Tetsu no Sosuke sighed. "Compared to the last one, this one... really had a personality."
Tetsu no Sosuke put away the scroll and continued forward.
But the traps he had expected never appeared. The way ahead was fairly smooth, since the place had never been very large to begin with.
On a furnace beside them, still giving off a faint glow, lay a piece of iron material that had yet to complete the first stage of forging.
Tetsu no Sosuke had not thought much of it at first, but after taking another couple of looks, he sensed something remarkably subtle about it. He picked it up and examined it closely, vaguely picturing the owner of this place forging it here.
He searched the subtle traces for a method of removing impurities.
That would take some time, though.
In the end, Tetsu no Sosuke tucked the piece of iron material into his robes, planning to take it back and study it whenever he had time. He should be able to grasp the other smith's techniques, then integrate them with his own.
Farther ahead, on the other side, stood a set of precision tools.
Entirely unlike the machine tools of later generations, these included rulers, pens, paper, and written notes.
Tetsu no Sosuke picked up one of the sheets and read it carefully, finally looking thoughtful.
"What's this, then?"
Shinobu Kocho asked.
"This isn't all that useful to me..." Tetsu no Sosuke smiled. "It's a detailed record of his greatest specialty. There's an extremely ingenious set of equations here. If you follow these equations, all you need is the craftsmanship to match, and you can make those completely seamless doors... and floors without a single visible seam, like the one beneath our feet."
"...What about using it in an actual fight?" Shinobu