'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 4: The System

Cultivation

Friday, 25th November 1442

Right after a hearty dinner at the outdoor kitchen area with the rest of working community who were there to have their meals, the children were performing their usual greet and meet once they had taken their thick gruel.

The gruel was made of crushed grains where it was boiled over with pieces of game meat over a period of time over a low fire.

This would slowly cook the game meat as well as thicken the broth before adding the washed crushed grains inside the thick broth and adding some salt and pepper to taste.

Once the thick gruel had been made, the potatoes, carrots shallots, garlic and other greens like cauliflower and cabbage would then be mixed together and left covered for a few minutes before the fire was left to die off on its own.

The thick gruel would have a mixed taste of greens and meat and this was very welcoming indeed for the workers who had come to have their dinner and also to those who were reporting off work.

From the new workers, where they had come from, they had never tasted meat as regularly as we did back in our town because they were forbidden to hunt for meat.

So hunting and eating meat was basically done in secrecy and those caught would be severely punished.

This would not be the case for those Lord and Ladies that had brought them along to our town to populate as well as for other areas of expansion.

After the meet and greet, the children clamoured over back to our seats and I told them about the plan ahead.

Since I had taken a shower imbued with the Psi Energy orbs, I suggested that we would be heading back home and from there we would be entering the realm so the children would be able to do what they wished inside there.

This time it would be a solid 9 hours in the realm and the children were jubilant since they heard that there would be 9 hours of research, play and at the same time to do some colourings and prints once they had completed each individual task.

"Wow...! 9 hours in the realm? We can even sleep over there if we are tired, right Daddy?"

"Could you visualise some beds for us so that we can lie down there to do our work and at the same time could we have some coins to bring in some biscuits there as well?"

"Do you think the bread would be spoilt by then over there in your realm, Daddy?"

The children were excited but they didn't know that I would be doing some blacksmithing once I am there and it's going to be serious s**t going on there since I too would be spending 8 hours of hammering and forging.

I wondered how long I would need to forge my way from Level 0 right till Level 10 since its just a slight Increment in the progress.

I hope to get much more significant improvements once I'm at the realm, at least the time spent there would be worthwhile.

=*=

Once we are back at home, the children had gotten the tins of biscuits according to their likings. Besides, we would be spending 9 hours this time and we would definitely be famished if we do not have enough snacks inside the realm.

Besides, the tea inside the dispensing tun had not replaced ever since I had access to the realm and I guessed any food that had been placed would still be alright, don't you think so?

We had ourselves ready for the transition as the children hugged the tins of biscuits as we sat down in the master bedroom of our house.

We entered the meditative state and we arrived at the White Room.

"So where do you want to go and do today? You guys want to stay here in the White Room as Ceres guide you along to use the systems?"

"Daddy and Mummy would need to do some manual work to transport the ores and coal over from the smelting room right up to the new room that I would be adding on later."

The children replied that they would prefer to stay at the White Room instead since they have the resources to keep them company.

Furthermore, there are 2 other systems where Ceres would be able to help the children to make some projects and would be using some programmes to colour on them directly.

From there, Ceres would be guiding the children on how to print using the Gutenberg machines and the children can each keep the prints in their own collection.

"Just inform Ceres if you need us to be here for you alright? We would be some doors away so just inform Ceres what to do then."

I advised the children as the children acknowledged. We stepped back as I looked at the information system panel and clicked on the plus sign and a new room emerged.

"That's pretty fast. You need me to be here with you, dear?" Heather asked as she clung to my arms lovingly and I just smiled at her and gave her a peck on the forehead.

I closed my eyes and visualised the same bed of coals for the furnace, the blower at the end of it and lastly the anvil that I had spent hammering on for the last 2 hours or so back in Old Jack's blacksmith.

After a while, the things that I had visualised started to materialise before Heather's eyes as I had to spend time to fully concentrate on the visualisation.

I could feel Heather's long fingers digging into my exposed arms since I had removed the leather gauntlet and gloves off and had not worn them since I only wore the top leather vest and the armoured pants only.

After about spending some minutes visualising the main items for the blacksmith room, I opened up my eyes and I noticed that Heather was grinning beside me as she had literally sunk her fingernails deep into my flesh...!

"GAAAAHHHH...! Sheesh... I've got a new story to tell to the children on how I got the claw marks on my left arm..."Wuwuwu... Dear, you really nearly ruined my visualisation for the blacksmith main components you know. It is a good thing you didn't punch or even bite my arm or else I think the visualisation would fail...!"

"Sheesh... You really need to go for a manicure and settle your fingernails... My goodness...! I could tell the children that a tigress came out from somewhere and landed its paws on me. Hahaha..."

I laughed despite enduring the searing pain once Heather had released her nails on my exposed arm.

She was basically trying to control herself in not being too excited as she saw those items materialise before her eyes.

Even she had seen such happenings before, but she would still be having such actions, and not only for this occasion but for sporting events as well...!

The bed of coals and the bellows had been successfully visualised and formed before me. The anvil, which was a single large piece of item, was slowly materialising before us.

The anvil, which would be the last item to be conjured up would really need to take a beating as I would be virtually hammering on it for thousands of times to make the iron ingots first before I could work on the mithril ores when I am in Level 11.

By then, I would be labelled as a Forging Master and could be seen on the information system panel.

The anvil had finally materialised and by then I visualised a simple tong to pick up the red hot ores from the furnace, later on, a bucket where it would be filled with water to force the forged ingots into it and last 3 sets of the hammer that weighed 10, 20 and 30 pounds each.

Once I had visualised and the items and finally had materialised before us, all we need to do is to transport the ores and coals from the smelting room.

"Dear, what are your plans right after you had brought the pieces over? Are you really going to hammer and forge those iron ores?"

Heather inquired about the plans that I had in my mind and I explained to her about it. "I had an Informational system panel that indicated a new add on a profession as a blacksmith."

"There are 10 levels in the Basic Blacksmith Levels and each level there are 1000 points to surpass. Once I had passed Level 10 and had levelled up to Level 11, I would be considered as Forging Master."

"Ceres had mentioned that I would need to reach Level 11 in order to handle the mithril ore pieces since its a totally different kind of ore from the Middle Earth altogether."

"Right now it is only 176/1000 in Level 0. Only by utilising heavy strikes would earn 1 point per strike. There are 4 kinds of strikes and they are — Heavy Strike, Dancing Hammer, Perfect Strike and lastly the Sound of Success."

"Heavy Strike would only give a single point, Dancing Hammer gives two points, Perfect Strikes gives three points and last the Sounds of Success would give out four points."

"Earlier at Old Jack's, I had managed to manipulate the Perfect Strikes several times and helped me to gain those points. Right now, since we are in the realm, you could watch me merrily strike away at the iron ores."

"There no use for any of the iron ores and once I had forged them, I would be converting them into iron plates and see if there's any use for those by the engineers or Old Jack."

After explaining the facts to Heather, she knew of the plans of what I would be doing in the upcoming 9 hours and we went back to see how the children were doing.

As requested, I visualised two more sofas for the children they could be converted into bedding if they felt too tired after spending too much time in front of the screens.

"Alright guys, you already have your own sofas. So holler at us if you need anything, yes?"

The children were engrossed in the systems before them and they just waved their arms at us as we moved to the smelting room where we would be doing the manual work of moving some crates of coals and iron ores.

"Come on dear, the children are engrossed in their own realm right now. Hahaha. We would just need to have a few loads to bring over to the new blacksmithing zone."

Heather nodded her head and held to my arm as I swiped the room over to the smelting room where we wheeled over the blacksmith zone.

Once we were there, Heather helped to settle some of the things and she was the one operating the bellows for a short while before I took over and operated them. We can't expect a lady to perform such arduous work, am I right?

After I had pumped the bellows for some minutes, the bed of coals was already red hot and I threw a few pieces of iron ores on it and began to pump the air through the furnace.

The realm works better than in the real world as I was able to operate the bellows with little effort and the iron ores that I had thrown in was getting heated up really fast too.

After I had made the iron ores hot on the furnace, I deftly picked one up and placed it on the anvil. I chose the lightest hammer available which was the 10 pounder and I took up my stance and then started to bring it down upon the iron ore.

It danced when it was hit and sparks flew all around it like fireworks in the night. Heather moved away as sparks flew by and watched how I slowly raised the hammer and aimed at the iron ore.

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*TINK*

*TINK*

After several repetitions, I was able to complete several Heavy Strikes before it became Dancing Hammers without knowing it. I didn't realise it until Ceres announced its voice across the whole of the realm and I stopped for a while.

"Wow...! Dancing Hammers which is slightly inferior to Perfect Strikes can earn 2 points each? Not bad... Not bad at all, am I right, dear? I need to keep on hammering and turning these pieces of iron ores into iron ingots for every 100 strikes. How many more do I need to go?"

Heather was around and she was the one keeping tabs on how many strikes I had completed so far and she told me, "For that particular iron ore, you had been hitting them for 76 times. You need another 24 more to complete one cycle. Go on dear, 24 more perfectly landed strikes would also increase your level up, right?"

*TINK*

*TINK*

*TINK*

By the time I had hit the first iron ore until I had spewed a lot of its impurities out, I picked up the tong and threw the piece inside the bucket of water there the piece sizzled and spluttered.

I had no gauge to see how many perfect strikes I had done but from my information system panel, it had shown me the total at 255/1000 and I am still at Level 0.

Ah well, at least it's better than no progress at all. I checked the time and Ceres voice boomed across the realm and informed me that it took me a mere 25 minutes or so to pound 100 times on the iron ore.

"Great, there's time for me to do another 3 more pieces and then I would rest for a while before going at it again."

I mentioned it to Heather and she agreed since she would have nothing much to do except to count the number of times I would land the hammer down onto the red hot iron ores.

=*=

Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you for the POWERSTONES and God Bless.