Spirit Taming

Chapter 449: Air In The Forge

"What is with this!?" Ralph slammed his hands down on the work table for the fifth time. He was annoyed because the metals that he and his molten boar kept cooling unevenly.

"You two get out of this space. So help me, I will show you exactly what this toxic steam will do to a person's body!" It was unusual for Ralph to really yell at anyone, but since Isa and Grace had taken up training right in front of him, he had realized just how terrible the training of ice and wind mixed together was.

"Really? I even managed to find a few people with metal ores here in this camp and you want us to just leave?" Isa was naturally ready to butt heads with Ralph. She liked the area and had no intention of letting him hog the space.

The forge might have been in this stone building, but it had been left aside from most of the camp because of the noise and fumes. Therefore, it was the most isolated place without anyone to distract them. Even with Ralph working on metals inside, it was a nice and open spot to train any kind of energy and battle technique.

"Now, wait, what if he can't make tools for Maria? Won't it waste the metals you got?" Grace tried to remedy the two. She could tell that Ralph was just annoyed because he had to keep reheating and shaping the same things without success. And Isa and her were causing the winds and colder temperatures than what was around the hot springs naturally.

"No way, this is the best place to train. I want to get used to using wind more and you have to get used to using ice more than wind. So we are going to train here." Isa was immediately against just leaving. This made Ralph even further annoyed before Grace managed to step between them.

"What if we used winds to help the forge instead? Fire needs air to burn, right? Can't we make better forges if we help? You can work on wind and I will cool metals for Ralph." While Isa considered this, neither Grace nor Isa noticed that Ralph was stunned by this. He hadn't expected that Grace would jump right in to helping him forge.

Since Ralph Was still so new with forging, he had the basics still in training. His desires to make the medical tools that Maria would need were stuck when it came to preparing the alloys properly. There was only so much that his partner could do. Especially since a molten boar would only melt things and cause them to become somewhat like an ingot.

They couldn't balance it perfectly nor shape the rough ingot. That was the work for Ralph to do himself.

"If you want to help me then I can let you…" Ralph just turned around and held the curtain to the forge open while looking down at the ground. Grace just smiled widely and waltzed in leaving Isa without a choice but to help too. However, she felt a little off since she knew that Grace was basically wrapping Ralph around her fingers. Not that Grace had any idea that was the case.

It was a little funny though.

"Here is the pump of sorts. It's made to use the same pumping action you would use if you were pulling water from a well, but instead, it fills this with air and then pushes it inside the finance. The coals get hotter. I need this furnace so I can keep heating the metal while I shape it. My partner can't hold it at a perfect temperature while I work.

It will melt down and start digesting the ores after too long." This made a lot of sense.

Since the molten boar had acids in its stomach and its body was at such a high temperature, it was better for melting and breaking down ores. The fact that it could already control and utilize its body to make ingots of any form was amazing. It would take years to potentially be so perfect in control that it could keep things heated with its skin or even its breath.

That would be the day that Ralph would not need a forge at all and would be able to be a blacksmith in almost any environment. But those were the most experienced. The rarest blacksmiths in the world.

"So instead of the pump pushing air, Isa will do it." Grace tried to pull the heavy diaphragm off the pump mechanism only to find that she couldn't make it budge.

"Don't grab the connectors. They are hot. Let me." Ralph grabbed it and pulled apart the tempered connections allowing the open space for air to flow in. The change in the forge fires were sudden. They stopped roaring and died down greatly. "You need a constant flow of pressure to make the coals keep burning hot.

Don't let my metal cool. I am trying to make those razor things blades in this book that healers use to cut away skin and other things."

The slight threat from Ralph made Isa a little more annoyed than she should have been. But when she looked at him, she could tell he wasn't threatening at all. It wasn't that he wanted to bully her or fight but that he was dropping the focus on anything that wasn't quality. A very important lesson that many blacksmiths learned first. A very common one for any tradesman.

She did the same with being a merchant.

"Grace, cool that hammer for smaller details and cool that oil there. It will be the last oil I use and the colder the better. The instructions in the books I am able to use say that the last setting process needs to be the coolest so that the thin blade fully settles without any potential of wrapping. Each oil bath is different in temperature based on the way they are placed in this room.

It's a ten step cooling process. Excessive but proven to work perfectly."

While Ralph showed off his knowledge, the two girls realized that his isolation had been more than they expected. Ralph hadn't just been reading and messing with ores. He had been training carefully. He had also been memorizing everything that he needed to know so that he could do more.

Whether either had noticed, Ralph had also started to develop more defined arm muscles and back muscles from molding the metals. A clear sign of dedication to the new craft he practiced.

When Isa began to see this, she saw gold coins floating around Ralph. Having a dedicated blacksmith was something that certain businesses needed. It saved on repairs, tool costs, and could even be used for other specific reasons. One such specific reason were the beasts that needed unique materials.

While most beasts could make due to the materials that formed in nature, there were beasts like Reese's abyssal sword that had come from a sword left in the ruins of another civilization. These unique beasts were not necessarily natural and might require unique materials to grow further.

While Reese's partner had needed metal energy crystals, it was definitely going to need more things in the future tailored to its growth. Therefore, Ralph had to reach a level where he could do that. And there were few blacksmiths that could easily do so.

With the beast plans made by the group and the fact that they would have all the blacksmithing needs covered, the group could take unique orders. They could develop items for beast plans they didn't make or create items for a beast plan specifically. Especially if they needed a unique alloy or unique tool to harvest a material. The possibilities were greatly widened by this.

It made Isa want to hunt down Clark and ask him about the carved crystals he had. But she was caught up at the moment with what she had to do to train.

"So, my wind caterpillar lets me manipulate the wind a little. I can do that, but can I really hold out?" Isa looked at Grace. The little wind caterpillar had been asleep in the taming space for a long time. The energy it shared with Isa was small but definitely having an effect on Isa's body.

"Yes! Just feel the energy in your body from your partner and use your own energy to attract more. You can't take it and give it to your partner, but the same as I have energy from my partner, I can use the winds around me as a sixth sense or to move a bit faster now. It's all about how sensitive you get to it. The same thing you told me about using the ice with my weapons."

"That means you better focus on making ice from the air. There's a lot of steam and moisture around trying to get near here and mess with his forging. There's even rust here and there. Just stop it all at the door and cool that large barely down by covering the outside in ice." Isa gave Grace a task as well. Neither noticed that Ralph had already started preparing the cooled metals for heating again.

His own focus on his task and the diagrams he had been studying.