Chapter Thirteen: Forging

On the way to the Riken, Qin Fei noticed another small island nearby.

The island was not large, barely three or four hundred square meters in area. The entire landmass was shrouded in snow and ice, and at its edge lay the carcass of a whale, stranded and long dead.

He wondered if the whale’s flesh was still edible…

Qin Fei approached the whale, drew his knife, and made two cuts in its surface. The screech of metal scraping against hard ice rang out sharply; it seemed a thick layer of ice had formed over the whale, making it impossible to cut through with a mere knife.

He took out a steel saw, selected a promising spot, and began to saw. After several minutes, he managed to remove a small section of the ice. With that obstacle gone, Qin Fei stabbed his knife into the whale’s flesh and carved out a piece of meat.

The chunk of whale meat was not large, about the size of an egg. The frozen carcass was so hard that it was nearly impossible to cut with just a knife. After all that effort, this small piece was all he could manage.

The night’s temperature was bitterly cold, and Qin Fei was unwilling to waste any more time here. He stowed the whale meat in his backpack and departed.

Once he reached the perimeter of the Riken, Qin Fei lit his windproof oil lantern. Outside, under the cover of night, it was just possible to make out the shapes of the surroundings. But inside the ship, darkness reigned—so dense he could not see his hand before his face.

The Riken’s entire hull lay canted on the ice. At the bottom of the ship was a gaping hole. Qin Fei entered through this breach.

This was the lower hold, cluttered with all sorts of miscellaneous items—fishing nets, shelves, empty oil drums—piled in such chaos that it was difficult even to find a place to stand.

Above the cargo hold sat a furnace, the ship’s main source of power. Besides relying on the wind, the whaling ship Riken also used this furnace to burn charcoal, generating steam to propel her.

Though the furnace was not designed for blacksmithing, its internal temperature was more than adequate to smelt iron. Inside the furnace, there was a pair of iron tongs for handling coal. On the floor nearby lay a shovel, a hammer, and scattered lumps of coal.

Thanks to the shelter of the hull, the coal remained dry, untouched by wind and snow.

Qin Fei left the hold and made his way upward. At the very top were the crew’s quarters and the bridge. In the crew’s quarters, he found a few supplies used in daily life.

Unfortunately, most were of no current use to him, or else too heavy to carry. Among the clothing, only a wool scarf was worth taking; the rest offered less warmth than what he already wore. As Qin Fei was not short of fabric, he left the other items behind.

As for food, all he discovered was a single can of peaches.

[Superior Peaches: Peaches of extraordinary quality]

Fruit—a rare and welcome find.

Qin Fei had not tasted fruit in a long time. Although there was only one can on the ship, he had plenty of jerky in his pack and could survive several more days even if he found nothing else to eat.

After thoroughly searching the crew’s quarters, Qin Fei went to the bridge. There, he discovered a bag of beef jerky—not a large quantity compared to his own stores, but it was seasoned and high in salt.

A decent snack.

Besides the food, there was also a signal flare, a firestarter, and a flare gun on the bridge.

[Firestarter: A metal tool for lighting fires in the wild]
[Marine Signal Flare: Produces bright light and a loud sound; strong enough to scare off packs of wolves]
[Flare Gun: Fires rescue signals into the sky, launching flares. Bullets bounce off the target after impact]

Beside the flare gun were four flares.

Qin Fei felt a bit disappointed.

Flare guns came in many varieties; some could even kill a bear with a single shot. Judging by the description, this one seemed to be non-lethal.

Still, he took it. The flare gun’s loud noise and brilliant light could scare off wild animals in an emergency.

The signal flare and flare gun were more defensive tools than survival essentials—unless he encountered wild beasts, they would be of little use.

The most valuable find, in fact, was the firestarter. His supply of matches was nearly exhausted, and he had no magnifying glass or other reusable tools—this firestarter arrived just in time.

On the wall of the bridge hung a medical kit. Its contents were complete; in addition to disinfectant and antibiotics, Qin Fei also found a vial of adrenaline.

[Adrenaline: A steroid injection for life-or-death emergencies, granting a surge of strength for a short time, followed by exhaustion]

These items were not heavy, so he packed them all in his backpack.

Having scavenged the ship, Qin Fei lay down to sleep in the crew quarters. Compared to the lighthouse, this place was much warmer, and he need not worry about freezing during the night.

[You have survived: 13 days, 2 hours, 15 minutes]

The next morning, after eating some jerky, Qin Fei gathered scrap iron from the ship and made his way to the furnace.

He decided to spend the day forging arrowheads for his bow.

The furnace came with a bellows, allowing air to flow through and stoking the coals to higher temperatures.

Because he was not starting with raw ore, but with refined iron, he could skip the purification step.

All he needed to do was heat the iron and hammer it into the desired shape.

Forging arrowheads was, in practice, nothing more than beating a short iron rod. The front end was hammered into a sharp point, and the back into a rounded head—nothing complicated.

The round end was for inserting into a hole drilled into the birch arrow shaft to secure it. The pointed end was the arrowhead proper, designed to pierce the body of a hunted animal.

The sharper, the better.

Animals had no hands to pull out arrows, so there was no need to make barbs or blood grooves. Besides, with Qin Fei’s current resources, he could not produce such advanced arrowheads.

Hammering iron was both monotonous and physically draining. In six exhausting hours, Qin Fei managed to produce seven iron arrowheads.

It wasn’t that the ship lacked scrap metal; rather, Qin Fei’s own strength was nearly spent. Six straight hours of labor had left him utterly drained.

But he didn’t plan to rest yet. While the furnace was still hot enough, he decided to forge an axe head.

The furnace couldn’t be used for smithing with just a single spark. To reach the right temperature, a large amount of coal had to be added and the bellows worked continuously.

With the amount of coal he had, this would be his only opportunity to forge tools.

Seven arrowheads were plenty.

Taking advantage of the remaining heat, Qin Fei gathered several pieces of iron, melted them together, and hammered the front end thinner and thinner. He then welded a short iron rod to the back. This completed the axe head.

Once cooled, all that remained was to find a wooden stick drilled with a hole, use it as a handle, and insert the iron rod into it.

With the simple axe complete, Qin Fei had nothing left in reserve.

Finally, using the last embers in the furnace, he roasted the whale meat.

Ordinary fish is tender enough to eat without seasoning, but whale meat was different—tough, with a texture somewhere between pork and beef. Perhaps the time it had spent exposed had worsened it; besides its toughness, the whale meat had a fishy odor and a hint of rot.

The smell was so foul that after a single bite, Qin Fei was nauseated and couldn’t eat more. He put the rest back into his pack.

Though inedible for him, he could take it back and feed it to the maggots he was cultivating.

By then, the arrowheads and axe had cooled. Qin Fei packed them all into his backpack.