Day 23-30: Balt

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On the next day, Balt was welcomed by another man. This one was broad shouldered, was bold and wore a thick leather apron that had viqibly been used often.

"I heard you want to become my apprentice."
"Yes sir."
"Hum... Considering your dedication i will teach you if you pass this test."
"A test?"
"More like a personality test, realy. What id a sword?"
"Its a tool used by people to protect and battle."
"I see... Why do you wish to learn?"
"I want my swords
To open the path towards the unknown"
"Why from me?"
"I heard you were the best."
"Do you know why?"
"No sir."
"Humph! Fine. Congratulation, you pass!"
"Really?"
"Really."
"Yess!!!"

While the master smith grumbled something about noisy youth Bart executed a little "Dance of Joy" witch consisted in jumping on the spot while waving his arm arround. It was quite embarassing so he stoped shortly after realising his outburst and exitedly asked when they would start his teaching.

"Now"

He was lead though a back door and entered a small private court. There was several wooden poles and three large egg shaped clay domes the height of a man. Under them large fires were lit.

"This is called a smelter. You put ores in it and over time the minerals will melt, pass through the purifying layers and drip from there."

The master indicated the mouth of the smelter and a tube protubeting from its side at the botom.

"Once it does it will fall into this clay pot and you use the pinch to move the pot and pour the smolten metal into a mold."
"This would be forging right?"
"Yes. When you forge it is important to pound the metal while its hot, to do this you have a set of anvil right behind you. Today i will teach you to make ingots."

He made Balt bring his chest, where the ores had been previously stored outside and watch as he used a large amount of tin ores to demonstrate.

"At this temperature Tin is the quickest to heat. It will begin to melt in less than ten minutes. After than commes Copper with 40-43, Brass with 1h-1h10, gold and silver with 1h20-1h25 and iron with 1h30-1h45. the timing is important as if you forget the mold might over flow and you would need to do it all over again. since the metal will be extremely hot we use this" he grabbed a pair of large pinces from the back of the anvil "to lift and move the molds. Remember that only two third of what you put in is metal, once molten the volume will be decreased so choose your pots and molds whole considering how many ore you've put in the Smelter."

As he talked a bright red liquid started dripping from the tube on the side of the smelter. The molten metal fell into a large pot. After two minutes it was half filled. After placing another pot unnder the first, he used the pinces to lift the smirring hot metal and poured it into an ingot mold.

"It takes arround twice the time to cool it but once the exterior is orange like you can put it into the water. It accelerates the process and fixes the forme more durably."

The craftmaster continued to tell him about the details of smelting then switched to telling him about the molds. Molds could be made of stones but the most durable one were madenof clay. Molten metal could be poured into many kind of molds but would only produce the simplest result such as arrow heads, knives and daggers. For large pieces like a sword or an axe it was necessary to forge the product manually.
Molds could be obtained at the potter or the carver, to create a special mold you would beed to create a draft of it and hand it to the crafter.

"Today you will melt your ores, tomorow you will learn how to do and read drafts. Hum... the ceremony is in two days. As my apprentice i expect you to chose the Crafter class. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir"
"Good. now i will leave you alone while you smelt. Come find me when your done."

Balt pulled out all of his Copper Ores and tossed them into the smelter. He put the largest pot under the exit tube and prepared thirty ingot molds next to him. By the time the preparations were done the metal was already flowing from the smelter. Although it was driping.
In a hurry Brat used the Pinces to grab the pot before it was full and emptied it in the molds. As he did so, the molten metal continued to fall from the tube and spred on the soil.
For twenty minutes Balt continued filling molds until the copper stoped flowing out.
He dipped the half cooled molds into a watter barrel and while clouds and
Seering sound were produced. when he was done cooling the ingots he removed them from the molds and stacked them back into his magic chest.
Then usic a hamer and chisel he had found next to the anvil, he went to the cooled down pool of copper and broke in into half. He put it back into the smelter and placed the pot under the tube once again. after a few minutes copper started dripping out and he poured it into ingot mold again.
Once he was done smelting the other half he pulled out all the silver he had and turned it into ingots too.
Since the time for smelting silver was so long he asked permision to start studying drafts right now.

For the next hour he sat next to the hot smelter and read draft after draft, comparing the notes and drawing to what the finished product looked like.
When the silver was melted he poured it into ingots of 1Kg each. Then he melted the iron into 5kg ingots.
By the time the sun set he was done with smelting everything exept the brass and tin.
••••
-GENERAL STATUS-
Name: Balt
Civilization: Pholien
Basic Class: Undecided
Age: 15

-PHYSICAL STATUS-
Constitution: [Stamina Up][Strenth Up]
Dexterity:[
Possessed Combat Skills:[
Possessed Suport Skills: [

-EDUCATIONAL STATUS-
Intelligence:[Comon Language]
Wisdom:[
Charisma:[
Possessed Combat Skills:
Possessed Suport Skills:
Possedssed HouseWork Skills: [cloth washing]
Possessed Extraction Skills: [Mining]
Possessed Crafting Skills: [Mineral Apraisal][Smelting]

-EQUIPMENT STATUS-
Weapon :
Secondary Weapon :
Clothing: Dirty Old Tunic, String Belt, Dirty Old Trousers,
Under-Armor/Soft Armor:
Light Armor:
Intermediate Armor:
Heavy Armor:

Accessory Equipment Limit 0/15

-INVENTORY-
Pick-axe, Magic chest perchment,
Magic-Chest: Copper ingot 5k (25), Brass Ore (136), Tin ore (78), Silver ingot 1k (30), Iron ingot 3k (47), quarts stone (46)
••••

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