Bang!

  Rey's hammer fell on the sword that Grixi had asked him to make. 'Asked' was a very nice word for it. It was more like he was screaming like a cockerel who was trying to prove that his balls had dropped.

  "Harder!" cried Grixi.

  Bang!

  Rey smashed his hammer down even harder.

  "Harder!" Grixi screeched.

  BANG!

  Rey's whole arm shook with the vibration from the blow. He was sure that he had bent the sword in the wrong direction. It was meant to be a curved blade, but as it sat now, it looked like a wobbly piece of scrap metal, which was probably what demons constituted as swords.

  "HARDER!" This time, Grixi was so loud that Rey was sure that he must've woken up the dead. The Sniffers that he had killed were walking around as zombies by now, with erect tools in their hands.

  "I am hitting it harder," Rey shot back. "It's all bent now."

  "It's bent because you're not doing it right," Grixi snapped.

  "And whose fault is that?"

  "Yours, you fucking slacker. If it were a real demon, they would've been a Master by now."

  "Then why aren't you?"

  "Fuck you." Grixi picked up his leather coat, threw it over his shoulders, and left without another word.

  "Hit a nerve, did I?" Rey shouted at his back, but didn't receive any snarky comment in return. It was their daily routine. Grixi would scream at him about doing something wrong. Rey would snap at him, and they would go a few rounds back and forth, and then the demon would leave to get shit-faced and wouldn't return for a few hours, until he could barely slur his own name.

  Rey sighed and wondered if he was wasting his time here for the fiftieth time. Neriath was probably fucking with him when he sent him here, or maybe he had some grudge against Grixi, so he had sent Rey to annoy his life, while annoying Rey as well, since he was a human.

  "Argh!" Rey slammed the hammer down on his sword hard enough that it genuinely looked like scrap metal. He cried out in frustration. He would need to fix that as well.

  "Fuck my beautiful face."

  There was more work on his plate now. He sighed, put his back to the wall, and slid down. It had been almost four days since his fight with the Sniffers, and he hadn't taken a single step forward in his Blacksmith profession. The best thing was that he didn't even know how to progress in his profession. Thanks to his mentor, the proud founder of the Teach Nothing academy, he was stuck in place.

  He rested his head on the wall. If there was a 'touch stuff, become genius' skill, he'd have slammed that button so fast that he'd leave a handprint on the Talents Menu itself. After all, he had a free Talent Point to spend anyway.

  Since he had nothing to do, he opened up his Talents menu to spend that free Talent Point. No new Gravity skill had opened up for him, which was disheartening, but that meant he could try for something else. After all, skills related to his Element weren't the only thing he could do.

  He opened the Core section of his Talents and found the skill he was looking for. He had half a mind to take the skill that would lower the consumption of his Mana. It was called Concentrated Mana, but as it turned out, that skill was locked until he reached the C-Tier. So he continued down the list; most skills were locked, and the ones that weren't, he wasn't interested in until he found one that caught his eye.

  [Mind's Edge: This skill heightens your focus to razor precision, accelerating comprehension and analysis. With it, the world shows its patterns—enemy strikes reveal flaws, puzzles unravel, and even the subtlest details become clear. Mind's Edge not only speeds up learning but also enhances combat awareness, letting you adapt in the moment with near-inhuman clarity. Sharpen your thoughts and cut through the chaos.]

  Rey rubbed his chin. Well, slap my ass and call me impressed-ish.

  He shrugged. After all, he had wasted enough Talent Points on things that he didn't end up using at all. This seemed like something that could be handy. So, he spent the point and acquired Mind's Edge.

  The skill was a Passive skill, thankfully, and ended up in his Passive Skills section.

  He stood and lifted his hammer.

  "Okay, let's see what you can do," Rey said out loud.

  The effect was almost immediate. With each strike of the hammer, he felt his skill increasing. His hand-eye coordination got better. He just had to make a mistake once for his mind to learn not to do it again. He knew immediately where to strike the metal to fix the bends.

  It was terrific, like watching chaos finally do something right.

  It wasn't like he had gotten smarter all of a sudden. He was a better analyzer. He knew not to repeat his mistakes. What to do and what not to do. He could see the patterns more clearly. He could only imagine how this would play in combat, and he couldn't wait to try.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  It took him about two hours to fix the sword that he had bent in his frustration. The next sword was even faster. He could analyze his blacksmith skills even better with his new skill. He worked the forge faster and with more efficiency. It looked like an invisible cosmic intern was helping him, except it was just him being absurdly competent for once. He was working more efficiently, making more correct guesses, but soon the guesses became accurate predictions. It was like he had gained a third eye that let him see and do things correctly.

  He wiped the sweat off his brow. Is that what it feels like to be gifted?

  It certainly felt like so. He was banging on his third sword when the demon blacksmith sauntered in, smelling of booze and piss. His eyes were drooping, and he had an empty bottle in his hand. He leaned against the door to the forge, watching Rey work. Either he was so enamored by Rey's work that he forgot how to form words, or he was so drunk that he was barely awake.

  Rey didn't care which one it was. He was having too much fun. It finally felt like he was on his way towards becoming a blacksmith.

  By the time he finally tired and sat down to take a breather, he had fixed the dents and bends off the four swords, polished two more, and put one in the cast, which was on its way to cooling.

  He drank deep from his waterskin. Apparently, water was more expensive than alcohol in this far-off town, but the barkeep needed a steady supply for something. Rey didn't bother to ask.

  Grixi groaned as he sauntered into the forge. "How much of my materials did you manage to ruin this time?"

  "Not a single one, hole of ass. Take a look before you foul the air with your shit breath. Actually, before you do that, go brush your teeth."

  He paused halfway as he was rubbing his eyes when he saw Rey's handiwork. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. He didn't need to say anything for Rey to know that he had done good work.

  "You better shut that trap before you swallow a bug, unless you enjoy that kind of shit, then keep it wide open," Rey said.

  Grixi ignored that comment as he picked up the sword for inspection. "Who did you steal this stuff from?"

  "The fuck do you mean?" Rey snapped. "I fixed all of this stuff myself. Sorry, let me correct myself, I fixed all your mistakes. You're welcome."

  "Bullshit!" Grixi dropped the sword on the table and picked another. This one Rey had polished himself. "No fucking way you did this all in one night. When I left, you barely knew where to strike the hammer. You were bending swords as if you wanted to make a pitchfork."

  Rey shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a fast learner."

  Grixi looked at him for a moment longer, trying to discern the truth from his words. Then dropped the sword back on the table. He walked over to the barrel that held all his shitty batch of swords. He picked up the shittiest looking sword and threw it at Rey.

  "Fix this one and I might believe you," Grixi said.

  He had expected Rey to bitch about giving him such a shitty sword. If it were the Rey from before last night, then he would've complained until Grixi's ears bled, but now all he saw was a challenge.

  He shrugged. "Sure, Your Horny-ness."

  Then he got to work. He heated the blade and started hammering away. Once he was satisfied with his work, he set to grinding the blade until all the rust was gone. Then, he sharpened it and polished the blade until even he was surprised by the end result.

  The whole ordeal took him a few hours, but when he was done, he tossed the blade at a sleeping Grixi. Unfortunately, the fat demon was unharmed, but he still cursed and danced around like a stripper without a pole.

  "How's that?" Rey asked, once he had stopped jumping around.

  "You nearly fucking killed me."

  "Less whining, more praising. I don't have all day."

  "You did not—"

  Rey cut him off. "Don't you dare say that I cheated or it ain't the same sword. I'll skewer you through with it to show you just how good a job I did."

  He stared at the shiny blade in his hand as if it were Excalibur. "Damn…" he whispered.

  Rey cupped a hand over his ear. "What was that?"

  "I said, it's fine. At this rate, you might get to the Novice rank in a few years," Grixi replied.

  "The fuck?" Rey raised an eyebrow. "Stop being jealous, you old fart, and give it to me true."

  "I ain't lying, brat." He tossed the blade to him. "Really look at the blade."

  Rey got the meaning behind the words and used Identify on the sword.

  [Iron Sword (Worn) – A curved weapon of inferior quality with a somewhat rusted Iron blade. It will do negligible damage to D Tier enemies and may break easily if not repaired regularly. Its damage will increase with higher Strength & Dexterity.]

  Rey was stumped. And here I thought I would become a Master by the end of the week.

  He checked the other swords he had worked on, and they all said the same thing. The best he could do was Worn quality weapons. It was like someone had just banged on his marbles with the same hammer and made him squeal.

  "How?" Rey asked. "I thought I was getting better."

  "Yer just not good enough," Grixi said. "Once you become a Novice, then your best quality stuff will be Common. Once you become a Journeyman like me, then you can make Uncommon or Exceptional quality blades."

  "But I thought my stuff was perfect?" Rey looked at this blade, and he saw the imperfections glaring at him. It was like his eyes had only seen what they wanted to see. The blade was still rusted. Though not as bad as the junk that Zalathar had handed it to him, but it was nothing great either.

  "Aw, don't cry, little baby," Grixi said.

  Rey gave him a blank look. "Let me guess, amateurs can only work with Iron."

  "Took you long enough to figure that one out. Once you become a Novice, then you can work with Steel, and a Journeyman can start working with Silver."

  "And Masters?" Rey asked.

  "Gold." His eyes had a hungry gleam.

  Rey cocked his head to the side. "What happens if an Amateur starts to work with the higher metals?"

  "What do you think happens?" Grixi asked.

  "He ends up ruining it…"

  "Oh wow, you are a genius, after all."

  Rey's nostrils flared. "Then tell me, when do I become a Novice?"

  "When you reach the D-Tier. The D-Tier unlocks the Journeyman Rank as well. Though you have to reach the C-Tier to reach the Master Rank and beyond." He slammed his fist down on the table, making all the tools and blades jump. "I was just on the cusp of becoming a Master when Zalathar's fucking lapdog lowered everyone down to the E-Tier permanently."

  "Then how did you reach the D-Tier? As a matter of fact, how did that fucking triclops?"

  Rey picked up his hammer and got back to work.