Blacksmithing Lesson

 When the morning of the next day came, Ryker, after escorting his lovers to the arena, headed towards the Craftsman Alliance once again. But this time, he went to the Blacksmithing department.

 Seeing the new guy who had been to the alchemist section go to the blacksmithing section is surprising, prompting the receptionist to ask him what he is trying to achieve.

 His reply is simple, "I like to see if I have talents in the more famous professions, such as alchemist, blacksmith, item refiner, rune specialist, and formation master. After all, while I'm good at alchemy, maybe I'm also good at the other profession as well,"

 Hearing his reason, the receptionist loudly said what he wanted to achieve, "You want to see if you can get the same result as doing alchemy in the other profession. I hope you not trying to bite more than you can chew,"

 Ryker chuckled lightly at the receptionist's words. "Of course, I will take your advice wholeheartedly. It's just a test to see if I'm good or maybe better at the other profession or not," 

 Seeing how she won't be able to dissuade the young man, the receptionist could only point the way to the blacksmithing department while offering him to get a blacksmith to teach him. He accepted the offer of course. His ability to perform alchemy is thanks to a good teacher so he doesn't see the need to be stingy about it.

 -x-

 The blacksmith he had requested to be his teacher is at the same grade as the alchemist, just in blacksmithing. The Genesis Grade 6 Blacksmith looked at him before nodding.

 "You had some serious muscle in your arms. That will make forging anything easier. Now, let's get going to business," the man led him to the forge. 

 Unlike the alchemy room, the forge already had a roaring fire, the heat strong enough to make even Genesis Gathering experts back down. For them, however, it is not much of an issue.

 The blacksmith quickly showed him some of the tools, namely the hammer as well as the forge. He then proceeds to show him several different things before finally starting their lesson, though not before giving him a word of advice.

 "I already looked at the record and your previous learning session under that alchemist. He already said you will be a great prodigy who could reach the Genesis Grade 5 Alchemist if you try. So, he was a bit upset about you trying blacksmith.

 But, he did tell me how you can use your qi easily to help perform alchemy. Seeing this, I can just show you how to use qi to make weapons more efficiently as well. So, it best for you to pay attention as I will show you the advanced technique right from the start,"

 While it may seem too much for a beginner, the ability to control qi efficiently will make it not as hard as it could have been. With that said, seeing how it was accomplished will be a good thing as explanation and reading could hardly be compared to seeing the real deal.

 The blacksmith proceeded to get the ore and already processed ingots, "Most of the time, their ores will be already processed by a branch of blacksmithing that focused on extracting the pure metals from the ores. We call them Smelter.

 Naturally, all blacksmith should have some knowledge about smelting as it would make their life easier in the absence of one in their area. So, I will show you the basics of smelting. If you consider it from an alchemical term, it is the same as preparing ingredients,"

 The man then throws a piece of ore into a large object next to the forge. The said object is cylindrical in shape and currently spewing smoke and flame from its upper side. He pointed at it, "This is the furnace, it is a tool we used to turn those ores into metal for our use,"

 He then showed him the two openings of the furnace, "Here is where a special tool that will create hot air that will help in smelting the ores. This will make the process easier," 

 He then showed two different holes at the lower part of the furnace, "This one," he pointed at the top hole, "Is where the slag, the mostly useless piece of impurities will come out. While the other one," this time he showed the lower hole, "is where the melted metal will come out from,"

 "The opening on top is where we will put the ores while the results, the metal, and slag, will come out from the bottom," Ryker summarized, making the blacksmith nod in approval.

 "Yes, but the furnace is used if you're cultivation realm is low or your mastery of Law of Fire is low. Because you are neither, I will tell you the other way to smelt ores," he then proceeded to walk to a more open space while grabbing a piece of ore.

 He then throws the piece of ore before creating a powerful flame. He then trapped the ore inside the flame, making sure it would not exit the flame. As time went on, the blacksmith occasionally used his qi and poured it into the flame, making it even bigger.

 At times, he will also separate the impurities from the molten liquid and cool it before throwing it to the side. By the time he finished, he was able to get a fistful of pure metal from the piece of ore.

 He then put it to the side before looking at Ryker, "While you don't need to do it, I advised you to practice it as it will help you in case there are no smelters available when you want to smelt any ores.

 Ryker nodded before he did the same thing as the blacksmith. As he was just learning, there were some mistakes but overall, his ability to smelt the ores seemed to earn the blacksmith's approval.

 "Good," he praised the young man, "But, this is only a Genesis Grade 1 Ore so it is easier compared to higher grade ores. But nonetheless, you just started so what you did is already good.

 Now, it's time for the harder part of blacksmithing, the actual forging. There are steps you must do before you can start forging your first, well, what do you want to forge?" the blacksmith asked.

 Ryker thought about it before he gave his answer, "Maybe a simple sword or knife so I can get used to forging first before I get to the harder stuff, like armor and more complicated weapons," he decided.

.