Leader of the Ark Raiders

Maria picked up the hammer and threw a slightly smug smile towards the audience, as if to say, "Look, am I really good?"

This non-directional smile made the hearts of those college students in the front row of the auditorium beat faster.

Shen Cangye just let out a long sigh, put his arms on the back of his head, and said, "I've learned to fail! This pony has failed!"

Vulcan gave him an inexplicable look, "Why did you fail? I think it's quite reasonable."

Shen Cangye shrugged and did not answer.

She said in her heart, that's all, I'll just see her naive look for myself.

On the other end, Maria thanked the president of the association.

Holding a hammer, she strutted towards the big wooden box on the stage and unlocked it (physically).

Under the sound of gold and iron, all five big locks fell to the ground.

The judges who originally planned to use this to embarrass the contestants sighed secretly.

The host who said something wrong was accompanied by a smiley face.

Maria got more than 100 silver coins at one time.

She spent a lot of money and proudly bought all the forging tools and equipment.

After getting the tools, Maria immediately looked for usable steel in the scrap metal.

She quickly determined the target——

An abandoned forklift body.

The body of the truck was covered with rust, and at first glance it seemed almost impossible to use it for other purposes.

One of the judges smiled, "The carbon content of the steel in each part of the forklift body is inconsistent. If you fail to choose the right part, it is likely that all previous efforts will be wasted."

The higher the carbon content of the steel, the greater the hardness of the steel. As the carbon content of the steel increases, the strength and hardness of the steel increase, while the plasticity and toughness decrease, and it is likely to break during forging.

Maria selected the teeth of the forklift and cut a sheet of metal from the side wall of the truck.

"Use two kinds of steel?" The head of the association stroked his beard and raised his eyebrows.

Vulcan narrowed his eyes, "Could it be that she wants to do—"

"Damascus steel." Shen Cangye understood, "Is it too late?"

Slightly different from the ancient "Damascus steel", the modern term "Damascus steel" refers to crystalline steel with patterns.

The key steps of this amazing process involve heating and folding the steel multiple times, sometimes in hundreds of layers.

This operation makes the forged sword stronger and more malleable.

At the same time, a sinuous pattern is also derived from the appearance, just like the traces left by waves rushing over the beach when viewed from top to bottom.

Damascus steel can keep sharp for a long time, and it performs very well in actual combat, so it is very popular in weapon shops.

However, the process of repeated heating and folding can certainly strengthen the performance of steel, and the time spent will also increase exponentially.

Vulcan pondered, "I'm not sure either, the forging time of Damascus steel is too long."

"I think—" Shen Cangye was about to speak.

Maria suddenly looked back at him, as if to say, "Don't worry, just watch."

"What is she looking at?" Vulcan asked suspiciously.

"I don't know." Shen Cangye smiled and turned his face away.

Vulcan frowned, "I watched the game start, Xia Guang looked back several times, why is he always distracted during the game?"

Shen Cangye looked up at the sky, "Maybe it's because of you, maybe? After all, the teacher can give the apprentice the most sense of security, isn't it?"

Vulcan glared at him strangely.

777. Forging (breaking) making competition

Maria skillfully cleaned the obtained steel with organic solvents.

Acetone works well to remove rust from metal surfaces.

The brown-red rust was washed away, revealing the silver-white steel underneath.

After cleaning and drying the forged material, the young Kuranta craftsman welded it and covered it with metal plates, and put it into a heating furnace for preliminary forging.

While heating, she seized the time to draw the design on paper.

From time to time, the host will explain what each contestant is doing, or ask some questions to trigger discussions among the judges.

During this period, Kivili also seemed to say something to Maria, but Maria was not disturbed by it.

She slowly discovered that ordinary forging and blacksmithing were really things that could calm her down.

Heating, forging, folding...

Heating, re-forging, re-folding...

The oxidized metal skin is peeled off in continuous forging, just like returning to the original.

During repeated forging, Maria was also thinking.

The youngest daughter of the Linguang family found out that she really loves this career.

Even if it is just standing in a high-temperature workshop in an ordinary way, repeatedly.

She was almost, just a little bit, about to give up because of a failure.

Fortunately, someone grabbed her.

"There are still three and 10 minutes." The host reminded.

By this time, Kivelli had finished polishing.

One of the other two players is still forging, and the other is preparing to quench.

Mr. Mitroglu made a machete. He used tongs to clamp the high-temperature blank and put it into a quenching barrel.

Swish!

The quenching oil burned violently as the high-temperature machete penetrated into it.

Mitroglu checked the quenched knife blank and found that it was a little bent.

He took the knife blank to the pliers and tried to straighten it.

but--

Ding!

He just exerted a little force, and there was a crisp cracking sound, and his knife blank broke into two pieces.

The audience screamed, and the judges shook their heads and sighed.

Forging breaks...

It was almost exactly the same situation as Maria's first elimination match.

It took a long time for Mitroglu to turn around from his astonishment, staring blankly at the blade that he had broken in two.

He lowered his head, struggling in his heart.

Finally, he sighed and raised his hand, "Host, I choose to withdraw from the competition."

The audience was amazed.

The host persuaded him, "There is still a chance, you can still save it, you are an excellent craftsman, you have gone through so much to get here, don't give up at this time!"

"I choose to quit." Mitroglu repeated, it seems that the decision to go.

The head of the association looked at him with regret.

But Mitroglu's choices are beyond reproach.

In this final, any flaw could lead to the loss of the game.

Even if it is to weld the broken blade blanks together, it will certainly be difficult to beat others.

Mitroglu left under the guidance of the staff.

Maria stared at him for a while, thinking of herself who regretted leaving the scene.

She sneaked another glance at the audience.

...Well, with him watching her, she won't fail.

Twenty minutes left.

After the heat cycle, Maria hangs the blanks for normalizing, a gentle slow cooling process.

While waiting, she sprinkled a lot of salt in the water in the quenching tank.

Waiting for all the salt to dissolve, she slowly immersed the knife blank in the water.

When she picked up the knife blank, many viewers held their breath.

Quenching with water is the biggest challenge and the most dangerous step in itself.

If one is not careful, Maria may follow in the footsteps of Mr. Mitroglu.

The judges stared closely at Maria's blank knife, not daring to look away for a second.

In the end, the snapping snap they were all dreading didn't happen.

In water quenching, the cooling is slow at high temperature, and soft spots are easy to form, resulting in asymmetric stress and deformation. solved this problem.

At the same time, the normalizing process itself slightly reduces the temperature of the forged material.

With a two-pronged approach, water quenching will no longer be a problem.

The president of the association smiled approvingly, "Very good."

The judges breathed a sigh of relief and looked at each other again, "Very good, every step she made was correct and the best choice."

Maria took out the blank knife and checked the time again.

The remaining 10 minutes seemed to be too late for tempering, so she put the quenched knife on the grinding and polishing machine.

After polishing, the sharpness of the blade is fully revealed, and the bright silver blade is cold and cold, and it is urgent to be unsheathed.

It's time for the first round.

The four contestants gathered in front of the judges, waiting for the judges to comment on their works.

Kivelli's creation is a gigantic machete.

Today he invited an old comrade in arms as a weapon tester, that man is a highly skilled fighter who is good at fighting with a broadsword.

Kivelli's performance was as stable as ever, the judges couldn't fault him, and there were almost no flaws in his works.

The works of Fortunis and Skiber are longswords, the most commonly used weapons since ancient times.

Since we don't know what the next weapon performance test will be, it's safest to build a fully functional weapon.

Then it was Maria's turn.

She held her head high and handed in her work.

In an instant, not only the judges, but even Kivili, who was standing beside her, were unavoidably amazed.

Maria's work is a straight knife, forged with Damascus steel, with a high degree of finish.

"It's perfect, little girl." The head of the association gently brushed the back of the knife with his hand, "I was worried that you would be the same as last time when you were quenching. But you handled it very well. This is a good knife, forged of Damascus steel This is the most time-consuming kind of forging method, and your ability to complete it already shows your excellence."

Another judge said: "Facing the predicament of not having a forging tool without any preparation before, although a tricky method was used, the calmness in the face of desperation is absolutely unmatched. You are great."

"Thank you!" Maria bowed.

Four weapons were placed on the table.

After a brief discussion by the judges, the president of the association gave the final decision.

"Mr. Skipper, your long sword is very beautiful. However, when we examined it carefully, we found something worrying--you can see many cracks on your blade under the magnifying glass, almost All over the blade. Have you found any?"

Skipper was surprised, "I didn't..."

The president of the association continued: "It's very dangerous. When your sword is chopping, it is easy to be broken by these small, invisible cracks. I am very happy to see that your forging is very good, but it is a pity , your knife is unqualified."

"Thank you." Skipper nodded.