Full-Time Wizard: Starting with Harvesting Wheat

boom!boom!boom!boom!boom!

A crisp clanging sound came from the blacksmith's shop, and fiery red sparks leaped with the scorching heat.

Old John crossed his arms and surveyed the blacksmith apprentices practicing diligently all around him.

"Nonsense."

"Rubbish."

"When you go out in the future, don't say that you are John's apprentice."

He wandered around the various forging tables, his gaze fixed on the apprentices' current work.

Some people are melting materials, some are forging and shaping, and others are sharpening blades.

A small number of newly arrived apprentices were still in the pure practice stage, using their brute force to fight the metal ingot in a completely chaotic manner.

Suddenly, his gaze lingered on a boy for several seconds, then he walked over with interest.

This young man was only an apprentice who had been at the blacksmith's shop for three days, but Old John regarded him as a genius who was a rare find.

One hammer blow after another.

The three-kilogram forging hammer felt as light as a feather in the boy's hands. He seemed to never stop, and with even breathing, he forged the iron ingot on the table at an almost perfectly synchronized frequency.

The originally heavy iron ingots were rapidly deformed and stretched under forging, gradually approaching the thickness required to make weapons.

Such forging skills are not much inferior to those of apprentices who have studied for four or five years.

It's hard to imagine that this was the work of a novice who had only recently started learning.

A hint of satisfaction flashed in old John's eyes, then his gaze shifted to another boy.

The boy's arm muscles were undoubtedly more rugged, exuding a ferocious, beast-like aura, and each blow he struck was far more powerful than the former's. However...

Old John shook his head slightly in disappointment.

As his son, after studying forging for two and a half years, his basic skills are still not as good as those of a beginner?

The posture is wrong, the force is wrong, and the point of contact is even more wrong!

He must have said that forging is not about using your full strength in every strike, but rather a gradual, skillful process involving large, sweeping movements, even when dealing with basic materials.

He let out a long sigh.

"Okay, stop now."

After Old John called a halt, the breathing of the boy in front of him suddenly changed, becoming unusually steady, as if he were sitting in a rocking chair basking in the sun while holding a bowl of tea.

Then a boy, breathing heavily like an ox, took a long time to calm down.

The difference in quality is immediately apparent.

This made the old master even more disappointed.

He first praised the person in front of him.

"Roy, you've done very well." Old John beamed, the wrinkles around his eyes crinkling. "I've never seen such a forging genius as you, mastering the fundamentals so solidly in just three days!"

"Your movements remind me of my younger self," Old John said, lost in memories. "Back then, I had only been learning forging for three years..."

"Master, thank you for your praise."

The boy in front of him was Roy, who bowed respectfully to express his gratitude.

He learned from Olga that the lord's recruitment criteria prioritized strength, followed by stamina, while swordsmanship was considered a bonus. Ultimately, the two candidates with the highest scores were selected based on a set ratio to receive recruitment slots.

So, after leaving Olga's house, Roy wandered around town, looking for something that could quickly increase his attributes.

The search lasted for two days.

There's no other reason than that it seems only a few things have the so-called "special effects" category, such as the previous winter wheat and the farmland where wheat is grown.

However, those are all one-time events.

Olga's stone also has the same effect, but it's too light and no longer suitable for Roy's training.

He also used his True Sight to scan a huge rock blocking the road, which had rolled down from a cliff somewhere during the torrential rain.

That boulder does have special effects, but it requires a full 12 points of strength to start training attributes.

This is equivalent to the strength of a dozen adults. In fact, more than thirty adult men from the village were mobilized, but none of them were able to move it. The stone is still in the middle of the road.

According to the townspeople, only a true knight, or a top-ranking squire, could move that boulder by himself.

Other stones either had no special effects or did not meet his requirements.

Two days later, when he passed by the blacksmith's shop, he heard the sound of hammering coming from inside, and his heart skipped a beat.

Blacksmith shop...forging...

Does this have any similarities to wheat harvesting?

With this thought in mind, he walked into the blacksmith's shop.

Inside the blacksmith's shop, dozens of apprentices were working diligently and attentively.

When he focused his gaze on one of the apprentices' forging tables, data with special effects appeared before his eyes!

[A standard forging table]

[Material: Oak, hardened iron, firebricks...]

[Durability: 618/1000]

……

[Special Effect: Striking the forging table 3000 times with a certain force will grant an estimated 0.1 to Strength and 0.1 to Constitution. Limited to once per day, up to ten times.]

At that moment, his eyes lit up.

It increases both strength and constitution attributes, so it should be considered a high-level item.

Moreover, you can earn a total of 2 attribute points by combining them!

He made up his mind immediately.

When Old John put down his hammer and asked Roy what he wanted to forge, Roy replied seriously, "I want to forge chiseled muscles, so please allow me to learn from you!"

Originally, old John had no intention of taking on apprentices. Although his son Gerald was not particularly talented, he was more than capable of inheriting his skills.

However, Roy demonstrated strength beyond his years and an unimaginable learning ability!

In just over ten hammering sessions, he gradually found the correct posture that Old John had described and applied it to actual hammering.

Old John believed he had truly struck gold; the boy was a natural-born blacksmith, so he took him on without hesitation and even granted him a privilege that other apprentices didn't have—a tuition waiver.

As it turned out, he still underestimated Roy.

"Beginners shouldn't try to achieve too much on their first day. It would be good if they could strike 1000 times. Even skilled blacksmiths can only do 8000 to 10000 strikes a day."

After patiently instructing Roy, old John turned back to continue forging weapons.

A month later, the Blackwater Lord was going to recruit boys under the age of 16 to participate in the knight squire examination, so he placed many orders for iron swords in various towns. Although his blacksmith shop had many people, none of them were of great use, and he had to make the iron swords for the lord himself.

When he finished forging for a day and came back to check on Roy, he found that more than a dozen training iron ingots had been reduced to the size of a thin sheet of paper!

Although those iron ingots contained many impurities and were not as hard as real iron ingots, they were originally all ten centimeters tall!

Based on the fact that the thickness of each hammer blow decreased by about 0.1 centimeters, Roy probably struck the hammer nearly two thousand times, all within a few hours.

Old John was terrified that such a frail body could unleash such terrifying endurance!

Moreover, his movements were remarkably precise, which may have been the reason why he expended so much energy.

There are always oddities in the world that defy common sense, and old John finally realized this.

Three days later, Roy gained a 0.3 boost to strength and physique, bringing his strength to 1.0, which was comparable to some adults.

It seems possible in this extraordinary world for a minor to possess strength comparable to that of a strong, muscular man.

For example, Gerald, the son of John the Elder, was only 16 years old, but the data showed that his strength reached 1.6.

This is naturally inseparable from Old John's long-term training and adequate nutrition.

As for old John, although his hair was gray and he looked to be in his fifties, his strength was terrifyingly powerful!

The power of 2.8!

Looking at those arms, which were as thick as giant rocks, Roy suspected that he could probably kill a tiger with one punch.

He also discovered that only by following Old John's instructions and performing relatively correct forging movements would the prompt "[Forging Training (Hammer)]" appear in his field of vision; random striking would not elicit a response from the True Sight Eye.

This means that if he wants to learn swordsmanship in the future, he will at least need to find a teacher to teach him some basic movements.

On the other side, after praising Roy, old John's expression turned cold, and he turned to stare at Gerald.

"Look at yourself, Gerald!" he scolded his son with exasperation. "You've been learning for two years, and you're still not as good as Roy, a beginner! Aren't you ashamed?!"

"Can't you try harder and increase your practice time each day? You're not as talented as others, can't you make up for it with hard work!"

"Or are you saying you've stopped listening to your father?!"

Old John's angry outbursts and Gerald's silent retorts had become the background noise of Roy's practice sessions for the past two days.

He was already used to it.

Old John was not only scolding Gerald, but also the other diligent apprentices.

Although they have tried their best.

Roy had assumed that Gerrard would remain silent today as well.

However, amidst the cursing, Gerald suddenly put down the hammer, his eyes bloodshot, staring at his father like a vengeful ghost, and growled in a low voice!

"So what!"

"Roy is clearly not as strong as me, which means he definitely can't beat me!" He spoke with reason and evidence. "When the lord recruits knights and squires, he will definitely choose me, not Roy!"

"Even if I become a knight, will I still be running this little blacksmith shop!?"

Old John was surprised that his son was arguing back, but he just smiled coldly.

"You? You want to be a knight too?"

"You think you can get a draft spot just because you have some strength?"

"Gerald, don't think there's no one in town better than you!"

Upon hearing this, Roy finally stopped what he was doing, his heart pounding.

A Cavalier! Gerald wants to be a Cavalier too! He's his rival!

He never expected that Gerald, who was to inherit the blacksmith's business, would also have a dream of being a knight!

Moreover, what Old John meant seemed to be that there were even more ferocious teenagers in town than Gerald.

This is bad. There are only two spots available for recruitment, and even if someone is recruited, they will definitely be screened out, and only the remaining people can become knights' squires!

Roy immediately realized that it wasn't enough; his strength was still insufficient!

Upon realizing this, he immediately put down the hammer.

He only needs to forge 3000 times a day to get the maximum attributes, and he spends the rest of his time practicing his blacksmithing skills.

In just three days, his forging skill even reached Lv.3, comparable to those apprentices who had practiced for several years.

But he realized that he couldn't continue like this; he had to take the initiative and search for items that could increase attributes, just like the forging table.

"Roy." Just as he was about to ask for half a day off to continue exploring the town, old John suddenly called out to him.

"Come here, help me take this key to Father Carl."