Reincarnating as a demon in sousou no frieren

The next day, after waking up and eating my breakfast of salted meat and cooked vegetables, I started the day with the goal of smelting metal. I had the basics, but I was still missing a bellows or something that could maintain the temperature. Then, I remembered that I could make one out of the tanned wolf skin I had left to dry.

I looked for the skin and, with my trusty knife, began cutting it into the shape I had calculated to make a bellows with the materials at my disposal. Once the skin was ready, I put the bellows together with some sticks I found around.

"This should work," I muttered as I assembled the pieces of the bellows. "Now to light the fire."

I placed charcoal inside the furnace and lit it with dry leaves. Then, I put all the magnesite inside the furnace, closed the entrance with mud and left some holes where the air could escape. In one of those holes, I put the bellows and began to blow.

The process was tedious, but I couldn't allow myself to give up. A few hours passed, during which my only task was to blow with the bellows to keep the heat. Finally, when I felt with my senses that the magnesite must have already melted, I let the furnace cool down.

After a couple of hours, I broke the entrance to the furnace. A blast of heat hit me in the face, but I approached cautiously. Inside the furnace, the coal was no longer burning. With a stick, I began to remove all the magnesite that had melted, transforming into molten iron.

-This is going well- I thought while collecting the metal. *Now, all that remains is to make an ingot.-

With some clay, I created a channel through which the molten metal would pass until it fell into a mold. At that moment, I decided not to directly make a tool with the mold, because that would make the tool more fragile and wear out faster.

I turned the furnace back on and continued blowing. Several hours passed until the iron began to slowly fall into the mold. Finally, all that was left to do was wait for it to cool down.

With the ingot cooled, I could begin forging my first tool: a survival knife. I needed it for harvesting plants, cutting small and medium-sized plants, and butchering animals. Using my magic, I calculated the most perfect shape for the tool and the processes I had to follow to create it.

-So it will be a hunting knife adapted to my needs- I thought as I visualized the design in my mind. -It's the simplest shape I can think of with the materials I have available.-

Now came the hard part: forging the knife. I didn't have a hammer or anvil, so I would have to do it with stones, like our ancestors. Placing the ingot in the furnace, I left the entrance open so it would heat up properly. Then, I took it out with two sticks and placed it on a flat, hard rock. With another rock, I began to beat the metal to give it the shape I wanted.

"This should work!" I said to myself as I struck the metal, watching the composition change with each strike. Some carbon had combined with the metal, causing the iron to turn into steel, a nice accident.

Once I had the shape I wanted, I left the knife in the oven to heat up again, as I needed to temper it. Tempering is the process where you harden the metal so it doesn't break easily. Since I didn't have any oils on hand, I decided to do it with water, which was riskier, but with my magic I knew it was the perfect time to do it.

I placed a bowl of water near the oven and, when the knife was red hot, I took it out and dipped it into the water. As I took it out, I inspected it to see if it had bent, but it was perfectly straight.

"Perfect," I said with a smile as I saw there were no fractures. "A good first knife."

Now all that was left was to create the handle, the sheath, and sharpen the edge. For the handle, I decided to use wood. I just needed to heat the end of the handle and push it into the wood. The heat would cause the wood to open up, and as it cooled, it would contract, making it so the knife wouldn't fall out.

"This is all I need," I thought as I began to carve the handle.

The sheath could be made from the leftover leather I had, which was quite a bit. I was thinking of making leather clothing later on, as it was sturdier and stronger than the one I had made from vines and leaves.

Finally, the tedious part came: sharpening. With my knife in hand, I walked over to the river near my home, where I sat on the bank. I began to look for a flat rock that I could use to sharpen my knife. After a while of searching, I found the perfect rock. Using the river water as an aid, I began to sharpen the edge.

A few hours passed, and as it got dark, I finished sharpening the knife. It was perfect, thanks to my magics that helped me know what I was doing wrong and how to improve the edge.

I took a hair of mine and dropped it on the edge. It snapped in half instantly.

"Perfect. A job well done," I said happily.