Old Craftsman's face flushed with anger as he said bitterly, "What a miser! He even wants to steal the credit for my achievements!" He pressed his lips together; though he was seething with rage inside, he had no good way to deal with one of the supervisors of the Quartermaster Battalion.

After a long moment of contemplation, Old Craftsman stomped his foot in frustration and said, "Kid, starting today, I'll teach you the true art of military forging! If you can become a full-fledged military weapons smith, then even that miser wouldn't dare to openly mess with you, no matter how bold he is."

"Military weapons smith?" William Carter gulped hard, his eyes lighting up.

Once you possess military weapons, repairing equipment naturally becomes much smoother and more effective than for ordinary smiths. However, no matter how many devices you repair, you are still just a qualified repairman.

Compared to those smiths who can personally forge legendary weapons, a novice who has just mastered military fire is still not much to look at.

Old Craftsman said in a gentle tone, "Once you become a military weapons smith, you'll have quite a few privileges in the camp—enough to keep you safe. However, if you want to become a military weapons smith above reproach, you must independently forge suitable equipment in a short time." He paused, then asked, "Do you remember everything I taught you before?"

"Yes." William Carter nodded vigorously, pointing to his own head. "Old man, it's all right here."

"Good. I'll go over it again today, so remember it well. But since you just used military fire today and don't yet know how to restrain it, go have a good meal and get some sleep. Come back to study in the afternoon."

William Carter puffed out his chest, wanting to say that he had just woken up and was still full of energy.

But as the words reached his lips, he realized he actually was hungry, and his mind felt rather tired, a bit drowsy.

He blinked twice, then immediately nodded and said, "Alright, old man, I'll do as you say."

He returned to his quarters and slept like the dead once again.

He slept for a full two hours, and when William Carter woke up, he felt completely refreshed, as if all the difficulties before him had become trivial matters.

Chapter 5: Ambush

When he arrived at Old Craftsman's forge, the old man began to explain in detail.

Forging a qualified weapon is by no means a simple task.

Take the military saber that William Carter was most familiar with—as an example, if you don't have military fire, you must first shape the iron raw material into a ball, heat it in the furnace with charcoal at high temperature to form sponge iron, then forge it into long strips, dividing them into several pieces to select the best material. The good strips are used for making blades, the inferior ones for farm tools, and so on.

Next, the best material is used to forge the blade using the folding forging method; in addition, the blade, spine, and spine insert must be forged together, and so forth.

The whole process is not only complex but also slow, by no means something that can be accomplished in one go.

However, once you have military fire, it's a completely different story. Once you use military fire for forging, the process can be greatly accelerated. If your strength is sufficient and you become skilled, forging a military saber in just one hour doesn't seem so difficult.

Of course, what is routine in Old Craftsman's eyes is still beyond what William Carter can achieve at present.

"Kid, what do you think is the most important thing you need to do right now?" Old Craftsman asked solemnly.

William Carter thought seriously for a while and said, "Prepare to forge weapons and armor."

Old Craftsman snorted and said, "Wrong. The most important thing for you right now is to learn how to use military fire. Using military fire is not a simple matter. If you don't know how to control it, or if you can't pay attention to certain details during forging... Heh, if you want to become a qualified military weapons smith, it'll be very difficult."

Although William Carter was usually a bit mischievous, at critical moments he could still calm down and show some decisiveness. Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to endure the military fire under Brian Bolton's watchful gaze.

Under Old Craftsman's patient guidance, William Carter devoted himself wholeheartedly to learning how to use and control military fire.

Controlling military fire is definitely a technical skill. Although it looks like just a ball of flame, how to use it to unleash its greatest power is a real art.

For an entire day, Old Craftsman kept correcting William Carter's small movements when using military fire. Some of these small actions might seem insignificant, but true efficiency is squeezed out bit by bit from such tiny details.

For a military weapons smith, this is their basic skill, and no matter how much effort it takes, it's worth it.

Sweat poured down his body like raindrops. After repeated practice with military fire, his body was soaked through.

Although his mental strength gave William Carter a much better starting point in controlling military fire and timing than most people, he had only just mastered military fire, and there was still a long way to go before he could truly transform himself.

Looking at William Carter, whose eyes, body, and movements all showed signs of exhaustion, Old Craftsman's eyes flashed with a trace of pity as he asked, "Kid, can you handle it?"