I pointed to the orichalcum where the magical jewelstone had dissipated moments before, and she observed it intently. The lump of metal glistened and reflected the light. While I wasn’t sure of the intricacies behind this phenomenon, it emitted a prismatic glow.
“I feel like we’re on the right track, but I want you to check and see if the magical jewelstone’s energy was transferred to the orichalcum,” I explained.
She nodded and knit her brows. “All right.”
Her narrowed eyes reflected that rainbow shimmer—it almost seemed like her eyes shone rainbow. A deafening silence settled in the room, and I realized that everyone else had stopped to observe as well.
Did I gulp nervously? Or was it Rike? Maybe it was the both of us...
After that long moment, Lidy smiled and broke the silence. “It looks good.”
Cheers erupted within the forge.
“But,” Lidy said, causing Rike and me to pause. She looked at us apologetically. Is something wrong? “You can add so much more magic into the orichalcum.”
“I didn’t think it would be full with only a magical jewelstone or two more, but is there really so much room?” I asked.
Lidy nodded again. “I wouldn’t call it an infinite amount, but there’s still a ton of room left inside.”
“Hmm...”
I crossed my arms. Using that new information, I could judge our speed and calculate how long it would take to finish the knife. A couple of weeks—that was how long it would take to shape it, polish it, wrap the handle with leather, and add a fancy sheath. That would fall well within the deadline Camilo had set. The issue was exactly how much magical energy I should imbue. Obviously, I could just add as much as the orichalcum could take and push it to the max, using every single day I had. And maybe it would reach its limit somewhere along the way. But is it ethical to put something with so much magical energy out into the world?
The moment the kingdom came to me with this request, they knew that this knife would ultimately end up in the empire. That was fine by me. But weapons forged with the maximum strength of my cheats would be sharper and tougher, and this effect was further amplified when I added magic. Was it okay to let an extremely dangerous weapon circulate in society?
I already knew that my custom models were stronger than most, and I’d accepted the fact that these weapons would be wielded by people, but I had my limits. Was this orichalcum crossing that line?
“Boss?” Rike peered at me worriedly.
I hastily waved my hands. “Oh, sorry, it’s nothing.”
You know what? I’ll just aim for the top and do the best job I can. Someday, someone else might be able to reference my methods when they need to forge something out of orichalcum.
I might have my cheats, but I’ve still got a long way to go on the path to becoming a proper smith—I can’t get scared and back down. I internally slapped my cheeks, hoping to amp myself up.
“We’ll just have to keep at it and slowly observe our progress,” I concluded.
“Yeah!” Rike exclaimed eagerly.
“I wish you all the best of luck,” Lidy said, calmly cheering us on.
Fueled by that encouragement, I rolled up my sleeves to make another magical jewelstone.
“Time for another round! You ready?” I asked, handing Maribel the orichalcum.
“I was born ready!” Maribel replied.
I once again swung down to create a magical jewelstone. A while ago, I did this so many times that it caught the eyes of the fairies—they noticed the energy collecting here. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have thought about building this apparatus so that I’d be able to make a magical jewelstone at a moment’s notice. Jewelstones faded away so quickly that they hardly seemed useful, and forging meghizium certainly wasn’t a request I received every day. Had the fairies not come to me, I would’ve thrown away the steel box after I’d finished with that job. I feel like I should thank the fairies somehow. I’ll try to find the time and ask if they want anything.
I continued swinging my hammer down. The sound wasn’t nearly as clear as when I’d hammered the orichalcum with Rike—it was the sound of cold steel, and it echoed across the forge.
Meanwhile, Maribel was hard at work. “Hrnnnngh,” she groaned, doing her utmost best to heat the orichalcum.
I glanced her way every now and then. She was steadily getting faster at heating up the metal, and I figured she was probably getting used to the process (though this wasn’t her first rodeo with orichalcum).
It makes sense—she worked with Don Dolgo to forge a whole orichalcum greatsword, and now that the process is coming back to her, it’s no wonder she’s picking up the pace on a much smaller knife. It’s all about finding the right balance, and I’m sure she’ll settle into the groove with experience. I gotta work hard so that I won’t get left behind. I couldn’t be huffing and struggling to keep up while Maribel was casually doing her work. Still, I needed to work with haste; as she increased her speed, I needed to match her.
I hammered away at the steel box to create the magical jewelstone, and Maribel soon called out, “I’m ready!”
“All right! Here I go!” I said.
I opened the lid of the magical jewelstone kit (my name for the steel box) and found the crystallized energy inside. I swiftly grabbed Maribel’s orichalcum and transferred it onto the anvil, then set myself up to repeat the hammering process with even greater speed and care.