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(RPJ)Chapter 61: Making the spear
🕑 Added 2023-10-25 15:46:15 +0000 UTCFor the wooden handle I chose Sinnohen ironwood which was an incredibly heavy and durable form of ironwood found on the slopes of Mt. Coronet. It was actually a very popular wood for martial artist to build training dummies out of because it was durable enough to withstand attacks from pokemon bellow tier 4 danger level. This meant that even while superhuman levels of strength are used on these dummies they don't break. Unfortunately the tree while it is alive is far more durable and thus much harder to harvest creating a hefty price tag for a wood.-
For the head of my new spear I didn't actually get a choice in the matter as the old man made the choice for me. "This hammer head has been with me for almost sixty years now , care to take a guess at how it's managed to hold up so long?" the old man asked while showing me a heavily blacked hammer with unusual vein-like patterns on it. I admit that I may have cheated a bit and observed it with the system but what I found left me dumbfounded as I had never expected it.-
[Item name: Aura pulsed hammer
Grade: 4
Description: A plain steel hammer that has soaked in aura for a long period of time and transformed into a new material with high aura conductivity and strength. The veins on it's side are the external pathways that allow aura to flow smoothly.]
The old man smirked at my dumbfounded expression after I read the description of the hammer. "I can tell you've figured it out , this hammer head here has been remade after I started to send my aura through it while smithin all those years ago. I'm an old man lad and I've got no loved ones to inherit this hammer and carry on my legacy. Way I see it if I reforge this here hammer head into the head of a spear it might just reach even greater heights under an aura master like you." The old man said with a nostalgic look at the hammer.-
So it was that two of the three parts of the spear were decided and the final part , the pummel , came next. I did get to decide what was used for that and I chose a hard Aggron alloy which was the shed carapace of an Aggron melted down into a useable metal alloy. It should probably come as no surprise to learn that the shed parts or hunted parts of pokemon was heavily utilized in this worlds crafting. The materials were almost always superior to man made ones and no normal animals could even begin to compare usually.-
The Aron line was always popular with smiths because the steel types would shed off their carapace that was made of all the metallic ores and particles they had eaten since the last shed perfectly blended together into strong alloys. The smith using the collected shed merely needed to melt it down and they got a perfect material for armors and weapons. "Well now that we got all that out of the way it's time to get the handle and pommel sorted before we reforge my hammers head." the old man said and motioned me to follow him to the back of the shop.-
I saw the unfinished blade still sitting on the anvil glowing faintly from the slowly dissipating heat in it. There was also very little else in the working area besides the tools of the trade and the large furnace that was still burning steadily near the anvil. The old man walked over to a side of the workshop area and pulled open a sliding door to reveal long rectangular pieces of wood with dust on them from clear disuse.-
"I stocked up on spear handle wood years ago but never got around to using it all , luck for you Sinnohen ironwoods amongst them." The old man explained and ran a finger across each of the pieces of wood until he found the one he was after. "This one here , eight foot long and taken from the center of the tree so it's the oldest and strongest piece of the batch." He said and I walked over and strained myself slightly as I picked it up.-
'It's just as heavy as I hoped.' I thought satisfied while I carried the timber over to the wood carving table towards the back of the room. Dust flew into the air as I set the wood down and the old man got to work cutting it down to fit my requirements. He directly cut off a foot of the foot for a perfect seven foot long piece. Then he started to slowly and methodically shave off the corners until the wood looked kinda like a telephone pole.-
He then kept shaving off more and more of the wood until it was roughly as big around as a soda can and perfectly straight. The old man then sanded the pole down until it was smooth and grabbed a tin of oil and a tin of wax that he polished onto the handle for weather and use resistance. To my surprise the old man grabbed the hot unfinished blade I saw earlier and directly tossed it into the furnace. "It was aggron alloy and after your spear it wouldn't have been finished since my hammer would be gone." the old man explained calmly.-
I didn't talk as we waited for the metal to heat up to the point of being nearly liquid. To reminded me a bit of those blown glass videos I saw before I died in how the very hot metal behaved. The old man paid it no attention though and struck it with his hammer until it was condensed into a dense orb with a hole in the center of it. To my surprise he then had me bring over the handle where he measured the hole with the end of the handle. He then expanded the hole until the handle looked like it would fit snug.-
The old man then took a groove making tool to the hole so that that it looked like something that would take a screw. He then proceeded to press the handle into the hole while having me twist it slowly to force the handle to follow the groove as it went in. "Now run your aura through the handle down here so that the wood can heal in place." he ordered and I did so confused.-
To my surprise the dry and dead wood immediately brightened up and seemed to come alive in my hand as I poured my aura into it at the bottom. The wood even swelled slightly which explained what he was talking about when he said heal. After that the old man took another hammer to his hammer to knock the handle out and free up the head. This time he placed the hammer head into a crucible and placed the crucible in the furnace. Once the head melted he grabbed a mold from nearby and poured the metal into it.
Comments
Linzie Salmons
that is a gift and a half the old man must be dying soon
