Chapter 61: Tenth-Rank Blacksmith

  Everything went black in front of me, and then lit up again.

  Qianjin had already gotten used to the way of entering this "Endless World" game, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw that familiar village, with several households rising up wisps of smoke from their kitchens just like usual.

  Qianjin didn't wander around this time, and instead rushed straight into Blake's blacksmith shop.

  With the experience of the first two times, Kaneki didn't wait for Blacksmith Blake to say anything and rushed straight to the hot spring that could wash away his fatigue.

  The magical hot spring washed away the fatigue on Qian Jin's body once again, and the sore muscles recovered to normal. What could be felt was only the explosive power contained within.

  Blake crouched at the door, leaning against the windproof door panel with cracks all over it. His sleepy eyes stared blankly at the ground without blinking, silently puffing on his tobacco pipe: "Today, there's nothing new to teach you, continue practicing that one hammer from last time. When you can do it properly, then we'll learn something else."

  "Alright..." Blake pointed with the cigarette holder in his hand to the rack behind Gan Jing: "From today on, don't use the old hammer anymore. Switch to No. 2 hammer..."

  Number two? Gan Jing followed Blake's gaze to the iron hammer he was pointing at, which was at least a hundred pounds heavier than the one he had used before. This old blacksmith was really ruthless, adding a whole hundred pounds in one go?

  "Don't forget, iron breathing method."

  Blake opened his bleary eyes for a moment of reminder, and his body slightly contracted to start smoking without saying another word.

  Qian Jin swung the hammer, which had suddenly gained an extra hundred pounds in weight, and his mouth was agape. The strength that he had easily built up over these days was completely offset by this sudden increase of a hundred pounds in weight.

  Taking a deep breath, the flames danced inside his body, and his shoulders and neck muscles bulged. The heavy hammer was raised high, starting a new round of pounding.

  The hammer added new weight, and Gan Jing found that the lines and angles he could smash out smoothly yesterday were completely distorted in this instant.

  I thought I had almost completely mastered the technique of this first hammer. Unexpectedly... With a dry smile, he raised the iron hammer high again.

  Scorching sparks flew back and forth in the small courtyard, the metallic clanging sounds becoming the only music in the yard.

  One hour...

  "Your forging proficiency has increased, your blacksmithing level has been upgraded by one level, and your strength has increased slightly."

  Two hours...

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

  Three hours...

  "Your forging proficiency has increased, your blacksmithing level has been upgraded by one level, and your strength has increased slightly."

  "Player's hard work pays off, successfully forging a high-quality iron ingot."

  Blake looked at the dazzling metal sparks that Qianjin had struck out again, and his dim eyes burst forth with a thread of surprise and joy. He hastily raised his hand and shouted: "Stop."

  In just three hours, Qian Jin felt that his body was being drained, his internal energy and iron breathing method were all consumed clean.

  Blake held a cigar in his left hand and circled around Qianjin, nodding frequently with gleeful eyes.

  Qian Jin was stared at by Blake with a gaze similar to that of a father-in-law looking at his son-in-law, making Qian Jin's heart skip a beat and forget to call out the system observation level for a moment.

  "Great! Extremely good!" Blake patted the dry arm and nodded repeatedly: "I didn't expect you to reach level 10 blacksmith so quickly, very impressive!"

  A tenth-level blacksmith? When Gan Jing heard these words, he felt as if his strength had recovered a lot in an instant. He thought it would take several days to become a tenth-level blacksmith, but unexpectedly, just by switching to a larger hammer and practicing that strange iron-forging technique, he reached the tenth level of blacksmithing that countless blacksmiths dreamed of.

  "So... " Qianjin pointed at his own nose, asking in disbelief: "I'm a level 10 blacksmith? I'm a forging master?"

  "That's right! You're a level 10 blacksmith." Blake nodded with his hands behind his back, then shook his head: "But you're still not a master craftsman."

  "Aren't I already a level 10 blacksmith? Why aren't I a master craftsman?"

  Black, who was still puzzled, became a 10th-level blacksmith according to Old Ironworker Franlin's explanation, so why did Black say he wasn't a blacksmith?

  "A tenth-level blacksmith is a tenth-level blacksmith, but a master craftsman is a master craftsman." Blake sat down on the ground, puffed on his pipe which was placed on the furnace, and took a deep drag of the tobacco, making the flame in the pipe flicker: "A tenth-level blacksmith is the closest to being a master craftsman, but not necessarily a true master craftsman. To become a true master craftsman, one must undergo a trial, and only if they can complete it can they become a true master craftsman."

  Trials! Again trials! Gan Jing discovered that, whether in the true strategy imperial court's Oakland Magic and Warrior Academy or in this endless world, he couldn't escape from trials.

  "What is a true blacksmith? Is it just having a level 10 ironwork? Maybe that's how it is elsewhere, but not here." Blake slightly raised his chin, his dim eyes shining with unparalleled pride and self-esteem, with a hint of looking down on the world: "A true blacksmith should know many things, basic maintenance of combat robots, personally searching for minerals, forging iron essence, independently completing the production of combat robots, matching firewood and charcoal, etc., etc."

  "Repairing a Guardian? I can do that." Qian Jing recalled the time he revived the Oakland Guardian: "I still know how to use Washing Frenzy Technique."

  "What's the point of a 'Washing Blade' technique? What does it have to do with repairing a broken Battle Soldier?" Blake furrowed his brow in confusion, saying: "If a sword-type Battle Soldier is snapped in two, what use is your Washing Blade technique?"

  He scratched his head awkwardly, this thing he really couldn't do anything about. It seemed that the maintenance he understood wasn't entirely the same in Blake's eyes.

  "Take this away..." Blake patted his chest, pulled out a worn-out, yellowed leather-bound book that seemed to be falling apart at any moment: "First take a look at the mining techniques."

  Mining is a special subject, whether it's humans or demons, who have put in enough effort in this area, but still far inferior to the barbarians living in the northern border of the Zhen Cai Empire. Among them, several tribes have an innate intuition for mining, and almost everyone learns from childhood the knowledge of recognizing different geological features, various rock layers and surrounding mountains and rivers to determine whether a place has metal mines, what kind of metal mines may exist, and the yield of the mine.

  It is said that those few mining tribes of the barbarian tribe, apart from learning various knowledge about exploring mines, seem to have a special ability to explore mineral deposits by nature.