Chapter 4 - The camp

Red looked at his map as he double checked if he found the right place.

Before him, a towering building that seemed out of this world. Almost alien, with its design looking too out of place compared to other nearby buildings.

Yet, it stood on one of the busiest streets. A bit intrigued, he went in to see what hid behind those doors.

A room laid itself out before him. Filled with white, occasional decoration and a receptionist typing something on her computer.

"Welcome, sir! You must be here for the weapon craftsmanship training program. I just need to check your ID and I'll send you there right away." She said as she stopped right when she saw him.

He took out the ID card and flurry of numbers later; he found himself in a futuristic-looking room.

Nothing even close to a furnace, anvil and a hammer.

Red was the first one there, so he looked around before revising some of the material the old man taught him not long ago.

Soon enough, a couple of dozen people arrived. Their wild characteristics still bothered him somewhat.

Although some people liked to dye their hair or had some kind of weird thing happen to them which changed their hair.

The occurrence of so many colours still felt weird. They were much more vivid and colorful compared to his old world.

Another notable thing. The direct proportion of male to female ratio seemed a bit too big.

Contrary to his expectations. Only 3 out of 20 people, including him, were male.

Moreover, the two seemed very high class and their attire probably eclipsed that old man's smithery five times over.

Everyone seemed somewhat affluent, but not as much as those two.

Few minutes later, he finally got to know his future instructor.

"Greetings students, due to the time constraints and various technical problems that need solving in each and one of you. There will be no introductions today, however, I will highly reward cooperation with each other." The middle-aged man said and got to work straightaway.

With a clap, the surrounding room transformed.

The technology seemed like it exceeded the outside world by a thousand years.

Red flinched as he felt the floor below him tremble. Next, the room somehow expanded a dozen fold and various stations appeared.

Advanced technology surrounded various furnaces. Normal fire got replaced by perfectly controlled heat.

The instructor didn't waste any time and led them to a place on a higher platform.

Here, he began to show various techniques. The stuff he taught easily exceeded any basics the old man taught him.

He didn't fall behind, however. Everyone observed the man before they complied to copy what he did.

A new type of forging that with a gravity machine that brought out impurities better.

It seemed easy at first, but Red struggled. The strength alone didn't bother him much because of the tools.

However, too much gravity alongside the heat required to mold the material again broke the material many times.

Just the gravity alone made it much brittler in its non-melted point. Not to mention that his control over the hammer plummeted to an effective zero whenever the gravity changed.

In an hour, though, he managed to make his first piece.

Compared to the batch of students, he made it around the middle of the pack with some still struggling to complete the first few steps.

When presenting his material. He took note of the ones that finished before him.

Most of them seemed a tad bit older than himself, though a few prodigies certainly wormed their ways in.

A girl with black short hair and red bangs grasped the first place.

Somehow, despite the many experienced people. She finished first and even the instructor marveled at her creations.

Her talent didn't bother him. Those eyes did, much brighter and pure than those of the old man.

It couldn't be so simple.

Red re-focused on the task at hand. The instructor put on additional work for the ones finished and went to guide the struggling ones.

Challenged by a much tougher and powerful material. He abandoned his useless thoughts and went back to forging.

A nice feeling coursed throughout. His body he was once so proud it.

It began to make a comeback to shine once again.

Small screen film blocked the sounds of hammering in each station as Red immersed himself in smithing.

He couldn't quite describe the feeling of smithing. The fondness he had for reading and fishing eclipsed anything, as it carried many things behind it.

But the primal feeling. To smash something with pure force and yet perfect balance and softness.

It felt good.

Alas, no matter how fun it proved to be. He failed to mold the material to the standard size without damaging it.

2 hours later he couldn't do it and with the slower students managing to finish with the guidance of the instructor.

The instructor decided to show them another smithing technique.

A powerful companion to this, which could lighten the material and make it more viable for many huntsmen and huntresses.

The new technology brought powerful materials. But also gave many a headache.

Big weapons suitable for fighting a larger Grimm just weighed too much, sometimes tons of pure weight that wasn't equal throughout the weapon.

And then the genius forging idea came. The instructor didn't say the name of the creator, but called him a once in an era genius.

Red noted the amount of times he glanced at the top spot girl, but attributed it to her talent.

He went back and played around with this new technique.

A mix of dust, forging. It felt like a whole different field altogether.

The novelty of such technique stumped him, and for the first time in a while. Red felt like he was making no progress.

He didn't care if others couldn't make progress as well.

Quite the opposite, when the girl didn't come out of her forging station.

Red felt an adrenaline rush. What if he beat her this time?

He abandoned the thought quite soon. He felt that this kind of thing seemed a bit too immature.

Alas, that feeling ignited something inside his heart.

Hours passed by and he kept trying different things and even when resting, he never stopped.

The instructor showed it clearly and they could even have it replayed at any time.

Nevertheless, he couldn't grasp even the first step quite well.

Helpless, he decided to press the button that allows others to help, instructor included.

"Hiya! I saw that you needed help. You need help, right? Yeah, haha, so uuhh. My name is Ruby Rose, and I'd like to help! You seem like someone quiet and antisocial like me, so I thought that we'd get along better. Wait no! I am not saying you are antisocial. Just..."

"Red." He said, shutting her off.

The poor girl had steam running out of head and seemed on the verge of passing out.

"Can you help me with this?" He asked and broke the creeping silence.

Ruby hopped over and took a peek next to him.

He began doing the process again just to fail 20 minutes later.

The scrap of metal brought a weird tingle inside his body, as he felt foolish for even trying to compete with that girl.

"Woah! You got stuck on the same thing! If it wasn't for my uncle giving me a tip, I wouldn't have known about it at all! Look! You have to do this and then this and when you swing you can't swing too hard, but just right like this right. Get it?" She said as Red felt steam traveling out of his head this time.

"No." He said after a while.

Ruby felt silent as he grew a bit guilty for replying with one-word sentences.

"Ah!" Ruby jumped up scaring him, before she went out for a few seconds.

He swore that he saw red petals before she flashed back in. This time, she had her hammer with her alongside a plethora of tools.

"Let me show you!" She said and got to work.

Compared to his heavy strikes. Hers seemed much lighter, but concentrated and fast.

If one strike took him to bend something, it took her three strikes.

However, it also meant that she had a much smaller chance of screwing up her smithing process.

The rhythmic sounds overtook the forge as he watched her.

It became almost a melody as her moves didn't stop and flowed very naturally.

Just 30 minutes later, she wiped a bit of sweat on her forehead and, with a grin, presented him with her finished piece.

Compared to the instructor. The essence of her forging looked different and yet arrived at the same ending.

Then she patiently explained anything he didn't understand.

An hour later and a couple of failed products. Red looked at his finished piece of metal with a bit of disbelief.

At this moment, the instructor walked in as well and examined the product.

"Not bad lad, you are the third to finish! No doubt this lass is a good teacher, isn't she?" He said and with the metal in hand walked back to the podium.

Afterwards, he announced the end of today's session.

The Sun had long fell over the horizon and Red couldn't believe how fast it ended.

"See ya later, Red! I'll show you my baby next time, okay?" Ruby yelled across the street as another girl showed up on a bike and picked her up.

She looked at him and winked before her long golden hair began to flutter in the wind and, in no time, vanished.