Becoming an Official Blacksmith

William arrived at the blacksmith guild and walked inside. Going to the receptionist, he asked a question.

"Do you have any books on how to create weapons?" He asked.

"We do, but if you're trying to learn forging, it might be better to learn from an experienced blacksmith."

"Uh..." William thought about this. Personal experience would indeed be much better than learning from reading. "Okay then. Are there any one star blacksmiths that can teach me?"

"There are a few, but they're all teaching someone already. One of them will finish their lesson in 30 minutes, so I can reserve you a spot."

"That would be great, thank you."

"Okay, but you know it isn't free, right?"

"Oh. How much?" William suddenly became worried that he might not have enough money.

"For a one star blacksmith... Usually around 1 silver coin an hour."

"Phew... Okay, please give me three hours with them." William handed the receptionist 3 silver coins

"Okay. Please come back in thirty minutes. And take this token. It will let you into the instruction room."

William took a jade token out of their hands.

"Oh, and in the meantime, you might want to go to the teaching hall. It's to your left. You might learn something there," said the receptionist.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

William walked left, reaching the teaching hall.

"Let's see... Nothing too complicated, since I'm just starting out."

William looked around the teaching hall.

"That lecture sounds simple."

William walked to one of the podiums, which had someone demonstrating the most basic method for forging weapons.

"...meaning we're now into the forging step. The most common forging method in the city is the Spirit Forging Method. It involves injecting spiritual energy into what you're forging by hammering it."

A woman in a leather apron was hammering away at a piece of metal as she spoke.

Not wanting to waste any time, William quickly bought 20 minutes of the ultra comprehension boost so he could learn more from the lecture.

"The first step of this technique is to channel your spiritual energy into your hammer. Then, you must push that spiritual energy into what you're forging. However, too much spiritual energy, and you'll cause your sword to have faults. Too little, and it will merely be a normal weapon. Timing is also important, as being even a little bit off will waste spiritual energy and you might miss the right timing to push spiritual energy into the sword, losing an opportunity to strengthen it."

The woman continued to forge her weapon, and William listened closely, not wanting to miss anything.

"However, no matter how good you are at using this technique, it won't matter if you can't get the shape of the weapon right. However, this can only be learned using a lot of practice."

The lecture went on for nearly thirty minutes, and just when they were going to finish the sword, William remembered that he still had a lesson to go to.

"Right! I almost forgot about that!" William ran out of the teaching hall and went to the receptionist.

"Is it time yet?"

"The lesson will end in just a few moments. Do you still have the token I gave you?"

"Yeah."

"Great. Go to the end of the teaching hall and you should find yourself in a large room with many doors. Find door 7. If the door is open, you can enter. If not, wait until someone exits before going inside."

"Okay. And one more question."

"Yes?"

"Is there a reason for taking the blacksmith exam?" William was going to leave for his new school in three days, and he wanted to see if there was anything he could do in the meantime.

"Most people do it to gain social status, but it also allows free access to forging rooms once you become a blacksmith. It also allows to purchase ores and tools from blacksmith guilds at a lower price."

"Okay, thanks." William decided to take the exam in a few days and buy some supplies so he had something to do on the way to his new school.

William went back into the teaching hall and ran to the end of the hallway, weaving through the crowds of people listening to the lectures. Finally, he arrived in large room. It had a large podium at the back, probably for more important lectures, and a total of 32 metal doors, each with a number engraved on them.

Walking to door 7, William noticed the door was still closed. Standing nearby, William waited patiently for the door to open.

"Creak!"

The door opened, and a man exited without noticing William standing nearby.

William ignored them and walked into the room.

Inside, he met a middle aged man who was cleaning up the room. Looking up, they noticed William.

"Next student?"

"Yeah."

"Show me your token."

William handed them his token and they checked it.

"Alright, do you have any experience with being a blacksmith?"

"None."

"Okay."

They placed a piece of metal on an anvil in the center of the room.

"Alright, grab one of the hammers over there."

William did as he was told, grabbing a hammer from the table.

"Alright, now I want you to practice the Spirit Forging Method. You don't need to create anything good looking, just hammer this piece of metal using the technique and refine your control."

"Okay."

William checked the amount of SP he had.

'Not enough to use the ultra comprehension boost. Guess I'll have to use the normal one.'

He purchased an hour of comprehension boost to start and immediately used it. Forcing some spiritual energy into the hammer, he struck the piece of metal, forcing some spiritual energy into it.

"Timing wasn't quite right," said the man. "Try to focus instead of just hammering away wantonly."

William continued to practice the technique for the next hour under the guidance of his instructor, constantly improving his skill with it. After this training, he was able to consistently get close to the perfect timing.

"Alright, you can stop now."

William put down the hammer and rested. While swinging the hammer a few times was easy, the hammer was pretty heavy and he had been swinging it nonstop for the past hour, so his arm was sore.

"I can see that you're getting much better at using the technique, and you're getting closer to the experienced level, where I'm at," the man looked at him strangely.

"Are you sure you haven't done this before? This is really fast for someone who didn't know anything about blacksmiths before this."

William shook his head in denial.

"Okay then. Anyway, rest for a while, and then we'll start working on getting the shape of the weapon right. If we have enough time afterwards, we might get to combining the two together."

They started to teach William how to shape a weapon, and he continued to learn forging from them for the next two days, learning everything he could about forging weapons. Finally, on the last day before he went to his new school, he arrived in front of the blacksmith guild, intent on taking the exam.

He went up to the attendant at the front desk.

"I'd like to take the exam to become an apprentice blacksmith."

"Apprentice examination? Okay, 1 silver."

William handed them the money and they pointed at the right hallway.

"Head that way and find room 2. That's where you'll take your exam."

"Okay, thanks."

William ran down the hallway and found room two. Heading inside, he looked around. In the room, there was a large table with a piece of metal, three different sized hammers, a pair of tongs, and several tools to polish his weapon. There was also an anvil and a forge, along with a bronze platform near the door.

A moment after he entered, the sound of someone's voice resounded in the room.

"You will have one hour to create any weapon out of that ingot. After the exam, you can keep the weapon you forge. You are permitted to use your own equipment if you wish. You will be told the time at 30, 45, 50, 55, and 59 minutes. Once you are done, place the completed weapon the the bronze platform. The time starts now."

Not wasting any time, William grabbed the piece of metal off the table and a hammer that he was comfortable with. Quickly throwing the metal into the forge, he lit a fire underneath it and grabbed the tongs, waiting for the metal to heat. About 5 minutes later, he took the read hot piece of metal out and immediately started to hammer it while keeping the metal in place with the tongs.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

About 20 minutes later, he had completed the outline of the sword and started to clean it up, removing imperfections on its surface. Afterwards, he polished its surface, making it nice and shiny, before he placed it onto the bronze platform.

He looked at the platform, wondering what would happen. Suddenly, there was a loud "ding!" and a green light came from the platform.

"You have successfully passed. Do you wish to continue?"

"Uhh... sure?" William had not heard about the exam having multiple parts.

"Continuing. Create a mortal low tier or higher weapon in the remaining 37 minutes."

The voice stopped, leaving William confused.

"But there isn't another piece of metal to forge!"

He looked at the sword on the platform. He hadn't though there would be more to the exam, so he had simply created a normal weapon and called it a day.

"Guess I'll have to reforge it."

William started to hammer the weapon again, using the Spirit Forging method this time. Since he didn't have to completely remake the weapon, it was faster this time, taking him only 10 minutes to finish it. Cleaning and polishing it took another 5 minutes.

"Mortal-mid tier? Slightly higher than I expected."

William placed the sword on the platform again, waiting for the results. As expected, another green light flashed, and the voice spoke again.

"Continue?"

'Are there three parts to the exam?' William thought.

"Yes."

"Continuing. Create a spirit-low tier weapon. In the next 19 minutes."

William frowned. Was the apprentice examination really that hard? To create a spirit low tier weapon just to become an apprentice blacksmith, it seemed like becoming a blacksmith was much harder than he thought.

"Guess I have to pull out all my cards."

Pulling a beast core from a spirit condensation realm beast out of his spacial ring, he placed it on the anvil and picked the sword back up. He was going to use the Spirit Forging technique again, but with the spiritual energy from a spirit condensation realm beast. As spiritual energy from higher level cultivators was more useful in creating a better weapon, it would be better to use its spiritual energy instead of his own.

...

"1 minute left!"

William started to panic. Reforging it using external energy was harder than expected, and he had just barely made it a spirit tier weapon! However, if he didn't clean it up, it was likely that he wouldn't pass the exam! Fast as he could, William started to clean up the blade, only sharpening and polishing it slightly before running towards the pedestal.

"Time is up!"

After just barely placing the sword down on the pedestal, the voice resounded in the room again.

"Phew!"

William looked at the pedestal closely, waiting nervously.

"Ding!"

The pedestal glowed in a faint green light, signaling his success.

William sighed in relief.

"You were able to pass, albeit barely. You can now exit the room and claim your badge at the front desk."

Before leaving, William went back to cleaning up the weapon and polished it, also paying extra attention to sharpen the blade. Since this was going to be his, he might as well finish it.

After he was done, he left the room, walking back to the receptionist.

"Just finished with the apprentice exam?" The receptionist said. In her head, she was already despising William. He was barely to forge a normal weapon in an hour, and he wanted to challenge the exam?

"It wasn't easy to forge a spirit tier weapon, okay?" William complained.

"Huh?" The receptionist was confused. "You only had to forge a normal weapon!"

"What about that other stuff?" William was confused too. He only had to do the first part? WHat about the rest?

"Wait... did you continue with the exam after your first weapon?"

"Yeah, I thought that was part of the exam!"

"No, that was the exams for the following tiers!" The receptionist reached under the counter, checking something. Suddenly, she gasped. Grabbing something and standing back up, she presented a black badge with a hammer and two golden stars to him.

"Since you have completed the apprentice, tier 1, and tier 2 exams, you have officially become a tier two blacksmith!"