Andric left home with Wolter, and he went to Boele’s forge by himself. The food cart Wolter worked at was placed almost halfway between his house and the forge, and it was easy for Andric to head there and get lunch instead of going all the way home.

Not many people walked around Gallus Town when it wasn’t lunch or dinner, but the town had enough of a population that a steady crowd of errand-runners constantly occupied the streets. A few wagons and carts pulled by animals dotted the streets, and they were only used for transporting cargo.

Numerous shops could be seen from the street, but they hardly interested Andric. Besides the bookstore and the forge, Andric didn’t regularly visit any of the businesses in Gallus Town. Not only did he not have any money, but he didn’t need to buy anything. Most people lived simple lives, and the Avantus family wasn’t an exception.

The forge, which couldn’t be considered large, had much work to do in the morning. The smelters needed to be heated back to full capacity from their idle, overnight state, and iron ore and coal supplies were restocked.

On the street-side of the forge, Boele negotiated with an ore merchant, and they determined how much ore Boele would purchase for the following day. They calculated how much ore Boele still had from the previous day, how many smiths were working, how much coal he had, how much ore had been delivered that day, and what amount of ore the merchant had to offer.

After coming to an agreement, Boele signed a paper and the merchant left. Boele and the merchant worked with credit so that they didn’t need to count coins every day. At the end of the week, Boele would pay the merchant for the whole week’s worth of ore and coal.

Spying Andric approaching, Boele called out, “You’re in luck; we just finished taking a delivery of ore to the smelters, and you can help fill them.”

Andric scoffed and walked past Boele, replying, “Since when have I worked at your forge?”

Boele followed him and said, “Since when has my forge been a daycare?”

They both walked into the forge, and Andric replied after a moment’s pause, “Point taken,” and walked over to the pile of ore resting beside the row of smelters.

Metal products were made to last a lifetime, and their quality heavily rested on the quality of the iron used to make them. As such, smiths were valued for their ability to transform ore stones into sheets or rods. Boele and his three employees used raw, physical labor to smelt the ore, then used magic to shape the final product.

Moving iron ore and coal into the smelters was done by hand, using shovels and stepladders. Each smith raised the temperature in their smelter, then began adding ore and additional coal. Gradually, as they took out red-hot ore that could be hammered into plates, they added more ore and coal. Eventually, hopefully before sundown, they would have processed all the ore Boele bought for the day.

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The smiths were all strong in their own right, but Andric had a magical advantage over them. He activated temporary body-modification magic inside his muscles, and his strength soared. Thanks to Andric’s extensive knowledge of anatomy and his affinity for body-modification magic, he could supplement his muscles’ natural strength for a long time - much longer than the smiths, who didn’t have the affinity for that type of magic.

“Honestly, Mr. Boele, if your bones are getting so old that you need a child to take over your work, you should think about retiring,” Andric said as he took a shovel and started hauling coal into Boele’s smelter.

Boele scoffed back, “I’m not even thirty; I’m not old,” and subconsciously reached for a few strands of his greying hair.

Andric worked with an efficiency surpassing the three smiths beside him. Not only did he have enhanced strength due to his magic, but he didn’t need to worry about saving mana for later. A working man needed to carefully plan how he was going to spend his mana, but a kid could use it however he liked.

Boele would have been satisfied with any amount of work, as long as he got to see sweat dripping from Andric’s forehead. When he was younger, Boele remembered playing in the forest that surrounded the northern side of Gallus Town, and he couldn’t help but feel irrationally spiteful at the younger generation for not doing the same. However, to a certain extent, he enjoyed having Andric around the forge.

After loading the smelter with iron ore and coal, Andric stepped aside and allowed Boele to take over. Then over the course of a minute, the temporary modifications to Andric’s muscles disappeared.

He picked up his sword that he had laid against a wooden beam and looked it its metal. Being from a more technologically advanced world, Andric knew about much more metal types than just iron and steel, but he was at a loss on how to use that knowledge.

Though Boele and other smiths knew about the carbon content of iron and how to produce steel, materials like tungsten, silicon, and titanium were unknown. They existed, for sure, but nobody knew how to work with them. Even Andric, who once lived in an age where almost all steel had a plethora of other minerals mixed in, didn’t know how to make alloys.

However, even without that knowledge, it didn’t mean Andric couldn’t create a tungsten alloy sword. With magic, he could change the atomic and molecular structure of the metal, resulting in iron atoms turning into tungsten atoms. The switch required enormous amounts of mana, though, and Andric made no discernable progress after several months of applying his magic to the imitation sword Boele had given him.

Andric used a large amount of mana on his sword, then stopped, saving some mana in case he injured himself while dancing around the forge. He made sure to stay away from moving parts and the pathways of the smiths, but accidents could happen.

When looking at his sword, Andric saw a shadow quickly pass in front of him, reminding him of the airplanes he knew from his previous world. He looked up and saw a giant, flaming chicken soaring across the sky.

A moment later, the giant chicken descended onto Gallus Town, and Andric heard a building collapsing somewhere a few streets away.