The World Dragon's Heir-Chapter 46: Royal Smithy Wagers

Dominic tidied up the blueprints he had been studying and tucked the notebook that he had been working from under his arm. This was going to be a trial by fire, somewhat literally, to see if his ideas about how he would design something, versus how to repair it back to the original spec, were actually functional.

Along the way, they met up with a pair of Farrier’s apprentices, the ones who made almost all the horseshoes and other equine equipment that the Royal Family needed, including the tack for the Mechanical horses, as they wore through them just as quickly as any other horse.

"So, how does it feel to be the Master Weaponsmith old man? I hope you brought something impressive for that journeyman Armourer, he was pushing hard to be chosen for the spot and I hear he’s pretty bitter." The farrier greeted Pops as they walked.

"I’m not showing him shit. If he wants to impress someone, he needs to at least get on my level. Hell, he’s barely on par with my Apprentice, and I don’t care what his trade core says." Pops snorted in derision.

The farrier laughed and gestured with his chin toward the forges. "Look at that, he’s even come early to wait for you. Don’t mind us if we stay for the show."

The portly man standing by the door sneered as he greeted them.

"Well, look what the gutters coughed up. Finished slumming it with the gate trash?" The man asked.

"If his apprentice is this disrespectful, I can only imagine what the guy who wanted to be granted the Rank of Royal Master Smith is like." Dominic mock whispered to Pops, deliberately loud enough to be heard, and pointedly ignoring the bright blue trade skill gem on the man’s necklace.

If he wasn’t already technically a master, he was very close to it.

"Why you little... are those horns? Did you pick a Sorcerer as an apprentice? Just when I thought that you couldn’t get any lower, you managed to surprise me again." The man snarled, addressing Pops.

"Aye, they’re horns. We were so short on decent smiths in town that I took in the first waif that came to my door looking for work. Good thing, too. He turned out so much better than the last noble who wanted to be my apprentice. He’s got actual skills." Pops replied.

The man’s jaw ticked and a vein in his head looked like it was going to burst, but Pops guided Dominic right past the enraged smith and over to the forges.

"Everyone, listen up. It’s my apprentice’s first attempt to craft a magic item that he designed himself. It’s an ambitious one, but as usual, and in my role as his Master, I will be hosting the betting." Pops announced.

The forge filled with cheers and shouts as Dominic rolled out the blueprint and the other apprentices ran to get his materials.

"Don’t be expecting this treatment again, but we’re wagering on you winning." One of the young men informed him as he placed the required materials on the bench.

"Thanks, I just hope I won’t let you down. This really is a design that I made, and my first time trying." he replied.

"Pops wouldn’t lie to us, we knew it would be true. Just keep focusing and you’ll get it. That plan looks solid, so even if part of it doesn’t work, you should still get a common grade out of it, and that’s not a complete fail on the bet."

Even if Dominic turned out a mediocre creation, or a partial success, everyone would get their money back from Pops. The only one who would lose out was Dominic, as it was his reputation as an apprentice Weaponsmith at stake.

A Weaponsmith about to be judged by his Journeyman peers during the official Apprentice Selection, which was clearly riding on his ability to succeed with an unknown blueprint of questionable quality.

The materials that they had found for him were all top quality, already refined up to weapons grade standards by the forge helpers, the junior workers who were hoping to get taken in as someone’s official apprentice while they did the drudge work.

Without a chance to do real blacksmith work, they rarely got any skill gains, so they were stuck at level one if they even had a trade skill core, but they were young, and most of them were working on building up their bodies to the stamina and strength levels that the journeymen demanded.

The other workers all looked over the plans that Dominic had laid out before they placed their bets, and he could tell that the majority of them were tending toward him failing. The project was considered too ambitious for an apprentice to take on.

Especially with the magical barrier that was created solely by the magitech circuitry.

Normally, the life of a smith was very direct. They were born from a family of smithy workers, they got a job with the smithy, they got an apprenticeship in the smithy, and that was that. Most of them were barely educated enough to read the blueprints, and the number of them who were familiar with magitech device design and repair without going to the Artificer’s school was close to zero.

In a way, that was Dominic’s greatest advantage, and today it was the unknown factor that he hoped would sway the betting toward him not owing Pops for a huge gambling loss.

With that in mind, Dominic got the metals into the forge to soften while the forge workers operated the bellows.

"How about we make a proper bet?" The journeyman armourer suggested to Pops.

"Oh, what would you like to wager?"

"How about we go for a month’s wages? You know, make it count for something." He offered.

Dominic could almost feel Pops’ smile as he looked at the antagonistic armourer before agreeing.

"You’ve got yourself a deal."

Then Dominic dug out the circuitry shapes in the sandpit by his workstation, where the bronze would be poured to create the rough outline of the magical circuit. That could cool while he worked on the intricate design of the double-edged Shortsword blade, and the core of the sword on which the magitech circuitry would be mounted.

He whistled happily as he worked, ignoring the crowd that was neglecting their own work to see how he was doing, and began to hammer out the basic components while the brass liquified.

"Well, he at least knows what he’s doing with the hammer. I’ll be back to check up on him in an hour." The farrier informed Pops, with a friendly pat on the back.

That was the signal for most of the others to disperse to their tasks, with only the Master Armourer remaining behind to keep an eye on Dominic’s progress.

Dominic got the feeling it was so that Pops couldn’t cheat and help him out or replace his design with one of Pops’ own. But Pops wouldn’t make life that easy on him. He wanted his apprentice to learn where he had messed up on the blueprints, and to see if he would catch it on his own or if he would have to try again.

The blade would be created with a notch in the middle, and then an outer plate on one side of the fuller would be pinned and pressed to hold in the core, so that the delicate circuitry would not be damaged when the weapon took a hit. That added a lot more difficulty to this than just creating a standard blade. Fortunately, the Royal Forges already had a tool to shape the blade around, and he wouldn’t have to mock one up.

The core, which included the majority of the structure of the hilt, bent into shape rather smoothly, and Dominic was reaming out the peg holes for the grip so they were perfectly round when the brass was finally ready to pour into the circuit paths, once he had carved them out of wax and surrounded that with sand to keep it from running.

But when he looked over to the sand table, someone had put a hand on his patterns, messing up three quarters of the designs that he had sketched out.

While that was annoying, it wasn’t the end of the world. A quick swipe with the levelling board, and he sketched out another set of designs from the blueprints, while the bronze lingered in the forge.

Then he poured the bronze and let it set up as he worked on the outer shell of the blade. The hard part would be getting the moving portions of the circuit’s actuation relays to perfectly align without having premade mould stamps.

Artificers would, and anyone who regularly made gears and magitech circuits, like the repairmen, but this was a Royal Military working forge for standard issue weapons, armour and horse supplies. They weren’t the ones that you went to for that sort of fancy thing.

But Dominic knew a simple trick to making the layers of circuit work together. He just had to make them all identical, and then space out the mounting points until they met properly.

And that was what he did. He lined up all the layers of thin brass so that they met perfectly, then centre punched the marks for the holes in the frame that would slide into the centre of the blade, to mount the pins. Drilling hot metal wasn’t all that hard, and the forge here had outstanding tools, which had Dominic looking over his assembled weapon by lunch.

He had made one minor mistake as he created the circuit. The original design would have only enhanced the durability of the outer shell, not the interior magical workings. If the blade was used, the thin brass would warp the first time someone blocked it, or the blade hit a solid object.

Something like Ogre armour.

Fortunately, he had noticed in time to make the corrections, so he could pretend like he hadn’t come within minutes of creating absolutely useless decorative trash.

All that was left was to inscribe the final magical pathways into the circuits, then attach a Gem of some sort to either give it an enhancement or hold the potential for a spell to activate with his own mana. He had designed the hilt to hold a spell gem, but he didn’t have any unaligned gems of his own. A minor oversight on his part.

So, the Gem was the only thing that he didn’t have available. There wasn’t one in the pile of stuff that the other Apprentices had assembled, and he didn’t see any of them around in the supply room.

In fact, there likely weren’t any, as they were a precious resource for everyone, and only the Magitech Orbs could be created, all forms of gems had to be obtained from the Monsters or mined, cut and polished.

He would have to figure that out later, and for now, Dominic would just crush a monster core over it, the way that they had done for the first weapons creation lesson at Pop’s forge, and hope that it turned out for the best.

That was the best plan that he could come up with. Adding a crushed Goblin Core and a load of mana, with the durability and energy barrier magitech circuit, should be enough to make this blade an Uncommon Magic Blade, even without a gem attached.

A few final touches to the magitech circuitry engraved between the blade and the gem mount, and it was time for the moment of truth.

The armourer whistled loudly as he was finishing the carving, nearly making Dominic scratch the last line improperly, and everyone gathered around him.

Dominic carefully ground a core from one of the Hobgoblins into dust while the blade heated, and then hesitated. Everyone knew he was a Sorcerer, so maybe he could use the Dragon Fire to make a better demonstration piece? It would definitely win the bet. But he really didn’t want to show off that particular ability in public.

Wiz’s family seemed reliable, and he trusted them, or at least their rural location, to keep the important parts to themselves. But he didn’t know anyone here but Pops, and he had only ever heard how treacherous the Palace culture was.

Perhaps it was better if he didn’t show off any unusual skills.

The blade was up to temperature to add the core dust, and as Dominic sprinkled the core dust, he added a pulse of magic, which turned the blade shining silver.

Dominic focused on sending mana through the circuitry as the blade’s creation finished, and the blade lit up with a solid red energy barrier as it flicked from inert to active and back again at his directions.

[Rare Item Created. Energy Sword of Rage.] Level 4 enchantment. Grants the user 4% strength while in combat. Added damage and durability.

Having the Trade Skill Core on his wrist where he could see the notifications within the gem made life so much easier.