The rise of the pervert primordial - Chapter 765 - 765: The third day of the development trial (part 18)

Even from distance, Aster could already smell Sarina’s delicious cooking and the same happened to the little wyrm who was visibly drooling, as well as to the lynx who honestly was looking up to eating more properly prepared food like yesterday.

‘It was only an hour of difference you little gluttons’, thought Aster as he laughed to himself, normally lunch time starts at 1:00 pm but since today everyone was going to be busy, it was moved to 2:00.

To be honest Valentina and the other elders proposed to let everyone eat when they had the time, but the girls of the sect refused, since they preferred to spend this time with everyone else.

Once they were out of the woods Aster perceived another interesting scent coming from one of the tree agglomerations within the range of the camp, but he decided to ignore it on purpose.

“Big brother!”, as always, the one to first welcome Aster was none other than Kana, there was a difference when compared to the usual though, the little girl rushed towards Aster which is normal, however she was riding on the filly, Ember, quite skillfully by the way.

The reason is simple, though Kana has no prior equitation experience, she simply “talked” with Ember about how they should work with each other, and in just six hours they had reached quite a decent level of cooperation, Kana could communicate with subtle signals which she had discussed with Ember, the direction, speed and other commands.

Of course, not all the work they had done was meant to help the rider in this case Kana, the little girl treated Ember like a big sister, given that she is “older” than her, so stuff like how to sit on the filly’s back in a way that it doesn’t cause her any discomfort, timing between the signal and the moment at which the action is needed and the like were also properly discussed, now they basically just needed practice.

In other words, Kana replaced months of initial training for mortal equitation through simple mutual understanding, thanks to her innate capacity to get along with others which in this case was used to replace the talent that some mortals have to work with animals, on a higher level of course.

“You should have waited until after I arrived at the table, now you and Ember will have to form at the end of the line to get your lunch”, said Aster to which Kana “proudly” raised her head in response.

“Since I helped with the rider-ride interaction training, all the big sisters and the horses agreed to let me and sister Ember skip the line when big brother returned~”, she said.

“Hissss!”, naturally the little wyrm complained by saying “what about me?”, luckily the girls from the sect saw that Espi and Kana were always together, so of course they didn’t mind letting the little wyrm have her share before them.

“Hello senior brother~”.

“Enjoy your meal senior brother~”.

As they approached the cooking area the girls who were going to the tables with their plates, all greeted Aster.

While Kana, Espi and Ember skipped the line to get their plates, Aster chuckled as he directly waltzed into the “kitchen” to then hug the chef, in other words Sarina from behind.

“Good work”, jokingly said Aster as he interrupted Sarina giving instructions to the girls who were helping serve the boar soup and fruit sides, to further tease the blond motherly roc woman, Aster grabbed a piece of strawberry from a plate that was placed in the table near Sarina.

“Hey, no stealing from the plate in my kitchen”, said Sarina as she softly slapped Aster’s hand only to see him playfully eating the strawberry to then say.

“What’s the problem, would any of you mind sharing a small piece of your fruit side with me?”, he said to the girls who were formed in line receiving their shares.

“No~”, to which they of course answered in unison that they wouldn’t mind, in fact there are some who would rather ask Aster to take food from their plates.

“See”, with feigned “sufficiency” Aster looked at Sarina who softly snorted in response.

“Humph, you show off, go to the table already you are distracting my helpers”, said Sarina to which Aster laughed as he pecked the blond motherly roc girl to then grab the plates that were placed on the table.

“Thanks for helping me with the bones”, he said, which made Sarina smile, of course all the previous was just Aster messing around, the plate out of which he took food was his to begin with, since at the discretion of the chef, in other words Sarina, he didn’t have to wait in line to get a warm meal, also he asked her to prepare a second set of food, for the lynx since she is an “honored guest”.

“Let’s go”, and with that Aster and the lynx joined the others who were gathering at one of the large tables, well, Guardian couldn’t eat at the table unlike the little wyrm whose flexible body allows her to sit with Aster and the others, but still, it didn’t miss the others that the lynx was sitting next to the table.

“Hi ladies, anything to report?”, asked Aster as he sat on the table just in time for Alice and Kana to jump onto his lap at the same time.

“Dear heavens, control yourself a bit”, said the ice princess as she sat at Aster’s left side.

“Cut me some slack, it’s your fault that I am “hungry”, you didn’t even let me go take a peek at Aster for the past six hours~”, said the wild dragon princess which made Aria sigh.

“Ahem, thanks for asking, we actually received some news through an eagle sent by the king of flying beasts”, said Valentina feeling a bit weirded out at the fact that only Mikaela, Layla, Lieze and herself found Alice’s behavior strange.

“Hoh, what happened?”, asked Aster as he spoon-fed that wild sister of his, a bit of soup so that she would calm down for a second.

“Apparently, the “black horse” and the “snake” had a fall out that ended in a short but fierce fight before both retreated after losing a few of their subordinates to the other”, added the purple lightning princess.

“That’s good, it means that they won’t fight in the near time, so we can get rid of one of them tomorrow”, mumbled Aster as he munched on a piece of boar meat to then tap his finger on the table a couple of times, he was pondering on whether he should keep the plan of killing the former king of herbivores and his subordinates or go for the snake instead.

Originally, only the black horse was within the scope as he is the priority, however the snake was weakened and his habitat is closer, not to mention that dealing with it, would secure a part of the inner area of the forest for the girls of the sect.

Taking both down was also possible, but Aster decided against that because it would tire the main combat force of the group too much, safety was first, luckily the “honored guest” who had been silently eating from her plate, decided to participate in the conversation.

“Grrr”, with a soft growl which Mira translated for others, a new plan formed with the help of Valentina and the other leaders of the group, but we’ll get to that later.

“That’s enough of work for now, let’s all properly dig in”, said Aster as he saw Sarina and the only other girl who was missing at the table, namely Mylene, arrive.

To be honest some had already started eating, Kana, the little wyrm, Guardian and Alice, the first could excuse themselves since they are the youngest, Guardian is tagging along but she isn’t officially a part of the group and Alice… well, she is Alice.

Leaving aside serious matters, the group ate to the content of their hearts and also had some small chat, Aster could see some of the present people dying to tell him about what they have been working in, but they held back since they weren’t finished yet and it was better to showcase it at the end of the day.

Some others didn’t mind though, like Vivian, the white-haired girl couldn’t help but speak about her activities so far.

“Aster, I helped make two new medicines, one that stops bleeding and one to prevent wounds from infecting!”, she said with an enthusiastic expression on her pretty face, which is understandable, Vivian already knew how to create poison to make people bleed to death in a question of minutes, or poison to make the slightest cut turn into a horrible infected wound, but now she knows how to prevent it, so she was all smiles as of current.

Unfortunately, Aster had to return to his training, so he got up before he got engrossed in the conversation to leave, not without playfully gazing in a specific direction, which made a certain girl with glasses to panic for a second.

While laughing to his insides, Aster who was accompanied by the little wyrm and the lynx returned to his isolated training area, with a full stomach and the third and last part of the mission taking place in his most liked working area, namely the forge, Aster felt refreshed.

“Let’s see”, Aster who purposedly hadn’t checked on the last part of his mission before, felt like laughing out loud when he read the requirements, he had five hours to make… a single sword, of course it asked him to use the processed iron that hadn’t been cleaned, meaning that he had to turn it into a steel billet before being able to work in making a sword, but that was a child’s play for Aster.

“Mmm, I’m not as “favored” as Espi, so I can only think that there must be a trick here”, mumbled Aster to then realize something important, unlike the previous missions, he wasn’t asked to make a “metal sword” but only a sword.

‘What a cunning mission, it doesn’t specifically state it, but commonly a sword is not made only out of metal, either plant or animal byproducts are used one way or another’, thought Aster to then stretch his arms as he said.

“Well, I don’t know if results are graded, but I’ll make one of the best swords you can expect to see with just five hours of working time”.

For starters he picked a two and half kilogram weighting piece of processed iron and right away put it in the forge which the little wyrm had kept going, though it sounded like a waste of charcoal, this ultimately ended up helping Aster.

Once the metal had gained the desired color, Aster picked it up with the tongs and started hammering it with quite a bit of force, sparks and the very little pieces of slag which remained stuck to the metal started flying all over the place as Aster started shaping the material.

“Clang!”, the sweet sharp clinking sound made it obvious that this was a good piece of steel, unlike the two demonstrations he has given to the girls of the sect, Aster didn’t have to make a relatively short billet, since this was going to be a 1.4-meter sword, a classic longsword with a guard, a pommel, a double-edged blade of 1.1 meter and a grip of 30 centimeters.

The first thirty minutes or so, Aster worked in flattening and extending the metal, until he had a proper large billet, and now it was time to start working in the sword and for that Aster now placed only one of the ends on the forge so that it would heat that specific area only.

There is no “best way” to make a sword, you can either start from the tang which is a preferred method for beginners as they have it easier to work in the blade while holding onto a much friendly end than just a rectangular billet.

Starting from the tip instead helps the blacksmith for specific blade geometries, which affect cutting effectiveness, also since the blade is the focus it ends up reducing the grinding time later on, of course this is from Aster’s point of view, truth to be told the method is often much more of a personal choice.

Anyway, once the metal had heated up enough, Aster added a step which he didn’t show to the girls of the sect, he used the hammer and a flat head chisel to make a diagonal cut at the end of the steel which he had heated, this was a little trick to reduce time when it comes to forming the tip.

Of course, it wasn’t needed for daggers or spearheads since they are rather small in comparison, also he mixed in quite a bit of grinding to make the process easier for the girls of the sect, since the base of the bevels can also be forged which is what Aster is going to do here by the way.

After making that cut, Aster changed the steel from laying on its side, to be “standing” on its lower face first, then he hammered the end of the upper face so that the half tip would bend downwards.

The metal naturally deformed to take a shape similar to the actual tip of a double-edged longsword quite fast, of course since Aster was hammering the lower and upper faces, the lateral ones twisted, but that was easy to solve by flattening it on the anvil again.

Once the tip was properly formed, Aster simply had to extend and widen the material towards the base of the blade, little by little he advanced, heating the spot in which he was working, hammering, heating and making sure he wasn’t going to exceed the size of the blade, this method also helped because he could work in making the bevels at the same time by using the edges of the anvil.

By the end of the first hour, Aster had reached the base of the blade and now he simply drew material to the sides in order to make the guard, he went for a simple straight shape which widened at the ends both upwards and downwards, it looked stylish but it was practical as well.

Next it was time to work in the tang and here was what was going to be the major difference between Aster’s usual style and this sword.

He was going to make a “hidden tang” instead of the integral one he uses in his own swords, which means that instead of rounding up the tang to then wrap it with something or simply refine it to improve the grip, he was going to flatten the tang and then make holes in it, the idea is to “hide” the tang between different materials, like wood for example which would form the handle.

But before getting to that, once he had flattened the tang and drilled the three holes which he adjusted to be sure that the rivets would fit in there, here a little tip from an experienced blacksmith like Aster, always drill the holes before the heat treatment, otherwise you’ll face hell when you try to do so with a hardened and tempered piece of steel, he didn’t mention it to the girls of the sect because they are making integral tangs and also because he actually wanted them to experience that hardship in specific at its given time, since it’s quite a good lesson for beginners after all.

Aster also used a much thicker point head chisel to make a hole at the end of the tang where a mass of steel was left on purpose by him, since he was going to make a ring pommel, it had been an hour and forty-five minutes since he started when he reached this point.

After making sure that the roughly sword shaped steel was straight and decently refined, did he put it in the forge to heat it enough for quenching.

“Hissss~”, the little wyrm happily hissed as she saw the fire produced by Aster putting the sword in the oil, before taking it out.

The now hardened sword passed the file test and now it was time for the tempering, which required Aster to heat it once again but a lower temperature to then let it cool down naturally over time, this was the most tedious part from his point of view.

“Well, at least I can work in the blocks of wood that will become the handle of the sword in the meantime”, said Aster as he took a wood pole and started working to make four small rectangular pieces, why four and not just two you ask, well, he was going to add piece of moose horn in the middle as an “spacer”, this time he was going to work with thick pieces of an animal byproduct instead, so he could drill through them without having to worry so long as he didn’t brute force it of course.

In around twenty minutes Aster had prepared the materials he’ll need once the tempering is done, and now he only had to wait so in the meantime he continued making wood swords to then break them for his Absolute manual’s mission, he could make five of them in twenty minutes, and the tempering took two hours, less the first twenty minutes he used to prepare the wood and horn for the handle of course.

So, and hour and forty-minutes as well as twenty-five wood swords later, Aster approached the sword which had cooled down and was ready for the remaining steps, which he actually didn’t demonstrate to the girls of the sect before.

Well, the first part was working with the belt grinder though, this way he polished and removed imperfections left by the hammer, however while Aster did refine the bevels with it, he didn’t finish the sharpening with the belt grinder.

For what came next, he had put a whetstone to soak in water during the past fifteen minutes or so in preparation.

“Nothing like the good old whetstone”, mumbled Aster as he ran the sword through the surface of the whetstone being careful to not mess up the angle, he actually took his sweet time for this part.

Once he finished, Aster wrapped the blade in cloth for safety and now it was time to work in the handle, using the marker he made spots in the areas where the rivets will go through on the wood and the moose horn to then drill the respective holes.

Next, he applied the epoxy on the tang to then stick the wood and horn blocks, before passing the rivets through the matching holes in the tang and the other materials, which required a bit of help of a small hammer since Aster had adjusted the fit to be practically the same as the one of the rivets.

“Now, to the belt grinder”, unlike what people believe, rivets used for the handles of swords and knives don’t come in small sizes, they are large tubes of metal, which the blacksmith cut for their needs, still you don’t leave them too short, so they protrude from the sides when pieced together.

Then, the blacksmith grinds the extra parts of the rivets alongside the other material while shaping the handle to the desired shape, for the finishing touches Aster used sandpaper to smooth the handle and the post-treatment for sharpening which required a leather strop.

“Luckily unlike leather itself, this was judged not easy enough to be available in the exchange monolith instead of having to be created from scratch”, said Aster as he finished working in the sword, it took him four hours and a half, of course this is because he took his time and put more focus in the aesthetics than usual.

The handle which started with wood to then have a transition made out of the moose horn before continuing with wood alongside the metallic yellowish spots where the rivets where placed, looked quite nice.

Seeing the message congratulating him for finishing the mission, Aster smiled as he walked towards the monolith to claim his reward, under the curious eyes of the little wyrm and the lynx who followed him.

“Hissss!”, to Espi’s “displease” Aster didn’t let her see what was the reward, but her complains died down when Aster said.

“It’s almost time for dinner, but there is enough time to show you how the reward for my Galaxy Forging to which you contributed, works”.

“Hisssss~”, that sounded fun so the little wyrm was in for it, also she liked Aster saying that she had contributed to it, which wasn’t a lie.