At Boran's Eldrian headed directly for his room as they agreed on the day before. Seeing him marching toward's Boran's forging room, one of the shopkeeper ladies tried to stop him. Stopping after recognizing him.

"So you are finally here," Boran said. His hand, still covered in blue metal veins, sliding over the sword he had made the day before. Boran had taken the morning to simply enjoy and retrospect what had happened when he had forged this sword. Trying to grasp onto the feelings he had had when making it.

"Sorry I am so late. Still struggling with magic, but I am making progress." Eldrian replied, happy to see Boran in a good mood.

"That's good... Do you want to take a closer look?" Boran invited Eldrian holding the sword towards him hilt first. As Eldrian neared him he saw the blue metal merged within Boran's hand. It looked far better than before, with most of Boran's skin having been healed around the metal. Making it look more natural. If still a bit strange.

"Could they not remove it?"

"Seems that magic is... Tricky." Boran chuckled after saying this, looking at his own arm again with a mix of emotions.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Like I said it might be a blessing. Just need to figure out what the heck is going on with it. Now how does this sword look?"

Boran pushed the sword forward and Eldrian took it by the hilt. Astonished by how light it felt Eldrian looked at it in amazement. Only to be more amazed at how, plain, it looked. The sword itself was certainly extremely beautiful, but Eldrian had expected it to be covered in fantastical runes.

Only the hilt seemed to have runes carved onto it, the blade itself was clean. While it did have a wavy nature to it, similar to damascus steel, this did not really seem magical to Eldrian.

"Disappointed?"

"No, no." Eldrian shook his head in denial. While his expectations had not been met, the blade looked natural and magnificent. It also felt like a glove in his hand, seemingly merging with him.

"Don't lie, you were expecting it to be like a piece of art, covered in complicated runes. Right?"

Scratching his head Eldrian replied softly, "Yes."

"Remember that effective and good looking often clash. Complicated also does not mean better. So always focus on the effect of the thing you are making, before trying to make it look good or complicated."

At this point Eldrian handed the blade back to Boran. "I understand, and I think I already know the importance of this."

"Well, you might have missed another part. Do not get rid of nature. Embrace it."

Confused Eldrian looked at Boran as he took the blade and placed it into the forge. After a few seconds the flames of the forge were drawn into the blade, soon being extinguished.

"I just figured out how I needed to finish it." Boran said, bringing the blade out of the forge. The wavy patterns over the blade seemingly having come alive. Shining brightly and flowing, the sword was seemingly breathing with every pulse of heat. As if it had just gotten a heartbeat.

"Wow."

"Nature also has strength, I often also forget this. Its strength also never clashes with its beauty. Remember this when forging in the future. Some metals have their own, runes, adding yours onto it will only ruin it." Boran paused before runes, unsure how to explain it to Eldrian. He had decided to keep it simple for now.

Eldrian nodded, speechless. As he continued to observe the blade he could see the heat slowly moving towards the hilt. Soon turning the sword back into a more normal-looking sword, only the runes on the hilt now glowed red. Softly.

"Wish I could have made it more effective." Boran sighed, looking at the runes in disappointment. If he had known the effect of what he had discovered, then he might have been able to make this sword much better.

"I don't understand."

"And you won't. Not until you have made your first magical weapon." Boran added sighing as he did, "Perfection is an abyss."

After a slight pause he spoke again,"In any case, you should get to work today. Remember only Tier 3 and over daggers will be accepted. So take your time when making them, don't rush."

"How..." Eldrian stammered, Boran continuing before he could finish his sentence.

"Everyone rushes at first. We all think we can do it as fast as the one who taught us. Remember that I am far, and I mean far, stronger than you. Take it slow and only focus on forming the blade. After that focus on the hilt. On normal weapons, the blade counts for almost all of its quality. The hilt consisting of the pommel, guard and grip only make up a very small amount. And this is only for handling, the blade quality is of top importance.."

"It is only when magic becomes involved that these parts count more. Naturally, the hilt needs to be usable. But you can leave it for your first few daggers."

"Thanks."

Leaving Boran's room Eldrian's thoughts were split between the sword and Boran's arm. He did not want to bring it up more, afraid to upset Boran. He hoped that it did not hamper Boran's forging. It certainly looked far better than when it was fresh. All of Boran's flesh was whole, there was simply blue metal inside his arm, like veins or roots. In a way it almost looked nice, only not fitting with the rest of Boran's appearance.

As normal Eldrian started his blacksmithing by forming a few rough ores into shape. Quickly making the needed ingots, asking his forge partner to inspect them for him. Eldrian could not wait until he could do it himself.

Luckily the daily task has not become more difficult, still requiring him to only make 1 great quality and 2 good. He managed to do this after making a total of 10 ingots. After which he still had around five hours left with which he could be online.

Taking a break he rested on one of the chairs and visited the forum. With a recent update he could now go online while keeping his senses, he could even move. The forum simply needed him to split his attention, similar to when someone daydreamed. With all the magic training Eldrian managed to easily keep his senses about him, he could even almost accomplish doing a task while at it. He only needed a bit more training.

At this time he was looking for an update from the players who had joined the Taurus relief mission. After a bit of searching on the Phallos forum he found a post. The players were already tired and complaining. Yet they now only complained to vent, rather than at the developers.

The developers had made it clear that they were not going to give in to complaints.

Interestingly the players had not set out for Taurus immediately, instead, they were first on their way to a meeting spot between Agosstead and another city. This was seemingly the rally point for the army.

Taking a glance at the pictures the player had uploaded, Eldrian was shocked by the size of the army sent by Agosstead. According to the player it was more than a hundred thousand soldiers. The other cities all had seemingly sent around that number of soldiers. Meaning the total army would be over 2 million.

I guess players are really not going to do much. Not unless we become strong or get guns.

Eldrian was reminded of how dire the situation actually was from these numbers. He also wondered if Old Sword and Vivian were part of the army. Likely, was his only thought. This saddened him as he worried about Vivian.

Finally, Eldrian decided to try harder. If he could manage to reach Tier 1 in a week then he would likely be able to join them at the border.

After his break, Eldrian decided to try another dagger. Taking one of the ingots which were too small he started forming it. He did so since the ingots were sized to make normal swords, last time he had wasted more than half the ingot since his dagger had been really small.

He was aiming for the same this time. Simply practicing how to form the blade. He even though of reforming the practice dagger into an ingot after, discarding this though when he realized how much effort it would take.

Well, Tier 1 is good for just a sharp metal piece. Eldrian thought as he looked at the metal piece he was now holding. This so-called dagger was simply a piece of iron where the one end was formed into a blade. It was more similar to a shiv than an actual dagger, but it had shown him that even such a thing is classified as Tier 1.

I guess it is Tier 1 since it is a weapon and can damage. Thinking of this Eldrian took another ingot and made the bottom round, shaping the top into a pick form. This resulted in a weird ice pick looking hammer. Equipping it he found that it was classified as a warhammer, Tier 1 and had piercing damage of 5.

So Tier 0 is special. It isn't the worst, but an actual training weapon? This threw Eldrian a bit, he had thought Tier 0 would be the worst. He now wondered how they were made, seeing as they could not really damage people. At least the damage was very low, allowing people to go full out in mock combat.

A type of Runesmithing or magic? He asked himself as he discarded the pick hammer and dagger. There was actually a barrel for all failed projects. At the end of a week, these were taken and molten. Yet instead of being formed into ingots this metal was again formed into ores. Eldrian had no idea why they did such an absurd thing.

...

Having made a few more practice daggers, Eldrian finished for the day and started heading towards Old Sword's home. He had just over an hour left and wanted to make sure that they will be alright.