Chapter 212 Rushed Forging
First, he threw most of the materials into the furnace and began to smelt them. After they were melted, he would fuse them with the prototype.
On the other side, Wu Mo had also started forging.
This time, he was going to forge a short sword with a similar style to a full tang sword.
One could tell just by looking at the prototype provided by the guild.
The prototype of this weapon clearly showed signs of mass production. Although it was a qualified product, it was ordinary and did not hold the flair of a blacksmith at all.
Even if it was fully forged into a weapon, its attributes and quality would not be much better.
However, it was quite fair to use it as a test for the four-star rank.
The weapon prototype was only about 30 centimeters long. Even with the scabbard, it was only 50 centimeters.
One could consider it a short knife.
Items of such quality had no other use other than for self-defense.
If they were to enter the battlefield of Ten Thousand Races, they would probably be smacked apart by the large monsters in a single move.
Wu Mo felt a little annoyed, but he still began to forge the materials with haste.
No matter what, he had to salvage it a little and make the weapon more pleasing to the eye.
The prototype had been forged. What he needed to do next was to melt the metal used to make the scabbard, heat up and forge the prototype blade, then sharpen it, embed the gem, and draw an array.
In the past, these tasks would take at least a few hours.
However, since the guild had set a time limit of 25 minutes, he could only simplify everything.
After a few minutes, he had finished melting the alloy. Then, he began to melt the auxiliary materials that increased the hardness and toughness.
He operated the casting machine, poured the cooled metal liquid into the pre-adjusted groove, and began to make the handle.
While the casting machine was running, he began to heat up the prototype blade, ready to carry out carbon clamping and folding forging.
Since there was not enough time, they could only put on a show. Each segment could not exceed five minutes.
After a short while, the blade turned red from the high temperature. Wu Mo put on a pair of heat-insulating gloves and immediately took the blade out of the furnace.
The 30-centimeter-long fiery-red blade emanated constant heat, and the surrounding air was slightly distorted by it.
Wu Mo placed it on the iron felt and immediately took out Mjolnir, which had been sealed for a long time.
A burst of light spread across the patterns on Mjolnir. The surrounding air seemed to be shaken by the majestic energy, and even the forging paper on the table was blown away.
As he held Thor's hammer in his hand, Wu Mo took a deep breath before he aimed at the red blade and hammered.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing exploded in Wu Mo's ears.
Fortunately, the surrounding magic circle could isolate sound. Otherwise, the other blacksmiths who were taking the test would have thought that there was an explosion.
Wu Mo deliberately controlled Mjolnir's energy so that it could exert its maximum effect without destroying the blade.
As he hammered, he folded the blade.
In just a few minutes, the blade had been folded dozens of times, and its shape had also changed, becoming thinner and firmer.
As for the carbide technique, due to time constraints, there was simply no time to process it. He could only return back to the furnace and soak the blade in a bucket of cold water immediately after heating it up to quench it.
Only a series of hissing sounds could be heard.
The silver blade that had already started to show itself released a lot of white smoke.
It still retained its circular patterns, but it was beginning to look and also feel like a knife in terms of hardness.
When he finished quenching, the casting machine was already done. There were already irregular patterns on the hot handle.
Not only was it beautiful, but it also increased friction and reduced the risk of it slipping out of someone's hand.
By the time he finished assembling the blade and the handle, half of the time had passed.
Wu Mo did not stop and started to carve out a groove at the top of the blade.
Next up was the polishing process.
The guild had provided a rectangular whetstone and related auxiliary tools.
All the grinding techniques that Wu Mo was familiar with so far flashed through his mind. In the end, he picked out the concave grinding technique. It provided good sharpness, and it was relatively less troublesome out of the 12.
After that, the cycle of sharpening and cooling was repeated.
After five minutes, the dagger finally became sharp. It was as smooth as a mirror and could even reflect the light from above.
Once he was done with the polishing work, Wu Mo continued to draw the array.
There was the matter of time, so he could only draw the most basic Tier 1 Spirit Gathering Array. Fortunately, when he was in the Research Department, he had already studied the array thoroughly.
Even if he had to increase his speed by several times, the completion rate would still be extremely high.
After the array was drawn, the gemstones were embedded.
He pressed the dark blue gem down, and in a flash, a burst of light blue light spread out, gradually covering the entire blade.
"Phew! It's finally almost done!"
Wu Mo could not help but wipe the sweat off his forehead as he looked at the new weapon on the work table.
Ever since he became a blacksmith, he had never forged equipment in such a short period of time.
Even though the guild had provided a batch of prototypes, it was still too much of a rush. He had skipped many parts, and he did not have the time to polish them.
Despite being so fast, he only had one and a half minutes left before time was up.
If even he was in such a predicament, imagine those students who had just graduated and lacked experience.
At this moment, Wu Mo could already predict that most people there would not be able to pass the test for four stars.
Twenty-five minutes passed by in a flash.
Soon, the timer beeped.
The two invigilators also walked out of the workstations and followed the young blacksmiths to the judging platform.
This round of assessment would basically filter out a large number of people.
However, these were the rules set by the guild, which were in line with the standards in the Nine Provinces.
So, if they did not pass, they could only blame themselves.
They either lacked the ability to adapt to the situation, or they lacked knowledge in certain fields, hence could not complete the forging of equipment independently.
From their dejected expressions, Wu Mo could tell that some of them had not even completed their work.
Soon, the review began.
The first one to be examined was a slightly chubby young man. The short knife in the latter's hand was obviously lacking in heat, but it was not bad in other aspects. He might be able to pass.
Everyone made the same thing, but some differences could lead to different effects.
Wu Mo noticed that there were still a few more people in front of him in the queue, so he took the time to let the system appraise the short knife he had forged earlier.
As soon as the thought came to mind, the system immediately gave him the relevant data.
Since the dagger's grade was not high, the appraisal did not cost any points.
[Equipment appraisal complete. Its attributes are as follows:
[Equipment Type: Saber
[Equipment Name: Tearing Blade
[Equipment Grade: Premium
[System Score: 46 points.
[Equipment Effects: 1. Royal Sword (Successfully blocks an attack with a small chance of damaging the enemy's weapon. Note: It cannot damage weapons above Premium grade)
[2. Tear (A charged-up hit will cause additional damage such as penetration and tear, corresponding to negative effects such as crippling and accelerated bleeding. The resulting damage will be increased. Cooldown: One minute)]