Raia listened to his father's words while also watching him work. He was carefully observing his every movement and action afraid to miss some important details.
Because he was already assisting Hauran in his past works, Raia knew the process of forging a weapon. However, this time, Hauran enlightened him about each step of the process.
While listening to his father's words, Raia was surprised about the new information that he learned.
Mirtan iron is a high-grade 1 metal that can be used to create common everyday tools. It is cheap and also easy to purchase. Their shop was doing good these past weeks so Hauran can spare some materials for his son to practice on.
Hauran was not just telling Raia about what temperature the mirtan iron will melt but also at what temperature it will combine with other metals best, or the temperature at which it should be heat treated to perfectly avoid warping and other information Hauran thinks Raia needed to know. He also discussed how blacksmiths came up with these knowledge and the advantages of knowing these information.
It was a good thing that the smithy has some machines that helped Hauran in smithing. They were old and simple but can do the work completely fine. A forge that provides accurate temperature and a various speed forge power hammer were some of these machines.
After a few hours, Hauran finished his work. The result was a low-grade 2 short sword. It was decent enough to be used for the simplest chores and kill low-rank beasts. It was actually a really good product considering that the material used, mirtan iron, was only at high-grade 1.
"Did you follow my work all the way?" Hauran turned to Raia and asked.
Raia nodded. "Yes. I learned a lot of new things."
He memorized all of the details in his mind and also remembered the actions that Hauran did.
"Alright. Now, it's your turn to create your own sword. Go grab another mirtan iron and start working. You will create two swords today and then I will return to my work. Let's just resume tomorrow. But I'll suggest some books that you can read in your free time. These books have good content and can help you understand blacksmithing more." Hauran explained to Raia. He wanted to teach Raia more but there are also work that he have to do and Raia completely understood this. He was just thankful that his father still sacrificed half of his day just to teach him.
Using all the things he learned that day, Raia did his best to create a weapon like how his father did it.
After a few hours, he was surprised.
His short sword was only at mid-grade 1 unlike Hauran's work.
'Why? I just copied what father did. What did I do wrong?' Raia asked himself.
This time, he heard Hauran laughing at one side after seeing his disappointed expression. "Kid, don't expect to have the same result as me just because you copied how I worked. I am still me and you are still you. There would be some differences between how we move that affects our creations. And as I have more experience than you, it is obvious that I know the way of the blacksmith more. That is why I said that I can teach you the skills but beyond that is just experience. You will also learn from these experiences after all."
There are many factors that affect the grade of a weapon, some of which were the grade of material used, techniques used in forging, temperatures, number of times it was hammered, and even the cultivation state of the smith. Even a small difference and mistake in any of these factors affects the resulting product greatly.
Raia nodded in response. 'I have learned the skill but executing it is a different matter. This is more difficult than just learning and understanding problem solving and memorizing lessons. At least there, my mind is the only one working. Here in blacksmithing, my mind and body were simultaneously doing the work.'
"Don't be disappointed. You already did a great job. I didn't expect you to create a mid-grade 1 weapon from the very start. Give it more practice and you would eventually grasp the right way to create a weapon." Hauran comforted him. He was really surprised by what Raia had done.
"I'll do my best." Raia was motivated to learn more about blacksmithing.
"Alright. I'll point out some of the things that you could have done better. For you, it looked like you copied my movements perfectly but I know that you didn't. There were some subtle movements that you missed. Movements that could have improve the grade of your weapon." Hauran then began listing the things that Raia did good but he could have done better.
After another half an hour of discussion, Hauran told Raia to create another weapon from a mirtan iron.
Raia followed the instructions of Hauran and did it according to what he said.
A few hours passed and he created a high-grade 1 short sword.
"See? Small things but affects the result greatly." Hauran was pleased with Raia's work.
"Alright that's it for today. Let's just continue this tomorrow. I have some works to do." Hauran said. "I'll now tell you the books you should read for some additional references. You can just search for their files in the net."
Hauran enumerated the three book titles to Raia. After remembering what to look for, Raia left the smithy.
"Thank you for today." He said as he turned to leave.
"Sure thing." Hauran replied. "Wait, it's already past noon. We should eat first."
…
After eating lunch and playing with Rome and Rina for some time, Raia went back to his room. He browsed the net for the books and read it for the next couple of hours.
Beside the three books that Hauran told him to read, Raia also searched for some books about primitive blacksmithing.
"I couldn't create a huge machine but I can still use the essential tools for blacksmithing. I'll see if I can melt the armor of the armor rabbits to make them."
Raia was thinking of building his own smithy in the world inside. At least there, no one would bother him, he has a longer time to create a weapon, and no one would see what his materials are. Showing things from the world inside to other people is a risk after all. Until this time, he only showed his family the things he got from the world inside like the beast meats, spirit crystals, and blue tear fruit.
He concluded that it was fine selling the amber sword because even though the four-horned goat was a good material, it was still a low-grade material and raising suspicions will be small. Hauran didn't even felt pressure from the others when they wanted to know the types of material used in the amber sword.
Additionally, he will be separated with his father and he eventually needed to have a weapon that he can use in the world inside. If he had the skills and tools, he can create his own weapon without relying to anyone else.
Regarding the smithy, he wouldn't have any problem moving it around the world inside because he just needed to store all his tools in the storage space.
But first of all, he planned to make the traditional necessary tools that he needed for him to do some smithing in the world inside like hammers, an anvil, tongs, chisels and cooling tanks on the outside world. After all, he still didn't have any tools to make them in the world inside. However, making the forge is a bit complicated. He needed to make a bellow and the forge itself is made out of clay.
"I should try making this one in the world inside. I'll just follow the process described in this book."
After reading some more and understanding what he should do, Raia prepared himself to enter the world inside.
…
In the center of the central area, Raia took out the two hundred pieces of the glowing green spirit stone.
After which, he began refining them.
The familiar energy entered his body and as he absorbed it, his aspects were improving bit by bit. Among the three, his spirit shows the most progress. Every minute that passed, Raia's spirit was being strengthened.
Raia focused as he refined the glowing green spirit stones and after twenty hours, he was finished in doing so.
He improved his spirit by about five percent but it was still far from reaching the high state. It was a good thing that he still has more glowing green spirit stones to refine later.
After stabilizing his aspects, he relaxed for a bit before exiting the world inside.
…
It was dinner time when Raia exited his room and after having his meal, he came back to continue refining the glowing green spirit stones.
About forty hours later, he was done refining the four hundred glowing green spirit stones resulting in his spirit improving by another ten percent. Although it was not much, his foundation and body were strengthened too.
He was satisfied with the result.
With that, Raia exited the lair. Fortunately this time, it was day when he came out. He still didn't want to meet the peak-rank 5 beast after all. Even though he was not sure if he will encounter it during the night, he still wanted to lessen the chances of meeting it.
According to what he have seen and sensed the first time he met it, that peak-rank 5 beast must be a night creature.
Raia hunted for a few hours before exiting the world inside to rest.
…
The next morning, Raia created another weapon using the mirtan iron under the supervision of Hauran.
When he was done, his short sword was qualified to be peak-grade 1.
"Good, good. You are learning fast and following the advices I gave you." Hauran nodded in satisfaction. Even though he was really shocked that Raia was improving fast, he didn't show it. "Alright, before you create another one, I'll give you some more pointers."
Raia listened to his father and then he created another short sword.
At last this time, he made a low-grade 2 weapon.
This made him happy and elated. It was like he accomplished something great.
"Alright, let's continue this tomorrow. You are done with mirtan iron. Next, you will now work with olek iron." Hauran said.
Raia nodded and thanked Hauran. He already knew that each material is handled in a different way. Olek iron was the same grade as the mirtan iron but their properties were different and so were the processes used for each of them.
After he left the smithy, Raia went to the world inside.
He roamed around and hunted for a few hours then returned to the second armor rabbit lair to cultivate. There were some armor rabbits that came home and Raia killed them after a few minutes. He then immediately dismantled their bodies.
After which, he sealed the place again before he began cultivating. He took out two hundred high-rank 3 beast spirit crystals of the armor rabbits.
"I hope I can reach peak-1st level Martial Spirit State today." Raia thought in his mind before he began absorbing the beast spirit crystals.
Thirty hours passed quickly. At this moment, Raia opened his eyes and breather out a pure mist of spirit energy.
"A little more and I'll reach peak-1st level."
He exited the place first, went out to have dinner with his family, and then came back to the world inside.
He then took out another two hundred high-rank 3 beast spirit crystals then immediately began refining them.
Another thirty hours and he finally opened his eyes.
"Good, I reached the peak-1st level Martial Spirit State."
Raia looked at the storage space and decided. "I don't know how long will I be separated from my family so I will give each of them enough supply for a year."
Giving them too little would slow down their cultivation and having too much and losing the materials would also pose a problem. He didn't want to let the other people get their hands on the beast meat, spirit crystals and blue tear fruit after all. At least, he wanted his family sufficient supply of resources until he came back home. He didn't want to risk it and send the crystals using courier services after all.
With that in his mind, Raia exited the lair and dashed to a direction to hunt beasts.
…
For the following two weeks, Raia's days were rather repetitive. He would learn blacksmithing from Hauran in the morning, spend time with his siblings and read books in the afternoon, and hunt beasts in the world inside at night.