After getting home, Mercer's daily life returned to the way it had been.
Simple and ordinary.
Yet it left him feeling wonderfully fulfilled.
The first thing he did every morning was go for a run.
After a thorough warm-up, he went home to wash up and eat breakfast.
Then he settled into his studies.
After lunch,
he either went hunting and took Bear Cub out for a treat,
or went out with Kureha to treat patients, or took care of something else.
Time flew by.
By May of Sea Year 1504, Mercer had reached a new age.
That morning,
[Merit Points +1]
Merit Points: [1615]
"I've broken a thousand Merit Points."
He closed the light-screen panel and looked at the small town before him.
"Oster Town."
A steel town on Drum Island.
It was the country's metalworking center.
Everything from weapons for the royal army to household cookware for the people was made here.
"Good Come Again Blacksmith Shop."
It stood in the town's northeastern corner.
A two-story brick-and-stone building.
The front door was half open.
As soon as Mercer arrived, waves of hot air washed over his face.
The rhythmic clang of hammering rang out from inside, audible from far away.
Thick, coal-black smoke billowed from the chimney.
He pushed the door open and went inside.
The first thing he saw was a burly, bare-chested man with a scruffy beard, swinging a hammer and pounding a glowing red billet on an anvil.
With each strike, it took shape, until it resembled a kitchen cleaver.
The shop owner was skilled, but stubborn. He only ever accepted commissions for farm tools and kitchenware.
He wouldn't make weapons for the military.
So despite his considerable skill, he could only afford to run his shop in a corner of town.
The burly man glanced at Mercer as he came in and said flatly, "Your knives are on the dining table. Go get them yourself. Leave the rest of the payment on the table."
"And don't go snooping around. I don't pass on my blacksmithing skills."
Mercer squinted at him. "Uncle Otto, which eye saw me trying to learn? I haven't even touched your hammer.
"Besides, you're an old bachelor without a wife, let alone a son. Even if you wanted to pass your skills on, you couldn't."
Otto's eye twitched, and he curled his lips into a grin. "So you want to be my son?"
He eyed Mercer and let out a chuckle. "Well, you are a pretty fair-skinned kid. If you really called me Daddy, I might just teach you."
Now it was Mercer's turn to twitch.
They really were evenly matched when it came to trading barbs.
No wonder Kureha had recommended him a month or so ago.
Mercer walked over to a scarred table and looked at the five scalpels and a watermelon knife laid out on it.
The scalpels had been forged from a single piece of metal.
They resembled palm-sized naginatas.
Their handles and blades were silvery white.
The craftsmanship was excellent.
Mercer picked one up and dragged its edge across the table. It carved a mark with ease.
Nodding in satisfaction, he tested each knife.
Every stroke left another mark on the tabletop.
Otto's mouth twitched as he watched.
"One hundred Beli for the table. Scratch it again and you're paying for it."
At that, Mercer stopped at once.
He laughed helplessly.
"Cheap skate. The table was already like that."
"Oh, right. Uncle Otto, that iron mine you mentioned last time was dried up. There's barely any iron ore in there. It's been abandoned for ages."
Otto gave him a strange look, then cackled.
"You look pretty smart, but you're actually a complete idiot."
"Iron ore's a controlled resource. How could there still be any ore in a mine without guards? You're lucky if you find a few scraps.
"After all, you asked about an unguarded mine."
"The old king may be a decent man, but he's no fool. If you want a lot of iron ore, you either work as a miner and take cheap ore as your wages, or buy it with your own money.
"Or..."
Mercer's eyes lit up. He glanced at Otto. "Then do you know where on the island there might be an undiscovered iron deposit?"
A glint flashed in Otto's eyes, but he calmly looked Mercer over and replied, "You can find out about the mines by asking around. Miners are scarce, after all, and the mines are full of toxic gases. No rich man would go down there.
"As for undiscovered deposits, you need professional surveying skills. If you find a new one, you can report it to the royal council and get a reward in Beli."
"There's an active mine three kilometers south of town, not far from the foot of Drum Mountain. I hear the ore there has a pretty high iron content."
A trace of surprise flashed through Mercer's eyes. He'd gotten what he wanted, so he said no more.
He put a thousand Beli on the table.
"Payment's settled. I'll be off, Uncle. You can get back to your work."
He slipped the scalpels into their special sheath at his waist, then tucked the watermelon knife into the wooden scabbard Otto had thrown in for free.
Turning around, he left the blacksmith shop.
Inside, Otto watched him thoughtfully, puzzled. "No idea what he wants all that ore for. Well, whatever. What's it to me?"
"But that kid from the witch's house sure has sharp eyes. Every time he comes to watch me work, it feels like he's stripping me naked.
"Strange."
Then he bent back to his work.
He still had several orders to deliver that day.
Outside the shop, Mercer's lips curled upward. "You don't teach me, that's your choice. Whether I learn is up to me."
"And that abandoned mine. Has all the ore really been dug out? Heh, not necessarily!"
He replayed the way Otto's muscles moved and how he applied force while hammering.
Bear Cub, who had been waiting at the door, came over. Mercer smiled. "Come on. We're going to another blacksmith shop."
He went around town collecting his orders from the other blacksmiths: hammers, strange iron helmets, and even a bulky half suit of armor.
Every time, Mercer spent a while in the shop, chatting with the owner or the apprentices.
He quietly used Observation Haki to sense how they moved and handled their tools.
He continually compared their methods in his mind.
Mercer left town looking satisfied, with Bear Cub pulling a wooden cart piled with iron goods.
When they found a spot where no one was around, Bear Cub looked at Mercer eagerly.
"Go ahead and eat."
The next moment, Bear Cub let out a roar, climbed onto the cart, grabbed an iron helmet, and bit into it.
Crunch, crunch!
After finishing the helmet, he ate the hammer, then the half suit of armor.
He devoured every last iron item on the cart.
Before long, Bear Cub let out a satisfied burp. Only he knew whether he was full.
Mercer looked at him. "All right, show me what you can do."
Bear Cub's eyes gleamed with excitement.
The next moment, his body began to change.
He rose to his hind legs.
A black iron helmet formed on his head.
Only his black ears and face showed.
A half suit of armor appeared on his body, covering his chest, stomach, and back.
His right paw transformed into a pumpkin-shaped iron hammer.
Mercer's eyes lit up. He threw himself at Bear Cub, patting him here and tapping him there.
Clang, clang!
Thanks to the Munch-Munch Fruit, the armor and weapons Bear Cub had eaten fit as though they had grown right on his body.
They fit perfectly.
And he looked incredibly cool.
An armored battle bear.
Seeing Mercer's reaction, Bear Cub put away the hammer and sat down, equally fascinated as he patted and tapped himself with his paws.
After playing around for a while, Bear Cub ate the wooden cart too.
"Come on. Let's go to that mine from before."
Bear Cub nodded.
He dropped onto all fours.
Mercer straddled his back. Bear Cub knew the way, and took off at a run with his head down.
With time to spare, Mercer took a scalpel from its sheath and turned it over in his hand.
"Appraisal."
[E-Rank Scalpel (Refined): An excellent blade forged through countless hammer strikes. High quality.]
It was only an ordinary weapon—not a famous blade, and without any special effects.
The lowest grade of famous blades was the "Skillful Grade."
"According to Otto, the scalpel is about as good as a refined blade can get without being a 'Skillful Grade' weapon. So, unless I'm mistaken, 'Skillful Grade' should be D-rank."
"But Otto's skill isn't quite enough to forge a 'Skillful Grade' blade. That's a shame."
"The watermelon knife, which is also a weapon of sorts, is likewise an E-rank refined iron tool."
A light-screen panel appeared before his eyes. He looked at the "Gifted Abilities" section.
[Smithing]
The gray Smithing Gift hadn't been truly manifested. Mercer's eyes filled with thought.
"Should I manifest the Smithing Gift? A famous blade should count as an item with legendary properties."
"The moment it's created, Merit Points should gather around it. Whether or not a famous blade is well known, simply existing should give it that kind of quality."
He made up his mind.
He spent a full thousand of the [1615] Merit Points he'd accumulated since birth.
The next moment, a torrent of information flooded Mercer's mind.
His mind filled with countless pure forging techniques, the proportions needed to refine all kinds of materials, and the feeling of having tempered his hands through countless hammer strikes.
What was smithing?
Repeatedly hammering metal into shape?
No.
Smithing was a field of knowledge.
An art.
A craft for creating "life."
All things had a spirit. One had to understand the patterns and veins within materials, hammer and arrange them, gather their essence, give objects their shape, and awaken their spirits.
Mercer calmed his mind and absorbed the pure smithing knowledge that had appeared in his consciousness.
He compared it against the techniques he'd secretly learned at the various blacksmith shops lately.
After a long while, Mercer opened his eyes on Bear Cub's back.
"So that's how it is. I should have realized sooner. A Gift's true manifestation doesn't come from nowhere. It's not creation out of nothing. It's an extrapolation and expansion based on what you already possess."
Just as a tree needed a seed to take root and sprout before it could grow into a towering giant.
Drawing Gifts from one's own history and experiences was like cultivating a "seed."
It was a reciprocal relationship, like the "chicken and the egg."
He shook his head,
and stopped thinking about such complicated things. He cleared those distracting thoughts from his mind.
Mercer mentally opened the Gifted Abilities panel.
He looked at the Gift he'd just obtained.
[D-Rank Gift: Smithing]
[Gift Effect: Discern the patterns within materials, temper and gather spirituality, and give objects form.] [Gift Evaluation: What makes a masterpiece worthy of being passed down? A tool with a spirit.]
Blinking, Mercer grinned.
"Sure enough, the D-rank 'Smithing' gift can forge tools with a spirit. Generally speaking, tools with a spirit are on the level of famous blades.
"That means I now have the qualifications to forge a 'Fine Blade.'"
"Next, I'll need to get my hands on a lot more iron ore."
"Squeak!"
Just then, Bear Cub stopped. Mercer came back to his senses and looked around.
Collapsed wooden buildings lay everywhere. Though blanketed in snow, it was still clear that this had once been a mining site.
At that moment, Mercer and Bear Cub were standing at the entrance to a collapsed, abandoned mine tunnel.
From the entrance, a timber-supported slope led underground, disappearing into darkness.
Mercer hopped off Bear Cub's back and headed into the tunnel first.
The tunnel was pitch-black.
It was about two meters wide and two meters high.
They pressed onward.
After walking a hundred meters, Mercer took a torch from a corner and lit it with a lighter.
Whoosh!
Flames leapt up.
The light revealed their surroundings: tiny, rust-colored stones were scattered across the ground.
Iron ore.
After Otto had told him where the nearest mine was, Mercer had learned exactly where to find the closest iron mine.
It was only about a kilometer from this abandoned mining site.
The tunnels in the abandoned mine branched in every direction.
But with Observation Haki, Mercer would never lose his way.
Mercer and Bear Cub made their way through the depths of the mine.
He entered the state of Unity of Heaven and Man.
He could sense the frequencies and breaths of all things.
To Mercer, everything in the world had its own unique breath and frequency.
Soil had its own.
Stone had its own.
Ore had its own.
Just as every human had two shoulders and one head, yet each person's aura was different.
Likewise, ore gave off a different aura from ordinary stones and soil.
At last, a dead end appeared before Mercer and Bear Cub.
The torch lit up the area.
Unlike the main tunnel, this section had no timber supports.
There were few signs of mining, too.
Mercer could clearly see that the rock wall before him was just ordinary, stubborn stone.
There wasn't the slightest trace of iron ore.
But according to Mercer's senses, if there was any iron ore left in this abandoned mine, it could only be here.
That was because he sensed the same breathing frequency here as he did in iron ore.
Mercer rested a hand on Bear Cub's head and said boisterously,
"Go on, eat it."
"Squeak?"
Hearing Bear Cub's confusion, Mercer smiled. "Food's food, right? Did you know pandas are also called Iron Eater Beasts? So you were born to eat iron, Bear Cub.
"I'm sure there's iron ore behind this rock. Once we find it, I'll leave the task of refining it into high-purity iron to you."
"Whimper~" Bear Cub's face took on a humanlike, bewildered expression as he turned to look at Mercer.
Mercer looked back at Bear Cub, flashed a broad grin, and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Do your best!!!"
"Roar."
There was no helping it.
Bear Cub walked up to the rock wall, opened his huge mouth, and bit down.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
His mouth grew even larger than Mercer's, and he effortlessly chewed a huge hole into the rock wall.
Mercer followed close behind Bear Cub.
They continued onward.
Five meters later, they stopped.
Mercer held the torch up for a closer look. Reddish-brown and dark-black ores came into view, along with cloudy white crystals.
"So it's a low-grade deposit—hematite, magnetite, and quartz. But that's fine. With Bear Cub here, we've got nothing to worry about."
"Go ahead and eat. But don't digest this ore yet. Use your ability to refine and purify it, and then I'll check the quality of what you've produced."
"Squeak!"
Bear Cub nodded, then got back to work with renewed vigor.
Crack, crack, crack!
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