Looking at the roaring flames in the forge, Yavi felt it was time to start refining the mithril.
The coals in the hearth glowed a dark red. Yavi stirred the burning coal with an iron hook, sending sparks darting up like fireflies. He dropped the rather rough piece of mithril ore into the crucible, and metal struck ceramic with a clear clink.
"Bellows," he instructed without looking back. Thomas immediately connected the goatskin bellows to the clay pipe and began pumping rhythmically. The coals gradually turned white, heat shimmered in the air, and sweat quickly evaporated from his smooth forehead.
But the burning coal had already reached its maximum heat, and waiting for the ore to melt might take a long time. To save time, Yavi began repeatedly casting the Igni Flame Sign with his left hand, speeding up the refining process. Thomas's eyes filled with disbelief at the sight of Yavi casting magic, but he said nothing and simply kept pumping the bellows, occasionally adding coal to the hearth.
Time passed quietly this way. Yavi endured the scorching heat while casting Signs without pause. If Oxenfurt Academy had not had a Place of Power of its own to provide an endless supply of magic, Yavi would have drained all the magic in the area long ago.
Six hours later, a silvery pool finally collected at the bottom of the crucible. Squinting his smoke-reddened eyes, Yavi skimmed the black slag from the surface with a long-handled copper ladle. The molten mithril was pure enough to reflect his deep blue eyes, like a handful of solidified moonlight.
Then Yavi reached out and grabbed a packet of powder. This was the meteorite iron powder he had prepared beforehand. Adding this powder when forging a sword could maximize the finished weapon's hardness and toughness. Yavi's current silver sword contained this powder as well; otherwise, relying on the hardness and toughness of silver alone, it would probably have broken long ago.
Although he did not know whether mithril or meteorite iron was stronger, once they were mixed together, the power of the finished product would surely be nothing to underestimate.
The instant the meteorite iron powder touched the molten mithril, a mass of bubbles rose with a sizzling hiss. Yavi hurriedly stirred it, mixing the two materials together. Next, he needed to pour the molten mithril into a mold and wait for it to cool. Only after it cooled into a mithril ingot could Yavi begin forging it into a sword.
Yavi did not sit idle while waiting for it to cool. He took out the dimeritium ore and began refining it, and when Thomas saw Yavi produce the dimeritium, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Well? Never seen a piece of dimeritium this big, have you?" Yavi hefted the dimeritium in his hand.
"This is truly unbelievable. It's my first time seeing such an intact piece of dimeritium ore. Someone once brought a piece of dimeritium and asked my master to forge a weapon for him, but compared to the one in your hand, that piece was a world apart in size." Thomas could not help marveling.
"I hope you can keep what happened today a secret. After all, this stuff is far too famous."
"Rest assured, Mr. Yavi. I came here behind my master's back to broaden my horizons with you in the first place, so I won't go talking about it to anyone else. Getting to learn how to smelt dimeritium alone has made this trip worthwhile." Thomas's expression immediately grew serious, and he promised to keep his lips sealed, which deepened Yavi's impression of him a little.
Only two-thirds of this piece of dimeritium was needed for the sword Yavi wanted to forge, so he first had to cut it before refining it. Yavi went over to the ore-cutting machine and secured the dimeritium in its groove, then began repeatedly pulling the saw to cut through it. But the dimeritium was so hard that before long, Yavi was sweating all over from the effort. At that point, Thomas offered to relieve him for a while, and the two began taking turns cutting.
Soon, night quietly fell. The two were working so hard inside that neither realized it had grown dark. If Thomas's wife had not come looking for them, they probably would have kept working without regard for day or night.
At the invitation of Thomas and his wife, Yavi went to their home as a guest. Neither man had felt hungry while working, but the moment they stopped, hunger surged over them like a tide.
Fortunately, Thomas's wife had prepared plenty of food, enough for both men to eat their fill. Although this was Yavi's first day knowing Thomas and his wife, he could sense their simple honesty and kindness. Thomas was also a fairly diligent, eager learner, as was clear from his volunteering to help that day.
After the meal, Yavi said he was going back to the smithy. He intended to stay there for the next few days. Before leaving, he took out a small pouch of crowns and handed it to Thomas and his wife.
"What are you doing, Mr. Yavi?" Thomas asked, somewhat puzzled.
"I'm glad you came to help me today. There are two hundred crowns in here. Consider it your wages, along with payment for the meal. I'm afraid my conscience wouldn't let me rest otherwise." Yavi expressed his gratitude for Thomas's help.
"Mr. Yavi, you're being far too kind. Getting to learn things from you that I normally never encounter and seeing rare materials has already been more than enough for me. How could I accept your money as well? Please, take it back..."
The two went back and forth like this for quite some time. In the end, Thomas accepted the money, because he could see that Yavi was not merely being polite but genuinely wanted him to take it.
After they parted, Yavi returned to the smithy. He locked the door and went to the place where the blacksmith usually rested. Taking out the equipment he normally used when camping in the wilderness, Yavi prepared to sleep there. He would sleep there until the forging was complete.
When Thomas arrived at the smithy the next day, Yavi was already bare-chested and cutting the dimeritium. Thomas immediately joined in the work.
The mithril had completely cooled and set into an ingot. Yavi intended to turn it into a sword blank that day. As Thomas kept pumping the bellows, Yavi began forging the red-hot mithril ingot, and the clang of hammer blows rang out from the smithy. The day quickly passed, and by evening, Yavi had finally forged the mithril ingot into a sword blank. It already had the basic shape of a sword; with some fine grinding tomorrow, it could be called a sword.
After eating the food Thomas's wife delivered, Yavi finished work for the day. He gave himself a quick rinse and prepared to sleep. Tomorrow, he would first finish forging the mithril sword, then devote himself to making the dimeritium sword. With those two divine weapons in hand, no matter how many enemies there were, he would cut them all down in a single strike!
Imagining himself wielding the two swords and slaughtering his way through all opposition in the days ahead, Yavi could not stop the corners of his mouth from lifting slightly. Then he slowly drifted off to sleep, resting up for tomorrow's work.