Chapter 143: Act 1: Blue Ocean Pavilion – Chapter 143: Fabricator Novice Oscar

"A Fabricator?" Oscar rubbed his wrists after being freed from the chains. His eyes stared blankly at Draven. "I don't have the talent. My Anima is only a beast, not a hammer, anvil, or anything remotely related."

"True, but you are also a Grade Four and trying your best to keep up with the higher grades, even coming here for training. Why should you be unwilling to try this?" Draven brought his face close to Oscar.

Oscar shrank before Draven's sudden action but kept his thoughts on Draven's words. Oscar knew Draven was correct in that he trained ceaselessly to keep up with his friends and become a stronger Exalt, but only if he kept training. Training as a Fabricator would take time away from everything else.

"Even so, as a fabricator or alchemist, there may be those with Animas most suited for it. That only means they might have an easier time or accomplish things faster, but that doesn't mean they are out of reach." Draven spoke.

However, Oscar pondered more.

"Will it be that useful?" Oscar asked. "What about my Reis, Prinstyct, and Spell training?"

"It depends on how much work you're willing to put into it. I have put together a nice schedule for you." Draven passed on a paper.

Oscar's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. His hands trembled as he read the paper. He glanced at Draven, who showed no reaction.

"Starting at the break of dawn, do seven hours of Reis training, four hours of Ein and Spell training, three hours of Prinstyct training, and finally eight hours of Fabricator training. Master, are you leaving me with only two hours of sleep?"

"Your progress as a Greater Apprentice Exalt may be slowed down for a while, but you can pick up the pace later with the ataerstone and the elixirs. This is good for you to take things more slowly and consolidate your shaky foundation. Forcibly advancing the way you did had left some issues that can be corrected by good slow training." Draven clasped his hands and stared at Oscar. "Are you prepared?"

Oscar chuckled at this situation. He put himself here to receive training but didn't expect it to be so blown out of proportion. However, Oscar remembered Robert's words; you must do everything possible to grasp your goals.

There was no way Oscar would give up this opportunity.

"I'm prepared." Oscar bowed and shouted.

"Hehe. Then let's begin." Draven smiled under his helmet.

…….

The furnaces roared with flames that visibly distorted the air in a wide area. The flames were a mix of various colors of red and orange but were certainly not the typical flame Oscar was used to. Even the anvil was different from the blacksmith in his home village, being the size of a table.

Black soot covered every inch of this workshop. Oscar was sure he would be choking to death if not for the special fabricator helmet with tubes on the side and a black glass front to see through. He was clad in the uniform of a fabricator, with not a single place exposed to the thick, hot air of this room.

"This is my workshop." Draven lifted a hammer and slammed it onto the large anvil covered in black soot. The metallic collision reverberated through the anvil and knocked off all the soot, revealing a clean silver coat. "Come."

Oscar's breathing quickened in this smog-infested place. Although the helmet helped secure clean air for his breathing, it was still dry and hot, like in a sauna, burning into his lungs.

"Question, what is a fabricator?" Draven took out a wipe and finely cleaned the hammer.

"A fabricator is a creator of graded armaments such as weapons or armor that bolsters an Exalt's capabilities," Oscar spoke quickly to prevent his throat from drying up.

"Good answer." Draven placed an object on the anvil, and Oscar was surprised to see it there. It was his obsidian glass buckler that Kan Elire's Wraith nearly destroyed.

"My buckler? Are we going to fix it, Master?" Oscar looked expectantly at Draven, who simply shrugged like a noble looking down on a commoner. Oscar watched in horror as Draven smashed his hammer on the buckler, the final nail in the coffin to shatter it into pieces.

Oscar scrambled to pick up all the pieces that fell on the floor.

"No, we are not. You will be making a new buckler for yourself, and you will use and improve it." Draven cleared off the anvil and placed a large cube block of metal. It was blue metal with straight gray veins patterned on its surfaces. "This is a block of azureiron, the most basic ores used for forging."

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Oscar bundled up all the pieces of his buckler in a corner and turned his attention to the azureiron. He held it in his hands and felt its hard exterior.

"The azureiron is a good practice tool for you. Give it here." Draven took up long metal tongs and grabbed the azureiron. He put it into the furnace that roared fiercely with the new addition.

Oscar watched in wonder at the azureiron within the flames. The blue exterior did not lessen but deepened in color under the flames like a sapphire. The gray veins on it turned a bright red, as one would expect from metal in a furnace.

"Here, take it out. You need to be accustomed to the fires."

Oscar took the tongs from Draven and reached into the fires of the furnace. Although the tongs provided some distance, the heat traveled up and hissed on Oscar's fabricator gloves, making him sweat bullets under the helmet. He retrieved the azureiron and put it on the anvil.

"Take the hammer. Your exercise is to mold and shape the azureiron in a flat plate, the thinnest you can create." Draven sat down on a stool and waited for Oscar to begin.

Oscar clenched the hammer and looked at Draven, "This is not going to be as easy as it seems, right, Master?"

"By this point, is that even a question you should have?" Draven remained silent after his remark.

Oscar nodded, brought the hammer high, and pounded it down onto the azureiron, but it did not budge. Oscar had tested it with a simple pounding without Ein or Reis; metals used for armaments were different.

'Then, how about with Ein?' Oscar focused Ein on the hammer's head. Sparks flew out from the collision, but Oscar was still frowning because the azureiron had a small dent. Next, he tried again with Ein but drew up Reis to compound the power.

More sparks were scattered from the powerful pounding of Oscar's hammer. The azureiron had a slightly larger dent, but it was minuscule compared to its size.

"That hammer is not what they use in forging. The specially-made hammers allow fabricators to shape the metals more easily. But you will be using this." Draven said as he watched Oscar continue pounding away at the metal, his disciple wasn't paying attention but focused on the task.

'It's too slow, and at a certain point, it gets harder to make more dents in it.' Oscar managed to pound the azureiron down only a tiny bit, about one centimeter. His hands were getting numb from the countless hammering.

"Then what about 'Dual Awaken'?" Oscar used 'Dual Awaken' to focus the Ein onto a singular point on the hammer and drew up Reis. His face scrunched up from the strain, but he hammered down. The azureiron finally showed more progress.

Oscar's shoulders heaved up and down as he drew in lots of air to recover. The 'Dual Awaken' was very stressful and required time before he could try again. He gave it another shot and continued at this slow pace.

However, the results were evident because the azureiron's height lowered as its width increased. But the hot red veins were returning to their gray color, and the burning blue was waning.

Oscar reheated the azureiron in the furnace to keep its malleable state and continued hammering. But he reached a roadblock once again. The azureiron refused to budge any lower than where it was now.

"Eight hours are up; sleep for two hours, and we will resume your Reis training." Draven clapped his hands, and the furnace flames died down instantly. "I have arranged a small room for you next door. Rest well for the next two hours."

Oscar coughed after taking off his helmet outside. His face was soaked in sweat, and his hair was stuck to his skin. He entered the room next door to find a plain mattress on the floor and a small bath.

"Seriously?" Oscar submerged himself in the uncomfortable bath and cleaned himself quickly. He dropped to the mattress and fell asleep in an instant. The long periods of time in the crushing cold waters and flaming workshop made Oscar feel sick.

"Wake up!"

Oscar awoke in a pale sweat, seeing his master standing above him.

"It's been two hours; let's resume the training."

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