Craftsman's Disciple

Douluo Calendar, year 2598, September 1st.

In the east of Mu Zhi City, Green Leaf Elementary Soul Master Academy began its school year.

Six grades, six classes; each class had roughly thirty to forty students. The academy's self-funded students and Work-study Students added together came to a little over two hundred.

That number of students was, to be honest, quite small.

Even so, Green Leaf Elementary Soul Master Academy's student numbers already ranked second among the four elementary soul master academies in Mu Zhi City.

Within the Capital City, Mu Zhi City, of Waterwood Principality, among the children born over the past six years with Innate Soul Power aptitude, if the descendants of nobles and soul master clans were not counted, there were only fewer than a thousand altogether.

According to past experience, of these nearly one thousand children, in the end, those who could cultivate their Soul Power to rank ten and then obtain a First Soul Ring to become soul masters might not even make up half.

And among them, those who could go one step further, cultivate to Level 20, and become Two-Ring Great Soul Masters would be fewer by more than two-thirds again!

If one counted those who died in the mouths of Soul Beasts during soul hunting, those ambushed and hunted by other soul masters, and those killed in feuds and vendettas... of the reserve soul masters born over these six years, decades later, the number who could successfully cultivate to Soul Grandmaster and become new nobles could be counted on two hands!

Waterwood Principality had been founded less than a century ago. Most of its current nobles were families of followers who had accompanied Grand Duke Mu Xiao back then. Only a small portion had been newly born from the lands of Waterwood Principality over these past few decades.

The Martial Soul System of Douluo Continent depended far too much on bloodline aptitude. Wanting to rely on mutation to produce high-quality Martial Soul Aptitude was no different from Ling Yi winning a grand prize in the lottery in his previous life.

Mm, small prizes of a few yuan, a few dozen yuan, or even a few hundred yuan had relatively higher odds when compared against a large enough base. It was just that once locked onto an individual, those odds became pitifully small again...

Because of this, in elementary soul master academies, unless one had awakened a decent-quality martial soul and relatively high Innate Soul Power from the start, they basically would not be targeted in advance by those nobles for investment and recruitment.

More often, some self-funded students relied on their fairly good family circumstances and more or less some soul master background to bully and humiliate Work-study Students whose aptitude was ordinary, or even poor.

In their understanding, the appearance of Work-study Students took up a portion of the resources that belonged to self-funded students like them. Whether it was educational resources from teachers or the help provided by the academy later when it organized unified soul hunting, all of it would be diluted by the Work-study Students.

That conflict piled up year after year, until later, the opposition between self-funded students and Work-study Students had already become a kind of tradition.

Of course, whether there were certain nobles adding fuel to the fire behind it was unknown.

After all, as far as Ling Yi knew, the vast majority of nobles had their own set of teaching methods suited to their family's inherited martial souls. Once their children reached a certain age and level of strength, they would be sent directly into advanced soul master academies. First, this was to obtain certain resources their families could not provide, such as a Mimetic Cultivation Environment and higher-age Soul Ring hunting; second, it was to get to know companions of roughly the same class, or even higher, and expand the family's connections.

If they could find a member of the opposite sex with excellent talent and aptitude, marry them, and thereby give birth to even better inheritors of martial soul bloodlines, that would be even better~

That was going off topic. Back to Green Leaf Elementary Soul Master Academy.

Through channels such as the academy's teachers, fellow Work-study Students, and some self-funded students whose temperaments were still decent, Ling Yi had preliminarily seen through some of the academy's subtle relationships and had also formulated a series of response plans for his upcoming academy life.

In the few days around the start of school, a piece of gossip spread through Green Leaf Elementary Soul Master Academy without anyone quite noticing.

"Did you hear?"

During the break between classes, a little boy with prominent ears turned around and asked the little girl with buck teeth at the desk behind him.

The little girl was somewhat baffled and looked at the boy curiously. "Hear what?"

"Hehe~" The little boy first looked left and right, then lowered his voice, yet his face was still animated as he said, "Among this year's new students, there's a guy who entered the tutelage of Grandmaster Jin, one of the Three Great Masters. I don't even know whether to call him lucky, or say he's willingly fallen so low..."

"Grandmaster Jin? That Blacksmith Master-rank Grandmaster Jin?" Beside them, a boy with slanted bangs cut in and asked.

Hearing him, the boy with prominent ears glanced at him and nodded. "Right, that Grandmaster Jin~"

"Tsk~" The boy with slanted bangs smacked his lips noncommittally, shook his head, and said, "I heard Grandmaster Jin is already over seventy. Who knows how much of his Soul Grandmaster Level strength is even left? That guy isn't really going to learn blacksmithing, is he?"

"What's wrong with blacksmithing?"

Suddenly, a tall, sturdy boy who had arrived beside the three at some unknown point spoke. "If he really becomes a Blacksmith Master-rank blacksmith, he'll also be able to become a big shot of the principality..."

As his words fell, the boy with prominent ears, the boy with slanted bangs, and the buck-toothed girl who had been quietly listening realized that seven or eight classmates had already gathered around them. They were all children of local merchants and small clans in Mu Zhi City, and they were also self-funded students at the academy.

The one who had just spoken was the son of the owner of a Blacksmith Shop in the east of the city. His father had also apprenticed under Grandmaster Jin, and was now only one step away from becoming an Advanced Blacksmith. If not for his age and limited potential, meaning that even if he became an Advanced Blacksmith, he still had little hope of becoming a Blacksmith Master, he would have liked to look toward the status of Grandmaster Jin's thirteenth personal disciple.

"Tch—" The boy with slanted bangs glanced sideways at the tall, sturdy boy. "Is a Blacksmith Master that easy to become?"

"In any case, up to now, I haven't heard that any of Grandmaster Jin's twelve personal disciples have advanced to the Blacksmith Master rank—"

"Heh!" Hearing this, the tall, sturdy boy gave a cold laugh. "Zhan Mu, I heard that the battle saber your father uses was forged by Grandmaster Jin's fifth disciple, Advanced Blacksmith Master Wang..."

Zhan Mu's father was a Level 27 Great Soul Master, his martial soul the Ironback Baboon, and his strength was the highest among the parents of the students in their class.

And when wielding that battle saber forged by an Advanced Blacksmith, Zhan Mu's father could directly fight a Level 29 Power Attack System Weapon Soul Master without falling into disadvantage, and could even suppress an unarmed Beast Soul Master of the same level!

Hearing the tall, sturdy boy's words, Zhan Mu opened his mouth, but in the end, he did not say anything in rebuttal. Though deep down he felt that soul masters were nobler, he would not casually say nonsense and offend an Advanced Blacksmith.

If his words were spread by someone, Zhan Mu's father would probably beat him up, then take him to Master Wang to apologize.

It had to be understood that forged weapons were different from Tool Martial Souls. They wore down.

What did one do when they wore down?

Naturally, one found a blacksmith to repair them. If conditions allowed, once the blacksmith's skills improved, or when better materials were available, one could even reforge them into an even stronger weapon!

You said that if he offended Master Wang, he could just switch to another Advanced Blacksmith at worst; with money, could he really not find a blacksmith to take the job?

Heh. If Zhan Mu had opened his mouth and said something reckless just now, it would not merely have been looking down on one particular blacksmith, but on the entire profession of blacksmithing.

Although that was indeed what he believed in his heart, and the many students present might not necessarily think otherwise deep down.

Even the tall, sturdy boy, as well as his father, also believed in their hearts that soul masters were nobler.

If there was hope, he still hoped this son of his would take the path of a soul master. If it really did not work out, then he could return home to inherit the Blacksmith Shop and become a blacksmith.

After all, whether a blacksmith could become a Soul Master depended on fate, but for a Soul Master to switch careers and become a blacksmith was effortless.

The strength granted by Soul Power alone made it easier to possess great power than an Ordinary Person's painstakingly tempered physique.

Beyond that, Soul Power could also enhance a person's five senses, which was a major convenience when learning forging techniques.

Unfortunately, most Soul Masters wished they could spend all their time on Soul Power cultivation, studying Martial Souls and Soul Beasts, honing Combat Skills, and other Soul Master-related coursework.

Blacksmithing?

What a waste of time!

As for the idea that blacksmithing could temper the body?

Could it compare to the enhancement of a Beast Martial Soul? Could it compare to the support of Soul Rings and Soul Skills? Could it compare to the convenience of having one's physical qualities improved by the cleansing of Soul Power after becoming stronger?

Becoming a blacksmith was something only those with little hope on the path of a Soul Master would choose!

This was the understanding of almost everyone on the Douluo Continent today. It was also the reason blacksmiths held such an awkward status.

And yet, if one wanted to become a high-level blacksmith, only a Soul Master could do it.

Otherwise, materials that could withstand the power of Soul Elders and above were not something ordinary people could refine and forge into shape.