WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 88
──────
My Fiancée
* * *
Those who lived in the Inner Tower could, in principle, make use of something called the auction house.
This, too, could be seen as a function granted to them once the Tower opened.
It was another piece of new technology, one the younger crowd made plenty of use of, but that wasn't so easy for the older generation to pick up.
Just then, a small commotion broke out in the great tent of the Sun Dwarves' settlement on the 89th floor.
"... Grand Chieftain."
"What is it."
"The Solar Disc Iron you listed on the auction house just sold."
"......."
Iron that held the sun within it, Solar Disc Iron was the ore most familiar to the Sun Dwarves, and the one with the highest value.
Naturally, it was an ore that any Heir of Flame would eventually feel compelled to work with, the longer time went on.
That was why Ricardo had listed it, hoping the Heir would be the one to buy it.
Hoping that someday the Heir would come to recognize its worth and purchase it on his own....
"It was 500,000 gold, wasn't it."
"Yes."
"... He must have felt that was quite steep."
One might wonder why he hadn't just given it away cheap, but the actual value of Solar Disc Iron was closer to ten million gold.
It was, after all, one of the ores kept in the treasury handed down through generations of ancestors.
500,000 gold, then, a price steep enough to keep any outside group that could actually recognize its worth from stepping in....
An Heir of Flame surely wouldn't struggle for money, so Ricardo had simply hoped he'd buy it someday.
The waiting was over.
And sooner than expected, too.
'Good. He's making progress.'
He'd recognized its worth.
There wasn't much Ricardo could actually do for the Heir right now, only small things like this.
All that was left now was to watch and see what the Heir would make with the Solar Disc Iron.
* * *
"... I'm scared to death."
This was, after all, a five-hundred-thousand-gold ore.
Unlike Whiteheart Iron, this wasn't something I could carelessly melt down or fritter away, there was no backup supply waiting behind it.
Temperature control mattered more than ever at this point.
"Whiri, I'm counting on you."
"Yes!"
I lit the crucible furnace and pushed the Solar Disc Iron into the crucible, sliding it inside.
- Whooosh!
With Whiri's help, I brought the heat up.
Solar Disc Iron was iron that held the sun itself, and this crucible furnace was probably about to have the hottest day it had ever had since it was born.
Which, naturally, went for me too....
"Yeah, I have Whiri."
"Yay!"
Looked like I didn't need to worry about steaming to death.
- Whoosh....
A little more, just a little more....
The most intuitive way to gauge rising heat was by the change in the flame's color.
From red to orange, orange to yellow....
And then, slowly, slowly raising the heat further.
- Whooosh!
A white flame bloomed up.
"... Just like this... slowly...."
Whiri and I had gotten used to working together lately, and we'd talked a lot about controlling the fire.
Once we decided on the exact temperature to hold, all Whiri had to do was breathe in a light gust of wind once every twenty-five seconds.
Blow too hard and the heat would spike enough to melt the crucible furnace, blow too gently and the temperature would drop.
"Good, just like that."
All that was left now was to wait until the Solar Disc Iron properly soaked up the heat.
I watched from up on the steps as the Solar Disc Iron sat there among the white flames, getting its heat treatment.
... About five minutes had passed, and I was just thinking there was still no change, when it happened.
Solar Disc Iron was, at its base, a silver ore streaked with veins of red.
But suddenly, as if an earthquake had cracked dry ground, the red veins split open with a crack.
"W-wait."
- Zzzt....
and it started dyeing its entire silver surface a deep red.
I had heard as much, that depending on its nature and "grade," Solar Disc Iron could change appearance when refined.
"Still, even so...."
was it really okay for it to turn this red?
The edges of the now-red Solar Disc Iron thickened, then slowly began to slump like ice cream in the summer heat.
"... Well."
Come to think of it, red would actually work great for making rose petals. Mm, yeah, it'd suit them perfectly.
With a positive outlook, I picked up a rod and gently stirred the softening Solar Disc Iron.
"... Well, that saves me the trouble of painting it."
Of course, I'd never actually planned on painting it.
The red molten iron dripped thickly inside the crucible, and I poked it a few more times to check no lumps were left.
"... Whiri, you don't need to keep the fire up anymore."
"Yes!"
- Whrrm....
I dragged the wide mold I'd prepared beforehand onto the worktable.
Now all I had to do was pour the Solar Disc Iron in and let it harden into a sheet, though it was far thinner than I'd expected.
That made pouring it a lot trickier, if it overflowed, it'd be a disaster.
I gave the mold a light warm-up too, it couldn't be too cold.
Once everything was ready, I picked up the tongs and clamped them firmly onto the crucible.
"... I won't spill it."
[Is that a pep talk?]
I carefully came down the steps, lifted the crucible, and tilted it over the mold.
- Glug glug....
The moment the truly blood-red molten iron began pouring onto the mold.
"Slowly...."
The mold filled steadily, just as I wanted.
Whoa, whoa, the corners too, over there, whoa. Fill it right up.
Before I knew it, I'd managed to pour the molten metal evenly across the whole large sheet.
Not spilling a single drop onto the floor was, honestly, a remarkable feat in itself.
... Each drop was worth something like a hundred thousand won, after all.
Like I said, the sheet was extremely thin, so it didn't take long to harden.
And even once it cooled, the color stayed the same.
I pressed lightly on the sheet with a spatula.
"... Mm."
Not fully set yet. Perfect.
I pulled out Dawn Bringer right away and gently tapped the surface.
- Tonk... tonk....
It was partly a leveling process, and partly the step that let an Heir of Flame's hammerwork settle into the metal.
And once the leveling was done, what came next was the knife.
I took the cutting knife I'd sharpened the day before and drew it across the Solar Disc Iron sheet in swift strokes.
I'd already finished breaking down the rose's structure. Its petals grew larger toward the outside and smaller, more tightly curled toward the center.
So all I had to do was cut the Solar Disc Iron sheet itself into three sections, large, medium, and small.
Then adjust each resulting piece with tiny, individual variations to shape them into petals, that was the whole process.
"In the end, it comes down to handwork."
- Shk....
I drew the knife across the iron sheet in clean strokes, marking off the sections. That took care of the large, medium, and small divisions.
Now all that was left was to cut each section to size.
- Shk... shk....
Maybe because Solar Disc Iron was fundamentally an ore, the scraping sound of the knife had a pretty satisfying, almost ASMR quality to it.
And so I managed to divide the large sheet into countless pieces.
"... Now, by hand."
In the end, handwork was unavoidable.
If someone threatened me into making a flower using nothing but a hammer... well, I probably could.
But I'd guarantee that what I'd end up handing Yeomhwa wouldn't be a rose, it'd be a red napa cabbage.
Solar Disc Iron heated up fast, but it also cooled just as fast, basically a pot-like material, so to speak.
But as far as its strengths when used as equipment went, they were actually considerable.
Quick to start up and with little room to overheat, in the end, it was a material that suited Yeomhwa perfectly.
"......."
Still a long way to go.
The moment I set the knife down, I picked up the smallest piece first.
I pinched both sides in and curled the tip slightly inward.
- Squeeze.
"... One."
Finally, one done.
One petal complete.
- Bzzt....
According to Yuna's hologram floating in the air, the number of petals still left....
[9 large, 12 medium, 14 small!]
That meant thirty-five more to go.
Not that counting numbers was really the point with something like this.
I picked up the next piece right away.
Instead of just curling it the same way, I pressed each petal at a slightly different angle.
The point was that all thirty-six petals had to differ in size and shape.
If they were all identical, that'd just be a mass-produced part.
How long had passed like that, I wondered.
- Squeeze....
"...... Thirty. Six."
I carefully set the last petal down on the worktable.
... At last, I'd finished gathering all thirty-six petals.
I'd made them all, but....
My fingers barely moved anymore, and my back felt a bit off too.
"But seriously, how much time actually passed?"
[...... 20 hours]
"......."
Yeah, it's fine.
I'll rest properly once this is all done, so it's all good.
Now for the last step.
If there's a rosebud, there naturally has to be a stem to support it.
So what would I make the stem out of?
"Whiteheart Iron."
A reemployment for a material that had gloriously washed out as the main ingredient.
If you're good at something, you can always find work somewhere.
The core circuit that mana would flow through had to be the rosebud itself in the end, and the stem really just needed to do its job of support.
And for a job like that, there was no material better suited than Whiteheart Iron.
It fell flat as the star of the show, but for something like this, it was just right.
I brought over the Whiteheart Iron stem I'd already prepared beside the worktable.
A silver stem about half the length of a pinky finger. The color combination would differ from a real rose, but I liked it better this way.
Silver and red, isn't that elegant?
"Let's assemble it."
I set the Whiteheart Iron stem upright in the fixture.
It was a small detail, but I'd carved tiny, tightly-packed grooves into the tip of the stem.
So the petals could slot in without any trouble.
"Pull it up."
[Sure.]
- Bzzt....
A translucent hologram of the rose appeared above the Whiteheart Iron stem.
It was an exact match for the three-dimensional blueprint of the rose I'd brought from the garden.
- Creak.
The moment I slotted in the first petal, it clung snugly to the Whiteheart Iron stem.
"About this much."
Next, petal number two wrapped around the first, going to the opposite side.
- Click.
Petal number three filled in the gap between them.
- Click.
With every petal added, a small bud took shape at the tip of the stem.
"Oh."
Now it was starting to look like an actual flower.
I kept slotting in petals without a break, following the hologram.
The small petals held the inside tight, the medium petals were staggered to complement one another.
And the largest petals were placed so they could cradle everything inside.
And, the most important function of all, so the petals could unfurl whenever needed.
- Click.
Now only one petal remained.
The final, thirty-sixth petal slid into place.
- Crk....
"......."
At the same instant, the Solar Disc Iron and Whiteheart Iron seized onto each other and locked tight.
Tight, so completely fused that the seam vanished, as if it had been welded shut....
"......."
At last... a rose, blood-red, had been made.
I held up my rose and compared it against the one I'd brought from the garden....
"......."
After going back and forth between them for a long while, I reached a conclusion.
"Mine's better."
I'd dethroned the "original" and made the perfect rose.
"Heh heh."
I spent a while admiring the flower with a sly grin, until a thought suddenly struck me.
"... A flower needs to see sunlight."
Well, obviously.
I stood up with the rose still in hand....
- Wobble.
"Whoa...."
I caught myself against the desk, just barely holding steady.
"Almost fell over."
If I was going to collapse, it'd be after this was finished.
If I'd dropped with thirty-five petals still left to go, I'd have been too bitter to even close my eyes.
On unsteady legs, I opened the workshop door and stepped outside.
- Creak....
The pouring sunlight greeted me....
I lay down in the workshop garden and held the rose out under the sun.
"... Go on, get some photosynthesis in."
At that moment.
- Shiver....
The rose clutched tight in my hand trembled.
And then.
- Rustle....
Its folded petals slowly unfurled.
"W-wait."
I hadn't even activated it yet?
And then, deep inside the fully bloomed rose, a spark caught on one of the petals.
- Sizzzle....
A golden engraving began to burn itself into place.
"... So it's finally here."
The pattern of a Sun Dwarf, an Heir of Flame, specifically that of a Skilled Blacksmith.
An engraving once again standing as proof that an Heir of Flame had completed a piece of equipment.
The golden engraving carved itself into the innermost petal.
"......."
- Pop!
And then, right before my eyes, the equipment's interface appeared.
─────────────────
[Fiancée: Rose Bloom Finale][★★★★☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility Rating][ - /100]
─────────────────
[A rose that holds the sun within it never wilts.]
[Equipment of a beauty that would make even the gods envious.]
[The wearer gains a measure of divinity.]
─────────────────
【Solar Bloom】
【All thirty-six petals absorb sunlight and ambient heat, storing it in their own independent chambers.】
【While the bud remains closed, heat accumulates; the instant it fully blooms, every chamber activates at once.】
【As long as sunlight or heat continues to be supplied, rounds reload without limit.】
─────────────────
『Hiding's your choice. If you can dodge, that is.』
- ??? -
『Equipment that holds flame within it, all the way to something made for my daughter.』
『Your intent, I understand it precisely.』
『Gaia, you do know what a rose means in the language of flowers, don't you?』
- Ignia, Goddess of Fire -
『.................』
- Gaia, Goddess of the Earth -
─────────────────
Along with the equipment's status floating before my eyes.
something I'd never seen before appeared.
─────────────────
[A new set effect is being created.]
─────────────────
A set effect, created?
There was such a thing?
─────────────────
【Fiancée】
─────────────────
[Fiancée : Rose Bloom Finale][★★★★☆]
[Fiancée: Tyram's Grimoire][★★★★★]
─────────────────
【'Tyram's Grimoire' is forcibly incorporated into 'Fiancée.'】
【The instant the grimoire converts a spell formula into a mana bullet, it is duplicated and loaded into the rose's chambers.】
【Loading and firing draw first from the heat accumulated in the rose, before the wearer's own mana.】
─────────────────
It took a moment to process the flood of information all at once.
"W-wait, hold on...."
Let's take it one thing at a time.
The rose I'd made had gained a set effect.
And as if that weren't enough, it had gone and folded in Tyram's Grimoire, which had been minding its own business perfectly fine, entirely on its own terms.
The effect itself was simpler than it looked, from now on, Yeomhwa wouldn't need to wring out her own mana for every reload.
Sunlight and heat would handle making new rounds in the rose's chambers instead.
In the end, the rose would shoulder all the mana burden by itself.
"... There we go."
Supporting Yeomhwa's recovery, since she wasn't supposed to use mana.
While the set effect brought it into sync with her main weapon.
"......."
Equipment good enough to satisfy even me.
I'd pulled it all off.
"This is exactly why I get greedy, fuck...."
I curled my lips up into a grin....
and pulled the rose in against my chest.
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