Five hours passed in the blink of an eye and the tall muscular woman, who came looking for Taylor, found the young man on the ground, semi-conscious and writhing in pain.
He was holding his head that felt like bursting apart and grit his teeth enduring the pain as if his life depended on it.
A bunch of Ufnir Iron bars were nearly arranged next to each other on the metal table.
Bertha took only a glance at them before she focused on trying to help Taylor, but that was more than enough for a well-seasoned blacksmith like her to determine the quality of the goods.
'So he is not a rookie or a Blacksmith apprentice without a Master? Is that why he was so agitated when I introduced myself…' Bertha wondered as she heaved the heavy body of the young man up to the chair she had pulled out.
Taylor's mind was still fuzzy but he had noticed that Bertha had entered the room.
His six hours were over and Taylor didn't know what to feel.
He was happy that it had been possible for him to turn all the Ufnir Iron ore in neatly shaped Ufnir Iron bars but it was also disappointing that the purification or the metal didn't work as planned.
Not a single Ufnir Iron bar had a high purity in his opinion, and their shape was also not perfect.
'I need to practice more…' Taylor could only think while making a grimace.
Bertha looked at his expression and thought that he was in pain.
"I can give you an ailment to treat your stiff muscles if you want," She offered but Taylor just shook his head.
"I'm not in pain," he just said while looking like he was about to die.
Both Bertha and Eris rolled their eyes in unison. Meanwhile, Taylor forced himself to get up from the chair he was put on.
He didn't feel comfortable sitting down and standing allowed him to feel his whole weight weighing down on him.
Somehow, this caused him to feel much better.
After a while, his head stopped buzzing and Taylor got a good grasp of his situation.
"I could have done better…" He clicked his tongue when his gaze landed on the metal bar, and Bertha's gaze followed suit.
It was obvious that Taylor didn't want his help. Bertha accepted this and she rather focused on the forged goods to give him pointers rather than trying to talk into Taylor.
"A total of seven Ufnir Iron bars weighing 5 kilograms each… their Shape is not good but that doesn't really matter since we don't focus on aesthetics but efficiency…and a purification of around 10% of each bar is pretty decent. I don't know which technique you used to purify the ingots but it seems to be working.
If you want, I can give you some advice to improve your form. The shape of the ingots clearly tells me that you are not yet an expert at maintaining a good form," Bertha spoke a lot, while inspecting the Ufnir Iron bars.
After a while, she turned her attention to Taylor, who seemed to be doing much better than before. His stance was firm and his breathing was regulated.
His spiritual power replenished faster the more it was drained. Taylor was not sure why that was the case or if that was even a thing, to begin with. He might just be imagining that his spiritual power replenished faster since the pain in his head and his exhaustion dispersed quickly.
"Who taught you the purification technique without teaching you the forging basics first? What a reckless idiot…" Bertha looked straight in Taylor's crimson eyes that looked calmly back at her.
"Nobody taught me," He replied calmly, which caused a deep frown to appear on Bertha's expression.
"You found a purification technique then, I guess?" She asked, trying to find out how Taylor learned how to purify ingots, but the young man shook his head.
"I was never taught anything related to blacksmithing, and I don't possess a purification technique either," Taylor clarified to prevent the muscular woman from continuing to annoy her.
He didn't like her attitude as a blacksmith but Bertha seemed like a good woman, and a knowledgeable blacksmith, which was obvious as a One-star Silver blacksmith.
"You're self-taught? And you…that makes no sense…" Bertha mumbled, holding one of the seven Ufnir Iron bars in her hand. The clarity of the bar's surface revealed the purity of the metal. Perfectly purified, the black metal would turn dark bluish, and Bertha could see a faint glimpse of a dark bluish touch on the bar she was holding.
A premonition flashed through Bertha's mind and she began to frown as she asked Taylor something very carefully,
"This is not your first time in a smithy, right? You've held a forging hammer before, and you are proficient at using all the machines inside here…right?"
Bertha had been certain that Taylor knew everything because he had sounded so confident. That was also why she had left him alone in the smithy, not even thinking that Taylor might need a basic guide through all the machines.
"Actually, no. It's the first time I hold a forging hammer, or that I use a forge. As I told before, I won't break anything, so don't worry too much!" Taylor quickly said, certain that Bertha was worried about him accidentally damaging something.
"Even if you were to break something accidentally, we could fix it…but you're fine, right?" Bertha asked, looking at Taylor to make sure that he was unscathed.
Working in a smithy was dangerous even if one knew what they were doing. However, if Taylor's words were true and he worked with a forge, or a forging hammer for the first time in his life, it was even more dangerous, especially since he had no idea how to use certain machines.
"Wait…if you say that it's your first time…You want me to believe that you were able to forge a total of seven Ufnir Iron bars that weigh approximately five kilograms each at your first forging attempt, without any previous knowledge…and they're all purified by around 10%??" Bertha sounded a bit agitated, which Taylor didn't really understand until she added something with a deep sigh,
"You know that lying won't help you in the long run, right? Trying to please me with your lies won't happen!"
Taylor frowned deeply when he heard Bertha's last part.
"Do I look like I care whether I can please you or not? I couldn't care less about that…. Sorry to say this, but I never asked for your help, did I? I answered all of your questions, without complaining, and I didn't even speak up when you inspected the Ufnir Iron bars, without asking me for permission. Are you really going to label me a liar, if you cannot even be certain that this was not my first time in a smithy?!" Taylor asked, glaring deep into the dark eyes of the One-star Silver blacksmith.
The bits of respect he had started to feel for the female blacksmith had been shredded in an instant, and he didn't to stay in her sight anymore.
If he was not taken seriously here, Taylor thought that his presence was not necessary here.
Maja had been a pleasant character, cheerful and bright but Bertha didn't take him seriously and she treated blacksmithing as a mere hobby, or so it felt to Taylor.
"Wait a moment…" Bertha suddenly said as she saw that Taylor was packing his stuff to take his leave. He was not a person, who could be easily stopped when he started.
"Please, wait a moment. If you listen to my explanation, you will understand why I doubted you!" Bertha tried to explain and Taylor halted in his tracks.
"Does that mean you believe my words and you don't think I'm a liar?" Taylor just asked, not allowing Bertha to start her explanation.
The blacksmith was not able to answer Taylor's question, which he took as a sign to leave.
"I can tell your answer…see you…" Taylor just said, walking toward the door of the smithy, where someone else had suddenly appeared.
"I believe you!"
[Author Note: Please comment how you like/dislike the novel! I accept every type of criticism]