Chapter 136: Metal Affinity
An awkward silence befell the room as nothing happened, despite Li Lang striking the green bell with the mallet. Just as he had feared, it seemed he had no talent once again, but for artificing this time.
“Elder Tie, are you sure this bell is working properly? Maybe it ran out of metallic dust or something?”
The broad woman sighed and shook her head.
“I’m afraid the current you simply don't have the affinity for it. If artificing is something you really want to pursue, I recommend trying again in a few years. Unlike aptitude, affinity can change over time. You can try to work with metals more often or learn various metal Qi arts to acquire the affinity.”
Li Lang’s mind began to run into overdrive mode as the elder continued. While he may be annoyed by the so-called natural talent acting as some sort of roadblock for him again, he was just as eager to look further into it.
“Unfortunately, you are an adult now. If you were younger, we could still take you as an apprentice to build up your affinity.”
From the elder’s tone, Li Lang believed she wouldn’t budge on the matter, so he didn’t even attempt to plead his case. If what she said was true, there was no point anyway to become an errand boy to build up affinity when he could do the same by learning useful Qi techniques.
Hmm, a metal Qi art that can be useful to me. Why would practicing any technique with the metal attribute bestow this affinity, anyway?
Li Lang began to go over the issue from the perspective of a native of this world. The regular person here had minimal education. If the affinity could be earned by working closely with the metals or the associated attributed Qi, he suspected it had something to do with perception.
As far as he knew, even after countless years since the inception of artificing, no one in the world had discovered the reason behind the so-called affinity. They only figured out it was related to one’s experience.
They have a bad habit of believing things are limited by one’s natural talents around here. It makes no sense that just being around metals a lot would increase this made-up concept of affinity. It must be something people learn from observing and handling metal Qi itself.
It didn’t take long for Li Lang’s mind to go over the possible things one could learn about the metal attribute from observation alone. Since the elder had said she only accepted younger children if they didn’t have affinity, it was safe to assume it was because it was easier for children to obtain the affinity.