It was not an easy task to discern the state of the iron by reading the strings of ki. Arun knew the general feel of the iron before insertion, but he did not know how the ki string would look when it was ready.

"One step at a time," Arun told himself as he tried to notice the way the string was changing. After some time, Arun managed to pick up on the process. The iron's ki was slowly mixing with that of the flame, but the two ki's were in conflict with one another. As a result, the metal was destabilizing, making it more malleable.

However, Arun had to decide when enough time had passed. There should be a critical point where the metal would become too damaged to retain its properties. He should be able to pick up on when the ki from the iron started losing out, but by then, the sword would be weakened. On the other hand, getting the metal out too early would not give him enough time to work on the metal before it became unmalleable again.

The more he thought about it, the more one word came to mind: experience. As with the naked eye option, that was the only way to know precisely when to take the iron out. Unfortunately, that was precisely what Arun lacked, so he opted to approximate it. He found the moment when the clash reached its peak.

"Not now... not just yet..."

A rogue flick of flame emerged from the furnace. "Now!" he rushed forward and picked up the iron with the tongs. A bright yellow now engulfed the piece of iron. It was a bit too bright. He missed the sweet spot by a beat. Still, there was more work to do.

"Good, now shape it!" Thomas passed Arun his trusty hammer.

This step was what piqued Arun's interest the most before. As he observed Thomas modeling the iron, he couldn't help but compare it to a master directing an orchestra, making sure all the components mixed and settled nicely while creating the shape needed for the craft. In Arun's case, the task was easier, as there were no ingredients to mix, it was just the iron.

He raised the hammer in the air. It was heavy but still manageable. However, it would be a challenge to complete the sword before he ran out of breath. How he wished for some ki right about now. It didn't take longer than his first strike for his wish to be granted. As his hammer struck the blade, part of its ki started swirling into the hammer and from there into himself. Arun nearly stopped the movement. Not only had the ki started going through him, but when circulating it, he could feel it sticking to his damaged ki pool crystal. He knew that there might be a way to heal himself using blacksmithing, but this almost seemed too easy.

Arun continued contemplating it as the second and third blows struck. Each blow added ki, which helped a minuscule amount with his condition. This was not normal, though. He was pretty sure Thomas had a different effect while modeling the metal. It didn't seem like he was implementing his own ki, but it didn't look like he was absorbing any either. Talking about that, Arun was pretty sure absorbing natural ki from the environment was impossible, as many masters were said to have tried and failed before. The most that could be absorbed was in the form of pills, which would insert part of the energies directly into the ki pool, and breathing, which helped internal circulation with a minuscule amount of absorption from the air. But this was different.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Although his mind was running in overdrive, the motion of the hammer continued, beating out stubborn imperfections until they offered no more resistance.

It was not an easy task to discern the state of the iron by reading the strings of ki. Arun knew the general feel of the iron before insertion, but he did not know how the ki string would look when it was ready.

It wasn't just the imperfections that went away, but at a point, Arun noticed that the influx of ki slowed down, until eventually, it stopped.

The sword was taking on a good shape. But on the last strike, after the iron was wrung dry of ki, the blade suddenly shattered into a thousand pieces. The sudden failure, which almost seemed like a small explosion, left a surprised Arun backing off with his hands bloodied by the shards. An instant after that, Thomas reacted.

"Are you okay kid? Let me see!" He made his way towards Arun and took his hands into view. "Mostly light scratches but a few fragments stuck in. Go to Margery, now, I will handle everything here!"

Arun was a bit shell-shocked but he still understood. What was it with the sudden interruptions though? Did the world just love to throw him for a spin when he was in a state of enlightenment? Regardless, judging by the wrinkled expression on Thomas's face, the situation and the fail were quite serious, so he hurried to find Margery.

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Thomas grimaced as he tried to take in the events. The boy failed the craft, undoubtedly and spectacularly, yet he was ashamed to admit he had no idea how. He took the iron out at a respectable point, impressive for a first-timer. Then he started hammering away.

Now, he could not see anything majorly wrong with his form or execution, but he felt something. Like his muscle memory was telling him that what he was witnessing was very wrong. But then again, he could not exactly tell why.

Then there was the end result. Thomas had never seen metal shattering like that, not even when he worked with more sensible materials. Enhanced iron was quite forgiving and durable; this should have theoretically not happened. Plus, the shaping went well, until the very end that was.

Taking a look at the epicenter of the mess, he took a piece of debris in hand. It was nothing like iron. It was brittle, but also sharp around the edges, similar to glass. This... made precisely zero sense. But what he saw next as he inspected the site truly struck his surprise home. The anvil, a high-end piece protected by layers of ki, was damaged. Not anything substantial, just a couple of scratches around the edges, but not even his best pieces would be able to go through the ki reinforcements without being wielded by a strong user.

In all his experience as a blacksmith, he hadn't seen anything like this. Not even his limited forger knowledge helped explain it. But then again, this strange encounter with the unknown did awaken his desire for knowledge. After all, if he finds the answer to this accident, he might further his own path.