Transmigrated as a Ghost

Chapter 136 - 135 The Learning Curve

After telling Marcus he needed to advance his skills at forging before he would take him as an apprentice, Thabon began walking away heading back to his own personal forge.

However, while Thabon was not going to personally teach Marcus right now, he had at least instructed his disciple Gurrom to show Marcus the basics.

Looking at Gurrom expectantly Marcus said, "So where do we start."

Gurrom sighed since he had been given some unexpected work he did not want to deal with, but the master's orders were absolute.

"The first thing we are going to do is have you watch me forge a sword and then you can try to emulate me afterwards. However, it is already late so you must be tired, why don't you come back tomorrow, and we can get started then."

Unfortunately for Gurrom who was trying to have the evening to himself, Marcus had already gotten engrossed in learning and was not going to stop any time soon unless he had to.

"No that is fine I really am not tired, please let me see how you would forge a sword."

Gurrom turning around could see the twinkle in Marcus's eyes and with a very deep groan, he beckoned Marcus to follow him towards his personal work room.

Wandering inside Marcus could see that Gurrom had a number of valuable pieces of equipment throughout the room.

Gurrom could see Marcus looking over everything inside his room and with a hint of pride said, "Impressive right, other than a few people like the master I have one of the best forge rooms in the kingdom. Now I am going to make an iron sword in its entirety so watch carefully."

Lighting up the furnace in his room that was made out some type of crimson metal Marcus could feel a rush of heat filling the room.

He watched as Gurrom began chanting a spell and within under a second said its name, "Control Flames."

Marcus saw as Gurrom cast the spell the flames inside the furnace began to collect into the center making it incredibly hot.

Gurrom with his bare hands then held the ingot of iron in the flames and it began to get visibly hot at an incredible rate.

Marcus could only stare in disbelief as Gurrom's arm seemed not to burn from the incredibly hot flames, and after only a few seconds he pulled out the ingot that was already glowing yellow.

Marcus was baffled, it had taken him minutes to get the ingot he had used up to the right temperature.

'I had never even thought of using magic in this way. With that much heat he can spend far more time shaping the metal than having to worry about keeping up its temperature.'

Marcus continued to watch as Gurrom went to work hammering away at the piece of iron with unbelievable speed and precision.

It took him only twenty minutes to get the iron ingot shaped into a blade that already looked far better than what it had taken Marcus hours to do.

Gurrom next went over to a certain device that he filled with mana and began grinding down the blade until it was to his satisfaction.

Once that was done, he placed the blade down and began working on the handle and guard.

It took him only another fifteen minutes to miraculously make the guard and handle which he quickly checked against the blade before adding a fuller to the blade.

Once that was done, he began etching a pattern into the blade, guard, and handle.

When he had completed that he quickly shaped an eagle headed pommel and attached it to the handle of the sword.

Looking it over Gurrom was satisfied with the quick teaching sword he had made and went to sharpen it on a special whetstone.

Marcus watched in amazement as Gurrom finished an iron sword that could go for a couple gold coins, in just an hour. Of course, if he had used a better material the same sword easily could have been worth hundreds of gold.

Handing the sword to Marcus Gurrom said, "This is the degree of skill some one at level forty-three and with a level five forging skill can accomplish. Now then you try and do it yourself. Ah but first."

Gurrom remembering something went over towards his desk and began digging around in it before coming over towards Marcus with a certain scroll.

Marcus taking the scroll and looking it over, saw that it was the tier two fire magic spell control flames.

Reading the contents of the scroll Marcus memorized the spells formation and stored it into his magic core before practicing the chant.

During this time Gurrom had been preparing materials for Marcus to practice with, and once Marcus was able to cast the spell in around four seconds, he figured he was ready.

Now Marcus could have just skipped the chanting but that would have at least made Gurrom suspicious if not out Marcus as a monster immediately.

Gritting his teeth Marcus turned on the furnace in Gurrom's room and cast the control flame spell and began practicing how to manipulate the temperature, size, and intensity of the flame.

Once he had spent a few dozen minutes getting used to his new spell, Marcus looked towards Gurrom who said, "You should be ready now to start your sword making practice again. Now then I have some work I need to do myself so I cannot watch over you the entire time, but if you get stuck on something and need my help feel free to ask."

Marcus nodded his head and picked up an ingot of iron with a pair of tongs since he did not have heat resistance like Gurrom and placed it into the furnace.

Using the flame control spell Marcus condensed the flames like Gurrom had, but accidently began melting the tongs he was using along with the ingot.

Frantic seeing his blunder Marcus yanked the iron ingot out too fast and some of the molten iron splashed onto him and began burning his skin.

Marcus let out a loud groan as he suppressed the pain of the molten iron running down his skin.

Gurrom seeing this ran over towards Marcus pulling out a minor healing potion, but Marcus just put his hand up and began ripping the iron that had already begun cooling off his skin.

Gurrom was astonished to see Marcus pull the molten iron off with ease and the fact that his skin began healing at a visible rate.

After just a minute Marcus' burns had already all but disappeared and Gurrom said, "I am surprised, you have regeneration skill. Even though it does not seem to be a high level just having one is incredibly rare. Ah and I am sorry I should have told you to be careful about heating the tongs. You need to control the flames so that they transmit most of their heat towards the ingot, give it a few more tries, and you should get the hang of it."

Marcus nodded his head and practiced controlling the heat so that it would avoid the tongs. It was difficult but after another minute of practicing with he control flames spell, Marcus was confident in keeping the tongs from melting.

Trying once again, this time Marcus was able to get the iron ingot to absorb the majority of the heat while protecting the tongs, and after thirty seconds he had gotten it to the desired temperature.

Taking the ingot, he placed it on top of the anvil and began shaping it with his hammer striking over and over.

…

'Eleven tries. It took me eleven tires, but I finally made a respectable sword.'

Marcus looked at the iron sword he had just finished with a sense of accomplishment since he had finally been able to make something that did not look like crap.

Sighing Marcus sat down for the first time in over a day since he had worked on forging like a man possessed, doing nothing else.

Gurrom of course had tried to stop Marcus but he soon found that once Marcus had his mind set on something it was not easy to change.

However, soon Gurrom noticed that no matter how long Marcus was forging he did not seem to get tired or even sweat, which Gurrom eventually wrongly surmised was because of his blessing of iron.

Staring over the blade he had finished Marcus stood up and brought it over to Gurrom who looked it over before smiling and saying, "You certainly had me scared there for a while, but it seems that there is a method to you madness. This sword is pretty good, I think you are ready to learn the rest of the basics. But first get some rest, even at level forty-three I need to take a break after working that long and hard."

Marcus nodded his head, even though he was not really that tired, but his mind really could use a break.

Thanking Gurrom for his help in teaching him, Marcus left for the day planning to come back tomorrow and learn more.