Smith Medmar, Part 2

Assignment:

"Another week, another weapon. More or less. Many weapons to be precise. I wonder if I'll have enough free time, and sleep, in order to upgrade that wimpy sword I made last week. Well, I guess I'll find out tonight."

Another week, another set of apprentice blacksmith chores. However, Zadi was given a raise due to the workload. A few more casualties hit the group of blacksmiths in the camp and the survivors, including Zadi, had to make up for the dip in weapon production. Kinda strange how weapons were breaking so easily when put to use, but that's just war these days. With magic being a factor to modern warfare, weapons had to not only hold against each other's steel, but the metal of a magician's wand, or lack thereof. Granted, whatever material a wand was made out of didn't matter considering a magician's medium could literally be any inanimate object, more or less. However, the steel of a sword mattered tremendously for the average soldier. One false strike of the hammer and back into the furnace the metalwork went. Thankfully, Zadi was getting used to the heat of the furnace after working it for a little over a week now.

"Damn this gets hot. I wish I had some sort of cooling magic tool to help with the heat. Maybe some day, but not today."

Zadi's troubles as a stand-in blacksmith didn't stop with the furnace; Zadi has having a tough time hammering the molten metal just right and the work put out b such sloppy hammering was showing itself in spades. Blades hammered by Zadi were either blunt or brittle. Taro, one of the veteran blacksmiths, was concerned with the work, obviously, and made his way over to the struggling Zadi. He put a hand on the sweaty Zadi's shoulder and told him to take a break for a few moments.

"Hold off on hammering that piece of metal. Keep it in the furnace for a few more seconds while I show you how to hammer a weapon's edge to new perfection."

"Only 'near' perfection? Am I not ready for perfection?"

"What do you think?"

Zadi put a metaphorical sock in his mouth and watched Taro hammer a blade's edge to 'near' perfection. Obviously Zadi wasn't ready to hammer anything to perfection just yet, but could he even get close? Well, only one way to find out; after watching and listening, Zadi was told to hammer the edge of the weapon still stuck in the furnace, "Alright, now you do it. Just like I did, hammer quickly, without hesitation. Each strike must count. Feel the weapon's edge become one with the weapon itself. Um...what other sagely advice could I give you? Nah, I think you'll get it...eventually."

Then Taro left to let Zadi hammer away at the piece of metal before him. Zadi learned quickly and therefore picked up the art of hammering a weapon's edge to near perfection. Sharpening the weapon would be another set of troubles, but at least Zadi knows how to polish his own sword. How hard could sharpening a weapon be after the edge has been hammered to near perfection? Well, pretty difficult considering the progress of this week. Only halfway done with the week.

"Screw sharpening, I'll just hammer the edge sharp!"

---

Meanwhile, at night, when nobody was around, Zadi decided to continue his sneaky work with his rickety rapier, Fabulosus. A fine name for a not-so-fine sword. However, with everything Zadi has learned thus far, the blonde blacksmith ought to be able to upgrade the rapier just a smidgen. Then again, by stop with a 'smidgen' when Zadi could go a full double as strong!? Practice and experimentation makes perfect, or at least better in this case. Zadi heated, hammered, and attempted to sharpen an upgrade out of the seemingly garbage sword. No offensive to the sword, sort of, because it can't help having been born bad. Fate has decided the sword be born bad, but fate has also more in store for the rickety rapier!

"Let's see if I can apply what I learned thus far."

"Hello? Is somebody there?"

The worst could have happened at the worst time for Zadi the sneaky smith. Taro, of all people, decided to check on the forge and take a look-see at Zadi's sneaky behavior. Thankfully, only the light of the furnace lit the dim forge, allowing Zadi to hid in a dark area. Taro looked around for signs of use, finding several indications that a newbie was working on upgrading a shoddy sword.

"A commendable effort, but still a shitting job. Must have been Zadi...Where is that little shit?"

And the magic word 'Zadi' was spoken. Unfortunately for Taro, his life would have to end a little quicker than anticipated. Zadi got up from his shadowed position near the furnace. The blonde would then quietly walked past the back-turned Taro in a fit of mellow rage, grumbling to himself about his misfortune, not that Taro was any less fortunate. The shoddy weapon Zadi had been working on was nearly complete. Just a sharp edge and Zadi's rickety rapier would be of a higher caliber than before. However, Zadi didn't need a sharp edge to do the final job that needed to be complete that night.

"Hey Taro, thanks for teaching me about hammering. I've got it from here."

With those final words of the night, Zadi bopped Taro in the back of the head with the nearly completed metalwork. Taro attempted to turn around when he heard Zadi's voice but didn't have the luxury. His head felt a sharp pain as he blacked out. Zadi changed his mind at the last second because of the words he spoke. Perhaps Taro didn't need to die if Zadi set things up right? Zadi sneakily lugged around the veteran blacksmith Taro all the back to Taro's tent. The tent had many other sleeping individuals in it, so Zadi would have to be extra sneaky. Taro's empty bed was found rather quickly, allowing Zadi enough time to wash Taro's head wound, drink a few alcoholic drinks, slip those drinks in Taro's bed, and make his way out of the tent. Dawn broke shortly thereafter.

"Thankfully I know Taro sleeps his nights away with a drink in hand. If only his tent wasn't so far from mine. I'll have to skip sleeping today...ugh."

The rest of the week was dedicated to more blacksmith work. Taro never seemed to notice the wound on his head, but the pounding headache didn't go away for a while. Thankfully, Taro chucked the headache to drinking too much one very special night. Zadi sharpened his sword while nobody was looking, the pressure nearly getting to the blonde smith. Fortunately, the sword was sharpened to near perfection; a job well done.

1,000+/1,000 - Assignment Complete