Capítulo 4: Absolute Sword Dao
Finn blinked and his surroundings changed.
Hot air clung to him, sweat poured down from his body without restraint, and a constant echo of metal striking against metal reached his ear.
He was standing in a smithy.
The place screamed it was the starting point of a blacksmith class.
Why was he here?
Dammit.
His class was a bug.
"Newbie! Stop gawking and get started!"
A thunder-like voice rattled his eardrums.
The stout man, holding a red hot metal with tongs, glared at him.
A screen appeared before Finn.
[Tutorial Quest: Forge a sword with Blacksmith Khan's help]
[Reward: Blacksmith Khan's tutelage]
He read the quest.
"Be quick, newbie! Or I'll throw you out!"
"Yes!"
Finn jogged to the stout man who looked like a dwarf.
The heat intensity increased as he stood next to the forge.
He, being an amateur, knew nothing about weapon smithing.
"Grab the hammer and start hammering!"
"Got it."
He picked the hammer placed next to the anvil and struck the hot metal.
Bright sparks flew.
The metal, already bright orange in color after heating, became brighter for a moment.
It was malleable.
The force of the hammer changed its shape.
Finn noted.
However, he still did not know what he was doing.
'If it's a tutorial quest, it should be easy to do,' he thought as he continued hammering.
The metal began to flatten and stretch out.
Suddenly, the dwarf shouted.
"What are you doing!? Don't just stretch it out in all directions! We are making a sword, not a plate!"
"O-okay."
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The noise of hammering continued.
Finn was feeling tired.
It was not easy to use a hammer and apply just the right amount of force to make sure the metal did not break.
'I can't stop here! If I can learn blacksmithing, I can sell weapons and earn money!'
He hammered without rest.
Just when the metal started to take a proper shape, the dwarf hollered.
"Stop!" He picked the metal with tongs. "You are worse than a dimwit, newbie. You wasted the metal!"
Finn became nervous.
Would the dwarf tell him he failed the quest and to leave?
"Malakas! You have only two chances left! If you don't make a proper sword, I'm throwing you out!"
The dwarf placed the metal back into the forge and turned on the heat.
The flames inside flared.
After putting in more scrap metals, he began the reheating process.
The dwarf looked serious.
He turned to Finn.
"Stop thinking about useless things, newbie. Don't be distracted or you'll just fail again."
He added.
"When you are smithing, the only things present in your world should be your hammer and the metal."
The dwarf took out the metal with a pair of tongs and held it above the anvil.
Finn grabbed the hammer.
He thought about the dwarf's words.
'Don't think about useless things.'
Finn calmed him breathing and exhaled.
He decided to let go of his worries for a moment and focus on hammering.
Clang!
Clang!
The metal was brittle after mixing it with other pieces.
He struck carefully and began to give it the shape of a sword.
After doing it once, he knew how he should do better than before.
He thought about the weapon he was creating.
A sword.
It had to be sharp.
It must not break easily.
The length should not be too long or too short.
He contemplated.
What made a sword a perfect sword?
Thinking along those lines, he hammered the metal to fit the image of a perfect sword.
"Stop!"
The dwarf's words snapped him out of the daze.
"You've failed."
The dwarf's expression softened.
"But it was a good try."
He reheated the metal again, so Finn could undergo his third and last try.
Unlike him, Finn was not as carefree.
Third try.
While he had three tries, in truth, he had only two tries.
The metal would be more brittle this time.
It would break easily.
He, an amateur, could not make a sword with it.
Suddenly, he noticed a blue screen in the corner of his eyes.
When he focused on it, the screen enlarged.
[Your understanding of the sword has increased, Absolute Sword Dao +1%; +50% damage when using a sword to attack.]
The damage increase was nice.
But his focus was on the first part of the system message.
"Understanding of the sword?"
When he was smithing, he thought about what made a sword the perfect sword.
Doing so helped him increase the quality of the process.
He knew nothing about sword smithing an hour ago.
But now he could roughly give the metal the shape of the sword.
Could an amateur grow so fast?
Even the dwarf was satisfied this time.
So…
He had to increase his understanding.
The understanding was reflected through the percentage of Absolute Sword Dao.
As long as his Absolute Sword Dao's percentage increased, he would have an easier time forging a sword.
"Let's try it again."
"Good! That's the spirit!"
The dwarf held the metal with tongs and smirked.
Finn began hammering.
Clang! Clang!
Finn stretched the metal to form a blade.
He was careful to maintain the shape.
In his mind, he tried to understand a perfect sword.
A sharp blade.
An even surface.
A strong sword.
Balanced sides…
There were countless factors to be considered.
He hammered, trying to shape the metal into his perfect blade.
His mind was fully focused.
He did not notice the dwarf or the dwarf's words.
Only the sword and his hammer existed in his mind.
A sword was shaped out of the metal.
It was good enough to be called a 'sword'.
But not yet.
It wasn't a perfect sword.
It was not Absolute.
He hammered.
He reviewed the image of the perfect sword in his mind.
He compared it to the sword in front of him.
He saw the imperfections.
He hammered again.
The tiredness and fatigue disappeared. He did not feel hot from the flames of the forge. His wrist no longer hurt from continuous hammering.
He was, in fact, tired, fatigued, covered in sweat, and his wrists were swollen.
But.
They were distractions that did not exist in his world.
Only the sword and the hammer did.
The sword was reaching the Absolute.
The closer it was to the state of perfection, the harder it became to correct its imperfections.
A bit more.
He would remove the imperfections.
He would reach the Absolute.
Estado de energía semanal
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