kscans

Chapter 152 - A Fine Sword, It Seems ~Act One~ 2. A Japanese Sword?

Ever since creating the mountain knife-esque object with Smithing (Strange) Apprentice, Yuri had distanced himself from smithing, if you could call it that, for a while. This was by no means because Yuri's naive heart had been wounded, but simply because he had various other things to do.

However, as the new year began, the snow melted, and the day of his visit to Laurenzen approached... Yuri once again began to worry about the weakness of his own armament. During his trip last autumn, he had been able to dispatch the bandits with the butchering knife he happened to have on him, a knife that bore a striking resemblance to a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, though in Yuri's mind it was strictly for butchering. But was it really a good idea to set out on a journey without carrying a proper weapon? Even though he had an escort, shouldn't he have at least carried a weapon for self-defense? He had developed something like an "automatic rifle," but he could not bring that out in the open. He needed a weapon that would not arouse suspicion, this was important.

"...That said... what I usually carry is a butchering knife..."

For some reason, Yuri encountered monsters with a high probability, but he could defeat most opponents by hiding with his Stealth skill and striking by surprise with a Magic Stone Tool. Opponents he could not defeat that way, he finished off with long-range magic attacks. However, when traveling with other people...

"I've been told not to show my Stealth skill, and my magic if possible, to others too much..."

If he could not use Stealth and magic, there was almost nothing a twelve-year-old child (Yuri) could do. Even if he used the humanoid monster combat skills from Anti-Monster Tactics, he thought he would be able to do little more than protect himself. The fact that he had "crushed" the ruffians who tried to scam him in Laurenzen seemed to have been forgotten. For the record, a normal twelve-year-old does not have a dangerous skill like Anti-Monster Tactics. In any case,

"That means I also need the skill to fight while remaining visible, right?"

That is how one normally does it.

"Then I need to prepare a weapon for that, I guess."

Based on this common-sense judgment, Yuri briskly decided to manufacture an iron sword.

"This is a good opportunity to practice forging... but there's no way someone like me who couldn't even properly forge a mountain knife can forge a decent iron sword."

For this extremely valid reason, he quickly abandoned the idea of making it with his orthodox Smithing skill. He was determined to make it with press working, deciding that as long as he ended up with an iron sword, it did not matter if the method was unorthodox.

Incidentally, the reason he decided to make an iron sword instead of a Magic Stone Tool was not because he thought the weight of iron was more advantageous for impact force... but simply because Yuri was under the impression that "swords are made of iron." To be fair, if he had made a Magic Stone Tool sword, it is not hard to imagine that it would have been too light and difficult to handle. However, that also meant that women, children, and the elderly with less physical strength could wield it as a proper weapon, provided they got used to the Japanese sword principle of slicing with a pull.

"So next... is what shape to make it."

As a former Japanese person, he wanted to make it a Japanese sword, even if only in form. But the problem was whether something like a "katana" existed in this world. If it was unknown, it would attract unnecessary attention. Yuri already stood out quite a bit, and no, precisely because he already stood out, he wanted to avoid having a conspicuous weapon. That said...

"A Western-style straight sword would probably be used for chopping. ...Which means it's unsuitable for a weak person like me..."

He did not want to stand out unnecessarily, but it would be counterproductive if his combat power decreased as a result. He should probably be prepared to stand out a little and choose a "katana" that even a weak person could use.

...As wise readers will understand, a certain, in a sense most important, perspective is missing here, whether Yuri could master the use of a katana. Even setting that point aside, he had supposedly been "optimized" by God upon reincarnation, the point that a lighter Magic Stone Tool would be better for a weak child was not even considered. ...Preconceptions are a scary thing. To add to that, Yuri's physical abilities had been boosted by God, so at the time of his reincarnation at age seven, his strength was about twice that of a typical adult. However, Yuri, who firmly believed himself to be the weakest, had no way of noticing such a thing.

"...I'm already treated like a weird foreigner anyway, so it's too late now. ...It's probably better than being treated as non-human..."

How pitiful. Hang in there, Yuri.

"...I felt like I heard something... but setting that aside, the next problem is the material, I guess...?"

Since it was an iron sword, it was settled that he would make it from iron, but just plain iron was boring... or rather, it had no benefit for him. With that in mind, Yuri looked into whether he could make something like special steel. For some reason, information on special steel was listed in his Rural Life Guide. But since he had no way of obtaining trace elements like chrome, tungsten, molybdenum, or vanadium, he found that it was currently impossible. The only element he could add was silicon, and the guide said that adding it would improve the strength. However,

"Hmm... if I make the whole thing out of special steel, it'll be a pain if it fails..."