Not long after Saruman left, Garrett went straight to the enormous golden mallorn tree beside the stronghold. He knocked on the head of the dozing Wormi, waking the dragon whose weight could only be measured in tons.
Still groggy, Wormi tilted its head toward Garrett, looking puzzled.
Garrett got straight to the point:
"Can you breathe fire?"
The moment it heard this, Wormi shrank back, leaning away.
Just as Garrett was waiting with anticipation, it only let out a small hiccup.
Then it shook its head.
Clearly, the teachers at Wayfort hadn't covered fire-breathing in their curriculum.
Garrett covered his face.
"Looks like I'll have to teach you myself."
That was what he said. But obviously, some things were best left to professionals.
For the next several days, Wormi's life was anything but peaceful. Every day, aside from eating and sleeping, he dragged the dragon out for training.
This went on for about a week.
Under his careful, if somewhat improvised, instruction, at last it managed, purely by relying on its instincts as a fire dragon, to produce its very first burst of searing dragon breath.
When that first gout of flame emerged, both Garrett and Wormi let out a long sigh of relief.
The past few days had been grueling, especially for Wormi.
If another dragon had witnessed Garrett's "teaching methods," it would certainly have roared, "Are you even a dragon yourself, teaching nonsense like that?"
And indeed, he had been improvising wildly. Fortunately, for a fire dragon, breathing flame wasn't exactly difficult.
When the flames finally dispersed in the air, Wormi let out a breath of relief.
Was it... over?
It wasn't.
That very same day, he took Wormi to another location.
Whoosh.
He swept a thick layer of dust off the Dragonforge, revealing its true form. For the first time, the cold forge was filled with materials.
"Come on, Wormi."
He brought it over, pointed at the flame port, and said, "Breathe in here."
Wormi leaned forward and discovered that the flame port was designed to perfectly channel its dragon breath. The structure was ingenious, allowing the fire to pass through without obstruction.
The challenge, however, was maintaining proper control.
With its first blast, small tongues of flame leaked out around the edges.
Garrett downed a bottle of fire-resistance potion and instructed Wormi to keep breathing fire into the forge with full force.
Boom!
Searing flames scorched the air, and the furnace temperature climbed higher and higher, reaching terrifying levels.
He had no doubt that if he thrust his hand inside now without the potion, his runic shield would shatter in moments.
Under the extreme heat and the strange power carried by the dragon breath, dragon's blood and iron ingots fused together, their very nature gradually beginning to transform.
"Almost there, almost there."
After a while of sustained heat, just as the blood and metal were about to fully merge, the flames suddenly weakened.
Wormi seemed exhausted.
"Hold on a bit longer, just a little more."
Fwoosh.
When Wormi finally collapsed from fatigue, the very first ingot of Dragonflame Steel was only just barely complete.
He held the ingot in his hands. It felt surprisingly smooth to the touch, and pleasantly warm.
The dragon's blood and iron had fused perfectly, forming delicate patterns across its surface. It was quite beautiful.
"Get some proper rest."
Putting away the ingot, he brought Wormi back to its nest beneath the mallorn tree and personally prepared a nourishing feast.
Watching Wormi swallow half a table's worth of dishes in a single gulp, his gaze softened with genuine affection.
Wormi was a living, thinking being, not some game resource to be exploited.
It was still too young, its body too small. That limited reservoir of dragon's breath was only enough to forge a single Dragonflame Steel ingot per day, that was its absolute limit.
Any more would harm the dragon.
If it had been a fully grown dragon the size of Smaug... well, such a beast could probably breathe fire all day without issue.
But unfortunately, Wormi was the only fire dragon he had. The few remaining cold drakes that couldn't breathe fire were purely evil creatures that could never be tamed, let alone used for such purposes.
So for now, Wormi had to shoulder the burden.
Thinking this, Garrett poured her several bottles of healing potion, letting it drink them as though they were refreshments.
---
The next day.
Boom!
The forge roared to life again.
Another Dragonflame Steel ingot took shape.
Garrett hurriedly set it on the workbench, pulled out one of the many Wither bones he had stockpiled in his warehouse to serve as the sword's hilt, then placed two Dragonflame Steel ingots onto it.
And just like that, a brand-new greatsword was forged.
[Dragonflame Steel Sword: Attack Power +25]
[Special Property: Blazing Fire]
He lifted the deep-gray greatsword with dark red vein-like patterns running along its surface, holding it up to quietly admire.
Beautiful, truly beautiful.
He favored weapons that were plain and solid, with clean, balanced proportions. As a sword, it was massive and heavy, at least 1.5 meters long by his estimation.
A blade like this would force even the most battle-hardened rangers of Wayfort to wield it as a two-handed weapon.
But, Swish.
He raised the Dragonflame Steel Sword with one hand, swung it around a couple of times with ease, then rested it casually on his shoulder.
The air howled as it was cleaved apart.
In his hands, this massive weapon might as well have been an ordinary longsword, he swung it without the slightest hindrance.
If nothing else, the sheer presence of the weapon was overwhelming.
But it wasn't merely its appearance, its damage output was extraordinary. With 25 points of base attack power and the built-in Blazing Fire effect, it could instantly slay most enemies in a single strike.
They say "the longer the blade, the stronger it is."
This greatsword, longer than Thorin was tall, would show Garrett's enemies the true meaning of terror.
With this weapon, he wouldn't need to hunt for weak spots against trolls or Olog-hai anymore, just swing the blade and charge straight in.
A fine weapon deserved fine enchantments.
But in truth, enchantments didn't need to be overthought.
At the core, aside from Unbreaking and Mending, all enchantments existed for one purpose: to make the weapon strike harder.
But with a base attack as high as 25, the sword could overpower almost any other weapon by sheer statistics alone, even without enchantments.
And that was before factoring in its built-in Blazing Fire trait. This effect worked like Fire Aspect, but lasted twice as long.
Then there was knockback.
The Dragonflame Steel Sword, true to its size and appearance, was heavy. So heavy, in fact, that it naturally carried a knockback effect, even though the statistics didn't list it.
Adding Knockback to it would compound the effect, bringing unexpected results.
After some consideration, he began enchanting.
Besides the standard utility enchantments, for damage boosts he chose Smite instead of Sharpness or other options.
A maximum-level Sharpness enchantment only added 3 points of damage. Smite, at maximum level, added 12.5 points of bonus damage against undead.
Compared to a base attack of 25, an extra 3 points was negligible, but 12.5 bonus damage against undead was significant.
When all the chosen enchantments had been applied, the sword was finally complete.
From that moment, Bane was officially retired to reserve status, left in Garrett's inventory as a keepsake with more sentimental value than practical use.