Within the manual he received upon entering his dorm, Lute had read through all of its contents. Within it, there was a list of all the classes that a disciple was able to take. No prerequisite skills or knowledge were required beforehand in order to enter one. There were classes that spanned across many subjects. After looking through the majority of them, Lute settled upon the two he would take. Spirit Smithing and Rune Mastery were what he picked as they coincided with his interests.

The driving factor behind picking these classes over others was because it would allow Lute to have another skillset besides fighting, but even more importantly, Lute didn’t want to rely on equipment made by others. He wanted to make his own Spirit Armament and anything else he needed for the future.

However, there was also another benefit, since this was considered one of the tradeskills classes, he didn’t have to take a mandatory request from the request hall once a month and would be able to culminate his knowledge and skills in the sect undisturbed. He had more than enough real world knowledge of Vicious Beast subjugation, so he didn’t feel the need to leave on subjugation requests anyway.

While he needed to be in the Spirit Opening Realm to create a true Spirit Armament, it didn’t mean he couldn’t learn the most basic principles behind it, which was blacksmithing. Before you could become a Spirit Smith, you needed to be able to actually forge properly first. However, Spirit Smithing was a misleading name; it didn’t only focus on making weapons. A Spirit Smith could make anything from a weapon, to accessories or apparel. But they were most well-known for making Spirit Armaments, hence the name Spirit Smith.

As for becoming a Rune Master, it was actually considered an offshoot branch of the Formation Master. They were Formation Masters that specialized in enchanting formations upon objects such as rings. The Mirage Armband that Lute was wearing was one such object; it was created by a Spirit Smith Apprentice and enchanted by a Rune Master Apprentice. Because they specialized completely in such formations, they garnered the name Rune Master for themselves as they didn’t use banners but instead they utilized runic symbols imbued with power as their formations. In order to become a Rune Master, one first had to learn the fundamentals of formations.

Since they specialized so heavily in enchanting formations onto objects, the Rune Master was weaker at using standard formations. They would only be mediocre at wielding a formation such as the ones Lute was enveloped in during the trials to enter the Fallen Tide Hall. The opposite was also true, since they focused only on one type of formation, when they enchanted a formation onto an object, it was far stronger than an ordinary Formation Master would be able to accomplish.

Although it was always a sunset on the horizon, the people of the Crimson Tide Planet instinctively knew how long it was until nightfall. Currently it could be considered the afternoon, there were still quite a few hours left before nightfall approached and Lute had to meet with Toros.

Instead, he kept walking towards a building that had smoke clouds billowing out of it. One glance inside showed countless apprentices hammering away at molten metals, and they were using techniques to meld their Qi into it as they crafted whatever it was they were making, increasing the strength and durability of the item with every strike of a hammer. Every single one of them, even the women, had strong burly figures, their hands were callused, and soot was covering their faces and arms.

Compared to most cultivators who seemed frail and graceful, their muscles were overly large and toned. As time passed, working in such an environment would temper the body as well as the mind because even an infinitesimally small mistake could ruin the finished product. These people probably had some natural resistance against fire as well since they worked with it for hours on end every single day. It also wouldn’t be too farfetched to guess that most Spirit Smiths focused on body tempering arts instead of combat arts.

To be a Spirit Smith, not only did you need finesse, you had to perfectly wield your Qi, physical strength, and manipulation of the Dao. Under such stringent circumstances, it was an absolute fact that a Spirit Smith was able to control their strength far more efficiently compared to other cultivators. But most didn’t bother to learn many combat arts so it was rare to see them in battle even though they tempered their bodies.

When Lute walked into the smithy, the first thing he saw was apprentices running all over the place. Countless materials were spilling out of their hands; it was truly a place full of hustle and bustle. Not one person was slacking off; everyone had a strong work ethic as it was always a competition to see who could produce the best quality items.

Lute just stood there and adjusted to the surrounding atmosphere. It was completely different from being in an arena full of thousands of cultivators or alone in a library that was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat. In this smithy, the rhythmic swinging of hammers, dousing in water, boiling of molten metals, it was as if a melody was playing in his ears. Every sound seemed to occur at a specific interval. Everyone seemed to be completely engrossed with their work and hadn’t noticed Lute.

Finally, rather than wait, Lute began to carefully walk forward so as to not disturb anyone. As he progressed, it was as if he was invisible, even if someone bumped into him, they didn’t even notice because of how focused they were, such occurrences had to have happened daily.

After looking around for a few minutes, Lute finally found a door. It was clearly marked to show that it was a classroom or perhaps it was better to say that is was closer to a hands-on training facility as when Lute opened the door, the first thing he saw was a woman brutally smacking a disciple and shouting at them, clearly for failing in some way or another.

“How many times do I have to tell you that blatantly swinging the hammer randomly won’t do anything? If you won’t take this seriously I don’t want to bother teaching you and wasting my time!”

In front of Lute, a woman with black hair and equally dark eyes was walking around and critiquing the disciples. She wore a heavy black apron that was flame retardant and a massive hammer hung from a belt that clearly had seen use, she’d probably been wielding it for decades. Burn marks covered her arms and she had a stern expression. She wasn’t pretty by any means of the word, if she didn’t have soot and ash covering her and didn’t have burn marks on her arms, she might’ve been average in the eyes of others.

However this didn’t make her seem any less terrifying to the other disciples. She had an oppressive atmosphere and a stern look that seemed to manifest itself in a permanent scowl upon her face.

As for Lute, he wasn’t perturbed by her mannerisms in the slightest. The more she berated those disciples, the more Lute felt like he was seeing her true character, which was someone who had an extreme passion for Spirit Smithing.

As if the miraculous cloak of invisibility that allowed him to come into here without anyone else noticing seemed to just vanish, the Elder turned and saw Lute standing there quietly.

An invisible pressure seemed to overcome Lute, it wasn’t killing intent or he would’ve easily been able to withstand it. Perhaps it was just the aura that this stern Elder exuded. She was most certainly someone who was prideful. More than likely she wouldn’t tolerate anything less than perfection which was why she wouldn’t allow her disciple to have even a single flaw when using a forge.

“Get over here! What, did you think I am just going to let you stand there all day? If you’re here, then you’re obviously the new blood that came in this month.”

Lute quickly scuttled over to this Elder. When he reached her, Lute yelped slightly in surprise. None of the trainees noticed because they were engrossed in their work, they were terrified of disappointing this Elder.

The reason Lute yelped, the Elder ripped off his robe, then she ripped of his undershirt, all within a second, there were now fine rips through the clothes, they would have to be repaired. Lute couldn’t do anything about it or even react aside from a surprised voice leaking out. He was standing there in only his pants, belt and boots.

Then, she began to poke him, grabbing his hands and peering at his fingers. Tracing his muscles with her fingers and even injecting Qi to put a slight cut upon Lutes right arm.

‘Is he checking my physical capabilities?’

Lute was slightly dumbfounded that an Elder would be so impulsive as to randomly rip off a disciples robes and their undershirt. But then it made sense as well. More than likely, although there wasn’t any prerequisite or foreknowledge required taking the class, the body was probably a different topic all together. Seeing as how every apprentice of this Elder had a well-built body of muscle, if your physique was lacking, she’d give training to build it.

With a scrutinizing look, the Elder seemed satisfied for the most part.

“Hmm, although your muscles aren’t as built as the others, within them are hiding an explosive strength that my other disciples don’t necessarily have, and they are well toned. From the scars on your body and the amount of force I had to use to cut you, I would venture to guess that you are a beginner at body tempering. Your hands aren’t callused, while body tempering alleviates that mostly, if you use a tool enough, no matter how much you temper your body callus will appear, so you most likely never wielded a weapon or hammer in your life. Am I right?”

Lute cleared his throat, reallocating his thoughts from the shock.

“Yes, that is correct. I am tempering my body however the scars are from an accident in the past. I have never wielded a hammer; however I still wish to learn nonetheless how to use a forge.”

The Elder raised one eyebrow, an interested look appearing on her face that still maintained its scowl. “Interesting, learn to use a forge eh? That is the right mindset. Most come here saying they want to learn to be a Spirit Smith. I have to beat that thought out of them, you’re lucky; I won’t beat you since you spoke correctly.”

The Elder then turned around and waved her hand towards the training room. “I am Elder Irida; I don’t teach you how to be a Spirit Smith. For all disciples, I teach you how to be a blacksmith before I teach you how to Spirit Smith. You can’t even begin to learn how to Spirit Smith before you learn how to wield a hammer and forge. The better the base quality of the item is, the more powerful the formation a Rune Master can enchant into it. The better the foundation is, the more powerful it will be when it becomes a Spirit Armament. Do you understand? At the root of Spirit Smithing is blacksmithing. If you are a shoddy blacksmith, then forget about even attempting to Spirit Smith.”

“I understand”

Elder Irida’s scowl seemed to slightly vanish before reappearing again; it seemed that it would always be stuck there on her face no matter her mood.

“I will teach you how to be a blacksmith, by the time you are in the Spirit Opening Realm and can begin to be a Spirit Smith, you will have learned to be a master blacksmith, and every movement will be instinctive. If you aren’t up to my standards, even if you are in the Spirit Opening Realm, I will not teach you Spirit Smithing until you’re a blacksmith of my standards.”

“This compound has many disciples all ranging from the Nascent Qi to Earthen Practitioner Realms, there is no fighting, I won’t tolerate it. I still haven’t taught some of the Earthen Practitioner Realm disciples Spirit Smithing because they aren’t to my standards.”

Elder Irida walked over to an empty forge, with a flick of her finger, she manipulated the Dao of Fire, lighting up a flame in the forge. Then, she grabbed a spare forging apron and tossed it to Lute.

“Come, throw your robes in the corner, and then every class from now on return here bare-chested like that since your shirt and robes would burn anyway even if you wore the forging apron over them. I will demonstrate the techniques once, and then you will replicate them until they are perfect. As you probably know, failure is not accepted, I don’t care if this is the first time you’ve used a hammer.”

Today, you will learn the how to use the tools of a blacksmith, then you will learn the first set of techniques. All of this will be done without Qi. However, from now on, don’t come so late, we only have a few hours. Blacksmithing can easily take up to over twelve hours; sometimes one project can take weeks. So starting from tomorrow, come at the first crack of dawn.”

Lute quickly threw his robes and undershirt into the corner. Then he donned the forging apron. Walking up to Elder Irida, he stood next to her, she then looked at Lute with that stern aura he felt before that seemed to pressure him, as if forcing him into the ground.

“Are you ready? Blacksmithing is not something you can try half-heartedly on. If you do no put forth the effort, I will kick you out. I have no use for lazy and lackluster disciples who aren’t worth my effort to train.”

Lute stood there, ready to observe then replicate. When he wanted to accomplish something, he never tried half-heartedly, whether it was opening the First Path of New Beginnings in a last ditch effort to survive or blacksmithing, or learning a new art. He always put in the effort.

“I am ready to observe and replicate. I will learn to be a blacksmith.” Lute said with conviction.