The smith then brought out an ingot mold. He poured the alloy in as the onlookers waited in silence.
Thankfully many master blacksmiths keep small time dilation chambers for these kinds of situations so as to not lose inspiration when it strikes just because they don't have a niche alloy on hand.
Although they tend to be incredibly costly investment, they are well worth it for smiths at such a high level. After a few seconds, the grandmaster removed the ingot mold from the chamber.
Once the grandmaster removed the ingot from the mold he sent it back into the fire. This time instead of melting, the metal started to slowly change color.
Mundane metals usually glow orange under heat, but this mystical blue alloy glowed a deep cyan instead. It glowed intensely filling the square with such luminosity that even the setting sun did not dim the square.
Once the ingot was so hot, or rather from what Cynthia could sense, so cold that it was malleable, the smith brought it to an anvil. The anvil was a deep and bright orange.
It was most definitely an orichalcum anvil. An orichalcum anvil is the gold standard for smiths under heroic. Since it can grow alongside the smith using it,
It is usually something that masters would buy for their main prized disciple. These anvils are incredibly expensive and most of the time cannot even be bought with money due to incredible scarcity.
since orichalcum is rare as it is and no master would give theirs up willingly, since no other anvil would fit them perfectly like an orichalcum anvil they had since apprenticeship would, it made these anvils so scarce the only a few smiths in minor regions would have them.
Unfortunately orichalcum anvils are only the gold standard below heroic level. at heroic level, an orichalcum anvil would only be passable at the very lowest level of heroic smithing only after being tempered for close to a century.
This is why any smith who reaches heroic level always crafts an anvil as their first work. But to reach heroic level, one must successfully craft a heroic work to be recognized by the world. Only a small few races can become even master level smiths, through virtue of the worlds love, without the need to gain its respect on the Dao of smithy.
Once the grandmaster finally levitated the ingot onto the anvil he brought out another item made of orichalcum! the smith was now holding a smithing hammer made entirely out of orichalcum!
The grandmaster had been preparing for this moment for his entire career as a smith! Since the man is a dwarf, he was essentially born to be a smith, but no race is born to be a heroic smith except for a handful of legendary beast bloodlines, and even then they are usually near elderly before they attain such mastery purely from the love of the world!
As if to tell the narrator to shut the hell up and let the scene continue, the smith swung down, deforming the ingot. He proceeded to swing the hammer until it was more apt to say he was forming the lump of metal into something rather than deforming a pristine ingot.
After a while the ingot warmed up too much and was no longer malleable enough to effectively shape it, so the smith put it back into the rainbow flame to cool it back down to a malleable temperature.
finally after a couple hours it resembled something! It resembled… A stick? Not quite. it was long, reasonably thin, and started to have a distinct shape. as a little bit more time passed, the stick, which could now be recognized as a bow, kept an incredible portion of the malleability from before, in the form of elasticity.
This bow required an immense force to pull back, but clearly would pack an insane punch! a short while later a golden glow erupted from the smith, his equipment, and especially the newly perfected heroic bow!
Then the world spoke! The voice had a mature tone, yet it had an incredibly youthful energy to it like usual.
"Congratulations, Dwarf Smith! On your Historic achievement!" Said the world "Your Achievement Has been recognized and recorded! Henceforth you will be able to name, imbue, and enchant heroic items as well as create them far easier!"
"Woo grandmaster Hephaestus became a heroic rank smith!" said one apprentice as the crowd erupted in cheers.
"His name is Hephaestus?" muttered Cynthia.
"What's wrong my lady?" asked Sebas as Cynthia studied the grandmaster
as Cynthia studied the man he looked like the legends of the Greek god Hephaestus except most of the traits described in the legends were dialed down quite a bit showing how young he currently is.
He was certainly not young compared to most people, but he was young compared to the legends. He had a thick salt and pepper beard has skin slightly darkened by the ash, soot and heat of the forge.
He had a fairly muscular physic when it came to his upper body, but the most defining characteristic of the Greek god Hephaestus, which got him labeled as the Lame God, his backwards foot. Then a blue window popped up.
"Warning: All myths you are aware of are present in the Myth Realm, but time is not linear. Even your legends that you will make in the future in the Myth realm echo throughout time. You may have heard about your own legends from your future here in the past of your original world." said the system.
"Meaning I have a chance to befriend a future god tier blacksmith, here and now?" said Cynthia.
"If the legends say he will become a god tier blacksmith it is very likely that he will." said a new window.
"What do you mean likely?" asked Cynthia.
There was no response
"God Damn it! Again? Really?!" cried out Cynthia in rage.
Her shouting as well as her blood lust spreading out made all of the cheering spectators stop suddenly in fear. Cynthia noticed and controlled herself once more.
"Sorry, sorry." Cynthia said "Just an annoying subordinate, that I have no real way to punish."
The onlookers Breathed a collective sigh of relief as grandmaster Hephaestus took notice of the admittedly bratty little white tiger.
"You! Little one!" Said the middle aged dwarf "What brings such a young queen to witness my ascension?"
"Nothing much old man! I simply came here to make a commission when I heard of your ascension." Cynthia replied "I was concerned that a mere master smith wouldn't be able to handle the materials I brought, so I am glad you were able to achieve your breakthrough!"
"Quite the cheeky one aren'chya, brat?" said Hephaestus with a wide grin "Since you have dropped all formality I guess I have no choice as well!"
"Well I suppose I can make an exception, but you must strive to become a divine smith so that you won't fall behind!" said Cynthia returning fire with a grin of her own.
"My lady! Should we not hold ourselves with more decorum when talking to a future contractor?" Sebas asked, worriedly.
"It would be disrespectful to treat a craftsman like a sleazy salesman Sebas!" replied Cynthia.
"I'm Likin' you more and more sly brat!" said Hephaestus "Come on, Let's talk about your commission!"
(Author Note: Reading through my own work has been a true pleasure, and I'm excited to listen to the audiobook! Be sure to check out my lovely business partner, the nut lord on discord, spotify, and his personal website!)