GD8 Jaune's Crocea Mors Mk. 3

The heat from the forge washed over me and I wiped a hand across my brow. Even if my Passive protected me from any harmful burns it did little to stop the heat working its way into my skin. A long swig from a cup of cool water was enough to wash away the fatigue, and as I put down the smith's hammer, I had a moment to marvel at how natural it felt to be in a forge once more. Maybe it was my Class, maybe it was nostalgia, but the simple feeling of creating something was a joy unto itself. No fighting, no death, just me, the forge, my hammer, and a large amount of enchanted metal.

Not to mention the two levels I'd just gained.

The fact whirred through my mind as I adjusted to the sudden feeling of being just a little stronger. I'd seen the effects of blacksmithing improve my level before, most noticeably with Ruby's scythe, but also to a lesser degree when I'd reforged Crocea Mors with Vacuan Silver, and also when I'd crafted Blake's daggers.

From what I could tell it all depended on the material used, with mundane metals granting me relatively little, at least in terms of how high a level I was for my Class. Iron, steel, and all the other minerals mined from Remnant were enough to get most Blacksmiths to a respectable level, probably in the upper teens or low twenties, but once they reached level twenty or more the effects seemed to taper off, barely achieving a noticeable dent in the vast amount of experience needed for a level.

Ruby's scythe, being forged from some other magical sword, had blown that away – granting me a full level. But such things were hard to find, even on Beacon's market. Magical equipment didn't just seem to drop from random Grimm, or at least not in any decent quantity. Whether they were from Dungeons, Elder Grimm, or something else, I hadn't been able to get my hand on any.

Until now…

Ozpin might have sighed had he known what I intended for the armour I'd taken, and I'd felt a pang of pain inside as well when I took a hammer to it.

Taking armour and making it into a bar of metal wasn't quite as simple as some might have believed. I couldn't just reverse time, let alone mimic all the materials that had been lost, but what I could do was shatter and place the pieces together, and then forge them into a billet I could make into a sword. I could also take Crocea Mors, made of Vacuan Silver, and shatter that blade as well – even if it hurt me to do so. Combining the two gave me more to work with, but even for a skilled smith it would have been all but impossible. Only a Blacksmith could achieve this, using Stoke the Forge to reach the perfect temperature, and an instinctual understanding of metallurgy to know exactly what to do and when.

It had been a long and careful process...

But now I had a new sword – and more than that. I had enough material left over to make a chest-plate for myself. Both were of powerful material, far stronger than anything I'd had before, and both had granted me vast swathes of Exp.