Chapter 130: Achievement

"You can do fire magic?! How can that be?"

Atos said while admiring the ingot that had turned into some kind of glowing, liquid bar in Tristan's hands.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Tristan could see Master Laril herself was also looking at him with interest from afar for a bit before she returned back to her own work. 

The steel ingot in his hand kept on burning, and Tristan decided to put it back before it truly melted. Within seconds, the ingot hardened yet again.

When he touched the ingot, there was a distinct feeling he couldn't truly place, but it felt familiar. Once again, he used the Katra to focus on the cooled ingot, and now he gained a complete understanding of the steel structure.

Tristan grabbed another ingot and placed it on the forge. Now that he understood the structure, he could tell at what point the ingot would reach its maximum crystallization. Without further ado, he took out the ingot before pounding it into a thin piece and bending it.

It was his first bend, and it was understandable that it would not turn out perfect.

Tristan took another ingot, concentrated on it, and did the same steps. This time, he managed to do it right.

He has created his first finished steel horseshoe.

"Very good!" Atos praised. "Now, you just need to make 4 identical pairs with the perfect thinness."

"Of course!" Tristan answered, full of spirits that now he could see some progress.

Tristan took more ingots and started making more horseshoes. He repeated the process beginning from forging, pounding, to cooling the resulting item down. He did all that while fully submerged in the Katra.

At the end of the day, Tristan managed to create 8 sets.

"Not bad… Not bad at all, Tristan! I believe that you might have a knack for the art of blacksmithing." Atos said.

The next day, Tristan repeated the same thing. Before this, he was skeptical, and to be frank, having to forge horseshoes felt a little insulting. But, he couldn't complain about the results.

He realized that not only could he feel the item he's working on, but also the burning flames of the forge was very fascinating to see.

Tristan kept on pounding and pounding and bending, his mind empties from all other worries. All his energy and focus was directed towards the items in front of him.

At the end of the second day, Tristan has just managed to create his 50th set of horseshoes, which means 200 pieces of horseshoe in total.

During his total productivity, he was in such a trance as he was fully submerged in the perfection of his craft. 

Tang! Tang! Tang!

He pounded and pounded.

Suddenly he could feel something within himself had just unlocked, a notification came to his mind.

[You have reached the second stage of Katra]

"Yes! I made it! This is great!" Tristan smiled, unable to contain his excitement.

Finally, two days of doing nothing but making horseshoe had bore fruit.

While he was still cheering for his achievement, he realized Master Laril had called on him.

"Tristan come to my workshop!"

Tristan nodded. In this situation, his mind usually would just wander everywhere, but now, he found himself oddly focused. There was nothing but his blacksmithing lessons and the structure of the metals.

Inside the private workshop, Master Laril looked up and down intently before saying.

"I can tell you have reached your second stage Katra."

"Yes, Master. Thank you for the guidance." Tristan said respectfully.

"I did no such thing! This is all from your effort, Tristan"

"Yes, Master." Tristan nodded.

"I called you here because I need you to try something for me. I am actually interested in that magic you showed yesterday."

Master Laril walked to the back of the room, rummaged through her ingredients, and came back with a different ingot. The ingot has a similar silver color to steel, but there was a slight bluish glow that was visible in the ambient darkness of the place.

Tristan touched the metal, and he could feel the cold seeping through his finger.

"Tristan, try to melt this down with your hand this time."

He concentrated on the ingot, while swallowing his disappointment of being asked to do it again. Each time he cast the spell, he would have to pay in blood essence, and as for now, that is a very limited resource he would rather not waste.

[Heat Touch]

[25 Blood Essence consumed]

The mysterious, bluish glow started to turn yellow for a few seconds, before the yellow quickly died down only to be replaced back with blue.

Master Laril looked at the result with a slight disappointment. Tristan could tell he failed her test, whatever it is.

"What was it, Master? How can I help?"

"it's nothing… Ah, this material is a very special metal called Valerian steel. Due to it being naturally cold, it was not easy to forge because it would need high, intense flames continuously so it wouldn't set in before we could shape it. Apparently, your fire touch was still not strong enough,"

The master was silent for a few seconds before continuing.

"Its very convinient to have an elf that could do fire magic in here, and i have never seen a fire touch magic to be that powerful really… That aside, you will try to work on this steel next."

It was not Valerian steel, but it also seemed like a luxurious item. The ingot has a primarily silvery color, with greenish streaks in some parts.

"This one is mithril, we are using this for our special enchanted weapons. Now, you can start working on this material."

Mithril looked rigid, more similar to a jewelry decoration than an ingot, but it was actually much stronger than the previous steel, a new challenge that he was ready to accept.

This particular metal also seems to be very hard even after being heated to its maximum crystallization. This forced Tristan to pound as hard as he could. Fortunately, he has his 200 battle power helping him.

TANG! TANG! TANG!

The heavy pounding Tristan showed attracted the attention of the other apprentice blacksmiths. His power was matched by no one save for the master herself.

The second day passed, and the third day rolled in. Elder Anmar came by to check on Tristan, but before he could say anything, master Laril threw the elder out, not even allowing him to see Tristan.

"Just tell the queen that Tristan is now in my care!"

Just like that, Tristan became an irreplaceable figure in the Vanyar elven blacksmith.