Chapter 29 – Artistic crafting skills (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

At first, Shao Xuan would check on Ke’s reaction every time when he hit the stone. But after some time, he completely ignored Ke’s gaze, and immersed himself into hitting and carving.

The process of hitting was very labour-intensive, both physically and mentally. It was not as easy as a swing of a hand and an arm. For every single strike, he had to calculate a lot regarding the angle and strength. Things like how to swing the hammer and where should the hammer land, needed to be decided in the blink of an eye.

For many people in the tribe, perhaps after they gained enough experience in hitting the stones, they could achieve the best result based on their feelings. However, since Shao Xuan was still merely a novice, it was impossible for him to have the experience that old stoneware crafters gained from hitting for dozens of years. He could only rely on the calculation and estimation he had in mind, and then try his best to better and improve his striking.

Even though he now had a much stronger body with greater strength, the strength he had was not inexhaustible. At the beginning, he did not find it hard to hold the stone hammer. However, with more and more strikes, fatigue piled up, he felt that the hammer in his hand became increasingly heavy. However, at that time, every single strike became essential. At this point, hitting the stone core with the wrong strength or angle, the stone flakes and chips could be more or less than expected, therefore, it could create more wasted materials than before.

Because of this, Shao Xuan did not have the energy and spirit to pay attention to Ke’s reactions.

At first, Shao Xuan would hesitate for a few seconds between each two strikes, because Shao Xuan needed time to think about the disadvantages of his former strike, so that he could better his next strike. However, with more and more practice, Shao Xuan felt something in his mind and he became much more skilled on hitting. therefore, the time between strikes was shortened.

He did not know how many strikes he had made, but Shao Xuan felt that he was on the verge of collapsing. However, Ke did not allow him to stop, instead, he would point out the mistakes that he did during his hitting. It was just like when someone was running the marathon, the runner was about to collapse and wanted to stop for a rest, but someone from the back would urge him on to continue.

Knowing Ke’s temper, Shao Xuan was fully aware that if he stopped now, he will not be able to learn the stone crafting skills from Ke in the future. So, regardless of how tired he was, he had to pull it together and continue.

When he felt that the last trace of strength in his body got pulled out, he suddenly felt relaxed and alleviated as he kept on striking. He thought, perhaps it was the feeling of breaking through your limits?

Without notice, he had used his totemic power. However, since all his attention was fixed on striking, he did not have extra attention to mind the totem lighting up in his mind.

Traces of surprise showed up in Ke’s eyes as he was sitting aside. Among all those years after he had become a stoneware crafter, many people had come to him to learn stone crafting skills. However, very few of them would use totemic power in the process of crafting. Some people thought that totemic power was sacred, which could only be used in sacred things like hunting missions or when defending the tribe, and other more ‘sacred’ things, even though some people did not have such opinions, it was very difficult for them to control totemic power so precisely. Only experienced warriors were able to do that.

However, for kids at Shao Xuan’s age, or young warriors like Lang Ga, very few of them could control their totemic power at such a level. Once they used their totemic power, it was more likely for them to smash the stone core into pieces, which is more destruction than processing. Some guys who were impatient and hot-tempered would just quit.

That was so fucking strenuous! I could have used that time for practicing hunting skills!

Just because of that, Ke was quite astonished, because Shao Xuan did not only use totemic power and not destroy the stone core directly, the stone flakes he peeled off were even in better shapes and condition! Almost every stone flake he peeled away could be processed further into something else, instead of becoming waste stone materials.

This was quite rare!

However, Shao Xuan was not aware of his “rareness”. Instead, he was immersed into striking, all he had in mind was the experience he gained from each strike, and then he focused on his next move, so that he missed the astonished expression on Ke’s face that lasted for a few minutes.

Normally, Ke had no expressions on his face, even in front of some old friends, he would not express such astonishment when talking with them. It was quite rare for him to show that look.

Shao Xuan only stopped after he had finished hitting the stone core on all the lines.

Glimpsing at the ground around the stone core, Shao Xuan noticed that stone flakes had piled up beside, and some of them were just lying on the ground here and there.

Then he looked at Ke, but Ke still had no expression on his face.

Shao Xuan dropped the stone hammer as he breathed heavily by the side. He waited for Ke’s commend and at the same time, he thought that it was really difficult to be a stoneware crafter!

No wonder that only a small part of wounded totemic warriors would become stoneware crafters, even when they could not go hunting anymore. Others who crafted stoneware were only doing it for their own use, or for their kids’ practice. Aside from that, they would do other things in their daily life. For example, Ge was in charge of food delivery to the orphan cave. So they would not treat stone crafting as a profession that they could earn a living from. Therefore, their crafting skills were absolutely not as good as professional stoneware crafters as Ke.

Ke had already calmed himself down and hid his astonished look. He looked just as he usually does, and he was sitting at the same place where he was from the very beginning. But, he took a long thin wood stick and began to dig into the pile of stone flakes and chips. His hand flicked slightly and the end of the stick picked out a sharp-pointed stone flake. The sharp-pointed stone flake got lifted up and after it drew a parabola in the air, it fell into a wooden box filled with many stone flakes that waited to be further processed. The stone flakes and chips that got peeled away could be made into different kinds of stoneware like scrapers, cones, or arrowheads based on their different shapes.

Even though there were a lot of stone flakes and chips that got peeled away from the stone core, Ke was pretty fast in picking them out and throwing them into the box. Shao Xuan stared at those stone flakes flying from the ground into the stone box like beads. He was dazzled.

Before Shao Xuan could take a few long breaths, Ke had finished picking.

After dropping the wood stick, Ke said with no facial expression, “Waste.”

Shao Xuan’s eyelid twitched as he heard him, but he soon realized that the “waste” was not referring to him, but the stones on the ground which could not be further processed. Those were considered as waste materials.

Obviously, Ke was not satisfied with the quantity of the waste stone flakes that Shao Xuan created.

“I planned to make a stone ball. But judging from it, now it could only be made into a stone adze.” Ke looked at the stone core that was peeled in despise, and this time he said a long sentence.

Shao Xuan felt relieved. At first he was worried that perhaps Ke would not take him in as an apprentice. But since Ke said that, it meant that Ke did not mind teaching him.

“Bring it over here.” Ke pointed at the stone core that Shao Xuan hit.

Shao Xuan dropped the stone hammer in a hurry, and carried that ugly stone core to Ke and placed it onto the stone chopping block in front of Ke.