A Blacksmith's Pride

At the time when Shui entered the Blacksmith Union's building, the only free desk was overseen by a well-built young man. Although the other receptionists had blank expressions that seemed vaguely angry, his frustration was genuine. He had originally planned on spending the day sharpening his skills in the forge, but because the one who should have been on this shift had gotten injured, it became his job instead. Of course he thought that it was unfair, but he couldn't voice such an opinion to his teacher. In the Blacksmith Union, those with superior skill held authority over those inferior to them, and it was a system that he liked so he couldn't go against it.

There was the option of ordering someone else to take his place, but for good or for bad that thought didn't come to him. When this young man noticed Shui approaching, he narrowed his eyes but held in his sigh. He only saw a weird pretty boy, but a customer was still a customer.

When Shui stopped in front of him, albeit crude, the young man greeted him and asked, "How may I help you?"

"Can you show me to your best artifacts?"

"The viewing fee is ten high-quality spirit gems."

In the Blacksmith Union, it was possible for customers to take a look at the works created by the forge masters of the union. However, so that no cheap sap came to window shop, there was a viewing fee worth one-tenth of the cheapest item among the catalogue to be viewed.

Shui obtained this information from overhearing other customers, so he paid the fee without complaint. The young man left from behind the desk and then led Shui deeper inside the building. They went downstairs to floors below the ground, but air still flowed freely. About four floors down, the young man brought Shui to a room filled with glass showcases and of course, within those showcases were expensive artifacts. One might worry about placing such valuable items behind simple glass, but this glass was made sturdy enough to defend against a Master's strongest attack, so there was no worry that they would be stolen.

"You have half an hour to pick something. If you want to extend your time, then you have to pay another ten high-quality spirit gems for half the original time."

Once he gave that explanation, the young man stayed by the entrance of the room and was intent on not saying another word. Shui walked past him and looked at the artifacts up for show. There were twelve of them in total, all of tesora-rank. It was certainly an impressive sight but when Shui looked at it, he couldn't help being disappointed.

'So they won't show me any relics, huh?'

Even if there were few forge masters capable of making one, Shui was sure that the union had accumulated some over the years, however, 'this' was the best they could show him.

Honestly, he didn't know if he would be able to afford an archaic-rank artifact even at a discount, but it would still have been nice to window shop. Sure, he picked up on some interesting techniques being used in the forging of the artifacts on display, but to him their only worth was in their innate insights, and he wanted to try experiencing that from his own artifact first so Shui didn't feel much greed as he looked over these artifacts.

Little did he know, his indifference irritated the young man who led him here. He would just snicker if Shui was faking indifference because it was more expensive than he thought it would be, but he didn't get that embarrassing feeling from him.

'Who the hell is this guy?'

The young man hoped that he was wrong, but then Shui began walking towards him.

"What is it?" the youmg man asked cautiously.

"I'm finished looking. There's nothing that really catches my eye right now so I'm ready to leave."

The young man tightly clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, but like a tempered piece of metal he stayed firm and held on to the reins of his emotions.

"Is that so."

Not wanting to look at his face for a second more, the young man turned around and led Shui back to the ground floor. The air between them was as tense as the taut string of a bow, ready to shoot the initial arrow of battle at any moment. Since he was leaving anyways, Shui didn't care about this atmosphere or how it came about, and similarly, the young man also thought that it would be best not to cause any trouble. However, fate always loved playing tricks in such awkward circumstances.

In the long hallway leading back to the reception hall, the two of them spotted a boy with well-defined muscles walking in their direction with a downtrodden expression. Both of them were curious as to why he was like this, but neither was eager to get involved. Unfortunately, right as they were walking by each other, the boy caught a glimpse of the young man's face.

"Senior Apprentice Georg?!" he exclaimed.

The young man didn't want to respond as Shui was with him, but he couldn't find it in his heart to ignore his distressed junior so he got permission from Shui through eye contact before turning to face him.

"Yes, can I help you, junior apprentice?"

The boy seemed happy enough to be next to him, so when Georg spoke to him, he was caught off-guard.

"Uh, well, you see,"

After a couple more seconds of him fumbling over his words, the boy cleared his throat and looked up at Georg with a serious demeanour.

"Senior apprentice, I'm stuck on the last sword of the Five Element Task, can you give me some advice."

When Georg heard what his issue was, he chuckled as he remembered his time as a fresh apprentice who also had to do this task. The Five Element Task was one of the first tests given to early forge masters who were finally allowed to begin working in the forge. For this task, one needed to create one sword made with spirit iron for each of the five element attributes, and the attribute had to be present in the sword with sufficient concentration.

"I see, so you're struggling with making the wood-element sword," Georg guessed.

Of the five swords that had to be created, apprentices almost always struggled with forging the wood-element sword because of the conflict wood had with metal. With the other swords, it would be enough to just use a material with a strong concentration of the element needed, but that didn't work with the wood-element. Normal materials would end being severely weakened when used, and materials that were strong enough would be too expensive and too powerful to use with spirit iron.

"That's right. I've managed to get passing marks for the others, but this one keeps failing."

The boy went on to explain the different methods he had tried out, but neither Georg nor Shui needed to be there to tell what was the result in each case. Although the boy thought that he was being innovative, all of his methods only involved spirit iron and one or more wood element materials.

The boy continued, "...now I only have enough spirit iron for one more attempt."

The boy sighed in despondency, but luckily senior apprentice Georg was willing to help.

"You don't have to feel discouraged, everyone had to face the same problem you have right now. Although some of them managed to figure out the answer by themselves, there's nothing wrong with seeking advice," said Georg.

"Senior apprentice..."

The boy looked up at him with sparkling eyes of admiration and waited patiently for his guidance.

"For this assignment, you can't use just wood element materials, you have to remember the principles of the five elements. Metal conquers wood, but metal nourishes water and water nourishes wood."

"So I should add a water element material?"

"That's right."

Things seemed to be solved, but a sudden snort interrupted the resolution.