I slowly raised my finished blade up in front of me for inspection. The blade itself was just over an arm's length and had been made using both Vracrassium, a dark orange metal which shimmered within the light of the flickering forge flames, which formed the central filler area and a bright white steel alloy as the actual blade, reflecting a complete image of the background flames along the centre of the blade, as if the flames were part of the sword itself. It was a straight and double bladed sword which seemed sharp enough to cut through some of the strongest metals or even light itself. The cross guard was a simple rectangular block of pure Orichalcum, which was a few shades lighter than the blade itself and an extremely dense and sturdy metal, the guard curved outwards from the centre, simple but effective in my opinion. The hilt was more extravagant than the rest of the sword, the cylindrical hilt was covered by a wrapping of black silk which had golden flower heads and falling leaves embroidered in gold lace. The pommel was a large ruby which had been cut in many angles creating an array of tiny flat surfaces to create a rough spherical shape, which reflected every glimmer of light that went near to it.
I gave the freshly forged swords a couple of test swings using both of my hands at first, the blade was extremely light and balanced for a longsword such as this, however I noticed that while using two hands I wouldn't be able to harness its true cutting speed and blade reach. So I switched to just using my right hand, the first thing I noticed was that the blade had seemingly not got any heavier with the loss of my other arm's strength, an unusual property for a longsword which I put down to the uncommon mixture of metals that made the blade up.
I quickly opened its stats panel, under pure instinct, and scrolled down looking at each of its different stats and modifiers. It had a balanced attack and speed however the defence stat was lower than most one handed swords to compensate for this. As I had suspected one of the sword's modifiers included a featherweight buff along with a bone breaker buff, perfect for killing skeletal monsters and for smashing through brittle materials. The last thing I looked at was its name, "Phantom Breaker", obviously intended to be used as a rushing weapon.
I drew a thin grey iron rod from my inventory and placed it with its ends on different tables, leaving a large middle section exposed, allowing for a bit of blade testing. The system which governed Forging worked in two different manners each with their own disadvantages and one mainly used by the majority players was the assisted system, this meant that players could forge weapons and armour by hitting an ingot of metal in specific ways to create an item. This method was much faster and didn't require a very high forging skill for it to work. However items created this way suffered a drop in each of their stats, their resale price is lower than a normal drop and it uses up the full bar of metal. The second system, used by only a few people, including me, was a much more realistic method of creation. Items made using this method took many hours of metal heating, forming and adjustments. Good results required a high forging skill and the time it took to create each item was debatably longer than it was really worth. However the rewards for using this system were great, the items had a slight increase of stats than normal drop items, the smith could mix a number of metals together to combine buffs that come from specific metals to create perfect metal combinations. But most importantly we could customise how the item would look once it is complete to some varying degree.
I raised the sword above my head and let a one strike skill build up within the sword making it glow a deep red. I swung the sword down at the centre of the iron rod. The sword whistled for the split second it was cutting through the thick air before it made a shattering contact with the iron bar. The sword plummeted through the iron rod without any real resistance while the two sides of the rod fell to the ground with a clatter, glowing slightly at the cut ends. A few seconds later the iron rod burst into a flurry of white pixels which floated into the roaring furnace.
Pleased with the results of my somewhat unprofessional test I slid the sword into the hard brown leather scabbard which was resting on the table to my right. The sword was one of the better blades I had created and so I was certain that it would easily be able to stand up to whatever trials that Lisbeth threw at it in order to prove that she was the better smith. I picked up the now sheathed sword, which had noticeably picked up a bit of weight from the leather, and threaded it onto my belt where it rested on my right side.
Happy that I had completed my task I shovelled a few more coals into the dimming furnace, replaced a few odd hammers which I had used from the tools rack, and walked up the few stairs and out through the light door to the shop section of the building. Both Sky and Lisbeth were currently inside the shop, it seemed as if Lisbeth was showing off some of her wares and recalling how she made each of them, how she procured the metals which she used and of the many grateful and regular customers which visited her shop. Lisbeth had finished her sword hours ago by using the assisted system and had quickly got bored of watching me and so she had left to go tend the store, Sky soon followed her out of a similar boredom.
As I walked in through the back door both of them turned from one of the display cabinets up against the wall and looked expectantly at me, to which I lightly tapped the ruby pommel of the sheathed sword. Sky rolled her eyes at how long it had taken for one somewhat simple sword to have been forged, but Lisbeth looked at the sword with a content and smug look while she placed a hand on the hilt of her own creation which was similarly sheathed at her side.
"Now that you've finally finished out there, shall we begin the trials?" She asked as if she was talking to a child.
"Lead the way." was my short reply.