Master Bismuth was a master blacksmith. He had his fair share of knowledge. Still, despite all his years of experience, he had never seen anybody fix a magic weapon with just a few hits. Whatever Abel did, it was completely different from what he was familiar with.
But that didn’t make any sense. On the Holy Continent, everything to do with forgery was from the dwarves. All the techniques came from one place. If what Abel did wasn’t a secret technique, Master Bismuth would, really, had no clue what it was.
Back to Abel. He noticed that someone was walking towards him. It made him frown. Usually, no matter what job one partook in, it’s always rude to be interrupted when he was in the middle of doing something.
“Hello. Is there anything I can help you with?” Abel asked while taking out another knight’s big sword from his portal bag.
Master Bismuth tried to be polite, “My name is Bismuth, and I’m from the blacksmith department. Apologies if I’m making an intrusion, but I’m quite fascinated with your techniques.”
When Abel heard Bismuth’s name, he recognized it immediately. So this was the one who helped to examine Head Commander Bodley’s sword.
“Greetings to you, Master Bismuth. I’ve come here to finish my weapon maintenance mission.”
“I noticed. Still, I’m quite curious about the way you fix your weapon. Could you, uh, show me the knight’s big sword you repaired?”
“Of course.”
As Abel said that, he pointed towards the knight’s big sword that was lying near him. Since it hadn’t cooled down yet, he decided not to put it inside his portal bag. Master Bismuth immediately went to pick it up. He tried to look as carefully as he could, but he couldn’t find a repair mark on any spot at all.
“Impossible!”
Master Bismuth’s face was almost touching the sword, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find any repair mark whatsoever. When he flicked the sword’s body with his finger, a clear, metallic sound came out. It was a sign that the broken parts were fully connected. This was very weird to him. The last time he checked, even the main part of the blade was broken into two, but he couldn’t find a single sign that damage had been there.
This was only possible if the weapon was brand new. Under most cases, any weapon would have multiple tiny parts that were chipped off. This was not the case for this knight’s big sword. To put it simply, Abel really outdid himself.
Apart from his main job as a master blacksmith, Master Bismuth was also a knight. He was at around the rank of an intermediate knight. That being said, he was already good enough to direct his own combat qi into the weapon he was holding. With the weapon he was holding, he was more than willing to direct his white combat qi into it.
And there he went. By directing his own combat qi into the knight’s big sword, he made the estimate that the knight’s big sword was completely repaired. Of course, if Abel knew what he was thinking, he would’ve told him that it wasn’t the case. The sword was about 95% complete. As perfect as the repair job seemed to be, there was still a deficit in the rune sign’s effects.
Master Bismuth couldn’t hide his curiosity anymore, “Sir, please, could you tell me how you did it? How did you manage to find a way to fix this weapon?”
Abel shook his head, “I’m sorry, Master Bismuth, but that’s a very private question. I’m not going to stop you from watching me work, but I’m not going to answer any questions that are related to my mission.”
It was a disappointing response, but not an unexpected one. In fact, Master Bismuth didn’t even expect Abel to allow him to watch. This was a secret technique that he was given permission to lay his eyes on. From his perspective, if he was allowed to watch it a couple more times, there was probably a chance that it would help him to improve his own skill.
Abel didn’t really care to talk more to him. After throwing another damaged sword into the furnace, he stomped harder on the pump to increase the heat of the furnace.
When the sword’s body started turning red, he picked the broken parts out of the furnace. Then, just like before, he raised his hammer and began to smash.
Clang.
Clang.
Again, it was right on where the sword was broken. Then, after placing down his giant hammer, Abel started channeling the magic gemstone’s energy with his power of the Will. Soon, the energy was successfully redirected to the rune that was on the sword.
There. The magic knight’s big sword was repaired. Master Bismuth was watching the entire time, but he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Actually, his entire ego was starting to crumble. After witnessing how easy Abel made it seem, he felt like his whole career had been for naught.
“What secret technique is this?’ Master Bismuth asked. His voice was starting to get very coarse.
“Secret technique?”
Abel was surprised to even hear that term. What he did just then was nothing of the sort. The only thing he did was to use his brute force. There was a lot of precision that was involved, but that was pretty much all there was.
Master Bismuth was really looking upset, “No, no no! You shouldn’t answer my question! Forgive me for asking!”
Abel didn’t know how to respond, so he just shook his head. He didn’t know what was wrong with Master Bismuth. Instead of continuing the conversation, he grabbed the repaired sword and tossed it to the side. Then, after taking out another damaged magic weapon, he went back to his work.
Master Bismuth was just silent now. From what he saw, if the weapon was not too damaged, all it took for Abel to repair it was with one hit. If the damage was severe, it would take about one or two more, but it would never be more than three hits.
That was when the suspicion started kicking in. Master Bismuth started to wonder if it was actually the legendary Grandmaster Abel. Still, he abandoned that thought right away. According to common knowledge, Grandmaster Abel was a proper blacksmith that used standard techniques. There was no mention of such unorthodox methods.
“Yeah, no way,” he thought to himself, “Whatever he’s doing, it’s not something that a blacksmith could do. Yeah, not even a grandmaster.”
Actually, on second thought, Master Bismuth was starting to suspect that the technique was specialized for wizards. It might’ve even been a secret technique that was left from the ancient items. That would’ve made a lot of sense.
Since they weren’t about training their muscles, wizards often had a hard time swinging a hammer to do forging. However, with the way that Abel was doing his work, it would take a lot of arm strength to complete the work.
Besides, it wasn’t all that hard for wizards to lift a hammer. It wasn’t that hard for a short period of time. There were rune signs, potions, and many other methods that can boost one’s strength temporarily.