The cold air atop of the mountain, the smell of leather-covered books, and the lonesomeness of both. Bagani Panganiban trained in silence throughout the days. He had been pretty unproductive since he has a limited amount of vocabulary, all of the whiles Ezekiel has very slightly learned how to control the sorcerer's stone in a matter of a day. Bagani banged his head on the table hoping for some miracle. His efforts were truly unfruitful, until in one faithful day..."
"Starting today I am your tutor!..."
Bagani sparked with hope as James declared his duty unto him. "Well, we'll start with your understanding of how the world works. Let me guess, you don't know any other of your kind other than your family. Am I right?" James asked.
"Yeah," Bagani replied. "Why?"
"Well everyone has a role in their community. For example, I am a farmer." James deliberately explained.
"A what?" Bagani quickly queried in confusion.
"A farmer is a person who plants crops then collect them once they fully grew," James answered. "It seems you still have a lot to learn."
"The worst part is I have to create a sword with these." Bagani latched on to the seat beside him and pulled the chunks of metal Bulawan gave him. As expected the steel shined a mildly radiant color.
"Smithing huh," James mumbled. "I don't know the mechanic of forging a sword so were both going to have a hard time here."
James gripped the book Bagani was reading and sat down next to him. With a nervous start, he opened the bulky manual and started to intensely read it. Along with Bagani, they tried to understand the basics of smithing overnight. Ezekiel, on the other hand, struggled once again on his sorcerers stone training.
"Damn it..." Ezekiel grumbled as the static tingled all over his arm. "I got too overboard with the power of the electricity again..."
After half a minute due to the stone's cooldown, Ezekiel tried once again. He raised his arm to the air, with the electrical charge flowing all over his body up to his designated arm he focused and aimed at the temple's gate. "This better work..." A bright light covered his entire palm. In a second popped right in front of him. Ezekiel got electrocuted once again due to the extra shock he charged up, his palm was burnt as well.
Bulawan watched as the two fell apart with their training. Ezekiel ran to him and Bagani's bedroom and grabbed spare clothing in the closet. He ripped the fabric, ran to the well in the temple, and dipped the cloth in water. Ezekiel then wrapped his burnt hand in the wet cloth. Ezekiel trained non-stop for the next months, with his body used to being shocked he could take higher voltages without fainting. On one fortunate day, he managed to strike the perfect lightning bolt out of luck.
Ezekiel exhaled out of his mouth, focusing on the electricity flowing to his arm, aiming at the unbreakable gate he closed his eyes waiting for the intense aftershock. "This is a full charge. I don't know if my body can take all the shock, but let's try otherwise." A fly suddenly came into contact with his face. Ezekiel got distracted, he turned his body and slapped the fly with his uncharged hand. A bolt of lightning came rushing out of his arm. I was a medium-ranged projectile reaching about 10 feet. With the crackling sound of the strike, the bolt flew to where Ezekiel was aiming, due to the fly's distraction he aimed at the fruit tree near the gate. A patch of the floor rose just in time to block Ezekiel's attack from the fruit tree. Bulawan walked out of the corner and looked at Ezekiel with a mix of being amazed and disappointed at the same time. The stone partially cracked and the small pieces fell to the floor before the patch that raised plunged.
"Maybe the kid has got talent after all. Although it is just an accident so I shouldn't judge that quickly." He thought to himself.
"What do you think about that old man?" Ezekiel bragged and smirked at Bulawan.
"You'll destroy your village first before you can ever kill a single Aswang if you keep doing that." Bulawan teased.
Back to Bagani, the Asulhero struggled with James in learning blacksmithing, but through hard work, they surprisingly managed to learn the basics. "Starting tomorrow it's trial and error time," Bagani stated. "Hey, do we even have an anvil?"
James went out and talked to Bulawan, addressing the situation. As usual, the giant was sitting on one of his trees. "Bulawan, Where's the anvil?" James questioned.
Bulawan being himself didn't bat an eye to James and replied. "Tenth room east side."
James walked back to the library, but before he did, James halted and turned his head to Bulawan. "How many rooms does this place have anyways?"
"A hundred and forty," Bulawan answered. "After Ezekiel's and Bagani's training you will be cleaning all of them." Bulawan then jumped out of the tree and went to a room.
"How can this place store a hundred rooms?" James thought to himself. "I know it's big but it couldn't possibly fit in that much." He then rushed back to Bagani to escort the Asulhero to the smithing section of the temple.
"Guess this is the room," James said as he opened the door. "Wow..." His mouth fell in astonished for the room was in outstanding shape. It had multiple anvils and furnaces, a complete set of tools to create swords, and tons of scrap metals.
"Guess it is trial and error," Bagani muttered. "How long will this take..."
Bagani then started to try smithing. He followed the instructions said at the book and began making a sword using the normal steel. He heated the steel in the furnace in 1400 degrees. After the metal was glowing red, he tonged it out of the furnace and started hitting it unto the shape he wanted. Ember of the molten metal slightly burnt Bagani's hand for he wore no protection. After several smashes of the hammer he managed to shape the steel, Bagani quickly grabbed the quenching bucket and threw the steel in to let it cool down. Time passed, and the steel was icy. Bagani pulled it out and looked at the outcome. "Its..." He gasped. "A total failure." The smithed item was a complete swirl, useless for anything Bagani threw it back on the scraps.
"As you said, it is trial and error," James stated. "First time ain't going to cut it."
Several more months passed and the two are somewhat used to their training. Ezekiel started to have a fifty percent success on his sorcerer's stone, and Bagani learned how to make blades, but they are completely dull. Bagani's energy getting depleted due to the mountain task he's got to complete every day was also a factor in slowing down his swordsmithing. James, on the other hand, binged through books in the library and learned a lot of things about outside creatures. One page got him interested the most. It was dark in the middle of the night, James rushed out of the library to meet up with Bulawan. The behemoth sat atop of the temple's roof, smoking his gigantic cigar.
"Hey tell me," James said carefully to Bulawan. "You're a Kapre aren't you?"
Bulawan finally looked at him. He stared in silence and continued smoking.
"So I am right, aren't I?" James stated.
Bulawan used the pillar and slid down to the lobby. He exhaled a puff of smoke at James's face. "What else did you learn?" He asked in a grumbling voice.
James's body shook in fear, he gritted his teeth and mustered up the courage to ask. Controlled by his emotion he stared at Bulawan straight in the eyes and fiercely asked.
"These two aren't the first ones you trained, are they?..."