For the first part of the competition, there wasn't that much that was to be seen.
All that they were doing was melting the iron that they would be forging, so there wasn't much that could be done.
This was the most fundamental part of forging and there were no shortcuts.
Rather, rushing would actually make it worse.
So they just watched as the two sides stoked the fire and watched the iron melt.
It was like the calm before the storm.
Once they were done, the real fight would begin.
But as they were doing this, Bruno couldn't help looking over at Rondo from time to time. It was clear that he was filled with admiration with the way that he kept looking over.
Even from time to time, I could hear him say under his breath, "Look at his steady hands, his calm breathing, that is the experience that he has."
I couldn't help shaking my head and finally when I couldn't take it, I slapped the back of his head and said, "Focus on your work or are you trying to lose."
Bruno revealed an awkward look after his and he quickly apologized before turning back to the forge.
This time, he slipped into a state of complete focus as he started heating the iron evenly to reduce the amount of impurities that were left inside.
As I watched him, I had to admit that Bruno was worthy of the title of best blacksmith in the city.
He really was skilled.
After the iron was all melted and it was time to shape it, that was when I started giving him advice.
When Bruno heard what I told him to do, he couldn't help revealing a shocked look.
That was because what I was teaching him went against everything that he had already been taught.
Bruno put the iron back into the furnace and started adding more things in.
On the other side, Rondo had already finished pouring his iron into the mold and was waiting for it to cool. So he took this time to look over at us to see what we were up to.
When he saw the different things that Bruno was adding into the furnace, he almost dropped the mold in his hand.
After a moment of being dazed, he suddenly roared out, "What are you doing?! Are you just making fun of me or are you just playing around? Do you really think that you can make anything good by adding all these random metals in? All it'll do is corrupt the iron!"
Bruno had a bitter smile on his face which showed that he agreed with this, but I just calmly said, "This is our method, please stop peeking and focus on your own work."
Rondo's face couldn't help twisting when he heard this.
It changed expressions several times until he finally roared out, "Fine! Do whatever you want! Don't blame me when you lose!"
Then he angrily stomped back over to his own forging area, but even then…his skills didn't fail him.
Even if he was lost in anger, the skills that had been trained over the years weren't lost. He was able to easily finish the rest of his molding and reach the hammering step.
The iron was still red from being heated, but it wasn't so hot that it was too soft to shape.
So Rondo picked up his hammer and placed his molten sword on the anvil before starting to swing down at it.
The first few swings that he made were very simple, but it also seemed like he was just testing the sword with these few first swings.
Once it came to his tenth swing, that was when things started to pick up.
He started hammering the iron sword at different angles, at different timings. There wasn't a single thing about the way he was hammering down that seemed uniform.
It seemed like a child swinging a hammer down at a toy instead of a blacksmith forging.
But there was also something strange about the way that he kept hammering this iron sword.
With each hit of the hammer, there was a part of the iron sword that bent in response to it.
However, before that bend could even take form, there was another swing already coming down at it. This swing hit the jut that came out and forced it back into place before it could form.
So while it seemed like random hammering, it was actually all very calculated.
Every swing was aimed at where a reaction would come from the iron sword.
Bruno couldn't help looking at this with a dazed look as he said, "The 36 Wild Hammers, I never thought that I would be able to see it in real life."
I also couldn't help narrowing my eyes to look at Rondo as he wildly hammered down on the iron sword.
I also recognized this technique since this was one that was from the game.
However…the 36 Wild Hammers was only a first tier technique that was only used to craft tier one items…
And there had been a total of five different tiers in the game.
So in my eyes, what he was doing was the most basic of all things.
There really wasn't a need for me to be cautious of this.
So I slapped Bruno on the shoulder and said, "Focus on what you're doing."
Bruno snapped out of his daze and quickly turned back to his furnace.
However, it was clear by the look of doubt on his face that he didn't feel like we would be able to win…
Still, it didn't matter if he thought we would win or not.
All that mattered was that I knew that we were going to win.
Once he had finished melting all of the things that I had him add into the iron, we finally took our mixture out of the furnace and prepared a mold for it.
When Bruno saw the mold, he couldn't help being shocked.