said that, I teleported one last time, my eyes refusing to open upon my arrival. I felt myself collapse onto a soft bed, and my whole world seemed to disappear.

The next thing I knew, I woke up in a dimly lit room, moonlight leaking in through the window. With a groan, I slowly pulled myself upright, only to see that I was not alone in the room. Sitting near the door was a bemused-looking Diane, her brand currently dim. “Wrong room,” she said simply, her arms crossed.

I blinked slowly, my awareness slowly catching up with me. I looked down at the bed, finding it not to be covered with my usual red sheets, but Diane’s black ones. My eyes widened, and I jumped up. “A-ah, sorry! I don’t know how that happened, honest.”

“It’s fine,” Diane shook her head as she stood. “My Player got a laugh out of that when she found you there. You must have really been out of it if you didn’t even teleport to the right room.”

I couldn’t have agreed more. The only thing I could think of was how I had thought about finishing the work for Diane’s Player contact when wanting to teleport to my room to sleep. My thoughts must have gotten too blurred when activating my skill, leading me to teleport to Diane’s room instead. “Sorry again, anyways. It all just caught up with me at once. How long was I out?”

“Just a few hours. You probably still need more sleep, honestly,” Diane answered with a shrug. “I just got here about half an hour ago. If you didn’t wake up soon, I was planning to just use your bed for the night. You didn’t push yourself too hard again and end up with another mental injury, did you?”

Noticing the sharp look she sent me with that last question, I checked my status. “No injuries listed, so I should be fine. Anyways, I’ll let you get to bed. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep right away, so I’m going to try some things first, like making you that armor you asked for.”

Diane’s eyes seemed to light up at this, before narrowing slightly. “Don’t overdo it again. I’m going to leave a message for my Player to pester you when she wakes up and make sure that you’re not still working.”

I could only laugh awkwardly at that, promising to be more careful this time as I left the room. Honestly, I really wanted to make a gun for Bella, too. But, guns were very intricate devices, and I had absolutely no confidence in doing the same kind of manual crafting for one that I had done for the glaive. If she was still using her bow, I would definitely be able to, but I just didn’t think I could make a good gun with my current knowledge.