The First Steps To Greatness

[Arius POV]

"I got a lot to teach you."

Getting up from his chair, Master Doherty goes to take another piece of ore from a bag and proceeds to move all around the room, taking all sorts of tools. Setting them down on a table, he sits me down to start to explain each and every one.

"First of all, before you even think of heating the ore up, you must have all the tools you need at ready notice. I can tell that you really like using your hands since you gravitated to *Take* these forging gloves as your first thing to use. Your intuition was right though. For a beginner, It's better to always have these on in case of anything goes wrong..."

Midway through, Master Doherty pulled off the gloves from my hands before setting them aside and pulling out much smaller ones from one of his pockets. As he continued to talk, I couldn't help but smile, hearing that I got the first step right. But as if he caught my smile, Master Doherty slams the table and picks up another tool.

"HOWEVER! Just throwing the ore into the furnace and scooping it out is a big no! The chance of you losing the ore in the furnace is high and if you scoop out some of the higher-grade fuels, they might just explode in your face. You have to use these things, tongs."

As I was looking at the funny-looking tool, it was almost like a big pair of scissors. Suddenly Master Doherty gets up and brings the tools toward the furnace.

"Let me show you a very basic demonstration."

With that, Master Doherty puts on the gloves and using the tongs, he holds the ore before putting it into the furnace.

"Karthin has a pretty high melting point, much higher than the rocks attached to it so you can simply put it in there to allow the over stuff to melt off. Remember to simply place it in there and then remove your tongs from the furnace, else the tongs will melt as well."

With that, Master Doherty takes his tongs out and simply stares at the ore within the furnace. Even with me staring at his every movement, it almost felt like he didn't know I was there, his sight never left the piece of ore.

"You'll see that I'm letting the ore sit in there right? Karthin isn't the most conductive of metals so even when it looks red hot, the inside isn't. That was your biggest mistake, you didn't let the ore sit. That is why your piece was so thick."

After sitting there for a few more minutes, patiently waiting for the ore to get hot, Master Doherty finally goes and quickly pulls out the ore. Seeing the bright ball of light and heat, I could feel the area around me heating up. Master Doherty quickly brings it to the anvil and places it on it.

"You'll know when it's ready once you've done it many times. See, with a firm hit with the hammer, you can clearly see the metal flatten under it."

Bang Bang Bang Bang

On the anvil, Master Doherty continues to turn the piece of ore until it became a rough circle. He continued hammering the metal, smoothing out any bumps and making it more even. He continued to hammer right until it lost its red colour. Leave the round disk on the anvil, Master Doherty puts down the tongs before holding the disk.

"See, it's only about 1 centimetre thick. This will be your goal for now. You can have it as a reference."

Saying that Master Doherty puts down the disk and takes off his gloves, throwing them onto a table.

"Alright, that was your entry experience. Get all this stuff tidied up and meet me back in my office."

"Yes, Master!"

Giving a nod, Master Doherty walks out of the room. He didn't even break a sweat forging the disk. Taking a seat, I finally got to take a break.

'Who would've thought that I might need to use more brain power than actual power? Just all the words that he said, and he said them so fast!'

'Arius, did you really think that craftsmen, more specifically blacksmiths, are people who don't use their brains?'

'No, Dakria. I just thought they used less brain power.'

'Arius, every profession isn't all that you see on the surface. Your race, the Dwarfs, were majority craftsmen. But look how far they could use their brains, I exist, Duargeinhelm exists!'

'Yeah, yeah, ok. Still, my brain hurts from all the new information.'

'It wouldn't be new if you just try and find some energy source to use Duargeinhelm's infinite knowledge.'

'I don't want to. First of all, I don't know where I can find some Mythril or something like it. Second, I don't want to. I have a teacher right now so I don't need to try and absorb all the knowledge over many, many hours.'

'*sigh* While I do admit, the learning system put in place is a little crude. I know for sure that you will need to and want to use Duargeinhelm. It will be soon rather than later.'

'Well, it's not now!'

Getting off my seat, I start doing the task I was instructed to do. Slowing picking up each tool, I try to remember where each of them goes. For some of them, it was obvious but for others, I just put them on some random nails on the wall. Walking back to the anvil, I pick up the small disk. It was still warm and I simply run my finger over it. I felt how smooth it was overall as well as the more imperfections scattered across it.

Holding the disk, I go and get my own product. Then holding one in each hand, I activate my spectacles. A wave of colours flashes across the room as I see different colours of mana in all its beauty.

'So beautiful.'

'I still can't believe that you evolved your skill. Such a thing is extremely rare, especially for your skill.'

'Me neither, Dakria.'

Looking at the two pieces of metal in both my hands, I could clearly tell the difference in quality simply just looking at the mana emanating from them. The mana emanating from Master Doherty's disk was even and bright. Whereas mine have patches of bright and dark covered all over it.

"This is so cool!"

Taking my piece, I slide it into my pocket and place Master Doherty's piece back on the anvil. With that, I leave the room to meet up with Master in his office.

As a walked in, I see Master sitting on one of the meeting chairs. I walk over and sit across from him, then I notice that there were quite a few books stacked on the table between us.

"Master, I-I don't have read these right?"

"You will, although just skim through them. Just know some basic words and techniques."

"Ok! Phew, I thought I would need to try and memorize everything."

"Of course not, I don't believe in pure memorization correlating with skill and effectiveness."

"Alright, well. I'll take these and get going."

Just as I go to stand up and grab the books. I feel my body forcefully press into my chair as Master Doherty continues to lie back in his chair.

"Not yet, Arius. I've introduced you to actually creating something, but I've told you nothing about the actual career."

"Ooooh yeah."

"Alright, to begin with, craftsmen are a very broad profession that encompasses many other ones. Blacksmithing which I showed you today is the most common, simply due to being the easiest to learn and teach. Others include leathermaking, carpeting and a few others. Each profession can then be broken down into specializations.

For example, Emma specializes in short to mid-range weapons. Most craftsmen tend to focus and specialize solely in one sub-profession and specialization. Over the next few days, I'll be introducing you to the various different professions to see which ones you like the most.

In terms of ranking a craftsman's abilities, we follow the Adventurer guild's ranking system as well as a starter system to truly differentiate a better craftsman from the worse. You know the ranking system right?"

Seeing my confused face, I respond by simply shaking my head. While Big Brother Jaque did register me for an adventurer card, he never really explain anything.

"I don't know it."

"...We're truely starting with the basics. Alright, for now, read these books. Tomorrow, I'll get Jaque to bring you to the Adventurer Guild so you can see how everything works."

...

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Legacy of Duargeinhelm

Name: Arius *********

Race: Dwarf

Sex: Male

Official Occupation: Craftsman Apprentice

Titles: Last Hope, Survivor of the Forgotten, ************

Stats:

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Skills:

Spectacles of A Determined Youngling: A layer of coloured mana covers the eyes, allowing the user to see the small amounts of mana that are emitted by various mana-infused ores(or in the environment) as well as their interactions. (Skill evolves as the user gets older, progresses as a creator, or with some extreme conditions)

...

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