Another day went by and tuesday's lessons were also finished. I was currently in the blacksmith's workshop within the Academy area. I had largely completed Zui's sword. Shaping it properly had been quite a tedious job and although the sword was a few centimeters shorter than I wanted, I don't think Zui would complain about it.
It was time to dip the metal into the heated oil quench. Even getting the real users of this blacksmith's workshop to allow me to use the place had been difficult. I didn't want to damage any tools here. As I looked at the hot, reddish-metal sword, I felt I needed to give it a name. I thought it would be more sensible to do this once I finished the sword entirely, so I dipped it into the oil quench.
After half an hour, I checked the sword. There were no visible bends or cracks. So, it could be said that the heat treatment went smoothly. Yesterday, I prepared this sword for this process and today I performed the heat treatment. Today, I wouldn't be working more with metal because after the heat treatment, I would be making the handle of the sword.
Everything had a certain order.
I decided to use rubber, a synthetic material, for the sword's handle. The first reason, of course, was cost. The second reason was that I wanted to design the handle in a way that could be used with both hands. I wanted to use a material that would stick to the hand and rubber was perfect for that.
I spent the rest of the day shaping the handle.
The next day's lessons were enjoyable. In the resource lesson, the topic covered this week was food and water. Humans rely on certain resources to survive. That's why I felt like I was in a biology class during this week's resource lesson. However, Class Philosophy was boring. For people without a proper classroom, this lesson was entirely passive. The teachers at the Academy had decided to wait another week for this situation and to have students who could open their own classrooms continue with the class, while the others would choose another practice lesson. After all, if the lessons aren't productive, they hold little meaning.
After the lessons, I didn't forget to hand over staff to Iris. Apart from that, as always, I did not take my attention away from the nalias. I didn't want anything to happen with these sect members.
After the lessons, I returned to the blacksmith's workshop. Today was the day I would finish everything related to the sword. I had started this work on sunday and if I count today, I had approached completing it in four full days. There was just one more step I wanted to take.
Of course, this was making a special plating for the sword.
The other chromite ores I had were set aside for this purpose. Instead of using all the chromite, I had used only half of the material, preventing the sword from becoming too hard. Making a very hard sword would make it brittle and I wanted to create a sturdy weapon. While I desired the weapon to be strong enough, I didn't know if it was possible to transmit magic very easily through it.
Creating a plating for the sword was the most ideal solution both to reinforce its conductivity and to give the weapon an attractive appearance. When used correctly, chromite looks like a food to the eye. Chrom was my primary material for the mixture of the coating.
My other material was the gold powder I had with me. The sole purpose of using this gold powder wasn't just to make the sword look better; I wanted to use it as a catalyst.
Because I intended to incorporate poisons I had into this plating mixture. In my previous world, it was impossible to make a metal itself toxic. Due to the structure of metals and poisons, it was not feasible for them to mix homogeneously. When such a thing was done, all components would lose their general properties and this would be like throwing away an expensive meal.
Of course, I felt I could somehow do this in this world because of the presence of magic, but to achieve that, I had to stick to science. Magic was like electricity in this world. Electricity is fast but lazy. It always takes the shortest route possible.
Although metals are said to be harmless by nature, there were examples like arsenic and mercury. Even chromium could be toxic under the right conditions. In other words, there are metals that could be harmful to humans.
Therefore, the simplest way to make a metal itself harmful was clear. At least one of the bottles I had needed to possess the qualities capable of giving it this property. Since I had nothing but gold in powder form, I had no other choice but to use it. To avoid inhaling anything dangerous, I covered my face, then started melting the chromite I had and afterwards, I divided all the gold powder I had into seven parts. I would pour these divided powders into the bottles one by one and act according to the reaction that occurred. Thus, I began pouring the gold powders into the bottles in sequence.
The first two bottles showed no obvious change. Actually, this was normal. Poisons, by their nature, would harm biologically active substances. Since metals are different, expecting any reaction was even illogical.
But I didn't know how these poisons were produced. I didn't know what was used in their manufacturing and I didn't want to show these poisons to anyone and get into trouble. Only two bottles had a reaction with the metal. The liquid in a bottle containing a bluish substance turned into a greenish color. Because of this, I couldn't see what the gold powder inside was. The change in the transparent liquid in the bottle was the color of the gold powder. The color of the gold powder in the bottle had started to fade.
These were poisons that reacted with a metal. That's why I can even say they are strong poisons. I didn't want to think about what the poison's effect on a laboratory mouse would be, considering what it could do to a metal.
But I couldn't conduct any more experiments. I needed to make a quick decision and throw one of the bottles into the melting chromite. Of course, I added the liquid from the transparent bottle and the altered gold inside it into the molten chromite. Then I took the gold powders from the poison-filled bottles, washed them thoroughly and added them to the mixture. The plating mixture contained four components. This mixture, which was almost entirely made of chromite, had a few grams of gold powder, about two grams of gold affected by the poison and the poison itself.
Now, everything would be up to time to see if it worked or not.
After waiting long enough and watching the molten chromite bubble like a stew, I prepared to dip the sword. I had to be careful because this method wasn't very safe. The molten chromite could cause the shape of the sword to change. Even if it didn't, it might not make the coating as effective as I wanted. If I failed the operation, everything I had done would be meaningless.
I was at the top of a ladder, holding the metal with tongs in my hand. The molten mixture was beneath me. I was only going to dip and withdraw it from the mixture for a few seconds. The heat was unbearable but I hardened myself like steel and immersed the sword into the liquid.
"One! Two! Three!"
I held it for only three seconds and then pulled the sword out. Now, my job was to keep the sword in the air. Although the things I feared hadn't happened yet, I didn't take my eyes off the sword.
I held the sword with the tongs for about two hours. Even in this magnificent blacksmith's workshop, I couldn't find something suitable to hang the sword from. That's why holding that tongs for two hours wasn't as easy as it seemed. Once I was convinced it had cooled enough, I placed the sword into a bucket filled with sand.
The process was finished and after taking a deep breath, I let myself fall to the ground. This whole ordeal had truly taken a long time and it looked like I would be spending the night here.
After I finished my break, there were still things to do. Sharpening the weapon, sanding until the thickness of the plating was even, attaching the handle—things like that.
All of this truly lasted until morning.
When everything was done, I could feel my green eyes begging me to sleep. Of course, I was going to sleep, I wouldn't even go to the theory lesson but I still wanted to look at the masterpiece I had created for a few more seconds.
Thanks to the plating, the sword's color had taken on a dark blackish tone. As a result, the sword's yellowish shimmer was clearly visible. While sharpening the sword, I was extra careful on the whetstone because I didn't want the poison to contaminate me. The inward and outward bends of the sword were symmetrical. It was approximately one hundred ten centimeters long. The tip of the sword was not sharp at all and looked as if it had been cut from a flower's stem. Its handle, made of rubber, made it easy to grip.
"I think I've outdone myself today. Did I really make this?"
I was also questioning myself a bit. I could no longer call myself an apprentice. At least, I wanted to say something like "young master" to myself.
"Alright... now, what name should we give it?"
Now that the sword was complete, it was time to give it a name. This weapon was prepared for the Sin of the Flower. That's why I wanted to give it a name that fit this nickname. Thinking that the most dangerous flowers might have thorns, I wanted to give a simple but meaningful name that anyone could immediately understand.
"Then from now on, let's call you Thornyblade."
After saying this to the sword, I felt that something had changed.