"Did I hear that right? There was a sound just now."
Sosuke glanced around. The area was deserted; his secluded residence rarely saw visitors, and his friends rarely played pranks on him.
"Must have been my imagination."
He nodded, refocusing on the iron ingot in his hand.
Clang!
[Impurities -1]
"Holy shit! There’s no way I misheard that this ti!"
The sound hadn’t co from his surroundings but seed to originate from within his mind, as if a voice in his head.
He examined the smithing hamr in his hand, then the iron ingot on the anvil.
Taking a deep breath, he mustered all his strength and swung the hamr down with a resounding clang!
[Impurities -1]
"It’s real!"
Sosuke was montarily speechless. "Besides being able to see the progress of the iron ingot as it heats, I also hear a ’-1 Impurity’ sound with each strike. No more doubts! My Golden Finger is definitely... a Blacksmithing System!"
"So, was I destined to be a swordsmith all along?"
Sosuke silently questioned the heavens before resignedly continuing to hamr.
With each strike, he heard the ’-1 Impurity’ sound. However, as he hamred, the sound beca less consistent.
Occasionally, a strike would land without any notification. As ti passed, the frequency of the sound diminished further.
He also noticed that the temperature of the iron ingot was dropping.
"Could it be because the temperature is decreasing?"
With this thought, he shoved the ingot back into the furnace.
Once the temperature indicator reached the standard mark again, he retrieved the ingot and resud hamring.
The initial pattern returned: with each strike, he heard the ’-1 Impurity’ notification.
With the voice’s guidance, Sosuke began his repetitive motions:
Hamr, hamr, hamr, temper, temper, temper, then back to hamring...
From noon until nightfall, with only occasional breaks, he relentlessly hamred the iron.
"This iron can really take a beating!"
Sosuke rubbed his aching arm before returning the iron to the furnace. "Good thing I’ve been forging since I was a kid. Otherwise, this intense hamring would have worn out. Speaking of which, after this round, it’s ti for dinner, right? Hmm, after dinner, I’ll keep going!"
Once the temperature rose again, he used tongs to retrieve the iron ingot, which had already been hamred hundreds, if not thousands, of tis.
Picking up his forging hamr and gazing at the ingot that had been his companion all afternoon, an inexplicable feeling surged through him.
He felt strangely connected to this piece of tal, as if it were a newborn child he was gradually shaping into its final form.
An indescribable sense of emotion welled up within him, and his hand instinctively raised the hamr.
Bang!
The hamr fell, sending sparks flying.
[Impurities -5]
[Strength 1]
Two sudden notifications snapped Sosuke back to reality.
A warm current flooded his body, rejuvenating his exhausted limbs with renewed vigor.
These two prompts jolted Sosuke awake, leaving him frozen in place.
"What just happened?"
He glanced at the hamr in his hand, then at the iron ingot before him. Why did I suddenly feel so connected to it? Why did that one strike reduce the impurities by five points? And... did my strength increase by one point?
He flexed his arm. Though the change was subtle, he felt a newfound reserve of energy.
So, the Golden Finger doesn’t just let track the iron’s impurity reduction—it can also enhance my own strength?
With a sharp intake of breath, he swung the hamr again.
[Impurity -1]
This ti, there was no strength increase, and the impurity reduction was minimal.
"No, no! Sothing’s off!"
He shook his head. The sensation from the previous strike was distinctly different from this one.
What could be the reason?
Not close enough?
He stared at the iron, desperately trying to recapture the earlier emotion, to forge a connection with it.
But no matter how he looked at it, it was just a piece of red-hot iron!
"No! I shouldn’t get lost in that feeling! Maybe it was just a fleeting mont of inspiration? Or perhaps it was a strange sensation caused by hamring iron ingots all afternoon? Now that the notification has appeared, that feeling has vanished. So, if I want to recapture it, there’s probably only one way!"
He stared at the glowing red ingot before him. "Hamr it!"
He hamred repeatedly, with all his might, searching for that spark of inspiration within the thousands of strikes!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Outside the house, in the blacksmith’s shed, Sosuke had completely lost track of everything.
He forgot about dinner, he forgot about rest.
The only thing he rembered was to hamr it!
When the temperature dropped and the impurities were removed more slowly, he returned the ingot to the furnace.
Once the temperature rose again, he resud hamring!
As the sun set, he lit the lamps.
When the furnace fire grew weak, he pumped the bellows.
He didn’t know how much ti had passed when he suddenly found a subtle feeling.
A feeling of forging.
The sensation of creating sothing wondrous from his own hands!
He didn’t know what this feeling was, but he maintained his original breathing rhythm and kept the hamr falling in its steady rhythm.
[Impurities -5]
[Strength 1]
[Impurities -3]
[Constitution 1]
[Impurities -2]
[Flexibility 1]
[Impurities -4]
[Speed 1]
The notifications repeated in his ears, but Sosuke paid them no heed.
He only felt that his strength seed boundless, and that this piece of iron contained an endless supply of impurities.
"This won’t do," he thought. "If I want to beco stronger, I must work harder! I must eliminate all impurities to forge you into refined steel!"
He didn’t know when this determination had surged within him.
The forging hamr in his hand seed to have beco one with him, yet he remained unaware that the web between his thumb and forefinger had already split open, the blood now congealed.
[Resilience 1]
"Huh?"
Sosuke froze, abruptly snapping out of his Demonic Obstruction. A searing ache flooded his entire body.
His stomach burned with hunger, and his head throbbed violently.
"Holy shit... What the hell was that?"
He set down the forging hamr and took a step back, only to find his vision darkening. He collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
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