"Phew." Wiping off the sweat from the forehead, Theraldine looked at the item she had forged with a proud smile on her face, placing her forging hammer to the side.
Making up the portion of the Infernal Hammer replica that would make contact with the equipment she would forge in the future, the young woman admired the craftsmanship she had put into making the hammer's head, with grooves and veins that glowed between red and orange covering its entire surface.
"With the head finally done, I only need to connect the shaft, make sure that there's no problem with the balance of the entire thing, and I'll be finished with forging my emulation of the Infernal Hammer." Deciding to take a bit of rest for the meantime after hammering for who knows how long, Theraldine sat on the chair and pondered over her next few steps, only to wonder how much progress Valyr had made with his own artifact replica.
"Huh." Within an instant, a slightly dumbfounded look appeared on the young woman's face, noticing that not even the skeletal structure of the replica the young man wanted to make was anywhere to be found. From her point of view, the only thing Valyr had made so far was a block of metal that seemed to contain unique properties, as well as a couple of refined materials that were attuned to a certain element.
"At this point, I seriously wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to create a replica of a magic artifact." Muttering these words to herself, Theraldine thought back to the times where she had to forge weapons that were attuned to magic, recalling that many of them took far more time compared to her forging physical weapons.
Seeing that the young man was in the process of whittling down the Infernal Magma Core to its refined form, Theraldine looked at the materials Valyr had made so far one more time before pondering over the possible artifacts he had chosen to replicate. "The four basic elements, and then a unique block of metal… could he be possibly aiming to create the Grand Origin Scepter?"
"Considering its difficulty, it's definitely harder to forge a replica of it when compared to something like the Infernal Hammer… unless if he was well-versed in controlling mana." Though a few artifacts had popped up in the young woman's mind, she eventually thought that Valyr was making the Grand Origin Scepter, an artifact well-known for ascending any basic elementalist to the peak of the world with its innate strength. "However, in terms of how strong it is compared to the Infernal Hammer in its field… the Infernal Hammer definitely has it beat."
"Well, guess I'll have to wait and see if he does forge it." Feeling that she had recuperated enough energy, Theraldine stood up once more as she prepared her mind for the final step of her forging process.
The completion of her replica.
…
"Agh… I'm finally done with this piece of crap." Letting out a groan and a wide sigh of relief simultaneously, Valyr plopped his butt down on the chair as he tossed the item he had put a great amount of time into onto a nearby table, being a small crystal that looked to be far redder than even rubies.
"With this, I can finally move onto the second step." Deciding to take some time to rest, Valyr briefly looked at the furnace, whose insides were currently empty, and thought about the mind-numbing and tedious task he had put himself into earlier, which was the refining of the Infernal Magma Core.
Listening to the advice Theraldine had given him earlier, Valyr went ahead and used his mana to refine the core in sections, removing the outer layers of the rough dark sphere in a certain spot as the condensed lava that slumbered within was eventually revealed.
At first, the young man put in quite a lot of his attention towards making sure that the refinement process was going smoothly, keeping an eye that his mana was all being diverted towards a singular spot. However, after about half an hour or so of fully focusing on the core, he eventually became sick of the task and tried his best to not lose focus.
"Well, if it's any consolation, I'm getting closer and closer to getting my hands of a replica of the Hammer of Primeval Origins." Letting out a faint sigh that contained hints of regret, Valyr psyched himself for the two remaining steps of the forging process, turning his head to take a look and see if a portion of the audience that surrounded them earlier had left by this point.
Unsurprisingly, with how much time the two had taken to forge their respective crafts, a considerable portion of the audience that was clueless as to what the two were doing had left the Blacksmith Guild's main hall and went off to do their own things.
As for those that remained, even as the two were about an hour and a half from approaching sunset and still not being finished with their work, most of them were blacksmiths either affiliated or not affiliated with the Blacksmith Guild, all of them intently watching the two complete their respective artifact replicas.
"Alright, time to get a move on. The hammer won't finish by itself." Feeling that he had regained enough energy to move about after resting for a few minutes, Valyr stood up from the chair and proceeded to chuck in around three-fourths of the remaining materials from the list of materials he had requested into the forge, stoking the flames not long after.
"Fortunately, unlike the first step and the third step, the second step is incredibly simple to do so," muttered Valyr to himself, going over the second step's process as he kept an eye on the things inside the forge. "As long as the materials are sufficiently melted to flow like liquid, I'll be able to complete the second step easily."
With how the first step consisted of him preparing the elements in their purest form, the second step acted as a sort of continuation, wherein he would refine the elements even further while connecting them to one another by using materials that contained properties of two elements at once.
Then, once all of the elements were sufficiently connected, he would then encapsulate the entire thing in a material that would allow him to harness the energy of any of the elements at any time, creating a crystal that would power the entire forging hammer once everything was complete.
With it being the most distinctive feature of the Hammer of Primeval Origins Theraldine used to wield in his past life, Valyr could still remember the name many players and NPCs had given it, as well as the saying that came along with it.
"The crystal that started it all… the crystal that brought forth the eternal rise of the Goddess of the Forge." said Valyr to himself.
"The Primeval Origin Crystal."
