Blacksmith: The Tempering Begins With One’s Flesh - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Sieving Out The Best From The Rest

Although blacksmiths had a discount, Lin Feng still chose to stay for only one night.

Even the cheapest room in this hotel cost at least ten gold pieces. It truly was a luxury most could not afford.

After all, a young soldier in Whitestar’s city defense corp only earned four gold pieces a week.

Ten gold pieces was what some normal soldiers earned in half a year.

Lin Feng paid the money with some reluctance and then moved his things into the room.

He had to admit, though, the room was worth the money. A mere inn in Grimm was fancier than any house he had seen in Whitewing.

As he cast his eye around the room, he saw the large bed covered in beast fur and a shower powered by magic, making its magical influence aptly evident.

Lin Feng took off his tattered hemp clothing and properly washed himself before putting on the smith’s uniform he had gotten from the Smiths’ Association.

He then looked at himself in the mirror. After putting on the simple and smart uniform, he looked much younger than before.

He was already in his seventies or eighties, so his life should be slowly seeping away now.

Thankfully, he had the Holy Flame, so he could borrow its life energy to make himself look much younger.

After all that tempering he had done to his flesh and bone, Lin Feng looked at himself in the mirror. Now that he was well-groomed and well-dressed, he could actually see shades of his younger self in his reflection.

“Haha…

“Wow, I almost look the same age as Andera, when he’s only forty or fifty.”

Lin Feng chuckled to himself and got into bed, soon falling fast asleep.

He had not gotten any proper rest for the last fortnight, repeating an endless and mundane cycle of accepting commissions, completing them in the workshop, and taking on a new job every single day.

Now that he could finally relax and sleep on a soft bed, Lin Feng even felt like he was in heaven for a second there.

He slept exceptionally soundly that night, and an entire day had passed by the time he woke up.

Lin Feng stretched and washed his face, finally taking up his equipment again and heading back to the Smiths’ Association.

However, what he did not expect was to be greeted by an inn attendant the moment he walked down the stairs. The attendant bowed at him and said,

“Excuse me, would you happen to be Master Lin Feng?”

Lin Feng nodded in confusion.

The attendant immediately burst into a smile and bowed again, saying,

“Master Lin Feng, a man named Andera paid for your room for the next seven days this morning. Oh, and he gave us a letter to pass to you.”

The attendant pulled out a neatly-folded piece of paper from his pocket.

Lin Feng took the letter and skimmed through it.

Hmm, it was from Andera, after all.

He seemed to know that Lin Feng was going to join the upcoming Smithing Tournament, so this was his way of greeting Lin Feng in advance.

“It seems like Master Andera knows about the Smithing Tournament, but he has something else to handle at the time, so he is unable to participate…”

Lin Feng nodded to himself.

In his letter, Andera said that he would come to this inn after the tournament to ask Lin Feng for advice about something.

“…”

After Lin Feng read the letter, he shook his head rather helplessly.

Andera had gone all the way to pay for his lodging, so he should not decline.

In that case, Lin Feng just put his luggage back into the room he had stayed in and headed to the Smiths’ Association alone.

Two days passed, and it was the day of the tournament.

The Smiths’ Association was quite crowded on a regular today, and it was practically packed to the brim today.

Lin Feng arrived in the morning, just like the Smiths’ Association vice president had told him to.

He then took his registration number and went into the workshop.

The tournament rules were extremely easy to understand. Participants just had to make a good weapon within the allocated time, and then the judges would appraise their products and determine the winner.

Apparently, there were at least a hundred smiths participating in this tournament.

Even Lin Feng was taken aback by that number.

It was usually rare to see even one blacksmith on the streets, so he never expected to see so many gathered here in one place today.

It honestly felt strange, as though these smiths had all appeared out of thin air.

Three-Star blacksmiths were minor superstars in their own right, but Grimm’s Smiths’ Association managed to gather several dozen of them for a simple competition.

Lin Feng had to admire that. The world really was bigger than he knew.

Upon entering the workshop, Lin Feng unfolded the participant sheet the examiner had given him earlier.

He raised an eyebrow.

The sheet stated the requirements that Lin Feng had to meet with his forging for this contest.

He merely glanced at it before setting it aside.

All the material he would need was already piled up in a corner of the workshop. Lin Feng touched a piece of crystal, sparkling and radiating a cold air, as he smiled to himself. With a flick of his wrist, he threw the ore into the forge.

Soon after that, Lin Feng grabbed the shovel and threw all the ore here into the forge.

His aim was to make an ice-type magical weapon.

The higher the quality of the weapon, the better, of course. However, he had to bear the time limit in mind.

He had four hours for this contest.

It had to be said that a four-hour time limit was truly quite difficult for a smith.

After all, it usually took a long time to clear the impurities out of a high-grade weapon’s ores, or to properly temper the weapon so that it was suitably agile or sturdy.

As such, blacksmiths who were Grade-3 and above often took an entire day to forge a weapon.

Then again, that was for normal blacksmiths.

Lin Feng’s eyes gleamed with a pure white light, and he placed his hand on the forge. After a few moments, a bright white flame lit up in the forge.

The pile of ore inside began to melt at a visible pace.

As he swung the hammer they had prepared for him in advance, Lin Feng frowned slightly.

Yes, he still preferred his own hammer.

However, that did not mean he could not forge anything without it.

Once the Holy Flame had refined the ore as much as possible, he poured the remnants out of the forge and into a mold.

As he tempered the blade with his forging hammer, the clanging of metal reverberated throughout the room.

Two hours later, Lin Feng’s workshop door suddenly flew open.

He was already holding a new longsword that radiated cold.