20 Leaving Gilrad
"Actually, just make them into ingots" Iledoya decided
"What." Gratrosa was startled. "But why?"
"Hmm… Because I don't really know what I want it to be made right at this moment. As long as it's already ingots, I can work on it later" Iledoya answered.
"You know how to forge?"
"I've dabbled in it"
Gratrosa sighed. 'This rare Edium is going to be used by someone who has only dabbled in the arts of forging… haish…' he thought.
Having access to the numerous knowledge of blacksmithing, Iledoya felt quite confident that he can forge the ingots into whatever he might need. After all, with the knowledge of artifact making, he felt that the ediums was perfect for whenever he might want to create an artifact. Though artifact making would have to wait until he gets the engraver from Ruteshia.
"So a cauldron… Just come back tomorrow and it should be done by then" Gratrosa estimated.
"Great! Then I'll be back tomorrow" With that said, Iledoya left the place.
Though soon after, Iledoya found a problem. 'I'm bored!' he thought. Having spent most of his time testing and trying out things, he found himself very bored after having nothing to test nor try at the moment. "Let's just go see Nyikelaos!"
But then there was another problem. 'Where the heck is this address!?' As Iledoya was new to Gilrad and the street outside of Gratrosa's house was deserted, he doesn't know how to get to Nicholas' house. So he had to went back to Gratrosa and ask for directions.
After taking many turns around town, asking a few people who passed by, Iledoya finally arrived in front of Nicholas' address and was pleasantly surprised.
It was Nicholas' bakery from the capital.
It stood out like a sore thumb in the town of Gilrad, as it had a different building style compared to the other buildings.
Standing at the entrance of the store, Iledoya could hear the sound of Nicholas' violin. It was another happy fast-paced music. As he opened the door, a bell sound rang out and the violin sound stopped.
Inside the store, there was tables and chairs like a cafe. It was empty. At the counter, Nicholas could be seen appearing from a door behind it.
"Oh it's Iledoya. Welcome to my bakery!" Nicholas said. "How can I help you?"
Iledoya took a seat at the counter. He finds it kind of odd that the bakery has a cafe-like part and another bar-like part. "Hmm… I just came to chat but… Do you even have anything for sale?" Iledoya said jokingly.
"Hahaha… don't worry, I do. Let me just go get some that I recommend" Nicholas left through the door behind him. After a while Nicholas came back with an assortment of breads on a tray. He placed it to side on the counter, grabbed a seat, and sat opposite to Iledoya. "Did you still have something you want to ask?"
"Yeah I do" Iledoya grabbed a C-shaped bread. He stuffed it in his mouth and asked "Can you… Teach me… how to play… the violin?" he swallowed the bread and continued "Wow this tastes really good!" he stuffed another one in his mouth.
"That's a croissant" Nicholas said as he considered Iledoya's question. "But why do you want to learn the violin?" He didn't see Iledoya as someone who would be interested in music.
Swallowing a croissant, Iledoya answered "Because I think I would look cool playing the violin" This time, Iledoya took a slice of bread that could be seen had butter and garlic spread on it.
SLAM
Iledoya almost choked on the bread when he heard the loud slam. He saw that Nicholas was holding down his right hand to the counter with his left hand. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"N-Nothing… Is that the only reason why you want to learn?" What went throught Nicholas' mind was 'Oh no… i almost did what teacher would do when he hears someone saying that he or she wants to learn the violin just to look cool' Nicholas was able to calm down when he remembered 'That was my first reason to learn too, but it gradually changed after a long time'
"Actually… there was something I wanted to try out with the violin… So you can say that I want to learn to play because I want to experiment a little…" Iledoya said.
Nicholas felt relief that Iledoya didn't just want to look cool. "Yeah I can teach you the basics. But I'm not a master myself so there won't be much I can teach you."
"Deal!"
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The next morning.
Today, Iledoya and Nicholas should be departing to Ruteshia. He would be meeting up with Nicholas in the afternoon at the Adventurer guild, which was something Nicholas suggested. Iledoya went to Gratrosa's workshop first, to pick up his order.
Iledoya just barged straight in, just in time to find Gratrosa pouring the last ingot of Edium. "Oh you're here. Come come, take a look at the ingots" Gratrosa beckoned Iledoya over with his hand.
Gratrosa picked up an ingot and the color changed to brown. "Pretty cool isn't? Edium ingots can apparently change colors following the color of the magic you put into it. Here try it!" Gratrosa handed over the ingot to Iledoya. The ingot turned grey. Iledoya was quite interested in it.
"So how many ingots did you made?" Iledoya asked.
"53 ingots." Gratrosa showed him pile of Edium ingots.
"Oh that's pretty nice" Iledoya then took the ingots with magic and placed them in his backpack.
"Now what about the cauldron?"
"Heh. Of course it turned out great. Go wait at the backyard" Gratrosa said
"The backyard?" Iledoya didn't notice that the workshop had a backyard. He found his way there and after a while, Gratrosa came out bringing with him a cauldron.
When he placed down the cauldron onto the ground, it made a loud BOOM and the ground beneath it sunk at least 5 cm.
Iledoya twitched when he saw that. He was just about to criticize Gratrosa for making such a heavy cauldron when something suddenly came to mind.
"Wait. Am i supposed to give it a drop of my blood?" Iledoya asked.
Gratrosa was quite surprised with what he said. "You sure do know your stuff. Well, go ahead. Once you claim it with a drop of blood, it will become weightless for you."
"As expected from the teacher of a famous blacksmith. Shouldn't have doubted you" Iledoya proceeded to walk to the cauldron and give it a drop of his blood.
"Wait, what did you say? You were doubting me?" While Gratrosa was berating Iledoya, Iledoya was trying out the cauldron.
Lifting it up, he found out that it has truly become very light. It wasn't completely weightless, but just enough to make Iledoya feel like he can swing forever. After trying out its weight, Iledoya tried brewing something with it. He took out some branches to make up a fire and some water from his backpack that he already prepared, and started brewing a simple potion.
By the time Gratrosa realized that Iledoya was brewing a potion, Iledoya was already done and in his hands were 2 wooden bottles. "Thank you for the help. It's just some fatigue reliever, but please accept it as my thanks." Iledoya said as he offered the two bottles to Gratrosa. "The other bottle is for Dranky. Please help me give him my thanks too"
Gratrosa fell into a daze. Though Iledoya said it was 'just some fatigue reliever', even the scent that leaked out has already dispersed his fatigue from carrying the heavy cauldron. "Okay then. Thank you for your gift"
"Me and Nyikelaos will be leaving Gilrad today. So… bye!" Iledoya left the place while waving to Gratrosa. Gratrosa just waved back as Iledoya went away.
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"So why are we looking for a quest to go to Ruteshia?". Iledoya and Nicholas was in the Adventurer guild, standing in front of the quest board looking for a quest.
"We're looking for a quest that has to do something with escorting someone or something to Ruteshia. That way, we can gather information from another party. We might even be able to get some connections in Ruteshia!" Nicholas explained.
"Oh I see…"
"Ooohh This one would do!" Nicholas took a quest of the board and handed it over to Iledoya. "Escorting a carriage of treasure to the client in Ruteshia. But it's for D rank. Can you do something about that?"
Looking through the contents of the quest, Iledoya did feel like it's perfect for their purpose. "Let me go ask the receptionist"
Iledoya simply brought it to the receptionist and asked "Excuse me, is there a way for me, an E-rank; to take this D-rank quest?"
The receptionist answered "Yes, there is" She just was about to explain how when someone stopped her "Miss, don't waste your breath. I'm taking the quest" A big topless muscular man pushed Iledoya to the side.
Iledoya frowned. "Hey, that's wasn't so nice. I took the quest first" Iledoya was clearly displeased with this man.
"Pfft. HAHAHA" the man took out his badge on flaunted it. "As a C-rank, there is no way I cannot take this quest instead of you"
"Hehe, this kiddo thinks he can take the quest?"
"Hahaha, kids these days sure are brave!"
"Nay, This is overestimating oneself! He must be at least 50 years too early to think he is capable of this quest"
The big man's party members ridiculed Iledoya. When the other Adventurers in the guild heard the conversation, even they would show a smile of pity. "Hahaha, go easy on the young'un, you wouldn't want him to go crying to his mama" the big man said.
With the last sentence from the big man, Iledoya snapped. "Oi. You talkin' piece of over-size muscle" he said.
The big man was strangely pissed off by what Iledoya. "Ha? What did you say?" He asked with a tone of threat in his voice.
"Umm… I actually forgot. Wait let me think of another phrase" Iledoya answered. The way he answered was as if he was saying 'Oh no… you're too insignificant for me to even remember what I said'
With that, the big man became furious. "Boys, get him!" The big man and his 3 friend surrounded Iledoya. They suddenly rushed towards Iledoya planning to attack him at the same. When the other Adventurers saw what was happening, rather than feeling bad for Iledoya, they were actually impressed with how coordinated the four men were. 'So that's what C-ranks are capable of' is how they thought.
But while the four of them werle rushing towards Iledoya, the person who was being attacked actually just came to a decision. He simply muttered "Spirit magic: Disconnection"
The four men suddenly rushed to the floor heads first.
"W-What happened?" One of them said.They tried to stand up only to realize something bad.
"H-hey… I can't feel my legs"
"M-me too"
All four them couldn't feel their lower half. While laying on the floor, the big man asked "What did you do to us?
Rather than answering their question, Iledoya said "You people are 10,000 years to early to win against me"
The man was about to say something again but then he couldn't feel his mouth anymore. He could only glare at Iledoya.
Walking back to the receptionist, Iledoya asked "So how can I take the request?"
"Umm... Before that…" the receptionist took some glances towards the 4 adventurers on the floor.
"Oh, them. Don't worry, by tomorrow they would be okay again"
"Then that is great." The receptionist was once again about to explain when she was cut off again "Let him take the quest"
This time, it was the receptionist's turn to grunt. Being cut off twice didn't feel nice. But it didn't last for long when she realized who was the one that just spoke. It was a man who looked like he was in his early thirties. But Iledoya was stunned when he saw the man.
"Right away Sir Kirigya. This adventurer would be added to your escorts for the quest" The receptionist answered.
Putting together the bits and pieces, Iledoya could now guess what the receptionist wanted to say. 'So with a request from the client is it?' he thought.
Nicholas who was waiting for Iledoya came to find him. He came right in time to hear Kirigya asking to include Iledoya in the quest. But when he saw Kirigya, he walked as fast as he could to him and asked full of solemnity "Is there more of your kind in Ruteshia?"
Kirigya was puzzled. "What do you mean? I don't seem to understand what you're asking"
Nicholas came close to Kirigya and said in a lower voice "What I'm asking is… Is there more of your kind who has fox ears on their head?"
[edited by ed]
