Weaponsmith - Chapter 25 (Patreon)

- [Curved Knife]{Gift of the owl-god} -

 -Quality -

Normal

- Components -

• [Curved Aluminum-bronze Blade]{Knife}(Normal)
• [Leather Wrap](Normal)
• [Black Cloth Wrap](Normal)
• [Black Cord](Normal)

- Quality Effects -

None

- Title Effect -

“Gift of the owl-god”

• +3 OBSCURANTISM
• +3 WIND DMG
• +3 LUK

A simple, hand-made, curved knife made out of aluminum-bronze. It looks like a bird’s talon.

 ‘Made by weaponsmith Hineni - Chosen of the owl god’

3.32 PHYSICAL DMG*

• *Aluminum-Bronze: +3% DMG per every 3 MAX-SOUL-POINTS of the wielder
•  Curved blade: Increased chance of inflicting [BLEEDING]

Weight: 0.50kg

Durability: 23/23

Value: 169 Obols

Hineni looks at the curved, bronzed dagger. It’s light, subtle. A little flimsy, honestly. But it feels good in his hand. He isn’t really one for daggers himself. Too close and personal, too scratchy and stabby. But these are cheap to make and they fit their role well. With a little leather sheath, they can be carried around all day, every day without being much of a hindrance.

He hooks the first prototype into his belt, hoping that his tiny amount of soul-points will help Obscura in some way with whatever it is that she’s doing. He nods to Rhine approvingly as they begin making more.

The blades are easy enough. Rhine had made several clay molds that they pour their melted metals, copper and aluminum, into to mix and to settle into ingots, each with a standardized weight of five kilograms.

- [Aluminum-bronze Bar] -

- Quality -

Normal

- Composition -

• Copper: 87.2%
• Aluminum: 11%
• Iron: 0.5%
• Nickel: 0.8%
• Zinc: 0.5%

- Quality Effects -

 None

Aluminum-bronze is a metal primarily made up of copper, with a substantial amount of aluminum mixed in ranging from 5 to 11% depending on the desired attributes of the compound.

• Aluminum Bronze: Item Weight after crafting -20%
• Aluminum Bronze: Weapon Damage +3% DMG per every 3 MAX-SOUL-POINTS of the wielder

Weight: 5 kg

Value: 35 Obols

Honestly, they have more ingots now than they needed. With one ingot weighing five, that means they can, in theory, get up to seven daggers per ingot, since the weapons have a ‘clean’ weight of zero point sixty-three. After a dagger has been completed however, that’s when the weight-reducing effect of the metal kicks in and sinks it downward twenty-percent to roughly zero point-fifty per dagger.

But sometimes there’s a mistake. A swing of the hammer in the wrong place, a little too much iron in one of the ingots, things like that. So as a final reality, they get about six daggers of material for every ingot of aluminum-bronze.

Financially, this is still technically a raging success, as each dagger is worth one hundred-sixty-nine Obols.

But again, in reality, Beni would only give him half of that because of their deal. So eighty five Obols, rounded up, per dagger. Add that up to times six daggers and you’re up to five-hundred Obols for the whole batch. A tidy profit from one ingot that is only worth thirty-five on its own.

But again, all of that is far from reality today, as not only is Beni missing in action, but he’ll be giving these daggers away for free. That’s what he explains to Rhine and Sockel at least.

“You’re not gonna pay your bills like that,” says Sockel, leaning against the door of the forge as she watches them work. She only peaked in for a moment and let Hineni run the numbers of their operation to her.

Hineni shakes his head, rubbing his sweat away. “It’s not about money today,” he says, hammering a second dagger into shape. He can make money any day of the week. In fact, he has to make it every day of the week, or his new home is going to crumble before his eyes along with everyone inside of it. “Besides. You can’t pay me anyways. I need Beni,” says Hineni.

Sockel shrugs, casually watching them work, but at a distance. She doesn’t seem fond of the heat at all, but she apparently was getting spooked by sitting outside by herself. It appears that she’s going to be skipping work after all today.

The hammer lands one more time, pressing the blade into shape. Given its softness, aluminum-bronze is almost laughably easy to work while it’s still extremely hot. He carries it over to a barrel of water, dropping the blade inside. “Rhine,” says Hineni, heading back to the forge. Rhine nods, getting up from his clay-work to wait for the water to cool off, so that he can take the next blade out and begin wrapping its grip.

Honestly, Hineni is surprised at the development, but the boy is far more useful than he had expected. All of this extra work that he always had around his smithing, the boy can and is able to do. He doesn’t complain that much anymore and he’s a quick learner. He doesn’t have the muscle for anything like the actual forging work, but there’s plenty else for him to do and he does it well.

“You’re doing good,” says Hineni, rather out of the blue as he looks back at the boy, who is as always, sweating buckets. Rhine nods to him, standing a little taller again as he returns to his work and Hineni does the same, lifting his gaze one more time to look over towards Sockel.

She’s sitting down on the floor, leaning against the corner by the door and sleeping. The incredible, beyond summer’s heat, even while she is further away from the fires in the unheated, open windowed forge at the dawn of winter, seems to have gotten to her.

_________________________________________________________________

“Do I really get to keep this?” asks Rhine, his exhaustion having been washed away by a very temporary burst of energy. It’s late into the night. In fact, it’s so late into the night that the sun has already risen and rises high towards its crowning point for the day.

“I expect you to,” replies Hineni, looking at him. “By holding it, you’re giving three-percent of your soul-points to Obscura,” explains Hineni. “That’s why we’re making as many of these as possible.” He points at him. “From now on, while you’re at work, I want you to keep that with yourself at all times,” he says.

“Huh?” asks Rhine. “But what if I need to use my magic?”

“If you need to defend yourself, then I think those three-percent aren’t going to be a huge deal,” says Hineni. “Worst case, stab them.”

Rhine lifts the knife with one hand, pointing at it with a blank expression. “It’s curved,” says the boy, unimpressed as he pokes it. “How am I supposed to stab someone with this?”

Hineni sighs. The boy is useful, but also troublesome. “Then scratch them, I don’t know. It looks like a bird’s talon? Do what birds with talons do,” explains Hineni, shaking his head and making a hooking motion with his index finger. “Rhine.” Rhine looks back up towards him through tired eyes. “You’re in danger as long as you’re around us,” explains Hineni, getting back to the main point. “Always keep the knife with you. You’ll never know when you need to cut someone.”

“That’s good parenting!” praises Sockel.

“I’m not his father,” says Hineni, looking over his shoulder at the elf who is stretching herself out, apparently having woken up from her sleep.

Sockel thinks, holding a finger to her lip as she looks towards the high-ceiling of the room. “Okay, well, it’s good to have a fostering kidnapper too, I guess.”

Hineni points at the boy. “I’m his employer.”

“So are you my boss, or is Obscura?” asks Rhine. “Wait. Does that mean you’re just an employee?”

“This is my house,” says Hineni.

“Sure, but she’s a god, uh… ess,” says Rhine. “Doesn’t that mean that she’s in charge?”

“Boy,” says Hineni, looking at Rhine, ready to tell him that it’s time for him to clean up the forge now by himself. Rhine looks back up at him. Hineni stares for a moment and then sighs, not able to go through with it. He shakes his head. “Good work today. Go to sleep,” he says. “I’ll handle the forge and hand out the knives.”

Rhine shakes his head. “I’m fine!” he says. “This is nothing!”

“That’s the spirit,” yawns Sockel. “Actually, I know a few people. It might be easier that way?” she asks.

Hineni turns to look at her. “What do you mean?”

She shrugs, opening the door and fanning herself with her hand. “Well. If you just give them to any random people, they’ll just leave them at home or maybe just sell them,” she suggests.

This is a good point, actually. All of this work would be for nothing, except for maybe buying someone else’s metaphorical lunch, if that were to happen. Given the price of these weapons and the low-income neighborhood they find themselves in, this is a very real possibility too. Hineni sighs. It’s really beneficial to have other people around, especially when they know all sorts of things that he doesn’t. He’s never even thought about it before now.

“I know a few hot-shots though,” she says. “Real grinders. They’re farming monster spawns or the dungeons all day, trying to catch a break or find a party.”

“It’s hard,” says Rhine. Hineni turns to look at him. “Finding a party when you’re low-level. Especially if you can’t get far in the dungeon by yourself.” He still remembers the boy’s attempts at the guild. His rebuking had been pretty harsh, for the standards of a kinder world.

Hineni nods. “Okay. That’s a good idea, Sockel,” he concedes. “Thank you.”

Sockel’s ears twitch and she tilts her head, looking at him, as if she wasn’t registering what he said to her. Hineni hands her a knife. “Want one?”

“I already stole that dagger you made from Beni’s desk,” she says.

“Take it anyways,” says Hineni. “In case you need something to throw again,” he jokes.

She takes it, nodding to him. “Curved knives aren’t good to throw. The angle of the blade doesn’t let them penetrate far enough to do any real damage,” she says, balancing it on the tip of her finger. “It’s nicely made though!” she compliments, flicking her finger and letting the knife spin around once in the air, before catching it again with the same finger, the tip of the blade pressing into the calloused skin on the bottom of her digit. “I used to do some stuff,” she explains, feeling their looks on her.

“That’s suspiciously vague,” says Hineni. She frowns, tucking the dagger into the other side of her belt. “But I won’t ask. I’m just the weird owl-guy, after all.”

“I have river magic!” says Rhine proudly, throwing it into the conversation.

“That’s oddly specific,” notes Sockel. “What do you do when there’s no river around?”

Rhine plants his hands on his hips, lifting his chin with a smug smile. “I make one.”

“Please don’t make one in the forge,” says Hineni. “I’ll never recover,” states the man, starting to extinguish the flames and to clean away the traces of their work. Though… a thorough, real cleaning is needed here. After all of the clay-work and all of these recent projects, the forge is a mess. It’s just… a mess. Feeling Rhine staring at him, Hineni looks at the boy for a moment.

Rhine jolts together and scurries off, taking care of his corner of the forge, cleaning everything that they can manage in a reasonably quick time, without needing to be told what to do.

Hineni appreciates that. The boy is independent. It’s a good trait to have.

_________________________________________________________________

The young man that Sockel had pointed out stares at them for a moment, looking at the dagger that Hineni is holding out towards him. He’s lanky, not exactly well fed and he certainly looks like he’s been roughing it in the dungeon for a while. The many layers of fabric that he’s wearing are covered in dirt and the marks of many scuffles.

“The owl-god has seen your hard work,” lies Hineni. “Please accept this as a token of acknowledgment.”

The young man looks over towards Sockel, who nods. “It’s legit.”

This is seemingly enough to convince him. Hineni supposes that Sockel has a strong hold and reputation amongst adventurers, especially low-level ones. Most higher leveled groups didn’t bother with quests and the boards at the guild anymore, as they could make their daily bread by selling expensive items from dangerous monsters and deep corners of the dungeon. But the lower ranking people on the hierarchy are reliant on the guild and its offerings, as such, they’ve all seen Sockel a thousand times and then some. Though, she might have been asleep for most of those interactions.

“Thank you…” says the man, taking the dagger, apparently not too sure what to say. “Are you hiring?”

Hineni shakes his head. “Not yet,” he makes up on the spot. “Keep working hard. You’re being watched. Don’t trust the frogs.”

The young man blinks, staring at Hineni for a moment. Two of those three statements could be considered odd. But he simply nods, saying thanks one more time as he heads towards the dungeon, gripping his new dagger.

Hineni lifts his gaze, staring at the bright blue sky. He isn’t sure if it isn’t just some odd imagining. But in his odd state of mind, he might perhaps feel that the clouds are moving a little faster than before. As if the wind has gotten just a tiny bit more power.

“Who’s next on the list?” he asks, looking back at Sockel.