Trade City's Port

After leaving the Zuatania Merchant Association's building, Oscro spoke to Yale in a low voice.

"I will go to visit my parents and tell them the good news about the company. Take this money. You should have more than enough to enjoy the city. Only... try to hide your identity as the Silent Healer, the more mysterious you are, the better for the company."

Oscro gave Yale enough paper money for an ordinary citizen of Trade City to live a whole month with some luxuries; it was a lot for one day. Oscro wanted that Yale relaxed and enjoyed a bit because he was always working on healing others.

For the current Yale, doing business was forbidden, but with money, anyone could enjoy the city services.

Yale was left alone before he could ask anything to Oscro, so he decided to do a bit of tourism by the city. Especially, he wanted to go to the coast.

He walked until a small empty alley and used Shape Shift, changing his appearance to that of a normal eleven years old kid.

His new face and hairstyle were different from before, so there was no way someone associated him with the Silent Healer.

Wyba also used Shape Shift to shrink her size and hid into the wide sleeve of Yale's new clothes.

Yale went out of the alley and started walking on the streets. He didn't buy anything in the shops; he limited to look at the city and its citizens.

People in Trade City were different from the people in Imperial City because, in Trade City, the effort surpassed the bloodline. On the other hand, in Imperial City, the bloodline was what really mattered, and the noble clans recruited only a few commoners. The others were without hope.

People in Trade City had hope and ambition to become more influential with their efforts because they weren't restrained due to the place they were born. That was a huge contrast with most people in Imperial City who had accepted to their fate to live as commoners.

Yale liked the Trade City's lifestyle more because he preferred to rely on his efforts instead of his ancestry.

He strolled for the city until he reached the coast where a large port was situated. In that port, there was a large ship that was far larger than the others.

Yale had read about ships before in the books, but he never imagined that it was possible to construct such a colossal ship.

He didn't try to hide his shock when he looked at the ship. He doubted that someone wouldn't feel shocked after seeing it for the first time.

An old man neared him after seeing his face.

"You seem impressed by the ship. This ship is the best work of the whole city, and it is capable of crossing the ocean to reach other continents. It is still quite difficult to commerce with them, but our success rate in trading has improved a lot since I was young."

That old man seemed like someone who had always lived in Trade City and knew more about the city than books did.

Moreover, Yale also felt that the old man was incredibly strong despite looking old. Thus, he believed that the old man should have lived who knows how many years there.

Yale saw a lot of old people strolling in the port. It was an essential place to the city, and those old people felt prideful for it and liked to be there to explain things to the kids because every one of them had some relation with the port or the giant ship.

They had taken part in the port's construction or in the ship's creation. Although they were already old and left most of the matters to the younger generation, they liked to remember their days of glory by telling everyone their stories, especially to curious kids.

That old man was also one of them. He talked without stopping for an hour about the past, and Yale heard him without complaints because he liked to gather more information about Trade City.

The old man was part of the team who constructed the huge ship years ago. That ship was quite old despite looking new due to the excellent maintenance it had.

"Senior is impressive. You should be very skilled in smithing metals to create such a resistant ship."

The old man laughed pleased at Yale's words. Anyone who had worked in creating the ship was indeed an expert smithing metal, that old man was at most average among those who had worked in it, even though he exaggerated his own prowess when speaking.

However, being average among that group of smiths was already impressive enough.

Yale didn't know exactly how good the old man was at smithing, but that didn't matter. As long he was really part of the team who constructed the ship, his level was more than enough for Yale's purpose.

He didn't flatter the old man due to politeness. He wanted that the old man taught him the basics about smithing since he heard the story about the difficulties the old man had smithing the ship's metals.

Yale was confident about improving by himself later on, but at least he wanted to have someone teaching him the basics, and that old man was as good as anyone else.

Even if the old man refused in the end, Yale could simply continue strolling and talking with the other elders. Someone would be bored enough to give some basic pointers to him, and Yale could pay if they requested it because he had money with him.

If everyone refused, he could wait to ask the merchant association for a personal smithing teacher. It wouldn't be a problem for Yale to pay for some basic classes.

"I am indeed very skilled at smithing metals, although lately, I don't smith too much because I spend a lot of my time on other things."

The old man laughed again, boasting his skills in front of youngsters was one of his preferred hobbies.

"Senior, do you think I will be capable of smithing like you in the future? I never tried before, but after hearing your story, I also want to learn how to smith metal."

Yale really seemed like a kid who had been motivated due to the old man's words. That was quite a common scene after a kid heard the story from an elder.

"Oh, I don't know your talent, but if you don't try to smith something, you won't know it."

Finally, the conversation reached the point Yale was waiting for.

"Can senior appraise my talent in smithing? A mere glance when I try to smith something will be enough."

Yale didn't hope that the old man would teach him directly, but if he showed that he had some talent, the chances of the old man teaching him the basics would increase.

The old man looked at Yale. Indeed, for him, a glance was enough to see if someone was talented or not.

Furthermore, he saw that Yale was young, but he was already at the 6-star Mortal Rank. Even if Yale had his original appearance, the old man would still be capable of knowing that Yale was about eleven.

Moreover, Yale has also heard his whole story and showed admiration for him. Thus, the old man decided to accept Yale's request. Anyway, he was used to accepting such requests because he also liked to see the talent the new generation had. Of course, he only accepted to see the talents of the kids he liked, but as long as the kid showed some talent in training and heard his story, it wasn't that difficult.

However, he never taught anything to those kids, giving them a proper evaluation of their ability was kind enough from him.

"Alright, take this piece of metal and try to create dagger's blade, let's see how good you are relying on your instinct to smith."

The old man only gave Yale a small piece of metal. He didn't give him anything else. Usually, the kids thought a bit and ended up asking some tools, that kind of knowledge was also important to a smith.

Yale received the metal and thought about how to smith it. He knew about smithing tools, but since the old man didn't give him anything else, instead of thinking in asking for the tools, he thought about how to smith without tools.

The old man sighed as Yale didn't ask for the tools quickly, he felt that Yale's knowledge about smithing was too lacking.

The old man was about to tell Yale that he needed other tools when Yale cast a Fire Ball, a Water Ball, and small Stone Golems, which took the shape of tools.

The old man was surprised that Yale wanted to smith using magic. That was indeed a suitable method for smithing, but also a difficult one, it wasn't suited for beginners.

The old man didn't interrupt Yale, and even other elders had approached to see the scene. They also liked to look at the capabilities of youngsters, and Yale's smithing was weird due to his method, so they were enjoying the show.

Yale managed to create something similar to a small blade for a dagger after a lot of effort. He immediately used appraisal on it.

[Metal created by the user. Useless.]

Yale sighed because he understood that he had thoroughly failed in the smithing process.