The Ascension Age

Partially against his will, Aire was forced by Stella's emotions to take the studying seriously. In the end, he couldn't hide it from her when he wasn't giving his all.

However, it turned out that Aire's unwillingly all-out effort shocked Cala, who had been teaching him during the morning. "I have to say, you definitely have cheat-like memory. You already memorized everything in just three days! How crazy is that?"

Aire, of course, was also impressed with that result, prompting him to ask Stella, 'Stella, does my body improvement also affect my memory?'

'Isn't that obvious? After all, the brain is also part of the body,' Stella replied as if it was nothing. 'It goes without saying that your IQ increased a lot compared to the old you.'

Aire scratched the back of his head as he thought, 'It's not as if I wanted to be like this.' Of course, he didn't say that out loud. Soon after, he looked at Cala and asked, "Ahem...well, that's good and all. Can I start working on the Latom Blue alloy now? My roommate's asking for it every single day."

Cala nodded, responding, "Of course. Come with me. I'll bring you to the forging room."

It didn't take long for them to arrive there. Surprisingly, they weren't the only ones there. The type of equipment used for each Riser Level has different configurations, so it wasn't exactly a good idea to have a single room for each person. It would be too much of a waste. That being said, a few other Stellar Smiths were practicing there.

"Alright, Aire. Since you've already memorized the materials most used at your level, can you tell me which ones are used for Latom Blue Alloy?" Cala asked as they headed to a counter. It was possible to acquire the Stellar Ores and things like that there as long as one was a registered Stellar Smith.

Aire nodded and said to the clerk, "Hello, please arrange for me 3 kilos of Ditao Ore, 1.6 kilos of Parafix Lime, and 2.1 kilos of Stellar Blue Iron."

"Right away~!" The clerk immediately grabbed the materials for Aire and put everything under his name.

"Don't I need to pay for them?" Aire asked, puzzled.

Cala couldn't help but laugh before saying, "Nope. At the moment, what the other occupations lack aren't Stellar Ores and things like that. What they lack are Stellar Smiths who can process them. Because of that, as long as the material isn't something rare, the school is more than happy to sponsor new Stellar Smiths with the necessary materials for their training."

Aire was quite pleased to hear that, soon asking, "What about the end product?" Naturally, he also wanted to know if he could have them.

"Well, that isn't as simple. Since the school is already providing you the materials for free, they will take the end result for themselves," Cala responded. "However, we can't have our Stellar Smiths working for free either, even if they didn't provide the material. That being said, you still get 20% of everything you're able to produce. Of course, if you pay for your own ores, then you can have everything at the end."

Aire nodded before opening his communicator to call Sera, saying, "Hey, how much Latom Blue alloy do you need?"

"Oh, you're already going to forge it?" Sera seemed very happy on the other side. "No, forget it. You wouldn't call me otherwise. I need at least 12 kilograms to work on the hands of my new design. Would you be able to do it?"

Aire didn't mind since he would need to practice a lot, responding, "Alright. It might take some time, though."

"No problem. You're already far ahead of what I expected. Just let me know when you have them. Also, thank you." After saying that, Sera disconnected right after.

Cala, who heard the conversation, then warned Aire, "I hope you keep some for yourself as well. After all, you can get someone to work with and try making your own Stellar Suit in the future."

"Don't worry. My roommates already have it covered." Aire couldn't help but smile as he said that.

Cala then joined Aire in his first session of Latom Blue Alloy forging, helping him with the first batch. Once again, Aire proved that this was a job truly fit for him. With his amazing Stellar Energy Aptitude and fine control over the equipment, it only took him two hours to go through the Pinpoint Furnace, Clearcut Machine, and Stellar Internal Structure Harmonizer device. "I'm not surprised anymore since I've seen your talent first hand when you arrived here for the test. Then again, I must say you're really fast. When I tried to create Latom Blue Alloy during my first time, it took me more than six hours, and that was after I failed three times."

Aire scratched the back of his head, slightly embarrassed. Sure enough, he wasn't used to receiving praises. "Thanks... I guess."

Aire then took the refined alloy out of the furnace, feeling quite good with himself. This alloy was harder than the Suruca Ore he tried forging during the test. This time, Aire truly felt tired. However, he was quite happy to see that it went so well. "Well, I guess I only have to give it back to the faction, and they'll separate my share, right?"

Cala nodded, saying, "That's correct. Let's head there. I want to check the SMA Level.

"SMA Level?" Aire asked with a hint of confusion.

Only then did Cala remember that she hadn't talked about that yet, explaining, "Oh, right. SMA stands for Smith Material Accomplishment level. This is calculated by how well the materials have fused together, the flaws, possible internal cracks, and things like that. We use the Baulmu Alliance's chart as the basis. It goes from 0% as the worst to 100% as the best. As you can probably imagine, the higher it is, the better the product. Don't worry. It can be tested straight away through the Stellar Radiation Measurement. You'll see."

Aire nodded as they quickly returned to the clerk before Aire passed him the alloy. After the dredges mixed in the process, Aire succeeded in forging 3.17 kilograms of it. The clerk then put it inside a big chamber and used a display terminal by the side to initiate the process.

"By the way, what would be a good score?" Aire asked, somewhat curious.

"Anything between 30% to 50% is already good. It'll be very good if you can get between 60% and 70%. More than that, and you'll have all the students involved in Stellar Suit creation crawling on your legs to become their Stellar Smith," Cala said with a grin.

Aire nodded, not expecting it to be that good anyway. The tests only lasted two minutes before the result was displayed for them.

-Latom Blue Alloy, 42.9%.-

Cala was very satisfied with the result. "Good! Really good! For a first try where you didn't even fail, that's an amazing result, Aire. I'm sure your roommate will be very satisfied with that."

Aire was happy as well. "Thanks, Cala. Do you mind if I work on a few more of it?"

"Sure." Cala nodded. "Just don't forget that you also have your normal classes.

Aire guaranteed that he wouldn't miss them before taking more materials to forge even more alloys for Sera. This time, however, Cala didn't stay with him since it was obvious that he didn't need her help with it anymore. 'Hmm...42.9%, huh?'

Stella couldn't help but say, 'I think I have an idea.'