Heading over to the door and opening it, I saw Uxa standing there sheepishly. I welcomed him inside. "How are you doing, Uxa?" I asked him.

"Honestly, this is like a dream for me—this whole world. When I first came here, I was frantically trying to find a solution to the problems of my world, but with everything starting to settle down, I also saw that people from my world were coming in. It makes me happy knowing that we are in a much safer environment than we were used to."

"Wonderful," I exclaim, hearing how he finally settled in. "What brings you to my door?" I decided to ask right off the bat.

"Well, Laxreal approached me and asked me about my profession and its current level, " he starts.

Narrowing my eyes, I waited for him to finish seeing where this was going before he got to the end. "Once I told him I was looking for someone to help me with my blacksmithing like some other smiths, he told me to head here."

"You're saying you aren't the only smith looking to increase their profession?"

"Correct. Several of us are looking for someone to help us. There aren't many options since materials have been in short supply."

Smiling at him, I ask, "Do you have any spare armor or weapons I could practice on?"

"Plenty of failure pieces in the smithy haven't been melted down for spare materials. If that is what you mean."

"Perfect," I declare loudly.

"Why do you need those items? I know you are an—" he cuts himself off. You need to advance your profession, don't you?"

"That I do, my friend. I need to have 12 successful enchantments. Before I start ruining high-quality products, I thought I would get some scraps of different kinds to work on increasing my success rate of enchantments."

A smile reaches his eyes, "Wonderful. Then let me go and get those items and bring them to the enchanter's hut. I know you will want to work on them as soon as possible."

Nodding in appreciation, I asked, "How are things going for you? You just told me how much better it is here, but how about you? What have you been up to?"

Scratching the back of his head, he looks at me sheepishly, "I have been working my wings off in the smithy. Ramona sparred with me one day, and we started talking. When I mentioned that I was a blacksmith, she asked me why she hadn't seen me in the smithy. I responded that I wanted to fight since it was the only thing I knew from the time in my home world. She dragged me into the smithy and taught me how to use the forge. At first, I was atrocious, but as I got experience and with her guidance, I was able to start making small blades. They aren't the best even now, but I received so much experience that it boosted my level up to 10 quickly. That was a couple of days ago; since then, I have been trying to get more out of the materials I have used, but nothing has worked."

"So you haven't gone back to training?"

"Honestly, it's embarrassing to say, but Ramona told me that while I can be a warrior, it doesn't seem to be my calling and to focus on smithing for now. Maybe in the future, when I have more experience with the training grounds, I should start leveling up my warrior class."

"For someone with so much experience fighting, I am shocked she said that."

"It is mostly true," he shrugs his shoulders. "There wasn't much training to be had due to the infestation. Most training was done on the run or when you were in the middle of combat. Otherwise, it was mostly just whatever you had on hand and learning how to defend yourself."

Looking at Uxa, I can tell he is happier where he is currently. "Then it seems that it was an excellent choice to have you work on your smithing. I am sure your sister appreciates you not taking risks outside the settlement for right now."

"Very much so," he agrees.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Shall we get to the project at hand so we can make some awesome gear for some people?" I asked with enthusiasm.

He quickly agrees and heads out to collect the scrap weapons and armor. Seeing him leave so energetically boosts my energy for the day. Once he is gone, I open the material chests placed in their respective buildings.

All the materials I needed for my enchanting came in bundles of 100; there is a wide variety of ores, woods, fabric, and other herbs for healing and alchemy. Each chest provides the same amount. By the end of it, I could acquire 300 bundles for the enchanter's hut.

After that, I head out to the enchanter's hut. Not long after, Uxa arrives with the items and sits them near one of the work benches. "Let me know if you need anything else, and I will see about getting it to you."

Giving him my thanks, I buckle down to do some enchanting. Grabbing one of the pieces of material that looked like it was being pounded into a breastplate, I grab my engraving tool and the sigil for armor from my shelf. Looking at the sigil, I contemplate how to make this easier for my first attempt. Not thinking of anything off-hand, I free-hand the pattern onto the breastplate. Now, I am not the best of artists, and with my free-handing of the pattern, it immediately looks like something that came out of a 4th grader's art project. Now, this isn't a good 4th-grader artist. This is that kid who thinks he knows what he is doing with the directions provided. Instead of the gorgeous scenic picture he had wanted to paint, it is a picture with the sun in the corner and the house with square windows, a triangle roof, and a single step into the rectangle door. What I did was just terrible.

Sighing, seeing this will be more challenging than anticipated, I once again try to look around for ways to increase my chances of success. It doesn't take long before I look back and see Muiress working on a piece. What he is doing is something I should have thought of but don't know how to do. He takes the sigil and places it on a piece, then slowly traces his finger over it. When he removes the sigil, the piece he is working on has a ghostly print of the sigil.

Walking up to him, I asked him how he did that. "It is easy once you know the method. Just use your skills in mana circulations and mana control. With those skills, you can circulate your mana into your finger, and from there, you can trace items. However, you must manipulate mana to keep the mana in the spots you have traced."

Hearing his explanation, I asked him, "What level is your enchanting?"

"I am only at level 8 currently. I'm hoping to get to level 9 today, though."

"Only level 8; I would have thought, with your experience, you would already be level 10 and working on increasing your profession rank."

"Are you level 10 in your profession?" He asks me, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Yes."

"I guess that can make sense in one form. Because I know more, I don't get as much experience learning the sigils in the early stages, but I have a higher success rate when it comes to crafting items because I have the skills I had before." His face returns to normal once he thinks along these lines.

Taking out another piece of material, he shows me again with one of the sigils. This time, looking closely at his finger, I can see it glowing as he traces the lines. It doesn't take long for him to finish tracing once again; this time, there isn't a ghost outline like before.

Looking up at me, he smiles, "Is there anything else you want to see before you try it?"

Shaking my head, I thank him and then head back to my worktable. Doing what he did, I took my sigil for enchanting armor and placed it over the workpiece. Circulating my mana, I try to get it into my finger. It takes me twenty minutes to get the mana to flow to my index finger; in my excitement for completing this step, I almost lose focus, and my finger slowly loses some of the mana flowing into it. Focusing back on my task, I put my finger on the sigil and traced the pattern. It took me a few minutes as I was unfamiliar with the procedure and how the mana flows. When I remove the sigil, I find no lines on the piece. Smacking my forehead, I remember I also needed to use my mana control skill to hold the mana circulating through my finger and onto the workpiece.

Sighing at my failed attempt, I again place the sigil pattern on the piece. It only takes me fifteen minutes to get the mana circulating into my finger this time. Thinking that holding the entire sigil at once would be too complicated, I decided to work on one section at a time. I trace the first line, and as the mana leaves my body, I can feel it with mana control, and I try to grab hold of it and keep it in place. Focusing on these two tasks starts pushing my two skills to their limits. When I pull the sigil off the piece, I can feel my focus failing at holding all the mana in place.

My efforts do pay off differently, though.

- Congratulations, your skill, Mana Circulation, has reached level 10.

Congratulations, your skill, Mana Control, has reached level 7.

Congratulations, your skill, Mana Circulation, is ready to evolve. Please proceed to a safe location before initiating skill evolution. -

I am glad to see at least some of my skills are progressing; I continue for the rest of the afternoon by trying to get more and more lines traced onto the workpiece. By the time I had to stop for the day, I could get 68% of the sigil traced and held in place before my focus started to waver. Due to this grueling task, I could level my mana control skill to 9. Hopefully, I can level it up with one more day of hard work