Wilfred entered the simulation. After getting through the noob guide, he got the idea what was going on. After that he picked the blacksmithing simulation and started the training. He thought that he will study how to make weapons on a different level but in the start, he got only books about simple chemistry and metallurgy. Wilfred had no clue what the hell was going on. He did not know that Max disabled all the abilities of the simulation to transfer knowledge to the participants. Max enabled this only for himself. Because of that Wilfred needed to study how the metals operated and how they would affect the end product. At the beginning Wilfred was very mad. He paid 1000 gold coins for this shit? He could not accept it. Still because of the good name of Max he vowed that he would finish the study of those books and if it won't enlighten him, he will get out of the simulation and will ask for a refund of what he paid.
The simulation voice advised Wilfred to start from the chemistry subject. Wilfred did not know that he was getting a metallurgist education that will make him unparalleled in terms of his understanding and abilities to make weapons. He would be able to create even a simple sword that will be much more durable and strong than the swords made by normal blacksmiths.
The science of chemistry was very hard to understand for Wilfred. It was something he did not heard of. Still with time and the help and tips of the simulation he learned a course of chemistry that a modern person will learn in school until graduation. It was not something insane, but it was more than enough for basic understanding on what's going on. When Wilfred finished the chemistry part, he thought that it was useful but still no match for the payment of 1000 gold coins. He would pay around 10 gold coins for this information. He had one more subject to learn. He then started to study metallurgy. From the beginning Wilfred got the point why he needed a basic knowledge in chemistry and that this was a very useful information for him as a blacksmith. Now he made weapons by heating the metal piece and melting it. Then he would pour it into a pattern in the shape of the weapon or armor he wanted to get. Then he would shape the weapon by hitting it with a hammer while its hot and quench it in water. He would make the heating process until a temperature below the melting point to shape the equipment and then cool it fast in water again. He did it because that how he was taught. Now he was understanding what properties this weapon will have and how he could control the way of the particles that compose this weapon depending on the way he would quench his weapon. It depended on the time and the environment of the cooling process. Now Wilfred understood that he could do the cooling in oil to get less brittle weapon. Also, he could use the annealing process by heating it to some temperature and letting it cool very slowly to get rid of all the hidden stress that this weapon or armor could possess from the inside. After getting more and more knowledge in Metallurgy Wilfred was more and more dumbfounded. Even now with only using those methods he understood that he will be much better blacksmith then he was before. Also, he will be unparalleled under the level of master blacksmith. After learning much more information in terms of Metallurgy that people usually learn in university Wilfred got an exam from the system that he needed to pass. Because he was very diligent and took his time to study, he passed the test from the first try. All these studies took him one whole year. He did not know it but his progress was good. Those subjects were not something easy for someone that came from the Middle Ages in terms of technology level and knowledge. This was the test every blacksmith will need to finish before getting the chance to make practical weapons in the simulation. For people of this world this was in the same difficulty level of defeating the level one bot or even harder. After getting into the practical side Wilfred saw his copy taking a piece of metal and making a weapon from the beginning until the end. Wilfred did not try to copy the process. He wanted to see how the simulation wants him to work. At the end he saw a weapon. It was strange but he could see that data of the weapon: "Common long sword. Attack damage +20." Wilfred had no idea if it was good or bad. To understand the level of the weapon made he exited the simulation and asked what level of attack damage the weapon he presented Max had. Max was taken aback but still answered that it was +20. Wilfred nodded and entered the simulation again. He was dumbfounded that the first weapon that he will make here using his new knowledge will be on the same level as one of the best level weapons he ever made. Wilfred started to make weapons one after the other. He knew he would not get hungry or too tired so he did not sleep at all. At first his weapons were very bad. The first weapon he made was +5 attack damage. when he saw that he wanted to smack himself to death. That was so bad! Then he asked the system where he did his mistakes and the system answered that not all of the mistakes will be listed. Only the biggest mistakes will be listed. The system listed 7 major mistakes Wilfred made in this simple process and he almost gone mad. First, he corrected all those mistakes. It was not a fast process. It took him around a month. After the correction he got weapons with around +15 attack damage on average. He now knew the hang of things well. After that he started to look at the simulation from the beginning until the end trying to find more of his smaller mistakes. This phase took him much more time. After one year of experiments Wilfred finished another weapon and finally, he saw the next description: "Common long sword. Attack damage +20. Congratulations for the user for complementing the first level of the simulation. Do you want to proceed to the next level?"