Blacksmith: The Tempering Begins With One’s Flesh - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The City of Grimm

Lin Feng’s next few days returned to normal.

Aside from helping the city defense corp to slow down the advance of the beast tide, he used the time to try and reinforce his heart with Holy Flame.

The heart was the crucial key to the human body’s blood circulation. As he reinforced his heart, even though he did not make much progress each time, Lin Feng could still feel the blood and energy in his body slowly growing stronger.

These subtle changes and improvements left him overjoyed.

As time passed, though, Lin Feng gradually noticed that the materials he could buy in Whitestar no longer had too much of an effect on his heart.

Even if he used up a great amount of metal, after a few rounds of tempering, he realized that low-quality materials could not improve his heart very much anymore.

After all, Whitestar was just a city on the border of the empire. The auction here could only produce something halfway decent once or twice a year.

He mused it over and finally came to a decision.

“Master? You’re leaving the smithy to me??”

Brent stood in front of Lin Feng, mouth agape. His expression was shared by Captain Acht, who was here to give them the next round of weekly orders from the city defense corp.

“That’s right…”

Lin Feng nodded. He took down a steel sword that Brent had forged all by himself from a rack and showed it to Acht, saying,

“Captain Acht, lately I’ve prepared a Grade-2 weapon for every high-ranking officer in the city defense corp and regional guard.

“This is a steel sword my apprentice made. You can see for yourself what his skills are like.”

Acht wanted to say more, but Lin Feng looked like his mind was set, so all the vice captain could do was sigh.

When he accepted the steel sword from Brent and caressed it, though, his expression instantly changed.

When he flicked the blade with his finger, it sang loud and clear.

Acht then swung it through the air in the smithy before finally putting the sword down on the forging table.

“As expected of your apprentice, Master Lin Feng!

“The sword may be Grade-1 in quality, but it is exceptionally sturdy.

“The blade is broad and tough. If I hold it with both hands to block a blow, I’m pretty sure it will be quite efficient.

“At the same time, the blade looks thin but the metal is very compact after all that forging. Even if it goes up against a demonic beast’s claws or fangs, it will probably outlast a regular weapon by quite a while!”

Acht praised the sword to the heavens and then happily resheathed it, patting Brent on the shoulder.

“In that case, I’m happy to leave Whitestar’s orders to Brent.”

Lin Feng smiled with satisfaction to hear that.

Over the past month, he had repeatedly taught Brent everything about forging and crafting.

Smithing was a field of considerable depth. Thankfully, Brent was quite smart himself. He seemed to have a natural talent for the art.

Under Lin Feng’s tutelage, Brent’s forgery skills improved by the day. Just yesterday, the boy began forging this sword, but the results took even Lin Feng by surprise.

“Did you hear that, Brent?

“With your current skills, even I can’t give you too much more advice and help at this stage.

“After this, you should stay put here in Whitestar. Once you complete the tenth order Captain Acht gives you, I’ll teach you Grade-2 smithing techniques.”

Acht’s encouragement and Lin Feng’s acknowledgement left Brent standing with his back straight as an arrow.

Next, Lin Feng gave Acht a few more suggestions regarding Whitestar’s city defenses. Over the past month, the defensive set-up Lin Feng provided the city was enough to arm Whitestar with six layers of protection, three on the outside and three on the inside.

Forget a low-grade beast tide, even a team led by a Grade-4 demonic beast would face some difficulties breaking through these defenses now.

After so long, the humans realized that their main problem was they could not predict when the beasts would attack, so they gradually built up a complicated defense system.

This way, they would have plenty of time to either launch a counterattack or stage a retreat.

When he saw that everything was in place, Lin Feng nodded to himself.

He packed light. After much hesitation, he decided to bring only some dry rations, some money, and the forging hammer he had been using for decades.

After the citizens of Whitestar heard that Lin Feng was leaving, they somehow managed to find out exactly when he was departing too.

That day, the usually busy streets of Whitestar looked unnaturally empty because most of the citizens were gathered at the city gates to see Lin Feng off.

Unlike Whitestar, the city of Grimm was closer to the center of the continent. As such, it was both more financially developed and populated than the border cities Lin Feng used to live in.

Lin Feng hired an old horse and took about a week at a leisurely pace before finally arriving at the Grimm city gates.

The wall was made of opal and extremely opulent. When Lin Feng looked up for a glance, he saw that even the normal soldiers guarding the city were equipped with Grade-2 weapons.

The passersby seemed to emit all sorts of magical energy too, and every so often he heard a loud clash of weapons.

As expected of a major city, Grimm was something else.

Lin Feng brought the old horse to the stables and then clapped his hands together, taking in his surroundings.

At first, he just looked around himself and saw countless stores lining the cobbled streets.

Compared to the usual Grimm locals walking down the road, Lin Feng suddenly felt that his rags looked especially cheap and worn.

He followed the cobbled path for a while, following the signs until he entered another street even busier than the one before.

This was Grimm’s true shopping street.

Right now, Lin Feng’s topmost priority was to find a rare ore to complete the reinforcement of his heart.

Judging by his previous progress, he should be able to complete reinforcing a fifth of his heart in a month, if he only used Grade-2 metal and the Holy Flame for his refining.

As for the other four fifths, the Holy Flame alone probably would not be able to cut it. He would need a flame of a different trait and more ore to pull it off.

With that in mind, Lin Feng headed to a building in the busy city center. The building looked extremely exorbitant, its crystal roof glistening brightly.

Many passersby would stop here.

Lin Feng looked at it and immediately recognized the symbol written on this palace-like building.

That was the mark of an auction hall.