Pound! Pound! Hammer!

"It's simple, Little Zhiyuan! The copper ore and the carbon from the charcoal need to be combined! Use that mighty soul of yours! Fight on!"

Atop Hadur's anvil, he had placed a 'My Baby Blacksmith' play set designed for young fairies. Though it was essentially a toy, the play set was given all the detail and effort that would be put into building an actual forge.

In fact, considering that it was a much more tiny and delicate piece, it would not be wrong to say that this play set took more effort than a regular forge.

The attention to detail and fine tuning on a lot of the tools and equipment echoed the expert quality of the hands that worked on it.

Ye Zhiyuan was dressed in a blacksmith apron, which was a part of the play set, and had tied her hair back.

She was currently hammering at a misshapen piece of ore, already sweating and breathing heavy. Despite her obvious fatigue, the young woman did not cease to raise the hammer in her hand.

Every time it fell, the red hot ore would slowly be compressed into the desired shape, but this was an arduous process.

"Give it some more heat now, Little Zhiyuan. You're almost there!"

Hadur looked like he was playing 'The Sims.' His fingers danced about as he enthusiastically spectated Ye Zhiyuan's actions. With little bits of input, he guided her toward her ultimate goal of forging her very own copper shortsword.

His sacred copper was a fantastic material when molded by him, but that was because of his own Way. He had developed a sort of karmic tie with the copper of the forest, allowing him to forge divine items with it, despite it being a mundane ore.

It was not inaccurate to say that, in Hadur's hands, copper was no less than 'a remedy to cure all ills.'

He was trying to guide Ye Zhiyuan on a similar path. As a beginner, her experience first needed to come from working the material. Of she could do it well enough eventually, her chances of successfully forging would go up exponentially.

As she worked, Hadur's thoughts drifted and he fell into a short reverie. It was long enough, however, that he missed Ye Zhiyuan drive the final hammer into the ore.

It was now a much more flat and even shape, so she was awaiting Hadur's instruction.

"Oh, uh- right!"

He shook himself up and bit and then leaned onto the anvil, looming over the play set.

"This is where it gets complicated. Regularly, a number of techniques need to be applied before the ore can become a weapon. The metal needs to be durable, but also soft. It needs to be absorbent of pure energy, but also capable of retaining its inherent power."

"While there a many ways to do this," Hadur noted the anxious expression on Ye Zhiyuan's sweaty face, "you will be employing none of them."

"What do you mean? Don't I need to understand the essence of forging?"

Hadur chuckled, raised himself up and folded his arms across his burly chest. "While that is true, forging a weapon does not make you a master of it, nor does mastering a weapon allow you to forge it."

"Yet, without being either, you cannot have a weapon at all."

Ye Zhiyuan felt the pulse of heart tremor throughout her body. Something somewhere within her was instantly attuned to Hadur's words, but she did not understand why.

"If you forge a sword, it is only a sword. It becomes a weapon when wielded, and, if wielded by a master, it becomes truly deadly. Suffice it to say, the essence of a weapon is neither forging nor wielding."

Hadur reached forward and grabbed the bit of ore that Ye Zhiyuan had been hammering.

Though it was still very hot, it did not affect him, causing Ye Zhiyuan to gape a bit. He brought it to his forehead and closed his eyes, seeming to be saying a prayer of some sort.

"The essence of a weapon, is Will."

Transmogrified in swirling orange light, Hadur and the tiny bit of flattened ore began to glow and shimmer. Ye Zhiyuan shut and shielded her eyes for as long as the effect lasted, then opened her eyes to see Hadur's fingertip in front of her.

On it was a copper shortsword, but nothing special beyond that. Clearly, Hadur had not tapped into his knowledge of the material. He had relied on pure Will to produce this shortsword.

"I am not denouncing the thorough knowledge of forging, nor am I denouncing mastery of the sword. The Way of Forging, the Way of the Sword, they are both assets to you, and can be neglected. Only, if you choose to do so, this will be the limit of your capabilities."

Ye Zhiyuan felt the heat on that shortsword and its weight. It was a sword. A true, independently existing physical object. Even this shortsword, something without the slightest trace of magical energy or otherwise, was something she could not yet create.

Yet, she did not want such things to be the only items she could create. She wanted to find her Dao, and she knew that it did not end with such simple creations.

"No. I want to learn more. I don't want to neglect anything that might help me discovery my Dao."

Hadur beamed with bright red cheeks and stroked his hairy chin, "Good young sprout! Wonderful!"

He grabbed her up, play set and all, and started walking off into the Copper Forest. Zhiyuan had no idea where he was taking her, but she marvelled at the scenery.

The further they went, the more copper plants and trees she saw. There were even lifeforms made entirely of copper, and bright dots of glittering light that seemed to fly about intelligently.

"First, we must cultivate your Forging Will! I'm going to have you harvest, refine and work a considerable amount of my copper. Can you handle such a task, Little Zhiyuan?"

Ye Zhiyuan sat at the edge of the play set, firm in her decision. With a nod, she cemented her fate for the rest of the day.

Hadur provided her with a tiny pickaxe from a 'Baby's First Mine' play set, and set her down at the foot of a copper mountain. The mountain itself wasn't made of copper, but there were almost endless ore veins that could be mined.

There were a variety of wooden staircases, ramps and scaffolding for various species, not just Hadur. Ye Zhiyuan used the ones designed for fairies, and got to work mining.

Hadur placed a tiny wheelbarrow, from the same set, near the vein that she had chosen. When she filled it up, she dropped the pickaxe atop the pile of ore and started to make her way down.

Observing, Hadur seemed to want to help her out. However, he decided against in the end, wanting her to experience it all.

She had one mishap where some ore fell over, but she managed to reverse the situation and prevent the entire wheelbarrow from tipping over.

She brought it all back to the play set and got to work. The area was filled with the adorable sounds of her cute little hammer as she toiled endlessly.

She produced similar pieces of worked material, varying in shape and smoothness. Hadur couldn't deny that she had some innate talent, but she nevertheless needed to put in a lot of work.

She made another trip, produced another batch, then made yet another trip. By the time it was evening, she had made ten trips in total, producing 228 pieces of refined ore.

By now, it was not only getting easier. Ye Zhiyuan could clearly feel a shred of the 'Will' Hadur had spoken of.

Without his guidance, she tapped into it while hammering a piece of ore.

In that moment, the hammer left her hands and began to blaze with metaphysical blue flames.

Hadur looked on in awed silence, not wanting to distract her or startle her, no matter the cost. Even if she was losing control and exposing herself to a little bit of risk, he would not dare to interrupt her first bout with self-initiated enlightenment.

The hammer burned and blazed in the air above Ye Zhiyuan, whose eyes were shut. She was entirely focused on that shred of Will, and intent on exercising it.

While she focused on that, the hammer spun about and whizzed back and forth. Then, like a metoer, it halted in place came crashing down with immense power.

In one pound, the ore was flattened at the tip. With another, the mid-section was also flattened. After three hits, the entire piece of ore was refined.

Ye Zhiyuan did not notice; Hadur celebrated in silence.

'Incredible Will! If she keeps this up, she'll be able to forge Spirit Weapons in no time at all!'

Then, Hadur gasped.

The flames surrounding the hammer then sprouted metaphysical arms, and those arms picked up refined ore, carried it over to the pile, then brought a raw piece to the fire.

As if that wasn't insane enough, the blue flames holding the raw ore morphed into golden flames that instantly brought it close to a melting point.

After bringing it back to the anvil, the flaming hands disappeared and the hammer got back to work.

'Realized Will? Is this Realized Will?'

Hadur took a step closer, then he received another shock.

"Do not approach Hammer! I am fulfilling my Mistress' orders, and will not be disrupted!"

Out of the hammer, a powerful spiritual echo assailed Hadur's mind. If he was anything but a god, he would surely have suffered a horrible migraine.

'It speaks? Is this really Realized Will? It has to be! What else can it be?'

The hammer completed another task, then moved the ore and started all over again. After a while of this, it only took one pound before the ore was completely refined.

After that single impact, the entire ore was transformed into a perfectly refined version of itself, which defied common sense.

It was something that approached Hadur's level of skill, and that was astonishing to behold.

The hammer worked and worked, never ceasing. At some point, Ye Zhiyuan subconsciously took a seat on the floor. Even so, the hammer and the blue flames around it continued to work.

Hadur was exploring all possible avenues, desperate to understand what he was seeing.

"That's right, Mistress! Take a load off, rest easy, and watch as I, Hammer Hammeringwel III, perform!"

Hadur gave up. There was no way he could understand this. Was it a higher tier of Will? Was it another of her unique innate skills? Was it the effect of her touching upon her Dao?

He did not know, and the hammer simply did not stop.

"Pound! Pound! Hammer Hammeringwel III will show this wretched ore! How dare you make the Mistress work! Take this! Take that!"

The flaming hammer, with its burning limbs, acted as if it had a personal vendetta against the ore. It beat and battered it, tossed it aside with zero care, and then roughed up another piece before burning it ruthlessly.

Still, it did not mess up. Not a single time.

As for Ye Zhiyuan, she was still engrossed in the feeling of tapping into her Will- a feeling that continued to grow stronger.

Suddenly, Hadur froze up and glanced at the fiery hammer again, then Ye Zhiyuan.

He thought about her unique creation skill, about the way in which it worked, and then about the fact that the weapons she created were all linked to her soul, feeding off its energy.

In that moment, the hammer spoke and literally drove the final nail into the coffin, causing Hadur to come to a realization.

"Tremble before the might of the Allforge's fire and be refined! Pound! Hammer!"

Hadur, seeing things in a new light, grabbed at his hair and pulled it with careless abandon. His eyes were saucers at this point, and his jaw all but unhinged.

"Allforge!? Allforge!? It was never creation! It was that all along!"