Teaching Rubella A Lesson

However compared to the other steps, the control of heat was considered among the easiest skills to properly master.

After the ore was heated to the right level came the hammering, which was where the true masters separated themselves from the beginners.

Hammering was a skill that truly took a lifetime to get good at, and was arguably impossible to truly master, one could only become better.

This was the skill that most people who attempted to learn weapon refining would hit a wall at, forcing them to choose a different career path.

Hammering required not only tremendous strength to properly temper and shape the ore, but also precision to properly hit the right places.

A misguided hammer may end up destroying your entire work, hence one can imagine combining strength and precision was by no means an easy task.

As long as you lacked either, you could never truly become a weapon refiner, and so while weapon refining was considered the easiest among professions, it was still a job that the vast majority of cultivators would never have the talent to learn.

While this wasn't to say it was impossible for people with poor talent to learn, it was better to say that the investment of money and time simply was worth it, and would be better spent in other places.

Even a pig could become a weapon refiner as long as it was given enough support. Of course that support was nonexistent for the majority of cultivators, so they simply had to give up when they realized it wasn't an efficient use of their time.

After hammering, came annealing, then grinding, hardening, tempering, and finally polishing until you're fully satisfied with the outcome.

Compared to hammering, these latter steps were much easier, but they were still a test of talent and experience, so Minos naturally took them seriously.

For now however, he hadn't even begun the heating phase, so before he focused on anything else, he needed to master this. Fortunately with the practice material, he had plenty of room to learn with.

Having gone through the process of making the Wood-Shift Dagger in his head multiple times, Minos was ready to start his first attempt.

Igniting the furnace, Minos waited patiently for the heat to reach the right temperature. Since he was using practice material that had a different melting point, the heat he needed was naturally different, but it was still good training towards his control.

He had no device to measure the heat with, so the only way to tell was off feeling alone, so he put his hand above the heat and tried his best to estimate the temperature.

Obviously such a primitive method was prone to failure, hence Minos proceeded to destroy the material multiple times in his attempts.

As they say however, failure is the mother of success, and with a few more attempts, Minos finally got a feel for the right temperature.

Finding the right temperature was only the first step, now he had to maintain it until the ore was ready.

This was an exhausting process that required tremendous patience and control, maintaining the heat at the right level for hours.

Minos also had to flip the material within the furnace occasionally, to make sure all sides were receiving equal amounts of heat, making the process even more difficult.

After failing once at this, Minos succeeded on his second attempt, finally creating a properly heated ore.

Now comes the most difficult part, hammering. Putting the ore onto the anvil with his metal tongs, Minos pulled out the One-Moon Mountain Hammer, and started hammering.

This part would be impossible for most mortals, excluding the extremely strong ones, but for Minos it was instead the easiest.

More than strength, Minos was worried about precision. Using his metal tongs to constantly twist and turn the ore, he kept hammering.

"Master, what are you doing?" Asked the wet Rubella, who had just come back from cleaning herself.

The voice caught Minos off guard, causing him to hit the ore in the wrong place. With pain, Minos watched the ore break into pieces, signaling a failed hammering job.

"Next time you come in, knock first." Minos said with slight annoyance.

"But master, we live in a cave, there's no door?" Rubella said as she scratched her head in confusion.

"... Anyways, just make a noise first next time." Minos said, not planning on blaming her.

"Okay, but you still haven't told me what you're doing?" Rubella asked in curiosity.

"I'm trying to learn how to refine weapons." Minos answered succinctly.

"Refine weapons? But I thought you were a talisman maker?" Rubella questioned.

"Who said you can't be both?" Minos answered.

"Woah awesome, then can I become a weapon refiner too? I want to make a dragon-slaying blade!" Rubella said, her eyes glowing in fascination.

"How about you learn how to make a talisman first before you start dreaming." Minos said, destroying her fantasy just as quickly as it formed.

"Speaking of talismans, how was your training while I was gone?" Minos asked while staring straight in Rubella's eyes, causing her to divert her gaze.

"Well, umm, I trained real hard, but you know how life is!" Rubella said, her eyes focused on the cave wall rather than Minos.

"Life, huh? I know how life is, but do you know how death is?" Minos said, as he pulled out his dagger menacingly.

"Master, please spare me! I know I got lazy, but it's only because those brats distracted me!" Rubella said, as she begged for mercy.

Minos ignored her, instead tossing his dagger out with incredible force. Rubella seemed to see her entire life flash before her eyes as the dagger flew closer to her.

While Rubella was frozen in fear, the dagger barely avoided her face, plunging into the wild Dagger-Toothed Rat that had jumped up in an attempt to attack her.

It was only after realizing that she was still alive, did Rubella notice the dead Dagger-Toothed Rat right behind her, realizing Minos was never trying to hurt her.

"Rubella, I'm going to tell you a truth of life right now, sit down." Minos said, ignoring Rubella's face that was still white in fear.

Rubella nodded heavily as she sat cross-legged across from Minos, who was still sitting still with his eyes shut, ignoring Rubella completely.

Rubella got more annoyed as the time passed and Minos did nothing, but she wasn't brave enough to stand up and walk away.

After an hour passed, Rubella was on the verge of breaking. For a hyperactive person like her, sitting still for an hour was the worst torture. Fortunately, before she went completely insane, Minos spoke.

"Patience and discipline are amongst the greatest virtues, and laziness will only harm you, never those around you."

"Do you know how humans managed to separate themselves from the animal kingdom?" Minos suddenly asked.

"Uhh, because we're strong?" Rubella said, not being confident in her answer.

"Strong? Maybe cultivators, but not mortals. Had I not just saved you from that Dagger-Toothed Rat, what do you think would have happened?" Minos questioned.

"I probably would have been severely injured, maybe even killed…" Rubella answered honestly.

"It's good you can be honest with yourself. Since it's not strength, what else do you think it could be?" Minos asked, having no intention of giving her the answer.

"Intelligence?" Rubella said, feeling more confident this time.

"You're right, but intelligence is only one part of the picture. Even the smartest creature would be stuck in a rut without another skill to go along with it." Minos said.

"What else do you need other than intelligence?" Rubella asked curiously.

"What are we doing right now?" Minos asked.

"Uhh, talking?" Rubella said.

"Yes, but more than that, what am I doing to you?" Minos kept asking.

"Ummm, oh I know! Teaching!" Rubella said as a light bulb went off in her head.

"Exactly, teaching. It's these two qualities of intelligence and the passing of wisdom that allows humans to excel beyond all their animal peers."

"A species would never be able to progress if they didn't have their teachers and students, people who made it their life's journey to pass on the torch of knowledge."

"With teaching, people are capable of learning and mastering skills much faster, giving them the time to further push these abilities to higher and higher peaks."

"These two traits of humanity can be considered the staircase to the heavens, the steps and the spine. Do you understand?" Minos asked, finishing his small speech.

"I understand, master, but what does that have to do with patience?" Rubella asked, still not fully understanding.

Minos couldn't help but wack Rubella's head with a stick, causing her to reel back in pain.

"Ow, what was that for?" Rubella said as she rubbed the sore spot on the top of her head.

"The key to learning is patience and discipline. The patience to learn what may be boring, and the discipline to do that everyday without fail."

"If you want to stand beyond your peers, then you need to separate yourself via these two skills. While talent is impossible to change, one can always be more disciplined, more patient."

"Ahh, I get it now!" Rubella said in excitement.