18 Hoat'l

"...And here is our current location." Amari pointed at the spot on the map where the house was located. Ai and Amari had decided to learn the town they were staying in since this was a good area to grind for levels, as well as the fact that they had free lodging in this house thanks to the mysterious man in white that brought Ai here.

Ai nodded, looking for key locations to be aware of in the town, namely, the local shops and taverns, the first to buy goods and sell loot, the second to gather information and current events around the world.

She pointed at where Amari had marked the blacksmith's shop. "Can you tell me anything about this place? I need some better materials and you need to fix that sword."

Amari looked at her sword on the bed with sorrow, the massive crack along the center of the blade was highly visible. Despite the sword having the [Unbreakable] enchantment, Andromeda had managed to damage it to such an extent using only her fists.

"Well, I think you're gonna like this, the name of the shop is Lockwood Blades, and it's run by a dwarf named Hoat'l, he is one of the twenty upper heroes that retired recently to open up his shop."

Ai tilted her head, looking at Amari. "Twenty upper? Is that the nickname for the ones that leveled up past twenty?"

Amari nodded. "Yup, and to top it all off, rumor has it that because of that one extra level, he can forge high-quality equipment easily."

Ai nodded in excitement but then dropped her head at a sudden realization. They were broke.

"S-say, sis, how much money do we have?"

The realization hit Amari just as hard. "About... 20 coppers..."

Ai could only nod. 'Damnit, I should have at least looted the wolves, their pelts and fangs could have gotten us at least a couple silvers.' Thinking about how much any part of that 'other' creature could net them, Ai shuddered and decided it best to not even think about trying to loot anything off of that... thing!

"Hmmm... What if we looked for some work? Is there an adventurers guild in town?"

Amari's eyes widened as she slammed her palm into her face.

"Uh, sis?"

"AHHHH!!!" She screamed out, slapping her forehead once again. "Yes. And I even have a quest to turn in."

Ai smiled sweetly. 'I love my dumbass sister...'

"So what's the reward?" She asked, deciding to spare her sister from teasing, for now.

"Well, it was a rather rough quest for most of the local adventurers, being a small tribe of level 4 to 7 goblins, so the reward was alright, 20 silvers."

Ai grinned. "That might be enough to cover the repair cost. Thankfully none of the enchantments were broken, so it might not even be that expensive."

"I dunno, a sword this big might require a greater mend spell, and those ain't cheap. In the golds, if I remember right." Amari furrowed her brows. She also thought about the material as well, the blade itself looked like steel, only it appeared brighter. Whatever the sword was made out of could potentially be expensive as well.

"Well." Ai stood up out of bed. "Only one way to find out, let's pay a visit to mister Hoat'l."

Amari dashed toward Ai suddenly. "Eh? Big sis?"

"You're ok? Not hurting? You looked like skin and bones before, why are you fine now?" Amari said with a worried expression on her face, after all, Ai was nothing but skin and bones earlier, but now she looked relatively healthy, albeit a little bit thinner.

Ai narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Heehee~ about that, for you see, I was blessed by the gods with the ultimate power of the universe. The ultimate ability to sleep through anything!"

Amari's eye twitched and had a sudden desire to punch Ai. Feeling this hostile intent, Ai decided to be a little more honest. "I, err, got a skill called [Sloth] and it lets me heal by sleeping, my guess is that when I woke up, the skill triggered and I was healed by the skill." Ai looked down, touching her fingers together nervously.

"Ah, great, so you're a sleeping ass princess." Amari smirked.

"Oh fuck off." Ai retorted but couldn't help but giggle.

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*KNOCK KNOCK*

Amari knocked on the door so hard that small chunks of wood fell off of the door, a loud crashing sound could be heard from within the smithy.

"Ahn gads damnit all! Who the feck is knockin' so loud this early in the mornin'!?" A deep, gruff voice came from within.

"Well wake the fuck up! You've got customers, you old bastard!" Amari yelled out and clattering sounds could be heard behind the door, it went quiet for a few moments as the door opened to the strong scent of freshly-applied cologne mixed with coal and iron.

The dwarf was tall for a dwarf, standing at around the height of their chest. Ai assumed he was about 4' 8", his chubby body fit into a chainmail shirt with an blacksmiths apron draped over, his arms were huge, likely due to his constant work as the town's only blacksmith. His hair and beard were combed neatly with trinkets holding numerous braids within his beard.

"Miss Amari, so nice to see ye, lass, it's been too long, come in, come in." Hoat'l's freshly combed beard was already coming undone as he gestured for the two of them to come into the shop.

"Pft, Ahahahahaha!" Ai burst out in laughter, tears bouncing down her cheeks.

Amari only looked at her in confusion. "Sis? What's wrong?" The dwarf blushed and turned away.

"Hold up, hahaha, hold the fuck up, so you know this guy? Ahahaha! Supposedly an upper, huh? Looks like you knew him well, and he knew you only too well, ahahahaha!" Amari's eye twitched as she looked at Ai with a frown.

"Yeah, we went on a few dungeon runs together, what of it? Wanna fight?"

Ai choked on her laughter, shaking her head. "Sis, does he always act like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like what?"

Amari and Hoat'l answered at the time, Amari confused and Hoat'l just blushing like crazy.

Ai looked at both of them and slammed her palm to her face. "Sis, this guy has a crush on you."

"Eh!? Crush?" She turned to Hoat'l and glared at him, "As if you could beat me bushbeard! Bring it on!" She raised her fists, ready to fight.

Hoat'l had a dumbfounded look on his face as Ai rubbed her temples. "Oi, big sis, I know you're stupid but this is a new low, you know?"

"Eh? Who asked for your opinion!? Sleepy ass princess, no, 'titless' sleepy ass princess!"

*PUSHI*

Ai dropped to the ground and bashed her forehead into the cobblestone floor. "Why me!" She cried.

Hoat'l could only watch on in confusion, more of his beard splitting off wildly.

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"Pfffft, Hahahahaha! Well if you wanted to sleep with me? Why didn't ya just say so?" Amari grinned.

Hoat'l blushed brightly. "Ya mean... ya'd be open ta the idea?" He said with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Amari smirked and flexed one of her arms. "Well sure! If you can beat me in combat."

You could almost hear Hoat'l's soul shatter to a million pieces. "B-beat you? Beat, you?" His face turned expressionless as he turned around and walked back to the forge.

"Eh? What, don't think you can do it, bushbeard?"

Hoat'l grabbed his hammer and slammed it down onto a sword he was working on, shattering it to pieces. "Ya don't go messin' with a man's heart, lass! Sayin' you'll sleep with som'n'a'c'n beat ya is like sayin' ya be stayin' a vir-"

*BOOM*

His anvil exploded into dozens of pieces of shrapnel as Amari threw her sword and barely missed Hoat'l's head.

"Finish that sentence and I won't miss the next one, [Return]." She said coldly as her sword flew back again, this time barely missing his other head as it flew blade-first between his legs.

"Yes ma'am."