"Oh my gawd Stanis, you see all the progress I've made. Y'know, at the start I was just strengthening the metal but then I figured out that there were actually ways to affect it in different manners", she leaned in closer, whispering now," by circulating my mana in certain directions and such."

She leaned back out," I mean I only discovered it recently, but the fact that it is there opens up a whole new frontier."

Stanis was both inwardly worried and joyful that Rikkey had discovered circuits. He had felt like a sage almost, imparting circuits and circulation onto others while standing in a higher position to them. It was now that he realised that the mountain-top from which he looked down from wasn't as high as he'd once thought, others using tooth and nail to climb up. This meant it wouldn't be too long until the craziest, strongest humans became a threat to him.

On the other hand, he was joyful because it was Rikkey who had discovered it, and recently too through lots of practise forging. Forging was different from killing and so Stanis hoped that the hard-core fighters would still have a bit of time before getting here. This added time, but not too much, not enough for him to breathe in. He hadn't known Rikkey for long, in fact less than a day, but some people were simple to see through, and the couple Rikkey and Kevin were such. It was why he was fine with them catching up on him, of course he was now going to pick up the pace and further his lead, but at least it was these two behind him. At least for now...

"Sweetie, y'know that all of us had to go and fight him just a few hours back. They called a whole army to stop his advance" said Kevin, failing to contain his laughter mid-way through.

"Oh. I'm not surprised, after all you were hella strong last time you came here. So, what did you think of my weapons?"

Stanis stared blankly for a second, his brain failing to bring together all the links. Life returned to his face a second later but Kevin had already started speaking.

"Naa, he came with this wild group of Panthers. We alls thought we were gonna to die from the Panthers, instead it turned out that only Stanny-dog, Caleb, Orena and Sil were going to fight. But even then they were toooo overpowering, no one even got a chance to test yer weapons before being blasted away."

This earned more than a few gasps from the four blacksmiths behind Rikkey, Rikkey herself worriedly raising her eyebrows.

"Oh shit. I knew you were strong but not this strong."

There was a pause as both parties searched for the right words to restart the conversation.

"Show me your strongest weapon" said Stanis.

"YES!" screamed Rikkey, her cheerfulness infectious as Stanis found himself smiling.

She ran deeper into Forge where a large storage building at the back stood. She went in and disappeared for a second, Stanis turning around to talk to Kevin while the four blacksmiths finally breathed, this tension far too much for a short catch-up talk.

It was about a minute later, after countless curses had been sworn and countless crashing noises had been sounded, that she came out, a dirty cloth in her hands. She rushed forwards and opened it in front of Stanis, revealing a slender sword gleaming bright in the dusk sun.

It was a simple sword for the most part, a simple wooden handle leading to a blade. However, it was also the blade that earned itself the silence that now filled its surroundings, the blacksmiths not daring to make a sound, Kevin and Rikkey worriedly waiting for Stanis's judgement and Stanis himself scrutinising the blade.

He rubbed his finger along the groove of the blade, feeling an unnatural warmth as he did so. He pressed his finger along the edge and felt a sharp sting, turning his finger around to see blood leaking out. No wonder this was her best work, it reeked of hard-work. But just as he had been awakened from his dream by Rikkey, he was willing to do the same for her.

He applied some mana over his hand, not too much nor too little, before gripping the handle with his left hand and pushing downwards on the blade with the other. In order to further prove his point, he pushed down on the edge and not its face.

There was no sudden splattering of blood and instead only a creaking sound as the 8 men and women watched Stanis bend the sword, not relaxedly but with the amount of effort one would take to open a tightly screwed jar.

*Ccrrreeeea*

*StrrrpPTFTP*

It cracked, splinters of metal shooting out like collateral. Now in his hand lay two items, a handle leading to a broken blade and the rest of the broken blade.

"It's not strong enough" said Stanis, Rikkey taking a second to come back to reality, before understanding his sentiments. "But since I broke it, I guess I'll have to gift you something as well." Rikkey was once again out of reality, only this time in cloud nine.

He gestured her forwards, she sprinting for her life as if one of the others were going to steal her spot. He firmly held her before applying his improved circuit onto her. It only took 20 seconds in total from start to finish, but the whole time was filled with Rikkey groaning and moaning. The Jaguars had never reacted like this…

By the end she fell to her knees, sweating and panting. Stanis turned around to see Kevin give a eat shit smile, sighing while gesturing him forwards too.

It was to Stanis's, and all the four blacksmiths', joy that Kevin didn't have the same reaction as Rikkey had, instead taking it as a normal person should.

The four blacksmiths might have been confused at the start what he was doing, but it was clear as day what was going on by the end. The mana fluctuations in the air had several times increased over the course of his baptism. They too were eager to have Stanis start the process on them, only to be disappointed as he blanked them.

"I feel so powerful!" exclaimed Rikkey, circulating her mana while saying so.

"Alright, alright, calm it down and reign it back in" replied Stanis, still joyful from Kevin's lack of response.

He had gotten lost in the moment but his mind suddenly reminded him why he had come to the Smithy in the first place, in fact, to the Village in the first place.

"Rikkey, can you get me a good piece of metal. I'm going to be joining you guys from now on" revealed Stanis, simultaneously falling to the blacksmiths' pleading glances as he beckoned them towards him too.

Rikkey ran back into the storage room, Kevin gone with her to help. Stanis used this time to open up the right mana circuits for the 4 blacksmiths.

There was an African man of medium stature, two Asian twins and a Russian girl with shoulder-length hair. They were all grateful beyond words when he had finished, finally understanding what Rikkey had gone through. They managed to utter out thanks and it was through this that Stanis realised that the girl was Russian, hearing her words with double meaning in his head.

In the rest of the time in which he waited, Stanis talked to the four he had just helped. The African man was called Calu, the two Asian Vietnamese called Giang and Duong and the Russian girl called Valentina.

Rikkey and Kevin eventually came out carrying a heavy piece of bronze-coloured metal. Stanis thought for a second, practicality fighting pride, with practicality winning in the end.

"Can you guys teach me how to make a sword?" he asked. He had worked in the Smithy before when he had come down from the mountain but only for one day. He didn't know how long the other 4 had been here for but he knew Rikkey had been doing this for over a month. It was far too stupid and prideful if he ignored such a fact and tried to create his own method.

The whole Smithy exploded into life at his words: Rikkey ordering Valentina and Calu to get the flames roaring and Giang and Duong to bring out the anvil over here.

The fire was screaming curses a minute later and the process began, a roughly rectangular piece of metal being cast in. The hungry flames licked away at the metal, soon hot enough that a few droplets of liquid metal dripped down. And yet, instead of appetising their hunger it only made them more ravenous, the flames burning higher and hotter.

Rikkey struck out the metal and put it on the anvil, one foot parallel to the anvil's base and the other facing it as she struck down with her hammer. The first few strikes were hits, but they quickly grew into smashes, small sparks flying off. She then wiped her forehead as Calu took the metal and put it back into the fire once more, the flames this time licking a different section, before once again being cast out.

This process was repeated 5 times and Stanis could feel a rise in temperature and see the glistening sweat over everyone here. He could see that Rikkey was really putting her all in it right now since her arm was shaking by the end.

Valentina and Giang had been working on something else all this time. They had prepared another furnace with a hole down the middle, the sword now being placed down this. The flames were gentler than before as if the calm before the storm.

Rikkey then took out the sword, a grinder roaring to life by her side at the same time. She gently struck the sword against the spinning metal. When she had been hammering, Stanis had caught sight of small sparks. Now it was large, monstrous sparks that flew out, threatening to eat away at all of life if they didn't stop this. They didn't.

After all the edges had been thoroughly sharpened to the T, and Stanis's eardrums had been thoroughly grated, Rikkey once again threw the blade into the first furnace, the one which had burned loudly. She waited a second before simultaneously throwing both coal and fuel into the furnace. The roaring turned into thunder as the 7 people shared a silence in between them.

Calu and Duong had poured out a mass of water into a tub by this time. Stanis might be new to forging but even he knew what was coming next.

The blade was at its hottest when Rikkey picked it out and pushed it into the water, the sparks holding nothing next to the explosion of steam that came out. The sizzling sound eventually stopped, although not without leaving its mark as Stanis could now taste the raw metal in the air in contrast to the soot he had been tasting all this time.

He could feel the blood rushing through him as he watched her pick out the sword with a grimace and throw it back onto the flames, although this time with a lower heat. Following this was another quenching, plumes of smoke now escaping the Smithy.

Stanis was surprised to learn that there wasn't much sweat over him, instead all of it had evaporated over the time he had stood there watching. His clothes, which had been clean a few hours back, now stuck to his skin like never before, his flesh almost clear through the fabric. He was feeling hot and sweaty but was fine as he had been through far worse before, instead surprising himself by discovering the grin plastered over his face. He was excited!

The blade was heated and quenched one last time before Rikkey, tired but also excited, brought out the blade in front of Stanis. She hadn't fully utilised her mana-skills or much of anything during this run, instead only going through the basics for Stanis. It had taken a grand total of just under an hour but her muscles were still shaking from that.

She knew from the second she lifted her head that she was no longer to be the best blacksmith in the village, Stanis's expression was filled with a menacing smile so wide that it threatened to eat his face…