Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (16 page)

The week finishes quickly,
and the weekend begins. Regal wakes up early on Saturday so he can go to
Atelier Gun & Bullet. Tanner had requested that he come in to earn some
money, so he packs a loaf of semi-stale bread along with some fillings and a
metal canister of water into his inventory for nourishment throughout the day.
With this, he should be prepared for any situation.

He isn’t particularly fond
of the bread, especially since the soul forming, but it is affordable and he
currently only has twenty silver coins in his possession. The money he has
earned over the past six months is about eighty silver coins, but the food
expenses and the cost of dying once has already cost him three quarters of
them.

When Regal leaves his
house, the sun hasn’t fully risen above the desolate eastern mountains outside
the city, so the light collected and refracted within the city is still dim,
and the street lamps are still alight.

By the time he reaches
Atelier Gun & Bullet, Grand Theore’s first floor is much brighter and the
stores are starting to open. Tanner is already inside his shop when Regal
arrives, waiting for him behind the counter.

“Aqua isn’t here?” Regal
ask curiously while looking around the store.

“Aqua doesn’t help out at
the shop in the morning during the weekend. Why do you ask, are you interested in
my daughter?” Tanner asks sternly.

Regal shrink back away
from him, frightened and hurriedly saying, “N-no, I was just curious. I mean,
all the academies are closed on the weekends so I thought I would come see her.”

Aqua’s father suddenly
break out with a booming laughter, saying, “If you like my daughter, just say
so! I will pass on a good word to her for you.”

“T-there’s really no need.
She is just a good friend.”

“A shame… Well, follow me
out back to the workshop, I have some work for you.”

Tanner leads Regal through
the door at the back of the shop and into the area where the forge and all his
blacksmithing equipment is. Regal involuntarily takes a step back when the heat
from the forge washes over him, before unsteadily entering the workshop.

Against the rear wall is a
forge made of an unknown material, which looks like clay but has the sheen of
metal. Short flames inside the furnace lick the wood as they burn a deep red
and give off a terrifying heat. An anvil and a large trough of water are nearby.
Several benches covered in various molds and scraps line the walls while an
endless quantity of all sorts of tools are hanging on the wall.

Tanner beckons for Regal
to hurry up, leading him to one of the benches where he uncovers a dusty book.
He passes it to Regal and orders, “Learn this.”

Regal hastily accepts and
the skill book, worth several gold coins, vanishes from his hands as he chooses
to learn the skill. There is only a single skill path in this skill, so the
Tier 1 Passive Divine Art, ‘Smelting’, is automatically selected.

The information for
‘Smelting’ immediately melds with his mind and he understands it. This Divine
Art allows him to smelt and refine basic metals such as iron, steel, copper and
bronze from their base ores.

“Thank you,” he says
gratefully to Tanner.

“Nonsense, how can you
learn from me if you don’t have the necessary skill. Also, wear these. You can
keep them – so don’t get your clothes dirty.” Tanner throws him a loose grey
shirt and worn pants

“Umm, I’m a little
confused. Why is it beginner?”

“Because it is the first
forging skill book.”

“Does that mean there are
more?”

Tanner’s chest heaves as
he laughs aloud, “Of course there is. What do you think ‘Forging’ is it?”

“No, I mean, I have the
‘Cartography’ skill and there is no beginner part of that.”

“’Cartography’ is a basic
crafting skill. All that involves is making maps. ‘Forging’ is one of the
advanced crafting skills, requiring the mastery of using metal to create and
repair an endless amount of weapons, armour, and gun components just to name a
few. ‘Tailoring’, ‘Cooking’, ‘Carving’, and ‘Carpentry’ are also advanced
crafting skills.”

Regal’s curiosity becomes
piqued, and he asks, “How many skills do these advanced crafting skill have?”

“They have four: Beginner,
Intermediate, Advanced, and Master. There are also countless crafting and
miscellaneous skills that can supplement them. ‘Forging’ can be used with
‘Guncraft’, ‘Bullet Casting’, ‘Engraving’, ‘Glass Blowing’, and ‘Steel Hands’
just to name a few.”

“Wouldn’t most of that be
included the four advanced skills of ‘Forging’?”

“No – the path of forging
is endless. Also, crafting skills are mostly passive Divine Arts, so there
aren’t as many active Divine Arts as there are in martial or alchemy skills.”

“What level has your
‘Forging’ reached?”

“You sure have a lot of
questions, don’t you? Focus on what you can do instead. Now, come here and I
will teach you to smelt ore.”

Regal moves closer to the
forge and feels like his eyebrows are going to burn off from the heat. Tanner
grabs a piece of rust-colored wood and throws it into the forge before
billowing air in with a foot pedal to stoke the flames. The rust-colored wood
is from an ironwood tree,  the wood from which, burns at the perfect
temperature for smelting basic metals.

Talking a fist sized lump
of ore from a pile next to the forge, Tanner places it in a metal tool with a
large cup, a crucible, at the end of a three foot handle. He then begins to
explain the process as he demonstrates for Regal.

“First you will need to
melt the iron ore by holding it in the flames like so. Then, once the ore is
molten, dip the base of the crucible in the water, cooling the metal enough
that it is no longer liquid. Lastly, and most importantly, drop the iron onto
the anvil and use the hammer to beat the impurities out of it.”

“Your strength is low, so
you have to use the lightest hammer and will likely need to place it back in
the forge several times before you can refine it enough to become pure iron.
Once you do refine it enough, and its color changes to yellow, heat it into
liquid again and pour it in this ingot mold here. Lastly, use the tongs to
submerge it in the water to cool. Just remember the three processes: Melt,
refine and pour.”

Surprisingly, Tanner only
needs to hit the ore six times before all the impurities are removed. Regal
knows that with his strength it will take many times more swings from the
hammer.

Aqua’s dad pokes his head
out the door to check on the shop before returning to watch over Regal refining
his first iron ore.

Regal picks up one of the
ores, checking its information as he does.

He carefully follows the
process of melt, cooling the molten ore in the trough of water before placing
it on the anvil. When he picks up the hammer, he finds that it is much heavier
than it appears. His arm shakes a little as he raises it above his head.

Regal swings the hammer
down onto the ore, creating a crisp sound that makes Tanner nod his head
approvingly. He repeats this process over and over again, ignoring the slow
drain on his stamina as he does so.

After striking the ore ten
times, the bright orange metal dulls to a murky grey. Tanner instructs Regal to
put it back in the forge and repeat the ‘melt’ process before he can continue
to refine it. He has to repeat this three times, until the ore becomes a dull
yellow color.

The final process is the
‘pour’. Regal melts the refined ore again and pours it into the hardened clay
ingot mold. He scoops some water in a ladle and pours it over the mold to set
the metal into a solid form. Removing the ingot from the mold, he then picks up
the ingot with tongs and submerges it in the trough, burning his skin and
stinging his eyes in a baptism of steam.

Pulling out a dull grey
ingot of iron, now cool enough to hold in his hands, he checks the item
information, which has changed.

“Hrmm, not bad for your
first try. Beginner’s luck,” Tanner says while inspecting the Ingot.

Crafting materials have
five grades if quality, according to Tanner. They are: Poor, Low, Medium, High,
and Top. Someone who has just begun training in ‘Forging’ or many other skills
will often create a poor quality product, if not a failed one. Regal can’t help
but reminisce Veronica’s map when thinking about a failed product.

Tanner leaves Regal to
continue to refine iron ores shortly after, leaving the workshop to mind the
store.

Regal continues to refine
the iron ore all morning, pushing through the exhaustion. He only stops working
when wiping the sweat off his face, drinking water. He constantly pours water
over his head too, trying to cool himself down in a workshop that feels like
being in the furnace itself.

Regal refines and creates thirty
low quality and four poor quality iron ingots by the midday. He is about to sit
down and eat the food in his inventory to replenish his hunger when the door to
the workshop violently swings open.

“Regal, you’re here!” Aqua
strides in, unperturbed by the heat of the furnace, with a large smile on her
face.

Regal quickly uses his
rag-like shirt, which is already drenched in sweat, to wipe some of the soot
and grime combination from his face before greeting her back.

“Father said you were
doing well back here, but I didn’t think you were doing this well.
This is your first time doing any ‘Forging’, right?” She gazes at the pile of
iron ingots off to the side with amazement.

“Yes, this is my first
time ‘Forging’.”

“Of course, mmhmm, nothing
less than the Regal I know. Anyway, I brought you some lunch.”

Regal wants to ask her
exactly what kind of exaggerated image she has of him, but doesn’t get the
chance to before a bowl of warm chicken soup is placed before him. Chickens are
one of the livestock bred and raised in the higher levels of the city. They are
rarely found in the wilderness, as harmless animals are nearly always eaten by
the mutant beasts or have become mutated themselves.

He feels slightly awkward
as Aqua remains next to him and watches him eating intently, but such thoughts
vanish with the first spoonful. The soup has fragrant spices mixed in with the
broth to give it a thick taste, and the meat melts his tastebuds as he chews
it. Compared to the food he usually prepares and eats himself, there is a
qualitative difference that can’t be described with mere words.

Seeing his delighted
expression, Aqua smiles equally as cheerful before leaving the workshop. Tanner
enters shortly after with his own bowl of soup. He boasts about his daughter’s
‘Cooking: Beginner’ skill, which after four years has reached level 61.

Once lunch finishes,
however, Tanner begins directly instructing Regal in ‘Forging’, forcing him to
work twice as hard as before. Regal isn’t allowed to take a break, except for
water, until the light within the city begins to dim and Tanner closes the
shop.

The next day, Regal
arrives at Atelier Gun & Bullet in the morning and the pattern of  the
day before is repeated. The only difference is Aqua brings several leek and
potato pastries for lunch, and she stays longer to talk with Regal.

Having gone through the
soul forming, Regal, for the first time, asks Aqua questions about herself. He
discovers that she goes to Gold Phoenix Academy, which is only two or three
miles away from Regal’s academy.

Her academy also teaches
the same alchemy skills as Regal’s. He assumes this is due to the world, or
some other system, deciding on the syllabus of what is to be taught.

Regal wants to learn more
about her, but Tanner comes into the workshop and tells Aqua to go mind the
shop.

By the end of the weekend,
Regal has created 181 low quality, 12 poor quality, and 3 medium quality iron
ingots. His ‘Forging: Beginner’ skill also reached the bottleneck before level
10. Aqua and her father are dumbfounded to hear how fast Regals’ skill has
levelled in only two days. Tanner pays Regal a little extra than he originally
intended due to his dedicated efforts, a total of three silver coins for two
days work.