As Sam looked more closely, he started to lose focus, distracted by the myriad of colored lines. It seemed as if every possible avenue of defense had been plotted out somehow, and there were hundreds of distinct lines, drawn with an inhumanly precise hand. Sam shook his head and looked up, noting the slight smiles on everyone’s faces at his plight.

“Alright, you’ve had your fun. How many of you, except for Lao, can actually read this?” Sam asked. The silence that he received in reply told him everything that he needed to know. Smiling, he stood up fully and clapped his hands. “Well then. Lao, it’s pretty clear that you should be in charge of administering this entire thing. The rest of you, get to work preparing. As for me, well I have an appointment with George.” Sam finally had George all to himself, and he walked over to the stocky man a moment later, before looking up at him.

“It’s time for that lesson.”

Half an hour later, the two men were sitting down next to an anvil in George’s shop, and this time there was no line outside. The word had gone out fifteen minutes prior for every citizen over a certain level to begin preparing for war, and the ones who would have been coming here for weapons were invariably part of that number. None of that mattered to Sam at the moment however. He had some smithing to do.

The prospect of doing something that was not related to combat for once was quite enticing, and Sam could barely contain himself. When George finally pulled out a rough hewn piece of metal from his pocket and handed it to Sam, he sighed in relief. Waiting for more, perhaps a hammer or some tool, he stared at George. The man stared back. After a moment of awkward silence, Sam coughed.

“Don’t I need a tool to work this piece of metal?”

“Oh, you’re not working on anything now. You need to get used to the feel of metal in your hand. To begin, what can you tell about that ingot?”

Sam studied the piece of metal in his hand, only seeing an expanse of silvery material. He looked up, but George shook his head. Sighing, Sam returned to his work. As he studied the metal more closely, he started to see more intricate patterns within it. What had previously seemed uniform was now revealed to be a landscape of gently shifting hues. In addition, as he ran his fingers over it, Sam’s sensitive skin was able to tell that some parts of the metal were less dense than others. A few minutes later, Sam looked up once more, this time with an answer.

“This is some sort of alloy, isn’t it? Not a very well combined one either…”

“Good, you’re using your enhanced senses to great effect there. However, you’re a little off. Try again.”

“What? What kind of metal is this variable in composition?”

“Fine, I would have been shocked if you had gotten that. It was a purposeful trick. That piece of metal was a single piece of iron, but I had heated it regularly. When it cooled, the crystalline structure was different. You got the main part of the lesson though. Use everything at your disposal.”

George got up from his seat and moved over to the forge, pulling yet another piece of metal out of his pocket. That one was of a uniform shape and color, and Sam could tell that it was intended for forging. George waved for Sam to follow him, and he did. Sam made his way up towards George, standing next to him as he began to inspect the piece of metal. Sam watched as he then placed it into the forge, before pressing a button, sending white hot pillars of flame spiraling around the ingot.

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As it heated up, George kept a close eye on it, removing the ingot with a pair of tongs that were propped up next to the forge. Carrying it back to the anvil, George pulled a hammer off of his belt. WIth a deep breath, he got to work. Each strike flattened out a section of the metal, in perfect concordance with the other strikes. Sam watched, mesmerized, as the man turned the piece of metal into a rectangular plate barely a quarter of an inch thick. A moment later, the man whispered something under his breath, and his hammer glowed with blue light. He brought it down on the center of the sheet of metal, and it started to curl in on itself slowly, reverting to its original form over the course of the next few seconds. George looked up at Sam and smiled.

“Your turn now.”

“What, to turn that ingot into a metal plate?” Sam asked. George nodded.

Sam swallowed in apprehension, and walked over to the piece of metal, tentatively holding out his hand. It was cool to the touch, and he picked it up gently, cradling it as he carried it over to the forge. Laying it down in the center of the forge, Sam withdrew and pressed the button. The pillars of white flame rose up once more, and Sam watched as the metal began to heat up. When it had reached approximately the same hue as George’s had been, Sam turned off the forge, and picked up the tongs. His enhanced stats guided his hands unerringly into the right spot, and the tongs picked up the metal perfectly. Sam transported it back to the anvil, and searched for a hammer. George coughed and handed Sam his hammer when he looked over. Nodding in thanks, Sam got to work.

Bringing the hammer down with a ringing crash, Sam winced. He had already messed up. The amount of force that he had put into the blow had been far too much, and the strike had left a deep hole in the metal rather than a flattened area. Rather than let that distract him however, Sam continued. His next strike was made with great care, and he tried to put as little of his power into it as possible. This time, he barely made a dent in the metal, let alone flatten it. Sam let out a noise of annoyance, and George chuckled.

“This isn't like fighting, Sam. You can’t brute force your way to victory in smithing. It is a more complicated art than that.”

Sam nodded and centered himself, his many hours of meditation paying off for once. This time, he swung at a rate in between his two previous tries, managing to flatten the metal around the edge. However, it was starting to cool by now, and the next strike only had a limited impact. Sam swung harder afterwards, and ended up shattering the now brittle metal. Shards of metal shot out across the room, skittering off of Sam’s armor. None of them managed to pierce George’s flesh, and the man simply sat there, as if this was an everyday occurrence. Pulling out another piece of metal, the man handed it to Sam.

“Again.”

Over the course of the next hour, Sam worked his way through a dozen blocks of metal, finally succeeding in creating a crude plate at the very end. By that point, the smithy was littered with pieces of metal and the anvil was covered in fragments and dust. However, none of that mattered as Sam held up his creation to the light. It was a lumpy, oblong thing, but to him it looked beautiful. This was only the beginning. His System interface chimed a moment later, and he smiled.

Blacksmith Proficiency has reached Novice Stage 1

A small trickle of energy entered Sam, and he froze. He had just received essence from the breakthrough.

“Wait, you can level up from this stuff?” Sam asked, incredulous.

“Of course. How else would any crafter progress? None of us want to go out killing monsters every time that we want to gain a level. You can gain essence from ranking up in your profession, or by creating a sufficiently advanced design.”

Sam raised one eyebrow. He had a feeling that his Dao Smith profession would be quite essence rich indeed, when he eventually got to using it properly. He had a feeling that he would be otherwise occupied for the foreseeable future. However, he was done for the day, and he had some serious cultivation and training to get to.