The next day, Dirk woke up a bit later than usual. He needed more time for his mind to recover from all the tracing the day before.
But when he did wake up, he was refreshed. His mind was sharp, and he was eager to take on the challenges of the day.
After having a nice morning and breakfast with Ava, the two left for their classes. Dirk didn't bother stopping by his enchanting class. Instead, he headed straight for the Hall of Artisans, specifically Forge 8.
After a bit of searching, Dirk found himself at the top floor of the building. His destination was a large pair of doors, from then radiating cold nothingness. Around the edges of the door though were streaks of ash, as if clouds of dust had puffed through the openings and brushed the walls.
Dirk knocked.
"Who is it?! I'm busy here!"
"...It's Dirk."
"Dirk? Ah! Yes, come in!"
When Dirk heard his teacher's voice turn from hostile to welcoming, his mouth twitched a little. Had he already forgotten that he was going to be here?
Dirk didn't mind too much though as he pushed through the doors. Upon entering, he was hit with a wave of heat and sprinkled with sparks that flowed through the air. The place was an oven, a stark contrast to the cool exterior of the doors.
"Dirk! Come in, boy, come in! I was just preparing for the day!"
The large bald dwarf was seen sitting beside a large anvil. On one wall was a huge furnace that spewed fire like a dragon. When one of these sparks landed on Dirk, he was surprised as his skin was actually burned. He quickly brushed the spark off. It looked like the fire within that furnace was of much higher Tier than him.
As for the dwarf, his face was covered in grey soot, some small hairs on his head burning from the intense heat. Dirk suddenly understood why he was bald.
"Hello teacher."
"Teacher? My name is Devos Tobasden! Students that go nowhere call me teacher. You will call me Sir Tobasden!"
"Understood, Sir Tobasden."
"Good! Anyway, come over here. Let's get you started!"
The dwarf waved Dirk over, prompting him to dive deeper into the boiling air of the room. It was a bit stuffy, but Dirk dealt with it. He just made sure to dodge any sparks from the furnace.
"Forging is an art! It is no less profound than the likes of sculpting, enchanting, or alchemy! Through forging, one shapes not just metal, but any hard material into pieces of intricate design, breathing life into them! Through a baptism of fire, you can do miraculous things with all kinds of materials. It is not just alchemy that brings ingredients together to make something better! And it is not just enchanting that infuses power into objects! Forging does both of these things! Understand that forging is much more than just shaping metal on an anvil. Now take your shirt off!"
"I'm sorry?"
Dirk tilted his head at the sudden odd request. Devos waved at him.
"What, you want your clothes to burn? A true forgemaster must bathe in the fire that he baptizes his creations with! This means your shirts will quickly disappear if you leave them on. Believe me, I've lost many a dozen!"
"Oh."
Dirk nodded in understanding. Even now the dwarf was shirtless, revealing an oddly shredded physique. It seemed like that was the way to go.
Dirk pulled off his shirt, throwing it into his pocket ring. The dwarf nodded.
"A body worthy of a sculpture! That will make things easy. Now, allow me to explain what you'll be doing here from now on."
The dwarf picked a hammer off the anvil. It was large in his hands and looked heavy.
"From now on, you're going to forge an item a day! I will tell you the item you will forge, and you must forge it! I will also give you all the specifications for the items you construct. I will give you the material, draw the shape, and explain the technique to build it with. Through this, you will learn about how fire interacts with the materials you utilize, how your body molds the material under your hammer, and how you breathe power into your creations! In this profession, you learn as you build! Now, let me give you your first item."
Suddenly, the dwarf smacked a piece of parchment on top of the anvil alongside a large ingot of metal.
"This will be a basic iron tool! What you are going to make from this ingot is a pair of tongs. The tongs should be forged to look like the picture. As for the technique, well, let's not worry about that right now. That'll come a bit later when you actually know how to hammer right. Now, get started! I'll be here to correct your mistakes."
"Understood."
Dirk quickly nodded. While everything was happening quickly, he was no stranger to moving just as fast. Without much thought, he grabbed the ingot on the anvil and walked it to the furnace.
The furnace wasn't just an insulated pit in the wall. At its base was a large bowl about a foot deep with a covering that looked like a large pizza oven. Inside the bowl was what looked like flowing molten lava.
Only, when Dirk looked closely, he found that this flowing lava was actually flowing fire. It looked like the fire was liquid as it swirled inside the bowl. As Dirk got closer, he could also feel how hot the radiant heat was. It was hard to look at it directly.
"Don't worry about being burned by the fire. I'll explain later, but I control the fire, thus you won't be burned to a crisp. Stick your arm inside the bowl and drop the ingot in! And don't guard yourself with mana while you do so!"
"..."
Dirk was silent as he hesitantly nodded. With every inch he got closer, the heat became worse. By the time he was right next to the bowl, he could feel his arm hairs slightly singeing.
But he trusted his teacher. Raising the ingot, Dirk put his hand into the fire, making sure to not protect his body with his fire mana. When his fingers touched the fire, he was surprised to feel a cold sensation.
It wasn't that it was cold. Maybe it was so hot that it felt cold to Dirk. Either way, there was no pain, only numbing as Dirk lowered in the ingot and dropped it.
Then, he ripped his arm out. He could see the ingot rapidly redden inside the bowl.
"Good! Now take it out! Use these tongs!"
It was only a few seconds before Dirk saw the ingot become yellow hot. Turning around, he caught a pair of tongs from his teacher. These tongs were exceptionally high quality, likely his own. With them, Dirk grabbed the ingot, walking it over to the anvil.
"Now Forge!"
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With that, Dirk got to work. He grabbed the hammer the dwarf handed to him and began slamming the ingot. Surprisingly, the hammer was hard to wield. Dirk was shocked to feel that it weighed 60 pounds! He had to activate a bunch of anima just to wield it.
Seeing Dirk struggle, the dwarf laughed.
"You got it! Lift those scrawny arms! When I'm done with you, you'll have arms as thick as a warrior's legs! A female warrior's legs, no less! Their legs are usually the thickest!"
"..."
Dirk was silent as he continued to struggle hammering the ingot, disregarding the dwarf's fantasies that began to escape his mind.
He kept hammering away, the room filled with the booms of metal against metal. Every time Dirk hit the ingot, he could feel the shockwave reverberate back into his arm. The anvil he was on had no give at all, hard as diamond. If he accidentally tapped the anvil with his hammer while hammering the ingot, it would numb his hand with pain. And he did indeed clip the anvil a few times.
This only ensured that he increased his accuracy, hitting the ingot like he was supposed to. After getting used to it, all the force of his hits went into the ingot that had much more malleability than the anvil.
And when the ingot cooled, Dirk just heat it back up before continuing. Still, it took a lot of energy out of him. He had to consume lots of anima just to lift the hammer, let alone put enough power behind it to deform the ingot.
All the while, the dwarf instructed him.
"Use this tool to split the ingot! You're making tongs!"
"Put your whole body into the hit! There's no point in just using your shoulder!"
"You think the hammer is all there is? Use your earth magic! I know you have the metal specialization too! The forge is practically begging you to hurry up and become a master! But no spell circles! Forging is all about harmonizing with the metal. You do that through harmonizing with the mana!"
Sir Tobasden guided Dirk with his vast breadth of knowledge, even going so far as to have Dirk use earth magic in conjunction with his forging. He taught him the way to move his body, what to concentrate on while hitting, how to move his mana, and more. And while Dirk had a bit of trouble keeping track of every little detail as he moved, he quickly got better, much to the dwarf's satisfaction.
Finally, after almost an hour, Dirk had two long pieces of metal. When he brought these together, they would become tongs. He nodded when they came to be in the correct approximate shape.
The dwarf nodded as well.
"Good! Normally, this is when you would harden the metal before heading to the grinder to finish off the shape. But you're not going to do that! You know why?!"
The dwarf eyed Dirk fiercely. Dirk just stood there, not giving an answer he didn't know.
"It's because those tools are for amateur, no good halfwits! Dirk! If you ever find a forge that has a grinder in it, then you have my permission to burn that place to the ground! No half-competent forgemaster uses such disgraceful tools! Listen closely!"
The dwarf grabbed Dirk's shoulder, his rough hand scratching Dirk's skin.
"You shape the metal purely by your hand and hammer! All of it! You want to know how the best forgemasters forge the most powerful swords and blades? Well this is where I'm going to teach you! Watch very closely!"
Saying that, the dwarf grabbed one of the yellow hot metal poles that made one half of the tong.
Then, before Dirk's eyes, the dwarf ran his fingers across the metal. Under his fingers, odd curves became flat, and flat corners became smoothly rounded. It seemed as if the iron was putty under his hands. But Dirk knew better.
He could see earth mana flow through the dwarf's hands and into the metal. With this mana, he refined the shape of the metal. Although Dirk had a hard time seeing exactly how he did it, he could understand what was going on.
When he was done, he held the half tong proudly.
"This is one of the principles behind metal theory! Earth mana is not just used in earth magic. If one can learn to manipulate it, then they can directly shape materials with a wave of their hand! You, my friend, also have the metal specialization, so you are the perfect man for this job. With metal mana, you can tap directly into metals like an earth mage would rock or dirt. And with your metal mana, you can precisely shape your metals however you wish! This is one of the foundations of a true forgemaster! However! What I used is not just earth or metal mana. You must use fire mana in conjunction! Watch me again!"
The dwarf picked up the other tong half. The deep red metal that had been cooling rapidly heat up again within his hands that spewed out a light film of fire. Then, the fire mana from his hands was infused into the metal along with metal mana. Like that, he perfected the shape of the tong.
As he watched, Dirk did his best to see what the fire mana did. But he couldn't quite pin it down. Did it just heat up the metal? Was there something he was missing?
The dwarf smiled.
"There! Remember this! Fire mana is not just heat that makes metals melt. Fire is something that ignites change! With fire, we can not only melt metals, but fuse them together! With fire, we can make metal bend to our will! With fire, we can breathe life into our creations! Forgemasters use fire mana in conjunction with metal mana, fusing their powers together, turning something rigid into something soft that we can shape as we will. This is a complex technique that takes years to grasp and even longer to master. But above all, you don't learn it through study. You learn it through practice! Now start tempering those tongs. You have another item to make afterward!"
With that, the dwarf tossed the tongs onto the anvil, allowing Dirk to finish the process. After setting them to temper, he walked back to the anvil.
"Here!"
The dwarf slammed another ingot and piece of paper onto the anvil. The ingot was quite a bit larger than before, and the paper had the image of a hammer on it.
"Your next item. This time, you'll be using a mold to cast your hammer. It'll be a singular piece of metal, like mine is! You must first create your mold, though. To do this, you will use stone and carve your mold! Behold!"
*Bang!*
Suddenly, the dwarf retrieved a large block of white stone from his pocket ring, slamming it on a table nearby. Dirk watched silently.
"Here is a hammer and chisel. Now, you must use your artistic talent in order to carve the stone to the shape of your hammer! I've designed the image on the paper to be identical to mine. You just need to get the proportions right! And don't worry, this stone is cheap. You will carve as many blocks as you need in order to get it perfect! Now begin! Learn as you go!"
Saying that, 10 more blocks of stone appeared on the table. Dirk thought for a moment before going to the table, picking up the hammer and chisel, and going to work on one of the blocks.
'Interface.'
[Awaiting orders.]
'Trace the image of the hammer onto the stone block. You know what I need to do.'
[Affirmative.]
Suddenly, Dirk saw an image form itself on top of the block of stone in front of him. It outlined the image of the hammer. What Dirk needed to do was gouge out the stone that was the hammer, creating a mold to fill with metal.
And when the image appeared, he got to work. He placed the chisel against the stone and began chipping away. At first, the hits were hard, taking out large chunks of stone. But when he got to the edges of the image, he slowed down, lightening his hits.
At this point though, the dwarf spoke.
"Don't take so long! The carving process is supposed to be the easiest part! Use your earth mana to your advantage!"
"..."
Dirk was silent as he paused. Use his earth mana. Was he supposed to chip away at the stone with his earth magic?
'Or do I do the opposite? If I reinforce what can't be chipped, then I can hit harder without worry about messing up.'
Feeling enlightened, Dirk suddenly streamed his earth mana into the stone. After that, he reinforced the edges of the mold. The shape that couldn't be touched was hardened, and when Dirk went to hit the stone near it, the shape was accurately carved out. There was no need to tread lightly.
Only, using his mana in such a precise way was a bit difficult. Nonetheless, with his willpower, he was able to precisely reinforce the stone. Like that, the mold was rapidly carved, Dirk moving faster as he got the hang of it.
Unfortunately, toward the end when he got to the corners, his mind that was becoming fatigued didn't reinforce correctly, and with a hit of the chisel, a large chunk of stone came out. The dwarf popped out of his seat.
"No! You were so close! Start over!"
"...Damn."
Dirk cursed as he looked into the mold. It was 80% finished, but one mishap meant his hammer wouldn't cast correctly.
Sighing, he pushed away the failed mold before starting on another block. It took him nearly an hour to make the first one, but thankfully he had the benefit of experience. He quickly carved out the beginnings of the mold once more.
Unfortunately, when it rains, it pours. Halfway through, Dirk made another mistake, and a large corner was taken right off by his heavy hand. The dwarf smacked his knee.
"Hah! So it's going to be like that huh? Hurry up and start over then! And by the way, I'm setting a timer. If you go over the 80 minute mark without finishing, then you start over! You must find a balance between speed and accuracy!"
Saying that, the dwarf moved to another side of his forge. On the wall was a large clock, and he smacked it with his fist. Suddenly, the clock set itself, beginning a countdown 80 minutes long.
Dirk frowned. He was just thinking that he needed to slow down and take his time, finishing it in one go instead of continually messing up. But the dwarf had other plans. Rubbing his head, Dirk got back to work.
Like that, Dirk ceaselessly carved out stone. His arms and face were coated in white dust while the rest of his body dripped sweat. Every time he blew away the accumulating stone fragments, that white plume would coat his skin and get in his hair.
But he didn't stop. If anything, such things were representative of his focus. He carved even as the dwarf stepped out to teach his classes for the day. And Dirk didn't cheat his way through the challenge. When 80 minutes were up and he wasn't finished, he pushed away the stone and started over. And whenever he messed up from rushing, he started over.
It tested his patience, but Dirk knew this was good for him. It pushed his control over mana to new heights while stressing his concentration. This was valuable practice.