Good morning dark clouds with flashes of lightning. This is the first time it rained since I have been a dwarf. It has almost been a year and this is the first time it rained. I wonder if there is a special event accompanying this.

The ground is really muddy thanks to the rain. It's too bad that all roads in the town is flat, otherwise this would be good training for my balance. It's not even slippery since there isn't much mud.

Forget it, I'm going to spend most of my time in front of the forge anyway. The bulk orders that I know of in this kind of fantasy setting is during war and the army needs weapons. This must be part-training when that kind of time comes. This world already had a great war that lead to the division of the continents and races, I hope nothing like that happens again. When that happens both sides suffer especially those at the lower tier of the society.

Since I'm a blacksmith I won't be in the front lines but I would be in a nonstop forging workshop. It's not exactly bad, it may be boring but as long as they pay and protect me its a good deal.

That is far into the future and might not happen again so its pointless to think about it. My mind really does wander during the morning. It might be a side effect of staying up all night wasting my mana. I can only drain my mana so much with basic elements and I don't even wear the mana regen ring to shorten the time. If only I stayed long enough with the princess to know how to unlock the skill.

Maybe I can buy a book that can teach me about it. The auction house might have something but I don't really want to show myself there if possible. Maybe I can ask chatterbox or victor to buy it for me. I'll should be able to find them at the dorm canteen, I'll just hurry along and finish my morning exercise first.

"Morning Brill, I saw the teacher this morning and he said that we can go ahead and start. He will keep the workshop open all day starting today."
"What is he doing here?"
"He comes here every morning when the canteen workers start cooking. He gets the first meal and leaves right after. You always do your morning ritual so you always miss him."

Why would he come here in the morning just to eat. Wait that was a stupid question, that cheapskate is obviously after the cheap food.

"You should also do morning exercise if you want to strengthen your stamina. It's not a bad thing to overcome your weakness after all."
"I do plenty of exercise. I don't live in the dorm so I have to get up early and walk all the way here for breakfast."
"You only do that because your parents got mad at how you spent a lot of money at a brothel so they slashed your allowance. Fine, you can spend the following three months gasping for breath at the forge. Where is victor by the way?"
"I'll be alright I asked my parents for some mana regenerating accessories, my mother recently finished a business deal with those at the capital so we got a few high quality ones as a tip. He left after hearing the teachers announcement. He wants to start as early as possible so he won't fail."

Damn rich boy. If you want for things then work for it or at the very least don't flaunt it at others who have nothing. I am sure it won't be better than my 'Elder lich king's promise'.

"Oh, before I forget, would you mind finding me an instruction book for [Intermediate Element Mastery] Book."
"What do you need that for?"
"I made a deal with an alchemist. The book for this special sauce I want."
"An [Intermediate Element Mastery] Book for some sauce? Those thing cost at least tens of gold coins at minimum."

Tens of gold coins? I didn't know it's that expensive. A gold coin is about $10,000 so that book would cost me at least $100,000. I hope I can make some money in this bulk order project.

"Of course I know. I did a simple research before I made this deal. The quantity I ordered is a lot and a book is cheaper than the first price he quoted me, also I might get it cheaper if I asked you. My parents need this sauce for something and they won't tell me since it is apparently a part of the inheritance."
"As expected of the brain of us three, you do look into things more thoroughly. Alright, I'll ask my parents if they can get it for cheap. I need to send in a report of my expenses this month too so I'll add your request in. You will pay for it right?"
"Of course I will. I have a bit saved up and my parents would compensate me for this transaction too."
"Knowing you, you will ask them to compensate the quoted price so you can earn a little money."
"If you know then why point it out? Come on, let's finish breakfast so we can also start this project."

Except I won't earn any money from this. Well in a way this is an investment for my future.

First day and I only made two knives. I also want to check my own skill and efficiency so I didn't use my mana regen ring and I also didn't use magic. I'll try to do this for the first month and if I feel that I can't make the deadline I will use magic and ramp up the production. For now it looks like nothing to worry about, I can confidently say that the knife I made is at least high quality.

Victor has already made one but its on the low quality side. He saved his mana for the very end so he relied on his muscles for the shaping. The knife may be on the low quality side because of the marks he made when hammering but the handle is great. His wood carving skills really helped him. He could make a living just doing the handle but since his main objective in enrolling is making his own weapons, he won't be satisfied with that.

Chatterbox has three made with the help of his mana regenating bracelet. The thing is a very high quality mana regeneration accessory and it shows by how they have a detailed manual on how much it regenerates. They must have tested the thing for a long time before releasing it for sale. The only thing that made him take time is the handle since there is no magic for doing that.

First month is done and its time to assess myself. I made 47 knives in total. After making the first five knives of each design, I got into the groove and started speeding up. The biggest time saver is to work on a different knife while waiting for the other knives on heat treatment. There were a few times that I burned the metal but eventually I got the timing down.

Victor and chatterbox made good progress this month too. They are eventually getting the process down. Especially victor since he does most things by hand, he improved really well. Chatterbox is still relying on the bracelet but his handle making is decent now.

Looking at my current speed, I can complete the assignment with ease. I can still continue without magic. My stamina passive really helps me a lot. I also didn't think I could forge non-stop for a whole week. The side effect of passing out for one whole day hurts a lot though. I was making three knives and burned it all before passing out.

Second month of the project is done and I can feel the difference in quality from my first month knives. They will judge the knives at the end so I just keep everything I made in a big box and wrap the blade with paper so it won't grind against each other.

The book I asked chatterbox to buy finally came and it cost me 18 gold coins. It hurts to lose that much money right now. I know it will be useful but the price is still high with the discount they get. Of course they still need to make money so they added a bit to the deal, I just hope it wasn't by much.

I made a total 90 knives in total. Five full days of non-stop forging and a 12 hour sleep at the end to give myself rest and a day to practice intermediate element magic became my schedule. I'm really lucky to have this as my freebie for this life. At least it is immediatly in use rather than the first one I received which will be useful in the long run. The only break I can afford in the nonstop forging is when I am making the handle. Holding in my faculties while making a knife is the hardest, however I can't exactly stop eating and drinking while working in front of a scorching heat that would drain me.

Finally done, I didn't think I could finish with 552 knives. Using magic is really cheating but if I didn't do the first two months magic-less I could not produce such fine knives. The quality of my knives when I used magic also increased. It must be thanks to my first two months of work.

Victor and chatterbox also finished theirs with around 147 and 135 knives respectively. Victor really grew as a blacksmith because he can make a fine quality knife by hand and only used magic for the finishing touches. Chatterbox on the other hand stayed at a decent level. He relied on magic throughout so the only thing that improves is his handle making. It looks like the blacksmith job skills reflects the personal skill of the person using it.

I thought that this whole thing is a scheme to make money, well I still think it is, but it really helped all of us grow rapidly. It is a real trial by fire that sculpted our skills. Not only my knife making skills but also my fire control improved over the last three months. Since I didn't use blacksmith job skills in the first two months I had to control the fire using my magic to drain my mana. My control over fire is so high that I can heat up a knife while keeping the surrounding cool.

"Congratulations everyone. I'm happy to say that all of you completed your project. I already inspected your work so come in front one by one to receive your compensation."

He looks happy, it seems that the school made a lot of coins from selling our knives.

"Here you go. Keep up the good work and see you next year."

12 gold coins, 27 silver coins and 40 copper coins for 452 pieces of knives. They earned a bit from the extra we made and the full price for the 100 knife requirement for the project. It doesn't matter anymore since I did make quite a bit from this. If it was weapons then I would have 200 times as much, depending on the demand.

I guess it is time to plan my trip for this vacation. I want to train myself a bit so I can be prepared in case anything unexpected happened again. I need to train to the level that I can escape the pursuit of a knight platoon and a couple of scouts or enough power to completely crush them.