She wanted to dissuade him from attempting such a feat, fearing he would only injure his small frame. But who told her William was this weak or simple-minded?
In his previous life, William had mastered crafts that would make the grandest artisans of this realm look like children playing in the mud.
"I know a bit of forging myself, but I haven't had the time to come and try it here before," he lied smoothly.
In truth, William would be considered a transcendent genius in forging compared to the primitive standards of this world. "I just want to use the free rooms to test my skills and make something I need for a personal project."
"Ok," Ellina replied. Despite not believing a single word of his story, she decided to stop her daily running session at that moment. Out of a mixture of pity and curiosity, she led him herself toward one of the small houses that filled the Forging Department's compound.
The workshop she led him into wasn't spacious, but it was perfectly equipped. It had everything William needed: a stone oven for melting, a heavy iron anvil, a specialised table used for setting moulds, and a large supply of coal, wood, and base ores used in the common forging process.
Once William's eyes swept over these tools, he couldn't help but smile. He had come here specifically for these items, and seeing them ready for use sparked a familiar fire in his soul. But before he could begin his work, there was a glaring problem he had to solve first.
The Master Smith remained standing at the entrance, folding her massive, muscular arms over her chest. The expression on her face was unmistakably clear: Come on, show me what a porter thinks he can do!
"Ahem, I don't want to waste my Master's precious time," William said, clearing his throat while trying to maintain a posture of absolute respect. He was hoping she would take the hint and leave him to his secrets.
"I have nothing else to do today," the Master replied. Her answer immediately cut off any path he had to usher her out. William couldn't believe he had crossed the entire academy grounds just to be hindered by a bored Master Smith.
He knew that his methods of forging were on a completely different level than the ones used in this world. His techniques involved precise spirit manipulation and chemical reactions that defied local logic.
If this Master stayed there watching him, she would immediately discover how bizarre and advanced his ways were. That kind of exposure would inevitably bring him the exact kind of trouble he was trying to avoid.
"I have something to confess," William said. Since he had no other way to force her out, he decided to handle the situation with a different strategy.
"What? You don't actually know how to forge, right?" Ellina's eyes shone with realisation. "You were just playing around... What was it? A poker game? A 'do or dare' game lost by the disciple you serve, and you're just taking the punishment for them?"
The lady looked quite pleased with herself for "solving" the mystery. All this time, she had never believed a word of his claims. She was certain he had come here for any reason other than actual smithing.
"It's neither," William said, slowly shaking his head. He allowed his expression to turn dead serious, his gaze becoming cold and focused. "I already have a forging master, and he specifically asked me to come here to complete a task for him."
"A master in the academy?" Ellina's face didn't change much, but her eyes sharpened as she scrutinised him.
"He is someone you might not know about," William said. He knew his words might sound rude to a Master of the department, but he had to push the narrative.
"He is not one of the academy masters. My master's teachings are his top secrets. If the Master wants to stay and watch, then I must ask for your word—an oath—that you will not leak anything you see here to a soul."
This was his bottom line. If she refused to swear, he would have to drop the idea of forging here entirely and look for a more secluded, perhaps more dangerous, place to manufacture his arrows.
The lady kept her silent, dagger-like gaze fixed on him for a long, uncomfortable minute. Then, she suddenly broke into a fit of laughter.
"That's fun!" she said, as if what she had heard was the height of comedy. "I, Ellina, swear on my spirit that I will keep anything I witness here to myself."
It was a sacred pledge, one of the toughest and most binding oaths in the spirit world. Unlike what William expected, this Master seemed genuinely amused by the little porter in front of her and had decided to play along with his "fantasy."
She didn't flinch as she took the serious vow. In her heart, she still didn't believe a single word William said.
And even if he did prove to be more than a common porter, she knew of a way to technically bypass such a heavy oath if she absolutely had to—a nuance of spiritual law that William was currently oblivious to.
"The stage is yours, little master," she said with a smirk, stepping back into the shadows of the doorway.
She never expected, for even a single second, that this little kid would be capable of showing her something she didn't already know. In fact, deep down, she didn't believe he was capable of forging anything at all. To her, this was a performance—a child playing at being a master.
"Great," William said. Once he got over the initial surprise of her taking such a binding oath so casually, his features relaxed significantly.
The tension left his shoulders; he could finally begin the work without the suffocating burden of worry. If she had sworn the sacred pledge, he could at least proceed with the technical phase of his plan.
The first thing he did was unbuckle his new storage bag. With a practiced motion, he began to empty the contents onto the central worktable. First came the heavy mounds of Homos clay, its damp, earthy scent filling the small room.
The appearance of the clay startled Ellina; in the world of forging, such material was considered useless—better suited for a potter's wheel or a cheap alchemical sealant than a smith's furnace.
However, when William reached back into the bag and pulled out the jagged, crystalline scarlet vibrant ore, Ellina's expression shifted from mild amusement to instant, bone-deep terror.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she shrieked, her voice cracking as she instinctively took several large steps toward the exit. "Hurry up and take those dangerous, cursed ores away now! Do you want to die? Do you want to level this entire department?!"
She couldn't control her fear. As a Master Smith, she was intimately familiar with the devastating history of the scarlet vibrant ore. It was a material synonymous with tragedy.
Even as a high-level master with a powerful spirit, she wouldn't dream of standing within ten feet of a pile that large while a forge was lit.
"Calm down. I know exactly what I'm doing," William said, his voice flat and clinical. He picked up one of the diamond-shaped ores and flipped it casually in his hand, watching the red light dance across its facets. The sight of the powerful, muscular Ellina trembling at the doorway was genuinely amusing to him.
"Those things are going to explode the moment they touch fire or even a stray spark of spirit power!" Ellina shouted, her eyes wide as she watched him handle the ore like it was common coal.
She was convinced that William simply didn't understand the physics of the material he had bought. "Hurry! Take them away before you kill us both!"
"I know all about their properties," William replied, not looking up as he moved to the corner of the room to inspect the fuel supplies. "And I'm not so tired of living that I'd throw my life away for a few arrows."
"Then why in the gods' names are you bringing them out in a smithy?!" Ellina demanded. She didn't even consider for a moment that William might have a method to stabilise them. To her, and to the rest of the forging world, these ores were absolute taboos.
History was littered with the stories of brilliant masters who had lost their lives, their limbs, or their sanity while trying to experiment on the scarlet vibrant ore. The fear she showed wasn't a sign of weakness; it was the natural reaction of a professional who understood the lethality of her craft.
"I'll show you a great trick of my master's," William said. He picked up a few white-grade logs, seasoned wood that had been infused with a trace of spirit energy for a cleaner burn, and tossed them into the cold oven.
"Consider yourself lucky to be here to witness this. Most people would have to pay a king's ransom for a glimpse of this process."
"This…" Ellina trailed off. She didn't know why, but the tone and attitude William was projecting didn't fit his looks, his position, or his age at all. He spoke with the weary, absolute authority of an old man who had forgotten more than she had ever learned.
"Fine. If you want to commit suicide, go ahead. But I won't let you harm our facility or the other students."
As she spoke, she reached into a leather pouch at her waist and pulled out a large, metallic ball covered in intricate geometric etchings. She instantly channeled a massive surge of her spirit power into the device. The ball buzzed and hummed, glowing with a fierce blue light as if it had suddenly come to life.
An instant later, a translucent, shimmering shield erupted from the ball, expanding until it hit the walls, ceiling, and floor, effectively enveloping the entire workspace in a localised barrier.
William looked around, his eyes scanning the structure of the energy field. It looked incredibly durable—strong enough to sustain the direct impact of a gold-grade monster's attack.
It successfully sealed him and his materials inside, ensuring that if a blast did occur, the shockwave and fire would be contained within this single room, protecting the rest of the Forging Department.
"This is my own creation," Ellina said, her pride momentarily eclipsing her fear. She stood just outside the shimmering wall of the shield. "Of course, a porter wouldn't be able to appreciate the complexity of the spatial anchoring involved. but it's enough to make sure that whatever foolish explosion you cause inside stays inside."
"Ok," William said, shrugging his shoulders as if her precautions were entirely irrelevant.
Ellina remained deeply sceptical. In any other situation, she would have kicked a student—let alone a servant—out for even bringing such materials onto the grounds. But what William had said earlier about his "secret master" had piqued her interest.
She was famous among the faculty for being an insatiably curious master, often getting herself into trouble by trying to uncover lost techniques.
She wanted to see if this strange boy was truly a lunatic, or if he possessed a secret that defied the common knowledge of her world.