The guards heard Thomas's exclamation and were confused. They had been keeping their eyes on him the entire time he had been working. They'd seen the flash of red light and knew he'd done something but what? The iron he'd been hammering still looked like a pile of crap sitting on the anvil. Aside from that single flash of light, there was nothing even remotely interesting or powerful looking about it. They wondered if Thomas thought that the lump was an actual weapon. If he did, then he would be a dead man soon.

Thomas didn't pay any attention to the guards or their opinion of his work at all. He was solely focused on observing the mangled ingot in front of him. More specifically on the fire mana contained within it. Seeing it at this point it should be stable enough to be reheated and worked into the shape of a weapon. The question was, what kind of weapon should he make out of it? He glanced at the guards and slowly smiled. They were pirates... they should appreciate a nice cutlass right? It was the classic pirate sword, right?

He picked the ingot up with the tongs and set it back into the forge. With some mana channeled into the blower the flames leaped back to life with a roar and started to heat the mashed ingot back up. He kept a close eye on the ingot, watching the fire mana within it to make sure it didn't disperse. The fire mana became more active and excited within the flames of the forge but remained stable within the metal. This greatly eased his concerns. Once the metal was glowing orange he plucked it out and set it on the anvil to begin his work.

He hammered the mangled mass of iron into a more uniform shape turning it from a lump into a rectangular block that looked more like the original shape of the ingot. Through several heats, he shaped the block into a plank and then used a hot cut tool to nearly cut it in half before folding it over and hammering it back together. Folding was one of his go-to favorite techniques. So much so that he used it even when it didn't really serve its original purpose of refining iron and spreading out impurities to strengthen the metal. In the case of the iron he was working with, it served its original purpose as well as being enjoyable.

He heated, hammered, and folded the iron ten times building up over a thousand layers. Before each fold, he was careful to check the fire mana within the metal to make sure that it didn't get damaged or dissipated by his work. He was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. The fire mana almost acted like an impurity. With the folding of the iron, the mana spread out thin and formed layers within the iron. Each layer was only tens of micrometers thick and packed to the brim with fire mana. There was no telling if that was a good thing or a bad thing though.

He dismissed any concerns he had. If this failed, so what? He'd just try something else. With the last fold completed he started with the formation of the weapon. There were many different variations of the cutlass sword. The pirate version was a bit shot with a wide blade. The shortness of the blade made it good for use in cramped quarters while the thickness made it good for chopping and slashing. All in all, it was a pretty excellent sword for its purposes.

The hammer rang out every time it slammed into the hot metal, even sending out sparks occasionally. The shape of the sword slowly started to form out of the iron. While working, some of the metal at the base of the blade was left alone. It would be removed later and used to make the handguard that was a pretty famous portion of the pirate cutlass. Thomas hammered out the shape of the cutlass for an hour straight. He wanted to get it as close to completion as he could with his hammer so he could spend less time working on it at a grinding wheel.

Once the shape of the cutlass blade was as close to complete as it could get with a hammer, he took out a hot cut tool and cut off the small hunk of iron at the base of the blade. The remainder was hammered into a somewhat think full-length tang that would go through the handle. Thomas set the blade of the cutlass to the side for the time being and got to work with the remaining material. He hammered it out into a flat plate of iron before using the back of the cross peen hammer to fold it into a rough three-sided box-like shape. He'd work on the finer details later.

With the guard partially done he set it aside and picked up the cooled cutlass blade and carried it over to the grinding wheel with the lowest grit so he could remove excess material and bring the blade closer to its final shape. He did most of the grinding work before the quench so that the iron would still be relatively soft and easy to work with. Once he quenched and hardened it, it would become much more difficult to work with. Not as difficult as steel though...

After another half an hour working at the various grinding wheels the sword was really starting to look like a proper weapon. He took the blade over to the forge and set it into the coals. Once the blower was going they roared and quickly heated up the sword until it was glowing bright orange. Once he pulled it out of the forge he dipped it into a barrel of quenching oil. When he withdrew the blade from the oil the remaining heat set the oil on fire. He couldn't help smiling as he held up the flaming sword for a moment to enjoy the view. He couldn't leave it burning though so he used a burst of Wind magic to snuff out the flames.

He looked down the length of the blade to check for warps that would need to be fixed before the metal cooled down more. There was a very short window to straighten warps out of blades while they were still hot just after quenching. Luckily the blade hadn't warped and looked to be in excellent condition. With that confirmed he walked it over to the anvil and stuck the tang into the hardy hole. The blade stood upright and continued to smoke as it cooled in the air. Thomas ignored it and picked up the guard to continue his work on it.

He dug around the supplies for a bit before he found a dishing tool. Using this tool with a rounded hammer would let him turn the square-shaped guard into something more rounded. After heating up the guard he took it to the dishing tool and started to pound on it. Slowly its shape changed and became more rounded. When it was attached to the sword it would completely cover the hand of the person wielding the sword. It offered excellent protection for the fingers but could also be used for punching. Granted it wasn't specifically designed for that but it worked fine none-the-less.

After he got the shape to a good place he heated it once more, then used a punch to put two holes in the top and bottom of the guard. When attached to the sword it would be similar to a D shape. Now that the sword was cool he started checking the fit of the guard to the sword. It looked decent, not perfect but he didn't care. One of the pirates would end up using it so if it was a little flawed then it wasn't his problem. Now, if they were actually paying him it would be different. He'd never cared who he worked for but these guys kidnapped him and Snowlily, they could have some inferior products.

He set aside the unfinished blade and handguard to poke around the supplies for a bit of wood to use for the handle of the sword. He selected the first block of wood that he found and lopped off a section of it that would be big enough to make up the handle. He took it over to the anvil and picked up a hand drill from the tools. For pirates, they really did stock the workshop with a nice selection of tools. Without even thinking about it much he summed up a U shaped slab of metal using his Metal magic to clamp the wood to the anvil over the hardy hole. He quickly and easily used the hand drill to drill through the block of wood. Having a decent Power attribute made the hand drill even faster than a standard power drill.

The hole was thinner than the tang of the sword, this was deliberate. He took the sword over to the forge and used the forge to heat the tang up to a blistering temperature. He intended to burn the handle onto the tang, this would give it a near-perfect fit. It would also keep the wood as one solid piece and make it look a bit better than something that he cut in half. Another reason is that he intended to use the tip of the tang as a rivet to hold the handle on solidly. When the tang was pushed into the hole of the handle smoke started to pour into the air as the hot metal burned the wood and turned it into ash.

It took some time and effort but he eventually burned the handle onto the sword completely. Of course, the handle was still a big block of wood and couldn't be held yet. It needed a bit more work. He picked up some chisels and started to carve off large sections of the handle to get it down to size in a rough manner. Once a large amount of excess material was removed he switched to a smaller chisel to take off less material and refine its shape. Once enough material was removed he went to the grinding wheels and worked his way through the grits and eventually refined the woodblock into a proper handle.

Throughout the process, he checked how it felt in his hand until it felt proper and gave a good amount of grip. With the handle complete, he pulled it off of the tang and slipped on the handguard. He pushed it up against the wider hilt of the sword then slipped the handle back on. The handguard would sandwich the handle. With the handguard and handle placed on the tang, he flipped it over and used metal magic to clamp it in place while using a ball-peen hammer to smash the tang until it mushroomed and locked both the handle and the handguard in place.

Thomas set the hammer down and gripped the sword in his hand. It felt comfortable and nicely balanced. The entire length of the sword was only about seventy-seven centimeters long with sixty-two centimeters being the blade length. The blade was less than five centimeters wide with a slight curve. He was pretty certain it weighed less than two kilograms as well making it weigh practically nothing to him thanks to his Power attribute. It wasn't quite finished though. He still needed to sharpen and polish it to complete it.

He carried the sword over to the grinding wheels once more and started working the blade on a medium grit to grind the edges a little more. He didn't stay on that grit long though and moved to finer and finer grits as he honed the edge and polished the metal. Quenching the blade had blackened it with soot but the grinding wheels quickly removed it and revealed shining silvery metal with a very gentle red tint to it. Slowly the edge of the sword became sharper until it took on a deadly gleam.

He lifted the blade up to his eyes and calmly looked it over. While he was doing that the guards were observing from a distance and were pleasantly surprised at the progress of his work. They thought it was a bit cliche that he was making a pirate cutlass, but they also had no complaints about it. The sword looked simple and plain, but it would work. At least now they knew that he really was a blacksmith at least.

Finished observing the sword, Thomas smiled and gripped the handle to give it a few swings. The sword hummed lightly as it sliced through the air. He didn't notice the guards tensing up as he did so. The sword was as complete as he could get it without enchanting medium to enhance it further.

System Notice: You have created a Magical rarity Cutlass. Quality: Excellent. You have gained 425 Magitech Engineering experience. Weapon Type: Cutlass Rarity: Magical Quality: Excellent Description: A common sword used by sailors and pirates. This sword is well crafted and has been infused with Fire mana giving it more power than a standard cutlass. When mana is channeled into the sword the blade will ignite into flames and deal additional damage. The more mana channeled the hotter the flames will become and the more damage that will be dealt. However, there is a limit that the materials used can handle. If this limit is breached the sword will destroy itself.

+50 Power (Attacks made by the Cutlass only)

+Additional Fire damage based on mana channeled into the sword.