"Alright, One by one come to the front and let Mr. D from the government staff see your status. Don't worry he is here to record and update your information on the town census, only those with special privileges and the town security can view those record so we can guarantee your information. This is done every few years when you live in town or every time we have test to get a {job} in school."

One month passed by so fast. Day in and day out we spent most of the time making blunt kitchen knives. I heard those that pass the schools criteria are refined more and eventually sold to the market, those that did not are sent to the smelter to be refined and made into workable metals again. The refinery, which has branches on all towns, cities and fortress in the whole dwarven continent, is owned by a single family since the start and they make the most money among all jobs in the whole continent. Too bad you can only get in by referral from family members of the owner and have to marry into the family if you become an employee, something about keeping the secret technique inside the family.

I unsurprisingly unlocked the [Blacksmith] job and as a bonus I got the [Crafter] class too, must be the otherworlder xp bonus at work. My new allies also got it with chatterbox achieving it a week ago and victor barely attaining it just now, based on his relieve look after today's forging session. They are useful to have around, chatter box especially since he knows all the rumours going around. Victor is okay too since if there is trouble he takes the lead, or just straights up charges into it.

"Good, most of you unlocked it now I will once again display the way to forge out a knife but this time I will be using skills. Look carefully and remember it. However, since you have only started out in this {job} you won't be able to use all the skills I will be showing you yet. I only want you to remember the order and how the skills function, don't try to copy it yet unless you can activate the specific skills. For those that unlocked it today, [Sharpening] will be the only one available to you as for the others that unlocked it early, test out each skill to find which will work and what won't. All of you have already forged about 20 knives this month so you are now familiar with the process, if the skill doesn't work return to the basics."

Finally, I tried using the skills but it never activated because I don't know the right way to activate it. That is also one of the headaches I have with the system. Since it wasn't finished we don't have a how-to for making skills work. The skills also won't show in your status card unless you use it once so even if you unlock the skill based on the level of your class or job,which is not visible, you won't be able so see it if you don't active it once.

In short, if you don't know a skill exist and how it works, you won't be able to use it. If everything goes well I can also unlock the [Mastersmith] job but I won't reveal it since being part of the elder council seems annoying. It's only a matter of time for me to reach the height of being a blacksmith with my other world bonus so when I reach that stage, I would find a remote town and establish a hidden legendary shop that you can't find. I'll be one of those hidden experts with fickle attitudes and only provide service to those I deem worthy.

"First, heat it up. Then form your billet. Watch, [Shaping] and look you have the shape you desired slowly forming. This skill only works as long as the metal is hot enough to be shaped however, this skill uses up a moderate amount of mana and takes too long a time so most blacksmiths usually doesn't use it. This is why we still have hammers and with different types and enchantments too. Note that the skill uses up more mana the higher the quality of the material is. Next is [Welding], Let us say you broke your knife *Clang* like this."

That is some weird magic, the two pieces of metal look like they water joining together after you parted it with a divider.

"Using [Welding] and it's connected again. This also works if you want to meld two or more pieces of metals together to form your billet. So far you have only made knives from a single piece of steel but in the future you would have to make alloys to make it more powerful. This skill also cleans your metal of any scales and dirt but same as the first skill, higher mana is needed for higher quality materials. Next is the most used skill for most blacksmiths because it cuts a lot of time [Heat Treat]. It completes the long heating and cooling, heating and cooling, quenching and tempering. This uses a lot of mana so most blacksmiths skip the first two skills just to save for this skill."

Ah yes the heat treat, the long waiting, and waiting, and waiting that can't be avoided. I guess compared to hammering nonstop this would be preferable but for someone with a huge stamina like mine, this feels like wasted time. I do understand it's importance but I feel like I need to do something else to fill this void in time. I can't exactly leave and relax since I am inside a workshop at school, maybe I should take a hobby like painting, or something.

"In all three of these skills, you need the metal to have that same glowing colour to move the metal otherwise you need to expend more mana to use the skills. Finally the skill I showed you before is [Sharpening] as you can see it sharpens your knife to a point. You don't need hot metal to use it, you don't need any external tools to use it. It also uses the least amount of mana so most apprentice does sharpening job for a blacksmith workshop. Get it now try it out yourselves."

Only four skills for a blacksmith job and three of those uses a significant amount of mana. Well, that means I have to memorize less. I can somehow see how to activate it from what he did just now, for now let's experiment on them.

Haaah, That was a heavy workout. Now I don't feel bad about eating a lot. Looks like I will burn a lot more when I forge out a knife, not to mention using mana takes a lot out of me too mentally.

The skills are a bit tricky as expected. [Shaping] works only when, like he said, the metal is hot enough to be molded, you hammer down on your billet as you pass mana through it into the metal while visualizing the shape you want. This will then adds force to the hammer strike while the mana covers the while metal forcing it to move and form the image you are visualizing. If you don't have enough metal to form the shape in your image then it won't work and you will feel your mana being sniffled. If you have more than enough then the extra metal will feel like a boil rapidly growing on your skin so you change the image of your [Shaping] to move the extra metal down the tang and visualize it to be cut off.

The next is the [Welding], it works the same way as the previous skill but it has two different types. The first one is when you just put the two different pieces of metal and lay your hammer on top to weld the metals together. This not only connects them but also cleans the space welded together. The second one is when welding billets together but unlike the normal welding you need to hammer it to fuse the metals together, this will release a black smoke showing the dirt blowing off.

The next is [Heat Treat], it really is a time saver but it eats up a lot of mana. The way to use it is just laying your hammer on top of the formed weapon and pour your mana to activate the skill. The reason it eats up a lot of mana is because it actually moves the micro structure of the metal to the desired form of a weapon, at least that is how the book explained it.

The last one is [Sharpening], This is probably the coolest skill I have learned. I pinch the knifes edge with my thumb and index finger clad with mana and rub it together along the edge. It makes this scratching noise as the edge reaches my desired sharpness and the grounded metal turn into metal dust. It also has a finish, buff and shine function to make my knife shiny using my index finger to roll onto the body of the knife. I thought it could replace [Shaping] but it only grinds out a small layer of the metal.

"Yo Brill, how was it? Did you get the hang of the skills?"
"Somewhat, How about you Victor?"
"Most of those from the combat lineage don't have much mana as it is, so most of my mana is exhausted when using [Heat Treat]. Good thing I have a strong physical strength so I can manually do most of the work."
"How about chatterbox?"
"Ah, he looks like he is struggling. The Merchant lineage have a lot of passives but very few active skills so they don't need a lot of mana too, not only that he doesn't have much physical strength to begin with so he is struggling more than me."
"He doesn't have a choice but to work hard if he wants to stay in this line of work."
"Yeah and it won't be bad for him to shed a few layers of fat. He gets exhausted after eating food."

"Alright, alright. Congratulations everyone who passed however, don't let your guard down yet. Next thing we are doing is learning how to make handles and forge welding. Starting next month we will teach you how to combine different kinds of metal in all kinds of ways to show a decorative and functional pattern into the knife. Finally, you will also put on a handle to your knives and completely build your first knife. At the end of the month we will grade your work and depending on the quality, the school may give you money incentives."

Heh, that sounds nice.

"Brother brill, Brother Victor, help me!"

What is happening now? It better not be like last time when he got into a fight and ask us to help him get revenge.

"Oh, chatterbox? What is it? Another fight? If they have more than 5 people, want me to call my old friends from the army course?"

This idiot really is all for it when it comes to fighting. Well, as long as we win I can loot the enemies, and fainted allies telling them the enemy did it.

"It's something like that. I had my eye on this girl from the battle healer course so I confessed but at the same time I did, a guy from he alchemy course confessed too. Now we plan to settle it with a showcase of our work. He plans to make a hardness potion to harden his defenses and I need to make a knife that could cut him,"
"Give up."
"I can't help you unless it turns into a battle."
"It can't be... Please help me! Aren't we brothers!"
"It won't really benefit us."
"There is no fight so I can't get excited about it."

I don't want to waste time helping someone succeed and be in a time and life consuming relationship. Victor also won't move unless it can help him in a fight. We say we are brothers but we only help if it can give some kind of benefit to us. Chatterbox also won't help unless it can help him make money or make connections that he can use to make money.