Blacksmith

The day after the dark elf stayed at my house, I went out to sell my deathworm loot. I still have five hours until I need to assemble at the army headquarters

For now, she still doesn't talk or try to tell me her name so the Krist family calls her Elvis, she doesn't seem to mind as she answers our call when we say that name.

My first stop is at the blacksmith. There are two blacksmiths located in the first section of the capital, both desperately competing for customers.

One of them is called Golden Hammer, the other is Life Best.

I go to the Golden hammer, not far from the entrance.

I open the door and walk in. The shop has rows of weapons like mace, swords, rapiers and even bows hung up as displays on the wall. Below the displays are shelves of weapons and stands of armour.

An old man sitting behind the counter immediately wakes up to the sound of the door opening.

"What? There's a customer?" He mumbles.

He looks at my uniform and immediately recognises me. "You are that tournament winner... Let me tell you something, there is nothing good you can find here for someone of your calibre, I recommend you go to Life Best."

I smile. "It's okay, I want to commission something from you."

The old man gets up and gives me a confused look. "Did you not see how shabby this place is? Why are you so persistent?"

"My instinct, that's all."

...

He sighs. "Fine but you will have to collect the materials yourself-"

"Here."

I place a bag of deathworm scales on the table.

!!!!!

"D-Deathworm! You want armour?"

I nod.

"..."

He gives the bag back to me. "I do not have materials strong enough and compatible with the Deathworm. You better go to Life Best-"

"Why are you chasing away such an important customer? You don't need to worry about expectations, I believe in your skills." I say.

!

The old man stares at me. His muscular body was built from years of hard work and practice in Blacksmithing. His white messy long hair and white beard cover most of his head.

He sighs when I continue to pester him. "Argh fine! But let me warn you, my work is of low quality and will potentially cause you to lose your life. Use them wisely."

This old man here is Gravos. He is the man who donated his sword and armour to me when I first started as an adventurer under the guise of throwing them away. He is also constantly reminding me that the work that he gave is a failure and can cause me to lose my life.

The reason why he is this paranoid is because of his son. When he first started as a blacksmith, he created a "good" sword and decided to give it to his son as a gift. His son treasured it dearly and was a knight. However, during a fight, the sword broke, causing his son to lose his life.

That created a huge trauma and scar in Gravos's heart.

However, it is his trauma that pushed Gravos to constantly improve his blacksmithing to the point of it being one of the best in this world.

That is why Gravos store is in business. People who have tried purchasing from his store know how good Gravos is.

Sadly, 4 years later, Gravos blacksmith will be closed down as Life Best spread rumours about him and nobody dared to purchase from him.

I place a platinum coin on the counter. "It's a down payment," I say.

...

The old man places a bag of gold coins on the counter as change and takes the platinum coin. "You do not need to give so much for a failed product. Just 40 gold coins are enough."

I smile. "When the commission is complete, I will give you one more platinum coin."

"You...whatever." The old man gives up.

He beckons me to follow him as he walks to the backroom of the store.

Once he opens the door, I can feel the sizzling heat. It's like a sauna in here.

He brings a measuring tape and measures my body.

"So what do you want it to look like?" He asks.

"Just something simple, you can decide," I say.

"Come back in about 5 days. It will be done by then."

I nod and left the blacksmith. Next, I went to the Alchemist Association. The Alchemist Association is a worldwide famous organisation composed of alchemists from different races. Branches of it can be found in every corner of the world.

An Alchemist's journey however is tougher than a magician or knight. Alchemists have a very hard time in the competition if they are not capable enough and cannot recover if they make a single mistake in the alchemy field.

Mistakes may include offending a noble, losing in a competition, or accidentally selling a failed product. All of it marks the end of the alchemy career.

I walk to the Alchemy Association in the second section. It is a large, brown tower that divides itself into two parts at the top. There's a disc protruding out at each level and the entire tower is windowless.

The ground floor has a huge entrance that even a category 6 giant can enter. Many people were walking into the tower and out, most are likely to be alchemists or people looking to buy potions or pills.

I walk in through the large door to see huge stairs against the wall spiralling up. In the middle is a large pillar with a counter at the bottom. I walk to the counter.

The person behind it looks up to see me. A boy wearing a forest green newsboy cap and robes that goes down to his feet.

"Hi... What do you want?"

His height is only up to my chest yet he has a condescending attitude.

"I want to sell some materials," I say.

He sighs. "Sorry, but we don't accept low-quality materials or common materials-"

"What about this?"

I place a bag of Deathworm teeth on the counter. Some teeth spilled out and rolls to the boy.

!!!

His eyes widen when he scopes through the texture of the teeth. "D-Deathworm!"

...

"Ahem." He regains his composure and takes the bag, putting it on a machine that looks like an electronic balance.

Light emits from the machine before disappearing shortly. The boy checks the machine before writing something down on paper. "Incredible, all of it is at top-notch conditions and carefully harvested. One must be an expert fighter to completely kill a Deathworm without damaging the products..." He mumbles.

He gave me a suspicious stare as I smile at him. "So?" I ask.

He takes the bag off the machine and says "500 grams for 10 platinum coins."

This bastard. He is looking down on me just because I look young.

"500 grams for 50 platinum coins," I say mockingly.

"H-Huh?"

I stare at the boy as I tap my fingers on the counter.

The boy gulps as he glances away. "Fine, 500 grams for 20 platinum coins."

The market price of Deathworm teeth is indeed 25 grams for 1 platinum coin. However, the Alchemist Association should be in urgent need of Deathworm teeth due to the emergence of hordes of undead in the south. Many adventurers and military are purchasing heaps and bundles of Dragonic Flame and Holy Cleanse potion, both of which contain Deathworm teeth.

"500 grams for 22 platinum coins," I say.

!

"5-500 grams for 21 platinum coins."

"500 for 23."

"You bastard..." The boy glares at me, attempting to keep the smile on his face so that I do not leave.

"500 grams for 22 platinum coins." The boy says in defeat.

I smile. "Deal."

I take out 20 more bags of Deathworm teeth and place them on the counter.

!!!!

The boy's eyes almost pop out in shock when he sees them.

"The complete set of Deathworm teeth?!" He exclaims.

Passerbys have the same reaction as the boy. In particular, Alchemist's eyes were gleaming with excitement upon seeing the teeth.

Two people wearing a red shawl with a black coat and white inner T-shirt come to collect the bags of Teeth and carry them up the stairs.

The boy calculates everything and hands me a storage ring.

"Oh? Why are you suddenly so generous?" I ask?

"For customers who sell things that amount to more than 100 platinum coins are given a storage ring as a gift by the Association. It's company policy, nothing to do with me." He says. "Besides, all the money is in the storage ring."

I take a look inside the ring.

!!!!!

Mountains of platinum coins are littered everywhere with a few diamond coins in the pile.

Each bag contains about 5 kilograms of Teeth. That means that I managed to earn about... 4400 platinum coins!

Deathworms are gold mines! 200 platinum coins can be equivalent to 1 diamond coin so this is a huge fortune for someone of my standing.

I look at the clock above the boy. I still have about 3 and a half hours left. Since I am here, I might as well take the exam since I need pills and potions for future adventures but buying them is a bit expensive, creating my own can save me a huge amount.

However, to be eligible to create potions and pills, one needs to be an alchemist or the person will be committing a crime.

The boy raises his brow when I am still standing in front of the counter.

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"I want to take the admission test to be an alchemist. The fee should be one platinum coin right?"

"What?!" The boy looks at me up and down. "No matter what you say, you are a fighter. Do you think being an alchemist is that easy? You need to learn about alchemy from a young age-"

"I know."

The boy clicks his tongue and registers me. "What a waste of time and money." He mumbles.

I have tried Alchemy countless times in the past but failed every attempt. However, I have a feeling I will succeed this time with Mina's Alchemy talent.