Kyrian did exactly that, his fingers gliding over the cold metal. At first, nothing. After a few seconds, however, he noticed the slightest difference, a ripple so tiny it almost didn't exist, an irregularity smaller than the width of a single strand of hair.
"I found it."
"Two-tenths of a millimeter," Sun Luguo said, his voice carrying approval.
"It seems insignificant, almost nothing. But it's already enough to keep it from being perfect. Every one of those tiny flaws accumulates, weakening the structure as a whole."
Kyrian carefully stored that observation away, engraving it into his memory as a valuable lesson.
The old man pointed toward the forge once more.
"Another."
Without complaining, without showing any sign of fatigue, Kyrian started over from the beginning. Another iron bar, more heat, more hammer strikes. The rest of the afternoon passed that way, one sword after another, each attempt correcting the flaws of the previous one.
