Chapter 15 Blacksmith Shop

Ding ding ding ding, even before he stepped to the door, Lin Manshan could hear the sound of rhythmic hammering resounding from within the building.

There was a hammer mark on the brick exterior wall, and as he approached and looked in, several brick buildings with wooden roofs stood side by side, and a chimney was attached to the forging room, which was ablaze with sparks.

Several blacksmiths are cooperating in hammering, and not far away there is a wooden rack full of all kinds of ironware.

This is a small blacksmith workshop, but it has everything that should be there.

Lin Manshan walked straight in and headed towards the forging platform.

"Little friend, it's dangerous there, stop there, don't move closer!" Seeing Lin Manshan walking towards the forging hall, a stout topless man beside the wooden frame who was communicating with a customer rushed over, frowning slightly as he looked down at Lin Manshan who had already stopped and turned around, "Where is the adult of your family? Didn't they tell you that it's dangerous to be near the smithy's forge?"

In this kind of civilian gathering area, it was true that there were quite a few people who let their children come to buy iron wares, but it was rare to see one as young as him. The temperature of the forging furnace inside the forge was extremely high, and there were many cluttered objects around, so if the child was too young and uninformed, the consequences of accidentally stumbling into the forge would be unimaginable.

Moreover, the child in front of him is still wearing the school uniform of Nuoding Academy, if something happens, their blacksmith workshop can't shoulder the responsibility, 'Could it be a phoenix out of the straw nest? How could there be a student of Nuoding Academy in this kind of place.'

The man couldn't help but think with trepidation in the back of his mind.

"Hello, uncle!" Lin Manshan greeted politely and said seriously, "I'm here to apply for an apprenticeship."

"Little friend, don't make a ruckus. This is not the place for you to come, judging by your age, and this outfit, you should be a student who just joined Nuoding Academy not long ago, right? To be able to become a Spirit Master is a remarkable thing, hurry back. Studying well and becoming a real Spirit Master as soon as possible is the right thing to do." The man smiled, his tone was soft. He could tell that the child in front of him was born a commoner just like him, and should be lacking money, otherwise, he wouldn't have come to this kind of place to apply for a blacksmith apprenticeship.

In this continent, the blacksmith is the lowest class of profession, and people with a little bit of status wouldn't even consider being a blacksmith.

"Uncle, my martial soul is a Hatchet. My teacher said that if I want to use this kind of martial soul well I need to exercise my arm and waist strength properly, I feel that blacksmithing is a good way to exercise and make money at the same time." Lin Manshan pointed out his intention, his tone was sincere, "In addition, I'm very strong, I've watched the village blacksmith casting since I was a child, although I can't cast iron yet, I can hammer raw iron without a problem."

"Uncle, if you don't believe me, I can hammer a piece of raw iron on the spot right now to show you. Also, I'm a work-study student at the academy, and I have time every afternoon."

The man was also stunned after hearing this, feeling that what Lin Manshan said was quite reasonable, forging metal is originally a physical job, one has to work a lot and eat a lot, and it does exercise one's waist and arm strength, look at his own fellows, which one of them doesn't have a big arm and thick hips?

However, how can such a small child lift the forging hammer? And hammering raw iron?

"Boss, why don't we let this child try." The blacksmiths in the forging room also stopped their hand movements and laughed with interest.

One of the blacksmiths looked at the man, nodded slightly, and slowly walked forward with a forging hammer.

"Little friend, if you can swing this forging hammer in my hand, I'll let you try."

"Mmm." Lin Manshan nodded his head in a hurry, his right hand quickly took the hammer from the blacksmith's hand and easily swung it up and down.

"Good lad, you can swing it with one hand."

"A martial soul possessing spirit power is different, a small child has this much strength."

"This is naturally born blacksmith material."

"." Inside the forging hall, the crowd of blacksmiths were incomparably jaw-dropped and sighed in admiration.

"Alright, little friend, I'll take you as an apprentice." The man smiled and said. No matter if Lin Manshan really knows how to hammer raw iron, just based on this strength, he is a perfect helper, he should be able to work with a little bit of teaching, and if he can train a Spirit Master blacksmith; if the word spreads out in the future, he will have a good reputation, and maybe he can also bring better business to the shop.

It wasn't a losing deal by any means.

"Introduce yourself. My name is Tie Shan and the one next to me is my brother Tie Zhu." The man smiled and led Lin Manshan into the forging hall, introduced the blacksmiths one by one, then together they pulled the forging table down from the fixed wooden pier to readjust the height, and clamped a piece of red-burning raw iron from the fireplace and put it on it, "Ah Man, come and try to hammer this piece of raw iron, show me how good your foundation is?"

After saying that, he retreated to the side with the blacksmiths.

"Okay." Lin Manshan nodded, put the hammer aside, and quickly removed the school uniform on his body, revealing the short sleeves and white arms inside, compared to the figures of the blacksmiths present, his arms were obviously much thinner and smaller. But from the slightly bulging muscles on them, one could still see the traces of long-time exercise. Picking up the hammer again, Lin Manshan eyed the iron block and slowly raised the hammer.

In the next second, he swung it down violently.

"Dang Dang Dang" violent and rhythmic hammering sounds rang out one after another.

"This is!?" Tie Shan's two brothers and the crowd of blacksmiths' eyes looked more and more focused, there was a sense of a brief illusion in their eyes, a sense that what Lin Manshan wielded in his hand was not a hammer at all, but a large knife, one knife after another, like a gale of a big wave, one wave higher than another, a wave of force the more, the more heavier the chopping, with an unrelenting momentum, each knife chopped with extreme decisiveness.

"This child is so powerful?" Although the few customers who were watching didn't know how to forge, they could tell from the eyes of the blacksmiths that Lin Manshan's performance wasn't simple.

Not long after, Lin Manshan stopped moving and wiped the sweat from his forehead. The iron on the casting table had cooled down quite a bit by now, and it had shrunk by a large circle overall.

"Ah Man, your hand, is it alright?" Tie Shan quickly stepped forward, looked down at the iron block, opened his mouth, and then quickly raised his head, as if looking at a monster, staring at Lin Manshan's reddened right arm, such an overbearing and fast-paced hammering technique, without a doubt, demanded an extremely high level of arm strength, even he didn't dare to hit the iron like this, but Lin Manshan not only dared to hit it, but it seemed like it didn't cause any harm at all.

"Uncle Tie Shan, I'm fine, just feeling a bit hot." Lin Manshan smiled.

Upon hearing this, Tie Shan couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, then expressed his emotion, "Ah Man, that blacksmith who taught you the hammering technique must be a master forger. Honestly, I feel that only the legendary Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique can be compared to it."

He could be sure that this is not the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique, because the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique is about borrowing force and exerting force, whereas Lin Manshan's technique is much more rigid and overbearing, hammering to the end, no, it doesn't look like hammering, but rather, chopping and slashing, exerting all the strength to the extreme. Eventually by relying on the influx of recoil to unload part of the force, to achieve the desired result.

With a smaller recoil to withdraw the movement, to protect the arm at the same time, to achieve the consistency of the hammer blow.

Such a subtle technique, in his opinion, must have been that the blacksmith felt that Lin Manshan's natural strength made him a good talent for blacksmithing, and he was willing to let him watch it until the end because he had the intention of teaching it. After all, if the hammering level could reach this level just by watching it a few times, he would never believe it. Unfortunately, he couldn't discern exactly how to generate such force at all. Tie Shan secretly sighed.

He was also clear that the other party must have certainly instructed that such a forging technique could not be passed on to the outside world.

As a person with professional ethics, he was not able to take the initiative, even if he wanted to learn it, he had to find that forging master.

Hey, at my age and with my qualifications, the other party will never accept me as a student.

'However, although Ah Man's power generation skills are superb, his knowledge of forging materials and his experience in exerting force when swinging the hammer are clearly lacking, and he hammered in the wrong places, thus wasting his strength for nothing. That master only taught Ah Man the most basic hammering skills of blacksmithing, it should be laying a foundation for Ah Man, and now that Ah Man's foundation is sufficient, the subsequent forging skills of the refined products have not been taught.'

'If I teach what I know to Ah Man, wouldn't I be considered half a master, and in the future, when Ah Man becomes famous all over the world... Damn, I'll be able to brag about it for the rest of my life.'

'Especially since Ah Man is still a Spirit Master!'

'When I travel to go to the Blacksmith Association of Gengxin City to attend the Blacksmith Conference one day, my name will be honoured because of him.'

Thinking of this, the smile on Tie Shan's face intensified.

"Ah? I just followed what I know in beating, I don't know the other things" Lin Manshan said with some constraints.

"It's okay, in the future that Master will take the initiative to show you the rest." Tie Shan laughed and then looked solemn, "Ah Man, although your hammering technique is exquisite, your forging experience is mostly insufficient, especially in the knowledge of forging materials, in addition, there is also the lack of judgement on the lower point of force when swinging the hammer. All of these, need to be slowly accumulated in the course of practice."

"In the future, you will learn from me and the uncles in this shop. If you don't understand anything, don't be polite, just ask. In addition, regarding your wages, for the time being, how about one Silver Soul Coin per month, just like the other uncles? If business is good, then add commission."

"Thank you, Uncle Tie Shan." Lin Manshan nodded his head repeatedly, "However, Uncle Tie Shan, the academy has an opening ceremony tomorrow, I might only be able to come the day after tomorrow."

"Ah Man, so you're a new student. Then wouldn't you only just this year..." Tie Shan was surprised, secretly sighing at Lin Manshan's diligence and willingness to work hard, at the same time, he was even more convinced that Lin Manshan would be a good talent for blacksmithing, and that he would have to be taught properly!

With a smile, he nodded slightly, "It's fine, just come back when you've taken care of things at the Academy."

"Well, Uncle Tie Shan, then I'll go back to the academy first."

Saying goodbye to the crowd, Lin Manshan put on his school jacket and walked out of the blacksmith workshop, rushing straight towards the direction of the Academy.

Halfway through, he bought bedding and ran back to the dormitory carrying it on his back.

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