Just like that, the instructor for Forging kicked four people out like it was nothing. These four lowered their heads as they reluctantly turned around to leave. Seeing how they didn't even try to make their case further infuriated the muscular old lizard man. With a snort, his eyes fell on the other students who were sweating but not as bad as the others until his eyes landed on one young lady who didn't have a single drop of sweat on her body. "Oh? It looks like this beautiful lass here outshines all, you other slobs. Haha good! At least teaching this specialty course won't be in vain. As for the rest of you, after a week or two, your bodies will gradually get used to the heat in this room. If you really can not take it, come to me. I will allow you to leave this course to pick a different specialty. Now follow me. We only have five hours, and I want all of you in front of a forge within an hour. By the end of the day, I want to see what you are capable of!"
He brought everyone over to a forge that sat in the middle of a large hall. This forge was different from the ones in the rooms. This forge was especially used for training students. Above it was three water screens that showed everything that was going on around the forge. So even a large group of people could easily see what was going on. The muscular old lizard man sat down on the stole next to the forge and looked at the group of students. "You all may call me Old Gamm or Master Gamm, either will do. I am not too big on the whole teacher, instructor thing… For the next hour, I will show you how to forge a simple letter opener. It is flat and only has one part. Nothing complex. For my assistant... " Old Gamm looked at everyone present and pointed to Kana. "Lass, you will be my assistant. This way, if anyone sweats, I will at least have a beautiful young girl's sweat dripping on me than some man's. Haha!"
Kana wanted to know what was wrong with old men in this world. She wondered if they were all this eccentric to the point that they did not care what they said about anyone. Although she thought this, she was actually happy to be selected. Mainly because now she would have a front row seat and even be able to assist Old Gamm with forging the first item.
When Kana arrived at his side, instead of making her stand, he suddenly got up and said: "You sit. I changed my mind. I will lead you through the process. Take a seat and a pair of tongs over there. You will select a piece of metal from the basket and then shove it into the forge."
Kana did as she was told and grabbed a piece of metal that was slightly smaller than the rest. Old Gamm raised an eyebrow and gave a faint smile. "Lass, why did you select this small piece of metal?"
"You said we were making a letter opener, so a bigger piece of metal will not be needed, right? Or am I wrong?" Kana answered Old Gamm's question with one of her own.
"You are correct. Since we are only forging a simple letter opener which is very simple to do as long as it is thin and can slice paper. You do not need a large piece of metal. Although the difficulty with a letter opener is that the blade of it is much smaller. Which makes the final process more difficult. But if you are able to grasp this and create a smooth edge for cutting, then you will be well on your way to becoming a beginner forger. The key thing about starting off as a letter opener is that it will not require you to bang out any impurities in the metal. A letter opener will not usually come in contact with other swords or monsters, so there is no fear in it breaking. Hell, truth be told, you do not even need a forge to heat it up to forge one. But this would not make for a good forging class if you did not use a forge. Okay, Lass, stick it into the fire." Old Gamm began instructing Kana on what to do. After getting the furnace up to temp to turn the metal into a bright red color, almost to its metling point, he then had Kana take it out and begin hammering it.
Following his direction, Kana began working away at the metal on the anvil.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Kana smacked the metal over and over, quickly turning it into a flat piece of metal. "Good, now stick it back into the flame. I have to say Lass, your strength is quite amazing. It was like you were meant to forge." Old Gamm said excitedly. At first when Dean Williams said he had an amazing student for him to teach, Old Gamm didn't believe it but now that he has seen it with his own eyes he was happy that he took this job.
After the metal was hot enough Kana was told to take the metal out and hammer it again. But this time she had to form it into a point and then hammer each edge evenly. Once again Kana went to work. The entire time she had to control her strength in order to not break everything during the process of hammering. But this was also a kind of training for her as well.
After almost an hour with Old Gamm's help Kana finally had something that resembled a letter opener. "Not too bad for your first time. Although the edges need some fine tuning they are acceptable for a first timer. Okay now we will grind the edges down a little to make it sharp. After that we will heat the metal handle and then lass, you can sign your name to it."
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