Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
"Since I have all this time to think, I should probably go over the step-by-step process of forging the hammer again." With the information he had gained from upgrading his forging skills to their max level now processed and organized in his mind, Valyr focused all of his attention on stoking the flames once more whilst he muttered his thoughts to himself.
"There are three steps to forging the replica," said Valyr to himself, bringing up the blueprint he had created in his mind. "Wait, I was wrong. There are actually four steps to forging it."
"The first step is to obtain the purest essence of the four foundational elements from the materials I have requested specifically for this purpose." Continuing to watch the flames inside the furnace, the young man briefly shifted his gaze towards a nearby table where all of the materials he had requested were neatly laid out.
Focusing his sights on one specific group of materials, a faint confident smile appeared on the young man's smile as he sensed the aura of the four elements faintly emanating from them, waiting to burst out at any moment.
"After that, the second step is to find a way to have these four elements exist in harmony, while also making it seem that there was no element in the first place." Muttering these words, he then shifted his gaze to another group of materials he had chosen, taking in a deep breath as he thought about the difficulty of the task. "At my current rank, that's the best material I could work with that could make it happen."
"I really hope it becomes a success, even if partially."
"Ah. Time to chuck some of them in." Seeing that the flames within the furnace had finally reached the optimal temperature in his mind, Valyr went ahead and threw in quite a few of the materials he had requested, arranging them neatly within the furnace with a pair of tongs. "With this, I'll be able to keep track of which material goes where."
"Now, where was I?" Now returning to a state where he had to wait for something to complete before being able to make a move, Valyr sat on the provided chair as he continued muttering the steps of the blueprint to himself, making sure that he went over every possible detail in mind. "First is to bring out the purest essence of the elements, second is to fuse them and make them stable, then the third one would be…"
"Right. The third step is to forge a vessel that would be able to handle the energy from the four elements combined," said Valyr to himself, shifting his attention towards a group of materials on the table that were made up mostly of metals. "Since it would be difficult for a single material to hold all of that energy, it would be better for me to forge an alloy that would do it better."
"Of course, if I got my hands on some Refined Orichalcum, or even some Impure Orichalcum-Mithril Alloy, then that alone would have been more than enough to contain all of the energy."
"Then again, Refined Mithril is already a rarity to come across, even in a kingdom like this one, so I shouldn't be complaining, especially since I've gotten it for free." Recalling that he had not paid anything for the materials he would be using, Valyr reminded himself to be extremely careful in handling all of the materials, making sure that none of them would go to waste and would go towards the completion of his forging hammer.
"After I create the alloy and mold it into the shape of a forging hammer, the fourth and final step would be to fuse the elements and alloy together, making sure that the two fully meld with one another." As Valyr went over this step in his mind, the young man could not help but scratch the back of his head, wondering how high his chances of success would be if the time to actually do it eventually came.
Though his current stats had already exceeded the scope of what a normal Rank 2 class holder would have, Valyr got the odd feeling that it was still lacking in some way, recalling how high stats were back in his past life when he attempted to do something similar.
"If I remember correctly, all of the significant stats need in the forging process at the time were already in the four digits," Valyr muttered to himself, letting out a faint sigh soon after. "Even with that, I was only able to emulate around 3% of the properties of the forging artifact I chose."
"And I chose to forge one of the strongest legendary forging artifacts at that. One that was simpler to forge compared to the others, even."
"Well… since I'm attempting to forge the strongest among the strongest legendary forging artifacts, even successfully emulating a single percent of its original properties is more than enough to be considered a success." Deciding not to put too much pressure on himself, Valyr eventually stopped thinking about his attempts at forging artifact replicas from his past life, instead focusing his attention on what was in front of him as he threw a few more materials into the furnace a couple of minutes later.
"How are you holding up?" While keeping an eye on a couple of materials within the furnace that seemed close to reaching optimal forging temperature, Valyr heard Theraldine ask him a question, prompting him to look at her and respond.
"Doing well so far. How about you?"
"Also doing quite well. Gonna have to start hammering a couple of things in about a minute or so, though." As Theraldine said these words, she gave Valyr the feeling from her tone that the materials she had put in her furnace would actually take longer than a minute, and that she wanted to pass the time through conversation.
Unfortunately, Valyr wouldn't give him the chance to.
"Is that so? You should keep a closer eye on your materials, then." Reminding the young woman of the materials in her furnace, Valyr returned his attention to the furnace before him as he deftly used a pair of tongs to remove a couple of materials from the furnace that were ready to hammer.
"Refined Mithril and Hardened Manafrost." Valyr looked at the materials he had placed on the anvil, both of which were glowing a faint yellow-orange. After that, he grabbed the forging hammer that had been supplied to them and tossed it a few times to check its weight.
"Guess I'll start with the third step first." Inwardly nodding at the balance of the hammer in satisfaction, he then began to hammer the two materials flat, kickstarting the process in forging a replica of the Hammer of Primeval Origins.
