"Did I hear that right? There was a sound just now."
Tetsu no Sosuke glanced around. The area was deserted; his secluded residence rarely saw visitors, and his friends rarely played pranks on him.
"Must have been my imagination."
He nodded, refocusing on the iron ingot in his hand.
Clang!
[Impurities -1]
"Holy shit! There's no way I misheard that this time!"
The sound hadn't come from his surroundings but seemed to originate from within his mind, as if a voice in his head.
He examined the smithing hammer in his hand, then the iron ingot on the anvil.
Taking a deep breath, he mustered all his strength and swung the hammer down with a resounding clang!
[Impurities -1]
"It's real!"
Tetsu no Sosuke was momentarily speechless. "Besides being able to see the progress of the iron ingot as it heats, I also hear a '-1 Impurity' sound with each strike. No more doubts! My Golden Finger is definitely... a Blacksmithing System!"
"So, was I destined to be a swordsmith all along?"
Tetsu no Sosuke silently questioned the heavens before resignedly continuing to hammer.
With each strike, he heard the '-1 Impurity' sound. However, as he hammered, the sound became less consistent.
Occasionally, a strike would land without any notification. As time passed, the frequency of the sound diminished further.
He also noticed that the temperature of the iron ingot was dropping.
"Could it be because the temperature is decreasing?"
With this thought, he shoved the ingot back into the furnace.
Once the temperature indicator reached the standard mark again, he retrieved the ingot and resumed hammering.
The initial pattern returned: with each strike, he heard the '-1 Impurity' notification.
With the voice's guidance, Tetsu no Sosuke began his repetitive motions:
Hammer, hammer, hammer, temper, temper, temper, then back to hammering...
From noon until nightfall, with only occasional breaks, he relentlessly hammered the iron.
"This iron can really take a beating!"
Tetsu no Sosuke rubbed his aching arm before returning the iron to the furnace. "Good thing I've been forging since I was a kid. Otherwise, this intense hammering would have worn me out. Speaking of which, after this round, it's time for dinner, right? Hmm, after dinner, I'll keep going!"
Once the temperature rose again, he used tongs to retrieve the iron ingot, which had already been hammered hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
Picking up his forging hammer and gazing at the ingot that had been his companion all afternoon, an inexplicable feeling surged through him.
He felt strangely connected to this piece of metal, as if it were a newborn child he was gradually shaping into its final form.
An indescribable sense of emotion welled up within him, and his hand instinctively raised the hammer.
Bang!
The hammer fell, sending sparks flying.
[Impurities -5]
[Strength +1]
Two sudden notifications snapped Tetsu no Sosuke back to reality.
A warm current flooded his body, rejuvenating his exhausted limbs with renewed vigor.
These two prompts jolted Tetsu no Sosuke awake, leaving him frozen in place.
"What just happened?"
He glanced at the hammer in his hand, then at the iron ingot before him. Why did I suddenly feel so connected to it? Why did that one strike reduce the impurities by five points? And... did my strength increase by one point?
He flexed his arm. Though the change was subtle, he felt a newfound reserve of energy.
So, the Golden Finger doesn't just let me track the iron's impurity reduction—it can also enhance my own strength?
With a sharp intake of breath, he swung the hammer again.
[Impurity -1]
This time, there was no strength increase, and the impurity reduction was minimal.
"No, no! Something's off!"
He shook his head. The sensation from the previous strike was distinctly different from this one.
What could be the reason?
Not close enough?
He stared at the iron, desperately trying to recapture the earlier emotion, to forge a connection with it.
But no matter how he looked at it, it was just a piece of red-hot iron!
"No! I shouldn't get lost in that feeling! Maybe it was just a fleeting moment of inspiration? Or perhaps it was a strange sensation caused by hammering iron ingots all afternoon? Now that the notification has appeared, that feeling has vanished. So, if I want to recapture it, there's probably only one way!"
He stared at the glowing red ingot before him. "Hammer it!"
He hammered repeatedly, with all his might, searching for that spark of inspiration within the thousands of strikes!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Outside the house, in the blacksmith's shed, Tetsu no Sosuke had completely lost track of everything.
He forgot about dinner, he forgot about rest.
The only thing he remembered was to hammer it!
When the temperature dropped and the impurities were removed more slowly, he returned the ingot to the furnace.
Once the temperature rose again, he resumed hammering!
As the sun set, he lit the lamps.
When the furnace fire grew weak, he pumped the bellows.
He didn't know how much time had passed when he suddenly found a subtle feeling.
A feeling of forging.
The sensation of creating something wondrous from his own hands!
He didn't know what this feeling was, but he maintained his original breathing rhythm and kept the hammer falling in its steady rhythm.
[Impurities -5]
[Strength +1]
[Impurities -3]
[Constitution +1]
[Impurities -2]
[Flexibility +1]
[Impurities -4]
[Speed +1]
The notifications repeated in his ears, but Tetsu no Sosuke paid them no heed.
He only felt that his strength seemed boundless, and that this piece of iron contained an endless supply of impurities.
"This won't do," he thought. "If I want to become stronger, I must work harder! I must eliminate all impurities to forge you into refined steel!"
He didn't know when this determination had surged within him.
The forging hammer in his hand seemed to have become one with him, yet he remained unaware that the web between his thumb and forefinger had already split open, the blood now congealed.
[Resilience +1]
"Huh?"
Tetsu no Sosuke froze, abruptly snapping out of his Demonic Obstruction. A searing ache flooded his entire body.
His stomach burned with hunger, and his head throbbed violently.
"Holy shit... What the hell was that?"
He set down the forging hammer and took a step back, only to find his vision darkening. He collapsed onto the ground with a thud.