Under Iain’s enhanced vision the tonorsium couldn’t hide any secrets. The young man focused, inspecting the bar piece by piece.

Without any runes the tonorsium didn’t have much protection against the dismantling eye skill. Iain noticed that using his skill didn’t put as much strain on his eyes this time. His confidence rose as he marveled at the skills’ wonders.

Letting his eyes roam around the piece of metal, Iain paid attention to its temperature. He could quickly distinguish even the smallest changes in the heated metal’s colors.

After a few seconds a wry smile appeared on Iain’s face. He noticed that the tonorsium was everything but evenly heated. One side was at least 25 degrees cooler than the other. Meanwhile as his vision penetrated the material, revealing its insides layer by layer, he also noticed that the bar wasn’t affected much at its core.

The young smith sighed slightly. He had been a bit too hasty with this unfamiliar material. Still thinking that experimenting would teach him more than reading, Iain put the tonorsium back into the fire.

Next Iain carefully raised the furnaces temperature. Flames rose as the small room became an oven in itself. Getting more and more used to life in his new environment, Iain quickly realized that the smithy should have ways to deal with this heat.

He turned his head left and right, soon spotting a screen next to the door. After reading through the options displayed there, he easily set the room to automatically regulate its temperature.

Proving the advantages of technology, a soothing stream of air soon spread throughout the room.

Fortunately, Iain wasn’t distracted for long. He returned to the furnace just in time to take out the tonorsium.

Just as the smith wanted to inspect his work, his eyes suddenly shot open. Iain jumped back in hurry, as a burning hot, white golden drop of liquid metal separated from the tonorsium bar.

A loud hissing noise almost mockingly sounded in Iain’s ears. The liquid metal hit the wooden floor, trying to set the room on fire. Fortunately, golden lines suddenly surrounded the endangered spot, protecting the floor. Nothing happened until Iian put the tonorsium down and soaked the ground in water.

As he picked up the small piece of metal, Iain was once again amazed by the omnipresent runes. Observing the result of his test, Iain finally accepted that his knowledge wasn’t enough.

He let the bar of tonorsium cool down as he silently closed his eyes. A spark of mana activated the mavrap hanging around his neck. Using his will, he scrolled through the information until the device showed him how to work with tonorsium.

The first sentence was already a small revelation to him. The text in his mind explained how only the most dedicated smiths would work with tonorsium with only the basic smithing skill. Normally one would require the stats of the advanced smithing skill or one’s strength wouldn’t be enough.

Iain silently thanked his father for the boost in stats before he read on. All kinds of miscellaneous information about tonorsium followed. From the conditions necessary for its creation to the methods used to mine it.

Since Thomas Rottal had thought Iain to appreciate his materials, the young man didn’t skip this boring information. In fact, he savored it as he incidentally learned more about the universe.

A few minutes later he finally reached the part about working with tonorsium.

Iain felt some embarrassment as he studied the basic information. The text stated that tonorsium typically could be processed in two different ways.

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In order to produce standardized weapons at a high frequency the material could be smelted and formed through using a mold. Its quality would then be dependent on the amount of additional work one would be willing to put in. For example, by sharpening its edges or engraving runes.

On the other hand, if one wanted a customized weapon a skilled smith could form the metal in a traditional way. One only had to be mindful of the traps the material held.

For example, it was necessary to use smaller bar as the metal didn’t transmit heat all that well. Fortunately, pieces of tonorsium were extremely sturdy when combined together.

Thus, weapons were often made in made from multiple parts. A smith could prove his skill by connecting them seamlessly.

Iain realized that his thinking was too naïve. The materials he would be working with in the future were too varied. He couldn’t treat all of them like iron or steel. He couldn’t escape learning more theoretical knowledge.

In the past when his father was the one teaching him, Iain was always delighted. If it meant spending time with his old man, the young child would always memorize everything. Whenever he successfully repeated his father’s words the both of them would be in a good mood.

But now his father couldn’t even talk normally to him. In order to keep him and Lilly save their parents had sacrificed so much.

Dark thoughts threatened to strangle his mind. Iain blamed himself as still wasn’t able to protect his sister after all the preparations his parent’s provided them.

Fortunately, Iain’s will wasn’t that brittle. Lightly shaking his head, he concentrated back on more important issues.

With some reluctance Iain but out the forge again after only a short time. He put his tools away before lying down in the living room. With closed eyes he studied guides about basic smithing.

Time went by quickly and soon Iain had been reading for a few hours. He had freshed up on many techniques. Bending, punching, drawing, upsetting, and many more.

Although his father had ingrained them into Iain’s mind it wouldn’t hurt to remind himself of their intricacies once more. Unfortunately, the young man only realized once again why he was never the type to learn from books. The information just wouldn’t stay in his head. Towards the end he even fell asleep for an hour.

Iain sat up, looking slightly forlorn. He wasn’t sure how to proceed. Should he experiment more? Should he force himself to read? Should he search for a teacher?

As the young man was contemplating, a voice sounded, offering him one more option.

[You can learn from Nua.]

Not prepared for his father’s interjection, Iain winced lightly. His face contorted in pain for a second as a headache assaulted him.

He thought about his father’s words but didn’t understand their meaning. Nua was gone who knows where. How could he learn from her?

Noticing his son’s confusion, Thomas added.

[The AI at your store.]

Iain drew a deep breath. He tried to suppress the pain as he remembered the quirky AI keeping watch over their store. Iain wanted to ask how an AI could help him, but he knew his father wouldn’t talk much more.

Naturally he trusted his father’s suggestion. If Nua could really teach him, he knew this would be his best option. Although he still slightly sceptic.

Since AIs didn’t enjoy much love in the Luminous Empire, Iain only came into contact with some rudimentary programs so far. Nua had obviously shown more character, but Iain couldn’t see AIs as intelligent enough to teach him about smithing. Too many finely tuned decisions would be needed. In the young man’s mind a simple tool wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Despite those doubts, Iain was prepared to go to his store tomorrow. It was already late, so the young man stood up, preparing to go to bed.

Just as he put his foot on the stairs he slightly stocked, however. He realized that he still acted based on his old habits. Turning his head towards a window, Iain took in the blinding light for a second.

In the Frozen Hell exhaustion forced him to sleep regularly, but now he should begin to adapt to a new lifestyle. Only sleeping every two days was absolutely possible and would grant him more time to train his skills.

Strengthening his conviction the young man turned around. He grabbed his shades before leaving the house, heading for his store.

A short transray ride later he once again found himself on craftsmen street. Loud noise and busy adventurers still shaped the scenery here. Observing the valiant adventurers, Iain felt some slight rejection, however. After seeing Groob’s team’s reaction in the face of danger, the young man couldn’t respect those selfish warriors anymore.

Not wanting to talk to anyone, Iain hurried through the crowded street. Soon he reached his store again. Entering the quiet place filled with gorgeous armors and weapons, Iain longed to create his own masterworks as well.

Thus, he didn’t waste any more time, loudly calling out:

“Nua? Can I ask you something?”