'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 4: The System

Blacksmith Audemars

Friday, 25th November 1442

"Daddy...! What did you say? A blacksmith?"

"Are we hearing you right after you had a secret conversation with Ceres that we can't hear anything from her?"

"Why a blacksmith in the first place? Can someone else do the job of extracting the mithril pieces or something?"

HRH JR and HRH Amy were stupended when they heard that I would be a blacksmith once the mithril pieces arrive in our town.

"Dear, ate you serious about it? Then you would be busy from dawn to dusk and would be hammering those pieces of ores, am I right? I thought that you would not be delving any governmental affairs for about two weeks and be spending time with the children?"

Heather chided me and was pouting since she too missed me a lot and would like me to be there with the children all the time instead.

"Look, today is Friday. Maybe it's time for me to take up another non-governmental profession like a blacksmith."

"Besides, Ceres had talked to me and advised me to look at my information system panel to see that there's an unlock profession for me there."

"A blacksmith and not an ordinary one, you know? Old Jack can be a master of a blacksmith but I would become the Grandmaster of one if I follow what the guidance system wanted me to do."

"Besides, I would not be always at Old Jack's because we can form up a blacksmithing area in the realm and we all can go there for 6 hours daily."

"You can do whatever you want and holler at me if you want to switch rooms and be with me instead."

"If maybe, we all can build the blacksmithing room in the smelter room because there's a lot of treasures that need to be exhumed from the thousands of plates of both iron and steel plates."

"I knew that both my past lives, the two characters had been hard at work churning the iron and steel plates and I am sure that it's a jumbled mix over there."

"Once it had been segregated into its own category, the iron plates, which comes in multiple grades could be given away to Old Jack or the Engineering guild to make more AAV and such...!"

"Now we have 18 AAV and I am sure we need to have more iron or steel for the Engineering parts."

After giving them a lengthy explanation of what I could be doing at this moment and then from then on I could even do it in the realm together with the family, at least the main thing is that they won't be left out of the activities that I would be doing for the remaining 6 hours in the realm.

Besides, it's still family binding and I don't think I would be hammering those ores the whole 6 hours, innit?

Even a strong dude like the Durham brothers would not even last one single hour on the anvil or the blower of the furnace. They would get charred if they spend too many hours in front of the blower and anvil...!

"Daddy... Daddy... So you would be going to Grandpa Jack's place to learn blacksmithing right? You won't be starting so soon, right?"

"We would be going to Safehaven tomorrow, right? We would be going fishing together, right?"

HRH JR queried me like as if he was shooting off the seeds of the watermelon off his mouth at me.

All his queries were answered with a 'Yes' and once he was assured that we would be going to Safehaven the day after, he was delighted and even asked if they could go to the balding areas of Hellsgate as he and his twin sister were excited to view the area, and if possible by air.

I knew what they were referring to since they would like to poke fun at the balding zones of some of the greying citizens of our town and refer them to the bald zones of the forest ...!

These children, even if they do have the gift of the gab, were still considered as children as well, maybe due to their size? Hahahaha...

"Alright, children. We are done for the day here. We would get to Safehaven by Lightning or Thunder tomorrow since we would be ferrying back the obsidian and mithril pieces from Doc.

I have not seen how the obsidian looks like in its raw form and I sincerely hope that they would not be in the form of ore just like the raw iron ones where i would prefer to smelt them down."

"Come on, lets get our Dragon Boat ready. Most probably we would ferry the Dragon Boat up to Hellsgate by airship and then we would return back to our town using our vehicle because the bellies of the airship would be bloated with obsidian and mithril pieces.

=*=

Heather and the children proceeded back home while leaving me to settle some of the matters pertaining to the airships with the rest of the engineers.

Once they had completed gathering all the necessities back to the Dragon Boat to spend the night over there in Safehaven, they traversed and parked the Dragon Boat over to the launch site.

"Hey there, engineer. How long would the fittings be for the new set of propellers for the 911?" I inquired to the engineer who had spoken to me earlier regards the flight schedule of the new airship.

"Your Majesty, the propellers would be ready to be installed and operational in about 2 working days before it would be tested on the ground and in the air.

Since Priest Goodyear had made the blimp to be lighter than air, then I suppose the carriage would not suffer much if it happens to land slightly rougher than normal."

"We would be befitting on some fresh suspension bars for the axles of the wheels to be able to withstand the weight of at least 3 to 5 tonnes of deadweight based on the estimated weight given by the supportive dwarf race."

I listened intently and agreed that the idea seems feasible and would take some time for the engineers to retrofit the airships accordingly. "Alright then, best of luck. I would be off to meet with Old Jack, later on, to be a blacksmith because we would be smithing the mithril pieces when the goods arrive."

=*=

"Good morrow, Old Jack. I am here to learn some blacksmithing from you. Would you have the time to give me your guidance?"

I greeted Old Jack when I entered the blacksmithing compound and he greeted me with his open arms and received me as if his long lost son had come back.

"Oh, Your Majesty. Should not be a problem at all. You can use the blacksmith here and I would guide you as much as I could, would that alright then, Your Majesty?"

I pondered and informed Old Jack of my intention. "My Dear Old Jack, I believe that you had already known of the intention of me being a blacksmith for the time being because of the mithril pieces that the dwarf would be giving to us."

"Further, you would be tied with the extra 3 to 5 tonnes of obsidian pieces which I think you, the Durham boys, as well as with Andy and Samuel, would be busily chipping those pieces to make the arrowheads."

"As you can see, I have a system and it had already added a Blacksmith profession into it. I'm not very sure of how advantageous it would present itself to me but then the things that I would forge and make into ingots would be mithril."

"Right now, all you have is iron ores and its a good start for me to learn how to hold the hammer, perfect the stances and guide me on how to pound those hammers once those ores had turned red hot after being inside the furnace or something like that."

I narrated to Old Jack so at least he would not have the impression that I would be taking over his profession at all. The most important thing for me is to learn the fundamentals of forging.

"Alright, then come on in at the back where the blacksmithing works are going on."

"There's a spare bellow where you need to pump the air to supply the furnace and I have the spare anvil and a wide variety of weighted hammers for you to start pounding."

"Come... Let's get in and you would get acquainted with the heat that I had been exposed to for many dozens of years."

I followed Old Jack inside the workshop area of the blacksmith area and it had been some time since I had entered his workspace.

The only time I came in when it was the first setup and right now it had been upgraded and looked more like a shopfront with a sales counter rather than a normal working blacksmith from the outside.

The moment I entered the workshop of the blacksmith area, I was welcomed by a wall of heat that happened to hit past me as I pushed open the door of the workshop.

The heat was unbearable and I could feel myself sweltering under my armour set and my perspiration might have even penetrated the light gambeson that I had worn underneath my thick armour.

"My Goodness...! Is this how it felt inside the workshop? Don't you mind me if I remove my armour and leave the gambeson on and wear one of your leather armour to prevent those sparks from igniting my gambeson when I start hitting the ores."

Old Jack handed me a piece of clothes hangar as I gingerly took off the armour that I had been wearing since I had gotten it from the realm.

The moment the armour was off, it was like taking a huge piece of metal armour off my body. I don't feel so much radiated heat that came from the furnace much...!

"Here you go, Your Majesty. The leather apron and here, let me introduce you to Aleethia, the first working hammer that would like to make your acquaintance."

"Its a 10 pounder solid iron hammer and it's good for a start. Once your guidance system had informed you that you could wield something grander, then I would be able to introduce you further, would that be alright, Your Majesty?"

I had the leather armour removed from my body and legs and now I feel free pike a bird because the gambeson only covered my top and partially to my thighs and not lower than that.

After putting on the leather apron, I felt much safer as it protects my family jewels too. Hahaha...!

I was handed the 10 pounder hammer named Aleethia by Old Jack and let me tell you, a 10 pounder hammer is not at all be considered light on those days.

After carrying it for a while I could feel my biceps tightening a bit due to weight and the stress of carrying the hammer around.

After getting to know what is the bellows for and the furnace that had a permanent bed of coals on top plus the equipment like the tongs, bucket of water as well as the anvil where I would be learning how to start pounding on those pieces of ores to make ingots.

As a teacher, Old Jack was very firm and I am now being undertaken as part of his apprentice student and I Old Jack had the time of his life of chiding me for every little mistake that I had done.

Right now, regardless whether I am the people's ruler or not, I am under a different territory and this territory belonged to Old Jack and Old Jack alone...!

After learning all the tools of the trade and its uses and fundamentals, I was told by old Jack to go to the handcart to retrieve a single piece of iron ore and threw it inside the furnace. The ore was as big as an enclosed adult fist and after gingerly throwing the piece on top of the furnace I stepped back and awaits Old Jack's instruction.

"Start the bellows until I say stop, my dear king. Go on, pump the bellows upwards to draw the air in and press it downwards to push the air out of the bellows and into the furnace from the sides. Do it until the furnace is red hot and the piece of iron ore is the same colour as the coals."

"Old Jack, how long do you need me to pump the bellows?"

I inquired as I squat down and started to pull the handle of the bellows to fill it with air and slowly pumped it.

"Do it until I tell you to stop then. You really work like a woman, my dear king. Come on, put in more effort... Yeah... You can do it, my dear king. Yeah... Work Those biceps and triceps... That's it... Use both of your hands to pull the bellows up... Yeah...! "

I felt as if Old Jack was trying to traverse a horse drawing a wagon and urging it forward even though it may be galloping at its maximum effort already. Hahaha.

=*=

Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you for the POWERSTONES and God Bless.