Chapter 214: With the Grain

With my work done, I asked the old Lizard to teach me more about dagger smithing. This time, he showed me how to create daggers from Purified Steel. He also pointed out, that there was a certain technique involved in creating weapons, but it was reserved for advanced smiths. I tried asking him to teach me that, but he only said, that I was not ready to learn it.

'He probably wants to keep me in that workshop, as long as he can. Nevertheless, I can still stay here for a while, so I might be able to persuade him, to teach me that technique' I thought, as I walked towards Lazar's house. I knocked at the doors, and Lazar opened them. He greeted me and invited me inside When I entered, I saw his daughter playing around. She seemed to be full of energy. I asked "Can we proceed now?". Lazar looked at his daughter, and said "Yes. The sooner this is dealt with, the less worries I will have".

I nodded my head, and said to his daughter "Just lay on the bed. You may feel a bit weak, after we are done". She nodded obediently, and laid on her bed. I placed my hand on her forehead and waited. It was Frosty, not me, who had to do this job. After a while, the blue gas like strands of coldness, started leaving her body, and entering my hand.

When my hand became frozen, I took my hand away from her forehead, and waited till the ice melted. I repeated this a few times, until no more blue gas was coming out. 'I wonder if that is all' I thought, and checked her blood. It was red, with no sign of blue colour whatsoever. Yet something was bugging me. 'I feel like this is not the end of the story. Maybe the blood is back to normal, but something must've caused her blood to change the colour, and become cold. I wonder what it is, and if it's still inside her body?' I thought.

The absorption, gave no results anymore. I turned towards Lazar, and said "Her blood is now back to normal. I would still like to check on her, before I leave this place. Is that fine with you?". He nodded his head, and said "I have no issue with that. Do you think that this can return?". I shook my head, and said "I don't know, that is what I want to check. In order to do that, I need to wait a while. Hopefully, she will be fine". He nodded his head, and thanked me.

With that taken care of, I went to the tavern in order to have a rest. Inside the rented room, I thought about the expensive thread, that I wanted to accurie. 'If what he said is correct, than 1 metre of it, is already too expensive for me, and I need 50 metres of that thread. I also need them in at least 5 metres lengths, for my skill. Otherwise, connecting the smaller pieces together, might degrade my feel and accuracy' I thought.

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Even if they had 50 metres of Iron Spider Thread for sale, and I could receive ten 5 metre long pieces, the amount of money I would need, would be staggering. 'Even if I sell all my medicine, I would never be able to get that much money. There is only one solution to earn that much, in such a short time' I thought. The solution, was to sell the Yellow Dust. Of course, I didn't want to sell any of it, but if I could sacrifice some of it, in exchange for that thread, I would be willing to make that sacrifice.

'I just wonder, how much they would be willing to pay, for the Yellow Dust' I thought, and went to bed. The days passed like this, and another week went by. I worked in the workshop everyday, and learned how to create different daggers. I finally managed to persuade the old Lizard, to teach me the special technique for weapon smithing. He said that the technique was to strike the weapon in a certain way, in order to produce the best blade possible.

Each weapon had a different method of striking and shaping. Besides that, he said that the material used, was a factor as well. Therefore, there were many variations to the technique, but I was mostly interested in daggers. He showed me how to strike a simple dagger, in order to make it stronger, but also sharper. He told me that in order to do so, I need to "strike with the grain". He explained what that meant "Each piece of metal, has a specific direction, towards which the "grain" is positioned. If you make a dagger without taking that under consideration, then although it might be good, it will never reach its apex. This requires a lot of experience, so you will not be able to do it now. I will explain the process completely, and show you an example, but you still have to spend many hours practicing".

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He then continued "To judge the direction of a grain, you need very good eyes, which you already have. You also need to work with that material for a long time, to be able to spot it, as it's not that simple. If you take a closer look, there are very faint veins on each ingot, the idea is to strike the metal, in the direction of those veins. Of course, the veins will go in one direction, but they will be scattered throughout the ingot. The technique requires from you, to align all those veins, and make a blade in the same direction. It's not easy at all, and it took me many years to learn it, but the final product is much better, compared with those created by intermediate smiths. All advanced smiths, have a technique which is either similar or better than this one. That is why their work costs so much more, compared to other smiths creating the same weapons".

I nodded my head in understanding. It made sense, if the weapon made from the same material, could be a lot better when handled by an advanced smith, then it would obviously cost much more. The reason was simple. Imagine two people fighting. If both people had weapons and armours made from the same material and the same quality of the material. Then the person with the equipment made by an advanced smith, would possess an advantage. His or her weapon would be sharper, while the armour more durable. Although that advantage might be small, it was still an advantage.

After that lesson, I started producing daggers from cheap materials, in order to practice. I wanted to gain as much experience as I could, and learn the technique, that the old Lizard described to me. Besides that, I also received the news about Iron Spider Thread. The cost was, as he said 45 Black Hals per metre, while they had 4 spools, of varying lengths. They had spools that measured 11, 17, 18 and 13 metres of length respectively. This would produce the 50 metres I require, but in order to buy all that, I would need 2250 Black Hals. This was a staggering amount, even if I sold most of my possessions, I would not be able to accumulate that much money. Of course, excluding the Yellow Dust.

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I ask Harlin about the Yellow Dust, and if they would be interested. He said very, but he had to ask about it inside the capital city Arangard. He said he would return with some officials, and I could show them the a demonstration. If they are satisfied, they would buy it. 'He should be back any day now, if I can get enough money to buy all the thread I need, that would be perfect. I still have to test the strength, or at least, witness the strength of that thread. Otherwise, I might buy something, that would be useless to me' I thought.

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