Limits

As I watched the workers, I was mostly interested in those, who created weapons or defensive accessories. I wanted to see, how that stuff was made. One of the Lizard, was currently making a sword, but he didn't use a mold. He was shaping the blade and all, from the beginning. The process, as far as I could see, was not that difficult, but I could be wrong. I used a mold to create my dagger, not shaped it into that specific look by hand.

I retrieved some meat from my feather, and roasted it over the furnace. With my meal done, I went back to work as well. The process didn't change, as I followed the same steps, as previously. After two Azurite Ingots, I took a rest and ate something again. Then worked on the last Ingot. With all 3 ingots finished, I went to the old Lizard's room to deposit them there.

This time, the old Lizard was inside. I said "Here are the 3 Azurite Ingots". He nodded his head, and said after checking them "They are of High Grade Quality this time, but it's not your fault. As I said, the quality of the Ore matters as well. Just continue, like you did till now". I nodded my head and asked "Can you teach me, how you can tell the quality of the ingots and ore?". He said "Sure", and took out some different ores, as well as some ingots.

He said "To find the quality of an ore, is a bit more difficult, compared with completed ingots. Let me start with ingots first. I have couple of them, so I will show you example of each. Let's start with this Purified Steel Ingot. To check the quality, you need to check the shine, colour and impurities. The brighter and more silvery it is, the higher quality it's going to be. Of course, it will have some impurities, otherwise it would become a Perfect Ingot, which is rarely seen".

He then took out 3 Purified Steel Ingots, and said "These 3 ingots are the same, but have different qualities. Can you see, which one is the highest quality?". I took a lot at the ingots, and immediately noticed that one of them was rather dull, and contained quite a substantial amount of impurities. The middle one, contained not many impurities but its colour was not very shiny. The third ingot, was very shiny, but had a lot more impurities, compared to the middle one. I said "Is it the middle one? It contains the least impurities, even though its colour is not as shiny".

The old Lizard smiled and said "Almost. Both the third and the second are on the same quality level. Both of them are Middle Grade Quality". I nodded and said "It's because one is very shiny, but has loads of impurities, while the other has little, but it's not very shiny, right?". The old Lizard nodded his head, and said "Exactly. One of them is shiny and silver, due to superior grade of materials used to make it. But the smith, was not experience, and so, it has loads of impurities. The other one, has less impurities due to an experienced smith, yet the materials used, were of low quality".

I nodded and said "That is logical. You can't make something very good, form rubbish materials. On the other hand, if the smith has no experience, no matter what materials you use, he will still produce low quality stuff". The old Lizard nodded and said "Yes, that is exactly right. So what you are looking for, when checking the grade of an ingot, is the colour, as well as the shine, and the impurities inside that ingot. If the third ingot had at least half of the impurities gone, it would become a High Grade Quality".

He then continued "Let's move on to the next one". We spent some time like this, where he pointed out stuff on a lot of ingots, and taught me how to check for the quality. After all that, I asked "What about ore? How do we check that?". He said "Now that you know how to check the ingots, checking the ore, should come to you much easier".

He placed a few ores in front of me, and again started to point out the differences. "For example, these couple of lumps of Black Iron Ore. They may look the same, but each is different quality. For one, check for impurities inside the rocks. The colour of Black Iron, should be as the name suggest black. If you find any spots of different colour inside the rocks, those are the impurities. The amount is important, the more impurities inside, the worse quality the ore is. But that is not all. The size and the shape is also a factor. The bigger the rocks, the better". He then asked "Can you now see, which of these piles is the best quality?".

I took a look, and noticed that the first pile, had a very good black colour, with very little impurities. The size of the rocks was tiny though. The second pile, had some impurities and the black colour was a bit worse in quality, compared to the first pile, but the rocks were very large, the largest of the three piles. The last pile, was in between the two previous piles. It had decent sized rocks, and not that many impurities.

I said "I think, that the third pile should be the best. It has a balance between the colour and impurities inside. I'd say it should be High or Medium Quality Ore". The old Lizard seemed a bit surprised and said "It is exactly as you said. This pile, can be barely classed as High Quality ore. The middle one is only Medium Quality, while the first pile is between Low and Middle Quality, even though it has small amount of impurities, but the tiny rocks degrade its quality by a lot".

He then continued explaining about the other ores. After a lengthy explanation, I finally understood, how to judge the quality of different ores as well. The old Lizard said "You are indeed a quick learner. Now go and rest, you must be tired. Oh and here you go". He handed me the materials, then said "When you are rested, come back to do some more work". I nodded and left.

I went back to the tavern, and rented a room. After some good rest, I went back to the workshop, and started grinding down those Azurite Ingots. While I was at it, I thought about the next thing, that the old Lizard could teach me. 'I think, I should learn how to produce different ingots first. I only know how to make 4 types of ingots, there must be more of them, that he knows about' I thought, and hammered away.

My food supply, was getting thinned out as well. It was due to the hard work at the workshop. I wouldn't have to worry about food, for another month or so, but I had to think about getting some more meat soon. When I finished the 3 ingots, I went back to the room and left them there. The old Lizard was not in, that time. I then went back to the workshop, and began creating the Black Steel Ingots, for my daggers.