Wizard starting from shoeing donkeys

Chapter 29 – 28: Promotion! Occupation [Blacksmith]

Boris placed an iron bar of about half a meter into the fire to heat it. Once the middle turned white-hot, he took it out, brushed away the impurities on the surface, then immersed it in water for quenching. Quenching was a process Rein was familiar with from his previous life; it made the iron bar much harder.

Soon, through repeated hammering and heating, the iron bar gradually took on the shape of a crescent moon.

Seeing Rein come in, Drews, who was working the bellows, greeted him eagerly, “Rein! You’re here to help again today, want to continue with the bellows?”

Rein smiled and said, “Drews, I’m sorry, but I might not be able to work the bellows today!”

Under Drews’ astonished gaze, Rein walked up to Boris and pointed to the horseshoe in the making, “Uncle Boris, I want to learn this. How much is the tuition fee?”

The blacksmith Boris looked at Rein in surprise and said, “Rein, you have money? You are not my official apprentice; if you just want to learn horseshoe forging, the tuition is not cheap. Even though you have helped for free, I can’t give you a discount on how much I should charge.”

After listening to this, Rein couldn’t help but inwardly scoff. The rumors were true: Blacksmith Boris was quite skilled, but exceedingly stingy!

“Of course, Uncle Boris. How much is the tuition to learn horseshoe forging?”

“To teach you horseshoe forging for a month, 12 silver coins! If you can’t learn it when the time is up, there’s nothing I can do about it, but the tuition is non-refundable.”

Hiss! Hearing this price, the surrounding apprentices exchanged glances, as if to say that this time Rein was likely to suffer a self-inflicted disappointment!

After all, this price was indeed too high for most people, let alone Rein, who did not come from a well-off family.

Rein was also speechless.

This price!

Just for one month, and without guarantee of success!

You should know that in Flashgold Town, the monthly income of an ordinary adult male is only about 2 to 3 silver coins.

The currency system of the Dragan Empire was a bit similar to Rein’s previous life in England. One gold coin of the empire could be exchanged for 12 silver coins, one silver coin for 20 shillings, one shilling for 12 pennies, and one penny had the purchasing power of about one pound of rye bread.

But he still had to learn!

Rein feigned an expression of great distress and pulled out a gold coin from his embrace, handing it to the slightly surprised Boris, “Deal! Uncle Boris!”

“This time, my family signed me up for the Habsburg Manor’s page training, aiming for a blacksmith apprentice, so they specifically prepared some money for me to learn the essential blacksmith skills…”

Rein half-truthfully explained, accounting for the source of the money.

“It seems Old Rein has high hopes for you. Work hard, lad! Don’t end up like my good-for-nothing boy, wandering off to County Town every day, now completely untraceable!” Boris suddenly became emotional, patting Rein on the shoulder with a sigh.

This made Rein change his opinion of Boris a bit, realizing that even a stingy man like Boris had the heart of a father wanting his son to succeed.

“Come on! Rein, give me a hand here!” With that, blacksmith Boris handed Rein a heavy hammer.

Just as Rein grasped the hammer handed to him by Boris, suddenly, a string of system notifications appeared, causing Rein to be slightly startled!

[Ding! Host has come into contact with the blacksmith apprentice promotion medium — Blacksmith’s Hammer!]

[Preconditions for promotion to Blacksmith: 1. Blacksmith Apprentice lv3 at full level; 2. Strength of at least 6 points, Constitution of at least 6 points; 3. Forge ten qualifying blacksmith products… Current conditions do not meet the requirements! Promotion to Blacksmith failed!]

Rein was immediately thrilled; so this was the key to advancing from blacksmith apprentice to blacksmith!

“Rein! What are you standing around for?”

“Oh, right away, Uncle Boris!”

Quickly coming back to his senses, Rein immediately began to assist with the forging.

Being new to the craft, Rein only needed to complete one step: indenting a groove in the U-shaped iron bar.

After the iron bar for the horseshoe was shaped into a crescent, the following steps required two people to work together.

Blacksmith Boris clamped the iron bar with his left hand and heated it up again while holding a sharp tool in his right hand, shaped like an axe, moving it swiftly over the iron bar.