After his magic training Eldrian headed over to Boran’s, grabbing something to eat on the way. Arriving at the shop he was led to a different forging room by one of the ladies at the counter.

Looking around Eldrian quickly saw the large disparity between this one and the other. Boran’s room, as Eldrian now deemed it, was about the same size. Yet inside that room there were only three forges, while these forges took some space it left a large area open.

This room instead looked stuffed. Eldrian easily counted over 10 forges inside, each being used by two or more people. Confused Eldrian followed the lady as she led him to one of the forges at the right side of the room.

Eldrian ended up at a forge in the back of the room, one other person was already at work here. This person was also seemingly learning, yet Eldrian felt that the guy didn’t like him. His reason for thinking so was dumb, the guy had simply glanced at them before going back to work.

Shaking his head Eldrian decided to ignore it and just start working, feeling that it was likely in his head.

Luckily every forge had three anvils or more around it, so he didn’t have to worry about not having something to hit on. There were also a bunch of tools available on racks against the walls. Heading to one of these racks Eldrian took a hammer and tongs, after which he realized that he had no ore nearby.

Sighing he placed them on one of the spare anvils. Running back to catch up to the lady, catching her just before she left the room. He asked her where the ores were, getting a simple and disheartening answer. He asked her to lead him to the storeroom where they were stored. Eldrian realizing that this was going to be work, not playing.

At the room he grabbed one of the many crates and headed back. Luckily the crates were manageable, around 20 kg’s and nicely packed. Allowing most people to easily move them about.

Back at his shared forge Eldrian hoped that the forge worked well. Having lost hope in most other things. Luckily it seemed that the forge worked correctly, Eldrian failed to discern if it was magically enhanced or not. To be safe he decided to only heat the ore he was busy with.

After heating it he started forming it, quickly finding that the difference felt far more than a simple 20%.

‘Must be the anvils bonus too. And I don’t think the 20% is a linear factor in this.’ Eldrian mumbled as he struggled on.

During the day Eldrian spoke with the guy he was sharing the forge with. The guy was called Edgar and he had been working here for just under a month. From talking with him Eldrian realized that this guy was also an apprentice. But different from him, this guy was not Boran’s apprentice.

Confused, Eldrian had asked Edgar what that meant. To which Edgar had opened up, seemingly wanting to get closer to Eldrian after having heard that he was Boran’s personal apprentice.

The difference between a blacksmith apprentice and a blacksmith’s apprentice was that the first would only learn the craft of blacksmithing. While the latter will also learn the secrets from their mentor.

‘So I could technically learn how to smith without being Boran’s blacksmith.’ Eldrian realized, but also immediately felt that it was better to be committed more. His opportunities would certainly be far greater. Happy that he was the latter Eldrian had started working again, after the conversation.

Eldrian quickly got used to sharing a forge with someone, only having to take care of not walking into the other person. Which wasn’t all that likely in any case, yet it would be a large disaster if it were to happen. Which was why he still took care of where he walked.

After a long day of work Eldrian had managed to form six complete ingots, having made a few more incomplete ones. He had decided to just purify most of the ores, then later he would meld them all together to get complete ingots. In this way he could focus on completing a few and processing the others, making it easier for himself when he needed more time on something else on a different day.

Certainly, this didn’t guarantee Eldrian a quicker work time but he felt it would help him be more controlled about what he was doing. He felt he would likely form them all, after having purified all the ores. Then repeat this action every time with a new ore crate. Until he reached the end of these daily tasks.

Eldrian also didn’t have any idea what grade his ingots were at, which was also why he wanted to split the last part and only form all the ingots later. Giving him more time to get used to blacksmithing, before having to complete his ‘finished’ items. At this point he also realized he had no idea how he was supposed to hand in his ingots. The only thing he could think of was to ask Boran about it, as such he headed over to his smithy with his six ingots.

“Who the hell is it!” Boran roared as he heard his door being opened. He was currently working on creating a new sword and didn’t want to be bothered.

“Sorry!” Eldrian replied quickly, slipping through the door and quietly closing it. After which he simply waited for Boran to finish. Moving to a better position to observe Boran working.

Boran’s craft looked amazing. He was holding a glowing red blade at the hilt, placing the tip onto an anvil. In his other hand he had a small chisel-like item, with which he was slowly drawing onto the blade.

Eldrian was amazed as he watched Boran, and not just because he could keep his hand so close to a brightly glowing metal. Boran’s hands were as steady as a surgeon’s. As he drew on the blade flashes of light would escape every few seconds, after which a sizzling sound would come forth.

Half an hour later Boran finally placed the blade down. Eldrian having long gotten over his confusion on how the blade stayed hot for so long.

“Good.” Boran commented after placing the blade down.

“Sorry what?” Eldrian asked, bewildered.

“The rune was accepted.” Boran answered slowly, “You finished your task, give them here.”

Eldrian did as told, Boran spending a few seconds on each ingot.

“Not bad, one bad ingot.” Boran threw that ingot aside. Eldrian flinching from the sound, looking at Boran in bewilderment. Each ingot weighed around 2kgs, which weren’t much. But to just throw it aside like that. Eldrian felt that was quite bad manners.

[Daily Task: Form 2 standard ingots.]

[Formed 5; Player backlog 3]

[Daily Task Reward: 200XP, 50 copper]

Hearing the system notification Eldrian recovered from his thoughts, turning them to the notification. ‘What happened to the 15 I made yesterday?’

“So why did you come here?” Boran asked, not giving Eldrian much time to think.

“I didn’t know where I was supposed to give the ingots.”

Hearing this Boran chuckled for a bit, replying after having enjoyed himself. “You don’t have to give the ingots to anyone. Our oath will check if you worked on the task and if you didn’t tell me about anything happening then it will rule the results.”

Even more confused Eldrian started at Boran, soon getting a reply from his stare. “The gods will maintain it.”

“How does that work?”

“Magic…”

Hearing this reply Eldrian felt like cursing. He stopped himself just in time, thinking about how it would do no good. ‘What kind of answer is that!’ He complained to himself instead, slowly nodding to indicate to Boran that he understood. Even though he didn’t understand a thing.

Looking at the notification again Eldrian started feeling excited. He only needed three more days of this and he would be gaining another level. He still hadn’t used his free attribute points and he was planning on waiting until he needed to. Yet having more made him excited.

“Anything else?” Boran asked after a while.

“What happened to the ingots I made yesterday?” Eldrian asked.

“Nothing, they are still there.” Boran pointed to the forge Eldrian had worked at yesterday. Looking over Eldrian saw the pile of ingots. Causing him to feel quite stupid.

“Can you also evaluate them for me?”

“Sure, just let one of the sales girls or other apprentices do the evaluation for you from tomorrow. Only come here when you have a question. Alright?”

Eldrian nodded, soon getting a notification that he had 15 more ingots in his backlog. Feeling a weight released from his shoulders Eldrian asked Boran what his task was going to be tomorrow and where he had to store all the ingots.

“Tomorrow will be three ingots, and then four the next day. Then five and five from then on. And just fill the crate back up and store it in the material storage room.”

“Alright.”

[Daily Task: Form 3 standard ingots.]

[Formed 0; Player backlog 18]

[Daily Task Reward: 200XP, 65 copper]

[Time limit: 26 Hours 12 Minutes]

‘So that is how it worked. I can do it ahead of time it seems.’ Eldrian thought about it but decided not to hand it in immediately. He had no idea if it would lead to harder tasks or something similar. He already felt it was demanding enough.

Just before leaving Eldrian decided to ask, “Boran, how long am I going to form ingots?”

“Your entire life.” Boran replied, bursting out in laughter after having said this.

‘I meant for the tasks!’ Eldrian complained internally as he left the laughing Boran.