Tai spent a good few seconds looking at the piece of metal admiring it as his first creation. While striking the metal, he noticed that the sparks were the normal red and not the mystical blue that appeared when Valgrek was forging the sword.

Valgrek nodded and picked up the piece of metal which was still hot, and could easily give severe burns, but it didn't seem to bother him. "This one's nice... for a beginner."

Valgrek said, letting out a deep, bellowing laugh. He placed the metal down quite easily, considering the fact that it was a big piece of metal about the size of Tai's head or bigger.

"Isn't that hot?" Tai asked him. Even for him, holding the piece of metal would be hot, and surely give him burns, but Valgrek just handled it like one would with a child's toy.

Valgrek raised an eyebrow at Tai's question. He had been a blacksmith all his life, making his first weapon at the age of 5, and because of this, he had been surrounded by fire all his life. Even without the system, or aether, his body had become tougher and built up a natural resistance to heat, which was amplified with the arrival of the system.

"Is it supposed ta be hot?" Valgrek chuckled. His race lived in an iron fortress inside of a mountain, and in there, it was hot. Hotter than any summer on Earth, making its residents very resistant to heat. "Work with fire as long as I do an' ye'll build up resistance o' fire."

Valgrek turned around and grabbed some more metal and wood for the handle, picking out the good materials that he had. "Long or short?"

"Long or short?" Tai asked, confused about what he was talking about.

"Isn't it obvious, boy? Short hammer or long?"

"What's the difference?" Since he wasn't a blacksmith, Tai didn't know what the difference was, but he had a slight clue on what he was going to choose.

"One ye swing with one hand, an' tha other with two." Smithing with two hands was uncommon in Valgrek's old world and was only reserved for the hardest of metals, but some did use it as their specialty, and he wanted to know if Tai was more comfortable with two-handed smithing, or one-handed.

"Short, then."

Valgrek grabbed the perfect metal and wood for Tai's hammer and placed it on the table in front of Tai. "Time ta make your handle."

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Anna gently flapped her gigantic wings, as if she flapped them too hard, she would get shot up too fast. It felt weird, but in this 'winged' form, she felt free, and for some reason, it felt more like her, than her original self. She quickly cast those thoughts aside though as the challenge was about to end in a few seconds.

After a few seconds, the challenge was complete and the platforms that had disappeared reappeared just like they were before.

Anna dispelled her gigantic wings. Controlling them for so long had started to give her a headache, but it did level up her Darkness Manipulation.

"Congratulations! Now for the next trial... You must face against a Demon Sorcerer."

Anna had never fought seriously, and only had experience with monsters, but unlike her brother, her fights weren't that hard, and would only take a bit more effort.

She got ready by channeling the darkness and creating herself a staff, a technique that she borrowed from her brother, but instead of a naginata, she created a staff. Anna found that whenever she was wielding a staff, wand, or something that she can use to channel her mana, it would lower the usage of her mana, and in some cases even increase the strength of it.

In front of Anna, mana started to gather, forming into a deep, red portal, a creature appearing out of it.

The creature looked like what Anna would think a demon would look like, and uglier. It had ashen, gray skin with a pair of long, white horns atop its white hair, and looked like a man. Bowing down, the demon was adorned with a gray robe that was unusually clean.

"My name is Rargos, and I am thankful for taking part in this trial."

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Making the handle of the hammer didn't take long, and was surprisingly easy, but Valgrek made it clear that he mustn't be lazy at this part. The handle was the most important part of the hammer. It was what the blacksmith would be holding, so if the handle wasn't the right fit for its master, then its creations would never be good.

It would be like being used to wielding a sword your whole life, and then suddenly changing into a spear. You might be decent at the spear, but you would be way better, and comfortable with the sword.

Following Valgrek's instructions, Tai carefully made the handle. The handle was mostly metal with some wooden parts adorning it. He even wrote his initials at the bottom, 'T.Z.'

Crafting has leveled up

+1 skill point

Once he finished making the handle, he just needed to combine it with the head of the hammer now.

"Now, watch carefully." Valgrek held out his index finger as a red magical circle appeared above it. "This here be fire magix. Use it ta combine tha two pieces o' metal like this."

Valgrek demonstrated how by combining two pieces of scrap metal together, fire appearing from the magic circle. "For now, try on tha scrap metal."

Tai nodded and grabbed two pieces of scrap metal for himself. The magic that Valgrek did looked cool, but he didn't know anything about doing magic and controlling mana. 

He might not know how to control mana, but he did know how to control ki.