Moreover.
"……."
Thump, thump.
My heart beats slightly.
Now, what is a Bell?
In the end, it's iron.
"First Metallurgy."
It was time to begin.
I grabbed the Raw Ores of the minerals Dolores had brought a while ago.
What I need now is a high-quality ingot.
Not something vaguely picked up for industrial use, but a high-quality ingot I truly made myself.
I lifted one Raw Ore in front of my eyes.
-----------------------------
[Hematite Raw Ore][☆☆☆☆☆]
[Purity]****[44 / 100]
[Impurities: Silica, Sulfur]
-----------------------------
The overall purity of the ore Dolores brought was excellent.
According to the manual, originally you need the reputation of the mining area to know the purity.
This level of purity from one mine, that level from another.
Fortunately, I could skip that inconvenient process.
And among them.
-----------------------------
[Hematite Raw Ore][★☆☆☆☆]
[Purity][78 / 100]
[Impurities: Silica, Sulfur]
-----------------------------
My hand stopped.
Find the secret key.
I found the ore.
This is quite good; it's at a level that makes me think it almost went through refining once.
It's as if nature made it halfway on its own.
I held the Raw Ore and rolled it on the table.
Roll.
It's heavy.
Good.
I picked up the tongs.
"Let's melt it."
I threw the Ignition Stone into the furnace and heated the fire.
Whoosh!
Fire rose in the furnace.
A red light climbs up the wall.
I unconsciously raised the corners of my mouth.
First Metallurgy.
Now that the fire has properly settled, I push the ore inside.
And heat it.
When the fire starts to dwindle a little….
Creak. Crick!
"Argh!"
From broad daylight, I step on the pedal and blow air in.
Ah, I did oil it, but it's not easy at all.
Creak! Creak!
Puff! Puff!
Since I'm short, my weight doesn't transfer, and since my weight doesn't transfer, I have to press with my whole body.
Sweat beads on my forehead. A drop runs down my temple and falls from my chin.
I unbuttoned my chest and pulled up my shirt.
Much better.
I'm dying.
How much time had passed?
The ore in the furnace began to slightly lose its form.
And now.
Tap.
I grabbed a handful of charcoal and threw it in again.
Ore is not iron to begin with; it's iron with oxygen stuck to it.
The charcoal has to steal away that oxygen for iron to remain.
And.
What was red turns orange, and orange turns white again.
More precisely… when it emits blinding light.
Something white floated up over the shining ore. Skimming it off is impurity removal.
If all impurities have been skimmed off, from now on.
Slide.
I pushed in the tongs and pulled out the heated mass.
Sizzle!
Surprisingly, the ore heated to its limit made a sizzling sound as it touched the relatively cold air.
'Now.'
If you think after taking it out, it's too late.
I had already done all the thinking.
Next to the furnace, two Cooling Baths are lined up.
One is water, one is oil.
Last time, it was water.
However, cooling ore with water is originally reckless.
It cools too rapidly, and the mineral splits in an instant.
But what did we want last time?
Exactly, Thermal Shock Exfoliation.
Back then, we had to give it a shock to peel off the shell of the Flame Ore.
Now, because there's no need for that.
We need to cool it relatively 'slowly'… and oil was suitable.
Oil has slow heat conduction, so it can cool it slowly.
So that the outside and inside cool at the same rate, relatively without mismatch.
I moved the tongs toward the oil.
And I pushed the pure white ore into the oil.
Splash.
Bubble, bubble.
There's no sizzle like when it was put in water.
Instead.
Flare!
"Shit?!"
Flames spread violently over the oil.
The oil couldn't withstand the heat and began to burn on its own.
Black smoke rises toward the Workshop ceiling and fills it.
Uh, I was surprised, a lot, really surprised… but this is how it is.
Water is crazy with sound, and oil is crazy with this.
Fortunately, the Workshop had been remodeled, so there's a vent in the ceiling and a window right in front, so I didn't end up buried in smoke.
Bubble.
I kept stirring the ore held by the tongs.
If left still, a vapor film forms on the surface and heat doesn't escape properly.
How do I know? The professor said so, our Dwarven professor.
"Sixteen… seventeen…."
My arm trembles slightly.
Before I knew it, the flames had died down. The smoke had lessened a lot too.
Eighteen… nineteen.
And.
"Twenty."
Shhh!
I pulled up my arm and took it out in one breath with the tongs.
Black oil burned onto the ore drips from the tip of the tongs.
I placed it on the anvil.
It's still red-hot, just right.
I reached for the hammer hanging on the wall.
Earthbone Hammer.
Tojar's Thunder Hammer, sorry, you're still not for forging.
Though you are precious.
I gripped the handle.
Clang!
First strike.
Another strike.
Clang clang clang!
With each hit, the mass shrinks little by little.
And becomes harder.
What needs to be discarded escapes, and only the core remains.
No matter how I look at it, the exercise I did recently is helping.
I'm dying from exhaustion. If I hadn't even done that, it would've been real hell.
"Hah… hah…."
My shoulder feels like it'll pop out, my hands are numb, and sweat runs into my eyes, but.
If I stop, it cools; if it cools, I have to do this once more. Unless I'm crazy… it's right to finish in one go.
How long did I hammer like that?
Clang! Clang.
The sound changed.
I looked down at the anvil.
On the anvil lay a single palm-sized lump of iron.
This is an ingot.
"Now."
I wonder how you turned out.
And, the result was.
-----------------------------
[Hematite Ingot] [Handmade]
[1kg]
-----------------------------
[Components]
[Iron] [99.39%]
[Carbon] [0.58%]
[Sulfur] [0.00%]
[Phosphorus] [0.03%]
-----------------------------
[Quality]
[Homogeneity] [A]
[Density] [A]
-----------------------------
[Evaluation]
A Hematite Ingot forged by human hands.
Sulfur was removed without residue, the structure has no gaps, and the grain is even.
Can be shaped into any form.
-----------------------------
I clenched my teeth and muttered carefully in a trembling voice.
"Um… is this a good one?"
I knew it all, but I just did it for no reason.
That thing I always wanted to try once.
I asked Yuna.
[…….]
Leaving Yuna, who showed little reaction, behind, I clenched my fist and shook it in the air.
"Yes!"
I clenched my fist tightly and shook it wildly in the air.
Now an ingot that looked decent had finally come out.
It was my first ingot making, but it was pretty good, I guess.
Actually, the process should normally be more complicated… but the purity was so high that it didn't need to be that complex.
And.
Now.
"……."
To make a Bell, you originally need a mold.
Melt the ingot into molten iron, pour it, and make it.
But right now, there's nothing to hold molten iron, and no mold.
Then, how does the Descendant of Fire handle a lack of such tools?
"Just do it."
If you don't have it, you just shape it by hammering.
It's actually written that way in the manual.
[Do not blame the materials or the Workshop. A hammer and anvil are enough.]
This is Sparta.
Of course, that was for apprentices. What's absurd is that in the formal manual, it tells you to cherish your tools, saying you must not ruin your body.
Crazy professor.
I adjusted my grip on the tongs again.
"I want to rest, but."
And I threw charcoal into the furnace and raised the corners of my mouth.
"It's a position where I have to do it."
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my arm and raised the fire.
The process after that is the same.
Heat the ingot to make it soft.
This time, without dipping the softened ingot into oil!
Immediately!
Thud.
Place it on the anvil and hammer it.
The advantage of the Earthbone Hammer is that its front and back are shaped differently.
The front is flat and good for spreading it firmly, and the back is sharp and good for gathering the shape.
This is a forging hammer.
Clang! Clang!
First, spread it. Don't shut up and try to shape it into a Bell right away.
The palm-sized mass spread little by little with each hit.
Clang clang clang!
When the color darkened, I put it in the furnace; when it turned red, I took it out and struck it again.
How many times did I repeat that?
Clack.
A wide disk was placed on the anvil.
Up to here, it's easy.
The problem is from now on.
I flipped the hammer and turned the sharp side forward.
'Now, I gather it.'
I slightly hooked the edge of the disk on the end of the anvil.
Using the hammer, I slowly push it up from the outside to the inside.
Each time I turned the spread disk a full circle, the rim rose little by little.
Here, rising means standing straight up.
"Rise!!"
One circle makes a plate, one more circle makes a bowl.
And.
Flare!
"Argh!"
When the color dies, the furnace; when it turns red, the anvil.
I stopped counting how many times it went back and forth.
Right then, when I felt I might really die.
The thing on the anvil finally changed into the shape I wanted.
"It's working…."
But the real part starts here.
What determines the sound of a Bell?
Thickness.
If one side is thick and the other thin, the sound dies right there.
No matter how pretty the shape, it's just iron, comb-pattern pottery style.
The side lacking thickness is spread again, scraped down.
How many times did I repeat that?
"…Hah."
I caught my breath and looked down at the anvil.
There lay a small, smooth, dark red Bell.
And.
Even though I didn't do anything special this time.
Flare!
The Sun Dwarf's engraving was carved on the front of the Bell.
The Apprentice's Mark, with L supporting it.
Now that I'm formal, the treatment is different too.
I raised the corners of my mouth and looked down at the Bell.
-----------------------------
[Divine Bell][★★☆☆☆]
[Divine Tool]
-----------------------------
A Bell that announces to the gods that the Descendant of Fire has opened their furnace.
The gods will hear it and make their requests.
-----------------------------
[Receive contact.]
- To Formal Blacksmith L -
-----------------------------
What is that supposed to mean?
The first thing that came in was an Origin Script telling me to receive contact.
I don't know who sent it. The Bell didn't even ring, so what?
I left the Bell on the anvil as it was.
It's damn hot right now anyway. I have to let it cool before I can touch it or not.
Then, in the meantime.
I picked up the scrap iron pieces.
I need at least a hook to hang the Bell.
This much is easy.
A few strikes produced a ring, and a few more produced a stand.
And how much time had passed?
Slide.
I lightly touched the Bell with the back of my hand.
Is it hot?
[?! Oppa!]
"Aaaah, hot!"
[Are you crazy?! Are you okay? Are you okay, Oppa?!! What do we do!!!]
"Uh, it's cool."
[Ah, seriously, so annoying, so annoying 😭]
I raised the corners of my mouth, hung the Bell on the stand, and went outside.
I don't know how many hours it's been.
The sweat cooled, making my clothes cold.
Creak.
According to the manual, the method to receive a god's contact is simple.
[Whether it is the moon or the sun, when it hangs at the very center, place it on the ground.]
[The masters of that time will descend.]
In other words, regardless of day or night, I just leave it when it rises above my head.
Then a god suited to that time will descend. It didn't seem to be a simple structure where the moon god descends when the moon rises.
And.
Right now, as it happened, a full moon was rising above my head.
The night wind brushed past my face.
In the center of the black sky.
Tap.
I placed the Bell on the grass.
The Earthbone Hammer hanging in my right hand.
Now this.
Slide.
I adjusted my grip on the hammer and slowly raised it.
I took a breath.
"Let's go."
Ding….
A clear sound cuts through the night air.
Hum….
The sound and resonance seep into my ears.
Thump.
Goosebumps rise slightly.
I've heard Bell sounds before, but this feeling is a first.
Whether I can receive a god's call like this.
Just as I was waiting.
"…Is it over now?"
"……."
When I turned my head, Ruby was crouching right next to me.
In her hands were a ciabatta and water.
The things I like.
Cute. I don't know how long she'd been there.
Was she waiting to give them to me?
"What, why are you looking at me like that?"
I took the bread and raised the corners of my mouth.
"Shh."
And.
Slide.
I brought a finger to my lips.
"A god is coming."
"……?"
Just as Ruby tilted her head as if she didn't understand.
Ding—
The Bell, untouched by anyone, suddenly rang.
And not long after.
Ding, ding, ding, ding—
There is a hammer in my hand, and no wind is blowing.
"Bread, I'll enjoy it."
Looking at the Bell ringing as it was struck like crazy by some mysterious force….I slowly patted Ruby's head.
Ruby's eyes went wide.
"……."
Ding, ding, ding….
A god was calling me.