Chapter-22

Seraphina said as she pointed her finger at him. The only possible explanation of him being able to dodge it was that he had a martial bone. "Since when" "Umm" Theron thought quickly since it might be weird that he got to rank 5 within a few weeks because of his awakening,

"A few months ago" "Which rank are you now" "Copper attainment rank 5" "Hmm, first congratulations on awakening your martial bone"

"It seems that luck is shining upon you" "But you are still very far if compared to the top in the academy right now" "I guess this is your back bone in your choice in choosing the special class" Then they continued to spar with swords after she changed her suit to a training suit in the changing room. They trained for hours and Theron had taken a pill before training so he was burning a lot of energy but the training was quite useful for him as he could feel he was almost breaking through to body refining 6th stage.

After they had stopped training, Theron slumped onto the ground after putting the practice wooden sword which was used to train back to the rack.

'Why does he have so much energy'

Seraphina thought as she saw Theron slumped on the ground. It seemed that Theron didn't notice that compared to an average rank 5 copper attainment, his stamina and strength were nothing like that, they were even more than that, rivaling that of a rank 7, even without the pill he took. After they had ended their training, they said goodbye as they went their separate ways in front of the dojo. After Theron arrived home, he started to refine more pills. He was able to find the sunflower drops easily since they were sold as drinks at a shop and he bought a couple of them and for the sunfire ginseng, he had to find it for some time but he was able to find it as not the name sunfire ginseng but a different name, red ginseng but he was able to see that it was indeed sunfire ginseng after using his insight skill on it.

He refine more pills and he was able to refine 24 pills with each craft yielding 4. The highest purity he got was 63. He wanted to craft more but his mental energy was running out and he couldn't fully control the temperature of the fire so he just stopped.

"Not too bad" Theron said as he looked at the bottle which was filled with the pills he had refined which he put in his storage ring. He had also broken through stage 6 of body refining after the training had kicked in after he arrived home.

 __ __ __

Monday arrived and after school had finished Theron went to Forge Crafts. Theron was able to see Cedric sitting on his rocking chair as he read the news.

"Grandpa Cedric" Theron called out

"Oh, you are here"

"Ok let's go to the back"

Aria looked at the two of them with questioning eyes as she followed them.

"What people would mostly smith for the first time is a sword, something that is easy."

"I would recommend it as well"

"What do you want to smith for your first craft?"

"Wait, what?"

Aria said, looking at the two of them. They turned their gazes back to her as they looked at her for what was wrong.

"Grandpa, why is Theron able to go to smithing straight?"

"While I have to go through your questions" "Oh, that"

"I know that he is already knowledgeable about most common ores; the rare ones that he brought, I would expect he doesn't know." "If you don't believe, we can do a few questions, I guess."

Then there was a back-and-forth with questions seven times, with Theron answering all of them.

"See" Both of them looked at Aria who was pouting.

Theron looked at the ores he could use for the craft and chose the iron ore. Cedric started to talk,

"Well, it's a basic one but it's a good foundation to build upon" "The most important is smithing is not the shape or form" "Nor it is the ore used, it is hammering" "Even if you use the rarest and highest tier ore there is, without a good smith, it will just turn out bad" "The Lunar Silverite ore which you gave was a tier 3 ore" "How I was able to craft a rank 4 sword out of it is something you shouldn't question for now" "Ok, let's start" "I will show you my smithing technique"

"I can't create a manual nor am I good at it so you will have to see it with your own eyes"

Theron looked at it with focus and didn't even blink during the entirety of the smithing, as he was too focused. Afterwards, he took notes down, writing like a cheetah was on his tail to not forget everything he saw.

"You don't need to stress that much; it's not a one-time thing that I will just show you."

"If you need to, I can just show you again"

"Oh" Theron said as he took a look at what he just wrote. Aria took a quick peek at what he wrote. Even though he wrote so fast, his writing was not scribbles but it was neat and tidy. She was surprised as he didn't take a single note at school thinking of his disinterest during regular classes. She was happy that he was interested in something she would like to learn.

"Ok, you can start when you are ready" Cedric said. Theron took out his phone which he used to record during the smithing which both Aria and Cedric didn't notice. After he was done watching the video.

"I'm ready" Theron said assuming his position before the forge. The hammer and the iron awaited, poised for the dance that would shape them into something new.

Theron stood ready, his eyes focused on the iron ore before him. He observed the ore before him carefully noting its imperfections and unique features. He placed the ore in the furnace, igniting the flames. As the metal heated.

'Control of temperature is vital. Too much heat, and the metal may lose its integrity; too little, and it won't bend.'

Theron was able to control it more so because of his experience with alchemy though it was not his own flames that he was dealing with, he was able to control it not perfect nor masterfully but was still better than a novice. Though Cedric's forge was a bit old schooled, Theron was able to adapt to it. He adjusted the temperature using the blower, controlling the oxygen airflow and adjusting which part of the iron was heated and also controlling which part was heated by using the tongs. After Theron thought it was enough time, he took out the iron from the furnace and placed it on the anvil.

The metal glowed red, and Theron began to carefully hammer it, feeling the metal's resistance and adjusting accordingly. After some time, the ore transformed into a blade, unpolished and lacking texture but a successful forgery.

There were hand claps as Cedric and Aria started clapping their hands.