[New Quest: The Edge of Understanding I]
[Main Objective: Create a Steel Dagger]
[Reward: 1 Certainty Point]
Clive stared at the quest notification. Steel, that implied a progression of materials. But the reward, just what was a ‘Certainty Point’?
In response to his question, a message notification popped up.
[Certainty: All right, I’ll throw you a freebie, but only because it has my name on it. Certainty Points are how you advance ranks. Collect 5 of them to advance to the next rank.]
Wait, what? She can read my thoughts?
[Certainty: Of course I can read your thoughts. I'm a goddess, remember? I told you I'd be watching. Miss me yet?]
It’s been five minutes. No.
[Certainty: You are M-E-A-N. Bye.]
…
Clive dismissed the notifications with a wave. He had a feeling privacy was going to be an issue in this relationship, but not his most immediate one.
Five points to advance a rank. The progression felt manageable, but how many ranks stretched between Apprentice and Ascended? Just how high does this ladder go?
No point wondering about that now. I’ll climb it one rung at a time until I reach my goal.
He turned his attention back to the iron dagger in his hands.
"Iron versus steel..." he murmured. Steel is iron plus carbon. But how would you show that in a drawing? Just describing the material properties would be like explaining red to a blind person.
Taking his pencil, he sketched the same dagger he did previously. Except this time, he wrote "Steel dagger” beneath it.
[Draw analyzing creation...]
[Item Created: Iron Dagger (Normal Quality)]
Material: Cast Iron
Attack: +10
Durability: 10/10
Damage Type: Piercing
[MP Cost: 2]
"Of course," Clive sighed, discarding the dagger on the ground. Naturally, labelling a drawing wouldn’t somehow make it more authentic.
[MP: 4/10]
Seeing his mana run low, Clive took a break. He lay back on the grass and stared into the sky, trying to recall a documentary he'd watched about sword-making. One of those late-night programs he'd stumbled upon during his battle with insomnia.
In one segment, the host had held up two seemingly identical blades side by side under strong lighting.
"Notice the difference?" the craftsman had asked as he rotated the weapons under the light. "Steel has a bluish undertone owing to its carbon content. See how it reflects the light differently?" The camera zoomed in as he pointed out the subtle blue sheen that ran along the edge when angled just so.
"Now look at the iron blade," he continued. "Iron is warmer, almost reddish in its base tone. Less uniform, more... earthy." The camera lingered on the comparison: the steel blade's crisp, cool reflections versus the iron's warmer, more scattered highlights.
"These visual differences," the craftsman explained, "are manifestations of their structural properties. The carbon integration in steel creates a more homogeneous material that reflects light differently. It's how we can tell good steel at a glance, even before modern testing methods."
Clive remembered sketching as he watched, trying to capture the subtle differences in texture and tone. His drawings from that night were still in his apartment back home, pinned to the corkboard above his desk. What he wouldn't give to have those references now.
After an hour, his MP regenerated to full. He sat up, brushing bits of dried vegetation from his shirt, and flipped open his sketchbook.
An iron dagger took shape under his pencil, rendered with softer lighting to emphasize its matte surface. The pencil strokes were light, capturing the slightly irregular surface characteristic of wrought iron. For the shadows, he used a warmer undertone, smudging gently with his pinky finger to create the subtle reddish hue that iron takes when light strikes it.
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"Iron is honest," he murmured to himself, remembering the blacksmith's words from the documentary. "It doesn't pretend to be anything else."
For the steel dagger, his approach changed entirely. His strokes became sharper. He drew crisper highlights to showcase a more uniform surface that could take a higher polish, letting clean white spaces on the paper represent the way light gleamed off well-forged steel. Here, he used a characteristic blue-grey tint in the midtones to emphasize its steel nature, applying pressure to his pencil in careful gradations.
When he was done, he smiled to himself. “Let’s see if this world agrees with my interpretation.”
[Draw analyzing creation patterns...]
[Material Distinction Detected: Ferrous Metal Variants]
[Crafting complexity adjusted]
Light flashed twice, two pages were consumed, and two daggers materialized. The air carried a faint scent of hot metal, as though the blades had just been pulled from a forge, though they were cool to the touch when he reached forward.
[Items Created: Iron Dagger (Normal Quality)
Material: Cast Iron
Attack: +10
Durability: 10/10
Damage Type: Piercing
Properties: Higher damage, more brittle
Note: "Solid but unrefined"
[MP Cost: 2]
[Steel Dagger (Normal Quality)]
Material: Basic Steel
Attack: +9
Durability: 25/25
Damage Type: Piercing
Properties: Balanced damage and durability
Note: "Carbon makes all the difference"
[MP Cost: 2]
[Quest completed: The Edge of Understanding I]
[Gained 1 Certainty Point]
[Level up]
[Metalwork Illustration - Level 2]
[Current materials: Iron,steel]
[MP+3]
Success. Clive smiled to himself, excited at his progress. One certainty point down. Four more to go.
He picked up the two daggers and compared them. "It's in the details," he realized. They were just like he had drawn them. The iron dagger was slightly rougher to the touch. When he ran his thumb along the edge, it had a certain toothiness to it, aggressive but uneven. The steel dagger, by contrast, felt smoother, more uniform.
His mind raced with implications. If metal required proper highlights and texture, what would other materials need? How could he convey the transparency of glass, the rough strength of stone, the flexible durability of leather?
He could see it all unfolding—a catalog of material studies, each one expanding his vocabulary of creation. Armor, tools, weapons... perhaps even buildings, vehicles, machines. The limits seemed bounded only by his understanding and his ability to communicate that understanding through art.
As he reflected on those thoughts, a new quest popped up.
[New Quest: The Edge of Understanding II]
[Main Objective: Create a High Quality Steel Dagger]
[Reward: 1 Certainty Point]
Clive stared at the quest notification, turning his normal steel dagger over in his hands. "Seems like a perfectly good dagger to me…” he muttered.
What makes something 'high quality' instead of just 'normal'?
"Maybe it's about refinement," he mused. "Not just getting the basic idea right, but perfecting the execution."
He flipped to a fresh page in his sketchbook and laid his current dagger beside him for reference. This time, he wouldn't just draw a steel dagger. He would draw a better steel dagger.
He tried. First, he sketched the basic form, establishing proportions and the overall silhouette. Then he focused on the details. For the blade itself, he employed finer pencil strokes, trying to increase the contrast.
"If normal steel has carbon distributed throughout," he reasoned aloud, "then better steel must have carbon distributed more evenly throughout."
He illustrated finer grain patterns, suggesting a more thorough forging process. He added smaller, more uniform facets to the blade's surface to indicate a more careful grinding and polishing.
Clive sat back, admiring his work. It was definitely a more sophisticated drawing than his first attempt. Surely this would—
[Draw analyzing creation...]
[Item Created: Steel Dagger (Normal Quality)]
Material: Basic Steel
Note: "Imagination is no substitute for observation"
[MP Cost: 2]
The new dagger materialized in his hand, identical to his previous creation. Clive sighed, setting it aside with its twin.
"Tch… What was I expecting," he groaned, flipping his sketchbook closed with frustration.
He picked up both daggers, one in each hand, and compared them side by side. Not a single difference between them, despite all his extra effort and detailed work.
After a few deep breaths, the frustration gave way to understanding.
"I'm trying to create something I've never properly seen," he realized as he closed his sketchbook. Even he couldn't paint a portrait from imagination alone. He needed a model, reference photos, something tangible to study. "The system's right, I'm just guessing at what makes a 'good' blade good. I might be a decent artist, but I'm no blacksmith.”
He brushed leaves and dirt from his clothes. The failure was frustrating, but also clarifying. If he wanted to progress, he needed to understand the craft beyond surface appearances.
This world had to have its own craftsmen, its own masters of the forge. Somewhere nearby, a blacksmith might be crafting the very weapons he was trying to replicate through magic.
[Quest Update: The Edge of Understanding II]
[Suggestion: Seek out a master blacksmith]
[Note: "True understanding requires observation"]
The notification seemed to approve.
Clive stood up, tucking his sketchbook away. His normal daggers would have to suffice for now. He scanned the horizon around him. The beach curved away to his left, disappearing behind a rocky outcrop. To his right, dense forest crept to the shore. Behind him, a grassy hill rose gradually from the shoreline, its crest dotted with scattered boulders.
Beyond the treeline, thin columns of smoke drifted upward. A settlement. Where there was civilization, there would be craftsmen. And where there were craftsmen, there would be opportunities to learn.
As he got up, he heard guff voices behind him.
“Well, well… what do we have here.”
The biggest difference between iron and steel? If I could sum it up in one word, it would be ‘price’.
-Hit TV series, Blacksmith Explained
