1.
The moment I set it down, I thought my ears were going to burst.
Sssssss...!
An understandably fierce backlash erupted.
White vapor spread in every direction, the two forces repelling each other wherever they met.
"..."
I watched while gripping the tongs in my hand.
If it looked like there would be a problem, I could pull it out immediately.
But then.
Sss...
The sound began to subside.
"...?"
Thinking I might be imagining it, I stepped closer, but the sound really was fading.
Sss.
Soon, the sound stopped.
The Ice Crystal Ore remained atop the plate, its blue aura—probably cold energy—wrapped around itself.
The white flames rising from the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore flickered nearby.
Sss...
The two forces...
At first, they appeared to be repelling one another.
At first, the Ice Crystal Ore's energy seemed to avoid the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore.
Whenever the Hundred Flowers approached, the cold energy would startle and retreat.
When it came close again, it pretended not to notice and slipped away to the other side.
After avoiding the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore for quite a while, the Ice Crystal Ore's cold energy...
"...?"
Once the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore, having been rejected around five times in a row, stopped pursuing the cold energy...
Sliiide.
This time, the cold energy approached the flame first.
It tapped at the tip of the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore. Tap, tap...
Then immediately flinched back.
Before touching it again.
"What is with this thing?"
It had made its dislike obvious with its entire body.
Yet as soon as the flame stopped chasing it, it discreetly began rubbing against it again.
[.........]
What followed was a little blatant.
The Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore seemed to have understood what that tsundere-like Ice Crystal Ore wanted, too.
The white flames opened their embrace where they stood.
And the blue cold energy no longer fled, instead beginning to seep throughout the white flames.
The flames burrowed inside the crystal.
The cold energy, too, took the flames into itself.
Following each other's grain, inward...
As the white flames ravaged and enveloped every part of the Ice Crystal Ore...
Before long...
Sssss...
The Ice Crystal Ore let out one final, long plume of white vapor.
Twitch...
Twitch...
Its body trembled and quivered.
And once the trembling ended...
The two energies appeared to have become perfectly one.
At least, that was how it looked to me.
[...Hey, this is kind of...]
"...So my eyes weren't deceiving me."
[Y-yeah... kind of...]
Never in my life had I expected to witness two minerals mingling their bodies under mutual, gentle consent.
Was I seriously supposed to live with this humiliation?
And as though to prove that mutual agreement...
New information appeared before my eyes.
─────────────────
[Icefire Crystal (氷火晶石)] [★★★★☆]
─────────────────
『A composite crystal born when the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore and Ice Crystal Ore accepted one another.』
『Fire and cold, utterly opposed to one another, coexist without either losing its nature.』
『It can never be reproduced except by a craftsman whose affinity with minerals has reached its pinnacle.』
─────────────────
Wow... nice...
This felt really strange, though.
For the record, if I had to describe what the Icefire Crystal looked like...
It was a blue body etched with white markings.
Like someone had splattered a huge amount of white ink over it.
Uh, if I really wanted to, I could describe it further.
"I'm not going to."
Congratulations on your marriage, you two minerals.
"...Let's get on with it."
I picked up the Earthborn Hammer again.
From here on, it was time to shape it.
I pushed the plate upward as it was.
For the record, I absolutely couldn't place the Ice Crystal Ore in the very center.
The handle still needed to pass through the hammerhead.
Just slightly off-center, without throwing off the balance.
Sliiide...
The Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore folded over one side, enveloping the core.
Thunk.
Then the other side.
Now I hammered the overlapping seam.
Tap... tap...
Sealing it so the joint wouldn't show.
Next, I had to define the edges.
Thunk, thunk.
I pressed down the top surface to flatten it.
Thunk.
I raised the sides to make sharp edges.
Thunk.
And did the same with the underside.
With every blow, flames flared up before withdrawing again.
"Blueprint."
[Okay.]
A blue rectangular prism overlaid the anvil.
Those were the final dimensions Yuna had set for the hammerhead.
Following those lines... I refined the shape.
The front was broad and long.
The back was thin enough to spread and bend iron.
A hole for the handle passed all the way through the hammerhead as well.
Thunk...
The final hammer blow fell.
And atop the anvil...
There lay a perfectly made hammerhead, white in color, with red and blue scattered across it.
"...Phew."
I stared down at it for a while.
Then picked it up.
"...The weight is fine."
Now...
All I had to do was attach the handle.
I took out the handle I had carved beforehand from beneath the workbench.
Ash wood.
When Dolores had acquired a great deal of lumber to build this workshop, I had set it aside from the pile in advance.
Its grain was straight and long, and apparently it was even used for instruments.
I had fashioned it into a handle ahead of time.
It fit comfortably in one hand and grew slightly thicker toward the end.
So that even if it slipped, the end would catch against my hand.
Slide.
I aligned the end of the handle with the hole in the hammerhead.
For the record, attaching a handle to a hammer... naturally wasn't as simple as jamming it in and calling it done.
The hole was wide at the top and bottom, narrowing in the middle.
When the handle was pushed upward from below...
Slide.
It passed through the head, and the tip of the handle protruded slightly from the top.
I had already cut a vertical groove into that protruding end.
Bang!
Creeeak...
I drove a wooden wedge into that groove.
Then the end of the handle spread apart sideways, pressing tightly against the inner walls of the hole.
To come out from below, it would have to pass through the narrowed section of the hole, but it was already too wide to do that.
To come out from above, it would catch on the driven wedge.
That way, it wouldn't come out even if someone tried to pull it loose.
And it wouldn't wobble no matter how hard it was struck.
It was easiest to think of it as splitting only the very end of the handle slightly.
Slice.
I sawed off the protruding portion and smoothed the cross-section.
Later, when it needed replacing, I could simply remove the wedge and switch out the handle.
‘The handle should be replaceable later to suit a growing body.’
The condition Harngar had mentioned.
This was perfect for fulfilling it, too.
"..."
Once the entire process was finished...
I looked down at the hammer.
"Ha..."
There was still one thing left.
The engraving.
When I made that new bell last time, the engraving had appeared on its own as soon as it was completed.
As befitted a Formal Blacksmith, apparently.
I hadn't even done anything, but it had just gone swish, swish on its own.
Today, however, it was strangely quiet.
I turned my head and looked out the window.
Before I knew it, the time was...
What? The sun hadn't set?
I had definitely entered the workshop after breakfast.
It had ended faster than I thought...
[That's not it.]
"Yeah?"
[You stayed up all night. It's the next morning.]
"..."
Was it not engraving anything because the sun hadn't set?
Well, whatever.
Bang!
I grabbed the hammer and threw open the workshop door.
The cool predawn air touched my face.
And there, in its usual place...
In the center of the garden, I raised the hammer toward the rising sun.
I closed my eyes.
How long had it been?
Once again, I heard no sound at all.
"...?"
I opened my eyes.
Before me...
One familiar pattern had been engraved upon a golden panel.
The Apprentice Blacksmith's mark of the Heirs of Fire, and beneath it...
The engraved mark of an L.
Which now... ought to be called the mark of a Formal Blacksmith.
It was my own engraving, the one I had drawn and added last time.
The first time was difficult.
The second was easy.
"You're telling me to draw it, aren't you?"
Golden threads embroidered the air in the wake of my index finger.
I had something in mind, but...
"...I have no idea."
So, simply...
"Yujin."
I inscribed the signature I had used in my previous life beneath the sun.
Just because.
If nobody else could recognize it anyway...
Then at least I had to remember my own name.
At that moment...
Crackle—!
The pattern I had just completed...
Began to engrave itself into the center of the white hammerhead.
A sun that radiated eight rays of light.
And the L supporting that sun.
Along with ‘Yujin,’ written in flowing script inside the sun.
And then...
─────────────────
[Dawn Bringer] [★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [-/80]
─────────────────
『Fire resembles day, and ice resembles night.』
『The two forces that could not overcome one another met and formed a single boundary.』
『People call the place where night and day meet dawn.』
─────────────────
The energy awakened differs depending on the direction in which the handle is held.
Its high mana conductivity also allows it to be used as an enchant hammer.
─────────────────
『If anyone doubts the qualifications of a master craftsman, have them raise their heads and behold the first hammer he made.』
『How could a small man possibly understand the footprints of a giant?』
- The Sun's Second Praise Sent to Master Craftsman L -
『A hammer that brings dawn...』
『You need wait for the sun no longer. Dawn shall break first wherever your hammer touches!』
- Solau, God of the Sun -
─────────────────
"..."
My heart pounded heavily.
By now, the Hundred Flowers Crystal Ore that made up the hammerhead had hardened as solidly as steel.
Gripping the Dawn Bringer before me, I looked into the air.
[★★★☆☆] [Beyond Formal, to Mastery] [Title Acquired ─ 『Master Craftsman』]
[Reward]
[Personal Interface]
"..."
Until now, I could see other people's compatibility.
But I couldn't see my own.
"That's perfect timing."
After all...
I had just made equipment solely for myself.
Without hesitation, I opened my Personal Interface.
And then...
In the newly opened equipment interface, I equipped the Dawn Bringer in the empty slot.
[Dawn Bringer] [★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [-/80]
The compatibility of the hammer I had made entirely for myself, from beginning to end, was...
[Dawn Bringer] [★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [80/80]
To my delight, it was absolutely perfect.
I tightened my grip around the hammer.
"Niiice!!!!"
And roared toward the dawn sky as day broke.
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