At the center of the courtyard stood a massive furnace,
Someone shoveled coal into it, one load after another, stoking the flames to produce even greater heat,
Someone else fed iron ore into the furnace, and when it came out, it had melted into glowing red-hot iron.
The molten iron was then distributed among the dozen or so Bladesmiths hammering away in the courtyard, who forged it into the most primitive blade blanks.
The servant first told Shen Chu to wait where he was, then found a master smith and spoke with him. Afterward, he beckoned Shen Chu over,
"Starting today, you'll work under Master Sun. Do whatever he tells you."
After giving him his instructions, the servant hurried off.
Shen Chu wiped the sweat from his brow and gave Master Sun a friendly smile.
Master Sun was an elderly, short goateed man. He wasn't tall, and there was hardly any muscle on his arms, but he held the iron tongs and hammer in his hands with a steady grip.
Hammer after hammer landed on the red-hot sword blank.
"New here?" he asked without looking up.
Shen Chu had just started to nod when Master Sun continued, "Even if you're new, you still have to work. The water vat's nearly empty. Go fetch me a few buckets."
Shen Chu said nothing. He picked up the two half-meter-tall buckets on the ground and headed for the large water vat in the corner of the courtyard.
He saw that everyone else went there to get water.
At the vat, Shen Chu plunged the buckets in. Once they were full, he struggled to lift them out.
His ragged clothes were already soaked with sweat, and his stomach was growling furiously,
but Shen Chu kept pushing on,
He had finally gotten this opportunity. If he messed up, he'd still be thrown out of the Li Residence,
and then he'd have more to worry about than just hard work.
Thinking of this, he steeled himself, swayed back, and gritted his teeth as he emptied all the water into the vat behind Master Sun.
He was just about to catch his breath,
when a virtual panel appeared in front of Shen Chu without warning.
[Successfully took the position of Blade-Forging Apprentice. Obtained initial skill: Thousand Hammer Refinement Lv. 1] [Thousand Hammer Refinement: When activated, consumes stamina to hammer and refine metal. Each strike improves the metal item's final quality.] [Passive skill: Constitution improved from Ding-Mid to Ding-High. Strength and stamina both slightly increased.]
"This is my cheat?!!"
Shen Chu nearly let the rush of excitement go to his head!
He'd thought that after transmigrating, he'd be just an ordinary person. With his utterly unremarkable looks, he never expected to have a cheat to help him!
And with the newly acquired Thousand Hammer Refinement boosting him, he could clearly feel that his stamina, strength, and endurance had all improved noticeably!
His back no longer ached, his legs no longer hurt, and the exhaustion from carrying two buckets of water receded like the tide.
But that wasn't what made Shen Chu happiest. What truly thrilled him was,
Thousand Hammer Refinement had actually raised his constitution to Ding-High!
According to the rules of the Li Residence, anyone who reached a C-Bottom aptitude could become a guard instead of doing backbreaking labor in this scorching courtyard,
but Shen Chu didn't want to leave just yet,
because he'd noticed the Lv. 1 after Thousand Hammer Refinement,
which meant Thousand Hammer Refinement was a skill that could level up!
If its Lv. 1 effect was already this incredible, wouldn't it become even more powerful after a few more levels?
If each level raised his constitution once, wouldn't he be able to gradually improve it all the way to the highest rank?
And if he then practiced this world's martial arts with top-tier aptitude, how rapidly would he advance?
The more Shen Chu thought about it, the more fired up he became. Suddenly, this sweltering courtyard didn't seem so hard to endure!
"Master, I was wondering when I might be able to forge a blade." Shen Chu looked at Master Sun with shining eyes.
Master Sun glanced at him, his hands never stopping. "Kid, don't get ahead of yourself. Forging a blade isn't a skill you can learn in a day or two. Watch from the side for now. When I need something, hand it to me."
"Yes, Master."
Only then did Shen Chu realize that he'd just arrived at the Forging Room today, yet had already asked to forge a blade. It had been far too presumptuous. Fortunately, Master Sun was even-tempered; otherwise, Shen Chu might have gotten an earful!
He'd better be more careful!
Following Master Sun's instructions, Shen Chu began watching him forge blades.
Before long, Shen Chu found that he couldn't tear his eyes away.
It wasn't because Master Sun's forging technique was particularly exquisite. Rather, above the blade blank on the anvil in front of him, a pop-up was clearly floating:
[Low-Grade Short Blade (33/100)]
As Shen Chu stared in a daze at the sudden pop-up, Master Sun struck the blade several more times, and the number on the panel changed again and again:
[Low-Grade Short Blade (36/100)]
"Master Sun, this blade looks really sharp. Could it be a weapon of a ranked grade?" Shen Chu asked cautiously.
"A ranked weapon? This isn't even close to low-grade!"
Master Sun chuckled and shook his head, though it was hard to tell whether he was laughing at Shen Chu or at himself.
"Even a low-grade weapon can only be used by a Martial Artist. In the entire Li Family, only three people can forge one. What Bladesmiths like me make are just ordinary weapons."
With that, Master Sun said no more and bent his head to his work. Seeing this, Shen Chu fell silent too, quietly waiting nearby for Master Sun's instructions.
Ten days passed like this,
During those ten days, Shen Chu rose earlier than the chickens and went to bed later than the dogs, but at least he now had food and a place to sleep,
Especially the first time he picked up a bowl of food, tears streamed down his face before he even realized it, though there wasn't much oil in it,
If anyone had asked him what happiness was,
for Shen Chu back then, happiness meant having a full stomach!
Just as Master Sun had said, he really couldn't forge a low-grade weapon.
Over the past several days, Master Sun's forging process had been much the same every time,
Hammering and shaping, quenching, tempering, polishing...
The whole process took well over an hour,
but Shen Chu had seen the number in the pop-up reach only (98/100), where it remained, never moving again.
"Low-grade weapons are tough. I entered this trade at sixteen, and now I'm fifty-eight. Still haven't managed to forge a single one."
Master Sun sighed. He placed a finished ordinary blade on the rack, then turned to Shen Chu. "Kid, you've been here for several days now. How much of what I just did did you understand?"
"This kid's not very bright. I only understood a little." Shen Chu gave an awkward laugh and held his thumb and forefinger a soybean's width apart.
Unexpectedly, Master Sun pulled him over to the furnace the very next moment. "Good timing. I've got a free moment today. Show me what you can do."
Shen Chu was excited, but managed to keep calm on the surface,
Following what he'd seen over the past few days, he used the iron tongs to take a blade blank from the bucket beside him and put it in the furnace to soften.
Shen Chu's movements were clumsy, but fortunately, he made no mistakes.
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