Chapter 33: Outskilled!
Upon arriving at the etheric forging room, they found themselves before a large forging room with several forging stations, where two could work at each station and forging tools hung at every station.
"Welcome; I presume you two are Layla and Mia? I'm Professor Solis!" A red-haired young man with a pair of fiery red eyes said, his smile never escaping his face. "You may pick any open station and wait for the class to begin."
Not uttering a word, they simply found an open station as a consensus thought lingered inside their heads: 'He's kind... It doesn't fit his appearance.'
~~~
An hour passed without anything remarkable happening. Layla and Mia casually conversed with one another, and the recruits gradually grew larger and larger, slowly filling up the room.
When all the stations were filled, the professor began to observe the recruits with a warm smile on his face. "Yesterday, we ended off with my lecture about forging non-enchanted etheric tools; today, you'll forge a moderately-sized paring kitchen knife with the materials provided. Depending on the quality of your creation, you may be awarded points, but for those who missed or ignored listening to my lecture, I'll go over it again. But, of course, it's your choice."
Seeing as several seemed anticipated to begin, he took a breath before announcing the start of exercises.
"You may begin!"
Although Layla and Mia missed the other day's lecture, they neither went up to the professor nor did they ask any questions. Immediately, they went to forging, which the professor found a little odd; however, it wasn't his right to ask. Maybe they know how to forge! He'll find out when the exercise ends.
Layla's attention to the surroundings faded as she focused on forging. 'With the metal already cut, I can begin.'
Flipping the switch on the side of the furnace, she lit the furnace's flame. Once the flame was lit, she placed an ingot of her choosing into the furnace and left it inside until the ingot turned yellow from the heat.
Once the ingot turned yellow, she pulled it out before starting the process of hammering and melding it closer into shape—her attention was solely on forging the knife, unaware of those glancing her way in awe, specifically at Mia.
One of those was Professor Solis, who nodded in approval. 'These two seem to have experience in forging etheric tools. There naturals…'
After hammering it closer into shape, she went onto the second step, annealing, a process done by heating the knife until it's cleansed of all the magnetic attraction before allowing it to cool slowly. For it to cool down slowly, she wrapped it in an insulating material.
It was at this moment that she finally took a break and glanced around before averting her attention back to her work—the knife was ready for the following step: Grinding…
Taking several grinding tools, she started the grinding process; her intention was to give it a flat surface with an equal angle across the knife's surface. After grinding it so it was equally flat across the knife's surface, she moved onto hardening.
At this point, the knife was still soft and needed to be hardened; she placed it in the furnace and waited for it to heat to the point of austenitization, where she immediately placed it in the quench tank upon pulling it out.
Once the knife was cooled, she carefully placed it back into the furnace and heated it until the temperature reached below the critical point—this time she didn't place it into the quench tank and allowed the knife to cool in still air. Tempering is the process of ameliorating the brittleness of the knife by preventing it from hardening, thus increasing its toughness and reducing its hardness.
A combination of these two processes would inevitably produce a harder and tougher knife.
After repeatedly tempering and hardening the knives, Layla performs a final process of more grinding, which will add a few finishing touches to the knives to further enhance their durability and visual appeal.
This made the knife look beautiful, and when she got to the end of the process, she added a handle and hilt, finishing off the process.
Looking at the paring knife, a status screen appeared in front of her eyes.
[Name: None
Type: Paring Knife
Grade: D-
Aether Capacity: 0
Weapon Abilities: None]
'For an unenchanted etheric knife, the grade is high! If this were to be enchanted, I presume it'd have an A+ rank with a low likelihood of reaching S-Rank; however, that's excluding those who're masters of enchantments.' Admiring her work, a smile formed on her face.
"Did you have any prior experience in forging?"
A kind, masculine voice resounded inside her ears, and she turned to face him. Professor Solis stood there, his mouth slightly agape as shock showed all over, and his eyes peered past her shoulder onto her finished product.
"My father taught me forging and several other handy things over the years." Her eyes dropped as her eyes averted downwards. "He did this to ensure my bright future, in case we'd need them one day."
"My apologies; I shouldn't have pried into such a sensitive topic."
"It's in the past; don't worry about it."
In actuality, this wasn't a sensitive topic, nor was it genuine—she naturally didn't like lying before his face, especially since he was a likable, kind professor who'd taught her even in her past life. However, her situation wasn't easy; she was a genuine vampire, the progenitor's daughter, in fact.
Evidently, she didn't fear her true identity being revealed, as she could decimate the Slayer Association with her strength sitting just above S-Rank, but in doing so she'd inevitably be confronted by Chairman Nixon, who was an S-Rank; however, she'd rather avoid such an occurrence if possible.
'His kindness may be charming, but... stocking others not so much.'
As Layla forged her knife, she'd previously sensed his presence but didn't put too much mind into it as forging her knife was her main objective—this in addition to the several witnesses of his stalking a young woman, who'd unintentionally swayed his heart strings and left him unmarried and in no relationship with another.
Layla could only hope she didn't sway any of his heartstrings! Although he was much older than she was, there weren't any regulations against adults having relationships with minors. In this apocalypse, humanity had significantly decreased in population, and many laws that prohibited such relationships were lost over time as humans became desperate to repopulate.
"Professor! You shouldn't be idling around now, should you? What if a recruit set the forge ablaze! Would you just stand there, observing Layla?" Mia swooped in, averting Professor Solis's attention from her.
"Certainly, I shouldn't be idling around; I'll take my leave now." He scurried away, freeing Layla from him. Layla smiled at Mia.
"Thanks!"
Mia smiled, and she moved to the side. "What do you think?"
Seeing the finished product, her eyes widened slightly, and the status screen appeared before her.
[Name: Aetherius
Type: Paring Knife
Grade: C
Aether Capacity: 13
Weapon Abilities: None]
'A named knife... and a C rank! At first, I thought I'd be the best forger among the recruits, but... she's highly skilled! I'm completely outskilled, just as when compared to him…'
She pictured her childhood friend as Mia, who had several similarities: their golden eyes, their skill in combat, their expertise in forging together, and their cheerful atmosphere and smile.
'Why am I imagining this? There's no way they are the same! Could it be... that he had a child? That'd explain the similarities and skill!" She lost herself in deep thought. "Without a doubt, he must've taught her for her to be this skilled. However, the time doesn't match... I was gone for a year. How could his child grow up so fast? He must've adopted her.'
Seeing Layla in a daze, she decided to break her out from it. "You didn't hear a word I said did you?"
"My apologies."
~~~
About 30 minutes later, Professor Solis walked to the center of the forge and announced the end of the exercise.
"For those who were unable to finish, you'll be staying after class to finish, while for those who've finished, I'll move around to grade your finished product. Once I've graded your work, you're dismissed."
Professor Solis moved around the forge, picking up each and every paring knife as he viewed it under his eye; he'd then swing around and test it before assigning it a grade. In about ten minutes, he'd graded all those who'd finished, and Layla earned 500 points, while Mia earned 650—a clear difference in forging skills.
After their dismissal, they made their way into their dorm, where Mia made another delicious meal, which was finished by the time Leia and Eve returned. They ate and chatted about previous classes before leaving the room for the third class.
Layla and Mia head to their third class, Combat Lessons.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone