Chapter 24: Days of Satisfaction (1/2)

Chapter 24: Days of Satisfaction

Translator: TransnEditor: Transn

It was not a simple kitchen knife. It was obviously a lethal weapon. If he were to try to chop vegetables with it, he feared he would not only chop the vegetables but cut the table in half as well!

He put the kitchen knife aside, and asked, ”Did you make it?!”

”That's right!” Junior Leopard nodded, with a self-satisfied smile on his face. Using materials designed to make kitchen knives to forge a high-quality weapon that was even sharper than a kitchen knife, was sufficient evidence to prove his natural talent for metal smelting.

The Wu's ironware shop traded in all kinds of metal goods, from hammers and pickaxes for farmers, to scissors and kitchen knives for city folk, and finally to weaponry and armor for the military. It provided civil as well as military service, bringing every metal utensil in the world together under one roof.

Because of this, the blacksmiths working for the Wu Family were categorized into three groups. One group specialized in the production of military hardware, and another group produced metal utensils for civilian use. The distinction between these two groups was clear, and the status of the military hardware group was much higher than that of the other group.

After all, smelting military hardware was much more demanding than smelting household utensils, and each item of weaponry or armor that they made was responsible for the life of a soldier. Because of this, the Wu's ironware shop had to be prudent. The blacksmiths who specialized in military hardware needed to have at least 10 years of related experience, even if they were not fully qualified craftsmen.

Weaponry was not only needed by the military, but also by people of the Jianghu; and so, the third category of blacksmiths crafted weapons for the Jianghu people. This group was different from the other two groups. Jianghu people were usually non-conformists who lived roaming lives and were not so particular about their weapons. Just so long as they were sharp and durable, this was enough. This type of weapon did not require an expert craftsman to smelt, just a regular blacksmith with sufficient skillful technique, and the Wu's had no shortage of such persons. There were also some famous people, who had high standards for their weaponry and wanted customized weapons with many demands. These demands were difficult for a regular blacksmith to fulfill, but luckily customers like this were few in number and the Wu's had enough craftsmen to satisfy their requirements.

The ironware shop at Qingyang Market was small, one of the Wu's lowest-ranked outlets. It had just one craftsman who also served as the instructor and often had little work to do. The ironware shop generally sold only ironware of two types: common household utensils and common Jianghu weaponry.

Correspondingly, there were also two types of iron-forging masters here. The requirements of forging weapons were much greater than those for kitchen knives, and because of this, their salaries were different. One who made weapons was paid almost twice as much as one who made household utensils.

Apprentices like Junior Leopard were not paid wages at first because the ironware shop provided food, clothing, and education — was this not enough?

However, while there were no wages, there were prizes available. If you produced an exceptional piece of work, the ironware shop would reward you, and the amount of the reward corresponded to the value of what you had made. Of course, this also had the purpose of motivating apprentices to study diligently, and forge quality goods. These ”quality goods” they aimed to produce were normally household utensils for civilian use. As for weapons, these were made by apprentices who had already qualified. Weapons were only for true blacksmiths. There was a rule in the Wu's ironware shop: an apprentice could only graduate once he had been able to make a weapon which was fully up to standard, and only then could he become a blacksmith and receive wages.

Generally speaking, it took an ordinary person at least five years of training to go from being an apprentice to being a blacksmith, yet Junior Leopard had reached this level in just half a year. Qin Xuanlong was amazed. Looking at the kitchen knife in his hand, he could see that Junior Leopard's metal forging skill was already at the level of crafting weapons. He could also see that Junior Leopard's prospects were much brighter than his own. If he did a favor to him now, perhaps he would benefit from it in the future.

As one of the supervisors of the Wu's ironware shop, he was naturally familiar with Junior Leopard's experience. He knew that this young lad came from a mountain village, and had come to the Wu's to serve as an apprentice because his family had too many boys and were not able to raise all of them — this was their reason for sending him here to act as an apprentice. At the time, nobody would have thought that this lad was blessed with genius.