Chapter 849 Chapter 848: Grades
?"YYYYYEEEEESSSSS!!"
We all jumped slightly at the sudden, almost ear piercing scream of joy that came from the forging area, causing us all to look towards the source of said noise before glancing at one another, seeking out an answer from people who were just as confused as we were.
Hesitantly making our way over to the forge, we saw Anput grinning form ear to ear as she bounced around, waving her tongs in the air and happily humming to herself as she danced around and stared at whatever it was that she was holding between the metal tongs.
With her tail wagging as fast as possible, her lips parted in a grin that would put the Cheshire grin to shame, and joy almost always exclusive to children, Anput was in her own world as she continued to dance around like she just didn't care about anything besides whatever it was that she had done. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.
Sensing us, the Jackalkin looked around with excited obsidian eyes as she said "Look! Look! I did it~! I really did it~! Haha~! HAHA~!"
"Yes... very good, Anput... you... did it. Um, what exactly... is 'it', my love? What are we looking at?"
"Now, making B grade alloy is easy enough, and going from making C grade to B grade takes some practice, some experience, some finesse, but you can do it, right? Cause when you mix a mana rich metal with one that's not mana rich, or mix two mana rich materials together, you need to use your own mana to help fuse them together properly, alongside actual forging techniques, right? Which means almost everyone can do it so long as they know what they are doing and want to do it. It'll take some time, but... once you get it down once, its simple to replicate. But..."
Anput raised the alloy in her hands and grinned at it, her next words taking this from slightly interesting to just... interesting.
"Going from B grade to A grade is rough. A grade takes higher quality materials and asks more of the smith; more concentration, more control, more understanding. It's... three, four times harder to grasp than B grade, which is already 'difficult' enough to grasp. Takes a lot of time, or just being damn lucky and being born with Metal Magic... anyways, point is, A grade takes some skill, finesse, and good materials to pull off, and of course the end result is really good. Like... really, really good. This is A grade right here, and this means I know how to forge some good shit! Course, now I just need to forge an entire ingot to actually make something with, but..."
My mate jumped around again as she laughed dementedly to herself, before stopping when Jahi asked "Then what about my sword? The Celestial Gold? Is that A grade?"
"A grade? No no no. That right there is A++++ grade. Fuck if I know how the Empress made it, nor do I have a single iota of a clue on where she even started. The metal itself is made from Ritual Circles, which I guess is a clue, but not when there are almost like... a thousand of them linked together in a chain. Seriously, not a single portion of my brain wants to understand how to do that, because I think it'll just ruin my confidence and understanding of smithing..."
The Demons all snickered as they nodded in understanding, before Satanya stepped forwards and asked "So... are you going to be spending time making this... A grade or whatever alloy, or are you going to be making a bunch of B grade alloy for us?"
Anput blinked a few times, before staring at the alloy that had cooled off to a reasonable level, her obsidian eyes showing clear reluctance even as she sighed and said "Yeah... I'll keep forging B grade alloy for the expedition... we need it, after all. Damn..."
Looking like a child who just got a toy and was told they can't play with it, Anput sighed again and stared at her alloy some more, before blinking a few times and looking back at us as she asked "I... didn't wake you all, did I?"