After having lunch Ren, Powell, Lixiss, and Azriel separated and went to their respective classes. Ren made his way across the practice field towards the workshops. Ren reached the blacksmiths workshop and entered. The workshop had a stone floor and the walls were lined with hooks, racks, and tables holding tools and materials. In the middle of the workshop there were a few forges and twice as many anvils with barrels and troughs of oil and water scattered about. Standing in middle of the workshop was Master Yurbek.

"Good your here, that means we can being." he said, "Don't get too excited, you won't be making anything for at least a little while yet. Now follow me."

Master Yurbek led Ren to through a door at the back of the workshop that lead to a small room. In the room was a large table that various rocks and metal bars arranged on it. Around the room were also more piles of materials.

"This room was meant to be a classroom though it's used mainly as a storage room now." Yurbek said, "On the table are examples of different metals and their ores that you'll come across as you become a more skilled smith. I want you to identify them for me. I don't care if you use magic, intuition, prior knowledge, or anything else. You can begin when you're ready."

Ren stepped up to the table and used [Sage Eye] on the materials. For the ores he managed to identify lead, tin, copper, iron, gold, and silver but there were two that only came up as question marks because the level [Sage Eye] was too low. For the metal bars Ren could identify lead, copper, tin, iron, gold, and silver as well as bronze and steel. This time there were three Ren couldn't identify.

"I'm not surprised you couldn't tell what those ones are." Said Master Yurbek, "They are pretty rare and very expensive."

He pointed to an ore that had shiny black line going through it. "This one is mithril ore. When refined, its metal is silver with a slight purple hue. Mithril is tougher than steel very conductive of magic, making a popular choice for people how use magic in close combat. This next one," he said, pointing at an ore with a dark green tint, "is adamant. When refined, its metal is a greenish gold color. Some of the toughest metal armor can be made from this. In the hands of a master craftsman it can be made nigh-indestructible. Weapons made from this are also very durable. This last metal," Yurbek said, point to a metal bar that was a deep red-gold color, "is orichalcum. No one knows how to make it anymore and what we have it found in ruins and is melted down. It’s durability and defense is only a little below adamant but its sharpness is far superior. There are various other materials that can be work but these are incredibly rare to find or difficult to produce so most people never see even a glimpse of them."

Master Yurbek walked out of the room out of the workshop and led Ren over to a partially enclosed secondary building that had a large ceramic crucible hanging by thick chains from the ceiling over a fire pit that was fill with roaring flames. Around the crucible was a stone walkway to you could reach the top.

"This is the crucible me use for smelting the ore into metal." Master Yurbek said, "Every metal need a different temperature to melt. Too little and nothing will happen, to high and your wasting fuel and have a chance to damage the material. It's always better to be too low than to high." Yurbek walked on the walkway and Ren followed. "When smelting the first thing you want to do is obviously heat up the crucible. After that you can just throw in the ore your smelting. You always want to use the appropriate size crucible for the amount that you smelting. It make this process safer and easier. When the ore is melted, which can take a while sometimes, you'll start skimming the impurities off the top. You can never get a metal that's 100% pure, not even through magic, so there will always be some impurities left. When you've gotten what impurities you can out it time to pour it out into ingot molds. You can see a hole at the bottom front of the crucible that blocked by that ceramic block. When you're ready you remove that block and pour the metal into the channel that leads to the molds. Some impurities will appear on top of the ingots but these can be removed later."

They finished the tour of the smelter and Master Yurbek led Ren over to the practice field.

"Before you start making anything you need the strength to and endurance to be able to swing a hammer and shape metal. So until I say otherwise every day, from the time you get here until the sun sets, you'll be exercising. Now start running."

When Ren didn't start immediately Master Yurbek pulled out a whip and cracked it right next to Ren's ear. Ren jumped to the side, startles by the whip. When he saw Master Yurbek readying the whip again he took off running.

"You crazy dwarf, what the hell are you trying to do?" Ren yell behind him

"Getting you into shape. Now less talking and more running." Yurbek said, cracking the whip again.

Ren was chased around the practice field by master Yurbek for hours. Every time Ren started to slow down Master Yurbek, who didn't seem to tire at all, would crack the whip again and Ren would speed up. Ren's stamina long since been depleted by the time they stopped. Ren collapsed onto the ground and didn't move, he had lost feeling in his legs a while ago. Master Yurbek, who had disappeared after Ren collapsed, had reappeared carrying two dull swords.

"Get up. We still have daylight left." He said

Ren groaned as he got up, his muscles protesting their abuse, and caught the practice sword that was tossed to him.

"Why am I holding a sword?" Ren asked

"To be able to properly make a weapon it's important to know how it's used. The better you are at using a certain weapon the better you will be able to craft it, to a certain extant anyway. A master swordsman who knows nothing about smithing wouldn't be able to make a great sword. When two or more skill are reach a certain level they can boost one or more of the skills. This is called skill synergy. This work because as you gain more knowledge in a certain skill you could start applying what you learn to other skills. For instance, a master swordsman would be reasonably skilled with a dagger even if he never used one before or someone who is reasonably skilled in smithing to carpentry, or both, could more easily become a skilled engineer etc... It's important to try thing out yourself, you never know what could work. Also weapons practice will increase you strength so it's good exercise. Now copy me."

Master Yurbek started slowly going through a set of strikes. When he finished he would start again. After a few time he started speeding up until his sword was a blur. After a few minutes he stopped and motion for Ren to try. Holding the sword in one of his hands Ren began to copy master Yurbek. Vertical downwards slash then back up then a horizontal slash. Diagonal downwards slash then back up. Diagonal from the other side and back then stab and repeat. Master Yurbek began mixing it up. Stab, horizontal slash, upward diagonal slash, stab, vertical slash, stab. Ren stopped copying Master Yurbek and started to move on his own. He activated [Extreme Focus] and started to speed up little by. He was nowhere as fast or as smooth as Master Yurbek but he showed potential. Ren kept it up until he ran out of mana, which took almost an hour and a half. When his mana ran out Ren suddenly felt extremely tired and very sore. Master Yurbek has been watching Ren for the past hour or so and had a large smile plastered across his face. He walked over to Ren and took the sword from him, slapping him across the back and almost sending him to the ground.

"Well done lad. You show promise. Every week we'll add on a new weapon for you to practice. You don’t have to be a master, just proficient. Now go rest up, I’ll see you tomorrow." With that Master Yurbek headed back to the smithing workshop.

Ren stumbled back to his room and collapsed onto his bed asleep even before he hit the bed.