Cultivation Through Artifacts

“Rules?” Khal looked quite perplexed but then again, thinking about a bit more rules were the most basic things one needed to learn let it be forging or anything else.

“Exactly,” nodded Bazz firmly while he put the Oak Iron to the side like its weight was nonexistent, “In forging, be it an inch long rod or an enormous chunk of metal you try to refine if you don’t respect the basic rules even the slightest, not only will you not be able to become a good blacksmith but you can sustain grave injuries both externally and internally! That’s why I will first teach you about all of these ‘basic’ rules!”

“Basic rule number one! Keep your surroundings tidy and organized! Just look around yourself, what can you see?” asked Bazz calmly as he opened his arms wide gesturing at Khal to inspect his proximity.

Hence, Khal did exactly what he was just told. Currently, he was standing in the middle of an extremely huge room that opened into another smithery on the side where other robust-looking people were forging steels hardworkingly. The room was about 20 meters big both in length and width while the ceiling was exactly 5 meters above the floor that was filled with different fragments of scorched metal; naturally, they were the crumbs of the previous chunk of steel that Bazz forged.

On the right corner, a curved fireplace that was similar to the one he worked with back at the stall was placed, with the only difference that it was 3 times as big! Even the bellows on the side worked through a single foot movement, so instead of pushing the air onto the fire through arm motions, like opening and closing the edges of a scissor from time to time, one only needed to move their feet up and down! Like this, one could save more energy when the time came to refining and tempering.

On the other hand, the scenery around Khal was even greater. Numerous desks on both sides with different sized and shaped hammers placed next to each other in a fashionable manner while various other types of tools were hanging from the wall side by side; and in the middle of the room, several sized anvils were positioned.

All in all, the room looked extremely clean even though it was a smithery which would make anyone believe it will be filled with junk all over!

“Everything is neat and orderly. I can’t see a single thing that would make this place to be considered as filthy,” exclaimed Khal as he tilted his gaze back at Bazz.

“Exactly! A Blacksmith must organize everything around him in a perfect manner and care for each of his tools and item like it’s his most sacred treasure! And why is that?” asked Bazz and smiled, “Because of Essence Bursts.”

“Essence Bursts?” asked Khal as he knitted his brows together as he never heard such a definition before.

“Yes, Essence Bursts. Essence Bursts are occasions where the piece of metal you refine erupts with great power causing your proximity to be affected. So if your surroundings are not organized and clean as I just mentioned, if an Essence Burst occurs you can easily find yourself smashed by a hammer in the head!”

“Understood.” nodded Khal immediately, realizing the huge weight behind the first rule.

“Perfect, then basic rule number two! You must know the quality of your iron before you forge and try to refine or temper,” said Bazz calmly and took out a huge piece of paper that was filled with charts and words next and under each other.

“Each metal you try to forge is categorized into different quality: Low, Middle, High, and Supreme Quality. Each material that differs in quality holds varied amounts of Soul Threads in them and also the Tier they can reach in the end differs too.”

“For example, the Star Steel you just tempered. It is categorized as a High-quality material because it has the potential to reach the World Tier after pulling its Life Essence out.”

“World Tier? Life Essence? What exactly are those?” asked Khal curiously after hearing the new terms from Bazz.

“Okay, then let me put it simply.” said Bazz calmly and put his finger on the paper before him while explaining, “Materials can be classified into Tiers depending on if they were perfectly refined or tempered. Low-quality materials that were perfectly refined are called Core Tier, but if they were perfectly tempered, meaning their Soul Essence were formed, then they are named as Vessel Tier. The same goes for the remaining 3 quality materials too; Middle-quality is Refined and Flawless Tier, High-quality is Legendary and World Tier while Supreme-quality is Heavenly and Celestial Tier.”

“I see then what about that Life Essence you have just mentioned,” asked Khal immediately after Bazz stopped talking.

“Soul Essence, Spirit Essence, Life Essence and lastly the legendary God Essence. Each Essence appears only after perfect tempering but it’s also important what kind of material was tempered. As I just told you, materials’ quality decides what Tier it can reach, so for instance, a Low-quality material can form its Soul Essence, only reaching the Vessel Tier while a High-quality material can and must form all the first three Essences except the God Essence to reach the World Tier; as in fact, only a Supreme-quality material has the potential to form its God Essence and reach the Celestial Tier after perfect tempering.”

“I somewhat get it. So after I refine and temper a Middle-quality material for the first time and pull its Soul Essence out, I can refine and temper it once again to pull its Spirit Essence out, right?” asked Khal as he touched his chin.

“Well, something like that yes, but Soul Essence Tempering is vastly distinct than Soul Thread Tempering; the difference between the two is like the distance between heaven and earth!”

“I see…” nodded Khal as he closed his eyes.

If he could understand it clearly and also as he could saw it right on the paper before him, there were several processes a blacksmith must know.

The most basic one is the Soul Thread Tempering that makes the material form its Soul Essence. After that comes the Soul Essence Tempering process that helps the material, which was above the Low-quality, to form its Spirit Essence. If the material was above the Middle-quality and formed the Spirit Essence, one can use Spirit Essence Tempering to form the material’s Life Essence. And if the Life Essence was formed too while the material was also a Supreme-quality one, through Life Essence Tempering, forming the legendary God Essence could be also possible; but naturally achieving that was as hard as finding a strand of hair in the middle of hay!

“Each process is harder than the other one. Even a simple Soul Essence forming with my Creation Mode seemed hard enough so how difficult could the other ones be?” thought Khal as he pondered in silence.

Naturally, Bazz knew what Khal was currently thinking of and that is why he patted him on the shoulder while laughing, “Haha, but don’t worry even for a second. With me here, let alone Spirit Essence, you will be able to learn how to form a High-quality material’s Life Essence! Of course, only through blood sweating hard work, and with unshakable diligence!”

Khal upon hearing what Bazz said could only smile wryly and nod as a reply.

“Well then, now that I have told you these two important rules, let’s begin your lecture!” exclaimed Bazz suddenly and took out a rod from below the desk on his side, “Refine this piece of rod into a chunk of metal for me with whatever method you seem right!”