Smithing

Hearing someone's familiar voice, Exia subconsciously turned his head and immediately spotted the same guy he met yesterday. The man was currently wearing a black robe instead of a suit, leaving only his face visible. A jelly-like chin, with a little amount of beard. Not so rough face, and looked like in his 30s. Amber brown paired-eyes, the man now staring at him with a glint of a smile.

"Yeah, fortunately, many people seemed to know this place well," Exia replied as he approached the man.

"Good." The man nods his head and quickly added, "What's your name, lad? I need to introduce you to him beforehand, and if I didn't know your name, that would be a pretty embarrassing occasion for me."

"Exia Glide, sir."

"Exia Glide, huh? What a good name. You can call me by sir Bernard in the future."

As they talked, Bernard led him into the entrance door and opened it directly without bothering to knock.

"Ardelt! I'm bringing you a genius discipline!" Bernard yelled like a drunkard as he entered. This makes Exia dumbstruck for a moment as he didn't expect the scholarly-look Bernard would act like this.

"Hah? A kid? I don't need one." A rough man's voice sounded within his ears, resulting in Exia turned his attention to the voice's owner curiously.

Sit above a wooden chair was a bald-man with his tanned muscular-body exposed. His legs were raised above the table, and he looked like a thug no matter which side Exia observed. With his arms crossed in front of his chest, he scoffed, "I despise kids, especially noisy kids that like to chatter. They really pain the ass because I could do nothing to them. At least I could kill mosquitos that kept bothering me, but not kids."

Exia involuntarily took a step back hearing the man's statement. In other words, he'll kill a kid if they weren't considered human, right?

"Ahaha, you sure becoming funnier as you grew old," Bernard replied jokingly and patted Exia's shoulder, "You scare the little guy, you know."

"Hmph, if he already scared because of my words earlier, he's not suitable here." Ardelt scorned and briefly scanned Exia's appearance before breaking his gaze in the next second.

"Hehe, are you confident to melt this icy-man?" Bernard whispered to Exia.

Exia gawked and fell into a deep thought next. He didn't know how to deal with a grumpy guy as he got zero experience with it. But, if he backs off now, an opportunity like this would be hard to find in the future. It might take a year for him able to break free from mister Braun's shadow since he's basically an illiterate boy.

Heaved a deep sigh, Exia nodded his head and answered firmly, "I'll do at my utmost."

Albeit saying that, Exia nevertheless still pessimistic about the upcoming test. He somehow had a hunch that the test would relate to blacksmithing, considering how it takes on smithing place.

"Good, that's a spirit of a youngster." Bernard smiled and turned to the Ardelt, "Heard it grumpy old man? Give him a chance to prove himself. His only goal was to study, what a benevolent goal, isn't it?"

"Why don't you the one who taught him instead?" Ardelt retorted.

Exhaled a heavy breath, Bernard answered with a deadpan face, "You know yesterday's accident, right?"

Upon hearing Bernard's serious tone, Ardelt spent a few seconds figuring out what he meant, "Oh..."

Exia, who was oblivious to what the two adults secretly discussed, could only stare at them back and fro confusedly.

Realizing there was another person in the room, Bernard cleared his throat, "Anyway, I already promised this kid that I'll help him find a teacher. So, that's the reason I come here."

"Aright, aright." Ardelt helplessly said and proceeded to turn his eyes to Exia, "You, what's your name?"

"Exia Glide, sir."

"Exia Glide? Not a bad name." Ardelt replied as he stroke his chin.'

'Why this scene felt familiar, though?' Exia thought to himself and immediately brushed that thought off when he saw Ardelt stood up from his seat.

Heading for Exia Ardelt stopped right in front of Exia him circling him with his eyes inspected Exia's figure thoroughly.

'God, what if sir Bernard was actually a human trafficker and Ardelt was a perverted guy that currently measures my body value?' A thought couldn't help but crossed his mind when he felt Ardelt's eyes glued over his body.

"Hick!" Exia emitted a squeaking sound when he sensed Argelt's palm was squeezing his arm.

"Why are you letting out a weird sound?" Ardelt stared suspiciously at Exia.

"Eh...Nothing sir, my body was sensitive to touches." Exia lied and tried to widen their distance but halted when his body being forcefully held down by Ardelt, "Stay still!"

Exia almost struggled in response to Ardelt's action, but stopped when he noticed Ardelt didn't continue his movement and withdraw his hands in the next moment. Returning to its original position in front of Exia, Ardelt mumbled, audible enough to be heard for everyone within the room, "Not tough enough, no muscles, too skinny, lack of nutrition and energy."

The corner of Exia's eyes twitched after hearing Ardelt's remark.

'It's not my fault the body I possessed this skinny.' Exia mused inwardly.

"Well, apparently, your body build is really not suitable for the test I'm about to give. However, since my friend kindly requests me to take care of you, I'll lower the difficulty." Ardelt spoke after pondering for seconds.

'Like I'm afraid of, the test required good muscles, which means the test ought to be forging.' Exia thought in distress, but still, he displays a cheerful smile in front of Ardelt, "Thank you for thoughtfulness, mister Ardelt."

"Go to the anvil, shall we?"

"Okay!"

Following Ardelt, Exia was taken out of the room and handed over a steel gauntlet with some scrapes, "Your test is to flatten this gauntlet by forging it. I had originally intended to give you a breastplate armour, but given the small size of your build, I changed my mind."

'A plate chest? Is this guy trying to drain my stamina wholly?'

Ardelt then continued to spoke, "Heat it on the forge, and wait for around five minutes before ejecting it."

Nodding his head, Exia moved to grab tongs from the displayed tools on the walls and then clasped the gauntlet with them. After confirming the clip was tight enough, Exia proceeds to insert it on the forge.

As it was his first time doing this kind of work, Exia is really nervous that sweats start to form madly even though he only stands in front of the forge for a few seconds.

In just a few minutes, Exia clothes are drenched in sweats due to nervousness and the hot temperature emitted by the forge. Scrubbing the sweat on his forehead, Exia concluded five minutes already past and started pulling the gauntlet from the forge.

Watching steel gauntlet turned into red-flame colour, Exia astonished for a while before he regained his senses and immediately placed it above the anvil.

Inhaling a deep breath, Exia forwarded his right hand and grabbed a hammer from a little desk beside the anvil. Instantly, Exia felt his hand sunk and almost lost his grip for a moment there.

'Shit! This is way too heavy for a skinny kid like me.' Exia complained in misery.

Even so, Exia remained still and lift the hammer with much difficulty then smash it directly atop the gauntlet, 'No pain no gain!'

*Clank*

*Clank*

Watching such a scene lay out before their eyes, both men could only breathe out a sigh.

"He got perseverance, but perseverance only isn't enough," Ardelt said in pity while shook his head.

...

'It isn't enough!' Exia roared inwardly while moulding the gauntlet with the hammer he held.

Ignoring his aching arms, Exia continued his action rashly like a beast. He didn't know when such an opportunity getting taught for free would come by. Hence, he couldn't afford to lose in this test.

Overtaken by his emotions, Exia starts swinging his hands furiously and accidentally hits the floating orb near him.

"Ah?"

Instantly, he experienced the most painful electric shock he ever received in his entire life.