Emperors War 47 Becoming A Novice Blacksmith

After a significant amount of thought Aker decided that he should focus on both long term and short-term capabilities. The most critical skill to help him increase his current combat fighting as he examined his strength and weaknesses would be agility, so he wanted to focus on that skill next. He also needed to be able to heal up if he was injured as being able to stay healthy would be critical to his success in successive battle.

Based on Aker's understanding the two skills that would help him advance the most over time would be comprehension and mana. Currently his comprehension was his highest skill at five however based on Aker's growth he understood a remarkable portion of it was due to the comprehension skill.

As he considered his skills Aker finally decided... and called out as he focused on agility "agility" "agility" two times in a row.

Aker's Agility skill number changed from two to four. Next Aker called out "vitality" as he focused on vitality increasing his vitality by one point to three. Following vitality Aker called out "comprehension" and he watched as the number changed from five to six. Finally, after heavy thought "mana" leaked from Akers lips twice as he still struggled with allocating points to it. Mana just as the others had done had the skill changing from two to four. Each time Aker decided to allocate skill points to mana he struggled with his decision as there were no immediate gains. There was an overwhelming pressure while in The Pit's to see immediate improvement. The Mana skill didn't provide for immediate relief of that pressure, however, Aker realized that if he was truly ever going to get revenge his mana skill would play an integral role.

Aker's Peerless Body was now Level 6 with the following skills....

Comprehension 6

Vitality 3

Agility 4

Strength 4

Mana 4

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After allocating his skill points Aker felt he could finally relax after a long and tough day. He had fought and defeated his first magic beast having won a grueling and tough battle.

Waking up the next day Aker who was still sore but had healed up more than he antic.i.p.ated grabbed his sword and began working through his training sets. As he slashed and stabbed his sword, he couldn't help but feel that it was taking him more effort than usual. After his fight with the Fire Ape Aker was now able to visualize against more than just a Kulga. After raising his comprehension Aker felt it was just slightly easier to visualize a battle against the Fire Ape.

Aker bounced off the walls as he attacked the Fire Ape, he aimed for its ankles, knees and other exposed areas which were not covered by the armor. As he visualized his battle, he maintained his distance staying within half a meter and focused on dodging and antic.i.p.ating the Fire Apes attacks. As he practiced his sets Aker felt his sword was for the first time truly growing and was becoming less and less awkward to swing and defend with. Up to this point Aker had vastly preferred the knife, today's practice was the first time Aker felt comfortable with a sword in hand.

Despite the ma.s.sive size difference between Aker and the Fire Ape one other major detail stuck out to Aker. The Fire Ape seemed to have armor that protected its vital organs whereas Aker only had armor that protected his forearms and shins.

As Aker looked down at his chest, he couldn't help but think 'Perhaps it's time to ask Master Mavis for some type of body armor.'

After Aker was tossed through the air when he slammed against the ground it had knocked the wind out of him and left him reeling. While slamming against the ground would always hurt, having body armor would have lessened the impact by more than half. Not to mention the defensive gain he would receive from wearing the armor itself. The only clear drawback would be the weight which would in theory slow him down.

As Aker finished his one hundredth set it felt as if though he had done one hundred seventy-five sets or more. Every movement he made it seemed he was fighting against the world itself to complete. After finishing one hundred sets Aker had a fairly decent guess of why it felt so much harder today.

At first, he had related the heavy feeling while practicing with his sword to his injuries from his fight yesterday. After running through a half dozen sets, he could feel his body loosen up and most of the pain subsided. Despite the pain diminishing the level of effort seemed to be getting greater and greater, there was only one reason for that...

"Master must have increased the gravity within the cell, he must have changed it from .25 more than normal to at least .5 of normal gravity." Aker mumbled to himself as he felt there was no other explanation.

"You're exactly right, this Master has increased the gravity within your cell to exactly .5 more than normal gravity. You had been moving around in that cell as if though it was no issue so while you were sleeping last night I went ahead and adjusted it. Further I'd like to see you taunt something such as a Fire Ape again after practicing hard with this extra burden." Vance was still very clearly irritated with Aker's taunt of the Fire Ape from the previous fight. As he was preparing to lecture Aker yesterday, he had pa.s.sed out and last night he wanted to let him get more rest so he didn't say anything. However, today this boy would fully receive Vance's onslaught.

"Master, I think I'm not quite ready for the .5 gravity increase, perhaps we should lower it back down to .25 until I get just a little stronger. I have already felt Master's sincerity and understand his lesson and this disciple won't commit such a heinous act such as mocking and teasing again." With an ever so slight smile full of mischief, Aker asked Vance as if though it was too much for him to bear. Aker knew that Vance would never change it and Vance knew Aker was taking this opportunity to tease his master, so neither said anything as Vance just turned and walked away ignoring Aker's question.

In the medic station Aker took care of all of the patients as he had been doing for the last couple of weeks. Since the first couple of days Fenton had completely disappeared from the medic station which disappointed Aker since he wanted to ask his Senior Brother questions about advanced organ surgeries. He was also having trouble understand Mythical Arts Medicine and felt that his Senior Brother might be able to provide guidance there as well. Little did Aker know that he had already far surpa.s.sed Fenton, and if before Fenton didn't show himself in front of Aker for fear that Dr. Life & Death might make him call Aker Senior Brother, now he avoided him because he couldn't bear Aker's growth.

Aker helped just a couple of patients while he was working the medic area. Based on what Aker could discern it appeared that the mornings seemed to be the slowest times for battles in The Pit because there seemed to rarely be patients coming in for treatment. Aker didn't know because no one had explained to him that it wasn't that the battles in the morning were slower, it was that when the prisoner's died in the arena they were taken out through a different gate. The fighters who fought in the morning tended to have a higher rate of death as their injures did not have as long to recover.

Since it wasn't overly busy Aker was answering questions for Kara as she was getting very close to mastering the basic anatomy book and was already reading in the Combat First Aid book.

Finishing up at the medic station Aker walked into the forge with his new found respect of blacksmithing. Rather than walk directly over to grab his hammer and tongs Aker first greeted "Let's work hard today Master Mavis".

After Aker finished his greeting, he walked directly over to grab his hammer and tongs before walking up to the forge.

"The fire needs more air; it's not burning hot enough." Aker called out as he put the tongs into the flame holding the ingot. As the flame kicked up and starting exuding more heat, "slow down just a little let's make the fire steady, we don't want it to get any hotter than this." As Mavis kept pumping the bellow at the same rate the fire was remaining consistent at the same size and temperature. Seeing the ingot turn a perfect scarlet red Aker pulled the ingot out and began pounding it on the anvil.

As Aker struck the hammer against the anvil both Mavis and Kara noticed the ever so slight rhythm that was singing out in the room. The hammer drew back and slammed forward over and over again and with each swing it was slowly developing a steady sound as the rhythm was beginning to congeal. For Mavis this was huge and he was so excited he wanted to do a dance. This rhythm was called Music of The Novice and was the first major indicator that a disciple had finally past the threshold of apprentice to novice blacksmith.

The other major indicator was that the apprentice was striking accurately at 25% while being able to do the different types of hammers. As Mavis watched Aker who seemed to be caught up in the sound of his own hammer, he saw Aker create smooth edges, do thin outs, and hammer divots into the metal. As Aker hammered the ingot he was focused on hitting the metal in many different ways, testing to find out what impact it would have on the metal as well as what sound it would make.

'Hahahahahahaha.....a genius, the boy is an absolute blacksmithing genius....' Mavis couldn't help but marvel at Aker. Without a word his eyes stayed focused on the ever-evolving Aker, Mavis would take in every blacksmithing change of the boy.

On the other side Kara just watched and listened as Aker's hammer continuously fell against the metal. The first day she had come into the blacksmith she didn't like it. The forge was hot, smelly and loud which were all the worst to her. After watching Aker work so hard she had come to find the forge bearable, but today as she listened to the sound of Aker's hammer, she couldn't help but enjoy her time here. She couldn't wait to see what type of sound Aker would come up with next.

While Mavis and Kara were both marveling at Aker, he was trapped in his thoughts. With each swing of his hammer, over and over again he would say to himself 'it's not right, the sound isn't right yet.'