Hero of Darkness

Kahn and Blackwall now stood in front of the old saint blacksmith as they officially began his lessons after setting up and relaunching the whole company and taking care of everything. 

It had been more than a month since Kahn's plan regarding Rogis, Throk and using Hector and Venessa started. And now… everything had finally come in place and he was free to prioritize things that were going to benefit him in the long run. 

"Wait, what's he doing here?" asked Throk as he looked at Blackwall, the 3 meter tall humanoid hybrid who had the two black horns coming out from the sides of his head. 

"He will be learning with me too." said Kahn. 

"What?! Is this a joke? Do you think anyone can become a blacksmith these days? 

Plus he's a Knight warrior. The last class of people with the ability to invoke blacksmith skills. 

Hell, a swordsman like you being able to learn the skills of another class or profession shouldn't be possible in the first place!

Feel lucky that I'm using the secret dwarven technique to teach you these skills. But this guy… he will never succeed!" proclaimed Throk. 

"Just try us." said Kahn with a confident smile. 

With a scornful gaze, Throk took both the tall figures compared to him to a forge. 

"Turn on the forge." ordered Throk. 

To his command, Kahn started rubbing the body of the forge here and there with his palm… 

"You like that, don't you? You little who…" 

"Stop it! What the hell are you doing?!" shouted Throk. 

"I said to start the forge! Not seduce it!" he exclaimed Throk with an exasperated voice. 

"You don't even know the basic stuff. Let me walk through it before you mess things up because of your lack of knowledge." he said and carried on. 

[[Author : Take note of these explanations. We're going to use these in future chapters so it'd be good if you understand and remember the Terminology as they'll be often used in upcoming chapters.]] 

"The first things you need to be familiar with when it comes to blacksmithing are the tools and their various applications. 

Here is a list of some of the most common knowledge you need to know." said Throk and listed off important terms of basic knowledge of their craft. 

"Alloy : Alloy is a metal that contains one or more additional elements in its makeup. Materials may be combined like so to achieve different physical characteristics, such as increased strength, flexibility, and melting point.

Anvil : A blacksmithing anvil is a large block of iron or steel with a flattened top surface. A blacksmith places the metal they are working with on top of the block to be hammered and formed. The anvil is made up of several different working areas, including the horn, the face, the hardie, the pritchel, the neck, and the feet. All these areas can be used to work the metal into different shapes, such as a curve with the neck.

Chisel : A chisel is used to chip, nick, or split away at delicate portions of a piece or metal or other material." explained the old dwarf in one go. 

"Crucible : The crucible is the pot or container typically made of ceramic or metal to withstand high temperatures used by blacksmiths to melt down metals and other materials.

Forge : The forge is fueled by strong flames to heat metal and other materials. A blacksmith places metal into the forge to make it more malleable and shapeable later on the anvil. Forges can come in several varieties, including coal, gas, wood-burning, and charcoal.

Hammer : A hammer is one of the most prominent tools used by a blacksmith to repeatedly hit materials in order to give them shape. There are several different types of blacksmithing hammers, including a cross peen, straight peen, rounding, flatters, set hammers, and more.

Punch : A punch is a metal tool that is used with a hammer to punch holes in metal or to drive rivets. A punch also comes in an automated machine variety, though this is more often seen in metalworking than blacksmithing.

Slag : Slag is the name for the unwanted material left over after the smelting process." spoke the saint blacksmith. 

"Phew! Too much information. I need to rest." said Kahn. 

"Shut up and listen, dimwit!" 

"Tongs : Tongs are what the blacksmith uses to hold and transport extremely hot materials from the furnace to the anvil and elsewhere around the working space.

Vices and Clamps : Vices and clamps are what a blacksmith uses to hold a piece of metal or other material while hammering, chiseling, or generally working on it." he finished the introduction of tools. 

"Now… let me teach you the important procedures we will be using." he said in a somber tone. 

"Now that you have a basic understanding of the tools blacksmiths work with, let's next examine the actual smithing processes. These are the ways that a blacksmith uses their tools to shape metal and other materials. 

During your daily business or training as a blacksmith, these are also the tasks you will encounter daily.

Bending : Bending is the process of forming a curve or a bend in a piece of metal. This is done by heating the piece of metal and hammering it over the horn of the anvil.

Casting : Casting is the process of pouring metal that has been heated to a liquid into a mold to form a shape or bar.

Drawing Out : Drawing out a piece of material means making it longer. The blacksmith could also make it thinner or wider, depending on the desired results.

Finishing : Finishing is the process of working a metal or other material into its final shape. Finishing includes polishing and putting all the final touches on the product.

Forging : Forging is the entire process that a blacksmith deals with to work heated metal into the desired shape.

Hammering : Just like it sounds, hammering is the process of a blacksmith striking a piece of material with any various kinds of hammers repeatedly to form the desired shape.

Quenching : Quenching requires a blacksmith to rapidly cool a piece of heated material by means of exposing it to water, air, or oil. Quenching is typically done to harden metals like steel.

Shaping : Shaping is the process of hammering, bending, and otherwise working with a piece of metal or other material to change its form.

Smelting : Smelting involves extracting metal from ore. This requires the material to be heated in order to melt and separate the metal from the ore.

Soldering : Soldering is the process of connecting two pieces of metal or other material at a joint. These pieces are connected by a melted filler metal with a lower melting point than the connecting pieces.

Tempering : Tempering is the process of hardening a metal by reheating and quickly cooling it. This process helps increase the toughness of a metal.

Upsetting : The opposite of drawing and drawing out, upsetting is a technique used to make the working metal shorter, thicker, or narrower.

Welding : Welding is the process of joining two pieces of metal by heating them near the melting point and hammering them together. These metals, unlike soldering are heated and connected themselves rather than using a filler metal to connect them." informed Throk. 

Unlike Kahn, Blackwall was listening to all this information eagerly like a top student of the class. 

After the whole information session continued for half an hour… Kahn realized that watching those weapon crafting videos online was different than actually forging them. 

"Buckle up brats, I'll teach you from basics and that too without using any magic, formations, runes or use of world energy. 

You will be no different than rookies. And I'll make you prepare the materials yourself. Whether creating your own equipment or the metal ingots you will be using to forge. 

There are no shortcuts here. And I won't teach you the next steps unless you master these things first." announced Throk with a tyrannical grin that sent goosebumps to both Kahn and Blackwall. 

The old dwarf was in his element now and his zealous voice was more than enough to give them a glimpse of the hardships and pain that were coming their way. 

"Both of you have to master control over your strength first in each hit and understand the composition of metals and other properties.

Iron, silver, gold, titanium, adamantine, orichalcum… all of them are completely different from each other. Even their melting points are different. 

Mess one thing and the whole product is ruined. So you better be prepared to memorize every single detail, no matter how small it is." he said in an insidious tone as if Kahn and Blackwall were his defenseless prey. 

"Arrh, great… now I'm back in school again. 

You know what… I'll leave this to him. Just teach him and think that our deal is done." said Kahn as he didn't want to go through his school days again. 

He turned and walked towards the door. 

BOOM!! 

"You keep forgetting one thing… the business thing might be your schtick… but inside my forge…" spoke Throk with his eyes on fire, full of battle intent. 

"I decide when you come or leave."