Mannat stood at the side as Raesh picked the tong and pulled the block of glowing hot metal from the furnace. No sparks erupted from its mouth, but the flame tongues reaching out from the furnace was scalding hot. Raesh had a high constitution, but beads of sweat were already forming on Mannat’s forehead.

The heat pulled him back to a week ago when this was his normal everyday life. It didn’t take long for the heat to burn away the comfortable life he had lived for the past week, and brought the old him out from the ash that had accumulated on him.

Faint rumbling sounds came from the metal block as it slowly cooled at room temperature, but this was normal.

Raesh put the lump on the anvil. He clenched his fifteen-pound hammer in the other hand and asked Mannat, “How do you want to do it?”

He was asking how he would ‘Inspect’ the job without touching the scalding hot metal. It’s not that he hadn’t tried Mannat’s method, however, this first obstacle made him back off harmlessly. However, Mannat no longer needed to physically touch to ‘Inspect’; he could do it mentally when in close distance to the target of inspection.

Raesh figured it out when he noticed Mannat’s eyes moving back and forth for no reason. This was a tell-tale sign of someone reading a system message. Surprised, shocked, but also proud at the boy’s accomplishment he stopped wasting time and started shaping the block into an arrowhead.

He wasn’t going to use all of it. The one-pound block had enough metal in it to produce a couple of dozen arrows-- the amount and quality were dependent on the blacksmith.

The road to mastering forging was a well-trodden path with few obstacles; it was long, but not audaciously difficult to walk. However, he was yet to reach the end of it. A master blacksmith was someone who could perfectly control all the criteria of work. He was still far from it.

Meanwhile, Mannat read the character sheet given out by ‘Inspect’.

[Block Iron][Malleable][Uncommon]

[Temperature: 1439-1470 °C] [Weight: one pound] [Purity: 97%]

Mannat let the floating apparition disappear and his eyes fell on his father. Raesh was busy shaping a small portion of the block into a small finger-sized arrowhead. The whole process barely took ten minutes. Each hammer strike reduced the metal by a hair width and changed its shape into a thin flat arrow. There were no major cracks, dimples, bubbles on the surface of the job. The arrowhead was shaping to be similar to others before it, but Mannat remembered that the arrowheads though looked similar all had different shapes, size, and weight. No two of them were similar to the other one. The inspection had revealed the weight of the whole block, he wondered if they could take advantage of it.

He ‘Inspected’ the arrow that his father was drawing and found that it was slightly on the heavier side with a weight of 23 grams.

Raesh noticed him moving and asked if there was any good news.

“I can see the weight of the arrowhead you are drawing,” Mannat said calmly, but his words swept the ground from under his father’s feet. The hammer suddenly banged at the arrowhead and directly tore it from the metal block. It bounced off the stone floor and slid toward Mannat, sending sparks flying.

“Take it. Quickly,” Raesh yelled. Mannat hurriedly picked a spare tong and handled the scrapped piece of metal. It was smoking red and Mannat remained vigilant of it. They had just avoided an accident; he didn’t want to cause another because of his neglect. He dropped it in the vat of tempering oil to let it cool before pulling it out and keeping it aside for the time being.

When Mannat turned, Raesh was standing in front of the furnace, lost in thoughts.

Raesh had picked the lump and put it back in the furnace for reheating. Its temperature had dropped by a good few degrees; the temperature was fine for shaping the arrowhead, but not high enough to draw it out of the block.

“Father,” Mannat called. It could have been dangerous. “What are you thinking?”

“Can you feed me the exact weight of the arrowhead while I’m drawing it out?”

Mannat nodded and said, “I can,” This was exactly what he’d done before. The arrowhead hadn’t been detached from the block when he inspected it. Wait! Why was his father so interested in it?

Raesh pulled the block from the furnace when it reached optimum temperature and laid it on the anvil. This time a torrent of sparks ensued from the furnace mouth, telling the state of Raesh’s heart. He was excited, but so was Mannat. He wanted to know if his father had figured.

A fire burned in Raesh eyes as he hammed the edge of the block. Slowly, he drew out a small lump of metal from it. Mannat ‘inspected’ the lump and a blue apparition appeared floating in front of his eyes. His eyes went straight to the weight column and stared as the weight of the small lump slowly increased by a few grams with each hammer strike.

“How much does it weigh?” Raesh asked without raising his head. He wanted to hurry up and complete this arrowhead. He could feel the momentum building. If he could make an exact replica of the sample given by the guild--

“Fifteen grams,” Mannat interrupted his flock of thoughts.

Raesh grinned. He clenched the hammer tighter. It was really happening. “Tell me when it reaches 19 grams.” He said and the hammer moved once again.

Raesh continued hammering at the block, drawing more metal into the small lump he was separating for the arrowhead. Mannat specifically kept an eye out to both the numerical value and the lump itself. He saw it change in front of his eyes and then its weight reached exactly nineteen grams.

“Nineteen,” Mannat said. His voice jumped out of this throat in excitement. His heart was beating. Raesh stopped drawing more metal into the lump and broke it from the block.

He put the bigger block back in the furnace and started working on the coin-shaped lump he had separated from it. He put all his attention into it, and the result was an arrowhead perfect in dimensions, weight, and quality. At last, he flattened the tail at the end and quenched the arrowhead in the oil vat.

Mannat glared at the rippling black surface of the oil as his father pulled out a black forged arrowhead from the tail up. Raesh cleaned it with a rag, looked at it, and started laughing. He didn’t ‘Inspect’ but instinctively knew that he had succeeded in creating a perfect replica to the sample which the guild had provided. However, he still asked Mannat to fetch him the original.

“Where is it?” Mannat asked from the storeroom and Raesh replied, “It’s in the large box by the colors.”

A few grueling heartbeats later, Mannat returned holding the black, finger-sized arrowhead whose polished face shone brightly in the fiery orange light of the burning furnace.

“Give it to me,” Raesh extended a shivering hand to the boy, and almost snatched it from Mannat’s hand when the boy tried to put it upon his palm.

Mannat had never seen his father so fervent and excited. The tall, strong man was almost maniacal. Mannat worried about his father’s health. Could it be a result of his mother’s absence? Mannat could understand why his father was in such a rush to stay busy. He had also thrown himself into an overwhelming routine. In a way they were both similar, coping with the situation in the only way they knew.

Mannat wanted to know the result so he softly asked, “How is it?” His voice was barely audible next to the furnace. However, Raesh heard him clearly.

Mannat saw his father’s lips tremble. The man closed his eyes and raised his head. The sunlight seemed to be gathering there only for him. Mannat saw his rising and falling chest and grew emotional. A few seconds later Raesh dropped his head and looked back at Mannat. Softly he said, “It is perfect,”

His master would be surprised if he knew the boy he had once told would never become a master had just taken his first step toward mastery.

At this moment, Mannat was hearing bells in his mind. A moment later a blue phantom grew visible to his eyes and partially covered his sight.

[Congratulations! Your Skill: Inspection has risen from level 6 to level 7.

[Your Wisdom has increased by one point.]

Mannat wanted to share his joy but found his father standing dazed and unresponsive. He called Raesh a few times and suddenly, the man dropped the arrows he was holding. His eyes grew wide first and then they became bloodshot. He swayed and almost fell, but kept his feet using the anvil for support. Mannat tried to help but Raesh put a hand up to stop. “I’m all right,” he said. “Just a little shocked.”

“What’s happening?” Mannat asked. He worried something was wrong.

However, his father’s answer completely confused him.

“It increased,” Raesh told him.

Mannat noticed his father’s trembling hands and thought it was something serious. He was right; it was indeed something serious, but not in a way, he imagined.

Raesh clenched his hands to stop the shaking and told Mannat holding the biggest grin possible, “My job level increased. I am now a master blacksmith.”