92 Magic Forging (1/2)
After Yale finished his craft, the elders who were looking at him started to clap their hands, and was only at that moment; Yale noticed that he was the focus of the attention. He had been too concentrated in the forging process that he didn't notice that the other elders had also come to see him forge.
The elders knew at first glance that Yale's piece of metal was useless, but they clapped their hands for the effort Yale had used to create it.
”You are an amusing kid, instead of asking for tools to forge, you tried magic forging for your first attempt to forge. At least I have to recognize that you have imagination and guts.”
The old man picked the metal and looked at it closely, but it was as it seemed on the first sight, a scrap of metal without value.
”This is trash that didn't have any use; it is a failure. However, it is pretty good for being created by a beginner who dared to use magic forging. At least you didn't destroy the metal, so this scrap of metal can be forged again later and won't be wasted.”
Yale smiled at those words; he knew that he had failed to display enough prowess to impress the elder, but at least he recognized his work a bit as his result could have been worse. The result wasn't the ideal Yale had thought, but at least he didn't become a laughingstock.
”After your first try, are you still interested in forging? Or you had enough after seeing its difficulty? This is a hard job.”
Most kids after failing in the forging process the first time lose their motivation; those kids wouldn't be able to become smiths in their whole life.
”Even if I am not talented enough I will still try to forge metals. It is frustrating to fail, but if I learn from my mistakes, someday I will manage to do it correctly.”
Yale was about to leave the port area, even if he had failed to impress the elder, he didn't want to beg him for some teaching, he had other ways to find someone who could teach him the basics.
When the old man saw that yale directly left after failing, he shouted.
”Wait! Do you want me to teach you some foundation about forging? Your talent isn't bad, but you have an evident lack of foundation. With some foundation and your magic forging, you may have a chance to be successful in the future. Although it is only a little chance.”
The old man didn't feel any extraordinary talent from Yale, his talent wasn't bad, but that was all, it wasn't enough to catch the old man's attention.
He was more interested in Yale's mindset as he was able to adapt to the situation in a unique way compared to other kids when he found himself without tools for forging.
That capacity to improvisation was also necessary when forging as the process could have unexpected developments, the elder was valuing that more than the raw talent.
Moreover, when Yale created tools similar to the real ones with magic, it showed that he had a theoretical knowledge and an excellent one, but at the same time, it showed that he had never seen any real tool before and his knowledge came only from the books. After all, it wasn't the same interacting with the tools personally than only read about them in books.
The elder had curiosity towards how Yale would develop with some basic foundation; he never found a kid like Yale who was able to use magic forging as kids usually chose the easiest way to forge and not the hardest, so he wanted to see Yale's development.
The old man only wanted to teach him for some time that same day to satisfy his curiosity, nothing more. However, being able to become someone capable of awakening the curiosity of an experienced elder was already a feat on its own.
”I am honored, I won't waste the opportunity senior is bestowing to me.”
Yale was surprised, but he replied politely and bowed towards the elder.
”Then, follow me. There is an old smithy near.”
Yale followed the elder until a building that was near the port. Inside the building, there were all the tools necessary for forging although they were old.
After both entered the building, the elder didn't waste time and started to speak about the use of all the tools and the process. However, he explained all without showing anything to Yale; it was all theoric.
Yale hadn't used the tools too badly before, but he didn't use them correctly either, so the elder wanted to ensure that at least Yale understood the theory well, correcting the mistakes Yale had from reading books about forging in the past.
After the old man finished the theory, he showed one time to Yale the process of forging doing every step slowly.
Slowing the process usually leads to a decrease in quality and to an increase of the failure rate, but for the old man that wasn't an inconvenient at all as he wasn't forging anything special, only ordinary metal. At his level, to forge common metal, he didn't even need to open his eyes.