92 Magic Smithing
After Yale finished his craft, the elders who were looking at him started to clap their hands and was only at that moment that Yale noticed that he was the focus of the attention. He had been too concentrated in the smithing process that he didn't notice that the other elders had also come to see his smithing.
The elders knew at first glance that Yale's piece of metal was useless, but they clapped their hands for the effort Yale had used to create it.
"You are an amusing kid, instead of asking for tools to smith, you tried magic smithing for your first attempt to smith. At least I have to recognize that you have imagination and guts."
The old man picked the metal and looked at it closely, but it was as it seemed on the first sight, a scrap of metal without value.
"This is a piece of trash that doesn't have any use. It is a failure. However, it is pretty good for being created by a beginner who dared to use magic Smithing. At least you didn't destroy the metal, so this scrap of metal can be used later to smith it again, so it won't be wasted."
Yale smiled at those words. He knew that he had failed to display enough prowess to impress the elder, but at least he recognized his work a bit because his result could have been worse. The result wasn't the ideal Yale had thought, but at least he didn't become a laughingstock.
"After your first try, are you still interested in smithing? Or you had enough after seeing its difficulty? This is a hard job."
Most kids, after failing in the smithing process the first time, lost their motivation. Those kids wouldn't be able to become smiths in their whole life.
"Even if I am not talented enough, I will still try to smith metals. It is frustrating to fail, but if I learn from my mistakes, someday I will manage to do it correctly."
Yale was about to leave the port area. Although he had failed to impress the elder, he didn't want to beg him for some teaching. He had other ways to find someone who could teach him the basics.
When the old man saw that Yale directly left after failing, he shouted.
"Wait! Do you want me to teach you some foundation about smithing? Your talent isn't bad, but you have an evident lack of foundation. With some foundation and your magic smithing, you may have a chance to be successful in the future, although it is only a little chance."
The old man didn't feel any extraordinary talent from Yale. His talent wasn't bad, but that was all, it wasn't enough to catch the old man's attention.
He was more interested in Yale's mindset because he was able to adapt to the situation in a unique way compared to other kids when they were without tools for smithing.
That capacity for improvisation was also necessary when smithing as the process could have unexpected developments. The elder was valuing that more than the raw talent.
Moreover, when Yale created tools similar to the real ones with magic, it showed that he had a theoretical knowledge and an excellent one, but at the same time, it showed that he had never seen any real tool before and that his knowledge came only from the books. After all, it wasn't the same interacting with the tools personally than only reading about them in books.
The elder had curiosity towards how Yale would develop with some basic foundation. He never found a kid like Yale, who was able to use magic smithing because kids usually chose the easiest way to smith and not the hardest, so he wanted to see Yale's development.
The old man only wanted to teach him for some time that same day to satisfy his curiosity, nothing more. However, being able to become someone capable of arousing the curiosity of an experienced elder was already a feat on its own.
"I am honored, I won't waste the opportunity senior is bestowing to me."
Yale was surprised, but he replied politely and bowed towards the elder.
"Then, follow me. There is an old smithy near."
Yale followed the elder until a building that was near the port. Inside the building, there were all the tools necessary for smithing, although they were old.
After both entered the building, the elder didn't waste time and started to speak about the use of all the tools and the process. However, he explained all without showing anything to Yale; it was all theory.
Yale hadn't used the tools too badly before, but he didn't use them correctly either, so the elder wanted to ensure that at least Yale understood the theory well, correcting the mistakes Yale had from reading books about smithing in the past.
After the old man finished the theory, he showed one time to Yale the process of smithing doing every step slowly.
Slowing the process usually led to a decrease in quality and to an increase in the failure rate, but for the old man, that wasn't a problem at all because he wasn't smithing anything special, only an ordinary metal. At his level, to smith common metal, he didn't even need to open his eyes.
Yale didn't dare to distract himself because he didn't plan to waste such an opportunity of observing an experienced smith.
"Now, you should have a correct basic understanding. Go and try to smith that dagger's blade again, but you must use magic smithing like before."
The old man's objective was to see the development Yale had with his magic smithing after obtaining the basic knowledge about smithing, so if Yale merely used standard tools to craft the dagger's blade, it wouldn't have any meaning to the elder.
Yale didn't dare to disobey the elder's words because the other party had the kindness of teaching him. Thus, Yale tried again to create the dagger with magic smithing.
Smithing was a difficult art from the start, but magical smithing also required to control all the spells at the same time, which increased the difficulty a lot. That was the main reason people didn't expect kids to use it.
On the other hand, if someone controlled the magic smithing without mistakes, the results would be better because the control over the heat, cold, and the tools would be far higher due to being connected with the smith. However, that required a high degree of ability in both smithing and magic.
[The user upgraded the Magic Skill "Fire Ball" to Level 4.]
[The user upgraded the Magic Skill "Water Ball" to Level 4.]
[The user upgraded the Magic Skill "Stone Golem" to Level 4.]
While Yale was in the midst of smithing the dagger's blade, the three skills leveled up at the same time. The high degree of control they required was something that would increase Yale's mastery in them if he did it continuously.
Yale finished his craft after spending even more effort than before, and then, he executed appraisal on the new dagger's blade.
[Dagger's blade created by the user. It could produce a bit damage if hit on a weak spot.]
Yale didn't know how to react to such appraisal, it was indeed better than before, but if it could only inflict a bit of damage after hitting the weak spot, it was almost as useless as before.
[The user completed a craft successfully for the first time. Craft Menu added to the system.]
Yale quickly went to the new menu to hear the explanation about it.
[The Craft menu will register the successful manufacturing processes and let the user reproduce them perfectly without any effort by using Origin Points. The user's skills and proficiency in crafting won't increase using this method.]
There was only one item listed on the Craft Menu.
[Dagger's blade: 40 Origin Points per item.]
Yale sighed. At that moment, he could create almost useless daggers without difficulty, but if that didn't improve his smithing ability nor his spells, it didn't have any usefulness for him. At least he hoped that the Craft Menu would be useful after improving his proficiency in smithing, and he could create better items.
While Yale was looking at his new menu, the elder was looking at the dagger's blade.
"You improved a lot after my explanation. If you point that daggers blade to someone's eye, it can be effective. Compared to that scrap of metal from before this, at least this can be called a successful work for a beginner like you."
Yale bowed to the elder after hearing his praising words.
"Thank you very much for teaching me. I will continue practicing to improve my smithing abilities."
The old man nodded, and Yale left the house. The old man was satisfied with Yale's progress. That was something worthy of observing, but he wasn't bored enough to spend more time teaching a kid, and Yale wasn't expecting that the old man taught him more either.
On his way to find an inn to pass the night inside Trade City, Yale bought a lot of bad quality metals, he wanted to have enough to practice at any time he wanted, and since he knew that the crafts would be of bad quality disregarding how good the metal was, he had enough buying the cheapest metal available.
