Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 364 - 232 Ancient Sword Forging! (8600 words for monthly ticket)_5

Chapter 364: Chapter 232 Ancient Sword Forging! (8600 words for monthly ticket)_5

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Finally, after the craftsmen labored ceaselessly day and night to forge, this piece of steel appeared to finally be free of impurities.

However, its size had shrunk too much after repeated forging, making Li Hongyun seriously doubt whether it could still be crafted into a knife of adequate length.

This was a normal occurrence, as the final product’s weight would be at least half that of the raw material, and in ancient Huaxia, the production of fine steel from coarse iron typically required ten times the amount of coarse iron.

Li Hongyun pondered whether, if push came to shove, a dagger would suffice to pass the trial?

It seemed highly unlikely.

After all, there was a dead pig on the sword-testing stand, and one had to cleave through the dead pig in one stroke to pass the trial; clearly, a dagger lacked such length.

In any case, it was worth a try.

Li Hongyun didn’t want to wait any longer; he was eager to see what his first forged knife would look like.

So, he took the piece of iron from the tool golem and began hammering again.

Diligently shaping it into the form of a knife.

This process was equally challenging and also required many rounds of hammering. However, more hammering wasn’t always better; if hammered too much, the blade would become too narrow and long, and would need to be folded and forged anew.

That would mean wasting a great deal of iron.

In the worst-case scenario, one might find the blade getting shorter and shorter as they worked, which would be quite embarrassing.

Moreover, the steel wasn’t improved by simply increasing the number of foldings and forgings, as too many repetitions could lead to a reduction in the carbon content, rendering the steel into soft, wrought iron. In modern processes, carbon could be added to wrought iron to salvage it, but in ancient times, such a mistake was usually irreversible.

"Okay, quench it!

"Whatever comes of it, let’s just make something and see."

Li Hongyun reckoned that this could at least be considered a "fifty-folded" treasure blade.

The so-called "hundred-fold" refers to the number of times the metal is heated during forging. A hundred-folded treasure blade means that a piece of iron is repeatedly heated and forged hundreds of times, which is astonishingly consumptive and inefficient in production, yet the resulting swords and blades are of excellent quality.

In fact, if one aimed for perfection, they would employ techniques like "sanmai" (three-piece lamination) during this stage.

Simply put, it involves wrapping different carbon-content steels around each other, separately creating the sharp edge and the body of the blade. Different wrapping methods and structures result in different properties of the blade, but generally speaking, this is considered a more advanced technique.

For Li Hongyun, he hadn’t even mastered the basics, so naturally, he was not equipped to attempt such high-end maneuvers.

After heating the roughly-shaped blade again, he plunged it into cold water for sudden cooling.

Flames and smoke billowed out, accompanied by a "sizzling" sound; the quenching was complete.

Quenching makes the steel blade tough and elastic.

The quenching process seems simple but has its challenges.

The degree of heating, the level of cooling, and the quality of the water all have significant impacts. Inadequate quenching leaves the blade soft and prone to rolling; excessive quenching makes the blade brittle and likely to chip or break.

Furthermore, according to ancient craftsmen, the water used for quenching also required careful consideration. Some water was "crisp," while other water was "dull," with the latter unsuitable for quenching as it could ruin the blade.

Going into these details would obviously involve knowledge of chemistry and materials science, which Li Hongyun didn’t dwell on, knowing he was out of his depth.

The good news was that he didn’t need to determine the water quality of different rivers, as the game provided the water he needed.

"That’s that, let’s start grinding!"

Li Hongyun directed the tool golem craftsmen to grind and edge the quenched blade repeatedly, and finally, fix a handle to it.

In ancient times, a swordsmith’s job only went as far as creating the blade, with perhaps a rough grind after quenching. The subsequent processes required other craftsmen for fine grinding, making handles, sheaths, carving various decorative parts, inlaying or painting on the sheaths, and so on.

Fortunately, these relatively unimportant steps could all be delegated to other craftsmen.

Li Hongyun fast-forwarded through the entire process.

After another round of struggles, the knife that could essentially be considered his own design and creation finally appeared before him.

Thinking about all the many steps he’d taken, Li Hongyun felt like vomiting blood.

It was too hard!

Just the first stage of the trial had already seemed impossibly difficult in Li Hongyun’s view.

He was truly curious about what the second stage would be like.

Of course, to be fair, the difficulty of this trial might not necessarily exceed that of the Cavalry Trial.

The Cavalry Trial required talent, and those without it, no matter how hard they tried, would still be unable to pass; whereas the Divine Machine Trial needed not just talent, but also experience, memory, and patience amongst other factors.

Li Hongyun held the knife in his hand, weighing it slightly.

"Hmm... I can’t say it’s flawless, but it can be considered passable."

As soon as he gripped it, Li Hongyun immediately felt the knife’s deficiencies.

Before, he had often used standard-issue weapons from the Qi Army and Sheng Army in the Trial Illusion, and he had also captured some high-quality foreign blades.

Thus, he could immediately feel whether a knife was any good upon handling it.

A good knife should be comfortable to hold, have an appropriate center of gravity, and a beautiful curvature... and clearly, these were not things Li Hongyun could expect at the moment.

He had only one hope now, that the knife wouldn’t break.

With a nervous heart, Li Hongyun approached the sword-testing platform.

He first stood in front of a hard bone.

Taking a deep breath, Li Hongyun shouted loudly and then swung the long knife, chopping down fiercely on the bone!

With a crisp "clang" sound!

At first, Li Hongyun thought he had been so lucky as to forge a razor-sharp treasure that made a sword hum, but the next second, he saw something indiscernible seemingly flying away from in front of his eyes.

Upon closer inspection, a shallow wound appeared on the bone, while the knife in his hand had snapped into two pieces.

"Damn!"

Li Hongyun was at a loss for words.

Months of forging, and the blade broke in an instant.

Even though many steps could be accelerated or skipped in the game, and Li Hongyun’s actual playtime was only a few hours, looking at the results of those hours being so effortlessly reduced to nothing right before his eyes, he still felt a bit of a collapse.

"Forget it, I’ll start over!

"To have managed to forge the rough shape on the first attempt already proves my extraordinary talent."

Painfully reflecting on his mistake, Li Hongyun decided to start from scratch.

It appeared that this knife had either a too high carbon content, making it too brittle, or there were flaws or imperfections in the blade, or perhaps the temperature of the blade during quenching was too high, or the water temperature too low, which caused it to break when chopping hard materials.

Li Hongyun made an effort to recall the process of forging this knife, and thankfully, with his Jin-colored talent, he could clearly remember those details.

"Exactly where did the problem occur..."

As he summarized his previous failed attempt, Li Hongyun began a new trial.