[Solo/Crafting] Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

[Ashtver]

Ashtver’s beginner gear was starting to get a little worse for wear. He needed new weaponry and armour as soon as possible. His dual Spears were at the point of snapping like a twig and his Platemail had too many cracks to count. He needed to replace them with new gear. Thus, after forging a dagger for his ‘little sister’ Aria, he found how much quality he could add to a self-forged weapon. He needed to make these weapons: Ash Riddled Spears and Ash Forged Chain. He needed to lower his armour Tier to allow his abilities to work at their best. With these in mind, he begun, beginning with crafting his Spears at St. Pancras Station once again.


One good thing about crafting is that when you’ve crafted one thing, you can use a feature called Speed Crafting to make that same item again without having to go through all the work. In other words, he only had to make one Spear, and could Speed Craft the second. He started by taking two slips of metal and drawing a curved shape onto them using an etching tool. They would be flat near on the way to the tip where they would combine, and it they curved downwards in a wave shape. This would form the spearhead. He heated up one piece, then grabbed a chisel to cut through the ‘drawing’. The product that was left was what looked like a wave-shaped knife. Satisfied, he forged another, and was left with two identical waves. He reheated both of them, and set them together on the anvil, where he set to work smacking the two sides together with the hammer. He was left with a curved head, almost like a two-sided cape. He set to work in belting the head into a good shape, flattening the edge and extending what would come to be the sharp edge downwards.


He then had to sharpen the edges. What would a Spear be if it couldn’t slice or impale anything? He grabbed a large file from the tools and begun to work at one side. He grinded the edge, back and forth, rubbing away the metal, and the shavings evaporated into data. He kept grinding until the edge was nice and sharp. He mainly focused on sharpening the tip, with a Spear being a piercing weapon. He worked on the other side, again shaving off data over and over, small bubbles occasionally rising up past Ashtver’s face. After he was satisfied that it was sharp (he ended up almost slicing his own finger off), he set to the shaft.


Word Count: 435

[Ashtver]

Not being a woodcrafter, it would be highly difficult to make a wooden shaft. He had to make do with a couple of cylindrical chunks of metal. He heated three of the seven pieces of metal, and laid them down in a row. He belted them over and over, extending the first half of the shaft lengthways. The metal was starting to solidify, so he put the shaft back in the forge. He pulled it back, and set to work again, making the back end of the shaft slightly thinner. After he had made about 35 centimeters/14 inches of metal using the cylinders, he put it aside. He chucked the next 4 pieces in the forge to create the last portion of the shaft.


The reason he was only making it around a meter long was because he was dual wielding them. He treated himself as a Crowd Control Swashbuckler, or a CC Buckler. He set to work on belting the last four pieces together, squeezing the length of the shaft out. Again, he thinned the end out, but longer this time. He was going to create the handle for the shaft here. He belted the end out, thinner and thinner, until it was as thick as the average pocket watch. With this, he set to forging the two together. Luckily he made the Spear only around a meter. If it had been too long, it wouldn’t fit in the forge. He slid the two pieces in and waited for them to become softer. Again, he pulled the shaft pieces out with his trusty tongs and set to work in combining them. He set them right up close to eachother and began to hammer away at the thin ends, combining them. He had to keep smacking and heating to draw out the handle. He kept beating at tit to lengthen the portion of the shaft that was to be the handle. He beat it until it was drawn out, then reheated it and kept on beating it until the handle was nice and smooth and looked mostly like it had been crafted straight from a metal bar. He began to file at the outside of the shaft, smoothing out the whole bar. He thinned the end slightly to allow for fitting of the head.


Word Count: 384

[Ashtver]

The last piece was like the Dagger Ashtver had made for Aria: The pommel. He wanted to give it a bit of a diamond shape like Aria’s Dagger, but more flat than bulky. One of his Swashbuckler skills, Discard, causes him to flip over an opponent and smack them in the head with the pommel, concussing players and resetting the AI of monsters, removing aggro. He wanted to maximize the damage by making the pommel pointy, giving a sharper and more painful strike. This time, he remembered to keep extra metal on him for the pommel. Last time, he had to use the remains of the other parts. He also decided to use the leftovers from the head to make a guard around the pommel end. He took the small cube and placed it in the forge, heating it, then taking it out. He smacked it with the hammer over and over to lengthen it. He made sure not to dent the cube, and kept it as diamond-like as possible. The end turned out to be fairly pointy, but he ended up smoothing out the whole cube with a file to give it that extra shine and sharpness. He began the guard.


He heated one piece remaining from the head, and took it over to the anvil. He placed it on the anvil’s horn, edge first, and began to whack at it, bending the metal around into a crescent shape. He did the same with the other piece, and placed them together to see if they fitted together. They fitted just right, so he placed them back in the furnace and took them back over to the anvil, where he smacked the corners of the crescents together, creating a circle with thin parts chucked in it. The last thing to do for the guard was slide it over the shaft to see if it fit. It fitted only just. Satisfied, he put all the pieces in the forge and set to work in combining all the pieces. He smacked the head onto the thin end of the shaft, then slid the guard up the shaft. This would set by itself, due to just fitting. He had to use a peg to forge a hole in the pommel to slot the spear into. To do this, however, he realised that he had to belt out the end to make it thin. After whacking at it, being careful not to hit his hand on the guard, he slid the pommel onto the end of the shaft. The ashes from the forge managed to find their way into the cracks in the metal from the whacking. Now, his Ash-riddled Spear was complete.


Word Count: 449

[Ashtver]

Now was the time to make downgrade his armour and increase its level.  Ashtver grabbed a bunch of thin pieces of metal, and set to work in heating them, then sending a sharper piece of metal through them to cut them apart in to many smaller pieces.  He placed these back in the furnace, then pulled them out and set to work curling them into rings.  He did this over and over, linking them up before closing the ring off.  He made about a hundred loops, enough for one side of the armour.  Damn, this is going to take forever, he told himself.  Still, he pushed on.
     He continued to forge the rings and loop them together.  Eventually, he had linked them together and formed enough loops to create the main torso section of the Chain armour.  However, when he tried it on, the bottom of it only just reached his waist.  Oh, come on!  He set back to work, adding more and more links, salty sweat spilling onto the hot, soft metal and sizzling. He looked it over, then realized he hadn't even closed off the sides.  He heated more links up and connected the sides together with them.  Now, it looked much bigger.  He slid it on, and it slipped over his body nice and comfortably.  Now he was to make the legs.
     He went back to cutting, melting and smacking rings, forging them together tightly in the shape of a pair of pants.  He finished one half and slid it on the front of his leg to make sure it fit, and, thankfully, it did.  He made the other half and did the same on the back of his legs, again fitting.  Thus, he proceeded to link them together, and before adding the final couple of links, he slid into the armour, fitting him like a glove.  Next: Shoulder and knee guards


Word Count: 315

[Ashtver]

Ashtver grabbed two large, flat pieces of metal for the shoulder guards and heated one up.  He placed it over the horn of the anvil and went on to hit it around the edges, curling it into a bowl shape.  He bent continued to hit and heat it, slowly getting it to take a form that looked somewhat like the beak of a bird of prey.  He held it up, satisfied with the look, and placed it upon his shoulder.  Oh, thank the Gods, it actually fits.  He began to work on the other one, also making it look somewhat like a beak, and again tested it to making sure it fit.  However, this one bit into his shoulder, so he heated it again and bent it back out, widening it.  His final plan of action for the shoulders was to link them with the armour itself.  He reheated the guards and used a spike to punch holes in the edges of them.  He then made more rings and slid them through the holes and the empty shoulders of the armour.  Knee armour was next.
     He grabbed two more flat metal discs and did the same process as the shoulder guards, except this time, they looked more like diamonds than beaks.  He used the horn of the anvil to press the centers out to make the guards nice and pointy, perfect for close combat.  He slid the leg armour on and placed the knee guards to his knees, making sure they were comfortable.  Unfortunately, they hurt like hell, causing him to need to bend the edges up and round off the inside of the diamonds.  He tried again, and this time his knees slotted in perfectly.  He punched more holes and linked the guards up with the leg armour.
     Now he just had to decorate it a little and tune up its protection.


Word Count: 313

[Ashtver]

Ashtver heated the whole set of armour up in the furnace, and proceeded to place it in the quencher.  Over and over he heat treated it to increase its hardness and decrease its brittleness.  He kept heating it, occasionally needing to whack the shoulder pads into place. He let the Chain loosen up so it could be worn more comfortably.  He heated it, quenched it, smacked it, heat, quench, smack, over and over, until the armour actually felt like it could receive attacks.  Man, I wish I could put some kind of fabric on this.  I don't have tailoring though... however, he did decide to grab two more strips of metal and smack them over the anvil after heating them to get them into a semicircle shape, then put them together in a circle.  He punched more holes in this circle and attached more chain links onto it and the leg armour, adding a belt of sorts. He slid it on once more to make sure it fit, and fit it did.  He thought he might require extra protection over his heart, and so began to forge a small sheet of chain links to double the amount over his chest.  He linked the chain square to the armour, and took in the look.  The pattern of the overlapping chain looked mesmerizing.  Satisfied with his creation, he stuffed it into his inventory, ready to equip it.

Word Count: 235