Apprentice

In the bustling grey market, a young man walked calmly through the streets, not paying attention to the various stalls. Instead, he made his way to an alley where the stalls started to dwindle as did the people.

The young man suddenly stopped and entered a shop with a narrow door. The display at the shop was full of weird crafts of knives, cups, plates and so on, all made of metal. At the moment, there was no on manning the counter, so the young man patiently waited for the arrival of the store's owner.

After ten minutes, a dishevelled looking man with large eye bags walked out with a towel around his neck. His clothes were dirty and muddled ith charcoal, his eyes jaded. On seeing the young man, the store owner was a little surprised, but he nodded and appeared behind the counter.

"What can I do for you?" The store owner asked.

The young man calmly looked at the items on display as he replied. "Sir, I am looking to apprentice as a black smith under your tutelage."

"Hah?" The store owner raised his drooped eye in surprise and shock. "Did I hear incorrectly?"

The young man shook his head. "My name is Alex Redford. I truly wish to apprentice under your tutelage as a blacksmith."

The store owner sighed. "Kid, I only produce cutlery like plates and cooking knives. I can't teach you much. Besides, I don't have the resources to waste on you."

"Please give me a chance, sir." Alex responded. "I will do my best to learn under you."

The store owner scratched his dishevelled head. "I will test you, if you fail my test you can forget about this." He said. Although he suggested a test, he had no expectations at all. The boy looked very weak and his hands were baby smooth. He didn't think this kid had ever even seen a blacksmith hammer, let alone wield one. "If you fail, you must pay me a thousand credits."

Alex nodded to indicate that he agreed with the proposition.

"Come with me." The store owner sighed as he led Alex inside the store's reserve room which was charred black because of the active furnace.

"This is a fire furnace. I want you to purify this lump of copper ore for me. I will demonstrate the process once." The store owner said with a tired voice.

After displaying the process of molding, heating, adding catalyst and cooling the ore to create a purified ingot, he look at Alex and made a hand motion, asking him to perform.

Alex nodded. He sat down with the ore, holding it in his hand to get a feel of the density. Then he began the purifying process. Suddenly, he felt like he was back in the old man's workshop and began setting up the mold to melt the ore, adding caustic sand as well as water.

When Alex added water, the store owner shook his head. He immediately put Alex as having misremembered what he had just performed. However, Alex didn't stop as the ore began to melt, it was bubbling heavily as the impurities began coagulating on the surface.

Alex adjusted the mold and sifted the impurities out, letting the molten metal began settling down to cool. At that moment, Alex threw some new caustic sand over the cooling ingot which suddenly reacted and speeded up the cooling.

After fifteen minutes, he began spraying the cooling ingot with the water jet and rapidly cooled the ingot even further. Then Alex turned and looked at the store owner. "I've created an ingot."

The store owner who had initially written Alex off, was growing increasingly shocked as he saw Alex continued and eventually when he supercooled the ingot, the store owner found that the ingot was actually of a much higher purity than his own ingot, though he prepared it very carelessly.

Alex realized just how superhuman Molte's body was in the training card. His body with its terrible 0.4 constitution was already cramping up having produced a single ingot. However, he controlled himself because he wanted the apprenticeship. However, seeing the store owner's stunned look, he felt better.

[Create 1 ingot (Copper) Completed. + 1000 points]

Alex inwardly bloomed. He finally obtained some points which he could use. He looked at the store

owner who was analyzing the ingot with surprise.

Eventually the store owner nodded. His eyes suddenly filled with life. "Your technical skills are good, though your body is quite weak to handle the work. I am willing to take you in as my apprentice. You can call me Roy."

Alex smiled and nodded. "Thank you for the opportunity. I will work hard to make sure I'm not a burden."

Roy nodded. He looked around the room before speaking. "For the next two day, I want you to observe me when I work and in the mean time, refine ores. After observing me work with ingots, you can begin trying your hand at forging some of the cheaper items like plates and spoons."

Alex didn't mind. He simply nodded. This was what he anticipated, and he was happy to be able to impress Roy. Alex realized the power of the 7 day training card and how it helped him learn the technicalities, even if the physical burden on his body was too high.

As such, Alex knew that a new journey was beginning for him, one where he could use the system. Though crafting was not what he wanted to eventually end up in, it was his means to learn new things and the amazing things hidden in the knowledge tree.