.

  Harren grunted low in his throat, then finally tossed the papers onto the bench. “Order came in. From the mayor himself.”

  Elias blinked. “Mayor?”

  Harren nodded, jaw clenching. “Commission. Wants a high-quality bracelet made. Some gift for a visiting dignitary, or maybe a magical foundation piece, I don’t know. But he’s supplied the materials.” He thumbed toward a small crate tucked near the wall. “Mana-saturated metals. Exotic stuff. Rare alloys.”

  Elias followed his gaze and caught sight of it—bars of shimmering metal that seemed to hum faintly under the morning light.

  “Problem is,” Harren muttered, “I don’t deal with that fancy crap. I’m a blacksmith, not some Royal artificer. I can’t afford to screw this up.”

  He said it low. Almost ashamed.

  Elias tapped his fingers against the bench, thinking.

  This was big. Not some noble’s nephew asking for a sword. This was direct work for the people who actually ran things around here. A screw-up could ruin Harren’s standing—or worse, drag him into debt he couldn’t pay off.

  And… it wasn’t like Elias was exactly familiar with mana metals either. Not back on Earth.

  But something shifted in the back of his mind. A quiet warmth in his chest. His Metal Comprehension ability, still half-mysterious even to himself, stirred.

  He stepped closer to the crate, knelt, and brushed his fingers lightly against one of the bars.

  Information flooded him—not words, but understanding. Structure. Properties. How the mana flowed and where it tangled. Where the impurities hid. Where the bonds were weakest, strongest.

  It wasn’t omniscient. But it was a hell of a lot better than flying blind.

  Elias turned back to Harren, standing carefully.

  “I can help,” he said quietly. “I’m… good with alloys. And metals like these aren’t that different, not really. You just need to know how to listen.”

  Harren gave him a long, searching look. As if weighing trust against desperation.

  Finally, the big man exhaled through his nose.

  “You sure, boy?” he said gruffly. “This ain’t iron bars and shovel heads.”

  Elias cracked a small, tired smile. “I’m sure.”

  They spent the rest of the day planning.

  Harren spread out the mayor’s specifications on the worktable—general size, weight limits, vague notes about “mana-conductive properties” and “aesthetically pleasing composition.” It wasn’t much to go on. Typical bureaucracy.

  Elias studied the crate of materials carefully. Most were metals he didn’t even recognize by name—but when he touched them, their properties whispered to him through Metal Comprehension.

  Still, that whisper wasn’t enough. It gave him hints, not blueprints. He had to think. To plan.

  “We’ll need a stabilizer,” Elias said after a while, sketching rough notes. “This blue one—it’s too brittle on its own. It channels mana, sure, but under any stress it’ll shatter.”

  He pointed to another bar. “And this green-silver one—it’s too soft. It’ll warp if you so much as breathe on it wrong.”

  Harren grunted. “Solutions?”

  Elias rubbed his thumb along the edge of the worktable.

  “We mix small amounts of both with a strong base metal. Something high in tensile strength but still mana-tolerant.”

  He paused, then smiled faintly.

  “Actually… there’s a basic manganese alloy I used back home. Cheap, colorful, durable. With a little tuning, it’ll hold the structure without killing the conductivity.”

  Harren gave him a skeptical side-eye. “You’re speaking like you’ve done this a hundred times.”

  “I haven’t,” Elias admitted. “But the logic holds.”

  Together, they spent hours refining the ratios—adding a touch more of this, a little less of that. Heating, folding, testing. Elias constantly had to adjust when real-world results didn’t match the neat picture his ability painted.

  The mana flowed strangely through the alloy. It refused to settle at first, pushing against itself like magnets fighting alignment.

  Elias gritted his teeth through several failures.

  Knowing what was wrong wasn’t the same as knowing how to fix it. His instincts helped spot weaknesses, but the actual craftsmanship—the tiny choices of pressure, heat, angle—that was still all him.

  By the time they got a working blend, it wasn’t perfect.

  Small ripples marred the otherwise smooth bracelet surface.

  The color wasn’t as vibrant as Elias had hoped—a muted blue-silver rather than the rich luster he’d pictured.

  And the mana conductivity, while decent, spiked and dipped faintly along the band.

  But it was solid. It was good.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Harren held the finished bracelet up to the forge light, his brow furrowed.

  “Could be better,” he said gruffly. “But it’s damn fine for a first attempt. Might even impress the mayor’s lapdogs.”

  Elias exhaled slowly, shoulders relaxing for the first time that day.

  “Well, there’s always tomorrow.”

  ___________

  The next morning, the forge was already hot when Elias arrived.

  Harren stood at the workbench, the prototype bracelet sitting in front of him. His expression was grim, arms crossed.

  “We’re not handing that over,” he said without looking up. “It’s decent. But it’s not enough.”

  Elias nodded silently. He agreed.

  It wasn’t that the bracelet was bad—it would’ve been fine for a normal customer—but this was for the mayor.

  Mistakes here could have real consequences.

  “We can fix it,” Elias said quietly, setting his tools down. “It just needs refining.”

  He picked up the bracelet, turning it slowly between his fingers. The main issues were clear even without using Metal Comprehension: the mana flow was uneven, the finish was rougher than it should be, and the overall alloy wasn’t as tightly bonded as it could be.

  Three problems. Three chances to improve.

  Harren fetched a few extra ingots—some higher-quality stabilizing metals—and they started over.

  First step: better blending.

  Elias adjusted the ratio of the core metals, increasing the proportion of the blue mana-conductive metal slightly, but adding a touch more of a strong, flexible steel-like base.

  Instead of melting everything all at once like they had yesterday, he insisted on a layered approach—melting the base slowly first, then folding in the mana metals in stages.

  This way, the mana-charged materials wouldn’t just swirl inside the metal like oil in water. They’d integrate more smoothly.

  It was slow, careful work. Heating. Cooling. Folding. Over and over.

  The forge roared hot enough to make the air shimmer. Sweat rolled down Elias’s back as he hammered the glowing metal flat, then folded it again.

  Second step: polish the mana flow.

  Once the bracelet blank was shaped, Elias used Quench

  but this time, he experimented.

  Instead of dunking the hot metal straight into water, he let it cool for just a few heartbeats first. Then he plunged it.

  The result?

  Much smoother mana lines. The chaotic spikes and dips from yesterday had evened out into a steady, gentle current running through the bracelet.

  Still not perfect… but much better.

  Final step: finish work.

  Yesterday, they’d left tiny flaws—small hammer marks, uneven surfaces.

  Today, Elias spent nearly an hour grinding, sanding, and polishing by hand.

  He didn’t rush. He let the natural grain of the metal show, rather than trying to buff it into a mirror.

  It gave the bracelet a sort of quiet, understated beauty—a matte sheen that caught the forge light and gave it a soft halo.

  By midday, the new bracelet sat cooling on a silk cloth, gleaming faintly blue-silver with a single, smooth mana current thrumming along its surface.

  Harren picked it up and whistled low under his breath.

  “This’ll do,” he said, voice low. “This’ll damn well do.”

  Elias just wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled faintly.

  It still wasn’t a perfect masterpiece—but now it was good enough to be proud of.

  And maybe… just maybe… good enough to impress a mayor.

  The system seemed to agree with their hard work.

  As Elias wiped down his tools, a sharp chime sounded in his mind.

  ?

  [Level Up! You have reached Level 10.]

  [Class Evolution Available.]

  [Warning: Class Evolution is a major transition. Proceed with caution.]

  ?

  Before he could even react, the world lurched sideways.

  The forge, the heat, the bracelet—all of it twisted and blurred into nothingness.

  Elias barely had time to curse before darkness swallowed him whole.

  —

  When he opened his eyes, he stood somewhere else.

  The sky above was a boiling mass of molten clouds, deep reds and blacks twisting like living flame.

  The ground beneath his boots was solid but cracked—like cooled volcanic stone, glowing faintly with veins of silver and gold.

  And floating ahead of him, in the center of a vast platform, was a massive black hammer.

  It hung in the air effortlessly, casting no shadow. Beneath it floated a single piece of metal—shifting colors like a star-streaked sky, alive with impossible potential.

  A voice rolled across the empty land.

  Not loud. Not harsh.

  But ancient.

  Weighty.

  Final.

  “Carry on, my child.”

  The words thrummed through Elias’s bones.

  He swallowed hard, stepping toward the suspended hammer.

  As he moved, a new system prompt appeared in front of him—this one more elaborate, wreathed in subtle flames.

  ?

  [Class Evolution: Choose Your Path]

  [Your growth and experiences have unlocked the following evolutions:]

  ? Forgehand – A steady craftsman’s class. Improves forging speed, reduces failure rates, and enhances consistency with mundane and common materials.

  ? Artisan Smith – Focuses on beauty and detail. Increases success rate when creating decorative or fine-crafted items. Grants minor boosts to working with non-combat items.

  ? Battleforger – A war-smith’s path. Enhances weapon and armor crafting, grants slight bonuses to durability and edge retention of crafted combat gear.

  ? Favored of the Forger – You have unknowingly attracted the attention of an ancient deity of metal and creation. Your forging carries a faint blessing, subtly increasing the potential of crafted items and allowing future growth into truly legendary work.

  (Note: Choosing this path will diverge from ordinary growth. Unknown opportunities—and unknown dangers—may await.)

  ? Alloywright – Born of lineage, obsession, and mastery. Your deep knowledge of metals—both mundane and mystical—has awakened a rare path. You gain instinctive understanding of alloy creation, property fusion, and metal purification. Complex alloys no longer resist you; instead, they sing beneath your hammer.

  (Note: Progression will heavily favor invention, experimentation, and resource refinement.)

  Elias stared at the options hanging in the molten sky, the air shimmering around him like a forge at full blast.

  Each word pulsed faintly with power.

  And as he read them again, a wry thought crept into his mind:

  “Well… this basically confirms it. The system’s juicing my levels and evolutions. These are way better than anything Harren ever talked about.”

  The smith had once mentioned typical first evolutions — things like Apprentice Smith, Journeyman Crafter, maybe something fancy like Metalshaper if you were lucky.

  But these?

  These weren’t normal. Not even close.

  Forgehand. Artisan Smith. Battleforger.

  Elias barely gave the first three a second glance. Good, steady paths.

  But they weren’t him.

  He wasn’t looking to mass-produce swords like a machine.

  He wasn’t obsessed with pretty trinkets or carvings.

  He wasn’t a warmonger dreaming of armor and axes.

  That left two.

  Favored of the Forger.

  And Alloywright.

  Elias lingered, his mind chewing over the words.

  The favor of a god… subtle blessings, legendary growth.

  There was undeniable temptation in it. Recognition. Power, eventually. Maybe even the chance to reach heights no mortal smith had touched in centuries.

  But then there was Alloywright.

  Born of lineage, obsession, and mastery.

  It sounded almost like the system had pulled the words out of his bones.

  This path wasn’t about someone else’s blessing.

  It wasn’t about becoming the hand of a deity.

  It was about him — his family’s legacy, his years of studying, the endless late nights experimenting with alloys no one else cared to understand.

  It was personal.

  Elias tightened his fist, feeling the warmth of the molten ground through his boots.

  In the end, the decision was obvious.

  “No offense, old god, whoever you are,” Elias thought dryly. “But I think I’ll stick with what I know.”

  He raised his hand toward the final option.

  [Alloywright]

  The molten world responded immediately.

  The hammer in the sky blazed brighter, and the star-specked ingot before him pulsed with brilliant veins of color — gold, silver, crimson, deep cobalt — as if every metal on earth and beyond answered his call.

  A deafening clang sounded in the distance, like the first blow struck on the anvil of the world.

  Then, without warning, the world cracked—and Elias was swallowed by light.