The blacksmith stood in front of his forge, assessing his next move.

  His current goal was to combine carbon in monster bones with the scrap iron to create some form of steel. He had no idea how he was going to combine them, or if it could even be done. What Adran did know was that someone somewhere knew how to do this, and if they could accomplish it, so could he.

  Adran took one of the rocklike pieces of bone in his hand and used [Material Analysis]. The art allowed him to identify various materials, drawing on and compiling the knowledge from his mind quickly. The aether followed his command as it flowed through his body and into the bone. The art worked like [Insight] but was altered for crafting classes to better understand what they were working on.

  It only took a moment for a list of information to flow through Adran’s head.

  What do you mean this isn't a bone!?

  Adran looked at the inconspicuous stone in shock. Since arriving on the island, he heard that the people here were primitive and still used animal bones to make their weapons. Bone knives and bone spears were common. He would’ve never guessed that what they were using wasn’t bone but a malleable kind of rock.

  Adran didn’t know much about those legends the islanders told, but he made a mental note to himself to research them later. For now, however, he began the process of sorting out the bag of ‘bones.’ There were some actual pieces of fish skeletons mixed in, so Adran sorted them out. In the end, Adran ended up with a pile of Marrowstone next to his pile of iron scrap.

  If the blacksmith was going to test Marrowstone, he would do it methodically. He began the process of breaking down the marrow stone into powder. Adran took his hammer and pounded each of the pieces of Marrowstone until they were dust, then placed it all into a spare drawstring bag.

  I can add this incrementally to the iron to get the right mix.

  Next was the process of smelting the iron into bars. Adran went back inside to look through his backpack and pulled out a wooden mold he used to make ingots. He headed back to the forge and began starting a fire inside. He took some lumber from a pile he got from the islanders and began loading it into the forge.

  The blacksmith began to light the flames. He took a deep breath like he was going to blow air into the flames. When he blew into the forge, however, flames spilled from his mouth. A gout of fire was blown from his mouth into the lumber that was piled into the forge. A billow of smoke followed the flames, shrouding the entire forge. Adran had to wait for the smoke to clear to see that the wood did indeed catch fire.

  This was [Flamebreather]. It was an upgraded art, originally starting out as [Ignition]. Adran got [Ignition] as one of the first parts of his blacksmith class. After reaching level eighty, he began to upgrade the many arts he obtained to make them more effective. [Flamebreather] could be used as a utility move or as an attack in case he was attacked.

  Adran took his bellows from the equipment he brought with him and began blowing into the fire to heat it up. His years of experience around fire would tell him when it was hot enough. For now, Adran just sat in front of the fire, steadily pushing the bellows and occasionally using [Flamebreather]. This continued for what felt like the entire morning, before it was finally hot enough to melt iron.

  Adran got his smithing gloves on, then got a cauldron he brought and loaded the scrap iron inside. He placed the cauldron into the center of the forge and watched as the iron began to heat up inside. The blacksmith continued blowing on the fire with the bellows, waiting for the iron to get red and melt.

  It was another long time before all the scrap iron in the cauldron melted. Adran took an iron spit and prodded the molten iron to see if it was indeed in liquid form; the rod went right into the mixture. It was at this point that Adran took the powdered Marrowstone and added a carefully measured amount into the cauldron. It was the same amount he would add if using coal, and he could increase or decrease this amount depending on the results of the bars.

  The blacksmith let it melt for a while longer, then took the cauldron out of the forge and poured the mixture into his mold. He measured it beforehand, so this would be just enough to fill one bar to the top. Adran set the cauldron back into the dirt and waited for the bar in the mold to cool. If he had a class that could harness water like the emperor, this would be a lot faster.

  Each class was attuned to one of five elements: wood, fire, earth, air, and water. The more you advance and the better your grasp of the aether, the more you can control those elements. With two classes, a person could even wield two elements. There is also the elementalist class, with the unique ability to harness as many elements as they want.

  Whatever class that emperor has, it was attuned to water, in addition to the miner class that was attuned to earth. He wasn’t a lancer since they are attuned to air. Was he a swordsman? Or an assassin? That advanced form was something else as well. His water had a cold weight to it that ordinary water didn’t have. Was that Abyssal Water?

  Adran could only amuse himself for so long. Eventually, he realized the bar was solidified. He turned the mold upside down and hit it from the back until the bar popped out into a bucket of water. The blacksmith took the bar and placed it on the workbench. What came out was different from the usual black iron bars. This metal bar was white, not gray like a typical steel bar, but bone white with streaks of black going up and down the bar. Adran used [Material Analysis] to identify it.

  Adran was both surprised and disappointed.

  He was surprised because he did not expect the marrowstone to bond so well with the iron. It was different enough from regular steel to be identified by a different name. He was, however, disappointed with the purity. Forty percent was low, and it meant one of three things, two of which were fixable, and one of which wasn’t.

  The first reason for the low purity was likely that he didn’t add the right amount of Marrowstone powder. Either he added too little, and there was iron that didn’t bond with the powder, or he added too much, and there were clumps of powder left over. The second reason was that the marrowstone needed more time and effort to bond. The third was that he needed to add another agent to the mixture, which was difficult to do with the lack of materials he had.

  Judging by the results of his first attempt, Adran needed to change two things going forward. He needed to increase the amount of marrowstone in the mixture to get rid of the black streaks, and he needed to use more heat to help the bonding process.

  The blacksmith began the process again: add the iron, heat it, add powder (twice the amount this time), and melt it all. He even started to occasionally stir this time and blew the flames even hotter in the forge. Surprisingly, the volcanic forge did a good job of handling all the heat Adran was blowing out.

  C’mon, please have a higher purity this time.

  Adran let the mixture sit for even longer this time, then went through the process of making the bar. He took the cauldron, poured it into the mold, let it solidify, and dunked it in water. By the time it was all finished, he had ended up with another bonesteel ingot. This time it was an even sharper white and had no black streaks running through it.

  [Bonesteel Ingot (Ingot, 70% Quality)]

  An even better result, but not ideal. Anything below eighty percent wasn’t very durable and would likely get someone killed with intensive use. Adran was a stickler for perfection, so he would spend his remaining time trying to get the ideal ratio of powder to iron. He would make the perfect bar, even if it took him all day.

  ...

  In a corner sat a dozen ingots of bonesteel, most of which ranged in purity between thirty and seventy-five percent. This was the result of many attempts at trying to get the ratio just right, all of which ended up failures. However, all hope was not lost. On the desk was a bonesteel ingot that was not like the others.

  [Bonesteel Ingot (Ingot, 85% Quality)]

  So, it’s 3.88:100.

  The blacksmith thought to himself as he did his best to memorize the ratio.

  After all his effort, Adran only ended up with a single ingot worthy of becoming a weapon. All the research wasn’t for nothing, mind you, since he could use this knowledge going forward and continue to do tests until he reached ninety percent.

  He would forge the spear today, and then he would call it quits. Adran had been stuck inside all day, and although he was an introvert, even he wanted to see the sun every so often. His plan was to finish the spear now since it wouldn’t be too difficult, then rest tomorrow. At least then, he could rest knowing he finished everything he needed to do.

  The blacksmith got a pair of tongs and scooped up the bar, then moved over to the forge where the fire was still roaring. He began the process of heating the ingot up so it could be shaped, slowly turning the bar so it was heated evenly, even using [Flamebreather] on occasion. When the piece of metal was red hot, it was time to hammer it.

  Adran had his hammer in his hand already and set the ingot down to be shaped. He raised his hammer up and slammed it evenly on the ingot in a steady, practiced motion. He continued, raising his hammer and letting it drop onto the piece of bonesteel as he began moving the ingot. First, he moved the ingot side-to-side to make sure he was pounding evenly along its length, then he turned the ingot on its side to start rounding it out.

  The spear gradually took shape as the ingot started to elongate, slowly becoming thinner and rounder. Sometimes, he had to reheat the bonesteel to keep it from settling in its shape, but it would’ve been much harder if he hadn’t been using art.

  [Purifying Flame] was another upgrade Adran had, allowing him to blow fire over the metal while he was hammering it. This would help get rid of any remaining impurities in the metal. With it, the blacksmith could increase the purity by another five to ten percent as he was hammering it, greatly increasing the quality of the weapons.

  The painstaking process continued. Creating ingots was time-consuming, but nowhere near as difficult as having to pound metal for long periods of time. This was made harder by the fact that Adran chose dexterity over strength or vitality when allocating attributes. He couldn’t help it though, as the artistry of the weapon would decide if it was a work of art to be remembered.

  As Adran hammered, the ingot increased in size. Soon, it was the length of a foot, then two, until it was eventually a two-yard-long pole. Both ends were hammered out, so the pole was properly long and round all along its length. There were no curves or lumps, but it would still need polishing afterward to make it shine.

  There was only one last thing to do, and that was to make the actual spearhead. First, Adran took a mold he carved from wood the other day; this mold was in a small cross shape, with the hole leading down into a point where all lines met. Then, he heated up one end of the pole and stuck it into the wooden mold.

  The pole melted to fit into the mold, and Adran made sure it filled in the mold before taking the mold and the pole into the bucket of water. When he dipped it in, the water steamed for a bit before eventually stopping. Adran pulled out the pole and began removing the mold using his hammer to nudge it off.

  When the mold came off, the star-shaped point showed itself in all its glory. Although, it wasn’t exactly glorious yet. The process of being shoved into a mold created little lumps around the point that needed to be either cut or sharpened off. So, that’s what Adran did; he took a pair of pliers and began cutting off all the bumpy ends that couldn’t be sharpened.

  This was where Adran was in his element. His dexterity allowed him to focus on tiny details like this and fine-tune the spear to perfection. Sure, strength and vitality may make the process easier, but dexterity allowed him to approach perfection.

  The blacksmith didn’t have a grinding stone, so he used a simple whetstone to sharpen each of the four points and the tip of the spear to complete sharpness. It could certainly do some damage now, but it still needed a handle.

  Fortunately, Adran had the foresight to prepare for this ahead of time. Leaning on the side of the desk was a long wooden cylinder with a hole through the center of the top. It had grooves carved into the wood for hands and was already coated and polished. This would be the handle of the spear, and it was thin and light enough to do its job while using the spear rod as a spine.

  Adran took a jar of alchemical glue he purchased nearby and began pouring it over the metal rod. He then inserted the rod into the wooden handle and put the spear on the desk. Adran wished he had something more sophisticated to hold the spear while it was bonding with the glue, but for now, he held the rod and the wood in place as he waited patiently for the materials to bond.

  ...

  It didn’t take long after the glue dried for Adran to put the finishing touches. Cutting off the excess glue, buffing and oiling the spear, and even repolishing the wood. In the end, the result was something spectacular.

  Before the blacksmith, there was a bone-white pole spear. Adran figured a pole spear was a better weapon than an ordinary spear underwater, as the additional range allowed you to get close to your enemy without them getting close to you. That Lukey boy also wanted something long, so he granted his wish. Adran held the spear in his hands and twirled around.

  It was light, far lighter than iron normally should be. Perhaps it was because the marrow stone added a lot of additional volume without adding much weight. It could have also been because the spear itself was as thin as Adran could make it, almost like an extra-long needle. Either way, this thing would be deadly, and the blacksmith was proud to show it off.

  Adran considered going to the fisherman’s guild and showing it off now, but his exhaustion began to catch up with him after all the activity of today. Tomorrow will be the day he shows off his creation. Thus, he left the spear in the forge and made his way to bed.