Evan D. Sherden, Ending a Long Year (2)

“…You’re in good shape, Evan.” Horta Benus, the blacksmith, had been worrying about Evan’s body lately for some reason. That said, Evan’s condition was serious.

“It’s alright, I’m receiving healing. It’s just been a little hard lately.” Evan replied with an exhausted look as he mentally cursed Shine. It was difficult enough to handle Leo, but then Shine led the charge with the rest of the dungeon knights, saying they would somehow beat the leader. They weren’t opponents who could overpower him with force yet, but a surprise attack was annoying to deal with it. Moreover, Shine and Arisha’s skills made it particularly troublesome.

‘It’s a good thing that Lua didn’t step up too.’ Belois was already an expert in intermediate magic. If she hit Evan with that, he wouldn’t be safe. She had participated in the final course of the daily training (the now official Great Brawl), but she didn’t dare touch Evan, fortunately.

“If it’s difficult, can’t we just reduce it a bit? It’s no good to keep heating iron, too. Once you’ve tapped on it, you have to cool it down.”

“Thanks for the great advice, Horta…but I think I can manage it.” Needless to say, if he wanted to stop their surprise attack, he just had to use his authority as the knight commander. In fact, Shine had originally been prepared for Evan to punish him. But, Evan had realized that this way of training was considerably better than he thought. Not just for him, but for everyone.

‘Mental exhaustion is unavoidable, though…’ Not only did the guys attacking Evan improve their abilities, but it also developed Evan’s senses as he had to prepare for such an attack. When he grew up, and the beginning of the main story of Yo-ma Great War 3 began, unexpected crises would begin in earnest. If he developed those senses now, he would be able to respond quickly to those situations.

‘Speaking of which, I’m mastering how to deal with surprise attacks now. It’ll be a benefit to me in the future.’

“I heard that the dungeon knights training has begun in earnest. The expectations are great…so I’m worried. As you know, if expectations are too high, the disappointment will be as well.” Horta Benus was an upright individual who had trouble speaking subtly. Usually, such a line of conversation wouldn’t be possible with a knight commander. However, Evan only laughed.

“No need to worry, Horta. No matter how much others expect, they’ll see more than that.”

“If you say so, then it’s fine.” Evan was the person who had helped him create a natural artifact in a few months, after all. Horta had a similar mindset about him, as Raihan did.

“By the way, why did you come find me today? Is there something wrong with the artifact we created?”

“No way. Besides, it’s Arisha’s responsibility now. If it dulls one day, I may ask you to repair it, but there’s no problem with it.”

“If so, then a new artifact?” Evan smiled in response to the elderly man who had a twinkle in his eyes.

“It’s not so easy to create one, especially not to ask for one every day…no, I’m thinking of making them one by one, but not yet. Let’s move away from artifacts.”

“Then what is it? I agreed to help you create artifacts.” Horta now seemed only to have thoughts of artifacts in his head after he managed to create one. Evan shrugged, knowing that this was the likely outcome.

“I wanted to talk to you about your growth as a blacksmith.”

“Well…as I succeeded in creating that thing, I felt that my limits were expanding. I’m convinced now that my path wasn’t wrong.”

“Of course. Creating natural artifacts is the most important experience needed for developing your blacksmith skills.”

“Skills? Experience?” Oops, he had forgotten that Horta didn’t know those game terms. Evan gave him a rough idea of what he meant.

“I understand. Skills grow when you master them in a variety of ways, it makes sense.” He didn’t know the terminology, but he had lived in this world. He had experience with the moments his skills grew.

“Then, shouldn’t we focus on making artifacts?”

“Sorry, Horta, but your skill level right now is still slightly too low to make them stably. The artifact you created this time was born mostly of luck, right?” Producing more wouldn’t be feasible if they left it to chance, especially given the cost of materials. No matter how wealthy Evan was, it wouldn’t be sustainable.

“Well, it was normally impossible to create them in the first place…”

“No, you have to aim at creating them consistently. You will become such a great blacksmith.”

“…” Evan’s firm voice filled Horta with a desire to live up to his expectations.

“So, in order to do that, let’s develop your skills. You must become a blacksmith that can stably create artifacts.”

“But how? I don’t know any training method other than making new ones…if it’s just forging, I’ve been doing that up until this point.”

“I told you before, right? I came here to tell you about it.” Evan shrugged and searched through his memories on how to train the blacksmith skill from the official skill guide for the Yo-Ma Great War 3 game. The training method best suited for Horta was famous, but it wasn’t easy to practice as the skill grew.

“It’s failure.”

“Yes?”

“If you fail to make a weapon, your skill will grow.”

“…Yes?” It was commonly referred to as failure training. Rather than successfully expressing a skill, it was a system that granted experience for failure. It was useful in growing skills to a higher level, but many users resented it.

‘Although it was possible to deliberately fail in a skill.’ In other games famous for failure training, there was no system for deliberately failing in skill, so they often required players to buy equipment that deliberately lowered their stats.

“Are you telling me to deliberately ruin armaments?”

“Ruining it just before completion is the most efficient.”

“I can’t understand. How can you grow anything but a bad habit that way?”

“I don’t really know either.” But didn’t they say failure is the mother of success? It must be something similar. Well, who was the father of success? Horta became quiet as Evan fell alone into his deep thoughts.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll try it.” Horta wouldn’t deny his words. If Evan said to try it, he would. He had his doubts, but it was worth at least one attempt.

“I’ll start working on one.”

“It will probably rise tremendously. Oh, but only failure training won’t work, so mix it appropriately.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, but okay.” Horta nodded resolutely, and Evan nodded in satisfaction before leaving him. Now alone, Horta ignited the furnace.

‘This is taking me back to my apprenticeship.’ Now, if he focused, failure was impossible. Forging was engraved into his very bones, but now he had to break it deliberately?

‘Funny how failure is harder than succeeding.’ It was interesting, at least. He had to focus on each and every movement that was once muscle memory. He felt strange like he was going back to when he first learned how to blacksmith. Finally, he shrugged.

“… Let’s do it.” He had to confirm it. He picked up a suitable piece of iron and started to smelt it.

“Let’s try a greatsword.” A small smile was drawn on his face as he whispered, raising his hammer up.

On that day, Horta Benus created a natural artifact by himself.