Once Goulth heard that, his smile disappeared.

“I thought we talked about this.” the man shook his head. “You’re not ready.”

Red sighed. “I know, but I need all the help I can afford right now. You heard Hector himself, didn’t you? We don’t know what will happen during these next few weeks, and having a good weapon at my disposal could make all the difference.”

Goulth frowned. “That still doesn’t change the fact you’re not ready to make that weapon.”

He knew his master was right. This was the single biggest point of frustration for Red over these last six months. All his other practices were going very well - his cultivation, his weapon training, his arcane scripture training - the only thing that the boy lacked in was in this blacksmithing aspect.

This wasn’t because Red was a bad blacksmith. In fact, he had picked up a lot on the practice with Goulth’s help and he was confident in making almost any weapon already to his master’s specifications. The only problem was when it came to creating something for himself.

Red lacked creativity. He couldn’t help but always fall back on the same designs he knew worked when making weapons, and any foray into something original resulted in the boy making something nonsensical or subconsciously copying Goulth’s models.

At first, he and his master thought nothing of it. As Goulth claimed, even creativity itself could be practiced and improved. However, after months passed by, the blacksmith noticed the problem wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

Red’s mind seemed to work differently than anyone the giant had ever seen before, and this problem extended beyond just blacksmithing.

“Since I’m not ready, couldn’t you make the weapon for me?” the boy asked.

Goulth put on a displeased frown. “If I do that, won’t it mean we wasted these six months of training?”

Red nodded. “It will, but it will increase my chances of surviving.”

He didn’t try to deny the blacksmith’s claim. However, the truth was that the boy wasn’t any closer to creating something right now than he was six months ago.

Goulth still didn’t relent. “You have no idea how much of an opportunity this is, kid. No words can describe the feeling of creating something for yourself the first time.”

Red, indeed, did not know at all why this was so important. To him, it didn’t matter who made the weapon or in what form it came from, as long as it was a good weapon. However, he was willing to take his master’s word on it.

Yet, the boy also wasn’t deterred. “I don’t have a choice. If we don’t make this weapon right now, then who knows when we will be able to?”

His words gave Goulth some pause. “… You’re right.”

“… I am?”

Red was surprised his master would suddenly agree with him.

“Yes, you are.” the man nodded. “We need to make the weapon right now, which is why you will do it.”

The boy was at a loss. “… I thought you said I wasn’t ready.”

“You’re not.” Goulth shook his head. “However, nothing we tried seems to improve your horrible sense of originality, so we’ll try something else.”

The blacksmith walked over to a small wooden box at the corner of the workshop. He brought it over to the table in front of Red and put it in front of him.

The boy knew what this box contained. It was the Dark Iron Ingot.

“You’re going to use the Dark Iron and make yourself that weapon.” Goulth said.

Red frowned. “Just like that?”

“Yes, but there are some conditions.”

The boy knew that was coming, so he wasn’t surprised.

“First of all, whatever you make here you will need to take with you to the battlefield.” Goulth said.

‘That sounds reasonable.’

If Red could copy Goulth’s models, he wasn’t afraid of making a faulty product.

“However, that is only if you make something original.” the blacksmith said. “If I see so much as a hint of an imitation in your weapon, then I will throw it in the trash.”

The boy was confused. “Are you being literal?”

“I am.” Goulth nodded. “If you make a copy of my weapons, then I will throw it in the river.”

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This took Red by surprise. “You would be willing to throw such a precious metal away?”

The blacksmith smiled. “Of course I am! I am not interested in riches at this stage in my life. Whether the metal costs a few gold coins or a hundred Spirit Stones doesn’t matter to me. What I care about is raising a good disciple, and to me there is nothing more valuable than that!”

Red frowned. “So that’s your plan? You hope to squeeze something out of me under this pressure?”

“That’s exactly it.” Goulth said. “Since normal methods don’t work, then we will try something else!”

“… What if I refuse to do this?” the boy couldn’t bring himself to waste such a precious material.

“Well…” the blacksmith scratched his chin in thought. “Then I guess I will be very disappointed. Oh, and I will still throw away the metal too.”

Red’s frown deepened. Somehow, this strategy of his was already working.

Goulth smiled at him once he saw the boy’s expression. “Don’t be afraid of failure, Red- No, wait! Actually, be very afraid of failure!” the man caught himself. “If you fail, that’s about five Spirit Stones’ worth of precious metal going to the trash! You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

The boy could tell that despite the mixed signals he was receiving, the man was very serious about his threat of throwing the Dark Iron away. How could Red, who valued these resources and his own safety so much, allow that to happen?

The blacksmith was giving him no choice either way.

Still, no matter how strong the pressure was, Red still tackled his problems with a calm and analytical mind. As such, he still wasn’t too confident in his chances of success.

“I don’t know what you want from me.” he said.

This originality that the blacksmith asked of him made no sense to Red. Sure, even the same type of weapon had some differences depending on who made them, but even then those were generally stylistic, and what made that weapon useful would always be the same. A long-sword would still be a long-sword no matter who made it.

A sharp edge would always just be a sharp edge, no matter in what form or by whose hands it came to be.

Since that was the case, what did it matter for Red to imitate Goulth’s style? Did the man just want him to put his own decorations on the weapon? That didn’t seem to be the case, so what could the blacksmith possibly want him to do?

“How many times have I told you?!” Goulth glared at him. “Just put your own spirit into your creation!”

‘The same answer.’

Yet, it still wasn’t any clearer to Red. Any attempts to get the man to elaborate in the past were unsuccessful too, so he didn’t even bother asking any more questions.

Right now, he didn’t have any choice but to try, though.

He got up from his chair and looked at his master. “Are you going to help me with the forge?”

“Of course.” Goulth nodded. “Making a Dark Iron alloy is not easy, and this is not a test of your forge control, anyway. I wouldn’t want some stupid mistake to ruin the real test for you, so you can just focus on the forging part.”

Red was relieved. At least this was one last thing for him to worry about.

“Can you give me some time?” the boy asked. “I just got done with my Arcane Scripture practice.”

“Oh!” Goulth slapped the top of his head. “I almost forgot about that! Of course, rest for a bit. However, we don’t have much time, and the forging process might take very long too, so try to be quick.”

Red nodded. “I will.”

His scripture practice didn’t drain him physically as much as it did him mentally. The boy simply needed to rest his mind for a while until he felt he could focus on the hard task ahead of him.

This was what he did for the next hour or so. He sat down and meditated for most of it, as well as eating some food so as not to work on an empty stomach.

In the meantime, Goulth was tending to the forge and had already separated the materials necessary. Once he saw Red stand up, he looked at the boy in anticipation.

“Have you already decided what kind of weapon you want to make?” Goulth asked.

Red frowned. “I wasn’t really thinking about that during my rest.”

The blacksmith gritted his teeth. “Ugh, you… We need to at least know what kind of weapon you want to make before beginning the forging! I need to prepare the alloy, after all!”

The boy hesitated. “… Something on the smaller side, then. Short sword sized.”

“A wise decision.” Goulth nodded before going to work.

This wasn’t a choice made just because Red was used to wielding short swords. The truth was that there was not a lot of Dark Iron at their disposal, and as such, they would need to make a mixture rather than just using the pure metal. Unlike alloys such as steel, though, this wouldn’t make the resulting product stronger, and it would instead make it weaker than if they were using pure Dark Iron.

As such, the bigger the weapon, the more spread out the Dark Iron would be along its length, weakening it even further. Of course, compared to normal steel weapons, it would still be many times stronger, but the boy would rather maximize the Dark Iron’s advantage. This was why he opted for a smaller weapon.

The blacksmith set about heating up the ingots on their blast furnace, a process that would take many hours, as Red was aware. This left the boy with ample time to think and prepare for what was to come.

‘So I just have to put my own spirit into my creation then?’

Red had already reflected on that sentence many times and thought of countless possibilities. He considered if the man was being literal, and if the boy would need to awaken some kind of hidden spirit in his body and fuse it into the weapon. In the end, though, it was clear the blacksmith was pointing towards a deeper and more personal meaning of spirit.

Yet this discovery helped naught with the boy’s task, even back then. He still failed to satisfy his master, no matter how much he thought about how to put his own “spirit” into his creation. After all, wasn’t his own rational and cynical spirit that made it so hard for him to be creative in the first place?

It was a conundrum, and he didn’t feel any closer to the answer right now, even under this pressure. He thought back to all the weapons he saw in the past, even the ones he recalled of his dreams in the underground, where he was a soldier fighting against gods.

Perhaps he could use one of those models as reference. Yet would that truly be his creation? Would that even be able to fool his master? Better yet, did he want to fool his master?

‘No. I need to take this task seriously.’

And so Red thought. He pondered for hours to come, considering every possibility, no matter how ridiculous or stupid they were. He came up with many plans and ideas, and yet when the alloy was finally ready for forging, he wasn’t confident in any of them.

It was the first time in his life Red felt so frustrated by a challenge. He had faced certain death situations, curses he couldn’t hope to fight back, and yet he was never this discouraged by their difficulty. It was this simple and yet elusively complex issue that brought him to his wits end. A challenge that should have a simple solution, and yet Red failed to find it.

‘To put my own spirit into my creations…’

Goulth called his attention. “The metal is ready.”

Red got up from his chair and approached the forge.

“... Are you ready?” the blacksmith asked with a worried expression.

“No.” Red shook his head. “But I’ll try it anyway.”