interlude

Barely after the sun raised, Alex was already at the forge. On his way, he still marvelled that the gate that should protect the village at night was still not taken care off. When he asked the guards' team to prevent any wild beast entering the response had been disheartening and straightforward.

~~~

"The settlement just don't have the money to spare. After the death of thirteen of us, the income had greatly lowered. Habitually, the guards pool their in-keep, letting the settlement repay throughout time, but this time..."

~~~

Since now bow-less, Alex took upon himself to take care of the problem, thus the reason he was starting the forge that early in the morning.

By the time Eruger appears, Alex had already refined six of his hatchets heads an hour later. With those, he had just enough to make a wood-splitting axe. After heating the ingot back, and merging them, he crafts a crescent blade.

Keeping to nowadays heads form, he slightly lengthens the edge for a larger surface. The force would be spread further, but he had more than enough to compensate. Rapidly crafting the handle through the hatchets' leftover, he finished just in time for the man to came.

"Can you sharpen it for me? I need to make a few more things."

Having a good idea why he just made an axe, Eruger grunted back, taking the newly forged axe with him.

Returning to the forge, the next bit of iron, turned steel, was swiftly turned into a planer carpenter, with the rest of the metal turned into a set carving knife. As he was already on it, Alex turned the rest of the hatchets heads into iron ingots, storing them for later use. Seeing that morning would rapidly come to an end, he rapidly turned many iron ores into square nails.

~~~

When he exited the forge with his newly made axe, Alex directly walked to the nearest tree. Making sure to take the most straight he could, he started to hack. Beginning by a small notch facing the clearing, he only needed a dozen of mighties hacking blow to brought the tree down. Shaving off the branches, before clearing the surrounding, Alex left his axe on the side, the time to extract the stump.

Alerted by the sound, a couple of guards, led by Josh, came running at him. Before they could ask what he was doing, he used them to roll the trunk to the settlement. Returning with a borrowed cart, he cut the branches' wood in equal part, as the guards stored it.

By the time came from lunch, free wood was left for the settlement people to collect. While it was evident that it would be far from the needed one to the coming winter, the villager appreciated the gift.

~~~

Using the cemented forge's equal ground, Alex creates a simple structure that would allow him to cut the wood in an equivalent portion. It was nothing advanced, just a simple trestle with adjustable rail. The saw would glide on, keeping it straight, and saw throughout the trunk, turning it in timber.

As the wood wouldn't support the ton of wood, he made the thick stone pillar's trestle.

By the time the men returned to the field, the new that Alex started to create a new door had spread. The trunk was loaded on the trestles with their help, waiting for Alex to work on it.

As he hadn't a house still, Alex kept working on the door plan through the night, creating additional tools when needed.

By the following morning, everything was ready. To avoid any un-necessary movent, Alex working station was just on the side of the gaping hole that was the entrance. If the men had been cautious enough, they would have seen that the trunk was smaller than the previous day. Thank a sleepless night and a rather bored mind, Alex learned an applied dozens of drying charms on the trunk to take off the water and dry the sap in it.

The process had been ridiculously long, but he had nothing to do from his night anyway.

~~~

The guards now awoke, the men ready to help Alex see through the trunk, creating section twenty centimetres thick. Those would be further cut, removing both sides, forming cut plank. With a tree forty metre hight, Alex only needed one to cut in the six-metre long section he required. Even then, Alex only required half of the tree.

The section cut, All left was securing those together. After gouging grove and carving the other side, Alex barded the assembled door with a thick band of steel, he merged together, punctured by nail every five centimetres.

Assembling and raising the door needed a day of work each, but, by the four morning day, Tiris had once again gates keeping it safe, much sturdier than the previous one. Coincidently or not, this day marked the tenth since the horde attack and was the day the guild sent one of their members to pay Alex.

As she was the most familiar with him, they send Eina. Needlessly to say, she was surprised to see such finely crafted doors already made and installed.

~~~

"Miss Eina? Are you here for the guild?" Asked Alex, knowing that the half-elf hadn't other reason to be here than a business with him.

"That right, the skins had been processed, and the cores exchanged." Said, retrieving a pouch from her saddle' bags, along with a folded sheet of leather. "I don't know if you are familiar with our coin system..." Asked her, only to see him negatively shook his head." As I through, let me explain. Its nothing complicated. We had seven denomination;1,5,10,50,100,500 and 1.000. Any further is specially crafted crystal card on 10.000 and 50.000. Those crystal cards on themself had no valued, but are redeemable to the guild; it prevents people from carrying a heavy amount of money." Said her, while opening the pouch, emptying its content on the stump Alex had yet to cut."As you can see, the guild generally divides the earning into a three. For you, it means that a third of the 12.640 Valis was paid in 7, 1.000 coins; 5, 500; 25, 100 and the rest divided on lesser coins."

Alex nodded; he could understand that adventurer would like this. On one side they could pay for meals and the like with high-value coins while keeping the other for miscellaneous things.

"Now, for the leather. After being examined, the guild had estimated that the skin was in relatively good condition. While the external layer had been slightly damaged from intense fire exposure, the damage had been mostly inconsequential. For hide, the guild generally brought them per straps of 100centimetre square. As hobgoblin leather is principally used for weapons grip, it easier to extract meter-long band directly For hob-goblin, a perfectly skinned, the undamaged band would sell around 100 Valis.

The one you sell us was calculated at 2.250 metre square of the hide. In perfect condition, it would have been worth 22.500 Valis. As it was lightly charred, the guild had deducted 2.500 Valis." Said her, giving him and an additional pouch of Valis. "The two other had been estimated at 21.000 Valis each, minus the processing coast of 15.000 for both, leaving 26.000.

All in all, it leaves you with an additional 46.000 Valis. I must say we rarely see such income for starting adventurer, let alone level 0. To give you an idea, it generally what made a party of three levels 1. Life in Orario is quite high, more so when on live in inns and eat daily there." Said her, still a little surprised by the fact that he made around 58.640 Valis in one day. It could have been more with the two other skin, but she kept in mind that it was a rare occurrence, and maintaining weapon was also costly. It was any other adventurer; this total income would be barely enough for a day or two in Orario. This while no knowing that Alex had enough skill only to require buying food, who would, in turn, allow him to save quite a bit.

~~~

Hearing her, Alex was surprised to learn that he could have made nearly a 1.000 Bucks for that day. After knowing that the hobgoblin skin could be tanned, Alex had recherche his grimoire. The magical book had an impressive list of potions, and some made for this particular industry. Along with the different charms available, Alex would be able to process leather much faster and cheaper, saving more money, with the right ingredients.

As those methods work on dragonhide, he had little worries that he couldn't process the different monster. It may require some experimentation to found the best equilibrium, though.

"Thank you, Miss Eina. I'm sure I will be able to keep most of the money until I came to Orario, the surrounding Area seems to depend more on trade, so money rarely change hands."

"Yes, I heard that the door was your work." Said her, impressed. She has been indeed blown out of her mind that such a young boy had such mastery over woodworks, being able to process a tree into a seamless pair of large doors. "Some Familia would be eager to recruit you, mostly crafting or building Familia. Some gods or riches adventurer are willing to pay millions for the right carving." Said her good-naturally. Even if she would prefer him entering the guild, Eina wasn't the type of person to seek talent for her personal gain, instead of wishing to lead them where their skills would be the most appreciate. This was one reason why her superior kept a close eye on her, as a promising adviser.

"I still have time." Chuckled hm, seeing that she had some reluctance at sending him toward other Familia than the guild. He couldn't blame her, from the skillset he showed, and the fact that the guild was the security pillar of Orario, the guild need to keep ahead, or they would be trampled upon.

"Well, my job here is finish, oh right! Does the party who came with us had returned here? It has been three days already, and they didn't make there way back." Asked Eina. Marron party hadn't reported from their expedition. A day of lateness could be understood, but no three. This long absence was starting to worry the guild, as there should have been nothing able to threaten a party made of one level 2 adventurer and three levels 1.

"No, sorry. I still go in the wood from time to time; I could keep an eye for them if you want?" Proposed Alex, also curious as to why they hadn't returned. 'Even if they had been unable to locate the dungeon, they did say that they wouldn't keep around too much. I doubt Freya Familia would risk blowing their cover in sending someone taking care of them. It not like the money had changed hand, it seems.'

"Really? That would be great, thank you!" Said her positively surprised that he proposed his service, and happy that there were still people caring for other well-being. "You won't have much to do; if nothing changes in another two days, the Guild will send a party of level 2 adventurers. Even if you found the slightest tract, it would help them."

"I will keep an eye on it, then." Nodded him.

"Alright, this time, we are finished. Here the leather, take care of yourself, Alex." Smiles her gently at him.

"Will do, you too, Miss Eina."

"Hum." Happily nodded her.

~~~

After her depart, Alex Exited the settlement, wishing for some privacy. Alone in the wood, he unfolds the processed leather. Looking at the high, centre part, Alex could see the three holes of the arrows. Putting his hand on the leather, he sends a strand of craft magic in, wanting to feel how much tinkering it would coast him.

After witnessing how much metal and the rock of the dungeon would take of him, he was surprised to see that the drain wasn't much, around the same than forcefully shape wood.

Closing the holes first, he slowly merges the edges between the limbs and body, legs, and finally divide the arms thickness in two, forming a rough, rectangular sheet of the leather. Folding back the repaired leather sheet, Alex did the same with the other, leaving him with a small amount of leather, until he processes the last one he took a few days before.

Putting it aside, he took the chunk of ores he gathered. The baby fist-sized ores wouldn't give him much, no more than a kilo and half once processed, but he didn't mind. Taking one in hand, he let his craft magic envelop the ore, feeling its composition.

"So it's not really iron ore, but more like a half processed steel one?" Hums him. "Heating and melting it should trigger the change, using the carbonisation of the oxygen and the particles of the burning coals. I wonder if it would mix well with iron, useless you need processed steel?"

Alex could have stay thinking of it for hours or could test it immediatly. Keeping the folded leather sheet with him, he returned to the settlement' forge.

Taking some ores, he heated the coals and placed them in the depression. After heating the coals as much as the forge' stones could support, he frowned.

"The heat is not enough, their warm, but not heated to the point of allowing me to interact with them. I need a better forge and better fuel."

~~~

Putting the slight step back on the side, he took the occasion to turn all his remaining seven kilos of iron into high carbon steel. Every kilo made was further processed into eight throwing knives.

Made in double-edged blades with a kunai form, Alex thinned the thickness as much as possible, allowing a great aerodynamic shape. The edge made two-third of the length, leaving a small handle to catch and throw them. The handle's body was slim and ended with a ring, along with him a more extensive range of action with them, while keeping them balanced.

At the end of the morning, Alex was without iron, but with a set of sixty throwing knives.

Not only they were lighter, but Alex wouldn't be hindered with them like the quiver. Working a part of the leather, he turned it on two thigh holders.