Chapter 349 - Smithing Talent (1/2)

Lu Tianzi immediately got to work.

The furnaces in Old Juan's Equipment Shop were treasures in their own right. The furnaces drew energy from beast cores as a power source, allowing them to tap on the intense earthen fire from underground.

After Lu Tianzi infused a wisp of his Origin Force within, a fire immediately started to burn within the furnace.

He waited patiently for the heat within the furnace to grow to a suitable level before picking up a piece of iron that he had purchased from Ah San earlier.

Lu Tianzi decided not to be too ambitious on his first try, and just work on regular iron instead.

Thankfully, the furnace was of a rather good quality.

It did not take long before the iron was heated to a suitable level, and Lu Tianzi proceeded with the hammering phase at the anvil.

After the metal had been heated up, it needed to be hammered and cut into shape at the anvil, then quenched in water.

This process needed to be repeated several times to strengthen the weapon, but the number of times depended on the smith's discretion.

If the process was repeated too many times, the equipment might end up becoming too brittle.

After a few hours of work, an iron sword finally took form in Lu Tianzi's hands.

”What's wrong?” Nanlan Qianxue asked after seeing the frown on Lu Tianzi's face. ”It looks pretty good to me.”

”Not good enough,” Lu Tianzi said while carefully scrutinising the iron sword in his hands. ”The surface is even, but energy doesn't flow through the sword smoothly.”

”Perhaps you are being too harsh on yourself,” Nanlan Qianxue shrugged. ”Relax, it's your first try after all!”

”The girl is right, you are being too harsh on yourself,” a deep voice came from another direction.

Hmm?

Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue immediately looked over, only to see that the other two young men in the room had both stopped working and were looking back at them.

”May I know if the two big brothers here have any advice?” Lu Tianzi asked. ”It is fine even if it doesn't sound pretty.”

Since this was only his first attempt at smithing, he would like to hear all the professional opinions he could get. This way, perhaps he would be able to identify more mistakes and correct them accordingly.

Lu Tianzi's respectful tone left a good impression on the two young men, and they subconsciously puffed up their chests in pride.

”I heard from Master that you are completely new to smithing. If that is true, then the sword in your hand can already be considered a rather good result. When I first tried out smithing, my first product is of about the same quality as well!” one of them said.

”Hahaha, stop bullshitting, Ah Er! Your first work was absolute trash!” the other young man laughed.

”Tch! There must be something wrong with your memory, Ah Yi! Anyway, your hammering is far too standard and rigid!” Ah Er hurriedly shifted the topic back onto Lu Tianzi.

”Too standard and rigid?” Lu Tianzi blinked in confusion.

He had deliberately controlled every single one of his hammer strikes, putting an equal amount of strength behind each hammer strike so that the surface would be even throughout.

But now, he was actually being criticised for doing so?

”I can guess what you are thinking, but what Ah Er said is true,” Ah Yi added. ”When it comes to forging equipment, you cannot just do the same thing each time and expect it to work just as well. Materials are just like people. Every piece of them is different, and you need to feel every minute difference with your soul. Only then will you be able to help the material in your hands transform into its ideal form.”

”Feel every minute difference with my soul?” Lu Tianzi repeated in scepticism.

He understood just as well that every piece of material was different.

However, adjusting accordingly was easier said than done.

As for feeling the difference with his soul, it sounded far too abstract for it to be believable.

”You don't seem to believe us, but that is fine as well,” Ah Yi said with a tone that was as though he was a teacher speaking to his student. ”Smithing is not something that you can master with mere words. Much of it had to be done through gut feeling and intuition, which can only be honed through years of experience. When enough time has passed and you finally managed to acc.u.mulate a fair amount of experience under your belt, you will come to understand what we mean.”

”May I know how long the two big brothers here took to get to your current level?” Lu Tianzi asked, his gaze straying to the completed equipment lying on the stone tables behind them.

”Master only took us in as his disciples because he recognised our talent, so we naturally managed to get the hang of it faster than others,” Ah Er grinned. ”It only took me ten years to get to my current level!”

”Ten years?!” Lu Tianzi exclaimed in shock.

”Hahaha, you don't have to be so surprised. Ah Er is truly quite talented,” Ah Yi laughed. ”As for me, I have already been doing this for fifteen years, so you don't have to compare yourself to me. Judging from how well your first product turned out, I would say that just another twenty years will be enough for you to reach Ah Er's level!”

”Twenty years to reach his level...?” Lu Tianzi felt the corner of his lips twitch, especially when his gaze swept over the completed equipment lying on Ah Er's stone table.

From Lu Tianzi's perspective, those completed equipment were not even all that good!

While they were of a better standard than the iron sword that Lu Tianzi had just made, they were still nowhere near what Lu Tianzi would be willing to use in a serious battle.

If he would only be able to forge something of that level after twenty years of diligent practice, then it would really be a waste of his time.

On top of that, this was only the smithing portion. There was still the refinement of the completed equipment that he had to master before he could even be considered an actual artificer!

”Of course, twenty years is nothing but a rough estimate. After all, this is just your first time trying,” Ah Yi tried to sound encouraging. ”If your talent is good, perhaps you would only take half the time to do so. I, for one, only took five years to get to Ah Er's current level!”

”Bullshit, I bet you took more than ten years!” Ah Er retorted.