I run as fast as I can while carrying the wood under my arm. As I get to it, I see Mr. Blackwood has started to organize. Entering, he sees me and says:

“Hey boy, why the hell did you use my Mithril saw to cut wood?”

I look at him a bit sheepishly and say:

“We don’t use the Mithril saw to cut wood?”

He responds in a curt tone.

“No, we don’t. The fibers get tangled in the mesh and the wire doesn’t bend properly. It costs 50 gold coins to replace one of these saws.”

“Ohh, I didn’t know that.”

“Of course, you didn't. I should have warned you, but next time err on the side of caution.”

“Well, sorry… it won’t happen again.”

“You better be sorry or next time you could end up owing me 50 gold.” He sees the other two apprentices coming. “And for everyone, get here earlier, you should be here before me getting the smithy ready.”

“But, we were at the guild meeting, the entire village was there.”

“Don’t care, leave the meeting early if you have to. You lose a copper coin for each minute you are late. If you are 10 minutes late, don't bother coming. You all have been warned. Now, come bring the wood inside and clear out the ash in the forge.” As he sees what is under my arm “Boy, don't you tell me you have been trying to infuse mana on these refuses of wood. Throw them in the forge and it will help to heat it up.”

“Ok. I spent over one hour trying to get it to work, but the mana just dissipated as the wood burned.”

He walks away shaking his head and all of us get to work.

“Hey hotshot, got any magical tips for us?” I hear from one of my fellow villagers.

“Not much, but I can tell you what I read and heard,” I say.

As we work I give a very abbreviated version of my experience and the information from the book. They pay attention to each word out of my mouth. Blackwood finishes getting the tools and setting up the forge just the way he likes. The smith doesn’t say anything, but I notice him hearing me even more intently than the others. Perhaps trying to figure it out what we know. Knowing that he can better choose what knowledge to impart to us.

With that in mind, I try to include everything I think might be helpful for him. As we all start to wait for the forge to heat up, the smith asks me:

“How well can you control mana?”

I draw a line, then I move my hand leaving the line in place, then change its shape, move it away from me, then closer, then to the sides. After a few seconds of showing all I can do with it, I retract it and reabsorb the mana. I wasted some of it, but I’m happy at seeing my mana gauge only a point lower. It was inevitable this early in my practice. He looks slightly surprised at my control but shrugs it off in a few moments.

“Ok, good enough. Release your mana just like that, in the same place I do. Just touch the metal plate and send your mana. But don’t send it too fast, at most half a mana per second.”

I agree and sit beside the forge by the metal box he sends his mana to every hour. A palm-wide and tall box sticking out of the forge. I touch the metal and send 1 mana every 10 seconds. I try to keep the stream as consistent as possible. The metal sucks my mana and I press more firmly and send mana only through the very middle of my finger to avoid any leaking out, though I have no idea if it helps.

I feel the insides of the machine but soon the machine takes control of the mana. I can’t tell precisely, but it seems the longer each mana particle is under the control of the machine, the more it loses its connection to me. In the end, that simply means I only have a very basic idea of the insides of the contraption. Like a very bad X-ray that you only got a glimpse of. Every time I seem to be getting a better picture it just slips away.

I let go and just concentrate on the action of sending mana. Only a trickle. Smooth, so very smooth. I start to feel a tugging sensation, it starts small, but soon I can’t ignore it and I open my eyes. I see 4 new colleagues. They probably joined based on Charlie’s recommendation. It looks like people are taking this seriously. After getting up, I see the forge quite hot and Blackwood already working on the first sword of the day. Without turning around he speaks.

“Boy, you can really meditate. With skill like that you can go far. It usually takes people a decade for them to learn to let go of the real world and just focus on the task. Even in this place it some aspects can’t be taught quickly. Not skill levels, we are talking about mindset. Just be careful where you meditate, someone could slip a knife in your back and you wouldn’t notice.”

“Unlikely.”

“Boy, you forget…I speak from experience. It may not seem so for you, but I’m old, I have lived over… well I shouldn’t say anything about that.”

I add another data point to the list of things he cannot talk about. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything or he just wanted to hint at me he lived at least a century. I look at my status screen and check my mana. I match the number with how I’m feeling.

You have gained +1 Intelligence. 4/295

So that is what four mana feels like. I didn't have this pain at the intangible place my mana pool sits. When I was on the void, so the system must have protected me from it somehow. Or the void didn't have some property that causes this pain. This pain could be my empty mana pool interacting with the planet’s magnetic pull, or something.

I manage to ignore it easily enough and get on with the day. It goes by just like yesterday. With 7 people including me and the smith, the work goes by faster. By the end of the day there are 20 Items.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I talk liberally about what I know of magic and discuss possibilities with everyone. I even get a couple of ideas from the other employees. I make sure not only everybody knows everything magical I can pass to them; I also include some of what I know about other subjects.

I keep the corner of my eye on Mr. Blackwood, to make sure he hears what I know. Especially my knowledge about magic. I also make sure he has a good Idea about how sure I’m about each subject. He should have the appropriate information to base his decisions. What to correct me and what he should let me discover on my own. I take care to not get in the way of anyone’s work, and I also stop whenever he seems to be about to change tasks, just so I don’t talk over him.

At the end of the day, we place back all the tools in their place, clean the floor and organize the shop. Blackwood dismisses the others when we are done and they leave. He then talks to me. His posture and tone indicate I should pay very close attention.

“You have taken a step or two on the path to becoming a true blacksmith.”

“Thank you, master.”

“Not your master yet. So, you have taken to trying infusing wood, have you?”

“Well, I heard you talking about it and I already had the skill so why not?”

His eyebrows shot up. After a moment looking up, he says:

“And you have gained the skill by infusing your body?”

“Yes, though I also can’t properly infuse my body yet.”

“How…?” he pauses and stands there thinking for a few seconds. “Tell me about how you unlocked the skill.”

“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. Let’s just say I ran really hard and by the end of the hour we had to prepare I had a couple of new skills.”

“Which skills?”

“I remember Mana manipulation, Mana Infusion, I upgraded to Kinetic Meditation, humm...” after a few seconds I continue “And Free-form magic.”

When I finish speaking he is shaking his head.

“Gods, what am gonna do with you boy? You should not use free form magic, that stuff will get killed.”

“No, I will wait until I’m much, much more well experienced before I start to experiment with stuff that dangerous.”

“Add a century or three to that and you should be safe. If you want to start earlier, absolutely never, ever use it in the shop.”

“Ok, I won’t. I’m not stupid, I’m just new to this stuff.”

“That is what worries me. Either way, I got some life advice for you. Mana infusion should be expanded to include other materials. Mana needs direction otherwise it will simply dissipate. Also, all things are connected and when we get in the way of that, things stop working. A hand is most useful attached to its body.”

I reflect on what exactly he is trying to impart but continue to listen as he goes on.

“Another lesson that might be valuable. Observe nature, both before and after man has interfered with it.”

I look at the couple of unburned logs beside the forge but don’t say anything. After a moment I ask him permission to stay a little later on the forge again.

“Fine just don’t use the Mithril wire-saw unless you are working on fine detail in metal. If you break it, you know the cost.”

“About paying, how much for the wood and ingots of metal?”

“I pay 5 copper per small ingot to get this quality of steel. If you only use a log or two occasionally, don’t worry about the wood.”

As he pulls his wallet, I say:

“Just 5 copper, I will be forging a knife or a dagger tonight.”

“Fine. … What did you make yesterday?”

“A pen.”

“Come on show me.”

I laugh and say:

“I don’t have it on me, I gave it to the guild’s people to use. If you want, I can show you tomorrow if you give me a few minutes. If you really want to take a look, pass by the guildhall. Money is tight in these first few days. We need to forget some concepts of individuality we used to hold if we want to make it.”

“Words of wisdom for one so young, and might yeah pass by the guild.”

Hearing that, I remember my title and laugh. He is always calling me boy and talking about how young I’m am.

“What is so funny?”

“Just a title I gained. It hints I’m old, even though I’m only 22 summers old.”

“Everybody has had their encounters. Just make sure you don’t let it go to your head.”

I nod my head and he gives a last at the shop before leaving. I go to the forge and look at the cooling fire. Without wasting a second, I begin my work.

Welding the ingot to a steel rod I start working on it. I push myself and once in a while send mana to the blower machine to squeeze the last remains of unburned wood. The mana plate through mechanisms unknown to me sends a stronger airflow.

In fifteen minutes I’m done with shaping the body of the weapon. Happy my experience with a hammer and blow torch was coming in hand. I cut it from the handling bar and let it cool for a few moments, before putting on gloves to handle it in the sanding stones. I start lapping all the surfaces as flat as possible.

As I work I reflect on what Blackwood has told me. I concluded he was probably talking about me analyzing trees in the wild and also the fire wood already infused. Maybe it needs to be infused, then cut, or at least to still be fresh.

I need to figure out about the nature of mana, how to tell what to do after it’s no longer in my control. There might also be an elemental aspect to it. I work quickly until I have a serviceable blade. I take note of how easily I’m able to work the metal. It’s not just my slightly improved stats or even my skill levels.

The very air around me seems to guide me in each hammer strike, each push to remove material from the knife. It gives me insight into my work. This must be the process the system uses to make skills grow faster. If I had a proper forge even such rough work would have taken me over an hour, with power tools back on Earth. Here, I finish in 30 minutes and did a better job than I would have done without a week to improve my smithing skills.

As I grind on the roughest stone the material seems to disappear almost as if by magic. The grinding stones also make a big difference. On earth even with a sanding belt, work doesn’t get done this fast. Perhaps this is the equivalent of a diamond grinder. Except instead of diamond they either use magic or some metal like Mithril.

I finish my work and get one of the logs used to feed the forge. I sit and send my mana in it. Just like before, I find mana inside. I slowly and carefully draw a tiny amount of the mana and I see that like the mana I obtained on my experiments it seemed to be different. I have to put some strength to pull it out, but I manage it.

The quality or element of this sample is also not the same as my last attempt. I spend a good half hour working on it. I try everything I can think of, even sending my Aether in it, but nothing is successful. Though it’s no surprise the Aether doesn’t help.

I long discovered that Aether seems to only interact in a useful way with myself and Pando. We can exchange Aether, I can give Aether to someone else, I can see Aether, but that's it. Even the experiment I ran on the boy so long ago, sending Aether in his forehead, was the only one where someone became able to see my Aether.

I could send Aether anywhere, but unlike mana if it’s not on my body or Pando’s grove, I cannot sense anything with it. This quality has long intrigued me and I just can’t figure out why it was so. I put everything back into place and fill the blower with mana. This time I sit for only a minute and send the maximum rate of 1 mana per second. The ash inside the forge starts to shoot up out f the mouth, so I reduce to half mana. I can’t make out any details of the mechanism, the extra mana seeming to muddle even more than earlier. Disappointed, I stop and leave.

As I’m leaving, I look at my new dagger. Not all is bad, I may not have succeeded in understanding the mechanism in the forge, but this was my creation, It will serve well as a cutting implement and as a small weapon.

Basic dagger – Basic dagger made by an apprentice blacksmith. Attack +1.

This got recognized as an attacking instrument with a proper screen by the system. I even got a point of damage. I feel all’s right with the world and head to the inn to get some food. I’m famished.