After another month of routine, Dreu was told by the being that his training was about to change. Since the being didn’t go into details, the young man had to find out what was awaiting him. He found himself entering the same clearing but there were no weeds around to attract any creatures. He cautiously walked to the center of the clearing when he sensed a presence behind him. When Dreu drew his blade and turned around, he found himself facing a creature resembling a bull with carapace. The bull pawed the dirt as it lowered its horns.

  Wait! Does that mean I’m the bait this time?

  The creature didn’t give him a chance to think as it charged straight at him. Luckily for him, the creature, once it picked up speed, couldn’t turn very well. Therefore, he only needed to move a certain distance laterally before he could avoid the creature’s charge. The issue was the carapace armor that was enough to fend off his sword. Given that he had no other weapons, he had no choice other than keeping hacking away until he made progress. With each hack, he hoped that his weapon wouldn't break since he didn't know how he could win with a broken sword. After what seemed like an hour, the young man finally made a crack on the creature’s armor. Once the crack formed, he only had to focus on it until he had a clear shot at the beast’s flesh underneath. As soon as he drew blood, he had already won the battle.

  That was definitely a battle of attrition! Thankfully, the pill I consumed helped my stamina too. I’m only slightly tired.

  As the young man pondered how he would get the monster core, the being spoke up.

  “Monster core isn’t the only valuable thing from stronger creatures. Their armor and other parts can also be useful in many ways. In addition to the monster core, collect the armor and horns of this creature.”

  Dreu went to work with the armor first. He checked with the being and was told that he should try his best to get the most complete armor as he could. The more complete it was, the more useful it was when he returned to his base. In a way, this was encouraging him to not break the armor during combat to get the biggest return. However, the young man couldn’t see himself defeating the bull any other way. Following the removal of the armor, the horns and the monster core were much simpler. As he finished packing up his goods, he felt another presence behind him.

  Great! I got another bull. Time to collect more parts then!

  The second battle went similarly to the first one but Dreu was starting to have a better idea of how to take the bull out faster. After he got everything valuable from his second prey, the young man hauled everything back to his base. As soon as he entered the doorway, he found the doors to a third building open. Thinking the building must be related to his latest haul, he dragged his bag until he got inside.

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  Is that a forge? It’s…it’s massive!

  Compared to the alchemy furnace, the forge before him was on a completely different scale. The alchemy building and the one he was in were the same size but his new forge easily took up half of the space, unlike the alchemy furnace which was about two meters by two meters in dimension. A large anvil sat in front of the forge with several racks of tools organized neatly around it. He walked around the racks and anvil to get a closer look.

  I’ve seen these tools used by blacksmiths before. Am I becoming a blacksmith soon or will there be a blacksmith working for me?

  Across the forge, there were several workbenches with plenty of books and documents on them. He went to the nearest workbench to find a book for beginner blacksmiths. When he opened it, he found simple instructions on how to start the forge and prepare it for his work. After reading the instructions, he looked around until he found the charcoal that would serve as the energy source for the forge. Eager to get started, he followed the instructions and soon had a big fire burning in the forge.

  Are those different compartments?

  With the fire burning, he noticed several different doors at set intervals along the length of the forge. He looked through the pictures until he found what he was looking for. The forge was split into five different compartments. The center one was where he fed the fire with charcoal while the other ones could be used in a similar fashion as the alchemy furnace, only these were used mostly for heating or melting larger materials. After he got through the preparations, the young man found the instructions on what to do with carapace armor he recently acquired.

  Let’s get the tongs needed to place the armor safely in one of these compartments.

  While the armor was heating up in the forge, Dreu double checked with the instructions to make sure he didn’t leave the item in there for too long. The book clearly spelled out the destruction of materials left too long in the forge. As soon as the armor turned to a bright red as mentioned in the book, he used the same tongs to take it out and placed it on the anvil.

  Next, I need to work on the carapace until it makes the shape of a shield.

  While the young man had many ideas he wanted to try out, the book only provided him with the blueprints of a shield. Given his complete lack of experience, he dared not to experiment. He also didn't know how easy it was to acquire materials. It was entirely possible that he wouldn't encounter the bull creatures for another week so he had to make the best use of what he acquired. Conversely, he wouldn't complain about the idea of possessing a useful shield like Bayard. However, he knew a lot of training was inevitable as he never trained with a shield, even under Bayard. Until now, he never had a shield, let alone a good shield, to call his own.