Failure is the best lesson

A rather small chapter, ending the conversation between Barme and the Mc, tomorrow we'll continue and hopefully, see some rather interesting things

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After giving some time for Dale to think, he carefully pulled the cloth covering the long item, revealing what it was.

"And this leads us to this…"

It was a long spear about the same size as Dale, with a red tip, and a gray metallic rod.

Dale wasn't very surprised when he saw it, he expected it to be a spear.

"..?...!"

But upon a closer look, he became shocked when he saw its tip!

"Is this?..."

'But I thought it was a lost cause…'

"Yup, the strange thorn you brought with you, the darned thing that took the Commander's life, or so you told me, I wasn't there."

Barme started to caress the spear.

"But… Didn't you tell me that it was impossible to work with it…?"

Feeling a bit hopeful, he turned to Barme and asked:

"Does this mean… You succeeded in creating…"

It was his dream to create a Masterpiece, if this is here… What else is there to think?

"No, don't get your hopes up, this is…"

His expression became solemn as he pushed the spear away from him.

"A complete and utter failure, and it shames me to look at it…"

Dale's eyes opened wide, he couldn't understand what was wrong with it.

"Why? It looks pretty good…"

"Yes it does, and that is what makes me embarrassed… Because I didn't make it…"

"It… It made itself."

"??? I… I didn't quite get that…"

Barme shook his head, remembering what happened.

"Sigh… I'm a stubborn fool, I couldn't let it rot in the corner of my shop together with that sword… But if only… Sigh."

'I should've left it behind.'

"Previously, we proved that my hammer was too weak to work with this item, worse, even with the strongest fire I could produce, it didn't even turn red…"

"So I made a new hammer from the weapon and armor scraps that couldn't be recycled, I needed it anyway, my poor old hammer wasn't cutting anymore, so albeit unfortunate, I retired it to the shelf."

'One day I'll reforge it… It's an heirloom, after all, I feel too bad to leave it behind like this…'

'But not today, such a thing needs the best materials, and when my Skills as smith sublimate, when I improve my working conditions… When all of this gathers…'

'I'll make a hammer worthy of passing down.'

"Honestly, I'm a bit regretful that I had to do such a thing, but as you told me to, I did not hold back and used everything I could."

'It was hard to ignore these items' origins, but I had to accept that these Masterpieces were going to be sacrificed for the greater good.'

"... Better put those scraps of Iron to work than to let them rot for a few more years, we need any help we can get ye?"

He raised his hand, making a hammering motion in the air.

"So after a few days hammering away, I made a new set of tools… Next time, try to raid the smithy for me." Barme said with a warm smile

His expression then soured again…

"Yet even with this new hammer… I still didn't manage to forge it… No, I didn't even manage to make a dent in it."

"It was simply too tough."

"What? So how…?"

"Heh, that's where things get interesting." Barme said as he pointed at the spear's tip

His expression became a bit red as he said in an awkward tone:

"After I gave this thing a good beating after I got angry… I'm not proud of it okay?"

"Yet, next time I went to check on it… Its shape had changed… Over the course of a night."

"I couldn't believe it, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me… So I did it again…"

"Each day, I gave it a good beating, and each day, the thorn changed… As if alive."

"I didn't know why it was changing, and what shape it was turning into, but I thought to myself, why not try and guide it? And so I did…"

"Hence the reason why I said it made itself… Because it did.."

"The only thing I did was hit it until it took a shape half decent to be considered a spear… It even came with a hole for me to screw it in place."

"To be honest, I don't even know if it'll stay like this for long…"

"This shape is also likely the best I can do because 4 days ago, it stopped changing no matter how much I beat it, or how strong each of my hits was."

Barme seemed tired just thinking about it.

"The only thing I did was make a shaft, and that wasn't difficult at all, I simply used an already made shaft from the spears you gave me, using it as a base."

"Of course, for maximum efficiency, I used the shaft of a spear whose tip I couldn't save."

"The two came together and this is the result… I added a few more details, like the grip, I redid the entire grip, and I added a sharp end to the shaft."

"It doesn't have a name… It doesn't deserve one. Use it for now if you wish, I can guarantee you 2 things, the tip won't break, and its sharpness is out of this world."

"You can try to break it, be my guest, use that massive chunk of iron you carry around and see if you can break it, I would be more than interested in seeing how it looks inside…"

He then looked at the spear with an ironic gaze.

"Or would your sword be the one to break? That is something I'm very interested in finding out since it's also made of hard materials I can't work with."

Barme let out another turbid breath.

"If only I could make something like this from scratch…"

"..."

After listening to his narration, Dale was dying to know its stats…

So he opened his menu and inspected it.

[Failure (Gradeless)

/Blank/

Description: A makeshift spear made from the junction of two components, a sharp thorn, and a sturdy shaft.

As the name implies, it is a failure, a disgrace to the materials used in its confection, the miners that spend days mining the ores used in this would be shamed and revolt in their tombs.

It won't break, and it'll cut that's for sure.

]

The spear didn't have any characteristics, no bonuses, no Skills, nothing.

Not even a proper description…

Even some items from the tutorial would be better than this, but Dale liked it.

As the description said, it was sturdy and sharp, it was oddly balanced, and the size fit his build.

He should thank Barme more later since he definitely had to work a bit more to properly fit it to him.

This spear was also full of potential, one day, it would be something, and that would be the day Barme became a Master Smith.

But for that day to be possible, he had to advance his Questline, and as he said before, he would need to acquire better tools and a better working environment.

Until then, this spear would remain…

A failure.

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