Chapter Three: Forging Iron

  "Yes!"

  In the midst of the bellows' deafening roar, Old Black picked up the iron tongs by his feet and carefully clamped down on the glowing hot metal ingot. The thousand-pound iron hammer rose with a loud "whoosh" and came crashing down onto the red-hot metal like a shooting star falling from the sky.

  The moment the iron hammer and anvil collided, a string of scorching sparks burst forth, the deafening sound of metal crashing against each other was incessant, the boiling sparks seemed to be flying about like a magnificent flame magic, and the metallic collision sounds, superimposed on one another, had a hint of thunder.

  Qian Jin watched from the side, his eyes wide with wonder. He had never thought that ironwork could be done in such a way. The old blacksmith's performance before him was no longer just ironwork, but could be called art! He really forged a new realm.

  On this small desk, the thousand-pound iron hammer is lifted with ease and swung freely, indeed having a bit of the momentum of a calligraphy master creating a world-shocking masterpiece on the spot.

  The old blacksmith's movements were not too fast, but steady to the point of being unbelievable. The iron hammer fell thousands of times, yet the height at which the old blacksmith lifted it was always on the same horizontal line, as if measured with utmost precision. The hammer was raised high and then heavily fell onto the anvil, striking thousands of times without a single mistake.

  If he were to exchange the iron hammer for a two-handed sword, Gan Jing would have some confidence. He could keep this two-handed sword at the same level for ten chops, but he knew it was an iron hammer, a thousand-pound iron hammer that he could hardly drag, let alone reach the state of Lao Tiejiang.

  Staring at those flying sparks, Qian Jin was completely stunned...

  "Players have mastered basic smelting."

  "Player has mastered basic smithing."

  In the midst of two consecutive system prompts, Old Blacksmith also heavily fell down with his last hammer. A segment of the sword body quietly lay on the anvil, emitting a scorching breath. Old Blacksmith took out iron pliers, clamped the sword body on the anvil, and casually lifted it up before throwing it into the water bucket. Suddenly, a light "zzi" sound was heard, and a white mist rose from the water...

  After doing all this, the old blacksmith gently put down the iron hammer in his hand and lit up the extinguished pipe again.

  "As my apprentice, the first thing you need to learn is how to properly use a hammer." The old blacksmith bent down again and picked up a hammer from beside the anvil, tossing it to Qian Jin: "From today on, you will hit the anvil with this hammer one thousand times every day. When you finish, you can leave. Only when I think you are able to use the hammer correctly will I teach you new things."

  The old blacksmith's hammer was still heavy, but it was no longer as exaggerated as before, what was once a thousand-pound hammer that couldn't even be lifted.

  This time, the lost hammer was obviously several circles smaller than the old blacksmith's hammer when forging iron. Qianjin picked it up and tried it out, feeling that it weighed around 200-300 kilograms, although it was still a bit difficult to swing, but compared to the previous thousand-kilogram hammer, this one didn't seem too terrifying.

  Qianjin held the iron hammer in his hand, but didn't rush to raise it and strike. He closed his eyes, recalling in his mind the movements of the old blacksmith when he was forging the hammer, and in his meditation, he corrected his mistakes one by one.

  Blake's turbid old eyes looked at Qianjin with some curiosity, who was standing still with his eyes closed, and secretly guessed what he was doing. Why didn't he start hammering the iron yet?

  He simulated nearly a hundred times in his dry and quiet contemplation, suddenly opening his tightly closed eyes, radiating with confidence, the iron hammer in his hand was raised high above his head and smashed down onto the anvil.

  Clang!

  A small room, echoing with the sound of a hammer striking an anvil, sparks flying in all directions like fireworks at midnight.

  Blake's turbid old eyes, filled with curiosity, suddenly burst forth with an unprecedented sharp light. His right hand, which had always held the thousand-pound hammer steadily, shook violently for a moment, as if even a light pipe would be hard to grasp.

  Awesome! Blake stared at Qianjin in surprise, who had already swung his second hammer. The height of the first hammer's swing and the speed of its descent were exactly the same as when he forged iron himself.

  However, this was not what surprised Blake. The real crux of the iron-forging exercise lay not in the height and speed of the hammer, but in the metallic ring that sounded at the moment of impact on the anvil.

  The sound of the first hammer strike was 30% similar to Blake's, not a coincidence, but he really observed and felt it.

  One hammer, two hammers, three hammers...

  The iron hammer swung vigorously without stopping, repeatedly striking on the anvil.

  He was so focused that he even forgot about the passage of time and his physical fatigue, only to suddenly discover that ironing was actually quite interesting.

  The old blacksmith seemed to be ignoring his apprentice, leaning back in a recliner and dozing off, the pipe at the corner of his mouth flickering dimly amidst the clanging of iron.

  "Your forging proficiency has increased, and your strength has risen slightly."

  "Your forging proficiency has increased, and your strength has risen slightly."

  "Your forging proficiency has increased, and your strength has risen slightly."

  ……

  Along with the dryness, there's only this dull system prompt tone.

  Five hundred times...... His sturdy arm was getting more and more numb, so he simply used the warrior's third-level Dou Qi to supplement it, continuing to repeat the same action.

  It wasn't until dusk that Qian Jing finally finished his thousandth strike.

  When everything came to a stop, Qian Jin felt that it wasn't just his right arm, but the entire right half of his body's muscles were sore and aching in agony, wanting to lift his arm again was simply impossible.

  When he went out, the old blacksmith was still snoring, and he just nodded to him and closed his dim eyes again.

  Is today's task considered complete? Gan Jing dragged his tired and weak body out of the blacksmith shop, and when he saw the sky outside, something suddenly occurred to him.

  "Damn it! System spirit, get me out of here!"

  "Excuse me, is there something I can help you with?"

  "Hey, didn't you say that after eight hours, I would automatically return to my original world? Look at the time now, it's been more than sixteen hours, hasn't it?"

  "There's something I forgot to tell you, the time in the game is 1:2 with real-time, that means for every 8 hours in reality, it's 16 hours in the game. But what you said was right, you did enter the game 16 hours ago. Don't worry, you'll be back in the real world soon."

  New book season, everyone is an old reader of the starting point, and it's all clear. At this time, the author most wants to see three slogans: although before opening the book, I also thought about being unconventional, so I didn't go to catch up with the trendy "crossing" train, but instead wrote a native of another world. However, there are three common things that I still have to do: recommendation votes, member clicks, and collections, all come! Oh! It just so happens that these are three extremely common slogans, I don't know if this counts as... three vulgarities? I heard that my previous work was criticized for being too vulgar, and now I'm advancing against the wind, I don't know if I'll be harmonized or not?