Blue Sparks on the Anvil
The metal split apart in a burst of brilliant light.
"What a mess."
The sharp voice drove straight into my eardrums.
Ugh.
A hard fact slammed into my chest.
Nothing I could say to that.
"Do you understand what went wrong?"
"Too much force and too much mana."
"Seventy points."
Ugh.
I hadn't expected to succeed on the first try.
No.
Actually, a small part of me had.
While learning the work at the forge, I had never once thought it was difficult. Five years of fiddling with byproducts had steadily sharpened my hand skills, and I was confident even in delicate force control. The red-eyed reactions of the master craftsmen had only boosted that confidence further.
Am I... not actually a genius after all?!
"I'll try again."
"Very well."
I gathered the shattered metal fragments and returned them to the furnace. When they had heated properly, I pulled them out, hammered them into a single mass, then—
"Hoo."
—spread the iron wide and folded it.
This time for sure.
Clang!
"Ugh."
My wrist went numb.
Earlier the metal had split because I poured in too much mana. This time I hadn't put enough force into it, and the rebound came straight back at me.
"Whoa. This is hard."
Attempting another mana fold right now would be reckless. The force hadn't distributed evenly across the impact point, so the piece had lost any commercial value. Even after only a few days of work at the forge, I could see that much at a glance.
"Will you try again?"
"Yes."
But so what if I wasn't a genius?
When had I ever relied on talent alone? If I'd had talent, I wouldn't have spent five years as an E-rank hunter.
Heh heh heh.
Don't worry.
When it comes to stubborn persistence, no one beats me.
I put the iron back into the furnace and waited for it to heat while massaging my tingling wrist.
Clang!
Failure again.
"Will you try again?"
I nodded at Nam Jinwoo's question.
"By the way, what score this time?"
"Sixty-five points."
"Nice."
A small laugh slipped out of me.
"My Lord, are you well?"
"Please do not overdo it. You will come to harm that way."
Don't worry.
The drop in score was actually a positive sign. The point where I applied force had been different just now. I had deliberately changed something from the first attempt and the quality had fallen—which meant the change I made was the wrong answer.
"To my eyes it looks no different, my Lord."
"This is the first time I have seen mana act during the refining process, so even I do not fully understand it."
Yeah.
I don't understand it either, so don't worry about it. I'm getting the feel for it through trial and error. If the score had stayed the same as the first try, I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint the cause. All I have to do is isolate the deduction points, right?
"Actually, this is good."
Competitive fire surged up inside me.
You or me—let's see who wins.
I pulled the heated iron out again.
Claaang!
I brought the hammer down with everything I had.
The iron shattered into pieces.
"Sixty-eight points."
"The first one was the most generous, huh."
"Will you try again?"
"Yes."
Good.
Come on, you lump of iron.
We're going all the way today.
When Minho shattered the iron on his first attempt, Nam Jinwoo felt no disappointment.
The natural result.
Mana Folding was a technique that even second-year apprentices found difficult. To an outsider the differences would look minor.
You have to match the timing of the force and the timing of the mana infusion with perfect precision.
That was the core of Mana Folding. The metal had broken on the first try because the layers of mana had collided with force applied too hastily.
Still, once he grasps the knack, he'll pick it up quickly.
Just as Nam Jinwoo was about to offer advice on Mana Folding, he saw it.
Those blazing eyes.
A fierce obsession that said he would succeed with his own hands no matter what.
"Will you try again?"
he asked.
"Yes."
The answer came as if Minho had been waiting for the question.
Claaang!
Clang-clang—
Clang!
"Ugh."
From the moment the sun hung high in the sky until it began to sink toward the west, Minho never once left his station. He swung the hammer with stubborn consistency.
Incredible concentration.
It felt almost like watching the master himself.
And so Nam Jinwoo simply stood there and continued to watch Minho work.
The average time to get a feel for Mana Folding is two weeks.
That was the figure for apprentices working on Blacksmith Street. Even those who prided themselves on talent took two weeks. Measured against every blacksmith in Korea, mastering Mana Folding would take even longer.
I took two days, didn't I?
Nam Jinwoo recalled the moment he had acquired Mana Folding and let out a quiet chuckle.
How long would Minho take?
He would probably manage it within two days.
There was no jealousy. Instead, watching Minho improve sparked a competitive fire of his own. The joy of knowing that the day was not far off when he could match skills against a blacksmith of similar age—not the previous generation like Han Yohan or the Three Masters.
They call this raising a tiger to eat you, don't they?
Nam Jinwoo's skill was already high enough that he could open his own workshop on Blacksmith Street. He carried the weight of the title of chief apprentice at Hanil Blacksmith with real ability and talent. No one among his peers—or even among apprentices in general—could compare, and even independent blacksmiths with their own shops had to yield a step to him.
Then the bone-working blacksmith named Minho had appeared and given him a powerful jolt of stimulation.
Hunter Park. Just keep going exactly like this.
How many times had the lump of iron been heated and forged by now?
Claaaaang!
"Hm?"
A different resonance came from the hammer blow.
Nam Jinwoo's eyelids trembled.
Whoosh!
Blue flames rose from the folded iron—the phenomenon that occurred when mana burned away.
Wait.
He was doing this in a single day?!
Shock flashed across Nam Jinwoo's pupils.
I forgot everything else.
I heated the metal, pulled it out, and struck it again and again.
How many times was it?
After the fifth I stopped counting.
I returned the failed folds to the furnace and, even while resting, kept replaying the sensation left in my fingers so I wouldn't lose it.
"Hoo."
I think I'm starting to get it now.
The core of Mana Folding.
If you infuse mana at the exact moment of the strike, the mana compresses and raises the quality of the metal.
The problem is that knowing the knack doesn't make it an easy technique you can just nail on the next try.
"Still, let's give it a shot."
I wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead and raised the hammer once more.
Proper force.
Proper amount of mana.
And the timing of the infusion.
When all three beats aligned—
Mana Folding
Claaaaang!
The hammer struck the iron and blue flames flickered before vanishing.
Bone Metallurgy
Sub-skill — Mana Folding has been acquired.
Grade: B
Infuses mana during the folding process.
Depending on the nature of the infused mana, the finished item is strengthened or gains additional options.
Understanding: 8%
Before the sense of achievement could even settle in, my right arm reflexively swung the hammer again.
Claaaaang!
Mana Folding
Blue flames flickered twice in a row.
I folded the iron and struck it again and again.
Mana Folding
By the fourth time, even the folding itself was no longer easy.
Still, I didn't want to lose this feeling.
Clang!
When crafting an item with this metal, durability will decrease by 38%.
"Hah... hah..."
I had been so absorbed in the hammering that I had forgotten to breathe. The delayed wave of exhaustion hit me and I collapsed onto the floor.
"You have overexerted yourself far too much!"
"Master, you must take deep breaths."
My arms trembled violently. The world spun.
"This is exhaustion."
What the hell.
I had invested quite a bit into my stamina stat, and I was collapsing just from swinging a hammer?
"A little? You have been striking iron from morning until night."
Holy crap.
She was right.
Outside the forge, everything had already sunk into darkness.
"Here, drink some water."
I accepted the cup Nam Jinwoo held out without hesitation and gulped it down.
Huh.
The water tasted a little salty.
"Salt is good for dehydration."
Wow.
There was a tip like that?
"You seem used to this. You must experience it often."
"I do, and so does Master. When he concentrates, he sometimes collapses from exhaustion as well."
Everything came from experience.
No wonder he hadn't looked flustered at all.
"These people, too, live with the spirit of knighthood."
I still don't really know what kind of knighthood Isra is talking about.
"Focusing is good, but please take care of your health as well, Master."
Ingrid's thoughts were full of worry.
Ugh.
This was the first time I had immersed myself this deeply since becoming a hunter. I didn't even have the strength to twitch a finger. I had no idea how I had managed to swing the hammer in this state.
"It means Hunter Park has the makings of an excellent blacksmith."
"Ah—ahahaha. Thank you for the compliment."
"I mean it."
Why did his eyes look so heated all of a sudden?
It felt just like looking at the Three Masters.
"Succeeding at the fold three times in a single day... that is remarkable!"
"I felt like I could do more, but it didn't go as well as I thought."
"Mana Folding grows more difficult the more times you repeat it."
"Is that so?"
"Each fold makes the iron thicker, so you have to carefully control both force and mana."
Ah, I see.
"There has never been a case of someone succeeding at the fold three times in a single day."
That sounded a little exaggerated.
Blacksmith Street was the ultimate stage every aspiring blacksmith in the country dreamed of. Me setting a first record ahead of all those people felt like overkill.
"It's the truth."
Okay, okay, I get it, so please don't look so serious.
"As expected of Isra's Lord."
"I believed in you the whole time."
Believed in what?
Sheesh.
Surrounded by nothing but flatterers—hard to trust any of them.
Still, I couldn't stop the corner of my mouth from twitching.
After resting a little, my energy returned quickly. Investing in the stamina stat had paid off.
Once I could breathe properly again, Nam Jinwoo came into focus.
"I kept you from going home because of me."
"I'm waiting for Master to come out anyway, so it's fine."
"All the other apprentices already left, though?"
"As chief apprentice, I should look after Master."
I had been worried I was the reason he couldn't leave, but that lightened the debt a little.
"Next time I'll buy you a meal."
"Oh. Looking forward to it."
"Do you like gopchang?"
"I can't eat it."
Ahh.
What a shame.
"I mean I can't eat it because there's never enough."
"That's a relief. I recently found a really good place."
It was a restaurant recommended by none other than the Director of the Counter-Abnormal Bureau—one of the nation's heroes. Nam Jinwoo would definitely be satisfied.
On the way back after receiving such precious instruction—
"Immediate combat power will be difficult to raise, I fear."
"Then simply craft equipment for you iron-headed ones."
"Ah. The magic-user. You do use your head well after all."
"Hmph. I am rather clever."
While listening to the conversation between my two summons as I walked, a single idea suddenly flashed through my mind.
Mana Folding.
I might be able to use it to strengthen my subordinates.