As Yoichi stepped into the blacksmith's workshop, a smoldering sensation blew on his face with the mixed metal compounds and masculine sweat scent suffused into the atmosphere.
Soon, he saw three interconnected forges radiating blistering heat besides 6 sturdy anvils on each side along with basic tools for forging and weapon making.
Adolescent male youths diligently pummel the heated iron into different shapes. Each force, concentration, and keen eye were deeply focused on forging, a sight Yoichi appreciated.
"All of you, stop!" Gunbai's rigid voice reverberated in the room, making the youths cease their rigorous activities.
From the looks given by his trainees, the old man continued, "We have a newcomer who will take a task for me! If he forges a kunai, I'll take him as a trainee like you all!"
Upon hearing the old man's words, the students felt extremely stupefied and looked at the child on the Elder's side.
"Him? A goddamn boy?! Are you kidding us, boss...?!"
"And forging a kunai with his feeble body? That's basically asking to lose!"
"What a courageous brat! Let's see how you can withstand the heat and forge the kunai!"
While the disbelief and disdain were skyrocketing, Yoichi felt his heart pumping faster in a mix of excitement and nervousness.
After all, this was his first time forging, and theoretical knowledge sometimes was not useful against true and practical experience.
"You can now begin."
Soon, Gunbai started the seemingly impossible task for Yoichi. Every second wasted on forging was a crime in Gunbai's mind.
Therefore, Yoichi took a long metal bar and brought the material into the heart of the forge, intensely heating the metal bar with its fiery ferocity.
"Hmm, the kid could carry such metal," Gunbai nodded, "But trying to get the right amount of force at the appropriate spot should be able to trouble this kid..."
In his experience as a senior blacksmith, the common problems of numerous students he taught were upsetting, and hitting the heated metal into the right shape or thickness.
Upsetting was to make the heated metal into a thicker, shorter, or narrower form. It was a technical skill that even his students occasionally failed with their knowledge of forging.
It's a reddish color now, I should take this bar and use reasonable force.
With thick leather gloves, Yoichi took out and applied a series of hard blows using the flat hammer against the smoldering hot bar, slowly turning the bar into a flat shape.
"What the hell? He can actually release power with his fragile physique?"
"Old man, where did you get this child?! It feels too much!"
"Yeah! When I was that age, I was just going out in the rain with my friends!"
Hearing the astonishment of his students, Gunbai suddenly glared at them and replied, "Watch closely! Don't interrupt the child's focus!"
Then, he looked at Yoichi's sweaty but fulfilled face and thought, What a talent! Although his technique was still rough, the child was constantly adapting to just a tiny bit of his errors!
A sweat slid off his cheeks while Yoichi brought the bar once again into the heart of the forge, using his arm to clean the sweat on his forehead.
This is too hard! My arms were slightly sore from just hammering the head of my desired kunai!
Furthermore, such heat intensity could truly dehydrate someone's water content, leading to dehydration and loss of focus from lack of water!
Due to his magical physique and perception of his ability, his mind was constantly checking the mistakes in power pressure, and precision, making his progress slow but steady.
Soon, after a few hammering and reheating, the rough shape of the kunai emerged at the end of an earlier metal bar. Next, Yoichi took his time to shape the neck of the kunai at the horn of an anvil.
Then, the few rough taps on the metal bar resulted in a petite shape, a handle of the kunai. Subsequently, he took a white powder from his pouch and sprinkled the searing metal.
"What the hell is that?!" Gunbai saw Yoichi's actions and couldn't help but question himself as the white powder infused the scalding metal, steadily releasing impurities and slag out of the metal's compound properties.
The white powder was borax and one of the winnings of Yoichi in his 11 pulls in the past. The borax was luckily included in the Mortal Ores and was instantly deduced by Yoichi as a good stripper of pollutants in metals.
At this point, Yoichi was truly exhausted. His arms, upper body, and mind were sluggish from the tiresome shaping of the metal. However, his eyes were filled with determination and commitment to finish the task.
Back to the metal, his force became light and chipped the contaminants in the borax-infused metal. Next, the upsetting of the whole body which was easy due to the remaining thickness of the metal.
Afterwards, he punched a hole at the end of the kunai and brought it back into the forge. Heavily breathing with exhaustion in his face, Yoichi lightly said, "Sir, can I take a few sips of water?"
"Get some water right now!" Gunbai ordered his trainees while looking at Yoichi, who was still focused on the work even with a pale countenance.
"Brat, what is that white powder you threw into the metal?" Gunbai asked.
His mind became excited since it was a brand new way to effectively flush out impurities. Currently, they merely have the simple sands and clay with mixing compounds to shield the metal from the oxidation process.
"It is called borax. I merely took out when I was scavenging trash near my place..." Yoichi made an excuse that has both truth and false in it.
"I can give it to you, if you want..." Yoichi added.
"Hahaha, very well! Then, I'll approve your job application here in the workshop. I'm simply reciprocating your gift, alright? Hahaha."
Gunbai was slightly stunned until he replied with enthusiasm about his new trainee. He doesn't want to have a favor or debt of gratitude for Yoichi so he took him in an instant.
"Sir, I'll finish this..." Then, Yoichi stood up and removed the connection of the shaped kunai and the metal bar, using the tongs to extract the heated kunai and quench it in the water.
After cooling down, he sharpened the edges of the kunai by utilizing the sandstone and the cold gleam of rightful sharpness soon flickered with an orange light.
"Hahaha! Good try kid, this is certainly a kunai! Even though you still have some errors, you are qualified! Congratulations!" Now, Gunbai inspected the kunai and commended the child.
"Whoa! He really did it!"
"What an incredible child! Congrats kid!"
"Hah, he still has a long way to go. Look at his trembling body, it's on the verge of breaking out!"
"Kid, rest up for today! You will have a bright future in forging!" While the cheers and applause were heard, Gunbai dismissed Yoichi for the day and let him take a break.
"Oh right, here's the borax, old man. I'll take my leave!" Amidst the inspired looks to him, Yoichi took out a small white ore in his pouch and departed with barely stamina left in his tank.
"Take care, kid!" With a farewell, Gunbai glanced at Yoichi's silhouette and eventually went inside, ending the child's laborious day with fulfillment.
...
In the basement room.
Haaaaahh... Finally, another way to grind exp! I should fix my optimized schedule from now on...
As he sat on the ground, Haruhiko noticed something different and asked, "Yoichi, did something good happen?"
"Hmmm... I guess so," Yoichi shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Is that obvious?"
"No... I just felt you looked fulfilled today unlike your usual mature face," Haruhiko pointed out and reached out some food, "Do you want to eat?"
「Blacksmithing EXP +25」
"Thanks!" Yoichi took and ate the food while looking at the notification prompt with contemplation.
I must try and finish this profession... Next to that, how can I meet those shinobi again? I required some aid to complete this trial as fast as possible.
Yoichi thought. Perhaps snitching on their colleague could be a good compensation for the information he figured out.
*Knock!*
*Knock!*
"Who's there?!" Hearing the knocking sounds, Yoichi and Haruhiko grew alarmed.
"Yoichi, come out! There's a message delivered by Hayate-sama!" A chill voice came out before Yoichi and Haruhiko sighed.
Therefore, Yoichi opened the door to see a shinobi with a cold face and a scroll in his hand.
"Take it!" As soon as he saw Yoichi, the shinobi passed the scroll and vanished amidst the rainy sky.
At that point, Yoichi was perplexed until unfurling the scroll, reading the contents with focus.
I'm glad that you overcame the trials and passed them with a promising loyalty to the village. I've heard about your exceptional talents among the shinobi including Motoyasu, who was constantly trying to poach you from us. As for why I decided to send you this? Let's just say that we will meet soon once we finish our task in Amegakure. Take care, kid — Hayate
After reading the scroll, Yoichi frowned and thoughtfully picked up the clues from Hayate's vocabulary.
Suddenly, a terrifying conjecture formed in his mind, Looks like I need Konoha's shinobi to appear right now, or else, they will be goner!
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(Current Progress)
[Blacksmithing: (Entry) 70/100](+25)
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Sorry for the long ass explanation to the forging part, hehehe.
Thanks for reading the chapters and bookmarking the novel. See ya! XDD!