Sleep, eat, study books about metal and specific properties. That’s all Vaunce did these last few weeks since he started his apprenticeship. Every morning when he entered Master Randall’s forge, he would be bombarded with questions about ore, metals, tools, proper procedures for some of the machines and all sorts of other things. It was all Vaunce could do to keep following along and improving. He only had to work 4 days out of the week, but that would increase as he progressed into his 5 year apprenticeship. Next year he would work 5 days, and then 6 days the year after that until he finished his apprenticeship at 17, at which point he would be legally recognized as an adult since he had finished an apprenticeship. He would also be recognized as a Journeyman Blacksmith and be allowed to open his own shop if he wanted.
Walking onto the academy’s grounds, Vaunce stopped off at his classes counselor’s office and put his update letter into the box to the side of the door before leaving. All of the students going through Taskings had to update their counselor on their progress at least every two weeks so the academy could make sure they were on track and not doing anything with ill-intent. There had been more than a few cases of studies about students disappearing because of kidnapping or other more serious crimes. Vaunce’s parents insisted on him turning in weekly updates on one of his days off, so he always did it early in the morning when no one else was around.
Feeling accomplished that he had finished something, he began walking to the city's library. It was one of the only things open this early and he wanted to see if he could find a way to build his own forge so he could start testing the various forging techniques he had read about. He wasn’t very strong yet, although he had definitely put on a bit of muscle holding a hammer while Master Randall corrected him on how to swing it over the last few weeks. Walking down the street to the library, Vaunce always marveled at how the various stores and stalls opened so early. Spotting the bakery he frequented on his off days, he quickly popped in buying a muffin to eat on his way.
Popping the last bit into his mouth, he dusted the crumbs off his shirt and pushed the door of the library open. Waving to Ms. Rebecca, he walked over to the area they had all the crafting books in. There were so many books for all the various crafts, processes, books about materials and their makeup, monster encyclopedias, and whole sections dedicated to specific things, like forging techniques, or leather processing techniques. It all interested Vaunce greatly, and he found himself always having difficulty focusing on what he came here for.
Focus Vaunce, we’re here to get a book on how to build a forge he reminded himself mentally.
Sighing, he scanned the book titles until he found some titles he thought might have what he was looking for. “The Art of Forging by Master Blacksmith Gruft”, and “Infusing Metals by Manasmith Lucidous” interested him greatly, so he grabbed those off the shelf and went to his normal reading hole behind a shelf that was way too close to the wall for anyone of size to squeeze behind it. He wasn't sure why it was positioned the way it was, but it gave him a semblance of privacy he liked. He even sometimes hid books there so that he could finish them later without anyone else snatching them. He knew he could just check them out, but it felt more mysterious this way, which he thought was cool.
Opening the cover of “The Art of Forging by Master Blacksmith Gruft”, he saw an Inscription on the first page.
“I am Master Blacksmith Gruft, I am called Gruft because that is what I named myself after coming here. This book contains all of my forging knowledge. I do not have any apprentices to pass down my forge, so instead I leave knowledge to the world and hope it will be useful”.
Turning the page, Vaunce started reading from the start.
“Forging is the act of creating things out of metal, using various techniques of the body, mind, and soul. It is different from Leatherworking, Tailoring, Carpentry, and any other craft you could imagine by an order of magnitude. A good tailor can make amazing and magnificent clothes, but a good Blacksmith can make a weapon that feels like an extension of the arm or make a staff that will decimate its foes. Blacksmithing can allow the common man to become a hero of legend, or a villain of heinous proportions. Not everyone has the dedication to become a blacksmith of any consequence. To become a Blacksmith of any skill, you must learn about all of the material you work with, and always select the highest material quality you are able. To be able to do this you must personally go out and mine when possible, otherwise you wont know copper from dogshit!”
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Vaunce paused, digesting what he had just read. It made sense in true, well the last part anyway; the rest of it sounded like nonsense to him but maybe it was just a lack of experience with forging. If he didnt mine and gain experience with telling poor ore from high quality ore, then he may not be able to make the higher quality items he wanted. Regardless of the weird intro to the book, flipping through the rest showed tables of pros and cons for many materials and all sorts of useful information about metals. Even better, it showed how to form the basis for making a unique forging technique for himself and gave a decent idea of what a personal forge should contain by relating what Master Blacksmith Gruft’s personal forge contained. Vaunce decided he wanted to make a copy of it and walked to the front desk where Ms. Rebecca was quietly reading.
“Ms.Rebecca can I request a personal copy of this book please?”
Poking where she had stopped reading to hold her place, she looked up “Of course young Vaunce, that'll be the standard fee of 1 silver note please”
Placing the book on the counter and handing over 1 silver note, Vaunce smiled “Okay I’ll pick it up next time I come in”
“Of course, it will be ready tomorrow at the earliest” she smiled brightly, tucking away the book somewhere behind the counter. The library was eerily efficient in copying books, Vaunce wasn't really sure how they did it besides that it involved some sort of magic.
Walking home he checked how much money he had left. 2 silver notes and 28 copper notes. Of course they weren't actual metal, they were just colored that way and easier to remember for most people so the empire continued to use them. It worked in tiers of 100; 100 copper into 1 silver and 100 silver into 1 gold and so forth. It went copper, silver, gold, autruem or A for short, and finally celestium or Ce for short. Autruem and Celestium were magic metals and were only used for trades between kingdoms within the human empire. Vaunce dreamed of getting the chance to work with either metal some day. As Vaunce was thinking about various metals he could work with he walked into the house around the midday meal to see his older brother, Wade, happily eating a sandwich with his parents. Seeing his older brother, Vaunce quickly walked over and gave Wade a big hug before sitting down himself and eating.
Typing quickly between bites Vaunce asked “How long are you visiting before you have to return to school?”
“For a few weeks; all the other classes of mages went on for their yearly exams, but us first years don't have anything like that until we become second year mages. So we get to go home for a month or so” Wade replied, finishing up his sandwich.
“Wade, why don't you take your brother back to the training yard and see if he can't pick up some of the spells they teach to first years?” Interjected their father, glancing at his wife.
“Sure dad” getting up from the table both Vaunce and Wade went into the back yard.
“Okay tell me how much you remember from class and we will start there”
Thinking about it Vaunce quickly typed “Spells can take any form as long as the user has a vision of how it should act, and look. How it acts depends on the type of mana pushed into the spell.” seeing his brother nod along he continued “for example, some of the strongest mages can teleport short ranges without having to set up huge enchanted anchors. Typically they use earth mana, but technically you could use air mana for it. It would just be vastly more dangerous because air mana is free floating in the air and you could mistakenly appear very far up in the sky and then fall to your death.”
Wade nodded seriously, thinking for a moment he sent “Good, some mana types are better than others efficiency purposes, but also some mana types just wont work at all for the spell shape you are thinking of. Let's say you want to breathe underwater. You could technically use water mana for it, but it would be less efficient than air mana. You would need about Fifty percent more water mana than air mana, because the spell would be separating the water from the air in the water and pulling the air into you instead of just directly pulling the air into you. This seems like a small difference but when you only have so much mana it could be the deciding factor in a hazardous situation” Wade paused to make sure that Vaunce had finished reading.
Vaunce looked up and signaled that he understood. Satisfied, Wade continued on with the lesson “okay let's try some simple spell shapes so that you can feel the difference” three small birds and a cat appeared next to Wade. Motioning to them he sent “These are lesser elementals, which just refers to a construct that is made of mana.” pointing at each one in turn he continued “This one is Fire, this one is water, this one is air, and finally the cat is earth based. Earth constructs can't fly but are the most flexible of the bunch. Although ‘Flexible’ is a relative term. Each element has its strengths and weaknesses. Okay try to make one of these”
Vaunce focused on the cat and copied it in his mind, intent on copying it. Teal energy began to gather, pulling the earth along with it. After a few seconds, the earth mana formed a tiny brown kitten.
Silently laughing at his younger brothers bewildered expression, Wade sent “That’s cute, tell me how you envisioned the spell structure”
Spending the afternoon and evening in the backyard, the pair of brothers continued talking and playing around with mana. Only taking a break for Vaunce to meditate briefly to refill the 4 types of mana he was using since he couldn't naturally generate it himself. Falling into bed exhausted after dinner, Vaunce noted in his head that both his parents seemed in a better mood. He dreamily fell asleep happy that his brother had come home, even if it was only for a few weeks and he would be busy.
Waking up as he felt something on his chest, Vaunce reached out and tried feeling what it was. He pushed his hand out and felt a tiny ear. Confused, he reached out and tapped the light crystal he had on his bedside table. The light brightened enough for Vaunce to see a small, brown kitten on his chest. Vaunce couldn’t remember where it had come from and why it was in his room, but he did like animals so he was fine with it and turned the light off, falling back asleep in seconds. He thought he saw the kitten’s eyes open, staring into his soul before closing again, but that could have just been him seeing things with how tired he was.