In the last two weeks, Raia made a huge progress in blacksmithing. Beside the mirtan iron, he also worked on four other metals including the olek iron. These materials were almost the same grade as the mirtan iron but the ways to process them were different.
After day after day of work, Raia got the understanding of the most important skills that the blacksmiths must have. Adding that to the knowledge that he acquired from all the books he have read, his blacksmithing wisdom has really increased significantly.
Raia was elated that his blacksmithing had developed steadily. Hauran, too, was satisfied and happy about the result of his son's work.
"Well, those are the metals that I handle around the smithy as of this moment. I have taught you the things I wanted to teach you and I think that concludes our lesson." Hauran smiled as he said those words.
Raia nodded. "Thank you for teaching me these past weeks."
"It's fine. I actually enjoyed watching your progress and I would always be glad to help you in any way I can." Hauran said as he tapped Raia's shoulder.
"Right. Here are all the horns for the amber sword and dagger that I have." Raia handed his father a huge batch of four-horned goat's horns. Of course, he was lying about the 'all the horns I have' part.
His storage space was flooding with materials as of this moment. After all, he didn't do anything but hunting beast whenever he was in the world inside. He even halted his own cultivation for the mean time just to make sure he had enough spirit crystals to give to his family before he left. He also went back and forth just to harvest hundreds of blue tear fruit.
Hauran took the horns. "Thanks. You should rest for a few days. The entrance exam is only two weeks away."
"Okay. I'll do that." Raia replied. However, in his mind, he was thinking differently. 'I'll just ask him about the armor rabbit later.'
Now that his lessons were done, he wanted to start making the essential tools he needed for blacksmithing in the world inside. He decided to get his father's help to make these tools.
…
In the afternoon, Raia entered the world inside.
Unfortunately, he didn't find another beast lair these past days. However, he covered the hundreds of kilometers of the forest.
Also, he noticed that he didn't encounter the starlight wolf or the charge boar after all these times. Even though that was the case, Raia was actually glad about it. At least he didn't have to exit the world inside in fear of those beasts.
However, he would still ran away when he encounters any low-rank 4 beast or higher. There was a very slim chance of him winning but his death was the most possible result so he always runs away whenever he sees one.
Maybe he can kill the low-rank 4 ones after he reach like high or peak-2nd level Martial Spirit State with a low chance but he will avoid every one of them until that time comes.
A few hours of hunting and he had already hunted hundreds of beasts.
But he kept of going until he was satisfied.
Four hours later, he was standing in front of a familiar hole.
"This is the third armor rabbit lair that I found." He said with an excited voice. He was expecting a good result considering what he experience in the two times that he raided an armor rabbits' lair.
"Time to visit my pals." With a smile on his face, Raia slid down the hole.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the center area. And just as he expected, this lair would surely bloom a good result.
It was not as huge as the second one but it still have over four hundred armor rabbits and a mountain of glowing green spirit stones in the center of the place.
He stared at the glowing green spirit stone then turned his attention to the growling armor rabbits and glared at them. Both sides were emitting extreme killing intents and bloodlust.
Raia dashed forward and began his killings. Now, he completely knew everything about killing these armor rabbits. After killing more than eight hundred of them, he learned where their weakest spots were and their habits and patterns of attacks.
The one sided-slaughter began again.
Armor rabbits came after him one after the other but he was dealing with each one of them as efficient as he can. Although he already had the information on how to deal with them, he was not moving carelessly and was still on his guard all the time. He didn't underestimate the crowd of these armor rabbits and fought them with cautious while still killing them quickly and easily.
About six hours passed. Raia slumped to the floor after he killed the last armor rabbit of the lair. As he tried to catch his breath, a smile formed on his face.
Even though he was not as exhausted like the battle of the second lair, his stamina was still almost depleted. This time, he didn't receive many wounds and only sustained minor ones like bruises and scratches.
After he rested, he sealed the place and began dismantling the bodies of the armor rabbits. Several hours later, he walked towards the pile of glowing green spirit stones. There were about four hundred half-fist size glowing green spirit stones that were making a small mountain in front of him.
He left two hundred pieces and sent the rest to the storage space. He decided to refine the glowing green spirit stones.
As soon as he arranged them around him, Raia began refining the spirit stones.
Like excited children, his three aspects welcomed the energy of the glowing green spirit stone. Slowly and steadily, his spirit was improving. On the other hand, his foundation and body were receiving a little attention but was still being strengthened. In addition to these, his connection to the spirit energy around him slightly increased and so was his learning capability.
Time eventually passed and after twenty hours, his spirit improved by another five percent.
Raia didn't stop there and took out the other batch of glowing green spirit stones. He just left some to use as a light when he exited the lair.
He began the refining process again without any questions.
…
Twenty hours later and Raia was done refining the glowing green spirit stones. Now, his spirit was almost half-way before reaching its high state.
After stabilizing his aspects, he exited the lair and resumed hunting beasts.
…
About an hour later, he was tens of kilometers away from the third armor rabbit lair. Soon after, he celebrated as he discovered another armor rabbit beast lair.
"I am a bit lucky today." To find another beast lair not long after he left one was a really good thing that Raia wanted to happen.
He immediately entered the lair and arrived at the center area about the same size as the last one. It also contained about four hundred armor rabbits and located in the middle was the pile of glowing green spirit stones.
Raia didn't waste any time and began killing the armor rabbits right away.
With every time that passed, more and more armor rabbits died his hands. His body was his only weapon but that didn't hold him back in anyway. As long as he used it correctly, any part can be a deadly weapon.
More than six hours passed when Raia finally cleared the lair from armor rabbits.
This time, the exhaustion from two consecutive large scale battles began kicking in. He collapsed to the ground with a thud and began recovering his strength.
When he had enough energy to move, he began sealing the place and after doing so, he started to dismantle the corpses of the armor rabbits.
Afterwards, he checked the glowing green spirit stones and was surprised a bit when he discovered that even though the size of the lair and number of armor rabbits of this place was a almost the same as the last one, their number of glowing green spirit stones were different. This new lair's glowing green spirit stones amount up to five hundred half-fist sized stones. Almost a hundred pieces more than the last one.
Raia didn't think of this much as he was already happy about the result. Straight away, he began refining the two hundred glowing green spirit stones.
Many hours later, he moved on to the remaining ones and also refined them. The amount he would absorb today would push his spirit half-way to high state.
…
Eventually, fifty hours passed. Raia stabilized his aspects then opened his eyes.
"I'm half-way before reaching the high state."
His spirit was stronger and so were his foundation and body. He was delighted by the result of today's adventure.
He rested for some more time before exiting the world inside.
After dinner, he called his father to the smithy.
"I need your help about something." Raia said.
Hauran looked at him and crossed his arms. "It depends if I can do it. What is it?"
Raia nodded and took a piece of the armor from the armor rabbit and showed it to Hauran.
His father took it with surprised eyes and excitement. "What is this?"
"It's a part of a beast…I think it can be used as a material but I just want to make sure." Raia asked with hope.
Hauran then examined and scanned the gray armor and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. It can be used but I can't create a weapon from this. This is at least a peak-grade 3 material and I still couldn't handle the backlash from forging it."
"I don't need a weapon from it." Raia was relieved to confirm that it can be used as a material. 'A high-rank 3 beast' part from the world inside is a peak-grade 3 material here at the outside world. Really amazing.'
He already knew that the beasts inside were superior to the outside ones but he was still amazed whenever he was reminded of that fact.
With his answer, Hauran raised his brows in confusion. "Well, if it's not a weapon, what do you want to make from it?"
Raia cleared his throat and replied. "I want to have my own tools in blacksmithing like anvil, hammers, chisels, tongs, and cooling tanks. And I am thinking about using this as a material for them."
Hauran looked at him without blinking. "Then why don't you just buy your own tools? Why do you have to make your own?"
"Th-that is.." Raia was going to answer when Hauran waved his hands in front of him.
"Right, right. I already know what you are going to say so I won't ask any more questions. I am sorry for that."
"Thank you." Raia said with as slight bow of his head.
Hauran expected that he would say that he will tell it to him when he was ready and that makes Raia more relieved.
"So you wanted to make those tools using this as a material?" Hauran asked.
Raia nodded and said. "Yes."
"Is this like the first amber sword that I made that should be purely made in this material that you want?" Hauran inquired.
"Uhm..Yes." Raia didn't deny it.
"Those are the essential and most basic tools. Anvil, hammers, chisels, tongs, and cooling tanks." Hauran muttered and thought about it before giving his answer to Raia. "I can- we can do it. I mean, we are just melting and molding them so the backlash would decrease significantly and I think we can handle it. "
"Alright." Raia breathed a sigh of relief.
"But we need a lot of this..whatever this is..You have more, right?" Hauran asked Raia.
"Of course. How much do we need to make the tools?"
"Before we make the tools, I need to know first what this material is so I will melt and mold it a few times first. In that way, at least we can have the possibility of getting better results when we do the final products. I need about..t-two hundred pieces of this." Hauran hesitantly said.
"I have it." Raia responded.
Hauran smiled and asked Raia. "But what about your forge? Why is it not on your list?"
"I-I don't know how we will make it…." He answered as he slowly lowered his head. He planned on making it in the world inside but now looking at how his father was serious about helping him, he was starting to think that he should also leave this matter to his father.
"We can do it if we have the materials. I read a book about a simple forge that functions still fine. Its design is not complicated and the materials needed were rather basic. We only needed clay and iron…well we already have the iron here. I think we can go with that design." Hauran told Raia. He then drew the design of the forge to Raia. On other hand, Raia understood the design quickly.
Hauran's words made Raia excited. "I'll get the clay for you."
"You also need your own coal, right? Bring some tree trunks, the sturdier the better. I'll help you make some coals." Hauran added. He could just make fit using the machines and tools in the smithy to help Raia make his tools.
After some more discussions, Raia took out two hundred armor rabbit parts from his spatial ring and gave them to his father.
They decided to start working on the tools the next day so they returned home.
…
While his family were cultivating, Raia was back in the world inside. He was feeling extremely lucky today so he tried to find another lair of the armor beast.
He was not disappointed because he was standing in front of one, three hours later.