Seeing that Sven was already looking through the material cache in his workshop, Valyr went ahead and did the same thing, pondering over what he would be forging for his entry.
Looking through the materials he would possibly be working with, the young man turned to look at Sven at some point as a thought came to mind.
"Now that I think about it, is there some sort of preparation time before the fight?" he asked.
"Or has the fight already begun?"
With his attention still at the material cache, Sven let out a slight chuckle. "What's the point of preparation time if there's no limit to how long our fight can last?"
"Plus, only with enough preparation can a blacksmith work at their greatest," he added, looking at Valyr with a smile.
"Don't you think so, Valyr?"
In response, the young man faintly grinned.
"But of course."
With that, the two returned their attention back to their respective material caches, thinking about the specific item they would be forging for the fight.
'To be honest, I could forge one of two items that would satisfy Sven's condition,' thought the young man, his eyes eventually fixating on a few specific materials.
Taking those materials out, he then proceeded to light up his furnace, keeping his eyes on the flame all throughout.
'It's either I forge a true arquebus…' inwardly muttered Valyr to himself.
'Or I forge a whole new firearm altogether.'
With the Gates of Awakening awarding him plenty of forging-related rewards, his knowledge within the Technology Tree's innovation branch had already reached the end of the Late Middle Ages.
With that, there was no doubt in his mind that he would be able to forge a true arquebus, considering how there was no time limit to their fight.
Though the firearm he forged back then was considered to be an arquebus by the system, the latter recognized more as a prototype for an arquebus, not an arquebus itself.
After all, with his knowledge back then only reaching the entrance of the Early Middle Ages, forging a true arquebus would be incredibly difficult.
If anything, whatever he forged had only been achieved with the ingenuity and knowledge he had accrued in his past life.
If he were to only rely on the advancements he unlocked in the Innovation branch, the furthest he could go would be the fire lance and the hand cannon.
Or, in other words, a small cannon attached to a pointed stick, and a small cannon attached to a dull stick, respectively.
In comparison, a true arquebus had a mechanism that greatly differentiated it from the fire lance and the hand cannon, utilizing a trigger to ignite the gunpowder that was loaded in the barrel.
Of course, the trigger would only move a lit piece of cordage that would ignite the gunpowder, making it seem like it was not any different from the two other firearms at the time.
Nevertheless, that small change was revolutionary enough to have the firearm be made en masse by the time the Late Middle Ages came around, eventually becoming known as the matchlock mechanism.
The mechanism that eventually brought rise to modern-day guns.
'Hmm…' Staring at the furnace for quite some time, Valyr eventually came to a decision.
'I guess I'll go and forge a new firearm instead.'
With that, the young man proceeded to take out a bunch more items from the material cache, unsurprisingly attracting Sven's attention.
"I wonder what he's forging?" muttered the man as he fanned the flames within his furnace.
"With how many wood types he's taking out of the material cache, I'm certain that he won't be using them as firewood."
"However, he also took out metals, cordage, as well as a series of powders and oils…"
At this point, a slight frown appeared on his face, the gears in his mind madly turning as he hypothesized what Valyr was forging.
Though, in the end, he still gave up.
"Perhaps, him taking out all of those materials could just be a ruse," murmured Sven, chucking in a few materials into the furnace.
"After all, I can still vaguely remember a few trial takers doing that in the past."
"Well, whatever he's forging, I'm sure he won't expect the fact that I'm forging a blade within a blade!"
Oblivious to what Sven was thinking, Valyr focused all of his attention towards the screen before him, drafting up the rough blueprint of the item he was going to make.
"If I were to base it off real history, what I'm about to forge is probably anachronistic," murmured the young man to himself. "Perhaps, it even existed at that time."
"But since I'm in another world altogether…"
"Why should I care about those sorts of things?"
After pondering over the various types of firearms he could possibly forge with his knowledge, Valyr eventually ended up going with the pistol.
For one, the other types of firearms he could choose from were undoubtedly harder to forge if all he had access to was the most basic firing mechanism in existence.
Of course, there were still other firearms that could work with the matchlock mechanism, such as a revolver.
However, for the sake of his sanity, as well as the fact that he would use what he learned here to upgrade his arquebus later on…
It was better for him to go with a pistol.
'A pistol is just an arquebus with a shorter barrel,' thought the young man, bringing up the various knowledge he had gained from the Gates of Awakening as he drafted his blueprint.
From the firing mechanism, to the overall design of the matchlock pistol, Valyr made sure to take every area into consideration.
Then, with the basic shape of the pistol having taken place, he then brought his other thoughts into the mix, hoping to do something similar to the arquebus.
"I could probably modify the mechanism to have it use the same cordage every time," muttered the young man with a slight frown. "However, how would I go about doing that?"
Fortunately, it did not take long for his answer to arrive, being reminded of a certain item he had seen in the past.
"Think of the cordage as a wick… and have it be connected to a container of oil…"
"This… this might just work."
With ideas continuing to flow through his mind after that, the young man continued to make more and more modifications to his blueprint, eventually stopping after feeling the blueprint had reached another level of complexity.
"Alright."
"Time to forge."
Marking the blueprint as complete, a great amount of information swiftly filled Valyr's mind, informing him of all the steps he needed to take to bring the weapon into reality.
Pushing those thoughts to the side, the young man went ahead and chucked a fair amount of materials into the furnace, fanning the flames within to speed up the process.
At the same time, he took out Hammer of Beginnings from his spatial bracelet, placing it on the anvil for the meantime.
Taking a look at the selection of tools he would be working with, Valyr went ahead and grabbed a few before placing them near the anvil.
Moving them a bit further to the side, the young man then began to take out a few of the materials from the furnace, putting them on top of the anvil's surface.
"[Hammer of Beginnings]."
Utilizing a pair of tongs to hold the heated metal, Valyr then held up the Hammer of Beginnings on his other hand and started hammering away.
Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
"So, he's finally begun." Shaping out the materials he had chosen with his trusty hammer, a faint smirk crept up onto Sven's lips as he heard the clanging of metal from Valyr's workshop.
Taking a brief look at what the young man was doing, the man's eyes slightly widened in surprise after seeing the hammer Valyr was using.
"With a hammer like that, it makes quite a lot of sense as to how he's gotten to this point," muttered Sven, thinking that Valyr had relied on the hammer to get to where he currently was.
"Unfortunately, I ended up becoming his first opponent."
"It's time to make him see reality."
With that, Sven returned his focus to his craft, an expression of calm taking over his face sometime later.
On the other hand, Valyr looked at his finished product with a sense of satisfaction, wiping off the sweat from his forehead.
"That's the barrel down," muttered the young man, moving the part to the side.
Then, without delay, he grabbed a few more materials from the furnace and placed them on the anvil.
"Next up are the gears."
Taking in a deep breath, the young man then picked up one of the tools he had grabbed earlier, placing them on top of the materials he'd just taken out.
"This is definitely gonna take a while," said Valyr with a faint sigh, slamming the hammer onto the dull end of the tool he took.
"But once I put everything together…"
"It'll all be worth it."
Bang!
Moving the tool away from the material, the young man slightly smiled once he saw that a round circle had been cut out of it.
With that, he moved the tool towards another part of the material before doing the same thing again.
"Now I just have to do this around 50 more times…"
