God Of Crafting

'Okay, those should do it…' I thought to myself as I stared down at the pile of various resources I'd gathered for the next step of my project.

In total, there were seven different piles of otherwise neatly organized stuff for me to take from as I needed, each consisting of pretty much an apartment's worth of precious resources.

From the left, there were three piles of different kinds of metals, each of which boasted different properties that I believed to be interesting enough to include them in the build.

Then, there was the molding agent, allowing me to create any shape I wanted before burning it out to give it heat-resistant ability.

Next was a small pile of Spiritual stones etched with absolutely no qualities other than their ability to store a bit of spiritual energy. Following that, the last two piles were made up with respectively Qi-condensing crystals and then a small bunch of tiny boxes filled with ground-down crystals of the same kind.

"Okay, I'm ready," I called out as I took a step away from the resources and looked. "How about you?"

"All set and ready to go!" Claire called back, raising her head from behind the machine that just so happened to perfectly hide her from my view. "Just tell me when you are about to start," she then asked as she stood up and kicked something, only for the air in the workshop to suddenly start to stir up.

It wasn't a process as rapid as when I first launched my prototypes in the confines of my small apartment. Yet, just like a cold wind created by an AC, it took only a moment for the wave of the much denser Qi to reach me, instantly seeping into every pore of my skin.

"Haaa…" I took a deep breath, savoring the taste of the tasteless air, while feeling how all the gaps in my cultivation quickly filled back with spiritual energy again.

Soon enough, my spiritual core once again reached its unstable state before getting more and more chaotic and reaching closer and closer to its absolute limit while shooting its energy all over my body.

And when this process reached the peak on which it stabilized… I got to work.

First, I took the sturdiest of the three metals before putting it all into a small crucible that I then dropped into a special prototype of a modern slash cultivator's smithing furnace that operated according to the scientific principles while allowing a whole set of different formations to actively aid it in the process.

And so I just sat down and did nothing but stare at how the metal slowly melted down into liquid under the influence of Spiritually enhanced flames. A process that clearly changed something about the metal.

Yet, rather than grabbing my tongs and using them to pull the crucible out as soon as I got the core metal of the build in its desired state, I simply left it to keep burning in the furnace as I grabbed a handful of a burnable molding agent before kneading it into the shape akin to a long nail… or, according to who I was to ask, a long piece of turd.

The next part was as weird as it was fun to do, as it started with me heat-treating the mold to make it harden, only to then wrap a simple string around it before covering it in the non-combustible molding agent.

Next came the extremely precise yet still fun part of using the string from before to gently pry away just a tiny bit of the molding agent, separating it into a two-part cover rather than a full-on shell.

Then and only then did I return back to the furnace… not to pull the molten metal just yet, but to gently slide the freshly-made mold inside as well.

Pretty much as soon as I closed the furnace's doors, the heat inside of it raised the point the inner mold suddenly combusted… Only for the fire to start slowly eating it away while adding an internal heating source for the non-burnable outer mold.

Five minutes later, I used the tongs to bring the shell out before gently splitting it apart, finally creating a proper mold I could use to cast metal.

Then again, rather than pulling the crucible out, I simply brought up another one before stuffing the second type of metal inside and leaving it inside the furnace to melt.

'How is this so easy?' I thought while maintaining a perfect focus on the task as my hands added a simple shape to the mold… mold that I would use to build the actual body of the blade.

Then again, just like I did it with the handle, the blade itself would be made from two separate halves, allowing me access to its insides at any time I wanted prior to the final seal that would bring those two halves together forever.

"How are you doing?" Claire asked from the other end of the workshop where she retreated once she could no longer bear the heat radiating from the furnace… and the overheated metal inside of it.

"Step by step, I'm getting there…"

I was too focused on the job to pay much attention to small talk. Especially now that I watched the second mold harden in the furnace, only to casually bring it out… and then finally bring the crucible with the liquified metal out of the furnace.

That is, the second crucible, for the first one was still stuck in the furnace, as if I wanted to vaporize the precious metals I started with rather than just turning them into liquid and thus castable state.

The next step was as nerve-wracking as it was easy, for all I had to do was hold the tongs firm while I gently leaned the crucible over its side, slowly pouring the metal down the second form I made.

And for what was worth, it this metal, apparently called the high mithril for some reason, was a lot easier to manage than the thing I kept cooking in the furnace. Then again, while the first crucible held the special feature that would be kept inside the blade, this high Mythril was designed as the main body of the blade, even if it wouldn't be used for the blade part itself.

With enough of the metal poured down, I hurriedly yet carefully placed the crucible with roughly half of its content left back into the furnace, before pressing another form against the molten metal.

Contrary to the wood, metal was too hard for me to chisel into, forcing me to add all sorts of shapes and forms I wanted into the mold itself. And since the secret part was going to be hidden right in the middle of the blade's body, right now was the most the one and only time for me to impose it upon the molten material.

"This looks like it's about to be done soon," Claire commented as she decided to brave the high temperature and get a little bit closer.

"It's still ways off," I countered without a second of thought. "I'm merely preparing the first half of the blade's body and there are still several steps to make before I will make its counterpart and put the two together…" I muttered, allowing my voice to fade as my focus fully returned to the task at hand.

And so, a few moments later, I finally brought up a small hammer before bashing it away at the mold, cracking it open with just a few well-aimed shots.

'Is it just me or is the act of hammering something down using pretty much the same motions as punching out?' I thought, only to shake my head and then use the tongs to pull the finished half of the scythe's blade's body from the wreckage of the mold…

Only to put it aside before moving it to a special venting machine that would ensure the drying and cooling process would take place in a perfectly controlled environment, preventing the uneven cooling of the metal from creating micro-flaws in its structure.

"Finally done," after closing the doors to the venting machine, I took a step back and wiped my forehead with my forearm before taking a deep breath and turning to take a look at the rest of the materials.

"Now, to do it all over again…"