> Quote:I'm slightly preoccupied with things so my writing/proof reading will suffer for a few weeks which in turn means posting of chapters will be slower. Just a heads up.

As much as it shouldn't, it came as a huge surprise to Aleyn how many different metal alloys there were in this world. With magic you could combine and change the most common and complex metals in to ones with different or improved properties. Most of the metals she had read about just now were completely new to her as they had no real way to have a counter part in the real world.

Hardened steel for instance. By applying a steady flow of a smelters own magical power in to the smelting process, normal steel would change drastically as long as it was done properly. Hardened steel was just like steel however it was far more durable and harder to work with, not to mention a lot heavier and required a lot more heat to melt. Problem with using magic to improve smelted metal was that you had to have a steady flow of it which in turn required a person to overseer every moment of the process and apply themselves to it which was a tedious and exhausting process.

This though was exactly why it belonged to the precious metal category, it required a lot of effort to make and was very expensive yet it was amongst the lowest grade of precious metals.

Aleyn was reviewing what she had read and noticed the lights flickering. The candles were running low and it was almost time for her to stop, she wasn't bothered as she felt she had gotten the most out of her reading experience but she still decided to wait for the old tortoise to come and take her time. He didn't disappoint as she soon heard foot steps approaching.

"It's time." he claimed as he entered the room.

"You need more time? I can fetch new candles after you take a breather outside."

"No no, I'm just reviewing. I'm ready." She said and closed the book.

The tortoise took the books and placed them back in to the bookcase and started suffocating the candles with his fingers. Few times some wax dropped on the drawers below them, but he just swiped it off on the floor, ignoring the fact that the wax was probably hot as fire. He then took the lead towards outside with his lit torch.

Once Aleyn got outside of the staircase, she took deep breaths to shake off the dust ridden air from her lungs.

"Really bad air." The tortoise said as he did the same.

"Yeh." Aleyn said in agreement.

With nothing more to say she thanked the old man and head out of the library and back to the workshop.

The whole place was a lot more busy than it was when she had left. People at the front of the room were working on tools and armor while Cofius the overseer yelled instructions at them. While looking around Aleyn and Cofius's eyes met but he immediately averted his gaze and tried to look busy, the reaction made Aleyn lift an eyebrow and wonder as she moved to the back of the forge.

Camedyr was once again leaning towards the forge and doing his thing, yelling and instructing people. This time he noticed her approach.

"Ah girl, you're back. No problems I take it?"

"None. What's next?" She asked.

Camedyr took a look around the group in front of them. After spotting a person a bit further away he looked like he had found just what he was looking for.

"Next I'm pairing you up with Kyrtaar over there. He just started what you're actually suppose to do, but that wont matter. "

Camedyr brought Aleyn behind a person and stopped his work.

"Kyrtaar stop your work for a moment and listen."

The person immediately dropped what he was doing and turned around in a quick movement.

Kyrtaar was an Elf, he had short light green hair and very sharp facial features like they were sizzled around his small narrow eyes. He was two and a half heads higher than her and had muscles that fit a blacksmith. Kyrtaar was wearing the usual working clothes of ragged shirt and pants.

"Yes master. Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing that I could see. I'm going to pair you up with Aleyn here. She is going to observe your work, if she says something that you don't agree with you can ignore her but ultimately she should be your partner in work. Keep working on your hardened steel bar until you got your hammer."

Kyrtaar gave a questioning look at Aleyn but then reached for a handshake.

"Pleasure to work with you."

"Likewise." she answered.

Kyrtaar had no idea who she was, but if Camedyr ordered something then there were very few cases where you could argue against him.

As they were done with the greetings and instructions, the bar he was working with had cooled down which Camedyr noticed.

"You may start."

Aleyn sat down on a table next to Kyrtaars anvil. Taking the spot of an observer while He proceeded to the forge with the bar.

It took a considerable amount of time before he returned carrying the bar between a pair of huge tongs. He placed the bar on the anvil and took a quick side glance at Aleyn who was observing in silence. He was rather curious on who she was as it was quite rare to see a woman in the forge so she was either quite capable or there was something much more mysterious about her.

Realizing now wasn't the best time he stopped his speculations and put the tongs away then proceeded to try and work with the bar of hardened steel.

After and hour he was sweating and huffing while still hitting the bar. The bar itself had barely been changed, it was as though he had only hit it a few times. Feeling very embarrassed he took another side glance at Aleyn.

Aleyn was still looking at him, in fact she had never taken her eyes off of his work but she was leaning against her hand while her elbow was on her knee making her look bored. Kyrtaar felt a bit worse and more humiliated as he thought she was unimpressed.

The metal had cooled again and had to be brought back to the forge, but as Kyrtaar was heading there Aleyn stopped him.

"Do you mind if i suggest something?"

Kyrtaar having not heard her say much was slightly shocked.

"And what would that be?" .

"When you come back and you're about to start forging the metal. Wave your hand around a bit to shake the fatigue off, and then hit the bar as hard as you can."

Kyrtaar gave a questioning look at her.

He had years of experience with blacksmithing and it was a fact that just one hard hit wouldn't have a special effect.

He quietly turned and went to the forge. Once he returned and put down the bar on the anvil and thought to himself. "Should I try it?" thinking he might offend her, he decided to give it a shot. If it didn't work he wouldn't lose much since he could rest his hand and reheat the metal.

Kyrtaar relaxed his arm and shook off some fatigue. After which he picked up the hammer and lift it above his head and took a few breaths before smashing the hammer straight down on the bar.

The bar didn't budge, which made Kyrtaar slightly happy and slightly sad. His experience hadn't failed him, but the bar was still just staring at him.

"Keep hitting." Aleyn jumped of her seat.

"What? What do you mean?" Kyrtaar was confused.

"Shut up and hit it!" she ordered while slightly raising her voice.

Being rushed by her ordering he didn't get to think much and hit the bar. The bar gave in under his normal blow which shocked him.

"WHAT?!"

"shut up and keep hitting." She ordered again.

Deeming she had been right the first time, he continued working quickly.

He had to reheat the bar a few times and each time he came back with it the bar had become hard to work with again until he repeated what he had done at first. It was a tiring process and he progressed slowly, but eventually he finished his hammer.

He glanced at his new hammer before giving a look towards Aleyn who had been sitting there looking over him as he worked., he would know as he kept checking every now and then.

"I don't get it. Why did that work?" he said out loud. Not particularly directed at Aleyn.

"Hardened steel when under extreme heat hardens even further making it deceptively hard to work with, but if the hardness is disturbed the whole piece of metal loses the property until it solidifies again." She explained

"What?" Kyrtaar asked in confusion

"Properties of heated precious metals. By Camedyr Tin-flame" She said calmly

Kyrtaar like everyone above rank three had to have read the four books. He took a moment to think and came to a realization that there was indeed a passage like that about hardened steel in that book.

He slapped his own forehead, there was a reason that people had to read those books and it was exactly this.

"Wait.. If you knew then why didn't you tell me earlier?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You looked like you knew what you were doing to me and it would have been rude if I interrupted you before I knew for sure. I've never worked with hardened steel." Aleyn explained.

Kyrtaar gave a depressed sigh.

"Can I take a look?" Aleyn stood next to Kyrtaar and asked.

Kyrtaar handed the hammer to her while thinking through his own stupidity. He should have remembered something like that. She turned the hammer around and swung it down a few times.

"This is nice. You should probably get some leather and put it on the handle as a grip."

Kyrtaar looked at Aleyn and the hammer. Still very sad over what had happened but he couldn't disagree.

"Thats probably a good idea."

"So what's next ?" Aleyn asked.

"Only orders were to finish this."

"Well.I'll go ask the boss then." she claimed

"The boss?" Kyrtaar asked, but Aleyn was already on her way and couldn't hear him.

Camedyr was in his office relaxing and doing some writing, but was interrupted when Aleyn knocked on the door.

"Yeah?"

She opened the door a bit and asked.

"We're done with Kyrtaars hammer. What's next?"

Camedyr looked at her for a few moments with a complicated expression.

"It took this long to make that one hammer?"

Aleyn rolled her eyes and started explaining what had happened.

"The hell. Is this what I get when I let people read my notes?" Camedyr said angrily.

"Well to be fair, he looked pretty crestfallen when he realized it. I wouldn't be too hard on him."

Camedyr took a look outside his window and spotted Kyrtaar who was looking sad and turning his hammer in his hands. Camedyr after seeing this calmed down from his slight frustration.

"Heh, he actually does. Oh well, nothing lost other than time I guess."

"So what do we do next?" Aleyn asked again.

"Your turn."

Camedyr stood up from his chair and walked behind it. On a closer look there was a hidden drawer behind the chair which appeared to be full of random metal bars.

"Catch!" He yelled as he threw it behind the chair towards Aleyn.

Surprised at the sudden throw she barely caught the flying bar while Camedyr laughed and sat down.

Aleyns just shook her head and left the room returning to Kyrtaars anvil where the person himself was still standing and looking depressed.

"Come on guy, cheer up. Nothing wasted but time is what Camedyr said. Take it as a lesson." Aleyn said while trying to comfort him

"You told master?!" Kyrtaar raised his voice in a heartbroken manner.

Aleyn realizing that she might have made it worse tried to explain it as best as she could.

"Well he asked what took so long so I sort of had to."

Kyrtaar covered his face in shame and let out a tear. Aleyn tried diverting his attention.

"Anyway! There anything I need to know about the forge? First time I use such a big one."

Kyrtaar removed his hands and looked at the ceiling for a moment with sadness in his eyes, but seemed to slowly recover from his depressed state.

"Yeeh.. Lets go, I'll show you." He said with a low voice.

Having looked at Kyrtaars performance, Aleyns hammer forging went a lot faster. Kyrtaar kept watch on Aleyn, but since she had seen the process already he didn't think much out of her speed.

Once she was finished they compared both hammers for a bit. They were both fit for a blacksmith but they had different design as Kyrtaar had made the handle longer and in general the size wasn't suitable for her use.

Deeming they were done with their task, the pair went up to Camedyrs office to ask for their next task. Camedyr had a look at their work and after a short inspection gave them both a thumbs up. He then looked at both of them and without a shred of joking said.

"You two wanna take the exam now then?"

Both Aleyn and Kyrtaars stood frozen in shock until Aleyn opened her mouth.

"Thought you said it usually takes months before people advance to the next rank? Why would it take that long if you just need to craft a hammer to take the exam?"

Kyrtaar nodded hectically in agreement.

"Pfft." Camedyrs mouth deflated like a balloon.

"Rank three has plenty of work to do, its just not forging. By making the hammer you've shown that you understand that there's more to metals than you can imagine. The exam is arguably the most taxing for people and I've yet to meet a person who passes it with flying colours on first try."

He took a breather before explaining.

"Rank three examination. Identify 10 metal alloys and their properties, explain how you would start working with them to forge them in to a small blade."

"Which ten?" Aleyn asked.

Camedyr's grin widened to a scary degree.

"Which ever I pick from my library. Hehe."

It took a moment for her to register the meaning of those words and as soon as she did her face turned pale.

Kyrtaar didn't understand, He had confidence that if he took some time to read in the library he could remember enough to pass.

Aleyn noticed his reaction. Did Kyrtaar have a problem with his memory or did he actually not go to the library?

"There's at least a hundred different metal descriptions in that library."

Kyrtaars eyes widened and it felt like he had just swallowed a bone. Oh how wrong he had been.Camedyr having noticed both of their reactions laughed in a evil manner but calmed down after remembering something.

"Oh right.Only one person can use the library at once and there's a small queue at the moment. So even if you did want to take it I couldn't let you now that I think about it. You two should probably spend some time crafting different precious metals, I can give you some allowance for testing but my generosity is limited as well."

Aleyn after hearing that calmed down and after thinking for a moment about what to do had an idea.

"Who actually supplies this place?"

An unusual question, not something he was asked often.

"Random people, some magic users, the quarry outside the town. I could go on and on.. Why?"

"Well if there's a queue then I want to continue my project while waiting. Might as well use some precious metal while I'm at it." Aleyn stated.

Camedyr fixed his posture slightly and raised his eyebrows in curiosity.

"Your project? What are you doing? A weapon?"

"Indeed, I need steel to experiment with and something expensive for the final product." She ran through her plans.

Camedyr thought for a moment. A lot of steel and something expensive.

"Well there's this one person who seems to find their hands on precious metals. Steel you can get from the quarry."

"Who's this 'one person'?" Aleyn got curious.

"Tell you what.. Experiment with steel in the lower rank workshop side. If your results show promise I'll tell ya."

Aleyn had a frowning face. Couldn't he just give her the persons name? With a little more thinking she decided to let it go and go with Camedyrs flow.

"That's a challenge I guess. Okay I'll take it."

Kyrtaar having heard their exchange while being ignored was the most confused person in the whole city at that point.

"What project? And a challenge? I rarely hear master giving challenges" he thought.

But with his mind mainly on the exam he realized something crucial.

"Hey master you said there's a queue right? Is there a sign up?" Kyrtaar asked.

Him being quiet and suddenly asking that surprised Camedyr.

"Oh right yes there is a list, I got it right here."

Camedyr dug in to his drawer and picked up the parcel full of cards and took out a note with names on it in order.

"You want to be in the queue?

"Yes, please master. I'll study earnestly as long as you allow me." stated earnestly.

"Of course I will. Let me just write you down here. I'll tell you when the last guy returns his cards. In the meanwhile you can work with some precious metals if you want or take a break. Or even better have a look at her progress, it should be interesting." Camedyr grinned.

"Thank you master." Kyrtaar bowed.

Camedyr turned back to Aleyn.

"So you're going to the quarry right? Want me to write you a letter or something?"

"No need. I have enough money of my own." She claimed.

"Alright. Go on then you two."

Aleyn left the room but Kyrtaar stayed, he seemed to have some other business with Camedyr.

There was still plenty of time left in the day so she decided to visit the quarry, she had already went past it on the way with the caravan so she knew where to go and it wasn't that far away