Epiphany

Master Bentham walked over to Abel, picked up a thirty-pound iron hammer from the workbench, and tossed the rough blank into the furnace. Watching the flames, he said to Abel, "You're the most talented child I've ever seen. I'll only demonstrate this once. How much you can learn is up to you."

He took the glowing rough blank from the furnace with tongs and placed it on the anvil. Raising the hammer high, Master Bentham carefully examined the blank before bringing it down hard. Every strike was slow, but every strike was incredibly heavy. The force of the blows made the massive workbench tremble.

"After the rough blank has been hammered eighty times, it becomes extremely hard. Striking it forcefully won't help forge it—instead, it will damage its internal structure. So after eighty strikes, switch to a larger hammer. Every blow must land on the structural grain of the rough blank. Look carefully. Your strength is immense, and as long as you're attentive, mastering this skill won't be a problem." Master Bentham instructed Abel as he hammered the blank.

Abel's violet eyes remained fixed on the rough blank. At the points where the master's hammer landed, he could vaguely see some fine lines. They were difficult to spot on the dark-red blank, yet the master struck the lines precisely every time. Each blow changed the blank's shape, and the lines he needed to find next changed as well.

Master Bentham tossed the rough blank, which had already been hammered eighty-one times, back into the furnace. He handed the thirty-pound iron hammer to Abel and said, "You try."

Abel took the hammer, used iron tongs to pull the glowing rough blank from the furnace, and stared intently at it. Where are the lines? Where are they? As he thought this, his concentration grew sharper and sharper. Everything around him seemed to vanish. The entire world held only the rough blank before him. In Abel's eyes, it grew larger and larger, and every minute mark on its surface was reflected in his mind. Found you. You're here.

The thirty-pound iron hammer crashed down onto the rough blank. The tremendous noise did not affect Abel. The blow distorted the blank before his eyes. Where are you? Haha, here you are. Found you. Another hammer blow came down.

At that moment, Abel was like a child who had found a fascinating new toy. He located a line and struck it with the hammer, then found another and struck again. The thunderous impacts rang out continuously, and his speed was no slower than Master Bentham's had been.

Master Bentham was stunned. The child before him had already begun to make him jealous. Yes, a child who had only been forging for a month had made a master jealous.

This is mental power. Master Bentham shouted inwardly again and again. Of course he knew what state this was. His teacher, the dwarf forging master Robin, was a forging master gifted with mental power. He was a true master—not like Master Bentham, who was called a master by the people of nearby cities because he was proficient in forging all kinds of weapons and armor. Master Robin, on the other hand, was a forging master recognized throughout the entire continent.

Master Bentham had studied under Master Robin for ten years. Because he lacked mental power, he had been unable to learn more profound forging techniques and had returned to his homeland. The reason Master Bentham could successfully forge rough blanks beyond eighty strikes was that he had built up experience through endless personal practice. Relying on that experience, he could forge rough blanks up to one hundred strikes.

When Master Bentham had first begun studying, Master Robin had used mental power to locate structural grain lines. That was why Master Bentham could recognize Abel's state at a glance.

Master Bentham did not disturb Abel's forging. Instead, he quietly turned and left. By the time he departed, he had already made a decision: the wish he himself had been unable to fulfill could be accomplished by his disciple.

Absorbed in that strange state, Abel did not notice Master Bentham's departure. As time passed, the rough blank in his hands was returned to the furnace more and more often.

Eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-four... ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred.

Only when the hundredth strike was complete did Abel awaken from that state. He felt exhausted all over, especially mentally depleted, as if his mind had been hollowed out. His head felt dizzy, and he had the urge to vomit.

The thirty-pound iron hammer slipped from his hand and fell onto the workbench with a loud clang. Looking at his trembling right hand, Abel recalled what had just happened. He seemed to have entered a strange state in which he had operated almost entirely by instinct. But the burden this state placed on his body was far too great.

After sensing his body, Abel wondered what was happening. He discovered a huge amount of qi gathered beside his Qi Veins. There was so much of it that it was frightening.

Without thinking further, and without caring how dirty the ground was, he dropped onto it and began practicing the Knight Breathing Technique. The qi accumulated beside his Qi Veins rapidly gathered and flowed toward the fifth Qi Vein.

"What's going on?" Gaden noticed Abel sitting on the ground and hurried over, preparing to help him up.

"Don't touch him." Master Bentham appeared beside Abel and stopped Gaden with one hand. Glaring at him, he said, "Why are you always so careless?"

The master then looked at the other apprentices, who had heard the commotion and were approaching, and waved them all away.

"Go notify Knight Marshall. Tell him to come here." Master Bentham turned back and said this to Gaden.

"Yes, Master." Gaden ran out of the Blacksmith Shop.

"This Marshall sure was blessed by fortune. His adopted son leveled up again." Master Bentham muttered to himself. Ever since he had taken on this disciple, he had suffered more and more shocks.

Abel's breakthrough to a Level 5 Apprentice Knight went extremely smoothly this time. Nearly all the qi automatically gathered toward the fifth vein as if responding to a command, so it took him only half an hour to successfully become a Level 5 Apprentice Knight.

Abel did not really understand this breakthrough. He had only just advanced two levels and become a Level 4 Apprentice Knight. Why had he leveled up again after only a month? He had not taken any potion this time. Full of questions, he stood up and saw Master Bentham standing to one side. Everyone else in the Blacksmith Shop was standing far away. It was obvious that Master Bentham was protecting him, and Abel could not help feeling deeply grateful to the master.

With a boom, the door was kicked open and a figure rushed inside, shouting as he ran, "What happened to Abel?"

It was Knight Marshall. Half of his golden hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to his face, while the rest had been blown into a disheveled mess behind his head. He had completely lost his usual dashing appearance.

Seeing Abel standing there as if nothing had happened, looking nothing like someone who was injured, Knight Marshall cursed loudly, "That brat Gaden actually dared to trick me! Just wait—I'll teach him a proper lesson later!"

"Who's going to teach my disciple a lesson?" Master Bentham looked displeased as he gritted his teeth at the lucky bastard who was still cursing.

"Uncle Marshall, I accidentally leveled up again," Abel said quietly.

"What do you mean, leveled up? I'll settle things with Bentham first, then we'll talk." Knight Marshall turned toward Master Bentham, preparing to argue with him properly, but suddenly stopped.

"Wait, did you say you leveled up again?" Knight Marshall looked Abel up and down in disbelief. He reached out and pushed Abel with one hand, and Abel's body instinctively released the Aura of a Level 5 Apprentice Knight.

"That makes no sense. How did you level up just like that? What were you doing at the time?" Knight Marshall pressed Abel.

Abel hesitated and thought for a moment before answering firmly, "Nothing. I was just hammering a rough blank."

"You didn't eat anything?"

"I only ate breakfast, with you. I didn't have lunch because I was hammering the rough blank." Abel wanted to know the reason too, so he answered every question.

"How could that be? If hammering iron could raise a knight's level, I'd come hammer iron tomorrow too." After saying this, Knight Marshall pointed at Master Bentham. "If hammering iron could make someone level up, this guy would have become a great warrior long ago."

Master Bentham puffed out his beard and glared as he mocked him, "As long as you can enter the epiphany state while hammering iron, of course you can level up. Why don't you try it?"

"Abel, why don't you find another rough blank and keep hammering? Then enter epiphany again, and you'll become the youngest knight in the duchy." As soon as Knight Marshall finished speaking, not only did Master Bentham roll his eyes, but Abel also could not help covering his head.