New way of grinding

Rowan took the parchment and looked over it with curiosity. It was an arrow tip design. He checked the in-game system's description.

[Basic iron arrowhead design]

Requirement: Novice blacksmith 1

Type: Component

Damage bonus: 2-4

[Learn]

With the Jack of all trades bonus, his novice blacksmith level was 5 so Rowan was more than capable of learning it. He chose the learn option and the relevant knowledge flashed before his eyes as a short movie.

For the process of making the arrow, he didn't need a hammer but to make a mold and melt the iron, cast it into a mold and then sharpen the semi-finished product on a whetstone.

It had all the details on how to make a mold to the temperature needed for the iron to be melted.

Rowan looked at Fred.

"Can you make it?"

Rowan nodded.

"If you can make me 1000 pieces I will take you as an apprentice. Take this mold and this finished arrowhead for comparison." , Fred said next.

Rowan looked at Fred as the later was looking at him with expectant eyes.

He really wanted to say no.

"1000 pieces this will take forever.", was what Rowan thought.

But the words that came out from him were.

"OK. I will do it."

"You can start right away. You can use the iron ore or the old chinks of iron equipment that are there. ", Fred said when he pointed to a corner with some rocks and some rusted equipment piled up in a mountain.

"I suggest you meld the equipment first since it won't have as many impurities. Now let me see what you can do. "

Rowan picked up the mold and examined it. It was made from some kind of clay-like material. It had a hole on top and was clamped together with an iron clamp. As he undid the clamp it split neatly into two symmetrical pieces. He put the clamp back on then examined the forge.

On the right side, it had large bellows attached and a small flame was flickering in the front opening. Rowan grabbed the bellows and pushed it down and counterweight pulled it back up with a pulley system. The added oxygen in the air the bellows supplied made the flame grow stronger and it almost burst out from the forge.

He saw a number of what seemed ceramic containers neatly placed along the wall alongside the forge with a lot of different kind of tools looking like big pliers. Rowan checked them and they were called crucibles from big to small and the plier like looking tools that were called thongs.

He saw in the video the crucible with metal added in them was placed inside the forge and the metal was smelted inside until it was liquid and then poured inside the mold.

Rowan got some scrap metal from the pile and placed it inside the crucible. He put the crucible on top of the fire using thongs and operated the bellows. After a few minutes, the metal was bubbling.

He pulled the crucible out with the thongs and was carrying it towards the mold when hey got hot too hot to hold. Rowan had to put the crucible down or the thongs would burn his hands.

He looked at the crucible as the liquid metal was changing color from bright yellow to yellow then orange and lastly red.

Rowan soon found a pair of gloves and this time he was prepared. He repeated the process and managed to pour the molten metal inside the mold. Trouble was the amount of metal inside was too much for the mold to hold since the arrow tip was small.

Rowan had 90 % of the iron he smelted still inside the crucible and had nowhere to pour it. He put the crucible back inside the forge and waited till the iron cooled.

When the iron was significantly cooled he unclamped the mold and took out the arrow tip with a pair of thongs and put it in a bucket of water to quench it and also cool it down faster.

Rowan then sharpened the arrow tip on a whetstone and cut off the excess bit that was leftover from the casting. He knew he succeded as he got a proficiency increase alert saying 1/100.

[Basic iron arrowhead]

Type: Component

Damage bonus: 0-1

Rowan brought the arrowhead to Fred who was at another forge heating up what looked like a long sword. The forge Fred was at emanated a bluish flame and the heat from it was hard for Rowan to bear.

As Fred saw him he let go of the bellows and walked towards Rowan.

"How are you getting along with your task?", Fred asked with a grin.

As Rowan gave him the arrow tip Fred look visibly surprised. He was expecting endless questions as he worked with a lot of apprentices before. He did not expect a finished product without even having to answer one question.

As he inspected it and checked the sharpness he looked at Rowan with suspicion. The tip was visibly new. It was a substandard product but it could be used. Even he would sometimes make a blunder and make such an arrow tip when he was unlucky once in 10000 tries. At least it was not a complete failure.

Fred smiled as he gave back the arrow tip.

"It's a good start. Now make me 999 more of them."

Rowan looked at him and thought about how long that will take. He considered his options when he got an idea.

"Can I get more molds?"

Fred looked at Rowan and frowned.

"I only have one left. The others were taken by my no good apprentices, but you can make more. Check the storage behind the workshop for clay. That is the only thing you need to and make some."

Rowan thanked him and Fred went back to work.

Rowan went around the workshop and found a small stream and he could see the clay was being dug up from the riverbed of the stream and deposited in a small warehouse that was right near it.

He used stored blocks of clay in his inventory and 10 blocks of clay laid neatly there.

When he returned to the workshop he cut them apart into small pieces that fit the arrow tip and pressed the arrow tip inside then cut them with metal wire he found.

He placed them near the furnace to let them slowly dry out. As he counted them he realized he made 50 arrow molds. Each block of clay was big enough for five arrow tip molds.

It was getting late and Rowan was feeling hungry so he told Fred he will be back tomorrow. He could not do more than a single arrow tip at a time anyway now and the molds would need time to dry so there was no need to waste time.

Fred just nodded as he was concentrating on hammering the long sword.

When Rowan reached Old Janus' shop it was already dusk. The shop was locked so he had to ring the bell.

Old Jonas opened the peephole and when he saw Rowan he smiled and exclaimed.

"Right in time for supper."

As he unlocked the door he hurried and bought two packs of oatmeal and raisins again.

Rowan just nodded he understood and quickly made the familiar dish.

As they both ate Jonas asked Rowan some questions and as he found out Rowan had nowhere to stay he offered his old apprentice's room.

Rowan gladly accepted since otherwise, he would have to sleep somewhere on the streets.

As he finally laid himself into the bed and closed his eyes his mind finally found a chance to rest.

He dreamt he was in the same dark place as he was at the start after the accident except there was a distant light shining far from him. He wanted to get closer to that light but his mind soon slipped into oblivion as he unknowingly raised the alarm for the medical staff.