Chapter 476: Have you never touched a hammer before in your life?
The next second, a dull clang sounded, and the piece of ore on the anvil directly slipped out of the surface and fell on the ground.
The old vampire’s face turned unsightly. Damon awkwardly scratched his head. "I think I used less strength to hit the ore. I will do better next time." He shamelessly laughed and picked up the ore from the ground and put it back on the anvil.
He had brought the hammer down using only 10% of his strength, afraid that he would ruin the ore. But it turned out that was a bad idea.
Damon once again tried hitting the ore, this time using more strength, around 60% of his strength. Thankfully, the ore did not fly away this time. The hammer fell with a loud thud. The ore shuddered, and sparks flew, but it was still on the anvil.
Damon let out a sigh of relief. On the other hand, the ghost looked even more miserable. "You already made a crack in the ore! Heat it up soon, else it will all turn to shit!"
"More force, yes," the ghost muttered, "but hold your rhythm. Hit too hard and you shatter. Too soft and it won’t take shape."
Damon nodded and steadied his grip. He breathed in and tried again. However, the ghost was not satisfied. For the next several minutes, constant criticisms barraged his ears as the ghost relentlessly pestered him about controlling his power.
"Read the ore. Feel the ore. Become one with the ore."
Damon’s face twitched. It was clear that he was not going to achieve any of this any time soon. He was already in a rush, and this was going nowhere. What the hell was he doing here, wasting time? He needed to get back to Niera and prepare for the war. Every second counted.
"Ahem, senior. Is it possible for me to take a small break in the outside world and adjust my mindset before trying out this trial again?"
"Adjust your mindset?" The old man’s eyes went wide. As if this guy’s mindset was his only problem. If he were not a ghost, he would have probably killed the fellow in front of him a thousand times over already.
"You somehow stumble into my legacy trial, bypassing all of the earlier tests, and land yourself in my final test, and now you also want to take a break and come back?" The old ghost was truly speechless. This was the first time he was seeing someone fall ass backwards into good luck and yet behave so daringly.
On the other side, Damon was also equally shocked after hearing his words. Did the guy just say he was on the final test for the legacy trial? Could this be a broken legacy or a lost legacy?
In that case, the contents might be truly invaluable. Only a very old legacy could become broken like this because of the passage of time.
Damon became even more bitter and salty. Even though he had absolutely no chance of succeeding here, he couldn’t simply let it go and leave now after knowing this. Why did it have to be smithing of all the things? If it had been an alchemy legacy, he wouldn’t be this helpless right now!
He steeled his resolve and tried again. On his side, the old ghost continued berating him, taking out all of its frustrations on him but Damon did not care. If he could somehow grasp how to do this correctly, he could get an amazing windfall here!
Damon checked the time. He still had 5 hours before the raid started. This meant he had five hours to work this out. Getting back to blood hall after that was a simple matter. He just needed to use Blood Gate to return to the outpost first and then take that portal to get back to Niera.
Besides, it was best to surprise the other side at the last moment. If they did not already know, he had somehow broken the curse, it was best to reveal it at the very end. He couldn’t give them time to plan more counterattacks.
After deciding this, Damon fully focussed on the task at hand. Another hour passed by and there was no progress. This was not like sensing his soul. There he had an in but he had nothing.
"What are you doing? You good for nothing acolyte!"
"How could someone be so talentless?!"
"Have you never touched a hammer before in your life?"
"Why the hell did it have to be you among all the acolytes?"
Ignoring the old vampire’s taunts, Damon paused and assessed the situation. This was basically just wasting time. He might as well give up now. The only one who could possibly contribute here was Goldy.
He tried to mentally communicate with the fire spirit as a last ditch effort. "Goldy, any chance you can adjust the heat according to the strength I am exerting?"
Goldy was a high-tier fire spirit. Actually to call it high-tier would be underestimating it. Damon had a feeling if the little spark tried it could definitely do something like that. All it had to do was grasp the property of the mixed ore and gauge the power of each of his strike.
Though this seems complicated for someone like him, for Goldy it might not be all that difficult. It was a stretch sure, but he would never know without trying.
"Goldy, any chance you can adjust the heat according to how hard I hit?" Damon asked again.
The little spark giggled in response.
Damon sighed. Perhaps he was asking too much of a little child. He could only try it out to see what would happen. He raised the hammer one more time and slowly swung it down. The old vampire clicked his tongue, already preparing to speak out his mind.
However, the next moment the old vampire froze in shock. Damon also felt that something was amiss. This time his swing actually felt right!