8 Rusty Iron Is Surprisingly Good Profit

When I woke up, I immediately knew something was off. It took a moment for the grogginess to fade enough for me to realize what was different. The sun didn't wake me up! I jumped out of bed and looked out the window. The sun was already high in the sky, indicating I had slept nearly until noon.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, which helped remind me that I needed to go buy a new weapon anyway. I was sore all over from fighting that horde of goblins yesterday, but I was sure that it would go away if I kept moving.

I washed up in the bathroom and came out feeling refreshed. A good long bath every now and then really feels good. As I was walking down the steps to the lobby of the inn, a thought struck me. I had killed for the first time yesterday, but I had felt nothing wrong about doing that. The thought bothered me, but since this was a different world, and that killing monsters would be my main job, I decided I wouldn't let it bother me. I had probably subconsciously done so already, now that I think about it.

I sit down at the inn's cafe, and order an early lunch. Food in this world has so much flavour, it's hard to eat slowly. Before I knew it, all the food was gone. I paid the chef in both currency and compliments, and headed out towards the guild. Evan, Galdo, Bella and I had decided to go together to sell the iron to a blacksmith, so we planned to meet at the guild at noon.

I turn onto the main road, and notice Bella heading to the guild too. I jog a bit quickly catching up to her. "Hey Bella." I say as I slow down beside her.

"Oh!" She jumped a bit, surprised at my sudden appearance. "Luke, don't scare me like that!" She said while swatting me on the arm.

"Hehehe. Sorry about that." I chuckle while apologizing. "By the way, I was wondering if you could teach me about magic. I was told by someone a while ago that I had the aptitude for it, but I've never learned how to use it."

"Hmmm.... I don't see why not. Meet me by the east gate tomorrow after lunch. I'll be waiting for you there. For now though, let's go sell that iron." She agreed to teach me with a smile.

"Hurry up you love birds! We've been waiting for ages you know." A familiar voice called out to us from the left of the guild entrance. Looking up, we saw Galdo waving his hand at us, while Evan leaned against the building. They both had a cheeky smile plastered to their faces. My face burned a bright red while Bella hid hers behind her hands. Damn, she looked cute like that.

We all started walking towards the west side of town, where most of the heavy labour jobs were. I had punched both Evan and Galdo on the arm extra hard for calling us out like that. After that, Galdo had told us about a blacksmith he know who would gladly take any materials he could get, though he did so rather begrudgingly.

After twenty minutes of walking and joking around, we reached the smithy where the blacksmith worked. It was rare for the smithy to not be attached to a shop, but it seems this particular blacksmith only did custom orders, so he didn't need an actual storefront.

"Fletcher! Are you in there?!" Galdo bellowed once we were in the entrance to the smithy.

"YEP! I'll be out momentarily!" A booming voice answered back from the depths of the smithy's workspace.

Two minutes later, a short, burly man came out to greet us. He was wearing a leather smock and iron chainmail gloves and holding a hammer in his left hand. He had a short trimmed beard, and looked like he could lift a cow with just one arm. I mean, his arms were like the size of mini boulders.

"Ah. It was you Galdo. How did those arrowheads hold up then?" He asked once he had greeted us.

"They were great! They managed to pierce right through a goblins skull, and the tip didn't take any damage at all. It was amazing!" Galdo thanked him for the arrowheads before getting to the reason we came here. "Yesterday, we took a goblin extermination quest, and one thing led to another and we now have around sixty rusty iron swords with us. We were wondering if you would want to buy them as material to melt down and use."

"Hmm... Rusty Iron, huh? Well, it could definitely be use once the dust is removed." He stopped talking and mumbled to himself for a moment before seemingly deciding on something. "Let me see them, so I can give you a price based on the amount."

We all lightened up visibly now that we were sure we could sell them. I took my bag off my back and one by one took out the rusty iron swords we had collected the previous day. In the end there were fifty six iron swords in total, making a small mountain on the floor of the smithy.

"Hmmm..." Fletcher was deep in thought as he gauged the amount of iron he could get from this. We all silently waited as he circled the pile, occasionally picking up a sword to take a closer look. "I can pay you fifty copper per sword, so twenty eight silvers total. Also, if you ever get more iron, I will always be willing to buy it."

Our surprise must have been evident, as he laughed at us. "This amount of iron can easily make me triple the amount I'm paying you guys as pure profit, but only because I only take custom orders. Don't worry about it. I'll take it all." He then left us for a moment and came back with a small pouch of silver coins. Placing the pouch in my hands, he thanked us for the business and sent us on our way.

We each got seven silvers from the rusty iron. Seven! I was very surprised. After that, we each went our own way, after deciding to party up again in a few days.

As I reached the inn, I realized I had forgotten to check my Status Card this morning. Well, let's do that now. I took out my Status Card, and with a thought the overlay appeared before me.

STATUS CARD

Name: Lucifer Arnova Age: 22

Profession: Adventurer Rank: F Level: 14

HP: 244/244 MP: 120/120

STR: 91 VIT: 68

AGI: 257 DEX: 133

INT: 59 LUK: 14

Skills: Third Eye (-), Appraisal (8/10), Eyes of the Future (4/10), Memory Safe (6/10), Shortsword (6/10)

Magic: Unknown

Current Quest: None

As expected, actual combat gives much more experience. All my stats besides MP went up a bit, and I went up 3 levels from one day. Well, it was one hundred and thirty seven goblins in one fight, but still. I needed to learn how to use magic if I wanted to raise my MP it seemed.

On top of all that, Eyes of the Future went up another Mastery level and so did Shortsword. I heard that once a combat skill reaches mastery six, it goes up much slower, as it's harder to improve what is already great.

Overall I was satisfied with my level ups, and decided to relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I had magic lessons with Bella at noon, so I think I'll take a short quest in the morning. Probably some slimes. I'll recieve my pocket change for the day. Maybe even gain a level. For now though, relaxation. I think I'll start with a nice long bath for the second time today.