Chapter 3 Forging Something New?

After getting their fill of each other's company, Shizu released her hold on Azi and they both got up from the couch. Shizu was the first to move away which prompted Azi to call out to her.

"You can expect your weapon ready and with an improvement as well. I'll see you later tonight."

Shizu, looking refreshed, responded with a smile and a curt nod. She went back to the dining table to continue her paperwork. In addition to attending to her increased workload, Shizu was also writing regular reports to Ozen about Azi.

She made sure that Azi was never able to see the contents of her letters as she prefaced them as confidential information of the nation to deter him from ever looking. While she thought of Azi as a close friend and potential fiance, Shizu was not willing to share her and Ozen's shared agenda concerning his future.

She did not want to jeopardize her duty to the nation of Kujyuri, which made her feel guilty for hiding the contents of the letters from Azi. She knew from the previous incident that if she brought up his talent as a reason for why she stayed in Shisayama, Azi would be disheartened.

In response, Ozen had also been sending response letters that congratulated her for her success and also elevated her standing within the order of knights of Kujyuri. Ozen implied in his letters that he was considering Shizu to be the next leader of Kujyuri which only strengthened her resolve to continue endeavoring to involve herself with Azi.

Ozen's letters also excited Shizu as she had a competitive streak when it came to achieving merit. She hoped to hold a higher position or standing than her brother Yashimu or any other man who would dare to look down upon her.

This was due to how there was widespread prejudice against women in the army in this feudal era. The social norm of this world was that women were considered the less strong of the two genders.

Shizu, being the stubborn kind of person she was, went against the norm and developed a competitive attitude with the men around her.

This included her brother Yashimu and on a personal basis the two were a competitive pair and got along as well as oil and water. But when their duties as a knight came into play they were able to put aside their competitiveness.

Unfortunately, this was not the case with other men but Azi had been the most recent exception.

Finishing up a letter to Ozen on Azi's progress in combat and blacksmithing, she saw in the corner of her eye that Azi was donning his goggles, strapping his tool belt to his waist, and making way to the workshop entrance.

Seeing his back, she noticed it looked a lot bigger than that time at the inn a month prior. While Shizu always saw Azi as a person of short stature, his current presence made him seem taller or larger than how he physically looked.

Whenever she saw this particular sight of Azi's back, she felt as if he was some unfettered force that never yielded to failure but instead pushed forward with unceasing passion.

Unbeknownst to her, her heart had skipped a beat from her runaway thoughts and she had to look away before a noticeable blush could form.

*****

Entering the workshop, Azi took stock of what he had left on hand to use in his experiments. The materials Ben and Bail had delivered a month prior were already dwindling as the number of experiments Azi did to find a substitute for refined steel were numerous.

At first he had difficulties due his stamina and lack of training, but he showed much grit to deal with the back breaking work of a blacksmith. Now, most of the byproducts of his experiments were small knives and shields that were either too heavy or too brittle to be used as proper armaments.

Fortunately, Azi had recently had some success as the hammer he had affixed to his tool belt was made from one of the recent successful experiments.

The hammer was 3 pounds in weight which was much lighter than Kajima's 10-pound hammers. The metal of the hammer head was made from one of the experiments of mixing iron ore, nickel ore, grounded kengiri carapaces, and grounded beowolf fangs.

He previously tested many other combinations and landed on the current mixture of ores and monster materials from Touma's research. Kajima argued that there was no way that monster materials could be used in forging a new metal but was rebutted by Azi's curiosity and reasoning that they won't know until they tried.

He was in the later stage of his experiment as he was testing the mixed materials in various ratios in order to find the best combination that had the most similarities to refine steel.

Due to the inclusion of monster parts, the metal was not a shiny color of whitish silver but was instead black and gray.

The metal also had small red streaks on the surface which was an interesting development founded by Azi. He deduced that these red streaks were magical energy channels that formed from the already present magic channels contained within monster materials. This was a topic discussed by Touma's research which explained why monsters were so much stronger than a normal human.

Beowolves looked like regular wolves or ferocious dogs, but they had the ability to bite through soft metals and had physical abilities that would put their more peaceful cousins to shame.

Taking his hammer from his tool belt, Azi began inspecting it. His recent experiment the day before was to test the limits of the new metal and to have him use it for the past couple days in his work at the forge.

Writing down his findings in a brown book, he bookmarked the last page he wrote on and closed the cover. The day prior, Azi had put his new hammer through a final round of tests that were used to find its limits. He applied heat, force, and examined it with thaumaturgy techniques that Touma had taught him to find out just how strong his creation was.

After reforging it after it broke, Azi had just finished looking for any discrepancies in the reforging of the new metal.

With a bit of a smile on his face Azi, talking to no one in particular, stated his findings. "It's a success from what I can tell but I'll need their opinion. I guess I can now start preparing for the long forging process ahead."

Looking over to the forge, Azi gathered what little material he had left and began forming them into ingots of the new metal he created. While Azi had gotten stronger with his training, he still did not have enough muscular endurance to handle the stress of working the forge for long hours, but he found a work around.

Channeling the blue glowing lines in his arms, the lines of blue energy extended from his fingertips and grabbed the hammer he was previously examining. This was an original magic created by Azi by accident.

This original magic allowed Azi to tether his magical energies to physical objects. When Azi thought to lift the hammer, the tethers wrapped around the hammer's handle and moved it up from the table it was on.

Azi's trouble in the forge was that he needed to find a way to hammer the metal in a manner that he could sustain for long periods of time and when Touma told Azi that his magical energy reserves were quite large, he got the idea to use his magic as a way to help him forge.

At first Azi thought to reinforce his hand by magically tethering it to the hammer with the glowing blue lines of energy to get a better grip. Magic tether was a basic spell for thaumaturges as it allowed them to hold their staves more easily. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful as he still got extremely tired from the heat and physical exertion he needed to perform.

It was only when, on accident, did the hammer in his hand slipped and fell to the ground a few paces from him. When Azi stretched his hands to pick up the hammer with the tethers still attached, it suddenly moved on its own and returned to his hand.

He then noticed that the magical tethers from his hands were responding to his intent. This got the gears in Azi's mind turning as he thought of ways to use what he discovered to his advantage.

Presently, Azi was manipulating the hot metals with metal tongs in hand, he moved the red-hot metal from the forge to the anvil and began having his magically tethered hammer start pounding away at the metal.

This was a strange sight, as onlookers would see the fantastical sight of a hammer magically moving around the workshop of its own accord. When Kajima first saw this, he was surprised but nonetheless proud of Azi's feat and ingenuity.

After using up all the materials he had in stock to create more metal ingots he remembered that he needed to repair the spear from this morning's fight with the guards against the gengiri.

Taking a spare wooden polearm without its spear head, Azi set it down to the side and began fashioning a new spear head using his new metal as an apology gift to the guard.

He made two spearheads which had three points like a trident but with the middle point being the longest of the three. The second spearhead was for Ben and Bail as he planned to meet them tomorrow and talk about the recent developments.

Finally finished his work, he noticed that the sunlight was no longer shining through the nearby window. Instead, Azi saw the stars and moons, after admiring the sight for a bit he turned away from the window as he felt he needed a bath and some food.

He had again forgotten to take a break as he was so engrossed in his work that he could now feel that the hunger inside him was like a pit in his stomach. Quickly moving to the indoor bath, Azi bathed himself and got a change of sleepwear on. His sleeping wear was a basic white shirt and pants, they were soft which was to Shizu's delight.

(Please support me on patreon so I can write more stories.)

(Magic is a concept that can be creative but needs to have an origin)

(Touma is quite knowledgeable while Azi is quite creative due to his messed-up mind and memory)

(Does it mix well?)